So its been awhile since my last post

Even though its been about a month since my last post and things have been beginning to slow down.  The cucumber vines are almost dead and looks to have developed some disease on the vines.  I only have one zucchini plant left after the 2 weeks of constant rain, which ended up rotting one of the plants out.  The tomatoes plants are slowly dying due to the overabundance of rain we have had and not having enough sunlight during the day to dry out the stems.  I tried cutting some of the branches to thin out the denseness of the tomato "bushes" that I had this year, but haven't seen any real health improvement in them since.  The potato plants finally died off... which is a good thing because that's when you know to dig them up.  I harvested about 3lbs of small potatoes, but will the only way to see if I did a good job is to cook some up to eat.

One positive thing from all of the rain we received is that my herb garden has blossomed quite well.  Have really enjoyed using fresh basil and oregano in my homemade garden tomato pasta sauce.   The mint and chocolate mint has been a nice refreshing twist on our morning smoothies too.

As the school year starts getting closer and the summer plants fade away, I will need to either decide if I want to try a fall garden again this year or just cover my beds with compost and cover and wait until next spring.


Running Total of  Summer 2012 Produce

Cucumbers: 27

Tomatoes: a little over 32 lbs  

Zucchini: 6

Peppers: 8

Potatoes:  about 2 dozen small potatoes

So my estimated savings according to the USDA National Fruit and Vegetable Retail Report (this week's issue)

cucumbers @ 2 for $1  =  savings of $13

tomatoes @ $2 a lb = $64

zucchini @ $1.50 a lb = $18

peppers @ $1 each = $8

potatoes @ $2.99 for 3lb bag = $2.99

total savings @ $106+  (not counting the cost of fresh herbs and scallions)  

With the addition of the soaker hose and a timer, the cost of water was minimal this year.  The cost of vegetable plant seedlings were about $2 for 6 pack of tomatoes (bought 2), each cucumber and zucchini (2 each), peppers 3pack (4 packs), potatoes (free from our pantry)  so my costs were @ $20 for all the seedling plants. 

Get dirty and keep on gardening!