Poll:Growing food to save money (and other reasons)

[MoneyChic]

Anyone growing a garden to help reduce their grocery spending?

We grow a very small garden right now, and hope to grow a lot more of our own food in retirement. In our case, this is for both money and health reasons. We buy almost all of our produce certified organic, so our food budget is rather large. Growing our own would enable us to have organic produce at a MUCH smaller cost.

I've never canned anything in my life, but would like to learn so that I can preserve what we can't eat fresh.

 

[Walt34]

We don't grow any food. I have a black thumb and even managed to kill a cactus plant once. If the veggies I grew even survived they'd probably be poisonous.

 

[mpeirce]

We enjoy our vegetable garden, but we do it for the taste of very fresh vegetables, not to save money.

Certain vegetables are so good when home grown. Tomatoes are so much better than what you can buy in store, for example.

 

[braumeister]

Moved to a condo a few years ago so we have hardly any room for plants (except DW's flowers) any more. Still, I grow some potatoes in pots just for fun.

IMHO, the best frites in the world come from Belgium (you may know them as French Fries, but they are actually a Belgian invention). I have often lamented the fact that we can't get those incredible frites here, so I decided to make my own every year.

I found a source for the specific variety of potato used in Belgium and learned how to cook them properly. I hate to brag, but I think my efforts are nearly as good as I could get over there, so I'm committed to doing this for as long as I can. I've tried several different varieties that are commonly available here (Yukon Gold comes kind of close), but for the exactly right flavor you need Bintje potatoes and they're hard to find.

 

[MRG]

We gardened and harvested our food for years. Our rule was we would only grow food that was better than the grocery store. We didn't grow much lettuce. Tomatoes and corn were awesome. Cantelopes are insane! I don't eat them from the store, but fresh properly ripe are a different fruit.

Canning is easy and affordable to get into. Salsa, pickles are so good. I made a hot pack out of habanero peppers, I would NOT recommend that!

 

[MoneyChic]

We don't grow any food. I have a black thumb and even managed to kill a cactus plant once. If the veggies I grew even survived they'd probably be poisonous.

Hahahaha! You might not be as bad as you think. I managed to kill an aloe plant once, but I've had great success with tomato plants that I started from seeds.

 

[MRG]

Hahahaha! You might not be as bad as you think. I managed to kill an aloe plant once, but I've had great success with tomato plants that I started from seeds.

+1 DW killed a few cactus. Of course she also managed to drown ducks.

 

[MoneyChic]

Moved to a condo a few years ago so we have hardly any room for plants (except DW's flowers) any more. Still, I grow some potatoes in pots just for fun.

IMHO, the best frites in the world come from Belgium (you may know them as French Fries, but they are actually a Belgian invention). I have often lamented the fact that we can't get those incredible frites here, so I decided to make my own every year.

I found a source for the specific variety of potato used in Belgium and learned how to cook them properly. I hate to brag, but I think my efforts are nearly as good as I could get over there, so I'm committed to doing this for as long as I can. I've tried several different varieties that are commonly available here (Yukon Gold comes kind of close), but for the exactly right flavor you need Bintje potatoes and they're hard to find.

Fascinating! I've been to Belgium, but don't think I ate any frites there. Sounds like I missed out on something special! I've never grown potatoes in pots, but I've seen pictures of them grown in bags. It looks a lot easier than growing them in the ground, so I'll have to give that a try. I've only grown them once - in the ground - and it was a failure due to neglect. Lesson learned: Don't plant a garden bigger than you can keep up with.

 

[MoneyChic]

+1 DW killed a few cactus. Of course she also managed to drown ducks.

I may regret asking this, but how do you drown a duck?

 

[timo2]

We grow our own herbs. That's about it.

 

[REWahoo]

We grow our own herbs.

You grow Herbs, we grow Bills...

 

[braumeister]

I've been to Belgium, but don't think I ate any frites there. Sounds like I missed out on something special!

I'm afraid so. Most cities have shops all over that sell nothing but frites (look for a sign that says "Friteur" or "Frituur" (depending on the local language).

They are nothing at all like what we call French Fries, and will immediately make you a believer.

 

[daylatedollarshort]

We have had some costly damage from rats and voles even without a garden so we can't grow anything outdoors to attract more rodents. I've been trying to figure out what I could grow either inside or outside that won't attract more critters. The produce marts in our area usually have organic produce pretty cheap - often a $1 a pound, and driving to the store is pretty easy so maybe I'll stick with that.

I am intrigued with the idea of window farms but that is still in the good idea for some day stage right now.

 

[Dtail]

None for us.

 

[marko]

We have our neighbor who grows all kinds of things as a hobby and conveniently leaves for 8 months on Labor Day. He just leaves everything on the vine. "Midnight Raid inc." is our food source!

