Gardening

As you get to know me you will find out that I have tons of hobbies. For a 23 year old, some of them are considered dorky. But I am not ashamed to let anyone know how much I enjoy jewelry making, crafting, knitting, sewing, art, or any of my other "dorky" hobbies. There was one time that was kind of funny, in an ironic way...

A couple years ago, my mother was just getting into Internet dating, and I happened to be home from college that weekend. I was sitting in her living room, knitting a scarf. My 50-something-year-old mother came back from a dinner date with a man that she had met on the Internet and introduced us. So there I was, 21, sitting in a chair knitting, while I was meeting my 50-something-year-old mom's new boyfriend. It was kind of a role reversal situation that makes me laugh every time I think of it.

Anyway, since one of my latest hobbies will help me save tons of moola towards my "2K in 12 months" goal, I figured it was worth posting about. This year my apartment complex has offered its tenants the opportunity to have a 7' x 7' garden plot!

I had been wanting to put a potted tomato plant somewhere, but my apartment does not have any balcony's or decks so I had nowhere to put one. So I was so all sorts of excited when I heard the news! Being the engineer that I am, I researched exactly how much space different plants need and got out my grid paper to plan out my garden to perfection. Optimize is a term you hear a LOT in engineering, and I believe I have optimized that 7' by 7' plot of dirt.

My garden includes:

- 2 mounds of pole beans with 5-8 plants on each mound
- 2 mounds of snap peas with 5-8 plants on each mound
- 3 tomato plants (Cherry 100's, Roma, and Beefsteak)
- 3 foot row of carrots
- 5 kohlrabi plants
- 3 mounds of cucumbers
- 2 mounds of zucchini's
- 4 Romaine lettuce heads

Are you missing out on an opportunity to grow a garden? If you are lucky enough to own a house, do you have a small area in your yard that gets a lot of sun? If you are in an apartment, is there a community garden area that you are not participating in? Do you live in a town where they offer community garden areas?

If so, I HIGHLY recommend gardening. It is minimal work for maximum reward. Eating fresh veggies! Saving money! Spending time outdoors! Seeing huge fruitful plants grow from seeds! Nothing is more fresh and delicious than vegetables picked straight from the garden. A basket of some fresh veggies are a great (and inexpensive) gift to bring to all of the get togethers you will be attending late summer. As an added bonus, veggies are good for your health. Also, I cannot describe to you how cool it is to see a giant plant grow from a tiny seed. I don't care if that sounds "dorky". Every night after work when I walk down to my garden to water, the garden has changed. It's exciting.

Here are my pointers for gardening:

1. Make the most of your space without overcrowding..... Grow UP! Beans, for example, come in two varieties: bush beans and pole beans. By planting the pole beans and using stakes, trellis' or cages, you are using less ground area and utilizing the area above the garden. The more plants you can get to grow vertical, the larger your usable area gets.

Think about it, if all your plants are 1 foot high, your volume used is:

7' x 7' x 1' = 49 cubic feet

(L x W x H)

But if you have half of your plants growing 4' high (keeping in mind that you will never get carrots to grow 4' high), you will have:

(7' x 3.5' x 4') + (7' x 3.5' x 1') = 98 + 24.5 = 122.5 cubic feet

That is making your garden 250% bigger!

In my garden, I have tomato cages supporting the pole beans, snap peas, tomatoes, zucchini AND cucumber. Zucchini and cucumber like to spread out flat and wide, but by using the tomato cages they are growing somewhat higher and skinnier.

2. Make a raised garden bed: A simple raised garden bed is easy to make. It just takes a couple pieces of wood, a hammer and nails! Here is a site that gives basic instructions for building a raised garden bed.

A few of the benefits to using a raised garden bed are:

- Soil drains better
- Soil is less compressed
- Utilizes space more efficiently since you do not need rows for you to walk through
- Garden is more attractive with "edging"
- Garden is higher up, making taking care of your garden easier on you (and your back)

3. Plan Thoroughly: There are tons of free resources to learn about how to plan a garden. Either look online or go to your local library. Take the time to plan out a garden, making sure to give each plant as much room as it needs. What is that old saying? "Failure to Plan is a Plan for Failure!"

4. Water Water Water! I mentioned earlier that gardens were a lot of reward for not a lot of work. Planning and planting requires the most effort, and that can be done as a weekend project. The only thing left to do is water and weed! Gardens should be watered once a day, which seems like a large commitment. But its really not that bad! It takes only fifteen minutes out of your day. If you don't think you can handle this, consider buying a "soaker hose". Purchasing one costs less than ten dollars at Walmart. It is a rubber or plastic hose with perforations to let water seep into the ground. You can leave the soaker hose wound around the garden bed and simply turn on the hose and come back a half hour later to turn it off! I think everyone can find time for at least that.

And that is all the advice I have to give.

Here are the costs that I incurred gardening:

- 30 Dollars to my apartment to have a garden plot. This sucks but they made raised beds, hooked up hoses, laid wood chips around the gardens, etc.

- 20.15 Dollars spent on plants/seeds. I probably could have found better deals but I went for convenience instead of bargains in this case.

My mom brought a shovel up and helped me plant so that I didn't have to go out and spend money on gardening tools. I have been weeding with my hands.

$30 Fees

$20.15 Plants

$0 Tools

$50.15 Total

I'll keep you posted on my vegetable yield so I can do a rough cost analysis.