Letters: I Love My Garden – But Is It Worth The Effort?

To the Editor;

I write in hope of connecting with other suburban farmers who bought into the gabble of Youtube influencers and spent a small fortune on tools, seeds, fencing and water in the remote hope of producing enough fresh vegetables to cover a small garden salad.

I’ve heard you go on at length about your garden and had visions of you driving oxen through freshly plowed fields dotted by various boulder size melons and gourds and towering cornstalks interspersed with plus sized vegetables and herbs so happy to be in your care they practically chop themselves and throw themselves into a frying pan.

With those images in mind I recently harvested my lovingly tended crop of tomatoes and beans only to realize the bounty I expected would feed my family for months realistically wouldn’t take us into the next night. My family was good about it, complimenting the shape, color and taste of my efforts, but when I did the mental math I realized I’d spent about $1200 producing a crop I could have bought off the store shelf for about $6.25.

In his book “The $64 Tomato” author William Alexander chronicled his struggle to grow a showpiece tomato and worked out what growing that tomato had cost him. Planting, watering, weeding – tweezing off bugs and worrying about deer and raccoons – it all added up. So I want to know if others think gardening is worth the effort? I have my doubts. Financially, like Mr. Alexander’s $64 tomato, it might be a wasted effort – until you factor in the time outdoors and occasional successes. And there’s something satisfying in the process that’s for sure.

But maybe the real gardeners here will convince me it’s time to take up another hobby, like knitting or quilting. I just want to know before I plant next years crop.

Sincerely,

Lea Stearns/San Ramon