Would that be $36 in green leaves? Yes, sir!

Blog, Blog, Blog is all I hear all day at work.  Well the Big C is going to meet the Big T.  Oh yea, blogdown 2012.  I'm going to unleash some pent up, frugal, farmin' produce!  

We pulled out a good deal of spinach over the past week and a half along with some Black-Seeded Simpson Lettuce.   Here is just a little Popeye taste of what's to come.....

Harvested 4/17/2012

1.1  - Before I cleaned and condensed that luscious, sweet leaf.

1.2 - Gallon bag with all the air pushed out
(Estimated Worth: $12.00)

Harvested 4/14/2012

2.1 - Large Colander
(Estimated Worth: $7.00)

2.2 - A little cooked leaf.  As Ozzy would say...they call it the Sweet Leaf.

Harvested 4/13/2012

3.1 - Black-Seeded Simpson Lettuce - Large colander
(Estimated Worth: $4.00)

3.2 - Friday the thirteenth makes for some of that crazy full moon lettuce. 

3.3 - Spinach - Large Colander
(Estimated Worth: $5.00)

Harvested 4/11/2012

4.1 - Chh chhh ching!

4.2 - Large Colander
(Estimated Worth: $4.00)

4.3 - Lettuce and Spinach Salad Mix




Harvested 4/9/2012

5.1 - Black-Seeded Simpson Lettuce - Large colander

(Estimated Worth: $4.00)

That's $36.00 worth of GREEN in just TWELVE days!  Now that's what we call FRUGAL FARMING!

Got to get that GREEN

We have about $80.00 invested in the garden so far this year.  We needed to purchase a new, reliable sprinkler and also decided to splurge for a timer for the sprinkler this year.  This cost about $55.00 out of the $80.00 invested, which is very reasonable since the sprinkler and timer are a long-term investment.  We are planning to record all purchases and the value of all of the produce harvested from the garden this year to see exactly how frugal we are!  

Spinach was the first plant to reach maturity and ready for harvest.  We pulled three colanders of spinach from the garden this week alone.  Frugal Farmer straight farms.....

Harvested 4/6/2012

1.1 - Spinach

Large colander

(Estimated Worth: $5.00)

Harvested 4/4/2012

1.2 - Spinach
Medium colander
(Estimated Worth: $2.50)


Harvested 4/3/2012

1.3 - Spinach
Medium colander
(Estimated Worth: $2.50)


Total Weekly Worth:  $10.00 in Spinach

Grow Garden Grow

We are a month and three days in and getting some good growth.  We have been putting dipel dust down like crazy to try and ward off cabbage worms.  If you have never used dipel dust we strongly recommend it for cabbage, broccoli, and brussel sprouts.  Dipel dust should be a staple in every gardeners storage shed!  

Take a look at how things were doing on April 2nd, 2012....

1.1 - Red Potatoes

Potatoes worried us at first, but they have come up now and been covered once. 

1.2 - Close up of potatoes

Onions and Carrots 

(Onions on left and right; Carrots down the middle) 

                        1.3                                                                                         1.4 

1.5 - Artsy Onions 

Looks like the Dipel Dust did the trick......

1.6 - Broccoli, Lettuce, Spinach, and Brussel Sprouts

(from left to right)

1.7 - Spinach

1.8 - Spinach is looking bountiful!

1.9 - Onions, Carrots, Cabbage, Broccoli, Lettuce, Spinach, Brussel Sprouts, and Strawberris

(from left to right)

1.10 - Strawberries

1.11 - Early Jersey Wakefield Cabbage

1.12 - Much improved after the chemical warfare!

Chemical Warfare and Nature's Fight Back

Clearly I'm not cut out to be a professional blogger.  I had wanted to update weekly, but have fallen behind for various reasons. One reason though was an insane amount of yard work this past weekend.  I think me and Miranda did near nine hours straight on Sunday.  Dreams of a TV yard.  Funds of a yard sale yard.

We have been getting killed by the cabbage looper for nearly two weeks.  I have been trying to get a moment to put the Dipel Dust down, but it has been a bit too rainy.  As you can see, the cabbage worm hit us pretty hard.

Eleven days ago (3/26), I dusted the plants with the Dipel Dust.  It worked wonders.  As you can see these plants were a cabbage looper clan's buffet.  Things are looking much better.

We have had a remarkably warm winter and spring this year.  We have had several days in the 80s and weeks of consistent sunny and 70s.  A day after dusting, we got a frost scare.  It did not turn out as frosty as the weathermen suggested.  But we had to prepare.  I did a last minute cover job.  I covered the strawberries with a large sheet of plastic and the potatoes, unnecessarily,  with a makeshift combination of Tupperware, sand toys, and a wheel-barrel.  It didn't frost really.  Better safe than sorry though.