The Economics of the Urban Veggie Garden

by Josh Wood Saturday April 11, 2009

Eat Your Yard, Continued

It seems that a home vegetable garden renaissance is at hand. Home gardening stories are sprouting up all over the web. All the publicity surrounding the push to plant a garden on the White House lawn doesn’t hurt, either.

‘‘It’s a hurricane,’‘ George Ball, owner of W. Atlee Burpee Co. reported to the Miami Herald. “Sales of vegetables and herb seeds and plants are up 30 to 40 percent over 2007, double the annual growth of the last five years.’‘

There are tons of reasons to grown your own edibles, ranging from the nutritional benefits (turnips trump Twinkies), to the environmental benefits (the less your turnips travel, the less they’ll impact the environment). But probably the true reason behind the recent garden surge is economics. Simply stated, growing your own vegetables will save you money.

Just how much money will your home vegetable garden save? It all depends on what you grow, and how you grow it. Bruce Butterfield, research director of the National Gardening Association, reported to Sandy Bauers of philly.com “that the average 600-square-foot garden can yield 300 pounds of produce worth $600 – for a $70 outlay.” Or roughly 88 cents of savings per square foot. Some seed companies offer budget packs of seeds to maximize a garden’s economic return. One gardener, on kitchengardeners.com estimated that he spent $282 for seeds, supplies, water and compost for a garden that yielded a net value of $2,266 worth of food. Roughly $1.40 per square foot. But that’s a garden of 1600 square feet, a size that is most likely prohibitive even for the most generous lot sizes in eastern Cranston.

The University of Iowa recently published a fact sheet with some basics for maximizing the economic return on your garden:

Select vegetables that you like.

Select vegetables that can be easily stored or preserved. Potatoes, onions, sweet potatoes, and winter squash can be stored. Other vegetables, like beans, tomatoes, cucumbers, beets and sweet corn, can be preserved.

Select vegetables that are expensive to buy in the grocery store, or that you purchase regularly. Consider vegetables like beans, beets, onions, spinach, broccoli, peppers, carrots, summer squash, cucumbers, tomatoes, potatoes, lettuce, peas, and Swiss chard. These vegetables provide the biggest returns on your investment of space and time in the garden.

Do some research and start with a plan. Decide what you want to grow and determine what will be necessary to be successful. Plan the garden on paper first. Establish a network of family members, neighbors, or friends that can help you answer your questions.

Start small.

Previously: Lawn Alternatives: Eat Your Yard

[where: Cranston, RI 02910]

[where: 02910]

Comment

1. I’ve grown up gardening,made friends based on a conversation that has brought up that they themselves garden..The experiences began——.
   However,over the past couple years,with myself and others sharing the same reasoning—-the price gouging for water[it feels liike]has stopped me and others,as mentioned from gardenning,any more..
   Fresh,tastes wonderful and healthy—but the finacial extremes it has become—no longer makes it anywhere close,to making it’s value,even close,to worth it.Sadly….And by the way,we do make a good living…

   — sandra patten · May 4, 11:59 AM · #

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