Costs

       Now that I had my garden bed and seeds, I am going to give my first cost. I set up my cost in a spreadsheet (the picture will also be included with the other photos, I am uploading to this blog).
       In the first section I had the expense. The second section had the cost. After this I added the vegetable savings. I first had the vegetable name, then the total weight and amount, and finally the total cost of each vegetable that I grew. I also added the savings that were left over after each vegetable paid it's amount of the garden cost. With that I added the amount needed per type of vegetable to get a saving. I know this all seems very complicated, but the picture will clear things up.
      Anyhow, I had a few things to add to the expense side. First was the participation fee and the space fee. The full cost of these two things are for the area of 3 raised beds. Considering that I am only keeping track of my bed, I divided the cost by 3. The final cost for these fees was $47. $17 for participation, and 30 for space. Also, though the compost was free, the Spagnum peat moss had to be bought.  The Spagnum peat moss came to $14. When we were getting this peat moss, my parents did buy many more seed packets, however I didn't use any. The seeds that I did buy came to $15.84.
      Finally, the discussion of gas came into the factor. I couldn't walk or bike there, since the road leading to it, is very dangerous. I think I might have come up with a long detour, but I'm not sure. I decided that there would be a cost of gas, so I decided to keep track of how many trips I took. I made a chart. I gave the date, the number of times we went that day, (going there and back would be going 2 times), what we did there, and who went. Next to all of this, I would make a star. If I worked on my bed, then I would put a star counting the trip. If I was just looking and didn't touch anything, or if I worked on beds other than my own, then I wouldn't count it. I found the cost of a one way trip, by first finding the mileage. Our route is two miles long. Our car is a only 18 miles a gallon, which I know is non-environmental. A gallon gas is about $4, so you simplify 2 out of 18 miles to 1 out of 9. Then you find 1/9 of $4 and you find the gas cost. It was a stunning 44 cents there and 44 cents back.
         So, in total, not counting car trips, the expenses have come to $76.84.
        Already, a home garden would be winning, with no fees, or car trips. However, I still believe that more vegetables will grow in the community garden, so I haven't given up.