I plan on starting a good sized garden where I will grow as many vegetables as I can.This will be to save money on groceries, eat healthier (since they'll all be just right there), and with whatever excess I'll take to the farmers market for other people to enjoy, while at the same time trying to pay for my garden investment!So I'm hoping in the following years the pay off will be saved money on groceries, learned a lot, got exercise, and maybe make a little supplemental funds on the side to pay for bills and such, but at first to pay for the garden itself....
Gardens okorder / ... showing you how to start a garden. Scroll down the bottom, I think it is on the second page.
A garden is a wise investment but a home garden posing as a market garden will end up costing you money as it costs money to set up at a farmers market not to mention you will need a vehicle that can haul the produce, coolers, tables, table cloths, a shelter, bags, etc., for selling the stuff at market. Not to mention that growing a market garden is very very different from growing a home garden and if you have never grown a garden before you will do best to start small-no more than 10' x 10' which will not leave you enough food to sell. But it also will not overwhelm you with all the work. A decent market garden at minimum will take around 4 hours daily plus the 5 or 6 hours you spend at market And despite what most people think, just because you have some produce at a farmers market people do not automatically flock to your stand and buy out all your stuff. It takes years to develop a customer base and most people unless they have studied how to grow far market, know how to put in and maintain a market garden (the first thing for a successful market garden is the fact you start planting in April and don't stop until July) and are great at marketing. And even these people will gross less than $300 a week (and net around $100 out of that $300). But most people are doing well to gross $50 a week at farmers market their first year. All that said it is fun to do markets, you will meet a lot of people, just don't expect much from them until you grow over an acre and can sell every week.
Hi Oakfur I have Italian truck patch farmers who live down the street from me who have been doing that very thing for years and make a good living doing it. Get ready for some hard work though, and consider what you could make on any other job available to you. With a small garden, I would think you'd spend a lot of time with very little produce to sell so on an hourly basis it may not be worth it. Try it and see, you have nothing but a little time to lose and you'll sure cut your grocery bill. Hope this helps
