Gardening on a Budget....

[boggybranch]

.....seven tips for success.

http://www.motherearthnews.com/grow...campaign=FG&utm_source=iPost&utm_medium=email

 

[seedcorn]

Some good ideas.

While seeds may seem cheaper than plants, I find that it's best to spend $1 on 4 young plants from local nursery than spend $2 on 30 seeds to only watch them not do near as well because I don't take as good of care of the seedlings.

While composting is good, dry fertilizer from Ag retail can be very beneficial to help fix a garden fast and you aren't killing your family...........

When you buy equipment to work in garden, buy the very best you can afford. In the long run it is the cheapest way to go--experience talking here.

 

[ducks4you]

boggybranch, you change your Avatar more often than I wash my gardening sneakers!!!

(I DO change my socks a lot, though....)

 

[Ariel301]

While seeds may seem cheaper than plants, I find that it's best to spend $1 on 4 young plants from local nursery than spend $2 on 30 seeds to only watch them not do near as well because I don't take as good of care of the seedlings.
.

Wow, I can't get four plants for a dollar anywhere around here! My options are limited to just big chain stores, no local nurseries. They only carry potted single plants here for $3.25 apiece! I went to get some strawberry plants and saw that, and decided on no strawberries...I used to be able to get them for $3 a dozen at a greenhouse. I think that I am going to set up some old lights I have laying around and make a nice indoor seed starting area and take seedlings to the local swap meet for sale. Maybe I can make my garden pay for itself that way!

Walmart here labels veggie plants as food, so I can buy them on foodstamps. For anyone else getting foodstamps, it might be good to check if your state and local stores have that policy, I can get plants and seeds that way from stores that accept the stamps. Also, ebay has some nice deals on big packages of seeds for really cheap. Many of them are packaged to last for years, they label them as "survival seeds".

Thanks for the link, budget-friendly ideas are always helpful to me, since I'm on a very low income.

 

[hoodat]

While seeds may seem cheaper than plants, I find that it's best to spend $1 on 4 young plants from local nursery than spend $2 on 30 seeds to only watch them not do near as well because I don't take as good of care of the seedlings.
.

Wow, I can't get four plants for a dollar anywhere around here! My options are limited to just big chain stores, no local nurseries. They only carry potted single plants here for $3.25 apiece! I went to get some strawberry plants and saw that, and decided on no strawberries...I used to be able to get them for $3 a dozen at a greenhouse. I think that I am going to set up some old lights I have laying around and make a nice indoor seed starting area and take seedlings to the local swap meet for sale. Maybe I can make my garden pay for itself that way!

Walmart here labels veggie plants as food, so I can buy them on foodstamps. For anyone else getting foodstamps, it might be good to check if your state and local stores have that policy, I can get plants and seeds that way from stores that accept the stamps. Also, ebay has some nice deals on big packages of seeds for really cheap. Many of them are packaged to last for years, they label them as "survival seeds".

Thanks for the link, budget-friendly ideas are always helpful to me, since I'm on a very low income.

I don't know about your state but here in California you can't sell live plants without a nursery license and regular inspections for pests and disease by the Department of Agriculture.

 

[boggybranch]

boggybranch, you change your Avatar more often than I wash my gardening sneakers!!!

(I DO change my socks a lot, though....)

Yep...Like the ever-changing garden, just with a little bit more control. (I think that I changed it 3 times, yesterday)

 

[ducks4you]

Yep...Like the ever-changing garden, just with a little bit more control. (I think that I changed it 3 times, yesterday)

I, for one, enjoy your "ever-changing" pics!!

 

[Ariel301]

I don't know about your state but here in California you can't sell live plants without a nursery license and regular inspections for pests and disease by the Department of Agriculture.

Well, you can't really sell anything anywhere without some sort of license... We "can't" sell eggs, cheese, milk, meat, vegetables, fruit, or even our animals without the USDA having their hand in it. We're technically not even allowed to breed our milk goats (or have an unplanned litter of farm kittens!) where we live without an expensive permit to operate a kennel or breeding facility, per our county's regulations. We've got a sort of unregulated swap meet outside town that local crafters and farmers go to and sell/trade things the way it used to be, before there were so many rules. I wouldn't necessarily encourage others to something like that if it's against the law, just saying that's what I'm going to try out. Anyway, that's a tangent...back to the regular topic.

 

[patandchickens]

It is a weird world we live in where *tips* are required for gardening "on a budget". I would have said that gardening is one of the most inherently cheap-to-free things you can do. Until magazines and martha stewart and the garden-proeucts industry came along, anyhow.

I mean, really. What do you need. Dirt. Organic material for tilth and fertilizer. Seeds. A shovel or pointy stick.

Only the shovel has to cost money ($3 at garage sale), and many people in the world do just fine with the pointy stick method.

The only thing that is NOT budgety about gardening is doing what you see in magazines/catalogs/etc, rather than simply saying "this is the soil and seeds I have freely available, I shall stick with those until and unless I can source other free seeds or etc"




Pat

 

[obsessed]

I agree with you pat. I have a friend that has a gorgeous garden. But he spends a ridculous amount of money on it. And he likes to brag about how much. I on the other hand do as cheaply as possible. Like the Lowes mark down rack... recycling containers so that I can have pots to plant in.