Is food cheaper to grow?

[journey11]

I am all for edible landscaping. I planted flowering kale last year. It is tasty and it looks awesome! GREAT FALL PLANT. Many people just think it is a flower and have no idea it is a tasty green.

I saw a pic of flowering kale in a catalog just yesterday. I never knew what it was. Cool that it's edible too! I like kale.

 

[old fashioned]

I plan on having a small veggie garden this spring. I know there are many benefits to veggie gardening such as fresher, better tasting, organic, enjoyment, etc.

I was wondering if the veggies are cheaper to grow than store bought. We have a small farmers market in town with what I think are reasonable prices. My husband keeps telling me that it is cheaper for me to buy because when stuff is in season prices are low. He says there is too much work in growing to make it worthwhile.

What do you think? I plan to use starts since I'm not at the level yet to try seeds. I want to be able to have a good response! when he grumbles about putting in compost, drip system, etc.!

Thanks
Mary

Anytime you first start a project it will cost you more, but once you've done it or made those initial investments your costs in later years are always much less. So fine this year your garden could cost you $1000 or more for tools like shovel or tiller and/or hoe, hose, sprinkler, seeds/starts, building materials if you do raised beds, plus don't forget more costs for preserving that produce like freezer, canner/jars, etc. BUT once that's done, next year you only need to get more seeds to plant unless you save your own from this years crop.
Actually I think I covered some of this on your other post about canning.

 

[Whitewater]

Well, last year being my first time as a gardener and trying to put together a first garden (in the backyard of a house where people hadn't gardened AT ALL, not even to aerate the lawn, in probably a decade . . . weeds like you would NOT believe), we certainly spent FAR more than we made. Far more.

Hours and hours of backbreaking work ('cause we didn't get a tiller, silly us! This year . . . it's Tiller Time!), spending money to buy seeds, then spending MORE money to buy started plants when the seeds didn't come up (except for the zucchini plants, which eventually took over), then spending MORE money on compost ('cause it's going to take a while for our pitiful little heap to break down) and even MORE money on organic fertilizers (bone meal and so on) and then, yep, you got it, MORE money on Roundup to get rid of the thistles in the front yard (and that is an ongoing project, by the way) and MORE money on Tomato Cages and bird netting . . .

No, we didn't make any money from our garden. So, financially, it was a huge loss. The apple tree is just now thinking about producing (it will be three this fall), the strawberries I hope will start producing (this is their first year, I planted them last year, we got 2 doz berries from 8 plants) . . . yeah. 1st year gardens aren't exactly what anybody would call financially sound endeavours!

However. Now that I finally *have* all that stuff that we bought last year and now that I know where to get free stuff (do your research while it's cold outside!), we will be spending a lot less money on our gardens.

Sure, we'll probably buy a few plants here and there, but plants are cheap, particularly if you look on Craigslist (and definitely in my neck of the woods, people also give them away . . . ), and I may need another one or two tomato cages to make a cage for the raspberries, but I pretty much have all I need.

Anyway, from my point of view gardening isn't really about the money. Is it cheaper to buy from a store? Yes. Is it better to buy from a store? Not necessarily! And there's something about getting my hands into the dirt to plant and sidedress, etc and taking my frustrations out on the weeds (I, too, pull by hand, and it's amazing how good I feel afterwards!) and watching my baby plants grow into strong healthy plants . . . you can't buy that.

My tomatoes tasted so good that people refused to believe our salsa came largely from our own garden. I used my zucchini bread as part payment for our friend the handyman and for my wedding dress maker.

And knowing where my food comes from is invaluable to me, largely because my body tends to not do very well with food that has chemicals and additives and preservatives and so on stuffed inside it. I can have a healthy, nutritious meal from what I make.

Last year my brand new strawberry plants gave me 4oz of jam, without pectin. Just added water, a bit of lemon, and some sugar, boiled it for a quick few minutes, put it in the fridge to set overnight -- and the jam was the best I've ever tasted, anywhere, in my entire life. I am looking to make more of that and give it as Christmas presents to my friends who, like me, can't deal with processed food. Some have celiac disease. Others have food allergies. Etc. How cool is it to tell people that my strawberry jam only has 4 ingredients? Very cool

The benefits of my garden can't all be calculated in dollars and cents. If you look at a garden strictly from that perspective, I believe, you're missing at least 75% of all the benefits that growing your own food can give you.

Not to mention that getting out every day in the garden also helped me lose weight. . . there's more to having a garden than 'does it cost less than the store'.


Whitewater

 

[peachykeen]

I don't think its a question if it is cheaper- because with something like nourishment, our thoughts should not be towards money. The GMO food and high fructose corn syrup they sneak into everything- its so much more worthwhile to grow your own.

Also... our current system is on the way out. I give it a year or two. Food shortages are coming, its just a matter of when.


Even if food shortages weren't imminent, knowing where your food has come from and knowing what went into them is a peace of mind you can never get from storebought.

I am trying really hard this summer to get a good first garden going- Hubby and I are going to try, but neither of us have ever done it before. We are going to can and try to make our crops last all year. We just know that we need to be self sufficient. We have chickens and forests and lakes all nearby, so we wouldnt starve even if something did happen to our countries food supply tomorrow.

