This year, I'd say the few tomatoes I got were pretty expensive. The corn never came in, I ate a few that were like half grown, just pulled the rest to dry for fall decoration. Some store bought leeks are doing great, onions still in the ground. Lettuce all bolted, trying again for fall harvest of salads. cucurbits all got taken out by squash bugs, but did get a few cukes first. I'll do it all over again next year, but have learned alot, and hope to have a better harvest next year. I'll also be getting everything in the ground much earlier.

Putting a value on what you grow depends on a lot of factors, such as where you live, what you grow, how much you grow, etc., the factors are so variable that it would be hard to determine except on an individual basis. But can you really put a price on walking out to your garden to pick a fresh tomato or cucumber for you dinner salad, the fresh air and exercise you get, the fact that your grandchild (or children) can go out in the garden with you and learn how things grow. My grandson has been raised in my garden, he eats what the season offers and before the age of two has learned to pick ripe fruit such as blackberries, peaches, tomatoes which he will sit and eat right in the garden. He loves the grapes we grow and he is as healthy as a horse, put a price on that and the fact that he will be picking his own pumpkins from the garden this year!

Other ways to make your garden work for you is to plant things that produce
a quantity such as fruit trees. We have 16 apple trees and 8 peach trees all that produce fruit that ripen at different times so we are able to process, mostly by drying so we have fruit most of the year. We dry our veggies but use a lot for each of our meals. We have lots of grapes and want to do more with them when time permits but we give a lot to a local lunch program which we also donate tomatoes and other veggies that we don't have time to process.

You save money by planting your garden so that you are using the seasons to the best advantage, summer tomatoes, winter peas, etc. We have a lot of friends with horses so we have a fresh source for compost which we do all year round. We also are not shy about going into starbucks to get used coffee grounds or going to the lumber mill and getting sawdust or leaves from our neighbors. Its all about how much time and effort you put into it that gives you the bang for your buck. Mulching and a drip irrigation system will also help you save big bucks on your water bill. It's all good!!!!

I'd say maybe depending on how you do it.
For me this first year has been learning experience, BUT the satisfaction and taste of homegrown tomatoes means I'll continue to do it.

Growing your own transplants from seed is quite a bit cheaper than buying transplants but as others have said - the quality of home grown sure can't be matched. ;)

Dave

" I learned on here that you can cut them back to the second node (when they finish producing) fertilize them, pick off the flowers until they get a new flush of growth and you get a second crop off the same seeds. I have done this and the second crop is just coming now. Hopefully I will get to harvest, but we are getting early frost here. Great experiment that seems to be working."

Update on this: I hadn't checked on these beans for a few days. Today I picked enough to make a batch of dilly beans and had enough left over for supper. There are lots of blossoms and little beans still. Forgot to tell you that I did this with bush green beans and yellow wax beans and they are both giving me a second crop on the same seed.

Also if you can tie up the spot in the garden that you planted your cabbage you can get a second crop from them as well. When you cut the cabbage off leave the plant and 4 or 5 little cabbages will grow where the one was originally. Not as big, but just as tasty and no extra $$$

Just thought of something else to save money: If you grow varieties that you can save your seeds you can save big bucks. I have been growing pole beans from seed that was given to me (I think) about 10+ years ago. I grew enough this year to eat off of, to freeze & can and to save the seed for next year. I really want to expand this part to other vegetables.

When I first started, gardening was a hobby. As the years past, I learned how to save money. If relatives ask what I want for my birthday, I tell them drip hoses or a gift certificate to a seed company. As others have pointed out, starting from seed is much cheaper than buying transplants, provides a bigger variety to choose from and usually results in healthier plants. You'll learn to save seeds that you can plant the next year and trade with other gardeners. Also, disregard the date on seed packs. I've learned to store seeds and adjust how many I plant as the germination rate drops with time.

Hehe, I've got the proverbial $500 tomato. My wood beds cost a fortune, but they'll just about never go bad. I've found that the shipping on seeds is outrageous, but if you can buy them all at once it's reasonable. And other than my tomatoes, I went 100% from seed this year. Next year I may try tomatoes, not sure.

But I fall into the category of wanting to garden for a hobby and stress relief. Forget gym fees, try therapy and blood pressure meds for life. THAT'S expensive, hehe. And teaching my kids where food comes from and raising little gardeners, that is priceless.

But yeah, I'm not growing corn next year after a failed attempt this year, knowing I can simply head over the mountains and get a van full of corn at it's peak and freeze it up for the rest of the year.

Since this was my first year, I didn't try saving seeds, but I understand that's the real benefit of gardening yourself on the cheap. Good luck!

Here is a link that might be useful: Sinfonian's garden adventure!

IMHO, the pillars of cost-effective gardening:

- a good site to start with. Full sun, good soil, no roots from nearby trees, relatively low levels of predators. To get good soil under virtually any circumstance, you need about one foot of organic matter added. A good site will give you more produce for the same plant and the same fertilizer, and the plant will resist pests better.

- organic matter (and therefore long term good soil) should be free of charge. With a little research one can find free manure, except for transportation, tree companies will deliver free wood chips, and in the fall you can get all the leaves you need. Long term, it does not matter which organic matter you add.

Due to free manure and free wood ash (both of which fertilize substantially), I only need 1 lb of superphosphate to get through one year. Learn to use what you have. There is no need to ever buy lime if you or someone you know has a wood stove.

- start your own seeds. Mini green houses now cost as low as $99. I buy two Early Girl every year. Everything else is from seed. In Zone 7, there is no reason to buy transplants.

- over time, ruthlessly eliminate what does not grow well at your site, or takes too much work to grow, or attracts too many pests. Two strikes you are out. Further, favor high yielding and long season vegetables.

- as Dennis says, preserve. And I add, if you have space, plant a winter garden together with your summer stuff.

- drip irrigation for large vegetable plants (drip won't work with radishes for example). Forget the rain barrels if you have over 1000 sqft of garden, they are too puny to matter, and they cost money.

Other things that improve the efficiency of the garden are raised or sunken beds (raised, good for hard soil and good on your back, sunken good for water savings), crop rotation for plant health and extra nitrogen (greens follow beans). Pest management and plant companionship take a bit of learning on the job, but they too help.

Also, as someone else said, keeping your seeds in the freezer saves you a lot of money. I have cabbage seed packets from 2000, and they sprout well. Potato seeds from the organic bin at the store, garlic seed from the farmer market, and collecting your own bean, parsnip, arugula and corn salad seeds also is efficient.

