Not only is growing a garden a relaxing and enjoyable activity it can also help you save money. Eating organic is healthier for you, but buying organic vegetables can be pricey. Growing an organic garden is a fun, healthy activity that is not only economical, but fun for the whole family.
Organic gardening can be a great way to save some extra money in your budget. You could actual cut your produce bill down by half with planning and preparation, it could be easy to achieve when you do it right from the beginning and organize your plantings so you are staggering all season. You can also use a mini greenhouse covering, a portable garden cloche as my son did in our garden (in these photos with my grand-kids) this year to get an early start on your plantings.
How Much Effort is Involved?
In the beginning, learning everything you need to be a great gardener can seem overwhelming; however, when money is involved this becomes less of an issue. It is truly easier then most think.
Most of the physical effort with organic gardening is in the bed preparation, pest control and keeping up with harvesting everything at the optimal time. In all fairness this should only account for a couple of weeks out of the gardening season, although it may involve other activities for example, maintaining a compost pile.
Other chores that require some time and effort, such as weeding and watering, can both be reduced through the proper use of mulching. Walking through your garden for a couple of minutes every day will help you identify your gardens needs quickly, before they become a problem. You will develop a intimate relationship with your gardens needs, and it will become a joy to do this daily check thru.
10 or 15 minutes a day or just an about one hour once or twice a week should be enough to maintain a substantial garden.
If your goal is to produce a large portion of your food requirements for the year, canning may take several days of time and effort. You can freeze many veges and sauces, & use a dehydrator as well.
This can be minimized by planning ahead to grow items that can be dried or stored in a root cellar.
Save Money with more vegetables
One reason to start organic gardening is for the money you can save. By paying close attention to the health of the soil, organic gardens are incredibly productive. Plants fed through proper soil management require less additional fertilizers. They are also more disease and pest resistant, therefore they use less pesticides. More vegetables and larger vegetables mean less food you have to buy!
Free Compost
Of course, if you make compost at home with yard and kitchen waste, you can consider this a free source of compost. Many communities also maintain large compost piles from yard waste the waste management department gathers from residents. Call your public works department to find out if your town offers free compost to its residents.
Free Compost Bin
You can use discarded hog wire bent into a big circle or just a contained pile that you turn frequently. If you don’t mind a compost bin with a rustic appearance, you can make one from discarded wooden pallets. Warehouses regularly discard damaged pallets, so ask the warehouse supervisor if you can haul away the least damaged three or four pallets. Wire together four pallets for a closed bin, or three pallets for an open model.
Free Containers
Think creatively for planting containers amongst your recycling. Fill an old boot with a nice compact strawberry plant. Line the drawers of a dresser left on someone’s curb with trash bags, and plant with herbs and dwarf cherry tomato plants. Fill unraveling baskets with dirt and lettuce and spinach until nature finally claims them.
Organic Fertilizer
Offer to clean out some horse stables in exchange for free manure. Do this once every autumn to obtain ample compost booster to help your leaves break down. There are many natural soil boosters out there.
Starting an organic and healthy garden is easy when you have the right soil fertilizer for your vegetable plants to grow in. The basis for any garden is rich soil that is full of nutrients your plants need to grow strong and healthy.
The health of the soil, organic gardens are more productive. Plants fed through proper soil management require less additional fertilizers. They are also more disease and pest resistant, therefore they use less pesticides. More vegetables and larger vegetables mean less food you have to buy!
To save money on gardening in general, let's take a look at all the things in a garden that could cost you extra money. You could pay for seeds. You could pay for manure and compost if you haven't started with making or obtaining your own. You could pay for additional organic fertilizers, like egg shell, lime, Cottonseed meal, blood meal, fish emulsion, manure and sewage sludge are examples of organic fertilizers. You could pay for pesticides. Finally, you could water your garden with city water and run up your water bill.
How Do You Save Money Gardening?
