Grow a Garden - For Dirt Cheap!
Vegetable gardening has so many benefits for families. It provides access to fresh food at a time when food prices are rising at an alarming rate. It improves mental, emotional and physical health. It improves fine motor skills and creates a reciprocal connection between the gardener and the earth.
Starting your own little garden can be an intimidating process, but what if we told you that you can create a flower or veggie garden with hardly spending any money or time digging? All you’ll need is some creativity, time and patience! Whether you are new to gardening or already a plant enthusiast, here are some useful tips to prepare you for a successful growing season on a budget!
The very basics: All you need to start growing is a sunny location (a balcony or even a windowsill will do), water, soil, something to plant, and something to put it in.
No Yard? No problem.
When your backyard is a concrete patio or an apartment balcony, it’s hard to imagine growing a bountiful garden. But it can be done. Many vegetables will grow wonderfully in containers of all sizes – in fact some varieties have been developed specially to grow in smaller spaces and containers.
And you don’t need to shell out a lot of money on fancy pots either. Does it look and act like a container? Then it can probably be one! DIY pots can be nearly anything: buckets, baskets, reusable grocery bags, plastic bottles, PVC pipes, tires…you name it. Just make sure the container is sturdy enough to hold lots of water and soil for months at a time and has drainage holes so that the excess water can run out. Plants don’t like having their roots all soggy.
And remember that larger plants need a bigger container – a non-cherry tomato would be perfectly happy in a 5 gallon plastic bucket, while basil will thrive in an old coffee can.
Seeds
Choose what you want to grow based on what you like to eat, and how much space and sunlight you have. Some great small-space, easy to grow veggies include:
Leafy greens (lettuce, chard, spinach, kale)
Peas and beans – although they will need something to climb up
Cherry tomatoes
Cucumbers
Herbs of all kinds
Radishes
Carrots (varieties with shorter roots)
Tips for finding seeds on the cheap include – dollar stores, the local library (VIRL has a seed sharing program), and sharing with friends (do you really need 100 carrot seeds for one container?).
The back of the seed packet will tell you everything you need to know about the seeds – when and how deep to plant it, how far to space the seeds, and how long the plant will take to grow.
Make Your Own Soil
If you don’t already have one, consider setting up your own compost system for this coming season. Making your own compost is a terrific way to cut costs on soil and fertilizers. You can add kitchen scraps (no meat or dairy), leaves, grass, and yard trimmings to your compost. You don’t have to spend money on a fancy bin either. You can compost in an old garbage can drilled with holes, or just a pile in an outdoor corner. The trick is to make sure that you “turn” your compost with a shovel or garden fork every 3 or 4 days so it breaks down more quickly – but even unturned compost will eventually turn into soil.
Plan for Maintenance
A vegetable garden requires regular work of watering, weeding, harvesting, and more! It is helpful to plan for the maintenance of your garden.
Reap the Benefits
Whether you have the space for a small backyard plot, or just a few pots, growing your own food is incredibly rewarding. Let’s get growing!
Gardening with Children
As we transfer into spring, you’ll want to get your kiddos out of the house away from phones, TV, and video games, and gardening is a great way to achieve this goal! Here are great reasons to get your kiddos hands in the dirt.
Connects children with nature. When children garden, they become more aware of the interconnectedness of the natural world – and their own place in it. They see and experience the changes in weather, the life cycle of their garden, the effect of water and sunlight.
If they grow it, they will eat it. Kids can be notorious for not wanting to eat their vegetables, but caring for a plant as it grows from a seed into a vegetable creates a sense of pride as well as curiosity that makes them want to try what they grow. Research shows that children who are involved in gardening are more likely to make healthy food choices throughout their lives.
It’s a mood booster. Getting outside and gardening are shown to have amazing effects on mental health for children – reducing stress, relieving anxiety, and even improving focus and memory.
A great work out! Gardening is good physical labor involving muscles that don’t always get a workout. Gardening involves stretching, bending, digging, lifting, pulling and raking. Gross and fine motor skills are used, and even the youngest gardener with simple tasks gets physical activity.
Dig this! Teaching your children to garden helps them with responsibilities, patience, perseverance, as well as learning with disappointment if the garden doesn’t grow the way they expected.
TRY THIS
Growing Peas
Peas are often underrated and packed with so much goodness that benefit any children. Peas are an excellent source of Vitamin C, K, folate, protein and fibre!
Peas are an easy and reliable crop to start with when growing a garden with kids. Peas picked right from the garden are incredibly sweet and with many varieties available to plant as early as February, a constant source of garden snacking through the season.
How should you plant peas with your children? Peas grow best in well-drained soil. Be sure the soil is loose, has lots of organic matter, and is kept moist. If planting in pots, any 3 to 5-gallon container that is between 6-12 inches deep and at least 12 inches wide and has drainage holes can be used to grow 3-5 plants at least. Peas are natural climbers, so give them something like a stake to latch on to.
How to Harvest Peas with Kids When harvesting peas, pick them while the pod is still a uniform green. As the colour of the pod lightens, the flavour can start to get bitter. Once they begin to ripen, the whole bunch will be ready in short order. If you leave peas too long on the vine, you can still use the peas! Peas are an easy crop to seed save. Simply wait until the vine has dried up and the seeds can heard when the pod is shaken. “Rattle dry” pea pods are ready to be brought indoors and laid out in a well ventilated space.
Fun Bonus Pea seeds are viable for about 3 years when stored in a cool, dry space. Get the kids to label the envelope with the name of the seed, number of seeds, and then illustrate the contents for next season!
This article appeared in the Yuk'akw'usthut (Spring) 2023 edition of our Four Directions newsletter. You can read the full newsletter here.