I'm glad alot of folks responded. As you can see from my original post, there was and is no question of the taste, exercise, healthfulness, and even spirituality of growing one's own food, and just gardening in general. When I lived south of New Orleans, home grown food and seafood was cheap and plentiful, I didn't really have to grow mine. I mainly did ornamentals, which is still my first love. Now, mostly due to the cost of food and fuel, and for other above-stated reasons, I have begun more food growing. I have learned alot from your responses, and have alot to think about. What I have gleaned, is that if you grow almost like having a mini farm, and harvest, preserve, and save seed, you can save money as compared to the grocery store. It is harder to do this when one is also concerned about aesthetics, tucking food crops within ornamental beds, and using a "prettier" mulch (I used shredded leaves or pine straw). I hope I'm not sounding snobby, I would have to find a "back forty" on my 3/4 acre lot (including the house) to do rows and mulch with straw, for example. It may come to that, that growing food is more important than the pleasing appearance of the yard. Lest you think I am a chemical fiend, one with a pristine lawn, no I am organic and things are not pristine, but they are pretty and park-like. There may be a spot where I can put a picket fence and square foot gardens within, I'll look into that. I sincerely appreciate all the responses. Keep 'em coming if you still have opinions to share.
laurie

my garden itself does nto cost me much money, my toys to work it do. the first year i had to buy a tiller. the 2nd i bought a bunch of implements for my lawn tractor. the 3rd i bought a garden tractor to keep from tearing up the LT. the 4th i bought a bigger and better tractor AND got another tractor with a mounted self powered tiller. then toss in the different irrigation methods from originally impact sprinklers to now dedicated soakers for each row run under the layers of newspaper mulch. i bet i hafve spent 1000x what it would have cost to just go buy my veggies int eh store. BUT, the biggest of these costs would have happened anyway since i needed a new tractor as the original one was undersized for maintaining my property anyhow.

louisianagal, have you checked out the potager garden forum? It sounds as though this is what you would like to do with your yard.

Here is a link that might be useful: Potager Gardens

For us it did save a lot of money on our summers vegetables. I grow intensively and organically in 2 raised beds. One is 4'x24' and the other is 30"x16'. I had lots of success and plan on adding another raised bed. I watered with collected rain for at least 50%, used a soaker hose for about 25% and handwatered the rest. I grew enough tomatoes to feed 6 adults and a child and have had enough to put up 20 quarts for winter. This alone was a huge savings for me all from seeds given to me for the cost of 2 postage stamps. We also ate extensively from peppers, beans, cucumbers and more. I had a few things I found didn't do so well so either need more space or will skip them all together (corn for example).

It can get very costly if you purchase lots of tools and other materials but since cost is a huge factor in growing for us...I do just about everything by hand. With the raised beds all I use to turn them is a shovel and a rake. I am starting another raised bed with freecycled lumber, cardboard and any organic matter I find when cleaning up the gardens and at the curb (leaves). Next year in will go my melons...the volunteer I had grow out of my compost bin put on twice as many melons as the pampered ones.

So I guess what I am saying is that it depends...it can be more and could be less.

I cut back on my household water during gardening season to make it economical. Water can be a $$ issue if you are not careful. My bill went up from $60 to $90. Last bill was back to $60 after being stingy with the household water.

I think we have a real food crisis brewing for the world....edible landscaping will be most important to feeding what is left of us when TEOTWAK arrives. So I would encourage you to keep growing.

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I supplement my garden with foraging.

Foraging is for those that love to reap what they have not sown...

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There are lots of fruit trees in my local and some of em are abandoned or neglected so I make good use of their produce.

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Lots of these blew down with the remnants of the last hurricane. Even if they have trouble ripening from being too green, they can be cooked.

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This summer I have added many new fruit tree to my 'adopted orchard' that others planted then abandoned.

I got 3 mulberry trees, 6 apple trees. 4 big juicy Europeans and seckel pear trees, an apricot tree, 2 peach trees, 7 black walnut trees, 3 pawpaw trees, hickory and butter nut trees, yew bush and a hawthorn.

Also some wild brambles and herbs like purslane and dandelion and rocket. And not to forget lots of wild grapes.

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Now, foraging does not always yield Martha Stewart quality produce. But that is the beauty of being a forager. We can take what others may overlook and get nourishment from it. And it yields some sort of strange satisfaction is stealing food back from the ants after they have stolen so much food from some of us.

Take this nasty looking apple. When I play doctor with it, I get half an apple and it taste good.

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So if your local is conducive to foraging, study it up and have many options for food production available to you if the world starts decomposing around you.

I think we have a real food crisis brewing for the world. Not enough young farmers replacing the old, we will run low of fertilizer as the NG dries up and that food which is grown is devoid of nutrition and not healthy. And to make matter worse, fewer people can even afford to buy produce.

With the recent food shortages in the news I have to wonder as Richard Heinberg brought up "Who will be growing our food 20 years from now?"

"The average American farmer is 55 to 60 years old. The proportion of full time farmers younger than 35 years of age has dropped from 15.9% in 1982 to 5.8% in 2002. Who will be growing our food 20 years from now?" from "Peak Everything" by Richard Heinberg

"Amish farmers can't compete in conventual agriculture farming. 40 years ago 90% to 95% of the Amish were farmers. Today less than 10% are farmers." from: "How the Amish Survive" DVD

And even if the farmers keep up with production, many people cannot afford the high prices of produce. At Krogers a butternut squash was $7, a large apple was $1.85, a rutabaga was $3, one medium size potato was $1.04, an artichoke near $5 and a lemon was $1.35, a bag of cherries was $14.75, ONE organic yam was $8.25.

And these high priced produce are being offered when times are still relatively good What will this stuff sell for when gas is $10 or $15 a gallon? Peak oil, peak NG, peak water and food as well as peak uranium will fuel mass starvation as our artificial and unsustainable world decomposes around us.

As people buy less produce due to affordability issues and the produce stops selling and rots on the shelves, the farmers will grow less produce that just rots unsold and less potential farmers will be entering that field.

Book and DVD list. All available from your local library.

Beyond Oil: the view from Hubbert's Peak
by Deffeyes, Kenneth S.
[url]http://www.princeton.edu/hubbert/[/url]

The Coming Economic Collapse - how you can thrive when oil costs $200 a barrel
by Leeb, Stephen

A Crude Awakening - the oil crash
Lava Productions AG, Switzerland DVD
[url]http://www.oilcrashmovie.com/[/url]

The End of Suburbia - oil depletion and the collapse of the American dream
by Greene, Gregory DVD
[url]http://www.endofsuburbia.com/[/url]

Fed Up
[url]http://www.amazon.com/Fed-Up-Angelo-Sacerdote/dp/B000CNGC6G[/url]

High Noon for Natural Gas: the new energy crisis
by Darley, Julian
[url]http://www.highnoon.ws/[/url]

The Long Emergency: surviving the converging catastrophes of the twenty-first century
by Kunstler, James Howard

Oil Apocalypse
History channel DVD

Peak Oil Survival: preparation for life after gridcrash
by McBay, Aric

Powerdown: options and actions for a post-carbon world
by Heinberg, Richard

Resource Wars: the new landscape of global conflict
by Klare, Michael T
[url]http://www.amazon.com/Resource-Wars-Landscape-Conflict-Introduction/dp/0805055762[/url]

A Thousand Barrels a Second: the coming oil break point and the challenges facing an energy dependent world
by Tertzakian, Peter

Twilight in the Desert: the coming Saudi oil shock and the world economy
by Simmons, Matthew R.
Well written book examining 12 of the key Saudi oil fields.

Who Killed the Electric Car?
Sony Pictures Classics release
[url]http://www.sonyclassics.com/whokilledtheelectriccar/[/url]

Zoom:the global race to fuel the car of the future
by Iain Carson and Vijay V. Vaitheeswaran.

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I've been to answer this question for a while.

First of all, if you're a newbie, it's going to be expensive. I've been gardening only about a year and I've made some mistakes but I can definetely say I'm learning a lot and yields have been significantly better over the past few times. You can't give up off the first failed attempt.

