Is a garden worth the money?

[mommyoffive]

If you have a garden for food, is it worth the money you have put into it?  What has been your experience? 

 

One of the kiddos wanted a garden.  I think we are at about $100 so far. 

Dirt, wood, other supplies, some plants, soil......  

Is it worth the $ or is it better to just buy the food at the store? 

We haven't ever had much success growing food.  One or two carrots.  A few peas a few years ago.  No blue berries although we have tried at least 7 bushes.  Rasberries didn't come.  We do have a huge pot of tomatoes. I know I do not have a green thumb.   Maybe if we were better at this, it would be so apparent that it is worth it. 

[Rosie_0801]

It depends on what you want out of a garden, I guess. And what you put into it. Plant heirloom varieties suited to your area and treat them the way they like to be treated. Join an online gardening club. That way you don't feel so bad about your pumpkins when everyone else says it's a bad year for pumpkins. ? Kids don't come with a manual, but plants do. Also consider what time of year to plant. Depending where you live, you might need to start your seedlings off indoors months before the last frost in order to have a long enough growing season.

I'm not a great gardener, but it's good for me even when I'm not paying enough attention to get much out of it. I've never had any luck with carrots though.

One thing people do is under or over plant. Two zucchini plants will be enough for a family. One packet of chive seeds won't be.

 

[Annie G]

It’s worth it for me, but I do small scale. I have three Patio Pickers self watering containers and an additional round planter. I grow tomatoes, both regular and cherry, red and orange bell peppers, and green beans. I have a love affair with fresh tomatoes so growing them is way cheaper for me. The two cherry varieties I grow provide an abundance during the summer AND enough to freeze so I can toss them into dishes throughout the year. The red and yellow peppers are the same- I freeze what I can’t eat. 

‘The green beans aren’t really a big money saver but I am able to put up enough in the freezer for throughout the year. I mostly grow them because they are super easy and I get a lot of bang for my buck.

Costs: patio pickers bought in previous years. every other year I replace the soil. I have a bag of lime that I’ve used for several years and when I buy fertilizer it lasts at least two years. A packet of green bean seeds lasts quite a while, and new tomato and pepper plants bought yearly. This year I replaced dirt and I spent $30 between dirt and plants. 

‘But if a kid wants to garden, I’d do it. It is such a great experience and some things you pay more for just for the experience. 

[Clemsondana]

We have a very large garden and grow a lot of what we eat - peas, green beans, squash, cucumber, tomato, okra, corn, peppers, etc.  We've never had good luck with carrots.  If you want bang-for-your-buck in a small space, I'd do squash/zucchini, cucumber, and tomato.  We plant 2 rows of green beans, but we also get enough to eat fresh all summer and then have at least a quart a week for the rest of the year, so with a few bushes (grown from seed, so they're cheap) you'd probably get enough to eat several meals during the growing season.  

[Pippen]

MIne wasn't worth it if I just consider cost savings. Water is very expensive in the summer months where  we live. It was fun to do with the kids though.

[cjzimmer1]

Mine is worth it (although to be fair, I get my plants for free since I work in a greenhouse although I still buy some plants that we don't sell).  The initial startup cost is steep when you are investing in fences, pots, dirt etc but since much of that can be reused, your expenses will go down overtime.  Currently I just pay for fertilizer and reuse everything from previous years. There is also the taste factor.  The grocery store tomatoes will never taste as good as a freshly ripened one and tomatoes at our local farmer's market run $2-$3 a pound.  It doesn't take very many tomatoes for the plant to pay for itself. Also fresh herbs are extremely expensive in the store (with the exception of cilantro) and most of them are super easy to grow.

[Ottakee]

It does for us on a very limited basis.  This year I spent $4 and got 12 tomato plants, 4 cucumber,  4 zucchini and 4 squash.   Local little greenhouse/roadside stand had plants for 20 cents each.

Some of the other stuff I buy from a local disabled guy that does a bit of gardening and has very inexpensive produce.

Water is free by me, we had our own compost, and used old.chicken wore for fencing a few years ago.  It is just a small plot.

