Does your garden actually help your food budget? (bugs, tomato, insect)

[In_Correct]

but I just thought of something:

When I buy a house with about an acre of land I am going to use some of the extra land to build greenhouses. The rest of the extra land I will turn into an orchard(s).

And if you can't grow your own orchard, then perhaps join a community orchard.

[Ohiogirl81]

Originally Posted by PeachSalsa

I just could not ever see myself washing those jars and eating anything out of those jars, knowing full well mice had peed and pood on those. So I recycled dozens of glass jars. So they are no more.

OMG, what a waste!

[hotzcatz]

We have a lot of edible landscaping as well as an assortment of raised bed gardens. But there wasn't much cost in any of this since the majority of the fruit trees were here when we bought the house.

We got concrete blocks from yard sales for cheap and stacked them up three layers high for the raised bed gardens. Regular soil was put inside and amended with lime, bio-char and bunny manure. Since we have year round gardening here, we don't plant a whole lot of any one thing but a little of a whole lot of things which is perfect for the small raised bed gardens. Beans, lettuce, kale and herbs are almost always available, the rest of the vegetables cycle in and out as there's room for them.

We've been saving seed for quite some time now although we still buy some too. But since the basics are covered by the saved seed, we can now get new varieties to try out.

Overall, I'd say the gardens and edible landscaping are a huge plus and saves quite a bit of money, although food is possibly more expensive here than on the mainland.

[Threestep2]

We absolutely come out on top with herbs. 2-3$ for a tiny container at the store! Mostly classics from lemon grass to basil. Friends and neighbors appreciate the kitchen garden where they can help themselves.

We have a bumper crop of hot peppers! Most plants are grown from seeds from last year's crop. Pickled, dried, frozen - everyone loves them. Habaneros are 3-4$ for a small clamshell and they are not hot. Tomatoes did well but there was nothing left to can:>) Sweet 100 are my go to as SO does not care for tomatoes. The fall crop is supposed to be plum tomatoes but they look like little crook necks. Garlic and onions did extremely will. Lettuce, spinach, chard and parsley are coming up as fall crop.

Watering is expensive. We really splurged and had a hip high raised bed around a 20x12 pergola and two 50x3 beds in a useless side yard done in stone and brick like the edging for the planting areas and the house. So money wise we will be in the red for a long time. Enjoyment wise be it something we do together, take our evening stroll with a glass of wine to harvest things for dinner, watching SO work like crazy to have a watering system in place, drag home manure, pull weeds, get me to show me the first little sprouts - priceless. Not to mention a laundry basket of yard long beans in the freezer and they are not giving up, rows of pickled peppers, a full freezer and a garage which smells like a pepper spray factory as I am now resorting to drying.

[L0ve]

Originally Posted by Threestep

We absolutely come out on top with herbs. 2-3$ for a tiny container at the store! Mostly classics from lemon grass to basil.

So true. Herbs will pay for themselves over and over and over. They grow like weeds, and basically are weeds.

[kinkytoes]

If I look at it honestly, I've spent about $1400 on my edibles so far. Some went into my potager to protect the veggie plot from critters, and some into plant material and amendments. Of course since I'm a mainly ornamental gardener, I'm still "pimping my potager" to make it pretty as well as functional.

In terms of organic fruit and veg, I get about $300 worth of produce from my garden a year. So I guess I may actually come out ahead in a few years... The main benefit from my garden is being able to get vegetables, herbs and fruit that are hard to find in the stores. I had my FIRST home-grown pawpaw this year and that was PRICELESS.

So was my first apricot. I also grow herbs that I can't find in stores at all like french sorrell and horehound. And it is fun to grow vegetables that come in different colors and shapes. But since I'm adventurous, some of my ventures have been a definite loss. Pests devoured my brussels sprouts, and fungus shortened the life of my tomatoes. I've also cut down my perennially diseased apple trees.

While I do have fruit plants that performed very well this year... I wasn't prepared to harvest all of the fruit before it went bad. This is unlike some of the posters above who can their fruit. I'll need to fix this in the coming years, but I'm sure I'm not alone. Learning how to can and getting the tools will also cost me some $$. But as many have mentioned, it will be worth it.

[Pfalz]

Overall gardening has been a profitable experience for me. In my opinion the biggest winner has been figs. I get pounds of them and the cost was zero. They also look great as a landscape feature. Just get a cutting from a tree you like and stick it in the ground around April. The following summer you feast.

Other big winners are okra, asparagus, grapes, tomatoes and blueberries. My biggest loser is plums. Lots of fuss, pruning, expensive initial purchase, takes a prime sunny spot, and after 3 seasons, I've yet to see a blossom.

[happehart]

Starting a garden is expensive if you have bad soil, just the hard clay we have here. To condition the soil and have it ready it takes money and effort. The first year, I had the most expensive tomatoes I ever had, but it tasted really good. The second year was a bit cheaper. Now I am going to start all over again since I moved to a new house and the soil is just really bad. I do it for the enjoyment more than the food, it's therapy, workout and meditation for me. Just watching the plants growing is worth the money I spend on it.

[Snort]

Tomatoes up the wazoo. Got to find another place to put them.

[Mack Knife]

Yup. No longer buy potatoes, tomatoes, some fruits, beans and so on. Learn to eat what is ready, not what your taste buds demand. It is easier than you think.