On April 18, 2010 I started with a dirt area covering a slightly sloping 72 square feet in the Aptos Community Garden. The space cost me
$75 for the year.
I arrived on the scene with a small hand trowel, and a lot of energy, but not much else. Surf City Growers were kind enough to donate plentiful organic starts for the new gardeners, so I grabbed a few different varieties, but found myself wanting something a little more established and definitely more substantial with my large emptiness. I knew that there was an Orchard Supply Warehouse (OSH) a few exits down the freeway in Watsonville, and had been browsing their garden section for a couple of weeks window shopping for my potential planting. Plus, OSH was where it was recommended I could easily find the RootGuard expandable gopher cages, so off I went.
My first round of purchases came in at
$120. I walked out with:
One Round Point Shovel
Five 54" Tomato Cages and One 33" Tomato Cage
Nine packs of Small Root Guard Gopher Cages (Two per pack - To be assembled)
Five 4" herb plants
Six 4" vegetable plants
Four Quart vegetable plants
One #1 vegetable plant
One six-pack of strawberries
That afternoon after planting, I went back to OSH on my way home and bought another
$70 in things:
A Heavy Duty Hose
A Pistol Nozzle
Four annual flower plants
A package of Garden-tone Fertilizer for Organic Vegetable Gardens
A package of Miracle Grow Tomato Food
Seven 4" herb plants
Two bags of Naturalscapes wooden mulch.
I also went to Home Depot a few days later, and picked up another
$30 in plants:
Six 5" plants (a mix of herbs, and I think Lavender was in here.)
A 4" plant
A 1/2 flat of Alyssums
By the end of the next week, I was hooked and went back to OSH to get more stuff, and walked out with
$50 less and:
A wood handled weeder & A wood handled cultivator
Cushion gripped Pruners
Gardening Gloves
A kneel pad
An organizer to go in my 5 gallon bucket (instead of buying a garden bag.)
I made my last big supply run and
spent $45 on:
Two 30x48" Trellises, and One 3'x3' Trellis
8 pack of Tomato Ties
1 jumbo vegetable plant
I've also since bought a large quantity of mulch/compost. I had thought I bought twice as much as I needed, but now that I have a larger space, I'm certain to put it to use. I got this at Home Depot and think it was about
$25. I also recently picked up some Sluggo to have on hand, which was about
$15, and grabbed some powdered ginger as a potential organic option as well, and that was about
$5.
Total cost after first 6 weeks: Slightly over $400.
I will be tracking how much my garden produces to see what the investment vs. return is. (On top of the obvious intangible enjoyment of gardening itself!)
Questions:
I've done some reading about using things like old ladders for trellising. What are some ways you save money in gardening? Where do you prefer to buy your plants? What are some places you don't cut cost corners for your garden? Are there things you splurge on? Is there certain "gear" that you just have to have? What am I missing that you recommend?
