If you have been toying with the idea of starting a garden, I say, make this your year! It is unbelievably therapeutic. I reconnects you with your food, and give you a whole new appreciation for what it takes to get food into the grocery store. Plus, no matter how small you start, it gives you a little slice of self-reliance. And, I’m not gonna lie, those little rows of edible color just make the yard look better.
Starting a new garden really is the most daunting part. I suggest, rather than tilling your entire backyard and throwing yourself headlong into a mini-homestead situation, to start small. Though, if you decide baptism by fire is your game, I would totally support that too. I suggest starting with one or two manageable sized garden boxes, or even containers on the patio. Get a feel for killing plants, because you’re probably going to kill ’em. That’s part of the learning process. Don’t beat yourself up about it.
I have said it a million times on the blog, but GROW WHAT YOU LOVE to eat. There is no sense in growing tomatoes if you detest them. If you are growing the produce your family is actually eating, YOU have total control over your methods. Want to eat organic foods? Grow them that way. Get the kids involved–give them a clear understanding about where food comes from. Let them choose and tend to their own crop too, they’ll be more inclined to eat it that way.
Excuses are lame. If you are limited on space, don’t assume you can’t grow plenty of produce. There are tons of methods that maximize space and output. Square foot gardening is rad. I’m telling ya, I did it for several years, and even though I packed the plants in there, I got awesome results.
You can use trellises to go up for lots of different varieties of produce: beans, cucumbers, melons {so long as you support them}. I mean, when it comes to air space, the sky is literally the limit.
Is it worth it financially? Well, I don’t know. I thought about tracking every hour and penny spent on my garden as a sort of a cost-benefit analysis, but when it comes to time, I don’t really give a hoot if it comes out as more costly. The benefits I reap from growing my own food far outweigh the money.
Plus, there is no way for me to tally the amount of money I save by not popping into the store as often, and instead hop out to the backyard. I save gas. I save travel time. I save resources that would have otherwise been used to ship the grocery store produce I would buy in lieu of growing my own. Best of all, I am not kidding you when I tell you, there is nothing better than getting your hands into the dirt.
Have I convinced you yet? Are you ready for gardening season to begin? I know I am. 🙂
Have a wonderful day everyone,
~Mavis & Lucy {Who is beyond ready to get out there and get her paws in the dirt again.}
Nancy says
Up here in Canada it doesn’t look like the snow will melt any time soon. However, I have started the gardening season already….my garlic is hibernating under a layer of leaves until it will pop up in May. And, I just got an email today that my order of seeds has been shipped from my favorite seed company! Only about a month before I can plant my cold weather crops. Best thing is….both my grown children have started to garden at their own homes as well. Earning those Girl Guide and Scout gardening badges 20 + years ago instilled in them a love of good fresh food. I wonder if they’ll also carrying on the tradition of paying their children 5 cents per squished Japanese beetle or slug?
Lace Faerie says
Hahaha! Just like my Daddy did, I used to pay a penny for each dandelion flower when our kids (& the neighborhood kids)! Or, I would trade them a paper lunch sack full of sand flowers for a $.25 pack of M&M candies! They always went for the chocolate! 😉
And just as I did when I was a child, we spent almost all day every day of summer outside. Gardening, laying on quilts on the lawn reading, playing with our baby (meat) rabbits, picnics and bike riding!
Oh, now I’m really ready to get outside! Whatcom County, Washington is predicting sunshine and 60 degrees through the weekend. I am definitely taking the grandbabies outside!
CherylV says
I can vouch for the therapeutic benefits! When I lived with mother dear, I rigged up a couple spotlights to allow me to weed after work as after work, was basically in the dark. It took a lot of stress off my shoulders. As it turns out, I don’t really care so much about liking the things I grow, I just love the entire process of the growing. It is like a huge accomplishment until I start sticking to the kitchen floor during the canning process.
Marybeth says
Can’t wait to start. I plant my peas on St Patrick’s Day. Then I start everything inside, I am dreaming of all of my beautiful veggies that I will get this summer. I love being in the garden and dirt.
Katy says
Interestingly enough, I have found that going to the produce market is actually cheaper than growing my own due to costs of supplies/plant starts and loss due to deer. We tried some elevated boxes for a few years but it just didn’t work for us.
I did enough gardening as a kid anyway. My mom would wake me up at 6am to weed a HUGE garden and I hated the feel of dry dirt on my hands and feet (between my toes was the worst!).
I’ll just watch you guys have a good time and enjoy my trips to the market 🙂
Carrie says
My vegetable garden has defeated me the last few years. After working a full time job I just don’t have the drive to weed and water everything plus squash bugs, squirrels and crows eat or destroy it all. We are taking up our raised beds this weekend. I think I’ll just plant 3 tomato plants in my wildflower bed. My garden is in the front yard and to have my failures on display has been a horrible feeling. I hate to say it but we are going back to grass. 🙁
Mel says
We have a front yard garden as well, so I know the feeling. If you’re totally over it (and we are with some veggies), this may not help, but we’ve found a number of plants that seem to be minimal care and pest resistant (at least in our area). Garlic grows mostly in winter, so bugs and weeds are minimal. Green onions are perennial and can be cut and come again. Most herbs need minimal care, and many are perennial. We also found that our squirrels left our strawberries alone once we switched to a deeper raised bed. We have bird feeders, so that seems to reduce or eliminate the bird damage in general. I’ve also found some small versions of plants that also cut down on the jungle look (bush beans, micro tomatoes, cameo basil, etc.).
So, there might be a way to work some other plants in if you want. Alternatively, I find gifting friends vegetable starts in the spring is a good way to have garden veggies without the work!
