Inflated grocery prices are still a burden for many, but one TikToker showed how you can lower your grocery bills by growing a common cooking ingredient at home, even if you live in an apartment.
The scoop
Home chef and gardener Edie-Marie (@therealediemarie) posted a TikTok video showing how she started growing garlic in her apartment. She wrote in the caption: "Did you know that one clove of [garlic] will produce an entire new head of garlic?"
@therealediemarie At home minding my business and growing garlic 🧄🌱🔥! Did you know that one clove of will produce an entire new head of garlic 😎🔥🧄 !! You also dont have to wait for tour garlic to root you can plant the cloves separetly as is! #ediemarie #garlic #growgarlicindoors #gardening #homecook #easyrecipes #collardgreens ♬ Eternal Light (Instrumental) - Free Nationals
In her video, Edie-Marie begins by placing a head of garlic over a jar of water to encourage root growth. After a couple of weeks, roots came in, and green stalks were growing from the top of the garlic.
She took apart the heads of garlic to plant the individual cloves. Because she lives in an apartment, she bought a food-grade plastic storage bin — marked on the bottom with PP5 — to grow the produce.
"Two, four, and five, those are the numbers you want," she said. These numbers on the bottom of plastic containers indicate the material is safe for food storage.
Next, she mixed cow manure and soil inside the bin and planted the cloves. Edie-Marie also planted scallions and collard greens in the same bin, noting: "Now planting all this stuff together, they said it's good because it's like a companion plant — it'll keep pests away."
After planting the different produce, she collected dead leaves to lay over top of the plants as insulation. Once that was done, there was nothing left to do except wait and watch them grow.
How it's helping
Gardening is already a beneficial activity, offering mental health perks like lower stress and anxiety levels as well as physical exercise, but growing your own food comes with even more benefits.
You can save money by lowering your grocery bills and rest easy knowing there aren't chemical pesticides on your food. In addition, produce that you grow yourself just tastes better, and it encourages a more fiber-filled diet.
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Not enough time ⏳ Gardening is also helpful for the environment since it contributes to biodiversity. If you grow native plants, it also creates a healthy ecosystem for pollinators, which helps protect our food supply.
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What everyone's saying
Other TikTokers were excited to try the hack.
One user wrote: "This is the content I need! Love it."
"You just gave me the go ahead," another commenter said.
Another TikToker commented: "Girl, I did it! I started my seeds!"
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