SHOPTALK : Now is the Time to Start Laying the Groundwork for a Garden : The start-up costs of a vegetable plot can be as low as $30 to $40, depending on size and quality of equipment you choose.
Let’s play a little game. It concerns New Year’s resolutions.
How many of you, at the start of the year, made up your mind to exercise three times a week? How many of you promised to get your taxes in on time? How many of you decided that this would be the year to start your own home vegetable garden?
Well, you folks in the first two groups have already succeeded or failed, but for the would-be gardeners out there, guess what? It’s show time. Early spring is ideal for planting veggies.
Although some of you will dive into the new hobby full steam ahead, many, undoubtedly, will proceed more cautiously. So, in an attempt to give you a gentle shove, we found out what supplies you would need to begin a vegetable garden, and then we shopped around.
“You’ll need a shovel, a cultivator and a hoe,” said Vera Villasenor, saleswoman and buyer at Ventura’s Green Thumb International. “Those three are the basic things to start with.” You’ll also need some seeds or seedlings, soil amendments--such as mulch--to enhance the quality of the dirt, and fertilizer.
The start-up cost of a garden depends on its size and on the quality of your tools. Tool prices vary greatly: It’s a matter of determining how much you are willing to spend, and how high-quality you really need the supplies to be. It helps to shop at a store that specializes in gardening, and where the salespeople can provide knowledgeable advice.
Generally speaking, however, Villasenor said an average house garden, measuring 4 feet by 30 feet with two rows of vegetables, can cost as little as $30 to $40 to begin.
Now, let’s take a closer look at some of the requisite supplies.
We’ll start with shovels. We chose the long-handled, rounded-point models. We found low-end Ames brand shovels for $13.88 at the Valley Ace Hardware store in Santa Paula, $13.99 at Green Thumb (which has a tremendous selection) and $14.98 at Home Depot in Oxnard (where the selection is also sizable). We also could have picked up a True Temper brand long-handle shovel for $4.99 in the garden section of the Oxnard Target store.
As for hoes, Home Depot was selling the American Made brand with wood handle and steel neck for $10.28. An Eagle brand with plastic (and more fragile) neck, was $3.47. At Green Thumb, an Ames steel-neck hoe was $10.99 and the Ames plastic neck was $6.99. Target hoes were, again, $4.99.
On to amendments. Not surprisingly, Green Thumb and Home Depot had far and away the largest selections among the stores we visited.
For the novice, it’s pretty tough to tell one brand from another. When we asked for amendment guidance at Home Depot, we were referred to, among others, Scotts Vegetable Builder. A 2 1/2-pound box of the stuff was going for $1.97 there and $2.69 at Green Thumb.
In the fertilizer arena, we looked, none too closely, at steer manure. Again, it’s difficult for newcomers to tell the difference between brands. At Home Depot, we were led toward Vita Hume Composted steer manure, which sold for 50 cents for a cubic foot. At Green Thumb, Farmers brand steer manure was 99 cents for 1 1/2 cubic feet or $1.49 for two cubic feet. And at Target, one cubic foot of Hyponex steer manure was 69 cents.
As for the vegetables themselves, you can buy packets of seeds. Burpee seeds are an easy-to-find, popular local brand, going for between 99 cents and $1.57, depending on the vegetable. Nurseries like Green Thumb are apt to stock seeds from other companies as well, with prices varying just a tad.
Or you can go for the young vegetable plants themselves. They are generally sold in four-inch containers or slightly larger “pony packs.” We priced the pony packs: They were 89 cents each at Target and Home Depot, and $1.19 at Green Thumb, which had, by far, the most substantial selection.
Now, go out and follow through on your New Year’s promise to yourself. Then again, you could just begin working on next year’s taxes.
