How much does it cost to start a vegetable garden in Australia?

Starting a vegetable garden in Australia costs $20–$100+ depending on your setup, seeds run $2–5 per packet, basic tools $15–30, and soil/mulch $20–50. Many gardeners start free by using existing garden space and saved seeds. Free tools like climate zone guides and supermarket price comparisons help you plan before spending, then track your investment against what you'd spend at Woolworths, Coles, Aldi or IGA.

Is it cheaper to grow your own vegetables than buying them?

Yes, significantly, most vegetables pay for themselves within one season. A $5 seed pack of tomatoes yields 20–40 fruits worth $15–25 at supermarket prices. Leafy greens like lettuce and spinach break even in 3–4 weeks. The ROI varies by veggie, season and your location (tropical vs. cold highland climates have different growing costs). Using current Australian supermarket data to compare seed costs against weekly prices helps you pick the highest-return crops.

What's the best time to plant vegetables in Queensland?

Timing depends on your climate zone, tropical areas plant year-round, subtropical zones shift to autumn/spring, and highland regions follow cooler windows (April–August). Planting the wrong season wastes seeds and fertiliser. Queensland has 7 distinct climate zones , each with different growing windows. Detecting your zone automatically shows only what to plant this month, eliminating guesswork and wrong-season purchases.

Which Australian vegetables give the best return on investment?

Leafy greens (lettuce, spinach, kale) and herbs (basil, coriander) offer the fastest ROI, 2–4 weeks from seed to harvest with 200–400% returns at current Australian supermarket prices. Tomatoes, zucchini and beans cost more upfront but yield for 8–12 weeks. Berries and perennials take longer but save money over years. Checking current Woolworths, Coles, Aldi and IGA prices tells you which veg saves the most in your area this month.

Every paid plan starts with a 30 day free trial. Cancel any time.

Honest pricing for real gardens

Three plans. Free, Starter ($3.99 a month or $29 a year), and Pro ($7.99 a month or $59 a year). Free already gets you the live prices, the 3-month trend chart, both weekly emails and a small journal. We reckon the question really is just two things, do you want the full 12-month price history and an unlimited journal (Starter), and do you want GardenBuddy.au Check photo pest ID and live pest pressure for your postcode (Pro).

Show me the plans See it working first

Free stays free. There is no timed trial running out on you.

$0Free

$29/yrStarter Annual

30 day free trial

$59/yrPro Annual

30 day free trial

2 stepsTo cancel, any time

On this page

Side by side
Free, when it’s enough
Starter, the actual product
Pro, for the garden that fights back
Annual or monthly
Switching tiers
How to try it without committing

Side by side

This table is rendered from the same rules the site enforces, so it cannot drift from what you actually get.

The Garden Year book is not a plan, it is a printed book for your zone. Every copy comes with 12 months of Starter free, no card needed, one claim per copy. See the book or claim your year.

