When will my garden pay for itself? - Page 2

[Owen'nZoe]

Originally Posted by CarrieMF

I disagree. If you're planting for your zone it isn't hard to grow from seeds & you don't really need any knowledge other than when to plant.

Our garden has paid off right from the beginning & we've been gardening here for 11 years. The only year it probably cost us to garden would have been last year when I purchased a new Food Saver after my old cheap version broke.

I never start plants indoors, they never live after I take them outside.lol Our last frost date is usually mid-May, we plant the first week of May. When it's hot out we water more often. We haven't watered our garden in over a month even though it's hot out right now & we aren't getting alot of rain.

I totally agree! I find it much easier to direct seed than to grow transplants in the house. Hardening off is just too tedious for me. I don't mind starting seeds in flats outdoors, though.

[Chicky2]

I've never started seeds. I direct sow and never have a problem.

[confustication]

The first year or so is when you'll spend the most on equipment etc...

After that, how much you spend is really up to you. We have a HUGE garden this year, and it was started late. I've largely allowed it to be overrun by weeds because I was working so much that I didn't have time to tend it, and I'm pregnant enough, that the idea of bending to weed annoys me...

HOWEVER... I picked three bags (the reusable grocery store bags) full of zucchini and cukes last night. A couple days ago I picked about 30 lbs of beets. My tomatoes are still largely green, but once they turn, we'll have them coming out our ears. My corn didn't do well, but it was a thrill for my daughter to plant and watch. I have 63 pumpkins coming (I counted yesterday) 26 blue hubbard squashes, a plethura of acorn squash etc, chard up the wazoo (the 'bright lights' variety is really neat!)

I another week or so, I'll put another round of spinach and lettuce in fallow rows (the planting time on this is entirely dependent on when this silly baby decides to be born...)

I managed to grow a whopping single pepper... it's a learning curve on a new plot..

Once the garden begins to die back, I'll let the chickens out to fertilize it and scratch before running down the road, picking up some horse manure, and spreading that around before turning it all under this fall.

The greenhouse I'm putting together will be essentially free (we're redoing the windows in our place, so the old windows are being used for the greenhouse) and I should be able to get a better start on things in the spring.

That said, even with all the startup costs this year, our 60 X 80 garden will more than pay for itself provided we preserve things properly.

[SleeplessMommy]

We put in 2 thornless blackberry bushes 4 or 5 years ago, in addition to our wild berries. They do very well in PA and have an especially massive crop this year. The *frozen* cost of these at the store is $8 a pound, and we are getting them fresh and filling the freezer for this fall. : This one crop covers the cost of the tomato plants, a set of new strawberry seedlings, some hot peppers, and whatever else we bought - even the celery which was gnawed to the ground be rabbits before we put up a small fence.

We also have unlimited sage for consumption - a dozen plants 4 years ago and they have spread from seed. We don't cook with sage often, but we will never have to buy it Same with catnip.

My son's cousins visited this summer and we picked & ate fresh wild blackberries and wine berries ... an experience they would never get without visiting us.