reducing gardening cost ?

[deborahwilliams]

How do i save water while gardening, the poor rainfall has shot up my gardening expenses, how do i cut down my gardening cost ?

[Joan.of.the.Arch]

Besides water, what do you spend money on for your gardening? Different people garden differently, so how they can save varies. For instance many people buy mulch every year. For some that expense can be cut: Do not remove and throw away the old mulch. Old mulch works as well as new mulch---better actually as it releases more humus and nutrients to the soil than does new mulch. Instead of buying mulch at all, gardeners can mulch with locally available, sometimes free, sometimes even gathered from one's own yard materials--leaves (shredded or whole), pine straw, grass clippings, seaweed from the beach, cotton hulls, pecan hulls, hay, wheat and oat straw, alfalfa, etc. Use what is local and cheap or a even a free waste product of local agriculture.

But rather than spin our wheels suggesting things that don't apply to you, how about you tell us what you spend money on in gardening and we might be able to suggest alternatives.

[Pophocaisinia]

Hello,

Some days in the past I decided to say hello to all on different places so I decided to give it a try and
step up and start to listen like never before so from now on I promise to be part of all this, I will try to do my best to give
some value here... I dont want to stop things here let's carry on with what we were doing... Anyone else thinks like me? ... too many vodkas

[lehresman]

The time of day that you water your garden is key. The best time is just before the sun comes up. This gives your soil an opportunity to soak in the water, and your plants can drink it up before the sun appears and evaporates it. I forget the statistics, but when you water in the sun, a large portion is evaporated before it ever gets to the roots of your plants.

[canadamom]

Start a water barrel even with just a rubbermaid type tub. Put one outside any time it rains and gather some water. Every little bit helps.
I had 10 buckets out last weekend and got 4 total full when done. A lot of free water!

[irmanator]

Instead of mulch get horse manure, alot of places around here give it free just to be rid of it. (i live by a horse race track) If you get the older stuff it doesn't smell bad

[shelbylovesmelby]

share plants with your friends and neighbors of plants that are in need of dividing.

Collect seeds from your plants to use for plants in upcomming seasons.

Start a compost bin, cheap fertilizer using your kitchen scraps & yard waste

[wincrasher]

I just don't see how gardening is cost effective for most people. You can get terrific vegetables at your local farmer's market at low prices.

Most guys in the office talking about all they spend gardening, fetilizer, equipment, etc., and then end up bringing boxes and bags of vegetables into the office to give away.

I mean honestly, don't you get sick of squash and tomatoes? I can get cucumbers, tomatoes and squash for 3 or 4 for $1. Corn the same. Can you really grow a tomato for a lot less than .$25?

[GREENBACK]

Originally Posted by wincrasher

Can you really grow a tomato for a lot less than .$25?

You betcha' you can. I buy a .99 cent packet of seeds in the early spring and start them indoors. By May I'll have roughly 3 dozen plants if everything works right. Even if it doesn't, I'll have 18 to 24 plants. That's a pile of tomatoes. Of course, I'm not counting tools and labor and all that. Gardening is a hobby and isn't neccesarily intended to beat anyones price. I look at the garden as an outdoor project that I start every year and take great pride in the succesful completion.

[wincrasher]

Exactly.

I understand as a hobby or entertainment it's a different equation, but this is in a frugal message board.

Tools, equipment, water, fertilizer, rabbit killing, and most importantly your time. And then you give away about 80% of the vegetables. I bet the home grown tomatoes that you actually end up eating are like $2 each!

[GREENBACK]

Originally Posted by wincrasher

Exactly.

I understand as a hobby or entertainment it's a different equation, but this is in a frugal message board.

Tools, equipment, water, fertilizer, rabbit killing, and most importantly your time. And then you give away about 80% of the vegetables. I bet the home grown tomatoes that you actually end up eating are like $2 each!

I doubt they cost much since they are only fractions of a penny to begin with. Most of my tools used aren't garden specific and while I do give some veggies away, I also have many jars of vegetables canned that are used year round. In the end, I'm sure I'm well ahead. As for time, that's an individual call, and if your gardening is taking away from time that could be spent earning money: drop the hoe and get to work
.

[msi56]

You can still be frugal when it comes to gardening and save a lot of money.
I've reduced my fresh fruit and vege bill by quite a bit and all you need is some time and effort and it doesn;t need to cost hardly any money.

[zakity]

What about using your shower water or dish water to water the garden with?

