Do you think gardening is frugal?
Please answer this in the comment section. If you do, tell why you do, and if not, tell why not.
I think gardening is great to get healthy food, but often initial costs are great. Especially if you have to pay to have your ground broken up, or buy a tiller to do it yourself. Plus then if you can there is canning costs.
Thrift stores are a great asset in find deals to help with jar cost and even canners, but be sure to have any canners tested by a local agent at your county extension office. Please please post and share your views about this...
It is frugal for some people and not for others.You do not have to spend money on gardening if you use your head.I would say for most people it is not frugal.The way I do it, it is frugal.Can only produce and methods that do not take money and that is frugal also.
ReplyDeleteIf you have the time to save seeds and start your own plants, and then time to weed/tend to the plants, then I think that YES, it can be an inexpensive or frugal way to feed your family.
ReplyDeleteBut, if you purchase all the plants, purchase plastic or fabric for weed control, etc. Well that's changing things quite a bit. The health benefits will still be there but I wouldn't call the efforts very frugal!
I think gardening CAN be frugal. Too many get caught up in gardening methods without considering the entire cost. There is always learning curve with a new skill that will run costs up in the beginning. For the price of 4 movie tickets or a month of satelite TV, you can have a garden tilled. For popcorn and drinks, you can buy seeds. It's all in making priorities. I can't think of ny hobby that gives as much back for so little as gardening. You don't have to can or freeze the produce. Just privding for your family during the growing season can help the food budget. Don't forget small fruits lik blueberries and raspberries. They are most costly in the store
ReplyDeleteso raising your own is a greater savings that growing lettuces.
Gardening can be quite inexpensive and frugal if you save seeds. I grow pie pumpkins and save seed every year. They are easy to grow, quite prolific, and this year I have several volunteer plants as well. I will never have to buy pumpkins or pumpkin seed for planting again, and I can trade extra seeds with fellow gardeners.
ReplyDeleteIt can be somewhat frugal or it can be a huge money pit. Plants are much more expensive up here than they were in the south, and the growing season is shorter. I don't till -- the first year I put down weed fabric and just dug holes. Each year, I'm growing more and more things from seed (and slowly becoming more successful at this) and then I'm going to plant seeds for a living mulch this year to reduce costs as well. I guess you also have to figure in the psychological benefit -- if you enjoy doing it -- that certainly beats the cost of counseling! LOL
ReplyDeleteThis would be an interesting challenge for next year - how frugal can you go? Ground prep is what gets me because I have screws in my ankle and can't shovel very well, which is cheaper than buying a tiller or renting a kid, lol. I'm working towards raise beds, which is expensive because I have to buy dirt (Georgia red clay.) So I'm working towards a compost bin which takes time because I want to build that as cheaply as possible, so I'm trying to locate used pallets. It is a game with me :-)
ReplyDeleteGardening for yourself is frugal. Paying someone to garden for you, be it doing the work at your home or on their farm and buying outright is more often than not less frugal.
ReplyDeletePaying anyone to do any work that you could do yourself is rarely a frugal choice. If you start by hand digging, you could have a rather large bed in short order. People often overestimate how laborious the work is, and underestimate their abilities.
Anyone who doesn't think this is true, and doesn't want to do the work, just try this:
Get your tools for the job. Add to the list a timer. If you have a camera or camera phone, take a picture of "before". Now, set the timer for 30 minutes. Get to work. Chances are, you'll be working and working and working and think something is wrong with the timer. When it FINALLY goes off, look at your progress. Compare to your "before" pic. You'll be amazed at how much you got done.
Anyway, yes, gardening is more frugal than not, even when buying the plants.
As with just about anything, Gardening can be frugal, or it can be a costly way to get food. I do it frugally. I work my own dirt, make my own compost and save and grow my own seeds. Some folks may not have the luxury of doing all this where they live.
ReplyDeleteWith canning, the inatial cost may be a deterent to some, but like a car or a house, I look at the long picture and how long that pressure canner or cases of jars will last me.
