Cost Efectiveness

What do you think is the most Cost Efective vegetable to grow?

How do you class Cost Efectiveness?
Is it availablity?
Is it amount (or lack)of care?
Is it amount of room?
Is it amount of productiveness?
Is it personal tasteI?
Is it someone else's personal taste?
Is it water?
What is you're reason?

Everybody's answer will be different


Zuchini and Runner(pole)beans are my winners

Certain varieties of tomato. Based on:

Cost to purchase from the market.

Ease of care (determinates). Not much staking or caging required.

Amount of production. Some small determinate plants can deliver more fruit than monster indeterminates.

Space saving

Availability and adaptation. There are over 4000 varieties available and selections for every purpose, fresh, canned, sauce, etc.

Taste, health and usefulness. Only onions exceed the frequency I can use tomatoes for meals.

Tomatoes are not frugal with water but my method of growing them mostly loses water only through transpiration.

lol Zucchini. There's some sort of diminishing return to the point where it costs you more to get rid of them than it did to grow them...

I mostly base cost effectiveness on what it would cost me to grow them vs to buy them. So things like fresh herbs don't rate very high, because I would simply never buy them - it's not a substitute.

Of things I would buy, blackeyed peas and butter beans, curiously, are the most cost effective to grow. Those are boutique crops here, with extremely limited availability, and usually priced at a premium because they are from an organic, small, grower. Eggplant is also a good value to grow.

I also look at opportunity cost. The space for winter crops is basically free, because there's not anything else I could be growing there, but in the spring/summer space becomes a limiting factor. So just a token few melon plants, but lots of okra because I can tuck it in anywhere.

This message was edited Apr 19, 2010 9:08 PM

Cost efffectiveness for me is LACK of EFFORT. Read lazy here. I am striving for the most efficient means of gardening, partially due to age.

I have the Twiggybuds waterbeds and love them once set up, trellises once installed, raised perennial beds for herbs for their permanence, mulched beds to reduce weeding.

Not so much the dollar cost for me but the effort probably due to work schedule. Working allows me to spend a bit more but I have less time to devote. I want results with little manual investment.



meant to add: Tomatoes for cost effective. I can not believe the price and taste of store purchased vs. the price of a pack of seeds and virtually no more effort than harvesting the hornworms. The deceased hornworms go in the compost so very cost effective.


This message was edited Apr 20, 2010 8:55 PM

Cost effectiveness for amount production and usefulness:

tomatoes- I grow a good amount, make sauce, salsa, canned tomatoes

Cost effectiveness for the least work:

garlic-stick it in the ground in the fall, pull it out in the summer

Cost effective for what it would cost per bunch to buy:

herbs- I do use them and have had to buy them in the winter. I should probably try to grow some inside in the winter.

If it's expensive in the supermarket, like asparagus and sweet peppers, I grow them.

If home-grown taste better, like tomatoes, I grow them

For the rest - the satisfaction of walking out the back door; picking whatever is ready, and eating it for dinner - priceless!

To me, cost effectiveness means dollars. So if it's expensive at the supermarket, I want to grow it at home. Esp if it doesn't take much room. I gave up on potatoes because organic potatoes are not expensive the way other organic produce is, it takes up a lot of space, and the yield and also storage was not great.

I also choose to grow things not on cost but for some of the reasons mentioned above - tastes much better homegrown (store tomatoes in the PNW are horrid - that wasn't the case when we lived in Calif where there were fab tomatoes in the stores), or just sooo easy to do (lettuces, broccoli).

Herbs are another thing I'm starting to really put a push on . They are expensive in the store where I live. I have to buy a big bunch for $5 and then use only a tiny bit and the rest ends up in compost. So now I'm growing.

It also depends on the particular variety of vegetable. Russet potatoes are cheap but the fancier types are like $4-7 per pound. At those prices, its cheaper to purchase organic seed potatoes and eat them straight ;) Potatoes also taste so much better direct from the garden (more sugar), take little space and are very easy to grow. We grow them in the winter and early spring here, so they don't compete for space with other veggies.

