I received the following question from frugal friend Bridget…
I’m new to gardening. What tips do you have for “beginner gardeners” who want to start a garden… on a budget? I’m hoping to grow organic veggies for my family …but am limited to a small space. Any tips??
Do you have any tips for a beginning gardener?
Or thoughts on ways to garden… on a budget??
Leave a comment & share!
Here’s a link to a slideshow I built for Living the Country Life magazine’s website, with step-by-step instructions for making your own upside-down tomato planters out of old milk jugs!
http://www.livingthecountrylife.com/gardening/vegetables/make-your-own-upside-down-vegetable-planter/
What a fun idea, Lisa!!
~ Heidi
Great idea! I’ll add this to my “give it a try list!” Thanks!
I have the same question! I am starting my first container gargen this summer. I know it is more frugal to start from seed indoors and transplant… but that seems to involve fancy equipment. Are lights, etc, necessary? Also, can someone recommend specific varities of tomato, cukes, berry seeds that are better suited to container growth? Thanks!
No fancy equipment necessary! If you ever buy 6 packs of flowers, save those cheap plastic packs & you can plant in there. You can buy the kind that are made out of biodegradable material that you can plant directly into soil for super cheap, too. Almost anything will do. Just set it somewhere where it can get some decent light. My husband always tills the garden, makes rows & plants the seeds immediately. That works great, too. Sometimes we get pesky birds who eat the seeds so if the sprouts don’t come up after a week or 2, just plant more. My biggest issue with planting directly into the garden is that the water washes the seeds down in between the rows but then the sprouts can easily be replanted on top. The biggest investment that you should make is good soil!
I live in the Houston area & have success with Beefmaster for big tomatoes & last
spring I grew Jelly Bean tomatoes. My favorite yet! For cucumber seeds, we buy Poinsett 76 (salad cucumbers). We used to plant the pickling cucumbers & we’ve always had success but never pickle them so they go to waste. = P Best of luck & just give it a try… vegetable gardening is so much easier than most people think.
i do winter sowing and love it because it is cheap and easy. the idea is to plant the seeds in a container and put it outside for the winter. when it is warm enough, they will start to grow. no special lights, no hardening off, etc. so easy! i also use leftover containers, so i don’t have to buy anything new. i have had the best success with juice containers, because they are tall enough for the plants to grow to a strong height while still being protected.
Yes lights ae the best, or very direct light or the seedlings will stretch too tall. Tomato plants can be planted deep to hide this, but peppers cannot.
It is best to buy plants your first time out.
We have a greenhosue business and we start our stuff in the greenhouse.
Some vocational schools have plant sales that will save you money.
And please do not save seeds, many are hybrids which means that the seeds will not be like the year before.
And soil is important. find your local ag extension agent, and get a soil test done. That way you do not waste your time and money buying fertilizers and lime that you do not need. Also find a garden club to join many have professionals that are members.Hope this helps!
Signed a horticulture teacher.
Congrats on your decision to start a small garden!
Check w/ your library for a mound of information on home gardening. A great book for small spaces is “Square Foot Gardening.” There are many on container gardening, too.
A great way to get inexpensive plants is at a gardening club sale in your town. The members start the plants by seed or divide their plants (periennials). I’ve gotten tomato plants for .10 each this way. Rhubarb comes back every year and can be put in your landscaping. One plant will produce enough where you’ll be chopping it up and putting it in the freezer for later!
Start with a good, fresh mixture of 2/3 topsoil and 1/3 compost.
I concentrate on plants my family likes that are high producers, like tomatoes and cucumbers.
For tomatoes, put them in as early as recommended in your area with tomato cages when you plant. (If you put the cages in later, you’ll damage the roots.) Mound the dirt around the base of the plant with another circular mound about 8 inches out. This will create a moat when you water. Water every day unless it’s pouring rain.
For cucumbers, they grow on a long vine. Your vine can be moved outside the garden or along the perimeter.
I also plant onion sets just inside the perimeter of the garden. These are no hassle and you can harvest as needed any time after about 10 weeks after planting.
Good luck!
When you use green onions or leeks, stick the part with the roots that you cut off and throw away in the ground or container. They will grow and eventually seed themselves too. Cut the ends off as needed and they will keep growing. Your garbage becomes food!
I’m going to have to try this!
Make sure your garden is south facing or get plenty of lights. I recommend raising your beds. It will help with drainage. (and your back!)Be sure to use compost – many cities offer that now,free or super cheap. Check with your town/city. Seeds are cheap and you just have to keep it watered.
Don’t bother indoor starts unless you live in northern Minnesota or North Dakota. There is plenty of summer to get a garden going. When my children were younger, I let them eat have a plot. Carrots and radish are easy to grow and the first to come up. They loved having the satisfaction of caring for them and especially harvesting them later. Cucumbers take a lot of room. Allow an entire plot for them. Pole Beans are great in a container or small area. Lettuce can be planted first and will take up some room but plant radishes in between to save on growing space.
