Happy New Year everyone! Just stumbled on this fantastic article -- the best 'investment' article I've ever read! Finally someone in the financial commentary world recognizes that 'investments' doesn't just mean buying stocks and bonds, it means every step that you take today to build a positive tomorrow.
But not only that -- this wise writer also recognized PLANTING SEEDS as the major investment that they are. I only think that he vastly underestimated the return on investment from gardening, especially from seed. Even the simplest purely ornamental flowers generate enormous rewards. A seed packet for, say, Cosmos or Marigolds will cost you perhaps $2.00. That seed packet will start dozens and dozens of plants for less than you'd probably pay for a six-pack of the plants even at cheap supermarket-sidewalk prices. So for $2.00, you can fill your own yard or windowbox with sunny joy -- and have plenty to share with your friends and neighbors as well. Which means you can also swap for other flowers. Flower gardeners are often obsessive about swapping and sharing -- so your $2.00 packet of seeds can easily leverage into filling your whole yard with annuals, perennials, and bulbs, worth tens or hundreds of dollars if you bought them as plants from a nursery.
Then there's that unquantifiable joy factor -- having something lovely to look at and bring a smile to your face is -- I hate to say it now that it's become and advertising cliche, but it's true -- priceless. Happiness improves your mental and physical health both short term and long term, so who knows how much that seed packet will save you over a lifetime of medical costs! And if you plant varieties from which you can save the seeds -- then that $2.00 packet is the last time you'll ever spend money on flowers! I've saved my seed over from Scarlet Runner Beans and Marigolds and Calendulas among others for years and years running.
And that's just a simple pack of flowers. Plant some vegetables, and you get the same aesthetic returns and ability to trade and network with other gardeners, but the grocery bill savings are enormous, and eating home-grown fresh produce for as much of the year as your home climate will support provides extraordinary peace of mind and contributes mightily to your mental and physical health. Then there's the physical benefits of the gentle exercise of gardening itself -- digging, walking, stretching, lifting, just being out in the sunshine soaking up that vitamin D.
Decades ago I recall reading an article in one of the Rodale Press publications which said gardening returned about $6 an hour in direct economic benefits, i.e., money invested in tools, seeds, soil amendments etc. versus produce generated. That was about twice or more the minimum wage at the time I read the article, and I am certain that figure is up many times over by now.
Last year I spent about $125 on lumber for new raised beds, some topsoil and compost for those new beds, and some new perennials, and about $200 on a massive spread (over 1000) of spring-flowering bulbs, which was quite a chunk of money for me to spend on the garden, especially for 'just flowers' that I can't eat. But in addition to armloads of cut flowers, I have eaten only my home-grown organic produce for 8 months now, canned over 350 jars of fruit and vegetables, and still have a freezer full that will last me the next 4 months until it starts all over again. That's many thousands of dollars worth of organic, locally grown food.
INVEST, in seeds, in your garden, in yourself! And have a joyous happy healthy 2009, regardless of what the stock market is doing.
http://finance.yahoo.com/banking-budgeting/article/106399/Small-Investments-With-Major-Returns