Compare every feature

What you get	Free $0no card needed	Starter $29per year, or $3.99 per month	Pro $59per year, or $7.99 per month
Free for everyone
Growing guides for every vegetableHow to grow it, when to sow it and what goes next to it, for every crop we track.	✓	✓	✓
Plant Now for your climate zoneWhat is worth putting in the ground this month where you live.	✓	✓	✓
Australian pest libraryIdentify the thing eating your crop and read what actually works on it.	✓	✓	✓
Live supermarket pricesWhat Woolworths, Coles, Aldi and IGA charge today for the veg you could be growing.	✓	✓	✓
3 month price trend per vegetableSee whether a crop is on the way up before you decide what to plant.	✓	✓	✓
Past months of the Farmers AlmanacEvery month we have already published, for your zone, free to read.	✓	✓	✓
This month of the Farmers AlmanacThe current month for your zone, free to read. Future months stay with paid plans.	✓	✓	✓
Moon and biodynamic calendarSowing and harvest days by the moon, if that is how you garden.	✓	✓	✓
Join a Grow Together groupSwap seed and surplus with gardeners near you when someone invites you in.	✓	✓	✓
Storage, preserving and seed saving guidesHow to keep what you grow: storing, preserving and saving seed for next season.	✓	✓	✓
Works offline in the fieldInstall it on your phone and keep using it with no signal, out the back paddock or down the shed.	✓	✓	✓
Gardener Weekly Digest email (Sunday)One email on Sunday with what is worth planting in the week ahead.	✓	✓	✓
Weekly Price Alert email (Monday)One email on Monday with the biggest supermarket movers.	✓	✓	✓
Your own garden
Full preserving recipes, tested, plus community recipesFull tested recipes for every way to keep what you grow, from the canner to the freezer: ingredients, steps and process times, with pressure canning worked out for your altitude. Community recipes our team has checked open in full too.	✗	✓	✓
Soil salt tolerance for each cropHow well each crop copes with salty soil, with the soil salinity where yield starts to fall. Useful when you water from a bore or tank.	✗	✓	✓
GardenBuddy.au Advisor note, written for your gardenKnow when to water, net or pick: a note about your beds, your crops and this week's weather, not a generic tip.	✗	Weekly	Every morning
Garden beds in your journalEvery bed you keep, with what is in it right now.	1 bed	Unlimited	Unlimited
Plants tracked in your journalEvery plant from seed to harvest, with the dates that actually happened.	10 plants	Unlimited	Unlimited
Your garden recordsWrite down moisture, pH, rain, feeds, pests, compost and more, against your own beds and plants, with a plain verdict on each reading.	20 records each month	Unlimited	Unlimited
Record history and trendsEvery reading you ever took, not just the latest, so this season can be checked against last.	✗	✓	✓
Full 12 month price historyA whole year of prices per vegetable, so you can see the real seasonal swing.	✗	✓	✓
Price alerts for the crops you growWe watch your crops and tell you when their shop price moves.	✗	✓	✓
Pick your crops watchlistChoose the crops you care about and everything else gets out of the way.	✗	✓	✓
GardenBuddy.au Check photo diagnosisPhotograph a sick plant and get a diagnosis with a treatment you can buy locally.	1 photo check to try, once	5 photo checks each month	20 photo checks each month
Plant identifier on your garden mapPhotograph a plant you are putting on the map and we name it for you.	1 plant ID to try, once	20 plant IDs each month	20 plant IDs each month
Next months of the Farmers AlmanacRead the months ahead for your zone, so you can plan the next sowing before it arrives.	✗	✓	✓
Start your own Grow Together groupSet up a group for your street or club and invite people in. They join free.	✗	✓	✓
Harvest value reportSee what your garden grew you: your harvest valued against today's shop prices.	✗	✓	✓
Garden Year month viewYour month at a glance: rain, warmth, what you sowed and picked, and what to plant now.	✗	✓	✓
Garden photo albumEvery photo of your garden in one place, by month, with the date and a short note. Pro keeps four times the room.	✗	✓	✓
Garden Year crops and My recordEvery crop you grew on one card, each planting from sowing to the last pick, year after year.	✗	✓	✓
Harvest and care log CSV exportYour whole growing record as a spreadsheet, yours to keep.	✗	✗	✓
Saved bed plans, drawn to scaleLay a bed out on screen before you dig it, and keep the layout.	1 saved plan	20 saved plans	20 saved plans
AI starter plan for a new spacePhotograph your yard and get a staged garden plan for your postcode in about a minute.	1 plan to try, once	2 plans each month	5 plans each month
Walk your garden to map itWalk the boundary with your phone and place beds and plants where they actually are.	1 garden mapped	5 gardens mapped	5 gardens mapped
Bed photo analysisPhotograph a bed and get a read on its layout, spacing and what to fix.	✗	✗	10 bed analyses each month
Live pest pressure for your postcodeWhat is active near you right now, including Queensland fruit fly.	✗	✗	✓
Weather triggered pest alerts for your cropsCatch pests before they spread: a warning when the weather turns into the conditions your pests wait for.	✗	✗	✓
Sow again suggestions from your harvest logNever miss a sowing window: worked out from what you actually harvested, so the next sowing lands in a gap.	✗	✗	✓
Group season planning, crop claims and wishlistAgree who grows what this season so the group does not end up with twelve zucchini patches.	✗	✗	✓
Monthly Vegetable Price Report emailThe month in one email: what moved, what to grow next.	✗	✗	✓
Priority email supportYour question goes to the front of the queue.	✗	✗	✓

Annual works out cheaper than twelve monthly payments on both paid plans.

Free, when it’s enough

Free is the right plan if you treat GardenBuddy.au mostly as a reference site. You’ll check what’s cheap or expensive at the shops this week, look up planting times for your zone, and have a look at the demo garden every now and then to see what we’re growing.

A free account gets you more than the anonymous site does. You get the 3-month price trend chart on every veggie, the Gardener Weekly Digest and the Weekly Price Alert with the biggest movers (The Gardener Weekly Digest arrives on Sunday. The Weekly Price Alert arrives on Monday.), a garden journal with 1 bed and 10 plants, 20 records each month in your garden records, and the bed planner with 1 saved plan. The storage, preserving and seed saving guides are free for everyone, and so is joining a Grow Together group when someone near you invites you in. What you won’t get is the full 12-month price history, an unlimited journal, more saved plans, the preserving recipes, or ROI numbers on a real garden’s worth of crops. That’s fine if all you wanted is decision support for shopping and planting. Free stays free, there’s no timed trial running out on you.

Starter, the actual product

Starter is where the My Garden side of the site unlocks properly, and where the price data starts working for you. For $3.99 a month or $29 a year you get:

