Does your garden ACTUALLY save you $ ?

[ToLiveToLaugh]

Absolutely!! I spent $50 on seeds this year....I don't use fertilizer, this is my second year having it, and its even bigger this year. 60 x 100. I'm still eating veggies I canned from the last garden, and it has probably cut my grocery bill in half, if not more. I've made ketchup, pasta sauce, stewed tomatoes for stews, plus the other veggies for stuff. I have compost, and super good soil naturally, so I don't need potting soil, fertilizer, or other things. I used recycled fence, so that wasn't an issue either.

So were your canning supplies free? I have run the math and only try to grow things that can be saved without high tech (like jars lids and canners) Only very special items which can not be found locally are grown in my garden. I get tomatoes from other people that have a surplus and dry them a few at a time, apples and other fruit which everybody doesn't have are traded with others for the things I want. unless you are carefull a garden can turn into a money pit where the money and effort in is worth more than the output.

Jars can be used year after year. Whether or not it is a money pit depends on how long you keep it going. It's like starting a business. High initial investment costs are mitigated when spread out over a longer period of time. Also the basis of accounting for businesses, lol. Groceries keep being bought every year.

 

[rty007]

On the other hand, here in Poland we often use jars, that were bought by others, with something in it from the store. Then either buy a lid, or just cook the previous one and reuse it. So the jars are absolutely not a expensive thing, besides If you already have a store space set up, you can as well store emptied jars, so you buy once and use for a couple of years. Besides I have newer ever seen a pressure canner in my life, and boy did we have a full basement of jams, condensed juices (syrups), jellies, marmalades, pickles and such. They were all caned at a propane heated stove. It is true that If you buy ALL the equipment for "making" and gathering your garden, then ALL the equipment for preserving it, and THEN after one year you are gone sit down with a pad and start counting how much you saved... obviously that is not gonna happen, but when you approximate the life of your "gardening" equipment life up to 10 years and your canning equipment to 5 years, I bet you would be on top, A LOT, especially if you count, that there is no need for going to the GYM, if the garden is just big enough . And the overall good self esteem, which is something you cannot put on paper sure, yet if it is there, everything else is just kind of going a lot smoother, you know that if you can push that garden, you can push through everything.

 

[pioneergirl]

Absolutely!! I spent $50 on seeds this year....I don't use fertilizer, this is my second year having it, and its even bigger this year. 60 x 100. I'm still eating veggies I canned from the last garden, and it has probably cut my grocery bill in half, if not more. I've made ketchup, pasta sauce, stewed tomatoes for stews, plus the other veggies for stuff. I have compost, and super good soil naturally, so I don't need potting soil, fertilizer, or other things. I used recycled fence, so that wasn't an issue either.

So were your canning supplies free? I have run the math and only try to grow things that can be saved without high tech (like jars lids and canners) Only very special items which can not be found locally are grown in my garden. I get tomatoes from other people that have a surplus and dry them a few at a time, apples and other fruit which everybody doesn't have are traded with others for the things I want. unless you are carefull a garden can turn into a money pit where the money and effort in is worth more than the output.

No, my canning supplies were not free. However, purchased second hand, or traded for other things, I can keep the cost down. You'd be amazed at the number of people who sell jars, canners, and rings at yard sales for next to nothing. How can I beat $1/doz for quart jars? Flea markets are a good score, as well as estate sales. None of the younger crowd wants great grandma's old canner, or jars, or any other supplies of that nature. Most times that stuff ends up in the $1 bin and I can have my pick. I replace a seal here and there, buy the lids before the season gets in full swing, and do everything else to keep cost down.

As for the effort? I spent 3 hours on my hands and knees crawling through 60ft of pea rows pulling weeds. For me, that was bliss. I was in my own world, cultivating what was MINE. I don't spend money on chemicals, or anything else 'not natural', so I don't have cost there. More effort for things, yes, but (call me a hippie) I find it keeps me centered, more grounded so to speak. To me, that is priceless....never a waste or a "pit". My seeds are heirloom, non GMO and I get way more out of them nutritionally than anything else.

Also, if you have a decent basement or root cellar, you really don't need to can anything. But why grow only things that are rare? or get your food from people who have surplus? What if they run out? or don't plant next year? Sorry, I'll rely on myself for all I need.

If you keep at it, and reuse what you already have, there shouldn't be a money pit anywhere around your garden.

