During covid lockdown, I discovered I really only have to go to the grocery store once every 1-2 months for all products except fresh produce, which require weekly trips. Once I started my own garden I got a lot of time savings back by cutting out >75% of my grocery trips, and I found myself using fresh herbs much more often as they are always available just outside my kitchen for last-minute additions to recipes (vs having to plan ahead and buy those expensive little packets at the store). I also started eating a lot more leafy greens; I’d stopped buying them because I was tired of constantly throwing them away after they went bad in the fridge after a few days, whereas they stay fresh on the plant for weeks or months.
So actually, I grow a garden because of the time savings. Well that and because it’s fun to play in the dirt, not to mention it’s a great non-sedentary hobby that gets me outside more often. Plus practicing food self-sufficiency is a useful skill to have. And since I garden in my front yard it’s an excellent ice breaker for getting to know neighbors and other folks in the neighborhood. Basically there are a bunch of reasons to garden beyond the food you harvest!
That’s only if you dislike gardening. If you like it, you gain happiness from it (the opposite of a job). Once you have everything set up it’s not that much time and money. It’s like anything else, you get used to it and can eventually spend maybe 10 minutes per day watering (less if it rains).
Also, the food you get will taste much better because it’s picked when it’s ripe. Most vegetables in a grocery store are picked too early.
It’s certainly not free (not that that is the point) but if you’re spending $5 on a pepper you either are a bad gardener or don’t know how to amortize the cost of reusable supplies over many peppers. Or both.
Well I use the chilly seeds and plant them on the terrace, and voila, infinite chillies and chilly flakes. My investment is time, used jars and dirt I bought once. I water them with fertilized aquarium water and I don’t know what to do with them.
We had good luck getting things started on an aquaponics aquarium, but very little luck keeping them alive long term there. Basil did okay, but not most other things. And my wife was following all the advice from reputable places. Not sure what the issue was, but we gave up.
I’ve had issues with draining out the grow beds enough. If they aren’t drained well enough then the roots might rot or the plants might die from too much water.
If you have a single grow bed, it’s a lot easier. Then you mostly just have to worry about the siphon initiating and stopping at the right times. Which is something you can see and fix in less than an hour before there is plants.
Not sure what your situation was, but it’s best to start small and try to account for every variable.
I’m on year 3 of my setup, and I just added another 2 grow beds and a sand root zone in the sump.
I’m not seeing the one we had online anymore. It was small, maybe 6 gallons of so. Clear plexiglass on front and right side, gravel bottom. Little slots at the bottom left, under the gravel, let water go into a smaller area on the left side. There was a section above that, and another along the back, with plant baskets,. Water was pumped from lower left into upper left, which followed through the bottle of the plant baskets and made a little waterfall into the main tank at the back right. We just had a few guppies in it.
The cost of dirt is “land”. It’s not actually free. And considering I have to work for a living, my free time is a resource I like to spend carefully, so digging, clearing rocks and weeds and spreading fresh topsoil is usually not my choice activity.
There’s a reason farmers get paid, and it takes economy of scale and subsidization to bring the cost of produce down to as cheap as it is.
Gardening can be fun and rewarding, but let’s not pretend that it just free food that appears by magic.
Funny. I’m growing oregano, tomatoes, squash in pots, inside on cold days. Your limited free time probably costs more work hours than a bag of dirt and a few seeds but excuse yourself any way you want.
“excuse myself”? I don’t need an excuse for what I enjoy doing in my free time.
What you’re missing is that I don’t enjoy gardening, and I don’t pretend that I’m saving significant sums of money by doing it. I do enjoy what I do in my free time, so I chose to enjoy myself, rather than spend my time doing what feels like work.
I’m not talking actual monetary costs, I’m talking the actual expenditure of time.
You enjoy gardening, and that’s good for you. The time you spend growing your tomatoes isn’t time taken away from an activity you enjoy.
Not everyone is in a place where spending time doing an activity they don’t enjoy is worth avoiding paying for produce.
I grew up in a family of farmers and lived in farm country most of my life. I didn’t say that, and you shouldn’t put your words in my mouth. That’s very disingenuous. You could dig up a documentary on corporate farming and investment bankers, but how dare anyone expect you to do anything so basic? -_-
Yes, garden, then you can spend $5 on a pepper once you’ve factored in cost of all the supplies
Don’t forget to price out your time and labor.
During covid lockdown, I discovered I really only have to go to the grocery store once every 1-2 months for all products except fresh produce, which require weekly trips. Once I started my own garden I got a lot of time savings back by cutting out >75% of my grocery trips, and I found myself using fresh herbs much more often as they are always available just outside my kitchen for last-minute additions to recipes (vs having to plan ahead and buy those expensive little packets at the store). I also started eating a lot more leafy greens; I’d stopped buying them because I was tired of constantly throwing them away after they went bad in the fridge after a few days, whereas they stay fresh on the plant for weeks or months.
