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It is planting season!
With all the home improvement projects that spring brings, have you also considered planting your own garden? With the price of fuel on the rise, the cost of growing, harvesting, and transporting our food to local markets will increase again this year. By planting your own garden, you will have delicious fruits and vegetables at a significantly lower cost than purchasing them in the stores. It's like growing your own money tree!
What You'll Need
In order to plant your garden you will need:
- Seeds - they are the most economical way to grow your garden. For less than a dollar a packet, you can grow a dozen or more plants. Most grown seedling will cost you a few dollars each at a garden center. Big savings here!
- Soil / Compost - assuming you have good soil in your yard, you will only need a small amount of soil and compost to fertilize your garden.
- Seed Starter Pods - in order to germinate your seeds, you will need starter pods or small pots to grown them in. You can start your seeds outdoors, but make sure to start them late enough in the season to avoid frost. Starting them inside, in pods, produces a higher percentage of successful seedlings.
- Trellises or Stakes - depending on what you are planting, you may need supports to hold up your plants. Tomatoes and peas definitely require this. I also use them for my peppers and jalapenos to name a few.
This is a list of the basics you will need. My previous article Gardening on a Budget - How to Design a Garden on a Budget goes into more detail on designing the type of garden you need to plant given your yard size, sun exposure, and soil.
Optimize Your Money Tree
Planting a garden will definitely save you money on your food budget this summer. But to fully optimized your money tree, you need to invest in a home canning system. This is where your really make your money work for you.
Home canning is a simple and delicious way to preserve your garden to enjoy during the winter months. Start up costs are minimal, and are often made back in a season or two depending on how much food you preserve.
Why not plant your garden today, purchase your starter home canning kit, and plan on saving money not just this summer on fruits and vegetables, but all winter long. Gardening, canning and saving money go hand in hand.
Plant your own money tree today!
AJ reading the comment below, I thought of the amount of sites showing window gardens in bottles and pots, even to a hydroponic garden for the kitchen, I don't know enough about it may be an article for you, Your so good with this. My experience is with big areas, give it a go.
Funny you mention this, Rob. I spent today disinfecting my pots from years gone past to use for our container garden this year. I am learning what will grow in relatively small containers. I've seen some wonderful information on Pinterest about growing plants in Mason Jars! Once I've done my research, I planned to spread the knowledge. You know me too well :)
I agree with Heather there is nothing like home produce veggies, Our summer is not too hot so we can garden all year round, winter veggies my favourite. Sugar snap peas, cauliflower, and the like doing so well at this time of the year. My summer tomatoes, Potatoes and like doing well. But the best is green beans off the plant straight to the mouth, yummy.
Great article, planting in the spring is fun and can be worth it in the end.
Cost savings aside, once you've had a delicious garden it's hard to go back to buying in a store. We leave our garden fallow over summer as it's just too hot and I sure miss the fresh lettuce etc. It's just not the same from the store! Always enjoy seeing you have a new article up AJ. Thank you again.
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