Grow More Food, Spend Less Money: My Best Budget Garden Tips

Hi everyone, today I'm going to share with you my top four ways to grow more and spend less because the cost of garden supplies is getting absolutely ridiculous these days and you don't have to spend a lot of money to grow your own food. Now tip number three might surprise you because it's a great way to avoid buying a lot of extra garden supplies. The first tip to grow more and spend less in your garden is to reuse your soil. As long as you're starting with a good quality mix you can reuse your soil for years and years because it's built to last. So when you're planting replanting your containers from season to season don't throw the entire container away all you need to do is top it off again with the caveat that you're starting with good soil. Now the reason why good soil is so important is because it is built to last. High quality soil holds its structure it's drainage airflow and sponge-like texture for years and when you have soil with good structure you're not replacing the structure you're only adding new nutrients to it. When you're replanting in your containers from season to season it's super easy all you have to do is just scoop out the top third of soil and don't throw this soil away either. I'm going to set it aside and reuse it later. So we're going to scoop out the top third and then just add a little bit of this potting mix bumper crop potting mix in the top and you can see here that the soil that's remaining still has a really great structure it's nice and spongy it's got good aeration good drainage it just needs a little bit of extra nutrients which the fresh soil will add in here to help these little kale stems take off and and have new growth. Bumper crop stays affordable because it's made with local ingredients it's manufactured regionally and so you avoid high transportation costs too. It's available at your local independent garden center so head over to bumpercrop.com for a location near you that sells it it's a high quality mix it's very reasonably priced it'll last you for years and you're supporting your local independent garden center at the same time. And let's say you're growing in raised beds and containers now in your raised beds here when you're planting from season to season there's no need to empty out all your soil get rid of it and start over with fresh soil don't do that you've got a good quality base here which i've got the master nursery bumper crop soil in here the raised bed soil when your soil settles from season to season all you have to do is top it off with fresh nutrients. Now the reason why you don't want to use subpar soil is because what it tends to do from season to season is it compacts or it gets mushy and waterlogged it doesn't drain well so when you're starting with good soil you can reuse it from season to season to season. Some of the soil in my raised beds and containers I've used for years and just topped it off with fresh amendments every time I plant and it saves a ton of money. Next way I love to save money in the garden is by the seeds that I plant. Now I like to plant high producers like here in this garden bed I've got some greens which are super great high producers in the winter time. So when you're planting high producers you're getting a lot more bang for your buck in the seeds that you plant. Now carrots are a great crop to plant too but you pull it and it's one and done and it takes a long time to grow and can take up a fair amount of space but greens here you can harvest time and time again for many many months especially if you're growing in a southern climate in the winter time and that way you're getting more bang for your buck with the seeds that you plant. In this garden bed I've got some specialty greens which are super expensive at the farmer's market. I've got some endive, different kinds of mustard greens, different types of lettuces, and also different colors of peas which if you can even find different colors of peas at the organic markets they're super super expensive. So these are crops I can harvest for months with a very little investment in a few seeds. Now the other thing that I love to do to save money in the garden is to save my own seeds from year to year. So a great one that's very very easy to save are beans. These are scarlet runner beans and not only can you save them and then rehydrate the beans for refried beans which we've done many times and they're super super delicious but you can replant them next year in the garden and when you're saving your own seeds what happens is they're actually adapting to your own particular climate and then they'll be that much more productive the next year. So a great way to save tons of money on seeds in the garden. Tip number three is one of my favorites because not only does it help you save on a ton of garden supplies but you're reusing something and turning trash into treasure and that is composting. Composting is the best free fertilizer you can possibly make yourself and I'm going to show you here my very simple three compost bin setup that anyone can do even in a small space. What I have here are three different compost bins. I have one that I'm adding materials to, one that's kind of cooking away and my finished compost bin. So first off I keep this under my kitchen sink which I add any you know kitchen scraps, eggshells, things like that too. No meat or dairy go in here. Then I dump it in my compost pile that I am continually adding new materials to. I might give it a little mix in here kind of get some of these dried leaves on top to cut down some of the fruit flies and that type of thing. Then once this bin is full it moves over into my compost in progress bin. And what I'm using for my compost bins here are just the I believe these are 15 gallon nursery pots and if you don't have one you can usually ask for at the garden center they usually will give it to you free because they have plenty that they're throwing away. And in here you can see the compost is definitely starting to break down but there still are some recognizable little items of food scraps in here. But because I have the second bin it's able to kind of break down over time. I'm not adding new materials to that bin so it continually breaks down until it turns into finished compost which I then move over into just a simple little five gallon bucket. So in here is where the magic happens this is gardener's black gold. The compost is fully broken down you might see a few little eggshells or food scraps in it but it's no big deal and I can take this and add a handful to my kale plant here so it's going to save me from buying a lot of extra fertilizers. Now I still do use bag fertilizers in my garden but this definitely helps cut down on the fertilizers that I purchase and it's just about the best fertilizer that can possibly be for your plants. It's got great soil structure and adds great nutrients all organic and not only that it helps you turn things you would normally be throwing away and wasting into something you can use to grow your own food. Now in case you're intimidated at the thought of making your own compost don't be it's way easier than you think. I have a whole compost playlist that shows you exactly what to do step by step so you're going to have some beautiful compost for your own garden by springtime. The fourth way I love to save money in the garden is by reusing my supplies from season to season to season. There's no need to purchase tons of extra supplies look around your house see what you have and then reuse what you have. So for example a few of my favorites are little takeout trays or meat trays for microgreens even cutting off an orange juice container for microgreens and you can use this for starting seeds as well little deli containers even these little plastic seed markers here you can actually rub off with a magic eraser the name of it and then reuse them again from year to year. Now this is one of my favorites I just started using this year is I had a ton of these storage tubs in my garage so all I did was line it with landscape fabric or shade cloth that I already had and then planted lettuce in it and it's a nice little lettuce that I have growing inside. Now seed starting containers can be very very expensive so definitely reuse them from year to year. I just rinse them out and then keep them on the side of my house and then they're all ready when I need to start my seeds. In fact here's my little crate full of seed starting cells that I save from year to year. Now once they get you know cracked and broken I do recycle them because then all the soil and things like that just kind of leak out but the trays all these trays can be reused for many many years there's no need to spend extra money repurchasing new items from year to year. Now one thing that's really fun also to reuse is yogurt containers and sour cream containers. All these can be used for seed starting or for growing indoors during the winter time just make sure that you poke some holes in the bottom for drainage that way your plants don't get root rot. And one handy little item that you can use for starting seeds and seed starting season is coming up soon are egg cartons. Not only can you eat the eggs which are good for you you can use the egg shells in your compost and then use the carton for starting your seeds so start saving them now. Even if you're on a budget you can still grow a ton of your own food. Keep it simple, keep it quick, and keep it inexpensive. And let me know which one of these tips you're going to incorporate into your garden this year. Thanks for watching see you next time in the garden.