Heirloom organic veggies are a fortune at the store. There really aren't harder to grow for me. So, if I am going to grow a garden it might as well be an heirloom organic one. Have you seen the prices of heirloom tomatoes at the store and farmer's market? They are like tasty balls of gold.

Garlic, green onions, carrots, lettuce and many small fast growing vegetables can be tucked away in little spaces between bigger plants. They are pretty cheap at the store, but its free space. Why waste it? Garden fresh garlic is also much more garlicky. Herbs are great borders, double as pest control. They're another thing that is very easy to grow yet outragiously expensive.

Greens and celery can be harvested continually through the cool season. Organic greens are $2 a pound here. Much, much cheaper to grow myself.

Seeing as the last two posts mentioned herbs, please tell me which herbs you find most cost effective?

I'm growing potatoes and onions and I don't know why, since organic varieties are fairly inexpensive and plentiful around here. I would imagine organic beans and peas, frozen, would be too, but they're not as good as the ones I grow. Asparagus can't be found grown organically in my area. Tomatoes are just too good off the vine, even though canned puree isn't that costly. I'm going to try broccoli again this year, with tunnels, because I'd like a good supply of it; we really like it and the frozen organic is mostly stalks. I love to keep herbs; I had parsley on my porch all winter, and I'm going to try growing rosemary and thyme in a planter that I can bring in as well. I was able to harvest it most of the winter from my garden, and when it was gone I really missed it. I wouldn't have believed that fresh rosemary and thyme would be so much better than dried! I also grow chives, Mexican oregano (which we dry for the winter), basil (which we freeze as leaves), chervil - a first, and marjoram.

Oh, and Swiss chard - that's a great vegetable for the fall, and in general after the tender salad greens have given up. We ate a lot of that and really enjoyed it when there wasn't much else left.

This message was edited Apr 25, 2010 6:42 PM

Thanks for the herbal response Greenhouse_gal. I was curious what others would find cost effective herbs as there are few sold fresh locally. I grow many herbs and find fresh or freshly dried far more tasty than any other options.

Your rosemary & thyme should do well indoors in a cool spot. Rosemary survived in a sheltered spot outdoors (low teens) this past winter with no problem. Freshly nipped rosemary, oregano and thyme added to bread doughs or sauces tastes far more wonderful than anything purchased.

My first choice of cost effective herb is bay ~ Laurus nobilis. I use bay for many things, food and otherwise and would find purchasing
commercial marketed bay leaves cost prohibitive. Catnip for the cat herd is another cost effective herb to grow at my house. They are evenly divided between dried and fresh.

I guess cost prohibitive herbs is a moot point when they don't sell them fresh here.

I think this could be a good thread for the herbal forum. I'll let everyone get back to vegetables.

Any herb is cost effective for me because they cost $5 for a few springs (with the exception of parsley and cilantro which are sold in pretty big bundles). So I grow the ones I use - thyme, basil, rosemary, oregano, etc. I also grow parsley and cilantro.

We grow cilantro, too, although actually it volunteers; we haven't had to plant it in years. We freeze it as we do parsley and basil. How do you grow bay leaves? Aren't they trees? I don't know if they'd thrive around here.

I love rosemary on lamb, of course, and also on home-grown chicken cooked in a covered clay pot with a bit of lemon and olives and olive oil. Rosemary is also wonderful on potato wedges cooked with a soupçon of duck or goose fat. I'm making myself hungry as I type this!

Bay is a tree. It is cold hardy in this zone but I prefer to keep it potted (and pruned) keeping it at a manageable size. I also have an allspice which is tropical. I use its' leaves in cooking too. Also first year on a potted olive, in full bloom right now. And now, you are making me hungry too.

Oh, I should have been more specific. Fresh herbs are what cost a fortune here. Dried herbs in jars are about the same as everywhere. I buy dried bay leaves in bulk.

I can find organic dry bay leaves, which probably works well enough.

I forgot to mention peppers as being very cost effective. I slice mine and freeze them and use them all year in recipes. Mine are the long frying type. During the summer when they're fresh we also sauté them with garlic in olive oil and put them in a roll with provolone cheese for lunch. I also usually have a freezer full of string beans; I grow both bush and tall varieties, and they produce like mad. Last year to make room I gave a bunch of packages to my DIL; we just couldn't eat them all before it was time for the new crop.

