Time Spent Summary - August '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



August Details




August is harvest time! Makes you wonder why Thanksgiving isn't in August instead of November, other than I suppose the Pilgrims wouldn't have had time to party during the middle of the harvest...

The big hitters are coming in fast and furious. The roma tomatoes are about halfway through the harvest. I don't think they're doing nearly as good as last year, but they're doing alright given the poor growing season. The potato experiment went well and I will likely expand the planting next year.

The onions gave a much improved showing over last year. I'm tempted to plant more, but I want to see how the long term storage in non-ideal conditions goes first. We don't have a root cellar and our basement stays fairly warm in the winter due to the furnace. So I'm not certain how well the onions (or potatoes for that matter) will hold up. I would not want to plant more if they can't be used.

Likewise the black bean experiment went well. Don't know how a better growing year might produce, but I wasn't too disappointed with what I got.

Going forward there isn't much left growing. The peppers are still producing, as are the tomatoes, the beans are pretty much done, the corn never produced anything. There are a few softball sized watermelon, but I'm not sure if they'll be edible.

The pumpkins have died for a second straight year before being able to produce anything. I am strongly considering replacing them with potatoes next year. The community garden harbors whichever disease has been killing the pumpkins (bacterial wilt potentially) perpetually and it just doesn't make sense to fight it.

Black beans are in!

I tried growing black beans for the first time this year. As with most beans they were pretty low maintenance. Perhaps even less than green or wax beans because you only have to harvest once.

For this first year I planted just 8' of twin rows. Unfortunately with a smallish garden I can't afford to dedicate a lot of room to an experiment. Thankfully in this case the experiement went quite well.

I picked about 2 gallons worth of in shell beans last week. With some help from my wife and three year old, we got them all shelled and they've been drying for several days now. Shelling dried beans is not a fun activity, in case you were wondering. I've estimated there should be about 4 cups worth of beans when all is said and done.

Now I just need to get an authentic beans & rice recipe...

If I decide they are worth doing again next year, I might break from the twin row planting and pack in 3 or more rows together to maximize the space. Since you don't have to get in to pick them more than once (I just waited for the plants to begin dying off), there is no need to allow for easy picking. The second half of this year's picking I yanked the plants clean out of the ground so I could strip the beans in a standing posture (anything to save my back a little). Seemed to work pretty well and gets me one step closer to a cleaned up garden for the winter.