Frugal Small Vegetable Garden

Published June 9th, 2008

If you live anywhere there is winter, you’ll understand the pain of trudging through the snow to the grocery store only to find often frost damaged, and unripened vegetables from far, far away. Spring finally gives way to produce that tastes better and is grown much closer to home. Until I had my own vegetable garden, I hadn’t paid attention to just how great tomatoes can taste!

I grew up in Northern Ontario, and for as long as I can remember, we’ve always had a huge vegetable garden, a strawberry and raspberry patch, and countless wild blueberries just waiting to be picked. Contrary to where I thought I’d be at the age of 30, I live in a small subdivision, in a small town. Thankfully there’s only about 60 houses in the whole subdivison, so life is pretty quiet. Space is limited though. I decided last spring that I would grow a vegetable garden. For the most part everything went very well, but I could have planned a bit better to stagger when things would be ready, reduce waste, and get the most for my money spent. I will not make the same mistakes this year!

Today I’m going to share with you what I’ve learned: How a small vegetable garden, well planned, can save you money and leave you with the wonderful taste of summer, well into the fall and maybe winter.

Step 1: Make a plan

This is probably the hardest part, but very necessary to get the most value out of all the resources you’ll be putting into the garden. Think about what vegetables you eat most often, and what herbs you use most regularly. Make a list. Also think about which vegetables and herbs you could freeze, dry, or pickle, and eat through the winter (eg. blanching and freezing green beans, or chopping and freezing tomatoes for soups and stews. Then really think about which of those selections will be ready when? Which ones can you draw from all summer: for example, herbs like basil, rosemary, oregano and chives, as well as vegetables like spinach, a few leaves at a time? Also, how much do you really need of each plant. Just because they are often sold in cells of 4, it doesn’t mean you need to plant 4 of everything if you have a small family and limited space.

If you are very serious about the garden, you can even start growing inside from seed–I don’t have the right indoor growing conditions or patience for this! The final part of planning is to go out to the garden and decide what’s going to go where, and how much you can realistically have (some plants need much less room than others). Also, think about what friends, family, and co-workers are doing with their gardens, maybe you could pool your resources–see next step.

One more thing–you may want to take a look at the water saving tips in 55 Ways to Save Pennies to help offset the water you will need to use for your garden.

Step 2: Get the soil ready, and pick up the plants.

Weeding, turning over the soil, and adding some manure and/or compost are the basics of what you need to get the garden ready for planting. Experts probably have a much more involved regimen–but I am no expert. I have never used a chemical fertilizer, so I have no real experience with the pros and cons of using one.

Ther are many places to get the plants, like I said growing from seed is one option, another is to go to a department, grocery store, or proper garden centre to buy the bedding plants. You can sometimes but individual plants that are a bit further along for a higher cost, or get a pack of 4 or 2 plants for a much lower cost (somewhere between 89 cents and $1.20). Free or less expensive options include talking to family, co-workers and friends, and splitting the cost or swapping vegetable plants–this should actually be a part of the planning process–especially if someone volunteers to grow from seed. Furthermore, if space is limited, maybe each person could grow certain veggies and herbs, and then share when everything is ready–many options here.

You may also be able to get plants for free if your community holds any kind of a plant swapping event, or online at places like Freecycle and Craigslist–of course this only works best if the plants are right in your town, and you don’t have to drive far to pick up a couple of little plants.

Step 3: Involve your vegetable garden when planning the weekly meals and grocery list.

I’ve written extensively about the idea of eating what is available and on sale, and the variety that it brings in My 25% Grocery Savings Rule, but in the summer, you get to involve the veggie garden in the planning. I got a head start this year, since my perennial garlic chives (perennials are the ones that come up every year on their own, annuals need to be planted every year–for some reason I’ve found this very confusing for many, many years) came up early, and I’ve been saving 50 cents a week without any effort for the last couple of months not having to buy any kind of green onion.

As an example of using my garden, I stock up on parmesan cheese, whole wheat spaghettini, and either pine nuts or almonds when they are on sale, and have some kind of a dish involving fresh pesto every week during the summer months. This is much healthier than some of the commercially available pestos you can get on sale during the winter that have hydrogenated vegetable oil in them

Be creative and plan dishes around what is in season from your garden. Are you going to make pasta sauce, bruschetta, or have those tomatoes in a salad every chance you get? Are you going to saute, steam, or casserole those yummy green beans with dinners?

Step 4: As the summer draws to a close, plan to not waste.

Towards the end of the growing season look into ways to preserve your harvest. I grew green beans this year because I know that I can blanch and freeze them, I also found a great way to freeze my basil in olive oil and have it still taste fresh in sauce. The Internet is a great resource for ways to preserve food–specially more fragile things like herbs. I know some families and friends who get together and have a day where they make jams, pasta sauce, or do whatever is involved with pickling–this is a great idea.

If you still have extra food, consider donating it to a local soup kitchen if they have a need for it, or to neighbours, co-workers, family, and friends who can enjoy it!

Think about whether you can just move some of the plants indoors for the winter. I’m going to try bringing some of my herbs inside this fall so I can have fresh stuff all winter, and not have to buy dried. I don’t know how well this will work, but I am definitely willing to try!

I hope this post has been helpful, and inspired you to try your hand at having fresh herbs and vegetables this summer–even if you’re short on space. I will post an update later on this summer with how the garden is doing and how much money was saved.

Here’s a picture of my garden today, in it you will find the following plants: Tomato, green beans, cucumber, summer squash, spinach, red cabbage, cayenne pepper, rosemary, oregano, cilantro, parsley, garlic chives, and Genovese basil.