The Cheap Vegetable Gardener

The most profitable plants in your vegetable garden

15.9 years ago cheap, cilantro, garlic bulbs, organic, seedling, seeds, vertical gardening, winter garden 152 Comments

Many vegetables can be expensive to purchase by growing the most expensive vegetables in your garden and buying the least inexpensive vegetables at your grocery store you can easily help drop your food budget.  This especially important for people like me with very limited space to grow everything that I consume.

It may be impossible to put a price on the satisfaction of bringing in a basket of produce fresh from your garden.  As well as the enhanced flavors from having truly fresh produce from your garden compared to that of your local supermarket.  Though when I was harvesting my potatoes this summer with my daughter I did have the thought, Would it have been smarter for me to grow something else in this space?  I estimate out of the 4-5 square feet I used for these plants I probably got about $4-5 worth of potatoes.

I did a little research first to determine yields of various plants per square foot and secondly what the value (organic supermarket prices USD) of the yielded produce at harvest.  Given I am a city dweller with a fairly small footprint for my vegetable garden (about 30-35 square feet) making decisions on what to buy at the supermarket and what to grow in the garden may be a huge money saver with just a few dollars invested in some seeds for your vegetable garden

Now from the results below you can see the winners for the most produce value per square foot are many of the leafy green vegetables/herbs (cilantro, lettuce, chives, dill, Swiss chard) next comes many of the larger vine plants (tomatoes, squash, pumpkins, peas) with many of the root plants taking up the rear.  Now much of this makes sense where many of the vine plants grow on trellises and are allowed to spread, which I guess is sort of cheating the square foot rule but I will let it slide.  Compared to the root plants whose production is entirely dependent on the space allowed in square footage they have to grow as well as these are normally inexpensive produce items to begin with.

Sources: http://www.mcgoodwin.net/pages/ppatch.html for plant yield information, http://shop.safeway.com for current produce prices

Now even with this information I will still plan on growing some onions and garlic since I more than likely would be forced to use dehydrated alternatives due to being too lazy to drive to the supermarket to buy fresh varieties.  Though I may be adding some more herbs/greens to my garden this year.

One important thing to remember is you still have to eat the vegetables, throwing $20 worth or arugula or cilantro into the compost bin is not exactly a sound investment.  You can also get higher yields by growing vertically, but don’t forget those tall plants produce a larger shadow so you may still need some extra ground space to support these alternate growing methods.

So go out and get some cheap vegetable seeds (or in many cases free) and plant some profitable vegetables in your backyard/patio garden this spring.

     

Youngest gardening blogger

16.3 years ago Uncategorized 8 Comments

Well not 100% sure there is not a younger garden blogger out there but at the ripe age of 6 pretty sure Megan is in close competition. You can check out “Megan’s Garden” at http://www.megansgarden.com. Now I must warn you that this blog is written by a 6 year old that does not use a spell checker so if you may need to read phonetically which can be a fun challenge to see garden blogging from a child’s perspective.

If you have any serious issues translating feel free to post in the comments and I can translate.

Vegetable Gardening Software Review

15.7 years ago computer, garden planning 3 Comments

When it comes to planning my vegetable garden I must say this is definitely one of my weaknesses.  I make a good attempt to map things out on graph paper ahead of time only to decide to add/remove a crop and eventually resort back to my memory and then get a surprise when I find I planted carrots and cilantro in the same place.

Given I am required to spend around 10 hours a day in front of a computer my first thought was to find a solution online in the form of some sort of vegetable gardening software.  I tried some trials of several products and got so frustrated I was about to create my own when I came across GrowVeg.com.  After signing up for their 30 day trial within 15 minutes I had my gardens planned out and saved for future reference. 

Now if when I change my mind on planting preferences I can easily modify my plan to the new desired configuration.  When I see easy I really mean it, it completely passed the “I am a man and don’t read instructions” test but there are some helpful video tutorials for those with more patience.  I can honestly say it is so easy a 4-year-old can do it.  She saw me “playing” with my garden and asked if she could “play” the gardening game as you can see below.

Once my daughter was done with her garden I proceeded to check out some of the other features.  The next feature I came across was by clicking on any of the plants it would return helpful plant information from how to plant, how to harvest, and even how/when to apply fertilizer.

Definitely the feature I was most impressed with was the planting schedule it automatically generates after you have added plants to your plan.  Not only does it tell you when to plant but also when to expect your harvest.  What I love about this is, if you are like me, you can’t decide what your frost date is, you can simply change it in the settings and the schedule automatically updates.  Now if you are forgetful like me, there is even a feature to notify you by email when it is time to plant your seeds.

