1)
Cheap - Here in my town we have about half a dozen or so little dollar stores and most of them sell seeds packages at a price of either 3 or 4 for a dollar. It usually doesn’t take a determined person long to earn, find, borrow or even beg to come up with a single dollar. While I’ll be the first to admit that these aren’t the best quality of seeds, or the best selection, they will still sprout and grow for you most of the time. The displays in our stores seem to generally include things such as carrots, lettuces, peas, beans, radishes and the like while also having a decent selection of easy to grow flowers to attract those pollinators with.
Let’s say you grab a package of carrot seeds, peas and a lettuce variety for your dollar spent. Carrots are super easy to grow and have tiny seeds, odds are you will get over 100 seeds for the 33 cents that package cost. Even if only 1/3 of them grow you are still looking at 33+ carrots for about a penny each. When was the last time you saw carrots for sale at a penny per? Odds are the answer is never. The math on the peas works out even better since a single pea seed can grow into a plant that produces dozens, if not hundreds, of pods with new seeds in them. Save a couple & eat the rest. Peas are now free forever! How’s that for cheap?!?
2)
Saves Massive Cash - If you paid any attention at all to the first point then you can probably see how this works already. Around here we can usually buy a 5 pound bag of carrots for about $3, same price as 9 packs of seeds, and it will have between 15 and 20 decent looking carrots in it. Even with the low success rate from above that same number of carrots would have only cost about 20 cents. Let’s see, if I grow 20 carrots at a penny each instead of buy them for $3 I could save … $2.80!
Lettuce is another great example for this since those dollar store packages usually have over one hundred seeds in them as well. For the sake of argument, we’ll assume that same 1/3 success rate as the carrots for this and that you have similar market prices as I do. I would pay about $1 per head of lettuce if I were to purchase it at the market so the savings there is basically a dollar per plant grown. So in essence a 33 cent pack of lettuce seeds could save a gardener over $33! Okay, that’s impressive if you think about it …
If you really want to have some fun saving money through gardening you should try growing the most expensive things that you would buy from the produce department and then put the money you would have spent on it into a jar. Just harvest a beautiful fresh bell pepper? 89 cents in the jar please! You will be shocked at how fast that adds up towards next years garden. It’s quite spectacular to see happening. Personally I grow a lot of hot peppers, herbs and tomatoes to keep those savings up and the family healthy!
3)
Sound Investment - For most of us living on this planet the idea of investing is something of a sick joke. For example, my bank wants $500 just to get started and the returns don’t really seem that great to me. I’m going to keep this one short and to the point. If you find an investment that pays out better than lettuce, and is legal, put everything you’ve got into it and remember who gave you that advice … (*cough*) Where else can you turn a penny into a dollar? ‘Nuff said.
4)
Food Security - These days there seems to be a lot of concern over something called food security. Is it just me or does that make anybody else picture a little uniformed guard in the fridge asking for your ID? Anyway, that concern is not necessarily a bad thing since odds are that’s what brought you to one of my videos or blog posts in the first place. The funny thing about that is that food is pretty easy to grow almost anywhere so there really is no reason for a gardener to worry about going hungry for long. Many plants can be eaten as sprouts when they are only a few days old and have plenty of nutrients to keep a person healthy while they wait for other plants to grow. With a little creativity, the ability to garden can even be used to help secure meats for the family. After all, who hasn’t heard stories for some garden raiding deer or rabbit? Both pretty tasty in my books!
5)
Healthy Food - For those who are concerned with the quality of the food they eat, gardening is almost the only affordable option. Our local markets charge at least twice as much for any produce marked as organic. I saw in one store they had ‘Organic’ cucumbers selling for $4 each. EACH! I bought a cucumber plant for the aquaponic system and it’s already got 3 fruit starting on it and since it’s in the AP garden I feel it will harvest as far better than so called organic produce at the market. Gardening is simple to get involved in and let’s face it, as long as you have seeds you’ll have access to top quality & healthy foods.
6)
Reduced Global Footprint - Granted, it is beyond awesome that we can grow food and transport it anywhere in the world and I don’t intend to suggest otherwise. However, the habit of doing so has had some serious and negative effects on our world. Driving to the market to buy packaged and out of season fruit is very convenient and has become quite normal in many places. Skipping over the packaged & processed stuff, let’s just look at what is needed to get that produce to market in the first place.
The farmer has to take on a HUGE debt load for the land, seeds, and equipment that are needed plus a small fortune in operating costs for the fuel to power everything along the way. Those tractors to plow, plant and harvest all need gas of some sort don’t they? Then of course so do the large trucks that take it all to market, but not to your market yet. First it goes to huge warehouses to be sorted before getting shipped to the companies buying it all for resale. Then it goes to other warehouses to get sorted again before getting shipped some more before it finally gets to your market. Where it gets sorted again before you even have a chance to go through and ‘pick out the best ones’ like we all do. Excellent, now wasn’t that easier than just growing it yourself? Not really … Ever wonder why food prices are so high? There’s your answer!
7)
Takes Practice - As I’ve said many times, gardening is easy to get started with but with that being said, it does take some practice. If I had a dollar for every plant I have brutally killed one way or another along my learning journey, we’d be living on a pretty big farm right now!
There are times when the plants will get forgotten or simply can’t be cared for or the weather does something that kills them all or, or, or … the list goes on for a long time. These things happen and you learn from them. No two gardens are ever exactly the same so you have to learn what will work in your garden specifically. Folks like me can offer tips and tricks and advice but results will vary. Stubborn practice is the only sure fire way to become a better gardener, there is no short cut.
8)
Takes Time - Great gardens do not happen overnight. Sorry if you were hoping otherwise, it just doesn’t work that way. On the surface gardening is simple. Plant a seed, give it some care and just watch it grow until harvest time. Pretty easy right? At a deeper level there is a lot more that goes into it, as you will learn with practice. Good soil can be found in many places but truly great soil is built over years by loving gardeners trying to proved the best possible environment for their plants. It’s a beautiful and habit forming process that I hope you get started in soon. Give it a try for a few years and I’m sure you’ll know what I mean!
Now go out there and get growing!
JT Bear
