8 Free Resources to Plan Your First Garden
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We are living in a strange time. As we all are quarantined to our homes, many of us who have never considered growing our own food are starting our very first garden. Here are a few free resources to set you on your way to planning your successful victory garden this summer.
“George Washington Carver wrote an agricultural tract and promoted the idea of what he called a “Victory Garden”.[4] They were used along with Rationing Stamps and Cards to reduce pressure on the public food supply. Besides indirectly aiding the war effort, these gardens were also considered a civil “morale booster” in that gardeners could feel empowered by their contribution of labor and rewarded by the produce grown. This made victory gardens a part of daily life on the home front.”
Wikipedia
I don’t know about you, but all the craziness going on with the current state of affairs has made me feel just a slight bit crazy. We have had to put our debt payoff on pause due to the fact that we have no idea when things will go “back to normal”.
As of late, the only thing that has seemed to ground me and give me a moment of peace is putting my hands in dirt.
A couple weeks ago I found myself pouring into books, soaking up as much as I could muster to learn about designing a garden. I have this crazy dream of being able to feed my entire family for a year with food we grow on our 1/4 acre lot (with probably only 1/10 of an acre of usable land for food).
Of course, I won’t have this accomplished this year…
But over the course of the next few years I’m planning on growing in skills and knowledge around gardening and food preservation so that we can rely less and less on external sources incase shit really goes down, and to save a ton of money.
And I know I am not the only one. I have seen more people that I know on social media taking home plant babies than I ever have in all my life.
Growing our own food and eating from our own garden (and Nick just put in for his first ever hunting tag) could save us upward of $1000 a month…that’s $12,000 a year!
But here’s the thing… unless you’re totally okay with your garden being a hobby that purely brings you joy…but saves you pretty much NO money… you’re going to have to get a bit strategic about this process.
Gardening can either SAVE you a lot of money, or it can actually be quite costly. Most people are doing pretty well if they break even with their first garden.
Between building the garden beds, buying tools, the dirt, soil amendments and the starts… it adds up quick.
So I want to share with you the resources I have found that are absolutely free that will get you started, whet your appetite, and hopefully jumpstart your first garden off on the right (frugal) foot.
Let’s DIG in shall we? 🙂
Free Resources to Plan Your Victory Garden
Check out this 4 part series on homestead composting by 7th Generation Designs
The Beginner’s Garden by Jill McSheehy (ps: If you have a line in your budget for education like this big ole’ nerd does, I also just bought her book Vegetable Gardening For Beginners, and I’m loving it so far!)
The Beginner’s Garden Podcast with Jill McSheehy
The Raised Bed Plant Spacing Guide
Side note: when looking for mulch or compost, don’t run to the store first off. We were able to get all of our mulch absolutely free at the Recycling and Transfer center locally, and maybe places you can do the same for compost. Make sure to look into this before spending a dime!
Well, that should get you started! I hope this helps. You are well on your way to nourishing your family with homegrown, nutritious foods…and making a little extra space in the budget while you’re at it.
What are you growing in your victory garden?
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