I’ve saved $10,000 in the last 10 years growing my own small garden…
and I never spend more than 10 minutes in my garden / day*
If you’re interested in saving money by growing your own vegetables, you’ve come to the right place. I’ve spent the last 10 years teaching residential clients how to grow their own food. Over that time I’ve experimented with countless gardening products and strategies. Here’s what I’ve learned:
The Economics of Gardening
1) Infrastructure is everything
Location, Design, Soil, Irrigation, and Plant Selection are the factors you’ll need to consider and master. How you set up your garden initially will determine not only how much quantity you yield but also how much time you need to spend doing it. I’ve compiled and averaged the startup construction costs from over 2000 residential garden installations over the last 10 years to help you get started. If you spend between $1500 to $2000 to build a garden totaling 100 square feet, you can recoup those costs by the end of your first year.
2) Start with 100 square feet (10 square meters)
You don’t have to have fields and acreage to be successful. Each square foot of your garden will average more than $15 per year in organic produce if you do it right. It’s not important if you know everything about gardening before you get started. It's a skill that takes practice and some experimenting. Every season you grow you’ll gain confidence and experience. Your crop yields will increase and your expenditures will decrease.
3) Keep your soil happy
If you consistently (once or twice a year) take steps to build / support the life in your soil, it will feed you forever. Most people don’t take care of their soil, and eventually, the production slows way down. A small amount of compost and even less organic fertilizer added to the garden each season pumps new life into the system. We recommend adding about an inch of organic soil amendments at least once per year to keep the garden producing well. Another awesome amendment is compost tea (adding literally billions of organic microorganisms into your garden soil in one application).
That’s it! You’re on your way to saving money in your own garden!
*twice a year I spend about an hour in the garden transitioning between the seasons. That’s the only time I’m in the garden more than 10 mins :)