Comments on: The Year-Long GRS Project: How Much Does a Garden Really Save?

By: bemoneyaware

bemoneyaware — Sun, 06 Nov 2011 13:41:02 +0000

Wow..very impressive..not only the garden project but the calculations too…big inspiration to others!

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By: Michael

Michael — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 14:43:35 +0000

Compost, recycle nutrients.

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By: Ryan

Ryan — Sun, 05 Jun 2011 20:02:19 +0000

This is the whole idea behind aquaponics!

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By: ALOHA Garden

ALOHA Garden — Sat, 04 Jun 2011 17:48:33 +0000

My husband and I live in Hawaii and started a garden in our yard a few years ago. This spring we planted Kale, lettuce, eggplant, squash, and plenty of herbs. Already, I’ve had five harvest of Kale and salad greens in only a few months.

In Hawaii, where everything (including food!) is so EXPENSIVE, we are saving tons of $$$! For example, Kale typically costs ~$4 a bunch in the store, so we’ve saved about $20 (minus the $2bucks for the starter plant). And, happily the Kale is still going! A great cost savings.

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By: mvm71

mvm71 — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 11:06:11 +0000

A veggie garden is what I’ve been dreaming to have. Harvesting fresh vegetables and cooking them. With this I can be sure that my vegetables are pesticide free which made it safe for my children to eat.

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By: leonard waks

leonard waks — Sun, 09 May 2010 18:21:07 +0000

My wife and her Mom garden together. They are hugely successful and we have lots of vegetables, tomatoes and berries that last throughout the year.

Much more important, they love working side by side, they get fantastic exercize, they build their dignity by providing for the family. My mother-in-law is approaching 80 and grew up in a Ukrainian village. Educated, informed, fluent in English (among other languages), she still has a deep connection with the soil and nothing could please her more than taking care of all of us.

That, and the fact that we get pollution free, fresh, delicious vegetables for our daily dinner table all year long (and we do eat as a family every day) makes the question of whether we are saving money a bit moot.

To add to this, they garden in a commmunity garden; the city provides the water, top soil, mulch, tools and even some seeds. Their expenses approach zero.

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By: Dollars Not Debt

Dollars Not Debt — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 16:34:55 +0000

Great hobby and therapy, but not something that will save much money. Do it if you enjoy it but definitely don’t if it is a chore.

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By: TED

TED — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 12:45:25 +0000

The trick to successful gardening is to eliminate all the hard work. If you are tilling soil every year and plating in rows then you are doing way too much work. Home gardening should be done using intensive gardening methods. I think the best one is “Square Foot Gardening.” I’ll try to give a brief summary. Build a 4′ by 4′ box out of 2×6 wood. Select your spot (consider sunlight, etc.) and lay down some weed block. Put the box down on the weed block. Fill it with the proper soil mix. If you buy your soil make sure it has the work “mix” on the label. You can create your own from equal parts of coarse vermiculite, peat moss, and compost. Put the soil in the box. Now your soil preperation is done for life. You never step inside the box so your soil never gets packed down. From this point on you just add compost. You divide the box into 1 foot squares and plant one crop in each square. You would be surprized at how much food you can grow in one 4×4 block. Of course you can make more than one. Visit the Square Foot Gardening website and take a look at the pictures. (I don’t know if posting URLs is allowed so just search for “Square Foot Gardening” and you will find it easily.)

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By: Mr Swede

Mr Swede — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 21:31:33 +0000

Strangely I´v now have desided to grow my own tomatoes just to se if there ever can be any money in it. All thanks to this site! THANK YOU! As if didn`t have to much to do already!

Greeting from Mr Swede

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By: Mr Swede

Mr Swede — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 03:04:07 +0000

But what about a real Strawberry? Cucumber? Carrot? Everyone talks about tomatoes, but almost every vegetable that you grow on your own taste better then the ones bought in a supermarket. I think this mostly depends on which kind of seeds you/they use.

Bad English? You try to write the same in Swedish!

Greeting from Mr Swede

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By: Margaret

Margaret — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 16:00:30 +0000

Is it too late to plant tomatoes? If Not, what are the best kind to plant in the deep south of Texas, if anyone knows? My mother and father had a garden when we were growing up, too bad I never took the time to learn more about it. I would love for my grandaughter to know what a real tomatoe is suppose to taste like.

