I know this photo looks like a pile of dirt to some but the happy gardener sees the future in it. This gardener sees her friend and neighbor harvesting lovely plants and perhaps sharing some excitement for vegetables she is not yet aware she likes. I see beet salad, beet cookies (oh yes), cooked greens in turkey broth, a well set table and friends enjoying themselves. Mother nature has worked her magic and Madison’s garden has healthy sprouts growing after only one week.
Though I have tons to write about with Spring in full effect and seeds sprouting like crazy- I wanted to take a moment to draw attention to a cool cooking series by a woman who lived through the Great Depression. The series can be found here. Her name is Clara, she is 93. She shows you how to make food on the cheap while telling engaging stories about her life. The food is very modest as can be expected but it provides a great framework for thinking about making food that can feed a family. I would not used canned goods but her methods reflect the era she was raised in.
We may not be in a full on Depression but many have been hard hit by the severe recession. As with many around us, Dipak and I have made a distinct shift from eating out to cooking mostly at home. As should be obvious from my blog, I am clearly interested in growing our food at home and using traditional methods to store the food for year long consumption. We are beginning a project to assess the money saved with growing food, gray water and water catchment systems, and preserving (no data available yet). A recent example, I purchased four baskets of organic Chandler strawberries from a farmer I quite like at the local Farmers Market. She gave them to me for $13 ($3.25 each). We ate one basket full with friends and I made jam with the other three. We got five 8 oz jars of jam out of the batch. An 8oz. jar of organic strawberry jam made from local goods goes for $3.5-$4.5. Ours came to $2.35, including the 1 cup of sugar used (~$.44). This cost does not include the fuel to run the stove for 40 minutes (two burners: one low heat; one high). We used recycled Mason jars and no transportation costs for the jam once made (I walked the strawberries from the market, we drove the sugar from Cosco). If we look at the cost from a “neo-classical economy” perspective, we can include happiness in our calculation and say that the satisfaction of knowing we supported a local farmer, that our food contains no synthetic chemicals, and that there are only three simple ingredients- strawberries, sugar and lemons juice from out own lemon, increases the value. And what the hell, throw in LOVE as a pricey factor in the equation because the jam was made with love for so many things (strawberries, the color red, the sun, my husband, my health, my sanity…) its got to increase the value.
Wow, found a great article on Kitchen Gardeners International by Roger Dioron (included below). Mr. Dioron calculates the value of produce he grows in his space. Very insightful. I am so inspired to weigh all my produce grown. Better yet, with my crop planner I can also estimate based on area planted yield and value. The reference sheet he created is brilliant.
What’s a Home Garden Worth:
With the global economy spiraling downward and Mother Nature preparing to reach upward, it’s a good question to ask and a good time to ask it.
There isn’t one right answer, of course, but I’ll give you mine: $2149.15. Last year, my wife Jacqueline suggested to me that we calculate the total value of the produce coming out of our garden over the course of the growing season. Initially, the thought of doing that was about as appealing to me as a recreational root canal. I remember replying something like: “OK, so let me get this right: in addition to raising three busy boys, managing two careers, volunteering in a school garden, and growing most of our own produce, you’re proposing that we weigh every item that comes out of our garden, write it down in a log book, and spend a few leisurely evenings doing math?” Jacqueline, an economics major in college and a native French speaker, answered with a simple “oui” and so the project began.
There was a lot of work involved, mostly for Jacqueline, but as with gardening itself, it was work with a purpose. It didn’t take long for our log book to start filling up with dates and figures. Although we started eating our first garden salads in late April, we only began recording our harvests as of May 10th, starting first with greens and asparagus. Our last weighable harvest was two weeks ago in the form of a final cutting of Belgian endives forced from roots in our basement.
By the time we had finished weighing it all, we had grown 834 pounds and over six months worth of organic food (we’re still eating our own winter squash, onions, garlic, and frozen items like strawberries, green beans, and pesto cubes). Once we had the weights of the 35 main crops we grew, we then calculated what it would have cost us to buy the same items using three different sets of prices: conventional grocery store, farmers’ market and organic grocery store (Whole Foods, in our case). The total value came to $2196.50, $2431.15, and $2548.93 respectively. For the other economics majors and number crunchers among you, you can see our crunchy, raw data here.
There are things we didn’t include like the wild dandelion greens which we reaped but did not sow, the six or so carving pumpkins which we ultimately fed to our compost pile, and the countless snacks of strawberries, beans, peas, and tomatoes that never made it as far as our kitchen scale. There were also things we forgot to weigh like several pounds of grapes which turned into about 12 jars of jam. As with any growing season, there were hits and misses. The heaviest and most valuable crop was our tomatoes (158 lb/72 kg for a total value of $524). In terms of misses, our apple tree decided to take the year off and very few of our onions started from seed made it requiring me to buy onion plants.
On the cost side, we had $130 for seeds and supplies, $12 for a soil test, and exceptional costs of $100 for some locally-made organic compost we bought for our “This Lawn is Your Lawn” frontyard garden (normally, we meet most of our soil fertility needs through our own composting). I don’t have a scientific calculation for water costs, but we don’t need to water much and, when we do, water is relatively cheap in Maine. Also, I mulch my beds pretty heavily to keep moisture in and weeds down. Let’s say $40 in water. So, if we consider that our out-of-pocket costs were $282 and the total value generated was $2431, that means we had a return on investment of 862%. The cost of our labor is not included because we enjoy gardening and the physical work involved. If I am to include my labor costs, I feel I should also include the gym membership fees, country club dues, or doctors’ bills I didn’t have.
