Let's talk about gardening and if it really saves money....

[texasmama]

Blackberries spread here like a virus and take over whole yards. Usually when a friend buys a house here that is a bargain the first thing we all do is go and help them get rid of the blackberry bushes so they can have a usable yard.

 

We just go and pick along the trail here where the county doesn't do more than cut them back if they are blocking the trail. Free and we can get massive amounts all season.

We have acreage. The ones we planted are thornless. I've not seen any wild ones here.

[LucyStoner]

We have acreage. The ones we planted are thornless. I've not seen any wild ones here.

See, clueless PNW girl that I am I had no idea there were thornless cultivated blackberries. Planting the blackberries we have here is an invitation for them to take over the house like the vines and bramble that concealed Sleeping Beauty's castle. Even on huge lots. They just don't give up.

[texasmama]

See, clueless PNW girl that I am I had no idea there were thornless cultivated blackberries. Planting the blackberries we have here is an invitation for them to take over the house like the vines and bramble that concealed Sleeping Beauty's castle. Even on huge lots. They just don't give up.

Ha! Yes, these will not tear you limb from limb. :D We have several acres and inhospitable soil so we're probably safe. Edited May 29, 2016 by texasmama

[MotherGoose]

Yeah I'm trying not to be a jerk, but sometimes I'm annoyed with DH regarding gardening. He spends a lot of money on it and complains about all the work (and then we get almost nothing) and then I'm like...WHY?!

 

I think he is just so used to that being a thing in his family. His dad was a big gardener, but they had lots of land and good growing conditions. They were so successful his mother had three large freezers that they'd fill up after the summer!

 

Last year we grew cherry tomatoes. Imagine...2 tiny tomatoes on your plate after all that. Yay...

It can save money. I've been self sufficient in garlic and tomatoes for the most part, meaning I have purchased little to none of them from the store, at all, thanks to canning, in several years. Also I've grown most of my own Lima beans and lots of broccoli. But, I love it. I have a 50 by 50 ft garden, a long growing season, and also chickens, which give me lots of fertilizer. Gardening is what I do for recreation and for exercise. When we were first married, DH spent $40 a month on a gym membership and I finally got him to agree that I could spend $40 a month on gardening (including landscaping at that time) because it was my equivalent. So: if your DH really hates it, he should stop. If he loves it, he should continue (but perhaps not complain about it).

[JFSinIL]

Doubt we save any money in the long run, but it sure feels good to be able to go outback and pick my salad greens and spinach, and soon green beans, carrots, and three different heirloom tomatoes. Hubby grows a ton of different kinds of basil, as we make heaps of pesto to freeze. At least two cubes (it gets frozen in an ice cube tray then put into bags) are used per week, so we need a lot. We built the raised beds a few years ago, and concocted a Labrador-proof fence already, so that cost is done. Love to grow more rainbow chard but have another year to wait (some odd mite got to the chard, and best treatment is avoid growing the same veg for three years.)

Edited May 29, 2016 by JFSinIL

[Guest]

You save money by growing your own staple crops.

 

You don't save money by having some tomato and lettuce plants, two heads of broccoli going, and some strawberries and calling that a garden.

[Bluegoat]

Well, for us it tends to depend on the infrastructure.  We could be a lot more efficient though if I had more time to spend.  I often buy manure which is expensive but there are ways to get away from it - I'd do much better with cover crops and being more attentive to my pile.  Also, there are lots of trees around and I could collect leaves and make leafmold, for free.

 

In an ideal world, your garden should be self-suffient but it means some careful planning.

 

The other thing is growing what has a good return.  It generally isn't that cost efficient to grow things like potatoes or turnip, because they are so cheap to buy.  Beans can be worthwhile for me, and peas which aren't cheap fresh.  I always grow plenty of tomatoes - I have to go for shorter season varieties - Russian ones are often good. 

 

Probably my most remunerative thing has been a peach tree, it is still small and I get about 50 a year, that are actually really ripe and not nasty like they ones in the grocery store at all.

 

[Bluegoat]

You save money by growing your own staple crops.

 

You don't save money by having some tomato and lettuce plants, two heads of broccoli going, and some strawberries and calling that a garden.

 

For a wee garden though, with not much winter storage, staples probably would not work though.  You could plant a whole yard in potatoes and not have enough, or they'd rot from wrong storage.

 

In a small space I think high value, in season stuff is better - herbs, lettuce, and so on.  If you can supply your salad needs all summer,, it might not save a bundle, but it would be worthwhile for the quality of produce.

