Vintage Gardening Tips That Will Save You Money
Get the most out of your garden this year with these simple vintage gardening tips from past generations. These helpful “old school” gardening tips will help you save money while feeding your family this summer.
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As the price of things continues to rise more and more people are looking for ways to save money on food for their families. One great way to feed your family for less is to grow some of your own produce. These simple vintage gardening tips from past generations will help you get the most for your garden for less so you can save money while feeding your family this summer.
Vintage Gardening Tips That Will Save You Money
Plant in a sunny area
There are very few plants that truly love the shade. This means you can use the sun to your advantage in the garden to help your plants thrive and to produce more food for your family to eat which can help your garden save you money as the cost of food continues to rise.
Add plenty of nutrition to the soil
Focus used to be on making soil as nutrient-dense as possible for growing. While this is still in practice today people do not take as much time to focus on this anymore. Taking the time to work nutrition into your soil is the best way to help your plants thrive and produce more food for your family while making the food more nutritious giving it more value.
Compost
Starting a home compost pile and making your own compost is the cheapest way to feed your family for less. A simple compost bin can be made from a tote, bucket, or trash can if you can not build one or have the room for a full-size pile. Compost tumblers are the easiest option for those that want a low-maintenance composter.
Fish
An old vintage gardening tip still works amazingly for helping to encourage your garden to grow and thrive. Bury fish in your garden under your rows. The fills will break down over time both the flesh and bones will release nutrients into the soil to help your garden grow.
If you like to fish this is a great free way to add nutrition to your soil. You can also opt to only put the scraps from your fish and freeze the filets for feeding your family for even more money savings.
Companion planting
Companion planting is one of the best ways to help protect your plants from pests and disease while at the same time helping your plants to thrive in the garden. Companion planting allows you to put plants together that help each other grow better and even taste better like the classic combination of green beans, tomatoes, and basil.
Companion planting originated with the natives and their method of growing is referred to as the three sisters. This combination used tall corn stalks to provide structure while beans grew along the corn using it as a trellis while nourishing the oil and squash was grown at the base of the plants to act as a living mulch growing more food in the same space while helping each plant reach its full potential.
Choose heirloom seeds
Heirloom seeds are great because you can save these seeds every year allowing you to keep growing the same plants without investing in seeds again making for a wonderful way to save money year after year while feeding your family the best food possible. While you may need to spend a bit more these seeds are more likely to grow and will keep growing year after year.
Grow what you eat
To save the most money with your garden you need to grow what your family eats. A great way to do this is to write down everyone’s favorite vegetables and then compare the average price of each of those vegetables to see what will save you the most money while allowing you to grow the most food for your family at once.
Keep chickens
Chickens are a great way to help control pets in your garden. You can toss them hornworms and grasshoppers and they’ll make short work of the pests. Your chicken’s needs can be composted down into very fertile soil for your garden, and the eggshells can be crushed for pest control and amending your garden’s soil. Not only will chickens help save you money in the garden, but they will also provide you with food.
Water wisely
Watering your garden is essential but you have options to help; keep the cost down like using rain barrels to collect water for your garden, using greywater from your skin and washer, and even using the water from cooking vegetables, pasta, and rice to water your garden.
Using the water from cooking is a great way to keep the nutrition left behind from going down the drain. The water from everything from steaming vegetables to boiling eggs has nutritional value for your garden. This is one of the best things you can do to help grow more food while saving money to feed your family while saving money by reducing your water bill. The small things really add up.
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