- It should be growable in a small space.
- Would be nice if it didnt require lot of attention.
- Should fill my stomach
- Would be nice if I can grow lots of it in a small time.
I’d say raspberries are the only thing that pay for themselves out of everything we grow.
Tomatoes have the highest yield I think, and over a long period of the year. That would be the best as a “food source”, although not cheaper than store bought.
In general it’s just a hobby, it’s not economic and you need a lot of land and effort to supply even for a single person. No wonder some 95% of population were farmers in pre-industrial era.
do you think other berries would be as advantagious. Like blackberries or blueberries?
Blueberries are sensitive and require acidic soil. When you get that right they can pay for themselves, although they tend to be cheaper by weight than raspberries store-bought here (ymmv).
Blackberries are a scourge and I wouldn’t recommend anyone to grow them, especially in a variety garden. They spread rapidly, suffocate anything they touch, have thorns everywhere, and they are nigh impossible to get rid of. It’s great to have on the edge of your garden - if you hate your neighbor.
If raspberries were dog, blackberries would be rabid wolfs. I don’t even care if the fruit was golden.
Your hardiness zone is probably the best way to decide what kind of berries to grow. In my experience, compared to most other crops, berries are most likely to be cheaper when grown at home versus buying at the store. I’d recommend looking at what berries grow best in your zone, then choose cultivars based on what growing conditions you can provide.
Blackberries tend to need a lot of space, growing an average of 2m high and 1.5m across. When I was little, one of my neighbors had a blackberry patch and some of the plants were over 3m tall. Raspberry plants are marginally smaller, growing an average of 1.5m high and 1m across, though there are some dwarf varieties that can thrive in patio containers. Blueberries are moderate in size and can be grown in containers, but they thrive best in acidic soils. Plant near pine trees, or mulch with pine needles for good results. You can also fertilize with specific blends that increases acidity specifically for blueberries.
Strawberries are fairly easy to grow. The only downside is the most varieties only fruit once a year in late spring/early summer. Varieties that produce all summer are still tasty, but they are typically just a little bit sweeter than store bought. The great thing about strawberries is that if you have half-decent soil and don’t prune runners, they will propagate endlessly with very little upkeep.
I planted several gooseberry bushes on my property. They take a few years to start putting out berries, but once they do it’s so nice. Unripe gooseberries are tart and great for making pies and jams. When ripe they are sweeter, but not too sweet, and I love eating them fresh off the bush… as long as I can get to them before birds do.
I also have several aronia, chokecherry, and elderberry bushes. Their berries are smaller and more tart that other ‘dessert’ berries, most suitable for syrups or mixed into desserts or jams. Supposedly their health benefits are phenomenal, but I discount a lot of that kind of talk and just enjoy using them where and when I can.
I’ve also planted a Hawthorne tree that puts out a ton of berries each year, but one thing I didn’t realize is that they are extremely susceptible to rust (fungal disease), and if I don’t treat it every spring when it flowers then I won’t be able to use the berries in the fall. When I do treat it, and I do get around to using the berries, they taste like a cross between an apple and a cranberry, and I like to use them in my thanksgiving stuffing/dressing and cranberry sauces.
Potato is supposed to be easy, though I haven’t had the adversed success.
Our zucchini got bugs and stopped producing.
We regularly get more tomatoes than we can eat. But they need to be protected from large animals. Canning could make that last all year.
Perhaps onions?
As others pointed out herbs might be the only thing that come close to being cheaper. Speaking oft herbs - Weed might be the only thing that fits your requirements thats actually cheaper this way.
The only useful thing I can think of is herbs. They won’t fill your stomach, but theyre nutritious and flavorful and expensive in a grocery store. I have a potted rosemary that’s been alive for ~6 years. Unfortunately, rosemary is one herb we rarely eat. What I really need is an enormous amount of basil.
This, also summer squashes and peppers. Rosemary, sage, and thyme take a while to become established, like a full year, but once they do ypu will have more than you need. Other herbs like basil, parsley, and cilantro grow quickly and benefit from being planted in cycles. Especially if you eat a lot of them. Growing your own garlic may also save you money, but only if you use a lot.
rosemary is super hardy and has outlived every other plant in my front and back yard. we get so much rosemary I give it away to the neighbors and we also make rosemary bread. it’s delicious.
Absolutely agree herbs are a good starting point. Make some roast potatoes with rosemary salt. The most expensive part is probably the rosemary.
Northern Europe:
There is an issue with effort vs cost in the store. The easy stuff is usually really cheap in the store (eg potato). The expensive stuff (eg paprika) usually requires a greenhouse to survive. I’ve tried growing it indoors in the window but they don’t thrive there.
One exception I can think of is strawberries. Reasonably easy, space per plant is low, somewhat expensive in the store.
If you have a tiny yard you can try red/blackcurrants and raspberries.
There are so many wild blackberries growing around where I live that growing berries seems like a waste of my own space. I forage for berries instead.
Potatoes grow in small spaces and don’t require a lot of attention, but they won’t save you much money.
I think the most bang for your buck home garden are things you wouldn’t buy because they are too expensive but can grow easily. Herbs are a good choice.
In my garden I mix those with things that are cheap, but fun:
- asparagus (perennial, almost zero effort, get a few delicious means out of the 5 plants we have each year)
- fresh beans (easy to grow if they don’t get eaten by various garden mammals) and not something I usually buy fresh.
- dried beans (not a good use of a small space because the yield is low compared to fresh beans but super fun)
- potatoes (fun, use last year’s as seed and augment)
- sweet potatoes (fun, still producing them from slips I bought in 2022.)
