Agree with you on the joy part but as to the cost of gardening, I guess it all depends on how one gardens. ;) Those that make their own compost, make their own soapy water spray and other controls for pests, share with the wildlife, take good care of their tools, hand pick hornworms, and plant really big gardens so they can eat as well as preserve for winter probably come out even more dollars ahead.;)

The bigger the garden, the lower the cost and the better the return.

Dave

It depends on which vegetable you're talking about. A small packet of zucchini will produce more pounds of food than anything else. A packet of parsnip seed will produce a lot of something which the markets charge high prices for. A packet of regular peas doesn't really give you a lot of peas to shell but does pay off - but sugar snaps are even more rewarding. One pole of beans will keep me in more beans than I can eat for a several months. Swiss chard also gives a good return.
Since I don't go in for exotic tools, exotic fertilizers or complicated structures, I would think a 10 for 1 return is about right. But if you're going to buy a garden tractor, it will take quite a few years for it to pay for itself, if ever. I use an old shovel with a fiber glass handle so it doesn't even need to be put away each time it's used.

With most produce selling for $2.00 to $3.00 per pound this has become an issue. Produce used to be priced like $0.79 per pound. At today's prices home grown veggies can pay off. My grandparents would be shocked to know that a single large tomato has to be paid for with greenbacks. We used to get a peck or a bushel for that kind of money.

Jim

I remember going to the store and I was sooo pizzed because yellow squash was 89 cents a pound...this was ages ago...but I told my husband...I don't understand why it's so high..you can throw a seed on the ground that it won't grow...

The truth is ....we gardeners usually spend way more than is necessary to have a good garden. My Daddy never in a million years spent the money that I do and he always had a good garden...He didn't even have the money to spend and to have every kind of tool and this and that was just not happening...gardening really was a matter of economics for him...My husband always appreciates my tomatoes even though they probably cost him $49 a pound...or maybe even by the each...

The bottom line is. Do you enjoy growing things? If you add the cost of your labor even at minimum wage, you lose economically. If you write off your labor as recreation, then a frugal gardener can come out ahead. One of the most overlooked savings is eating vegetables in season, If you insist on having fresh tomatoes, peppers etc year around you have to pay the price. Even canning and freezing adds up if you consider the labor costs in addition to the fixed costs. Most of us grow things for the enjoyment of it.

I'm not going to even try to figure out the cost of labor, garden equipment, garden soil, fertilizer, garden tools, peat pots, etc. that go into making a home-grown tomato. To me it's a hobby with fringe benefits. I also write novels, which requires an outlay of time, computer equipment, postage, etc. I haven't sold a novel yet, but I continue to write them. In that light, getting potatoes or tomatoes out of my garden is downright lucrative.

How much does a packet of tomato seeds cost? $1.79? Last night I was at the grocery store and picked up a tomato to give it a sniff. Then I noticed the sign. $4.99 EACH! $3.99 with club card.

$5.00 for a single, medium-sized, factory tomato. Put in that light, a single tomato seed may be worth $50 or more.

(The factory tomato had no scent at all. Is that a lack of olfactory senses on my part, or don't tomatoes have a scent? This is only my second year growing tomatoes, and I didn't get a harvest last year.)

My philosophy of gardening is like that of Ruthie's Daddy, or close to it. I use mainly dirt and seeds, no purchased soil or lumber for raised beds. Well, I probably spend a little more on soil ammendments than he did.

I also agree with Farmerdilla. To me, gardening is cheap entertainment of the best kind. Lately though, the price of grocery store veggies has put a different light on that. And my neighbors, who get the surplus and appreciate it, will welcome me more than ever when they see me coming with those bags. :-)

Jim

I suspect that a goodly percentage of people who planted a dozen seeds of various vegetables and fruit in average soil, kept most of the weeds down, and watered when needed would produce SOME kind of crop. It may not be front page for Better Homes and Gardens, but it would be edible. And the chances are excellent that it would taste better (and be healthier) than the bred-for-shipping-across-country crap that the stores sell.

"California Strawberries"... that label isn't a brag, it's a warning!

Keeping it simple, I think the return is higher than that article indicates.

Sue

Now you have me sitting here trying to figure what I've spent in the veggie garden so far this year.

