Grendel4d ago

I'm not making a garden to have higher quality food. I'm not trying to avoid GMOs nor do I care about the "organic" label.

I'm trying to save money on groceries.

But even going as cheap as possible I'm finding that hard to do. I'm worried that months of labor will be < $100 saved compared to the cheap frozen/canned I normally buy.

Maybe It's better to sell it to rich ppl and use the money to buy the cheap stuff.

Show threadSCREAMING_SNAKE_CASE
@grendel84 how big is the plot you are planning?
Mar 15 at 9:42pmWeb
Show threadGrendel4d ago

@selfsame
10'x10' in ground and 9'x4' raised bed

some of this stuff I haven't grown before so it's hard to know how much it will produce.

Here's a sketch of my plan (each grid is 5")

To save money I'm starting from seeds.

Show threadSCREAMING_SNAKE_CASE4d ago

@grendel84 looks good! I keep notes on inputs and outputs if you want to get an idea of costs vs benefits https://selfsamegames.com/pages/posts/2025-garden.html

You'll never break even if you account for labor BUT it does help a bit with the food budget and it's a lot of fun

I'd suggest you don't have to plant single file rows for smaller stuff like lettuce and carrots. Also think about adding a bit of kale, it's the most reliable thing in my garden and it's hard to keep lettuce going year round

2025 Garden

Show threadGrendel3d ago

@selfsame oh my gosh thank you for all that info! Love your property by the way.

That's encouraging to see. I don't count labor since I'm a stay at home parent anyway. I bet I can at least break even and have some nice veggies to show for it.

Thanks for the tips on my garden! Will definitely adjust accordingly.