Subject: Economics of Organic Gardening

From: Warwick Rowell <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 07 Mar 1995 09:42:33 WST

Couldn't resist this offer!

A colleague and I have done the sums for putting a Permaculture 
Garden on a suburban block in Perth; about 400sm of planting area, 
in a climate that is on the border of temperate, Mediterranean and 
arid, with ground glass masquarading as soil.

We calculated roughly that a family could save about $60/week in 
food and ancillary costs if they had a really good permaculture 
garden. 

Then we did the sums: $3000 after tax a year, $5000 pre tax a year, 
the equivalent of about $80,000 capital invested at current interest
rates. 

If you paid someone to give you a "turn key" garden, it would cost 
about $8000. If you did it yourself, and looked for bargain plants,
did your own propogating etc, you could probably build this garden 
for less than $1000, for the expensive fruit and nut trees.

Where is the best place to invest your money?? Does the investment 
industry tell us this??

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|   Management Consultant     Permaculture Designer        |
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From: [email-masked] (Jeff Owens)
Date: Tue, 07 Mar 1995 08:57:27 -0500

> [email-masked] wrote:

Yes, and if you merge that permaculture garden with some conservation,
and some self sufficiency in other areas, then you have the ideal
investment.  Specifically, investing in knowledge, renewable food
and energy sources, and a lifestyle that is not consumer driven.
It seems strange to me that we spend fortunes on recreation, but
the joy of walking around an orchard in spring is never advertised.
Having a pantry full of home grown food provides a marvelous
feeling of accomplishment, is very healthy, and low cost, but
how often do you hear this idea promoted?  Sigh...

Jeff (vote with your lifestyle)