I think that gardening costs have to be split into two categories: capital investments and cost of goods. Capital investments depreciate over time.

Examples of capital investments include garden tools and soil. For instance, if you buy a shovel with a 25 year warranty for $25. You can't necessarily say that this year's gardening costs were $25 because of the shovel purchase. Technically, the shovel this year only cost you $1 because theoretically you'll continue to use that shovel for the next 25 years.

I count soil as a capital costs especially when it's the first time setting up your garden. This year I spent about 100 bucks on soil for container and in-ground garden. Even though I'll continue to spend money on soil and amendments, it definitely will not be $120 each year.

Cost of goods sold include fertilizer, water usage, transplants, seeds, etc. These costs will mostly be used in one or two years and are not held long-term.
Some ways to cut down on gardening:
The cheapest way to garden is to grow from seed and in ground. With direct-sow vegetables, you're already at an advatage.

Furthermore, it's the best exercise in the world. I've dropped some weight since clearing out 260 square feet of my yard for the garden.

Just my thoughts,

Matthew08

I think initially it can be a lot more expensive than just going to the grocery store and buying produce. You make a lot of mistakes, lose a lot of plants, and then there's the startup costs for tools, seeds, dirt, raised beds, fertilizer, or whatever else.

But as time goes on, it gets cheaper and cheaper. Supermarket produce is getting more and more expensive. Buying locally grown, organic produce from a store is out of reach for many people today. Compare that with going out to the yard and coming back in with some tomatoes, peppers, peaches, and a zucchini or two. It's vine or tree ripened. You know what goes into it. It didn't sit in a gas-guzzling truck or a warehouse for a couple weeks before it got to you. Whether it's cheaper or not, it's well worth it.

I inherited a peach tree when I bought my house. A lot of the peaches were stolen or ruined or went splat on the ground and were unusable. A lot spoiled before I could get to them to do anything with them. But so far this year, I have 14 quarts of peach slices, a loaf of peach bread, and 12 cups of peach jam in my freezer, not counting what I've baked into pies, crisps, more bread, and cobbler, and the peaches I simply ate. And I've still more peaches to process. There were some expenses, but basically the peaches were all free. Can't beat that.

I keep seeing news stories about more people turning to gardening, canning, and home cooking. We're now a trend! ;-)

Very true about the capital investment and on-going costs. Earlier this year I installed an irrigation system which was costly. We all have some fixed expenses no matter what. I mulch and I only irrigate from 4-6 am, really efficient system but we grow all our fruits/veggies and my water bill is the same as yours. Cannot collect what is not there to collect (I live in a desert sort of). I figure, my minimum water bill is $25/month (no matter if we use water or not), and just showering, doing laundry and dishes maybe it is $45-50, so all my garden beds costs me about $25 in extra water. That is the cost of 5 heirloom tomatoes from the farmers market.

I am still a novice (with some intensive recent experience) but I do have some cost saving pointers for you:

-Compost everything. Use your garden waste to mulch and I use the mulch and kitchen waste about 1:1 ratio (maybe different for your climate?) in my two compost piles. This will reduce your water consumption and your need for organic fertilizers. I hear you, my garden is also needing compost faster than I can produce it so I still have to introduce some. Maybe I can get some for free though?! (see my last pointer).

-I know some of you will wince, but the pee in a bucket trick still works (get the males in your household to contribute, they even like it.) dilute 1:10 and use once a month/plant for free nitrogen fertilizer.

-Sprout your pantry! For cover crops use beans, your pantry beans will give you bush beans. Some are good eating while green, some better when dried. I have planted many things from my pantry, the green amaranth is looking great, we have planted pop corn right from the bag and this works, plant fenugreek seed for methi greens! Plant mustard seeds, and guess what, mustard grows! I got chick pea from my pantry growing now as my winter cover crop (sprouted, yes!)

-Go to the store with an eye on what to plant. A recent trip produced some sprouting ginger which is now on the ground, some sprouting white potatoes now also on the ground, some blue/purple potatoes, ditto, and last but not least, some sprouting sweet potatoes. Bought 4 chayote squash to plant and 3 of the 4 have sprouted! The store produces some great seedlings indeed, expensive for food, but cheap compared to nurseries.

-Farmers market. Expensive produce, but hopefully organic and locally grown. I know you have a little one in NO (I have been to it!) so here is your source for nice flavorful peppers seeds and heirloom tomato seeds. You eat it and the seeds are free! Oh, perhaps a nice winter squash too?

-Trade seeds here! I did badly on tomatoes this year (and forgot to save last year), but my peppers are doing great, and I have a modest but growing seed list. Perhaps I can trade some of my nice heirlooms _________for some of your nice heirloom_______? Or we can trade multiple seed packs (still less than one ounce) so all it costs us is a postage stamp?

-Freecycle.org and Craigs list Free classified. I have gotten all my stones for my garden beds this way, I have gotten manure and compost this way, the other day someone was getting rid of a perfectly good composter! I have also seen seedlings advertised for free on freecycle.

I agree with the other posters about initial startup costs of tools. But you do not need many tools. Most it seems you can acquire over time, find at a yard sale or on Craigslist. This was my second year with a garden. I started seeds in my basement using two simple shop lights from Walmart using ordinary shop bulbs. I don't remember the price but it totaled approximately $30.00. For mulch I used two bales of straw, $4.00 each. Used soaker hoses under the straw, $8-$10 for 75 feet. The town next to my city has a dump site for yard waste. The town then allows the public to pick up free compost. I have also found many cost effective ideas right here on this site.

As Dennis and others say, economies of scale make a big difference. Last year I started maybe 500 plants from seed, enough to fill the garden, and I bought no produce from April to November more than paying for the seeds and soil amendments. This year I got off to a late start and was pressed for time so wound up spending more and getting less though still worth it to me for the fresh berries, tomatoes, herbs, etc.

There are plenty of compostable freebies for the asking bagged leaves, lawn clippings, animal bedding and manure, etc. A packet of seeds is usually 5 to 10 times more than you need, so you can save by sharing the costs with other gardeners. And it's easy to save seed for most veggies after you plant the first season. I think you could probably grow $1000 worth of vegetables on $200 a year if you were determined.

But I don't think I'd count on saving money from gardening to make ends meet.

I do have a picket fence and raised beds! Most of the garden is surrounded by the 6 foot privacy fence that came with the house and my husband put up a picket fence going from the corner of the house to the back fence to keep our Jack Russell out of the garden area. His presence keeps the raccoons from stealing the peaches and seems to keep them out of the garden area as well. (maybe they don't realize he can't get through the fence?) Raised beds and the square foot method give much greater yield and cuts pest and weed problems. We could have bought a lot of produce for the cost of the fence, raised beds, compost, and seeds. The thing is, we would always have to buy more produce. I got all open-pollinated varieties and I save seed. I will never have to buy seeds again. Once you get your start-up costs back it's all profit. I will never have to buy produce in the store again! My little children eat fresh, seasonal food right out of the garden. So to answer your question (finally), in the long run the payoff for growing your own and saving seed is huge. Don't give up.

