12 Easy Tips To Save Money While Gardening
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- Опубліковано 14 лип 2024
- Today I thought I would share some quick tips that I use to help save money while gardening. I love gardening for a lot of reasons. It is a source of enjoyment that serves as a wonderful classroom for my son and it helps me save some money. While I have invested in building my garden this is the time of year it starts to pay me back in produce.
0:28 Reduce the Cost of Groceries
1:06 Focus on High Cost Crops
1:18 Free and Local Fertilizer Resources
2:00 Make Free Garden Soil
2:08 Using Rain Water to Save Money
2:43 Reusing Water from the Kitchen in the Garden
2:53 Save Seeds to Save Money
3:05 Starting your own Seedlings Saves Money
3:32 Investing in Perennial Fruit and Nut Producing Plants
3:51 Propagating Perennials to Save Money
4:08 Process Crops to Higher Value Products
4:43 Building from Recycled or Naturally Sources Materials - Навчання та стиль
Well Done! Growing up in the rural part of North Carolina, having and being surrounded by gardens was a part of life. My family did not have to worry about recalls on food because when you grow your own food you know what you are putting in your body. You can save a lot of money by growing your own fruits and vegetables right in your backyard or in flower pots. The price of a pack of seeds is almost equivalent to what you would pay for a single vegetable or fruit at the store, saving you hundreds of dollars each season!
My money saving gardening tip is to develop a list of seasonal recipes that use vegetable available in your garden at a specific times of the year. For example, we make a stuffed peppers recipe that uses zucchini in the summer and we make a stuffed peppers that uses butternut squash in the fall.
That is a great idea!1 Thanks!
pretty much hit all of them! Great episode Stephen!
Thank you Luke!
***** the thing I find most interesting is that you and I both refer to the garden as an investment that "pays you back" and I get comments on that all the time. I will be interested to see if people grasp the concept better from your video. I don't know why but people just didn't understand that money you don't have to spend is like your garden paying you.
I am certain some people will struggle with it. That's alright though. I do financial justification as a part of all of my projects so hopefully those skills will help explain the return on investment.
I am amazed at how much you have done with such a small space. Moreover, I am very impressed that you can do this with only about 3 months of "warm" weather. In the Dominican Republic, we have sunshine all year long, which i'm sure you'd get a lot of benefit from. I have definitely taken up a lot of pointers from your videos and I will be surely developing my techniques and results Thank you!!!
That is true we have a short season but the sun hits my garden at peak for 17 hours a day! It supercharges our season a bit!
I bet you could produce a lot of food down there!
Excellent tips, Stephen! Your garden is looking great!
Thank you my friend! I can't believe how well this years garden is doing! I nearly can hide like you do ;)
We pay a certain amount for every container of green waste the city collects. It pays to compost. General trash like broken buckets or containers and pieces of wood often find a new life in the garden as well before thrown out years later. General trash is 3 times more expensive here to get rid of. Not much more i can think of. I think i have bought salt, toiletpaper and a snickers bar this week instead of 60 euros of groceries. It sure adds up! Thanks for the great video, Stephen! It's good to be reminded of all the reasons to keep going.
I am sure we will get to paying more for our trash too. It's amazing how much we don't notice we are saving !!
I love to use second hand items or even better free stuff in the garden. Beds, trellises, and fencing can all add up if you are buying new. Some things are worth the money to me though. My pruning shears is a cheap pile of junk and does damage to the plants with it's dull cuts, definitely should've spent a bit extra for a higher quality tool in that case. In the end I garden because I enjoy it and would likely continue even if it wasn't saving me a lot of money, that's just an added benefit.
My thoughts exactly. I love the hobby and teaching my son. Saving money is just an bonus !
save money and enjoy your garden all at the same time !b🐝🐞🐤👍👍
Great suggestions Stephen!!. The old turkey fig tree that came with the property I reside on is the most productive and low maintenance perennial here. I took a few cuttings this year, and one of them rooted well. I would recommend anyone who is into self sufficiency and lives in a zone where figs can be grown in the ground to have at least one tree.