 

[lupinfarm]

It's cheaper for us because its an hours drive to our grocery store and a 20 minute drive to the closest mediocre grocery store lol

 

[patandchickens]

If you have not veg-gardened before, then unless you live somewhere that food prices are totally insane (or fresh veggies are unavailable), IMHO you are not likely to beat farmers-market prices on very many veggies. (Some you will, though. Lettuce, if planted/managed intelligently. Beans, if you have decent soil. Some other things too, depending on your circumstances)

However, the more better you get at gardening, and the better you improve your SOIL (which is mostly free, just a matter of scrounging and Time), the more things you can grow for cheaper.

Mind, if your goal is to be cheap then you have to be very very careful not to go buying every darn thing in the seed catalog, nor every handy dandy gizmo and book and spray that seems useful. A shovel and trowel, and *perhaps* a hoe and/or cultivator, is all the equipment you need; and you can usually get them for cheap or free at garage sales or auctions or from people who are no longer using them.

Also if your goal is to be cheap, you have to be prepared to eat whatever your garden produces, even if you turn out not to be so keen on the cultivar. or if you have a LOT of beans, or if the tomatoes all need the bottoms bit cut off b/c of blossom-end rot or things like that.

The biggest thing IMHO about growing your own vegetables is not the price though (make sure you are comparing to similar produce, e.g. organic and absolutely fresh) -- it is the knowledge and skill that you gain. So that then you can do things that the farmer's market cannot do for you. You can grow things that nobody is selling. You can grow personal-fave varieties. You can push the season on things to (potentially, in some cases) have them earlier or later than you can get them at the market. And if you ever land somewhere there IS no farmer's market, you will be able to provide at least some fgood fresh food for yourself, having learned to coax the best out of your seeds.

At least try growing SOMEthing, in a small way. To me, the three things that it's silly NOT to grow are lettuce, beans and tomatoes -- but in hot climates, or to those with different food preferences, the list may be different. It doesn't have to be a big production. Just do *something*

Good luck, have fun,

Pat

 

[wifezilla]

Food shortages are coming, its just a matter of when.

I agree. There is some funny stuff going on with the USDA crop reports. Some people have told me while they harvested a LOT of corn, once it dried, there just wasn't a lot there. They are going through so much more than normal feeding their livestock.

We had disaster after disaster during the 2009 growing season, yet everything reported such high yeilds. It's just so weird.

I do think factory farming is unsustainable. You can't keep doubling your feild size every year which is how many farmers are staying out of the red.

 

[vfem]

Generally, over time... the term... "it will pay for itself" is true. Some people will have more up front costs then others. Like we ASKED for free lumber and rock and offered to trade for fencing on Craigslist. We got everything we asked for. Our up front costs for our entire garden we probably no more then $300. We also build everything ourselves without asking for help. I've added more garden and traded seed and saved seed and have been composting to get some great organic fertilizer to turn into my spring beds.

The chickens have been like having extra hands in the fall.

I think all in all, I got away saving money last summer from what I would have spent at the grocery store. Just what I saved in frozen veggies and Salsa over the winter has impressed me!

This year I want to start a project.... (Thanks Journey for your earlier comment [Jan 8th maybe?] about this being a good article). This project will be along the lines of what I do, what it weighs, what it cost, what it would have cost... ect ect. Then next year I want to start a book on simple organic gardening for the little guy and what $$$ is saved in the process... what makes it organic... ect ect. I'm very frugile by nature... so this is right up my ally.

I also want to start a project for us here... that is another thread though!

 

[meriruka1]

I started from scratch a few years ago, and it was pretty expensive.
year 1)I bought a tiller, had a truckload of compost delivered, bought seeds & starter plants. A few things did well, others never came up. The deer ate a lot of stuff.

year 2) Bought 6" fencing & posts to go all the way around (garden is 100' x 90') Bought seeds & plants, plus another truckload of compost. Crows ate a lot of stuff.

year 3) Built a scarecrow, bought some seeds & plants.
Almost everything did well. Saved some seeds, bought canning jars (I had the other equipment that was my mom's)

year 4) Bought the seeds I was unable to save from last year, started my own plants from seed in containers I saved from previous years' buying plants. Had fun walking through the produce aisle saying, "don't need that, don't need that either"
I spent a lot less on groceries.

this year) I'll be spending very little. Just some $ on seeds I want to try. I've got my own compost pile.
confession: bought a tractor & plow, not a necessary expense, but I'm old and female and tilling all that is just too hard)

There are some crops I will not grow because processing takes an eternity....popcorn, mustard seed are the top two.

Herbs are the best money saving thing I grow, the fresh stuff in stores is pricey & often wilted. I dig up & pot some in fall to bring in the house & snip whatever I need while cooking.

 

[lupinfarm]

We try...but we have cats, and an autistic son who has the mess making abilities of a 3 year old x 10. We usually have to settle for "not a complete disaster".

I live that life too LOL my brother has ADHD and he too has the mess making abilities of a 3 year old x 10. It's shocking.