Carrie says
Thanks Mel. My hubby is tired of weed-eating around my garden beds. Since he is the maintenance man and I am the planter I have decided to give in and let him do what is easiest for him. I have a large perennial garden with native wildflowers that I plan on tucking in some tomatoes, maybe a squash and some herbs.
I have a 4×4 raised bed of strawberries on their third year. Last year I had about 2 weeks of berries before the critters found them. I haven’t decided where I am going to move those plants yet. My backyard is mostly shade in the spring and winter and all shade in the summer so I have struggled to garden. I had high hopes for my front yard garden when we bought the house but invasive ornamental grasses have won.
I also have bird feeders but I find that attracts the bird to the yard and then they see all the red berries and tomatoes and sunflower sprouts and have at it. Birds will choose fresh seeds/fruits over dried seeds. The gold finches love sunflower seeds from my flowers but I have never seen them eat sunflower seeds from the feeder.
Vicki B. says
When I lived in Indiana and had a big garden, I’d plant hundreds of radishes each spring. Not because I love radishes – I actually detest them. But because I needed to have something (anything) growing after a long, cold Midwest winter. Luckily, I had friends who loved radishes and who very enthusiastically ate whatever I grew. I haven’t had a garden for many years now, but this summer is the year I get back into it. I have plenty of 18-gallon totes ready to transform into self-watering containers, and I’m ordering seeds next week. I don’t know anyone here who likes radishes, so I’ll be planting mesclun mix as my first crop. Can’t wait to get started!
Sam says
I filled half of my raised beds with radishes for the same reason! Hoping to pull them out this weekend for tomatoes.
Judy Johnson says
The best garden I ever had was in 18 gallon totes. I followed a link for “DIY Earth Boxes” to make them. We are in the high desert of Southern California, and gardening is a real challenge between heat, wind, (especially wind) and critters. It took much less water than raised beds with less wilting in the afternoon. Now I prefer to stick with livestock- cattle and chickens. They are easier than trying to garden in our climate.
Sam says
Are those peas in the first image on the tee-pee like structures? And what are the tall stalks with big leaves in the second picture?
Mavis Butterfield says
Beans on teepees and sunflowers in second picture. 🙂
Sam says
Thanks! I’m going to try sunflowers this year – already have peas in the ground.
Katie W says
Not to mention long term savings on health care costs! That is one of the biggest motivators for me in spending a little more now on good food when the budget is tight.
Teri says
You definitely have a green thumb Mavis! Did you post your garden tally for last season somewhere? I can’t find it but was wondering how your sweet potatoes did and how you stored them. I haven’t noticed menu plans with them so wonder if they didn’t amount to much. Will you be trying them again this year?
Linda says
Mavis did post her total take, and while I don’t remember the exact amount, it was over 500 lbs.
Teri says
Yes, I was mainly wondering about the sweet potatoes. But thanks for answering.
Mel says
I think this might be it (scroll down).
https://www.onehundreddollarsamonth.com/gardening-in-new-england-the-final-harvest-of-the-year/
Teri says
Thanks Mel!
amy says
Mavis, I just saw this pin and thought of our wowie zowie platter goal…https://www.pinterest.com/pin/554013191658497325/
Traci says
Spicy take: I’ve tried gardening many times, in many forms and finally came to the conclusion that I just don’t enjoy it! I have other things I like to do much better that get me outside (daily 3 mile walks with my dog, no matter the weather), are enjoyable & physically or mentally healthy for me (knitting, at-home workouts), and shopping at the farmer’s market (supports the local people who earn a living gardening). To each his own! I’m glad you all love it so much, it’s just not for me.
Sally says
We have been gardening for many years and sell at the local Farmer’s Market. Our biggest crop is green chile and we have around 1500 plants coming up in our flats. That gets me excited. Garlic is doing well and the onion plants should be here tomorrow. Seeding tomatoes today. Spring is coming!!!
Susan says
I think growing a few things that are very cheap to grow can save you substantial amounts of money. I’m thinking of sugar snap peas, beans, chard and green onions. SS peas and beans because they don’t require any fertilizer beyond a little bone meal (a $5 bag of bone meal lasts me for years), chard because just a few chard plants will produce all season if you harvest them with a cut-and-come-again method and green onions because they are very easy to grow with the chard (and a green onion sauteed in olive oil with chard leaves makes a good side dish).
Vegetables that need tons of (organic) fertilizer to grow are another story…
Marilyn says
Oh how I love to grow and what I don’t eat goes to the food pantry down the road!
I have a short season here at 8950’ in the mountains of Colorado so I planted under a grow light January 15. I can’t wait to get out! Of course today we are having a blizzard!
Betsy in MN says
I love gardening! My husband said it skipped a generation for me. My mother did not garden, but my grandmother did. In fact I garden in the same garden she had (but I have tripled it’s size in the past few years!) I used to help her when I was young and then continued on in college. In fact, I would start seedlings in my dorm room!
I use a no till method to keep down weeds and sow cover crops to supplement the soil. I compost and rotate my crops. I use hog panels for my vining crops. I even keep a wild grape vine that little birds love to nest in. It is my place of peace. I grow what I love, which would be too long to list here! I even have an orchard!
I highly recommend gardening! Now if only the snow would melt…
Tracie@SomewhatAwry.com says
Beautiful Lucy. I can’t wait to get my tomatoes into the ground. I’m hoping to branch out this year and grow other yummy things. And beautiful things too! Come on Spring!
Gee says
Thanks for the green photos, Mavis. I’m definitely in cabin fever mode and oh-so-tired of looking at snow. At least things are melting today, but it’s still got a long way to go.
While looking at that cute photo of Lucy, I thought it would be great fun (for her and me, at least) if, when the snow is gone, you took a video of her racing around the yard and posted it for us. Maybe when she races over to check on her girls? This is a BIG hint. 🙂