Gardeners: What do you really save by gardening? Community Project!

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I don't care what I save or what it costs, really. I just love doing it. I crave it! I garden 3 hours a day, every day it is not raining on me. Gardening until I die!

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We haven't a clue.....could it be Mr. Saddi?
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Yep we save our seeds here too... AND we trade with people over on the always wonderful THEEASYGARDEN.com!!! *hint, hint*

Pusher.
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Years ago I worked on a heirloom tomato grow out with Dr. Male. It was fun and soo hard not to sample in the garden for proper weigh-outs. Some of the seed from that is now on it's 5th year here. Just sent 1/2 of my stash to boyd for his spring plantings.
 
Happiness is PRICELESS.

This I do for me!

Sometimes my garden is a success - sometimes it is not.
This especially cold winter in North Florida has really taken me out year.
If I did this for profit only, I don't think I could enjoy it.

For me, my gardening takes my mind off all the things that are wrong at my job.
I could lay around the house and watch TV or go out on the town as a means of escape - - -
but the communing with nature works better for me.
 
Oh its so hard when you have a bad year, or things don't make it. Bad rains, drought or disease (my worst enemy).

That's why I am hoping people track of that in their notes section. I think its important to look at the 1 thing that went wrong and know its just a fluke! It won;t happen like that every year.
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As for this info, its most important and useful to you guys... but for those who keep track and would like to share, again, I'd love to see how things go ALL over the country and world. I have to admit that is very interesting to me. ...AND the thought if someone here manages to grow 2-3 times more on 1/4 an acre then someone with 2 acres... WOW! I'd like to know their secrets and their costs.

I'd also love to share all this info with people still too afraid to try it... because I know of plenty. They either fear the work or don't trust the reward. So I have to show them the light from one angle or another, you know?!

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Every year I have learned something new and have gotten better.

There are soooo many things that can go wrong, that ignorance is blessed - sometimes.

The first year - we learned how important PH was. We had a truck load of "Good" compost dirt brought in to start our graden with.
Come to find out, it had a ph of over 8 +. As you can imagined, nothing grew well that year.

The next year, we discover the importance of regular watering - - - i.e. sprinklers on timers for my busy life.
We also learned the importance of fertilizing on a very regular basis - - not just when we started the graden.

The third year, we learned NEVER NEVER plant the warm SPRING plants until after APRIL 15 and I don't care what the package says !
We had a freeze in early April two years in a row.
It is going to be in the 70's this whole next week and I have been so tempted to plant my peppers and tomatoes outside - - not yet though.

In the third year, we learned that once you get the plants growing really good - pests ( insects become a problem) !

This will be my fourth year trying to grow a garden. I've learned that seeds won't germinate in cold weather.
EVEN if it is a cold weather crop - - the seeds won't germinate when it is cold!.
I had to germinate my collards and brocolli inside the house and then move them outside to grow.

I don't know that I would of even taken on gardening if I had thought at the beginning that I have to know all this stuff to make things grow.
I like the challenge.


I GUESS if I ever get really good at it, I might be interested in tracking costs. Right now - I am happy if I produce enough veg. to give some away !
 
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I don't think this would be a good year to track costs for us. We always plant about 1/2 acre and sell at the farmer's market - however, this year hubby bought a used dump truck so he can haul more free manure (and other things we need, of course)to make our ever growing compost pile out of the leaves he collects in the fall from nearby neighborhoods. We've actually added more raised beds this year so we could get a jump on planting. It's been too wet to plow the gardens.
 
I am an amature gardener. I dont save a ton of money per se. And anyone that has had a bumper crop of zucchini or tomatoes, when all your neighbors had one too, knows that in the peak of summer, you have people shoving dozens of tomatoes at you..."take these PLEASE! Take a few more for your friends too!"

Heres some things I do know....

I enjoy it.

I have a sense of accomplishment when I make a meal out of things I grew. Nothing better than a spinach and tomato fritatta with a potato crust... all from the backyard. Throw in a little Amish-made local cheese, and call it dinner (or breakfast, or lunch too) Can't be beat

I know whats going into my chickens, so I know whats coming out of them (lol) so I also know whats going into my soil, and therefore what feeds my veggies. The chickens and the veggies feed us. So I know whats going into my body too. Is it organic? Not 100% of course.But it sure is close, and soooo much better than the poor wax-coated cukes, pesticide-coated blueberries, or hot-house tomatoes that traveled 2000miles to the grocery store.

I live in a rural area with lots of commercial farms but lots more backyard gardeners. We have a farmers market every sat. morning, and while theres tons of purchasing going on, theres tons of trading going on too. Not to mention the pearls of wisdom from the "old folks" on how to eliminate slugs on cabbages or hornworms on tomatoes without breaking down and buying seven dust & adding poison to your food. Its a very small town, and everyone knows everyone and trusts their neighbors too. So trading can be done with things that have different harvest times with an IOU. Corn just wont grow in my wet backyard, but the guy down the road grows the most delicious sweet corn ever. He will trade me eggs and blueberries in July for a few dozen ears of corn later. All sorts of things like that happen, and at the beginning of the growing season, neighbors actually call each other or meet at the ice cream parlor to discuss trades for crops not even planted yet. Especially things that take up some garden space. "I'll grow butternut squash, you grow acorn squash, and we can trade some come fall" Theres also people with fruit trees or nut trees that will trade black walnuts, pears and cherries for eggplant, elderberries, homemade pickles and sweet potatoes. People around here raise their own cow, or pig or turkey. Its the best bacon and beef jerkey you ever had. They make their own cheese, wine, cider, and beer. They bake bread and pies and make their own homemade jelly and tomato sauce and can it in jars for the winter. Of course we can buy that in the store. But it sure doesnt compare. Is it cheaper to make jelly than to buy it? not a chance. You can get a 32oz jar of grape jelly for $3. Its just not the same, my kid wont even eat it. So the sense of neighborhood and community even in a very dispersed area where you cant even see your neighbors house is worth every bit of weeding, seeding, tilling, and watering.
 
That does sound awesome! We have a great small neighborhood, and several farmers markets.... but I couldn't tell you anyone's name who didn't live in my neighborhood.
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