Hello all! Yes I'm getting the garden ready for spring planting. It's almost here! I've already started my seeds!😁Lately I've been cleaning out beds and moving perennials around. As I was doing so, I looked around and noticed everything I have that will provide food for my family without cost on my end, and I got to thinking of a post on how to garden cheaply, if not freely. Below are a few ideas to help get started growing at least some of your own food without breaking the bank. As a caveat, I will say you may have to buy soil.
1. SPREAD THE WORD! Let all gardening friends( and strangers) know you're wanting to start a garden! That's the best way to get seeds and cuttings when you're just starting. Gardeners love to share tips, seeds, and cuttings to encourage others to grow. Those tips can come in handy as well as the access to pick the experienced gardeners brain. Yes, google is a good resource to look things up, but there still is no better information than what you'd get from an experienced gardener in your area. AI can give you a good summary, but what does and doesn't work in your area is found best in an experienced local gardener.
2. SEED EXCHANGES. Seed exchanges are places where local gardeners bring in their unused seeds to exchange with others. It's not a meeting, but rather the seeds are brought in and left. When each person comes in they can choose from what's there and also leave seeds for others at the same time. Keep your eyes peeled for offerings on Social media sites as well.
3. SAVE THOSE SEEDS! At the harvest of each type of vegetable, let one of each plant "Go to seed" in order to save your seeds from year to year. It's quite simple to save seeds. The easiest to harvest seeds from would be beans, squash, cucumbers, tomatoes, and peppers. Google any plant and find out how to save the seeds for future use. Hybrid seeds may produce something different, may not. Worth saving the seeds to see. Heirloom or open pollinated seeds are supposed to be best, but I've saved seeds from store purchased produce like peppers and they've done fine. I'll do a more in depth post in a few days to show how for each item. Once you get in the practice of saving seeds, you'll never need to buy seeds again!
4. SEED POTS ON THE CHEAP- While there is cost to buying seedling pots, it isn't too bad. That being said, to add to your seed pot stash you can a) do your best to save your pots from year to year, b) take any pots anyone wants to give you, and c) save your sour cream, yogurt, cottage cheese containers. I save mine and then put holes in the bottom by heating an old icepick and poking it in so it melts holes in the bottom. A good poke with any sharp pointy object will do the same, but the hot icepick is my favorite. I save these all year round. We don't go through many, but I'll take what I can. As an aside, I don't care for using egg crates. They're too small in my opinion. I also don't care for toilet rolls. They come apart to easily.
5. HOST A PLANT SALE!-Over the last few years, I and a few friends have hosted a plant sale. It's a yard sale with plants. It all started because I was starting my seeds for the garden and wondered if anyone would be interested in my starting seeds for them. A lot of people don't have the time or space to start seeds. There was a good bit of interest so, since I had a ridiculous amount of seeds ( saved and new), I planted a bunch! I marked them cheap; $2 for a 6 cell pack or single 2 cup size pot and $3 for anything bigger. My goal was to cover my gardening expenses and help others, wanting to garden, get started cheaply. My friends and I did well with the sale. I covered all garden expenses, including the pop up greenhouse I had purchased. So everything I harvested was free. If you're thinking " well she has all of this space", you'd be wrong. I started seeds on the top of my freezer, and refrigerator, then as they grew and needed more space so did I. I had seed starts everywhere in my house. Then as the weather warmed, I could move them outside unless it turned off too cold. It was work, but it paid for my garden and helped some people out. This plant sale has now become a yearly thing. Every year I invest in whatever potting soil, pots, etc. I will need for the sale and our garden. Whatever is left after the sale gets planted or donated to an area food pantry/community garden. This one thing alone has helped offset my gardening expenses, and allowed me to add new things to my garden; plants, structures, etc.
6. JUST SAY NO TO LANDSCAPE FABRIC! Okay this is my last tip I can think of, but this one comes with a warning. There are a lot of youtube homesteading channels that tout the benefits of landscape fabric. I always comment the same thing: Don't do it! I go on to list all the problems with landscape fabric. Fire ants build mounds under it. It compacts the soil, because you can't cultivate it. Weeds still come they're just harder to pull up, and it becomes an almost permanent thing in your garden. They respond to my comment that their soil is better, they know what they're doing etc. Then about a year later they're doing another video on why they're no longer using the landscape fabric. Huh. Go figure. A better choice is to simply lay down cardboard, and either use landscape pins or just top with wood chips or mulch. Invest in a hand held cultivator for weeds that get past the cardboard. The cardboard will breakdown over time, and become part of the dirt under it. Simply replace the cardboard as needed. With as many deliveries and people receive nowadays, cardboard should be easy to come by.
Okay, so that's a start. There are other tips and tricks down the line, but this will get your garden started. So what tips do you have? Comment below. Above all else, go get in the sun and get your hands dirty. It's good for you!
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