Do you live in the city but wish you had just a little plot of land to have a garden on? Have you been looking for land to buy near you? Have you seen the prices?! If you have, then you’ll quickly realize that land isn’t cheap, especially in highly populated areas.
So how do you satisfy your green thumb itch when it isn’t economically feasible to own land? That is simple...you just rent your garden.
Yes, there are many people in highly populated areas that own land in their backyard that they aren’t using. Perhaps it might be someone that lives nearby. Or maybe your community has a community garden with some garden rental plots available. Wherever you live, there’s someone who would rent a small plot of land to you so you can garden.
General Advantages of Renting A Garden Plot
Owning a garden plot versus trying to buy land makes a lot of financial sense and has other advantages as well. Here are some positives of gardening in general as well as using a rental garden plot to do it.
- Meeting other like minded gardeners
- Knowing where your food comes from
- More nutritious food
- Big financial savings versus buying land
- No food transportation which saves energy
- Physical exercise which also promotes mental health
- Financial savings from smaller grocery bills
- Less maintenance and upkeep than owning land
How Much Does It Cost To Rent A Garden Plot?
Renting a garden plot annually is surprisingly affordable. A garden plot rental rate can be anywhere from $30 to $100 dollars depending on the location and the amount of land included. That may seem like a lot but let’s say that you can get 600 square feet for somewhere in that annual dollar range. On average, each square foot can grow about a half pound of produce per growing season. If you only have one growing season, that can be 300 pounds of produce. Three hundred pounds of produce will easily cost $400 to $600 at the grocery store.
Assuming you can eat it all, you will save a lot of money with your garden plot. And all it takes is some work to plant it, maintain it, and harvest it. The money savings are enough of a reason to do it but this doesn’t take into account that you probably enjoy gardening just for the sake of gardening. You’d have to be crazy not to! You can start looking for a garden plot here.
How Much Can It Cost To Buy Land?
If you are a person that doesn’t know what land costs, let's just say it is pricey. In the city, land comes at a premium because everyone wants it and there’s only so much to go around. Not to mention, no one sells 600 square feet of land for garden plots. The smallest size land is usually sold in, is a quarter acre which is 10,860 square feet. Needless to say, that’s much more than you need to plant a garden. However, to buy a land lot will usually cost $30,000 to $100,000 dollars depending on the neighborhood. That starts to make a $35 to $100 dollar annual garden rental expense for a garden plot look pretty nice!
Even if you purchased the land lot with a $30,000 loan with a 5% interest rate you will still pay about $150 dollars/month on the land mortgage. Not to mention other expenses like taxes and maintenance for the land. Renting a garden plot is definitely the way to go.
Here we’ve laid out the benefits of renting a garden plot if you aren’t ready to buy land. Still have questions? See YardYum’s Frequently Asked Questions.