[mommyoffive]

2 hours ago, Rosie_0801 said:

It depends on what you want out of a garden, I guess. And what you put into it. Plant heirloom varieties suited to your area and treat them the way they like to be treated. Join an online gardening club. That way you don't feel so bad about your pumpkins when everyone else says it's a bad year for pumpkins. ? Kids don't come with a manual, but plants do. Also consider what time of year to plant. Depending where you live, you might need to start your seedlings off indoors months before the last frost in order to have a long enough growing season.

I'm not a great gardener, but it's good for me even when I'm not paying enough attention to get much out of it. I've never had any luck with carrots though.

One thing people do is under or over plant. Two zucchini plants will be enough for a family. One packet of chive seeds won't be.

 

 

Good to know.  Thank you. 

[mommyoffive]

2 hours ago, Annie G said:

It’s worth it for me, but I do small scale. I have three Patio Pickers self watering containers and an additional round planter. I grow tomatoes, both regular and cherry, red and orange bell peppers, and green beans. I have a love affair with fresh tomatoes so growing them is way cheaper for me. The two cherry varieties I grow provide an abundance during the summer AND enough to freeze so I can toss them into dishes throughout the year. The red and yellow peppers are the same- I freeze what I can’t eat. 

‘The green beans aren’t really a big money saver but I am able to put up enough in the freezer for throughout the year. I mostly grow them because they are super easy and I get a lot of bang for my buck.

Costs: patio pickers bought in previous years. every other year I replace the soil. I have a bag of lime that I’ve used for several years and when I buy fertilizer it lasts at least two years. A packet of green bean seeds lasts quite a while, and new tomato and pepper plants bought yearly. This year I replaced dirt and I spent $30 between dirt and plants. 

‘But if a kid wants to garden, I’d do it. It is such a great experience and some things you pay more for just for the experience. 

 

I agree.  We had a little garden already.  We tried one spot, but didn't put much into it other than just clearing grass out.  This one we are building a few raised bed gardens. 

Amazing that doing it small scale you still get such a surplus.  We haven't had a lot of luck with seeds, so we went with seedlings (more expensive).  Our tomatoes come back every year. 

[mommyoffive]

2 hours ago, ClemsonDana said:

We have a very large garden and grow a lot of what we eat - peas, green beans, squash, cucumber, tomato, okra, corn, peppers, etc.  We've never had good luck with carrots.  If you want bang-for-your-buck in a small space, I'd do squash/zucchini, cucumber, and tomato.  We plant 2 rows of green beans, but we also get enough to eat fresh all summer and then have at least a quart a week for the rest of the year, so with a few bushes (grown from seed, so they're cheap) you'd probably get enough to eat several meals during the growing season.  

 

Wow

How big is your garden?  

[Clemsondana]

Our garden is around 35 feet by 60 feet.  It's enough to supply all of the corn, okra, green beans, lima beans, field peas, tomatoes (for sauce), and winter squash (for soup) that we need for the year, plus squash and cucumber to eat in season (and make some pickles).  I'm too lazy to can, but we have a big chest freezer.  When we lived in a house with a tiny yard, we had a few tomatoes, a few peppers and 2-3 cucumber plants and that kept us in produce during the season, with some to give away.  

[madteaparty]

Totally not, I think it costs me exponentially more to garden than go to my local farmer market and pick things up at the farm where I get my milk.Yes I compost etc but I’m also the crappiest of gardeners. Only things that grow well (like garlic) do so despite me not because of me. 

and yet...

[bethben]

I thought it was worth it if you have a small garden plot.  BUT, it depends what you put in it.  My main things that I wanted from my garden were cherry tomatoes and basil.  We LOVE cherry tomatoes but they are so expensive in the store.  Also, I would plant a bunch of basil plants and make homemade pesto which is also pretty costly to buy.  I didn't start a garden in my new location - Colorado.  Between the late snows, the altitude, the intense sun, and the random hail, it is so not worth it.

