The year in gardening 2009/Resolutions for 2010

My plot back in early September

The past year may go down in history as one of the worst years in gardening, at least in the past decade. Above-average rainfall and below-average temperatures during the crucial months of the growing season resulted in a below-average yield, especially with tomatoes. In November, I abandoned my experiment of determining how much I benefited monetarily from planting and harvesting edibles, reporting a negative balance. And on some days, I spent more time clearing out infected fruits and vegetables than harvesting healthy ones.

The Minton Stable Garden in bloom, August

However, I still find gardening to be a satisfying act, providing physical and emotional benefits to those who participate in it. Another year at the Minton Stable Community Garden led to more friendships with gardeners and other Steering Committee members. A community of bloggers provided advice and ideas for improving my garden practices as well. And the rain had some advantages, including a lower water bill for the community garden (only $141.82, down from last year's $203.40). As long as I have my 140 square feet in JP and land at home, and Massachusetts hasn't yet disappeared under rising sea levels, I'll continue gardening. Here is my second annual set of lists, with items not in any particular order.

Top 5 successful plants:
1. Kentucky Wonder pole beans
2. Fiesta organic broccoli
3. Forellenschluss Romaine lettuce (grown in Minton Stable Garden)
4. June-bearing strawberries (before the botrytis set in)
5. Volunteer raspberries--they liked the fall conditions

Top 5 failures:
1. All tomato varieties (except volunteer cherry tomatoes)--due to below-average temps and late blight
2. Anything I tried to grow in my backyard--too shady
3. Spinach after the invasion of leaf miners
4. Irises I tried to transplant to a sunnier location in front yard--maybe they'll bloom next year
5. Zinnias--planted late and not given enough room

Resolutions for 2010:
1. Continue growing the same volume of tomatoes, trying some different varieties, but make a point of pruning them to strengthen plants and ensure that they get more light.
2. Grow more varieties of broccoli, like Piricicaba and broccoli raab, and other plants, including kale and other greens, coriander, parsley, and other herbs, carrots, and cauliflower.
3. Reduce the size of the strawberry bed to make room for the raspberries.
4. Keep trying to achieve that fall crop of greens, perhaps by planting better varieties sooner, starting some indoors in August so they can grow out back under row covers, or by some other means.
5. Be more aggressive in thinning out perennials, to avoid diseases like powdery mildew or to keep them from taking over my MSG plot. Black-eyed susans, anyone?
6. Take better photos, including sharper close-ups and documentation of the garden over time.

Happy New Year! I'd be curious to read the resolutions of other gardeners.

An absence of red

One of the growers I encountered this morning at the Roslindale Farmers Market had prepared an informative display about late blight in an effort to explain why there would be no tomatoes or potatoes for sale this year. Perhaps they were getting tired of being asked about the absence of red at their vegetable stand. Although there were some tomatoes available from at least one of the 4-5 growers on hand, most of the vegetables on offer were mainly green, with some white, purple, and orange. The effects of our mostly rainy, dreary summer continue to plague us.Though relieved to have escaped late blight, after a week away, I approached my tomato plants with much trepidation. First I checked what I had growing in containers at home. At the first glance of the green fruit all seems normal. I have come to expect them to be leggier and more behind because of the lack of full sun. I could put the planters on wheels and move them around all day and they would still not benefit from as much light as the ones I have planted in the Minton Stable Garden. But the real test was yet to come.

Like many gardeners, I would feel the bottom of the fruit hoping for a smooth surface, but this year I have had to lower my expectations. In almost every case my fingers would catch something rough or soft, or a hole of some sort. My heart would sink a little as I bent my knees and craned my neck to get a visual assessment, dreading the common condition of blossom end rot. I had never thought I would be relieved to discover a case of catfacing; at least I can cut that part away and enjoy the rest of the tomato. That is, if it ever turns red.My MSG tomatoes are a bit larger, including this Cherokee purple at about four inches across. Normally at this time of year, I'd be harvesting red fruit already and bringing them on a mid-August vacation somewhere, while begging someone to pick whatever becomes ripe while I'm away. Not this season. I'll be lucky if I can make a batch of salsa.Not anticipating any harvest today, I left my bags and containers at home. However, I was pleasantly surprised to find a few beans already, and even more broccoli, about a half pound, though it was on the verge of flowering. Unfortunately, there seems to be some rot on the stumps of where I had previously cut off crowns on the other plants. I haven't checked the plants more closely to figure out if it is being caused by mold or some pests; I'll be back tomorrow to have another look. Hopefully it doesn't affect the chances of edible side shoots.I'll end by returning to my not-so-scientific tally of how much I've been earning on my harvest. I won't include the two pole beans until I get more, but all of the broccoli I harvested. At the Farmers Market organic broccoli was selling for $2.50 a pound. Also, I'll have to add to my expenses by including the basil plants my husband picked up to make up for our lack of a fresh supply.

