April 15th

By Mutt Mulligan

Gardening on the Cheap

A recent report by the National Gardening Association estimates you’ll get a half-pound of vegetables for each square foot in your garden, or roughly $600 in produce over the course of a season for the average 600-square-foot plot. Estimated outlay to grow all that produce: $70.

But, you can end up spending a lot on fertilizer, plants, and other supplies if you’re  not careful.  You want to garden for fun, but also end up with a bounty that didn’t cost you an arm and a leg.

MintLife published some good tips on how to garden and be money-wise…and includes picking the right plants and being water-wise – which are two of my favorites!

A few tips below, but you can find them all here:

Save scraps

Not everyone has the space or inclination to compost, but adding a few key leftovers can do wonders for soil in lieu of buying expensive fertilizers. “I take my spent coffee grinds to the garden and broadcast over the soil,” says Dimitri Gatanas of Urban Garden Center in New York City. “This is what I call quick and easy composting.” Tea leaves and grass clippings help, too, as do crushed eggshells.

Pick the right plants

Some garden staples, including peppers, basil and salad greens, take very little effort and offer big harvests. Just two romaine plants kept the Foodies in salads from April through October last year.

Consider location

“Purchase the appropriate plantings for your climate and location of the garden,” says Kevin Mulcahy, owner of Mulcahy’s Landscape and Design in Rochester, N.Y. You’ll have less success, if any, buying plants that prefer higher or lower temps, or more or less sun, then you’re able to offer.

Shop at the end of the season

End-of-season sales can easily top 50%. Mint reader Max Dufour gets his seeds on sale late in the season, and keeps them in the fridge until it’s time to plant them the following year. Perennials bought on sale get planted right away.

Use a rain barrel

Keeping a big container outdoors to collect rain for watering your garden can help reduce your summer water bill, says Annette Pelliccio, the founder of The Happy Gardener. Just be sure to add a screen to the top to avoid mosquitoes.