- tomatoes (local fresh tomatoes are outside of my budget in general except for the ones I buy for canning in September)
- garlic (very, very low effort and I use last year’s as seed)
- carrots (fun and delicious)
- raspberries (I never buy fresh berries, and the raspberries need nothing more than pruning in the spring)
- weed (almost free weed rules)
I don’t grow lettuce or most leafy greens because I have a slug problem (no advice please) but have hydro lettuce on my “want to try list”.
I’m going to try asparagus, I’m also able growing a ton of zero effort food.
I just planted some. The packet said not to harvest the first year, harvest lightly the second, and then it’s party time. Kind of intimidating, honestly, to need to keep it alive that long.
Lmao we were so scared about stressing it after keeping it alive for so long that we waited 4 years before taking any substantial amount.
That might be where I end up too!
My front yard is crazy dry and has a fair bit of sun. That makes it bad for most crops but asparagus loves it!
Growing weed is the actual money saver here if it applies to your situation. Last year I had a plant yield 200g dried with definitely less effort than thats worth.
That’s quite a big list. Thanks for taking the time.
Check out the gardening communities! People are doing some really cool stuff and it’s nice to be inspired as you plan your own garden.
I dont know why you care about point #3 the way I look at gardening is you should plant the stuff that is most expensive in the grocery store, but doesn’t require a lot of space to grow.
For me that’s things like lettuce, tomatoes, certain peppers, chives and other pricey fresh herbs. Basically anything that doesn’t ship and sit well. I would never grow potatoes because I can get like 15 lbs of them for five dollars when they are on sale.
If you actually have space one of the best crops is winter squash in my opinion. They grow like crazy and can produce massive yields. They are calorie dense compared to other vegetables and squashes like Hubbard can sit in a cellar for practically the whole winter before going bad. But those things will spread across your entire lawn lol.
Cuz im hungry
I remember one summer growing up my parents cooked a lot of zucchini. It got to the point where we were like “pump the brakes on the zucchini we can’t take much more”. Turns out it was growing in the compost pile quite a bit from discarded seeds. Granted, that compost pile is very healthy with red worms.
With zucchini don’t use your own seeds. They can become poisonous.
I didn’t know this, but it seems to be fine as long as you’re able to taste the bitterness and don’t keep eating it if it’s gone bad.
Did you miss the part that said the toxin has a bitter taste so it’s only a risk if you don’t have much of a sense of taste? 1 death in a decade is incredibly low.
Green onion and leeks grow with almost no effort.
There’s a whole 1 m2 home growing hydroponics community to get inspired from, I am sure there are people that has the same requirements as you.
Or else ask here: [email protected]
Why is that community empty?
Everyone starved to death.
Lol
Hydroponics doesn’t sound simple tho just saying…
It’s not bad. But it ain’t saving you money. The nutrients are expensive.
You grow veggies because your bored and want fresh food.
You instance might not be properly federated with slrpnk
Could be a protocol or blocked instance thing? try here: https://slrpnk.net/c/hydroponics
That one’s empty too :(
Guess the problem is in my end
Open the link in a web browser. If you’re using an app or custom frontend, the link might be opening in your instance.
Since it’s a small community, and you are the first person to subscribe to it from your instance, it might not have federated content over to your one yet
it’s not empty, it’s just a problem with federation.
Not necessarily a problem. If no one on your instance is following that community your instance will not know its contents and will present it as empty
It either saves you money or it doesn’t take a lot of effort. Can’t have both. Growing even 5% of the food you eat is barely a hobby anymore but rather a job.
Add in the small space requirement. I did some hydro in about an 1m^2 space and it was enough for a few salads a week.
Maybe sprouts?
To save money? Start by lowering your standards. It’s nigh impossible to grow as good as you can buy for less money. However, you can grow something for very little money. Go for one of the classics. Tomatoes, peppers, and simple leafy greens can be grown in very basic setups. I’ve done all three. Potatoes can can be grown in free cardboard boxes filled with an appropriate soil. If you want fast growing and somewhat economic, you could get into the world of mushrooms. Just be aware, it takes some research and work to be able to do without buying a lot of equipment. It’s technically possible to grow grocery store mushrooms from cutoffs, in a medium made from free sawdust, woodchips, used coffee grounds, and the like if you learn a bit about it.
its kinda hard. To actually feed yourself it would be like potatoes but those are pretty cheap. Very expensive things would be certain spices but you don’t usually use them a lot except for cheap things like onions. Things like chives though grow like weeds. Thing like that in a container are great. You clip them as you need them and just make sure they don’t get into the garden. I think its nice to grow things like lettuce as its something you can not use for awhile and it goes bad but if you grow it you can harvest as many leaves you want want to use at the moment. They kinda go to seed you so you have start growing one and start a new one each week or so. Anything underground can sorta bee a pita with bugs and such plus things that are seperate fruting type bodies the plants often do not bring contaniments into. string beans are nice to eat fresh and keep on producing. tomatoes and peppers are great but its like a lot of nothing and then lots of stuff. Red peppers are a great source of vitamin c.
Search Huw Richards on YouTube. He has a book as well. I guess it’s suited to British climate so will work in new York and anything south of that.
Key take aways: cucumbers beans and peas are the easiest and fastest things to grow, if you haven’t grown anything before.
Potatoes are viable and give a big harvest
I would recommend any root vegetables because, A) its satisfying, B) they’re less susceptible to bug and slug attack. Carrots are super good for you.
Edit: if you have no garden space, just pots, beans cucumbers pease work well in that.
Potatoes are even viable in this method if you have a lot of surplus water (e.g from a clothes dryer or a dehumidifier or from washing up or cooking or tea drinking.)
