Yes, as soon as I get some fill dirt for my raised bed, I'll start my first veggie garden this spring. The dirt is the hardest, because it's not always cheap, and in some areas it's hard to find. I've cut down my grocery bill to $50/week to feed 4 people, but still need to cut some corners. So a garden is the perfect thing. Now I have to learn how to preserve all my extra produce so it doesn't go to waste, assuming that I have a green thumb at all.

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This isn't just due to the recession. People are taking to heart the local food movement. Not only are they realizing that local tastes better, but in many cases it is cheaper because you don't have to pay for the transportation costs.

But whatever your reason for gardening, there's no doubt that seeds and gardening are growing. We're growing citrus this year, as well as peppercorns. (http://www.cooklocal.com/?p=242)

We're doing this primarily to have access to local fruit and local pepper (two items that are very rarely available in the Puget Sound region).

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I have a rather large vegetable garden in my back yard (15' x 45') and I grow a lot of veggies in it every summer. I put in the garden just after we built our house about 5 years ago and at that time it seemed to cost me a fortune in blocks, soil, and compost to build up the raised beds. We have very poor soil in our development because the builders scraped off all of the black dirt and sold it rather than putting it back down on our yards (hence the raised beds). Even after 5 years, I don't think I am really "saving" money yet by growing my own vegetables. If you figure out how much you spend on building the garden, maintaining it, watering it, and on equipment for both gardening and canning, I'm pretty sure you would still be better off going to the farmer's market or buying a share in a local CSA.

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What an excellent article. If only the stock market grew like gardens!

It makes me think also of all the off shoots in terms of businesses you could offer to earn extra money--like planting a "Victory Garden" for folks who don't know how--don't have time--or don't like it!

I will share on my website, TheDebtDance.com

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Better to invest in your home garden this year than the stock market; since no one is moving anyway, plant a few fruit trees, strawberries, and a vegetable garden. Lots of extension offices have all the information you need. I buy very little produce from May - October because of what I have planted. Besides, everything tastes much better when you grow it yourself (unless you find bugs in it!)

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I am a big proponent of growing your own food...I think it is the easiest and cheapest way to ensure you have healthy, organic produce.
Jean Ann
http://www.gardenertofarmer.net

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The incredible balsamic vinegar we brought back from Italy inspired last year's garden. I couldn't wait to make a caprese salad with it and some fresh, local mozzarella, a juicy, warm from the sun tomato. A few sprigs of basil from the border out front and I'm in heaven.

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I have been maintaining a moderate vegetable garden for a few years now. There are a few key things I have learned.
#1 is to only grow the veggies that you would spend bigger money on in the store. Tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers and salad greens are my big ones. Onions, potatoes and such are cheap year round, you don't get better flavor or savings from growing them.
#2 Is to plan ahead. Get your compost pile started before or around the same time as you start your garden, or be ready to add store-bought plant food.
#3 It is easier to prevent than to cure. Prevent weeds with some kind of mulch, prevent disease by getting disease resistant seeds/plants. Once you have problems it's usually too late or too expensive to save the plant(s).

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We grow tomatoes and herbs every year in large pots on our porch. It just tastes better, and this is what my husband and I grew up doing. We just started our seed crop indoors for this year and we are very excited!

theripetomato.wordpress.com

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My advice for anyone starting a garden is to think small. There is a serious amount of work in starting a garden. Even after it is established there is a lot of time and effort spent gardening - make certain you REALLY like gardening before you go 'whole hog'.

An excellent beginner plan is using containers (the 5 gal. buckets used in construction are great, painters and sheetrockers just throw them away). This allows you to try some things (tomatos work well but a vine, cucumbers for instance, requires space) without investing in as much time, labor, and material.

My dad always had a garden when I was growing up and I still love fresh bell peppers, tomatos, and cucumbers. My mother knew they cost more than buying them but it was something he liked to so she didn't object. My own experience was that of the beginner. I started with good property (a perfect place in the back yard - veggies love sunshine), made the garden too big, and consequently over planted. I had so much stuff I couldn't eat it all and I couldn't even give enuf of it away (amazing, no?).

My efforts were guided by what the kids call 'natural' today. That means I had a compost pile - who need fertilizer? I subscribed to an organic gardening magazine put out by Rodale (bot books too, I was ate up with this stuff :). I researched the veggie varieties and determined the best for my taste/location. I ordered seeds from catalogs and started them under a light weeks before it was warm enuf to plant them outside. With all that I had killer crops (aforementioned surplus) for two years. Then the drought settled in and my water bills skyrocketed! That was the end of the garden. It's one thing to work your butt off but it's a different matter when money is involved.