Rabbits in your area? Be sure to fence in a small area if you have rabbits. You don’t want to see all your hard work eaten overnight. Remember,animals seem to know one day before we do that it’s ready to eat!
If trying to plant perennials – ASK! Many people have what grows best in your area and a good gardener knows that plants need to be split every other year or so. Plants are expensive and you can get most of them for free. (or barter with a batch of cookies with the neighbor!)
Check to see if your area has a garden club. That is an excellent way of starting your own gardens. They will have helpful hints as well as plants to share!
Enjoy!! Being outside is life’s greatest pleasure for me!
Careful getting local compost from waste treatment facilities, many have heavy metals that cannot be removed from the compost.
And you are using SOIL not DIRT!
whoops! I am a farm girl – we have dirt here! Dirt under my finger nails and sometimes dirt between my toes.
And metals in the compost – haven’t seen any and if it will kill me… well it better get in line cause lots of stuff is gonna kill me.
metals are only in compost from treatment plants from cities. Like Philadelphia has compost they give away, great for ornamental trees and shrubs but do not put in on vegetables especially root vegetables.
My specialty! Gardening on a dime!
I am a professional landscape designer and run a business that specializing in do it yourself landscaping.
My first bit of advice that saves the most money is not to be an impulse shopper this spring.
So many people call me for help after they have already invested a lot of money and time into purchasing and planting plants. It is so easy to be tempted to buy those beautiful plants in bloom available at virtually any local neighborhood hardward/gardencenter. The best piece of advice is to invest in hiring a professional who will do a landscape plan for you to work off of at your own pace.
As far as vegetable gardening goes, my most favorite garden item for especially first time gardeners are earthboxes. Check out their website and all their benefits.
http://www.earthboxes.com
Also, while seeds are inexpensive and fun to watch grow, some veggies are best to buy already grown and not waste your patients struggling with seeds if you are a first time gardener.
I still buy all my tomato and peppers in plants and save seeds for the crops I can sow early in the spring directly in the soil such as lettuce, carrots and radishes.
Happy Gardening!
Thank you from a professional horticulturist!
Container gardening is hard, heck, all gardening is hard until you get the hang of it, but it’s so nice to be able to eat the food you’ve grown. Don’t count on harvesting a lot at first (you could get lucky though, you never know) but count on learning a lot. Get as many books about gardening as you can, especially gardening in your climate, that makes a big difference.
Start with good soil that includes compost, fertilizer, etc. the books will help with that. Use very BIG containers for most plants except ones with shallow roots like lettuce. Roots need lots of room to grow! I have grown tomatoes, eggplant, cucumbers, peppers, chives, zucchini, squash, and strawberries in containers with varying degrees of success.
Your harvest depends a lot on what variety of veggie you have, how much water they get, how much fertilizer, hot hot/cold the temp is, if you get attacked by any bugs, etc. Buy plants already started, don’t bother with seeds at first. Make sure you pick healthy plants with NO fruit/veggie on them yet, and no bug or rot damage. Follow the directions to plant them. Many plant labels will say if they are good for containers.
The first year is usually the hardest so start small, with just a few types of plants. Square foot gardening is about gardening in a raised bed. My sis-in-law has done it successfully so it is worth looking into to save money. They have a website, and you can always build your own after researching it. Good luck and happy gardening!
Walgreens has American Seed Packets with in ad coupon five for $1 this week. The seeds I bought yesterday were dated for 2011…all sorts of veggies and flowers were available. Potting soil is also on ad.
These two sites are for serious gardeners…both are non-profit groups (that need help), but you can get free seeds:
http://www.wintersown.org.
http://www.dinnergarden.org
I am only in my third year of gardening but have found “self irrigating planters” the best for me in AZ. They are like the earthboxes mentioned above but made with recycled buckets. Two great sites are: http://www.globalbuckets.org or http://www.insideurbangreen.org.
But Mike Lieberman’s blog at http://www.urbanorganicgardener has the best SIP creation information that worked for me. I’ve used the SIP concept not only with recycled five gallon buckets but also smaller containers (recycled sour cream containers) as well as old 18 gallon totes. Mike even has ideas where to get five gallon buckets cheap or free.
Winter sown has all sorts of ideas for starting seeds with recycled plastic containers. I mostly use toilet paper rollers, paper egg cartons, or newspaper pots I make (see instructables) for starting seeds.
This year I am going to try using a couple of my free cloth grocery bags as suggested at this site: http://containergardening.about.com/od/vegetablesandherbs/ss/LettuceBag.htm
Good luck! I find that the “time or money” adage is prudent for gardening. I buy cheap seeds and have to work at getting them to sprout, or I spend the money on plants already grown somewhere else. I’ve used both.
