# How many garden to save money?



## Arcaneind (Apr 3, 2009)

Today I just built a frame for a "Victory Garden" in our backyard. I was just wondering how many of you "Frugal Forumers" actively garden?


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## pantograph (Apr 6, 2009)

I can't be bothered with most other stuff but the quality difference with home grown herbs and tomatos makes that a must in my small garden.


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## Ben (Apr 3, 2009)

We've got a 6x8 plot in the backyard that grows a few veggies. Mostly just a hobby really for now, as space is limited. One day, with a bigger backyard, I could definitely see us taking it seriously as a food source. I grew up in the country, and would love to return (after I seek my fortune in suburbia).


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## onomatopoeia (Apr 8, 2009)

Ours will be starting up soon....in the process of replacing our gravel backyard with a real backyard - including a 10x10 garden.

We do have some blueberry bushes which I'm a big fan of.


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## ubiquitous (Apr 5, 2009)

We have about 1000 square feet of vegetable garden. We grow tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, peas, beans, squash, carrots, melons, strawberries, pumpkins, zucchini, kohlrabi, beets, scallions, and a few other things that I can't think of right now.

We keep the garden mainly for everyday picking of vegetables, but some of the stuff gets stored and/or preserved. There's only two of us; that's why we can get away with such a small garden plot.

My MIL has the really big garden (requires a tractor) so we get our onions and potatoes from her.


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## Bullseye (Apr 5, 2009)

We have a small yard, but we grow cherries, rasberries, strawberries, tomatoes, herbs, and a few other things we experiment with. 

I like the monetary savings, but we do it mainly for the freshness and taste, and to show our young children where food actually comes from.


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## mfd (Apr 3, 2009)

I have north facing condo so growing things is tough. I do try and grow herbs simply for the fact that when you buy them you always get more then you need and end up throwing it out in 2 weeks. By growing them I can take what I need when I need it.


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## Patricia (Apr 3, 2009)

I grow tomatoes, lettuce, cucumbers and herbs, with only 2 of us to consume the produce it seems enough. Also have raspberries which produce a crop twice and strawberries


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## groceryalerts (May 5, 2009)

*It is a good idea for some herbs*

I like to do it for certain herbs (rosemary, basil), but I can honestly buy 10 pounds of local spuds for $3!


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## markievicz (Apr 11, 2009)

We garden because we like it, realistically the raccoons/squirrels get more of the veggies than we do. We can't control them. Although the critters don't eat chillies and coriander and we get through a lot of them (I'm married to a south asian guy who loves to cook) so maybe we make a bit of cash there. 

I'm tremendously excited this year to try the potato growing idea that was on lifehacker a while back. I'm a horrible Irish stereotype but do eat lots of potatoes.


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## ubiquitous (Apr 5, 2009)

markievicz said:


> I'm tremendously excited this year to try the potato growing idea that was on lifehacker a while back. I'm a horrible Irish stereotype but do eat lots of potatoes.


Please don't tie up your entire crop using this method. We tried it a few years back, using tires piled up on top of each other as the potato plant grew, and the results were dismal.

Maybe try it with just one plant, and see how it goes for you.


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## Antonia (May 2, 2009)

This year, I have planted a veggie garden to save money. It went in last week and I go out to look at it at least ten times a day. 

A favourite pasttime of mine is buying expensive organic broccoli and other greens at Whole Foods and leaving it until it spontaneously combusts or slithers out of the crisper.  It makes sense for me to go outside and pick it when I actually plan on using it. 

Rosina
Fifties Schmifties


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## Arcaneind (Apr 3, 2009)

Antonia said:


> This year, I have planted a veggie garden to save money. It went in last week and I go out to look at it at least ten times a day.
> 
> A favourite pasttime of mine is buying expensive organic broccoli and other greens at Whole Foods and leaving it until it spontaneously combusts or slithers out of the crisper.  It makes sense for me to go outside and pick it when I actually plan on using it.
> 
> ...


I don't think shopping at Whole Foods and Fruality work together at all! 

The cheese and meat counter of the Whole Foods sucks me in there every time I am in that part of Oakville! mmmmm... Cheese... It sure is one nice place.


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## CharlieD (Apr 4, 2009)

*Use loss leaders*

I was avoiding my local expensive supermarkets too until I realized that I could just pop in whenever I was passing by to pick up their loss leaders. I've gotten some great deals since I started doing this. I shop at Price Choppers for my regular supplies and save tons by avoiding the pricey stores for anything but their sales.

Also, I've always thought that it makes sense to have a garden for expensive produce like raspberries. My parents had tons of raspberry bushes for our family and it was wonderful as they didn't require much work (although it can be hard to keep the birds off.) Asparagus might be a good idea, too but I've never heard of home gardeners trying it?


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## hboy43 (May 10, 2009)

Hi there:

New around here, been hanging out at other sites. Greetings to those who know me from elsewhere, and those I am about to be newly aquainted with.

Gardening as a frugality measure is a fools errand, any job that pays 1/3 the minimum wage will provide a better payoff. That is if you equate 1 store carrot = 1 home grown carrot. However, if you value freshness, exercise, outdoors, etc, then it probably has a payback of around minimum wage.

I live rurally and have gardened for years, usually unsuccessfully. Unsuccessful in the sense that my yields are too low and my efforts have been too high. But like Charlie Brown, I keep trying to kick the football. I am getting better at it, but to do it well in my climate needs capital investment. Some day I am going to have a greenhouse..some day.

At least now with 5 half ton loads of half decade old cow manure in my 50x70foot plot, I have a fighting chance. No longer is soil the limiting factor, temperature is, closely followed by light levels. I at least understand why I garden poorly, and that is half the battle.

I recently constructed a new composter of dimensions 6 x 16 feet, split into two chambers. This sounds big, but in reality barely touches the needs of replenishing the soil. I currently collect about 4 cubic feet of vegetable matter a week from the school at which my wife works, and one of the local coffee shops. Now that I have a decent facility to compost, I will give attention to rounding up some new sources. It always puzzles me why municipalities have to collect organic matter, it seems to me that 1 serious gardener in 100 houses could make it all disappear.

My most successful crops are the mid temperature ones, things like beans, squash, carrots, onions. It isn't warm enough around here to do well with tomatoes or peppers, but too warm to do well with salad greens through the summer. If I don't get a good sized tomato plant into the ground in early May inside a cold frame, I harvest nothing.

Someone mentioned asparagus. I have some plants in that are on their third season, and some that are on their second season. I am not harvesting this year, but the older plants should be ready for a modest harvest next year. The older plants are about 4 feet high as we speak.

Supposedly fruit is a better return on one's efforts than vegetables, as an investment yields for many years. This sounds good in theory, but has not been my personal experence for two reasons: deer and the round headed apple borer. I had about two dozen trees in and about 1 dozen left. My total yield 5 years in is about 2 dozen apples. To have any chance whatsoever, I needed an 8 foot fence around the orchard (deer). This was a bit of money ($500 - $700 at a guess) and much sweat. Then, about 3 years in, I met the dreaded round headed apple borer, which took about half of my apple trees, or about 1/3 of all trees. There are two or three trees yet which I may pull out and burn this year.

I am hoping to get some grapes in. There is a patch on the property, but it loses sun by 1PM, so will never prosper where they are. Knowing the issues with temperature, I want to construct a few 6 foot high rock walls 10 feet long to have the grapes grow against. I am planning to put these walls between the trees in the orchard. This is also a project that needs more time than cash, as rocks and sand are all around, and all that one really must purchase is some portland cement and form lumber.

Well, that is my report. There is the moneygardener, then there is the actual gardener!

hboy43


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