turn a profit!

**Snadger** · 06-08-2011, 06:36 AM

Mrs D will probably be able to give you a full breakdown of her profit on her plots.

Me............I just stick with the intangible assets!

**Two_Sheds** · 06-08-2011, 07:06 AM

... and TS will be able to show you the relevant thread

Mrs Dobby's Harvests 2009 as compared with supermarket prices

Rhubarb (�1 a stalk in Sainsburys) �50
Spring Onions (�0.99 a bunch for organic) �16
Lettuces �15
Radish �10
Peas �20
Broad Beans �90
French Beans �55
Runner Beans �60
Cabbages �24
Cucumber �15
Courgettes �95
Marrows �10
Broccolli �35
Caulieflower �16
Turnip �12
Strawberries �50
Raspberries �85
Blueberries �10
Blackberries �10
Potatoes �145
Tomatoes �70
Peppers �25
Chillies �10
Garlic �50
Onions �50
Apples �30
Plums �15
Mange Tout �10
Sweetcorn �22
Squashes �10
Sweet potatoes �5
Total Harvests 2009 �1133

Thats a profit of �816 for the year so far

**snohare** · 06-08-2011, 08:52 AM

If I ever learn to do spreadsheets....
My expenditure, except on seeds, Slug Off and this year, Enviromesh, is usually virtually nil. That's 'cos I haven't got the money in the first place...as you might expect, things don't grow so well without the infrastructure input. Lack of mpc and seaweed feed in particular has been a handicap.
But now that I have netting, hoops etc I am getting a decent crop.
Expected yield this coming harvest/winter:
shallots 80
lettuces 50
Chard 40
beetroot 20
kale 20
turnips 30?
kohl rabi 12
Celery 10
carrots 60?
Salsify 20
broad beans ?
Runners ?
tatties 10kg +
JA's 8kg +
Scorzonera 20
sprouts ?
At organic prices that makes a big difference to whether or not I eat !

Frankly it is the health dividend that I do it for - you cannot put a price on being fit to get out of bed and do things, even if it doesn't put money in your account. I am markedly healthier at present than when I don't have such fresh veg to eat, although my problem tends to be having grown it I am too tired to cook it, so much of it spoils and goes back into the compost !

**dave_norm_smith** · 06-08-2011, 12:04 PM

Hi

If you trawl the archive you'll find a couple of spreadsheets which were posted on here at the beginning of the year. I think I use the one which 'Two sheds' (i think?) adapted and simplified. The guy with a marrow on his head posted the first version- sorry I forget your name. But basically you place in your picking weight, the price it costs and it spits out a running total. I've just passed the �200 mark but I also use it to keep track of yield of varieties from year to year and bed productivity as I have year to year planting plans as well.

**Aberdeenplotter** · 06-08-2011, 01:14 PM

Sorry guys, I don't wear this at all. By the time you factor in your labour costs, even at minimum wage rate, you are running at a loss. Ok, you may say your time hasn't cost you anything, but you wouldn't do it for nothing for someone else would you? Also, you labour, you burn calories, you burn calories, you need to eat to replace burned calories, food costs money and we all know how hugely supermarket costs are increasing. The return from your plot maybe goes some way towards covering your labour costs but not all the way.

**dave_norm_smith** · 06-08-2011, 01:47 PM

It depends how you look at it. If you look at it the way you state, then you would be quite right, you would be deluding yourself due to labour. However gardening for me has always been a hobby and a way to unwind after staring at a computer all week. When I grew shrubs and flowers I never got anything in return apart from a good view, however I still garden (mostly veg/fruit now) so indulging my hobby but have picked from the garden this season what would have cost me �200 to buy at Sainsburys (my local shop).

