She Doesn't Go to the Grocery Store. She Goes to Her Garden.

Instagram user @carmeninthegarden does her grocery shopping slightly different than most people; she does it in her own garden. In a video posted to the social media platform, she could be seen doing a weekly harvest, and with the prices of groceries nowadays, she’ll easily be saving a ton of money without even needing to leave her property.

She gathers sugar snap peas, carrots, beets, lettuce, artichoke, asparagus, eggplant, fresh herbs, calamansi fruit, and eggs from her own chickens. All of it, from her own garden.

It's not a farm. It's not a smallholding. It's a well-planned home garden, and it is doing a lot of work. Here's exactly what she grows, and how she grows it, so you too can start your own setup.

The Harvest – And What It Takes To Grow Each Thing

Sugar Snap Peas

As she says in the video, the sugar snap peas are really thriving, meaning she can pick a huge handful. These are one of the most rewarding things to grow as they take up relatively little ground space (depending on how you grow them), produce like crazy, and they’re sweet enough to eat straight off the vine.

To get sugar snap peas of your own, sow the seeds in early spring, keep them well watered, and they’ll reward you for several weeks.

Carrots

Carrots require a little more patience from a gardener as they grow slowly and need deep, loose, stone-free soil to properly develop (raised beds are ideal for this). These don’t like being transplanted, so it’s best to sow the seeds directly, and thin them out as they grow.

You’ll be waiting three or four months for them to grow, but once they do, it really pays off. A well-prepared garden bed can produce a significant quantity of carrots in a small space.

If you want to create your own garden bed, Amazon sells this Land Guard Galvanized Raised Garden Bed Kit to get you you started.

Beets

Beets are a great vegetable to grow since they are low-maintenance and grow fast. You can go from seed to harvest in as little as seven weeks, which is perfect if you are a beginner in need of some motivation or just have the patience of a toddler.

Even beetter (pun intended), beet leaves are edible, so essentially you’re getting two vegetables for the price of one (how’s that for a grocery store?) Sow these directly in spring or late summer, water them regularly, and harvest them when the roots are about the size of a golf ball for the best flavor.

Lettuce

Given how expensive salad is at the grocery now, this is probably the single most cost-effective thing anyone can grow at home right now. In the video, Carmen is seen growing a cut-and-come-again variety, which means she harvests the other leaves and the plant keeps producing more in the center.

Plant a small batch every two to three weeks so you’re harvesting steadily all season rather than drowning in lettuce for a week and then having none the next.

Artichokes

The most aesthetic plant on this list, artichokes are the architectural anomaly of the vegetable world. They’re large, dramatic, and perennial. They need space and a sunny spot, but other than that, they’re surprisingly unfussy once they get established.

Plant them as crowns or young plants in the spring, and you should get your first decent harvest the next year.

Asparagus

Asparagus is the ultimate long game vegetable, and if you’re a beginner, don’t lose your motivation. It can take two to three years after planting before you get a meaningful harvest, but once it’s established, it produces asparagus for twenty years or more.

Carmen clearly put in the work early, and now she’s reaping the rewards of patience every spring. Plant one-year-old crowns in a bed made just for them with good drainage and rich soil. Resist the urge to harvest them in the first year, as they will need time to establish properly.

Eggplant

Eggplants need warmth, sunshine, and a reasonably long growing season. This means you’ll need to start them indoors in late winter and transplant them outside after the risk of frost has passed.

In cooler climates, a greenhouse helps enormously. Given the right conditions, though, a single eggplant plant can produce a vast amount of fruit through summer and into autumn.

Fresh Herbs

Fresh herbs are super expensive at the grocery store, so growing these is absolutely worth it. Carmen appears to have a dedicated herb section, which is a practical approach: a sunny spot close to the kitchen with basil, parsley, chives, thyme, rosemary, and whatever else you use on the regular.

Perennial herbs like thyme and rosemary essentially look after themselves once established; however, annual herbs like basil will need to be replanted every year.

For gathering your herbs and vegetables, Amazon sells this adorable flower and vegetable gathering basket that won't squish anything due to it's shape.

Calamansi

This is a small citrus fruit (kind of like if a mandarin and a kumquat had a baby) that’s used quite a bit in Southeast Asian and Filipino cooking. It can be grown in a large container in cooler climates and brought inside over winter. It’s a super useful plant to have if you regularly cook with citrus.

Dyer's Chamomile

This plant gets a special mention, as Carmen is very clear that you can’t eat it, but grows it anyway to use as a natural fabric dye, or just because it looks pretty. It’s a great reminder that a self-sufficient garden doesn’t have to be purely based on food.

Chickens

A small backyard flock of three or four hens will produce enough eggs for a household year-round. Chickens are great to have around anyway, as they provide free fertilizer, eat pests, and are quite entertaining to watch (that’s just for me personally).

This canvas egg gathering bag sold on Amazon is a great find as it will keep your eggs from breaking, and holds eight.

Self-Sufficiency Doesn’t Have To Be a Fantasy

Carmen’s garden is all the proof you need that self-sufficiency isn’t a fantasy reserved only for people with tons of land and unlimited resources. It’s the result of real effort put in over time. And, it will make all the difference when you go up to the register in a few seasons and see your grocery bill lowered.