Gwendalou ~ I think both dried and fresh herbs are expensive but for the me the bonus was for the price of a skimpy container of bay leaves I bought a plant.
I have a lifetime supply of leaves and have discovered the wonderful taste of fresh.
Even when I dry leaves in the fall, they are more intense than the commercial bay leaves.
And I know for certain they are organic.
Another bonus... a pretty houseplant.

Now, please do not think I am trying to sell anyone on this, strictly one of the cost effective herbs for me and the reasons why... pod

Where'd you find your bay tree, Podster? We could keep it in my studio in the winter, along with the smaller fig trees.

I was wondering where you got your allspice. The cuban half of my household is always wanting to grow impossibly tropical things, but I bet that one could be viable in a big pot.

From a market growers' standpoint, I'd have to say watermelons. I grow Moon & Stars yellow flesh and Orangeglo orange flesh melons and sell them for $7.00/each and could sell truckloads if I could grow enough of them. Melons would be second, and tomatoes third. That's factoring profitability, and ease of growing and harvesting.

Figs in the studio? How cool. Are they miniature? The bay would be fine potted and indoors.
I have had this bay for 4 or 5 years now. Seems I purchased it on ebay from one of the reputable plant vendors. It was not large ~ maybe 8 inches tall. It is now about 2 1/2 or 3 feet tall. (photo below)

I believe the allspice came from the same vendor. The allspice is a definite tropical. I was amazed to see it in a Sutherlands garden center last fall. They had two 3 foot trees for $50 each. Mine was small (still is) and cheaper. Just make sure it is the Pimenta dioica not the Carolina allspice. If you are interested, this is some info I had stashed in my journal. Including a link that Caldwell has one for sale ~ a gallon pot for $12. http://davesgarden.com/community/journals/viewentry/148686/ It does fine in a pot but mine is due to be moved up a size.


Melons!!! I would pay that and more for a good one but for the space required, I'd not grow them. Growing them for me would not be cost effective. I'm glad to pay your price! LOL

That's a lovely bay tree. What is its Latin or horticultural name, do you know, so you'd be sure of buying the right one? Nurseries can be so vague about that!

Fig trees get too large for the studio after a year or so; my DH has been wrapping them but that's a pain in the neck. A few miles south of us there's a huge fig tree that no one bothers about, and it bears heavily every year. We took some cuttings of it and will try our luck with that one. Meanwhile we put a stone wall up behind our in-ground figs to see if that would help them weather the winter better. If we had a bay tree that we could keep fairly small it could spend the winters in the studio and the summers out on the deck.

We have plenty of room for melons in the garden but I try to grow smaller ones because we DON'T have room in the refrigerator!

Laurus nobilis is the one you want. With judicious pruning, it would do fine.
I planted my first fig this year. They become huge and sprawling here so I was curious about pruning.

What kind of fig did you plant? We have several of an unknown variety that we got from local cuttings, and also Madeleine des Deux Saisons and Marseilles, which spent their first winter in the studio and are now planted outside. I had also bought Hardy Chicago and Celeste, but we didn't bring them in over the winter and they seem to have died. The unknown variety often dies back to the roots but then sprouts again and that's what it's doing again this year; the new ones aren't showing any signs of life.

No reason why you can't prune them; we've never been lucky enough to need to do that. The fig that does so well near here is enormous, though.

Not really up on fig cultivars but one recommended for this area was Brown Turkey fig. That is the one I am trying but may have to prune to keep it in its' location.

Lowes has Brown Turkey figs; I was tempted but figured I'd stick to the ones I'd researched.

I just ordered a bay tree from Territorial Seeds. DG can get expensive....

Was the bay expensive? What size?

Fresh herbs coast about $4 a bunch here at the grocery store. That's what I meant about herbs in my post fresh as opposed to dried. I grow basil (regular, lemon, lime, red rubin), parsley, rosemary, thyme, oregano, mint, chives and sage. The sage is a perennial for me planted in the ground by my roses. It flowers and the bees love it more than I do I think. Chives also come back each year in their spot in the veg garden. The others I plant here and there amongst my vegetable garden as annuals. The mint is coming back in it's pot.