[Guest]

For a wee garden though, with not much winter storage, staples probably would not work though.  You could plant a whole yard in potatoes and not have enough, or they'd rot from wrong storage.

 

In a small space I think high value, in season stuff is better - herbs, lettuce, and so on.  If you can supply your salad needs all summer,, it might not save a bundle, but it would be worthwhile for the quality of produce.

 

ONLY if those things are actually staples in your diet.

 

People are forever planting dietary frovolities and complaining their garden doesn't save them any money.

 

Well, of course it doesn't. You took something you spend maybe 40$ over a season on (still having to buy it in Winter and Spring if you're going to eat it), and spent 30$ to grow it.

 

Small gardens== input-intensive gardens==$ amendments, $mulch, $water

[SparklyUnicorn]

ONLY if those things are actually staples in your diet.

 

People are forever planting dietary frovolities and complaining their garden doesn't save them any money.

 

Well, of course it doesn't. You took something you spend maybe 40$ over a season on (still having to buy it in Winter and Spring if you're going to eat it), and spent 30$ to grow it.

 

Small gardens== input-intensive gardens==$ amendments, $mulch, $water

 

We only grow stuff we can freeze.  We will never go through enough lettuce and all of that.

 

I agree with you overall though.  But this is what I don't get.  Everyone raves about this small gardening stuff to the point they think we could solve US hunger if people on food stamps would just grow their own food.  They'd starve around here taking that route.

[SparklyUnicorn]

I like vegetables, but I don't eat salads all that regularly. 

[Guest]

To save real, difference-making money, you have to grow the calories that will be prolific in your area, and then eat THAT...not continue to eat as usual from the store.

 

You also have to have more than 10X10 or two raised beds.

 

If you eat rice every day but can't grow it, you're not going to save money growing a wee bit of rice.

 

If you can grow berries, yum! but it's not going to replace your bread, or grits, or meat, or salads or WHATEVER you eat regularly. Therefore berries aren't going to save you cash. Unless you sell them and use the money to buy your staples. And if that's the case, congrats on your new side biz.

[Guest]

People also don't realize the huge amount of food they eat either. If you have half an acre of arable land and WILL EAT WHAT WILL GROW, you're golden. Otherwise, embrace gardening for the life-affirming hobby that it's got to be for you right now.

[Melissa in Australia]

We  save a huge amount of money with our garden - but- it is very large ( tennis court size). we eat form it year round. Dh saves his own seeds for most crops. We grow our own seedlings form seed ( huge saving) . we are given a water tank full of water from the neighbour ever year ( Seeing as they illegally built a shed on our fence line they give us all the water off the shed roof). We live in a climate where there is something that can be grown at each time of the year. We eat according to the season. It took DH and I about 10 years to get the hang of gardening so we didn't end up with a glut and then a famine of food.  It is a big job, typically DH spends 2 hours a day gardening. We make our own compost and have animals that produce manure (cows).

Also Vegetables are very very expensive where we are.

[Bluegoat]

We only grow stuff we can freeze.  We will never go through enough lettuce and all of that.

 

I agree with you overall though.  But this is what I don't get.  Everyone raves about this small gardening stuff to the point they think we could solve US hunger if people on food stamps would just grow their own food.  They'd starve around here taking that route.

 

It could make a difference, but it would depend on how it was set up.

 

So - a lot of people could go some way to providing in season veg - not starch and such, but what they typically eat out of the garden.  Either by freezing or in some areas by continuous harvest, which is possible in most areas - we can grow some things even in winter where I am in Canada, if we plan correctly.  There is a fair proportion of food that could potentially be grown in cities and towns, if people wanted to.

 

What that could do, theoretically, would be to make it possible for larger operations to grow some of the bulkier starches and staples.  So - it's a more efficient way to use the land, really.

 

But it works a lot better if there are more people doing it, plentiful community gardens with the right infrastructure, and so on.

 

We save a fair bit on herb and salad stuff in summer - not just lettuce but small veg that are suitable for putting in salads, mainly because we make a point of eating them and because they are expensive.  It isn't huge, but for someone who was poor, it could potentially add some real variety and fresh nutrients.

[AmazingGrace]

I just like playing in the dirt.   :001_smile:

 

Plus, nothing tastes as good as a home-grown tomato.

[Rosie_0801]

We do some composting, but it's highly limited.  I don't think the people living near that garden would enjoy horse poop so we won't go that route. 

 

I tend towards stuff that can be frozen for sure. 

 

That said, we also don't spend money on fertilizer.

 

Horse dung is inoffensive.