[Tanaqui]

Once you have your infrastructure in - your good soil, your raised beds - a garden needn't be *too* expensive. You can save the seeds from year to year if you use heirlooms, after all, and then all you really need to buy is manure every now and again. (A compost bin can help with that as well.)

It's a learning curve like anything else, though. Your first few years aren't going to get you bumper crops, because you're learning!

[madteaparty]

52 minutes ago, Dotwithaperiod said:

 We garden cheaply- make our own compost, heirloom plants that we get seeds from, it’s just the 2 of us so not much space needed. If you need to buy dirt, fertilizer, pots, fencing, etc it can get quite expensive.

To me, nothing beats eating a tomato sandwich from your own plant. Lettuce isn’t worth the hassle, and for some reason I am probably the only person around here that can’t get squash to grow. Peppers and peas are easy, and I toss dozens of cucumbers into the woods every summer because my husband always plants several.

We lucked out and found an Amish family that grows the best vegetables. So now I can just fiddle around with an herb garden and a few other plants and get bushels of food for just a few dollars from them.

I think we are close geographically—I can’t grow a butternut squash to save my life. And I get enough cucumbers but I must be doing something wrong there too because I can definitely use more. And, funny story on tomatoes, mine never grow big enough to put on a sandwich but..we had a tomato plant prop up unplanted in the most random spot.maybe the chickens pooped out seeds or something? That was the sturdiest plant. Thick short stalks and lots of tomatoes growing deep in the leaves near the sturdy stalk (so protected from whatever would eat them before I do). They were ugly tomatoes but really almost enough to make sauce from the one plant. The one tomatoe plant that gave me something is one that I had nothing to do with. Story of my life. 

[Rosie_0801]

18 minutes ago, madteaparty said:

 The one tomatoe plant that gave me something is one that I had nothing to do with. Story of my life. 

 

I got a bumper crop of blackberry nightshade instead of the okra I'd planted. Oh well. They're edible too, lol.

[regentrude]

I only grow herbs, and that's a fantastic ROI, since a few sprigs at the store cost over $2 and last for one or two meals. 

[HomeAgain]

Yes, but not if you "fancy" garden.

I make my own compost.  Until we moved here I had debated the idea of a keyhole garden, where the compost pit is the middle and the garden is tiered around it.  Never happened, but I did learn how to make a compost pile and then dh surprised me with a standing rotator for Valentine's.
I use what we have to get started.  I've got a great potato crop this year thanks to a few sad ones at the bottom of the bin.  Same with garlic and onions.  One pepper from last year provided enough seeds to reseed the entire section (about 20 plants).  I took my kid's Lego Advent calendar and saved it to poke holes in the bottom and make as a starting tray.  We made seed tape with crepe paper to space out the bigger plants or clusters (tomatoes, peas, and cucumber get clustered)
Half of what I grow is perennial.  Chives, green onions, mint, rosemary, strawberries....the other half is easy enough for a kid to grow (squash, cucumber, etc).  There's a very few that are specialty (like bok choy)
I have friends.  If you have a bumper crop of melon and they have too much zucchini, it's a nice barter.  Same for getting rid of plants that overgrow the garden.

I think my first garden was an investment because I didn't know what I was doing.  At all.  I bought a little kit, filled it with expensive dirt, bought plants.....this year I think I spent about $2 so far.

[Carrie12345]

I find it worth the money, but I haven't had the TIME for the past several years.

Herbs are a big "profit" for me.  When I'm not growing, I'm frequently buying fresh herbs and letting half of them go to waste.  Most of my kids aren't fans of cooked vegetables, but they'll eat pretty much anything right out of the garden.  I remember a year when I had to enforce CARROT washing!!!

Our combination of kid snackers and limited space never left me with much, if any, extra.  If we had more space, a few good years would probably put us in the black. My only option is raised beds b/c our ground is so rocky it might as well be a quarry, which definitely increases the cost.  It also requires a good deal of learning by both reading and trial and error, at least for my microclimate.

For me, it's about a lot more than the cost effectiveness, though. There's nothing like harvesting your own ingredients for something you're going to make *right now*.  It just makes me happy! I miss it so much.

