Thoughts?
Does anyone here have a garden that actually saves them money? How big does it have to be in order to get to that point? I'd be happy to get rid of my front and back yard but i've only got a couple hours per day.

MIL has a garden, but it does not save her money at all, but since she is a doomer who thinks the world is ending (since she has what I call schizophrenia & dementia)

She buys at least $200 worth of chicken feed every 2 weeks.

She doesn't even collect the eggs most of the time, because she says she works so hard in the garden everyday (but it's bull****). So chickens keep sitting and rotting the eggs.

Runs electric bill up to $400 a month.

Run water bill up to $300 a month

Doesn't want to pay for gopher services since "it's too expensive", so gophers eat half of her crops.

It's just a huge bout of stupidity. Since she also says that when Russia nukes the US that at least she'll have her magic garden to grow food.

Even though she lives in California and has no access to water if the supply chain dies.

And she works minimum wage and thinks her $1,200 annual property tax is too expensive. So obviously she's on crack.

Her house i think is 1600sq feet and her garden is like 3 times the size of her house, but she gives the chickens a lot more than half of the yard because she's crazy and free ranges them instead of using the rest of her huge backyard for food, so she has only like 1000sq, but half of that is covered in junk since she is a hoarder, so about only 500 or less gets used.

It's more of a hobby than it is a money saving measure when you're doing it on a residential city lawn.

Also, have fun openly advertising that you've got plenty of food to everyone like that when tons of people are going hungry.

I was initially against the idea of a backyard farm but not so much anymore.

All you really want is a small, manageable farm. This will give you the best results since you can invest more care into the food you grow, which in turn will end up tasting better. For example, a large farm grown cantelope vs a small farm catelope, there is a about a 30-50% difference in the amount of sweetness.

As for keeping chickens, just keep two. They are stinky and the area they live are full of bacteria.

Keep things nice and tight. Or, choose to specialize in growing one or two type of fruit/vegetable and trade.

Also OP has got to have lots of fire extinguishers since rioters just like to burn **** down and steal your **** while the building is burning.

I work with 4 different dudes who talk about all this elaborate chit they do as borderline preppers (though they hate that term and insult people who are less subtle about it) at their residential homes that are either within cities, or so close enough to the city that they're literally still on city utilities. They think this makes them less of a target for criminals in the event of mass hunger issues, lol.

These dudes spend obscene amounts of money keeping up with their vegetables, oversized lawns, and livestock. Then they wonder why their wives never give them sex anymore when they work 60 hours a week at our real job to afford all that chit. They pretty much have zero free time between work, their "chores", and making sure them and their wives have sufficient supplies of material to subtle brag about on social media.

I would ask Farmerson any questions, he's a super nice guy. His horticulture thread here -

https://forum.obnoxiousbrutes.com/showt...hp?t=181247723

For most people it’s a waste of money.


To make it work you need to harvest seeds, harvest rain water, and jar your crops.

It’s a good idea if you do it correctly but most people don’t. They just rely on Home Depot. So they end up spending 1000X more for crops they could get at the grocery store.

Also having enough space to scale it to jar food is important. If you grow 10 tomatoes a year in a small backyard it’s just a hobby.

My grandfather had land and grew most of his fruits and veggies. Jarred them for use in off-season.

Again… most people aren’t doing all that.

i don't think you did the uh accounting on whether your wife carries nutso genes

to answer your question, OPie, only potatoes are worth growing in that scenario srs

MIL had a huge crate of Peaches, but they all rotted and no one ate them.

She used to grow pomegranates and gave me like 2 bagfuls, I took a bite into one, and it was filled with ****ing maggots.

Spit that **** out and was scared to try more. Cut open like 5 and they were all infected, so I threw them all away.

This prepper doesn't know wtf she is doing

From what i can see. You are best to build a small green house or raised gardens.

Nobody wants to work on the ground. Just my 2 cents.

Also, having automatic water piped in is key.

Lol I think somehow wife got lucky. Everyone in her family is a dead beat except for her (out of 6 kids). I remember when she got her 1st office job MIL was trying to convince her to quit since it sounds too hard. I was like wtf.

Also OP potatoes are pretty cheap. I think they are like $5 for 10lbs at the store. If you can make them cheaper than that then hell yea. It's my favorite vegetable to eat.

sounds like your MIL is a chit tier farmer

Even though it's in a jar they call it "canning."

My SIL has a big garden but gets most of her food from people that grew to much for cheap AF. She's always on the lookout for cheap canning jars and can do 80 jars a day.

Thinks she's a great prepper, sitting on 3 years of food but no working guns or ammo in the house

She never worked a day in her life until she kicked all her kids out at 18 except my wife since she was working and college.

Then once she left she was forced to apply to minimum jobs and is beyond lazy.