Re-usable grocery bags make awesome containers – plants seem to love them. I’ve grown herbs, lettuce and tomatoes and even lilies in them. Just make sure you use the ones that are plastic. The cloth ones will fall apart to quickly.
I use all kinds of things for containers from colanders to clamshells. Just make sure to put drainage holes in anything you use.
To save money on water and to help your plants grow nice, deep roots, save your plastic 64oz juice containers. Leave the caps on, cut off the bottoms and then poke a zillion holes in the sides (I used my hubby’s grilling fork!) Bury the containers (cap-side down) about every three feet or so, just so the top 1 1/2 inches are sticking out. When you water, just fill the containers. They’ll each spread water in about a 1 1/2 feet circumference. I used these mostly around my tomatoes and peppers, as they tend to need a lot of water and they’ll grow very deep roots.
I have learned a ton of tips from a free website called motherearthnews.com. They have been around for a long time and are recommended by a lot of people. Check it out. My first garden was from them. I just got bags of soil and cut a rectangle out of the top and planted my seeds. Everything grew so I started beds. I now get enough food to supply my neighbors and family. Also, always check your zone, I found raspberries that grow well all the way down here in South East Texas.
As you learn something new teach someone else, where would we be if that ever stopped.
This might fall more into the homemade cleaners type category, but it’s gardening related. I just discovered VINEGAR as an “organic” weed-killer! I’ve had monkey grass growing in ugly patches around my magnolia tree. If you have monkey grass, you know it’s impossible to get rid of. But on a hunch, I took some vinegar and didn’t even spray it, just sort of poured it on while jiggling the bottle around. One week later, DEAD MONKEY GRASS! Safe for the tree, because the tree roots are too low to be bothered by it, and it’s not strong enough to harm a tree. It works much faster on common weeds.
If you have some space and need something to fill it I would suggest rhubarb. It’s easy to grow and continues to produce all summer (at least where I live)–Zone 4. It also is just a nice large plant and fills in space. Plus there are so many things you can do with it.
I buy manure, Turkey Manure was best, and spread it on my flower beds and veggie area along with my mature compost early in March. This lets the nutrients get into the soil before I plant. I also grow potatos in bags on my fence and intermix veggies with my flowers. My Peas are already planted for this year and I will plant a second crop of those in another two weeks. Love sugar pod II for edible pods. Good luck. I gardened with my mom, she made me a gardener, I gardened with my girls and they are gardeners. what fun!
I used to buy manure but started saving coffee grounds and egg shell – mixed in a 5 gallon bucket and kept rolling it-to mix it often and now that’s what I use. Very effective and all my plants react to it beautifully – even my African Violets, which keep blooms pretty much all year round.
Several things…you can find instructions for making an “earth box” online. I’m sorry I do not have the website, but you can use pipes and rubbermaid containers. It’s really not that hard. This makes a big difference in states where there is drought or where there are often water restrictions. Also, try composting. But learn how. If your bin is or pile is not big enough it will not work. Coffee grounds are great for acid-loving plants like azaleas. And last…essential for me in Georgia…I plant flowers with vegetables for companion planting AND because in Cobb County, watering restrictions do not apply to food crops.
Plus… be sure to check out all of the great tips from your frugal friends on Facebook ~ for more ways to save $$ in the garden:
http://www.facebook.com/thefrugalgirls/posts/188839391156462
As you’ve been noticing, where you live makes a difference. Don’t let the “zone” talk scare you; just look in a good seed catalog or google it. And check your local last frost date…it does make a difference.
I’ve been around gardening all my life and seem to learn new things every year. Pintrest has given me some great ideas, but my favorite place is still my local garden center when I need help. Find one near you that employs someone who has schooling in horticulture and/or master gardeners. Experience is great, but sometimes book-learning helps. Get to know them and you can gain lots of valuable information. Extension offices are great sources, but the person with experience isn’t always available and when you are starting out, brochures don’t always do it.
Sometimes spending a little money on things from a nursery is worth it when it comes to harvest time. I’m in Zone 4 and I’ve found most things do ok here from seed directly into the garden, but there are some I’ve found don’t produce as well, like peppers. I never by individual plants unless they are out of 6- or 4-packs of a plant variety I just can’t do without.
If you start your own seeds indoors, toilet paper or paper towel rolls cut into lengths work well. Just put them on an old jellyroll pan to hold in the potting soil and water.
Some people do well with container gardening, but we’ve had much better luck with raised beds and traditional gardening, mostly due to water requirements…containers dry out way too fast for us most years.
Good luck with your gardening, and don’t give up! Every year is different.