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.
Friday, July 31, 2009
Sunday, July 26, 2009
Late Blight Watch
Thanks to those big box home improvement stores (you know who, one orange and one blue), those of us in the Northeast have an additional threat to our Potatoes and Tomatoes, late blight. Not familiar with late blight? Ever heard of the Irish Potato Famine? Yep, caused by late blight.
By all accounts it is pretty nefarious stuff, not only does it attack the plant, but it ruins the fruit/tuber as well. It spreads like wildfire too. The only upside is that unlike many other fungi, this one does not live in the soil and, assuming you do not create cull piles of ruined potatoes, should not survive the winter to resurface next spring.
The disease has been spotted all over CT in commercial farms. I'm sure there are many backyard gardeners who are losing their tomatoes (tomato seedlings imported from the south spread the disease initially) and have no idea why. The cool wet weather this summer has been a boon to spreading all sorts of fungi.
Being in a community garden I am quite fearful that we will not escape this disease. I am keeping a close watch on the my plants, so far I believe all I have is some early blight and septoria leaf spot. I am taking an agressive stance on all fungi in my tomatoes. Clipping out any diseased leaves and spraying regularly with Chlorothalonil, which the only fungicide I've found that helps battle this disease. It should be noted that Chlorothalonil does not treat an infection, but will help slow down the spread. Commercial farmers have fungicides available that will treat an infection, however these chemicals are not available to backyard gardeners.
UCONN IPM Info Page
Another info page
Cornell Potato Late Blight Photos
Cornell Tomato Late Blight Photos
Good luck out there!!
By all accounts it is pretty nefarious stuff, not only does it attack the plant, but it ruins the fruit/tuber as well. It spreads like wildfire too. The only upside is that unlike many other fungi, this one does not live in the soil and, assuming you do not create cull piles of ruined potatoes, should not survive the winter to resurface next spring.
The disease has been spotted all over CT in commercial farms. I'm sure there are many backyard gardeners who are losing their tomatoes (tomato seedlings imported from the south spread the disease initially) and have no idea why. The cool wet weather this summer has been a boon to spreading all sorts of fungi.
Being in a community garden I am quite fearful that we will not escape this disease. I am keeping a close watch on the my plants, so far I believe all I have is some early blight and septoria leaf spot. I am taking an agressive stance on all fungi in my tomatoes. Clipping out any diseased leaves and spraying regularly with Chlorothalonil, which the only fungicide I've found that helps battle this disease. It should be noted that Chlorothalonil does not treat an infection, but will help slow down the spread. Commercial farmers have fungicides available that will treat an infection, however these chemicals are not available to backyard gardeners.
UCONN IPM Info Page
Another info page
Cornell Potato Late Blight Photos
Cornell Tomato Late Blight Photos
Good luck out there!!
Thursday, July 9, 2009
Garden Status
Since our laptop died in May, making updates has been difficult. We now have a brand new Asus Eee-1000HA. It's one of those cute little netbooks. I'm loving it so far, the battery life is incredible compared to our bottom of the barrel laptop.
Life in New England has been about as cool and wet as I've ever seen. Needless to say the garden has been slow growing. The cool weather veggies are doing great, but the warm weather ones are pokey.
The snow peas produced nearly a 4 pound harvest. Not bad for a 6', double row planting. I've also managed to harvest 6 heads of broccoli. They look to be similar in size to those in the grocery store. It is unfortunate they all came at once, but they produced a lot better than last year's crop. Granted, last year I planted them just a week before Memorial Day, so they just didn't have enough time before the warm weather set in.
When I planted the onions I also threw some leaf lettuce seed in the between row areas. Not much came up, but what did come up has been producing a few sandwiches worth of lettuce each week. Not enough to track hardly, but a nice addition to my daily lunch sandwich.
The corn is still only knee high. I did some thinning over the July 4th weekend. To avoid wasting the thinned plants I dug up an area in a fallow plot next to mine and transplanted the extra plants there. They aren't looking too healthy right now, but they would have been composted otherwise so it is worth a shot.
The tomato, watermelon, summer squash, pumpkin & cucumber plants are similarly stunted by the cool weather. The peppers are actually holding their own, which is a little surprising given the cool weather. They transplanted much better than the tomatoes, however, so that has given them a head start of sorts.
Hopefully we will break out of this wet & cool weather pattern and get some good warm growing weather soon! Otherwise this may turn out to be a disappointing year.
Life in New England has been about as cool and wet as I've ever seen. Needless to say the garden has been slow growing. The cool weather veggies are doing great, but the warm weather ones are pokey.
The snow peas produced nearly a 4 pound harvest. Not bad for a 6', double row planting. I've also managed to harvest 6 heads of broccoli. They look to be similar in size to those in the grocery store. It is unfortunate they all came at once, but they produced a lot better than last year's crop. Granted, last year I planted them just a week before Memorial Day, so they just didn't have enough time before the warm weather set in.
When I planted the onions I also threw some leaf lettuce seed in the between row areas. Not much came up, but what did come up has been producing a few sandwiches worth of lettuce each week. Not enough to track hardly, but a nice addition to my daily lunch sandwich.
The corn is still only knee high. I did some thinning over the July 4th weekend. To avoid wasting the thinned plants I dug up an area in a fallow plot next to mine and transplanted the extra plants there. They aren't looking too healthy right now, but they would have been composted otherwise so it is worth a shot.
