This Is all very interesting to me. The economic return also ends up ( in a good and well maintained garden) being,, maybe more of a socio- economic investment in my eyes. I could sight the broken window effect and its inverse. But really Wendel Berry rights it best.
Its teaching a skill, and a way of life to kids and adults that would otherwise be lost. As for running the numbers I think the Los Angeles community garden of note did it best, because they were faced with a lot of gruff, and had to defend a massive and extremely important foodsource. Yvonne Savoi (spelling?*) and the California UC run Community Garders orginization might have many examples. Thats what I would try.. Good luck Good plants growing are priceless. As are the health benefits from gardening! Love reading this thread! Jaclyn On Thu, Sep 1, 2011 at 1:43 AM, Pattie Baker <freshbakedc...@mindspring.com>wrote: > Knowing that some parts of our community would only be satisfied with a > quantitative assessment of our community garden, we addressed this question > through the value of our food pantry donations (which is 20% of our garden) > and were able to get a 100% return on investment within one calendar year. > We have since met that goal (or beat it) with smaller gardens we have > started specifically for food pantry donations. I'd strongly recommend new > community gardeners designate a part of their garden for donations, for > many > reason but also for this reason. > > > > --Pattie > > > > <http://www.foodshedplanet.com> www.foodshedplanet.com > > Local action.Global traction. > > > > > > > > From: community_garden-boun...@list.communitygarden.org > [mailto:community_garden-boun...@list.communitygarden.org] On Behalf Of > Richard Menn > Sent: Wednesday, August 31, 2011 9:13 PM > To: Daniel Bowman Simon > Cc: Community Gardens USA > Subject: Re: [Community_garden] inquiry: return on investment from gardens. > > > > Hi, Daniel-- > > Many of us have found that the only honest answer to such input/output > questions is, "It depends . . . . " > > To show you what I mean, let's start with possible ways to calculate > "input": Is all of the infrastructure for the community garden already > in place--and if so, do you plan to amortize its original cost over a > certain number of years? Do you need to account for maintenance, or > periodic repairs and replacements? Do you want to assign a dollar value > to the labor of your volunteers and/or individual plot holders? How many > months does your particular garden's "growing season" span--and what > crops can be grown there, at what spacing, and in what sort of > succession? Do the gardeners tend their own plots, or work collectively? > What can be sown directly, by seed or sets? Are transplants started > under lights by the gardeners themselves, or purchased from a grower, or > received as donations? What ancillary expenses (e.g., for water, > insurance, etc.) should be included in the total cost? "The list," as > they say, "goes on and on." > > Calculating inputs may be the easy part, though. For my money (grin), > how to measure the total value of a garden's "output" is the real > conundrum: after all, community gardens are, by definition, social > institutions designed to yield benefits far beyond what can be valued in > dollars alone. I wonder: are you perhaps seeking a formula to help you > deal with someone who is persuaded that the value of a community garden > is defined by the market value of its produce (and that, to be viable, > its measurable outputs must exceed measurable inputs)? The more we know > about what lies behind your question, the better the answers that you'll > receive from our gurus. My personal advice? Avoid getting tangled up in > justifications based solely on inputs and outputs in the first place. > > Best wishes, > > --Dick > 484-883-7309 > > Daniel Bowman Simon wrote: > > >has anyone run the numbers on the economic return on investment from > >community gardens? > > > >i know that farming concrete has measured crop output, but they have not > yet > >measured input (seeds, plants, etc.) > > > >thanks, > >daniel > >-------------- next part -------------- > >An HTML attachment was scrubbed... > >URL: > < > http://list.communitygarden.org/pipermail/community_garden_list.communityga > rden.org/attachments/20110831/c0e3eda9/attachment.html> > >_______________________________________________ > >The American Community Gardening Association listserve is only one of > ACGA's services to community gardeners. 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