Home gardens save money until you count your hours, but a trial found other payoffs

Key takeaways

• In a trial of 381 older cancer survivors in Alabama, those who grew vegetables at home for a year with a Master Gardener’s help did better on chair-stand and step tests and rated their health about 8 points higher on a 100-point scale than people still waiting¹.
• The same trial found no significant change in its main combined measure of diet, activity and physical function, a reminder that gardening’s benefits are real but modest¹.
• In about 10 gardens whose harvests were tracked, food worth an average of $916 cost about $237 in supplies, but counting the gardener’s time at fair wages erased the profit⁵.
• University of Maine Extension advises at least 120 days between spreading raw manure and harvesting crops that touch the soil, and never using cat, dog or pig manure¹¹.
• In 2016 testing by an environmental nonprofit, 29% of vinyl garden hoses contained at least 100 parts per million of lead, so buy one labeled drinking water safe and let it run before you fill a watering can¹².

Between 2016 and 2022, researchers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham enrolled 381 cancer survivors from across the state in an unusual experiment¹². Their average age was about 70, and most were women¹.

Half of them got a home vegetable garden for a year, along with supplies and a mentor¹. The mentors were Master Gardeners, volunteers trained by the state’s cooperative extension service, and they helped each survivor plant spring, summer and fall gardens¹. The other half waited a year for their turn¹.

Chance decided who gardened first. That matters, because people who choose to garden may already be healthier than people who don’t, and a random draw lets researchers credit the garden itself.

The results, published in JAMA Network Open in 2024, were modest, mixed and encouraging. For readers who value natural health, a home garden bundles many of those values into one patch of ground: food you grew, time outside, steady movement and a little more self-reliance.

Our article on community gardens covers a separate trial of shared plots, plus how to test soil for lead.

A backyard trial found stronger legs, not a diet overhaul

The Alabama study, called Harvest for Health, set a high bar². Its main goal was a combined score for better diet, more activity and better physical function, and on that score the gardeners didn’t beat the waiting group¹. About 4.5% of gardeners met that combined goal, versus 3.1% of the others, a gap too small to rule out chance¹.

Several other results did favor the gardeners. Compared with the waiting group, they did about 6 more steps on a two-minute step test and almost one more chair stand in 30 seconds¹. They also rated their own health about 8.4 points higher on a 100-point scale¹.

Diet changed less than many people would guess. Gardeners ate about 0.3 more servings of vegetables and fruit a day than when they started, but that gain wasn’t significantly bigger than the waiting group’s¹. Their gut bacteria did become more varied than the waiting group’s¹.

The COVID-19 pandemic hit in the middle of the trial and blunted some effects¹. The odds of reporting better physical function were about twice as high before the pandemic as during it¹.

The National Cancer Institute helped pay for the project². Alabama Extension’s program page describes the project’s initial study more glowingly, saying participants ate more vegetables and gained strength and flexibility². The larger trial is the better guide: real gains, smaller than that first study suggested.

Other studies agree that gardeners feel better, but they can’t prove why

Most gardening research compares gardeners with non-gardeners at one point in time. That can show a link but not a cause.

A 2024 umbrella review, a review of other reviews, pulled together 40 of them on gardening and well-being, mental health and quality of life³. Pooling six of them, the authors found that gardening was linked to better well-being³. But results varied enormously from review to review, and 29 of the 40 were rated critically low in quality. The authors concluded that the evidence can’t yet support strong recommendations³.

A 2024 survey of 280 adults in the United Kingdom looked at food growing directly⁴. People who grew moderate or large amounts of their own food ate about 1.2 to 1.7 more portions of fruits and vegetables a day than people who grew none⁴. Those who gardened 11 or more hours a week scored higher on a standard well-being scale⁴.

Keep that survey in perspective. It ran during the pandemic, and three in four participants were women, nearly all were white and most had college degrees⁴. It found no link between gardening and overall physical activity⁴.