The tomato, watermelon, summer squash, pumpkin & cucumber plants are similarly stunted by the cool weather. The peppers are actually holding their own, which is a little surprising given the cool weather. They transplanted much better than the tomatoes, however, so that has given them a head start of sorts.
Hopefully we will break out of this wet & cool weather pattern and get some good warm growing weather soon! Otherwise this may turn out to be a disappointing year.
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Time Spent Summary - June '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
June brings weeds. Weeds bring lots of time spent in the garden. It also brings the first crop, snow peas. This is my first time planting snow peas, I've been pleasantly surprised by their growth and production. Although that said, this year is a bit of an anomaly given the cooler and wetter than normal conditions. Still, from a 6' long twin row planting, I've yielded 3 3/4lb of snow peas thus far.
The peas are about done now, however and I'll soon be pulling them to make way for more beans (yellow most likely).
The fungicide is being put to good use attempting to limit the spread of early blight among the tomatoes. This is the downside of wet weather. Although I do try to limit the application of pesticides and such, I am also not ready to lose complete crops as I did last year.
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
June brings weeds. Weeds bring lots of time spent in the garden. It also brings the first crop, snow peas. This is my first time planting snow peas, I've been pleasantly surprised by their growth and production. Although that said, this year is a bit of an anomaly given the cooler and wetter than normal conditions. Still, from a 6' long twin row planting, I've yielded 3 3/4lb of snow peas thus far.
The peas are about done now, however and I'll soon be pulling them to make way for more beans (yellow most likely).
The fungicide is being put to good use attempting to limit the spread of early blight among the tomatoes. This is the downside of wet weather. Although I do try to limit the application of pesticides and such, I am also not ready to lose complete crops as I did last year.
Thursday, May 7, 2009
Time Spent Summary - May '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.
April Details
2009 Summary
Not having the plot tilled this year has allowed me to get a much earlier start than last year. Of course it also means more hours hand digging the garden. But, it will save me from a repeat of last year where I spent two or three weekends in a row spending all day both days working on garden prep and planting. So, hopefully the labor will all average out in the end.
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.
April Details
2009 Summary
Not having the plot tilled this year has allowed me to get a much earlier start than last year. Of course it also means more hours hand digging the garden. But, it will save me from a repeat of last year where I spent two or three weekends in a row spending all day both days working on garden prep and planting. So, hopefully the labor will all average out in the end.
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Peas and Onions and Compost Oh My!
This past weekend I spent a few hours planting peas and onions in the garden. I also spent some more time preparing the soil for the new plantings.My compost pile from last season is only about half finished. I did not spend the time or effort needed to properly turn the pile through the season. As a result, the bottom of the pile was well seasoned, the top portion, however, was not. So I dug out the portion that was ready and worked it into the beds that I have dug up to date.
The soil in the community garden is pretty well shot, to put it mildly. There is little to no organic material left in the soil after years of abuse. Needless to say, it is very easy to see the difference between the areas where I had added some store bought compost last year and everywhere else. I am aiming to do a b
etter job with my compost pile this year so there will be a greater quantity ready for next year.While cultivating last year's onion/carrot/broccoli patch a couple weeks ago, I noticed a few volunteer onions had come up. When my onions died off early last year I pulled them in a bit of a huff and apparently missed a few.
Since I am rotating as many of the crops as I can, the volunteers had to move. They, along with the left over bulbs from last year, have been moved to their new home just a few feet away. I just have to hope now that the sun we got over the last couple days didn't cook the new transplants.
I planted the peas just like the package said, 2 rows 6" apart. This worked quite well for my beans last year (although the beans were closer to 12" apart) and in fact I am digging up a special area to allow a full 25' long two row planting (for the beans, the peas are in the bean patch, but will hopefully be done in time to replant with beans for a late harvest).Although in general I do not believe in row planting, it works for beans and peas because it makes picking them much easier. I had a small section last year of 3 rows for beans, and it just didn't work. Finding the beans while picking was too hard and I missed quite a few.
So now we wait and see. We're in for a good amount of rain this week, followed by some hot days. Hopefully this will give the onions and peas a good start.
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Perennials From Seed
For some reason I've never thought about starting perennials from seed. To me, perennials always seemed be something you got from a friend after their plant got too big. Unfortunately I don't know anyone currently with overgrown perennial beds.
The small area behind our deck used to be our mini-vegetable plot. Now that we are part of our community garden, we no longer need this area. In fact, last year the weeds choked out the few extra pepper and tomato plants I had stuck in the ground.
I've decided it is time to do something different.
To that end I have started a bunch of seeds to turn the small stretch of dirt into a perennial bed. I am definitely not a landscape designer, so my choices may be somewhat suspect, but here they are: Foxglove, to provide a tall backdrop; Black-Eyed Susans, Purple Coneflowers and Shasta Daisies; to form a relational middle ground and Forget-Me-Nots for the foreground.
It works in my mind, we will see how well it works when I go to transplant them.
The small area behind our deck used to be our mini-vegetable plot. Now that we are part of our community garden, we no longer need this area. In fact, last year the weeds choked out the few extra pepper and tomato plants I had stuck in the ground.
I've decided it is time to do something different.
To that end I have started a bunch of seeds to turn the small stretch of dirt into a perennial bed. I am definitely not a landscape designer, so my choices may be somewhat suspect, but here they are: Foxglove, to provide a tall backdrop; Black-Eyed Susans, Purple Coneflowers and Shasta Daisies; to form a relational middle ground and Forget-Me-Nots for the foreground.
It works in my mind, we will see how well it works when I go to transplant them.
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