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00:00I don't know about you guys, but grocery prices are getting out of control.
00:04$300 for broccoli and potatoes. This is nuts.
00:07It's stupid. It's crazy.
00:09And so what we figured we'd do is Jacques and I are going to give you our takes
00:12as gardeners of over 10 plus years on the crops we grow at home that actually
00:17will save you money compared to buying them at the grocery store.
00:20To break this down fairly, we're going to look at it a few different ways.
00:23How much time does it take to grow the plant?
00:25How much effort does it take and how much does it cost to get started?
00:28And to figure out the costs of the actual groceries themselves,
00:32we went to prices for five different cities, Buffalo, New York,
00:35Cincinnati, Ohio, Houston, Texas, right here in San Diego, California,
00:39our hometown and then Jacksonville, Florida. So with that said Jacques,
00:43let's kick it off.
00:43Some like it hot and some like it a little sweet.
00:46And this summer classic is actually pretty expensive and you're looking at it
00:49right here.
00:49It is the bell pepper ranging from anywhere from three to $4 a pound or 80
00:54cents up to $2 per pepper.
00:56This guy can really add up quickly at the grocery store,
00:59which is why it's a great one to grow at home because the seeds are really
01:02cheap. The plants don't really need that much. Once they're planted,
01:05maybe a steak, maybe a cage, if you're feeling fancy,
01:08and you can even grow those peppers out to whatever maturity and color you want.
01:11A green bell pepper is a lot cheaper because it's harvested earlier.
01:14So if you want to literally grow some money,
01:16just let those green peppers turn red and you've doubled your money right there.
01:19Whether it's black, blue, rasp or straw,
01:22these berries will save you a boatload of cash if you grow them at home.
01:26In fact, I was at the grocery store just the other day and I paid $9 for a
01:31little tin of, I think, strawberries and they weren't even organic.
01:35So we're talking 24 cents to 67 cents an ounce.
01:40And they usually come in those clamshells and sometimes you buy it and then
01:43it's moldy the next day. But it's a little different as far as how each plant
01:46grows. I have a tower of strawberries right here,
01:49which to me is my personal favorite for home growing because number one,
01:54you can grow them in small spaces like this. Number two,
01:57they grow without a whole lot of issues, unlike something like blueberries,
02:00which needs an acidic soil and a lot more care.
02:03And they don't spread like crazy like a raspberry or blackberry might.
02:06So if you're looking to get started with a profitable home fruit,
02:09strawberries would be my pick.
02:11This spring along with growing foods here in the garden that help reduce my
02:15grocery bill, I'm also prioritizing a different part of my health.
02:19Gut health, which has been a problem for me in the past,
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02:57I'll throw another scoop or two in as a dry scoop,
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03:33I take it regularly and even in advance of any type of meal that I know usually
03:38affects my gut.
03:39And sometimes I'll even mix it in with sparkling water and have it stag it with
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04:01What's red, round, juicy,
04:03grows in clusters and costs $3 to $6 a pound.
04:06It is the Humble Juicy Cherry Tomato.
04:10What's crazy is that for $3 to $6 a pound,
04:12you're not even getting any true tomato flavor.
04:14You're just getting a little orb of juice because they're harvesting those
04:17tomatoes early and they're not growing varieties that taste good.
04:20Now it does take a decent amount of work to grow a vining or indeterminate style
04:24tomato like this. You have to trellis and support it and prune it.
04:27But if you don't want all that,
04:28you could easily grow a determinate or bush style tomato that just needs a
04:32simple stake and sets all of its delicious bounty at once.
04:35If there's one thing I don't get enough of in the garden, it's head. Lettuce.
04:42If you want to get ahead on your grocery bill, this is the crop.
04:45At $4 a head, maybe $5 for two,
04:49head lettuce is overpriced and you get really bad varieties at the grocery
04:54store. It's like romaine, iceberg, that's it.
04:56And if you want to pay for a little gem,
04:57you're paying $10 a head cause it's called a fancy lettuce.
05:00So it couldn't be an easier crop to grow at home.
05:03There's 20, 30 varieties you could choose from for most seed vendors.