[Guest]

It can go either way. Like others said, it depends on many factors, including what you expect to get from gardening, and how effectively you plant. And how posh you are about your set-up - there is a reason there is a book entitled The 64-dollar Tomato. 

Most years I start my own tomatoes and peppers under a grow light DH made me, though I did not this year. (Kinda kicking myself on that now.) I also plant a lot of herbs because I feel very healthy throwing fresh herbs in everything all season, and I do sometimes dry them and use them later. I can tomatoes and have canned pickles, peppers and relish as well. I also forage blackberries and raspberries and use them as well as freeze them. I make blackberry cobbler often after the berries come in. So yummy!

Gardening is very good exercise and I believe it is mentally healing. So, I haven’t ever gotten that from getting vegetables at the grocery store. We do have quite a lot of fresh vegetables available from farmers locally, so there are some things it is unnecessary to plant, actually, though we often do it anyway. 

My favorite things to have fresh are herbs, tomatoes, green beans and potatoes. Few things make my summer like getting a beautiful, luscious heirloom tomato out of my garden and having a BLT (or even just LT). It makes me happy. And I can’t really put a price on that. 

[Closeacademy]

Yes but it is hubby's hobby. It also took years to build up our tools, system and canning equipment. Hubby gardens the bulk of the yard even our trees and bushes produce food for us now. I dry, freeze and can everything we can and it does help. But it's a lot of work.

[Bluegoat]

It really depends.  You can do things more cheaply which makes a difference.

Seeds vs started plants is a question, but not always a clear one.  A pack of seeds will give you a lot of cucumber plants for the same price as a few seedlings.  But - how many do you need each year - probably only a few.  So then you need to think, how well do the seeds last year to year (there are charts for this, some you need really fresh seed each year, and most germination will go down the older they are.  And you really also want to have cool dry conditions to store them if possible for the more delicate ones

The other element is, if you don't have great conditions for starting seeds as far as light, your seedlings will be weaker.  The ones you buy are generally from a greenhouse and can be a lot hardier.  

There are also questions of starting seeds outdoors - in some ways that's the best but if your season is shorter you may have issues with having enough time to maturity.  I always start lettuces outside, but I know some prefer to plant them ou as seedlings because they feel they are more able to resist pests that attack them as they sprout up.

Really, the best thing is probably to get a few library books or try some Youtube gardening shows.  

It sounds like your fruit issues might be something from the soil, or maybe not enough water.  Blueberries want acid soil.  And most fruits (though not blueberries so much) benefit from being fed.

[Lizzie in Ma]

We generally have a small garden, but for tomatoes alone, totally worth it.

[gstharr]

I have a tract home size back yard, but I have managed to plant 23 different fruit trees.  I try for the unusual; grape guava, pink guava, giant guava, cherry, kefir lime, plumelo (grapefruit) blood oranges, asian pears, dragon fruit, etc,  and 10 of the world's hottest chiles.  I rarely pick or eat, I am happy just looking at my bounty.  So, no savings for me. 

[Pen]

Yes. In our case we use organic methods and I know we can grow things that taste better and are fresher and more healthy than what there is at store  

initial preparation costs more than store bought but it can then be used for years 

and the gardening tends to be good for body and soul

Learn from errors and try things that will grow easily in your circumstances. 

Radish is usually easy to get a successful experience  

Leaf lettuce in the right time and type for where you live  

zucchini perhaps 

Etc  

I’d try for some success with single season vegetables before trying to grow things that have to survive for years to show results 

Are you in a blue berry region? If so did you give them enough years to get to age for fruit?  Or did they die of something? 

 

[ealp2009]

Obviously it really depends.  We have a small garden but with some trial and error we save quite a lot of money.   And we wouldn't be eating nearly as many blueberries, strawberries and raspberries if we didn't grow them.   The strawberries are basically ground cover in our front around a couple of small trees.  It is probably two 5'x5' plots.  And I get enough strawberries to freeze and make 20-30 half-pint jars of jam and share with neighbors and friends.  I have blueberries plants in pots as well as on the ground and they are very productive as well.   I don't do hardly anything to the berries, just trim the raspberries and strawberries back.   I also plant cucumbers, winter squash and tomatoes but those need to be replanted every year.  I would say plant things you like and are expensive to get at the store and keep experimenting  if you like doing it.  

