My Garden
Last weekend I started working on my garden. Actually, I “started” working on it a few months ago, my preparing seeds in peat pots. Unfortunately, due to terrible weather patterns in the area, all of the seeds died off. They were making very good progress, but the weather would not co-operate so that I could put them in the ground.
Two weekends ago, I did the first till on the area. Last weekend, I added 4 bags of top soil ($4.98 each), and tilled that in along with it. Between the two tillings, I probably spent about 2 hours. I’ll guess that my wage for this is about $20/hr, so I spent $40 on the tilling. I also had to purchase fence sections to keep our dogs out. 6 sections ($9.97 each), plus 7 poles ($3.97 each).
 |
 |
 |
 |
| Bell Peppers | Big Boy Tomatoes | Cherry Tomatoes | Cucumbers |
Because of the dead seedlings, I restarted the garden with starter plants. 3 Cherry Tomatoes ($3.95 each), 4 Big Boy Tomatoes ($3.95 each), 3 Bell Peppers ($3.95 each), 2 Cucumbers ($3.95 each) and some watermelon (free, left-over from someone else). I also planted some Squash from seed ($1.95) and some Green Beans ($1.95). The planting took me almost 2 hours. I then purchased some tomato cages (7 in total, $4.98 each), and put those in. Another hour there.
So far, in labor and materials cost, I’ve spent $283.73. The beans and squash are already starting to sprout.
 |
 |
| The squash. | The beans. |
Like J.D., I’ll be comparing the price of my food items to the price in-store, and seeing how much money I saved or spent. But for me, this is still an experiment to see if I can even get things to grow (which some did last year).