05:07I've got a few right here and it's probably the easiest crop to grow on this
05:11list. Lettuce seed in the ground, 35, 40 days.
05:14All you really need to do is keep it well watered and not let it get blasted by
05:18sun and heat.
05:19And you'll have a nice crispy head of lettuce that you can harvest all at once
05:23or you can harvest around the leaves and you can plant it on succession,
05:27maybe a couple heads a week for a consistent supply of pretty pricey greens.
05:31Nobody likes dealing with a leak,
05:33but what's even more frustrating is the price of leaks at the grocery store.
05:37I personally love leaks,
05:38but I've stopped buying them because for three to $4 a pound or two bucks for a
05:42single leak, I'm not feeling it anymore. So I went out,
05:45got myself a seed packet and I'm able to start hundreds of leaks off a single
05:49packet. And the best part is,
05:52you know that little white part of leaks at the grocery store.
05:54It's usually only this big and we can make it that big.
05:58And if you didn't know the white part of the leak is the sweeter,
06:00more tender, delicious part. So if you want to maximize that,
06:03all you have to do is dig yourself a nice big hole and put the leak as deep as
06:07you possibly can.
06:09And every part of it that's buried by soil and not receiving sunlight will turn
06:12white and extra delicious. If it turns you on to light money on fire,
06:16walk into a grocery store and buy some herbs.
06:20At about $4.40 per ounce,
06:24herbs are the biggest ripoff at a grocery store,
06:26especially when you consider how easy they are to grow. Rosemary, thyme,
06:30oregano, basil, all of the classic Mediterranean herbs can be started from seed.
06:35But even if you buy them as a live plant from a nursery for the same
06:39price, about $3.99 to $4.99,
06:42you'll get a plant that you can not only harvest from throughout the season,
06:46but you can also propagate from it. So what you can do is take a plant like this,
06:50grab the tip and snip off a couple of the leaves down here,
06:55leaving a little bit of stem. Put this back into the soil or into some water.
06:59You'll get some roots coming out and you can take one plant and multiply it into
07:03many, even extending it through your winter months to the next spring.
07:07Here in California,
07:08we're well known for growing a lot of expensive specialty greens,
07:12but not the kind that you're thinking about. Instead,
07:14I'm talking about kale, chard, and everything in between.
07:17And you might think it's kind of silly to say that growing kale will save you
07:20money, but right here,
07:22this is $3 worth of kale that I picked in seconds.
07:25And these plants have been growing in my garden for two to three years.
07:29But when it comes to saving money in the garden,
07:31one of the favorite things that I like about growing kale and chard is that
07:35they continue to produce all year round.
07:38So as soon as I remove all these leaves, this will begin producing more.
07:41And in a few days I got another two to $3 off the same plant.
07:45And now these kales are basically money trees.
07:47You might find it interesting that my next pick is something that is actually
07:52quite cheap at the grocery store when it's dried.
07:55I'm talking about beans,
07:57but I'm specifically talking about green beans.
08:01Three to $5 for maybe a pound or so at the grocery store.
08:06But a pound of green beans isn't actually that many green beans.
08:09And when there's so many varieties that you can plant from seed,
08:11and it's probably one of the easiest crops to plant from seed of all
08:16time, it's a crime not to grow them at home.
08:19So what I like to do is go with bush beans personally.
08:22So this is a Blue Lake pole bean. If you want, you can grow that.
08:26You probably have to trellis it up and support it.
08:28There's the Blue Lake bush bean and there's a bunch of other bush beans that you
08:31can try. Direct sow,
08:33which means put it directly in the garden where you want to plant it,
08:36about an inch deep. Wait a couple of weeks and it'll pop up.
08:39And for extra credit, beans don't need as much nitrogen,
08:43one of the major macronutrients that plants need to grow, from the soil.
08:46Cause they can actually synthesize it from the air in partnership with some
08:50bacteria. It's a pretty fancy little thing. And so to me,
08:54coming out fresh beans, hard to beat and so prolific,
08:58you'll probably grow a double digit dollar amount of beans this season.
