How much do you save by growing your own vegetables?

[tdeveson]

We've been planting our own veggies in the back yard for the past five years. This year I'm putting in four 8X4 raised planters. I use the square foot gardening method which yields a lot of crops per square foot.

 

Up until now, we've given away our surplus, and sometimes toward the end of the season I've let some plants die away with fruit and veggies still on them. This year, I feel the need to be frugal and have decided to can or freeze my crops and waste nothing.

 

Have you done this? Is it cost effective? How much have you saved by growing and perhaps putting away your own food?

[Cricket]

Buy canning jars and rings at garage sales or ask for some on freecycle. The only thing you have to buy new each time are the lids. I made things I liked but were expensive to buy like pickled green beans. I never did calculate what I saved but I couldn't stand to see things go to waste either.

[amy g.]

It depends. I sure lost money the year we built our square ft garden, due to the cost of materials. I also bought nursery vegetables that year. We had a late frost, and I had to replace them all.

 

Now, I have the garden spaces already set up. I have a huge store of finished compost, and a stash of heirloom seeds, so all of my vegetables this year will be "free".

[elise1mds]

Now, I have the garden spaces already set up. I have a huge store of finished compost, and a stash of heirloom seeds, so all of my vegetables this year will be "free".

 

I'll be in a similar situation this next spring, and it'll be very nice. I'm sure I've saved some money on okra this year already, since it's fairly pricey. I have a nice stash of frozen okra and green beans as well as lots of canned tomatoes, salsa, and tomato sauce. We also have wild blackberries that I make jam out of, and hopefully I will have some strawberries this next spring.

[sunshine]

Vegetables cost so much and seeds not so much that if I could get anything to grow and not rot on the vine, I could be saving sooooo much money. But as my children play a funeral dirge every time I buy a plant, I haven't seen much savings. Out of 30 tomato plants I got 3 tomatoes. Black thumb. That's me. :confused:

[tdeveson]

It depends. I sure lost money the year we built our square ft garden, due to the cost of materials. I also bought nursery vegetables that year. We had a late frost, and I had to replace them all.

 

Now, I have the garden spaces already set up. I have a huge store of finished compost, and a stash of heirloom seeds, so all of my vegetables this year will be "free".

 

WoooHooo! That's where I want to be next year. Last year's garden was a disaster. It was the first year we tried doing it in the ground. We have good soil, but we also have 16 hours of hard sunshine every day -- the weeds were nuts. I couldn't keep up. Back to raised gardens for me, but I'm going to have to eat the cost this year. :tongue_smilie:

[Melissa in Australia]

we save a fortune. my husband does the veggie gardens. they are a little bigger than a tennis court. we only buy potatoes, everything else is grown at home, we just eat whatever is in the garden so our diet changes with the seasons. I do preserve some, and we have a greenhouse as well.

my husband has got right into saving his own seed. it is really enjoyable to pick fresh veggie and cook them straight away.

[Guest Virginia Dawn]

Our biggest savings is with tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, and kale. These produce like crazy here, but the price in the stores for pink tomatoes, old peppers, waxed cucumbers, and wilted kale, is outrageous. I can freeze all the excess of these also.

 

Last year, I did sugar snap peas and I was very happy with how prolific they were, but they don't freeze well. At least with our lettuce, peas, and kale last spring, I hardly bought any greens veggies for a couple of months.

 

For me, it is more economical to grow high yeilding, relatively low maintenance, veggies.

[cougarmom4]

This year we made & canned vegetable soup with potatoes, carrots & onions from our garden. (adding barley, celery, and seasonings) It was awesome to know that we grew most of the ingredients ourselves. Talk about feeling domestic! I now have 21 quarts of beautiful vegetable soup to last through the winter. I left them on the kitchen table for days just to admire. :001_smile:

 

As for tomatoes--I never seem to get enough at one time to can them--it just seems like more work than necessary. But I do blanch and freeze them--and then add them to soups & chili & spaghetti during the winter months. It is so easy. I've canned applesauce, salsa & peaches--and it's lots of work, but if you have a group working together it is really fun.

 

If you have to buy the fruit/vegetables, it often does seem cheaper to just buy the cans from the store. Of course, peaches don't taste near as good! If you can get the fruit/vegetables for free (or cheap from your own garden), the biggest expense is buying the jars. I've picked up my water bath canner at a garage sale for a few dollars; can sometimes get the jars for 25 cents apiece. We borrowed our neighbors pressure canner. All in all, I think there is an initial expense in getting the jars and equipment...but in the long run, if you grow the fruit/veggies yourself, it is worth it economically.

[kamom]

Once you have your supplies, it can really pay. I can a lot. This year I got seconds for some of the apples we used and paid 23.00 for 2 bushels. We canned 33 quarts. Now I don't know how much the electricity cost to can them, but labor was free=) and we get a nice homeschooling project=) I couldn't find such yummy applesauce for that price with no added high fructose corn syrup.

We also did pears that I found for 12 a bushel. They yeilded about 25 quarts.

I grew our own green beans, so besides all the fresh eating I blanched and froze a bunch, so thats just for the cost of seed. Same for cucumbers to eat fresh for months and then to make pickles with. For a several months I hardly have to buy any produce, we just eat from the garden, organic and soo rewarding.

We grew onions, cucs, lettuce, carrots, beets, beans, peas, squash, parsnips, cabbage and potatoes. We will be eating our potatoes for a few months yet. I didn't pay anything for the seed potatoes, a friend gave them to me.

Plus this year we planted extra zucc and set up a produce table and sold some and other veggies, so I'm sure we paid off the seed and then some. So our garden was free=) Yippee, plus the children get an education about growing, working, and then selling, relating to the public and so much more.

For us it pays very well!

[thescrappyhomeschooler]

I have a gardening question. I've been thinking about having a vegetable garden, because I do spend so much money on fresh veggies, but I'm worried about the bunnies, squirrels and deer. I've stopped planting flowers because the squirrels dig them up and the deer eat them. I've seen bunnies in our yard, so I know they'll be all over a vegetable garden. How do I stop the animals from destroying the garden?

[Caraway]

I am pretty sure that we lose money. Possibly lots of money. :glare:

[tdeveson]

I am pretty sure that we lose money. Possibly lots of money. :glare:

 

This has always been the case for us. :( I rationalize my vegetable garden by reminding myself that my veggies are fresh and organic. That no emissions are being created by hauling my veggies around - (ok, ds is always creating "emissions" but those can't be helped.) I'm trying to find a way to make it more cost effective.

[amy g.]

For me, the difference between saving and losing money is compost.

 

When our sandy soil is not enriched with loads of compost, plants are sickly and skinny. Bugs are abundant, and yields are low.

 

With ample compost, we have a great garden with very little effort.

[Punks in Ontario]

Others, not so much. Up here in Canada, prices might be different.

 

Tomatoes, corn on the cob, squash, leaf lettuce, cucumbers for pickles, and green peppers are savers.

 

Frozen corn, and peas are hardly worth the effort for me. I only bother if it's convenient.

 

Fruit such as raspberries are great money savers. I find them easy care and we always have lots to freeze for desserts, smoothies, and cooked oatmeal. I even sell quite a bit.

 

Punks