Economics of home gardening

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Permalink Reply by Maya on March 6, 2009 at 2:59pm

Wow, what dedication! I'm impressed. I'm looking at some of your prices (especially the $3.00/lb peaches) and guessing the prices from the supermarket and Whole Foods were not necessarily the organic/industrial organic choices. Is that true? If so, you've saved far more than your calculations show.

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Permalink Reply by Mary Ann Greer-Baak on March 6, 2009 at 4:38pm

How much land did you use for the garden, and what would the cost be if you amortized that into the equation?

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Permalink Reply by MarciBeth on March 7, 2009 at 10:36am

Thanks for sharing your format and figures for keeping track of your total harvest. I'm looking forward to calculating this year's harvest and costs. I have been making the assumption that I save money I guess, it is time to find out.

First and foremost gardening for me is about flavor, choice and a growing sense of sustainability. Grocery stores and even the farmers markets in my area just don't offer enough choices. So my garden has evolved a step at a time. I started out growing the varieties of fruits and vegetables that we love to eat and that I was well practiced at preparing in the kitchen. Then I focused on growing the varieties that I couldn't buy from local farmers markets. We had much greater variety with the combination of the varieties we grew in the garden and the varieties available from the local farmers markets. This gave us more choices of high quality produce without increasing our growing area. Water in our area is very expensive (the Sonoran desert of Arizona) so until I could improve the moisture retention of the soil I was reluctant to increase the size of the garden. But as I increase the amount of rainwater harvested and water retention of the soil the size of the garden has grown. I have now started growing more of the varieties that I can find at farmers markets to reap the savings or rather what I believe to be the savings. So with your suggestions I can find out if growing my own produce is strictly for flavor, choice and sustainability or if I do in fact save money.

Just one more question, has anyone tracked their garden cost and harvests long enough to know if it gets less costly with each year the garden is in production?

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Permalink Reply by Darien Payne on May 4, 2009 at 2:37pm

After 15 years in our home garden, composting everything we can, and growing cover crops (fava beans, vetch, winter grasses, and, yes, weeds) in the winter, we supply most of our own compost now. And it is better quality than the compost we can buy. Once in a while we scavenge some fish scraps (we are luck enough to be near the coast) to add to the compost, and occasionally I will add a little kelp meal. Our fertilizer costs at this point are minimal. Saving seeds helps costs too, but the cost of seeds are very low for the amount of produce harvested (usually!). Water here in California is the most expensive item, but, again, as the organic matter in the soil has improved, the need for water has decreased.
Check out John Jeavon's and his team's work at:
http://www.growbiointensive.org/
They have wonderful information (publications, newletter) on yields, self-sufficiency gardening. I've learned a lot from them.

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Permalink Reply by BethW on March 13, 2009 at 9:20am

I'm a horticulture agent in KY and this kind of data is perfect for trainings that I may do. Thanks!

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Permalink Reply by John Walker on March 13, 2009 at 9:42am

Dear Beth,
Where are you in KY?
I am in Lexington (fayette co. Jamie Dockery is our extension agent)
I would like ti know more about what trainings you do and for who(m).
pax
John Walker (igrowfood@insightbb.com)

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Permalink Reply by rrrobin on March 15, 2009 at 10:24am

Roger-- Fascinating table! I have two questions I'm hoping you can answer: 1.) How many people worked for how many hours, per week, for how many weeks, to produce and harvest these quantities of crops?, and 2.) How many people does this quantity of harvest feed, for how many weeks? Thanks! =)

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Permalink Reply by Roger on March 16, 2009 at 1:19pm

The work was done by mostly by myself and my wife Jacqueline, although we put our boys to work in the garden (mostly on potato beetle and cabbage looper patrol) and in the kitchen (hulling strawberries, shelling peas, cutting green beans, etc.). We didn't keep track of hours because this is a form of pleasure and recreation first and a chore second. We also do things in such a way to maximize the good parts and minimize the bad, for example generous use of mulch to keep weeds down and moisture in, to lessen the need for watering. Our garden provides fresh fruits and vegetables for 5 (and sometimes more with visitors and neighbors) for a six month period. And even now, we're still eating from last year's garden (after the 6 month period), but the pickings are much slimmer.

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Permalink Reply by Maya on March 16, 2009 at 3:18pm

Mmmm... how are those rutabagas doing?

Some thoughts for those who wish to cradle-to-grave the whole process:
Whether or not gardening is pleasurable, calculating the cost of home gardening to include labor costs, even if it's feeding one's family, is not really accurate unless one is doing it instead of one's regular job. In most KG cases, people are not doing this in place of billable hours at the law office or in place of one's work as a lineman for the electric utility company, for example. Which hourly rate would you apply to your gardening work: that of a migrant laborer, that of the farm manager (since you are making all the decisions about what/when to plant and taking responsibility for the workforce, even if it is your kids), or that of your regular work? Can we calculate the healthcare savings? It's impossible, or at least highly improbable, to thoroughly and accurately calculate the actual cost/benefit of a home garden. If you're talking labor costs, either the agrigiants have us beat because of unfair labor practices and scale, or we have them beat because ours is all slave labor. We are spending time and effort, for sure, and gaining food (=money in your pocket), health, knowledge, peace of mind, and vital connections. How do you calculate anything beyond the food itself, material inputs, and lack of food miles? I'm very glad you've done this, Roger (and also glad some former forum posters are no longer with us to nitpick my logic).

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Permalink Reply by Lesley Jones on March 16, 2009 at 12:57pm

Wow! This is fantastic. You are very detailed. How long have you been gardening? And how did you minimize waste?

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Permalink Reply by Roger on March 16, 2009 at 1:28pm

I've been gardening for about 10 years. The key to reducing waste is growing the things you like in the quantities you want. I know that's easier said than done, but that's the starting point. We inevitably finish each growing season with things we wished we had done differently...grown more of this...less of that...but the more you do, the better you understand your needs and what/how much you need to grow grow to fulfill them. And remember: for the organic gardener, there's really no such thing as waste as what you don't eat, the compost pile happily will.

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Permalink Reply by Terri on March 17, 2009 at 5:22am

Great info. In my garden I'd have to add on a column for theft/loss. I figure my kids beat me to at least 10% before the veg hit the kitchen. Could be as high as 30% in the strawberry patch : )

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