So I didn’t get the final numbers in at all for last year.  I have written nothing this year so far.  But for my own records if nothing else, I wanted them all tallied up.  I have big plans for next year!  We are finally building our house and it should be mostly done in January so next year will be the first year in the new place and we have a goal to grow or produce at least $1500 of edible and usable produce per year over the next couple of years.

Here were the final totals in the little garden with little sun and all the tree/bush roots stealing all our nitrogen!

Totals…

Total Home Garden so far this year: 

           ~ 1 oz. cilantro

           3 T. onion tops

           2 1/8 oz. chives

           ~ 1 3/8 oz. chocolate mint (for tea)

           2 3/8 oz. basil

           3/8 oz. oregano

           3 T. rosemary

           1/8 oz. parsley

           6/8 oz. sage

           2 lbs. and 14 1/8 oz. mixed sugar and snap peas

           14 lbs. and  13 5/8 oz. mixed tomato

           2 7/8 oz. hot artledge pepper

           2 3/8 oz. sweet banana pepper

           2 1/4 oz. purple beans

           2 1/4 oz. green beans

           1 lb. 8 1/2 oz. zucchini

6 1/2 oz. onions

Total Home:  ~20lb. 12 5/8 oz. produce

Total Community Garden Beds this year:

          2 lb. 1 3/4 ounces mixed Russian Red Kale and Giant Spinach

          1 lb. 7 5/8 oz. mixed radishes – Champion, French Breakfast, and Sparkler Tip

          1 1/8 oz. tatsoi

          7 oz. baby bok choy

          16 lb. 10 1/2 oz. tomato

          8 1/8 oz. tomatillo

         3 1/8 oz. artledge hot pepper

          8 lb. 13 1/8 oz. cucumbers

          3 lb. 2 1/8 oz. peas (mixed snow and sugar snap)

          9 1/2 oz. green beans

          1 lb. 9 1/2 oz. yellow squash

          22 lb. 6 3/8 oz. green zucchini squash

          6 lb. 14 1/4 oz. gourds

          12 lb. 6 3/4 oz. mini pumpkins

          2 lb sweet corn

7/8 oz. sweet peppers

1 lb. 6 5/8 oz. beets

          71 lb. 14 oz. pumpkins

          5 oz. carrots

          1 lb. 2 oz. patty pan squash

Total Community Garden:  ~154 lb. 1 3/8 oz. produce

Total Foraged Food this year:

          5 5/8 oz huckleberries!!!

 

Total Pounds Harvested: 174 lb. 14 oz. total (plus a few T. herbs, a bunch of peas we ate before weighing, half gallon bag of spinach to a friend, the huckleberries and a giant bunch of kale to another friend)

Costs:

           No additional costs.

*I have an extensive collection of seeds from prior years, seeds I saved from my own garden, and seeds that I am able to obtain for free every year at events hosted in our community and our community seed library, so my seed costs are pretty low.

Final Total:  $128.83 for the year.  About $0.74 per pound of produce, figuring 174 lbs. as a rounded figure.

That isn’t too bad overall.  Even if you figure that we didn’t eat the pumpkins or gourds (we carved them and used them for decoration) we still grew about 83 pounds of edible produce which comes in at $1.55 a pound.  Not bad for fresh off the plant, organic produce!  Plus a ton of stuff we didn’t have to buy for halloween (decorations and at least 6 pumpkins to carve that we would have normally spent money on).

Going Forward…

So, this year was pretty much a bust.  I planted a few things.  We got some zucchini, tomatoes, some really weird squash that was obviously mislabeled because it looks like orange zucchini with the guts of a hard squash, and a cool jarrahdale pumpkin.  Every single pea plant got munched down by a pesky family of ground squirrels.  Our growing season was especially short – late start and snow in September!  And most importantly, trying to work on building the house.  Hopefully next year will be more normal and we can start to work toward the growing goal.  Not sure how attainable it will be, but it will be fun to try!