this post was submitted on 13 May 2024
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Sure, but I don't have to pay for the food they produce, just some seeds. Seeds are way cheaper than whatever is available from the local grocery.
It might yield a relatively small amount but I'm not feeding a city. I only need enough for me and my family.
If I can save a couple hundred bucks over the year, not buying produce at the shop, I'll fucking do it.
The economy isn't doing me any favors.
There are associated costs to even small homegrown crops. Unless you're planting them randomly in the wilderness and hoping for the best.
But do you know what they are? How much precisely?
There is no precise answer to the associated costs. It'll be different for every circumstance. There are just too many variables and factors to consider.
If you have plenty of time, happen to already have good soil and climate, have all the necessary tools on hand, and are just lucky, don't have to pay for electricity or water, and so on, the financial cost can be essentially 0 (or close to it).
The more you have to overcome your situation, the more you want to make the cultivation easier, the more you want to maximize yields, and so on -- generally that's going to incur more financial cost.
There could be upfront costs like installing automated watering systems, amending your soil if it's not up to par, building raised beds, building fencing or installing edging. Plus, any tools you don't already have, which might include shovels, snips, wire, a spade, and so on. Even if you're growing on a balcony you might have to buy pots and potting soil, invest in some shade cloth, put down some saucers to protect your downstairs neighbors from getting dripped on. Those are just a small sample of potential upfront costs.
Ongoing / annual costs might include things like fertilizers, pesticides, compost/mulch, replacements for any of the upfront stuff that breaks, and even things like cost of water (which is hopefully negligible but not always).
So, if money is the only "associated cost" here, then it could basically be nothing, but it also wouldn't be entirely unusual to spend a couple hundred dollars (USD and US costs, I can't speak for the entire world) and some folks even spend thousands.
So in other words it could be anywhere from zero to "a lot".
Which makes it very hard to say that "associated costs" are prohibitive in growing one's own food.
I thought you were sincerely asking a question and I was answering sincerely as best I could. If you would like a more precise answer for your specific situation, then I'm afraid I can't really help there, at least not without a lot more information and a lot more time investment on my side.
I appreciate your effort in that, but I was actually replying to the OP to make the point that "there are associated costs" is not a valid criticism of home gardening.
It seems like there would more effective and direct ways (with less farce and fallacy) than asking a loaded question that people might see as a sincere request for information and an opportunity to spark a bit of interest.
You are the one who misinterpreted and answered a question that was not asked of you. There was no farce or fallacy in my question in the context of that particular discussion.
Have a nice day.
I have some land prepared for a garden. It was pretty well laid out by the previous owner of the property. I'll have some costs in getting it going, since the last guy used it mainly for flowers, so I want to put in some raised beds and something to keep the animals away from my food, beyond that, it's all planting and waiting. It rains sufficiently here so no need for irrigation, and there's plenty of sun. The soil is pretty decent too.
Direct financial costs will be minimal, year over year, and then it's just the indirect cost of my time to tend to it as it grows.
Just got my bill from the sun today. I guess it takes time to snail mail over 93M miles.