 

[VickiLynn]

If I had to buy all the good, organic fruits and vegetables I grow, it would cost far more than the money I have put into the garden and canning and dehydrating supplies. I do it for the sake of my family's health - the fact that it saves money is just another bonus!

 

[freemotion]

There is no way my garden is a money pit! And my canning supplies paid for themselves in the first year. Once word got out that I was canning, the free jars started flowing in....sometimes in batches of 100+! So the only ongoing expense is lids, at about a dime each. Maybe less if I like the Tattler reusable lids.

If you buy a packet of parlsey seeds at $1.99 and just want one plant, then don't bother drying it or cooking from scratch, it is a waste. If provide all the parsley for your household needs for the next year, plus store the seeds properly and get 2-3 years' of plants from it, well, you have saved maybe $12-15, maybe more.

If you plant only perrenial herbs and actually use them, the savings grow. If you get your plants as divisions free from another gardener, you are ahead of the game. I cover all my garden expenses each year just with the flavoring herbs I grow and use. You can even trade with others for things that you don't have. I have bay leaves coming that were traded for kefir grains.

I just can't imagine a garden being a money pit unless one doesn't persist and learn from mistakes. The most important saving, IMO, is impossible to factor into a spreadsheet. It is the savings in medical expenses, especially in the later years of life, from living a healthy life of hard work and stress reduction and eating healthy food grown and cooked at home. Priceless!

 

[pioneergirl]

Free, you hit it right on the head!!

 

[big brown horse]

This year I spent about 40 bucks on heirloom/non GMO seeds (I will be saving many for next year). (I donated many of those seeds to a friend.) I use a generous amount of mulch (up to 6 inches thick--so no weeding needed) in my garden. (Mulch is usually old hay and last year's leaves.) I also compost everything from kitchen scraps to horse, chicken and sheep droppings.

We have a generous amount of rain around here up until now, and that has watered my gardens for free. I have rain barrels to help me water the gardens during the one dry month of August.

My fruit trees have been pruned (all by me!!) and are old enough not to need any extra watering. I have mason bees to help with the pollination. The trees are on their own and thriving!

So far my garden has only cost me $40. Here is the list of what I'm growing (I havn't planted all my seeds yet btw):
Fruit trees: bushels of apples, pears, cherries, plums, and crab apples
other fruit: raspberries, currants, salal (wild), gooseberries, blueberries, blackberries (wild), rhubarb (wild), eta: and grapes
veggies: carrots, swiss chard, cabbages, tomatoes, pumpkins, kale, peas, beans, onions, garlic, lettuces, pak choi, celery, spinach, bell peppers... and many more that I can't think of.
herbs: parsleys, cilantro, chives, calendula, basil, STEVIA!!! (THANK YOU BB!), lemon balm, evening primrose, nasturtiums, thyme etc.
fungi: chanterelles (wild, and there are lots of them!)


We usually eat fresh from the garden all summer and freeze the leftovers. I also have a root cellar of sorts to store the pumpkins, apples and pears. (I still have a gallon sized bag of colorful heirloom tomatoes in the freezer from LAST year!!) I have a dehydrator, but I don't use it much.

I'm fermenting many things right out of my garden too, like the carrots and the cabbage.

When the garden is done for the year, the chickens get to have at it, they keep the soil soft and fluffy and fertilized all fall and winter long.)


Not bad for $40 and a little bartering! (Am I missing something, b/c I really feel like I've saved a bunch of money! )

 

[freemotion]

BBH, you go, girl!!!

 

[VickiLynn]

The fruit trees always amaze me. How you can invest maybe $29 and a bit of patience. Then it rewards you with many years producing literally TONS of fruit just for the picking! I wish veggies grew on trees.

 

[dragonlaurel]

I planted most of my favorite veggies and some herbs I use plenty of. Going out to the garden is much easier than running to the store. The closest grocery store doesn't even carry organically grown produce. Their veggies are frequently bad quality. Mine will be harvested when they are ripe, and at their best. Their will be no chemicals on them either.

I spent about $ 40.00 getting my garden going and would easily spend much more buying veggies in a year. My Husband had a dehydrator already, that we will use it for most of our preserving. I will also be making pickles with cukes and other veggies. I'm checking thrift shops for canning supplies also. I will plant a few things this fall that are usually overpriced or hard to get. I will freeze some things also. This garden will make our food budget much easier.

Gardening is great exercise. This is getting me in better shape and I love doing it. Every hour in the garden reduces stress levels and contributes to my health also.