How to Save Money with a Vegetable Garden

It's almost a fact of life that a recreational vegetable garden will cost you more than it saves you at the grocery store. And yet a significant portion of the world's population are classified as subsistence farmers --- those who not only feed their families but derive some or all of their income from their usually modest plots. What are we doing wrong?

The first rule is to start small -- real small. An experienced farmer can supply some or all of his family's needs with a ten-by-ten plot. Your first garden could be nothing more than a single medium sized container.

The second rule: never pay for what you could get for free. If you have to buy some composted manure (see next tip), it comes with a free container: the bag it came in. Poke some holes in the bottom, and cut a large rectangle out of the top with a pair of scissors. Other possible containers include plastic storage bins, wheelbarrows, push mower chasses, old gas grills... anything hollow, about the size of a pillow, and reasonably water tight. You'll want to poke several holes in it for drainage anyway. If it will hold dirt it will hold a garden.

Thirdly, dirt -- read: good soil -- is important, and not hard to obtain. If you absolutely must, you can buy a bag of composted manure for about $1.50 at a home and garden center (avoid impulse buys while you're there, like a $20.00 fertilizer or a fancy $50.00 container). Better yet, borrow some compost from your neighbor who composts his lawn clippings and kitchen scraps -- and learn how to do so yourself -- or find a place you can dig a few shovelfuls of good soil: a friends horse farm or some (unprotected) wilderness area. Look for black color, neither too much sand nor too much clay, and good drainage: good soil will soak up water like a sponge without turning gunky like cement or icing.

Finally, decide what to plant and how you'll plant it. I would splurge on young plants instead of seeds, first because starting from seeds requires additional time, equipment and expertise, and second because you're probably on going to want a single plant of each vegetable, which will cost you about as much as a pack of seeds.

For your pillow-sized garden, choose some variation on the following: one or two tomatoes, a pepper, an eggplant, two spices, and perhaps a squash or zucchini. If your space is limited, choose varieties accordingly (read the information on the pot or the little plastic stick for each plant.) The advantage to shopping locally, as opposed to by a catalog or internet, is that everything you see should be appropriate for your area.

Once you've gotten everything together for your garden, all that remains is an exercise in moderation: pick a spot that's not too sunny and not too shady, give your plants not too much and not too little water, harvest you crops when they're not too ripe and not too unripe. This is largely an experimental process of trial and error, and what the fun of gardening is all about.