Hey there! I'm so excited that you are planning to join the global home growing revolution.
Did you know that starting your own vegetable garden can be a pocket-friendly endeavour? 🌿💰 Here are some money saving tips to get your garden growing without breaking the bank:
1. Start small
You don't have to have a massive space to grow more food. You also don't want to grow everything. Start small, maybe with a few herbs in pots and grow your garden from there. The key is to grow the top things you like to eat. Once you get the hang of a small space you can add to it. Eventually you can grow to preserve or even sell extra produce.
2. Knowledge is power to grow more food for less
Learn a new gardening concept every few days and apply it. Educate yourself about the specific needs of each vegetable you plan to grow. By understanding their requirements for water, sunlight, and soil, you'll prevent costly mistakes and ensure successful growth. Books, online resources, and local gardening communities are treasure troves of information waiting to be explored!
There are always new things to learn to enable your healthy thriving garden. Here are a few topics to start with:
Pest and disease identification, prevention and management
Companion planting & interplanting
Composting
Watering
Preserving
DIY trellising
Fertalising - understand NPK and your plant needs
You can preserve your garden produce in many different ways. From left to right: preserved lemon, diced frozen tomato, sun dried tomato in olive oil
3. Test out before you kit out
You might be tempted to install irrigation systems or raised beds when you see the beautiful gardens on social media platforms. But before you spend you hard earned money on fancy equipment, beds, fences, etc. establish whether gardening is for you. If you realise it's not really for you once you've given some herb pots or a small patch a go, at least you tried without over spending.
4. Allow a few plants go to seed
You'll definitely learn that some plants go to seed quite quickly and it can be based on a number of factors. So when they accidentally "bolt", don't remove all of them. Leave one or two of each variety to go to seed. This is a longer term process that will not only yield beautiful little flowers for pollinators, but with time it will create free seeds for you.
What's even better is that plants that are allowed to go to seed acclimatise to your garden space, so you're likely to have stronger plants from saved seed.
There are many ways to garden on a budget and avoid costly investments. One very important investment when starting out is to source good quality compost. This will set you up for success. Once you learn more about making compost, you can supplement what you need to purchase or even create your own compost.
Happy growing!
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