If you really want to play around with the data, you can calculate how much a home garden like ours produces on a per acre basis. If you use the $2400 figure and consider that our garden is roughly 1/25th of an acre, it means that home gardens like ours can gross $60,000/acre. You can also calculate it on a square foot basis which in our case works out to be roughly $1.50/ft2. That would mean that a smaller garden of say 400ft2 would produce $600 of produce. Keep in mind that these are averages and that certain crops are more profitable and space efficient than others. A small garden planted primarily with salad greens and trellised tomatoes, for example, is going to produce more economic value per square foot more than one planted with potatoes and squash. We plant a bit of everything because that’s the way we like to garden and eat.
Clearly, this data is just for one family (of five), one yard (.3 acre), one garden (roughly 1600 square feet), and one climate (Maine, zone 5b/6), but it gives you some sense of what’s possible. If you consider that there are about 90 million households in the US that have some sort of yard, factor in the thousands of new community and school gardens we could be planting, this really could add up. Our savings allowed us to do different things including investing in some weatherization work for our house last fall that is making us a greener household in another way. Some might ask what this would mean for farmers to have more people growing their own food. The local farmers I know welcome it because they correctly believe that the more people discover what fresh, real food tastes like, the more they’ll want to taste. In our case, part of our savings helped us to buy better quality, sustainably-raised meat from a local CSA farmer.
The economics of home gardening may not be enough to convince President Obama or UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown to plant new gardens at the White House or 10 Downing Street, but the healthy savings their citizens could be making and then reinvesting in their local economies could.
In the end, it might come down to the language we use. Instead of saying “Honey, I’m going out to the garden to turn the compost pile”, perhaps we should say “Honey, I’m going outside to do a ‘green job’ and work on our ‘organic stimulus package.’” I bet that would get the attention of a few economists, if not a few psychologists!
To build the planter used for Madison’s Garden, I recycled really old 6 inch x 2 inch decking. Though the lumber showed signs of deterioration, much of the wood remained in good shape. I cut 6 three foot pieces; 6 six foot pieces; and 4 sixteen inch pieces of 2×4. Using 2.5 inch deck screws, I attached each 6 foot board onto the 2×4. The 3 boards lined up added to more than 16 inches so that there would be 2 inches extra. I prefer this look, the dirt in the planter covers the 2×4 and you only see the box. Once I had two walls of 6 foot boards. I lined these two walls against a 3 foot board and attached it to the 2×4- I repeated this for each 3 foot board. This planter is bottom less and has no mesh inside for gopher protection. We’ve not had a problem with gophers so this should be fine. We have had an issue with dogs using the sidewalk strip as a potty, hence the raised bed.
What is most impressive about the new sidewalk garden installation is that I was merely the brawn behind it and Madison was the brain. She was helping me clear the annual weed build up one day and made a few suggestions that were solid and logical. She even showed me where things could go. Then she drew the plan for the flower bed and I built the box for the veggies. After planting poppies and cosmos around the tree, we mixed fresh dirt in and viola! She chose sweet peas; collards; beets; and carrots to plant. Then I constructed the signs and Madison designed and painted them. They look great. Though I turned them around for the picture, they are actually facing the other direction so Madison and her mother can see them from their window. It is a very cheery sight and it was so much fun to do. Now I must take a moment to fawn over little miss Madison because she was so helpful, smart, and she listened very well. Thank you Madison!
I look forward to working with Madison to keep the garden growing.
I have a really cool neighbor named Madison. I met her when I first moved into my home nearly five years ago. She was five then and full of urgent “play with me!” kid energy that can be hard to focus in a garden. She is a little lady by now and LOVES to garden. She is great with tasks and loves picking fresh food. We are going to plant an edible garden in the front yard. Madison has created a plan for an area with flowers.
I think this is something we can do.
The thing about growing food is that it requires you slow down and take the time to notice. You are in a position to have to notice that the bright green buds of new figs because you have to ask is it the right time? Does the tree need anything from me? You have to see that the Alpine Strawberries are bearing because you have to pick them or risk losing them to rodents, birds, or worse having them go to rot.
It has been such a challenge to keep up with news of the garden. It’s all been a blur. My sister gave birth, my best friend gave birth (is it in the air?). Life transitions all around. School research breathing down my neck…and not in a pleasant way. So, I meant to post a photo (which i have since done) of the self tending garden happening on the side of my house. It has a bit of a wild look but it is also so pretty with strawberries nestled between borage. Sharp spikes of garlic and colorful splashes of crocus border the garden. Tufts of self seeded parsley and lovely stalks of sunflowers edge the circular path around the fig tree. It is a small path for my child within- or when I have little people over, they get to tour the healthy version of a Willie Wonka landscape of treats. It has an amazing effect on the most stubborn of fresh fruit/veggie haters.
I’m not sure how I struck the balance with this self growing garden. I seem to have picked some winning companions that seem to be supporting the growth of one another.