Expenses and more expenses
My seed order has already arrived, hope I got it right. That ties into my crop planning which will be a separate post. But the seeds were the first in a series of larger purchases for the spring. The recent totals are below. I am showing them because a lot of material on market gardening doesn’t go full into the details of various expenses to paint a realistic picture. Of course, the budget differs by operation.
| Date | Item | Cost |
| 12/30/21 | Caterpillar Tunnel | 3788 |
| 12/30/21 | WP Engine | 32.11 |
| 1/5/22 | Tend.com | 299.25 |
| 1/5/22 | Kraft Paper Roll | 82.7 |
| 1/4/22 | Compost 15 yds | 369.15 |
| 1/3/2022 | Grow lights | 106.99 |
| 1/2/2022 | Shelves | 157.8 |
| 1/5/2022 | Johnnys Seeds | 839.13 |
| 1/10/2022 | Gorilla Cart | 202.2 |
| 1/13/2022 | 40×100 black tarp and 30 trays | 448.74 |
| 1/12/2022 | Jang seeder and rollers | 546.87 |
| 1/13/2022 | Wood chips 15 cu yds | 288.9 |
| 1/15/2022 | Drip irrigationj parts | 386.18 |
And this does not include last years spending for the first caterpillar tunnel and some other odds and ends. At this point, I’m close to what I expected. Remaining are a few irrigation supplies, the farm stand supplies, the walk-in cooler build, and more compost. An unexpected addition was the Jang seeder. I was considering it for a long time and hoped to get away with my Earthway for the first half of the summer. However, a major crop in my plan are carrots.
The Earthway has issues with spacing on carrots. Last year I got plenty of carrots for a home garden. In the commercial context I need more consistency and reliability in spacing. And I should waste less seed this way.
I was able to half my drip irrigation budget. Originally I planned to do four lines per 25ft bed in the tunnels. Totalling 2400 ft of drip line and a couple hundred fittings leading to a $850 cost. Then I realized I can use overhead for the initial plantings. After that the only thing in the tunnels are tomatoes and cucurbits making up 2 rows per bed. So I only need 600ft of drip line and A LOT less fittings. A great savings. For overhead I can use mini-wobbler sprinklers which are super cheap along with the standard poly pipe irrigation line.