Vegetable Gardening on the Cheap

Friday, May 21, 2010 by Jeremy Dore - Categories: vegetable gardening economy
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Earlier this week one of the large DIY Chain stores sent me their catalogue with 'Grow Your Own' proclaimed prominently on the front cover.  Intrigued by what a store that sells bathroom suites could offer me for growing vegetables I took a look before relegating it to the recycling pile.  I was amazed by how much they consider necessary equipment for vegetable gardening and how expensive it would be to purchase when most gardeners know there are cheaper and more effective ways to do things.

Here's what the £1000 ($1500) shopping list would look like if you kit-out a small garden with their recommendations:

• A mechanical cultivator with 150cc engine
• Greenhouse systems including special staging and watering kits
• Large composter systems
• Pages of weedkiller and insecticide systems to spray on all pests
• Complete auto-irrigation systems along with 3 pages of hoses, pumps and accessories
• Plant ties, special wire supports, stakes, groundsheets, expensive boots etc...

Convenience gardening is clearly big business but most of this is just not necessary.  The problem is that most of us haven't grown up learning how to grow things so people want quick fixes and stores are happy to take advantage of that.  What they are missing is that successful home vegetable growing is more about working with nature than turning your back yard into a miniature farm.

Cheap and Effective

There are lots of ways to achieve the same or even better results without it costing the earth so here are alternatives to the above list with links to the articles we have about them here on GrowVeg.com:

• Raised Vegetable Beds don't need to cost much and can often be made from waste (untreated) timber.   Filling them with recycled compost and not walking on the soil removes the need to use a cultivator as the soil remains light and easy to work.
• A Greenhouse is a great boon if you live in a colder climate but you can achieve good results using old windows and sheltering plants from wind.  Alternatively you can often obtain an old greenhouse for free – mine cost me nothing but a couple of panes of glass, a few new bolts and a morning's work removing it from the garden of someone with no use for it any more.

• Compost Bins don't have to be complex.  Compost likes air and movement – I get much better compost from my untidy compost pile than I do from the neat plastic composter next to it.  Old wooden pallets joined with wire make superb compost bins.
• Irrigation Systems can be great if you have a lot of land or spend weeks away from home.  However, far more important is regular individual attention to your plants so watering by hand has big advantages and there are many good techniques for dryland gardening that cost nothing.
• Weedkiller and Pesticides just aren't necessary in a well-managed organic garden.  Using simple techniques such as companion planting and crop rotation, the majority of pests can be controlled and you avoid the risk of contaminating the produce you will eat.
• All the Rest: There are thousands of ways to reuse and recycle things in the garden so that you don't have to spend a penny to support and protect plants, raise seeds and create garden structures.

If you like construction projects then the Cheap Vegetable Gardener blog also has many great ideas including upside-down planters, a solar-powered watering system and even a robotic wheelbarrow!

Where To Spend Money

It can be a false economy to cut back on some things (interestingly none of them are listed in the DIY catalogue):

1. Potting Compost ('potting soil' in America): if you are growing from seed then the quality of the soil is vital.  The growing medium you choose is one of the biggest factors in seedlings' growth and success as I found out 3 years ago when I bought cheap compost which resulted in poor, unhealthy looking plants that produced very little.  Pay a bit more and get high quality compost and it will repay you well.
2. Tools: you are going to spend a lot of time using hand tools in a garden so choosing a comfortable and effective spade, fork, trowel and hoe will all pay back well in time saved and easy weeding which will help your plants.

3. Organisation: A disorganised garden can lead to plants being wasted because they are put into the ground at the wrong time or suffer from diseases that could have been prevented by crop rotation.  Once your vegetable plot grows beyond a few small beds it becomes easy to overcrowd plants, lose track of what has been sown or forget to do things.  Whatever you use to organise your garden (and our Garden Planner can help a lot with this) it is time and money well spent because it reduces waste and helps you learn from past mistakes.

A Balanced Approach

For me the two questions I ask when considering any purchase for the garden are:

1. Will it increase the success of my plants?
2. Will it save me significant amounts of time?

Each year I purchase one medium-size item that will make my gardening more effective.  Last year that was materials for new raised beds.  This year it was indoor lighting for seedlings which has allowed me to raise plants at least a month earlier than usual.  Other things have to wait or I will find recycled alternatives for.  This balanced approach means I still get many times more value in fresh produce than I spend and it has taught me far more about how to raise good plants than having all the home-farm machinery could ever have done.

If you have good ideas for saving money in the garden please do share them below...