Frugal Friday: Our little garden!
I'm so excited to report that, after five and a half years of marriage we actually planted vegetables this year! We lived in an apartment up until the beginning of last year, so we tried planting things in planters but we never were successful since there was not enough sun. We were planning to plant at least a few things last year, but my pregnancy complications and fatigue ended uprooting our well-laid plans.This year, with no excuses and grocery costs on the rise, we jumped at the chance. We planted three different kinds of lettuce, basil, parsley, oregano, two different kinds of tomatoes, peppers, and cucumbers. It wasn't much, but we didn't have that much space to work with and I also wanted to start out small.
Our lettuce coming up--hooray!If things continue to grow like they are, in a few weeks, we'll have fresh salad ingredients right out our back door--for pennies a piece.
My only regret? That we didn't plant at least five times as much as we did! I think I'm going to buy as many planters as I can get my hands on next year and we'll do full-fledged container gardening. Not that we know what we're doing, but we can certainly make a learning experience of it!
If you only had a small area of ground to work with, what would you plant? Have you tried container gardening before? If so, any tips, hints, or suggestions for me?
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Labels: Frugal Friday, Gardening
posted by Crystal Paine at 1:12 AM
42 Comments:
Good Morning to your part of the world!
If I had a small space for gardening, I would pick lettuces and tomatoes first. Then I would pick things that can grow "up" like cucumbers, zucchini on a trellis type contraption.
I love having something for children to watch and grow too, so we planted about 4-6 sunflowers too. That was fun and they grow fast and tall.
I had a very small plot in the states and only wish I'd be back in time to plant for this year.
Thankfully we'll be back in time to enjoy the harvest time come mid August. Yeah! =)
I'll miss the tropical fruits and veggies here in Ghana though! =)
Shalom,
Loretta at http://veganfootprints.blogspot.com/
We grew tomatoes in containers our second summer of marriage. My recommendations are lots of sun and watch out for the squirls. Squirls took a lot of bites out of our tomatoes. If you had a cat that lived in your back yard it might chase them away.
I love your little garden! What a blessing it is, that God allows us to take part in His creation!
In our 8 years of marriage I have had ONE succesful garden, but I definitely plan on trying again.
Just this week we planted a few tomato and pepper plants in containers, so that's a start. :)
Did you still decide to do the CSA?
I've been LOVING my garden this summer. I do have a problem weeding, I have no idea what is a weed and what is actually something I planted. I'm hoping next year I'll do it a little better!
I already know that having a garden is going to be an every year thing and we will be expanding it next year.
(doesn't it feel good that you are going to be providing food with your own hands for your family!)
Hi Crystal, thanks for having the FF carnival. I've really enjoyed learning fun ways to be frugal every week.
Hey, have you ever read Square Foot Gardening by Mel Bartholomew? It's so easy to do (almost no weeding) and you can grow a LOT in a small space.
Have you seen the Earth Boxes? Well, they are very effective, but pricey. My husband found a tutorial online and we built some out of rubbermaid containers. They were much less expensive, simple to build and have lasted several years now with unbelievable produce yeilds!!
I can ask him about the tutorial, if you like.
Andrea
Andreaswheeler@hotmail.com
Funny you bring this up! I just finished a post on container gardening. I am doing a gardening series on my blog for anyone who is interested. I have all the posts in my left sidebar!
Try the book The Bountiful Container. I don't remember the authors' names. It's very inspiring and full of great tips and hints. There's even a section on edible flowers (my favorite). I could never bring myself to pay full price for the book, but got it from the library over and over when we were in our last house. Enjoy your plants, tomatoes are the BEST!
