Gardening has numerous benefits ranging from cleansing the air to upgrading your property value. Tending to your lemon grove or a patch of kale comes with an added advantage. It saves you money. Read on to learn how planting a few stems of your favorite vegetables can save your wallet.
1. Plant expensive vegetables
Inspect your food budget and identify where you spend the most money. The chances are that you spend quite bit of money on carrots, lettuce, broccoli, and tomatoes, especially for pasta lovers. You could use a little break from purchasing these food items on a weekly basis especially if your family is super-sized. If your weekly run to the grocery store costs $100, you could easily slash that budget in half by planting your favorite vegetables in your backyard.
2. Plant at different times
When starting a vegetable and fruit garden, spread out the planting process over several weeks. You end up with fresh vegetables all year round as opposed to harvesting at certain months of the year. Planting your entire crop all at once is not only labor intensive, but it can overwhelm you during the harvesting stage. Besides, not all vegetables or fruits are suitable for prolonged storage, so you are likely to end up with a surplus or worse food wastage. A constant supply of everyday fruit and vegetables will keep a lid on your food budget all year round.
3. Plants with long storage life
When starting a garden, select plants with a long storage life in a frozen state or canned. Sweet potatoes, onions, and squash are great examples of plants that can survive long months in storage. Storing food for long duration saves you money as you do not have to visit the food market every other week. If you prefer canned foods, add beans, sweet corn and cucumbers in your patch.
4. Proper landscaping
Gardening involves much more than planting vegetables. Many homeowners use gardening as a form of landscaping to improve the outlook of their home and increase the value in the buyers' market. The benefits of careful landscaping go beyond aesthetic value to reducing your energy costs. Research shows that having trees around your home reduces the temperatures by about 8 to 10 degrees Fahrenheit in the dead of summer. Cooler air in the house means less power spent on air conditioning. The same concept applies in the winter; trees reduce your heating bill by 20- 50% thus bringing your monthly bills down by a significant figure.
5. Effective practices
While growing fresh vegetables save you a few coins, your gardening practices need to be efficient. Otherwise, you will invest a hefty sum only to reap a few stems of your intended crop. How do you ensure that your new hobby does not turn into a money pit? Start by knowing the proper planting time for the planned crop. Some vegetables are prone to frostbite in the winter and therefore, you should plant them in a different season. Ensure that you have a steady water supply of in the form of a sprinkler system or a long hose connected to the tap in your kitchen. Prepare your patch beforehand by applying mulch and fertilizer to add nutrients. You need a brush cutter to trim excess vegetation. Research on how to choose the best brush cutter before ordering one. Your crop should do well upon meeting these conditions. When purchasing the seedlings, compare prices of different nurseries in your area to ensure you get more value for every Sterling Pound.
6. Less condiments
Harvesting tubers fresh off your organic garden makes for a very tantalizing dinner. In comparison, fresh vegetables taste a whole lot better than that spinach from the market that is probably genetically modified. People who consume homegrown produce tend to save money on extra dressing and condiments on the dinner table.
7. Herbs and spices
If you like an extra oomph in your food, you are likely to use herbs and spices on a regular basis. While herbs such as rosemary and thyme make a significant difference in the taste of food, they also cost a pretty penny. Soaring budgets should not come between you and your tasty lasagna. Try planting parsley outside your kitchen, and if space is an issue, you can plant these herbs in containers. All you need is planting medium riddled with the right nutrients. You could reduce your food budget by $100 per month and divert these funds to other important items on your budget spreadsheet.
Conclusion
While starting a garden, consult your food budget to identify the most reasonable crop to grow. Enquire how to choose the best brush cutter to avoid wasting money on the wrong purchase. In the case of a surplus, consider selling homegrown tubers to your neighbors. See, gardening is a gift that keeps on giving.
Amelia Robinson is a lover of plants and gardens, as well as an educator on this topic. It’s her goal to make sure that you get the chance to learn what you need to about gardening to succeed with your own home garden at the blog RobinsonLovePlants.com. You’re not going to find just a collection of basic articles about gardening here. Instead, she wants to answer the difficult questions for you.
Leave a Reply