To be fair, growing your own food costs you a lot of time and is also not for free - you need the space, you need water... It takes a lot of dedication. Buying cheap vegetables, as you mentioned, might be the more viable option.

[–] fallaciousBasis@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

That's a little unfair.

Every element can be sourced for free. And sometimes can be obtained with little time necessary.

Many municipalities will give free compost occasionally(like in spring!) You just have to drive there and often bag it yourself. So compost for the cost of just the bags or truck bed... I mean come on... But muh time! Some even have a limited number of free bags. Some have loaders for trailers. Ymmv!

Many places have seed giveaways. Many places have people/orgs that put out free plants(similar to free/little libraries). If you know someone with plants ask for a cutting, they'll probably be happy to provide. Water often works alone but there's root stimulant that's not expensive.

You can do all kinds of home made containers. Coffee cans or milk jugs. 5 gal buckets with holes drilled in the bottle (not too many!) handle is great for tomatoes! You could literally use a plastic shopping bag. Or the ground. Or hydro - some hydro can be just as cheap as soil, but probably better results.

To cut down on soil expense, if you buy, there's various filler materials you may want to consider. One of my favorites is sticks and leaves and needles and mulch(free). They break down over time providing nutrients.

If you see your neighbor having their trees chopped down go ask them for the mulch or wood chippings.

There's even vertical farming. Space smace!

Even your piss and shit can be used as fertilizer and compost. Now we getting real.

There's just so many free inputs. Growing plants is fun. If it costs you time, then reap what you sow, and if you do a good job you will have positive return on investment.

Grow some plants my friend.

[–] angrystego@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I do grow plants both at home and at work, I know exactly what I'm talking about :) At home it costs me more than in shop (mostly watering and some materials), so it's more about being a nice hobby and it feels great to have some produce of my own. I also don't have much space - not everyone can have a garden. I do compost - no feces though, omg, that must take some know-how to make it safe when it's human and on small scale. Time is a big limiting factor - I do have a job and a family. Anyway, I love my plants and I'd also recommend growing some, at least to those who have the space and time :)

[–] fallaciousBasis@lemmy.world 0 points 1 day ago (1 children)

To be safe feces need to be hot composted. And you need to wait a good year or two before they're safe. But dang! We're talking hundreds of pounds of compost yearly... With the right amount of saw dust they don't smell too bad.

Then you usually make like a box. Insulated with hay/grasses or whatever. And oh boy. That compost will get hotter than you want a steak to get!

"Costs you time" just seems like a negative way to look at it. I would love to have more time gardening!

[–] angrystego@lemmy.world 0 points 21 hours ago

Me too, but it's not the only thing in life I like doing. I'd love to have more time to spend with my family, more time to do music, to do hikes in nature, more time to devote to theatre, to play with my cats, to learn languages, to do sports, more time to meet my friends and other nice people, more time to learn math, physics, anthropology and etymology... I don't have it. I have some limited time that I can give to gardening and very limited space (a large balcony).

I'd love to live several lives, alas, I have just this one and have to divide my time and prioritize. If you've seen Everything everywhere all at once - that's a film that resonated with me greatly.