During covid lockdown, I discovered I really only have to go to the grocery store once every 1-2 months for all products except fresh produce, which require weekly trips. Once I started my own garden I got a lot of time savings back by cutting out >75% of my grocery trips, and I found myself using fresh herbs much more often as they are always available just outside my kitchen for last-minute additions to recipes (vs having to plan ahead and buy those expensive little packets at the store). I also started eating a lot more leafy greens; I'd stopped buying them because I was tired of constantly throwing them away after they went bad in the fridge after a few days, whereas they stay fresh on the plant for weeks or months.

So actually, I grow a garden because of the time savings. Well that and because it's fun to play in the dirt, not to mention it's a great non-sedentary hobby that gets me outside more often. Plus practicing food self-sufficiency is a useful skill to have. And since I garden in my front yard it's an excellent ice breaker for getting to know neighbors and other folks in the neighborhood. Basically there are a bunch of reasons to garden beyond the food you harvest!

That's only if you dislike gardening. If you like it, you gain happiness from it (the opposite of a job). Once you have everything set up it's not that much time and money. It's like anything else, you get used to it and can eventually spend maybe 10 minutes per day watering (less if it rains).

Also, the food you get will taste much better because it's picked when it's ripe. Most vegetables in a grocery store are picked too early.

that's what I always say, you gotta amortize the cost of reusable supplies, buddy.

in the club, on the beach, sometimes I yell it as I pass by in a fast moving car

If you got fish and an aquarium, might want to look into aquaponics.

It's better for herbs and spices since without soil other produce doesn't taste as good.

As a bonus, aquaponic grow beds work really well for propagating plants from cuttings. I have been able to make a lot of fruit tree saplings with it.

Oh cool all I need now is an aquarium, how expensive could that be?

Share with neighbors! Sell some?

The cost of dirt is "land". It's not actually free. And considering I have to work for a living, my free time is a resource I like to spend carefully, so digging, clearing rocks and weeds and spreading fresh topsoil is usually not my choice activity.

There's a reason farmers get paid, and it takes economy of scale and subsidization to bring the cost of produce down to as cheap as it is.

Gardening can be fun and rewarding, but let's not pretend that it just free food that appears by magic.

Right.... The reason peppers cost 75 ¢ is those horrible, horrible, no-good, greedy farmers. All they did was use dirt and water! Sooooo expensive.