That is wonderful! I have a few figs in containers as they are not hardy to my zone. I hope to enjoy some this year ;)
Wow does your garden look delish. great vid thanks for sharing.
Most of it tastes great too ;) Glad you enjoyed the video.
I spent a lot up front but I make my own compost, am on my own water well. I dump pro mix soil from containers into garden or compost bin. I'm working on extending the season with cold frames/greenhouse for more crops and more production (square foot gardening ). Canning might be another tip.
It sounds like you have a good system. I suppose I could have mentioned season extension as a way to increase crops and savings.
Great video! Thank you! :) The only thing that I do that you didn't mention already is I cut my own stakes for bean poles and tomatoes. There is an abandoned wood lot in my neighborhood with quite a few scrubby trees and shrubs. I cut the branches into poles with a lopper. I also do this when I prune sometimes or when a tree falls naturally (provided the tree isn't infested with some kind of insect.) Don't worry, I'm careful which trees I select for this, and never take all of anything.
That's a good way to get stakes. I just put in a bunch of trellis but have relied on bamboo. I should have looked for opportunities like you did ! Thanks for the great tip !
Nice wine collection you have there!
It makes for fun entertaining when I can bring out a bottle of the home brew.
Great video Stephen.
Thank you !
Great video! Going to the garden is like going to the grocery store this time of year-- there's so much coming in.
I agree it is wonderful and very enjoyable to go shopping !
wow thanks for the great video I know my garden has saved our family in more than one way!
It was eye opening when I put this clip together how much the garden saves !
I live in NE Alabama, zone 7b. I am able to root suckers from my first crop of tomatoes for a second crop to be planted at the end of July. I use recycled pots and my own worm casting/compost mixture to root the suckers. I can also save the seeds from these two crops for the following year.
Wow that's a great idea to double up on crops.
I live outside of Houston, TX (zone 8b-9) and I do the same thing with the suckers on my tomatoes. I also root my tomato prunings, so I get a whole new crop of tomatoes for fall.
My hometown has a program through the waste company that allows you to get free compost. They can not guarantee that it is organic because it's made from the green waste of the whole town. Also during winter, ranchers are more that willing to give you there rotting hay for mulching as long as you pick it. I've also heard that tree companies will give wood chips for free as long as you pick them up or pay for delivery.
Those are great resources !! I am looking for woodchips for my perennial bed !
Thank you for the video and the nice ideas. Here in Holland they don't charge extra for water during dry periods but anyhow invested in extra 180 tank which has been very useful up to now
It is just nice to know if you do have a water ban you can keep your plants going !
Don't forget, It's a hobby, so don't stress out about spending a bit of money on something you enjoy!
The last to gardening seasons have not been very good in my area of BC. What I was able to harvest, I quickly put down whether it was freezing or canning. Two seasons ago, I was able to make so much pasta sauce and pizza sauce that I have not had to buy a jar of it in well over a year.
Seasonality is such a major player. Now think of the fact that we rely on the weather for our food source.
Nice list. I have two video ideas I would like to see: Can you show us how you constructed your fence (rabbits have moved into my garden) and how you make your wine (my grapes will be ripening soon).
I would also like to see how the wine is made
I did do a video two years ago on making rhubarb wine :) it's old so please forgive me !
ua-cam.com/video/1QeK0zGS3-s/v-deo.html
Well done my friend! This time of year I barely buy any fruit nor vegetable, just eat fresh, local food, even some fresh fish from the lake ;-)
it is such a great time of year hey!! I love!
Agreed :-)
another great vid! thank you!
I am glad you enjoyed it !
Thank you for your video. It was clear and easy to follow---and gives me hope that maybe my attempt at gardening will someday be a complete success.
It just takes time to learn. I have enjoyed both my successes and failures!
Great video! I love making wine out of my surplus crops. In missouri it was a great year for peaches and cucumbers.
Fresh peaches sound wonderful!! are you able to brew with them,?
