#7. Budget Conscious Vegetable Growing Ideas
To have a garden is in itself a great thing and growing your own vegetables can be a great experience. Have you always wanted to have your own vegetable garden, but are afraid of the expense? The following ideas will help you grow your vegetables the budget conscious way.
Buy seed packets rather than the plants themselves. This will save you money because quite often seed packets are a mere fraction of the cost of the seedlings. You can try shopping online where you can get some great discounts and offers. It really is great fun to watch the seeds popping up out of the soil rather than starting out with a little plant.
You can get the seeds out of the vegetables you are eating to save on buying seed packets. Collect the seeds; dry them and then plant them all at absolutely no cost.
When shopping for plants always go for the smaller ones as they cost less. Shop around, you may find some small plants being sold as a group at a discount price. Before you part with your money, always make sure you have checked out the discount stores and nurseries. There are also some catalogs from which you can get reasonably priced plants.
If you have friends who are gardeners, you can always start swapping seeds. If you don't have any gardening friends, it is always possible to make some new ones by signing up for the local gardening club. It's a great way to meet people and learn growing techniques that will help your vegetable garden along. People also have great money saving ideas for vegetable gardens that they don't mind sharing.
You can reduce the costs of gardening by splitting the vegetables into in-ground and container gardening. Some of the smaller vegetables like beans and peas will do well in containers. When you use containers you need less soil, compost, fertilizer and water.
Take stock of the vegetables you actually grow; by weeding out some of the more exotic ones you can really cut cost. It is best to grow the absolute essentials and pick up the more exotic ones from a grocery store during those rare occasions when you feel like eating them.
Make your own compost instead of buying compost, this will save you money. You can make your own compost pile in any old drum or wooden box you have.
You can even try selling some of your produce at the local weekly market.
There are lots of ways to grow your vegetables in a budget conscious way and still have the pleasure of gardening.