Compost Confidential

Fifty Pounds Harvested so far - My quest for the Twenty-five Dollar Victory Garden

 
Here’s a quick update on the garden. I’m very excited to report that as of today, my cumulative harvest exceeds 50 pounds! That’s on a total investment of $15.05. So assuming I don’t spend any more money, which I don’t plan on doing, my current cost per pound is about thirty cents. Assuming I reach or exceed my goal for the summer of 100 pounds of harvested veggies, I’ll be looking at a cost per pound of fifteen cents! Now that’s my kind of price! Not to mention the unbeatable taste of organic food, fresh from the garden.

On the downside, my cukes are starting to show signs of decline. The cucumber beetles have done their damage, causing bacterial wilt on some of my plants. At this point, I don’t plant on trying to save them because once the plant is infected, there is little else to do. But on the upside, I have lots of tomatoes forming on six of my eight plants. The other two are a new variety and the flowers develop but then nothing comes of them. Oh well, that’s part of why I love gardening so much. Nothing is predictable!

I know I’m due for another video so I promise to have that out by the end of the weekend. Frankly, there hasn’t been much new going on so I haven’t felt the compulsion to crank out a video that isn’t telling you anything you haven’t already heard. But I am going to update you on how the garden looks now and let you know about my fertilization and show you how I’m securing my massive tomato plants.

That’s all for now. Thanks for checking in!
JL

p.s. Pictured: 'lemon' cucumbers in foreground, 'green finger' cukes on left, tomatoes, squash and pole beans. Dinner was excellent!

Vegetables aren't the only thing Growing in my Garden - My Quest for the Twenty-five Dollar Victory Garden

Wow, mid July and The Twenty-five Dollar Organic Victory Garden has produced almost 35 pounds of vegetables. Although the lettuce is pretty much finished, everything else is still producing away. I have at least 60 tomatoes on the vines of the eight plants, all at varying stages of development. Between those and the cucumber factory, and add in the squash that keeps on coming, and I’m hoping to break through a total harvest of 100 pounds before this little garden is finished for the summer. Not bad for a $15 investment!

Yesterday I had a fun time of discovery in a few of the periodic visits to my garden. Every time I need a break from my writing, I head outside for some fresh air and an inspection of my busy little plot. Within one eight-hour stint, I managed to see and photograph some amazing visitors to my garden. I’m amazed and very happy at the incredible amount of honey and native bees busily pollinating my garden. The level of activity, and the amount of harvest, is a testament to the benefit of not using pesticides.

The top picture of course is the larva of the Black Swallowtail Butterfly. It is feeding on the flowers of a large dill plant. Although I love planting dill for its culinary contributions, frankly I rarely use it for that. Instead I plant it for the very reason you see here. This one plant has nine of these little guys on it. And the really cool part is I have my little nature-loving daughter Amy totally hooked. We’re now tracking them everyday and documenting their progress.

The strange bug you see here is a rather rare site. Although they are more common than you think, they are very shy and good at hiding, so they are not often seen. However this “wheel bug nymphs” was basking in the sun as he hunted for his next victim. They are members of the assassin family and jab that long pointed beak into their prey while holding them down with one of those long cumbersome legs. Because they eat garden pests, they are considered beneficial but they are also non-selective so they’ll eat anything. They will even bite humans if provoked so be warned. They inject an enzyme that eats away the tissue of their victims. In humans, it can take months to recover!

On a lighter note, the garden is growing well but frankly, there’s just not much new to report these days. That’s why you haven’t seen a new video from me in a while. I’ll get a new one out next week though, covering the fertilization and staking issues I’ve been using for my tomatoes and peppers.
JL

Homegrown Organic Tomatoes - My Quest for the Twenty-five Dollar Victory Garden

There’s something about that first tomato harvest that just seems to make the summer garden official. Not that the 25 pounds of fresh veggies picked so far don’t already speak to a productive garden. It’s just that we all live for that first red, ripe tomato. Today is that day for The Twenty-five Dollar Victory Garden.

If you recall, I had such a slow start to the garden in May, with all the heavy rain, I invested a little over five dollars on two established tomato seedlings to put in my garden. The rational was that I better do something to make up for lost time or I wouldn’t have any tomatoes before summer was over. So I bought on “Early Girl” and one Burpee Big Boy” plant. They towered over my homegrown seedlings and humbled me and every other neighboring plant that had been struggling just to survive through weeks of wet, sunless days.

Fast forward eight weeks and those two purchased plants are indeed still that largest and most fruit-laden tomato plants in the garden. But I’m happy to report that the other six are making excellent progress and all show signs of a future harvest in the not to distant future.

On a side note, I’m happy to report that my nine-year-old daughter Amy has really taken to the garden and loves to go out in the evening to hunt for the latest harvest-worthy vegetables. Friday I was out of town and when I got home late that night, the harvest basket was on the kitchen table with about two and a half pounds of cucumbers, squash and peppers. In fact, she loves the cukes so much; they are her new favorite snack food. That’s the good news. The bad news is, she consumes them so fast, I don’t have a chance to weigh them first. But I love the tradeoff and I’m thrilled she’s enjoying the experience and a newfound love of fresh, homegrown organic vegetables, fresh from the garden!

Episode 13 will be out later this week covering super money saving ideas for fertilization and plant ties. See you back here soon.
JL

p.s. The harvest in the above picture was from this evening, weighing in at 3 pounds, 9 ounces. That puts the total harvested weight so far at over 27 pounds.

A Shrinking Budget - My Quest for the Twenty-five Dollar Victory Garden

I admit to being a little slack this week. I had the best intentions to have this latest post and video up before the forth of July holiday. But the closer we got to that date, the less motivated I became. And based on the activity on Twitter and Facebook, I’d say a lot of you were feeling the same way.

This video covers the end of June up to just a couple days ago, so we’re pretty close in real time as to what you see and how things really look today. The exciting news is that as of yesterday, I’ve harvested over 18 ½ pounds of vegetables and the best is yet to come. The cucumbers show no signs of slowing down, the squash are just getting started and the heaviest fruit are still green on the vine. We're talking of course about my tomatoes and they are looking beautiful! With eight healthy plants and all in bud or fruit, I dream of harvesting over 100 pounds out of this little garden with a total expense fixed at around eighteen dollars!

By the way, speaking of expense, I was at $14.55 total but as you’ll see in upcoming episode 13, I purchased some organic fertilizer at a garage sale for fifty cents! I was pretty proud of that purchase since I talked them down from their original asking price of seventy-five cents! I’ve also charged my budget for some Velcro tape that secures my tomato plants to their stakes. I actually already had all I needed of this and didn’t need to buy anymore. But in the spirit of doing this as a first time gardener, they likely would not have this on hand so I’m charging myself just to keeping the playing field level. Sure I could have used the twine I already purchased but I’ve used this tape for years and am very sold on it. I feature it in the next episode as well but here’s a link if you want to see what I’m talking about now.

So I guess with that, I’ll wrap this entry up with a revised summary of my budget and feeling pretty good about where I stand today with total expenses: 

Current Expense Count as of July 6, 2009:

Seed starting Mix: 2 bags….$7.00
Twine for bamboo………......$2.27
Two tomato plants………..…$5.28
Organic fertilizer………….....$0.50
Velcro brand plant tape……$3.15

Total……………………….$18.20
Available………......……$  6.80

With weeks to go in this challenge, I’m hopeful I can pull this off within budget. I’ll keep you posted either way.
JL