Why garden?

Today friends of mine who have been following my blog came over to see my garden. It was fun to show them around, and their 8 year old son had fun harvesting anything he could find that was ripe. They took home green beans, tomatoes and a hot pepper. Caryn, his mother, asked me how much does it take for a garden to break even. I asked what she meant. "When what you save on groceries breaks even with what you spend on the garden."

This is an interesting question. At the beginning of the summer, I was thinking much the same way. I have been known to track costs with an accountants fastidiousness, but for the garden, I have not been tracking. This is partially because I got the sense early this summer that I would have to look at the cost over a long-term period. Now we are buying lots of black earth, but over time our hay and compost will enrich the garden and we will make our own earth for a lot less money. I would have to amortize the costs of fencing and patio stones, chicken wire, perennials, rental of equipment and so on. By mid-summer, the weekly cost of beer was easily balancing out my savings on produce. Thanks to Slug b gone, I have dropped my grocery bills again. The depanneur staff must think I am a recovering alcoholic. Once harvest time started, the idea of cost having anything to do with gardening disappeared completely. The garden seems to be able to offer benefits which are impossible to measure in dollars.

The garden is the ultimate urbanite experience in grounding. It literally pulls you down to the earth and connects you back with your roots. There is a thrill in climbing through the jungle of tomatoes to find the ripe red treasures hidden in the bush, discovering the mantis hiding perfectly camouflaged among the green beans, finding a patch of wild strawberries popping up from a cinder block. There is a profound satisfaction in running outside barefoot in pajamas to pick beans, cucumbers, basil and green onions to make a salad for lunch. Everything tastes better than store bought, even better than produce from the farmer's market. Leftovers from a salad made from lettuce, cucumber, wood sorrel, orpine and lamb's quarters stayed completely fresh and crisp for more than a week, even after it was washed and cut. Yesterday I made a salad from store bought boston lettuce purchased a week previous, and the lettuce was half-rotted before I took it from the bag. I have become acutely aware of how long the produce in the store must be, how much more like cardboard. The garden food is tastier, crisper, fresher, and you have more choice of variety than you do at the supermarket. I have never seen San Marzano tomatoes or Japanese cucumbers in stores. We have alpine strawberries which are smaller and sweeter than what the stores offer. I am growing 9 varieties of peppers, 3 types of beans. We are collecting seeds for all kinds of interesting plants for next year, including Korean melons (crisp and sweet), and chocolate tomatoes (named for colour, not flavour). I know what I am growing, and I know what I am eating: it is all organic, my pest control is organic and eco friendly unless you are a slug.

Can I put a price tag on what I have learned in one single summer? On the opportunities for bonding and sharing with friends and neighbours that my garden has provided? On the fun I have had, the exercise, the relaxation, the meditation and the fabulous meals built around my harvests? I think I have more than broken even.

A special thanks this week to my mom, who delivered the promised poppies. They are planted among my blooming sunflowers. And to Chloe, my mother-in-law, who sent a bag full of day lily rhyzomes. I need to think about what to do with them before planting. And to my partner in gardening, Iulia, who bought a bag of tulip bulbs and is sharing them with me. I find myself already planning out for next year. I think I am hooked.