Posted on 03/10/2022 6:43:41 AM PST by Diana in Wisconsin
When spring finally arrives after a long, cold winter, it always seems like a good idea to get outside.
“I’ll start a garden!” I think to myself. “I’ll save money by planting vegetables!”
But then I wonder: is it really worth it? I’m a skeptic, so I had to get to the bottom of it.
1. How much can you save per vegetable?
I looked at a few common, easy-to-grow vegetables to figure out how much they produce per seed, and therefore, how much growing one plant could save.
Cucumbers Store price: $0.69 each or $0.99 each organic per cucumber Price when you grow your own: less than $0.01 each
Generally one plant will produce about 10 cucumbers. Average price of seeds: $0.06 per seed to grow one plant Savings: About $7 for each plant grown, $10 for each organic plant grown
Carrots Store price: $0.17 per carrot Price when you grow your own: less than $0.01 per carrot
One 10-foot row of carrots would produce about 75 carrots. Average price of seeds: $2 for 500, so less than $0.01 each seed that grows one carrot Savings: About $12.50 per one row grown or 75 carrots
Onions Store price: $0.74 per onion Price when you grow your own: $0.03 per onion
One 10-foot row or about 40 onion sets planted would produce about 40 onions. Average price of sets: $1.25 for 40 sets, or $0.03 each Savings: About $28.35 for one 10-foot row of onions
Tomatoes Store price: $0.50 per tomato Price when you grow your own: $0.10 per tomato
One plant can produce as much as 50 tomatoes. Average price of plants: $5 per plant Savings: About $20 per plant grown
Radishes Store price: $0.50 per bunch (about 12 radishes), $1.50 per organic bunch Price when you grow your own: $0.03 per bunch
One 10-foot row would produce about 60 radishes. Average price of seeds: $2 for 200, so about $0.01 each Savings: About $2 for a row of 60 regular radishes, $7 for a row of 60 organic radishes
Zucchini Store price: $0.40 each or $0.70 each organic zucchini Price to grow your own: less than $0.01 each
One plant will produce about 25 zucchinis on average. Average price of seeds: $0.15 per seed to grow one plant Savings: About $10 per plant grown, $17 per organic plant grown
Green beans Store price: $2 per pound, $6 per organic pound Price to grow your own: $0.50 per pound
One 10-foot row would produce about 8 pounds of green beans. Average price of seeds: $0.10 each (40 seeds needed per 10-foot row) Savings: $12 for one row — 8 regular pounds, $44 for one row — 8 organic pounds
Watermelon Store price: $6 per melon Price when you grow your own: $0.01 per melon
One plant produces about 3 melons. Average price of seeds: $0.04 each to grow one plant Savings: $18 per plant grown
2. What about all that water?
So, clearly the data screams “It’s cheaper to plant a vegetable garden than to buy produce at the store!”
But, what about all the other things that go into it? The cost of water, for example!
The maximum recommended size for a manageable garden, especially for beginners, is 16 by 10 feet.
This would be 160 square feet of soil to water. In the summer months, this would require about 14.5 gallons of water per day. In the spring and fall, so April, May, and September, you could cut this in half, and use even less in October if you still have plants like squash and pumpkins growing.
On average across the United States, water will cost $.004 per gallon or about $.04 for every 10 gallons.
So if you used 2,000 gallons of water over the growing season, it would cost you $8, and 3,000 gallons would cost you about $12.
If we filled a 16 by 10-foot garden with two tomato plants, two cucumber plants, two zucchini plants, two watermelon plants, and one row each of carrots, onions, green beans, and radishes, we’d save $210 by not having to buy those things at the store and we’d spend $8.26 on water.
3. What else will you need?
Of course, you’ll need a few tools like shovels, hoes, rakes, and gloves. But you don’t need a lot to grow most things. Start small and then see what is really necessary.
If you have tomatoes or peppers, plan to spend a few dollars on cages or something to help them grow vertically.
If you plant in containers, that will be a big investment in the first year. Adding fertilizers, bug killers, or mulch can be another expense. Knowing what your overall savings will be can help you be super stingy about adding costs.
Don’t forget to coupon, bargain shop, and check out our Home Depot hacks where you can find gardening supplies, plants, seeds, and more.
4. Consider the time you’ll have to invest.
his is a huge one. You’ll likely spend a couple hours a week watering, weeding, pruning, and harvesting.
How much extra time do you have? What is your time worth? And how much do you enjoy being in the garden? (There are obvious physical and mental health benefits.) So…
5. Is it worth it?
With an average-sized garden, it’s pretty likely that you could save $200 on grocery bills during the growing season, even after the expenses.
If you spread that over the five months you are working in the garden, it’s $40 a month.
Considering you’ll likely spend two hours a week working in the garden for at least 20 weeks, that’s $200 for 40 hours of work or $5 an hour.
Honestly, that may not be worth it if gardening feels like work to you or you just don’t have that much extra time.
