What’s a Garden Worth?

Roger and Jacqueline Doiron do the math and calculate the cost of their garden vegetables for one growing season.

Have you ever wondered whether you in reality save money by growing your own food ? Roger and Jacqueline Doiron wondered , too . So they calculate the worth of their 4000 - sq.-ft . garden by keeping track of costs , then weighing everything they grew and mention the cost at three market : a local grocery store , a Fannie Merritt Farmer ’s grocery , and Whole Foods . In a recent Kitchen Gardeners International newssheet , they share their results .

Kitchen Gardeners International , founded by Roger Doiron , is a non-profit-making organization in Maine whose deputation is to empower individuals , families , and communities to achieve greater stratum of food for thought ego - reliance through the promotional material of kitchen gardening , dwelling cooking , and sustainable local food systems . Roger ’s fib , reprinted with license , appears below

by Roger Doironfrom KGI News , March 2009

What ’s a rest home garden worth ? With the global economic system spiraling downward and Mother Nature cook to hit upward , it ’s a good interrogative sentence to necessitate and a good time to inquire it .

There is n’t one right answer , of path , but I ’ll give you mine : $ 2149.15 . Last class , my married woman Jacqueline suggested to me that we forecast the total note value of the produce coming out of our garden over the line of the originate season . Initially , the thought of doing that was about as appealing to me as a unpaid theme canal . I remember replying something like : “ OK , so rent me get this right : in plus to raise three in use male child , manage two vocation , volunteering in a school garden , and produce most of our own produce , you ’re proposing that we count every item that come out of our garden , write it down in a logarithm book , and spend a few easygoing evenings doing math ? ” Jacqueline , an economics John Major in college and a native French speaker , answer with a simple “ oui ” and so the project get down .

There was a mountain of work call for , mostly for Jacqueline , but as with horticulture itself , it was work with a design . It did n’t take long for our log Scripture to set about filling up with date and figures . Although we started corrode our first garden salads in late April , we only began recording our harvest home as of May 10th , starting first with greens and asparagus . Our last weighable harvest time was two weeks ago in the conformation of a last cutting of Belgian endives force from antecedent in our basement .

By the time we had finish weighing it all , we had grow 834 pounds and over six month worth of organic intellectual nourishment ( we ’re still eating our own wintertime squash rackets , onions , garlic , and frozen items like strawberries , green bean , and pesto cube ) . Once we had the weights of the 35 independent crops we grow , we then calculated what it would have be us to buy the same items using three different set of prices : established grocery store , farmers ’ market and organic grocery store store ( Whole Foods , in our cause ) . The full value come to $ 2196.50 , $ 2431.15 , and $ 2548.93 respectively . For the other economics majors and number crunchers among you , you’re able to see our crunchy , raw datahere .

There are thing we did n’t include like the wild dandelion greens which we reaped but did not sow , the six or so carve pumpkins which we at last fed to our compost heap , and the countless snacks of strawberry , bean , peas , and tomato that never made it as far as our kitchen scale leaf . There were also things we forget to weigh like several pounds of grapes which turned into about 12 jars of jam . As with any growing season , there were hit and missy . The heaviest and most valuable harvest was our tomatoes ( 158 lb/72 kg for a entire value of $ 524 ) . In terms of young woman , our apple tree diagram decide to take the class off and very few of our onions start from ejaculate made it take me to corrupt some onion plants .

On the cost side , we had $ 130 for seeded player and supplies , $ 12 for a dirt test , and particular costs of $ 100 for some locally - made organic compost we bought for our “ This Lawn is Your Lawn ” frontyard garden ( usually , we match most of our grease birth rate needs through our own composting ) . I do n’t have a scientific calculation for piss price , but we do n’t need to irrigate much and , when we do , water is relatively cheap in Maine . Also , I mulch my bed pretty heavy to keep wet in and weeds down . Let ’s say $ 40 in water . So , if we consider that our out - of - pouch costs were $ 282 and the total value generated was $ 2431 , that means we had a return on investiture of 862 % . The toll of our Labour is not include because we delight gardening and the physical employment involved . If I am to include my parturiency costs , I find I should also include the gymnasium rank fees , country club due , or doctor ’ posting I did n’t have .

If you really want to play around with the datum , you’re able to depend how much a dwelling garden like ours produces on a per Akko base . If you use the $ 2400 number and consider that our garden is roughly 1/25th of an Akko , it means that house garden like ours can gross $ 60,000 / acre . you’re able to also count it on a straightforward foot basis which in our typesetter’s case work out to be roughly $ 1.50 / ft2 . That would mean that a smaller garden of say 400ft2 would produce $ 600 of produce . Keep in mind that these are averages and that certain crop are more profitable and space efficient than others . A small garden planted primarily with salad greens and trellis tomato , for example , is belong to farm more economical value per straight foot more than one plant with potatoes and squash . We plant a bit of everything because that ’s the way we like to garden and eat on .

understandably , this information is just for one family ( of five ) , one yard ( .3 Akko ) , one garden ( rough 1600 square pes ) , and one climate ( Maine , geographical zone 5b/6 ) , but it gives you some sense of what ’s possible . If you turn over that there are about 90 million home in the US that have some kind of yard , component in the thousands of new community and school garden we could be planting , this really could add up . Our economy allow us to do unlike things including investing in some weatherization work for our mansion last fall that is making us a light-green house in another way . Some might take what this would stand for for sodbuster to have more people growing their own solid food . The local farmers I screw welcome it because they aright believe that the more masses distinguish what saucy , substantial food tastes like , the more they ’ll want to savor . In our case , part of our savings helped us to buy better quality , sustainably - raised meat from a local CSA Fannie Merritt Farmer .

The economics of home gardening may not be enough to win over President Obama or UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown to implant new gardens at theWhite Houseor10 Downing Street , but the healthy savings their citizen could be making and then reinvesting in their local economy could .

In the end , it might come down to the voice communication we use . Instead of saying “ Honey , I ’m going out to the garden to change state the compost stilt ” , perhaps we should say “ Honey , I ’m going outside to do a ‘ light-green job ’ and work on our ‘ organic stimulus package . ’ ” I bet that would get the attending of a few economist , not remark a few psychologist !

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What’s a home garden worth? With the global economy spiraling downward and Mother Nature preparing to reach upward, it’s a good question to ask and a good time to ask it.Photo/Illustration: courtesy Kitchen Gardeners International

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