A typical day of salad fixin's - kale and cherry tomatoes
It’s wintertime, it’s bloody cold in most parts of the country (a balmy, uncharacteristic 61 deg F yesterday here in Tulsa), and most people aren’t thinking about spring and their backyard gardens. Hard to see under a blanket of snow.
Only hardcore gardeners like yours truly are pawing through garden and seed catalogs (a.k.a. gardener porn), busily laying out the spring’s campaign.
A while back I wrote about six cool freelance gigs that not everyone might be able to do: taxidermy, small engine mechanic, wood working, brush-hogging, gunsmith, fishing guide.
The gist of the article was that there are some side gigs that are not for everyone, if only because the knowledge is gained through years of practice and learning. Start building a birdhouse or two, and next thing you know, it’s twenty years down the road and you’re building custom hardwood dressers and earning more than a few extra bucks from it.
Kitchen gardening is almost the same way.
For one thing, wood-working or taxidermy aren’t for everyone. That truly takes time and effort to learn.
But kitchen gardening is a gig I think everyone *could* do, but might not choose not to.
Could do, because starting out is dead easy. Stick a seed in the ground, or buy a plant from a nursery, add water and light, watch it grow.
Might not choose to, because it depends on wants, needs, and circumstances:
[1] Some people don’t care to be outdoors, may be sensitive to UV or have severe allergies (or just prefer to be a couch potato).
[2] Lack of space. Many folks live in apartments, with a north-facing window, or don’t think they have necessary space (although the Urban Organic Gardener might dispute that).
[3] Not enough time. I’d dispute that one. There’s always time to watch TV, or to go to the gym or ferry little kiddos back and forth from activities….
[4] Some people don’t think about food much. No particular pleasure in dining or cooking, it’s just a fueling stop that needs attending a couple times a day. I’ve known people like that. Weirdos.
Fuzzy Logic vs. Hard Numbers
There’s lots of warm and fuzzy reasons to garden: being outdoors (and making vitamin D), exercise, a good hobby, and good therapy for older folks. Fresh produce is good for your health.
All intangible, hard-to-quantify reasons.
The hard money facts lie in flipping the economics, making the jump from consumer to producer. Here’s a back-of-the-napkin spreadsheet of some of my kitchen garden production for 2011:
2011 season
Twelve hundred bucks a year, without really trying. Not by saving and scrimping, clipping coupons, or arguing with the cable company over the channel package.
Now, I don’t keep a gardening journal, and I don’t have the time or inclination to record every single pound of produce, like this couple did.
The list doesn’t include other things I’ve grown like canteloupes, broccoli, ground cherries, cabbage, swiss chard, watermelons, beans, snow peas, strawberries, zucchini.
In coming years, there will be yields from slow-maturing plants like grapes, blueberries, raspberries, edible dogwood, and aronia berries.
The peaches, plums and apricots out at the hacienda decided to take the year off due to some late frosts, but next year might be a bumper crop. How much will that be worth? Hard to say.
But twelve hundred bucks seems reasonable. Other figures I’ve seen around the web range from this to two thousand, maybe three thousand dollars.
Swiss Chard "Bright Lights"
Wait a Second! What about Input Costs?
No doubt, a beginner could have tons of input costs. You can read all about this in the The $64 Tomato, a gardening memoir whose title is self-descriptive.
No doubt, the first few years there are lots of shiny must-have catalog gardening items that trigger the “want” receptors in the neuro-cortex.
Seed, soils, mulch, fertilizer, insecticide, bedding materials, tools, landscape cloth, the list goes on and on.
But there are costs. Those seed potatoes don’t just magically appear, ready to plant So let’s say that there is some maintenance costs in buying some seed, some water for the backyard garden, and some supplies. For simplicity’s sake, let that equal the cost of of all the other produce that’s not included in the spreadsheet.
The interesting thing is, the more I garden, the less external costs I have:
Recycling from within. I don’t buy any fertilizers, depending on the output from my compost piles and the two worm bins.
I don’t buy any expensive insecticides or herbicides. The one bottle of Neem Oil concentrate I’ve had for 3 years.
