Its just not worth growing some vegies

ronbre · #61 03/15/13, 03:06 PM

reminds me of toby in Gaia's Garden, he wasn't sure what to plant and then he met a neighbor with a fruit tree, another neighbor with another fruit tree, and so on..he used the information to decide what he should plant. whatever the neighbors would not be having in excess..good idea

unregistered168043 · #62 03/15/13, 03:15 PM

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Despite being in the city limits, we raised rabbits commercially for almost 12 years and often peaked at about 80. We stopped when the price of feeding them exceeded what we could sell them for. Although the rabbits did not charge us for their manure, it was not produced free.

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Your situation is different from mine, obviously. In my scenario I can produce a large percentage of my rabbit's feed. What I get back in meat more than makes up for whatever is spent, and manure is just a bonus. My sheep live 100% on my pasture grass and my hay. Chickens get scraps, homegrown corn, and a small amount of bag feed. What I get back from my animals in terms of meat, eggs, milk, etc far outweighs the inputs. Manure is just an extra.

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My garden area last year was 12½ miles away and that took a little more than a gallon of fuel to make a round trip. Each $50+ tank fill was garden expense just as much as the quart in the Mantis.

Thats rough. In your case, city gardening with a rented plot 12 miles away.....might be hard to grow for less than you can buy for. I'll concede that.

ChristieAcres · #63 03/15/13, 03:35 PM

I won't get into cost, but am becoming increasingly concerned by the 2013 Drought Predictions for our Country. We should all be growing everything we are able to, also preserve everything we can from every source available. I believe we will be facing food shortages in this Country.

Paquebot · #64 03/15/13, 03:46 PM

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Originally Posted by Darntootin

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Your situation is different from mine, obviously. In my scenario I can produce a large percentage of my rabbit's feed. What I get back in meat more than makes up for whatever is spent, and manure is just a bonus. My sheep live 100% on my pasture grass and my hay. Chickens get scraps, homegrown corn, and a small amount of bag feed. What I get back from my animals in terms of meat, eggs, milk, etc far outweighs the inputs. Manure is just an extra.

Your mistake is assuming that every gardener here is also a farmer with 100 acres of land and lots of livestock. If I only had an acre to play with I would never worry about plants which might sprawl over half of that. As mentioned, gardened 10,000 plus last year and didn't care if each hill of squash and melons went off 20' in every direction and some varieties did exactly that. Same hills of 5 plants would fit just perfect in a $35 rented plot but would be hard-pressed to produce more than what I can buy for $15 at a friend's wayside or $25 from any vendor at the local farmers market. It's all relative to cost of availabity of everything involved versus market cost. I live in a city which has hosted a sweet corn festival for 60 years. Of late, about 75 tons are served each year. We don't even have to drive to a farmer's field to get all we can carry! I'll be growing a few rows of Yukon Supreme this year just because it's way earlier than anything else. But it would be a waste of ground to grow any later corn when it can be obtained cheaper than producing it.

Martin

lmrose · #65 03/15/13, 06:16 PM

Where we live food is very expensive to buy. However we always grew our own because we like to know what we are eating. Also with four kids and $5,000. a year income we couldn't afford to buy food in those years. Food in stores is still expensive here but some local folks are growing market gardens now and we have a local farmer's market. However we still eat from our garden and farm because we like knowing what we are eating. After the initial cost gardening was cheap because we grow seed and use all natural compost. For a town person here with no garden they could eat well from the local farmers market. There are both organic and non-organic growers there.You just have to ask which is which.

ChristieAcres · #66 03/15/13, 09:30 PM

In a drought stricken area, just last year, one of my friends couldn't even BUY local apples (entire crop failed). Here, we had a bumper crop of apples, so I dehydrated a bunch and mailed some to her. Many locals didn't even harvest their apples, just let them rot on the ground. I had so many to preserve, I didn't have time to glean any of theirs.

Danaus29 · #67 03/16/13, 04:13 PM

I don't count property taxes, fuel, vehicle repair (tiller, mower, car, etc), water, electricity, etc costs when figuring the price of my crops. I figure taste, appearance, usage and availability when comparing cost of home grown vs store bought. Let's take strawberries for the first example. Doesn't matter how pretty the store berries look. They are all pale, crunchy and tasteless. IMO, not worth 2 cents, much less $3.50/lb (or whatever price per pound is, they're usually sold by the pint). And then figure in the fact that I can grow varieties that aren't even available in the store, and the ones that I grow are juicy, colorful and have an incomparable taste. In that case strawberries are worth growing. Brambles, same scenario, except bramble fruit from the store is usually moldy and costs way more than strawberries. Citrus, doesn't grow here without winter protection. So even though I bought plants and have tended them and moved them and cared for them the conditions here are just not right for fruit production. If I want them I must either move to where citrus does grow or pay the market price. Potatoes, as I stated earlier, 55 pounds for $10. Yes with left over potatoes from previous years I would have no start-up costs. But it takes hours to till, plant, hill, mulch, do pest patrol and control as needed, harvest and store. Instead of taking 3 days (or more) to do that work I could spend the time on another crop I can't buy from the store or is really super expensive from the store. The previously mentioned strawberries or brambles are good examples. Or I could spend the time and space planting a crop which I can sell and make money. Catnip and sage are good examples of those. Or on many days I could go to a real job and make more than $10 a day. (in my case that must be considered because I have turned down work on days when the weather is beautiful and I am in the garden)