Lowering Your Food Budget with a Garden

No matter how you slice it, food is expensive.

With the rising cost of  transportation, food  prices are escalating just to arrive at the shops. Starting a garden is one way to lower your total food bill each month. By eliminating one element of the cost of food, the shipping costs, you can eat better for less.

The way to do this is to grow a garden. Instead of shipped tomatoes that are who-knows-how-old, fresh tomatoes are as close as a stroll out to your garden. Planting a garden is not as hard as it might sound, but it does take dedication. A garden has many benefits for the person who wants to save money on food:

• You don’t have to pay the high price for fresh produce.
• You can have fresh vegetables whenever you want them.
• You can freeze them for later use out of season.
• You will experience the fresh, sweet taste of natural foods.

1. Get everyone involved

Get the entire family involved in the garden. Let each person have a job to do so it isn’t too much of a chore for any one person. You want the garden to be fun as well as yield a bountiful harvest. These are the simple elements you need to have a garden with good results:

2. Choose an area for your garden

Pick a spot that is in the sun and away from the house. Choose flat land so that the water isn’t constantly running away from the plants, eroding the soil in the process.

3. Choose the right plants

This involves choosing ones that are in season and can grow in your type of soil and climate. Also, choose vegetables that your family will enjoy eating. That may seem obvious, but many people are tempted to try some interesting vegetable on their family, and it never gets eaten.

4. Tend to your garden daily

A watched plant never grows but weeds do. Your plants will be threatened by not only weeds but insects as well. You will need to pull the weeds and use different methods to get rid of the bugs. Don’t forget about the water. You’ll need to water with some regularity in most climates.  Kids love gardening – so involve them too!

5. Harvest your crops

It’s time to harvest your crops. Learn which crops want to be put away in a cool, dark place with the dirt still on them. Learn which crops want to be scrubbed and stored in the refrigerator.  Then, learn which crops should be blanched and frozen. There are plenty of great gardening guides that can help.

Your garden is only limited by your imagination, space, and climate. Choose vegetables, fruits, and berries, and cultivate a garden that will reap a bounty of crops to enjoy any time you wish and save you money, too!

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Please share us your tips for lowering your food budget with a garden!