Claim	Rating	What the research shows
Home gardening makes older adults a bit stronger	Promising but early	One randomized trial found small gains on chair-stand and step tests1
Gardening raises vegetable and fruit intake	Promising but early	Gardeners improved in one trial but not significantly more than controls; food growers ate more in a UK survey14
Gardening improves well-being	Promising but early	A positive pooled link, but results varied widely and most reviews were critically low in quality3
A home garden saves money	Promising but early	About 10 tracked gardens came out ahead before labor, but not once the gardener’s time was valued5
School gardens lower children’s BMI	Evidence says no	One 16-school trial raised vegetable intake but didn’t change body mass index6

Digging and weeding count as real exercise

Researchers rate activities in METs, or metabolic equivalents, where sitting at rest equals 1. In the 2024 Compendium of Physical Activities values for adults 60 and older, watering scores 3.3, picking produce 3.5 and general gardening 3.8⁷. Weeding, building a garden bed and moderate digging each score 4.8, and hard digging reaches 7.3⁷.

In other words, an afternoon of bed-building is a workout, not a stroll. If you have heart, lung or joint problems, ask your clinician how hard to push. A later article in this series looks at gardening as movement in more depth.

What a garden saves, and what it costs

Careful counts of what a garden saves are rare. When Gail Langellotto of Oregon State University went looking in 2014, she found only about 10 home gardens whose costs and harvests had been tracked⁵.

Pay yourself for your hours, and the average garden lost money. Valuing the gardener’s time at market wages or the minimum wage left it $81 in the red⁵.

Leave your time out, and the picture brightens. In 2013 dollars, the average tracked garden grew $916 worth of food on $237 of materials and supplies, about $678 ahead⁵. The gardens varied so much that Langellotto warned against promising anyone that return⁵.

She also flagged a popular figure from 1991: a $475 return on $25 for Newark, N.J., gardeners. It was an estimate, not a tally of real harvests⁵.

The winners were consistent, though. In every garden she reviewed, tomatoes made the top five crops for value, and leafy greens made it in all but one⁵. Peas, strawberries, squash and eggplant turned up on several lists⁵.

The University of Florida’s extension service offers a worksheet for running your own numbers⁸. In its examples, homegrown baby spinach saved $4.67 a pound over store prices, tomatoes saved just $0.14 a pound, and carrots cost $0.50 a pound more than buying them⁸. Your costs and grocery prices will differ, and the authors say there’s no guarantee of savings⁸.

The practical lesson: grow pricey, perishable crops you eat often, and buy cheap storage crops. If you garden for the food, the time outside and the pleasure of it, the money is a bonus.

Start small with five crops that earn their space

A first garden can fit in a few large containers or one small bed. Here’s a five-crop plan built mostly from the crops that paid off best in the Oregon State review, with harvest windows from Mississippi State University Extension as one regional example⁵⁹.

Crop	Why it’s worth it	Container option	In-ground option	Mississippi harvest window
Leafy greens (lettuce, spinach)	Top value in most tracked gardens5; baby spinach saved the most in Florida’s example8	Wide, shallow pot or window box	A short row, sown a little at a time	Leaf lettuce Feb–Jun and Oct–Nov; spinach Mar–May and Oct–Dec9
Peas	On several gardens’ top-five lists5	Deep pot with a small trellis	Along a fence or trellis	English peas Mar–Jun; snap and snow peas May–Jul9
Tomatoes	Top-five value in every tracked garden5	Large tub with a stake or cage	Staked or caged in the sunniest spot	Jun–Oct9
Summer squash	Squash made several gardens’ top-five lists5	One plant per large container	Give each plant room to sprawl	May–Oct9
Green or pole beans	Climb or stay compact, depending on type	Bush beans in a medium pot	Pole beans on a trellis	Green beans May–Oct; pole beans Jun–Sep9

Dates run later the farther north you live. Your county extension office can give local planting dates and container advice.

Your first season in four moves

1. Before planting: pick the sunniest spot you have, choose containers with drainage holes or a small bed, and start a notebook for costs and harvests, as the Florida worksheet suggests⁸. If you’re in a city or an older home, test the soil first (see our community gardens article).
2. Cool weeks of early spring: sow peas, lettuce and spinach.
3. After frost danger passes: set out tomato plants, and sow squash and beans.
4. All season: harvest often, sow a second round of greens for fall, and weigh what you pick so you know what each crop was worth.