[BlsdMama]

So many factors.

We've done it very inexpensively some years.  In the Midwest, rich soil, little amending needed, nice growing season, plentiful free rain, in ground garden  - the cost is essentially some seeds. 

The years we were in Oregon I had a hard time of it.  I hadn't had to deal with disease/blight much - I struggled there with a set garden that had been a garden for years.  Without hard freezes, you can have issues with previous crop disease folks told me.  I never really did have a strong garden there.

Back here we tilled a garden that is approximately 30 x 100.  We'd been gardening the entire space (plus fruit trees, strawberries, asparagus, blueberries, raspberries - fail, and grapes.)  We're in the process now of putting in 21 raised beds and pathways.  Ideally, we're hoping it will be wheelchair accessible.
The costs have been really high this year - $300 +/- for wood for raised beds and $470 for mulch/wood bark for pathways.  It made me condense my planting and actually significantly reduced my growing space.  DH planted my peppers and didn't "square foot garden" the space so I feel I have a lot of wasted space when condensed beds should have been more efficient. 

So "worth it" is such an ambiguous term.  Financially I highly doubt I'll recoup the investment this year.  I started my own plants so they were cheaper but then you have electricity in nominal amounts.  My lights are years old.  On the other hand, I'm hoping to hit 1,000+ pounds of organic produce - so it's possible I'll recoup it.  But previous years bore a lot of costs - apples for example.  The main investment is the tree itself.  I've lost a small fortune on blueberry plants I can't keep alive.

But I *love* gardening.  We work together as a family.  The kids love eating from the garden.  We usually toss in a few fun things like purple carrots or giant kholrabis.  They have a fair bit of ownership over the space.  Gardening has a lot of life lessons.  It's time to think and time to pray.   It's digging into the dirt with your hands, being in the sun, continuous effort.  It might be costly food but it's cheap therapy.

It's a place to use my chicken poo and you reap what you sow.  So, financially I'd say we're probably ahead over the long haul of years of gardening, but it's close because we've opted to spend a lot when it wasn't actually necessary to grow food in our location BUT if it's a draw, then we came ahead in effort and time investment because of the ethic behind it for the family as a whole.     
 

[teachermom2834]

My dd wanted to try gardening so last year dh made a tiny raised bed and plopped in some plants. Tomatoes, green and red peppers,jalapeños, and cucumbers. We had no idea what we were doing. The tomatoes were a bust but the rest did great. Dd loved giving away her cucumbers because it was more than we could eat. That little experiment was definitely worth it in enjoyment for dd and we actually got some things we could eat too. This year with fewer start up costs it should be even better. So “worth it” in terms of saving money? Probably not but we didn’t spend a lot and totally worth it for other reasons.

Now my dd has me finally doing flower gardening. Oh my. I could spend $1000 on those flower beds $4 at a time. I’m getting a little obsessed. Dd and I wake up every morning and check on our “babies” and plan what we should work on that day and what we would like to do next. I find myself pulling weeds every time we go out and every time we’re out shopping I just have to check out the nursery section.  Just in case there is something on clearance that we could use. It looks fantastic but worth the money put in? Definitely not. But I needed a hobby and dd and I have a great time together. I’m really enjoying it and finding it a very satisfying chore. 

I am a city girl but there is something very gratifying about growing stuff. Lol. Eating a green pepper straight from the garden or watching a plant thrive and bloom is a thrill I never really expected. 

I suspect you were talking about more serious gardening than my dd and I dabble in. Just had to chime in because it is a new family project and we’re really enjoying it. 

My boys played sports. Way more expensive than my dd’s gardening hobby!! 