I know I commented that no it is not cheaper but being a newbie I realize I seriously have to concentrate on yeild rather than horsing around with little bits of huge variety. I now know some things are easier to grow than others and I have to respect and change my approach to make it work and I really can see how it WILL be cheaper infact significantly if done right ,'according to my ability and experience' . None of us have to be sucked in to expensive and elaborate fertilizers , bug protection , and garden design along with everything else on the shelves to make it a high priced experience . Even urban dwellers do just fine gardening in buckets where even good soil is hard to find . I see a better future if I just apply a little more common sense and be practical rather than playing fantasy with a garden of everything but thats the mistake I'm sure all of us make in the begining . Good Planning is 99% of the battle ...a battle worth every minute you put into it and the result is rewarding beyond anything I could have ever expected . I don't know why I used the word battle because it really is a pleasure to see crops you could have never imagined all free for the picking . It leaves you with a sense of pride and try to beat standing in the middle of something which surrounds you with everything your taste buds could desire its quite a feeling! Fruits and veggies galore ....sigh what more can I say ....

My garden COULD have been cost-effective. My big expenditures were a wood and wire fence to keep the dogs out, and wood for raised beds. I also opted for a drip line system on a time for convenience, and dropped about $50 on a pre-fab compost bin. None of these things were necessary, but I consider my garden to be enjoyable, as well as netting me delicious and nutritious foods, so I don't mind. If we stay in this house, I have no doubt that the investment will repay itself within about 2 more years ($800 invested divided by 4 years, easily harvesting and consuming $200+ in veggies each year).

If I did not splurge on the fencing, wood raised beds, compost bin and drip line system, I would have almost no investment in my garden, aside from seed and a hose. Water is from an irrigation system that is paid for once a year as a tax, so money out of pocket for water is basically nil. We pay the tax whether or not we use the water. Also, if I had more time and was more diligent, I could most likely double the yield from my garden, and preserve about 4x as much food, which would make it increasingly cost-effective.

This was the first year for my garden. I built two 4'x 10' raised beds (about 15" high) this spring. The lumber was free (re-used deck boards)and all that filled them was free (composted horse manure, hay, straw, leaves, pine needles, chicken manure, a little bit of fill dirt, and coffee grounds), but did cost me some gas to gather (I'm guessing $30 or $40??) I used free wood mulch for the rest of the garden area. I built a compost bin and potato box, also with free materials.

I paid just about $35 for seeds and plants I think. Most were seeds, and I have some left over for next year. I also harvested some seeds from my peas, just to try it out.

I started tracking yields in August. Before I kept track, the bulk of my green beans and sugar snap peas came in (I'd guess a few pounds). Lettuce, spinach, and radishes weren't measured either.

In August & Sept, I harvested (approximately):
6.5# yellow and green beans (mostly yellow)
28 cucumbers 6-8" about 12# (more are coming)
19 zuchinni 6-8" about 11# (more are coming)
2 dozen ears of corn (varying quality though - need to work on those a little...)
3# carrots
12 tomatoes (more are coming)
6# onions
a couple peppers (about 12 more on the plants)

I already owned most of the garden tools, but I did purchase a manure fork to turn my compost ($30) and a chipper/shredder (used, $60). I also purchased a roll of irrigation tubing (about $12) and a couple of sheer curtains from Goodwill (maybe $15??) to protect the garden from hail and hopefully a light frost.

I am gathering more freebies for my planned expansion this fall. Just tonight, I got a bucket of strawberry runners/plants (haven't counted yet, probably 50 or so??) free from someone thinning out their bed. By next spring, I should have a little more than double the growing space I had this year. I also have a little more time, so I'll use less gas gathering items (I can be a little pickier about how far I'll drive to get stuff). I will be planting more veggies (giving some things a bit more space than I did this year, it's a little crowded), and I plan to add strawberries, raspberries and hopefully blackberries next year.

I'm pretty close to penciling out if you don't count the tools I think. The fork will last for years, and hopefully the others will make it several seasons to level out the costs. I don't really know the price of produce during peak season, so I really am guessing. I know the fresh green beans I saw at the store before mine were ready looked so bad, I went for the frozen! The quality was good, and we ate a MUCH healthier diet this last couple months. Lots more veggies than if I were purchasing the produce. I didn't have much to freeze unfortunately. I was out of town when the green beans were in full swing, and hubby wasn't into freezing. He took them to work (sharing is good too though, I also have given some to the neighbors).

I'm also in much better shape than I started out the summer. Pretty much ALL the stuff to build and fill the garden, I hauled myself. DH was out of town when I built the first 2 beds. He has helped a little with the expansion, but since I'm not working right now, I do most of that work during the week. I need to work on the expansion this fall, first because I have to go back to work, and second, I'm quitting smoking (about 6 weeks now, after 19 years), and need to burn off the "extra" that's trying to catch up with me (I eat WAY too many cookies and such).

So, now that I have written this LONG post (sorry!), I think it CAN be cheaper, over the next few years it WILL be cheaper, but it sure was WORTH it! I'm looking forward to next year!

I'm one of those who tends to plant a little bit of everything, but I'm still a beginner, and I look on it as gathering information. Some varieties do better in my little backyard microclimate. Some tank. Some I like the taste of better than others. Some keep better than others. I'm still at the experimenting stage.

My goal is to have a lot of my food come from my garden. Salad, potatoes, and zucchini from my garden with peach cobbler for dessert. Homegrown berries on my cereal in the morning, or peach bread with peach jam. Homemade lasagna with homemade pasta sauce, zucchini, and spinach. I'd have to get grains and meat from the store, but a lot of the rest would be guaranteed organic and fresh.

One of the big expenses I eventually want to do is to build a root cellar, either in the garage or the basement. I don't think I could do that myself, so I'm sure I'd have to hire someone. Although most remodeling and home improvement contractors think more along the lines of "man caves," wet bars, and media centers than some place to put the potatoes and garlic for the winter.

My yard is 3/4 acres with a large house, large garage, flower beds, large lawn, many trees and a veggie garden. This summer I barely bought a vegetable. The garden gave us lettuce, spinach, onions. carrots, potatoes, tomatoes, cucumbers, peas, beans, cabbage, zucchini, yellow squash, strawberries, asparagus, blackberries, kale, broccoli, celery, turnips, garlic, brussels spouts leeks and many kind of herbs.

My freezer is full with bags of beans, corn, peas, some blackberries, broccoli also zucchini bread.

I have canned tomato sauce, strawberry jam, blackberry dessert topping two batches each of bread and butter pickles and dill pickles.
kind
I have also picked windfall apples. I made pie and canned apple sauce and apple butter. Allenwrench, I also forage when I can. What did you do with the yew berrie?

One major expense that has been neglected is the value of your labor. Since the gardening is considered a hobby or fun activity, we usually don't assign any value to it, but if you are comparing the cost of gardening to the cost of fruits and veggies in the store, you should be factoring this in. I think my cantaloupes came in this year at about $20/lb.

That said, as a general rule you can't compare the fruits and veggies from the store with the ones you grow. The stores don't even come close to comparable quality due to the demands of mass handling and transportation/distribution.

