If you’ve been following my posts, you’ll notice there is a trend in my green and survival ways. Low cost. There is no way to be able to survive anything if you are buried in a pile of debt. Gardening should not cost that much. The idea is to bring healthy food onto your table as cheaply as possible. Using as much of what you have on hand as you can. Improvise and invent things that work for you. I can sum up this process in one single word: SEEDS! If you are buying whole plants there is no way you are going to be prepared for anything let alone save enough money to prepare for the financial abyss that is coming. So start with as many organic and heirloom seeds you can afford. If you can’t afford that, just plant seeds.
Here is what you need to get started
- Leftover Paper or Plastic Cups (yes those silly birthday cups)
- A decent Potting Mix
- A Metal skewer
- Sharpie Marker in Black
- Watering Can
- Prepared Planting Bed or Containers
- Seeds!
Simply put, take a cup and pierce it with the skewer. Label the cups. Fill between ½ and ¾ way with mix. Plant your seeds, top with some soil, gently water. Place in protected diffused sun exposed area. Once the plants have their 2nd set of leaves, get ready to get them into the ground or a deep pot that you plan on regulating the water. (I’ll do another article on actually planting and preparing the soil.
I don’t do all my seeds this way. Only some are done this way like: Tomatoes, Peppers, Eggplants, Beans, Herbs, and occasionally Papaya trees from seeds.
The rest of my plants like lettuce, broccoli and carrots or other root items, I direct sow dependent on the time of year.
I always try to plant with a bit of compost (preferably you have been working on your worms or compost pile) I try to avoid over-seeding and the use of pesticides unless absolutely necessary. The whole idea is to get the best nutrition in your body, to prepare for anything and to save money all at the same time. Dependency on chemicals and other people to sprout your seeds is not the way to independence and health.
Now I do collect seeds to some degree from previous harvests. Papayas. Beans, peppers and tomatoes are the easiest to collect and store. But as with all my projects, I try to keep things reasonable and get seeds when I have to from a store.
The biggest thing about gardening I can say, is just do it! Start, plant small. Do what you feel comfortable doing. Plant in the ground or in pots. Don’t let anyone stand in your way. And lastly always keep the costs down by reusing ad recycling.
