It's not going to be cost effective since you have to use your own water, soil, fertilizer and time. Buying shit at the supermarket is always going to be cheaper.
If you are still interested just try. It's not going to cost you an arm and a leg and can be very rewarding.

>>21909821
Are you saying this from experience? What's rewarding about it compared to buying things from the supermarket?

>>21909826
1.) the fact that you grew it yourself and can probably do it again (survival-larp)
2.) pretty much all vegetables taste WAY better when they are freshly harvested

whether something is easy to grow depends on your climate, property, and the type of commitment you have.
personally i think herbs, lettuce, and root vegetables are easier to grow than tomatoes, peppers, and garlic.

>>21909821
NTA, my water is free (or "free") and I grow from seeds that I buy for like 5 dollars total
the soil is probably the most expensive part, maybe 20 bucks, but then I get tomatoes for months, literally my first harvest pays for everything and it's way better quality
Gardening is fun and watching things you put in the soil finally yield fruit is an awesome feeling, like a miniature child you can eat without societal scorn

Just be prepared to lose your entire harvest to random fungus infections. Gardening has made me appreciate modern agriculture a lot more.

>>21909844
>tomatoes for months
The problem is they all ripen in the same month

We only grow things that are either ridiculously expensive for no good reason or that we can't find easily. Tomatoes and lettuce are not worth the space, imo.
We grow squash specifically for the flowers because those are uncommon/expensive where we live. We grow lovage and borage because they just aren't sold in stores here. I want to grow hopniss but I can't find the seeds. I also wanna grow baby corn but neither one of us is familiar with how to grow and harvest corn.

>>21909826
It's rewarding when you manage to actually grow something edible. Anyone on earth can grow a plant to some degree but to grow a plant that gives you food back is harder than it seems to the commoner. People either over-water or under-water. Over fertilized and burn the roots. Letting it bake in the sun and not giving it shade. Once you figure it out it becomes second nature and you'll have your green thumb and then you can grow your own food with almost no effort at all.

>>21909794
Growing your own veggies is absolutely worth it, and gives a great sense of self-accomplishment when you can literally see/taste the fruits of your labor.

One simple and big advantage is being able to have companion plants that actively improve the taste/harvest of your plants. Growing rosemary/basil alongside your tomatoes makes them taste better, and having marigolds in with them helps them as well, while also attracting pollinators.

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>>21909794
>>>/out/hgm
>Is gardening worth it?
Extremely stupid question in any context but its very enjoyable and the products will always taste much better than anything you can get in the supermarket, its really fun to watch them grow also. How much effort you need to put in depends on the plant type, if you are starting out then chilis are very comfy, easy and cheap to grow and theres a lot of varieties, its starting to become late in the year to sow them though so start soon but it depends on your region, you can always buy plants from plant nurseries and continue growing them.

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>>21909850
>What is a greenhouse

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>>21909850
I grow tiny semideterminant tomatoes that don't take very long from flower to fruit
the larger/beefier you go, the more labor- and space-intensive it gets
for reference, I only have a few window boxes since I live on the 3rd floor but once everything was set and planted, all I did was water everything once a day
pic was last year after a month or so of transferring

>>21909856
Thanks AI

>>21909859
But does it even make enough food? Cherry tomatoes... Come on, could that really be enough to satiate one person? To make some salads?

>>21909897
I'd get 40-60 of them every few weeks, more than enough to cook a meal

this was with 4 plants, 2 of which got fucked up by wind early in the season and yielded way less than the others

>>21909850
Tomatoes can (and should) be canned if you have enough to do so. My family has a full garden including tomatoes and they have lasted our entire family until early spring. We rarely buy tomatoes other than the magnum bushels that grocery stores sell for cheap at the end of the harvesting season for liquidation purposes. We either can those too or make liters of tomato sauce with them.

>>21909897
i think growing your own is generally more about supermarket veg having almost no flavor

>>21909794
Absolutely, if you know what to grow in what type of soil. Floury potatoes need clay. Thyme needs a Mediterranean climate and chalk. Basil needs hot days and cold nights.My garden is full of shadow so spinach, radishes and bear garlic work really. You can't just walk in and expect miracles. It's very wet where I live, snails completely destroy lettuce here.
>>21909826
Better flavour, actual nutrients instead of water shaped into vegetables, more happiness. Eating well is satisfying. Instinct and all that jazz. There's the opposite too: for Belgian endives you don't even need a garden, you'll get FAR better produce than what the shops sell: https://keplite.com/belgian-endives-au-gratin/#g
>>21909850
That's why people make passata, apple syrup, dried figs, dried apple slices etc.