[Katy]

I agree it depends. If you're good and have some luck with the weather, definitely in terms of quality. You can choose heirloom varieties that were bread for flavor instead of for ability to withstand shipping and sitting on grocery store shelves for a week, and the flavor is incredibly better.  It won't be cheaper than a grocery coop or Aldi though, unless you've been doing it for multiple years with heirloom plants and you save your own seed.  Then it's essentially the time of your labor, everything else is free.

You know it takes several years for things like blueberry bushes to produce enough to make them worth it, right?  And that you need to test and possibly ammend the soil so it's the right pH.  If the soil is right you might get a handful of berries the first year, and after about 3 years a few baskets full at a time. Most people will find their time better spent buying frozen berries by the giant bag at Sam's or Costco. But freshly picked berries taste much better and lack the eat-immediately or they'll rot by tomorrow thing that grocery store berries too often tend to have.

[SereneHome]

I live in New England, so our growing season is about 5 minutes long. 

Worth the money - herbs, lettuce, cucumbers, tomatoes - got tons of those.  But again, only for a short time.

Was NOT worth the money - peppers!  I grew about one and a half pepper each year.

Broccoli would have been good, but some animal ate it.

Initial outlay was expensive bc we bought cedar garden beds and soil.  Now, we just buy plants and that's it, so not too bad

[mom@shiloh]

I haven't done the math on it in recent years, but I think my garden saves me money. For a family of our size, to purchase vegetables for a meal would be at least $3 -- either fresh or frozen.  I grow most of my own, so that's a significant savings.  I grow and can most of our tomato products as well and use those for spaghetti, lasagna, chili, tacos and other miscellaneous meals.  I grow and freeze blueberries, strawberries and raspberries.  $$$  We've started an orchard and I expect that will save us money when it's full grown.  

Yes, I do spend money on it; but I also enjoy it and appreciate the health benefits of working outdoors.  Bottom line -- yes, I think it's worth it.  

[Lady Florida.]

For us it wasn't but keep in mind that our "soil" is really just sand. We can't garden without soil improvements. Period. We do compost but with 3 people it doesn't happen fast enough so we had to buy manure and other amendments. Then there's watering in the dry season of Nov. to March or April, and bugs. Oh, the bugs! If you plant it they will come. 

We took down our garden stuff recently because we're starting to fix up the house to sell (and no, it wouldn't be a selling point) but we really hadn't used it in over a year. It was fun and tasty to get some things growing but in no way did it replace buying produce/fruit and it most certainly was costly.

[G5052]

We had raised beds at our old house with some of them behind a deer fence. 

Some of the produce we got there was the best I've ever tasted.

It was expensive to get started, but then the year-to-year wasn't bad. We started our own seeds.

I doubt I'll ever do that again though. It really is a lot of work, and I have a good farmer's market and farm stands in my area. We did a CSA for two years in addition to our own garden, but the logistics of picking it up were complicated. I'd rather go pick out what I want on my schedule.

I have some herbs in the beds at our rental house. As regentrude said, it's so worth it if you just need a few sprigs of thyme or a little parsley as garnish. My aunt taught me about that, and even with a "yard man" who comes to do her work twice a week, she still has an herb garden.

[Carol in Cal.]

For me--I have bad allergies, and I don't really enjoy gardening.

If I liked it more, I'd probably do it more.  I have a great climate and could grow veggies all year round.  Pretty good soil where I am, too.

So instead, I focus on things that are low maintenance and/or high value.  That means fruit trees, which have totally spoiled me for even farm stands in some cases, and herbs now and then, fresh tomatoes ditto, artichoke shrubs, green beans on strings on a fence, that kind of stuff.  Easy stuff that you can just go outside and pick, and not have to mess with too much.  I should really plant a bed of asparagus one of these years, too.  I know I would love having that just out there any old time.

But that traditional grow all your crops outside and then not know what to do with them is just not worth it to me.  I don't LIKE zucchini very much.  I like cukes, but they are really hard to keep up with I've heard.  I don't see any point to growing onions, they are so cheap.  Maybe scallions, because you can pick just a few stalks and not have to buy a whole bunch every time you want one or two.  I have not had much luck growing pumpkins, or I'd do that.  

