Money doesn't grow on trees, but it can grow in your garden. The question is, how much?
The Burpee seed and plant company reported an "unexpected flurry of orders" this spring as consumers react to spikes in gas and food prices. The seed company boasts that home growers can multiply an investment in seeds as much as 25 times, getting $1,250 worth of produce from a $50 initial stake.
The Frugalista has tomato and pepper seedlings growing, by a sunny window, but that doesn't mean I'm banking on a 25-fold return on investment. Anyone who has tried to grow their own food knows it's not a can't-lose proposition. In my yard, it has been more like can't-win, with too much shade, thieving squirrels and gardener apathy.
But it's a new year, and I'm determined to do better. I asked the National Gardening Association how much better I could do, financially.
The number of variables makes it difficult to generalize how much people save by growing their own vegetables. Organic or conventional? How big a garden? What did you plant, and how green is your thumb?
More conservative than Burpee, the gardening association estimates that gardeners produce half a pound of veggies per square foot. Most people spend about $50 per year on tools and supplies and plant 100 square feet or less, to produce about 50 pounds of produce, according to an association survey.
At the association's estimated average cost for vegetables, $2 a pound, that would be $100 worth of food, meaning that a successful garden might double your money.
But bargain shoppers know that most varieties of conventional produce go on sale for 99 cents a pound — less during harvest season. For organic produce, on the other hand, I regularly pay $3 a pound or more.
The association didn't differentiate between organic and conventional gardens in its yield and cost estimates. This reinforced my inclination to garden organically for a bigger payoff and crops I feel better about feeding my kids.
Don't forget the time you put in — one to five hours per week, over about 12 weeks.
"Frankly, I think if people feel that they're going to save a lot of money by growing vegetables, they may be disappointed because they'll say, 'Jeez, I spent all this time doing it,'" said Bruce Butterfield, research director for the association. "The main reason why people do it is to get better-tasting (and higher-quality) food."
Those reasons are good enough for me.
There are steps you can take to reduce your garden input and maximize output:
Buy seeds, not plants. It's getting late in the season to start seeds for tomatoes this year, but you can still start fast-growing plants like beans from seed.
"Compost will save you money," said Marie Iannotti, About.com's gardening guide. "You're constantly improving your soil so you don't have to keep buying fertilizer."
Making compost out of yard waste in a pit is free, or you can pay $100 to $300 for a tumbler to speed up the process. The Frugalista family has a worm bin, which turns food scraps into compost-rich soil year-round.
Use rain barrels. Maria Onesto Moran, founder of a company that specializes in environmentally friendly building and home supplies, estimates that the $89 rain barrels she sells hold $2 worth of water at local rates, meaning she needs to drain her barrel 45 times to break even. Watering her 72-square-foot plot, Moran estimates her rain barrels pay for themselves within two seasons.
Plant expensive vegetables. Burpee claims you could get $2,000 worth of green peas from a single $5 seed packet, while a $2 packet of green beans would yield only $250 worth. These estimates seem wildly optimistic to me — they're based on 80 percent of the seeds in the packet surviving to produce.
Carrie Kirby is a mom and the self-proclaimed Frugalista. Write to her at ckirby@tribune.com.
The Burpee seed and plant company reported an "unexpected flurry of orders" this spring as consumers react to spikes in gas and food prices. The seed company boasts that home growers can multiply an investment in seeds as much as 25 times, getting $1,250 worth of produce from a $50 initial stake.
But it's a new year, and I'm determined to do better. I asked the National Gardening Association how much better I could do, financially.
The number of variables makes it difficult to generalize how much people save by growing their own vegetables. Organic or conventional? How big a garden? What did you plant, and how green is your thumb?
More conservative than Burpee, the gardening association estimates that gardeners produce half a pound of veggies per square foot. Most people spend about $50 per year on tools and supplies and plant 100 square feet or less, to produce about 50 pounds of produce, according to an association survey.
At the association's estimated average cost for vegetables, $2 a pound, that would be $100 worth of food, meaning that a successful garden might double your money.
But bargain shoppers know that most varieties of conventional produce go on sale for 99 cents a pound — less during harvest season. For organic produce, on the other hand, I regularly pay $3 a pound or more.
The association didn't differentiate between organic and conventional gardens in its yield and cost estimates. This reinforced my inclination to garden organically for a bigger payoff and crops I feel better about feeding my kids.
Don't forget the time you put in — one to five hours per week, over about 12 weeks.
"Frankly, I think if people feel that they're going to save a lot of money by growing vegetables, they may be disappointed because they'll say, 'Jeez, I spent all this time doing it,'" said Bruce Butterfield, research director for the association. "The main reason why people do it is to get better-tasting (and higher-quality) food."
Those reasons are good enough for me.
There are steps you can take to reduce your garden input and maximize output:
Buy seeds, not plants. It's getting late in the season to start seeds for tomatoes this year, but you can still start fast-growing plants like beans from seed.
"Compost will save you money," said Marie Iannotti, About.com's gardening guide. "You're constantly improving your soil so you don't have to keep buying fertilizer."
Making compost out of yard waste in a pit is free, or you can pay $100 to $300 for a tumbler to speed up the process. The Frugalista family has a worm bin, which turns food scraps into compost-rich soil year-round.
Use rain barrels. Maria Onesto Moran, founder of a company that specializes in environmentally friendly building and home supplies, estimates that the $89 rain barrels she sells hold $2 worth of water at local rates, meaning she needs to drain her barrel 45 times to break even. Watering her 72-square-foot plot, Moran estimates her rain barrels pay for themselves within two seasons.
Plant expensive vegetables. Burpee claims you could get $2,000 worth of green peas from a single $5 seed packet, while a $2 packet of green beans would yield only $250 worth. These estimates seem wildly optimistic to me — they're based on 80 percent of the seeds in the packet surviving to produce.
Carrie Kirby is a mom and the self-proclaimed Frugalista. Write to her at ckirby@tribune.com.
