Only if it’s Michelle Obama’s garden. It’s planted, grown, & harvested all in about 3 weeks.
right up until the nanny state bans backyard gardening as “dangerous” or whatever.
So will ammo.
It is a constant battle. Mostly against bugs and rodents. I finally had to go greenhouse.
The greenhouse cost me a small fortune.
The little lady grows a few vegetables as a subset of her overall gardening, but the things I appreciate the most are the fresh herbs. It’s really nice to be in the kitchen making dinner and pausing for a quick step outside to collect some ingredients.
If I were to add up all the Miracle Gro, seeds, Miracle Gro, raised beds, Miracle Gro, seedlings and Miracle Gro my wife buys, each cherry tomato costs us a buck.
Buying from my local farmer saves me money. He does his job and I do mine. Any family gardening is strictly for fun.
Oh, heck no. But I do it anyway.
ping for later reading
In general, I would have been better off taking all of the seeds I have planted and boiling them in a pot as a soup...
I did one of those upsidedown hanging tomato things (from Lowes, not TV).
I gave away tomatos we had so many.
Took about 20 minutes to set up. Cost: $7.50 each. $.99 for plants. Some left over miracle grow dirt.
When I was rowing up my family shared a large garden with our neighbors and had numerous apple trees. I remember well the hours my Mother spent making pickles, canning applesauce and freezing sweet corn. Yes her stuff was good, but the amount of work it took was considerable. It would also be hard and likely expensive to accumulate things that would be needed to make this stuff like pickle crocks, large canners, mason jars, food mills etc. I remember dill pickles taking a special jar lid that was zinc coated with a glass insert to resist the vinegar and these were sealed with a red rubber gasket. I'm not sure these are even being made anymore.
If you go with Open Polinated seed you can knock 75% off the per packet price.
Check out FEDCO Seeds in Maine. These are mild lefty’s, kinda left over hippies, and the seed is cheap.
I save money every year, and the food tastes too good. I have a hard time going back to supermarket at the end of the year.
If you pay attention closely to what is going on, and have a passion for it, you will not come anywhere near 65$ for a tomato.
It’s work to get a good crop. But if you dont have the time you will spend money to make up for it in order to get the same result.
I once lived with an Italian immigrant family of 4 in Toronto, Canada. They had a small city backyard (I’d say 1/10 acre at most) completely full of fruits and vegetables of all kinds, and it was covered in grape vines on the lattice overhanging the yard.
They would buy raw bulk meat, flour, etc. at the store, but beyond that ALL of their food was home-grown and home-produced.
Can your private garden be a good thing?
Only if:
— You and only you control the fruits of the garden.
— Your neighbors aren’t allowed to take the fruits of your garden against your will
— A government proxy isn’t allowed to take the fruits of your garden against your will (for distribution to others)
— A government proxy doesn’t compel you to produce certain types of fruits, and compel you to NOT produce certain types of fruits, for reasons not in your interest
how much is Michele’s garden costing us I wonder.
i don’t use fertilizer, although i will throw in some compost occasionally. i don’t use herbicide for weeds or pesticide for bugs. i pull weeds or hoe them out (teenage boychild is great at this) planting close helps suppress weeds also, i pick bugs off by hand and put them in soapy bleach water and make sure i plant enough that they can have some too. i have a totally organic garden because that is cheaper and healthier for my family. this is the way my family has done veggie gardens for.... um, ever i guess. farmers tend to have veggie gardens. when you learn to do something a certain way as a child, you tend to stick with it as an adult.
I canned 38 quarts of tomato sauce last year and 12 quarts of Arribatta sauce — no salt for my salt-free diet; sugar free for Quint’s diabetes.
The canning jars were the big expense the first year. I don’t think the tomato plants cost more than a buck at the local tomato plant store and they bore fruit pretty much all year. At least, bore fruit to the point where I was ready to quit picking them.
Also jalapenos. They’re pretty expensive canned and I can them really cheap.
Also sugar snap peas.
— Jane Reinheimer
You went to college to figure this out, Cindy? Geez...