Assessing the Value of Home Gardening

Vegetable gardening has many highly desirable benefits. These range from it being a good source of exercise, an opportunity to produce fresh specialty produce which may be hard to find in retail establishments, and being able to assure it is produced in a specific way.

In many cases it is difficult, and sometimes tedious, to place an accurate assessment on the economic value of producing vegetables for home consumption. Household budgets in 21st century north Florida are problematic enough without literally bean (or some other vegetable) counting to measure the accurate value of the home garden.

Still, in these increasingly volatile days of irregular supplies, some popular vegetable categories need to have their production cost assessed. This allows the home grower to determine if resources are being efficiently used to reduce overall family food expenses under current economic conditions.

Lemon squash, an open pollinator variety of summer squash, is a high yield producer which has a long production window.

Several pepper cultivars and an heirloom squash cultivar were chosen to assess. They were selected based on their potential for producing over a long period of time during the summer months.

Termed an indeterminate variety, they are infrequently used in commercial operations because the labor cost of harvesting would not be sustainable. Determinate varieties which yield in a short window of time are more applicable to suppling markets.

For the home gardener, use of indeterminate varieties means the potential for eating fresh produce as it matures all season long. It minimizes or eliminates the need for preservation expenses which add to the expense of home production.

Each plant was grown under identical conditions.  The production in this study would qualify as organically produced (albeit uncertified), but this was not part of the original assessment objective even though it would potentially raise the value of the useable vegetables.

The cost of the raised growing beds calculated out to approximately $15 per plant, but the expense could be spread over several years. This would reduce the annual expense to about $5.00 per plant for necessary growing inputs to establish the garden.

Values are always a tricky component to establish. The prices used in this study were a composite of local grocery store and super market prices. Each was rounded to the nearest dollar to keep calculations simple.

The big winner economically was the lemon squash, with retail summer squash prices averaging $3 per pound. If consumed fresh, each lemon squash plant produced an $87 value (29 pounds) with $5 of expense. The home gardener netted $82 saved in their food budget.

Conventionally-grown specialty peppers averaged $6 per pound, with organic receiving a much higher price. The big economic winner was the Giant Marconi cultivar producing 10.5 pounds. When expenses were removed, the plant produced $58 of retail value.

Close behind was the Mesilla cultivar with 10 pounds of production. Its production value netted to $55 per plant.

In north Florida, as everywhere, eating fresh vegetables is a healthy practice. Growing them can also be a helpful practice for the family budget.

About the author
Les Harrison

Les Harrison is a longtime resident of north Florida, having attended public schools in three counties. He has a Bachelor Degree from the University of Florida in Journalism and a Master’s of Science from Auburn University in Agricultural Economics. He is the author of more than 2000 newspaper and magazine stories and journal articles. During his career, he held positions in private, government and educational (university level) sectors. He holds the title of Extension Agent Emeritus. He can be reached at harrison.gl@gmail.com.

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