Gardening season is getting underway around the United States — from those in the South getting summer plants rolling, to those in the North finally able to stick a shovel in the ground. But with President Obama promoting “victory gardens” where Americans grow some of their own food (to promote thrift, food safety and a do-it-yourself ethic), it’s all too easy to join many other “green” trends where “green” refers to environmentally friendly solutions, but also to laying out a lot of money for something people used to just do.
Wise Bread blogged about this recently in “How Many Will Lose Money This Year on Those ‘Frugal’ Gardens?” In that post, blogger Carrie Kirby mentions the returns from some home gardens (J.D. at Get Rich Slowly, she notes, has earned the equivalent of $20 an hour on his garden), but also notes the risks (from hail to squirrels) and temptations to spend.
If you’re looking for cheap inspiration, I received this message recently from Anneli Rufus and Kristan Lawson, the authors of The Scavengers’ Manifesto
We’re cheap … like you — and we’ve just made a vow: To grow at least half our food this year in a garden that costs exactly nothing to maintain. To achieve this seemingly impossible goal, we’re proposing a revolutionary new concept: “No-Cost Gardening” — that is, creating and nurturing a vegetable plot using totally free scavenged seeds and supplies.
Not only are we doing this ourselves, but we’ve also produced a guide for anyone who wants to try it: This post on the Scavenging blog documents the No-Cost Gardening Project and provides a handy manual for readers who want to become no-cost gardeners.
This is the perfect time to help would-be gardeners (and even practiced gardeners) save lots of money while lowering their carbon footprints by saving themselves all those trips back and forth to grocery stores. While home gardening is being heavily promoted as a way to save money and eat locally, with even the Obamas planting a White House “victory garden” for inspiration, in fact gardening has evolved into a fairly upscale high-end hobby, like golf or sailing. Gardening, the way most people do it, is actually expensive. The average packet of seeds now costs $3 or $4, and growing a wide variety of produce requires dozens of packets. Pre-sprouted starter plants cost even more. Tools and gardening implements can be pricey. Fertilizer, soil treatments, gloves, stakes, trellises, wheelbarrows, sprinklers — when you add it all up, it becomes painfully obvious that growing your own produce can cost more than just buying it at the store. Many people resist gardening not because the idea hasn’t occurred to them, but because they assume that growing vegetables is a time-consuming and exorbitant pursuit.
We’ve overturned this assumption by inventing a new kind of gardening that costs essentially nothing at all, and which really can help the average person save money during economic hard times. We’ve posted a step-by-step crash course in no-cost gardening — from scoring free seeds to crafting tools and equipment out of scrap. Anyone with even a teensy swatch of soil can follow our tips and start their own free garden. Those without yards can even grow their food guerrilla-style on abandoned public land. With more ideas for how to get fertilizer, stakes and everything else you’ll need in the garden for free (or almost free), the no-cost gardening project is a new idea for a new era.
We’re full-time scavengers. We’ve made a lifestyle out of getting stuff (legally) without spending a cent. And we pledge to grow in this no-cost garden at least half of what we’ll eat for the next year. At this point, it looks like we’ll be gorging on arugula, heirloom tomatoes, exotic beans, peppers, zucchini, endive, Chinese broccoli, eggplant, cucumbers, collard greens, radishes, bok choy, lettuce, tomatillos and tangerines — to name just a few. Let’s eat!
(sorry about the font & spacing here … apparently, I am not clever enough to fix whatever the problem might be!)
The scavenged garden also benefits from its Bay Area seed library, which is a fabulous idea. Often, all seeds in a packet aren’t used. A similar thing could be achieved with neighbors, via craigslist or through the mail.
At the Cheap house, we will be gardening a bit lazily this year, with our ambitions focused on what we can grow and our energy directed toward some yard improvements. We might buy a few seed packs (we love to find seeds for exotic-to-us greens at ethnic markets), but we save seed packets year after year. If you wonder if seeds are still viable, you can place the seeds between two pieces of dampened paper towel for several days to see how many germinate (I have also used this pre-germination successfully for squash and cucumbers).
How about you? Do you save money by gardening? Are there areas where you splurge? A best-kept secret you’re willing to share?
