Does your garden ACTUALLY save you $ ?

[dragonlaurel]

A community garden just started near me and I joined right away! Got a 4ft x 8 ft raised bed.
I already had some . . . (sooooo many) seeds, then got some more. Might have gotten carried away. Most of my seeds are not organic, but they are mostly Heirloom or open pollinated varieties, to be able to save seed.
The community garden supplies the raised bed, topsoil (heavy clay) , compost (free- from the city), and mulch (also free- from the city).
I filled my bed with roughly equal amounts of the mulch, compost and and topsoil to get the texture and drainage right. I will be adding worms soon to make it even better.
The food wont be quite organic, since we cant control the details on the donated stuff, but the garden wont have any chemicals added. Probably much safer than the average grocery store produce.
I spent about $ 40.00, so far and figure that will be easy to recover by the end of the season.
It should bring the grocery bill way down. Gotta look for canning equipment, more jars, and lids soon. We have a food dehydrator already, but I will look for some food grade buckets to keep dried foods safe in.

 

[hwillm1977]

At this point I'm behind... but that's because I've only had my garden for 2 years, so a lot of the one time costs have been within the last two years. We're spending about $250 on fruit trees this spring.

I have 8 raised beds (different sizes, from 4x20, 2x10, 4x4 etc.), which I had to buy some lumber for (I bought cheap lumber, hence the weird sizes). I filled it with composted horse/sheep/cow manure (free), and some vermiculite ($20 for 4 cubic feet - I got 16 cubic feet), and peat. A sort of fence (7foot deer netting - $30) was put up this spring.

Most of my seeds came from Ebay or my mom so I guess it would be around $20 for seeds.

We're having a baby this fall and I'm collecting as many really small jars as I can to can my own organic baby food so I don't have to buy any. I'm also going to freeze, dehydrate and store as much as I possibly can for the winter. Veggies can be horribly expensive here during the winter, and this way I'll always have organic veggies that I grew myself. That's worth more than whether I made a 'profit' from the garden or not.

Plus, sitting out there tending and weeding is relaxing to me

I like the idea of keeping track with a spreadsheet... I think I'll try that for the next season and see how I make out

 

[dinesh]

I am absolutely using my garden. At the corner of the garden I have dogged a pit where I keep waste veggie to make organic compost. I have made kitchen garden from which I have been able to get fresh veggie. In this way I am saving my money too.

 

[tortoise]

I made my own baby food. Don't bother canning it - not worth the work!

Make puree of whatever, pour it into ice cube trays, freeze and dump into a plastic bag in the freezer. They are the perfect portion size for baby and they are quick to thaw.

I was surprised how fast DS went from my ice cube food to mashed up table food. No need to make a lot. Once the little on has tasted a lot of different foods and doesn't have any reactions to them, you can go right to table food. (as long as you don't use a lot of spice). Just keep some around for babysitter or whatever when you need to know exactly what s/he is eating.

I love parenting with an SS point of view. I'm amazed at how much unnecessary CRAP is sold to parents as essentials. The only essential thing is a car seat. (Assuming mom is breastfeeding...)

 

[patandchickens]

Sure, mine does. On account of I spend almost nothing on it, basically just the cost of seeds (and not all my seeds are bought, a reasonable number are saved from last year or traded w/friends and relatives)

I probably *will* fence it this year, but will use scrounged/leftover materials so the cost will just be the cost of whatever screws I use.

I don't generally use commercial fertilizers; don't use pesticides at all, except bT on the apple trees. Don't buy soil or bagged stuff; mulch with tall grass mowed down with the weedwhacker (probably twenty cents' worth of gas, I suppose).

It's like anything else in life, the more you spend on it the more it has to make before it can show a profit

Pat

 

[Farmfresh]

I believe my garden (including fruit trees, grapes and berries) has paid for itself many times over at this point. Sure you spend money each year and ideally you should figure your time into the equation, but health benefits (both physical and mental) probably outweigh the labor costs any way.

The thing I want to mention where ever "value" of homegrown to value of store bought is compared - be sure to compare apples to apples. (Funny even the old saying involves produce! )

If you grow pesticide free green beans using organic methods and can them in a glass jar or freeze them, they only can compare to organic frozen beans or beans canned in a non-leaching can. Comparing your green beans to the store brand 33 cent a can green bean is like comparing an old Ford Pinto station wagon to a new Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG (a 180,000 sports car for those of you who don't care to know) and saying they are both cars.

For years I made the mistake of comparing my chicken eggs to regular store "prison" eggs. Then I discovered to buy similar quality I would be spending between $4.00 and $5.00 a DOZEN!

Just be careful how you pay yourself. Your hard work IS VALUABLE!

 

[pioneergirl]

Excellent post, FF!!!

 

[Wifezilla]

FF has it exactly right. You have to compare your food to something processed or sold in a similar way. Organic, sustainable, pesticide-free, cage-free, free-range, etc...

 

[ohiofarmgirl]

ours definitely pays for itself. but we also factor into letting the hens run loose at the beginning and end of the gardening season - free pest control and also they feed themselves...and other costs like that.

but

i totally understand the frustration with the start up costs!

once you get going thro - it makes sense...and cents. i've seen friends go out and buy those raised bed kits, fill with bagged soil, buy expensive flats of plants, then give up and dont use it next year b/c they didnt get anything out of it.

i think thats kinda like folks who go out and buy expensive dogs, dont train then, then wonder why they dont have a good dog (i know bad analogy).

the big thing is to initially count the soft costs (exercise, quality, family fun), then build on what you did the year before. starting small is actually a great idea - if you have too much going and get over whelmed then its no fun at all. but once you get your gardening skills down you can move on to other things.

if you keep going the next year will be more profitable...and if you start selling or trading your goods.... then increase your garden even more.. pretty soon you'll never want to go to the store again!

there are lots of ways to cut costs - for instance the first year it looked like hobos built our fence around the garden (we used every scrap of fence we could find - ugly, but it worked), then check on CL for compost or soil, or go to home depot and get their cull lumber bargains (i got a bunch of cedar for $1 a board!), trade seeds, keep seeds, take your chances and wait until the seeds are on sale at the stores, start your own compost heap (just throw it down in one place, no container), and no one says you have to have fancy raised beds (altho they are nice!) just make heaped up rows and voila! raised beds.

i guess the other thing is that you have to eat what you grow. if you just grow whatever and dont eat it, preserve it or, throw it to the chickens it will feel like a waste.

i'm reading How To Grow More Vegetables by John Jeavons (i think buster recommended it) and its a great overview of how to get started. (and yes i got it at the library for FREE)

you'll do just fine - just keep at it!

 

[tortoise]

FF - that put it into perspective. I hadn't thought about it like that.

I think SO will let me expand the garden next year if it goes well. I can put our yummy stuff in the fenced part and plant potatoes and vines in the other. I don't think rabbits will bother those. (Will they?)

How much space is needed for a market garden? There isn't a farmer's market here, but my SO's work is right on a main street and I might be able to convince the owner to let me put up a stand on the grass there.