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Gardening on a Budget: 23 Frugal Gardening Tips

Gardening doesn’t need to be an expensive hobby; there are plenty of gardening on a budget ideas.

Gardening is meant to save you money or at least be enjoyable, but the beginning start-up costs can feel overwhelming. Not everyone has the cash to start a large garden all at one time – but I promise, gardening on a budget IS possible!

You can find tips for gardening when you’re broke. You don’t HAVE to spend hundreds of dollars for a beautiful garden. In fact, there are plenty of ways to do it on a budget; we started gardening when we barely made ends meet.

Whether you’re a brand new gardener or simply looking for ways to reduce your gardening expenses, I put together a list of my favorite frugal gardening tips.

1. Grow From Seeds Not Seedling Starts
2. Be Creative When Starting Seeds
3. Use Pallets
4. Use Scrap Materials for Raised Garden Beds
5. Recycle & Repurpose Everything
6. Practice Organic Gardening
7. Start Composting
8. Buy Compost in Bulk
9. Start Your Plants from Seeds
10. Homemade Potting Soil
11. Save Your Seeds
12. Make a Rain Barrel
13. Use Homemade Fertilizers
14. Make Your Own Soil Amendment
15. Find Free Mulch Sources
16. Find a Local Plant or Seed Swap
17. Ask Friends for Cutting
18. Shop Out of Season for Plants
19. Say No to Professional Garden Planners
20. Don’t Invest in Large Equipment!
21. Try No-Till Gardening
22. Buy Used or Free Gardening Tools
23. Always Start Slow

Details at: https://www.homesteadingwhereyouare.com/2022/02/17/how-to-garden-when-youre-broke/

My onions are up. Small and growing slow, but with this nice weather we’ve been having, I’ve been able to put them out on the porch for full day sun.

We have a bit of a cold snap Tues and Wed, but then back to sunny and 30’s after that, so hopefully, I can get back to that and not depend on the grow lights.

I also started Columbine, rosemary, and lavender, and no signs of them yet, although I do know they take a while to come up, which is why I planted them so early.

Supposed to be sunny and in the 50’s today!

WHOO HOO!!!!!!!!!!

Not a productive week in any respect because ... (ta da!) I came down with the flu Wednesday morning. I cannot remember the last time some bug had me down & out in bed for 2 days, but this one did. I started getting up briefly yesterday morning & was able to stay up from about 7 pm to midnight last night - serious improvement. The bug came on fast & appears to be leaving not quite as speedily, but improvement as of yesterday afternoon has been fairly rapid. I actually felt like a cup of coffee this morning.

My best advice: do the Vitamin D “Hammer” as soon as you come down with any virus. I have used it before & my brother used it a couple of weeks ago with a nasty cold - by day 2, cold was all but gone. He now recommends it to others. I used it both times I had COVID & had 3 day experiences (full disclosure: took IVM with the first bout). I feel like my symptoms ‘resolved’ definitely in the 48 - 72 hour window.

No idea where I picked up the bug, but our state has a high level of flu right now.

So here is the “Hammer” & a link:

“A colleague of mine and I have introduced vitamin D at doses that have achieved greater than 100 nmol/L in most of our patients for the past number of years, and we now see very few patients in our clinics with the flu or influenzalike illness. In those patients who do have influenza, we have treated them with the vitamin D hammer, as coined by my colleague. This is a 1-time 50 000 IU dose of vitamin D3 or 10 000 IU 3 times daily for 2 to 3 days. The results are dramatic, with complete resolution of symptoms in 48 to 72 hours. One-time doses of vitamin D at this level have been used safely and have never been shown to be toxic.8 We urgently need a study of this intervention. The cost of vitamin D is about a penny for 1000 IU, so this treatment costs less than a dollar.”

Link:
Vitamin D for Influenza
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4463890/

******

Showers today, rainy tomorrow, heavy rain Monday ... this will keep me from being able to load up anything for our move, which is probably a good thing after the last couple of days - enforced ‘take it easy’ time. I am craving baked maccaroni & cheese for some reason & after eating very little since Wednesday, I am going to ‘indulge’ in this high carb treat ... ‘comfort’ food for sure!

Crocuses are blooming here & it looks like there may be some daffodils coming up at the new house. One of the joys of the new place is seeing what comes up & blooms & also, what some of the trees are ... we have the oaks, two chestnuts & two sycamores figured out, but there are quite a few trees we are unsure about, including 3 small fruit trees & what looks like a large apple tree. It’s exciting!