In terms of cash costs, it costs me between $50-100/yr for my gardens--approximately 1/4 acre in all. I am interested in getting great quality produce with reasonable effort, regardless of whether it fits into the currently popular marketing ideology of "organic" or what I guess they would call "inorganic" when modern chemistry is in play. If a herbicide will help with the weeds, it goes on. If the ground needs fertilizer, I add it. At the same time, I don't use anything that isn't needed--if the bugs aren't bothering, I don't spray, a hoe can do a much better job than any herbicide in many situations. My soil runs around 5-6% organic matter compared to I also overlook a lot of costs that aren't direct, such as water, though if broken out it probably adds up to $5.00 in pumping well water and $10 in ditch assessments and water taxes, the cost of 50lbs. of nitrogen that was pulled out of a fertilizer cart before it went to the field, the gallon or so of gas from the fuel tank that went into the tiller. My seeds are saved from crops that produce seed well, or purchases from the 10/$1 racks each year. I do buy most of my tomato and pepper plants, but grow my chiles since the greenhouses don't have the New Mexican varieties I like, and never try to save seed corn since it is hybrid. I already have the other tools--hoe, shovel, pickle fork, sprayer, gas tiller, manure spreader & loader for the manure, truck tarps for protecting against frost in the fall, etc.

The point in all of this is that you have some startup costs getting the equipment and systems you want in place, then they will last for years. Many of your inputs can be temporarily requisitioned from their normal uses after that and it doesn't cost that much, but it does require quite a large investment in time because you are producing small quantities of many different things rather than growing 20 acres of one crop which you can highly automate.

The result of gardening, though, is that it is a great source of excercise and mental relaxation and the quality of the produce is many times superior to what you can get in stores or restaurants. Choose a production method you like or that intrigues you and go with it and feel free to mix the types.

That's one cost that can be deducted for a gardener, exercising costs. Bally or 24 Hour Fitness costs. Running shoes cost. Weights cost. A treadmill or bowflex probably costs more than a greenhouse or wood chipper. (Having none of them, I don't know.) Raking, hoeing, digging, planting, hauling bags of dirt, carrying pots, weeding, all of that can be very strenuous exercise. Gardening is a lot more than poking seeds into little peat pots and going out and snipping off half a dozen roses for a centerpiece. Speaking for the weeds in my garden, they're tough. They fight back. I put a lot of arm and shoulder muscle into trying to drag out a weed with a 2-3 foot long tap root.

Of course, this is only a three-season regimen. Not much energy goes into flipping through seed catalogs in the winter. :-)

But then there's shoveling snow....

In the winter, my poor dogs might get walked again...
They enjoyed several walks a week last winter, as I was very much enjoying my first sunny Colorado winter (as long as I took them out before the wind kicked up in the afternoon). An Alaska winter will make you appreciate the warm sunshine for sure!

Right now, I have a 5'x 10' trailer loaded with mulch (I think a couple yards maybe?) that I need to unload so I can pay another visit to the horse boarding place for another trailer full of horse poo, or some spoiled hay, I haven't decided which first. Maybe half & half?? All to be unloaded a scoop at a time, loaded into my garden cart, hauled through the gate (can't quite drive TO the garden...) and unloaded.

Don't need to pay those gym fees... I'm expanding the garden...

It's a good thing you weren't here the winter before. You'd think you were back in Alaska. We had a "blizzard of the week" winter.

Around here, I can buy a 1 lb bag of baby carrots, cleaned, for about $2.50. I know if I were to pull my own from my garden that I've grown, and hand scrubbed them to get them that clean, I'd be charging $10! But those are locally grown by the hutterite colonies, not shipped in from afar. I believe they must have some gizmo to mass wash their carrots, like they've got one for shelling peas with little effort (made out of wood and paddles).

I think a lot of our produce is subsidized by government, and then that makes the stuff we grow seem more expen$ive. If the real cost of growing and transport was passed directly to us (instead of being part of our tax dollars where we don't see what's being allocated where), more people would want to grow their own.

I kept track most of this year and even though I spent lavishly on the garden, adding irrigation and loads of compost, I still came out way ahead. I spent about $400 and had harvested around $800 worth of produce when I quit tracking early last month. I tried to approximate average grocery store prices. If I compared it to similar produce, organically grown, it would be worth notably more. The numbers would have been even better had I been able to keep up with harvesting and preserving, too much went to waste.

I posted earlier in this discussion and I can tell you this. It is cheaper to grow than buy. It is all in how you do it. Do you have beautiful redwood/cedar raised beds or do you til up a part of your yard? Do you buy your plants or raise from seed? Do you fertilize with compost and manure or bagged fertilizer.

beeone, made a great comment about labor.

I find if you grow 1 or 2 things, your labor is going to be very high. However, the more you grow, your labor actually decreses per plant, to a point.

Growing up as a farmer, it took as much time to fire up the tractor and go feed 1 cow as it did 10 cows. However, that cost and time is less per cow with 10 than with 1.

So, if you grow 1 tomato, grow 10. Your labor won't be much more, if you have the space.

Since I sell produce at Farmers Markets, I feel that people pay me for produce, produce that I also eat! It is like I get paid to feed my family!

If you think it cheaper to buy than to grow tell me this. Last year I raised almost 1.5 tons of produce out of my garden. I weighted every single green bean, tomato, cuc, potato, pepper, squash, asparugus, okra, and etc! Looking back at it, that was crazy! How much would that have cost to go and buy? I can tell you it cost less than $200 to put everything in, minus my time.

This year I only kept track of a few things. How much would it cost to buy 700 pounds of tomatoes, 1350 pounds of potatoes and 300 cucumbers?

In my eyes, growing is cheaper!

I'll add my two cents too. I used to spend quite a bit of money on the various things we have already discussed. I buy lots of seeds through the winter from various mail order companies, mainly because it makes me happy and I like getting a little variety. DH is thankful that I'm not into shoes or jewelry, LOL. I have dedicated the last few years to trying to cut some costs due to a son getting married, a son graduating, and recovering from our move last year.

Something that has saved me a few pennies is to just try to snap up as many seed packets when they go on clearance at the end of the summer. Not a lot of variety, generally, but all are pretty much classic varieties that people have grown for years. I do the same for seed-starting flats. I picked up 4 last fall for about $1 each at Dollar General. When I looked at them at Walmart in the spring, the same thing was almost $7 each. If you start from seed, there will be some initial cost for setting up and a learning curve to deal with. If you plan a small garden, you could probably get by with a couple of shop lights under a counter or shelf. Lighting is critical so it's not something you want to try to do without. I know, I'm getting off the subject ;)

I think you can't really put a price on your time and/or enjoyment. Some things probably aren't cost effective to raise on your own but infinitely better both in terms of quality and your own satisfaction in yourself and your produce.

I appreciate and envy a commitment to be organic but this year has taught me that I just can't do it here. Next year I will use some moderate chemical controls as well as early organic methods such a floating row covers to help with cabbage worms, etc. Mulch is expensive but a necessity for several reasons. I wish I could offer better advice in the irrigation department but I face the same problems. I plan at least for part of my garden to have drip hose next year. I wish it could be a fancy set-up but that isn't in the cards until later. So, I don't know the answer as to the cost-effectiveness of gardening but I know it's definitely WORTH it. Lori

Oh, and I meant to add that I love allenwrench's thoughts on foraging! I've done a bit of that myself and a lot of trades with neighbors and friends who have fruit- too much to deal with for my eggs. Some are neighbors who are getting older and don't want to deal with all the fruit beyond what they need. I also raided a tree at the fair grounds where the apples were ripe and falling to the ground. I got several buckets of apples, free for the picking, to feed my chickens a treat each day. The spots you see on the fruit in his pictures does not impact the taste or quality of the fruit. I merely washed it off. Plus, a lot of the apples I had to peel anyway. Lori

I think I came out ahead this year. My raspberries cost close to nothing except for the new variety I added, my tomatoes were only a few dollars each and paid for themselves easily, and my cucumber seeds and my pepper plant were free. I did have to rent a tiller to make the new beds, but I'd have to do that anyway since I was adding a new rose bed. I didn't water much as we got a lot of rain this year, and I have a tendency to skimp on the fertilizer. I don't bother spraying for bugs either. I suppose the new blueberries were expensive since I actually had to prepare the soil and only got one berry from them, but they'll be worth it eventually.

