“I live in the garden; I just sleep in the house.”
~Jim Long
I can think of only a few things more enjoyable than gardening. Even when I was a young child, I have memories of begging my Mom to buy me a few tomato plants and seeds! Outside in my little backyard garden — with my hands in the dirt, nurturing plants that will in turn nourish my family — is where I find one of life’s greatest pleasures.
Everything I’ve learned about gardening I’ve learned through reading, taking to other garden enthusiasts, and simple trial and error. Kitchen gardens have been at risk of becoming forgotten and sadly many of us have no knowledge of growing cycles and gardening basics.
Gardening the Frugal Way
In the past, there has been an assumption that growing our own food takes to much time, money, and effort; therefore, as a society, we opted for convenience. Thankfully, that school of thought is changing and the tide is turning.
Growing a garden is one of the many things we can do to help curve the budget — this has proven to be a huge money-saver for our family. But if you’re not careful, you can easily end up wasting a lot of money, making the potential savings seem less and less.
Here are a few strategies to insure that you get the most out of your garden this year, while investing as little money and time as possible:
- Create a custom design for your garden. Everyone’s garden looks different. It depends largely on the amount of space you have. Some may be able to put in large rows of crops, while others will utilize pots, the Square Foot Gardening, or Vertical Gardening Methods. One of the best online gardening tools, Smart Gardener, can help you organize your plants and maximize your yeild in the space you have…no matter how big or small.
- Grow plants from seed as much as possible. This alone provides a huge savings! Purchasing transplants from the nursery or local hardware store is a viable option, however you can save nearly 80-90% of the price by growing the plants yourself from seed. Need help knowing when to start your seeds? Look here to find your best planting date for seeds.
- Price out the seed companies. With so many online seed catalogs popping up all over the place, be sure to do your homework. Ask around and see what other people have to say about price when compared to quality. My most favorite online seed supplier is Johnny’s Seeds. I also like Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds and Territorial Seed Company.
- Buy cheap — or upcycled — gardening supplies. Please do not fall prey to the over-priced, gimmicky garden supplies sold in catalogs and in the stores. Recycle, or buy secondhand, as much as possible. Seeds can be started in egg cartons, yogurt containers, water bottles, or milk jugs. All of our raised beds, my husband constructed from wood we found by the dumpster or salvaged. For the larger garden tools, such as a tiller, go in with several other families and rent or buy one together.
- Choose what you will grow carefully. Consider your growing space, and the yield that you’re aiming for, then choose the vegetables and/or fruits you will grow accordingly. For example, I have a very small growing space; therefore, growing a large broccoli plant that will yield enough for one small snack just doesn’t make sense when I could use the same area to grow Swiss chard which will produce a continuous harvest saving money in the long run.
- Grow what your family eats the most of. Take inventory of the foods that you and your family eat most frequently…and grow those. If no one likes squash, don’t waste the time and energy growing it. Think too of those foods that are easy to can, ferment, dehydrate, or freeze.
- Grow more than you think you need. A good gardening practice is to grow a few more plants than you think you’ll need…’cause you never know when weather, disease, or crop failure can knock out all of your hard work.
- Grow organically. After years of gardening, I know that a few plants are difficult to grow due to their sensitivities to fungi, insects, and pests. Learning how to companion plant has revolutionized the way that we do things. There’s no need for chemicals — even the organic ones.
- Fertilize naturally. There’s no need to purchase expensive fertilizers when you can make your own. Amend your soil with your own compost or vermicompost. Locating a source for grass-fed cow mature may also be extremely beneficial.
- Glean wisdom from those more experienced. Talking to experienced gardeners and farmers can save tons of heartache! Because gardening varies so much from place to place, it’s best to go directly to the source and ask their advice.
Gardening has taught me so much about patience and provision. Without a doubt, it has the potential to be one of the biggest ways to save money, but above all…have fun!
Now it’s your turn 🙂 Share your frugal gardening tips!
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Thank you for this. It’s still too early up here in Norway, but I’ve started the preparations. One tip for frugal gardening I’m implementing this year, is to harvest seeds from whatever we bring into the house. The other day, we had bell peppers, and when I was done chopping them, my daughter took out the seeds and placed them in a bowl – where, to my joy, she had already put aside an apple seed.
