NGA study

The MSM recently reported on the results of a National Gardening Association study that indicates many more people are planning a vegetable garden this year. I was suspicious about claims in the report that on average a $70 gardening investment can yield $600 in vegetables. After reviewing the full results of the study, I remain skeptical (the study can be found here: NGA study).

There are many factors that can affect investments and yields which are not discussed in the report. For instance, there is a significant difference in the cost of maintaining an existing garden versus starting a new one. Also, it is not at all clear that the people with 600 square foot gardens (from which the $600 ROI figure comes) are the same people who invest $70 in gardening. Note that the median size garden in this study is 96 square feet. This means that there are some really large "gardens" out there skewing the average. I would have to plant (38) 4' x 4' frames to match the average size garden in the study and it would definitely cost me more than $70 to get that going.

The "square foot gardening" (SFG) method that I am using is relatively expensive to get started, however good results are almost guaranteed and expenses in subsequent years are minimal. "Square Foot Gardening" is a term coined by Mel Bartholomew who wrote the original book by the same name in 1981. Some advantages of intensive gardening methods like SFG are that soil amendments can be concentrated in a smaller area and that watering systems, protective barriers and season extenders can be more compact and therefore less expensive.

In spite of problems with the NGA study, I find the expected return on investment per square foot of garden an interesting starting point. It boils down to about a $1 return for every square foot of land that is cultivated. This is assuming on average 1/2 pound of produce per square foot and an average cost for vegetables of $2 per pound at the grocery store. I am planning to see how close that matches my results is this year.

It would be interesting to compare different styles of gardening (intensive versus traditional rows), how much investment is required in each and how much return can be expected. Investments might include soil improvement, watering systems, protective barriers, season extenders (cold-frame/row covers), and tools. Also, the cost of startup can be compared with long-term maintenance costs. The amount of time required to maintain various configurations might also be considered.

I scanned an intriguing new book this Winter (Gardening When It Counts: Growing Food in Hard Times by Steve Solomon) that argues that the square foot and other intensive gardening methods are less productive and more resource intensive than traditional gardening methods. However, I have not had a chance to study the book in depth. For now I remain convinced that the square foot method offers the best return for my time.

Big day

Today was a big day. We transplanted all seedlings that have come up into larger containers (~50). I had to get another 4' fluorescent light fixture from the attic to provide enough light for all of the plants.

At the end of the day, we built another 4x4 frame and planted (32) more snow peas. It was a beautiful sunny day, though a bit cool. Yesterday, the hills just outside of town received 6" of snow, though we only seemed to receive about 1/2" and it was gone by the end of the day. The wind was blowing so fiercely that we spent the day in the kitchen doing food prep.

Today we noticed that the apple trees are starting to grow new leaves and that some daffodils and other flowers are blooming around town. In spite of this, the weatherman is calling for more snow over the next five days. I guess we will have to endure a little more Winter weather before Spring finally gets into full gear. I will post some pictures soon. Cheers.

Swirling vines

This morning I looked at the seedlings growing under the lights. The lettuce is almost large enough to start harvesting leaves. The morning glories are growing up into the lights and wrapping around each other (we will start these later next year). The asparagus is about 5 inches tall and still in the original vermiculite containers. We will have to get busy this evening transplanting. The weatherman is calling for rain and snow tomorrow and gusts up to 37 mph so we probably won't be working much outside, but maybe we can build three more garden frames inside. Sunday is looking much more promising, mostly sunny with a high near 52.

My youngest daughter was curious how the morning glories find something to grab onto as they grow. Last weekend, we found a couple of good examples of time-lapse photography on YouTube:
Time-lapse Morning Glory
Time-lapse Pea

Catching up

Before I begin to write about our experiences, I want to get some basic statistics recorded to get everyone caught up on our progress so far. According to our notes, we started planting seeds on March 8. We planted (5) chard, (5) romaine lettuce, (5) spinach, (5) cabbage, (20) morning glories, (20) asparagus, (5) delphinium, (5) petunia, and (5) foxglove. On March 9 we planted (5) kale and (5) malva.

Also on March 9 we moved bulbs from a bed which is slated to be covered with a patio. These bulbs are beginning to fill out the two 2' x 10' beds that I started last year with iris and crocus. These beds are framed by two lilac bushes begun from cuttings of a lilac that once dominated the front yard. Eventually, a pretty picket fence is planned here as well.

A week later, on March 15 we planted (5) oakleaf lettuce and (10) morning glories (can you tell we like morning glories? : ). On March 17, we planted (18) marigolds and (9) broccoli.

Three weeks after our initial planting (March 29), we planted one square foot garden frame [(16) 1' squares] in the garden with the following: (32) sugar peas, (4) parsley, (32) beets, (32) carrots, (2) oakleaf lettuce plants, (2) romaine lettuce plants, (2) spinach plants, (1) broccoli plant, (1) cabbage plant, (2) oakleaf lettuce seeds, and (2) romaine lettuce seeds. The plants were from our initial plantings.

In spite of the weather forecast calling for freezing temperatures and snow that evening, I decided to try an experiment to see if cold-loving plants would survive being transplanted without the traditional "hardening off" period that is recommended. We covered all of the plants with the tops of the half gallon milk containers left over from our seed starting. Half of them received caps, the rest no caps. I also covered them with carboard to keep out direct hits from rain and snow. The cardboard is suspended on the chicken wire which has been setup to protect the garden from critters. So far so good. We haven't lost any of the plants that were set out.

For starting the seedlings, we used half gallon milk containers cut off about 3 inches from the bottom, with (4) 1/4" holes drilled in the bottom and filled with coarse vermiculite. We then placed these in trays and filled the trays with water, allowing it to soak up into the vermiculite. Finally, we wrapped the containers in a plastic sandwich bag and placed them on top of the refrigerator.

It became a fun ritual to check the containers every morning to see what came up. It is important to get the seedlings under lights as soon as they come up. We are still waiting on some of the flowers to waken.

We setup (2) 4' fluorescent light fixtures in the back room (which is usually cooler than the rest of the house) and set them to be on from 6:30AM until 10:30PM (16 hours).