For me though the real benefit to all this is that I eat healthier. I eat much better when all I have to do is walk into the yard and pick something. I normally have a hard time justifying tomatoes for my sandwiches at grocery store prices, but when all I have to do is buy a plant in the spring and water it once in a while to get all the tomatoes I can eat, well that is worth a ton to me. And having a bunch of fruit and vegetables that I put effort into growing puts pressure on me to actually eat them. How much is good health worth?

Also, I love gardening, and I'd be growing something anyway, so why not an edible?

I just went to the grocery store - holy cow... prices are increasing each time I go. Our initial investment in sfg beds is a little pricey but we used cinder blocks and we never have to replace them. So next year we will just reap the benefit! Yea!

I think that once you get over the initial expenses, it is much cheaper to grow than to buy. Our garden has been established long enough that we don't have to buy much, if any, commercial amendments. (Of course, having our own walking Fertilizer Factory out in the pasture probably helps, too ;^) !)

Some variation of this thread appears every year. There is a saying among the wealthy: "If you have to ask how much it costs, you can't afford it". My take on vegetable gardening might be similar: "If the only reason you garden is to save money, don't".

The economy of scale has already been well covered. The vast majority of gardeners simply do not have enough land under cultivation to have a significant effect on the annual food budget. Even for those with sufficient land, it takes several years to recover the capital expenses for the equipment required to work such a large area, and store the harvest. On that scale, the time required to process the harvest also becomes significant... when certain vegetables are ready, they must be processed immediately, and it can make for some late nights.

On any scale, however, gardening represents our need to feel self-sufficient, to have at least some control over our own food supply.

But the basic premise of the original question concerns comparing home grown produce to store bought; and in my mind, there is no comparison. Assuming that a gardener limited themselves to only the few vegetable varieties grown commercially (which would be foolish, IMO), they would still be be fresher & fully ripened. For those concerned about their health, there is also the piece of mind that comes from knowing what is not in home-grown produce, and I'm not just referring to pesticides & fertilizers. In the wake of the recent E. coli outbreaks, the FDA has now approved treatment of vegetables by radiation. Quite frankly, that scares the (whale) out of me.

Personally, I can't compare what I grow to store bought - because most of the varieties I grow are not commercially available. They don't sell "Brandywine" tomatoes, "Fortex" beans, heatless jalapeno peppers, or radish pods. I can't buy fresh-shelled beans, limas, or cowpeas. As a gardener, I can choose the stage at which I harvest something; I can pick green beans at the tender filet stage, or allow them to get larger for canning. And while the sweet corn that I grow is a hybrid, I know that it is not GMO.

Someone has mentioned that when considering cost, you need to factor in the time spent. Unless you are growing for profit, that is irrelevant - and then you are farming, not gardening. Most of us garden for the love of it; we enjoy the sunshine, the exercise, watching things grow, and the joy of the harvest. It is, as a hobby, perhaps a healthier alternative to other pastimes.

More than that, there is the pleasure that comes from creating something beautiful, of watching planning & labor come together to produce something that is uniquely ours. We each build our own private Eden, our own Da Vinci painted on a brown canvas. A canvas which is wiped clean each Fall. :-( Thank heaven for digital cameras. :-)

Truth be told, most gardeners would probably come out in the red, in terms of cost vs. produce. But the flavor of home-grown, and the intangible gains from gardening - priceless.

louisianagal,

after reading this post from the beginning and many posts later i still think i can add a different perspective and maybe some ideas for u.

what do you WANT from your garden ? is it your lifes super hobby with a basically unlimited budget to make it successful and enjoyable ? a lifes necessity to help u survive ? i imagine somwhere in between like most of us.

i'm a tweener. my super hobbies are hunting and fishing. i use the best guns and rods i can afford when much cheaper models would do the job. i pursue my hobbies from alaska to africa when i can do both within walking distance from my porch. as for my garden its a minor hobby and i'm not about to buy a cropduster and put in a landing strip or purchase a top of the line kubota or massey ferguson. ( i would except that would put the cost of my veggies over the top. i'd have to pay for flying lessons and replace the buckets and containers my primary garden resides in. just can't figure out how to drive in and out of buckets without breaking them...teehee).

from my garden i WANT quality produce and enjoyment. part of the fun of a garden is the challenge of growing food and saving money. saving money is like beating the system ! much like going to vegas and counting cards. :)

my first year gardening began this past winter when i decided to grow hot peppers in buckets. it expanded to sweet peps,maters,squash,horseradish,beans and cukes of different varieties. extra seedlings went inground along with the squashes,cukes and beans.

the costs this year : less than 20 bucks for containers
" " 5 " " seeds
" " 9 " " grow lights
" " 13 " " 2 peat trays
" " 25 " " potting soil
" " 4 " " fertilizer
" " 2 " " epsom salts
" " 11 " " horseradish
fixed costs less than 89 smackers. with an exhorbitant guess at electricity for running my grow lights and pumping my well water , i would say my total gardening costs were less than 100 dollars.

most likely i recovered that costs and more from my harvest of maters or squash or peppers. got a few beans and some cukes but not an abundance. planted 4 sets of horseradish that i will start harvesting next year and should never have to purchase again. traded extra pepper seedlings for 8 quarts of cherry-plums.

as a whole it was a resounding success.enjoyment,better quality and SAVED MONEY.

i can reuse my containers,grow lights,peat trays(greenhouses) and potting soil (will mix in with new next season). next years costs will be seeds,peat pellets,fertilizer and more potting soil. with an expanded garden i figure my fixed costs will be less than 40 dollars plus a little electricity.

if your into fruit u can also make it as cheap or expensive as you desire.

i have a little wildlife enhancement project for my property that i'm engaged in. part of this project includes adding 200-300 fruit trees. at first i had just figured on planting pomme fruits. got to thinking about it and decided to plant trees from early to late season harvest dates. mulberries and cherries to start in june and finish with apples and pears in nov. am choosing varieties within each category to provide an extended harvest from early to late with overlapping harvest dates. i always planned on getting 1st shot at the fruit anyway with the wildlife getting the balance. they also don't care what variety or cultivar is planted they'll chow down. they'd eat me if i don't keep moving. am doing the same with nut trees for my own use as well as wildlife.

to help keep costs down on my fruit trees i reuse old fencing for protection along with fences made with logs and brush used like a boma. with the price of fencing my per tree cost could go as high as 50 bucks easily.

to further stretch my project dollars i'm going to learn to graft this coming spring. rootstock and scions are cheaper than grafted retail trees. used in combination with my grafted purchases my dollars will buy more reforestation trees and such that will help make my project successful.

i also enjoy foraging for berries,nuts and mushrooms.

nothing can compare to having a meal where u provided your own protein,veggies and fruit.

as to what to grow figure out your own personal food CPI. i can't justify paying 5 bucks for potato sets when i can buy all the potatos i can use in a year for less than that.

also do believe volume and preserving your food will help reduce your food costs. i'm right now enrolled in a food preservation class that includes canning,freezing and dehydrating. i think i have the freezing down pat, i froze some shredded zucchini and i'll be darned if 2 days later i pulled it out and it was hard as a rock.

hope this helps u a bit. if it does it was worth the time to type it all in. my fellow garden webbers have and continue to help me.

good luck !

wildlifeman

Someone may have already said this, but I am head-injured, forget quickly, and this is a long post.

