Great question Gardengirl but consider each of us has different sized growing areas and each of us have different lengths of growing seasons. Also consider that some of us are willing to pay high prices for new seed or varieties that cost more than other varieties. (Example - Delphinium HYBRID New Mellinium approx $28 for 100 seeds) In Texas for example I grow year round although my selling season is 9-10 months long. I grow on approx 1 acre which encompasses bulbs and perennials in additon to annuals. My annual seed purchases are varied from year to year but a $1,000.00 or more is an easy spend......
Cheers Kim - Billabong Fresh Flower Farm

I have a condo in MI with about 300 square feet of in-ground planting and pots on my deck. I have quite a few perennials so I use annuals as fillers. I generally buy 3-4 annual seed packets, 1-2 tomato packets, plus a few herbs, 1 pack of green beans, so my total seed costs are around $30, depending if I am buying a newly introduced seed (more expensive) or just going with good old fashioned zinnias and marigolds (cheap!).

I am so far behind I will be placing this years order hopefully tomorrow. $150.00, for seeds and just like Kim will spend a little more to get that new flower. There is a couple I'm looking for Chocolate Sundae nigella and Red Blood agrostemma, has anyone seen these? Shipping kills me costs just as much as seeds.

Really depends on how much you grow. I grow veggies and this year some flowers on about 3 acres. I spent $180 on glads this year and around another $150 on the normal stuff like asters, celosia, etc.

My veggie/fruit costs this year, without the flowers, are around $3000 for seed/plant material.

My wife about lost her top compared to the $800 we spent last year, but we are expanding. My dad said to her, don't feel bad I just wrote a $16,000 check for FERTILIZER for the coming year. Ha ha. She about fainted. He said he spends around $40,000 each spring before a crop even goes in the ground.

And people thought farming was easy!

Moon1234 - I hear ya. The price of Fertiliser is on the rise so I hate to think what mine will be for the year just to grow flowers in addition to soil ammendments. Farming a quality product is not cheap !!!

Gardengirl77

We farm about one acre of cut flowers, about 2/3 annuals, 1/3 perenniels.
This year's order:
$550 seed
$120 glads
$124 dahlias (new varieties for us--saved last year's)
....and a few more extras bulbs here and there!

Yup, it sure adds up, even for small flower farmers like us, but well worth it if the season goes well. We enjoy our "retirement" profession and looking forward to starting that first seed inside March 1! Pitt from Indiana(5)

I am so woefully behind this year - haven't even cracked open a seed catalog yet - but I can say my fertilizer is free! All the composted manure I could ever need from a local llama & goat farmer, who makes yarn and soap products at our market. I can't get her to take any money no matter how many times I ask, so I pay her with bouquets and baked goodies!

I guess I should start my seed order...

Dee

Dee, I envy you your free composted manure, although it's still a lot of work loading, unloading and spreading it all. I have only a half-acre in flowers, but it's amazing how much manure it takes to cover it all with an inch or two of the black gold.

Getting back on Gardengirl's topic: Seed cost-wise, I probably spend about $400 a year on seeds for my half acre, plus some for bulbs and plants.

ThinMan

ThinMan, no kidding! It IS a lot of work! I've got a Honda and 6 buckets, lol, and man is it time consuming. The llama farm isn't TOO far, but far enough to make it timely (about 20 minutes one-way). The manure pile is not accessible to a truck even if I had one. And it's at the top of a hill. (Could be worse - could be at the bottom, lol. At least I get to walk DOWN with the full buckets!). Have thought of asking my daughter's boyfriend to use his pick-up, but we'd still have to lug the buckets up and down the hill, but it still will cut down on the trips to the farm.

It does get a tad discouraging when I do all that work and then cover four square feet of ground, lol, but it's definitely worth it.

Also getting back on topic - okay, I REALLY need to get a seed order together! I'm just not with it this year!

ThinMan, is that half-acre your total growing area? I have about an acre of land, can't tell how much is in production, as it is kind of scattered here and there, wherever I have a few sunny spots, but I'm probably in line with your spending, relatively. I'd say I have at least a quarter acre in production, and spend about $200 in seed, and then more in bulbs. I trade some seed too, not on a big scale, but half a packet here and there with friends.

I've been buying about $100 worth of lilies each year the last few years; plan to cut back this year both because I'm filling my lily space and also because of that dratted red lily leaf beetle - it's getting too destructive. I also buy glad corms/bulbs, maybe about $50 bucks worth. I've been lucky that I discovered the glads come back for me fairly well. I was too lazy to lift and store and just figured I'd replant the next year, and surprise, surprise! The old glads came back... course I had to scramble to find spots for the new ones, but I guess that's not a bad problem to have!

Dee

I have been replacing fruit bushes for the last three years so have spent around 100 pounds (not sure how that translates to US currency) on fruit, about the same for seed potatoes and veggies, same again for spring bulbs and about half that for summer bulbs, Another 60pounds or so for flower seeds and a horrific amount on plants and roses - for the last three years, about 300 pounds. I have 2 allotments, 40 poles or about 12mx55m growing space.

Dee, sorry I didn't respond earlier, but I've been out of town since Wednesday. Yes, the half-acre is my actual growing area. I have more area I could use, but a half-acre seems to be my limit, working by myself.

It sounds like you have to work super hard for your manure. At least it's free, huh? :)

TM

Hi all from weird Southern Oregon where we have now gone from a really warm winter, to 9 inches of snow, to 65degree sunny weather and back to predicted snow!! Climate change anybody? Anyway, my costs have rocketed this year due to 'specializing' in oriental and asiatic lilies. Up to $400.00 in investment so far and thats just for the lilies, I have forced myself to go back through my seed box this year and really root out the 'left overs' and use them. What is the viability for sunflower seeds anyway?

Kat

Kat - if the seed has been kept in a cooler / fridge, it'll be okay for a few years. Germination % may decrease slightly but not much. If it hasn't been stored cold, then I have no idea.
Cheers Kim - BFFF

Thanks Kim, I decided to do a germination test on Sunbeam and Sunbright Supreme, originally from 2008 I'm ashamed to say and the Sunbeam failed miserably and so the seed are going to my chickens and the Sunbright did OK at about 75% give or take so I am going to sow them but very heavily at about a 2inch spacing and see what happens. I know, I know, probably better to buy new seed.... sigh!
Kat