 

[ransil]

Love fresh tomatoes and cucumbers, i make pickles, made salsa in the past havent in the last few years.
Dont really make sauce but throw tomatoes in a food processor and freeze it.

Nothing like fresh tomatoes, ate 3 today .
I have tried many varieties and down to 3 I really like Brandywine, Anna Russia and Federal paste.

I tend to grow way to many, usually take extras to work, neighbor's and to the senior highrise and feed the bad ones to the neighbor's chickens.

 

[MRG]

I may regret asking this, but how do you drown a duck?

Sadly it's easy. She had bought 6 baby ducks and had them in a pen under the porch. When she was cleaning the pen she put the ducklings in a 5 gallon horse bucket. She was so happy watching the ducklings swim round and round and went back to clean the pen.

Ducks stay dry and float because of the oil on their feathers. Ducklings have a small amount of oil in their down from the egg. Past that mama duck preens her young and uses her oil on them. DW had no oil, nor did she preen the ducklings. Of course we didn't know that at the time.

At first 4 drowned. Actually 2 of them came back to life. Perhaps I'd she'd had known ducky CPR more could have been saved.

Moral of the story? Oil your ducks or don't take them swimming.

 

[Plantman]

I grow seven tomato plants every year in the same spot and every year they get the late blight. I know I should plant in a different place, but I really don't have one. Last year I got about 200 tomatoes, but this year I will be lucky to get half that.

 

[MoneyChic]

I am intrigued with the idea of window farms but that is still in the good idea for some day stage right now.

We started an indoor garden this year actually. We have a shelving unit on wheels, bought rectangular planters that fit the shelves perfectly, a few seed-starting heat mats, and 6 grow lights that we hang in a way that we can adjust their heights as the plants grow. We put the setup next to a big window, and run the grow lights during the day.

It worked great for starting plants for the garden - I've never had such amazing transplants! The tomato and pepper plants were already flowering before the weather out side was warm enough to plant them out in the garden. So I highly recommend using heat mats under your seed starting trays. It also worked great for growing lettuce, radishes, basil and cilantro. We let it go a few months ago leading up to a vacation, so I'm hoping to replant within the next few weeks.

 

[tmm99]

We grow more than a handful of plants (Let's see, we currently have 8 tomato plants, 4 zucchini plants, 2 chards, tons of green beans, and maybe 10 kale plants? And miscellaneous berry plants like raspberry, blackberry which fruit every year. We have an apple tree, but it was already here when we bought the house), but we're not doing this to save money. As for tomatoes, because they taste so much better than store-bought. As for everything else, it's nice to be able to just walk a few meters and pick a variety of vegetables/fruit in season and enjoy the bounty. Our season is short, but we really enjoy what our garden can offer.

I didn't vote.

BTW, raspberry plants spread like weeds.

 

[tmm99]

We have our neighbor who grows all kinds of things as a hobby and conveniently leaves for 8 months on Labor Day. He just leaves everything on the vine. "Midnight Raid inc." is our food source!

 

[street]

We have a small garden love all the fresh stuff while it lasts (beet, tomatoes, cucumbers, beans, carrots etc. I do put some up for winter but I don't believe it saves us any money we love the fresh and known where it comes from.

I do pick a lot of wild berry and have about 10 pounds of them for winter month's. The berry now would be very costly to buy so some savings I'm sure.

 

[mpeirce]

We grow our own herbs. That's about it.

Forgot to mention. We grow lots of herbs too. It's so convenient to have fresh herbs handy for cooking.

Over the summer we grow some herbs outside. A few in pots. A few scattered amongst the perennial flowers.

In the winter we use a hydroponic system that uses LEDs. Works great and having lush herbs in February is so nice. In early spring we use it to start the tomato seedlings.

 

[lemming]

I am not the one that kills my garden. I get a billion bugs, racoons, groundhogs, deer, rain, shade,sun, clay,drought . Never got anything out of my garden in Virginia.
In Oregon I kept trying to kill off the blackberry bushes. The grow to the sky like mythical beanstalks. The birds ate the cherries and the worms ate the apples. I will starve in the zombie apocalypse-but so will they-my brain is gone too.

 

[Jerry1]

I’d have to build Fort Knox in order to keep the critters and especially dear away. We can spray our flowers, but even with that, unless we really stay on it, good luck seeing a lily or a tulip. I’ve never seen a garden that was financially viable. Worth every penny in terms of flavor and all around better food, but never seen it to be cheaper. My FIL used to grow a very large garden (half acre or more), but once he spent $8,000 for a tractor, plow, roto tiller . . ., he was never going to save that much money. Don’t forget the cost of seeds, or starter plants and fertilizer. Again, don’t get me wrong. It was good work, a good and rewarding hobby, but not a money saver.