Growing a vegetable garden is an integral part of frugal living. There are so many today who for various reasons are incorporating more frugal living tips into their everyday routine. How quaint. Most folks practice “frugal living” for survival purposes—in other words they have to in order to stretch the paycheck and home budget from week to week.
But even people with plenty of money have good reason to embrace frugal living techniques. You might want to save money on some things (like everyday cooking) so you can buy the expensive things you want, such as travel to exotic places. You might want to avoid waste, reduce your carbon footprint, or simply to put more money away for a rainy day.
Whatever the reason for your desire for more frugal living, you are in excellent company and a multitude of resources are available to you. Having your own vegetable garden can seriously reduce your food bill if you plan things properly. Buying plants, seed, garden implements, compost and other items thought to be necessary for proper gardening can become quite expensive if you don’t watch it!
There are ways to have a frugal vegetable garden, however, without compromising on your harvest.
One of those ways is to save your seeds. If you are not familiar with the difference between heirloom seed and hybrid seed, please reference this article, Heirloom Seed versus Hybrid. It explains the difference. Basically, heirloom seed are natural and will reproduce after their kind. Hybrid seed have been modified and will not reproduce after their kind. What that means is if you want to save your seed to plant a garden next year (which can save a lot of money), you need to begin with heirloom seed—not hybrid. To learn how to save seed, check out this article, How to Save Seed.
If you really want to be frugal, you can plant a basic vegetable garden without the roto tiller and the garden gloves! All you really must have is a good hoe and shovel (splurge and get the very best quality you can afford so they will last), a vegetable planting guide, and an almanac. The last two are usually free. Use the shovel to dig out any grass, big clumps of dirt, or roots from your chosen garden plot. Use the hoe to chop up your soil for planting, to build up your raised garden beds, to dig furrows and holes, and to keep out the grass.
To have a great vegetable garden, you don’t need to buy commercial compost—learn to make homemade compost in a compost pile or how to practice vermiculture. You don’t have to buy bagged commercial fertilizer—use organic fertilizer (chicken or horse manure is often free too). You don’t have to buy commercial pesticides—make homemade organic pesticide. You can barter or exchange for transplants with a local farmer or gardener—you don’t even have to buy plants if you prefer them over seed. You might join or start a community garden group to share the work and the harvest. You can store, dry and preserve your vegetables for consumption in winter. You can freeze your vegetables too.
As it turns out, vegetable gardening is one of the most healthy, frugal, trendy, “green”, eco-friendly, carbon footprint-reducing, and life-saving activities you could possibly undertake! Now, who among the old school would have ever thought vegetable gardening and frugal living could be so cool?