Some plants re-seed themselves. Salad greens like Amish Deer Tongue and Purple Orach pop up all over the yard come spring time. All that I need to do is replant them in containers close to the house, and there’s our free “foraged” greens.
Saving and preserving the harvest. A dehydrator sure would be nice next year. I’m thinking about all those sun-dried tomatoes and zucchini chips (if only I could grow zucchini — damn you, squash vine borers!)
The more experience gained, the more self-sufficiency in the kitchen garden.
Sure… What About the Time Spent?
Ah yes, the time deal is another argument offered up for discussion. You spend gobs and gobs of time out there weeding and watering, in return for what, a sixty-four-dollar tomato?
It’s another fuzzy number…. so bring in the fuzzy ideas to retort.
Say the average suburbanite spends 20 to 30 bucks a month for gym membership, under fluorescent lights in a sterile, air conditioned environment. I spend nothing to lug dirt and compost around in wheelbarrow, under the sunshine. We could say *some* of the time spent is a wash.
Comes a point where time employed in weeding and watering reaches the point of diminishing marginal returns. The additional hour spent staking or watering may not necessarily increase the yield.
Therefore, like with any business, we look for ways to continuously improve and streamline the process to achieve the same or increased yields with reduced effort.
The drip-watering system installed this year in my backyard beds has decreased the the amount of time required for hand-watering at the plants’ root base.
Heavy mulching with straw cuts down on weeds and on weed-pulling time.
Knowledge gained on integrated pest management and attracting beneficial insects has reduced time required to hunt down individual vermin.
Taste vs. Cost
Opinions are what they are.
Despite appearances, this organic Stupice tomato did not taste like ass
It’s OK to say that the carrots for sale at the nearest grocery store are produced at a fraction of the cost of backyard carrots. Wouldn’t necessarily dispute that. I buy store carrots too. I can’t tell the taste difference, and maybe that’s because I’m a little meh! on carrots.
Maybe it’s because I haven’t yet grown that organic carrot variety that just blows your socks off with taste and texture.
And that’s the other thing about taste and variety. I tend to grow things that are simply not available on the local grocery scene: red ruffled basil, Gypsy sweet peppers, Chinese pink garlic, yard-long green beans.
On these, there’s just no taste comparison vs. store-bought. I don’t know how we can put an exact value on this.
Reader questions: is being a producer instead of a consumer the path to independence?
Great article.
I certainly think that being a producer rather than consumer is a path to independence. Local, high-quality food in general can reduce a number of societal costs, and it doesn’t get any more local than a backyard garden.
Dividend Monk recently posted..2011 Post Recap
Hi DM – societal costs are part of the fuzzy logic. Less energy used for mass trasport, less pollution, less tax money in the hands of greedy grubbing politicians… But I like the produce more than you consume angle. I like that way more than “spend less than you earn”.
I think you make a great point 101 – any one can garden. All it takes is some planning in the winter and some time during the summer. I’m looking forward to starting a garden this summer (first one ever) and am currently looking for some scrap wood to build some garden boxes. The reason that I havent started one yet is I down own my house, so I had to get permission from the landlord, which took a while.
Jeff @ Sustainable Life Blog recently posted..Year In Review
@ Jeff – I’m in full planning mode these days. This afternoon I’m off to a friend’s house to pick up a load of cast-away lumber. They rebuilt their deck, and have a pile of pressure treated 4×4′s, 2×12, 2×8, and even 6×6 posts to pick from. All good stuff for building raised beds.
My friends knows of my gardening gig, and called me up before taking everything down to the dump. This one goes down to minimizing input costs.
Being a producer rather than a consumer can certainly be a path to independence. It kind of depends on the business model, demand, and the marketing plan. I never really thought about the difference in taste between store bought and home grown carrots.
Roshawn @ Watson Inc recently posted..Home Mortgage Leverage SUCKS!
@ Roshawn – there’s not much difference, I think. Purple carrots may have a novelty factor, but like I said, I have a hard time growing them.
Great review 101! Making me hungry just thinking about it!