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By: Get Rich Slowly » How to Live a Rich Life — On a Budget

Get Rich Slowly » How to Live a Rich Life — On a Budget — Mon, 18 May 2009 12:01:02 +0000

[...] always happens in the moment. A simple meal prepared with fresh ingredients is every bit as enjoyable as a gourmet feast. And of course, good company can make any meal a [...]

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By: Tom

Tom — Mon, 04 May 2009 11:43:41 +0000

Square foot gardening is something everyone with even a small space can get into. We use a “pot method” to plant our favorite fresh veggies. The pots are lined up along the back porch and we have 5 kinds of peppers, 2 varieties of tomato, beans, zuchinni and cucumber all growing nicely in a small amount of space. The cucumber vines are running up a trellis set over the two pots so they are space regulated and it’s easy to find and pick the cucumbers. The zuchinni plants are getting really huge and I’ll have to relocate them for more space next year but they are producing already. Once in place the pots are easy to maintain with minimal effort and you can mow/weedeat right around them.

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By: Roger W

Roger W — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 21:47:54 +0000

I’ll enjoy watching this. My gardening is a hobby that’s a net loss, so this will broaden my thinking about gardening.

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By: fauntleroy

fauntleroy — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 17:08:13 +0000

Many commenters acknowledge that gardening doesn’t necessarily make good economic sense, then mention the other benefits of gardening which of course are many. People who enjoy gardening shouldn’t feel the need to defend it against the economic argument, but it’s a useful exercise for a site like this to make the clear distinction between “I like it” and “it saves money”.

It’s only valid to compare the cost of the veg you grow with the organic store-bought version, if that’s what you would buy if you didn’t garden. The valid comparison is between what you grow, and what you would buy if you didn’t grow. I don’t buy organic produce because it’s too expensive so in my case the comparison is with the regular stuff at the supermarket.

Similar with herbs. Without the garden we might spend say $150/yr on herbs. I thus cannot save more than $150/yr on herbs, no matter how many herbs I grow. And that is the ideal case not factoring in other costs. When you get into canning and freezing, that hardware is another cost that will take lots of volume and seasons to recoup. The economics of scale favors larger production.

I have two rain barrels and though they are a good idea their economic benefit is minimal I think. Without water pressure it’s difficult to get the water where you need it. Water is heavy. I built stands for mine to provide some pressure from height, but it’s not enough. Should I buy a pump? How many tomatoes could I buy for the cost of a pump? The barrels are a supplemental source of water only.

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By: Mary

Mary — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 19:47:58 +0000

Love reading about your gardening adventures. We move a lot due to job transfers, so we try to only make the investment in gardening when we know we are going to be in one place for a while… We have been in our current home for almost 3 years and decided this was the year to garden, looks like a move we’ve been wanting for some time is looming! Oh well insurance that we’ll get to live where we want, learn from any mistakes we’ve made on this garden and fix on our next garden, plus we think having a garden and “hot box” in place may help sell our home in these economic times! In the meantime we’ll enjoy our fresh food!

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By: Jesse

Jesse — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 15:01:49 +0000

Here is how i see it. Gardening is a hobby that you enjoy so the hours you spend doing it are saving you money you would spend on another hobby like golf or fishing. That’s why I would never include hours spent in the garden in my calculations. As long as you break even you’re ahead of the game.

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By: 7 Tips for Starting Your Own Vegetable Garden ? Get Rich Slowly

7 Tips for Starting Your Own Vegetable Garden ? Get Rich Slowly — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 13:00:31 +0000

[...] been gradually building a garden of fruit, berries, and vegetables. In 2008, we conducted a year-long experiment. We tracked our garden expenses (in money and time) and also noted our “profit” from [...]

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By: Katy

Katy — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 23:39:21 +0000

Tips on two of your poor performers:

Asparagus – don’t give up on it. You should get harvest’s of decent size starting year 5. This year, 2009, will be bigger than 2008.

Potato – instead of planting in the ground, plant them in a tire, and then when the bush is six inches higher than the width of the tire, stack another tire on top and fill it with soil. The stems will become roots and sprout more potatoes off of them. You can stack three or four tires this way for each plant, and get a great harvest using much less square footage.

