Time Spent Summary - September '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



September Details



The wet cool summer really showed it's effect in September. What should have been a month filled with tomato harvest, turned into a balancing act of picking what few tomatoes there were while not yet ripe, or leaving them on the vine and hoping they didn't rot. Unfortunately many of them did rot on the vines and even those that were picked rotted on the counter before ripening. Even though the dreaded late blight did not strike our garden, the season still turned out to be a huge let down. Although we planted twice as many tomatoes, we managed to put up less frozen sauce than last year.

The black beans finally finished drying and have been put away for storage. 3-3/4 cup all told. Can't wait to try some beans & rice!

Although not tallied in the summary, some work has been put toward sunflower harvest. Unfortunately, some sort of worm/maggot took hold on the flowers and has rendered a good portion of them useless. Had I known, I would have sprayed with Bt to attempt management of the problem. Some may be salvageable, however and they can still be of some use as bird food.

The watermelon was a mildly pleasant surprise, while at the same time being a letdown yet again. I had given up on getting any watermelon again this year, but at the last minute the plants put out a few very small fruits. They were decent enough, but I may give up on them for next year.