This year I got some seeds for "par-cel". Supposed to be parsley that tastes like celery. I haven't been able to find any information on it other than the seed packet I bought. Anyone heard of/grown this? I kind of think it may just be celery. Still in the tiny seedling stage. So it will be a while before I know what's what with that. Also growing tarragon for the first time.

What does Chervil taste like? What is Mexican oregano? And what does Marjoram taste like?

I haven't tried growing catnip in about 9 years. I had some in a pot on my kitchen counter back when my kitties were each 9 months and 3 years old. The 9 month old discovered the catnip on the counter and would hop up and get some every so often and it made him so fresh! So I put the pot outside. We lived in a condo then and it wasn't in a fenced garden or anything. Well, I'm sure my cats got into it too, but the neighbor cat came over and I found him rolling around all over it on the ground. He pretty much crushed the plant and that was that. Since then we've moved to a house and my veg garden is fenced in. My husband keeps asking me to grow catnip again. The older of my 2 cats is a nip head. But I think, other cats will smell that nip growing and be attracted to the area. Podster do you grow your catnip indoors?

Another thing that is relatively expensive to buy, English cucumbers. They sell for $4 for 2 and $5 for 2 here in the winter. I refuse to buy them (most of the time) when I'm giving them away by bags full in the summer. Plus the ones at the grocery are soft and just not as good as a fresh cuke!

Growing my own vegetables has made me spoiled. Winter is hard without garden veggies.

Podster, it was $7.95 and I don't know what size it is, but I suspect pretty small.

http://www.territorialseed.com/product/1482/s

I ordered several other herbs while I was at it - Arp rosemary, Italian oregano, and Grosso lavender, as well as an herb mill which looked really handy, but the shipping ended up being half again the price of the products! I paused but went ahead anyway. I really can't find these things around here so if I want them I don't have much choice.

Jenhillphoto, believe it or not you can actually freeze cucumbers. Here's the recipe:

I wish I had frozen more but I will next year. My granddaughter loves those in salads; we all have to save ours for her when we serve ourselves! We really do eat out of our freezer all winter, though. On the other hand, we have two full-sized freezers and one chest freezer, but we also use them for deer and our chickens.

I think chervil is a little like tarragon. Ours didn't come up when I direct-seeded it last year so I grew it in flats this spring and am putting the little plants in the garden. I have a few French recipes that call for it, and I think it's also added to spring salad mixes. Mexican oregano is Lippia graveolens; to us it tastes more like the oregano we would use in spaghetti sauce and on pizza, but I also just ordered some Italian oregano to see what we think of that. My DH doesn't feel that Greek oregano is strong enough, and since he's the Italian in the family I defer to his taste! Marjoram is a little like oregano but not so strong. It's good in meat dishes and stews.

I do agree with everyone on the cost of fresh herbs, they are just so expensive even at walmart, plus sometimes I just can't find a specific herb that I need. Right now I am growing rosemary, lemon balm ( wich smells heavenly) oregano, thyme, basil, cilantro, parsley, strawberry spinach ( this one intriged me so I really wanted to try it).

Peppers are very expensive at the store, expecially the red and orange ones which are the ones I like best since they taste more mild. Lemons are outrageous so I bought a meyer lemon tree hoping to get some lemons, ( I really haven't had a chance to have a fresh lemonade because they are just sooo expensive.
Another thing I have not had in years is fresh artichokes, they are just too expensive they sell for $2 to $3 a piece, I bought some seeds to try to grow them myself but we will see if I can do that in my climate.

Artichokes are very easy to grow from seed and in a pot. In CA, they grow them almost everywhere. Along the coast and around the delta artichokes and their close cousin cardoon are weeds. Despite some scary catalog descriptions, they are very hardy plants. They can take occasional frost very well. With enough time, they will turn into giant bushes. Your in zone 8a. I think if its in a protected area, it should be fine.

