Time Spent Summary - July '09

I can't take credit for the idea of tracking the time and money spent on my garden. That goes to Get Rich Slowly's Garden Project. The idea is this: Does a garden save you money? It's a simple question, but a difficult answer.

Most people who garden will say even if the financial benefit isn't there, the quality improvement over supermarket produce is worth the price. I postulate that if you only look at the money spent vs the value of the produce, that you will come out ahead. If you include the time spent, however, I am pretty certain you will not come out ahead. And that's ok, so long as you look at the time as an investment in an enjoyable, healthful activity.


2009 Summary



June Details



I didn't really think it was possible, but July brought even more rain and cool weather to New England. As a result, many of the warm weather vegetables are way behind where they would normally be. The harvest value is not looking very good compared to the amount spent on equipment and supplies at this point. There's still the majority of the harvest to come, but I am a bit concerned that breaking even may not be possible for this year.

One of the biggest concerns is the potential for late blight to ruin the tomato harvest. If there's any chance at all of breaking even, it would come with the large amount of green tomatoes hanging on the vines currently. If late blight finds my garden, it will take out the fruit as well as the vines. Unfortunately, I've still got a few weeks before the tomatoes are ready.

I do not have store values for several of the vegetables at this time. We don't go shopping very often so I have not been able to search out values. In the meantime I have substituted similar items from grocery store weekly circulars.