10 ms·
I do it because some things are wildly overpriced at the grocery. Like, there's no use in planting cucumbers when they are $0.50 at the grocery. But fresh her
by mywittyname 7y ago
I do it because some things are wildly overpriced at the grocery. Like, there's no use in planting cucumbers when they are $0.50 at the grocery. But fresh herbs are like $3 a bunch and berries can be $3-5 a lb, so it can make good financial sense to plant some of these.
An herb garden and planter will produce easily $100 worth of herbs over a season for nothing more than 20 minutes of planting, then regular watering and tending. I had so much basil last year that I literally ate it in salad.
Berry bushes can be a little more expensive, like $20-50. But they also yield crazy amounts of fruit over the season and grow in like 95% of the USA.
It's a good investment, and it's a nice way to get some out doors time everyday.
- Cerium 7y agoI focus on foods that are expensive or you simply cannot buy. For example, carrots straight out of the ground taste significantly different than store bought. Despite carrots being one of the cheapest foods I still grow some. Otherwise you nail it with herbs and berries. I estimate a couple basil plants save me at least $50 a year. Another good item I always recommend is to plant the green onion stubs. About 3 square feet of green onions is enough for my family all year.
- close04 7y ago> carrots straight out of the ground taste significantly different than store bought I'd grow a garden today just for the tomatoes. Store bought tomatoes are nothing like the ones I remember growing years ago. But another issue I noticed is that even with the best of soils and care, whatever grows from seeds and seedlings I can procure now still tastes closer to supermarket vegetables than home grown. I'm not sure if the genetic material is to blame or the garden/practices (from my perspective the same as in the past).
- mikepurvis 7y agoWhich seedlings are you getting? If you're able, skip the ones at the building supply store's garden center and see if you have any heirloom seedling sales/exchanges in your area (though maybe not this year...). The fruit we get from the heirloom plants is head and shoulders above the others— Brandywine and Cosmonaut Volkov are two particularly delicious beefsteak-type "slicing" tomatoes. If you're up for starting your own seedlings, there are also obviously loads of places to order specific varieties of seeds online.
- outworlder 7y ago> If you're up for starting your own seedlings, there are also obviously loads of places to order specific varieties of seeds online. Just be careful where you buy seeds from. I have ordered some lemongrass seeds on Amazon (before learning how to grow more from an adult plant). Those came from China, were seized by customs, sent to a lab, then promptly destroyed. I got a letter in the mail, with the results of the analysis. There was no indication anywhere that they would come from overseas. I shudder to think what would have happened if the supplier also sold something like marijuana and my packet was "contaminated".
- AareyBaba 7y agoLemon grass: go to your local asian market and get lemongrass stalks with the bottom bulb intact. It doesn't need to have roots showing. Place in a jar of water and they will sprout roots in a week or so. Then plant in a pot, it will grow into a big grassy plant.
- outworlder 7y ago> It doesn't need to have roots showing Oh wow, I thought it would be worthless without roots! The more you know... Thank you!
- AareyBaba 7y agoAs long as there is some woody material at the bottom it will work most of the time. So get a couple of stems in case a few don't root.
- dhruvkar 7y agoAre getting seeds from seed exchanges also better than the seeds at the building supply store? I'm 5 days into gardening and that's where I purchased my seeds.
- pvaldes 7y ago
- downerending 7y agoIndeed, good tomatoes seem to be unavailable in stores at any price (even before all of this).
- toomuchtodo 7y agohttps://www.latimes.com/nation/la-xpm-2012-jun-30-la-sci-tomato-taste-20120630-story.html https://www.latimes.com/nation/la-xpm-2012-jun-30-la-sci-tom... (Why supermarket tomatoes tend to taste bland [2012])
- notJim 7y agoFWIW, in the summer time you can usually get great tomatoes at farmers markets and produce stands. Though I haven't grown my own yet, so I can't compare.
- downerending 7y agoMy parents were freaks about growing their own. Yes, a good road-side stand could be just as good, but depending on where you are, harder to find. But as far as anything in any typical supermarket, well, there's just no comparison. Sometimes the "heirloom" tomatoes are less bad.
- maxerickson 7y agoOf course they don't substitute for fresh, but canned tomatoes are pretty good for a lot of cooking. They are harvested relatively ripe compared to store fresh.
- downerending 7y agoI shall work on my bacon and canned tomato sandwich recipe... ;-) (My wife claims that canned San Marzano tomatoes are the bomb, when cooked tomatoes are needed.)
- Sophistifunk 7y agoBe warned that for all intents and purposes "San Marzano" has become a meaningless phrase that people slap on their random tinned tomatoes because they know food network audiences are looking for it.
- mrob 7y agoI recommend chard (a.k.a. Swiss chard, beets bred to produce a lot of greens instead of large roots). Chard is expensive and hard to find in shops because it has short shelf-life once harvested, and because you need to harvest individual leaves as it grows instead of cutting the whole plant at once. But it's easy to grow, and the drawbacks are no problem to a home gardener.
- kyuudou 7y agoIt's also nutritionally dense, if I recall correctly. Iceberg lettuce, not so much.
- y-c-o-m-b 7y agoStore bought carrots are almost tasteless. We grew carrots for the first time last year and I was amazed by how much flavor they packed.
- Cerium 7y agoSame thing happened to me. I used to think carrots were useless - just filler for dishes that need some color and volume.
- UncleOxidant 7y agoI grow shallots and garlic as well. Very easy to grow and both kind of pricey in the store.
- CalRobert 7y agoIs there a way to mechanize berry harvesting? The time involved in picking them is pretty substantial, at least for this amateur. We picked buckets and buckets of blackberries last year, and had a great time doing it, but it was many hours with the family outside. If I charged my hourly rate for that it would've made for some pricey berries.
- core-questions 7y agoAre you _sure_ you (and your kids) aren't getting more value out of hours with the family outside than any mechanized thing could provide?
- nitrogen 7y agoIf those quality hours could be spent playing volleyball or something, why not mechanize?
- foobarian 7y agoIf those quality hours could be spent tinkering with a robot and debugging control software, why not mechanize
- CalRobert 7y agoNot at all! We enjoy it greatly. I was speculating on why they cost so much in store. I may have expressed this clumsily though.
- nkozyra 7y agoWhat am I missing here? I plant blueberries and blackberries and getting a pint at a time takes 5-10 minutes
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- pvaldes 7y ago> Like, there's no use in planting cucumbers when they are $0.50 at the grocery. But fresh herbs are like $3 a bunch and berries can be $3-5 a lb, Correct, but think also that there are other factors. Your herb is $3 in value, but how many rosmary can you eat?. Maybe less than 100 grams could fill your needs for the entire year. Now think that you use the same space for a cucumber. Now you can make it climb and take advantage of vertical space. Cucumbers are $0.5 a piece, but you can pick them when they have like 200g and eat it as many as you want without dying poisoned. You could harvest some Kg from this plant to eat it fresh two days a week, or make your own pickles and store it for the winter. Therefore if your goal is to produce food and there is space only for one, cucumber is a better investment than rosmary or basil because you would buy much more of it in any case. Herbs are a luxury, they play in a different league than potato or onions. Similar case with berries. A single tomato can weight more than the entire raspberry harvest that you could obtain in the same space.
- lonelappde 7y agoHow about each person grows one herb or vegetable and they trade? For convenience, they can all bring their harvest to a meeting point to exchange
- pvaldes 7y agoCould be a possibility...
- UncleOxidant 7y agoI do usually grow cucumbers, but I grow a thin-skinned variety that isn't available in the stores. Taste is great and you can leave the skins on.