$1.79 for a packet of yellow beet seeds.
$2.79 for 2.5 lbs of onion sets
$2.50 for 12 yellow marigold plants
$.99 for a Mortgage Lifter tomato plant
$.99 for a package of Okra seeds
$.99 for a package of mammoth sunflower seeds
$4.99 for a "mini-greenhouse" seed starter kit
$3.00 for a two-pack of gloves at Big Lots

Thats it for expenses so far this year. My bean, pea, basil, sugar snap, swiss chard, zucchini, cucumber, and yellow squash seeds were either "saved" seeds or stored seeds. My other herbs are either perennial or self-sow. The asparagus patch is established. I haven't bought any new tools this year. I do plan to stop by the garden center and get a bag of organic "planttone" fertilizer...That's probably around $20. My other expense may be some short fence to keep critters out of the garden.

I've already harvested 10 lbs of asparagus ($3 a pound or more...really more like $6 as its organic and that's what it costs at the health food store here), bushels of swiss chard (sorry, I don't know what that costs now), 12 radishes, and enough organic lettuce for salads for 6 (just started harvesting this week). I've been steadily using fresh chives, thyme, oregano, cilantro, and dill from the garden. It seems like I'm missing something that I've been harvesting...oh yeah, just started picking strawberries yesterday!

I don't buy pesticides, I use free mulch and compost, I save seeds. Usually I buy all of my tomato and pepper plants from the garden store but when the Feed and Seed store closed this past fall and all of the big box stores in the area set out their summer garden plants at $2-4 per plant MONTHS ahead of the appropriate growing season I put my foot down and bought the little seed starter greenhouse and started my own pepper and tomato plants (I already had the seeds).

I think I'm going to spend less than $.10 per dollar of food.

I know that, as a noob, I spent more than I probably needed to spend, but it was due to excitement rather than need. Honestly, I bought pots for tomatoes, transplants for tomatoes, eggplant, and peppers, a couple of packs of seeds, fertilizer, and potting mix--easily $50-60. This is more recreational fun, since it's a bit more immediate than some of my other hobbies, where I buy and store yarn, fabric, whatever, for years before being used. Aside from the seeds, everything pretty much has a shelf-life, LOL. Tomatoes are running $2-3/lb for regular red romas, $3-5 for slicers, and the ones I have are yellow, black, pink...ones that can only be found for about $6/lb at specialty stores. If I get some off my plants before the heat shuts them down, I'll be pretty happy. :-) Same with my pattypans, which I ate almost everyday last summer, at $3/lb. I'm looking for that extra special summer squash productivity.
Food aside, I'm making sure to learn a LOT this summer from other GW members in my general area as far as when to plant certain things and what awesome varieties there are out there. My seed catalogs have some colorful highlighter marks in them--just to pick a few now! I'm learning about using grow lights, winter sowing (although there's really not much of a winter here), and next season, I'm hopefully going to be able to start my own tomato, etc transplants. A local community center is offering a "learn to garden" class ($80 for a once a week class/four weeks), and they're only covering flowers, not veggies. I think I'm getting a pretty good education here everyday, along with the hands on experience.
Yup, I think I'm getting a pretty good deal for my money. If my squash pumps out tons of pattypans, I definently got a bonus. :-)

Another benefit of gardening is the exercise. I spent at least two hours outside this evening weeding, hoeing, carting around a bag of home-made compost, planting, watering. That may save me $34/month Bally membership, but it's hard to quantify the savings in medical costs for staving off heart disease, obesity, high blood pressure, free-floating anxiety, etc. The hard work of gardening always makes me feel peaceful, even when I'm exhausted and physically aching.

And the thrill of seeing a sprout break the surface of the soil, or tasting the first tomato, zucchini, or carrot of the season?

Priceless!

(Sorry. Someone had to say it. :-) )

I don't know if that's accurate or not, I personally would say that it's a far bigger return than that on the money, but it does depend on the crops you grow, the size of the garden, and just how simple or elaborate you want things to be. I tend to "over do it" on a lot of things -- why grow one kind of tomato when I can grow 24 kinds each year, so that does diminish my return in that sense -- I could easily get all of the 100 or so tomato plants I need from 2 or 3 packets, which would cost me about $5 to $6, but I probably spent close to $60 for tomato seeds this year. I guess I have to chalk up the extra costs as entertainment and health -- I don't go to movies, go out to eat maybe 3 or 4 times a year, and don't belong to a health club, but my garden compensates for this.

On the other hand, when I see things like heirloom tomatoes for $5.99 a lb, I think it's not so bad after all.

