Chicken and egg: Keeping chooks almost always makes financial sense. Credit:Penny Stephens ‘‘Our gardens were a rough and raw canvas filled with weeds, rocks and dead plants, ripe for a new beginning. That first weekend our first harvest was sown – who needs to unpack, really?’’ Stone’s initial investment was close to $200, which she estimates equates to two to three weeks’ food for her and her partner. This included soil to condition the garden beds, fertiliser, various herbs, two kinds of tomato, cucumber, beans, silverbeet, lettuce, carrots and shallots. ‘‘Only our tomatoes failed from that first harvest. We fed ourselves, our landlord, my brother and his family with the rest. We also provided an abundance of herbs to the butcher shop my partner manages. Our savings in herbs alone over the last 11 months are at least $350 and wastage has been practically zero.’’ Stone says she now only spends $30 to $40 dollars a fortnight on food, and has spent as little as $25 (her partner is a butcher so they don’t pay for meat).

Coralie Schaff from Urban Planters, which sells kits to start veggie gardens with, agrees it works out cheaper in the long run to grow your own organic vegetables and especially herbs, which she grows from seeds because it is cheaper than buying seedlings. ‘‘Most people will never use a whole bunch and spend around $5 for a few leaves of basil or parsley. If you buy organic vegetables, the price is a lot higher in [the] supermarket.’’ A quick look at the numbers proves Schaff is right. Bunnings currently has advanced herbs for sale for $4.08, which can be planted even in a small pot and used for months. You can buy a kilo of organic carrots at Coles for $3.98, whereas a kilo of regular carrots will cost $1.88. At Green Harvest you can buy 400 mixed carrot seeds for $5.50 – but you have to add the growing costs to this to get the true price. Schaff acknowledges there will be times during the year when growing food at home is less viable. Our savings in herbs alone over the last 11 months are at least $350. Rochelle Stone, Barefoot Basics

‘‘In winter, everything grows slower. That’s when I eat my preserves, which saves money.’’ She also has water-saving tips. ‘‘I have a few tubs in the back to collect rainwater I use on my garden. I also reuse water from the kitchen and there is also the grey water that can be reused to save on the water bill.’’ But as Yates gardening expert Judy Horton points out, growing your own only makes sense if you’re prepared to commit to it for several years, so as to amortise the set-up costs. ‘‘Doing it for one season won’t make it work out cheaper. But if you make a long-term commitment it will, particularly if you plant quick-growing salad vegetables. Staggering your planting will also help ensure you don’t throw produce away. You can also try to grow things among existing beds – for instance try growing snow peas against a wall.’’ For people with the space for a garden bed, her advice is to mulch regularly to help reduce the need to water (and therefore lower water bills). Louise Plant is another passionate veggie grower. She also owns a raw food cafe and sells organic veggies. She says you can grow your own food even if you live in an apartment.

‘‘I’ve grown veggies in polystyrene boxes, which you can get for free. You can fill it with a bag of $6 potting mix, so there’s not much cost.’’ But she says buying organic veggies can also work out to be cost effective – they sell $30 boxes for couples and $50 boxes for families, which last a week. Overall, she says that if you’re buying vegetables out of season, expect them to cost more. ‘‘You do have to be more organised if you want to grow your own vegetables, and gardening takes time.’’ Plant says it should cost $300 to set up a garden bed. Seeds should cost about $30 a year – and if you let some of your plants go to seed you’ll be able to harvest seeds for next year. To start small and build up is the advice of Natalie Penn from ethical food business Consume with Care. ‘‘Learn as you go and grow the veggies you actually eat such as herbs and tomatoes,’’ she says. To keep down the cost of gardening she also advises you buy heirloom seeds through diggers’ clubs, harvest seaweed if you live near a beach to create a rich fertiliser, and make home-grown pest sprays from garlic, chilli and ginger. You can also create free compost from food scraps. The benefits of an abundant veggie patch have financial benefits beyond just saving money on food, says Pen. ‘‘There are physical, mental, community and skills-building benefits that translate to economic benefits down the track. It’s much cheaper to spend a couple of hours outside in the garden to improve your mental health than have to pay for a psychologist down the track,’’ she says.

Should you keep chooks? Most suburban houses used to have a chook pen, but they have now become rarities. But if you do the numbers, it makes a lot of financial sense. Louise Plant has four chooks, which cost her between $15 and $25 each – the better layers are more expensive. She gets two eggs a day from the chooks, which she largely feeds with food scraps. She can also use the chook poo on her garden. Compare that to $4.50 for six Sunny Farm organic free range eggs from Coles and it’s clear the chook pen is the winner from a budgeting point of view. Comparing costs Costs to start a garden Birdles raised garden bed - $109

Five bags of Richgro all-purpose garden soil - $19.75

Richgro natural mulch - $14.98

1.5 kg Osmocote - $14.95

Lettuce seedlings - $12.92

Floriana gourmet tomato seedling - $3.48

Herb combination - $7.69

TOTAL = $182.77 Costs for a year of salad vegetables for a family of four (figures from Woolworths) $5.98 for 1 kilogram of tomatoes, assume 1kg a week = $310.96

$1.98 for a butter lettuce, assume one a week = $102.96

$2.40 for a bunch of basil, assume one a month = $28.80

$2.98 for a bunch of parsley, assume one a month = $35.76 TOTAL = $478.48 Source: Bunnings