This is the perfect time of year to talk about a way that you can save tons of money on your food bills over the coming summer months. Grow your own! Now don’t get intimidated. You don’t have to go out and start a mini-farm in your backyard. Any amount of food you can grow will help. You don’t even need a yard. Some pots on a balcony or patio will grow enough to help supplement your diet with your own food. If you don’t have a yard but would like a garden plot, check around your area to see if you can find a community garden that you could join. If you are new to all this, start small. Do not bite off more than you can chew (so to speak 😀). Even if you do nothing but grow a few lettuce plants, you will have free salad or most of the growing season. That alone is pretty cool, don’t you think! You can grow many things in pots on patios. Besides lettuce you can grow tomatoes, cucumbers, squash beans, potatoes, radishes, scallions, and strawberries to name a few. You can also grow herbs, like basil, oregano, parsley, chives, rosemary, and dill. When you see how expensive some herbs can be at the grocery store, growing these at home can be super economical for you! You can dry them or freeze them to continue to use throughout the year as well. The key here, if you are trying to save money, is to do your growing in a frugal manner. If you go out and buy a bunch of fancy gardening apparatus, then you have completely defeated the purpose. Keep it simple! Use what you have in terms of containers (just make sure to put holes in the bottom for drainage.) If you are growing a plot in the yard, you can begin to save your shredded leaves and use your yard debris and kitchen scraps to make your own compost for free soil amendments You can buy seedlings in the nurseries in the spring, but it is even more economical and very easy to start many things from seed. For the cost of a few seed packs you can grow your own lettuce, spinach, cabbage, peas, carrots, beets, kale, swiss chard, collards, tomatoes, cucumbers, squash, and beans, the list goes on and on … But as I cautioned earlier, if you have not done this before, just start small. Even just one tomato plant on your patio or a few lettuce plants by your kitchen door may be enough the first year to introduce you to the joys and satisfaction of growing your own food for a frugal way to eat. And wait until you taste how much better it is than store bought! I guarantee you will be hooked! Happy frugal eating! And wishing you a bright future of home-grown food!
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