Planting a Vegetable Garden to Save Money

Two years ago, my wife and I planted a vegetable garden. Although it was fun, we didn't get much produce out of it because my well-meaning sister who helped us planted things so close together that it was impossible to harvest some of our crop. We also made several mistakes, including planting root crops in our clay-laden soil. When the roots matured, try as we might, we couldn't dig or pull them out of the ground.

We didn't plant last year because we'd planned to travel. What was left of our vegetable garden turned into a tangle of weeds, especially because the next door neighbor boy we'd been hiring to mow our grass never bothered to mow over the remnants of the garden, even though we'd asked him to do so.

With all the talk of President Obama's vegetable garden and the resurgence of Victory Gardens, we decided to plant a garden this year.

"It might save us some money," my wife suggested.

I doubt it, at least this year.

So far, we've spent close to $700 in gardening tools, seed, plant starts, gardening gloves, hoses, compost, manure, mulch, weed barrier and paving stones to help make the garden more less work and more attractive.

I'm certain we don't have enough room to plant enough vegetables to sustain us, so I'm sure we'll continue to buy produce from the local grocery. Maybe in future years, if we save our seeds and won't have buy things like paving stones and gardening tools, we might break even and save a little money.

If nothing else, however, the project will give us something to do as a family. A little fresh air and exercise never hurt anyone.