 

Duck poop, on the other hand, is the gift that keeps on giving. For months. :ack2:

My aunt spread it on the garden outside her bedroom window and had to keep it closed for three months.  :laugh:

[Ottakee]

Gardening might not save us money but does allow us to eat better for the same amount of money. I wouldn't spend $$$ at the store for several pints of cherry tomatoes but in the garden we can grow so many on just a few plants that the kids can eat as many as they want.

Edited May 29, 2016 by Ottakee

[TechWife]

Because of where we live and the type of soil we have, I don't think gardening would save me money. It absolutely saved us money when I was growing up, though. My father planted our entire back yard. We had a creek on the back of our property and the yard sloped down towards, so it got a lot of irrigation from rain naturally. I think he must have irrigated some, but I don't have a strong memory of it other than an occasional sprinkler running. 

 

We always had green beans, tomatoes, cucumbers, yellow squash and zucchini. Each year he would try something new and different to him - I remember corn was a bust! My mom did a lot of canning. By the end of the summer the shelves in the pantry would be full - tomatoes, tomato sauce, tomato soup, squash, two or three types of pickles, green beans.

 

Gardening helped us through some lean years when my father was laid off from his job and then in the years immediately following the purchase of our family business. I didn't appreciate it as much as a child as I do now. 

[Rosie_0801]

We  save a huge amount of money with our garden - but- it is very large ( tennis court size). we eat form it year round. Dh saves his own seeds for most crops. We grow our own seedlings form seed ( huge saving) . we are given a water tank full of water from the neighbour ever year ( Seeing as they illegally built a shed on our fence line they give us all the water off the shed roof). We live in a climate where there is something that can be grown at each time of the year. We eat according to the season. It took DH and I about 10 years to get the hang of gardening so we didn't end up with a glut and then a famine of food.  It is a big job, typically DH spends 2 hours a day gardening. We make our own compost and have animals that produce manure (cows).

Also Vegetables are very very expensive where we are.

 

I love your garden!

 

 

Sparkly, how high are you piling your potato beds? If you keep piling them up, they keep growing.

 

One reason we're getting into edible weeds is they'll grow whether I plant and water or not. :p

[happi duck]

Horse dung is inoffensive.

 

Duck poop, on the other hand, is the gift that keeps on giving. For months. :ack2:

My aunt spread it on the garden outside her bedroom window and had to keep it closed for three months. :laugh:

*hangs head in shame and waddles away*

[Rosie_0801]

*hangs head in shame and waddles away*

 

Sharing is caring, they say. :lol: 

I can tell you care a lot. :lol:

[FaithManor]

For us when we were gardening we lived in an area in which we had really good loamy soil that needed almost no amending. So no expensive up start costs. We borrowed my dad's rototiller. After that it was seeds, and well water pretty much. We didn't do starts inside so no lights or containers, and as for plants, dh usually purchased one very large tomato plant up front because he didn't want to wait too long for a fresh slicing tomato. We put in a large garden and I put up the harvest which meant 104 pint jars of green beans, same in quarts of tomatoes (some plain, some as pasta sauce, some as salsa), freezing all of the broccoli and cauliflower I wanted for the winter, and dehydrating onions, leeks, peppers, carrots, celery, strawberries, cherry tomatoes, garlic, and roasting sunflower seeds. We ate cucumbers and such fresh until the plants stopped producing. In the winters salad greens, mushrooms, citrus, and kiwi were about the only fresh produce I bought in the store. Since we live in such a nice agricultural area, I buy peaches, apples, potatoes, raspberries, and blueberries in bulk and freeze the berries, peaches, and potatoes (chunk up and double bag - use them for soups, making mashed potatoes, and for home fries), and the apples I dehydrate for apple chips though I do a few pints of homemade applesauce too.

 

That said, if one does not garden in this area it is a real bargain to buy in bulk at the Amish farmer's market if you are willing to preserve the food. When prices on produce go up in the winter, you eat out of your pantry. It is very nice to be eating broccoli from the garden in January. But, it is not a savings for people who do not have naturally good soil and must do a lot of amending unless they have a free source of soil enhancements. Compost, top soil, minerals, ....it can add up to a lot. We usually did add a little compost every year but I got it free from a friend whose farm I help with and her husband delivered it which was very nice.

[helena]

Here in So Cal, it's not a money saver with the drought situation. I'm still gardening though because it's a lifestyle I'm after. I use a lot of grey water. Lugging buckets up and down the stairs is a workout, so that's money saved not having to go to a gym.  :huh:  :tongue_smilie:

 

I'm looking forward to growing English peas because those are pretty expensive here. Other than that our local Persian market is very inexpensive. Of course, there's often no flavor in anything sold at the market. 

