How Much Does a Garden Grow: Leeks and Peppers

Behold, the silliest cold frame ever constructed!  Thank heavens we have an opaque fence around the microfarm, because the neighbors would think we're nuts.  But under this miracle of engineering constructed by Mr. FC&G lies a crop of carrots and the rest of the crop of leeks.

For right now, we are going to sum up the 2011 summer gardening year as follows:

Leeks:  As I mentioned, I still have the leeks going, and I have probably a dozen under the cold frame.  Thus far this year, I have harvested 45 leeks, most on the small side to total 58 ounces.  The price for trimmed leeks at Trader Joe's was 50 cents an ounce, giving me $29.00 of leeks.

My problem was that I bought leek plants, not leek starts.  That was expensive, at $3.29 per plant.  Next year, I will buy the starts.  Nonetheless, although I show a loss right now, my leeks will come in about even when the season is totally done.

$29.00 of leeks (3.63 lbs) - $39.48 of plants = -10.48

Peppers:  Would would have thought that peppers would be the last crop I finished bringing in?  However, yesterday I harvested my last pepper.  I grew 50 peppers of various kinds this year, for a total of 24 ounces.  A comparable pepper at Trader Joe's was $1.59 for half a pound, so I grew $4.77 retail worth of peppers.  I used about one pack of seeds, depending on saved seed and leftover seed for the rest.  That is an expense of $3.29, and a profit of $1.48

2011 Tally to Date: 126.44 lbs of crops; $244.71 saved

So, overall a bit of a disappointing garden year, even though it isn't done yet.  On average, my gardening this year brought in more than 10 pounds of veggies per month in the year, and saved me $20.  So, even a bad year was a kind of triumph.

Stay tuned for tomorrow's post.  I will discuss the lessons learned and the FC&G analysis, and I'll tell you how we will be considering "How Much Does a Garden Grow" in the future.  I think you'll like the new plan!