That said, I believe the first year of a garden may be the most expensive. In part, I think that people buy what they need and get to work. The list may include bags of cow manure, peat moss, and other amendments. Many also buy started plants. A book or two and a magazine subscription may round out the purchases.

Well, I say, "If it's free, it's for me!" I try to get as much as I can for free, or for my own labor. For example, a large tree was heavily trimmed and ground up, and I asked the guys to dump the chips in my yard (2 doors down). They did, and it made my beds look nice, and added organic matter that has slowly worked into the soil. I DID buy a couple of bags of peat moss for a very specific purpose: blueberry bushes and other acid-loving fruit. As for cow manure, FREEEEEEE! I asked at the local feed store, and they have some cattle out back, and the guy said yes. Getting to know your neighbors is important. He even gave me permission to shut off the electric fence and got it any time I want (after the first time). There is a bull, and he probably wanted to see if I knew what I was doing first. Another neighbor has 50 or so chickens. I said I'd clean out the coops if I could have the poop! I started a new bed with that. I plant corn right in fresh manure--it can handle it. The corn is for the chickens I have anyway. Next year the bed will be ready for anything thanks to the corn mellowing the new poo. I also have 2 friends with lots of bunnies. My favorite poo amendment is bunny. It is dry & pelleted-like a slow release fertilizer. If it is mixed in and not in a clump, I use it fresh, and have had no trouble. If you see someone raking, ask for their leaves.

Gardening tools can be an expense, but you may find some at yard sales. Really, my main tools are a long-handled shovel, and an iron rake. I use those more than anything. A hoe is useful too. Don't buy every tool. Many of them will sit in the shed while the shovel & rake do most of the work.

Don't buy fancy "pea netting" and such. Poke brush into the ground to support your peas. For bean poles, my vining beans either run up corn or sunflowers. Then, I don't have to store the poles either. That way I get free & tasty staking!

Share with a neighbor. Sometimes, one neighbor can grow the beefsteaks and another, the sauce tomatoes. You can also trade work or lend tools if you have good neighbors. One neighbor roto-tilled and helped cut a tree of the house, and my husband helped him with some carpentry.

My largest regular expense is indoor seed-starting. I got my lights for free (they were headed for the dump), and I got mark-down flats with the little cells in them. The seed starting mix is where my expense is because I do not want to deal with damping off or other soil-borne diseases that I could bring in with the garden soil. When I run out of flats, I will make cedar ones (scrap from my husband's bird house-making. SEEDS can get crazy. In February, the local drug store has seed for sale at 10 cents/pack. If those are the varieties you want, then those seeds are perfectly good. Walmart is also reasonable on seed.

Learn how to save your own, and trade for the seeds you want right here on Garden Web! It will cost you the postage of trading, and you can get very interesting varieties.

Plenty of gardening freebies abound. Use them to lower your costs. As mentioned, rain barrels are good too.

After the first year, expenses should go down.
Good Luck,
Robin

Think of all the gas you save not driving back and forth to the store so much. I have been gardening for over 50 years, started helping my dad when I was 5, and mainly do it because I love to garden. Here in CA, water is the most expensive part. I conserve with drippers and soakers and water early in the morning. I have 3 compost piles, 2 greenhouses, and raised beds. I save my own seeds and do trades. I like the fact that I use no chemicals so I know whatever I grow is safe to eat. And I can grow all kinds of veggies you can't find at the regular grocery store like heirlooms and unusual varieties. And I garden all year long here in CA so I make the garden pay for itself. But mainly do it because I love the taste of fresh ripe veggies and fruit. Nothing can beat that.

As many have said, the more you put into the start up the more cost efficient the future is. In my case my sandy loam soil needed lots of compost so I bought it by the truck load and had it dumped. It only cost $120 which may sound like a lot but it has held up for years (5 years I believe) with annual addition of my own compost. No rototilling, no digging, I just cleared the leaves and debris out of the way and had them dump it and I spread it out into a large rectangular shape. To control weeds I cover the entire garden with a sheet of thick black plastic which I have cut holes into (about 8 inches around, in rows about 3 feet apart, some rows have holes every 3 feet and others every 2 feet). In the winter I grow stuff in half the garden, the black plastic keeps things warm. In the summer I cover the plastic with wheat straw left over from the towns halloween decorations (FREE). I gather them before they haul them off and store them in stacks beside the garden and then spread it around when things get warm in the spring. I do hardly any weeding all summer long, not because I don't have any (there are some, but the garden doesn't get overrun with them) but because I am too busy harvesting and putting up produce. After things cool off in the fall I yank out the summer plants (which are pretty shot by that time), remove any weeds, pull up the plastic and dump all the rotting straw onto the garden soil, add compost and maybe rake things out to smooth it and then replace the plastic and start it up all over again. All the hard work that other gardeners complain about, I don't experiece. I weed my flowerbeds but not the veggie garden. I water my flowerbeds but not my veggie garden. Its all because I use that giant sheet of plastic.

People out there are always finding new ways to garden. You just need to be flexible and experiment and see what way works best for you. There are ways to grow food that costs less than grocery store produce even when you consider all the hidden costs.

This is such a great question as I have pondered it myself while gardening. It is true I get so much more out of gardening than just the monetary cost, but in today's economy, every dollar counts in a young family like ours. In an effort to have more organic produce available at a "sustainable" price (LOL), I decided to try growing my own. The following are my challenges and what I've done. Hopefully it can help you:
Poor soil = Raised Beds: We have clay marl in this area, not conducive to veggie gardening. So I decided to do a raised bed. Cedar lumber, railroad ties, and pavers (recommended for raised beds) are all quite expensive so I went on www.freecycle.com and craigslist.com. I was able to get 200 pavers / bricks for $20.
Droughts in Central FL = Expensive Water: The raised beds help conserve H20 bc you are watering a smaller area more efficiently. I added soaker hoses I found in a neighbor's trash (really). Cost was zero. Mulch is free at a local park where the county gov't shreds it, puts it in a pile and you just have to bring your own container. I'm sure your county has a similar set-up.
Soil: Now this was expensive. A 2.5 cf bag of garden or potting soil is about $10 here and the bed I have takes about 10 bags. So I scoured the net for Home Depot and Lowes coupons. I found several $10 off of $25 purchase. So I methodically bought my soil in $25 purchase increments in order to get the $10 savings. I spent some more on compost because I don't have a compost pile. I add calcium to my tomatoes by saving egg shells.
Transplants vs. Seeds: It's nice to have an instant garden with transplants but inflation has hit them too. They are much more costly now. You can get seeds for 1/3 the price and have 20 to 50 more plants. Plus transplants often have diseases and pests from the nursery which you are INTRODUCING to your new 'virgin' garden! So, I buy the seeds and follow the french intensive/sq. foot garden method. Jiffy mix + pots works too but that was too costly this year.
Pests and Diseases: Unfortunately, here in FL we have year round bugs, fungus and blights. I have tried very hard to go homegrown organic, but so far I have failed. I had to resort to buying Organocide ($15) in order to treat blight in my tomatoes. Today I found corn earworms in my corn and fruitworms in my tomatoes. A cursory net search revealed that the preferred organic control (a predatory wasp) is $90. Yeah, who can afford that? So, tomorrow I am going to buy some BT at $9 a bottle at Home Depot. It's not conventional pesticide, true....but I'd rather get the wasps!

