Friday, February 3, 2012

How Much is a Garden Worth?

Picture by Roger Doiron,

With the global economy spiraling downward it is a good question to ask. There isn’t one right answer, but I’ll give you mine: $2,000.00. Someone suggested to me that we calculate the total value of the produce coming out of our garden over the course of the growing season.

There was a lot of work involved, but as with gardening itself, it was work with a purpose. It didn’t take long for our log book to start filling. 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 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). The total value came to $2185.00, $2420.00, and $2551.00 respectively.

As with any growing season, there were hits and misses. Our most valuable crop was our tomatoes (158 lb. for a total value of $525.00).

On the cost side, we had about 280.00 into seeds and plants. We have a well so water is free but the exectricity was about 40.00 dollars I guess and I mulch my beds to keep moisture in and weeds down. So, if we consider that our out-of-pocket costs were $280 and the total value generated was $2400.00. That is a return on investment of 860%. The cost of our labor is not included because we enjoy gardening and the physical work involved. Besides the health benefits far exceed any labor costs.

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/square foot. That would mean that a smaller garden of say 400 square foot 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 garden (roughly 1600 square feet), and one climate , we are zone 5, but it gives you an idea of the value of growing your own. 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. 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 farmer.

Clearly the healthy savings new gardeners could be making and then reinvesting in their local economies could make a big difference. I can’t say enough about the value of growing a garden, for yourself, your family and your community.