09:01Picture this,
09:02you're deep into summer and you've put up your no trespassing sign because your
09:05neighbor keeps coming by and leaving baskets of summer squash at your door.
09:10But here's the thing. Summer squash is actually kind of expensive.
09:13I just went to the grocery store and they were selling for a dollar 50 to $2 per
09:18squash. And that's something you could grow every single day.
09:21Now I have two varieties here that I truly love to eat.
09:23The Emerald Delight, which is absolutely one of my favorite.
09:26And the Early Prolific Straightneck, if you want a little bit of yellow.
09:29They're a big seed, easy to germinate, just put it in the ground.
09:32You could even grow it vertically if you want to get creative.
09:35But this is a plant that really will just keep producing to the point that
09:37you're sick of it. And at that point you can start throwing your money away.
09:40Even if your name isn't Dracula,
09:42the prices of this next crop will scare you away at the grocery store.
09:46And of course I'm talking about garlic.
09:48At about a buck per head for some of the most basic varieties of garlic,
09:52you could even imagine. Something like California Early. It's garlic,
09:57but it doesn't pack as much of a punch as some of the varieties you can grow at
10:00home. Here is a four by eight foot bed full of garlic,
10:03enough to last the average person at least five to six months.
10:08In the household that I'm in, I'm over at Jacques' Garden right now,
10:11probably about two to three months, but that's why you want to grow it at home.
10:15It's one of the most versatile crops that you can use in the kitchen.
10:18In almost every cuisine around the world, garlic is used.
10:21It stores incredibly well once harvested.
10:24And although it does take a while to grow,
10:27somewhere around 120 up to 180 days for one single head to
10:31form, once you plant it,
10:33there's not that much that you have to do to keep it growing.
10:36So we have a ton of videos on garlic,
10:38but it is one of my absolute top picks to grow at home instead of buy at the
10:42store.
10:43Something that I've always thought is crazy is that one of the most popular
10:46vegetables in the world is actually just an undeveloped flower.
10:49And of course I'm talking about broccoli.
10:52This tight little bud of green is an absolutely delicious staple in my
10:55household. And it is exactly why I want to grow it at home.
10:58And with the way that we're eating broccoli,
11:00we're going through one head almost every single day.
11:03So that adds up very quickly,
11:04which is exactly why I'm growing a wide variety of broccoli.
11:07But the craziest thing about broccoli is that the harvest doesn't stop once you
11:10collect that main head. If you take a close look at these plants,
11:13every single one of them has had the main head removed and is now starting to
11:17produce these wonderful side shoots.
11:19This will keep happening until the plant basically dies.
11:22And you'll end up getting two, three,
11:24maybe four heads worth of broccoli out of each individual plant.
11:27I apologize in advance for the cliche line here, but money does grow on trees.
11:30When it comes to growing your own fruit at home versus buying at the grocery
11:35store or even buying at the farmer's market,
11:37I could go in and get a peach, an apple, citrus,
11:40especially when it's out of season or out of location.
11:43Imagine going and grabbing some citrus in Buffalo, New York in the winter,
11:47that's probably going to be pretty expensive. So growing it at home,
11:51although it is the most complicated of our suggestions so far,
11:54it's also by far the most rewarding.
11:56This is a double delight peach that we've harvested off of for five years
12:00almost to the tune of probably over a thousand peaches over the course of those
12:05years. There's no way I'm eating a thousand peaches.
12:07So I turn them into cobblers and I turn them into preserves. I've got an apple,
12:11I have two pomegranates, a guava and 15 different types of citrus.
12:16We have a ton of guides on how to get fruit trees going.
12:19The thing about them is you do have to put that upfront cost in.
12:22It might be $50 to $150 to get the tree in.
12:26But when you're talking about a couple bucks per fruit and you can get thousands
12:30over the course of their life, it's an absolute no brainer.
12:33So if you're inspired to get growing this season,
12:35to save some money at the grocery store, check out our all new line of seeds.
12:40It's 40 varieties that are proven to work in your garden no matter how beginner
12:44of a grower that you are. Links in the description for that.
12:47And for more guides, check this video out here.
12:48Good luck in the garden my friends and keep on growing.