[MelAR05]

I can't link because I am on my phone, but The $64 Tomato by William Alexander is a fun read. :)

[KungFuPanda]

My garden is more of a science project. I'm trying hugelkulture in the back yard, which means "hill gardening" which REALLY means it's cheaper and easier to plant on top of a stump and some logs than it is to remove them from the property. I'm trying to get all perrenials in the front beds, and veggies in the back. This is my third year. I pretty much have a square food garden on a hump. The first year cost the most because I bought peat, compost, and vermiculite to fill my raised beds. The second year I just bought some compost to put on top. My compost pile has grown so that I'm buying less.

 

The rewards for me are the easy plants like tomatoes, cucumbers, and herbs. I LOVE cutting fresh herbs for meals. I grow tomato and cucumber types that aren't in the stores. I had enough cucumbers to pickle last year and we actually ate them. I ales canned some salsa and some green tomato salsa which is almost gone. This year the SOLID MONTH (I'm not exaggerating) of rain has given me a bit of trouble. My lettuce went from not quite big enough to eat to bolting to flowers this week. WTH???

 

I started some flowers from seed this year, so I'll save a bit on getting bedding plants for the front. I'm growing ground cherries and lemon cucumbers which don't exist in the store. I'm getting fresh air and exercise. I'm keeping yard waste on my property to use as mulch so it's not getting carted off to process elsewhere. I'm composting food waste too. I figure if I have a few veggies that produce reliably, it helps ofset the experiments that fail.

 

This is just my third year of having any interest in gardening, but I'm enjoying it, I've learned a lot, and my property is getting prettier. I kinda wish I'd cared sooner so my yard would be 15 years prettier :-)

 

Edited because I actually wrote "costed"

Edited May 29, 2016 by KungFuPanda

[Ausmumof3]

I can't fit bonsai trees in my yard so...

 

:lol:

Can you espalier? Depends on sunlight etc

[Ausmumof3]

Blackberries spread here like a virus and take over whole yards. Usually when a friend buys a house here that is a bargain the first thing we all do is go and help them get rid of the blackberry bushes so they can have a usable yard.

 

We just go and pick along the trail here where the county doesn't do more than cut them back if they are blocking the trail. Free and we can get massive amounts all season.

Blackberries are a noxious weed here so the plants are illegal to sell although you can now get a sucker less type which is legal

[Ausmumof3]

I love your garden!

 

 

Sparkly, how high are you piling your potato beds? If you keep piling them up, they keep growing.

 

One reason we're getting into edible weeds is they'll grow whether I plant and water or not. :p

The dandelions are looking so lush here - way better than my wilted shop spinach. Can we eat them?

[Rosie_0801]

The dandelions are looking so lush here - way better than my wilted shop spinach. Can we eat them?

 

For sure. I've enjoyed that in omelettes. We also have plenty of mallow and wild lettuce which are also edible, but I haven't tried them yet. I haven't the time to cook as much as I used to. Our purslane finished a few weeks ago and that was quite tasty.

[myfunnybunch]

Gardening might not save us money but does allow us to eat better for the same amount of money. I wouldn't spend $$$ at the store for several pints of cherry tomatoes but in the garden we can grow so many on just a few plants that the kids can eat as many as they want.

 

Yes, this.

 

I was thinking about this thread today as I weeded my garden. I still don't think we save a TON of money, but we do save some and we eat better for the amount of money we spend. Plus, exercise, outdoor time, satisfaction. :)

 

Our family tries to eat seasonally and eats a lot of fresh veggies in the summer. We get a CSA box (might be a more cost-effective alternative for folks without much garden space or without an established garden set-up) AND tons of veggies out of our garden.

 

For $2.50 (cost of a 6-pack of starts), we were able to stop buying salad from the grocery store for about 2+ months before our CSA box starts (and once it starts we get plenty of greens and I will use the space for something else). Same with kale ($2.50 won't buy one bunch at the grocery store), chard, spinach. So for $10, we have fresh greens daily from April-June and beyond.

 

For $25 (10 starts), I'll have fresh tomatoes for slicing and salads and sauce and salsa, and tomato tarts and anything else I wish, from July through late Sept-early Oct. The cost of a fresh tomato from the grocery store is ridiculous! Between the CSA, the rest of the tomatoes (and onions and peppers and tomatillos) from my garden, and seconds from the produce stand, I'll be able to put up a year's worth of salsa, plus canned tomato juice and canned tomatoes.