Which makes me say again - consider using containers to get started. They are ideal for a small family and the time, cost, and effort is significantly lower than a bed.

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I did omit one benefit of the bed, one term is 'intensive' gardening. That is where you grow multiple crops in a small area making the best use of their seasons/maturity/size. Growing a vine on a trellis is another way to think of this but it may not be technically correct.

An easy example is an onion, it can easily grow around the perimeter of the garden without affecting the other plants (always over plant onions then thin them eating the young ones as scallions). Radishes combine an early season with the need for a small space - a double benefit. Tall plants, like tomatos, play well together with vines like squash and cucumber. There are resources with detailed plans of what to plant, and when, but I was remiss in not pointing out this benefit of bed-based gardening.

All that said, I still think it is MUCH better to start out with containers - migrating to a bed is much easier after that experience.

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We have grown our own vegetables every summer in Chicago for years. We recently moved to California and I am excited about the longer growing season! I am blogging about my "recession garden" at www.recession-garden.com. Hopefully my tips and limited experience can help some others. I plant a lot of my veggies in containers to keep the pests away...A quick and rewarding gardening addition I started this year are spicy Micro Greens.

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Instead of using my tax refunds for a vacation, I am investing in my family's future by preparing for tough times ahead. I have a job right now, but I lost two jobs this past year and I just don't trust my job security anymore. That is why I have dug out a whole section of my backyard for the raised bed garden; I have purchased a few multi-grafted fruit trees, even an avocado tree and I'm even building a chicken coop for 3 or 4 egg-laying hens. I live on a corner lot in the sub burbs, but I am completely willing to sacrifice my backyard for the good of my family. I have done container gardening, raised bed gardening, and composting in the past and have learned from my mistakes (and there were many), so I feel I have a good handle on things this year. A few of my friends and neighbors are also doing gardens, so we will be able to trade fruits and veggies. We are all going to get together for canning parties so we can enjoy our work (and savings) all through winter. I just finished planting all of my home-grown seedlings last night and already, my cat has found 6 new huge litter boxes! Anyone know how to keep cats out of the garden?? Anyway, wish me luck in my new urban homesteading endeavor :)

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I grew up with my mom putting in a huge garden every year and I now keep a 10' x 75' plus a couple smaller gardens. Having your own garden can really cut your grocery bill depending on where you live and how you manage things. Where I live watering through a drought is no big deal as I only have to pay the electric to run the pump for my well. My well doesn't pull much in the way of electric and I could run it all day without seeing much in the way of change with my electric bill.
I also can all my own stuff. This can get expensive when you buy everything new. My canner was a birthday present from my husband so I did get it new but I bought one for a friend of mine that just got into canning for $15 at a yardsale and it will probably last her the rest of her life with only cheap replacement parts (rubber seal) if she takes care of it. Jars---hit the yard sales, ask on freecycle, ask on your local online classifieds, ask on craigslist. You can get them cheap or free. This leaves you with needing lids and rings. Rings you can sometimes get used but as you only need to leave them on jars until they cool it does not cost much to get what you need new and they can be used over and over. You also might get some with those cheap/free used jars. I have an 18 gallon tote of rings and I only use about 3 dozen at any given time. Lids need to be bought new but they are very reasonable.
An alternative to canning is freezing. There are quite a few of your veggies that can be frozen rather than canned provided you have adequate freezer space. My granny used to freeze whole slicing tomatoes, pull them out, thaw them, slip the skin off and slice it up. She said they were slightly mushy but tasted better than those "nasty store bought things".
Another possible expense is building your garden. Mine was, well, practically free. We live on 30 acres, my mom gave me one of her tillers to use and my horses provide with lots of wonderful fertilizer. The cost was the gas for the tiller.
If you want to make jams and jellies and don't have fruit trees....ask around, there are usually people out there that have fruit trees they no longer mess with and would rather have someone to pick it than to have the fruit rot on the ground covered in yellow jackets. The only fruit I grew myself last year was strawberries (and the wild blackberries on our property) yet I ended up with strawberry jam/jelly, wild plum jam/jelly, apple jelly, peach jam, pear honey, pear butter, apple butter and sauce, blackberry jam and jelly, apple pie filling and concord grape jam, jelly and juice. Again, get on your local freecycle, your local online classifieds or just ask around. If you make too much then take some to the local farmers market and make a little off of it to pay for your electric/gas from the stove use.
Just remember to start out small, you don't want to overdo things your first year and decide it is just too much and don't try to plant everything you like your first year. Start with a few things and add more each year as you learn.

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