Oh yeah! I have 10gal of peach wine brewing right now. Other than the peaches, I will add water, sugar/honey, and wine yeast to get a 15%abv peach wine.
nice!
My herb garden saves me heaps :-) and they grow all year long here :-)
Oh I wish ! I just hacked of 10$ worth of Thyme !
Great job :)
Thank you!
I'll bet if you made your wine a private label vintage, you could sell out on-line and make a tidy profit! Just remember to sell no wine b4 its time! Lol!
It's a friends and family stock :) they enjoy it and I make it :)
Hey Stephen, I was wondering if you could do s short video on whether or not Canola oil is an effective organic pesticide to use in the garden?.
Thanks and keep pumping out the great content!
I will write it down and see if I can't get to it sooner rather than later
awesome.... but i think you forgot something:: CANNING..... Do you not can your food- or even turn your cucumbers into pickles???
I do canning quite a bit I lump that into the "processing" tip I just wanted to use the photos I took of my wine ;)
OMG!!!! that wine looks so tasty!!! you're awesome and just love your videos - thank you for sharing all your knowledge!!!
it is better than it looks ;)
I'd love to see a video on the making of your wine. Looks great!
here is an older video on rhubarb wine ua-cam.com/video/1QeK0zGS3-s/v-deo.html
You did really great in Zone 3!! Do you know what zone is Toronto Ontario please?
haha, when you were talking about saving water the next shot was you squeezing water out of a tomato. I thought you were going to say you save on water cost by juicing your tomatoes and reusing the water!
I did not think of that lol. I did use the water in the garden :)
i was thinking the same thing. squeeze a drop from each tomatoe and you can gain 1L of water per year. lol
my mistake in post producing lol
To boost productivity, incorporate some animals and insects into the garden. You don't need a full farm to raise animals, even a small suburban lot can work.
Start with a bee hive. A standard Langstroth hive takes up very little room, will increase pollination (and thus garden yields), and produces between 40-80lbs of honey a year in the north. The bees are quite tame (stings only happen when the bee keeper is careless). You won't be bothered by a productive hive of honey bees. The only concern is ignorant neighbors... I'd do this on a minimum of 3-5 acres just because of the neighbor issue.
Next up is rabbits. They will eat a lot of your garden waste and weeds. The manure produced is superior to compost, and can be applied directly without having to mature. The rabbits themselves dress out to about 3lbs of meat each in a meat production system. A breeding doe will have 8-12 babies after a 30 day pregnancy, and they are to harvest weight at 12-14 weeks. The doe is ready to breed again between 60-90 days after her last kindling (giving birth). Stacked cages in a small shed can produce hundreds of pounds of meat a year from your garden surplus, and give 3-5 times that weight in manure for use in the garden. They make no noise, and are not generally prohibited in suburban areas. Don't worry about the cold, they love it. In hot areas, you need to keep them cool, but -15°F is nothing to a rabbit. When you butcher them, you also get blood and bone for making fertilizer (just drain the blood into a pan, set the bones in, bake on low temp for a few hours until the blood is dry and the bones brittle, then grind the bones, scrape the pan clean and bag it up).
Chickens lay an egg a day, 5-6 days a week, pretty reliably. If your family uses a dozen eggs a week, 3 hens will produce that for you in a small area. There are quiet breeds, but check with local zoning laws to see if you can keep them. They can also be fed on garden waste, table scraps, and love to eat bugs. You get meat, eggs, manure, feathers (a good soil amendment), blood and bone, and pest control.
Fish are another great way to go. Even if you don't have room for a pond, 2x 55 gallon drums work great for this. In the north use bluegill, in the south, you can do tilapia. Just fill one barrel with water, and pump it in a recirculating fashion through the second barrel filled with gravel (as a filter), and back into the first. The clean water is oxygenated. Check out aquaponics videos for details. You can harvest the fish. You can plant crops in the filter barrel, and use the filtered sludge as fertilizer. Set an LED flood-light over the fish barrel at night, and bugs will come in and feed the fish. The fish heads, skin, scales, fins and bones are great fertilizer. Throw them in a blender and may a liquid fishmeal.
