Author Topic: What’s a Home Garden Worth?  (Read 1535 times)

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Offline bijou

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What’s a Home Garden Worth?
« on: April 30, 2011, 03:46:33 PM »
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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.

There isn’t one right answer, of course, but I’ll give you mine: $2149.15. Last year, my wife Jacqueline suggested to me that we calculate the total value of the produce coming out of our garden over the course of the growing season. Initially, the thought of doing that was about as appealing to me as a recreational root canal. I remember replying something like: “OK, so let me get this right: in addition to raising three busy boys, managing two careers, volunteering in a school garden, and growing most of our own produce, you’re proposing that we weigh every item that comes out of our garden, write it down in a log book, and spend a few leisurely evenings doing math?” Jacqueline, an economics major in college and a native French speaker, answered with a simple "oui" and so the project began.

There was a lot of work involved, mostly for Jacqueline, but as with gardening itself, it was work with a purpose. It didn’t take long for our log book to start filling up with dates and figures. Although we started eating our first garden salads in late April, we only began recording our harvests as of May 10th, starting first with greens and asparagus. Our last weighable harvest was two weeks ago in the form of a final cutting of Belgian endives forced from roots in our basement.

By the time we had finished weighing it all, we had grown 834 pounds and over six months worth of organic food (we’re still eating our own winter squash, onions, garlic, and frozen items like strawberries, green beans, and pesto cubes). Once we had the weights of the 35 main crops we grew, we then calculated what it would have cost us to buy the same items using three different sets of prices: conventional grocery store, farmers’ market and organic grocery store (Whole Foods, in our case). The total value came to $2196.50, $2431.15, and $2548.93 respectively. For the other economics majors and number crunchers among you, you can see our crunchy, raw data here: ...
http://kitchengardeners.org/blogs/roger-doiron/home-garden-worth

I garden more for pleasure than profit, but it's nice to know I am saving some money at least.



Offline vesta111

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Re: What’s a Home Garden Worth?
« Reply #1 on: April 30, 2011, 04:13:10 PM »
http://kitchengardeners.org/blogs/roger-doiron/home-garden-worth

I garden more for pleasure than profit, but it's nice to know I am saving some money at least.

Good show, my problem was the chart on savings on my PC did not mention what the produce was.  What produce saved him the most money.  I  would like to know what he saved the most on and perhaps the second or third crop.

I do not to work on a garden with items that will be cheap in the future, I want to know should I just plant an herb garden or something that will cost big time in the future.??