PERSONAL GARDENS : DO IT YOURSELF? OR HAVE IT DONE FOR YOU?
This is of course a matter of inclination, time, and budget.
Our general thinking about the issue is that best and most beneficial to you (exercize, etc) is to do it yourself. Which of course is also the most cost-effective way to go -- provided, of course, that you first inform yourself properly.
Which is precisely what this blog is about.
However, to give you an idea of what it costs to have it done for you here in Southern California, here is a typical answer to an inquiry about what it would cost to have it done for you.
This will also give you a first idea about the issues you'd want to consider when doing it yourself...
"First, we usually work on the basis of 4 x 8 no- till raised-bed "Gardening Units", as they are the optimal solution to creating efficient food-producing organic gardens. Of course, we could custom-design anything else you'd have in mind.
These units use three 4" x 8' standard pieces of wood, that is, a total of 9 pieces (3 for each side for the length, and 3 more cut in two for the ends). Of course, other boards and heights can be used to suit your tastes and desires. Or even other suitable materials, such as stone, ceramic plates, bricks, etc.
Our standard approach produces a roughly 11" raised bed, and obviously adding more wood can raise that height by a bit less than 4" for each addittional piece of wood. The calculations would be changed accordingly if 6" x 8' board would be used.
At the bottom of these frame, we place cardboard as a barrier to existing weed seeds, and, if you so desire, a metallic barrier for gophers and similar animals, which can widely vary in price and quality, the cheapest being simply 4' wide chicken wire.
These beds are then filled with suitable soils we design ourselves from a variety of available organic materials, which also vary widely in price and quality.
Besides the effect of such choices, price per unit all depends on numerous other factors. For example:
How much of the preparation work you'd want to put in yourself, if any? (And how much such work is necessary?)
Would you want us to use new wood, or save you money by locating used wood, is it proves possible? Or do you have wood available?
Would you want the wood to be untreated, or or to be treated naturally, with a boric acid solution one could drink, and flax oil one could eat?
Would you want watering / irrigation to be integrated into the garden (soaker hoses, water posts, timers, etc), or not?
Do you want to do your own seeding and planting, or have us do it for you, and what eactly do you want to have pre-seeded or planted?
Do you just want vegetable beds, or also beds, structures or plantings integrating fruit-bearing perennials and trees?
Etc.
As for the soil, same thing. You can choose from the cheapest available topsoil (like $20-$30 a ton - delivered, and mentioned here just as an example, of course) to a pure organic combination of alfafa, kelp, humic materials, wild oak leaf mold and dairy-cow-manure-based bio-dynamic compost at $ 2,000 a ton. And anything in between. There is quite some room here too, as you can see. Notice that properly designed soil mixes usually do NOT need any additional fertilizer, so there is no need to budget that in.
All this considered, the price per unit can vary between something like $300+ to $900+ for the budget end, and the sky is the limit if you want fully automated units with polished granite bed walls filled with pure biodynamic compost and the most exquisite designer soil mixes, and pre-planted with already well-grown choices vegetables, including rare plants.
As a general rule, each 100 square feet (that is, roughly, 3 units) loosely maintained will produce at least 100 pounds of fresh, organic food, a year. This could rise to as much as 500 pounds or more if gardened intensively. As a budgeting basis, you can consider that the price of organic produce at the market is usually between $2 and $5 a pound, although the extremes are $1 and $10+. The math is easy.
The best approach woiuld perhaps for you to give us what budget you might have in mind, per unit, and how many units you'd want to have installed, along with whatever general information coming to your mind as you read this.
We will then call you (we need your phone for that, of course), answer your questions, discuss the particulars, and come up with a precise estimate on the basis of the information provided."
When you create your own Personal Organic & Sustainable Garden, you of course have to look at the same issues a seasoned gardener looks at when considering installing a garden for someone else, and from the same points of view.
Again, helping you do so is what this blog, and our sister-blog http://optimalgardens.blogspot.com/ are about!
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