 

Ditto for peppers and onions for salsa, tomatillos, pumpkin and squash for storage and freezing, basil for pesto. Fresh cucumbers that we can't eat turn into pickles. Rhubarb just takes care of itself, and I end up with quite a bit in the freezer. I grow beans for drying--for $6 (two seed packets) I get enough beans to last us a year.

 

Some produce, like carrots, potatoes, snap peas, eggplant are for fun. We couldn't really grow enough in the space we have to make them worthwhile. We don't save any money, but the kids like growing them, so I make space for those veggies.

 

We also have fruit trees and berry bushes, which cost very little to maintain, though they do take some time to get established and start producing.

 

But...

My garden is already established.

I've been gardening long enough to know what we will use and what's worth the garden space.

I find ways to "sneak" more space: tomatoes in the flower beds, potatoes in the old wheelbarrow, rhubarb in the pots our fruit trees came in, etc.

We compost and have chickens, so we have free soil amendment/fertilizer.

I have the space for a large garden.

I have the supplies and equipment to can and freeze what we can't eat immediately.

[Ausmumof3]

This is one of those " it depends " things I think. Personally we've probably spent more than we've saved so far but. My dad does horse manure and compost and produces masses of food - they are always giving stuff away. They definitely save money. It's definitely easier if you have acreage so you don't have to pay for land and buy in soil.

 

You also have to compare like with like. Yes I can feed us cheaply but not as freshly. I can grow lettuce or buy it for $3 but to buy stuff that's fresh and organic might cost $7. I can buy eggs for $3 which is probably cheaper than chook food but free range eggs will cost $6 and won't be as nice as mine.

 

That said if you take the time requirement into account you can pretty much write the whole exercise off. but if you enjoy it then it's ok.

[lailasmum]

Where I am it doesn't save money. Our soil is dreadful (edge of moorland), the season is short and we have cold springs so things often don't thrive. It also rains heavily a lot In the height of summer and veg plants seem to hate that. The only things I think are worth growing here are herbs and salad leaves, cucumbers and a few other small salad items like radishes and hanging basket tomatoes because they mature quickly. Mostly they have to be in a greenhouse. Some years we've done ok with beans and peas but often not. Leeks and kale can do ok but that's about it. Fruit often doesn't thrive. We lost all the strawberry plants this past winter I think due to the extreme wet and we have lost about half the raspberry plants.

 

I know people who live just a few miles in away who do manage a good garden. Its just my immediate local area that's difficult.

Edited May 29, 2016 by lailasmum

[HomeschoolingHearts&Minds]

I think a lot of it depends upon where you are at.  In our previous state, we had a great garden, high yields of tomatoes, peppers, cukes, zukes, various herbs, and the kids would snack on the sugar snaps right off the vine.  I was a bit of a lazy gardener (yes, weeds can be very effective mulch after the plants have established themselves), but our garden did very well each year and probably saved us lots on produce.  We only really bought corn and fruit during the summer.

 

Since we have moved here, it's like I have a black thumb.  One year we planted and got very low yields on everything.  One year we had to plant late due to various circumstance and also got low yields.  One year a critter (or a herd of critters?) bit off every stinking plant that we had established overnight (beans, tomato plants, etc) and we gave up for the year.  One year a ground hog set up residence under our shed and by the time he moved on it was too late to plant.  This year I want to plant something, but our spring was cold and so rainy that we haven't gotten started. Now it is hot, hot, hot---not sure I have it in me to get the garden ready.   

 

I'm getting the distinct impression that I'm just not meant to have a garden.  :lol:

[eternalsummer]

I don't garden well.  I don't even do houseplants well.

 

But my suspicion is that you will have more success if you grow things that are native to your area, or at least native to your climate and elevation.  When we lived in MO my best friend and I once planted a very small garden of carrots, peas, green beans, etc.  The next morning. there was a torrential rain and a small river flowed over the garden in the backyard, presumably washing everything into the ditch.

 

Lo and behold, 2 months later, up came the peas and the green beans and the carrots (we had abandoned the project after the big rain, so they were kind of hard to pick out from the grass and weeds).  

 

I think stuff grows in MO no matter what you do to it.

 

Here in CO, though, it is a bit harder.  Even the dandelions seem sort of delicate.

[MEmama]

The one reliable money saver crop I've found for my yard is garlic. I can easily grow a years worth for little upstart, and even frozen it's so much better than the sad, dry husks that pass for garlic much of the year here. I buy tender Spring garlic at the farm markets and load up on garlic scapes, but rely on my fall harvested garlic the rest of the year.

