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This morning an article appeared in my inbox from Kitchen Gardeners International that I thought I would share. It felt appropriate to post it because the main question that was asked of those of us who participated in the recent Nightline interview was, “Does this save you money?”  While I couldn’t really summarize the ways in which home growing saves me money, this article really nails down an concrete answer.  Enjoy!  

Dear Kitchen Gardener,

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.

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.

There are things we didn’t include like the wild dandelion greens which
we reaped but did not sow, the six or so carving pumpkins which we
ultimately fed to our compost pile, and the countless snacks of
strawberries, beans, peas, and tomatoes that never made it as far as
our kitchen scale. There were also things we forgot to weigh
several pounds of grapes which turned into about 12 jars of jam. As
with any growing season, there were hits and misses. The heaviest and
most valuable crop was our tomatoes (158 lb/72 kg for a total value of
$524). In terms of misses, our apple tree decided to take the year off
and very few of our onions started from seed made it requiring me to
buy some onion plants.

On the cost side, we had $130 for seeds and supplies, $12 for a soil
test, and exceptional costs of $100 for some locally-made organic
compost we bought for our “This Lawn is Your Lawn”
frontyard garden (normally, we meet most of our soil fertility needs
through our own composting). I don’t have a scientific calculation for
water costs, but we don’t need to water much and, when we do, water is
relatively cheap in Maine.
Also, I mulch my beds pretty heavily to keep moisture in and weeds
down.  Let’s say $40 in water.  So, if we consider that our
out-of-pocket costs were $282 and the total value generated was $2431,
that means we had a return on investment of 862%. The cost of our labor
is not included because we enjoy gardening and the physical work
involved. If I am to include my labor costs, I feel I should also
include the gym membership fees, country club dues, or doctors’ bills I
didn’t
have.

If you really want to play around with the data,
you can calculate how much a home garden like ours produces on a per
acre basis. If you use the $2400 figure and consider that our garden is
roughly 1/25th of an acre, it means that home gardens like ours can
gross $60,000/acre. You can also calculate it on a square foot basis
which in our case works 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 crops are more profitable and space
efficient than others. A small garden planted primarily with salad
greens and trellised tomatoes, for example, is going to produce more
economic value per square foot more than one planted with potatoes and
squash. We plant a bit of everything because that’s the way we like to
garden and eat.

Clearly, this data is just for one family (of five), one yard (.3
acre), one garden (roughly 1600 square feet), and one climate (Maine,
zone 5b/6), but it gives you some sense of what’s possible. If you
consider that there are about 90 million households in the US that have
some sort of yard, factor in the thousands of new community and school
gardens we could be planting, this really could add up. Our savings
allowed us to do different things including investing in some
weatherization work for our house last fall that is making us a greener
household in another way. Some might ask what this would mean for
farmers to have more people growing their own food. The local farmers I
know welcome it because they correctly believe that the more people
discover what fresh, real food tastes like, the more they’ll want to
taste. In our case, part of our savings helped us to buy better
quality, sustainably-raised meat from a local CSA farmer.

The economics of home gardening may not be enough to convince President
Obama or UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown to plant new gardens at the White House or 10 Downing Street, but the healthy savings their citizens could be making and then reinvesting in their local economies
could.

In the end, it might come down to the language we use. Instead of saying
“Honey, I’m going out to the garden to turn the compost pile”, perhaps
we should say “Honey, I’m going outside to do a ‘green job’ and work on
our ‘organic stimulus package.'”  I bet that would get the attention of
a few economists, not mention a few psychologists!

Happy, healthy March,

Roger Doiron