My 4-year old son and I started a garden this year for the first time. We just started with Watermelon and Cantaloupe this year and hope to expand next year. I hope to be able to trade different produce with neighbors and friends so there is always some available. Good post.

Speaking of New Zealand, readers living there can find out what vegetables are in season from http://www.vegetables.co.nz/. The Resources section of that website offers a chart as a PDF download, or they will post you a A3-size poster chart for free.

HI,
Just this year I started planting some vegetables. Mainly tomatoes, green peppers, jalepeno, cayenne pepper and cilantro. We have harvested fresh vegetables from these plants all summer long and they are still going strong. It is wonderful. Next year we plan to expand to a regular garden.

@Alexiamiguel – I’m no good at gardening, but I wish I was. I think it requires practice, patience and attention to detail (something which I lack). JD from getrichslowly does a lot of gardening. I think you can generally come in slightly under supermarket costs, so it’s about break even. Learning how to garden is in my 20 year plan. It will be some sort of permaculture relying on perennials.

@Jeff – Beans. Soak them during the day and cook 45 minutes at night at regular pressure or half the time in a pressure cooker. Eggs combine well with potatoes in terms of amino acid profiles like beans does with rice/cereal. Get a book on vegetarian cooking.

@Claire just be very careful where you pick your blackberries. Most highways have chemical sprays applied to the roadside vegetation on a regular basis.

@Alexiamiguel & Jacob
Look for a local garden club, master gardening program, organic growers organization, community garden or college. Any of these can have gardeners who would love to teach you. Or ask at farmers market – sometimes farmers need help. Some CSAs have opportunities to work as part of your share.

Read gardening books, too but they are really no substitute for hands on gardening

It’s good to find stuff in season, like grapes, and then freeze enough to have for a few months. I do this when they are on sale for .98 cents per pound. There are lots of examples like this if you look around.

Larry

Good post and good points.
Just one thing that I’d like to point out is that “locally grown” produce doesn’t necessarily mean that it hasn’t incurred more CO2/energy in transportation than stuff from afar, like NZ. In fact, transporting 1kg of stuff by big container ship half-way around the globe corresponds to about 100km by local truck, measured by energy/CO2. The same goes to some extent for big truck/train shipments across the US.
Bottom line: locally grown food can be “good karma” but often isn’t; if you really want to minimise CO2/energy usage, then either look into how “local” the produce actually is (including production methods) or grow your own (which by its amateur, small-scale self is not necessarily CO2/energy-low either – but it might be fresher).

Learned about the loss leaders in YMOYL.

I’d recommend growing fruit trees and other perennials for money and time savings: you don’t have to plant them every year. Kind of like compounded interest, they give back a little (or a lot) more every year.

As far as annuals, the right variety of tomatoes will save money in the right climate (and with a cheap enough setup). Not sure about greens yet. Just made some self-watering containers, so I guess I’ll see if those are less hassle/money in the long run for growing basil and chives.

I find Aldi’s prices compete with even the supermarket loss leaders and make growing produce awfully hard to justify financially.

Getting there right when the store opens on Sunday morning seems to yield the best selection and quality.

I’ve recently sold my farm (fruit/vegetable) and am now back to growing in a tiny yard plus a community garden plot just for household use. Growing your own produce can be really simple, fun and cost-effective at a small scale. For those of you just starting out, keep it simple and small. Better to have a small well-kept plot that is productive than an sprawling mess of weeds that you give up on in hopeless frustration. Expand yearly as your knowledge grows.

It really isn’t expensive to equip yourself for a small garden. You’ll need a good hoe (spend the money for a good one here; well worth it), a strong digging fork, a metal tine rake and a small hand shovel. If you’re planting trees you could use a regular shovel as well. Add to that some free plastic buckets from a local bakery, stakes,twine and a watering can. That will pretty well do it for a start. No need for a rototiller; just turn over the garden by hand and eliminate the weeds and grass; doing this will force you to keep it small and expand over time.

Direct seed what you can; in my locale that includes greens, peas, beans,carrots etc. For a small garden it’s better I think to just buy good healthy transplants at the farmers market for things like tomatoes, peppers, etc. If you try to grow them yourself, unless you have really good light you’ll end up with weak spindly plants.

For stuff like potatoes and garlic, buy good “seed stock” that is disease free.

Ask local gardeners who have nice gardens when to plant what in your area. Use compost or organic fertilizers; start your own compost bin if you haven’t already.

Keep up with the weeds and don’t let them get established. If you do this you’ll find that a small garden requires minimal care after the establishment in the early part of the growing season. And if you have a space for a more permanent plot, raised beds are the way to go; very productive and easy to care for.