So far, the major costs have been pest / disease control. If you want to plant a garden on the cheap- you definitely can....just think outside of the box and ignore all of the glossy Lowes/Ace/HD ads...they just want your $$$$$$$...scour the net/eBay for coupons, check out freecycle and craigslist. You can even rent power tools for FREE from local libraries (check out swap and borrow sites).
GOOD LUCK!!!!

Some of the inputs into a garden SEEM expensive on paper. This year, I spent $60, roughly, with the shipping, for a 2 ounce bottle of Merit 75WP to treat my fruit trees. This along with some mancozeb ($14) was really all I sprayed with.

However, the little bottle of Merit makes about 400 gallons of spray. This is enough for TWO years. The mancozeb of course, only made enough for ONE spraying, but it was the crucial first one at petal fall.

However, when I look at the tremendous amount of fruit I have gathered this year, the cost is pretty minimal. I had plenty of cherries for my needs (not full production yet, the trees are all still young), TONS of peaches, some nice plums (same thing, young trees), many, many bushels of pears. I picked 9 bushels of pears yesterday, 10 bushels of apples, 2 more bushels of pears tonight, with 3 bushels, roughly, of pears to go. At least another 10 bushels of apples out there as well.

Free fertilizer summary:

- N (nitrogen). Human urine (one person) provides urea at a rate well in excess of the needs of a large garden. Save in large bucket and dilute with water before use. Apply to the garden when fertilizer is indicated, to the compost pile in winter.

A bed grown with pulses typically does not need N fertilization this year or the next.

- P and K. Wood ash. Give a trash can to anyone who eats with wood, and go pick it up in the spring. Wood ash has a pH of 10.4, is about 50% Ca, has a lot of Mg, and P and K percentages are 1-3 and 4-7 (N is zero). Other micronutrients are also present in abundance (e.g. Mn, Cu, Zn).

Excellent also for acid soil, since veggies prefer near neutral. A large garden with acid soil will absorb one trash can per year. One handful per tomato plant, plus even watering, will eliminate BER.

(sorry, a truly P rich fertilizer still needs to be bought unless you have the means to grind bones)

Free amendments:

- in urban areas, bags of leaves (right now in many parts of the country). Collect them down your street and store out of the way for use in summer as mulch/worm food. Not many nutrients in there, but makes the finest soil, specially for lettuce and other greens.

- wood chips. Delivered free to your driveway by tree companies, they have similar mineral content to wood ash but are quite acid (pH around 4). On decaying, they produce soil which is near neutral. Excellent for all brambles and fruit trees, as well as non edible perennials and all acid loving plants, they can also be used right away in the garden, specially to mulch tomatoes, squash, and string beans.

In particular, you can dig a trench or prepare a new bed, fill it with chips, plant potatoes in it, pee in it a few times, and potatoes will grow. Next year, the trench will be composted enough to grow squash in there, and the year after, just about anything as the bed has good soil now.

Wood chips are truly free in that they are delivered to you at no cost. But often you may get 30 cubic yards and you have to shovel a lot.

- various yard and kitchen waste, of course, though not in the amounts that you need when you start a garden. They are generally good for maintenance of your beds (maintain worm population) but no more. Kitchen waste is very high in N.
Free compost bins can be made out of free pallets from the supermarket.

- Starbucks coffee and manure: need to drive there, so it costs gas, and in the case of manure you have to shovel twice.

Productive but not free amendments:

- by injecting your wood chip beds with mushroom spawn, you get the good soil earlier, and you get the edible mushrooms too. You are still paying once to get two things. www.fungi.com.

glib,
If you're lucky, you can get manure from a someone with a tractor, then you only shovel once...

It does pay off... here's a numbers/financials guy who tracked it down to the penny! The GRS Garden Project

I love this tread, I can't garden right now, job, sorry I had to say that. I have no input on if it cheaper or not. It's just that someone said they made salas, homemade, fresh from the garden salas, I've been eatting store bought. How about chow-chow or corn relish, does anybody make watermelon pickels anymore?

Sorry one more thing, I remember reading that okra can grow up to 15 feet high in Texas. I bought my daughter a jar at the store, because she away at college and paided near $5.00 for pickeled okra, wow.

For me it is. I rarely have too add compost because I do add leaves (free) in the fall to all my beds. For a nitrogen kick, I use fresh coffee grounds from Star bucks (free). I garden to preserve water so water is spent only on seeds and seedlings for the most part. I reuse all my garden hardware.

My biggest expenses were starting out. I invested in really good tools (Yes, that spade cost me fifty bucks but it's lasted about 10 years...). My two seed-starting setups cost me a couple hundred bucks to set up once and for all. Now I just spend about 30 bucks a year on new lightbulbs and about the same on seed starting mix.

Seeds are a nothing expense because I don't buy expensive varieties. The 20 cent seeds at the local store is enough. I save seeds whenever it's practical for things I use yearly, such as black-seeded simpson lettuce (a prolific reseeder!), bloomsdale long standing spinach and cherry belle radishes. And I grow things that cost too much at the store. Namely, Tomatoes, radishes, beets, turnips, chicory, parsnip, carrots, corn, lettuce, peppers leeks asparagus, snap peas, endive... etc. You know, the real expensive stuff. Plus it's all organic! So tack on $1 a lb when you do calculations.

It's true it's expensive to start out, but most of the time (if you buy really good stuff) it's a one time expense. Most other things become free as you go along such as compost, mulch, cloches, transplanting containers and other pots.

I reckon I grow about $100 bucks of zucchini alone! LOL I disguise it as zuke bread though with cream cheese frosting so my neighbors think it's cake.

Gardening is so totally worth it.

One thing no one seems to consider is the value of the land you are gardening on. Here in southern California a typical price for land in a suburban area would be around $50 a square foot, so obviously if you had to go out and buy some land to garden on it would not be cost effective. But if the land is part of your lot and you weren't going to sell it or build another house on it then I guess you shouldn't consider it part of the cost. Also, if you already owned the land and were going to grow grass on it instead of gardening, the cost of watering the garden or lawn would probably be about the same so if you were going to put a lawn on the land if you didn't garden the cost of water could be left out too. But for myself, the money I spent on a rototiller and garden tools and compost and fertilizer and potting soil and plants and seeds and electricity for grow lights probably is ten times the value of the food I grew, but I still will keep doing it because its my hobby.