Grow Your Own Food, Save Money
Budgeting May 1st, 2008With food costs soaring to unbelievable levels, we have decided to take action against the insanity. We have decided to grow some of our own food, to get the grocery costs down. Now, we are still getting groceries for free, but it doesn’t take care of our entire need. But if you are skeptical about getting your own garden started, let me address some of the likely problems / questions you might have:
- Growing Your Own Food Takes too Much Time
It really doesn’t take as much time as you might think. If you just did a small garden of about 10 feet by 10 feet, that is only 100 square feet, and if you used a motorized tiller to break up the soil combined with some leaves or grass clippings from the yard, you might have as little as an afternoon invested in prepping and sowing your garden. - A Garden Won’t Produce Enough Food to be Worth it
I can assure you if you stick to vegetables like tomatoes, squash, green beans, etc. the plants will produce multiple harvests for you. As a kid, I remember working in my grandfather’s garden and picking green beans every couple of days. Bags and bags of green beans were produced in a single season. - Getting Started is too Expensive, I Don’t have the Tools
We just bought all the tools and seeds necessary to start our garden this year. We bought a spade fork, hoe, hand spades, cages for tomato plants, 3 cubic feet of garden soil, some plant food (the little balls of fertilizer), and seeds at our local Lowes all for about $100. How far does $100 go at the grocery store these days?
We have all kinds of seeds that we are going to plant for this year’s crop. Everything from tomatoes, squash, green beans, to onion, carrots and romaine lettuce we’ll be raising right in our back yard. And getting to enjoy fresh vegetables that you have grown yourself just makes dinner that much sweeter.
I plan to setup a 16 foot by 16 foot garden in my back yard. We will be simply spading and turning over as much of the dirt as possible, and burying the grass combined with leaves for the main fertilizer. Then when I sow the seeds, I will make sure to cover the top layer with the garden soil I bought. I will keep you posted on the progress. If you have questions or comments, please leave then below.
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May 1st, 2008 at 1:15 pm
We’re doing the same thing, though we’re doing about 1000 sq feet. Regarding costs, the first year will always be more expensive, but once you have good tools, your not needing to replace them every year and your costs come down considerably. I’d add peas, zucchini, and cucumbers to the list of productive items.
May 6th, 2008 at 9:13 am
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