Hypothesis #1: Starting seeds may not be worth it

I didn't even question my plans to get a grow light and start all my seeds indoors as part of becoming a vegetable gardener. That's until I see all these sales this time of year at the nurseries, and how cheaply you can buy a six-pack of this or that, and how much bigger these bedding plants are than the ones I've been nursing in the basement or the windowsill for weeks.

I sowed carrot, pea, lettuce, radish, spinach and beet seeds all directly outside, and that seems to make sense. But the broccoli, cabbage, peppers, tomatoes, cucumber, sage, basil, marigolds and zinnias (impulse seed buy) are all being nurtured indoors. With a little garden like mine, I only need a few of each of these veggies, and there's no way I'll use a whole seed pack. Lets say I want 4 tomato plants, well I can probably buy those at the nursery for little more than the pack of seeds would cost, they'll be bigger than the ones I've started because they're grown by the pros (or maybe fertilized like crazy?), I wouldn't have to spend the time nurturing them, and I would save on electricity use because I won't need the grow light.

So why did I assume that starting my own seeds would be better? Partly I wanted to learn how, but I also figured it would be cheaper, and didn't account for the fact that my plants would be half the size of those you can buy in the nursery. I probably also felt very clever and proud of myself for doing it all from scratch. Perhaps a little bit of ego was involved, like buying plants at the nursery is for lazy people or something. But I'm just not sure my garden is big enough to really make it worthwhile. I spent about $50 on seeds this year, didn't empty most of the packs, and I think I could buy a lot of bedding plants for that.

I'm definitely going to buy my one zucchini plant at the nursery. I've been repeatedly warned that I only need one zucchini plant or we will be drowning in them!

On the other hand, I got 5 varieties of heritage tomato seeds for Christmas, and I probably couldn't buy them as bedding plants in a nursery.

Bees and Blossoms

I had a serious thinning session on the weekend which left me dizzy but satisfied, and I've tentatively planted some of the tomatoes outside, but other than that things are just growing along.

Here are some pictures of strawberry and raspberry blossoms, and the mason bee house (and one bee in the picture)

The Cyber-Gardener

Well why wouldn't there be zillions of gardening resources on the Internet? Of course there are. And there's even an app for that.

There's a Seattle mom blogging about how she manages to supply all her family's vegetable needs from her garden from May to December, Dan from Ontario and his post on toilet paper seed mats, (this is so cool), and City Farmer in Vancouver that has been promoting urban gardening since 1978 (I am obviously not the trend setter here, but I am in good company).

And then, my heart is still palpitating from the absolute joy of discovering The Modern Victory Garden blog and their 2010 garden economics. This is exactly what I intend to do on my blog, but they actually seem to KNOW what they are doing! I haven't calmed down enough yet to be able to actually read through their absolute goldmine of information.

Back here in MY yard, I needed to make more room under the grow lights so moved some of the plants to a sunny window. Pictured here we have 4 varieties of heritage tomatoes, sweet peppers, jalapeno peppers, broccoli and two marigolds.

Basil notes

The basil that I planted indoors, under the grow light, seems to be growing ridiculously slowly. What is going on? I planted it on February 12. This picture was take on May 1. That's over two months, and only two pairs of leaves.
I had a look under the tray yesterday for the first time, and quite a lot of roots had grown through. Are the plants putting all their energy into root growth for some reason?

I might have been too stingy with the grow light. Because I'm cheap I only bought one tube, and put two trays under it. I went and bought another light yesterday, repotted the basil, and put them back under the light.



In other news the carrots, lettuce, spinach, beets and snap peas are all up and looking good. The potatoes are growing quickly. I nearly put some tomatoes outside yesterday but told myself to just calm down and be patient. Another few weeks. I'm going to look into some way of covering them to give them a little greenhouse when they do go outside, but am not really sure how to rig that up. More to come!

Is the start up just small potatoes?

My number crunching shows that I spent roughly $150 on the start up for the garden. That's $100 on materials (grow light, seed trays, potting soil, etc), $42 on vegetable seeds, and $11 on flower seeds. Because I didn't keep track from the start, and I might have forgotten something, I'm going to round up to $200 for the sake of this project. That way I can't be accused of minimizing the costs to make an economic case for the urban vegetable garden which admittedly, I might be likely to do if I don't police myself. The costs would have been much higher if it wasn't for the plants and materials I've been gifted: Heritage tomato seeds, strawberry plants, raspberry canes, oregano, borage, cilantro seeds, alpaca poo, and mason bees. Thanks to all!

So the challenge begins. Can this garden produce over $200 worth of food?

And what about the small potatoes? I've planted Red Chieftain and Yukon Gold potatoes in those coffee sacks pictured above, and they're up, those cute little green leaves.

The Project

Welcome to Roots and Shoots, the diary of a wannabe urban gardener. I live in Nanaimo's Old City, this is my first spring here, and I've been working all fall and winter to get things ready for planting my first vegetable garden. I've dabbled previously. When I was a teenager I was allowed a little patch of garden at my parents' house and grew some very nice oregano. Last winter I started a flat of vegetables from seed in a sunny window and nurtured them for weeks only to let them all dry up and die when I went away for the weekend. Then I bought some tomato, green pepper and swiss chard starts and grew them it pots, but I didn't exactly get a bumper crop.

So here I am, with a house I plan to be in for a while and a yard with lots of potential. We chose a neglected corner of the yard for the garden plot that was piled high with English ivy, morning glory, Himalayan blackberry and other hard-to-get-rid-off plants, atop a mound of yard clippings and the odd piece of garbage (a kiddie pool and two wire fences, for example). Hours and days later, we have two level garden beds with a rock wall creating two levels from the natural slope. Each are about 8'x10', give or take, and the bottom plot has an apple tree in the middle.

So where are we now? Snap peas, spinach, lettuce and carrots are all up, and I planted radish and cilantro seeds today. There's a whole bunch of stuff inside under the grow light, and I just can't wait for the bumber crop to come!

To make this project more than just fun, I plan to keep track of the harvest and estimate what it would have cost to purchase what the garden produces. I have kept rough track of what I have spent on seeds, soil and a couple other things for start up, so at the end of the season, I should be able to measure the economics of this project. It's not all about the money, in fact that's a small part of it for me, but some of the joy will be gone if it turns out I could have bought it all for less. I just want to know.

I hope you'll read and post comments, tips, ideas, and perhaps pictures from your own garden. Wish me luck on the urban vegetable garden project, take one.