Get Growing! Pick your spot and gather your gear.

We are going to jump right into the next steps for getting your budget garden started. In the last blog post, I covered thinking about why you want to garden and what you want to garden. Hopefully you thought about your area and now have a good idea of the answers to those two questions.

Obviously there are only 2 places to garden: inside or outside. Each has its own positives and negatives. Let's quickly cover them.

Picture of plants in a window

Indoor gardening allows you to monitor your plants more closely, quickly harvest what you grow and brighten up the space in your house. The challenges with growing inside are potential for pests like gnats that can get into your soil, limitations on what you can grow due to space and potential slower growth.

Picture of a vegetable garden

An outdoor garden only limits you to the space you have which can be huge depending on how much space you have which can include your front yard. You can also grow just about anything in your backyard that you can plant and germinate. Disadvantages can be potential issues with homeowner's associations, more pest management and high need for materials such as water.

Which it's January and still cold in alot of areas its not too early to plan and gather for your garden, especially if you start from seed. Let's start with growing inside!

Growing inside

Below is a chart of how you can start with only $25 to get a garden going. If you need to be budget conscious or aren't ready to jump into gardening feet first, this is a great way to start off. Even though $25 is not much, you can even expand those funds if you partner with a friend to purchase especially with seeds because you can each purchase different types of seeds and share the harvest.

Table of materials and cost for planting inside

Starting indoors you want to find the windowsill that get the most light without being too hot. You can buy plants directly from big box stores but it is often gets expensive since each plant costs between $4 - $5 a piece. If you are a recipient of SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) you can use those funds to purchase seeds and plants. You can also propogate plants to grow more or share with friends.

Step 1: Locate containers to use to start seeds. The easiest containers for seeds are paper egg cartons or keurig containers (be sure to poke a hole for drainage).

Step 2: Locate or purchase your seeds. You can get seeds from your local library. You can also get seeds from the produce that you purchase. Note, sometimes what we eat in the store is a hybrid that was created so what you grow may look different. Dollar Tree provides the best options for seeds at an economic price but you will have to start looking now since they often do not offer fall seeds.

Step 3: Purchase seedling soil and regular soil. This is a lighter soil that is made of material that allows a seed to germinate and grow.

Step 4: Hydrate your seeds to prevent lost time and wasted efforts. Don't put in all your seeds so you can more to plant later or in case your seeds struggle to germinate. You might remember the school project where you were given a bean, a wet paper towel and ziploc bag. Your teacher taped the seed in the wet paper towel in the window and you watched to see how long it germinated. That is exactly how you can germinate larger seeds for quicker planting. For smaller seeds like cilantro, pour the seeds in warmish water and soak for about 1 hour and no more than 3-4 hours.

Step 5: Place the regular soil in the bottom of the 2/3rds of your container. This cuts down on using up your more expensive seedling soil. Sprinkle with seedling mix, pour soaked seeds over and top with seedling mix that is 2 to 3 times the height of the seed. The larger the seeds the more it needs to be tucked in the soil to germinate.

Step 6: Water BUT WAIT! Do not pour water over the top of your plant. This will make the top moist and invite any gnats you have to set up camp. Instead grab a container that can hold water and lay the container in the water for 15-20 minutes to allow it to soak up. In case it gets too wet on the top, sprinkle a little cinnamon on top to keep gnats away.

Keep an eye on your seedling and every 2-3 days let it soak in water to replenish. Save small yogurt or sour cream containers to up pot after it has grown for a while.

Starting outdoors you want to find an area that you can easily access and remember to check on regularly. You can dig directly in the ground or use milk carton. Be sure to note how much sun your area gets, especially if you live somewhere that gets extremely high temps which can burn some plants.

Table of materials and cost for planting outside

Step 1: Loosen the dirt where you will plant or grab your containers. Old milk jugs are great for planting in. Just cut the top 1/3rd of the container and poke holes in the bottom.

Step 2, 3 and 4: Same as the step 2, 3 and 4 for inside planting. You can plant more things when you are outside. Tomatoes, eggplant, cucumbers, etc that need pollination are better suited outside. Hopefully you can have plants that are colorful or attract bees or wasps that will pollinate for you. If you don't, even some of the weeds in your hard will do that.

Step 5: If planting in the ground you can use the soil you purchased to amend the soil in your yard by mixing. If you don't have a small shovel or a hand rake, see if you can borrow one from a friend. If you have a hammer, turn over to the claw side and use that. Sprinkle the seedling soil over your existing soil in the ground so that you seeds will germinate better. Seeds that do not have good contact with the soil will likely not sprout. In a container, add the regular soil in 3/4ths to the top. Add soaked seeds and top with soil, enough to cover 2 to 3 times the size of the seeds.

Step 6: You can definitely water overhead for outdoor plantings since the sun will actively be drying out what you planted. Beware that squirrels get very excited to dig up seeds and your seeds can dry out quickly outside. To help with this you can cover lightly with heavily mulched leaves, dried out grass or a very inexpensive piece of nylon fabric.

In the next post, our topic will be ways to irrigate your plants for free. Until then, good luck starting your budget garden!