So actually, I grow a garden because of the time savings. Well that and because it’s fun to play in the dirt, not to mention it’s a great non-sedentary hobby that gets me outside more often. Plus practicing food self-sufficiency is a useful skill to have. And since I garden in my front yard it’s an excellent ice breaker for getting to know neighbors and other folks in the neighborhood. Basically there are a bunch of reasons to garden beyond the food you harvest!
I was with you until this line:
Getting to know and be forced to socialize with my neighbors doesn’t sound like a plus for me
That’s only if you dislike gardening. If you like it, you gain happiness from it (the opposite of a job). Once you have everything set up it’s not that much time and money. It’s like anything else, you get used to it and can eventually spend maybe 10 minutes per day watering (less if it rains).
Also, the food you get will taste much better because it’s picked when it’s ripe. Most vegetables in a grocery store are picked too early.
It’s certainly not free (not that that is the point) but if you’re spending $5 on a pepper you either are a bad gardener or don’t know how to amortize the cost of reusable supplies over many peppers. Or both.
that’s what I always say, you gotta amortize the cost of reusable supplies, buddy.
in the club, on the beach, sometimes I yell it as I pass by in a fast moving car
Oh that’s what the gypsy woman meant
Well I use the chilly seeds and plant them on the terrace, and voila, infinite chillies and chilly flakes. My investment is time, used jars and dirt I bought once. I water them with fertilized aquarium water and I don’t know what to do with them.
If you got fish and an aquarium, might want to look into aquaponics.
It’s better for herbs and spices since without soil other produce doesn’t taste as good.
As a bonus, aquaponic grow beds work really well for propagating plants from cuttings. I have been able to make a lot of fruit tree saplings with it.
We had good luck getting things started on an aquaponics aquarium, but very little luck keeping them alive long term there. Basil did okay, but not most other things. And my wife was following all the advice from reputable places. Not sure what the issue was, but we gave up.
I’ve had issues with draining out the grow beds enough. If they aren’t drained well enough then the roots might rot or the plants might die from too much water.
If you have a single grow bed, it’s a lot easier. Then you mostly just have to worry about the siphon initiating and stopping at the right times. Which is something you can see and fix in less than an hour before there is plants.
Not sure what your situation was, but it’s best to start small and try to account for every variable.
I’m on year 3 of my setup, and I just added another 2 grow beds and a sand root zone in the sump.
I’m not seeing the one we had online anymore. It was small, maybe 6 gallons of so. Clear plexiglass on front and right side, gravel bottom. Little slots at the bottom left, under the gravel, let water go into a smaller area on the left side. There was a section above that, and another along the back, with plant baskets,. Water was pumped from lower left into upper left, which followed through the bottle of the plant baskets and made a little waterfall into the main tank at the back right. We just had a few guppies in it.
Oh cool all I need now is an aquarium, how expensive could that be?
If you use the plants to filter the water, it is a lot less expensive than a typical aquarium.
But if you love fish (or just like eating them) then this is a solid way to go.
Haha, buy a man a fish, he’ll be happy for a day, buy a man an aquarium, he’ll be poor until he dies.
Share with neighbors! Sell some?
Already did, now they’re swimming in chillies. :D
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Dirt. Water, a bit of time. Sooooo expensive.
The cost of dirt is “land”. It’s not actually free. And considering I have to work for a living, my free time is a resource I like to spend carefully, so digging, clearing rocks and weeds and spreading fresh topsoil is usually not my choice activity.
There’s a reason farmers get paid, and it takes economy of scale and subsidization to bring the cost of produce down to as cheap as it is.
Gardening can be fun and rewarding, but let’s not pretend that it just free food that appears by magic.
Funny. I’m growing oregano, tomatoes, squash in pots, inside on cold days. Your limited free time probably costs more work hours than a bag of dirt and a few seeds but excuse yourself any way you want.
“excuse myself”? I don’t need an excuse for what I enjoy doing in my free time.
What you’re missing is that I don’t enjoy gardening, and I don’t pretend that I’m saving significant sums of money by doing it. I do enjoy what I do in my free time, so I chose to enjoy myself, rather than spend my time doing what feels like work.
I’m not talking actual monetary costs, I’m talking the actual expenditure of time.
You enjoy gardening, and that’s good for you. The time you spend growing your tomatoes isn’t time taken away from an activity you enjoy.
Not everyone is in a place where spending time doing an activity they don’t enjoy is worth avoiding paying for produce.
“Gardening can be fun and rewarding, but let’s not pretend that it just free food that appears by magic.”
Guess the italicized part threw me.
If you don’t enjoy it, you don’t, and that’s fine. My apologies for taking you so literally.
Right… The reason peppers cost 75 ¢ is those horrible, horrible, no-good, greedy farmers. All they did was use dirt and water! Sooooo expensive.
I grew up in a family of farmers and lived in farm country most of my life. I didn’t say that, and you shouldn’t put your words in my mouth. That’s very disingenuous. You could dig up a documentary on corporate farming and investment bankers, but how dare anyone expect you to do anything so basic? -_-