And I harvested some seeds before winter, too, from bushes and flowers and plants I walked by in my neighborhood. I have lilacs, plantain and st. john’s wort waiting. I will be planting those when spring comes. 🙂
Great post. I have been interested in gardening for a few years now and can’t wait to learn all about organic gardening. My daughter also wants to have a garden and I think that it would be really fun to get her involved in the process. We relocated from Michigan to North Carolina at the end of 2010, but we are moving back home hopefully in a few months. When we get back up north, I am going to learn all I can about gardening. I am also interested in learning how to preserve my foods. I have to admit, I’m a bit intimidated by canning because of the potential of botulism, and it seems like too much work. As always, I’ve enjoyed this post.
About canning; I have used a pressure canner for more than 35 years and have never had any trouble with spoiled food or loose tops. I opted for pressure canner because it does the job faster, with much less water & at higher temps/pressure than a hot water bath. That way, I could can most vegetables without worrying if the solution was acid enough to kill bacteria & contaminants. But one has to follow manuf directions and standard canning directions, there are still no short cuts.
Great post! I think you hit on all the high points. I’m still learning from folks like you and others, but I think the biggest ways to garden sustainably and frugally are to save your seeds from year to year (grow organic or heirloom!), make your own compost (use recycled pallets and fill with your own yard and kitchen waste), and to grow more than you can eat and can the rest. Or you can trade with your neighbors for something you’re not growing – get new veggies and build a relationship with your neighbors to boot!
Any ideas for cheap container gardening soil? I live in an apartment so planting in the ground isn’t an option.
Great post! I found a clever, frugal way to start seeds on Pinterest. Take a shallow plastic tray. Use the cores from Toilet Paper or Paper Towels. Cut the toilet paper cores in half to make two short columns (paper towel core will make several). Put the cores standing upright in your little plastic container and fill the cores with dirt. Plant your seeds to start. Once they are ready to transplant, plant core and all as the core is biodegradable and will disintegrate. You can find it on my Pinterest gardening board here: http://pinterest.com/labbie1/gardening/ Very clever and frugal idea!
That really is a great idea but when you combine it with the mini greenhouse (in plastic storage bins) AND possibly the use of rope lights as a seed starting mat (I’m pretty sure you already have both of those on your pinterest board already) it becomes nothing short of brilliant… imho, of course. 😉
Great post!! I keep trying to encourage those I know and the readers on my blog to garden–I just ran several posts on beginning a garden in hopes of encouraging others to give it a try. It doesn’t cost much money, yet the reward is huge! And you can garden literally almost anywhere–balconies, patios, in pots, hanging baskets, hanging gutters (just saw a cute display of that on pinterest). Even if you don’t have full sun, you can still grow lettuces and greens. We live in suburbia and have a tiny yard, but we still grew almost $500 worth of produce out of a 4×8 bed and some pots on the patio. And I’m no expert gardener–quite new in fact. My friends were all shocked, but I keep telling them that you can grow far more than you THINK you can, even with just a tiny garden. I follow a lot of Square Foot Gardener’s methods, and I found his book to be a wealth of helpful info for me, someone who couldn’t grow anything and needed to learn just about everything. Prior to reading his book I had no idea I could ever grow as much as I am growing. I am starting my third garden this year and am so excited–got lots of little indoor seedlings beginning to sprout! Oh, and I second your companion planting–yes, that really seems to help. We don’t ever use pesticides either. And I loved your point about not buying all the fancy gardening tools–I’ve gotten by just fine with an old hand-me-down rake and shovel, a trowel, and a pair of gloves. Because of my small garden, I mostly just use the trowel and gloves.
I checked out Square Foot Gardening and Vertical Gardening from the library a month ago, made my plans, and we put our seeds in the ground on Sunday. It’s amazing how those two books really changed the way I planned the garden and altered how much space I thought I needed. I fit in one garden bed what I would have in two last year…so now I need to figure out what I’m going to put in the second bed!
You can also garden with your leftovers! I am regrowing celery right now. Just left the last couple of inches on the bottom of the stalk, left it in water while it turned green and sprouted more leaves, and then stick it in the garden. Luckily it doesn’t mind a little cold weather! There is apparently a book as well called The After-Dinner Gardening Book by Richard Langer. To be frugal I always get my books either from the library or out of the used section on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/After-Dinner-Gardening-Book-Richard-Langer/dp/0025679406/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1331049849&sr=1-1
What a great list! I so agree with picking stuff up second hand. Freecycle has single-handedly filled my greenhouse at this point. Garage sales are also key for new tools and such. As to fertilizing naturally, I do need to work on my composting.