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By: The GRS Garden Project: Winners and Losers for 2008 ? Get Rich Slowly

The GRS Garden Project: Winners and Losers for 2008 ? Get Rich Slowly — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 13:00:27 +0000

[...] But the gardening cycle will begin anew with a seed order later this month. Before then, I’ve decided to make a few notes on our 2008 efforts to see what we can learn from the Get Rich Slowly garden project. [...]

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By: Tom

Tom — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 13:58:38 +0000

For a good place to get some of the seeds for starting your garden project, it’s as easy as a trip to your favorite produce market.
We buy the things we like and when preparing them, pull out and SAVE THE SEEDS. Place them on a paper towel or paper plate and let them dry for a couple of days. Then take the seeds and put them in an envelope until ready to plant. This saves you money on buying seeds and gives you seeds for things you already know you like of that variety.
We did this just this year, but got a late start. The pepper plants are still producing like crazy and I’ve taken several dozen to work to give away because we just didn’t realize how much extra 6 plants would produce.
These plants are growing in 16x16x8 inch concrete blocks, 2 plants per block, that I painted (on the outside only) and then filled with potting soil. You can do any number of veggie plants this way and once in place, are re-useable year after year.
Next spring, we plan on more variety from the 10 ‘pots’ already in place and may add 2-4 more to finish filling the space along the back porch wall.

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By: The GRS Garden Project: November Update ? Get Rich Slowly

The GRS Garden Project: November Update ? Get Rich Slowly — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 20:54:13 +0000

[...] I encourage you to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!During 2008, my wife and I are tracking how much time and money we spend growing food. This is the report for [...]

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By: connie

connie — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 19:54:18 +0000

did you calculate the hours you invested of your own time into your garden?? when calculating the cost of the garden, you really should calcluate your own time especially since you are saying you are saving x amount.

I know you garden for fun, but this article is about profit..

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By: The GRS Garden Project: October Update ? Get Rich Slowly

The GRS Garden Project: October Update ? Get Rich Slowly — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 08:00:19 +0000

[...] The Year-Long GRS Project: How Much Does a Garden Really Save?The GRS Garden Project: February UpdateThe GRS Garden Project: March UpdateThe GRS Garden Project: June UpdateThe GRS Garden Project: August Update [...]

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By: Top 10 Ways To Save Money - Number 8 - Buy Fresh Produce by No Credit Needed

Thu, 23 Oct 2008 13:12:23 +0000

[...] eating only lean meats, fresh vegetables, and fruits. (JD and Kris from over at Get Rich Slowly have been tracking their time in the garden this year. There results have been very [...]

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By: The GRS Garden Project: September Update ? Get Rich Slowly

The GRS Garden Project: September Update ? Get Rich Slowly — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 12:00:45 +0000

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By: Sven

Sven — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 06:51:44 +0000

Hey guys,

I was just wondering if it would make sense to also factor in the value of the real estate of the patch of land used to do the gardening on. Here in The Netherlands, space is at a premium – frankly I’d have to move to have much of a veggie patch. So how about using some sort of factor for the average price of land per square foot/meter into the equation (possibly spread out over time)?

Just a thought – I love the project!

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By: The GRS Garden Project: August Update ? Get Rich Slowly

The GRS Garden Project: August Update ? Get Rich Slowly — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 12:01:12 +0000

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By: Eric Bronson

Eric Bronson — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 12:22:10 +0000

Your a real inspiration. I think this is an awesome idea. I’m going to try and do the same with my fall veggies. Just to see how things turn out. Thanks a million for sharing!

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By: Audrey

Audrey — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 22:07:41 +0000

When we talk about the “cost” of our food at the grocery store, we tend to think in the actual amount of money we shell out for that tomato. However, that’s not the “true cost” of our food. Farm subsidies and exploitation of cheap food and labor from developing countries hide the true cost of our food from us- essentially, we pay less than it really costs. In the short term, this might save us money… but the system is neither ethical nor sustainable. The price you pay for slightly cheaper, conventional food today means higher prices and less humane practices in the future! Your garden is like your retirement plan- hurts a little now, but it’s absolutely necessary to ensure your future savings.

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