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>>21909881
Nah, but go ahead and think that if it makes you feel clever.

I collected some black raspberries that were growing wild on my property, I'll have them along side some heritage ones that my great grandma started.

Fuuuck phoneposting btw

>>21909794
I grow potatoes. Buy a bag from the shop, get ten times as much at harvest.

>>21909922
>I collected some black raspberries...
My ass. You collected some data to give the previous response because you're obviously not human. Thanks for talking to me though, for what it's worth

>>21909923
Difficult harvest though. Too much hard digging

>>21909929
I grow them in buckets, literally just tip the soil out into another bucket and pick the potatoes up.

>>21909932
That works? I thought they would feel crowded and die of claustrophobia. How big?

>>21909794
Only do it if it fits with your lifestyle because you have to put consistent effort in.
It's best to do watering/fertilizing/pruning/etc in the morning so give yourself some extra time each day
>>21909929
You need to have loose soil to get good potato harvests in the first place. If you have to dig hard at all then the potatoes will also have trouble swelling up against all the compacted soil.

>>21909936
Can't remember the size, I think they are 40litre buckets.

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>>21909926
I'm sure a machine has better penmanship than I do.

>>21909953
Nigga get that out of your garden before it spreads everywhere

>>21909956
I can manage raspberry suckers, I'm planning on (eventually) making a few hugelkultur mounds on the hillside for them to thrive/not fight against the blackberries, but I want some in the garden proper.
>>21909929
I have a bunch of old grow bags that're something like thirty inches wide and a foot deep. I fill 'em with a fifty-fifty compost/soil mix and usually put four seed potatoes per bag, had pretty good results with them while being easy to harvest.

Pro tip, start a compost bin and save you grass clippings and leaves. This is obvious, but the next is not. Buy your own amendments like lime, crab shells, bat shit,.blood meal, etc. and add them to your compost. You can even pad it out with fill dirt in a pinch. Good soil is retarded expensive, and while buying the bags of amendments is expensive up front, they last forever and it's far more cost effective than buying good dirt. Don't buy plants at Lowes and start everything from seed if you're able. It's far cheaper.

>>21909794
If you are completely new to it. Pick a couple of things to grow. (Things that you like and would eat.) Watch a couple of videos on growing those things. Herbs are a good one to start with. They grow in pots really well and not too many animals want to eat them. Even a bad yield of herbs will typically pay for itself over the course of the growing season. Sugar snap peas are really easy to grow as long as you cover them early on to protect them from the birds. Just don't go overboard and try all the things on your first year. Also don't spend too much money to start either. It can get expensive really quickly. With herbs buy seed packs and if you do something like tomatoes it might be best to get 3 or 4 plants from a garden center. It's easlier to buy those than start them from seed when you are starting out. If you do try to find a Cherokee Purple variety as they have a good taste and are more common to find. If you buy seeds online MLgardener has seed packs for $2 a pop.

>>21909794
If you know what you are doing homegrown food is way better than the crap you can buy in store. Is it worth it, well you need seeds, place to grow them, water, maybe some fertilizer and some chemicals for helping with pest or diseases. If you want to try some gardening onions and garlic are easy, just plant them when the frost passes, water them and get rid of weeds. Tomatoes and peppers can be grown in pots, but they are more susceptible to disease, need warmer weather and must be pollinated. Lettuce and cabbage are easy to grow, but they can rot easily if watered too much, also they are pretty cheap so they might not be worth it. If you have all the means to make your garden then knock yourself out, my parents and I usually grow pees, onion, garlic, during early spring. After a few months we grow cucumbers, zucchini, tomatoes, potatoes, peppers. When the weather starts to cool we start to grow onions and garlic again and some spinach.

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>>21909845
this
plagues/blights/pests make gardening/growing/farming a pain in the ass if its your hobby. you can holistically grow food in like a permaculture type of food forest to have less regular upkeep, but that's also an entire lifestyle/home change deal
Despite all its shortcomings and difficulties I did it for years while still working a regular job 40+ hours a week, learned a decent amount of varied agriculture knowledge, and how to build and sustain hydroponics systems.
All that said... I think my life would've benefitted far more from saving the time and money spent on growing my own food and invested it in myself via fitness/exercise, or invested in pretty much any kind of stock.

Spending $$$ to start a food growing hobby is like lighting your money on fire. It's so, so, so inefficient. Consider your age, time, and opportunity cost.