 

I would love to have a garden I could rely on for much of our seasonal needs, and even learn to get creative stretching the seasons, but we have some things working against us here. I've always gardened though, everywhere we've lived for the past 25 years. There's something deeply fulfilling to me to wander outside and pick dinner (even if just part of it). I suspect a better yard will be a higher priority next move.

 

The posts about blackberries makes me miss Oregon. Much of our summertime there was spent biking to the outskirts of town and loading up pails brimming full of free blackberries. We had so little money (living on love! Ha ha) we really relied on them, but more than that it was so satisfying. Foraging is big here where we live now, too, and I wish I knew more about it. Every time I see a car parked along a country road I wonder what kind of goodies the people know about and are off collecting.

 

Eta: here we forage for blueberries. We have gigantic blueberry barrens near our home where they are free for the taking. They are more work to clean than other berries but freeze well.

Edited May 29, 2016 by MEmama

[creekland]

We save a bit of money and love the taste of home grown.

 

But we also have our own land, free water, free horse and chicken manure for compost, and until our boys left home, plenty of free labor (though they also ate the bounty).

 

There's no way I spend more on tomatoes or squash (different varieties) or peppers or whatever than we get in return unless it's a rare bad year.  A package of beet seeds cost me a dollar.  We get a fair number of meals from those beets.  Can't buy many in a store for a dollar.  Since we buy tomato and green pepper plants, those cost us $15 (total).  That's a mere 15 peppers (forget tomatoes) in Walmart and fewer if I buy them in my local store.  We get oodles of peppers - usually give some away.  Ditto that with tomatoes.

 

Then repeat for kale, peas, lima beans, potatoes, squash, broccoli, and pretty much whatever we plant.

 

We can't plant corn though.  Birds come and steal it all, plus we're organic and there are too many worms.

 

If we had to pay for anything other than plants/seeds it'd be tougher to make money, but we don't - pk - some gas for the rototiller and we replaced some fencing this year, but still...

 

We also have apple and pear trees, grape vines (planted three more of these this year), and berry bushes.  We eat quite well during most of the summer and fall.  Over winter and spring we eat things we've frozen.

[cjzimmer1]

Some people can save money but certainly not everyone.  We have clay soil.  It's really difficult to work with.  When we moved here, I cut the sod off and started a garden.  It took 10 years before any weeds grew in that garden.  I did lots of soil amending and I did get some produce during those years.  But my family owns a greenhouse.  My plants are all free and I plant tomatoes that are well established (plants are usually 3+ feet tall with tomatoes/blossoms on them and a 3 gallon ball of root base) and they survived the awful soil conditions, smaller plants did not.  Now my soil is in much better condition.  I no longer need to amend it.  The pepper still don't like the garden soil but that is fine.  But need for tomatoes is much higher so the entire garden is tomatoes.  Peppers are grown in pots that sit on the rock wall that runs through the middle of our back yard (completely wasted space other wise).  Cucumbers grow in plastic storage tubs, basil, kale, broccoli, grows in a plastic kids swimming pool (I'm cheap I don't like to spend money on pots especially where there are much more affordable options).  Other herbs grow in whatever plastic containers we have laying around.  Most years I invest less than $30 in fertilizer, seeds etc but I do get the bulk of my plants free.  So I most definitely come out ahead.  If I had to buy plants, I'm sure I wouldn't come out ahead but I would still plant some because the taste is simply so much better.

 

 

[SparklyUnicorn]

To save real, difference-making money, you have to grow the calories that will be prolific in your area, and then eat THAT...not continue to eat as usual from the store.

 

You also have to have more than 10X10 or two raised beds.

 

If you eat rice every day but can't grow it, you're not going to save money growing a wee bit of rice.

 

If you can grow berries, yum! but it's not going to replace your bread, or grits, or meat, or salads or WHATEVER you eat regularly. Therefore berries aren't going to save you cash. Unless you sell them and use the money to buy your staples. And if that's the case, congrats on your new side biz.

 

But where I live the only thing like that are apples.  And I don't eat apples much (too much sugar). 

 

Probably the one veg I eat the most is broccoli.  Every year our broccoli is either eaten by animals, or stolen.  I have yet to try our garden broccoli. 

[SparklyUnicorn]

What about trying some broccoli in some pots at home, instead of at the garden plot?  I have never done broccoli in a container I don't know if i works well or not.  But, a couple of pots on your back porch wouldn't be terribly expensive, or much work, since you don't have to drive there and don't have to weed container gardens nearly as much. 

