The Frugal Veggie Patch

One of my favourite frugal hobby’s is veggie gardening. Not only is it a cheap hobby but is has the added benefit of being able to feed the family. For me feeding the family well is a primal urge (bordering on obsession). This may have something to do with my Italian heritage and possibly a little to do with the fact that I’m a guts.

I’ve had people question me as to whether a veggie garden really is frugal because there are costs involved such as water, fertilizer, seedlings etc. However once you have set your patch up it becomes quite cheap. Also if you compare it to organic food you will definitely come out on top.

Benefits to having your own veggie patch include……….

Giving your kids a real sense of where their food is coming from and what it takes to get it to the table.

Your kids will often try foods they’ve refused to try from the shop as it is more intriguing for some reason.  We even have numerous kids trying raw chilli’s at the school veggie patch. Maybe not such a good idea, they were the super-hot kind.

It’s a chance to get outside in the fresh air and store some Vitamin D. Honestly that connection to nature and food is something special.

It keeps you fit. Veggie gardening is definitely not a sedentary activity.

There are always new skills to learn such as making compost, building a worm farm, drying seeds and many many more.

You get to have a hobby that grows you nourishing FOOD. Food that you can EAT! Geez anyone would think it’s a new invention with how excited I get.

It tastes a million times better than the supermarket and a hundred times better than the fruit and veg.

A couple of tips to remember for the veggie gardener………..

Start small and build up. That way you don’t overwhelm yourself to the point where you feel like quitting. Small victories will spur you on to make you patch bigger and bigger over time.

Share the seedlings of veggies that you don’t eat a lot of. For example zucchinis get a lot of growth in our area so a couple of neighbours and I share the seedlings so we aren’t stuck with hundreds of zucchinis.

Grow what you will actually use. I personally love growing herbs, lettuce, leeks, spring onion, spinach and silverbeet and I personally hate paying for them. I have a kaffir lime tree with hundreds of leaves on it. If I wanted to buy 5 leaves at the fruit and veg it would cost me $4. Who says money doesn’t grow on trees!

Try making your own compost. It’s an art form I can tell you.

Get a good book, an app or a website that makes sense to you on how to veggie garden. It can be so useful to have a guide as to what to do and where you may be going wrong. But otherwise veggie gardening is definitely something you learn as you go.

Enjoy!