We’ve got approximately 200 square feet of vegetable producing beds on the south side of our house. I’ve built three raised beds ranging from 5×5 to 20×5 and I keep things planted in them almost 12 months a year in the long growing season we enjoy (though enjoy is a difficult word to understand during the summer when it’s been 98 for 20 straight days or so). Last year, I installed a watering system around the beds that runs on a timer. That has really made the difference, allowing me to consistently water the garden even during the hottest months of the summer, keeping plants producing like tomatoes and cucumbers that typically shut down in the hot months.
Last year, we harvested over 40 pounds of both tomatoes and cucumbers. This year, the wacky spring weather we had seems to have set back those plants though we are starting to catch up. However, the onions and blackberries have been unbelievably prolific. So far this year, we’ve harvested the following:
- Strawberries: 4 pounds
- Fava Beans: 4 pounds
- Tomatoes (Early girl, Cherokee, yellow and red cherry): 10.82 pounds
- Onions: 10 pounds
- Blackberries: 20.15 pounds
Raised beds can really increase production in our heavy clay soils and they are amazingly easy to build if you use the no-dig method detailed here. You can build them right on top of existing lawns with no problems. Kids can help with the entire process which is often fun. I built a 20×5 bed in about 4 hours. Putting in a watering system takes a little bit of engineering but if you have basic DIY skills, it’s straightforward. The hardest part is finding fittings that you connect soaker and sprinkler hoses to of the main PVC lines.
We don’t grow nearly enough food to feed us year round but it’s nice to have fresh veggies most of the year to supplement buying them from the store. I’m tracking the costs involved this year as well. We’ve spent $233 so far on plants, dirt and sprinkler extensions (this doesn’t include the actual construction of the beds or the original watering system since they were put in last year). That works out to about $4.75 a pound of veggies and fruit. That’s not an exact calculation because water isn’t figured in but on average, I’d guess it ends up being about $5 a pound. By the end of the summer, it should be down lower than that as we harvest more with fewer costs.
Unless you turn your entire yard into a vegetable garden, you will never be able to feed a family but you really shouldn’t go into it expecting that. A backyard garden is a way to have the fruits of your labor (pun fully intended) supplement your groceries. Plus harvesting fruit and other veggies after a long season of work is highly rewarding.
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