With the approach of warmer weather, our focus turns from indoor to outdoor living. Perhaps gardening is one of the activities you enjoy throughout the warm months of the year. Whether you have a section of yard you can dedicate to gardening or a few pots on the windowsill, growing your own vegetables and herbs can save you some green.
While vegetable gardening is a rewarding activity, you don’t want it to end up costing you more than it should to grow a bumper crop. Here are some tips for keeping the costs of your vegetable garden down so you can save while you grow.
Choose Your Crops Wisely
Even those with a lot of space needn’t plant every seed and plant at the garden center. Consider these factors so you plan and spend wisely for your vegetable garden:
- What are your vegetable preferences? If only one person in your family likes broccoli, for instance, plant only a few plants so your garden is not inundated more with vegetables than will be consumed.
- What will grow well in your area? In your particular yard? Some crops require a long growing season, which means they take many weeks of high temperatures. If you live in a Northern climate, your weather may not be conducive to growing such crops as peppers, eggplant, sweet potatoes and brussels sprouts. As much as you may enjoy vine-ripened tomatoes, most varieties require full sun and acidic soil. Choosing crops that are native to your area will help ensure that they grow well and you’ll need to do a minimum of soil augmentation. The ideal location for your garden is a spot that receives at least 5 to 6 hours of sun each day.
- How much do you need or want? Even if everyone in your household likes zucchini and you have a plan for using it in your day-to-day cooking once it begins to produce, it usually grows in great quantities. Even friends and neighbors will eventually lose appreciation for your generous sharing when you are overcome with zucchini.
- Which vegetables are pricey? Oriental pea pods, for example, can cost as much as $3.99 per pound in the grocery store but are easy to grow and cost no more to plant and cultivate than other vegetables.
Economical Gardening Practices
- Choose seeds rather than plants. A package of seeds often costs only a dollar or two and will yield more than enough produce for most home uses. Young plants can be purchased, but often cost considerably more for far fewer plants. Only purchase plants when the vegetable requires a longer growing season so as to ensure it has the time it needs to reach maturity before the weather turns too cold.
- Go rustic. Even though garden centers sell metal tomato cages, a tomato plant will receive the support it requires from a branch from a tree that you may have collected in your own yard at no cost.
- Control Pests Naturally. Cayenne pepper can be sprinkled on the leaves of vegetables to make them unpalatable to animals who may be eating them. Beer poured in a bowl buried to its rim in the soil will attract and drown slugs that may eat your vegetables.
- Make homemade compost. Even if you don’t go whole-hog with an actual compost pile, collecting organic materials from your yard (leaves and grass clippings) and kitchen (fruit and vegetable peels, coffee grounds) can be added to your garden’s soil to bump up its nutrients.
Keep these tips in mind to have a garden that will produce much and cost little.
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