 

I doubt it would work, but we are trying broccoli in the yard for the first time.  I told DH to give up on tomatoes and try broccoli.

 

We do plant stuff in our yard.  I'd be happy if that's all we planted. 

[Guest]

I am talking about getting the horse poop already composted. I have a huge pile here that has aged for 2 years. I would gladly give it away to anyone that would want any. No smell. You are with though that you don't want fresh horse poop.

We used to have this access, due to horses at MIL's Farm. But now there haven't been horses on the property for several years, so this aspect is gone.

 

I am very sensitive to "investing" too much money in the garden. I don't want to end up with The $64 Tomato. It is one reason I want to begin with seeds whenever possible.

[SparklyUnicorn]

We used to have this access, due to horses at MIL's Farm. But now there haven't been horses on the property for several years, so this aspect is gone.

 

I am very sensitive to "investing" too much money in the garden. I don't want to end up with The $64 Tomato. It is one reason I want to begin with seeds whenever possible.

 

At this point the best I can manage is to reject to help anymore.  It's DH's business if he wants to waste his time and money on it.  I'm done.  I'm not flaming mad, but I'm a bit irritated.  He complained a couple of weeks ago that his back was killing him and nobody helped him dig.  I told him he knows how I feel about gardening.  He didn't mention it again.

 

$64 tomato..yeah that sums it up

[BlsdMama]

See, clueless PNW girl that I am I had no idea there were thornless cultivated blackberries. Planting the blackberries we have here is an invitation for them to take over the house like the vines and bramble that concealed Sleeping Beauty's castle. Even on huge lots. They just don't give up.

 

 

We were blown away by the blackberries in Oregon.  (And jealous.)  Oregon native plants definitely want their land back.  We miss them here.

 

We buy seeds from SeedSavers so that we don't have to buy all of our seeds new every year, though we do buy some each year.  DS starts our plants inside around March.  We bought special lights and have an area to start plants.  This year we didn't start everything - just tomatoes and peppers.  We don't have to do raised beds here - the ground is super black, rich dirt with decent drainage.  We get dependable rain and we have a well so no watering costs.  The city gives away free compost and we have a truck. We also have chickens so we let the chicken poo compost for a year and then use it in the garden.  

 

This is our third year at this house and we are still in the phase where it is work and investment.  It costs us about $40/year to have a man come till. 

 

I think the biggest expense this year was that we put in a lot of perennial plants and a couple sprinklers so we could always have easy watering if/when we want it.  We put in raspberry plants this year (found on craigslist for $2/cane) a few blueberry bushes, asparagus plants, and a strawberry bed with 46 plants and roots.  Last year we spent $$ on apple and pear trees.  We have a pretty  long growing season here as we have enough time to finish out melons and it's nice and hot and humid in the summer - just like a greenhouse.

 

That said, I think gardening is an investment for several years.  You need jars to can and equipment.  You need to get your garden growing.  You must invest in quality seeds if you are saving.  You might need to enrich the soil or make a composter.  You may need a watering system.  You may need storage for the produce.  I'd call it a very long term investment.  

 

That said, we don't live on a real farm so there is simply less work for our kids which doesn't thrill me.  At least gardening is one of those things where we can have the kids work and they reap the benefits of their efforts and that alone is worthwhile for me.  

 

I find it hard to keep up on the weeds.  Plants grow amazing here - including weeds.  Last year we fell behind and it impacted our harvest.  

 

We have been finding better ways to support our plants - cattle gates and t-posts.  They are more sturdy.  

Pinterest is amazing for ideas and inspiration. 

 

We planted just about everything I can think of - kohlrabi, broccoli, cabbage, chard, lettuces, basil, tomatoes, peppers, melons, squashes, potatoes, beans, peas, etc.

 

That said - it isn't enough for keeping, except tomatoes and salsa.  It just essentially will replace our produce demands for summer/early fall.  

 

ETA: I think eventually it will be worth it?  I never really understood why people WOULDN'T have a garden.  Then we were in CA for a while... watering is expensive.  Then, four years in Oregon and I had my eyes opened more.  Blights and fungus in the ground is less of an issue here because we get good, hard freezing temps for a season.  We also had to pay for our water in town and summer gardening in the PNW requires irrigation or sprinklers.  I'm very grateful for our seasons here.  I do wish our zone was a bit more  temperate - zone 5 would be lovely.   But I'm no longer under the illusion that gardening is cheap or easy everywhere.  Sometimes people write these things but I suspect much of that has to do with where they've lived and their own limited experience.

