A budget veggie garden?

[shortbun]

with limited space, desire, experience...and small children, I'd also limit what I was planting. Even tomatoes need to be suckered off and watered regularly to produce well. A couple tomato plants, a few sweet peppers, a little lettuce should be enough the first year until you figure out how much time you actually want to dedicate to your garden. 4yo children have 10 minute attention spans-weeding, watering, digging...all take time.

 

[MrsPete]

Tomato plants are the first thing that has to go in. That's a quality item -- they're just so much better than store-bought, and I can eat them every day of the summer.

After that, it's a matter of quality and cost-effectiveness:

Squash because they're super-easy to grow, and we like the unusual varieties.
Snow peas for the same reason, but we don't do them every year.
Peppers because they're so very expensive at the store, and because they freeze well. Peppers do well in containers.

We do not grow watermelons because they require too much space and can be purchased very cheaply at the farmer's market.

Definitely look into the prices at your local farmer's market. Except for peppers, I don't think we save anything by doing it ourselves.

I've never succeeded with broccoli.

Finally, a suggestion: You can grow potatoes in leaves raked up from your yard. Seriously. Cram leaves into a big plastic tub, throw in chopped potatoes with eyes . . . pretty soon you'll have a bumper crop of potatoes. Probably explains why you can buy five pounds for two dollars at the store. So they "win" for ease of growing, but they "lose" in that you don't get a better quality product or a cheaper price.

 

[Colleen27]

Finally, a suggestion: You can grow potatoes in leaves raked up from your yard. Seriously. Cram leaves into a big plastic tub, throw in chopped potatoes with eyes . . . pretty soon you'll have a bumper crop of potatoes. Probably explains why you can buy five pounds for two dollars at the store. So they "win" for ease of growing, but they "lose" in that you don't get a better quality product or a cheaper price.

I think potatoes are one of the best for getting better quality than store bought. Because potatoes are often eaten skin-on and are hard to really clean they're one of the "dirty dozen" produce items where buying organic makes the most sense, and organic around here can cost twice what conventional do. Growing my own, a $6 investment in seed potatoes yielded about 30lbs of pesticide and fertilizer free potatoes. I just keep hilling them until they're in about 3' of leaves/soil mix and they really go crazy.

 

[MyDizneyBoyz]

We have our staples every year:
- tomatoes (lots)
- cucumbers
- yellow summer squash
- peppers

We've grown corn, carrots, radishes, potatoes, and a few other things just to try them out.

This year, I'm adding a raspberry patch. My all time favoritest fruit ever! Just six plants to see how they do... I'm hoping that the birds and squirrels don't wipe out any potential harvest before we get to enjoy them. I'll put a netting trellis over them if I have to but I'm trying to avoid constructing too many barriers between me and my berries. The things are so dang expensive at the store so I'm pretty excited about growing some.

 

[Colleen27]

This year, I'm adding a raspberry patch. My all time favoritest fruit ever! Just six plants to see how they do... I'm hoping that the birds and squirrels don't wipe out any potential harvest before we get to enjoy them. I'll put a netting trellis over them if I have to but I'm trying to avoid constructing too many barriers between me and my berries. The things are so dang expensive at the store so I'm pretty excited about growing some.

That's something I've had really good luck with. At our old house we had a 10x5 berry patch, but it was sort of unruly-looking and hard to keep the birds out. Here I made a "fence" of sorts with the canes - sunk 4x4 posts and ran berry wire between them. That way when the berries are starting to ripen I can just hang the netting over the whole thing to keep the birds out, and the kids find picking a lot easier with the canes all trained upright between the wires rather than flopping every which way.

This year I added strawberries to, in one of the most brilliant small-space planters I've seen so far - a length of white vinyl gutter (thanks, Pintrest). I now have a 20' row of strawberries hanging from my fence at the perfect height for my 3yo to pick from.

 

[pixiewings71]

Tomato plants are the first thing that has to go in. That's a quality item -- they're just so much better than store-bought, and I can eat them every day of the summer.

After that, it's a matter of quality and cost-effectiveness:

Squash because they're super-easy to grow, and we like the unusual varieties.
Snow peas for the same reason, but we don't do them every year.
Peppers because they're so very expensive at the store, and because they freeze well. Peppers do well in containers.

We do not grow watermelons because they require too much space and can be purchased very cheaply at the farmer's market.

Definitely look into the prices at your local farmer's market. Except for peppers, I don't think we save anything by doing it ourselves.

I've never succeeded with broccoli.

Finally, a suggestion: You can grow potatoes in leaves raked up from your yard. Seriously. Cram leaves into a big plastic tub, throw in chopped potatoes with eyes . . . pretty soon you'll have a bumper crop of potatoes. Probably explains why you can buy five pounds for two dollars at the store. So they "win" for ease of growing, but they "lose" in that you don't get a better quality product or a cheaper price.

Thank You! I will try them this year in pots.

