Comments on: Is gardening really frugal? An update

By: M

Fri, 05 Aug 2011 02:28:01 +0000

Great ideas. Thanks

By: Jennifer

Jennifer — Thu, 04 Aug 2011 12:10:35 +0000

Well, next year you can still plant in these raised beds and your cost will be minimal. You do have to think long term when investing in your garden. I have made the pepper mistake before, planting them too close to a much bigger plant. I also learned the cucumber lesson last year and this year they have an entire raised bed to themselves. Except they are still taking over the garden. the good thing about cucumbers is you can pick them all different sizes. So you can pick a couple each day (hope you like them!) and hopefully won’t be bombarded with 20 in one day. They do last a week or so in the fridge. We eat them for lunch and dinner this time of year. good luck and hopefully you will be feasting on tomatoes soon enough, I can’t wait for my first one.

By: Megan

Megan — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 12:27:43 +0000

I just planted veggies for the first time this year, and I’m definitely learning a lot, too. The oregano I planted last spring survived the winter in NC and came back in full force this year, so I’m not terribly worried about using it all up right this minute. Indiana’s much much cooler than NC (understatement) in the winter, but you figure it should still survive a few more months. I’ve seen it as an ingredient in red meat marinades, but I usually use a few springs of it in my homemade pasta sauce. I’ve also heard of folks who make herb-infused olive oils with rosemary or basil, but I guess that’s a frugal option only if you have ready access to reasonably-priced olive oil. Good luck! I’m excited to hear how you put your harvest to work!

By: Karen

Karen — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 03:39:15 +0000

Thank you, Sara! So helpful. But I’m even more intimidated now. I didn’t know I could face so many problems! I guess I’ll just continue learning as I go. :)

By: Sara

Sara — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 03:14:49 +0000

My husband and I are on our 3rd summer of gardening. We dug our garden in the sunniest spot in our yard shortly after we bought our house. I wouldn’t say that it’s saved us any money yet, but it has been a great learning experience and there is something rewarding (and delicious!) about growing your own fresh produce.

I thought I’d share a few things we learned the hard way:
1) A large patch of ground does not a garden make. After we de-sodded the garden area, we learned our yard has a very small layer of top soil and a lot of hard clay underneath it. We ended up tilling in bags of peat moss – about 25 bags over the last 2 years – to make the ground usable as a garden. This year the soil is finally quite nice, but it was an unexpected expense.

2) Each time you conquer one problem, get ready for the next. The first year a rabbit came through after a month of growth and ate the entire garden. After putting up a fence and re-planting seedlings, we over-watered and most things drowned out. Then the frost came early (yay Minnesota winter). We did manage to come away with a lot of green beans, cherry tomatoes, carrots, cucumbers and hot peppers. Year 2 was extremely rainy and the tomatoes caught the blight early. Then came the slugs (ick!) who took out the green beans, carrots and cucumbers. We came away with plenty, but it was still disappointing. This year we’ve had a deer come through and a few major storms that have knocked down the corn and some of the peppers. From each of these issues, we’ve learned and improved our garden but at a cost (financially, productivity-wise and time-wise).

3) Blight prevention is key for in-ground tomatoes. I don’t know how much of a problem it is in your area – but here in Minnesota blight is inevitable. It kills the leaves and stunts the flowering, leaving the few tomatoes to scorch under the sun, unprotected. It lives in the soil and eventually the tomatoes will catch it. (Think heavy rains splashing contaminated dirt up on the leaves.) Once tomatoes catch the blight, you just have to cut off the infected branches and hope that you get some tomatoes before the blight kills the plant. To prevent it, you can either plant in raised beds/pots or line your tomato patch/area with landscape fabric (frugal alternative = newspaper). We’re trying the landscape fabric this year and so far, so good. We’re also trying potted tomatoes with moderate success – no blight, but darn is it hard to give them the proper amount of water.

4) The weeds aren’t that bad – it’s the volunteers that get you. Throughout the first year we kept a compost pile in the far corner of the garden. At the end of the season all of the fallen cherry tomatoes went to the pile. When the next spring/summer came around, we spread the compost and had literally hundreds of cherry tomato plants sprouting up everywhere. These volunteers don’t produce much, but keep enough of them and you don’t need to buy any new ones the next season.

5) Carefully pick and choose which items you buy as seedlings and which as seeds. I have a hard time starting seeds in the house between remembering to water them and the cats digging out the dirt/eating the plants. Instead, we’ve found that cucumbers, lettuce, peas, green beans, corn and some peppers grow just fine from seeds when we plant – it just takes a couple extra weeks to get produce. We choose to buy tomatoes in seedling form from the local greenhouse as Minnesota has such a short growing season.

6) Plant a round of seeds in the fall to get produce in the early summer. We had planted a second round of onions, lettuce and radishes late last summer and most of them didn’t grow. This spring was especially rainy, so we weren’t able to till up the garden as soon as we would have liked and were pleasantly surprised to find these things sprouted. Had we planned them better, we could have left them grow, but they were in the middle of the area that needed tilling.

I’d also recommend canning/pickling your extras. Canning has a high start-up cost if you need to buy the jars, but you can usually find them cheaply at garage sales, thrift stores or at grandma’s house. Neither my husband nor I had any experience canning/pickling, but we gave it a go and it worked out much better than expected. We’ve made all sorts of pickled cucumbers, spicy green beans and peppers. We can only eat so many pickled things, so we give extra jars away as Christmas gifts and take relish trays to potlucks and family events. Perhaps we have saved a bit of money that way, but not enough yet to offset all the costs involved.

Wow – that turned into a short book quickly. I guess I have more to say about gardening than I originally thought. Hopefully it’s at least a bit helpful! Good luck with the rest of your gardening adventures!

By: Kacie

Kacie — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 00:00:16 +0000

Gardening intimidates the heck out of me. I will start with some herbs probably this fall but I’ll put them in my window sill inside and I think that’ll be fine. Parsley, oregano, dill, chives, idk. I have a dehydrator so I can dry some too.

And then next season I will only do some container stuff. Tomatoes, maybe cukes. REALLY keeping it simple. I don’t plan to do anything really ambitious. Don’t think we have the land for it and I don’t think I have the attention span. But herbs, yes! And tomatoes for sure. Looking forward to hearing more of your gardening adventures!

By: eastTXmom

eastTXmom — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 23:44:36 +0000

Great job!!! I’m in my tenth summer of doing a garden and the one thing I have taken away from it is that you are always learning. . . .so don’t be too hard on yourself, next year you’ll remember to put those cages on those tomatoes :)

By: Karen

Karen — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 22:38:10 +0000

I feel like I have to try tilling at least once. I want a really big garden, and I don’t want to pay for dirt to fill the raised beds. I’m going to have to clear space in the backyard before I can put raised beds in anyway, so if my tilling experiment fails next year, I’ll just put raised beds in the year after that.

As far as weeds go, I’ve been told it’s a problem for the first couple years after putting a garden in where grass used to grow, but that it gets better after that. I guess we’ll see!

By: Rae

Rae — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 22:03:43 +0000

Sorry, also, starting your seeds before they can go into the ground can save some, too! Recycled pots like egg cartons, yogurt cups, even toilet paper rolls work really well (all of this being easier said than done with a little one, though, I know!)

By: Rae

Rae — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 22:02:08 +0000

From everything I’ve read, the first year is more expensive- but consecutive years are when you see the pay off- once your beds are built and filled, you add compost each year and go. We’re looking at trench composting as a cheaper and easier alternative to bins. Gorgeous garden, really nice job!