Does Your Garden Save You Money?

[Chris]

absolutely not. I have a gardening problem and spend way too much on it.

Take something like a compost tumbler. I have two of those. Thats nearly $500. Compost is $2 for 40 pounds at home depot. So that is 10,000 pounds of compost I need my tumbler to produce to break even, that isn't happening. Sure, the compost I get out of it is probably more diverse than composted manure, but still.

I think you CAN make money gardening, but you have to work at it. You need to till soil, not build a raised bed. Apple trees can make money. Big money really. Nut trees can make a fortune (but you must love nuts, you'll have a lot, and shelling them too). Every year I plant butternut squash in my front yard and do relatively nothing for it. Just let it take over and cover part of the lawn. It probably makes me $100 in squash. Last year I got 50 pounds I think.

But in general you'll get the most bang for your buck from tree/shrub/perennial edibles like apples, raspberries, and asparagus. These, once established, do not need fertilizer, do not need watering, and they will keep on producing.

[thebigtomato]

Oh I totally agree with you Chris. But purchasing a compost tumbler such as you linked too would technically get chalked up as just money spent on a hobby.

I don't think gardening is a good business plan per se, but after you get yourself set up, and have all the fun accessories to enhance your gardening experience, do you find yourself noticing you saved $15 every week or $45 every month from your garden.

It's like solar panels. . . you're going to have to live in a house a long time to make your money back technically.

I didn't realize you could make a few bucks on apples and nuts. I know this is a public forum, but nobody's allowed to take my million dollar money making idea! I'm going to cross breed an apple tree and a nut tree and call them "NAPPLES" - They will sell for "ONE MILLION DOLLARS"!!!!

[Chris]

Well think. Honeycrisp apples are almost $3 a piece at the store. If you get 100 apples from a mature tree...

Nuts can be $10 a pound.

[thebigtomato]

That's awesome! I never thought about that. But then you would need to find some sort of farmers market or some place similar where you could sell that though right? Then there would be the cost of the booth, etc. Maybe if you had a few trees of each, then it could definitely be worth while.

[pjewles]

While I can only assume we are not saving more then we are spending at this point (a few years into gardening). I think if you do things like save seed, compost, grow transplants from seed or at nurseries on sale, and only grow what you eat a lot of and is high yielding then yes I do believe it is possible. It will take years though typically to get back the costs of building infrastructure and buying seeds. But after that it gets less and less expensive, and who knows with inflation, (the federal Reserve is going to do QE 3 or another round of printing money), what the cost of food will be. My guess is it will be significantly up. You can see our garden at my blog http://theurbanhomestaed.blogspot.co...ot-garden.html

We probably spent about $150-200 on our infrastructure and soil amendments. We also purchased a indoor greenhouse for about $30 (lights and fan included).

[thebigtomato]

That's good info, and thanks! Loved the pictures on your blog. My wife grew up near you in White Bear Lake!

[soil]

How long does it usually take to establish rasberries and aspargus to be at the point where it keeps producing without watering, fertilizer, etc...