I've always had a garden of my own, even when I just grew potted cherry tomatoes on my small porch in our apartment back when my kids were small (and the apartment complex's kids all stole them). As we moved to bigger places, my garden grew with the size of the yard. When we moved into the house where we live now, my garden was super tiny, even though we had the room to make it huge. But it was during the beginning of the lockdown, and I was too scared to think about buying seeds or plants. But last year, I bought a plastic green house and my tomatoes overfloweth. This year, we are doubling the size of our garden, and we expanded the types of food we're growing, as well as designing a whole new way for us to garden.
Each year, I learn from the mistakes from the previous year and use what I learn to make each garden better. Last year, I put both my kale and my Brussel sprouts in my greenhouse. Oops. I had no idea that cruciferous vegetables were cold lovers. No wonder my kale was spindly and my Brussels never came to fruition. They were too hot! So this year, I will direct sow them in the middle of July, so that way they will be ready in the fall, when they will actually grow properly. We live in zone 5, so we get hot summers and harsh winters, which only gives us a growing season of 3-4 months (although I start my seeds indoors in March or April).
So what I'm doing different this year, compared to previous years, are few things:
- I created a garden journal. I designed one on Canva to have printed on Amazon, but for my personal one, I'm going to hand write it all in. I numbered my seeds and put the matching number on the seedlings so I know which plant is what. And I will record information about each seed and plant in my journal so that way next year's garden will be even better with the information I record from this year. I'll show you some pics below.
- I'm strictly doing container gardening. We have a horrible burdock problem in our yard, so we'll be covering up the entire ground in the garden with cardboard to kill it, and cover that in mulch. Then we'll be using Rubbermaid bins with holes drilled in the bottom, filled with rocks, then sticks, then compost, and then dirt (and topped with mulch).
- I'm creating trellises to grow my luffas on, as well as my squash. I'm taking metal fence pieces and bending them overhead and attaching them to posts for all of my climbing plants.
Eventually, we will be living on a bigger piece of land and expanding our garden to something more farmette sized. Although, I want to make money off of my garden, that's not the main reason I grow food. I grow food to live more sustainably and to save money on produce. But some may ask, is it worth it?
Because I will say the amount of time you put into a garden may not pay off if you do not choose crops that produce a lot food. In the summertime, most produce goes so far down in price that it could end up costing you more in time, water, mulch, etc. than it would be just to buy the food at the store. And so that's why you need large producing plants, and lots of them. And if you overproduce, to the point it's too much for you, you can choose to freeze it, can it, or sells it. You can also makes things like tomato sauce or hot sauce or other items with your produce to either can, freeze, or sell.
Though I prefer to grow too many plants to sell, rather than selling an over production of produce. It's so much less work, and I am all about doing the least about of work that produces the most amount of yield. And while you may be able to make more money selling the produce itself, in order to actually be sustainable, you need that overproduction of produce to last you longer than a single season. And right now, my garden is only sized for my family, so my overproduction is only for us (and maybe a little for the neighbors). So for me, the most amount of yield is to have the most amount of actual plants, so I can keep several and sell the rest. And, I make sure I buy overproducers, so that I can get the most bang for my buck when my plant produces fruit, as well as being able to sell my plants at better price, as the customer will be happy to get an overproducing plant.
Which is why I have my garden journal. I need to remember which plant has what properties and the journal keeps all that information in a single place.
What an easy way to make some extra money, to grow plants, even if we only intend on selling the plants themselves, rather than the fruit they produce. And the Dollar Tree sells seeds for 25 cents, so you could get started for sooooo cheap. So anyone could save some used mushroom containers (the little plastic trays mushrooms come in) or something of the sort, get some potting mix from the dollar store, and plant their seeds (and keep them wet). And once they grow bigger, you can separate them into bigger containers to get them ready to sell. I get my bigger containers on Amazon (I buy these-though there are smaller and cheaper ones you can find on there, too). And you can sell the plants on Facebook Marketplace, or even on Craigslist, or have a plant sale like a garage sale.
Plus, you'd be able to grow your own food. And if you're poor? You really need to be growing your own food. And food stamps cover seeds in most, if not all, states. I should know, we didn't get off food stamps until 2021, after being on them for my entire adult life. And even though I always had a garden, I never really took gardening seriously until last year, when I realized I could do so much more than I had in the past.
