Paying for our Growing Hobby

Summer is here, complete with thunderstorms and mosquitoes. And...let's not forget my new hobby.. local garden markets. My first venture into this was my little last year's debut at the OARDC Midweek Market. I was thrilled to go home with a few greenbacks in my pocket...never mind, that all in all I probably spent more than I made--paying for the space, buying stall decorations, packaging, labeling etc. Definitely...not a get rich quick scheme.

But... I am doing it again this year...and yesterday was the first market. I was just happy to have produce from my garden this early. I had beets, spinach, strawberries, lettuce, green onions, swiss chard, kohlrabi, and snow peas. This afternoon I will be taking the same thing to the Local Roots market.

This year I've expanded to include a Local Roots market. What a fun group of people to meet and talk with each week.

My garden is expanding and hopefully my growing expertise. I admit it...in years past my efforts at gardening pretty much went to waste in a hit or miss kind of way. The worst waste..actually was not harvesting on a timely schedule. Can you believe it?

The few dollars that we smaller market gardeners get for a bag of spinach, or a quart of strawberries isn't nearly enough to pay for all the labor and time that goes into it. Most of us do it because we are in love with growing things. One of my garden club friends actually admitted that she loves weeding. I think I do too. There is something special about nurturing and making space for special plants to grow and mature. The bizarre thing about producing beautiful vegetables..is that we help them along and then ..EAT them.

But...the point to this is that with market gardening I am getting a little return and the actual cost of my growing hobby is being repaid. I get back the cost of my seeds. am producing better quality food for my own family, and really getting a few cents for my time.

Our growing hobby is also growing slowly. I would never consider borrowing money to do this thing...and we don't have pocket money to spend on gadgets and growing tools that would make the label less and increase production..so we are doing it the old fashioned way... a little at a time, learning as we go.

Another thought to share...commercial vegetable production has come a long way and we are lucky to have it. It probably isn't as nasty for us as some folks would like to have it. The alternative might be NO vegetables and fruits for many people. That would be a sad thing.

Cherry Belle Radishes

You can't keep a good radish down. Two warmer days have made a difference outside. However I do not think these Cherry Belle radishes will be ready next week. The 22 day maturity time must be for warmer temperatures! My unmulched potatoes are up. I left some unmulched at one end so I could see when they came out of the soil. I will need to add more straw to the whole shebang. You can see rows of things in the garden. Peas, radishes, lettuce, beets, carrots, kohlrabi are popping up in the garden. I added a few more rows of peas this weekend. In a few days, I think I will start moving things around in the rows and adding into rows. I want to try some companion planting. My puzzle is how to make the whole thing more attractive and inviting. It is now just a big old-fashioned square farm garden. Hmm. I don't want to do anything very permanent, as we need to get the tractor in, and maybe we'll want to put the whole thing back to crops...but this is the third year and it is starting to shape up.

If any gardeners looking at this have suggestions on how to make a big square garden in a big farm field look like something that suggests something more than untilitarian gardening..please share!!