We have a large garden. My husband loves gardening and does a great job with it...with out much of my help, I must admit. We grow mostly sweet corn because we love it so much and it is easy to store all year. We also can enough green beans to last us all year, although the canning jars, lids and equipment probably cost more than just buying the $0.18 cans of green beans in the store, but the taste is soooooo much better, plus we know what is in them. We do lettuce, but it is a cooler weather crop so it is always done by the time tomatoes ripen in the heat of summer. (I wonder why God made it that way?) Zucchini's are easy and so are cucumbers, although they take up a lot of space. Snap peas are good, but also for cooler weather. We enjoy potatoes and sweet potatoes too, but we haven't found a way to make them last all winter without going bad. The pioneers did it, why can't I?
Happy gardening. Love your blogs. Keep up the good work.
We have tried container gardening, it has been so-so of a success. Around here it is very hot and the water in containers dry up very fast! We have done tomatoes good and basil. This year we did a inground garden with Tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, squash, basil and watermelon. I regret not doing a bigger garden with more things in it! Our's is not very big and my strawberries did not come up!
We planted a HUGE garden this year. However, if it were my first year gardening, I would start with a couple of tomato plants, peppers and greens of some sort. Cucumbers are fun because you can trellis them. Something that children may enjoy (and it would DEFINITELY save money) would be if you have even a tiny yard, you could plant a watermelon and pumpkin plant. What is more fulfilling than a picnic with watermelon you grew yourself? And during the harvest season to have your own pumpkins to cook and/or decorate with. The children would probably have great fun with that!
We also tried the square foot gardening aproach this year, but with a few frugal twists. Because we already had the spot tilled we decided not to build the boxes and fill with the compost mix; it would have cost $100 or so to build and fill 6 boxes. Instead we just sectioned off our spot and planted carrots, lettuce, basil, tomatoes, beans, peas, cucumbers, broccoli, and pumpkins. Hopefully this will give a bumper crop with a whole lot less weeding! We've already had a nice harvest of rhubarb and strawberries for pies and jam and are looking forward to the raspberries.
We're also using the scraps from our veggies and fruits in a compost bin to create great soil. I posted about making an inexpensive and easy bin here.
Lettuce is great to plant in sucession. That way you will have some through out the season.
Here is our square foot garden. It's grown in large containers, but you can grow a ton of stuff! I give links to more info in my article.
No doubt about it...tomatoes! This is the one thing that tastes a million times better when grown at home compared to ANYTHING you can get in a grocery store.
For something with quick plant-to-eat time (since kids have shorter attention spans): radishes.
My tip is: make sure you have stakes/supports for your peppers and tomatoes right now, before they get big because it's a lot harder to do it after the plant is large.
The other tip is to get tomato plants that are "indeterminate", which means they will continue producing the whole season. "Determinate" tomatoes only produce once and then are done.
We're already eating tomatoes we planted in March!
Your garden looks beautiful! I can't wait until we live in a place where we can grow our own . . . with my 14-month old playing on our little patio every day, I don't think I'd have plants left after a day or two of him exploring the dirt! :)
Best,
Sarah
Oh yes, I have lots of gardening ideas! (Not that I'm an expert, either, but I consider my father to be one, and I'm always "picking his brain" for ideas!) Have you seen the book "How to grow world record tomatoes"? I highly recommend it. Despite the way the title sounds, it's fine for beginners - and it will show you how to grow all the tomatoes you could ever need; on one plant. ...That one plant gets a bit big, however, so you probably can't make use of all the ideas at this point...but it sure is inspiring! Also, I second the advice about stakes or cages. They are hard to put in once the plant gets big. Lettuce...be sure you move it to the shade if the weather gets too hot, or it will bolt. ...Other ideas....plant closely - closer than the package recommends - and you will have to do less weeding. Won't hurt the plants at all. Give your tomatoes LOTS of water, or you might get "Blossom end rot."
Wish I had time to write more. I love to talk about gardening! I like to hear others talk about it, too, so please keep us updated!
I have expanded my container gardening this year. I do it on my deck and I have 16 containers (4 of them window boxes). Window boxes are great for shallow plants like lettuce and herbs.
