Gardening Economics

[Little Minnie]

I am no numbers whiz, but I grow for sale and work in the pricing dept of a supermarket. What I find is that food and clothing are very cheap now a days and cost more if you grow or sew yourself. Just look at making a homemade pizza. It costs about 3x as much to make a homemade pizza than to buy a frozen one on sale. Remember in Food Inc and also in Michael Pollan's writing that we have obese, unhealthy poor people for the first time ever because crappy food is super cheap due to subsidies. We have very cheap clothes too due to overseas slave labor. Both making/growing your own and sewing your own cost more now.

Well that was sort of off topic. When it comes to growing your own vs buying the same produce items at market or supermarket, yes I think you save growing your own. Except for the first few years when you buy things such as a tiller, seeder, tomato cages, flowting row cover, (heaven forbid manure, peat, other soil), mulch, raised bed frames, grow lights, tools, and so on. That raises your costs significantly! Even buying all your seeds at the best prices you can get are not that cheap.

There was an article in OG mag last year of a family who spent about $20 for the whole season to grow veg. They worked off and traded for everything but a few things. So you can do it cheaply. I haven't been able to yet personally and made my first modest profit in 2010.

[Karak.D]

Originally posted by spacecase0:

if you save your own seeds, and use only hand tools, you can replace your investment with one meal.
I remember feeding my family when I was a kid with a garden,
it was about 1/3 of the meals for 4 months of the year,
so it was about $700 total savings
and I invested about $20 in it, and lots of time, I had nothing to do all summer anyway
the real trick is to avoid large infrastructure investment

The only thing I'd add is Rainbarrels. I've been keeping track of my water bills. Last summer I saved over 2000 gals of tap water. My county charges approx 12.99 per 1000 gals. so the savings add up pretty quick.

[Karak.D]

Originally posted by Little Minnie:

Except for the first few years when you buy things such as a tiller, seeder, tomato cages, flowting row cover, (heaven forbid manure, peat, other soil), mulch, raised bed frames, grow lights, tools, and so on. That raises your costs significantly! Even buying all your seeds at the best prices you can get are not that cheap.

There was an article in OG mag last year of a family who spent about $20 for the whole season to grow veg. They worked off and traded for everything but a few things. So you can do it cheaply. I haven't been able to yet personally and made my first modest profit in 2010.

You've got to join Freecycle!You wouldn't believe the stuff that people are giving away. Sure you might have to haul if off or replace a lost screw but I've gotton tons & tons of awesome garden gear "For FREE"