What a garden gives back
A garden pays you back, in more ways than money
Home value, food from your own beds, time outdoors, less stress and rain soaked into your own ground. See what a garden could give back to you, with the research behind every number.
Garden calculator
What could your garden give back?
Put in your own yard. The estimate uses conservative figures from published research and grows as the garden fills in. Switch between money, health, mind and earth.
Net return after 20 years
—
- Home value
- —
- Lawn costs saved
- —
- Food grown
- —
Net value, mid estimate Low to high
Moderate activity, each growing season
—
Counting 50% of garden time as active work: digging, planting, weeding.
—
of the 150 minutes a week of moderate activity adults are advised to get, through the season
— calories burned beyond resting, a season, for a -lb adult
— over years
Time outdoors, in a garden you made
—
In a study of gardeners after a stressful task, 30 minutes of gardening lowered the stress hormone cortisol more than 30 minutes of reading, and their mood fully recovered (Van den Berg & Custers, 2011).
When plants were added to bare front gardens, residents' stress fell and healthy daily cortisol patterns rose from 24% to 53% of them (Chalmin-Pui et al., 2021).
Given back to the land, each year
- Rain kept on site
- —
- Habitat from lawn
- —
- Mowing time saved
- —
What this assumes
Home value: a one-time gain of 1.0–3.0% as the garden fills in (33% in year 1, 67% in year 2, and 100% in year 3+), well below what buyers say landscaping is worth, and never more than 100% of what the garden cost.
Lawn turned into garden saves $0.02–$0.1 a square foot a year in mowing, water and fertilizer, and about 110 minutes of mowing per 1,000 sq ft a year. Food beds grow $0.5–$1.0 of produce a square foot a season.
Active gardening is moderate activity at 3.8 METs (2024 Compendium of Physical Activities), over a 26-week season. Rain: 33.2 inches a year (NOAA, Kalamazoo), 0.623 gallons per inch per square foot of roof, 75% of it held by a well-sized rain garden.
An estimate, not a promise. Figures come from published research and public data, scaled down to one home garden; your results depend on your yard, your soil and how much you garden. Every study is linked on this page.
Money
A garden adds value you can see
Buyers notice a well-planted yard, landscaping tends to pay back what it costs, and food beds put produce on the table.
-
5–11%
higher value buyers put on a well-landscaped home than the same home with no landscape.
-
100%
of the cost of a landscape upgrade that Realtors estimate is recovered when a home sells.
-
$1
of produce a square foot: about half a pound of vegetables at $2 a pound, in a typical food garden.
-
30%
or more of household water goes outdoors, mostly to keep lawns green.
Buyers' estimates run ahead of sale prices, so the calculator uses 1–3% for home value, and never more than the garden cost.
Health & mind
Time in the garden is good for you
Digging, planting and weeding count as exercise, and gardening has been shown to bring stress down.
-
150 min
a week of moderate activity is what adults are advised to get; active gardening counts.
-
3.8 METs
for moderate-effort gardening: the same moderate band as brisk walking.
-
30 min
of gardening after a stressful task lowered cortisol more than 30 minutes of reading, and mood fully recovered.
-
24% → 53%
of residents with healthy daily cortisol patterns, after plants were added to their bare front gardens.
Across 22 studies, gardening was linked to less depression and anxiety and more life satisfaction (Soga, Gaston & Yamaura, Preventive Medicine Reports, 2017).
Earth
And it gives back to the land
Native plantings feed birds and pollinators, and rain gardens keep rain where it falls.
-
623 gal
of water fall on every 1,000 square feet of roof in an inch of rain.
-
96–100%
of rain and snowmelt events held and soaked in by rain gardens over four years.
-
70%
native plants or more: the share a yard needs for chickadees to raise enough young to sustain their numbers.
Questions
About the garden calculator
Where do the numbers come from?
From published research and public data: home value studies, the Compendium of Physical Activities, federal activity guidelines, NOAA rainfall for Kalamazoo and USGS rain garden research. Each one is linked on this page, and the calculator scales them down for a single home garden.
Will a garden really raise my home's value?
Buyers say a well-landscaped home is worth 5–11% more, and Realtors estimate a landscape upgrade recovers about what it costs. Sale prices move less than buyers' estimates, so the calculator assumes 1–3%, and never more than the garden cost.
Does gardening count as exercise?
Active gardening, like digging, planting and weeding, is moderate activity. The calculator counts half of your garden time as active, against the 150 minutes a week adults are advised to get.
Do I need a rain garden to count the rain?
Yes. Put in the roof area that would drain to one, and the calculator estimates what a well-sized rain garden would soak into your ground each year, using Kalamazoo's average rainfall.
Contact
Let's plan a garden that gives back
Tell me a little about your space and what you'd like to grow. I reply within 1–2 business days, and most projects start with a garden consultation, on-site or virtual.
- Replies within 1–2 business days
- Consultations on-site or virtual
- No obligation to book a design
