[...] 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: January Update [...]

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

[...] GRS Garden Project: February UpdateThe GRS Garden Project: March UpdateThe GRS Garden Project: January UpdateThe GRS Garden Project: April UpdateThe Year-Long GRS Project: How Much Does a Garden Really [...]

[...] to your local store where it sat on the shelf for a week before you bought it. Check out this blog if you want to find out if a garden really saves you money. You can read about my garden project [...]

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Buying local is important to me, so I was saddened read that Territorial Seeds is supplied by Monsanto. I’m ordering from Abundant Life this year.

[...] to your local store where it sat on the shelf for a week before you bought it. Check out this blog if you want to find out if a garden really saves you [...]

If you really want to measure every last cost associated with your garden, you should measure the amount of power those grow lights consume. I would suggest using a Kill-A-Watt or a similar usage meter. I would be curious as to to how much money you’re spending on running the grow lights, as I also have a (very small) grow light setup in my home.

I couple years back I discovered https://www.artisticgardens.com/ a seed company that sells herb and vegetable seed packets for only 35 cents each. There are always plenty of seeds for my small garden, and usually still enough to share.

Gardening is quite time consuming, but the satisfaction of see the literal fruits of one’s labor is quite nice.

Are you two practicing any composting at all? That would save in a couple of ways:

1) less fertilizer need$ to be bought
2) less waste go into our landfills, instead the food scraps will go back into our yards

A friend recently gave me a special issue of _GreenPrints_ journal called _The Weeder’s Reader_. It’s very mellow, makes you laugh and cry, sometimes at once. Don’t know if you can get it on Amazon.com. But GreenPrints is at Box 1355, Fairview, NC 28730. If you enjoy gardening (and cats, dogs, & people), this strange & sweet little book is worth sending away for.

It does count as fun for me, though. I’m not willing to do anything not fun to save money.

If you’re smart about it, and start seeing yourself as A MEMBER OF A COMMUNITY OF PEOPLE and work those connections, as opposed to always thinking about buying what the catalog tells you you need to, you’ll save thousands.

I’ve been lurking on your blog for a while and I love it! My wife and I will be moving into our first house in May and we are excited to try Square Foot Gardening (thanks to you!).

Thanks for all the great info!

-Daniel
http://youngandfrugal.wordpress.com

We get our seeds from a variety of sources. Kris swears by Totally Tomatoes for tomatoes, and we use Territorial for most of everything else. They’re a local company that specializes in varieties for “the maritime Pacific Northwest”…

As for vh, I guess I just don’t see the garden even coming close to being as much or more than in store produce. But then again, we buy a TON of produce, and don’t the majority of the stuff you listed to plan our garden. I’d suggest checking out the Square Foot Garden book, it really focuses on how gardening doesn’t need to cost so much.

Prices on organic have come down enough, though, that even if that’s all you buy, gardening may still be higher, by the time you’ve bought seeds and small plants, soil amendments, fertilizers, mesh to deflect insects, shade coverings, frost coverings, fake owl to scare off hungry birds, dog to scare off the neighbor’s toilet-seeking cats, edging to keep the grass out (sort of), chicken wire to keep the dog from digging, stakes and trellises, a shovel or two, a wheelbarrow, trowels, a rake, small nippers, large nippers…gaaaah!

The satisfaction of growing your own is pretty priceless, though. Assuming you can figure out what to do with 500 pounds of zucchini!

Best Wishes,
D4L