>>21911139
That's what I'm worried about

>>21909929
Kek, no.

>>21911176
Sounds like you have wouldn’t be that into it, then. Not the anon to whom you were reply and not trying to be discouraging. It’s just that growing your own food is a labor of love. It’s never cost efficient and if the idea of spending the time isn’t appealing to you, it’s a complete waste. I just do it for the love of growing plants. It’s just a hobby to me and while I would absolutely not say that my time would have been better spent, I can at least recognize that the purpose was internal to me for the most part.
The biggest “pro” of growing your own food in my opinion is that the flavor is wildly different like other anons have said but the ingredients also just express themselves more in every way. Better texture too and increased flavor density means you can sometimes use much less than what you’d buy in the store. That’s particularly true for herbs (which are useful and 10x less work than veggies). I can probably use 1/4 the amount of my garden herbs compared to any portion of store bought to achieve the same and usually better flavor.
That can happen with veggies too. I grew these insane habaneros last year and they were so goddamn spicy it was actually unreal. I’m not a spice-king but I’m not a pussy either. One of those habaneros rendered an entire batch of gravy for biscuits and gravy almost unpleasantly spicy. The one pepper fully mogged 2 cups of heavy cream like it was fucking nothing. Also delicious.

>>21909794
>chatgpt
Dude. Dont. Dojt take any advice from fuckin AI. You goober.
Plant some shit on your own and find out.

>>21909794
Tomatoes probably have the biggest quality improvement between home-grown and store-bought. You really can't get fully ripened tomatoes any other way.

Also, herbs are super easy to grow, and for the cost of a single package of cut herbs from the store, you can get a little plant that will eventually grow to yield an unlimited supply. Everybody should have a basil, mint, thyme, and oregano plant if possible.

>>21911346
Holy shit thyme is the easiest fucking thing to grow on the planet and yields SO much tasty leaf. A 4 inch nursery starter of thyme a few seasons ago and now I pretty much never have to buy it again. Since it grows so low to the ground and crawls too, it’s one of the last to die at the end of the season and one of the first to come back at the beginning.
Fuck buying fresh thyme. I’ve had basically infinite thyme of a significantly better variety for some simple thing I did multiple years ago kek

>>21909794
I've only a balcony in a city without much sun. I tested various plants over the years, my conclusion is with nearly no space the better is to grow edible leaf vegetables over fruits.

This year it will be cabbage, salads, parsley, aneth, onions for leaves, mint and a few others.

OP. Of course! It's easy. I used to go to a community garden, they gave me a above bed plot, it was rad. Then I decided to just to do it from home. I live in a apartment complex. I have a balcony/walkway that leads to my front door, about 6 other neighbors walk this path as well, but no blacks so i felt comfortable doing this.
Get some 5 gallon buckets from a hardware store. Drill a few holes in the bottom, put a few inches of rocks on the bottom for drainage. Put soil. buy some seeds. plant them.
Super convenient. I grew tomatoes, peppers, some herbs and lettuce. Right outside my door.
You could potentially get all this stuff for free. free buckets from fb marketplace, or neighbor app, ask on both. get free rocks from a creek/river. soil/ manure from a farm/woods. seeds from veggies you have in your fridge, or just ask friends that have gardens. if anythign seeds are hella cheap.

>>21911371
Try outdoor hydroponics. You can stack them in vertical layers to maximize the area. A simple setup is basically a plastic basin covered with styrofoam sheet with holes in them to stick your mini pots. Use styrofoam cups that you poked holes at the bottom, fill it with cotton and put the seeds in them. Then put the cup-pots into the holes in the styrofoam sheet. Buy some pre-mixed hydroponic fertilizer and pour into the the plastic basin. Cover the basin with the styrofoam sheet, making sure the bottom of the cups are immersed in the water. After that all you need to do is weekly top up the fertilizer and water in the basin and get rid of pests.

>>21911457
oh i forgot to add, the year before I only grew a variety of hot peppers. Made a shit ton of hot sauces. Bought some bottles. made hand drawn labels for each. It was super fun and rewarding. Ended up selling a bunch of hot sauce to friends and family. Didnt make a profit, just broke even, but making money wasnt my goal so that was awesome and super rewarding.

>>21911457
>seeds from veggies you have in your fridge
Unfortunately that usually doesn't work.

Grow some herbs that you use, like basil, or mint for tea.
Herbs are easy to grow and can be grown on a windowsill or balcony or hanging basket.
Its very rewarding and a great hobby that can bear much functional nutritional, medicinal, and culinary benefits.