 

[KrissiK]

It’s worth it for me. And i’m Not really in it for the money. Although, once you get your garden set up, it doesn’t cost all that much. We do our own compost and borrow my parents’ rototiller every spring and fall. I do buy plants started in 6-packs, but that’s about it. I do it for the quality and convenience. Nothing like eating a vine-ripened tomato 5 minutes after it’s picked. Same with cucumbers. I do enjoy gardening, too

[Ausmumof3]

On 5/27/2018 at 8:45 AM, Rosie_0801 said:

It depends on what you want out of a garden, I guess. And what you put into it. Plant heirloom varieties suited to your area and treat them the way they like to be treated. Join an online gardening club. That way you don't feel so bad about your pumpkins when everyone else says it's a bad year for pumpkins. ? Kids don't come with a manual, but plants do. Also consider what time of year to plant. Depending where you live, you might need to start your seedlings off indoors months before the last frost in order to have a long enough growing season.

I'm not a great gardener, but it's good for me even when I'm not paying enough attention to get much out of it. I've never had any luck with carrots though.

One thing people do is under or over plant. Two zucchini plants will be enough for a family. One packet of chive seeds won't be.

 

Lol.

friend is an agricultural research scientist and did an experimental crop with zucchinis!  They were getting like a trailer full every day!

[Annie G]

13 minutes ago, Ausmumof3 said:

Lol.

friend is an agricultural research scientist and did an experimental crop with zucchinis!  They were getting like a trailer full every day!

This is why I grow tomatoes. I can trade one of my large vine ripened tomatoes for a LOT of someone’s surplus zucchini. Last year I had a bounty of yellow and red cherry tomatoes that were super sweet, and traded about 2 quarts for someone’s surplus sweet corn...more than 100 ears of it. 

[Guest]

On 5/27/2018 at 10:01 AM, Lizzie in Ma said:

We generally have a small garden, but for tomatoes alone, totally worth it.

Truly there are not many joys like pulling a luscious, home-grown, ripe, amazing tomato directly from your garden and eating it. Yummy! That is pretty much the point of summer for me. 

[MomsintheGarden]

I would say yes and no. It depend on a lot of things, many of which are not under our control. We've learned that we have the best chance if we diversify because it's a given that some things are going to have a bad year. One year we had a tractor loader bucketful of butternut squash, the next year we got five. Lettuce is usually so easy, but we now have a voracious groundhog that visits daily and eats it all. ?

I am a big fan of seeking out free or cheap resources for soil improvement. They can make or break you cost-wise. We have access to an incredible number of free carbon and fertility sources:  coffee grounds from a local shop, horse manure from the farm across the road, wood chips from the tree trimmers hired by the power company, hay bales made by a local farmer, chicken manure and bedding (but, ha ha; our chickens are not cheap!), leaves and grass clippings from our neighbors, newspaper & cardboard, and our own compost.  And urine, too, if you really want to get nitty gritty:  dilute it 20:1 per Barbara Pleasant. We live near a farm store that sells bulk vegetable seeds by weight for 40 cents an ounce and that also sells soil amendments and cover crop seeds.

Also, I agree that concentrating on things that are expensive to buy is a good strategy.  Herbs, peppers, and small fruits (ok, peppers ARE fruits), plus cutting flowers if you use them often, are good choices. Rhubarb is good, too, if you don't live where it gets too hot, and it is a decent looking perennial that can work in flowerbeds.

[El...]

I really enjoy gardening.  It can be awesome, depending on where you live and the weather.  However, I read a book once called The $64 Tomato and laughed and laughed.  It sounded just like my parents' attempts in Texas!  Stupid clay soil, there.  

https://smile.amazon.com/64-Tomato-Fortune-Endured-Existential-ebook/dp/B003I1WXY4/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1527603973&sr=8-1&keywords=64+tomato

[mommyoffive]

Well the new garden is planted.  We bought plants that were 3 bucks each.  Uck.  Oh well.  We already got 3 tiny strawberries, so it all isn't lost.  

We might pick up some more plants or seeds.