Interesting Statistic

[k0xxx]

At the moment, we are spending far more on the garden than it is returning. However, the higher initial costs of the raised beds will be spread out over quite a few years. We're constructing wooden raised beds, but will soon start adding cinder block beds that should last indefinitely. We have found that we can produce so much more in the raised beds when compared to fighting the rocks and weeds. We do still grow some things that are not planted in raised beds though, mainly okra and corn.

Corn, at the height of the season locally, usually sells for about 10 ears for a dollar. That's a lot cheaper than we can grow it, but we always plant some anyway. It may not always be so cheap and we want to gain the experience and learn what works best.

 

[freemotion]

You have to also put a value on learning. Learning from your mistakes and successes is hard to put a dollar amount on, but it does have value....IF you move forward and apply what you've learned until you are successful most of the time.

One of the most important gardening lessons I've learned is to plant variety because a good year for one thing can be a bad year for another. And talk to other gardeners.....last year, I got no beans and lots of zukes, and a client got too many beans and dismal zukes. Had I talked with her during the gardening season instead of after, we might've done some nice trading.

And most importantly, you cannot price your own produce according to the awful stuff in the grocery store. I compare what I have to the organic stuff at the high end stores, because that is what I am growing. I have no interest in producing the quality (or lack thereof) that is in a 32 cent can of green beans! I garden so that we are assured of high quality food grown without the use of harmful chemicals, and grown on rich soil without the use of fertilizers. You can't even get that in the organic section of the grocery store. So I really should be putting a higher dollar value on it than what is in the stores.

 

[JRmom]

And most importantly, you cannot price your own produce according to the awful stuff in the grocery store. I compare what I have to the organic stuff at the high end stores, because that is what I am growing. I have no interest in producing the quality (or lack thereof) that is in a 32 cent can of green beans! I garden so that we are assured of high quality food grown without the use of harmful chemicals, and grown on rich soil without the use of fertilizers. You can't even get that in the organic section of the grocery store. So I really should be putting a higher dollar value on it than what is in the stores.

Yes! I was asked by a friend why I grow so many tomatoes when they are so inexpensive and plentiful here. First of all, at $1.49 per lb. at a local produce market, I don't call that inexpensive. Second, although the tomatoes are "usually" local Florida tomatoes, they are horrible. Granted, they are a tad better than the supermarket tomatoes, but tomatoes are a staple in my house, and homegrown can't be beat.

I'll probably have more $$$ in my garden this year than it returns. But it's an investment - every $ spent this year improving it is one less $ spent next year.

 

[patandchickens]

Wifezilla brings up a good point. Some expenditures are HUGELY worthwhile in some regions, wall-o-waters in short-season areas being a superb example. Because season length (or lack thereof) sharply limits my tomato harvest, being able to put them out a month or six weeks early makes a really impressive difference.

OTOH when I was growing up just outside Philadelphia, the only real point of wall o waters was to let my mom have the earliest tomato on the block by a week or so. Made no real difference in total tomato harvest.

Thus, for me right now, buying wall-o-waters (if I didn't have any, actually I have probably upwards of a dozen ) would be an excellent profit-returning investment; whereas for my mother, and for probably most of the continental US, it is just another sixteen dollars down the drain, pretty much.

I also really really like what k0xxx says:

That's a lot cheaper than we can grow it, but we always plant some anyway. It may not always be so cheap and we want to gain the experience and learn what works best.

Not all profit is financial!

Pat

 

[Wifezilla]

I use a red neck wall-o-water system so it is even cheaper. Make a circle out of a piece of chicken wire. Surround the chicken wire with recycled 2 liter bottles filled with water (labels removed - preferably clear). Loop a string (leftover straw bale string works greats) around the bottle necks to keep them from falling over. Plant in the middle of the chicken wire circle. As the weather improves and the plant grows, remove one bottle and reconfigure the bottle circle leaving small gaps between them. The next week remove another bottle and so on until the plant is on its own.

 

[HEChicken]

I was trying to visualize this so looked on Yahoo Images and found this, which would be an alternative to using the chicken wire:

Take six or seven 2 liter bottles. Group them around one in the center so you have a circle of bottles.

Duct tape the group together at half-way up.

Now pull out the center bottle so you have a kind of 'donut'.

Put in the garden over a new tomato transplant. Fill with water from your hose.

Hmmmm....now I just have to find some 2 liter bottles. We almost never buy soda so rarely have bottles. This might be a job for Freecycle....

 

[Dunkopf]

It's the same as eggs. It will take years to recoup initial investments. It's worth it though for the extra flavor and better nutritional value.

We grow about 500 lbs of tomatoes per season. The supermarket tomatoes have hardly any flavor and are thick skinned to hold up to mechanical harvesting.

This year the kids are going to do a lot more weeding. I'm also going to use more straw between rows to keep weeds down.