Previous benefits total: $92.75
2 1/2 lbs. of broccoli at $2.50/lb.: $6.25
New benefits total: $99.00

Previous costs total: $167.07
2 basil plants purchased at Farmers Market: $4.50
New costs total: $171.57
Current balance: -$72.57

I'm looking forward to enough pole beans for a side dish and to close the gap a little more. After I finish this post I'll check out some of the other blogs and experience some tomato envy.

The benefits and costs of gardening update

We've been having yo-yo temperatures these past few weeks--a day or two near 80 (as in the picture above) and then back down to the 60s. Luckily the nighttime lows haven't dipped to frost levels so we need not worry much about the welfare of our tomatoes. However, those plants do seem to have gone on strike, refusing to grow. Like the Boston Globe writers who rejected a pay cut, they're unhappy with the conditions.

One bright spot in the overcast weather is that it might help delay my lettuce from bolting, which is good news considering how much there still is. I've picked the equivalent of another Olivia's container of leaves and four small heads of Romaine for potluck and home salads. My not-so-scientific estimate is that two heads is the equivalent of one from the supermarket. At Whole Foods market today, a head of organically-grown Romaine cost $2.49 a head.

The strawberries in my Minton Stable Garden plot have not been deterred by our little cold spell. At this point, my family and I have picked about 3 1/2 pints. I suppose I should find a good recipe for a torte in order to keep up; so far the only ways we have been enjoying the strawberries have been 1) straight up, 2) on top of a Junior's cheesecake my husband brought home from Brooklyn last week, and 3) in a fruit cake my daughter baked from a recipe that was part simple cake instructions found on the Internet and part improvisation of what we had in the fridge. I looked for organically-grown strawberries at Whole Foods, but found only the conventionally-grown Driscoll's at $3.99 a pint, so I'll go with that.

Today was not all gain, however. I had to pick up a roll of gardening twine to finish making a trellis for my pole beans to climb; that set me back $2.40, including tax.

So, the up-to-date benefits tally is:
Previous total: $3.59
Container of salad greens: $3.59
2 heads of Romaine equivalent $4.98
3 1/2 pints of strawberries $13.97

Total benefits: $29.13

And the costs:
Previous total: $164.67
Gardening twine: $2.40

Total costs: $167.07

So the total balance taking benefits and cost into account is -$137.94.

If this sort of analysis interests you, then you should also check out Daphne's blog. On the right side she is keeping her tally. She is using a more scientific approach of measuring her yield by the pound; I had thought of doing the same but I don't have a scale and didn't want to add to my expenses. Daphne is also operating in the red, but given the variety and scope of her garden I think she has a better chance than I do of ending the season in the black. I'm looking forward to seeing if she does.

The benefits of gardening and other updates

Some of you may recall that I started my 2009 gardening season with an experiment recording my gardening expenses and comparing them to the estimated costs of the vegetables and fruits that my gardens would yield. My not-so-scientific process began with a general question: Does gardening save money on food costs, and if so, by how much? However, I plowed right into my research with no hypothesis, and three months into the procedure, I am still on the fence, partly due to the amount I have spent so far on a new grow light, salt hay, plot dues, and other expenses.

Since then, a few weeks have passed without a cent going directly into my gardening costs. But now, I can begin estimating my yield. In recent posts I've reported that my family and I have already started enjoying some of the lettuce and spinach. What we began eating every few days has now become what rice is to many other cultures. Now salads must be consumed every day, and no sandwich is permitted to be made without a layer of green. Anyone who walks in the door of our home will not be allowed out without a recycled takeout container of the most recent harvest.

