Well, last year I kept a running total of our expenses and our cropping, in the hopes that I could justify (at least to ourselves) that we were not only benefitting from fresh organic produce, but also that we were in fact saving money over shop bought produce, and after a prompt from a fellow allotmenteer on the Grapevine forum (see link to the right), I thought I'd do the same again this year!
Total costs so far this growing year
Rent (for 2 full plots and a half plot) #100
Seeds # 30
Seeds # 30
Seed Spuds # 20
Compost / Grow Bags # 20
Fertilizers etc # 20
Muck # 10
Total costs #200
So far we're 200 pounds out of pocket so far, but havent had to buy glass or greenhouse fixings, nor tools or fleeces etc, so expenses are far down on last year as we're now getting established, and most of the heavy set up expenses were paid for last year!
As to crops, well, apart from Rhubarb, a few broad beans, some clamped (heeled in) leeks, some Purple Sprouting Broccolli, a few pimento peppers (from overwintered plants), lots of Jerusalem Artichokes and some radishes and lettuce, we've yet to start harvesting in earnest this year, but growing currently we have :-
Fruit
8 crowns of well established rhubarb
85 Raspberry canes - flowering
4 apple trees - lots of imature fruit
2 pear trees - lots of immature fruit
1 dwarf lemon tree (indoor) - flowering
1 dwarf orange tree (indoor) - lots of fruit
6 blueberry bushes - lots of imature fruit!
12 gooseberry bushes - lots of goosegogs
2 jostaberry canes
3 bramble canes
300+ strawberry plants - now have lots of green strawbs, just need some sun to ripen them!
3 melons
3 watermelons
1 huge grapevine - masses of flowers
2 blackcurrants bushes - flowering
2 redcurrant bushes - flowering
1 cherry tree - lots of imature fruit
Herbs
1 bay tree
2 types of mint
2 types of parsley
1 rosemary bush
2 types of basil
3 types of sage
lots of chives
plus cumin, dill and coriander growing from seed to be added once they are of a big enough size!
Greenhouse crops
44 tomato plants (9 varieties) (plus 8 outdoor already planted and other tomato seedlings ready to be potted up for the back yard and hanging baskets)
3 cucumbers
9 peppers (4 varieties)
18 chillies (15 varieties)
3 aubergines (2 varieties) plus another 6 seedlings
Vegetable - Peas and Beans
2 double rows of runner beans 9' long (2 varieties) - with another double row of seedlings still to be planted
48 Dwarf french beans (3 varieties) with further sowings planned
18 Broad Bean plants (2 varieties) with further successional sowings coming along
1 double row mange tout - 10' long
1 double row peas 9' long - with another 2 rows of other varieties planned to be planted tomorrow!
Other bean varieties still to be planted!
Vegetable - Potatoes
4 1/2 beds of spuds, 120 seed spuds in total, consisting of First Earlies (24 seed spuds), Second Earlies (24) Early Maincrops (24) and Late Maincrops (48), of 9 varieties in total
Vegetable - Roots
2 tubs carrots in and approaching edible size
1st sewing of parsnips (only 8 doing well, another direct sowing planned to follow this week once the root bed is fully dug on our plot 1)
2 further tubs of carrots planned for the new plot, and a large bed, 5' by 15' to be planted with carrot root fly resistant varieties in the root bed on plot 1.
Turnip and swede sowings also to go into the root bed on plot 1 once its dug over.
Vegetables - Aliums (Onions and Garlic)
90 bulbs of garlic (2 varieties) - growing away nicely!
450 onions from set (150 overwintered and approaching harvest) - 3 varieties
350 onions from seed - 3 varieties (sown in February and transplanted last month, methinks we should have sown earlier as they seem a bit small yet, but we'll see how they get on!)
100 leeks ready to plant out (with another tray germinating ready to go in later
Vegetables - Salad crops
15 Beetroot (further successional plantings planned)
40 radishes (nearing harvestable size) - further successional plantings planned
9 lettuces (in greenhouse borders - 2 varieties) with successional plantings planned
20 spring onions, further successional plantings planned
Vegetables - Brassicas
12 brussel sprout plants - 3 varieties
6 spring cabbages - nearing harvest
12 summer broccolli
12 autumn broccolli
6 Purple sprouting broccolli
10 red cabbages
20 white cabbages (4 varieties)
12 caulies
more successional plantings of cabbage, broccolli and cauli planned)
Vegetables - Cucurbits
12 jack be little pumpkins
12 courgettes (4 varieties) wwith another successional sowing planned
5 Mars Pumpkins
5 Baby Bear Pumpkins
5 Avalon Squash
6 Butternut squash
6 chestnut squash
5 carnival squash
Vegetables - Other
65 sweetcorn plants (3 varieties)
Jerusalem Artichokes - 1 bed 10' by 5' - already at 3' tall!
2 beds of trenched celery - approx 60 plants
So, all in all quite a lot of things already in, some nearing harvets already, and lots more still to plant out or sow!
Hopefully the growing year will be a bit fairer than last year, and a possibility of good harvests all round!
Hope your plots are growing on as nicely!
2 comments:
Very interesting to see your costings - Reassuring to know that after the initial expense things get better. Your patch is very cost effective!
Thankyou! Last year seemed fairly expensive in setting up, but this year has been a lot cheaper, especially as we still have lots of viable seeds left from last year!
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