That's something I've had really good luck with. At our old house we had a 10x5 berry patch, but it was sort of unruly-looking and hard to keep the birds out. Here I made a "fence" of sorts with the canes - sunk 4x4 posts and ran berry wire between them. That way when the berries are starting to ripen I can just hang the netting over the whole thing to keep the birds out, and the kids find picking a lot easier with the canes all trained upright between the wires rather than flopping every which way.

This year I added strawberries to, in one of the most brilliant small-space planters I've seen so far - a length of white vinyl gutter (thanks, Pintrest). I now have a 20' row of strawberries hanging from my fence at the perfect height for my 3yo to pick from.

I hadn't heard of that but it sounds like a great way to grown strawberries! Thanks!

 

[Colleen27]

I hadn't heard of that but it sounds like a great way to grown strawberries! Thanks!

I can't wait to see how they do. I've had terrible results with berries in the ground; they always end up bug-eaten before they ripen, and I haven't managed to squeeze the cedar tower planter I wanted into the budget (the kind they have at Epcot for Flower & Garden - beautiful but pricey!).

From what I've read just about any shallow-rooted plant will thrive in gutters, so it should work for lettuce, spinach, and many herbs as well as strawberries. If the experiment is successful I'm going to try a hanging herb/salad garden in shorter lengths of gutter next, ala Martha Stewart's take on the idea. I have a porch that needs shade on its southern end and this would be perfect - http://www.marthastewart.com/265729/surprising-garden-pots-copper-gutters

 

[Zhoen]

I love that "screen" in the link you posted! Now I need a porch!

 

[My2CrazyGirls]

Does anything grow well w a good amount of shade?

 

[Colleen27]

Does anything grow well w a good amount of shade?

Not a whole lot. Lettuce and other greens, peas, beans, radishes, carrots, some herbs... Those can get by with 4 or so hours of sun a day, but don't need the full sun that many other veggies require.

 

[skysmom99]

I'm loving this thread. My hubby built a small (6x6) raised garden last year that we fertilized with chicken poo from the chickens we also started raising last spring. The garden did wonderfully. We had tons of radishes, grape & slicing tomatoes, a few bell peppers, banana peppers, cukes, and butternut squash. We've decided to build another box and plant a bit more this year. Now I'm trying to think where I could hang some gutters to grow strawberries. Space isn't an issue since I have 6 acres but I like to keep things close to the house to keep it free of deer, rabbits, and the other wildlife that want to share with us.

 

[stargazer2892]

For those asking about container gardens two years ago when we where in an apartment I managed to grow: grape tomatoes and another kind I can't remember the name but it was hybridized to grow smaller therefore more adapt at containers, thai chili's, habaneros, jalapenos, strawberries, and lettuce. Then in one big planter I had sweet basil, thai basil, rosemary, oregano, chives, and bee balm. Two years later the rosemary is more of a small tree and the oregano is a small bush, unfortunately I wasn't thinking when I planted the bee balm which is part of the mint family and spreads like crazy and has choked out everything else. It looks amazing when in bloom though and attracts bees to pollinate the rest of the plants but I would be very careful ever planting any sort of plant in the mint family. The only thing about a container garden you have to remember is that it needs more watering since the pots get warm quickly and speeds up the evaporation. good luck

 

[Colleen27]

I'm loving this thread. My hubby built a small (6x6) raised garden last year that we fertilized with chicken poo from the chickens we also started raising last spring.

Going off on a tangent here - How do you handle chickens and vacations? How much care do they need while you're gone and where did you find someone to look in on them? We're allowed to have laying hens where we live but I haven't made that leap yet because I just don't know how we'd manage our travels with more animals to care for.

 

[Zhoen]

It's not a tangent, I'm the OP and I keep chickens, too Therefore it was implied in the original thread that of course a veggie garden question includes chicken-sitting on vacation.

And for our answer, we're having a niece come pet-sit. The guinea pig would probably be fine, and the cat is more self-sufficient than most humans, but the chicks get a sitter.

 

[pixiewings71]

I can't wait to see how they do. I've had terrible results with berries in the ground; they always end up bug-eaten before they ripen, and I haven't managed to squeeze the cedar tower planter I wanted into the budget (the kind they have at Epcot for Flower & Garden - beautiful but pricey!).

From what I've read just about any shallow-rooted plant will thrive in gutters, so it should work for lettuce, spinach, and many herbs as well as strawberries. If the experiment is successful I'm going to try a hanging herb/salad garden in shorter lengths of gutter next, ala Martha Stewart's take on the idea. I have a porch that needs shade on its southern end and this would be perfect - http://www.marthastewart.com/265729/surprising-garden-pots-copper-gutters

Ok, that's amazingly cool!

Not a whole lot. Lettuce and other greens, peas, beans, radishes, carrots, some herbs... Those can get by with 4 or so hours of sun a day, but don't need the full sun that many other veggies require.

So, if I was to do that (the above link) on my back patio, the area I would use is covered, it's a cover that allows sun to come through but it's very dimmed (we don't need sunscreen but it's not covered with wood or anything that blocks the sun), would I be able to plant any of the above items under the patio cover?