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Comments ( 9 )
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Happy Mother’s Day garden! | Cheap Like Me added these pithy words on May 10 09 at 5:31 amWe garden with our neighbors. Everyone brings their expertise or lack of to the plot of land. We plant cukes, watermelon, eggplant, cantalopes, broccoli, and whatever else strikes our fancy. The problem is that last year we got maybe two watermelons, no eggplants or tomatoes. While we tried and to some extent were successful, (we canned the cucumbers) there is no way to do half of our diet in home grown food. I live in the Northern part of Maryland and I experience early frosts, and late springs. We also have droughts, deer, rabbits, slugs that partake in our ventures. I try to buy local but it gets expensive unless I go to the farmers market, where I have to drive to get there. Just because you live in the country doesn’t mean food is cheap. There is no seed bank, but we do trade flower plants. California is lucky that there is weather that will permit such growing, but on the east coast we have four season.
patty added these pithy words on
May 05 09 at
10:54 am
We’re planning to garden, but I’m looking at anything we spend on that this year and next as start-up costs. Down the road we may save seeds, but we’re trying to start small and build up. If I can successfully grow carrots this year, I’m calling it a victory.
How Green Is My Valley added these pithy words on
May 05 09 at
11:19 am
Most of our gardening efforts have proved to be rather expensive, largely due to really crappy soil in this rental house’s yard. However, it’s doing better due to free compost materials I’ve gotten off craigslist including pine needles & oak leaves, 2 straw bales, chicken & sheep manure, and pig & goat manure. Those combined with our leaves and kitchen scraps have yielded a nice compost which seems to be working better.
Many of our yard tools came from yard sales, flea markets, and thrift stores. We purchased most of our seeds, but in larger quantities for a better price. The local Food Bank gives away a dozen packets of free seeds to anyone interested: 6 vegetables and 6 flowers or herbs. They also have free compost but it’s not good quality.
Fertilizer is free in the form of urine. It’s sterile as it leaves the body and is a great source of nitrogen when diluted 10 parts water to 1 part urine. Best to pour onto heavily mulched areas and absolutely do not use it on plants such as greens or roots where it could come in contact with the edible parts. Use it on things that bloom and produce vegetables up on the plant, your citrus and nut trees, or use it to moisten a dry compost bin.
Chile added these pithy words on
May 05 09 at
7:18 pm
It’s a goal of mine. But honestly I’m a bit intimidated (I’ve never had a eatable garden), and a bit overwhelmed (I’ve got a million dandelions to pull). I’m working on the compost, so I’ll be ready when the time comes. My plan, hopefully for next year, is to have the yard under control and work towards building a vegetable plot in the backyard. However, I’m starting from a yard full of dandelions, so maybe I shouldn’t be so hard on myself right now.
aemcdraw added these pithy words on
May 05 09 at
9:20 pm
I think I garden to save money. Never sure wbout that as it seems I spend more than I bring in- but who can put a price on homegrown quality? As far as the slurging part, I acutally bought a cordless electric lawn mower this year. Nothing to do with veggie gardening but still fun! As far as veggies go, I would like to spend the money on those fancy fake-wood raised beds but, I still use real wood (some of it old pieces of fencing from a fence I tore down after the wind knocked it down)but I can still covet!
Rob added these pithy words on
May 05 09 at
10:32 pm
Several years ago I built 2 8 foot raised beds in my backyard and filled them with veggies from the garden center. It was so expensive that I didn’t try gardening again until this year. I purchased seed packs and started them inside which was much cheaper and I enjoyed watching them sprout. Scavenging is an even better and less expensive idea which I will try next year, and have done with bulbs and flowers and such. Don’t know why I didn’t think to use it with garden vegetables. Thanks for the tip about pre sprouting old seeds, that will help also.
Patricia added these pithy words on
May 06 09 at
9:29 am
@Patty – What a great idea to garden together, even if the turnout isn’t farm-quantity.
Yay to all of you just starting out! Good luck!
@Anne, maybe you can make dandelion honey? I saw instructions online last year, but we’ve never had enough organic dandelions to try it.
Cheap Like Me added these pithy words on
May 06 09 at
9:36 am