Manure and compost: natural fertilizer needs time

Manure and compost are the heart of organic gardening, and they work. But raw manure can carry germs, so time and heat are your safety tools¹⁰¹¹.

University of Maine Extension advises spreading raw manure at least 120 days before harvesting crops that touch the soil, such as leafy greens and root crops¹¹. For crops that don’t touch the soil, the guide notes that USDA’s National Organic Program standards allow 90 days¹¹. For many Maine gardens, it suggests a simpler plan: spread manure in fall after harvest, work it in and plant a cover crop¹¹.

South Dakota State University Extension draws a different line. Its rule: no manure on the garden until it has aged half a year, unless it went through a hot compost pile first¹⁰. Bagged or hauled-in manure counts as raw unless you know it was composted¹⁰.

The two guides measure different things. Maine counts the days between spreading manure and picking food. South Dakota counts how old the manure is before it goes on. The cautious path is to meet both: use aged or composted manure, and still leave 120 days before harvesting anything that touches the soil.

A few more rules from the extension guides:

• Never use cat, dog or pig manure in a vegetable garden or compost pile¹¹.
• Compost should reach 140 degrees Fahrenheit to cut germ risk further¹¹.
• Keep pets out, and fence out rabbits, deer and other regular wildlife visitors¹⁰.
• If you find droppings in a bed, skip raw-eaten crops there for the year and grow ones you’ll cook, such as sweet corn, potatoes or winter squash¹⁰.
• Make compost tea with drinking-quality water, and skip molasses or other add-ins, which newer guidelines rule out¹⁰.

Water safely, starting with the hose

What you water with ends up on your food. University of Maine Extension advises using water that meets drinking standards, especially in the month before harvest¹¹. If you use a rain barrel or an old dug well, water at the soil with drip lines rather than spraying the leaves¹¹.

Rain caught off a roof may carry droppings from birds and squirrels¹⁰. When that’s all you have, save it for vegetables you’ll cook or fruit that hangs above the soil, and lay mulch so less dirt splashes up¹⁰.

Then there’s the hose itself. In 2016, the Ecology Center, an environmental nonprofit in Ann Arbor, Mich., tested 32 garden hoses from six national retailers¹². Seven of the 24 vinyl hoses contained at least 100 parts per million of lead, one as much as 68,000¹².

The group also ran water through six of the hoses. Three released lead, at 13, 19 and 20 parts per billion¹². The group compared those levels with EPA’s drinking-water action level of 15 ppb¹².

That was a small advocacy test, not a peer-reviewed study, but the fixes are cheap. Buy a hose labeled “drinking water safe,” since “lead-free” may refer only to the fittings¹². Let water run about five seconds before filling a watering can, and store the hose in the shade, because heat can increase leaching¹².

Pesticides: read every word on the label

Many natural-health gardeners avoid pesticides entirely, and Texas A&M AgriLife Extension recommends trying nonchemical methods first¹³.

If you do use a product, Purdue University Extension puts it bluntly: “The label is the law”¹⁴. Use only the amount it says, since more isn’t better¹⁴. The signal word tells you how toxic it is: Danger means highly toxic, Warning moderately and Caution slightly¹⁴. Our guide to household cleaners explains how those same words work on other products.

Covering your hands, forearms and legs can cut skin exposure by about 95%, Purdue notes¹⁴. Texas A&M adds: don’t spray on windy days, keep spray from drifting onto the vegetable garden, and keep children, toys and pets away until it dries¹³.

Storage matters most for children. In a 2007 guide, the EPA says household pesticides poison thousands of children under 6 each year, and it advises locking pesticides away in their original containers, never in anything that could be mistaken for food or drink¹⁵. It even suggests crawling around on your hands and knees to spot hazards from a child’s height¹⁵.

Kids grow vegetables, and some start eating them

A rigorous test of school gardens comes from Texas Sprouts, a trial in 16 Texas elementary schools, half chosen at random to get the program⁶. Its authors called it the first trial of its kind to test school gardens against obesity-related outcomes⁶. Most of the 3,135 children were Hispanic, and most came from low-income families⁶.