Ruthieg, summer squash and zuchini were $2.29 a lb here at the produce market the other day, and this was NOT organic or anything special, just the regular, basic kind. THAT makes me feel a lot better about growing my own.

I think the original statement was pretty general, and could in some cases, be true. Overall, I feel like I save some money from my gardening. Initially, there was some "capital outlay" for tools. We splurged and bought a used Troy-bilt tiller the third year we had a garden. But we still have it 12 years later, and it's made short work in creating new gardens at our last two houses. I buy some seeds cheaply, but do sometimes splurge on new varieties as I enjoy trying something new. (This is part of health benefits--relaxation, doing something I really enjoy!). I have tried, in most cases to do things as cheaply as possible--I make compost, recycle containers, start lots of my own plants. If I charged for the plants I give away or tried to sell extra produce instead of giving it to friends, I could probably completely offset my input costs, but I get pleasure from giving those things away. As my boys have grown, I've had to work my gardening in around their activities; so I don't always get things done in the garden when I'd like which probably reduces my yields. I still do way more canning and freezing than the average working mom, and I love to watch my friends eyes grow round when I pop the lid on a pint of homemade salsa in January.

Putting it all together, I'd say the health and economic benefits of the garden outway the costs for our family.

This has got me thinking about garden food that is free, or nearly so: seed potatoes from last year's crop, a major source of nourishment almost year round (this always reminds me of the Seige of Leningrad); asparagus, free except for the cost of gas to haul seaweed, compost and mulch; rhubarb; the odd self-seeded vegetable; self-seeded lettuce for the first time this year - Black-seeded Simpson, I think; walking onions, French sorrel, chives. Anything perennial. Berries.

We spend a lot on seeds from catalogues every year because it's one of our few luxuries but it's good to know the garden will feed us a fair bit without them, and also provide lots of seeds if we need them, from open pollinated and heirloom varieties.

And the exercise, inspiration and peace of mind we get from gardening are priceless, as lilacs of may says.

"The admiration of beauty is itself a form of meditation." - quote from a gardening show called Recreating Eden.

Gardening probably will never pay off for me. I spent close to 20 grand, this year, on a CUT and my garden is only 20x40'.

Ok... I didn't get the CUT just for the garden, but I did use it to turn over the soil, get more rocks out and mix in more compost.

What I got it for was yard work, it makes it so much easier. :)

As I am still learning to be an effective gardener, I may be alright in costs.

One thing you have to understand is purchasing equipment is capital buying. You'll reuse that equipment year after year.

If you truly want to save money, you have to learn how to grow from seeds.

I figure you have to really do an audit of what kinds of vegetables you eat. Our house eats a ton of onions, tomatoes, herbs and lettuce. So I'm moving forward with trying to grow those particular things.

Matthew08

Just to cite one example, I bought some onion plants last year for probably $2.00. I use onions almost every day. I have just recently used the last of the onions I harvested from those plants last fall.

Jim

:ast year I planted kale ($1.99 a packet) and had Portuguese soup through the fall and pasta with greens as a change-up. Not all was harvested before snow covered the garden but this past weekend, I cut a pound and a half of kale shoots from the old plants before consigning them to the compost heap. That and the walking onions were my first harvest of the new season.

Earlier, I didn't mean we eat seed potatoes, hope that was clear :)

Your source of seeds can make a big difference. There are small seed houses that use plain paper packets, don't have a website, have a comparatively small inventory of proven varieties for their particular locale, and charge less.

A "Food-Producing" addiction blows all the others away.

You read about people in People who put virtually their entire income up their noses or in a vein. Surely, what we spend can't touch THAT.

Sue

Well, I wouldn't know how to do the math because as others have delineated, there are so many factors to consider, but I would say overall that growing a garden gets cheaper over time because once it is established you can maintain it simply and inexpensively as long as you are organized to that end. I have spent money on lumber to build beds, but they will last many years, and I have also made beds out of found materials. Seedsaving is important and can keep you chugging along frugally, ditto composting and using leaves or grass for mulch. I am at the point where I could spend nothing and still do nicely as I have enough equipment/seeds/established growing area. Do I spend nothing? No. But the point is that I could. So don't think that every tomato you produce is a $50 fruit - just the first few are.

Seeds used to be a neglegable expense. No more. Especially with shipping and handling, mail order seeds can get expensive. Seed saving and trading helps a lot.

Jim