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I gave my mom a raised vegetable garden for Mothers Day so we could start growing our own food (I watched a movie called Food, inc, which I highly recommend) and it made me wonder if anyone else grows their own food (either all or just to supplement)? Do you find it worthwhile? Does it really cut down on your grocery bill?
What other kind of tips would you have for someone who does not want to shop at the supermarkets anymore?
I just have a small “balcony garden”…. so I have a few pots on my balcony with some peppers, strawberries, and tomatoes. I’m seriously hoping that I get some nice fresh stuff out of it, and that’s the stuff that’s most commonly not all that fresh at the supermarket.
I think I killed my tomato, though, it frosted the night after we got it, and I think we damaged it while transplanting.
Having said that, my grandmother has an extensive vegetable garden. She hasn’t had to buy peas, carrots, lettuce, raspberries, strawberries or various other stuff that I can’t remember right now in years – which *has* to have saved her some money. However, she invests a lot of time into this garden, so if you don’t have a lot of time…..
That and starting a garden is ridiculously expensive (in my experience, but I had to buy planters), so you won’t get any financial benefits from it initially.
I didnt even think of that fact 😳 Oh well… it will count as a hobby, then 😆 I already spent $60 on seeds and $100 on the bed!!! I’ll just have to keep growing food till it pays for itself.
We put in a huge garden every year. The perennials pay for themselves after a few years. The annuals? Depends on how well they do and whether or not you count the time spent as part of the cost 😀 It is fresher and more flavorful than commercially grown and we know exactly what goes into it. We also barter with our produce. Trade something we have with someone who doesn’t, like corn for eggs. I also get a good bit from the Farmers market which is often more economical than growing our own. . We do a lot of canning and preserving 😀
We set up a patio garden this year. So far I’m trying to stay with simple plants…we have tomatoes, rosemary, boxwood basil, red bell pepper, pimento pepper, and purple basil on our back porch. I’m really excited about them. 😀
yep,a little.Tomatoes,cucumbers,peppers.mmmmm 🙂
I’m going to try a “Topsy-turvy”tomatoe plant this fall.Anybody has one?Works well?Every act matters.No matter how small💞
(Wanted......Brimstone Lap)
Male Hearth....one day🤞Dream on.Unfortunately, living in a townhouse in the middle of a city…seriously limits the outdoor space we have. Our neighbor however grows herbs and doesn’t mind us steal some occasionally. 😀 And we have a farmer’s market every year so I can get some very nice veggies.
I [b][SO/b] hate living within city limits and not being able to have chickens! Have close to an acre here, not like a couple hens would bother anyone. But noo, they’re livestock and can’t have that in a wanna-be big important burb!
Seriously, though, used to keep chickens and they more than pay for themselves in eggs, not to mention that even the pullets’ first efforts were bigger than the so-called extra larges in the store. They eat bugs and weeds also (though they poop a lot, it’s good fertilizer). We never slaughtered any of the chickens, as we didn’t have either the want to or know how to properly kill and dress them ourselves, and chicken meat is cheap prepackaged. Did raise pork, beef and lamb, though, and it saves money as well as tasting better (sorry) and you give the animal as good a life as it can have while it’s here. You can usually find someone to split the expenses and meat with, works out well.