All of this could be done on a 1/20th acre lot in a dense city neighborhood. Animals are vital to closing the loop. They will convert waste back into productive soil such that you don't need to bring in external fertility. Properly planned, they can even do work for you. A couple of weeder geese for example can really help clear garden paths. Ducks will devour slugs and snails. There's always an animal you can use productively on any scale, and in any situation.
I know there are some people here who aren't into producing their own meat. As far as plants go, wood mulch is the best investment you can make. It conserves water, reducing a water bill. It improves the soil, and helps hold in nutrients, reducing fertilization needs, and it's usually free by the truck load. Check with your town, city or county dept. of public works. Nearly every town has a municipal mulch and compost program, and they are typically free if you come to shovel it. Some places offer delivery (usually full 10 cubic yard dump trucks) for a small fee.
If you can't keep larger livestock, check craigslist. There are almost certainly free sources of horse manure if you'll come to pick it up. It contains undigested seeds, so you need to compost it in a hot pile for a couple of weeks to kill off weeds, but most people who keep horses end up with more than they can use, and the seed issue makes it impossible to sell. They will be more than happy if you come haul away a few truck loads.
You can grow bamboo for stakes in almost any climate. I'm in Zone 4, and I grow black bamboo and incense bamboo, which never reach the full 3" diameter in my climate, but make good 3/4" 12' tall stakes.
If you pay for trash pickup, composting can save you tons. Just buy a separate compost trash can for your kitchen (with an air-tight lid). All kitchen waste, paper, cardboard etc goes into this bin. You'll cut your trash volume by 80-90%, meaning lower trash service bills in many areas, and you get valuable compost from it.
Don't forget the value of shade trees in reducing cooling costs. A well-placed tree can keep the house temperature down by 20°F in the summer, then drop it's leaves and let the sun in during the winter. That means a lot less electricity consumed running air conditioning.
If you have a little more room (a couple of acres), you can plant a small firewood copse. Grow the trees at a 6' spacing (forcing them to grow tall instead of branching), and when they hit 8" in diameter, cut them down for firewood. Many trees will re-grow from the stump (called coppicing), and since they already have established roots, they regrow very quickly. Since you control the size of the wood by cutting it yourself, you don't even need to split it, just cut logs to the desired length, then chip any twigs and small branches for mulch. A 100'x100' area produces ash trees for me (no worries about ash borer, if they get in and ring the tree, I just cut it and let it regrow below the area they attack). That's enough that I could get into a 5 year rotation and save about $5,000 a year on heating.
I try to produce almost everything myself. I made a brick form out of some old pallets. When digging in the garden, I wanted to remove some excess clay, so I broke it up in buckets of water, using a drill with an auger bit. Skim the debris off the slip clay, let it settle out, pour off excess water, and pack it into the forms. Remove the form, let it sun-dry for a few weeks, and throw them in my fire pit. Now I have pavers for the garden at 0 cost. You could make your own flower pots, even plates and bowls if you're so inclined. The garden isn't the only source of cost savings on your land.
You have a lot of great ideas on how to better live in harmony with the earth instead of bending it to your will, definitely some things to think about here. Thanks for sharing.
Thank you my friend ! What wonderful ideas ! I certainly wish I could have animals. We have a prohibited list in my town and honey bees are something I am working on getting off that list.
They increase yields whole themselves producing. What better way to increase the value of your garden !
It sounds like your property is working well for you! I wish I had that kind of room.
This is way off topic, but could you produce a video on your weight loss?
Yes I second that. He said he was thinking about it.
I have some ideas jotted down and hope to produce it in the next few weeks :)
I appreciate your noticing !
Thank you!
save money and enjoy your garden all at the same time !b🐝🐞🐤👍👍
It is lots of fun and saves money!
Thank you for the video and the nice ideas. Here in Holland they don't charge extra for water during dry periods but anyhow invested in extra 180 tank which has been very useful up to now