Is gardening really cheaper?

[dean123]

My wife and I decided that we would try to grow a garden this year. My question is whether gardening is really cheaper than buying food at the supermarket? The cost of all the things that we need for the garden has added up quickly and it ended up being a lot more expensive than I thought it ever would be. I think I have already invested a few hundred dollars into the garden and I'm sure that there will still be more. All those who have gardening experience, does it all pay off in the end? How do you reduce the cost of all the gardening equipment that you need?

[riverwed070707]

Like many things, gardening can be as expensive or as cheap as you make it. You don't need to buy a lot to start a garden...some seeds and a watering can will do and maybe some compost to work into the soil. I always reccommend people start small so you don't invest a bunch into a huge garden while you're still learning. You will inevitably fail a few times before nailing down what works and what doesn't for your area/crop/etc and its better to lose a little than lose a lot. Plus, bigger gardens require significant time. Make sure you have the time and dedication to devote to a smaller one before you get in over your head.

Some ways we keep costs down:
*we don't use fancy cages or stakes -- branches from our trees work just fine for supporting larger plants.
*we don't fertilize. We do produce our own compost to mix in with our soil but thats completely optional. Plants will grow just fine without adding nutrients
*we water from a rainbarrel that collects water off our garage
*we start all of our plants from seeds which is significantly cheaper than purchasing seedlings

Good luck!

[Joan.of.the.Arch]

Go ahead and make some estimates of how much produce you expect to get and how much that would cost you in the grocery store.

But what have you bought for your garden? Most basically, I'd say all I would need to buy if I were starting from scratch would be a digging fork and a water hose.

I find gardening cost effective, but then I'd do it anyway. It gives healthy food, beauty, knowledge of nature, excercise, a chance for reusing materials that would otherwise be thrown away, an opportunity for neighborliness & meeting people, and a sense of peace, pride in accomplishment, a way to teach children many, many things.

[GREENBACK]

I started my first garden many years ago using a shovel and a packet of seeds to grow peppers and tomatoes. They were 50 cents a piece in the store. It was very cost effective. I also made and still make tomato stakes from tree saplings in the woods. This is way cheaper (free) than commercial stakes. I do have a tiller now but that's my only large gardening expense($200). I think it's much cheaper to garden than to buy. It's especially cheaper for herbs and certain vegetables. Being creative helps. You don't need to buy the fancy mulching products and premade greenhouses and all that other stuff. Most of that is easy to make at home.

[snafu]

I find it cost effective to grow preferred veggies & herbs but it's container gardening and I have very few tools or equipment. It's a great way to reduce stress and I enjoy 'playing in the dirt,' as my family call it. They prefer home grown lettuce, tomatoes, green beans, carrots and peas to frozen vegs we eat all winter.

[LuckyRobin]

When I started I just did a four by eight foot plot. I didn't want to overwhelm myself with something I might not enjoy doing. I planted pole green beans from seeds, snow peas from seeds, lettuce from seeds, 2 tomato plants, and 4 herbs (oregano, marjoram, thyme and rosemary) from seed packets and radishes from seeds. I already had a shovel and just bought a watering can, two bags of compost, a pair of garden gloves, and a hand held weeding fork. I dug up the sod, worked the compost into the ground, waited a week and planted. I tied the tomato plants loosely to the chain link fence with yarn I already had and the pole beans and peas wrapped themselves around the fence on their own. Everything grew and I had a lot of produce. I spent about $30 and I think we got about $300 worth of food as the beans and tomatoes were hugely productive. All of the herbs that I planted over a decade ago were perrenials and they are big, healthy shrubs today, so in their case it was pay once and harvest for years.

I would reccommend starting your own compost pile. Any sod you dig up is a great addition to this. Also, get some books from the library on gardening and composting. There is a wealth of information out there that can help you along.

[dean123]

I think I'm doing something wrong. You all make it sound so easy and inexpensive. The ground in our backyard was so hard that I had to rent a tiller just break up the soil. Then I had to go out and buy compost to mix with it. Then there was the cost of wood to build beds for the plants. And then the cost of the entire irrigation system. It seems to never end.

It sounds like what I should've done is just bought some packets of seeds and toss them on the ground. Now that I've made the investment I already have, is there any way to get my money's worth out of this garden?

[anna_chronistic]

Hmm, it sounds like some of the differences you're seeing might be in location. I live in Central Illinois, and although when it comes to indoor plants, I can even kill fake ones (seriously, I've done it), outdoors anything I plant seems to thrive with minimal interference from me. I have good soil, have been known to forget to water things, and it still works for me. Do you have a lot of clay/rocks/other debris in your soil? How big did you start your garden? The fact that you installed an irrigation system -- that sounds like quite an expense for a beginner. My irrigation system is a watering can. I don't even have a water spigot outside, so I have to haul the can to my kitchen sink for water (I like the idea of a rain barrel. I need to look into that)...

Also, if you don't like gardening and don't see it as a valuable use of your time, it probably would be better to just buy your veggies, either at the store or - even better! - through a Farmer's Market or CSA. They do the work, you reap the benefits, and you'd be supporting local farms. Good luck on your garden!

[ecoadapt]

It will definitely take its toll in the end. When you can finally say .. It's Harvest Time!!

[Joan.of.the.Arch]

Amazon.com: The Self-Sufficient Gardener: A Complete Guide to Growing and Preserving All Your Own Food (Using the New Deep Bed Method to Grow More Food in Less Space) (9780385146715): John Seymour: Books

This is a great book, with lots of pictures. This book tells "how it's really done." There is a newer version/edition, but I have not seen it. Even if all you want is one or two garden beds, this book will help you understand how to make them the best they can be, and to grow lots in them.

One month when I tracked, my spouse and I spent only $63.50 per person at the grocery store. Gardening is part of how we did it.

Your initial investments can be averaged over all the years you garden.

Read both books and online garden forums. You can learn lots about what your garden really needs versus what you have seen your neighbors do or see in garden centers and catalogs.

[dean123]

This whole project is beginning to look overwhelming. I'm not exactly sure what I got myself into, but the idea of having somebody else do all the work and have it delivered to my house is sounding a lot better. I guess I will continue to slug through since I've already invested so much time and money and hope that we get a little something out of it. I guess I should've done a lot more research before I began this whole project.

[97guns]

grow stuff that is easy to grow and is prolific, squashes are one of the best crops you can grow. there is winter squash that will keep through the whole off season. you dont need to plow the whole planting area up, for planting squash all you need is to dig 1 hole and add soil amendments.

[LuckyRobin]

Books to read that will help you along:

Let it Rot by Stu Campbell is the best book on composting I've ever read.

Square Foot Gardening by Mel Bartholomew.

Lasagna Gardening: A New Layering System for Bountiful Gardens: No Digging, No Tilling, No Weeding, No Kidding! by Patricia Lanza

All of these books are available at my public library, but the first and third are worth buying, in my opinion.

[Goldy]

In my experience its not really cost effective mainly due to the fact that once your crops come in so does everyone elses so prices are greatly reduced. Look at the prices of veggies in harvest time and judge for yourself if you think you saved any money. With that said, we still have a garden but have started doing it all by seed instead of getting the starter plants.

Having a garden will make you really think about how much land you need planted to subsist on.

[bjl584]

I think that it depends on a lot of factors. What you grow, how much time and effort you put into your garden, how much you grow, and where you normally shop for produce, all play a part.