Preserving recipes you can trust. Full tested recipes for every way to keep what you grow, from the canner to the freezer: ingredients, steps and process times, with pressure canning worked out for your altitude. Community recipes our team has checked open in full too. See how it works.
Full 12-month price history on every veggie, not just the 3-month trend.
Price-drop alerts for the crops you grow. Your Weekly Price Alert gains a “Your crops this week” section.
Pick-your-crops watchlist. You choose which veggies to watch.
Beds and plants in the journal: Unlimited. Log as much as you want to log.
Saved bed planner plans: 20 saved plans, drawn to scale, instead of the 1 saved plan Free keeps.
Garden records: Unlimited, with history and trends. Rain, soil tests, what you fed and when, kept and charted so you can look back a season later.
Full care log. Every watering, fertiliser, mulch and pest treatment. Each entry captures the product used, quantity, weather at the time, and soil temperature.
ROI report. Real grow vs buy savings, calculated against today’s shop prices and updated the moment you log a harvest.
Pest observation tracking with treatment product and effectiveness review.
Harvest history for your own record.
GardenBuddy.au Advisor note, written for your garden: Weekly. A note about your beds, your crops and this week’s weather, not a generic tip.
Walk your garden to map it: 5 gardens mapped. Walk the boundary with your phone and place beds and plants where they actually are.
GardenBuddy.au Check photo pest ID: 5 photo checks each month. Photograph a pest or a chewed leaf and get an identification back.
Photo to garden plan: 2 plans each month. Photograph a bare patch and get a starter planting plan back.
Plant identifier on your garden map: 20 plant IDs each month. Photograph something you are placing on the map and we name it.
The months ahead in the Farmers Almanac. Plan the next sowing before the month arrives. This month and past months stay free for everyone.
Start your own Grow Together group. Set one up for your street or club and invite people in. They join free.

If you’re going to keep a vegetable journal at all, this is the tier we’d pick. The annual plan at $29 works out to less than a cup of coffee a month, and somewhat less than most seed packets cost anyway.

“Paid $29 in March. By July the ROI report said I’d grown $312 worth of vegetables. The subscription paid for itself 10 times over in one subtropical autumn and winter.” Sample scenario, based on demo garden data

Pro, for the garden that fights back

Pro is built around what is coming at your garden next, not just what is in it now. It adds live pest pressure for your postcode including QLD fruit fly, weather-triggered pest alerts for the crops you actually grow, sow-again suggestions worked out from your harvest log, season planning for your Grow Together group (crop claims and a shared wishlist, so twelve people do not all plant zucchini), and the Monthly Vegetable Price Report email. None of that exists on Free or Starter.

Photo checks are not a Pro exclusive. Every plan gets some: Free has 1 photo check to try, once, Starter 5 photo checks each month, and Pro 20 photo checks each month. What Pro adds on the AI side is the bigger allowance, 5 plans each month of the photo to garden plan tool, and bed photo analysis, 10 bed analyses each month, which reviews a photo of an existing bed for spacing and companion planting. That one is Pro only. The plant identifier is the same on both paid plans, 20 plant IDs each month.

Worth stepping up from Starter if any of these is true for you:

You want to know what pest pressure is building around your postcode before the damage shows up, not after.
You grow stone fruit or fruiting veg anywhere QLD fruit fly is active, and you want the pressure for your postcode, not a state-wide generality.
You want to be told “cabbage white butterflies are emerging this week, net your brassicas now” a day or two before you see the damage.
You succession-plant and want a nudge on when to sow the next batch, worked out from your own harvest log.
You want more photo checks and garden plans a month than Starter’s allowance, plus bed photo analysis, which Starter doesn’t get.
You run a Grow Together group and want to plan the season with it, not just swap on the day.
You want your harvests and care log as a spreadsheet. The CSV export comes with Pro.

Not worth it if pests rarely bother your patch and you’re happy with the Starter price tools. The journal is exactly the same on both paid tiers, unlimited either way. Starter covers you.

Annual or monthly

Annual works out cheaper than paying month by month. Same product either way, so the way we see it the choice comes down to whether you’d rather pay once a year and forget about it, or keep the option of walking away after any month. Two practical differences:

Choose monthly if

You want to test the product for a few months before you commit.
You only garden in one season and pause the rest of the year.
You’d rather just cancel, no questions, no refund conversation.

Choose annual if

You’re confident the product fits your garden.
You want the ~40% saving.
You don’t want to think about renewal every month.
You want one annual receipt for tax or expense tracking.

Cancel any time

Cancel from your account page: click Cancel, then confirm on the next screen. Your access runs to the end of the period you have already paid for, then stops. Cancel in month 4 of an annual plan and you keep Pro until month 12. Monthly cancellations stop at the end of the current paid month. We do not refund unused time, so if you are unsure about a year, start monthly, the free trial applies either way. Every paid plan starts with a 30 day free trial. Cancel any time. No retention loops, no phone calls, nothing like that.

Switching tiers

Upgrade, downgrade, switch from monthly to annual, all from your account page at any time.

Upgrade (Starter to Pro). Pay for the new tier and it is active in seconds.
Downgrade (Pro to Starter). Takes effect on your next renewal date. No refund on the current period.
Switch monthly and annual. Moving up bills straight away, moving down waits for your renewal date. Same rules as above.

How to try it without committing

Every paid plan starts with a 30 day free trial. Cancel any time. It applies on monthly and annual. You sign up, get full access for the trial, and if you cancel before it ends you pay nothing. Nothing is charged during the trial. The first payment is taken on day 31, at the price shown for the plan you picked. Cancel any time from your account page, in two clicks. Your garden history stays in your account.

If you just want to see the product first without paying anything at all, our demo garden shows you exactly what you get on the inside. Same UI, same features, real plants, real numbers.