Click the play button on the video window to the right to the see the storyIt has been just a little over two months since I planted my vegetable garden. The garden has grown better than I would have imagined!
Since planting the garden on September 23rd, 2008 all of the vegetables have grown tremendously with minimal effort. I still water the garden but since the temperature has cooled down I water my garden in the morning. About half of the vegetables I planted are ready for us to eat. The green beans, salad, mint leaves, basil and spinach. Soon the tomatoes, broccoli, carrots, edamame, pea pods and peppers will be ready to eat in a few more weeks.
Now regarding the cost; Did having my own garden save me money instead of buying it at the grocery store? Overall the garden cost me $124.00 to create and to water the garden has increased my water bill by $4 to $5 a month and I have not been able to eat all of the vegetables just yet. Also keep in mind once the summer comes I doubt my garden will be producing anything so during the hot months I will have to go to the store for most of my produce. I usually spend about $40 a month at the store for non-organic produce. So after rounding numbers up it really cost about the same. In the long run having the garden will save me because I won’t have to spend as much next season to get the garden going. In addition it is worth it for me to have a garden. You can’t touch the freshness of anything that comes from the garden. The green beans from my garden have such an incredible rich taste that I can’t get from store bought green beans; same thing goes for the basil and spearmint leaves. So even though this year I am breaking even and I had to put a little bit of labor, I will always have a garden and will try my best to eat as little from the store produce as possible. One more thing, my garden is organic which does cost more from the grocery store and I know exactly what I put into my vegetables and it is a chemical-free garden.
Greg Peterson has a free easy-to-read gardening chart for when it is time to plant certain things in the desert. Go to his website
www.urbanfarm.org to get it or you can contact him at 602-279-3713. In addition Greg offers free classes on gardening and living a sustainable lifestyle. You can take a tour of his home for free and he has so much information to help you live more sustainable. He is a great resource.
To read about what it took to get Daphne’s garden planted click the link below:
http://www.abc15.com/content/news/smartshopper/story.aspx?content_id=3485ec4d-a0d7-4e55-be8a-c4fe76c95a3b&rss=760
