I have been keeping diligent track of the harvest, weighing and recording as I bring things in. Well, I'm not sure "harvest" is the right word. It seems a little pretentious for our wee little veggie garden. In any case, the totals are in, so far. There's still carrots and beets that will stay in the ground for a while, zucchini and tomatoes still coming, and bush beans, I hope. But so far, we have the equivalent of... drumroll please... $55 in vegetables and $80 in fruit.
For a $200 setup cost, it's kind of a dismal return, and I can't count the $80 in fruit against that cost because the trees were already there.
The most cost-effective crop has been lettuce. Go figure. With three successive plantings I've managed to keep us in lettuce and mesculuns continuously since the first picking in mid-June, and have even given some away. Next to lettuce, zucchini, potatoes, broccoli, sweet pepper, and snap peas have all saved us between $3 and $5 at the grocery store. Eek, that sounds so sad. But you know, I'm pretty sure I can harvest a lot more of everything next year. Maybe $10-15 worth for each, and that would really add up.
Don't get me wrong, the real purpose of the veggie garden is not actually to save money, although that would be pretty cool, but to eat lots of healthy foods grown locally, and well, for fun. I want to keep track of the economics of it to have a realistic view of vegetable gardening. I didn't want to be just an idealistic foodie, and it helps to put things in perspective to know that I spent more money than I saved on the garden this summer. With all the labour involved in addition to the cost, what on earth is the point? The point is food security, and learning basic skills for sustenance, and because I love it.
5 comments:
Great post. Gardening: you gotta love it! For some reason stuff fresh from the garden always test better to me than even most organic produce at the store, so that's a benefit too :).
That's a good point... it's hard to compare home grown tomatoes with tomatoes bought from the store (or any fruit/veggie) because the ones you grow yourself taste waaaayyy better than the stuff you get from the store. I think that makes them much more valuable (not to mention enjoyable!). At least 4x more valuable which means that you are actually coming out ahead. :)
I remember coming across an article that lists the top 10 veggies it was worth growing yourself vs. cost at store. Lettuce was certainly on the list! (I'll do a search and see if I can find it again.)
For our part, we've begun leaning toward growing what we actually eat and like, what space we have to work with, and a bit of cost effectiveness. For example, we're big carrot eaters, so a lot of space goes into that, and while I'd love to grow our own potatoes, there's not a lot of space and they're relatively cheap at the store.
Some days, I'm tempted to rip out our front lawn...
In one of my fantasies I replace the entire lawn with vegetable garden. My other half and co-home-owner patiently listens to my fantasy and says things like "that's a lot of weeding" and we downgrade the plan. The current compromise is a 16 x 4 raised bed against the little retaining wall for the driveway that should provide more sun than the current garden. It will be for tomatoes and basil and cucumbers so we can reduce the number of pots all over the patio this year (and I think the tomatoes will grow better in the ground than in pots).
I'd love to see that top 10 veggies worth growing yourself article. I do have the dirty dozen list on the fridge now. Wow there's so much to consider!
I would absolutely rip out the front lawn, without hesitation. If/when we ever own a house with a lawn, that'll be one of the first things we do. I love visiting East Van and seeing how many of the Italian and Asian families use their front (and back) yards to grow fruit and veggies.
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