I didn't think I would do much this year but with the rising cost of food I decided I really needed to. It's been fun and I am trying some things this year that I haven't in the past like eggplant and beets.
My biggest tip is to make sure your pots are watered enough. Especially if you have very hot and humid days, I often water twice. Also, garden soil specifically for veggies will work but I find potting mix is lighter and working better for me so far. The containers are also easier to lift and move if necessary.
Have fun with it!
I'd also recommend staggering your lettuce - start seed each week or every other week and you'll have lettuce into early Fall (lettuce loves cool temps better). You'll have a continuous supply this way. :)
I can understand your excitement about growing things! How fun that you're now able to plant more where you live.
I've not done much with container gardening, but the herb and tomato choices you've got already would be what I would probably do the most, if I was in a situation like yours. It's a blessing to have the space for a garden!
Congrats on the planting! We're on our first year of container gardening as well, and we got a bit of a late start so nothing is up yet. We have our fingers crossed! Like you, I think we'll do it on a much grander scale next year. Have a great day!
Homemaker Barbi
We were able to plant a 'small' garden in our previous yard; our first garden. We didn't understand heed when the package said "plant 6" apart", we thought we'd get more 'band for our buck' and planted our cucumbers every three inches! We had cucumbers EVERYWHERE. We learned a valuable lesson in this - when the package says to plant so far apart - it's usually a good idea to take that instruction. This post brought back a great memory for me! Thanks!
crystal- this was my first time participating & I didn't know quite what I was doing - so my first entry (#96) didn't have a 'title'.... sorry! I don't suppose you can delete it?
thanks ~ Tracy
Homegrown lettuce is so good! You do know not to 'pick' it, right? If you tear it off, it will keep coming back for a long time.
This year, I planted only 2 tomato plants. I never have much luck with vegetables, so I decided to buy high quality plants that ran me $15 for two. Which isn't huge money, but with my track record I figured I'd be better off only watching two plants, LOL!
Best of luck with your garden!
Like someone else mentioned, one of the keys in container gardening is to keep the plants well watered, since they dry out faster in a container than in the ground.
I have a fairly small garden this year (compared to large community garden plots previously), so I focused on things that taste best fresh from the garden (like tomatoes), are harder to get, or are more expensive to buy. This year, I put in lettuce, spinach, tomatoes (regular and cherry), hot peppers, eggplant, broccoli, collard greens, zucchini, yellow squash, pumpkin and butternut squash. I have basil to plant in a container and I want to put strawberries in another spot to have next year.
I will still hit up the farmer's market at harvest time to stock up on other fruits and veggies to freeze for the rest of the year.
I've been wanting to start a garden too, and this year we did. Living here in Arizona our seed sowing started in late March. Unfortunately we didn't get much of a harvest out of what I planted and now that it's 115 degrees in the shade the plants are dying off fast. I have no idea what I'm doing but I'm learning and am looking forward to more planting in the fall. If I had it to do over again I also would have planted MUCH MORE and I would have started seedlings a month earlier.
May the Lord bless your little garden abundantly!
Sheila
Hi Crystal,
I too planted a few containers of lettuce on my deck. A tip for you is to just plant a few seeds at at time in each container. Then as those seeds get close to being ready to harvest plant a few more seeds right in with the other plants so they will be sprouting when you harvest the other lettuce! You can only use so much lettuce before it goes bad anyways!
Crystal,
We like to listen to Mike McGrath on NPR on Saturdays; he's from Philly, but his organic gardening show has gone national, and he's very resourceful for information and ideas. We also have a copy of Rodale's All-New Encyclopedia of Organic Gardening, as well as Rodale's Garden Problem Solver, which we have used a lot to help us with our gardening endeavors.
