Spending $25 at the grocery store doesn’t buy much produce anymore, but could the same $25 planted in the backyard turn into $100 worth of vegetables? It’s possible, although the viral-sounding four-times-your-money return requires something many garden-budget calculations conveniently ignore: you need to already have a little infrastructure. If you own basic tools, have usable garden soil or containers, and can supply water without buying expensive equipment, a carefully planned $25 fall garden has surprisingly good economics. The trick is choosing crops that are inexpensive to start, mature quickly, and provide a relatively expensive product at the grocery store. Let’s put an actual shopping list and harvest target behind the claim instead of pretending every packet of seeds magically becomes $100.
