The following is the first in a series of guest posts from Rene at Budget Saving Mom. Rene is a woman after my own heart; frugal and self-sufficient. I am so pleased that she offered to share her gardening methods with us! Starting a small garden this year is a major goal of mine. Let’s get inspired!
“How do you ensure that your children eat healthy foods, and still live on a budget?”
This is a question I often hear. The answer for our family is simple: by gardening!
Eating fresh, healthy, organic food is very important to me. There is no way that I could stay within our budget of $100 for food and toiletries for our family of 5 (soon to be 6) a month and not garden. We love to eat fresh organic vegetables and fruits, and most of our meals center around these.
I started small when I began to garden. I had only a small area to grow foods. I was basically able to grow my own salad foods. We ate a couple of salads each day. This saved us a good bit of money during the summer.
We now have four gardens that provide us food throughout the year. We have smaller gardens for fresh fruits and vegetables throughout the year. Then we also have a very large garden that we share with four other families to provide food for storage which we can, dehydrate and freeze.
Basically through gardening and preserving my food, I rarely have to buy fresh vegetables, fruits, or herbs. I also rarely have to buy canned, dehydrated or frozen fruits and vegetables. We are able to save our seeds each year so that are gardens are FREE after the initial seed purchase. For me to buy the fresh, organic foods that we eat at a store, would cost us about $200 a week, however, through growing our own food, we are able to eat the majority of our food for FREE.
Anyone can garden, as long as you have a sunny patio or porch. There are four main types of gardens that I have utilized- container gardening, raised bed gardening, landscape gardening and traditional gardening. I will cover each of these methods in our series.
When I worked full time, I only spent about 5 minutes a day gardening, but I was still able to have fresh foods for dinner for my family for about nine months out of the year. There are ways to reduce or eliminate weeds naturally. There are gardens that can work with every lifestyle, and I really hope to encourage each of you to start at least a small garden this year.
What questions do you have about starting a garden?
Rene blogs at Budget Saving Mom about couponing, freebies, being a good steward of what God gives us and organic gardening. She is a homeschooling mother of 3 with another on the way. She loves to teach others how to save money on their budget.
This post is linked to Works for Me Wednesday and Frugal Friday.
I’ll be following this series of posts. Our family has our first garden in 14 years. Last night we had fresh squash, zuchini and a cucumber from our own garden. Plus my sister sent fresh peaches grown by her father-in-law. It was great to eat the fruits of our labor. I don’t really think about the money savings but I definitely have thought about the benefit of healthier eating.
I’m very excited about reading this series of posts. I’ve wanted to garden for years, but am unsure how to start. Is it too late to plant one for this season?
.-= Nessa´s last blog ..Project of the Week: DIY Spice Rack =-.
@Nessa, It should not be too late in most areas of the country. I live in North Carolina, and we have been planting our summer garden over the past couple of weeks.
Gardening has saved us a bundle as well! This is only the 3rd year of gardening for us, and I can’t believe it took us so long to dive in. I preserve most of our foods–and my family has gotten to the point where they do not like the store bought counterparts.
I will definitely be following along with this series. Gardening, especially with heirloom/open-pollinated seeds, and self-sufficiency are near and dear to my heart. 🙂
.-= Phoebe @ GettingFreedom´s last blog ..Finding Normalcy =-.
Okay, here’s one of my biggest weaknesses – plant life. You know how some people have a green thumb (my mom and my sister are able to grow stuff like it’s second nature), some people have a brown thumb (but at least they can keep some stuff alive), and then there’s me – the black thumb. I did not get the gardening genes of the family (yet it seems everyone else DID). Plants that I touch seem to die. 🙁
But I can definitely see the merit of gardening. And to be truthful, now we have room for a garden, we’re on a 1/3 acre, and we already have a mini orchard in our backyard with grapefruit, clementines, tangelos, pomegranates, avocados, kumquats, and oranges. My husband takes care of the trees or else poor things would not do well. I have no idea what to do with the excess of citrus fruit, though. We have more fruit than we can eat, so we end up giving alot away, except for the avocados, which we literally only got 3 this year…
So, I guess my question(s) is/are: Starting with nothing but some dirt (with weeds in it, LOL) what are the very very first steps (prior to the actual planting)? What’s an easy way to water a garden? How do you decide what to plant? Canning seems expensive when you have to buy all the jars and stuff – is there a cheaper way? How do you keep dogs (we have two) out of the garden? How do you know WHEN to can (don’t most people only can once a year?)? And what CAN you do with citrus fruit (other than eat it fresh)??
