Not that I’m keeping score, but I am curious about the value of the vegetables I grow in my backyard garden1. For bragging rights, I’d like to be able to say I’ve produced some lofty number of dollars worth of produce by throwing some seeds in the ground. It’s not that simple, logistically, financially or socially.
Let me start with the output and add the rest of the equation later.
Based on grocery store prices, which fluctuate by season, I estimated the purchase price of what I’ve grown this summer:
Zucchini – 3 or 4 nice ones. About $5 worth.
Carrots – a small pack of baby carrots – $2.
Beans – it was a bad year for beans, but netted a least 6 meals- $10
Sweet peppers – 10 -15 small peppers, so lets call it 7 full sized. $7.5
Eggplant – 3 baby bells, the equivalent of one full sized one. $2
Peas – ha, ha, ha. 2.7 cents worth.
Turnips – one or two side-dish meals. $4
Squash – three decent sized ones and another 3 single meal sized – $8
Arugula – a good commercial box full – $6
Lettuce – another bad year thing – only about three meals – $4
Cucs. broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cantaloupe- got wilt, bugs etc2, $0
Kale – three plants of poor yield – $2
Celeriac – no roots to my plants, considering this is a root veg – $0
Tomatoes – this is where the win is – enough small (cherry, grape) tomatoes to last 5 months – $28; a lot of beefsteak style for sandwiches etc. – infinite, can’t buy this quality in the store, but for the exercise -$15; equivalent of 20 jars of pasta sauce – $80; frozen toms to use in place of canned toms. – $20
Swiss chard, spinach, bok choi – leafy greens to throw into all kinds of meals – 7 months worth – $60
Herbs – Because the plants are perennials, I have an infinite supply of oregano, sage, tarragon and thyme, chives with blossoms and coriander, in season. Hard to quantify, but estimate one package dried herb per year: $30. The dill and basil, annuals, yield two and five bunches, respectively, of the size you’d pay a few bucks for at the store, so $21.
All this adds up to a little over $300, so not bad. The costs do need to be subtracted. Water, seeds, fertilizer.
- I don’t spend much on seeds, as I collect what I can and sow the previous year’s until they won’t sprout any more. Seed estimate: 8 packs -> $24.
- I generally buy a few bags of manure each year to distribute in the beds. Given up on doing my own composing because there are too many pestilences, bugs, fungi etc. that hover in my backyard ecosystem to keep the expired foliage around. Max. $60.
- Water. This depends on what the sky blesses us with. This year, I hardly watered at all because the temperatures were moderate enough not to parch the beds between rainfalls. Other years it’s been different. Annual average over five years $50.
- Pesticides and mildicides and other weapons of killing things that I don’t want in the garden. I minimize these because they inevitably have a broader impact than desired (killing good bugs that feed off the undesirables, or just killing other good bugs) not to mention cost and frowns of disapproval from the neighbours. $20 per year.
- Capital assets. Over the years, I’ve collected tools, pots, hoses, and other accessories that look like a scruffy bunch of junk, but are pretty good for getting the jobs of digging, pruning, planting, watering, dividing, harvesting and whatever else is necessary done, including a staple gun to secure netting to frames and a hammer to drive in stakes. With a stable collection, and ignoring the possibility of modernizing the tools by buying smart ones, because who needs a shovel that sends a message to your phone (which I leave inside when I’m gardening so it doesn’t fall in the dirt) to say it’s 8″ deep into the hole you’re digging to plant a new rose bush, a few replacements are required each year. This year, I bought new pruning shears and burlap to wrap shrubs in for the winter: $80/yr.
- Labour. The business person in me knows that if this is about economics, the hours I work I should be a factor in the cost/benefit calculation. But I’ll say I collect my wages in fitness, vitamin D, and increased mental health from doing something I enjoy that improves my corner of the world through reduced greenhouse gas emissions associated with C sequestration by plants, lower food transportation costs and a few other odd things.
Total costs, without labour, but adding materials, operating, and asset acquisition together: $234. Operating margin is therefore 22%. No taxes (property tax is the same with or without the garden) or loans, and I’ve operationalized the depreciation and amortization. A good profit margin. Of course, barriers to entry include buying the property, having knowledge of gardening (I come from a long line of backyard gardeners), and living in a temperate zone where edible vegetables grow.
Math aside, which could still be turned into math but that would make it less valuable, what I grow is better than what can be obtained from the store. The tomatoes have no equivalent in taste. Everything is fresher, the carrots are carrot-ier, the herbs are on-demand and in whatever amount is required. No buying a bunch to use a few sprigs and discard the rest. Speaking of waste, there is less when you pick it yourself. I cut beans off the plant and put them in the pot. No more trimming than that.
Overall, the backyard garden is profitable, however that’s defined.
1 Yes, it’s December and I’m just getting around to this. But what better way to wile away winter, than thinking about summer?
2 This reminds me what a low yield I had this year; other years the counts have been higher. On a positive note, it was a great year for flowers.