Two words: SOIL BLOCKS.
No plastic pots to store and replace after a few seasons, you can use your own compost, the soil block makers last forever (I have one that’s twenty-something years old and still going strong) and all the plants I’ve ever started in them (and it’s been a ton!) do really well! They take a bit to get used to, but once you do, you may never go back to the other ways of starting seeds.
Johnnys Select Seeds has several sizes.
Great post. I want to add several comments. Check out Lasagna Gardening and Ruth Stout. Two additional methods of gardening that are soooo easy. No need to do any digging or tilling. Mulching is so important, particularly when it comes to water conservation. You can cut your watering wayyyy down when doing either method. And don’t forget to save your leaves. They break down also and are a good source of mulch. Happy Gardening!!!
Nice post. In reading the comments Ellen suggested lasagna gardening, I did not have any luck with that method. I like buying my seeds from seed savers exchange. Of course if you plant heirloom plants you can save those seeds and use them next year as well.
Another thing about some plants is that it can take 2 years to get seeds from them, instead of just one season. For example, plant carrots one year and harvest most that season, then leave a few in the ground till the 2nd year to harvest seeds for another planting.
I raise worms. Worm castings not only provides free fertilizer and cleans up my kitchen scraps but acts as an insecticide and pesticide by giving my plants the ability to fend off diseases and withstand insect attacks on their own.
I sift my own dirt. Yes, silly, but is it? When I have time I sift my topsoil and some subsoil through a galvanized steel screen to rid of weeds and most roots, grub worms and rocks and debris. I’m sure to keep the worms and sift gently in order to destroy as much as the ecology as possible. I add sifted or unsifted sterile (from hot compost) dirt to amend those soil using very little store-bought amendments. I use perlite occasionally as my soil nature is clayey and heavy, but this is only in areas that have been untended (the beginning). My garden planters have no or few weeds as a result of this. This is my replacement for store-bought potting soil. To sterilize I bake some in the oven when necessary I make my own compost. I use finely sifted compost soil to start seedlings coupled with worm castings which makes them stronger than most seedlings. I use unsulfured black strap molasses as an activator for my compost pile. I raise willows (IN POTS) to use as a rooting hormone and occasional fertilizer (strengthens root systems and acts as “aspirin”). In addition, I am coppicing the willow shrubs to build a wattle fence since I cannot afford to purchase a fence. Frugal gardening is possible but requires much patience and diligence. In the end, I have a beautiful organic garden able to sand on it’s own with unique interesting structures making people stop their cars and take a peek. Twigs as soil amendments: There is a certain size of twig available in fall that is beneficial to garden soil for nutrition and amendment for years. Most truckloads of “mulch” from tree clippings contain those very sized twigs that amends the soil. It’s not really the chipped branches or logs that benefits so much as a certain sized twigs. Thus, I “smash” these twigs every fall and add them to my soil. My soil and plants love it!
O.k., I just have to add my two cents in the frugal gardening discussion. I recently found this link on Pinterest (where else?) and it will totally blow your socks off. No more worrying about compacting the soil when walking in your garden, or building your soil up layer by layer, or drought prevention or drip irrigation systems, or even laying out the cash for all those garden tools (spoiler: all you will really use is a shovel and rake, and those uses are not really labor intensive). This man’s gardening is nothing short of brilliant and inspired and he has no qualms about sharing where his inspiration comes from. It is a full length video, available to watch for free (which I did, but I’m going back to buy at least one copy for me and one for my public library). Make yourself a cup of coffee or tea, skip your Pinterest for the day (or whatever down time activity you engage in) and watch this! http://backtoedenfilm.com/
While eating an apple your post came to mind and to my surprise when going to remove my seeds from the apple they had already started to sprout! Fresh organic Pink Lady apples. I had them stored on the counter and they are crisp as can be but contained beautiful splitting seeds with quarter inch roots already on at least 5 seeds. I carefully removed them and placed them on a wet paper towel and put them in a plastic bag hoping the rest sprout as well. Didn’t put them in the fridge since the apples were not but I’ll watch them closely so they don’t rot. Wouldn’t that be sad. Advise welcome.
Diane in Gilbert, AZ