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Fortunately, you can grow a decent garden in a reasonable amount of time if you keep it simple and let go of the notion that it should always look perfect. You may never win the battle of the weeds, but that's OK (unless you're growing asparagus).
You do have to keep an eye on your garden, especially if you're not dousing it with pesticides and fungicides. You'll want to wander out back in the evening and make sure no pests are chomping their way through the tomatoes. But you can get by with half an hour here and there, and more on the weekends.
To get the best return on your investment, remember:
- Choose cost-effective crops for where you live. You can grow a tomato on top of Mount Everest, as my economics teacher used to say, but at what cost? The climate charts on the seed envelopes are a start, but they can't tell you about the microclimates. Look at your neighbors' gardens. What do they grow successfully?
- Use drip irrigation. Unless you have a free, unlimited supply of water, drip irrigation saves you money because you don't spray water in the air and lose it to evaporation. Drip irrigation doesn't require a sprinkler system; you can use it with a hose. We have a garden far from the house that we water with drip irrigation. We fill a large, covered tub with water, which runs through the drip hoses and throughout the garden.
- Do the work yourself. If you want to save money, you have to get your hands in the dirt. It may be cheaper to pay someone, for example, to rototill your garden in the spring than it is for you to buy and maintain your own rototiller. But you can do the weeding yourself.
- Buy seeds you can reuse. Gregg Steiner, the president of Green Life Guru in the Los Angeles area, says that if you buy the right seeds, you usually have to buy them only the first year. After that, you can collect the seeds in the fall and use them the next spring. You'll never have to buy seeds again. Some plants even self-seed; next spring those marigold volunteers just appear. (Some self-seeders can turn into weeds if you're not careful!) I asked Steiner how I can tell if I can use a seed again. "It says on the package 'one-use seed' if it's been genetically modified," he says.
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On the other hand, some hybrid crops produce greater yields and have other advantages over reusable seeds. Take your pick.
Most seed packets contain more seeds than one gardener can use. Consider sharing seeds with a friend.
- Plan to put food away for winter. Fresh produce for a couple of months in the summer is wonderful, but to really save money, you need to extend the season. That may be as simple as wrapping green tomatoes in newspaper before the first frost (they'll ripen slowly between September and Christmas) and putting potatoes in a cool place. Or you might make jam and put up green beans.
- Use as few chemicals as possible. The costs of chemical pesticides, fungicides and such add up quickly. You can do without many of them. However, unless you are a true organic believer, don't rule out an occasional chemical rescue. Or choose crops that grow organically in your area without too much trouble. In many parts of the country, for example, if you don't use chemicals you might not want to grow apples. In the Northwest, however, Italian prunes grow trouble-free.
Steiner doesn't use any pesticides in the gardens he grows for himself and others. He says: "You can buy certain types of herbs that repel insects. Those are really cool. They have an odor that repels bugs."
Steiner adds: "I'll buy a container of ladybugs. All I use for bug control are the herbs that repel and the ladybugs. Ladybugs stay around and keep eating bugs. They're very inexpensive, and kids love them."
- Compost. You can make your own mulch to nourish the soil and keep down weeds. I get free bags of used coffee grounds from Starbucks. I also use junk mail, kitchen scraps (no meat, onions or garlic), cardboard, fallen leaves and grass clippings. Alexander doesn't buy fertilizer at all. Everything is naturally composted from his yard or from a neighboring farm.
- Be a minimalist. Don't confuse gardening with landscaping. Alexander admits he spent $400 on two wrought-iron gates and posts, and another $400 on cedar edging. Very nice, but you'll have to grow a lot of lettuce to break even at that rate. Alexander says: "Don't fall for the siren song of gourmet tools. The more expensive the tool, the easier it is to lose it in the garden."
Published May 27, 2008
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