Perhaps. It gets easier and cheaper as you learn what grows in your soil, sunlight, climate, pests, etc. I did not get much out of my first garden with much input of time and energy. Now I get great crops with a bit of weeding.

Tomatoes, green beans, and zucchini are fairly dependable. Lettuce and swiss chard are prolific, but take some practice. Artichokes are hard.

You are definitely having some bad luck gardening.

I have discovered that getting started in gardening can be a bit pricey. You have to buy all the tools, the compost bin, water barrels, fresh dirt, and anything else you need. But I think after the initial setup costs are out of the way, things get cheaper.

I also try to be thrifty about the way I garden. I took advantage of my city selling compost bins at cost. I found biodegradable seed cups at Goodwill, which I will use next year. I also save any sturdy cups my seedlings come in in order to use again. I also share the cost of dirt with my neighbor, who gets it super cheap from the city. Before I even moved into the neighborhood, my neighbor started a large dirt/compost area under a grove of apple trees in a park next to our homes. He allows me to freely use this dirt.

My situation is helped by having a neighbor who is an avid gardener, and living in a city that provides great dirt and other tools for gardening. Still if you look around in your own city, I am sure there are ways to be a thrifty gardener. Just keep reading up on best gardening techniques and looking for good deals.

Some people are just not meant to be gardeners and I suspect from reading all your posts, you might be one of them. Have you considered another hobby?

You don't have to buy compost bins, water barrels, dirt etc. You can just start with some basic supplies and work your way up as you go.

Sometimes it's easier to buy prestarted plants and transplant them into your garden. They are more expensive than seeds, but you'll get results sooner. A plant may cost $3 but you will get more vegetables out of it than you could buy at the store for the same amount. Corn, beans, peas, and some melons are good for seed planting. Artichokes would be more successful if you bought a plant from a nursery. You may not even get them for a year or two though.

The first is trial and error. Don't get discouraged. Last year, my total harvest was one tiny zucchini. This year I've spent hundreds of dollars on lumber for raised beds, filling for the beds seeds, plants, pest elimination etc. and I am seeing results, but profit is years in the making. What I'm getting out of it is sanity and peace of mind. It's the only place I don't have to hear "Mommy!" wailed like a dying cow.

Point: This is nothing you're going to get right the first time. Keep a log of what worked and why and what didn't and why you suppose. Then work from there the next year. Gardening is not something you take on for a few years and ditch. It's a parasite. You HAVE to garden and you make it successful by learning from your past and like the first responder said, learning.

The payoff will not come this year and maybe not the next, but it will come. Besides, gardening is cheaper than therapy. I just love visualizing my 'issues' and ripping those little weeds out of my garden.

You'll do fine. Just learn with patience and try, try again. If it was easy at first, it wouldn't be rewarding.

Getting off the soap box now. :)

I sense your frustration in your post--in fact, most of your posts. I garden to get away from stressors. It is my therapy, and I love to watch things grow. I can feed my family and my spirit at the same time with this gardening obsession. If your garden is offering you more problems than not, and if you really would be happier spending your money on what you could grow yourself, turn under the garden, plant some flowers out there amongst the piles of wood mulch, and have a glass of lemonade instead. If you are not enjoying this, it is not for you.

"gardening is like keeping pets. it is fun for a while, but now it is like a daily job if i actually want to get some good results."

pj, perhaps you're just experiencing newbie frustration (if so, join the club) at the trial and error of a new hobby/interest. As stated, there is an initial investment in supplies and learning that's necessary, as with anything new. However, if you really feel this way (referring to your pet comment) about gardening, perhaps ruthie has a good point and a different interest more in synch with what you value will provide you with more of a sense of reward and satisfaction.

I think you have to enjoy it for it's own sake, then you learn how to be a good gardener, and then, finally, yes it is cheaper.

I had so much lettuce this spring, that if I bought all the lettuce I have eaten so far, I am sure it would have more than paid for what I put into the garden this year. I ate a lot of lettuce!!! But, I have been gardening my whole life, (literally since I was a toddler helping Mom) so I know what I am capable of growing well, and I don't sweat the stuff I find hard to grow. I have lot of beans, snap peas, swiss chard, tomatoes and lettuce, which I eat in abundance, but I cannot grow eggplant well, so I don't put much hope into those, although I always try. I have two plants and they look like crap. I don't even bother with sweet corn.

I also don't buy garden pesticides or chemical fertilizers. I don't want to come off like a purist, but, I think there are cheaper and easier ways to get what you need than from buying chemicals, they just take longer and sometimes take more understanding and planning, and sometimes, giving up one thing or another because it isn't worth it. I see how much all that stuff costs though and shudder.

