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Thread: Is Vegetable Gardening Worth It?

  1. #11
    Senior Member iris lilies's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by rosarugosa View Post
    IL: I really like your DH although I've never even met him
    haha, yeah, he is a funny little man.

  2. #12
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    Financially, vegetable gardening is not worth it at all for us. With cold winter weather I give into the temptation of January seed catalogs and as I have an attached, heated greenhouse I can’t seem to help myself but to start vegetables from seed then go ahead with the garden in the spring. We don’t eat a lot of the produce, clean up in a pain but we have chickens who eat the ‘leftovers’ so in that sense it is worth it to them.

  3. #13
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    I think it is a long haul proposition, like Bikinglady said . We are on our third dinner of salad from one volunteer buttercrunch lettuce, and we have enough Parris Island and Speckles now to eat nothing but salad for the next several weeks. We threw out a bunch of potatoes that had eyes over the spring and pretty soon we will be up to our necks in potatoes. I grew some dill so we will eat potato salad for dinners. No tomatoes yet.

    I'm still feeding the dogs with the squash I grew last summer. I make dog food now for them using either turkey, beef, liver, fish, or chicken, and potatoes, squash, carrots, apples--whatever else is still int eh freezer, which I am trying to clear out fast before this summer starts coming in. People feed deer around her and there are bags of apples and carrots at the gas station for 5 dollars for a huge bag, so we bought a bag of carrots last year and shredded them and froze them. We're still making dog food out of that bag, and the apples gives it some sweetness that they like.

  4. #14
    Senior Member Rogar's Avatar
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    i have never put a pen to it, but I probably do OK money wise with the garden. There are ways to be a frugal gardener and ways to spend a lot of money. I have things I've bought in earlier years, but my garden expenditure this year is probably less than $50. I will get at least that much in return with tomatoes alone relative to farmer's market prices. I plant some unusual things like heirloom eggplant, leeks, Italian peppers, or kohlrabi that are pricey or hard to find and add something different to cook with. And depending on the season I can walk out the back door and have fresh lettuce, spinach, kale, or basil, all of which are easy to grow and quite productive.

    If it were just money alone, I'd probably not do it. It's a lot of work, besides.

  5. #15
    Senior Member SteveinMN's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Rogar View Post
    If it were just money alone, I'd probably not do it. It's a lot of work, besides.
    Last year was the first year we put in a "real" garden; maybe 60 square feet, tops. Several of the plants produced nothing. Others were minimal producers. Only the collard greens were productive. I didn't have that much money into it: I bartered with the neighbor for use of his tiller. And I had enough compost and rabbit fencing and stakes and such that I didn't need to buy any. But I thought it was a lot of effort for what little I got out of it. I didn't plant a garden this year.

    I'd say that, at the scale of most people's gardens, it's not a moneysaver. But if you enjoy the activity and consider the flowers/fruits/veggies you get as a bonus, then it's worth spending the money. I just did not enjoy the process so much I would want to do it again. Plenty of other plants to care for around here.
    Success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome. - Booker T. Washington

  6. #16
    Senior Member Rogar's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by SteveinMN View Post
    Last year was the first year we put in a "real" garden; maybe 60 square feet, tops. Several of the plants produced nothing. Others were minimal producers. Only the collard greens were productive.
    I totally understand someone not liking gardening work. I think a person also has to be a little bit of a foodie to enjoy the harvest. It's also easy to be discouraged. I have a 4'X4' raised bed and a fairly small open space garden. It's taken time to discover what grows best and where. At least for me, it's probably taken four of five seasons to find what grows well and what I can actually use to cook with. Now, I get a pretty decent amount of food. I save time and space by avoiding things that won't do well, aren't very productive, or that I won't enjoy eating. There is a learning curve to economizing on space and time. Still, it's not for everyone.

  7. #17
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    http://www.npr.org/templates/story/s...toryId=5360768

    '$64 Tomato': A Quest for the Perfect Garden

  8. #18
    Senior Member CathyA's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by creaker View Post
    http://www.npr.org/templates/story/s...toryId=5360768

    '$64 Tomato': A Quest for the Perfect Garden
    Thanks for that link creaker!

  9. #19
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    We used to do a big garden and it was fun to work in it, but as we have aged...now I just do tomatoes and my husband wants onions...I do have a large yard with many flowers, so that takes up our time. We do have a large patch of 12 blueberry bushes. They produce magnificently, the labor involved -weeding, netting, pruning, picking is worth the gallon bags of blueberries in my freezer and having my friend come up to pick a big share as well. We've replanted asparagus and the labor there is minimal. Production has been minimal for 2 years, but am expecting a much bigger harvest next year. The plants look good and strong.

  10. #20
    Senior Member catherine's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by nswef View Post
    We used to do a big garden and it was fun to work in it, but as we have aged...now I just do tomatoes and my husband wants onions...I do have a large yard with many flowers, so that takes up our time. We do have a large patch of 12 blueberry bushes. They produce magnificently, the labor involved -weeding, netting, pruning, picking is worth the gallon bags of blueberries in my freezer and having my friend come up to pick a big share as well. We've replanted asparagus and the labor there is minimal. Production has been minimal for 2 years, but am expecting a much bigger harvest next year. The plants look good and strong.
    To your point, I think that, now that I've been gardening on and off for many years, is to keep it simple. I read a great article on Attainable Sustainable (which is a great site, and I recommend it) from someone who said that she's decided to ONLY grow 4 things: tomatoes, cucumbers, squash and basil. I think that's a good strategy: figure out what you eat the most, and then you learn exactly what those particular things need. You're not spreading yourself too thin, wasting money, time and energy.

    I think it's a great idea to "do blueberries" and little else. I pretty much do the tomato/cuke/squash thing. I've found that mizuna is pretty indestructible, so I occasionally do that. I like to do the standards and then throw in a wild card. Maybe it's beets, maybe it's garlic. If it grows, it grows, but I don't buy a lot. It's just an experiment.
    "Do any human beings ever realize life while they live it--every, every minute?" Emily Webb, Our Town
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