Therefore, it’s only worth it if you would enjoy all the other benefits of healthy eating, exercise, fresh flavor, being outdoors, and a therapeutic or family-bonding hobby.
https://thekrazycouponlady.com/tips/money/does-growing-a-vegetable-garden-really-save-you-money
Excellent information!
I grow sauce tomatoes and can them for sauce.
For eating, I can just grow a couple plants.
LOL! :) Mmmmm! PIE!
Having more limited garden space in the past, I learned to grow what was cost effective.
In CNY, Upstate has so much good agriculture, that it was simply not worth the garden space to grow onions and potatoes. They could be gotten cheap enough in season from almost any farm stand.
Same with zucchini and summer squash.
I never had good luck with peppers. The climate just isn’t right for them but I try every year anyways.
The things I find worth growing is garlic, a very low maintenance crop. Prep the bed in the fall, plant the cloves, mulch the bed with straw, and harvest in July/August. Almost nothing bothers it, unless some critter plows through the bed, at which point, once the stalks are broken, they just don’t do well.
Now that I have a larger garden, I did container potatoes, which worked out great. I planted onions and am still using those up and they are still crisp and juicy. Make sure you get good storage varieties.
I’ll be trying peas and beans again, but I think the slugs tend to get those.
I will also do butternut squash this year, and Brussel Sprouts.
My pumpkins last year came in great, I got a few 20 pounders. I just finished canning up the last of what I did not have space in the freezer for.
Turnips do well, along with beets.
For us, it’s cool weather crops, which generally store well. Now I just need to learn how to successfully store the root crops.
Don’t know about jackass, but just put in some ‘Monkey Ass’ tomato seed about an hour ago. :-)
Never had a problem with peppers, even super-hots; in soviet-occupied Red Hampshire. However, I grow everything in Earth Boxes and root pouches...perhaps that is the difference.
We’re near the Upper Valley and it is a tad cooler than east and south of us. Enough to put us in another climate zone.
My son lives near Concord and he’s always 3-5 degrees warmer than we are.
And we were kinda envious of what our nice neighbor from Guatemala grew from containers! Count the tomatoes, praise God.
At least you are facing West:)
Amen! How many people were able to ward off COVID (or other illnesses) because they loaded up on Vitamin d3 from all that sunshine they soaked up gardening? A benefit you can't assign a monetary figure to...
Great stories & info! Thanks!
Last season my single Plum tree (Mount Royal - a self-pollinator) produced like crazy-mad. I made a few tarts, but most of it went into Plum Butter, which is a spreadable for using on toast or pancakes & waffles.
I got so many positive comments on it (I think it was the Cardamom spice which has a unique flavor) that it’s going to be in the rotation on good plum years.
Speaking of free/found food: One year my BIL found buckets of wild grapes growing along a busy highway, near his workplace. He’d go out at lunch and harvest them and later made jelly. He called it, ‘Traffic Jam.’ ;)
The best compliment I’ve gotten to date was from an Amish neighbor who I shared tomatoes with. He no longer gardens due to his health. He said, pointing at me, “Woman! You know how to grow a tomato!” LOL!
This jackass (and his wife, who is not a jackass) grew up on good-size farms...we are keenly aware of where chicken, beef, bacon, and eggs come from...and have memories of the 'red snow' after animals were processed for the freezer...yum!
Two things with peppers:
1. They like HOT & DRY. Plant them in the most sun possible. Unless you’re having an exceptionally rainy season (which you can’t help!) let them dry out well between watering.
2. Don’t be nice to them! Go easy on the fertilizer & especially the nitrogen content of your soil/fertilizer. Go easy on the compost on them, too. They need phosphorus more than anything for good blooming and fruiting. I put a scoop of eggshells and bone meal in their planting holes, then they are on their own for the rest of the growing season.
See if that helps with your pepper production. :)
Containers (as in my case) also keep the root systems a bit warmer.
TONS of Amish and Mennonites around East Tennessee...I have always believed that East Tennessee could become the breadbasket of America after California slides into the ocean.
One of the funniest and saddest movies ever.
I think that most people will break NOT break even growing a garden. A garden may be a satisfying hobby today but which might become a necessity in the future. (Or, if not necessity, provide some relief from rising food costs and possibly, better food quality.)
People might consider beginning gardening now for the sake of experience. It can have a steep initial learning curve. Better not to wait until there is a food emergency to learn. The more you know the sooner you can move from the hobby side to production, reliance, and maybe break even on your investment.
The other reason is that there is preparation and lead time involved in gardening.
Bare Bones; Start with a fence; A gardener needs a fenced in area unless you live on an island that has no dogs, rabbits or deer. First year, turn the soil, prepare and plant your garden. Second year; you have already tilled your soil (Or piled books of straw on your no till plot!) gardening will be easier and require less work.
(Also, after the first year you should know if there was enough sun to support continued gardening in your selected plot.)
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