Most of us frugal people have heard that to save money on groceries you should grow vegetables in your backyard. While this is a purely plausible idea in theory, it can actually end up costing you more, or in my case, a lot more money than you would have spent just buying the produce at the store.
As a child, my mother always had vegetable and flower gardens. I helped her, and I eventually went on to have beautiful, elaborate flower gardens of my own. As an adult, I never had a great backyard for vegetable gardening, so I turned to container gardening. I mean how hard could it be? All of the money saving experts said it was the best way for apartment dwellers to grow food cheaply. Who was I to argue?
For my container garden, I bought one big plastic pot, soil, and several plants. In the big pot, I planted a cherry tomato plant that was advertised as perfect for patio gardening. In several smaller pots that I already owned, I planted an eggplant and a yellow cherry tomato plant.
I watered my little plants every day. They slowly grew, but after time I realized they weren’t growing any vegetables. The summer went by, and I only harvested a handful of cherry tomatoes.
So, in the end I didn’t save any money. Basically, I’d spent around $30 on a handful of cherry tomatoes.
So what went wrong? Here are some things to think about so that you can learn from my mistakes:
- Consider how much sun your patio gets. Mine faced the north, so it got very little sun, depriving my plants of nutrients they needed to grow veggies.
- Read up on what kinds of plants are best for container gardens. My poor eggplant probably never had a chance.
- Don’t go on a week-long vacation without lining up someone to water your plants while you’re gone. I probably could have gotten another handful of cherry tomatoes out of my plant if it hadn’t died of sudden drought.
- Use BIG containers. My cherry tomato plant that was in an enormous container grew three times taller than the cherry tomato plant that was in the smaller container, even though the one in the smaller container got more direct sunlight.
Can you save money by growing your own food? Sure. But take a little time to do some research and planning before you start. That’s a lesson I’m taking to the bank this indoor-growing season.
Gardening saves you money IF:
**You start from seed. You can get a pack of seeds for $.50. Plants usu. cost 7 times that amount. Start the seeds in yogurt cups in the window if you want them already growing come planting time.
**You amend your soil inexpensively. Make your own compost or buy aged manure for $1.50/bag.
**You plant things that are easy to grow, but expensive to buy. Ex. Zucchini, peppers, & pumpkins.
**You use inexpensive containers. Straight in the ground is the cheapest, but you can also use untreated discount lumber that you screw together to make raised garden beds or buy large pots at garage sales– you can even buy plastic garbage cans from the thrift store.
And, as you point out, your plants need water and sunshine!
I love gardening! If you garden for fun (not just to save money) aesthetics can win out over cost, but you really don’t need a lot of money to get started.