Edited May 29, 2016 by BlsdMama

[cjzimmer1]

What about trying some broccoli in some pots at home, instead of at the garden plot?  I have never done broccoli in a container I don't know if i works well or not.  But, a couple of pots on your back porch wouldn't be terribly expensive, or much work, since you don't have to drive there and don't have to weed container gardens nearly as much. 

 

 

I doubt it would work, but we are trying broccoli in the yard for the first time.  I told DH to give up on tomatoes and try broccoli.

 

We do plant stuff in our yard.  I'd be happy if that's all we planted. 

 

I can't speak to your weather and sunlight conditions but broccoli will most definitely grow in a pot.  I had a kids $4.00 swimming pool that I filled with dirt last year and grew, broccoli, kale and basil in the same pool and it all did great (I did have to punch holes to allow from drainage because we usually get some pretty good drenching rain and I didn't want them to drown).

[SparklyUnicorn]

A lot of people at the community garden use wet newspapers, straw, or garden fabric to almost entirely eliminate the need to weed.  That's doable on a small plot.  Probably larger plots, not so much.  DH has done it both ways.  I'm under the impression he likes weeding..

 

 

[Guest]

I doubt it would work, but we are trying broccoli in the yard for the first time. I told DH to give up on tomatoes and try broccoli.

 

We do plant stuff in our yard. I'd be happy if that's all we planted.

Broccoli was a waste for us. We eat a lot of broccoli, but we can't grow it at a pace that makes a difference; we can only harvest one head, which is one dinner, per plant. String beans are much better for the space. Tomatoes are a great for us, because I can them. Cukes are good becuse I'll make relish and pickles. Potatoes are great because they taste soooooooo much better from the garden and then we can reuse as seed potatoes any that get too shriveled to use for dinner. :) zuchhini - a lot of it will go unused, but it's so goof-proof, it is worth growing. We need do nothing but push some seeds in and water. We make zucchini as part of dinner all summer. I also love it pan-fried and will happily have it for lunch in the summer. :)

[creekland]

I doubt it would work, but we are trying broccoli in the yard for the first time.  I told DH to give up on tomatoes and try broccoli.

 

We do plant stuff in our yard.  I'd be happy if that's all we planted. 

 

Broccoli is a cool weather plant.  In our area (southern PA), we need to plant it (plants, not seeds) in March to get our best crop.  If we wait until April, then it ends up with oodles of caterpillars (since we're organic and don't spray).  

 

If one tries it in warmer weather, it will often bolt (go to seed quickly) and be bitter.

 

I suspect for pretty much all areas of the US, it's past time to plant broccoli for this year.

 

We're already eating our broccoli this season.  It's very tasty and good!

 

ps  Broccoli needs to be fenced as groundhogs and bunnies also find the plants quite tasty.

[Anne in CA]

Honestly both my grandparents had amazing gardens. They ate mostly food they grew themselves. My step grandfather hunted and fished and with my grandmother's garden I don't know that they ever bought much food other than milk, eggs, flour, sugar butter. My other grandparents were farmers so they had chickens and farming friends and I doubt they ever spent much at the grocery store, they traded for milk and meat.

 

My grandmother who lived in town had a lot of gardening skills to grow a ton of food from a small spot. It takes a lot of practice to garden. Over the years I think you learn more and save more. I saved a lot with the small garden we had in Oregon. We ate salad every day and the lettuce and herbs alone paid for the whole garden. I had lots of luck with tomatoes and squash and even artichokes. But I am not a great gardener. I had good luck with a good spot and I had observed gardening from my grandparents.

[creekland]

Broccoli was a waste for us. We eat a lot of broccoli, but we can't grow it at a pace that makes a difference; we can only harvest one head, which is one dinner, per plant. 

 

It tastes good enough for us and is grown at a time in our garden when there is lots of space, so no worries on that.  Once we harvest, plants also get uprooted and lima beans (or this year okra) will use the same space.  They just like different times of the year.  Limas get planted in June.  Broccoli is done the beginning of June.

[Jane in NC]

I quit growing vegetables after establishing relationships with several local farmers, one of whom has strawberry/blueberry U-picks. I find the latter to be a great cost effective deal.

 

The raised bed in the back now contains herbs.  Our front yard has rosemary bushes (subtropical climate) and blueberry bushes, the latter being a replacement for some azaleas that bit the dust after a tropical storm. We have decided that ornamentals are overrated and are trying to grow more edibles in the landscape.  We also have wild grapes on the edges of our woods.