Planning Your Gardening Strategies – Frugal Challenge
Spring will be here very soon, and I for one am excited to start getting my garden layout planned. Even though I know mostly what will be planted, it’s always a good idea to change things up a bit from year to year. The soil gets a break and there are pleasant surprises when we try something new.
One of the challenges we have when planning our garden is not going overboard. It’s not hard to get overwhelmed when walking into a garden center or nursery… and the plants and seeds are just the beginning. When you get past the actual plants, you are confronted with the garden gadgets.
Everyone that pages through the seed catalogs or wanders through the garden centers each spring knows the dangers. There among the tomato plants are the ‘problem solvers’ that entice us. Everything from irrigation systems to devices to get rid of critters. They are the special tools that promise a perfect gardening experience.
Of course, there is some merit to most of this stuff, but if one of the reasons you’re planting a garden is to provide inexpensive vegetables and fruit for your family, then you need to go in a different direction. You don’t want that beautiful beefsteak tomato to cost more than an actual beef steak! But, if you go for all the gadgets that promise the perfect garden, that may be exactly what happens.
When I think back to my grandparent’s and parent’s gardens, I don’t recall a bunch of contraptions with brand names attached to them, or bags of fertilizer or pesticides. What I do recall are homemade solutions to the problems that come with tilling up ground and sticking in some vegetables. Whether the problem was trying to discourage pests and critters from helping themselves to a snack, or improving the condition of the soil, my ancestors had a homegrown solution for it.
My ancestors used what they had on hand to tie up the tomatoes and beans. They created irrigation systems with a shovel, a hose, and maybe some milk jugs. They fought off the critters, big and small, with soap or even unsavory plants.
This year when you begin planning your garden, keep in mind some of the simplest methods that you can remember seeing people from your own past use. If you choose frugal solutions to your gardening problems, you may actually get the value you had hoped for out of your garden.
p.s. A fun resource for inventive ideas for gardening solutions is Joey Green’s Gardening Magic. You’ll find the information very useful and entertaining, as well.
Click on and take a look. This book could just keep you out of the gardening gadget aisle for another season!
And, please, if you have a favorite gardening solution, I would love to hear about it. Comment below to share whatever frugal gardening gadgets you’ve discovered.
Tags: frugal gardening, frugal gardening ideas, frugal gardening tips, gardening gadgets, gardening ideas
March 16th, 2010 at 3:17 am
My best friend found a great way to plant tomatoes early in Illinois. She saw an article where a “wall of water” alternative was made from plastic soda bottles. We will be trying this method this year and planting our tomatoes in April, several weeks before the frost date.
March 17th, 2010 at 7:10 am
I am going to try and get my garden into some sort of order this year after 10 years of neglect. your right about the danger of becoming over whelmed, you look at the size of the garden and think how am i going to sort this out without spending a small fortune.
well little steps i think is the answer, i am also scrounging whatever I can, so i have got bricks out of skips to make my path and old roof tiles for my bedding borders. It won’t be the neatest garden but it will be all mine.
March 25th, 2010 at 2:54 am
What a timely blog find, for me. My little indoor garden is starting to bloom and seeds have been packed and wrapped- waiting for the fist leaves. I am growing tomatoes, peppers, nasturtium (mmm! salads!) and herbs. People are a bit shocked I’m growing vegetables indoors but it hasn’t been as difficult as one might imagine.
I’ll second the soap for pests. I mix a can of soda (full sugar variety) with a tsp or two of dish soap and dilute it in water. The sugar gives a pep to the plants while enticing the little buggies to eat it, where the soap keeps the buggies from taking over.
We did end up making some of our own planters this year. I found those big bowls at the dollar store (think potato salad size) and poked some holes in the bottom. I’m using yogurt containers from the cheap four-pack Wal-Mart yogurt as herb planters for smaller herbs like parsley. Just poked some drainage holes in the bottom and it was good to go. I’m going to paint some cute designs on them when I have a free day.
Mom gave us a new set of dishes for Christmas so we’re using our old dishes as water catchers. It really looks great to have the dishes instead of a bunch of plastic water catchers. Plus, they’re free
For gravel to help the plants drain, I stole a bit of gravel from an old fish tank we had lying around. Extra nitrates included for free and makes moving the aquarium to a new home so much easier. I’ve also seen fish gravel for sale at our local thrift store- so keep a heads up!
Between this post and the broth post, I’ve been shored up on inspiration for the day. Time to make broth and watch the little sprouts grow.