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
This thread reminds me of the scene in “Second Hand Lions”.
And know where it’s come from.
If you have to BUY EVERYTHING, you are way behind the curve.
(Can teach kids about lots of things with a garden)
1/4 acre is way more than most casual gardeners would be able to handle. a 4x8 spot in the sun is enouigh to start with ONE or TWO items you like to eat. Basic herbs like Mint, Tarragon, Oregano, and Basil are so easy . . .
It takes many, many years to get a real healthy garden into production. These days, most folks don’t (can’t) stay in one place long enough to make that happen.
Most real gardeners I know have used free leftover junk and scraps to “build” their hardscape.
Heirloom varieties make quality seeds to use the next year.
Gardens get refreshed with WASTE from other places like food scraps, quality animal poop, and RAIN and SUNSHINE, cover crops to plow under.
Gardening can be down with very low CASH output. Just takes brains, and a little muscle, or those G-d given things called “Teenagers”.
The guy forgot to include price of fertilizer, compost, and top soil, and labor cost.
Beyond that if the shortages continue
—
Plus, you can buy the special Have-A-Heart live insect trap for those special moments when your meat supplies run out.
Two, I live in an area with a relatively short growing season.
Three, I live in an area with terrible soil. I would literally have to have topsoil trucked in. It is difficult to get anything other than native plants to grow.
Four, does this figure in canning/freezing/preserving? My cooking/eating habits don't generally require lots of onions, then lots of cucumbers, then sometime later lots of some other veggie. How do you even out availability with use?
I'm sure it is a useful and fun hobby - just not my cup of tea. I have hobbies that pay off for me.
It may not save money now but it will provide food if and when none available, which is looking like more and more of a possibility.
I don’t think so. If I add up ALL my costs each tomato or ear of corn costs me five bucks.
But I enjoy it. It’s my hobby and I love doing it!
I agree with you, what little gardening I do is not cost effective, I enjoy doing it, besides the enjoyment I like to think in a SHTF situation at least I have some idea of what to do.
I usually buy a hanging basket of cherry tomatoes.
Then all I have to do is water it a pick the fruit.
No weeding. No bending over. Hang it off the porch on the south side.
This lady is right.
I own a small hobby farm..Time=Money Its hard to find doing anything that makes the Money>Time
Right now I am putting in a apple orchard - specializing in apples good for craft hard cider. Selling the apples
wholesale is not worth the time. Value-adding by making cider out of it might make it worth it.
as for SHTF food to grow...cant be potatoes.
The money aspect will be immaterial once food can’t be found in the stores.
cant beat potoatoes
We grow our own Vegetables every year, they taste way better than what you can buy, Zucchini, Corn and marinara sauce still in freezer from last year, plus we have a dozen or so chickens that give us 10-12 eggs a Day. Cherry, Peach, Pear, Apple and Plum trees also. will plant another 20 in a couple weeks
Getting Garden ready in another week or two
My water bill several years ago in my hot dry part of Texas went up about $85 a month when I water outside. I think for Me, it is cheaper to buy the vegetables we get trucked in from Mexico. I like gardening. Here, squash Vine borers are the worst. 60 miles north in ranch country, grasshoppers eat everything.
live in NE Florida, so I don’t get snow and ice and can grow stuff year round.
Yaah, we moved from north central Florida 25 acres, with a quarter acre garden and a crapton of flowers, shrubs, and horse manure compost, to western slope Colorado (only daughter lives here , and not moving to FL) where it takes an auger, pick, and water to dig one fencepost in four hours. And cactus plants seem to thrive.
PS nothing beats a home grown tomato.
But i digress, garden this spring is going to happen, still have horse manure compost. Heck, I’m Irish, with ancestors that made topsoils from seaweed.
Easy there, cowboy……but you’re not wrong.
Do you include ammunition prices for when Biden collapses the economy and I have to fight for every cucumber... Or for squirrels.
At least you have soil. Here in NH the only thing most of this state is good at growing is rocks and pine trees.
I planted a hydranga tree for my wife. I dug a 3’ diameter hole one foot deep. I removed a wheelbarrow full of rocks for that hole. One the size of a basketball.
A few years later I had a guy come in with a Kubota mini excavator. Here cleared the boulders/rocks on the surface of about an acre. He ended up building a new rock wall about 100’ long.
I also had him dig 5 holes with the excavator to plant fruit trees. I filled the holes with loam. Then planted the fruit trees.
I have hobbies that pay off for Me.
If all you can do is make wooden spoons, i can guarantee that an any farmer’s market , your stand will be as busy as everyone else growing produce. And yours will count as a garden , of spoons. ( Can’t cook with out a good spoon!)
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