But before I continue on this subject, I'd like to ask: What has happened to some of my spinach? I returned to the Minton Stable Garden yesterday after a few days away to find an ugly blight. Some of the leaves appeared bleached out, while others displayed what looked like bird droppings. I doubt that a flock of birds would hover over a row of spinach and leave the rest of the garden untouched. My husband's theory based on his past experience (although he's away for work and unable to see the problem, let alone meet his salad quota) is that it may be a fungus. From a search through my books and the Internet I learned that too much moisture lingering on spinach leaves can lead to diseases such as Anthracnose (which comes closest to resembling what mine have) and the more threatening-looking blue mold. The rainy, chilly weather of the past few days may be to blame. I bagged up the affected leaves and discarded them. End of story, I hope.

Now, back to the healthy greens harvested--how much are they worth? Since I've been picking leaves and not whole heads or bunches, I'll base my estimation on my experience buying a similar organic product. At this point my daughter and I have picked the equivalent of one container of Olivia's Organics salad mix, perhaps a combination of their Romaine and Spinach products, or another mix. I believe that the last time I saw it at the Harvest Coop in JP it was priced at $3.59 a container, so I'll make the not-so-scientific assumption that I have saved that much in my food budget. So my total monetary benefit of my vegetable and fruit gardening is so far:

1 container* of salad greens $3.59**

*According to the web site, the size is 6/5 ounces.
**In Massachusetts, food from the grocery is not taxed.

I have never been good at making quick decisions, but I had promised myself that by the end of the post I would be able to jump off the fence in one direction or the other. Will the value of my harvest exceed my expenses? My guess is now...maybe next year.

As I finish this up it has begun to rain again in Boston. You might find me in the MSG tomorrow wiping off my spinach. In the meantime, I'll leave you with an image of what's coming into bloom: lupines and poppies from another gardener's plot.

The costs of gardening and other updates

Friday afternoon around 4:30, my daughter and I took advantage of the 70-degree heat and headed over to the Minton Stable Garden. The children outnumbered the adults; at one point I counted eight, and those were only the ones that were ex utero. The oldest, my eight-year-old, helped water the plants in our plot. The spinach is now about an inch high, but the lettuce has yet to take off, with a leaf span of not quite a centimeter across.

Also coming up are tulips and a few perennials, including echinacea and black-eyed susans. California poppies, an annual, have self-seeded from last year, their thin, light green tendrils peeking out of the soil. Asa, my plot neighbor, alerted me that her raspberry plants, located about a foot away from the border of my strawberry bed, were starting to send runners underground, and wanted to know if it was okay if she could pull any she found invading my plot. I told her not to worry about it; if she was able to take care of it that was fine, but I didn't mind pulling them out as I handled my regular weeding. The only real issue I had last year with her raspberries involved trying to keep my daughter from eating them.

I took a few photos, including this wide shot above. I try to avoid close-ups of children out of respect for families' privacy. My friend Terry suggested the shot below of this row of plots, starting with mine in the foreground. Next is Asa's and you can see that she has laid down some salt marsh hay to keep down the weeds.

Last year this much was scarce, but nearby Allandale Farm has managed to get a shipment already, so last week we bought a bale of it for the home and community garden plots. This leads me to the latest update of my ongoing calculation of my food growing costs for the season:

Previous total: $120.92

MSG annual plot dues: $28.00

Bale of salt hay w/tax: $15.75

New total: $164.67

It'll take a few months to reap anything to offset these expenses, but it should be worth it.

The season begins

I'm not a big fan of meetings.  I can usually gauge the inefficiency of one by the intensity of my resulting headache.  Luckily, the Minton Stable Garden Steering Committee understands this, as there is usually only one meeting of all of the gardeners each year.  Aided by a shortage of intense controversies, about an hour was all that was needed to review rules and share other information on the upcoming season.