[Mike75]

Originally Posted by wincrasher

I just don't see how gardening is cost effective for most people. You can get terrific vegetables at your local farmer's market at low prices.

Most guys in the office talking about all they spend gardening, fetilizer, equipment, etc., and then end up bringing boxes and bags of vegetables into the office to give away.

I mean honestly, don't you get sick of squash and tomatoes? I can get cucumbers, tomatoes and squash for 3 or 4 for $1. Corn the same. Can you really grow a tomato for a lot less than .$25?

Totally agree with you... And not to mention the electricity expenditure for sprinklers and human effort into keeping the garden healthy. Its just too much work.

[Joan.of.the.Arch]

Of course, not everyone uses sprinklers that use electricity. In fact, I do not know anyone who does. The closest I can think of is someone whose water well uses an electric pump to supplement the weak artesian effect. Use hoses and sprinklers that work on water pressure and that electricity cost will be negated. Better yet, learn to make best use of whatever water falls from the sky. Here in the Mississippi valley, water falls from the sky pretty reliably and well spaced through the growing season.

To the original poster, another thing that is helpful in water saving is to plant rather closely together in blocks or wide beds rather than in rows. That way the leaves of the plants shade the soil and really reduce evaporation. Also if you have space, you can plant your vining crops such as tomatoes, melons, squash, pumpkins, and perhaps even beans so that they scramble across the ground rather than up on a trellis, fence, cage, or other support. Again, that allows the plants to shade the soil, reducing evaporation.

If you live in a very arid area, doing the opposite of raised bed gardening can help with the water situation. Dig out planting beds recessing them into the soil. The planting area will look like a shallow pan. Put the soil you dig out around the outside edges of the recessed planting bed. Being recessed, the plant roots will be closer to the more deeply penetrated water in the soil and they will be partially shaded by the sides of the beds/pans. Do make use of compost and other organic material to enrich your soil and to hold onto moisture in these pans. This method is historically and currently used in Morocco and also in the American southwest.

Addressing anyone who thinks gardening is a waste of time-- It provides high quality food, good exercise including balance challenges, stretches, steady aerobics, squats, various kinds of weight bearing--all with no gym fee. For me, it often provides social time with neighbors who stop to visit. A single apple tree will more than pay for its purchase the first year of harvest. After that it is free. Many of my plants provide not just food, but the means to propagate them next year without having to buy anything more: I save seeds, cuttings, root pieces. The people who do not come out ahead money-wise are probably the ones who think they have to buy soil in plastic bags, buy lumber to hold up raised beds made of that plastic bagged soil, buy fertilizer, buy special (electricity consuming?) sprinklers, buy more and more special tools, buy gimmicky stuff from catalogs and garden centers, buy commercial row markers, poisons, weed killers, animal traps, insecticides, fungicides, special carts, ...... etc.

[zakity]

My garden is very frugal. I get tons of salad and tomatoes from a roughly $20 expenditure each year. Actually, most of the tomatoes don't even get a chance to get to the house. That is what happens when you send your children out to pick them, they eat them all. And, it gives my guys more work to do. I am a firm believer in children learning the value of hard work. It teaches them lots of skills and they learn about botany.

[JBinKC]

I agree with you that with many vegetables it is cheaper to buy than to grow.


However, I have to disagree with you on certain potentially high yielding vegetables that will start to produce ripe produce by the forth of July and will keep on producing until frost like peppers summer squash and tomatoes( provided the plants don't get a disease) and fruit trees.

I spend about $15 per annum in plants and materials and get about $30 from hot pepper sales to a bar/restaurant plus all the free fresh produce which will last through December. In addition, I usually am able to freeze/can about 100 lbs of tomatoes without all of that death laden salt in it.

I could cut that cost to almost zero by saving the seeds but I usually cannot grow my seedlings tall enough for the fabric I lay which increases the temp. of the soil to a point where the plant is at risk if it is not tall enough.


I don't spend much time weeding/watering either because the fabric that might cost a $1 total that lets water in and prevents it from escaping.

You only want to fertilize once before the plants blossom and it isn't necessary to spend anything there because urea, grey water from powdered detergent and wood ash are free waste products.

[Rei]

I spent about $100 on my garden last season... just getting up and running. Deer fencing, a little nitrogen, seeds and plants. I estimated about 500 lbs of produce from this garden. We are still eating beans, winter squash and home made spaghetti sauce. $5.00 for 25 lbs of fresh, "mostly" organic produce seems to meet the frugal qualifications. I have had poor years... lack of rain, bugs etc but overall our family has done well gardening.