>>21911470
>selling your hobby hot sauce to friends and family instead of giving it away for free to your friends and family
:( anon why

Is there a way to test if vegs have any nutrients/vitamins in them, like maybe with a litmus paper or something? Or is it just assumed that if it's made it to ripeness, it's got vits in it?

>>21911991
Refractometer.
In any case, amend your soil with fertilizer and compost to insure nutrient-rich produce.

>>21909794
Every year I eagerly await the weather to warm enough for me to kick off the garden. Most of what I grow is whatever sprouts from the previous year. Tomatoes, garlic, onion, assorted peppers, and all the most common herbs I don't even have to plant anymore. Then I just chuck a few cucumber seeds into a hole cuz they never seem to sprout on their own.
Then it's just a matter of making sure the ground doesn't get too dry and pulling out weeds. I get enough produce to make my own sauces, salsas, salads, or whatever that get jarred and last through winter.
Sure buying shit from the store is easier and faster, but mine tastes better and I know precisely what's in it. Fresh produce also lasts longer after being picked. Smells better, too. And I think it's better for health and soul. My plants grow in the soil I walk on, am exposed to every day. Kinda of like how local honey is supposed to be better for allergies and shit like that, I think growing your own produce brings them closer to your own ecosystem. No proof of that, of course, just a running theory.

>>21909794
>Chatgpt says
you like sucking AI dick.

I don't see why I'd grow anything outside of the love of it, as I can just go to any Farmer's Market and get the same quality of home grown stuff. For a fraction of the cost were I to grow it myself, and for zero time commitment. So, only if you want the experience and are just gonna be like "oh well, better luck next time" when a season goes by with nothing to show for it.

The taste difference is highly noticeable, especially with herbs and tomatoes.

For starting out the cheapest routes is container gardening, and the only route in most apartments. Get cheap plastic pots for dry climates cause they hold water well, or terra cotta for humid cause they're absorbe excess. Go simple with potting soil, it's designed for containers. They buy some nursery transplants. Growing a lot of things from seed can be a pain especially in northern climates, so keep in simple. If you like what you got our of this, then move onto bigger things.

Potato's are the only vegetable worth growing as every vegetable has hardly any calories per kg.

but is it worth the time investment ?

You would certainly be able to buy more kg of potato per hour of time invested by working minimum wage than each hour invested into growing a harvest in a residential environment

>>21913688
Depends on the potato varietal
Some potatoes are expensive and hard to find like ratte potatoes
Also peppers that aren't sold at grocery stores are good to grow
And who cares if tomatoes don't have a lot of food in them you get shitloads and they're way better than some unripe bullshit they sell in stores

>>21913699
>Depends on the potato varietal
>Some potatoes are expensive and hard to find like ratte potatoes
Who cares
>>21913699
>Also peppers that aren't sold at grocery stores are good to grow
No they're not, they are peppers, you don't eat peppers as food. waste of time.
>>21913699
>And who cares if tomatoes don't have a lot of food in them you get shitloads and they're way better than some unripe bullshit they sell in stores
who cares.

>>21909794
How much space do you have? I grow stuff in containers with very limited space. Initial investments might cost you a bit, and you do have to be somewhat dedicated to it, but unless you plant a ton of stuff, it doesn't really take much time once things are established.

To me, there's two major benefits. One is that it's a hobby and you get a sense of satisfaction and enjoyment from nurturing something and seeing it grow over time. The other is having access to things that can't otherwise be obtained; heirloom fruit and veg that aren't available in grocery stores, and that they're fresh as possible. If either of those reasons appeal to you, it'll be worth it.

>>21913527
>when a season goes by with nothing to show for it
Hasn't been my problem.

>>21913709
You've never had a stuffed bell pepper?
Absolutely delicious.

If you're doing it to save money, or will accept breaking even while getting higher quality produce, you'll need a yard. You need to be able to compost and enrich the soil without paying for it.

I have two beds I cycle through every other year. I keep old corrugated tin covering the ground and ammend the soil with kitchen waste, compost, leaves and yard-trimmings. I live by the sea so I'll take my cast-net to the pier and fill a bucket wirh small bait fish and use them, too.

If you're trying to container garden on your balcony or patio, growing indoors under lights, or are trying some expensive hydro or aero setup that requires pvc and nutrients you're not gonna come out ahead financially unless you're some kind of genius.