We gathered this past Monday at the nearby English High School library (thanks to Allan for the photo).  The important items of business included signing a contract pledging respectful gardening practices and paying the annual dues of $28.  For the past couple of years MSG members have followed through in completing their 4-hour work requirement and honoring deadlines for maintaining their gardens, with few people abandoning their plots or moving out of the city; as a result only four individuals/families have been granted plots, leaving 30 still on the waiting list.  Given the high demand to garden, a Steering Committee member explained that with nine work days scheduled and opportunities to mow and shovel, there will be no excuses for falling short this year.

Julianna from the Steering Committee provided a treasury report.  With a budget of around $1400 a year, money needs to be raised for any purchase beyond the basics (water, plantings, fuel for mowers, special events, etc.).  Two other issues that I would like to explore in future posts are an update on our bindweed situation as well as our inability to produce our own compost.

Nancie, also on the Steering Committee, brought up an idea to keep gardeners informed and give them a voice: a Yahoo group, now in the "beta" phase.  Also, members were urged to run for one of the three Steering Committee slots that will be open this year.

I had not seen many of the 30+ people in attendance since last season.  I look forward to running into them in the garden soon, if it ever stops raining.

The costs of gardening and other updates

Back in January, I wrote a post about a group of activists in Ashland who were organizing to try to establish a community garden.  On Saturday, March 14, they held a forum at the public library.  I couldn't make the trip out there, but my friend Julie reported that 55 people attended, enough to fill the room and increase support for their efforts.  Hopefully town officials will take more notice.

It was a glorious weekend here in Boston, with Sunday's temperature in the 60s.  As my daughter turned soil in our backyard vegetable plot, I cleared out the leaves from a few perennial beds.  Later I started some broccoli (Fiesta organic) indoors.  After having decided to use an organic potting mix, I did happen to find some, though it was only available in a 32-quart bag, more than I think I'll need.  If any Minton Stable or other local gardeners need a little extra, they'll know whom to ask.  It turns out that the organic soil has an "organic wetting agent;" given what I had read up on before, I thought that expression was an oxymoron.  I hadn't gotten around to investigating what that means.  Out of curiosity I decided to fill one cell pack with some leftover non-organic potting mix and compare its progress with the other two.

So, to continue my ongoing calculation of the costs of gardening:

Potting soil (w/tax): $9.94

Previous total: $110.98

New total expenses: $120.92

Finally, if you're a local gardener, you might want to check out BNAN's annual Gardeners Gathering next Saturday.  It's a great opportunity to meet other gardeners, learn some tips, and pick up a few freebies.

The costs of gardening: 2009

In a post a few weeks ago, I summarized a few studies on the monetary benefits of gardening.  More and more people are growing their own food, with many seed companies reporting a 20 percent increase in sales.  Not only do many gardeners prefer fresher, more flavorful produce that they know hasn't been sprayed with some unknown pesticide or shipped hundreds or thousands of miles, they believe that they'll cut their food expenses as well.

I've decided to do my own research on the costs and benefits of growing vegetables and fruit over the upcoming gardening season.  Starting with this post, I'll be reporting from time to time on how much I've spent on my own gardens--both community plot and backyard--and come harvest time, calculate the value of my yield based on local prices for similar produce.  I can't promise accurate results.  There's always a chance I'll forget to factor in some expense such as potting soil, and I won't include the costs of tools I already own, or estimate how much I was billed for watering the backyard.  But I'm curious.  Despite all of my years of gardening, I've regarded the activity a hobby, giving little thought to the financial consequences.

My first expense for the 2009 gardening season is this tabletop grow light from Gardener's Supply.  In the past I've had mixed success starting seeds; despite locating my peat pots or plastic trays of tomato seeds in a sunny window, the soil never seems to get warm enough to sustain them, and I've ended up with stringy seedlings that droop over and fail to thrive.  So with the help of a $50 gift certificate, I was able to purchase this modest set-up for $94.48.

I took up a friend's offer to go in with him on tomato seeds.  For others, I placed an order with Fedco: snap peas, spinach, lettuce (romaine and Buttercrunch), broccoli, sweet basil, and thyme.  Subtracting the flower seeds from the order, the total plus postage came out to $16.50.

So, the expenses so far:

Grow light $94.48

Seeds $16.50

Total: $110.98

We'll see if I can avoid buying flats this season, though I wouldn't turn down a few donations.