Once you have built your history of garden plans throughout the years, the program will use this information my warning you if you are planning on planting the same type of plant in the same location you did before.  This enforcement of crop rotation can significantly help reduce the accumulation of soil borne fungus/disease.

For more information see GrowVeg.com

Top gardening posts of 2010

13.9 years ago cheap, garden planter, LEDs, moisture sensor, upside down planter 1 Comment

2010 has been a pretty exciting year for CheapVegetableGardener.com.  Bringing on a significant number of more readers and many great mentions by some large publications, I thought I would mention the top 5 posts of 2010 which helped this happen in case you missed them.

	Being kicked off by an awesome mention in a New York Times article and subsequent interview on Science Friday on NPR, this article on making your own tomato planter held the #1 spot.  By taking a two liter bottle, a little spray paint, and a chopstick (or small stick) you can make your own upside down tomato planter.
	This article has received some decent traffic from numerous sites but the mention on lifehacker.com is what put this one on the #2 spot.  Now if you are trying to make a little profit from your extra harvest or just trying to save a little extra money at the grocery store this post lists the top vegetables for your gardening square foot.
	Want to start some seedlings indoors without spending a fortune on lighting?  Check out this Christmas light LED grow box post which has held the #3 spot.  All it takes is a couple of strings of LEDs (purchased during after Christmas sales of course), a Rubbermaid container, a drill, and a little patience you can have your own indoor growing apparatus.
	Sometimes I got busy in the early spring and forgot to water my neglected seedlings in the grow box in my garage.  To solve this problem I made these great little soil sensors using galvanized nails and Plaster of Paris.  Check out this post which help the #4 spot for the full build instructions.
	Finally after some personal trial and error the #5 post of this year goes into detail on how to create a new garden bed.  This covers the basics of picking the proper location and also some cost benefit analysis for using various materials (cinder blocks, wood, chiseled wall blocks, bricks) to build a new bed.

Cream of the Crop: 5 Ways to Work with Winter Vegetables

13 years ago winter garden 1 Comment

As we find ourselves in the throes of the fall and winter holiday season, food becomes a popular conversation starter. For some reason, though, winter vegetables are often treated with less creativity than their spring and summer counterparts. To spice up your diet while keeping it cheap and healthy, take a gander at the five winter veggies below and use them to wow your family and friends.

Kale

I’ve tried kale a few different ways now, and I think the trick with eating these greens is in their pairing and preparation. I, for example, love using kale in omelets, but I don’t add them in with the rest of the ingredients (onions, mushrooms, cheese, etc.). Instead, I wait until everything is nearly cooked, and then I throw in some cold and crisp kale. After a couple of minutes, the meal will be done, but the kale will retain its fresh properties, offsetting the rest of the ingredients and making for a more interesting and wide-ranging experience for your taste buds.

Another creative way to use kale is to make your own miso soup, chock full of these greens. Grab some brown rice paste from the supermarket and add it to your own custom-made lineup of vegetables and tofu–just don’t forget that kale! Even for the soup, I’ll hold off on putting the kale in the water too soon. Most restaurants will serve their greens fully-cooked and withered, but the soup (like the omelet) has more textural complexity if the ingredients aren’t all softened and sapped of some crucial nutrients.

If you’re going to maintain your own winter garden, plant some Winter Red or Wintebor kale in July or August, and then wait for those cabbage-like goods to crest.

Beets

Beets just might be my favorite winter vegetable/root. It’s also the main ingredient in my favorite salad, which is a twist on the otherwise run-of-the-mill beet salad. My brother’s girlfriend makes a salad that combines red and golden beets (3 red, 2 golden) with ¼ cup minced shallot, and some lamb’s lettuce. For the true kicker, she adds a few crumbles of goat cheese and a handful of pistachios to the mix.

If you plant some delicious Winterkeeper or Albina Verduna beet seeds in July, you’ll have those roots ready to go for your fall and winter harvest. In addition, the beet will re-sprout in the spring, offering some full, healthy leaves. Being able to harvest multiple times for the same food means you can eat with an improved sense of health and frugality. But whether you’re planting beets at home, or are getting your winter’s share at a natural market, be sure to try your hand at a beet salad.

