When you consider the side benefits of growing the garden, you might consider the education you are getting. Food prices are sure to keep rising, as large-scale agriculture relies on fertilizer that is derived from fossil fuels. Frugality often involves making different choices, and by learning to garden you are giving yourself a new choice in the future, whether you decide you use it any one season or not.

I use my food dryer extensively, drying strawberries, blueberries, zucchini, tomatoes, peppers, herbs, and morels if I find them. It uses less energy than canning and less freezer space than just freezing. Spices are expensive, but drying your own basil, oregano, thyme, etc is about free.

I’d love to join a CSA, but there aren’t any close enough.

Here is a list of pest insects and what plants to plant to lure the predator insects to your garden, under the heading Gardening With Bugs.

http://www.auduboninstitute.org/site/PageServer?pagename=Facility_Insectarium_world_Pest_Control

Not sure if it works or not, but I plan to use some of these plants in my next garden to see if it helps cut down on the pests.

A quick pass today revealed that strawberries go for $2.50/pint, raspberries go for $3.50/pint, and peas go for $3.00/pound. We bought a pint of strawberries and discovered they weigh about .80 pounds, so the cost is about $3.13 per pound. I’m not going to change the numbers for this entry, but when I post next month’s update, I’ll revise our harvest total. Make sense?

I’m watching your garden reports closely; I’m in Seattle so the weather is similar. Strawberries are one of the things I’m very interested in trying next year, because it makes such a difference in quality. The small locally farmed berries and the huge California grocery ones are miles apart in taste.

http://www.globalsecuritieswatch.org/PRC_Sovereign_Risk_Review.pdf

These posts have been a real inspiration for us. I think we will track our expenses and profit next year, too. Good luck with the rest of your gardening season!

I live in Washington, and I absolutely love u-pick farms. We currently live in an apartment, so u-pick farms are a great substitute for gardening. I never knew there could be so many different varieties of squash, herbs, and other goodies that the supermarket never sells!

I have a calorie/cost tracking blog and I try to take account of things like this, much like you do. Recently I’ve needed to figure in cost of gas a little more, but the cost won’t stop me no matter what. There’s nothing like garden fresh food that hasn’t been packaged in a box in Mexico, chilled in a cooler, and sitting around on the produce aisle for who knows how long. There’s something incredibly natural about digging in the dirt and plants for food. I love it.

When I retire, I need to get a house in a gentle, easy to grow climate like Oregon or Washington. Home gardening is a lot more challenging in a place like Colorado where I used to live. I was once told, if you can’t grow it in Washington, it can’t be grown!

My peppers are not pepperful. I’m in Iowa. We had rain here until mid-June. Of the nineteen plants I moved outside, I think I still have eight, most of which have not grown significantly larger. I didn’t know it was possible for a plant to be outside for a month and not add a single leaf! I’ve bought a lot of seedlings to replace dying my-planted-seeds, too. I’ll be surprised if I recoup my costs (pots and dirt got pricey and peppers are pretty cheap) but I won’t have to spend as much next year– a new bag of potting soil to mix in with the old, maybe another grow light to make things a little more vigorous in the kitchen.

None of the peppers are more than eight inches tall right now. The one I bought last week at the farmer’s market had a blossom, but I pulled it off to encourage vegetative growth.

Good luck with July weather!

I think you should use the average price of strawberries for comparison.

I will also say that the weather has been BRUTAL here. With temps in the triple digits (109 last weekend!) and I lost a few plants due to the excessive heat. Seems there is a sweet spot temperature wise for gardening.

Are you planning for fall planting yet?

When I went strawberry-picking at the farm, I just picked until my box was full– which turned out to be twelve pounds. These became jam and syrup. Our own berries we are eating mostly on cereal, over ice cream, with shortcake, etc. I also made a refreshing chilled strawberry soup– yum!

With our homegrown berries, their taste is very weather-dependent. Even a day or two of strong sun makes them very sweet. A rainy day makes them less so. Compared with the mammoth out-of-state berries in the store, our local berries are much better for jams and cooking. The texture of the fruit is much more delicate and they easily melt into a wonderful strawberry pulp.

Oh, and our fruit trees are all in the ground, but we chose dwarf varieties so they should stay about 15-20 feet tall at maturity.

JD, I’m confused. Why not use the 85 cents per pound for comparison? Did you have to buy at least 12 pounds at the farm? Other than that bit of confusion, I would use basically the same method for comparison. At the time of my harvest, I would check the prices in all the stores I would have potentially bought the item of harvest from. Also, I agree with Funny About Money that you should compare the organic price.

Question: Are all of your fruit trees in the ground or are any in containers?

It sounds like you are indeed going to save more than you spent… but I’m betting the improved taste of the food will be worth the cost alone – Especially the tomatoes!

Can you comment on any difference in taste from the store-bought strawberries vs. your home-grown ones?

It’s hard to compare gauge the frugality of a garden. How do you quantify enjoyment? If you do it instead of something else that cost money it may save you more than the next person. If you wouldn’t normally buy the amount of produce that your garden grows (e.g nearly 12 pounds of strawberries), it becomes more complex. And compounds, since I believe I remember reading Kris makes strawberry jelly as gifts. Many factors would have to be examined to figure out the cost-benefit of a garden. You seem to have a good idea, just recording it out of interest more than anything.

Congratulations on starting to see some wonderful goodies! You can’t get truly delicious vine-ripened fruits and vegetables in the grocery store at any price.