I spent $75 but this is my first year with a full garden so the fiance and I got a little carried away.

This post was edited by ChrisHashtags on Thu, Jan 15, 15 at 13:30

$1800+, but I am a market gardener with 1 acre and 6 high tunnels in production year around.

Most on 'A' seed was $1.00 each for a few giant pumpkin seeds that will get a spot in this years garden, well on the fringes anyhow.

Most total was this last year as The Wife, Daughter and I all kept adding to every order. We are probably in around $600 total for seed and are hoping to do at least a quarter acre of garden and maybe do some market garden this year.

One thing we really went for when ordering seeds is flowers to intermix a variety throughout the garden.

I spend about $500 per year on seed. I also produce seed for my own use and for sale which keeps my total down quite a bit. If I had to purchase all the seed I plant every year, I would easily spend $3000 or more. I run a seedling plant operation and have to have quite a diverse listing of tomatoes and peppers for plant sales.

I have spent about $ 150 this year.

I have spent about $ 150 this year.

I usually spend around $50 each year and feel guilty I spend that much. Guess this puts it in to perspective.

Seeds are usually cheaper than dirt. Good dirt. But the most expensive seed I ever purchased was two years ago, European mandrake seeds for an obscene price. This year, I bought something like 10 sweet treat cherry tomato seeds for 3.50 which is out of this world by my reckoning.

About $150 for quarter acre garden, also includes some annual flowers, perennial flowers and herbs as well as wildflower mixes for outside garden area. I also saved seed from last year so we will see how that works out. Additionally I will need some cover crops too, clovers, alfalfa, maybe oats.

About $130 this year. That is for three gardens, one of which is very large. Many of my crops are from saved seed, or are self-propagating.

A large annual expense for me is seed for english peas, which would be easy to save except I cannot prevent rodents from eating the mature seed on the plant. That problem doesn't exist with my beans (knock-on-wood).

For many years, I bought all of my seed each year, mostly from seed racks. This was in the 70's - 80's; I was probably spending around $20-30 on seed, plus buying plants for peppers & tomatoes.

In the late 90's, I became a serious seed saver, and began building a collection. For about 10 years, I was spending easily $200-300 a year (and $400-500 for a couple years) trying out new varieties. Now, like Pnbrown, most of the seed I plant is saved seed, and I start all of my own plants.

I still spend about $50 a year for seed which would be difficult to produce in my climate (biennials & tropicals) and for sweet corn (corn is the only hybrid I grow). When the SSE Yearbook comes out, I typically spend at least $30-50 trying out new things. So realistically, I still spend about $100 a year, gardening on three plots totaling 11,000 square feet.

Last year I spent somewhere around $150 acquiring stock for about 20 heirloom garlic varieties. Garlic stock is pricy, but hopefully that is a one-time expenditure... if it survives, I'll have fresh garlic for life.

I have 2 raised garden beds, 1 @ 4x20 and 1@ 4x12. I spent $118 @ Burpees and a few more $ elsewhere on seeds this year. I have lots left over, hopefully to replant before its too late. Son saw invoice & said I need a support group LOL In past years, bought veg plants (Bonnies) at Home Depot only to have almost all, except grape/pear tomatoes & eggplant, fail after the 1st year. Haven't had any sweet peppers in several years. Big bucks wasted. Plants wilt 3 weeks out every year. Last year broccoli plants developed a black rot after 2 weeks in ground. Tho I got a late start this year, the seeds are doing awesome! Keeping my fingers crossed!

Zeedman, I'm thinking it might pay for me to invest in enough hardware-cloth to completey enclose some pea plants and save some seed from the rodents. I'm thinking about doing that with sweet potatoes as well, the losses to rats and voles is getting overwhelming.

Short of getting a squad of rat-dogs I don't know what to doâ¦

pn, I trapped about 12 mice and voles this past year in the sweetpotatoes...I guess that helps a bit.

I think the most I spent on a packet of seeds was around 6-7 bucks, once shipping and handling was factored in. But for general seed orders, I think around 50 is the highest I've gotten.

Since I save and trade a lot now, I spend less in the catalogs, but I might end up spending more on postage in general through a years trading... so it probably is still around 50 bucks when all is said and done, lol.

First starting off? $200. After that it's been seed tradin' lol unknown of the amount I've spent for stamps.

Pnbrown, I would second Wayne's observation re: traps. My suburban backyard is wooded, and my rural garden is... well... rural, and surrounded by fields and marshes. With all of that habitat nearby, voles are really bad in my gardens - especially in late summer, just when seed & fruit are beginning to ripen. If I did nothing to stop them, they would eat most of my ripe tomatoes, and much of my bean, pea, and cowpea seed.

This is straying into equipment expenditures (which is a WHHOOOLE 'nother topic) but over the years I've purchased about 50 plastic mouse traps to control the voles. I place them in locations where I think voles will make runs (mostly under foliage, near a food supply) and mark their locations with survey flags (from the local farm & fleet). When the first tomatoes start to turn, I put one trap under or near each cluster... sometimes I hear traps snapping behind me before all the traps are laid. Last year I caught dozens of voles, hard to imagine how much damage they might have done had I not caught them early. You will probably never get them all, but the traps keep the damage down to tolerable levels.

The traps made by {{gwi:2117639}} have been the most effective. They are very durable outdoors, I've been using some of them in the garden for 10 years. Tomcat makes a similar design, but I found some of them to be hard to set, and the trigger is less durable. I've only lost a few traps, sometimes a predator finds the mouse before I do & runs off with it, trap & all.

"Since I save and trade a lot now, I spend less in the catalogs, but I might end up spending more on postage in general through a years trading..."

I heard that. The PO has singled out "small packages" (read: bubble mailers) for stiff postage increases in recent years, far higher that the general postage hikes. Much of the seed I save is large seed, so my postal expenditures for seed trades have more than doubled in the last 10 years. And the rates for sending a BM to Canada now border on extortion. :-(

Including seeds, onion seedlings, sweet potato slips, and seed potatoes, I spent about $200 for my largish backyard garden... on the high side, but wanted to start good this year, I can save some of these seeds for the following year, and I won't be buying any other transplants.

I have about 6,500 square feet of vegetables, and I've been spending about $60/year on seeds. I can cut that down a lot just by saving seeds from my mostly heirloom tomatoes, peppers, and summer and winter squash. For me it's not about saving 40 bucks; It's just another aspect to enjoy. This year I am saving seeds from everything, and proving them out the following year, and then I am good to go.

One of my big goals this year is to save seeds from my edamame; last year birds ate all of what I was letting mature for seed. I had netting over them all season to keep the deer out. Wasn't anticipating birds getting involved.

Getting critical mass where you no longer have to buy seeds is such a cool feeling. In one season I am about already there with garlic. I planted 31 cloves last year. Last fall I was able to plant 60 cloves from my harvest, and I have enough to last me through until harvest. Absent a catastrophic year, I am never buying garlic again.

I have mostly used starts from a local organic farm/nursery.
Now that I'm retired, I'm hoping to get the seeds going.
We have a seed exchange monthly with free seed from locally grown produce, so it's a good bet that it will grow fine in our area.
I'm hoping I'll spend 0$, but I'm sure I'll end up buying something! Nancy