The Message Board

RE: What price a tomato?

Posted 227 days ago

I've had the same thoughts Hutcho. My veggie patch has always been just good luck at whatever wants to grow when I bury the kitchen scraps in the garden every day. With no expenditure and almost no effort I've enjoyed bumper crops of various pumpkins, tomatoes, potatoes etc.,all co-exist alongside the shrubs. But recently I was gifted a lovely vegetable gardening book and feel the need to has a designated area for the vegies. Now the pressure is on to succeed and it'll end up costing me!!
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It's true..... WA soil is rubbish but at least its easy to dig!!

RE: What price a tomato?

Posted 227 days ago

That's a bit spooky, Maril00, 'cause my idea of the ideal veggie patch is a giant compost heap where you just chuck in the scraps, and whatever grows, grows. Some might call that plain lazy, but I prefer to think of it as efficient. Let nature pick the strongest seeds and do the hard yards for you. In all seriousness, next year the " FORMAL" veg. patch is gone, and the " random" will get a run. Maril00, when you're on a good thing....
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Experience is what you get when you dont read the instructions first.I'm a LEO.I am experienced!

RE: What price a tomato?

Posted 226 days ago

Nah, thats not lazy. It's sensible. Why make gardening harder than it need be? And the other scraps provide nourishment while the seeds are germinating. A win/win situation.
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It's true..... WA soil is rubbish but at least its easy to dig!!

RE: What price a tomato?

Posted 223 days ago

hutcho

RE: What price a tomato?

Posted 223 days ago

Who cares about the cost??? Can you cost the TASTE!!! The taste of homegrown vegies is AMAZING!! I even like parsnips now that I have fresh ones!!

All my cherry tomatoes are self seeding now - so that cuts down the cost for the little ones.
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Of all the wonderful surprises in life, none is better than seeing that first shoot tear out of the earth and form into a wonderful plant and vegetable.. .

RE: What price a tomato?

Posted 218 days ago

Hi BobbieJ. To answer your ( obviously rhetorical ) questions; 1 ; not me. 2 ; beyond value. You've summed it up nicely.
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Experience is what you get when you dont read the instructions first.I'm a LEO.I am experienced!

RE: What price a tomato?

Posted 217 days ago

you count the cost of 1 square meter of land as $500. does that mean you bought that much land just for growing tomatoes? i dont think so. my point is, youve already got the space, you either grow grass or tomatoes. but you cant eat grass. so i dont think the cost of the land can come into the equation. only time and seed,water,fertilizer and some tools etc

RE: What price a tomato?

Posted 217 days ago

I worked mine out to cost 91c ea. aprox 8 to a KG thats $7.28 a Kg.
but how many of them get eaten before they get to the fridge?
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:)

RE: What price a tomato?

Posted 214 days ago

Hmmmm cost of a tomato, I have to say very little.
I collected seeds from last years tomatoes, recycled pots from my in-laws for the seedlings, placed in the small portable green house my sister bought for me and grown in the raised bed made from recycled timber from the old carport, clay topsoil from work across the road for free, improved slowly with manure and shaving from local area and compost

Topsoil on our block is about 100mm deep then is mud rock
Some books have been given to me but most are borrowed from the local Library

As you can see cost can be very little but what I get out of it far more valuable to my mental health and stress levels

RE: What price a tomato?

Posted 207 days ago

Hutcho - the price of the land is a capital cost. On your method, the first year cost is $2.50 per tomato, but then the second year the land is "paid" for (and so every year after is free).

I like jfoldbar's thinking (if not tomatoes then expensive grass?), but another way could be looking at the interest cost. At 8%pa, then it costs around $40 a year to own the land, so the tomatoes are around 20c each.

Regardless, I think that most of us figure that the benefits far outweigh any sort of cost! It's maybe more just a self justification exercise!

RE: What price a tomato?

Posted 204 days ago

Hi Nate. Well reasoned argument, and I'm still chuckling as I write !! All that's needed now is for you to convince my beloved bank manager re. free land after the first year. Anyhow, it's all good fun. Your para. ult. sums it up nicely.
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Experience is what you get when you dont read the instructions first.I'm a LEO.I am experienced!