Happy New Year!
Dr Dean recently posted..Financial And Health Follies: SOPA Soap Opera Edition!
Hey Doctor, likewise best wishes for a great New Year in 2012!
Interesting topic! Add enough of these unique side-gigs together and you’ve got yourself an income!
Darwin’s Money recently posted..End of Year Links and Musings
True enough, Darwin. A rental here, an orchard there. Next thing you know, you’ve got a mini-conglomerate on your hands.
. Happy New Year!
I try very hard to garden here, with mixed results. I’ve had consistent success with snap peas & potatoes, occasional success with sweet corn, and pretty much no success with anything else. (Although I do have some plant that I don’t know the name of busily growing like crazy out there right now. And if it’s a weed, it’s a very vegetable-like weed.)
Where I live gardening is expensive because I have to bring in everything — including the dirt. My back yard is made of caliche, which isn’t conducive to much unless you want to grow adobe blocks
Jackie recently posted..Are You Guaranteeing Yourself a Loss?
Hi Jackie – thanks for introducing me to a word I didn’t know… caliche. Oklahoma clay is about the same, although it can be amended with gypsum and years of sheet composting. Growing on caliche seems to be analogous with raised bed gardening on top of your driveway… but it could be done! Three cubic yards of compost/soil from a local supplier for $130. Delivered!
Sweet corn is one of my failures too. I didn’t even list it.
As always, l;ove your gardening posts 101! I don’t think turning into a producer is the path to independance simply because you will never be able to produce enough volume to cover a significant % of your needs in a year. But it sure is rewarding to produce from one’s land and for some reason they always end up tasting better than what you would buy from the market
BeatingTheIndex recently posted..Weekend Edition: Happy New Year!
Right you are. I’m not even remotely interested in making soap or candles…
Don’t forget that garden veggies are much more nutrient-dense. Even if you don’t believe the studies about chemical fertilization and lowered nutrition, the studies that show that fruits and vegetables leach nutrients over time are mainstream. The carrot you eat that was in your garden today has more nutritive value than the carrot that’s spent a month from producer to pot.
The Lost Goat recently posted..Homemade Christmas Presents 2011 – Bath Salts
Right you are, LG. That is a *huge* point you’re making. Various factors have influenced the slow decline of many foods’ nutritional value. Monoculture, lack of crop rotation, poor soils, etc. Not too hard to validate this with a little google-fu.
Nice job growing your own veggies and fruit, how very cool and green.
There are more and more urban gardens in SF where communities are growing food in addition to flowers and shrubs. It’s so neat to be able to see what veggies look like before they get to the grocery store and markets. That’s a hilarious tomato pic btw! -Sydney
Untemplater recently posted..2012 Goals For A Better Lifestyle And More Happiness
Hi Sydney – I held off on showing the potato. A friend said that comes a time with all gardeners when they want to show off anatomically correct and highly inappropriate produce.
I think that being a producer instead of a consumer can be possible for certain things, but not on a broad scale today in our society. That being said, I can totally see the benefits of doing so. I have family that has what amounts to a small farm (though it’s just a giant backyard garden) that they use to grow a great variety of produce for themselves. Good exercise, natural food, the satisfaction of growing some portion of what they consume…I think it’s pretty cool.
Funny caption to that picture, by the way…it did seem like a curious looking tomato at first glance…
As for growing stuff that isn’t readily available at stores, that seems like a smart way to go about it. One more thing..back to store bought vs. home grown taste – the stuff from my relatives’ garden tasted much better freshly picked than from the store. Especially strawberries, no comparison.
Squirrelers recently posted..Looking Forward to Your Financial Success in 2012
@ Squirrelers, the cool factor of delivering your food from all of fifty feet away can’t be understated. Growing unusual and attractive produce also makes for great gift baskets (another fuzzy benefit – maybe the subject of a future post).
You are gardening in December? You certainly are hardcore 101C! I’m just glad the grass is still green! Weird weather cannot make up its mind!
Happy new year 101c!
Moneycone recently posted..And Let There Be Light!
