Does your vegetable plot break even?

[Charlotte]

We always plant a variety of vegetables, including tomatoes, squash, cucumbers, corn, pumpkin, peppers, zucchini. Of the 5-6 things we plant, it always seems like 1-2 things do poorly and die immediately, the middle group does ok, and then one thing takes off wildly. We refer to those as "The Year of the Crook-Neck Squash" or "The Year of the Tomato" depending . In those years, we do some canning if we are able to, after that we are hauling bags of it to work to get rid of it and showing up to friends house with "gifts" of squash. People seem to enjoy it, though. (Or maybe they are just being polite.)

It reminds me a theme in the comic strip "Pickles" where the couple is sneaking around the neighborhood in the dead of night with bags of zucchini, trying to get rid of it, without getting caught. They sneak doorstep to doorstep depositing zucchini.

Charlotte

 

[maddythebeagle]

We have always planted quite a bit, but considering the watering, time, etc. I view it more of a hobby (i.e. you must like to do it), but you do eat better...

 

[HFWR]

I have an excellent crop of crabgrass, dandelions, spurge, etc.

A few ran-dumb observations...

Unless you have a large plot, I wouldn't plant sweet corn. If you do, it's better to plant shorter rows side-by-side than one or two long rows, to aid pollination.

For maters, peppers, squash, etc., plant one or two plants now, then one or two more a few weeks later, to stagger the harvest a bit.

For squash/cukes, harvest every day. Don't let them get too big. And they will...

A couple of "medicinal" plants back behind the corn will dramatically improve the breakeven point...

 

[Hamlet]

I've been vegetable gardening since 2005 when I bought my house. I'm pretty bad at it. This year I'm going to try a little fertilizer

When I'm wearing my tinfoil hat, I think of my gardening as practice for the collapse of society. I figure I can probably grow enough zuchini, squash and potatoes to keep me and my wife alive through our Minnesota winter.