Time to Start the Garden

If you will recall, last year I decided to start my garden from seeds. It was probably my most successful garden to date so I was estatic to start it again this year. A little over a week ago I planted tomato and pepper plants inside.  I checked them after five days and was a bit disappointed to see nothing had even started to grow.  I then checked back two days later and had a few inches of sprout on the tomatoes but nothing on the peppers.  I was shocked to see how much the tomatoes had grown in just two days.  I'm thinking I might need to retry the peppers but I'm giving them a few more days.

I've read articles in the past that gardening can actually cost you more money than buying fresh produce.  I can see where they are coming from if you create a fancy garden, buy high quality seeds, go for the best of everything, etc. but I've found it to be very economical.

My garden is a small plot of land in the back corner of my yard.  We have built a makeshift fence around it to keep the groundhogs, rabbits and squirrels out.  The majority of those materials were found in my dad's garage or at garage sales.  I usually pay less than a dollar per seed packet and after last years results realize that it works just as good as the higher quality plants.  We also tend to fill in with the cheap dirt instead of the higher quality.  In some areas you might need a better soil but this works great where I am located.

Square foot gardening is very popular right now and can have a bit of a startup cost but is still very inexpensive after the initial year.  If you want to Live on Less this year, I highly recommend starting your own garden.  It is fun to see your hard work turn into delicious food. 

Gardening is also a great way to get your children to eat healthier.  We let my son pick out some seeds this year and I plan to let him help in the garden.  All of the seeds he picked out need to be started directly in the ground so I'm looking forward to the day we can actually do that.  Seeing as we had snow and ice on Sunday, that is still a few weeks off though.

I would love to hear about your garden.  Feel free to leave a link or comment about your garden this year.