Ordinary Money Saving Gardening Tips

Here are some money saving tips for the garden.

1.       Buy seeds that will give you a high return. For example, one package of mustard seeds has lasted me multiple seasons. I still have seeds from my original package I purchased. Each spring I get volunteers from my original mustard bed as well as each plant producing a large number of seeds at the end of the growing season. I have enough mustard seeds now to start giving some away this year too! Mustard greens are good when eaten with a strong salad dressing like Catalina. Other non-GMO seeds that I have received a high rate of return are chives (grown in hanging baskets), kale, flat parsley (grown in my kitchen window), and one type of lettuce.

2.       Buy seeds from a company with a similar growing season. I live in upstate New York. I have had very good luck with seeds I purchased from Denali in Alaska. I am hoping to find some other gardeners/farmers in my area to exchange seeds with this spring. This has proven more difficult than I expected it would be when I first moved here.

3.       A new gardener is often given the advice to only grow what they will eat. I would disagree with this. I have never liked onions until I planted some in my garden one year. The fresh taste changed my hatred of these bulbs forever. One way to save money is to put the white ends of green onions in a jar of water. They will regrow over and over in a sunny window. I usually keep them trimmed at about 2 inches long. I love these sprinkled on my baked potatoes.

4.       Last year I made my own small greenhouse out of a plastic container and an old window. You can read about this here.