Working on a hoophouse today, MC. We had a cold front today, but still way above average for this time of year. Love that global warming.
I was looking all through my Gurney’s catalog with zest just the other day. I am still shaking my fists over the cruddy tomato output I had this year, but other things turned out well. I may even expand my garden this year as I can never seem to get enough green beans or snap peas.
Great post!
Kris @ Everyday Tips recently posted..What I Learned From A Long Break
Tomatoes sure are fickle, Kris. I’m going to experiment with a couple tricks I’ve seen my neighbor employ. They have a raised bed that has sun-screening over it, and managed to get some nice beefsteaks despite the searing heat.
Great post and points. Being an avid gardener myself I can atest to how easy it really is. And you don’t need a lot of space. Containers work great.
I really enjoy producing my own food and not having to buy as much at the store. It is really fulfilling. Plus it is cheaper and greener. And the stuff tastes way better too.
Miss T @ Prairie Eco-Thrifter recently posted..How to Garden Over Winter: Key Strategies for Success
Hi Miss T., I got a bit overzealous with containers one year. I hated to part with seedlings, so I used all kinds of pots and containers. Mrs. 101 eventually put the kibosh on more pots, as truth be told, it made the backyard look a little chaotic. This last season I lined one side of the raised beds, and rigged drip irrigation lines to water each individual pot.
Great job. I’m not a big gardener, but we help out at the community garden. We should try some hard to find veggies that you mentioned above this year. The garden only get a 4-5 hours of sun per day though so the tomatoes never really ripen.
retirebyforty recently posted..December 2011 Cash Flow
Hi RB40, tomatoes are hard without enough sun. More luck with shade tolerant varieties like salad greens and herbs.
We’ve become more self sufficient growing our own food but the jump to selling it isn’t very appealing. I love doing everything up to sales then I lose interest!
Molly (Mike and Molly’s House) recently posted..DIY-Vanilla Extract & a GIVEAWAY!
Agreed to some extent, Molly, I enjoy giving it away more than I would selling it.
I love giving it away!
Molly (Mike and Molly’s House) recently posted..The Blind Chicken in San Diego
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We can’t wait to get our garden going next summer. I just wish we had more months of the year when we could garden but being in Canada means we lose 1/2 of the year (at least) due to cold weather.
If we could somehow grow inside that would be great, but it is not realistic.
Sustainable PF recently posted..Should You Turn Off Business TV?
Hi SPF – this year I think I’m going to get serious about mini hoop-houses. There’s a great book which is on my amazon wish-list, about year-round gardening with greenhouses. Eliot Coleman I think is the author.
[...] Centavos presents Kitchen Gardening, the Accidental Side Gig posted at 101 Centavos, saying, “It’s wintertime, it’s bloody cold in most parts [...]
I’m with you on the squash borers. We love gardening here, it’s disappointing when a certain crop is a no go. We just dust the dirt off the trowel and come back for more next year. Thanks for the post and the pics.
Dr Dean recently posted..Football and Personal Finance-14 Corollaries!
Hi Dr. Dean – not giving up on the squash by a long shot. This spring it’s a full-on campaign out at the hacienda, and damn the vine borers.
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I’m an urban gardener, which can get expensive, but I do it for the love of it. I figure that if I “break even” on my gardening, everything will be cool.
The first year was the most expensive, in part because of all the potting soil and containers I needed to buy (even after drilling holes in the bottom of empty yogurt containers to turn them into planters). I think this year will be cheaper, because I can re-use the soil.
Paula @ Afford Anything recently posted..More Details on My Tenant’s Kidnapping …
Hi Paula, urban gardening can be as expensive the first year — or cheap, depending on how dirt cheap you want to be. I have a neighbor that used empty crates to make planters, but they look pretty awful. I’ve done like you, just sucked up the expense the first year, and figure it just gets amortized going forward. This year I’m going to experiment with some self-irrigated planters (SIPs).
[...] Some friends of ours wanted to get into gardening, so we thought that they should simply try kitchen gardening and grow some basil in their window. The purchases were very inexpensive, as it was simply a tiny [...]