New Year in the Garden

I am not normally a New Years Resolution person.  I have never done one before.  Usually if I see something I want to change in my life I do it when I am damn well ready instead of waiting around for the New Year.  However, this year I actually thought of a project I can and should start on the first day of the year. 

 

I will start logging the production of the garden and chickens on January 1, 2015.  Starting on Jan 1 will give me a whole calendar year of data. Also, there is not too much work going on in the garden in January.  The hoop house has to be weeded and the chickens have to be cared for.  Other than that there is not too much to do.

 

When I started gardening many years ago I did not stop to consider how much I would harvest.  In the beginning most of my gardening was experimental and many of those experiments failed to produce anything.  However, many more experiments really produced a lot of food.  As I improved my processes, the harvest got better and better.  In fact, the volume led me to buy a deep freezer off Craigslist and take up canning.  Now it only makes sense to start tracking how much food I can produce from my tiny suburban garden.

 

Also, I am an accountant.  That is my day job and regular profession.  Therefore, the lack of hard data has nipped at the edge of my mind for years.  It is only natural that I should be tracking production and determining the dollar value of the harvests.  Then I can use a cost-benefit analysis to compare the costs of purchasing the same food to the time (also a cost) and seed/supply costs it took to grow my own.  Maybe I’ll throw in some graphs!

 

So I decided to answer this call and share the results with the world.

 

To help this project I have a brand new log book! 

It is not the sexy green ledger paper I would have liked but it is a nice bound journal with a band to keep it closed.

 

I also decided to list from the beginning what my units of measures will be.

            1. Eggs are counted by unit.

            2. Edible produce is counted by weight in pounds harvested.