But today was a nice mild morning and after Julia woke me up and we got dressed and all that… we went out to the garden armed with scissors. Our neighbors were out raking so we offered them some fresh basil. They seemed pleased and told us it was the most perfect basil they’d seen.

Here is the square foot garden in September when planted and then yesterday. That’s one month of growing.

It amazes me. I haven’t even side dressed the plants with organic fertilizer yet because it hasn’t been 6 weeks!

Julia helped me cut basil stems off and get the green onions that were all fluffy. I’m hoping the trim helps the peppers in back get more sun. They’ve been hidden by the basil bushes. You don’t see them at all unless you walk around behind.

The blue bowl I brought out at first was quickly filled so I had to go in and borrow a toy bucket and even that got pretty full.

Julia wanted to taste the green onions…

…and decided it was too strong a taste for her.

We brought it all into the kitchen where child helped me rinse some and sort the perfect leaves out. We got a big tray of them.

When she lost her attention span for basil, I set her up on the other side of the sink with the blue bowl and some measuring cups for water play while I did the rest of the work.

I found a recipe for basil puree online and you basically puree it with olive oil. Proportions varied so widely (from 2 cups basil : 1 cup oil to 8 cups basil to 1 cup oil) so I just used up all the olive oil I had.

Then you freeze in ice cube trays or keep in fridge in a jar, and top off with oil every time it is used. It is supposed to last a year that way. Mine is a bit thick since I was low on olive oil but I might add some more tomorrow now that I got another bottle from the grocery.

Even though everything has been put away for hours, the kitchen still smells like fresh basil.Yum!

Organic basil is $3 a bunch. I figure I got 18 -20 generous bunches (unlike grocery ones.) So figure around $60 for this mini crop. That pays for one of the three batches of soil mix I used to make the garden bed. Yay! We’ll see how long it takes for the garden to pay for itself. I’m thinking not too long.

I only planted 4 squares in basil. Had I done all basil, it would be 32 squares. 4 squares of basil yieled about $60, so 32 squares would yield $480 in savings.

This is what I’ve spent setting up the mini garden:

• $100 – Linkabord bed
• $150 – components for soil mix
• $9 – Organic Fertilizer
• $97 Tomato Success Kit plus extra cage extension and extra soil mix
• $15 Trellis stuff
• $12 grid wood
• $26  Self-Watering Transplant pots
• $20? — I don’t remember the little I spent on seeds and plants for summer, fall, and the coming season. Certainly less than $20, so call it $20. But I’ll be set for seed for a long while.

TOTAL: $429

The garden basically pays for itself after I plant another 32 squares, more or less.  And for all subsequent seasons, I don’t have to be setting up from ground zero. Just mainly seed/fertilizer and a little compost. So it’s profit then, not breaking even on the cost of set up.

I spent about $60 a month in organic produce for the family.  That $480 in that context means 8 months of organic produce.

My garage freezer cost me about $400.

I’m still not wild about gardening for flowers, but gardening for organic produce? Definately! I’m only sorry I didn’t start sooner — like as soon as we moved to this house.