Our summer garden produce fed us plentifully. I posted recipes and photos of it's bounty. We wanted an estimate as to the amount of food grown, food consumed and food we did not have to purchase and transport from the market. We kept track of MOST of the vegetables we grew and came up with a total of 156 pounds. If you average $2.00 a pound for organic produce from the market, we saved $300.00. We purchased several hundred pounds of produce from the farmers market also. We probably only spent $20 on seeds, my compost made most of the soil, very little fertilizer needed to be used, the ash from our fire place (and our neighbors) was used for natural pest control.

The garden is still producing so the number is not really accurate. The habanero plant had peppers on it that we are currently drying, there are still beets in the ground, chard is still growing, we didn't weigh the pears that were used and eaten off Nathan's pear tree or the pears from the neighbors tree that we made some great fruit leather with. A friend recently gave me a box or persimmons that I am still using for cookies and smoothies, and we are still planting lettuce, kale, cabbage, celery and anything else that will survive the winter months.

This year we started savings seeds. Which means next summers plants will be free! Seed saving is easy and saves from purchasing the same plants that you grow year after year. Not to mention that seeds from your own plants are naturally adapting over the years to your local climate for better production and resistance to local pests and elements.

Here are some photos from our garden and it's bounty. None of which went to waste! If we didn't eat or process it in time it went in the compost pile to make great soil for the following year.

Do you have a summer veggie garden? If not, what's stopping you? It's the easiest garden to grow, you need only seeds, sun and water....start planning now!