With your first garden you may find it necessary to buy these soil amendments and seeds to start off with. In order to save yourself this expense, you can save seeds from tomatoes, cucumbers and other garden produce as you use heirloom varieties.
Seed companies have genetically modified food crops to produce seeds that are sterile. Saving seeds from any of these varieties will just be a waste of your time. They key is to purchase heirloom strains, also known as heritage strains.
Heirloom varieties have not had insect DNA spliced into their genes, nor have they been modified to produce sterile seed. So far seed companies have not been able to modify potatoes to make them sterile... simply grow 10% more than you intend to eat and save them as seed potatoes for the following year.
Saving Money on Mulch, Manure, and Fertilizer
The secret to healthy, organic soil is compost. While some plants might enjoy the addition of manure, the truth is you can grow a very healthy and productive garden without manure or mulch if you have properly made compost. If you want to save money on all three (plus use less fertilizer), it is easy to learn how to make your own quality compost! Add plenty of it to your garden bed, and wherever you need mulch use sifted compost instead.
Organic gardening itself will save you money on fertilizer, but if your plants need a little extra during the growing season you can make your own compost tea. While there are many different recipes, the general idea is to fill a sock with compost and suspend it in a 5 gallon bucket of water for several hours. The resulting liquid can be watered down if needed and will contain humus, beneficial microorganisms, and nutrients that are immediately available to your plants.
Saving Money on Pesticides
Every garden needs some form of pest control. If you look through an organic gardening guide, you will see the same item mentioned for certain types of bugs and pests: Rotenone with pyrethrins. A plant called purslane is the commercial source for pyrethrins, and rotenone breaks down in 24 hours to Nitrogen and Phosphorus (making it one of the safest of all insecticides).
If this is your first year gardening than buy some rotenone with pyrethrins, but also plant some purslane. Next year you can make your own pyrethrins- simply use 1 tablespoon freshly ground dried purslane flowers, 2 liters of hot water, and a few drops of dish soap.
Also plant a few extra cayenne peppers and garlic plants. A couple peppers and a couple cloves of garlic ground up and soaked in a liter of warm water will make a spray that keeps bugs away.
We have problems with snails. It requires staying on top of it. Using a product called 'sluggo' which is just an iron phosphate product and is considered natural, but it is expensive to use. Other ways are you can :
Introduce predators - One effective organic snail control is to introduce or encourage predators. Make your garden friendly to small snakes like the garter snake. These snakes enjoy eating garden snails as well as other common garden pests. You can also introduce decollate snails to your garden. Decollate snails will not harm your plants but will eat the common garden snail.
Lay down grit - Many gritty substances make effective snail repellents. Gritty substances will cut the body of the snail which will lead to it being injured. Crushed eggshells, sand or diatomaceous earth sprinkled around plants that the garden snails seem to prefer will deter and eventually kill these pests.
Set out traps - A common snail trap is the beer pan. Simply fill a shallow pan with beer and leave it out overnight. The snails will be attracted to the beer and will drown in it. The beer will need to replaced every few days to remain effective.
Another trap is to find a flat object than can provide a dark, cool, moist location. Snails love dark, cool, moist areas. You can use a board, a piece of carpet, or thick cloth to create this environment. Water an area, then lay the object down over the damp area. Return in a few days and pick up the object. You can harvest and destroy the hiding snails.
Saving Money on Water
We use a drip system which is the most economical water system besides rain water. Also a lake or pond can be helpful for saving you money on your water bill. Otherwise, a very low cost modification to your downspout can divert rainwater to a barrel or cistern for use in your garden. Not only will it save you money on your water bill, but this water contains no chlorine and is much healthier for your plants.
One Final Thought
Gardening should be thought of as a long term solution to our over all food bill. If you buy gardening tools, a rototiller, a pressure canner and a dehydrator and you only use them for one season, than you are probably spending more money than you are saving. It is only when you purchase these items (once) and use them season after season that you are truely saving yourself money on the food you produce. Keeping this in mind will help you save the most money with your garden.
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