And it's not even that hard to do. Not even the stuff that sounds hard, like composting. Here is an easy step-by-step plan to get you started with growing you own food:
- Get your containers or prepare your space. I am using Rubbermaid bins I found at a resale shop this year. I drilled holes in the bottom and filled them with rocks, then sticks, then compost, then dirt and will top them with mulch after the plants are planted. Here is the video on how I learned how to do this. If you're going to prepare your planting space on the ground, don't till it. Instead, cover it with cardboard (save those Amazon boxes!), and then top with straw (if you can afford it), and then mulch (you can get it free through your city or even through a tree cutting company). Here is a video on how to do that.
- Figure out what seeds you want to grow. You can go to the Dollar Tree and pick up seeds for 25 cents, or go where I went this year, which is RareSeeds.com.
- Get your seed starting containers, if it's early in the year (red cups work well!). Start them indoors, 6-8 weeks before the last frost. Here is a great video on growing seedlings.
- Get your bigger plant pots so they grow into hardy plants before planting them outdoors. Again, red cups work well for this.
- Plant them outdoors either in the containers or in your garden space. Remember, tomatoes love calcium, so make sure you're not using old used dirt, otherwise all the nutrients will be gone (which is what compost helps with).
- Create a compost bin for next year. Get yourself a big 'ol garbage can with a lid and two bungee cords that can be hooked into the little holes in the handles across the top of the lid. Like this. Keep all your weekly newspaper ads that come in the mail (or if you get the paper, keep those) and shred them. Don't use the glossy ads though. Just the papery ones. I keep my shreds in a garbage bag. When you compost, you do equal parts green and brown. Green=food scraps, lawn waste. Brown=dead leaves, sticks, shredded paper or cardboard, etc. So when you put food in it, throw some paper or dead leaves in. Sticks should be really broken really small. Use the bungee cords to criss-cross across the top and secure in the handle holes. Give it a good roll around the yard once a week or more. Gotta aerate it! This will be mixed into your dirt for next year's garden. Even if you don't use it in a garden (you can give it away when it's ready, or throw it in a dirt area), it's a great way to get rid of food scraps (though no meat or fat, or citrus--check out this list here on what's acceptable food to compost). And if you find a worm in your yard? Throw it into your compost!
- Here is a great video on watering (though not just for watering, but it includes that and this video is for tomato plants, but you can do some research on other plants, too). You can always water small amounts every single day if you like, after the sun goes down. But if you want the best bang for your buck, watch that video, and other great videos on the subject on YouTube.
- Make a plan of what to do with your overages of produce. Will you freeze it? Can it? Give it away? Sell it?
- Be patient, because once they start producing, they won't stop. Check your garden every day so you don't miss anything.
- Consider creating a community garden in your front yard. Less mowing, and you get to get to know your neighbors. Also, consider buying fruit trees to either share fruit with neighbors or family or to freeze or can yourself. Fruit trees (or nut trees), especially the dwarf varieties, are very low maintenance.
- Save your seeds! Dry them, then label them. This is very important, otherwise, you'll have to buy new seeds next year. You can even sell your seeds if you like.
- Enjoy your own home grown food!
If you live in the middle to upper states, consider investing in a greenhouse to help protect against sudden frosts.
Growing food to eat only one season out of the year isn't all that sustainable, as you can get cheap produce in the summer and fall easily at the grocery store. But that doesn't mean you shouldn't do it. Start small, and let your garden grow with the knowledge you accumulate as you go (and as your yard gets bigger). Or, consider indoor hydroponics if you don't have the outdoor space. But if you grow food so that you have an overabundance each year that lasts well into winter? Then you're living a more sustainable life. This is the type of gardening that will help you and your family in times of inflation on groceries (as we're seeing right now in 2022), as well as if we ever have a lockdown again. Or, even if none of those things happen, you won't have to pay for food at the grocery store as much. Saving money is always a good thing.
This year, we're adding egg-laying hens to our sustainable homestead, so eventually, we won't have to pay for eggs, which are also going up in price. Is having your own eggs worth the price of the chickens, as well as the feed and everything else? I really don't know yet. I hope so. But we'll see. But remember, there is no such thing as failure. Everything in life is an experiment to see what works and what doesn't. Your garden is, too. So don't get discouraged if things don't work the first or the seventh time around. You learn from what didn't work and try again in a different way. Just keep on experimenting to find what works for you.
Good luck and happy gardening!!
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