For those asking about container gardens two years ago when we where in an apartment I managed to grow: grape tomatoes and another kind I can't remember the name but it was hybridized to grow smaller therefore more adapt at containers, thai chili's, habaneros, jalapenos, strawberries, and lettuce. Then in one big planter I had sweet basil, thai basil, rosemary, oregano, chives, and bee balm. Two years later the rosemary is more of a small tree and the oregano is a small bush, unfortunately I wasn't thinking when I planted the bee balm which is part of the mint family and spreads like crazy and has choked out everything else. It looks amazing when in bloom though and attracts bees to pollinate the rest of the plants but I would be very careful ever planting any sort of plant in the mint family. The only thing about a container garden you have to remember is that it needs more watering since the pots get warm quickly and speeds up the evaporation. good luck

This is great to know! Thanks!! We have our garden/landscaping on a water cycle (auto sprinklers) and we tend to water a bit more as well.

 

[limace]

Going off on a tangent here - How do you handle chickens and vacations? How much care do they need while you're gone and where did you find someone to look in on them? We're allowed to have laying hens where we live but I haven't made that leap yet because I just don't know how we'd manage our travels with more animals to care for.

We are fortunate to have lots of long-term chicken loving neighbors, so most the time we just trade pet care. Chickens are pretty low maintenance, and our friend's teenaged daughter also has walked down to care for them when our neighbor is out of town. All it involves is shutting them in their coop at night and letting them out in the morning, gathering eggs, throwing down some food once a day. We have a big raccoon problem; if you live where predators aren't an issue, then you wouldn't have to lock them up every night, as they go in to roost on their own.

 

[limace]

I love the differences of thought with different areas. We have a rather small to medium yard. Its only about 2 acres, lol.

. Well, our 3/4 of an acre lot is large for this area because it's right in town, where all the older lots run about 1/4 acre or less (and of course, the new houses are all built on tiny postage stamp lots).

 

[hsmamato2]

As for the corn, the technique I am trying (new to me, not new in general) is square foot gardening. With square foot gardening, I'll have 48 corn stalks in a 4 x 6 foot area. I'll plant 2 of those 4 x 6 foot areas and have 96 corn stalks which should produce 192 ears of corn.

Square foot gardening rocks....I've done it for years....the book is available at the library,I read it years ago and have never been the same
to this day my DH will say things like"you CAN'T grow THAT here....."
I also saw an idea for growing potatoes in old laundry baskets which I like....
This year I've committed to heirloom seeds..... went to a local place,bought a LOT of seeds,and have some cute little seedlings....the variety of tomatoes alone is mind boggling!!! Heirloom seeds aren't as cheap upfront, but I believe they;re better all around,plus I intend to harvest this years seeds from my plants for suture years.....
oh, I also found a method for making my own seedlin pots from newspaper online,even more 'budget'!

 

[livndisney]

We are fortunate to have lots of long-term chicken loving neighbors, so most the time we just trade pet care. Chickens are pretty low maintenance, and our friend's teenaged daughter also has walked down to care for them when our neighbor is out of town. All it involves is shutting them in their coop at night and letting them out in the morning, gathering eggs, throwing down some food once a day. We have a big raccoon problem; if you live where predators aren't an issue, then you wouldn't have to lock them up every night, as they go in to roost on their own.

Please excuse my morning brain-I just read this as "our chicken loving neighbors come down to walk our chickens"

 

[Colleen27]

So, if I was to do that (the above link) on my back patio, the area I would use is covered, it's a cover that allows sun to come through but it's very dimmed (we don't need sunscreen but it's not covered with wood or anything that blocks the sun), would I be able to plant any of the above items under the patio cover?

You should be able to. I plant my lettuce and spinach under my cucumber A-frame and they do fine there with only the dappled sun that comes through the vines.

We are fortunate to have lots of long-term chicken loving neighbors, so most the time we just trade pet care. Chickens are pretty low maintenance, and our friend's teenaged daughter also has walked down to care for them when our neighbor is out of town. All it involves is shutting them in their coop at night and letting them out in the morning, gathering eggs, throwing down some food once a day. We have a big raccoon problem; if you live where predators aren't an issue, then you wouldn't have to lock them up every night, as they go in to roost on their own.

Hmm, I wonder how the neighbor who watches our dog feels about chickens? He's over here morning and night when we're gone anyway to let the dog out and play with her a bit. We don't have any real predators in this area unless neighborhood cats count; we're in a small town and I thought for sure we'd have raccoon, deer, rabbits, etc. but they all seem to stay out in the cornfields where the food is easier to steal and there are less people & pets interrupting their foraging.

. Well, our 3/4 of an acre lot is large for this area because it's right in town, where all the older lots run about 1/4 acre or less (and of course, the new houses are all built on tiny postage stamp lots).

Here too. We have a big lot for our neighborhood at 1/4 acre, and we're actually considering buying the foreclosure next door to have more yard. Ours was the original house on the block and the man who built it held on to a nice yard for himself when he started splitting the property to build houses for his kids and grandkids. Around here, a lot of houses don't have much more than the space the house sits on. But it does come with perks - I basically don't drive from April through October because everything I need is walking distance from my house.