Jenhill ~ this is the fourth year I have grown par-cel. This year I overwintered a pot of it. I grow it as it is a low sodium alternative with the celery flavor. We eat it fresh with greens and added to soups and stews. I did start more seed this spring and was reminded again how slowly it germinates. It does taste like celery but looks like parsley. If you are interested I have a link to an article and a photo of this plant. http://davesgarden.com/community/journals/viewentry/115894/ May I ask where you found your seeds?

On the marjoram, it reminds me of a sweet oregano... and the catnip outdoors. I have started quite a few pots and spread them around. This little pot of catnip was just getting going good when discovered. I grabbed an old rusty egg basket and staked it in place upside down over the pot. The plant will be pruned by the cats when it escapes from the basket and that inside the basket will be harvested to dry.

Greenhouse_gal ~ I don't think $7.95 is a bad price. It will grow quickly for you.

I am not sure I need to look at that Territorial link ~ well, maybe with only one eye open. lol

Thanks for the freezing cucumber info... I will save and use it.

$7.95 isn't that bad but they really get you on the shipping. And I went to a greenhouse nursery yesterday and found several of the herbs I ordered (but not the bay) there for $3.99. Had I but known....At least they had zinnias and trailing lobelia and Victoria blue salvia, which I needed more of for my flower beds. It was going to be too cold last night and tonight to plant them, but I have a greenhouse to keep them safe until it's time.

Mid 40°s this morning and that is airish for end of April here! Won't be long before a/c weather.

Living rurally, I have learned to ignore the shipping costs. Most things have to be ordered and I know it is not the company scalping me as the postage and shipping rates have increased dramatically. I don't think of it in the price of the purchase, only the cost of doing business. Now, it would aggravate me to find those same plants locally. I've never seen a bay in greenhouses or garden centers here. Another plant that I have loved and lost ~ this time I bought two and hope to overwinter in the GH is a lemon verbena. I think any plant that is a perennial plant (herbal or vegetable) could be considered cost effective.

I planted okra last night. Not necessarily cost effective because I'm the only okra eater but satisfying all the same and I know the organic quality of it.

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I don't mind shipping costs that seem fair, but even looking at the schedule of rates in their catalogue I can't figure out how they came up with that much for shipping on that order! When I run into that making other purchases online, I often check out Amazon and see if I can get the same thing there on Prime, which I subscribe to just because I buy so much online. It's often cheaper at Amazon too. But they didn't have a very good selection of plants.

Another thing as well is, it kills me that sometimes I just want one pack of seeds not 2 or 10 packs because of my limited space and some companies charge the same whether you buy one or ten packs of seeds.

I do like companies that send you a freebie pack of seeds with any purchase though.

It makes sense to me that shipping on one little envelope is the same as on ten packets, even if I don't like it, that seems a reasonable reflection of the actual cost.

I finally figured out that on seeds, it's worth my while to just order the next size up - the cost is only a smidge more, for like 20 times as much seed. Which I don't need, but which I can trade or give away or randomly plant about the neighborhood. The return from that always turns out to be way more than the few extra dollars I spent.

podster- that picture of your catnip is what I imagined I would have to do if I wanted to grow catnip for my boys. I could probably use some chicken wire wrapped around. Even though my garden is fenced in, I do like my cats to keep me company when I'm in there.

Thanks for the link to the parcel article. I got the parcel seeds at Home Depot. It's actually a packet of Burpee seeds and it is spelled par-cel. This is the description, "An usual plant with the flavor of celery and leaf habit of flat parsley. Easier to grow than celery. It can be continuously cut and harvested for a wealth of great greens. Annual." I checked the burpee website and they don't list it there. Googled and didn't find anything. So thanks for the info! Where did you get your seeds?

greenhousegal- freezing cucumbers! I've never heard of that before! Do they get mushy when you defrost them? Is it kind of pickle like with the vinegar, salt and sugar? By the way, I'm an amazon prime person too. We have to mail order a lot of things it seems even though we're not in a rural area. I find the prime pays for itself quickly and you can't get much better than 2 day shipping.



Jen

"I finally figured out that on seeds, it's worth my while to just order the next size up" Thanks realbirdlady I'll have to try that, I never thought of it that way.