I'd be curious if home gardening is actually more resource intensive -- especially if your time & labor is considered free (whether donated or a sunk cost).
There is a huge range of output/resource ratios for home gardens...even for home gardeners who say they're trying to achieve a high ratio. (Vs. love puttering with a garden, or want small quantities of perfect-in-their-eyes baby vegetables for salads, or ...).
Note that for many modern folks, "regularly gets you outside and exercising a bit and perhaps interacting with neighbors" is a valuable output. And you should also consider the vast processing, handling, & transportation wastes (including your or a delivery driver's time at the wheel) of the alternative.
- Peace of mind
- Sense of accomplishment
- Food independece
- Giving the gift of veggies
If you don't (veg) garden, this is the most inspiring piece of content I've seen on the subject. I'm generally not a TED fan, but this one is seriously inspiring.
I remember reading a decade or more ago that high-density home gardening was a popular hobby in Russia, with a lot of competition to produce maximum output from minimal land area. But even with all that enthusiasm, home gardeners couldn't produce for less total cost than industrial farm output sold in supermarkets.
They must be factoring in labor costs of working in the garden at home. To me (small scale) gardening is a mostly relaxing activity that I can do early or in spare moments that basically has a zero opportunity costs and negligible supply costs of less that $100 a year.
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I'd be curious if home gardening is actually more resource intensive -- especially if your time & labor is considered free (whether donated or a sunk cost).
There is a huge range of output/resource ratios for home gardens...even for home gardeners who say they're trying to achieve a high ratio. (Vs. love puttering with a garden, or want small quantities of perfect-in-their-eyes baby vegetables for salads, or ...).
Note that for many modern folks, "regularly gets you outside and exercising a bit and perhaps interacting with neighbors" is a valuable output. And you should also consider the vast processing, handling, & transportation wastes (including your or a delivery driver's time at the wheel) of the alternative.
As a gardener, it's difficult to put a price on:
- Peace of mind - Sense of accomplishment - Food independece - Giving the gift of veggies
If you don't (veg) garden, this is the most inspiring piece of content I've seen on the subject. I'm generally not a TED fan, but this one is seriously inspiring.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=EzZzZ_qpZ4w
I remember reading a decade or more ago that high-density home gardening was a popular hobby in Russia, with a lot of competition to produce maximum output from minimal land area. But even with all that enthusiasm, home gardeners couldn't produce for less total cost than industrial farm output sold in supermarkets.
They must be factoring in labor costs of working in the garden at home. To me (small scale) gardening is a mostly relaxing activity that I can do early or in spare moments that basically has a zero opportunity costs and negligible supply costs of less that $100 a year.
For both time and money spent, I have eaten very expensive okra and tomatoes from my meager garden.