Squash

Squash is the simple one of the bunch. Go ahead and make soup with it, or attempt to make a world-class plate of spaghetti. Even a casserole will suffice as a sure-fire crowd pleaser. But in my mind, there’s no better remedy for a long day at the office than a whole butternut squash emerging from the oven. Your whole house will feel warm and smell of the harvest. The flesh should be nice and soft, and easy to scoop out with spoon or fork. I usually just put some butter on the warmed flesh, but you might want to try adding some brown sugar to the mix if you’re feeling especially daring. Butternut squash is filling but cheap and simple to prepare, and winter just wouldn’t be the same without it.

Mustard

Mustard leaves aren’t as commonly thought of as kale, spinach, collards or arugula. But the leaves of mustard are peppery in taste, and are great for making exotic dishes. I’m happy snacking on them as raw greens, when they still taste like spinach or radish roots, and if I cook them, I usually just sprinkle on some lemon juice and garlic. If you want to replace the lemon juice, try a bowl of mustard leaves with sesame oil and rice. Mixing and matching is the name of the game for mustard greens, and experimentation will allow them to be your most versatile winter food.

If you’re planting mustard at home, press those seeds anytime from August to the middle of October, when the brunt of summer heat has passed. After you’re done collecting the leaves, let the plant go to seed for a secondary harvest later on.

Chives

Chives are my wild card choice for this list. You won’t be able to harvest the chive stalks in winter, or even be to grow them easily in the colder seasons and climates. However, if you plant them under a cloche, or germinate them indoors before moving them outside as the weather breaks and warms, then you’ll have my absolute favorite green ready for a spring harvest. When I was a child, I used to eat chives straight from my uncle’s garden. They’re great for garnish on baked potatoes, and also make for an excellent addition to any soup stock or broth. Whereas most of the other foods on this list are featured as main ingredients, chives are sure to act as foils for other foods they mingle with, and will amplify a dish’s whole overall flavor. This might not be a food that’s in season during the winter months, but it will make for a great winter project, and will ensure that the next season kicks off the right way.

Whether you’re maintaining your own winter garden, or are just plucking the goods from local markets, the 5 foods above will make your winter cuisine more complex in flavor and your winter preparations more creative and enjoyable. Best of all, each item is relatively cheap and also healthy, which means that you can be frugal with the greens in your wallet, as well.

Adam J.’s appreciation for winter vegetables is surpassed only by his enjoyment of Heirloom Tomatoes. He writes for FrugalDad.com; check out his blurb or contact him at adam ATT frugaldad DOTT com.

How to make the most of a small garden

10.6 years ago small garden 1 Comment

Today’s post was written by Ricky, who works for www.SwallowAquatics.co.uk. Ricky is a garden lover and enjoys nothing more than spending time in his own, diminutive but beautiful garden.

So the size of your yard leaves a little – okay, a lot – to be desired, but that doesn’t mean you should permanently hang up your secateurs. You’ll be surprised at what you can squeeze into your space with a little ingenuity. Check out our tips below, and let us know your ideas!

Wall to wall

Image credit: The Blue Girl

When floor space is limited, it’s time to get creative with other surfaces. One trend that is particularly popular in small gardens is the living wall, or wall garden idea. There are various ways to create an interesting, structured display such as in the image above, but climbers such as ivy, honeysuckle and roses will work just as well and create a more unruly feel.

Hanging baskets are another great option for your vertical garden – as long as you hang them appropriately to avoid injuries! Check out some more ideas on how to structure your walled garden here.

Color pop

Sticking with the vertical surfaces idea, it’s important to make the most of any patches of wall or fence that peek through in between your plants and pots. You could paint walls or fences in a bright color to add interest even on the drabbest of days, or even use the space as a canvas and create a mural. Check out these tips on how to paint your fence well.

Man in the mirror

Image credit: jimwolffman

Mirrors are a small room’s best friend – and that applies to your outdoor room, too. Just like they do indoors, mirrors will make your garden seem bigger than it is by creating the illusion of extra space. Make sure you treat or the frame of your mirror so that it is protected from the elements.

Twinkle, twinkle

 
Image credit: Wonderlane

Garden lights don’t have to be restricted to tacky Christmas novelties, and there’s no need for your garden to end up looking like Blackpool Illuminations. As well as offering a little extra security during the darker hours, a few lawn lights will allow you to enjoy your garden for much longer and, when placed cleverly, can make use of the space to show off the best aspects of your garden.

Whether you want something subtle, or a more grotto-like feel as in the photo above, go for solar options for a low cost, environmentally friendly option. Here are a few tips on how to go about installing solar lighting in your yard.