The 2026 Tally: What it Costs to Seed My 'Little' East Side Plot
One of the most frequent questions I’ve been asked is whether the “investment” in my “little” garden actually pays off. Set aside the fact that I genuinely enjoy gardening and the zen feeling it gives me; the reality involves a balance sheet to assess the cost/benefit of the operation every summer.
To truly determine whether my garden breaks even or is just an expensive hobby, I’ll be as transparent as possible with the startup costs.
As of May, I’ve made all the purchases and investments needed for this season. Leveraging Gemini to streamline my expense and harvest tracking this year should make things easier, and I’ve already been using the app to track my expenses.
Here is the exact breakdown of what has been spent to get the garden to its current state:
- Potatoes: $33.74 (10 lbs of tubers)
- Initial Seeds/Soil: $133.12
- Blueberry Plant: $21.66 (via Bachmann’s)
- Home Depot: $32.65 (Whiskey barrel and soil for the blueberries)
- Menards: $92.76 (Final seasonal setup and maintenance supplies)
- Total: $313.93
At roughly $314, the garden is currently "in the red.” The expenses are a little higher than previous summers, but I went a little overboard on seeds this year… So hopefully next year will come in a little cheaper with those leftover seeds!
I’ll be using a kitchen scale and Gemini to track all my harvests, and assigning each piece of produce or herb a market value based on local grocery prices as detailed in the PDF below.
Stay tuned for the first harvest reports to see how quickly we can chip away at that $313.93. More to come!