Kazahleenah
Gardening is most definitely frugal if you know what your doing. If you are smart you will invest one time in heirloom seeds. For a 100.00 investment you can feed your family for YEARS. Save the seeds year to year and you will never have to invest again. You have to realize you do not need weed fabric, or all those new fangle gardening tools. Our pioneer ancestors did not have those things. A tiller is a must have unless you garden in raised beds which can be made from using recycled treated lumber. A tiller, is an investment but will turn many a garden and will pay for itself in the food you grow. Canning can be a big expense, again invest one time and those jars will last for years and years. I most definitely say its frugal and a great way to feed your family fresh food that goes from garden to table, not make some 1200 mile journey before you put it on the table!
ReplyDeleteinitial costs are high, yes... but over time, you save far more than you put in. Initial canning/drying/freezing costs might also be high as you aquire the things needed to do that, but then, you save yourself a ton of food costs in subsequent years. Caveat: You have to know what you are doing. Invest in good books, and time with good gardeners! Also, you have to be willing to invest time in the garden. If you are already over scheduled, you have a very expensive hobby that isn't going to produce much. JM2CFWIW
ReplyDeleteGardening is my choice of entertainment. Initial investment of heirloom seeds were my greatest expense, sharing my bounty with family and friends are my greatest pleasures.
ReplyDeleteFor me gardening is therapeutic and gives me peace of mind that the food we raise is safe and healthy, not chemically treated nor tainted by salmonella. As each year passes I become more frugal about gardening by lessons and experience learned. It is trial and error, not to mention, Mother Nature IS in control. Need to go with the flow. Some years are so bountiful and others, not so much. If I didn't enjoy my garden as much as I do, it would be tough to justify some of the challenges. I will always have a garden, whether it be a window sill one or a full blown acre one.
ReplyDeleteRubyRed
it depends on "how" you garden, as others had pointed out. I'm in a community garden, and start most of my plants at home or direct seed. While there is an annual fee for the garden space, I have true abundance there, and the dollar value of the produce grown is large. I could never buy at the store the amount that I grow in this garden!
ReplyDeleteldc
Gardening can be frugal..... or it can be an expensive hobby. It all depends upon "management" and resources available. If you have to rent a garden plot, pay to have someone till it, buy all your seed and fertilizer, then only eat the produce "in season"... you will come up a bit short. However, if you have the land, do all the work yourself, save your own seeds, use everything produced by canning and freezing excess you can eat pretty cheap. quite often folks will have "free" fertilizer available to them in the form of manure... either from their own critters, or a nearby neighbor. If you raise a large enough garden to can and freeze for a year round supply.... the costs of the equipment can be high.... but it can also be used for many many seasons. My canner was made in the forties... still works great, and many of my canning jars are just as old. I bought most of my equipment used.... for pennies on the dollar. Its all about management!
ReplyDeleteYvonne's hubby
Gardening is a frugal as you make it. And no, you do not have to till the soil to be effective, nor do you need plastic mulches. If you are fortunate to raise animals, straw and crops, mulching is more effective than wrecking your soil by continually tilling it and wrecking the soils natural structure. Tillage begets more tillage. after a few years the soil finds a new, productive equillibrium. You stop bringing up weeds from years gone by, and the mulch lets you avoid a weedy mess. So scratch the tiller from your investment, and buy more seeds/plants.
ReplyDeleteYes, gardening is frugal, and effective at saving money, along with providing wholesome food. But you have to make it this way, and show some dedication!
Gardening like anything else can be as frugal as you want it to be or as expensive as you want it to be. If you need the fancy tiller, then it is expensive. A shovel and dirt fork are much less expensive. Also equipment is a one time cost and that cost is divided among the many years of use. Saving seeds year after year is the same thing. You might pay 2.00 for a pack of seeds but after many years of saving seeds from those initial plants then you really haven't spent much of anything. I get much more produce out of a packet of 2.00 seeds than I can buy at the grocery for 2.00. Blessings, Kat
ReplyDeleteWell, sometimes MY gardening is frugal...didn't get ANY tomatoes last year. But lettuce? Yum.
ReplyDeletePatty