Glorious Gardening: Year in Review 2012

This is it, the final garden update for the year.  As fall sets in and winter approaches, I'm not starting to see weather hovering around the freezing mark.  With the temperature drop, I knew it was time to start cleaning up the garden and get it ready for next year.

For your reference, you can see the following posts on my previous updates as a gauge for how far I've come.

Garden Update 1
Garden Update 2

As you recall in my previous posts, this whole project was an experiment in maintaining a small business...really small.  If you think about it, your land is the factory, you are the workers, and you are also the final consumer.  In a way, thinking of it as a business just adds to the fun of an already fulfilling hobby.  This little lesson can be applied to many of your other projects so that you keep expenses in line, and try to achieve the project's maximum potential.  But enough of that, on to the fun stuff.

So how did we do this summer?  Well, if you recall, total expenses for the installation of the raised garden bed, soil additives, and other gardening supplies totaled $250.  Hopefully, this is mostly a one time investment.  I've since bought about $30 of additional garden related products to enhance another section of my backyard.  These enhancements mostly consist of manure, peat moss, and vermiculite.

On the revenue side, this is what I determine each plant provided:

Pole Beans: $29.50
Baby Carrots: $2.84
Cilantro: $3.58
Basil: $15.92
Sage: $13.93
Marjoram: $7.96
Oregano: $11.94
Cherry Tomatoes: $143.40 (1,797 tomatoes harvested from 5 plants!)
Heirloom Tomatoes: $77.87
Yellow Squash: $3.66
Scallions: $2.91
Grand Total: $313.51
Total Profit: $33.51

I think you get the idea on how many cherry tomatoes we picked!

Not too shabby if I don't say so myself.  I was actually surprised to have surpassed our expenses for the year since we had so many startup costs.  You can see by the picture, that while removing the rest of the cherry tomatoes, we found around 800 or so still on the vines.  These are mostly green, but will ripen nicely in the coming weeks.

As you go through life and encounter projects or develop hobbies, treating them like a small business can greatly adhere your focus hone your drive.  I hope your own gardens were prosperous this year!

Wonderful Moment of the Day: This was actually a weekend event, but I had the chance to participate in a soup and pie fund raiser for Heifer International.