I am often asked whether it’s cheap to grow my own vegetables is it really cheap to grow my own vegetables or if you could also buy them at the supermarket. The question is not at all trivial and there are many considerations that come to mind, we will talk about it again.
I will give you my opinion shortly: gardening does save money, but only if the time spent cultivating is not counted as a cost . After all, even though it’s exhausting, growing vegetables is a passion. If, on the contrary, the objective is to value the hours spent as if they were work, in most cases the activity is not remunerative and it is better to devote oneself to something else. Also, compare the value of what is produced with the prices of higher quality organic vegetables, not with the special offers of processed vegetables.
But these theoretical dissertations, as interesting as they are, do not fully correspond to the approach of Orto Da Coltivare, always very practical. For this reason I also put some practical tips to save the garden . In fact, there are many small precautions that can reduce costs. I’ll try to suggest a few, if any others come to mind, write them in the comments at the bottom of the page.
Contents [Ocultar]
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save the orchard
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The value of the garden
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10 practical tips for saving money
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self-produced fertilizer
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Seeds instead of sowing
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save the seed
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raising chickens
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Vegetable macerates
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Recycle as much as possible
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A natural and free mulch
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Recognition of wild edible herbs
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Read Cultivated Vegetable Garden
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collect rain water
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Contents
garden savings
If you grow your own vegetables, you will obviously save the most money by achieving full autonomy you will produce all the vegetables that your family consumes.
It is very difficult to determine the size of a plot to satisfy a person’s consumption, I mentioned this in full in the article on the size of a garden. They are about 40/50 square meters per adult person.
The general rule is that it is advisable to cultivate a medium-large garden at least 50 square meters, because many works and many expenses are better amortized on a certain surface, cultivating a small surface increases the expenses compared to the harvest.
Also, to really save money, you have to do the garden all year round, only then can you use 100% of the soil and the tools.
The orchard that contributes the most to savings is usually the summer one, as more vegetables arrive and would have a fairly high purchase price. Fruits are also cultivated (strawberries, melons, watermelons…). The winter garden, to be honest, produces vegetables, the price per kg of which is quite low, and therefore has less impact on the wallet. However to save a lot of money, you have to cultivate a garden all year round which is the only way to use 100% of the terrain and tools.
The value of the garden
Savings in themselves are not the primary benefit of direct cultivation. It is best to remember other important implications.
- Healthy vegetables. First of all, those who grow vegetables themselves know what they are eating, although when buying it is always possible that fungicide and pesticide treatments of a toxic nature have been carried out on the vegetables, perhaps being using systemic products inappropriately.
- Quality vegetables: better organoleptic characteristics, better nutritional properties. The taste of vegetables from the garden is often different from that of the supermarket. The reason is that we can take care of the soil and improve the nutrients available, with results superior to those of vegetables pumped by fertigation.
- Fresh vegetables . The vegetable garden allows you to eat freshly picked vegetables, the food chain, on the other hand, inevitably involves a few days of transport and storage.
This is to convey a simple concept: if you compare your vegetables to the cheapest in the discount store, perhaps from Poland or Holland, you downgrade your harvest. If you want to establish an income statement of the value of your garden, you must compare it with the cost of the best organic vegetables on the market.
Also, you need to calculate the the personal benefits that cultivation brings : stress reduction, satisfaction, relationship with nature, time outdoors… Even the tan!
In summary: it would be a bit sad to reduce horticulture to just a way to spend less .
10 practical tips for saving money
Here we are at the concrete part : how to spend less in our garden. I have to give you some tips to reduce the costs of the cultivation activity. Although the garden is cheap, something can be done to save money. The good news is that many of these forms of savings have ecological value.
I apologize in advance for number 9, I couldn’t resist.
Self-production of fertilizer
I saw drums containing manure for sale . It’s not a joke, they really exist. His name is ” real shit “: 7 euros for 750 grams of 100% cow droppings, enough to fertilize a square meter of orchard or even a little more. Obviously, if you go out using products of this type, it will not be practical to have a garden. On the contrary, you will spend much more than what it would cost to buy vegetables at the grocery store.
This is obviously a borderline case, but nevertheless fertilizer for sale even simple manure pellets, represent an expense that can be easily reduced or completely eliminated . Those who live near farms may get manure as a gift . The ideal is equine, if it is possible to go to an equestrian center, but cattle also provide excellent raw material to revitalize our land. Fresh manure should sit in the mound for about 9 months before being used.
Another excellent soil conditioner to enrich it with is compost. , which can be obtained by itself from organic kitchen and garden waste. Composting is a good practice which, also for ecological reasons, should be practiced by everyone. Here, too, it is necessary to do things correctly, allowing the raw material to ripen for use. Other very useful waste is wood ashes and coffee grounds . They are often used directly, but I always recommend putting them in the compost.
Also nettle maceration and nettle consolidation makes an excellent liquid fertilizer.