Mike McGrath recommends for new gardeners to plant things you LIKE TO EAT, or things that are DIFFICULT TO FIND (if you like exotic or "unpopular" stuff), or SPENDY TO BUY AT THE STORE. Sounds pretty practical, but difficult to do when you're staring at a seed-packet-rack full of 5 varieties of every vegetable you've seen in your life! :)
If I were just doing containers, I'd grow tomato plants and the herbs I use most of all (basil, thyme, parsley, oregano).
Radishes are fun with the little kids; but be careful not to plant too many. Last year we wasted a lot because they were too spicy for the kids, and we didn't know what to DO with such vast amounts!
My challenge is to learn how to preserve all the bounty--this is where I fall short as a home gardener; and area I need to improve!
Happy gardening,
Merrilee
I have been wanting to try square foot gardening for a couple of years now, but I am a procrastinator and it hasn't gotten done. I think it would be such a great addition to all of my other frugal endeavors to grow some of my own food. I will try to be better next year.
Good for you! I really want to make a garden, but we're still swamped with the toddler. Maybe when he's a little bigger (or we have the yard fenced in!)
I have been trying my hand at Square foot gardening. Hopefully next year I will have even more beds put in, but this year i have two 4x4 beds and a couple of tires with stuff growing in them. I planted and got alot of stuff from just using my flower beds where I lived in a mobile home park before and it really was nice!
i just posted a picture on my blog on my little garden......http//www.homeschoolblogger.com/martha
Do you have any yard at all? We have found that raised gardens work well for us. You could easily even build one on a deck if your deck was big enough. We live in a real rocky area and you cannot dig into the ground.
The benefit to that is you can re-use the space time and time again and you can add to it making it bigger. Also, you can put in things to help the vegetables vine upward. The bad thing about it is you cannot move it around. If you line the bottom you don't have to mess with weeds though just like container gardening.
Just a thought :-)
I've started my first garden this year and love it! I did do lettuce in pots outside my kitchen slider though, and love to see the new growth everyday. I can't wait till fall when everything can be harvested cause I plan on canning and freezing a lot.
What a great idea! I have some very sorry looking chives growing in a container just now but lettuce might just be an option too. We've been in our house a year now (married just over 18months) and the garden is no where near being sorted, you have to do things bit by bit i guess. But the concept of container gardening is something I think I could get into! Thanks for your tips and inspiration.
We have no idea what we're doing either but we also have our first garden. We've planted tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers and squash. we have some roma tomatoes growing and one pepper so far. I'm sad to say I think we have bugs eating the veggies and have to look into that.
But I wanted to say that I think having a garden, especially a veggie garden, is so great if you have little ones. My 4 year old, loves the garden (there is a cute story on my blog about him and the garden). He loves to help me water it and loves to see what is growing. It is such a great learning tool for them and it also teaches them responsibility. You can even use it to teach them about God in so many ways.
What a coincidence! I spent much of this weekend digging 2 12 foot rows, where I planted basil and oregano. I also plan to add rows of thyme and parsley next weekend, and pots of rosemary. But I am nervous that nothing is going to come up. I have never done this before, and had to spend a lot of time calling my mother to make sure I was doing it right.
Happy Feminist
I've planted a small container garden and it is on our porch. We don't have any sort of a yard, and we live in a "quadraplex" kind of apartment. Nevertheless, I'm growing a tomato plant, a pepper plant, basil, parsley, garlic chives, rosemary, mint, nasturtium, and a container of flowers. So far so good! It takes faithful watering to keep them thriving. But our tomato plant has little tomatoes on it already and our pepper plant is blooming. We live on the west coast and we already have temperatures in the 100's, so I hope the tomatoes start ripening soon.
It sounds like you have chosen excellent plants for your first garden. Having herbs is such a help, as you often only need a little and they are expensive to buy.
I thought of something else: running or climbing beans are great for containers. They take up very little space at the base, but can produce a great deal. You can even dry them for winter. I didn't grow any last year, but I have plans for the coming garden season in Australia.
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