Each program school built a quarter-acre teaching garden, and students got 18 lessons on gardening, nutrition and cooking during the school year⁶. Parents got monthly lessons too⁶. Children in those schools ate vegetables more often afterward, while their peers barely changed⁶.

The program didn’t change body mass index, blood pressure, fruit intake or sugary drinks⁶. A garden can make vegetables familiar, and that is a worthy goal on its own.

At home, let kids pick crops, water and harvest. Have them wash their hands before picking anything eaten raw¹⁰, and keep every pest product locked away¹⁵.

Questions readers ask

The bottom line

A home garden won’t transform your diet or your finances on its own. In the Alabama trial, gardeners gained a little strength and felt healthier, and the tracked gardens saved money only when the gardener’s time was free.

That’s still a good deal for a hobby that feeds you. Start with a few high-value crops, keep a notebook, give manure time, choose a safe hose and read every pesticide label before you open the bottle.

Related reading

• Community gardens passed a rare scientific test, so test the soil too
• Most adults eat too few vegetables, and five a day can cost under $3
• The signal word on a cleaner tells you more than “natural” does
• The healthiest natural habits cost little, and these are the places money still matters
• Children’s blood lead levels fell 96% without help from any detox product

Sources

1. Demark-Wahnefried W, Oster RA, Smith KP, et al. “Vegetable Gardening and Health Outcomes in Older Cancer Survivors: A Randomized Clinical Trial.” JAMA Network Open, 2024 (abstract via BVS/MEDLINE). pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
2. Alabama Cooperative Extension System, Master Gardener Program. “Harvest for Health.” mg.aces.edu
3. Panțiru I, Ronaldson A, Sima N, Dregan A, Sima R. “The Impact of Gardening on Well-Being, Mental Health, and Quality of Life: An Umbrella Review and Meta-Analysis.” Systematic Reviews, 2024. systematicreviewsjournal.biomedcentral.com
4. Gulyas BZ, Caton SJ, Edmondson JL. “Quantifying the Relationship Between Gardening and Health and Well-Being in the UK: A Survey During the Covid-19 Pandemic.” BMC Public Health, 2024. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
5. Langellotto GA. “What Are the Economic Costs and Benefits of Home Vegetable Gardens?” Journal of Extension, April 2014. doi.org
6. Davis JN, Pérez A, Asigbee FM, et al. “School-Based Gardening, Cooking and Nutrition Intervention Increased Vegetable Intake but Did Not Reduce BMI: Texas Sprouts, a Cluster Randomized Controlled Trial.” International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity, 2021. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
7. Compendium of Physical Activities. “2024 Older Adult Compendium” (Lawn and Garden activities). 2024. pacompendium.com
8. Athearn K, Wooten H, Felter L, et al. “White Paper: Costs and Benefits of Vegetable Gardening.” University of Florida IFAS Extension, Gardening Solutions.
9. Wilson J, compiler. “Buy Fresh Fruits and Vegetables in Season!” Mississippi State University Extension, Publication P3144, revised 2024. extension.msstate.edu
10. Burrows R. “Garden Food Safety.” South Dakota State University Extension, updated 2023. extension.sdstate.edu
11. Kersbergen R, reviser. “Bulletin #2510, Guidelines for Using Manure on Vegetable Gardens.” University of Maine Cooperative Extension, 2008, page updated 2024. extension.umaine.edu
12. Ecology Center. “New Study Rates Best and Worst Garden Hoses.” June 2016. ecocenter.org
13. Texas A&M AgriLife Extension, Earth-Kind Landscaping. “Landscape Pesticides.” aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu
14. Whitford F, Corrigan RM, Ruhl G, et al. “Pesticides and the Home, Lawn, and Garden” (PPP-29). Purdue University Cooperative Extension Service, reviewed 2001.
15. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. “Reduce Your Child’s Chances of Pesticide Poisoning.” EPA 735-K-07-003, 2007. 19january2021snapshot.epa.gov