If something doesn't do well do to bugs, I try and find a lazy way around it, for instance, I am planting cucs way late this year, following the advice of local gardeners as a way to avoid the cucumber beetles. But I don't lose sleep if I fail. I have almost given up on squash, because the vine borers are bad, but I did get a friend agree to grow extra for me in exchange for lettuce.

So I guess you have to garden because you like it, and I think the skill and cheapness of veggies gradually develops. Grow the things that do really well for you. I don't even think I have a lot of skill, I just know how to grow core group of things, and then every year I dabble in some other crops. Some of those other crops do great, and I add them to my repertoire, others are a waste of time, so I may not try them again for a few years. The key is not getting in over your head so it feels like work, and not sweating it when something does bad, there is always next year! (I am already thinking of next year!!)

Maybe next year, you should pick your sunniest spot, and do four tomato plants. That is not too much to take care off, and if they do well, you will have plenty of tomatoes, which are the finest garden crop IMO. If you can get four tomato plants doing good, the fruit you get will more than pay for the transplants you bought, given how much fresh maters cost.

'gardening is like keeping pets. it is fun for a while, but now it is like a daily job if i actually want to get some good results'

I really hope you don't have any pets with that attitude.

If you want to continue gardening you need need need to do more reading before just buying and planting. A lot is trial and error, but you save money by understanding what you are doing and going in with a well thought out plan. Also, since you are new and having difficulties, scale back. If you are going through pack upon pack of seed with no results you are taking on a lot more than you are able to maintain.

If you really don't enjoy it or feel the work is worth the result, hobby gardening isn't for you.

greenmulberry. and the others have given some good advice.
I used to garden with my dad and Pop and when I brought my first house, I started growing runner beans and toms, not many and some years they would fail, some years good, it was the sence of achievement, that made me do it, and I was always frustrated, that I couldn't do more after a few years I used to add plants to the mix, eventually strawberries added to my perminant list, and I grow these in hanging baskets, like my tomatos and in window boxes, only the beans where in ground.
I didn't need much in the way of tools, my hanging baskets came from my dad, as he hated rusty chains and so would buy new every few years, I didn't use moss in mine but lined them with black heavy duty garbage bags, one bag could do several baskets and aids watering, as they only lose through the holes I created in them (still require a lot of watering, and that is my least fav garden job!) didn't look pretty at first but after a few months, no one could tell. I found all sorts of containers, the most beautiful one I had was a 1930's sink, we found buried in my Dads garden, fully intacked and not a bit of damage to it anywhere! incredable!
and I have always composted, its a way of life to me! part of my routine life, since childhood, sometimes would use it to ammend lawn and for containers and baskets, otherwise, I gave it away.
moving to the US has allowed me the time and space to finally realise my daydream of a garden, but mindful it could cost me, I used the small area left by the previous owner 7 foot x 6 and added a raised bed (todler bed upside down) tools Dollar store, hand stuff, and seeds, I quickly became frustrated by the size, dispite finding sq foot gardening whith seems very close to my Pops intensive gardening in the UK, but easier for a beginner like me, and it has almost all failed! very few successes except lettice, and a pumpkin which threatens to engulf the house! no pumpkins yet, the carrots that made it through the hard crust, planted beginning of april are tiny, 2 oz of peas! the list could go on, what I found was the opposite of you, I became more interest in the garden, reading, reading, asking anyone I can about stuff, (this forum is amazing)not upset at all when things failed, more for my compost heap...this will ammend the soil and I will do better next year!.
I also had a second frustration, I want more space? so I brought raised beds and netting, trellis ect and I have justified the cost to myself and Husband, that most of this stuff I can move on with, if we move, I am still keen after starting in Feb, it is a hobby and he has many, and his telescope cost way more than my garden even now, and he hasn't even unpacked it since moving last year! and one of my children loves it! and says every morning "have you checked my garden today, mummy?" and follows me round asking questions only a four yr old can! (impossible ones to answer!)
so either, go back and down size and build up or find something else, you do enjoy, this shouldn't be a chore.
or you could grow the most expensive veg on the planet, like my grandad, who is 90 now, but has always employed a gardener, since a young man, to grow them for you! he has a huge patch and just loves the taste of home grown, all he has to do is pick it, and even then, he used us kids to do it? and now the gardener! ohhhh, if I was a rich man, there again, if I was, (rich female)I have a horrible feeling I would turn into "good neighbors" (the Good life, UK people)

I agree with veggiefaerie, initially gardening is VERY expensive. I must have spent at least 500 dollars buying tools, fertilizers, sprays, deterrents, seeds, etc. Oh man, also the countless hours double digging my plot.

But trust me, when you see that first beautiful tomato in your hands that you grew yourself, you'll forget about all the disasters that happened. Initially it will be more expensive, but once you have all the necessary preparations and tools, the gardening process is essentially free.