Sorry to litter the comments section with questions, but I’m newbier than a newbie!!
@Melinda P, I actually just wrote a post for people that have never gardened before yesterday. You can check it out here.
http://budgetsavingmom.com/2010/05/25/how-to-start-a-garden/
As far as dogs, usually you need a fence. I also dehydrate and freeze my food. I can all year long. I can stews and soups in the winter, pumpkin and sweet potatoes in the fall, & vegetables and fruit all summer long. Each year I spend budget about $100 on additional jars for my family, and my supply keeps growing. I actually ask for jars each year for my birthday in March. (-: My friends give me jars that they might have around their house from gifts or craft projects, I am always looking for jars at garage sales, plus I have found quite a few at estate sales. The upfront cost of the canner is expensive, but it lasts forever.
@Rene @BudgetSavingMom, Thank you!!! 🙂
What a hehlpful series this will be for me, too!
I’m wondering: “hearing” you say that you spent only five min./day working in the garden when you weren’t a SAHM…..may I ask what you did during that time? In the past, I’ve become overwhelmed by trying to get rid of the weeds in our garden, and THEN by trying to keep things well-watered enough during the July-August drought, and could really use some pointers.
Thank you so much. 🙂
@Mrs. R., I used raised bed gardening when I only gardened for about 5 minutes a day. I will be talking about how to do that in an upcoming post. Hope it is helpful! Rene
We’re looking forward to starting a small patio garden when we move next week.
.-= Rona´s last blog ..More Photos From Our Apartment Model Tour =-.
Planted my first tomato plants this year! I have four tomatoes already – I’m in south MS… So excited!
I garden and love it but I clearly don’t do it to the extent you do – you are an inspiration to me! One question: how do you possibly feed a family of 5 (6) on $100 week?! If I could master that my husband would proclaim me a genius! 🙂
Love your site – just found it tonight. I’ll follow along…and enlarge the garden plot. Thanks for sharing.
@Denise,
we have a family of 5 and I don;t even spend $100 most weeks and I do not garden
@Denise and Cindy, I looked up at what Rene posted and she said $100 per month, not per week! We also have a family of 5, $100/week would be fairly easy for us to stick to, even with two in diapers, but $100/month – WOW! I couldn’t even fathom!
We put in a garden this year and I LOVE it! I totally understand the green/brown/black thumb comment…I’d say mine is squarely brown (because I am terrible at hand watering the plants! I love to plant them, but then the garden is less of a priority for me). We found the perfect solution — a DRIP SYSTEM!!! This is an absolute necessity for us. It gives the plants the water they need each day without having to rely on me to remember. or just do it. There is an initial cost of the drip system, but the rewards of a garden that actually grows is tremendous. We just harvested our first peas! My one year old daughter and I go out there and walk through the garden most days…I’m so happy that she likes eating the peas too! Fresh from the garden is the BEST!
Thanks for this post.
Not only is starting a garden better on your budget, it’s better on your stomach.
My wife and I recently watched Food, Inc. on youtube and what we saw was pretty disturbing. So much food out there is bad for you…even when it is pitched as healthy.
Start a garden for a healthy body…and wallet.
.-= Bern´s last blog ..Ways to Prevent Identity Theft =-.
I couldn’t agree with you more! Gardening saves us so much money each year.
@Melinda P, Wow! Now you’ve really got my attention. Perhaps I’m just a dolt, but how do you buy produce, dairy, regular staples, meat, etc. on $100 or less a week? I plan dinners in advance (using what I have on hand as much as possible), shop deals with coupons, stock up when there’s a terrific deal, etc. Yet, I can’t imagine getting that done with $100/wk. Any tips/secrets you want to share?
thanks!