It can be cheaper than buying at the store if you plant things that match your local climate and if you are able to eat them fresh they are far better since they have the negatives of shipping.
Not the first few years though as the cost of tools/fencing/etc are an up front cost. But if you do it for a decade it goes down to the cost of seeds, water, and fertilizer which can be pretty cheap in moderate climates.
do you want to eat 20lbs of cucumbers and tomatoes in a week or two?
i love my garden when stuff comes in, but after the 3rd week of harvest I basically throw it all in the garbage because i’m so sick of eating tomatoes. I only consume maybe 10% of what I produce in a year because it all comes in at once, and I can’t eat 50lbs of tomatoes a few weeks as a single person.
And no, I’m not interested in setting up a pickling/canning operation, thanks. Which is always the ‘solution’ people come back at with me, and then they tell me I’m lazy and wasteful.
I had one friend who did setup a huge terraced garden, but then basically gave up because it was consuming his life and his neighbors got so pissed off that it was attracting wildlife. He killed like 8 groundhogs in one year, and he hated doing it but if he didn’t’ the fuckers would destroy his entire crop. So he just gave up because the entire thing was just too much work and too much misery. Now he’s back to growing a few tomatoes and other plants in plastic tubs because it’s simpler and it doesn’t attract wildlife.
Yeah, if you live in a rural are with a few acres, go wild and create your personal Stardew valley, but otherwise, just do it for fun and chill out about ‘cost efficiencies’. Your backyard plot of a dozen plants is never going turn you into a self-sufficient farmer. It’s a novelty for some tasty veg for the summer.
Yes, going overboard with volume is going to make the whole thing counterproductive.
Your friend’s couple of tomato and other plants in plastic tubs still counts as a garden! It is still low cost compared to the store and saves money while they are producing even if it isn’t as much as large scale farming does at high volume with all the labor involved.
I think it saved my grandparents quite a bit of money. They didn’t need to can too much; mostly just canned pizza sauce and green beans. I don’t think they wasted much either. A lot of what they grew had a good shelf life (e.g. squash). The would also fry lawn weeds, like plantain and dandelions. It supplemented what they got from the food pantry.
It can be cheaper than buying at the store if you plant things that match your local climate and if you are able to eat them fresh they are far better since they have the negatives of shipping.
Not the first few years though as the cost of tools/fencing/etc are an up front cost. But if you do it for a decade it goes down to the cost of seeds, water, and fertilizer which can be pretty cheap in moderate climates.
do you want to eat 20lbs of cucumbers and tomatoes in a week or two?
i love my garden when stuff comes in, but after the 3rd week of harvest I basically throw it all in the garbage because i’m so sick of eating tomatoes. I only consume maybe 10% of what I produce in a year because it all comes in at once, and I can’t eat 50lbs of tomatoes a few weeks as a single person.
And no, I’m not interested in setting up a pickling/canning operation, thanks. Which is always the ‘solution’ people come back at with me, and then they tell me I’m lazy and wasteful.
I had one friend who did setup a huge terraced garden, but then basically gave up because it was consuming his life and his neighbors got so pissed off that it was attracting wildlife. He killed like 8 groundhogs in one year, and he hated doing it but if he didn’t’ the fuckers would destroy his entire crop. So he just gave up because the entire thing was just too much work and too much misery. Now he’s back to growing a few tomatoes and other plants in plastic tubs because it’s simpler and it doesn’t attract wildlife.
Yeah, if you live in a rural are with a few acres, go wild and create your personal Stardew valley, but otherwise, just do it for fun and chill out about ‘cost efficiencies’. Your backyard plot of a dozen plants is never going turn you into a self-sufficient farmer. It’s a novelty for some tasty veg for the summer.
Yes, going overboard with volume is going to make the whole thing counterproductive.
Your friend’s couple of tomato and other plants in plastic tubs still counts as a garden! It is still low cost compared to the store and saves money while they are producing even if it isn’t as much as large scale farming does at high volume with all the labor involved.
I think it saved my grandparents quite a bit of money. They didn’t need to can too much; mostly just canned pizza sauce and green beans. I don’t think they wasted much either. A lot of what they grew had a good shelf life (e.g. squash). The would also fry lawn weeds, like plantain and dandelions. It supplemented what they got from the food pantry.