I didn't find getting into gardening to be very expensive, but then I tend approach things in a minimalist fashion and shun the many pricy gardening "gadgets" available for sale. My entire tool set consists of a transplanting shovel, a "normal" spade, wheelbarrow, gardening knife, hand pruners, and a hand scythe (I already had a pickup truck). The other main expense was seed. Fertilizer was manures collected from nearby pastures and stables for free. Trellis building materials were collected at a nearby wild bamboo grove for free. I sheet compost garden wastes in the paths and do any additional composting needed by the manures I've collected in piles (no need for fancy composting bins, tumblers, etc.). I spent less than $100 to get my garden set up and it more than paid for itself in produce in the first 6 months of operation.

As a newbie Ive have great luck with my garden...and I did everything from seed...I aggree it is trial and error. I realized that planting my tomatoes by a dryer vent is making them grow twice as fast (i was afraid it would make them die)...I think my garden cost me a total of like $50...not bad for a whole season of veggies...plus its also nice to have that sense of achievement when you grow something yourself. Dont give up, and keep it simple, youll figure it out! best of luck!

I enjoy reading threads on the "economics of gardening". Surely the answer to the "Is it cheaper...?" question is - It depends. Perhaps the better question would then be "Was it cheaper...?"

It seems to me that cost isn't the main issue here - at least not at this point. Why did you start gardening? Was it to save money? I think you may be able to, but not from day 1. Some of us just happen to know a bit from a parent or family member or are lucky for some reason when it comes to gardening and we have success from day 1. Most of us do not.

No gardener is successful, time after time, though, without some basic understanding of what it takes to garden, even if we are lucky in the beginning. And, it really helps if you LIKE doing it. I do it because it makes me happy, not because I'm saving money.

If you are doing it to save money and only to save money, you may not be motivated to learn about it, read posts with the goal of improving. As others have pointed out, it may take a few years to get to success. Without learning about it, you are likely to have few successes and it will cost you more in the long run.

Maybe consider a new approach. Try smaller. Try one or two things that people say are easy and supply a large harvest and only grow those. Find out what type of soil that plant likes, how much water, the best ways to fertilize it. I imagine you might be successful quickly. And, then decide if you like it. If you are successful and you still do not like it? Then it's probably just not for you.

"Some people are just not meant to be gardeners and I suspect from reading all your posts, you might be one of them. Have you considered another hobby?"

Hopefully, nothing to do with pets.

I've tried a lot of things in gardening that have failed. I've never been upset or frustrated about it. If it's causing you frustration, maybe it's not for you.

If you are set on gardening, start small, like an herb garden or a couple of easy to grow items that you can learn about. But I think there is always a trial and error element. If you are looking for cheaper veggies than the store, it's probably not going to happen on a small scale.

Ania

It's cheaper to buy them than growing them yourself, if you aren't getting any value out of the process itself. Don't look for value on the money side, but think about whether the non-money part is important enough for you to keep doing this. If it is, then try something smaller and simpler next time and don't forget to build your soil! Planting a tomato plant in a bag of compost might be a good idea.

Sure some stuff is cheaper. But you get crap for food in the store. I bought some blackberries from Mex and they tasted bitter as hell. The peaches are garbage, with all the fuzz buffed off them and a nice coating of wax and fungicide on them. I grow as much as I can and the store is for what I can't grow.

There are likely thousands of people in the same situation as preppy. I think the economy has caused a lot of people, who would not normally have any interest in gardening, to want to grow some "cheap" food. I my opinion, most of them will not succeed. There is a reason that food costs what it does. You don't scatter some seeds, water, then pick veggies a few weeks later. You don't plant a fruit tree in the spring and come back and pick fruit in the fall. Most of America has no idea what is involved in producing food.

Do I garden to save money... no. In fact I give away a lot of the produce I grow. Seeing others be amazed at how good garden ripened produce can taste is about as good as eating it myself. I am a scientist by nature - experimentation and observation motivate me more than potentially saving a few dollars. Also it is difficult to put a price tag on what I grow, it tastes better, it is in my back yard (no trip to the store required), and I know how it was grown (peace of mind).

Is it cheaper for me? I think so. I want the good stuff and am willing to pay for it. The perfectly ripened, organic peach. Fresh herbs. More exotic fruits and vegetables.

This is my first year gardening and it has def. Been a learning process. I started smaller this year: tomato, bell pepper, melon, greens, arugala, beans and herbs in the veggie garden. Next year want to add some hot peppers, eggplant.

I mostly bought seedlings because starting everything from seed seemed too daunting. Maybe next year I will start some tomatos from seed.

I have had some successes (tomato, herbs, arugala, zuchinni, pepper). Some failures (beans not growing very fast). And some we'll see (melons and cukes).