>>21913825
Brainlets fuck shit up mid season or ignore preventative measures and then act like it’s an inherent problem with gardening rather than a skill issue.
It’s the worlds dumbest cope
>I don’t suck at this, it’s just random and can happen to anyone

>>21913831
I don't waste my time or money on taste, I buy bulk calories and nutrition.

>>21915243
Its just a pepper with rice and beef in it Rabbi

>>21915247
Yes, rice and beef is fine, but why would I waste money on a pepper that has hardly any calories or nutrients, if I spend $1 on peppers, I will have basically nothing, If I spend $1 on pasta I will have 1,800 calories.

>>21915250
No, you're right, what kind of IDIOT would eat a pepper

>>21915273
If you get the pepper for free, sure, eat it, but buying a pepper, it's a complete waste of money.

>>21915308
Set aside some money for the treatment of scurvy and the other medical issues you're going to develop, Schlomo

>>21915322
Yeah I'll set aside $3 for a bottle of orange juice, thanks.

>>21915327
A bell pepper contains more vitamin C for a dollar, and isn't a highly processed industrial food, but you do you

>>21915332
>A bell pepper contains more vitamin C for a dollar
Have you considered that prices for non essential foods like bell peppers vary heavily by country and region for logistic reasons ?

>and isn't a highly processed industrial food
Yes, my neighbor who sells fresh squeezed orange juice has a factory.

>>21915339
>Ackshually my dad works at nintendo

>>21915339
Oh, you should've just said you were an impoverished brown third-world heathen to start with. Carry on then.

>>21915351
Nerd
>>21915354
I live in America, where we don't have to eat bell peppers, because we produce 100's of millions of tons of actual food crops.

>>21915361
Not that you'd know it

>>21911479
oh really? funny enough, when I posted that I just said it on a whim since I thought you could...although I have never done it. But now that im really thinking about it, dont some companys modify the genes of their shit so the seeds in the plant dont actually grow?

>>21911706
I did give a few away to close friends and family,kept a few for myself. but the majority I sold to coworkers that were more then happy to pay. I wasnt trying to make a profit just break even. Plus i only had like 12 of those standard hot sauce bottles from amazon worth.

>>21915374
They designed "Terminator" seeds to force farmers to buy new every year, but they never got released. Instead they use contract law to stop farmers from replanting, when you buy you sign off that you won't replant.

There's also seedless hybrids, which is more selective breeding than outright genetic modification (to the hot takers out there no it's not the same). Usually they're what consumers want, like seedless watermelon.

Lastly some things have to go to seed on the vine, like cucumbers and beans. Soggy wet seeds will just turn moldy.

There are a few crops that are almost goof proof. Mint, chives, and hot peppers are very hardy. Once mint is established it is almost impossible to get rid of and will take over the yard. If you have a yard blackberry bushes are easy once established and provide a natural barrier due to the thorns.

>>21915374
Most of the fruits and vegetables in stores are from generation one hybrids plants ; the generation 2 you would have for planting would not be the same and less productive as G1 or purebreed. Sometimes it's not fully mature seeds.
Then you have the category of perpetual vegetables.
It doesn't apply to any plant.
You can multiply easily most of the rhyzomatic plants you can find is stores (potatoes, sweet potatoes, Jerusalem artichoke, eddoes/taro which is a big aroid related to monsteras...)

>>21915536
>Mint
Jesus fuck, you ain't lyin'. Don't tell anyone to plant mint of all things unless you hate them. That cunt will take over a garden. Hate how prolifically it spreads. It's weird because other plants which are technically mint, like basil (also thyme, iinm) don't just wake up one morning and decide to invade everyfuckingthing but MINT mint does.
I had blackberry brambles at my old old place and some sort of presumably ground dwelling bird made its home in it. That was neat.

>>21909821
you must be a dumb nigger

>>21909821
I don't fertilize, i use rotations.
I collect rain water
Only buying some seeds here and there for genetic diversity.

If it's not for the chemicals, then do it for the taste. Once you taste how food is supposed to taste, and not this watered down crap, you will never go back.

But of course if you're trying to grow lettuce shit in the dessert it's gonna be a struggle. You need to grow what is good for your area, not what you want

>>21909953
>>21909956
This. I've been fighting them for a decade. They go everywhere

>>21909794
>Chatgpt says
just eat bugs guy

>>21909794
Grew up doing it planting a few hundred plants over the next few weeks so they come up all year. I'll maybe post pics when I get home 100% worth it.

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>>21916623
I would like to see the pictures anon

>>21916664
I got a huge number of species of plants going in too. It will be glorious.