Why Garden? Part 2

Gardening Info Series Question #1:
"Why Would I want to garden?"

In last week's post I talked about the exceptional taste and potential health benefits of vegetable gardening. Today, I'll discuss the potential cost savings of growing one's own food.

Tonight, in response to hearing someone say, "But eating organic is so expensive," I went snooping around the produce sections of two large grocery stores, notebook in hand, writing down the prices of Certified Organic (O) and Conventional (C) vegetables. Here are just a few of my observations:

Lettuce
Iceberg: $1.99/head O, $1.49/head C
Romaine & Leaf: $2.99/lb O, $1.49/lb C
Boston: $4.29/head O, $1.49/lb C
Pre-washed Bagged Salad Mix:
$5.99/10oz. ($.60/oz.) O
$3.49/6 oz. ($.58/oz) C

Beets with Tops
$3.99/bunch O, $3.49/bunch C

Kale, Collards, Swiss Chard
$3.49/bunch O, $1.99/bunch C

Radishes
$2.99/bunch O, $2.49/bunch C

Clearly, in every case the organic vegetables are more expensive. Yet, each of us may have our own opinion about how significant and/or "worth it" we feel it would be to buy the organic option in each particular case above.


This is Part 2 of, "Why would I want to garden?" Therefore, since I've already told you about the health benefits and the great, fresh taste of garden-grown veggies, the second response I offer you to this question is the following:

YOU MAY WANT TO CONSIDER GROWING VEGETABLES IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO EAT FRESH, HEALTHY, NATURALLY-GROWN PRODUCE POTENTIALLY AT A VERY LOW COST!

Let's take my family and the crop Romaine Lettuce as an example of how we could save money by planting a vegetable garden. Why did I choose lettuce? Because lettuce is easy to grow, even for beginners, and it doesn't take up much space in the garden!


We are going to assume the following:

a) We have selected a garden site that meets all the essential requirements for growing great veggies.
(Stay tuned, I will teach you how to do this!)

b) My family eats 1 lb. Romaine Lettuce per week.

c) We prefer to buy Organic ($2.99/lb).

d) We grow lettuce only when it grows best, about 6 weeks in spring, 6 weeks in fall.

e) A packet of Certified Organic seeds costs $3.50.


Now we can do the following math:

Grocery Price x Quantity Eaten x Weeks Grown) - Seed Cost = Potential $$$ We Could Save

$2.99/lb. x 1 lb. x 12 weeks - $3.50 = $32

Some readers may say, "Wow, that's great!" Others may say, "That's nothing. I'm not going to grow a garden just to save $32!" Both of those are excellent responses, because every family's financial situation, time availability to maintain a garden, etc. is different.

I would like to point out, however, that larger families may consume more lettuce than my small household, plus LETTUCE IS JUST ONE OF MANY CROPS THAT CAN BE EASILY GROWN IN A WISCONSIN GARDEN! Therefore, if you do a similar calculation for each of the crops you would like to grow, the potential cost savings will begin to look much prettier.


You'll notice that I keep saying potential cost savings. This is because of assumption a) in the example above (a garden site that meets the requirements for growing great vegetables). For some, growing a vegetable garden can be as cheap as buying seeds and paying the water bill. For others, depending on their location, soil type & fertility, and other factors that I will go into more detail about later, gardening could actually cost more money than it saves.

I encourage you to continue to follow this Gardening Info Series because I will keep telling you more of what you need to pay attention to in the garden planning process!


Next post: "Why would I want to garden? Part 3"