Don't give up yet, just take a wait and see attitude. You never know what you will rewarded with.

hey PJ-
Agree with the other posters here about the 'why' of it all. Sometimes it's not about the cost. Take me, for example. I am moreso a flower gardener. I used to not particularly care about veggie gardening, and although I'd grow a veggie patch every year, it wasn't my main focus, and I didn't particularly care if it didn't produce. I was happy with any result I got, but simply didn't care one way or the other.

We don't use too much produce in my house. A bag of carrots here, a few apples & bananas there. I don't cook...hate cooking...so I just really have no big need to grow the veggies & herbs for the lower cost of doing it (in volume). PJ might find that there's no real benefit to going through all these gyrations and failures and money-sucking ventures to warrant veggie gardening. But PJ might also find that his/her tomatoes were no less than ASTOUNDING this year, and maybe he/she takes a real interest in "The Tomato" and your focus changes to tomatoes exclusively and enjoying every variety you can get your hands on.

I bet I spent more on seeds and black plastic this year than I spend in an entire year on produce at the grocery store. Oh, not to mention the new fence to grow stuff up, and the DH (who is a tinkerer, and one who you cannot leave alone on any given day because he'll make trips to HD and rig something up when you're not looking) deciding that I needed irrigation in my veggie patch, so he rigged up a water-line from the house to the veggie patch. I'd say easy there's over $300 in materials out there this year. To me, that's INSANE.

But...and here's the big but...it's not about the cost. It's about WANTING to succeed, WANTING to have a better production, WANTING to enjoy a veggie patch. I really didn't care one way or the other in previous years, and if I found a tomato amongst all the weeds in August, hooray for me.

I like gardening.
I don't like weeding, but I don't mind it at the same time.
I like being creative in coming up with a new design that will make me want to be in there.

OT personal stuff: I like art. I tried my hand at Stained Glass once. It was "ok," but something I knew I'd never really pursue heavily. I like mosaic...I keep it as an occasional hobby. I can draw, and paint "sorta" but it'll never be a full time job that I can make money doing.

It's about knowing what you're interested in, and what you really enjoy doing, not about cost.

I will say that one thing I have tried in gardening that I really don't care about at all is container gardening. I stink at it. I have no discipline to keep things watered, and I'm not interested in the finer points of how to fertilize container plants. I do better on large-scale and a huge compost pile.

Anyway, it's really all about what you know about yourself, what you know you like, and what you know you DON'T like, trying some things and either discarding for other things or keeping them and getting better at them.

If you're an artist, you might stink at painting & drawing. But you might find that you excel at sculpture and abstract art. You're still an artist. You just need to find your medium.

Good luck to you!

One example alone that would offset costs of growing your own vs. buying store bought, if ever there was a case where growing your own costs more (which would be insane! lol), would be Bell Peppers. Cheapest I can find a single green or red bell is about 80 cents. The orange ones are insane & same with yellow. Those "stoplight" pepper packs are $6 for 3 bells at my local grocery...crazy talk! ;-)

I think it can be done in such a way that it's cost-effective. If you save containers from year to year, that saves money. Also, using something cheap like dixie cups helps. Seed, if you like conventional hybrid stuff, I've seen some cheap seeds-- like three packs for a dollar-- at dollar tree, I think it was, and a half-off sale at home depot. You can also trade with people here (often people offer seeds for a self addressed stamped envelope) and of course save seed yourself. I have found compost for free or $5 per car load on craigslist-- I start searching in March or April and something always turns up. I get to take a nice drive into the country, get free fertilizer, and they get to get rid of some of their excess animal poop. If you like growing in buckets (or need some to haul your compost), you can sometimes get free ones from fast food restaurants or their dumpsters or from people who use a lot of spackle-- contractors, builders, or drywall hangers. I've been lucky, and haven't had much need for pesticides.

I think you raised a good point, though, and so did backyardener. I am sometimes amazed that a bag of carrots can be grown, harvested, bagged, and shipped, and a profit made everywhere, when they're sold for a dollar a bag. I don't think I could realistically save money growing carrots. I don't own a till, I can never get the seeds to sprout, and carrots are really cheap at the store. I still think it's worth it, because mine would be better, but it isn't cost effective. I think overall, though, I could save money growing a garden. I think I choose to pour a lot of money into it because I want exotic seeds and cool-colored veggies. But if I set my mind to it, I think I could get by with peat pellets, potting soil, and some cheap seeds. I do think gardening has given me new respect for farmers, and it is a lot more work then you realize starting out. And I second what others have said, starting a new hobby at first tends to be frustrating, riddled with mistakes, and expensive, as you buy more than you need, buy things you could be getting for free, and overreact to every little problem, which costs money, and causes more problems, which you then throw more money at. Eventually I think you get through that, figure out what matters and what you can let go, and start having fun.