As I’m building our cedar planters for our customers, I often wonder about how they’ll be used. What motivates our customers to want to garden? Is gardening what my business school economics professors would describe as rational behavior?
Those random thoughts started making sense when I read a wonderfully funny book by William Alexander: “The $64 Tomato.” The book follows the adventures of the author as he works tirelessly to create his dream garden. He shares stories about his discoveries with the usual hostile elements that all gardeners face: pests, weeds, and equipment failures. And of course, the many other demands on his time.
Alexander finally breaks down the cost of producing just one of his heirloom tomatoes. For all of us who have casually worked through the math of buy vs. grow while checking out at the garden or the grocery store, this is no idle speculation. And, sure enough, if you do the math it may not make a lot of sense, at least not in dollars and cents.
But there is, as is so often the case, more value when we produce at least some of the food we eat. There’s nothing like being able to hold and serve food you’ve just plucked from the stem or dug from the ground. The warmth and sweet, delicious smell of newly harvested heirloom tomatoes, for example. No grocery store or even local Farmer’s Market gives you that experience.
Then there’s the appealing notion of practicing some form of self-sufficiency. The idea that, if needed, we can rely on ourselves to manage a little victory garden and maybe even share some of our harvest with our good friends or neighbors.
To me, a major benefit of gardening is the comfort of knowing how my food is grown, chemical and pesticide free. I have complete control over the growing environment and how I choose to take care of my garden.
Not all gardens are for growing food, of course. No matter what you’re growing, the unspoken values of tending a garden of your own are the same. Even if the math doesn’t add up.
One of the greatest values of gardening may not be apparent for years. Our daughter recently thanked me for sharing the joys of gardening with her as she was growing up. She’s exceeding my wildest dreams in terms of making a positive impact on her land. Her gardens are amazing – by the sheer bounty of produce and the beauty of what she grows. Now she’s passing along these lessons to her son, my grandson. He has no idea how lucky he is . . . yet.
So, while that tomato may have cost $64, the value you’ve gained goes well beyond the obvious.
Learn more about “The $64 Tomato.”
Happy Gardening!
Don Beacom, Owner