I post tons of recipes that use fresh produce from my vegetable garden, so this time I decided to post some tips for those of you who might want to grow your own fresh produce, but do it inexpensively and easily.
I come from a family of gardeners. My dad has kept a prolific vegetable garden at his house upstate for as long as I can remember (pulling weeds in the garden was the bane of my existence as a kid), and I remember my grandfather growing tomatoes almost every summer as well. So after I moved into what used to be my grandparent’s house, I knew I had to keep up my grandfather’s tradition of gardening in our small Queens yard. I started out with a few tomato plants, but over the last ten years I’ve expanded my garden to include tons of herbs, peppers, eggplants, cucumbers, salad greens and whatever other plants I can get my hands on.
I think my favorite part of having a vegetable garden is the fresh produce. There are so many recipes I’ve come up with over the years to use the veggies that I’ve grown, which are of course at the pinnacle of freshness. I do genuinely love getting my hands dirty, working up a sweat turning soil and burying baby plants in the ground. But I also work full time, and have a ton of other hobbies and interests, so I don’t have all the time in the world to tend to my garden. Plus, vegetable gardening can get expensive, and feel like a lot of money and work for what would have cost you only a few dollars to buy at the grocery store. So I’m here to offer some tips and tricks that will make vegetable gardening less expensive, and lower maintenance.
STARTING YOUR VEGETABLE GARDEN
Starting your vegetable garden in the spring is probably the task you’ll spend the most time and money on. You can splurge by buying or building raised garden beds, which are attractive and help cut down on weeds. But with a few soil amendments, you can also grow straight in the soil of your backyard. In my garden, I split the difference; I use dividers that keep my vegetable beds separate from the rest of the yard, but my plants are still growing in the yard’s actual soil (as opposed to a raised bed that requires you to fill it with soil). Since I grow directly in my backyard’s soil, I add a few amendments to make it more hospitable to growing vegetables: coconut coir to help it retain moisture, compost (from my own compost collection) or manure for added nutrients, and a bit of vegetable plant food.
Then you’ll have to decide whether to start your plants from seed, or buy baby plants from a nursery. I do a combination. Certain vegetables, like lettuce and arugula, grow quickly and easily from seed, and you can plant them directly in the ground. But others, like tomatoes and peppers, will need to be started inside 8-12 weeks before the growing season. Seedlings require A LOT of light. I find the aerogarden to be the easiest way to start seeds, but I’ve also had okay results with these seed-starter trays. Once the seedlings are a few inches in height, you can harden them and plant them in the ground. Or, for an easier approach, you can buy baby plants from a nursery. It will cost more, but it’s a lot easier. Opt for a small business nursery, rather than Home Depot, to save on costs (+ support small business!).
KEEPING WEEDS AT BAY
I know so many gardeners struggle with keeping weeds at bay, especially while avoiding chemical herbicides. If you’re growing in pots, planter boxes or even raised beds, you can usually avoid weeds by using fresh bags of potting mix, which is treated to remove weed seeds. And if you have the time and energy, pulling weeds weekly (or more likely multiple times a week) is the best way to go. But if we’re talking an inexpensive and low maintenance garden, potting soil costs can add up a pulling weeds takes foreeeeeever. Mulch or landscape fabric are great low maintenance ways to keep weeds at bay, but you’ll probably still end up pulling weeds. And again, these things are not cheap. So I use a triple weed protection method that I’ve found to be fool-proof.
I start with a layer of plain (no ink, stickers/tape removed) cardboard in my garden beds, followed by landscape fabric and then a light layer of mulch. The weeds in my garden are particularly tenacious, but this method has pretty much eliminated weeds completely. The layer of cardboard stops any light from penetrating down to the soil (weeds need light to grow). Plus it’s free, and an organic material that will break down into the soil by the following year. Then landscape fabric, which makes the garden look a neater and help absorbs heat and moisture into the soil. (I reuse the same fabric for a few years, saving on costs.) Ground staples help to keep everything in place, but I finish with a thin layer of mulch to weigh things down. Since you don’t need much mulch for this method, you’ll save some money there too.
WATERING YOUR GARDEN
Watering your vegetable garden is a pretty straightforward task, but if you’re looking to make gardening super low maintenance, my biggest tip is to run a soaker hose throughout your garden. A soaker hose is essentially a hose with tiny pores that let water drip out. It’s more cost effective than installing an in-ground watering system, and just as low maintenance but way more effective than an above ground sprinkler. It provides water directly the the roots of your plants, and helps to avoid splashing water or soil onto the plant’s leaves. Soil may harbor diseases that will get your plants sick, and wet plant leaves are an invitation for mold and fungus.
I usually run my soaker hose underneath my mulch, to get it as close to the roots of the plants as possible. When I see that my plants need watering, I simply turn on the hose and leave it for a few hours to let them get a good soak. It’s easy and literally maintenance free. But soaker hoses are really only effective when planting in the ground or raised beds. Plants in pots and containers need to be watered more often, as the soil is above ground level and more likely to dry out on warm days. So don’t forget to give your potted plants some love with the good old watering can as well.
COOKING WITH FRESH PRODUCE
Once you’ve sorted the planting, weeding and watering of your garden, you can sit back and wait for your vegetables to grow. And then it’s time to cook with them! The best thing about cooking with ultra-fresh produce is that you don’t have to do much to it. A drizzle of olive oil, a sprinkle of salt, a quick roast in the the oven; some of them best techniques for cooking with garden-fresh veggies are the easiest, because they really let the produce shine. I’m sharing here a few of my favorite fresh produce recipes, but feel free to try out your own with your garden fresh bounty!
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