I’ve tried to grow veggies here (tomatoes, peppers, various squash, corn) but with no luck. The squirrels destroyed everything no matter what. 👿 I’m trying the topsy-turvy now, maybe they will keep the plants out of the squirrels’ reach.bodine6127 wrote:yep,a little.Tomatoes,cucumbers,peppers.mmmmm 🙂
I’m going to try a “Topsy-turvy”tomatoe plant this fall.Anybody has one?Works well?Just use a 5 gallon bucket with holes in it. They’re stronger. Tomatos, cukes, strawberries and peppers work well believe it or not. 😉
We grow radishes, cucumbers, wax beans, and tomatoes. This year we added rhubarb (had to wait a year for it to be mature enough to harvest it) and scallions/onions and will probably add something else I’m sure. I need to get the herb garden started again. We had parsley, sage, and basil last year. I’m looking to get a few more plants added that would be useful for colds, flu, and sore throats, like white horehound. 🙂 We just live in the village and have a small yard, but to grow enough for a family (depending on how that family eats), it really doesn’t take all that much if you know how to take care of stuff. I’d like to grow some corn, personally, as well as some carrots. My mom wants asparagus (*blech*), which grows really fast, but we haven’t gotten around to getting a bed started for it. We also have to get some stuff started in our neighbor’s garden, since he just passed away, but his wife would like a few things, since he always had a garden growing. So, we’ll get some stuff there that she likes too, since she offered the space to us.
We don’t grow them, but we do go and harvest potatoes from a local farm once a year and just store them through the winter (a bit more work, but much cheaper and better in the long run than buying them from the store).
Laurie wrote:bodine6127 wrote:yep,a little.Tomatoes,cucumbers,peppers.mmmmm 🙂
I’m going to try a “Topsy-turvy”tomatoe plant this fall.Anybody has one?Works well?Just use a 5 gallon bucket with holes in it. They’re stronger. Tomatoes, cukes, strawberries and peppers work well believe it or not. 😉
That’s what dad does. 5 gallon pickle buckets. They do work well!I have a 15×25 ft garden. This is my second year, and I probably put in about $150 to start it up last year. That however includes chicken wire, 2×2″x8′ stakes to put it up with, and all the seeds. I found I can grow squash and cucumbers well, and this year I am putting another $50 into it by topping the fence with 2×2″s, and about $30 to $40in seeds. This year I will be growing the cucumbers right to the fence along with the squash (Also conserves space). I am also trying corn this year, bi-color ofcourse. 😉 I can feed my family on frozen green beans and snow peas through the whole winter. I also have pretty good luck with potatoes and beets. Last year I planted 4 tomato plants and couldn’t keep up with their fruit production, so I am going for 2 this year(I tried canning them like Gramma did, but they smelled so bad… 😳 ). 8) I don’t really have a problem with any type of rodents…I think they don’t like the chicken wire too much. 😈
I think it is worth the time, and I spend about an hour a day once harvest comes picking. Then about 2 hours cutting, cleaning, blanching and bagging. But I love fresh garden produce, and like everyone else has said, I know what goes into the garden… 😆 I also think the beans and peas actually make up for most of the cost. Since when you go to the store you pay a dollar a pound for frozen, and I can get up to 30 pounds of beans from one single 15ft row, that took me $1.50 to buy the seeds. My favorite are wax beans. 😀 (Now I’m in the mood for garden veggies! Schwan’s to the rescue!!! LOLZ)Sure do… Lots of veggies and a few fruit. Right now I have:
Spinach
Romaine Lettuce
Eggplant
Watermelon
Acorn squash
Tomatoes
Blueberries
Artichokes
Onions
Cucumber
Avocado
LimeMy favorite are herbs…almost all started from seed:
Chamomile
Lemon verbena
Lemon balm
Peppermint
Calendula
Lavendar
Savory
Lovage
Sage
Feverfew
Echinachea
Valerian
Wormwood
Rosemary
Basil
Thyme
NasturiumI love making stuff with fresh herbs and drying them… Going to be making a lot of teas soon. Yeah.. and all this is on 8100 square feet of property. 😳 I think I need more land.
We used to, but since we moved to Soda the deer get it all before it’s even ripe :shout: 🙄 We did get a major harvest from the apple trees so we put up applesauce, pie filling, dehydrated for trail mix and just for snacking on. We left about a bazillion apples on the trees and felt guilty about not being able to use them all. We gave tons to the neighbors and we still had tons left! This winter though, we watched the deer eat the apples we left directly off the trees – how cool to be so “up close and personal” with the wildlife 😀
twindragonsmum 😀
tdm
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