As I mentioned, I use this info as much to work out which varieties work best in my conditions, how my yield improves hopefully year on year after improvements as well as a 'theoretical' food saving. Afterall I could go to the farm shop and buy a sack of spuds for fiver if I was worried about the labour bit. However the info I collect hopefully aids me to produce the best tasting, best yielding and most productive front garden I can have. It also helps justify to the Mrs my ridiculous seed collecting habit! lol

**arpoet** · 06-08-2011, 02:32 PM

Since the turn of the year we have picked 85 quids worth of stuff from the lottie.. But as we have not really got started on the cooking apples and plums and coxes, that are all loaded down with fruit, plus still got 4 rows of tatties and lots of beans and countless other stuff we expect to at least triple this value before the end of december.
Roger

**Snadger** · 06-08-2011, 02:58 PM

Originally posted by Aberdeenplotter View Post

Sorry guys, I don't wear this at all. By the time you factor in your labour costs, even at minimum wage rate, you are running at a loss. Ok, you may say your time hasn't cost you anything, but you wouldn't do it for nothing for someone else would you? Also, you labour, you burn calories, you burn calories, you need to eat to replace burned calories, food costs money and we all know how hugely supermarket costs are increasing. The return from your plot maybe goes some way towards covering your labour costs but not all the way.

As I mentioned earlier, its the intangible things that do it for me.

Don't need to spend money on a health club, the comaraderie at the allotment, the pleasure I get from growing and eating my own, growing varieties that taste good as well as crop well, fresh air, outdoor, eating seasonal, saving on land miles, doing my bit for wildlife wherever possible, my own space and time to do with as I wish etc etc etc. The list just goes on and on.

Money doesn't really come in to it. For me its a cheap hobby!

**Aberdeenplotter** · 06-08-2011, 04:45 PM

I'm labouring the point because Local Authorities are now trying to point at the value of the produce coming off allotments when determining rents. If we didn't work bloody hard for countless hours, there would be nothing coming off the plots. We don't get value from the plots just by having them. We get out what we put in.

Snadge, I'm absolutely with you on the intangible things. Me and Mrs AP sat in the plot this aft munching the late strawberries and enjoyingthe sunshine. I've given her a bit to cultivate this year and she has calabrese just on the point of being ready to pick and she is excited at the prospect. Can't beat it.

**Rabidbun** · 06-08-2011, 07:42 PM

I've got another �250 to go or thereabouts before I even break even. Won't make a profit this year I fear (though have yet to total up the garlic crop which is still languishing outside and drying in a greenhouse).

We did add ten more huge pots, around 10 fruit bushes, two apple trees (in weird shaped long 30cm wide raised bed borders made from linkabord), two fig trees and lost two of the three metre square raised beds to cat poo contamination, so not too bad all things considered. The french beans are also only just flowering, so remains to be seen if those and the tomatillos give a crop. Am not counting the tomatoes either until they end up cropped incase of blight (got a fair few outdoor and semi outdoor ones atm).

Next year should be all profit though barring around �75 on compost/soil and probably �20 on the seed library seeds. Oh, and if I ever decide on outdoor grape varieties, those too.

And maybe decking boards to cover over the linkabord border beds in the main bit of the garden. Hmm. Ok. Might be profit.

**binley100** · 06-08-2011, 08:12 PM

I started off the year weighing stuff and working it out then thought.....you know what , I really can't give a stuff . I do it cos I enjoy it , I like the challenge of actually getting something to grow. I like coming home with bagfulls of fresh veg that's not been near a supermarket. I have a full freezer, and cupboards full of preserves and there's still tons more in the offing. There's just no price to put on that.....

**solway cropper** · 06-08-2011, 08:57 PM

Sorry guys, I don't wear this at all. By the time you factor in your labour costs, even at minimum wage rate, you are running at a loss.

There are no labour costs if you do it yourself. That's like saying it costs x amount an hour to sit and watch telly or y amount to go for a walk.

And the same is true for the argument about calories you burn working on the plot. You burn calories simply being alive so I don't care how many I burn...it's better than the alternative!

**Potstubsdustbins** · 06-08-2011, 09:10 PM

I have to agree with AP if the council is starting to take into account the value of what you produce when setting your rent then you must take into account your labour costs when doing the calculations.
Do the calculations properly and your rent should be zero as you are keeping their ground in good order for them.

I don't have a lottie and gardening is one of my hobbies. I have been at it that long that I have most of the things I need and therefore only buy seed and a small amount of compost. The returns both financial and pleasurable far out way any costs incurred which I could say that for my other hobbie's.

Colin

**binley100** · 06-08-2011, 10:10 PM

To do that the councils would have to ask you to declare what you've grown ......like that'll work. What they gonna do come round and do an audit on what you've got growing?

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