Planting a beautiful garden on a tight budget

As I talked about in the Garden Planning post last week, there have been many years where I’ve simply flown by the seat of my pants when it comes to gardening. I’ve skimmed through seed catalogs, ear-marking whatever struck my fancy and ordering at will. But this year, this kind of approach is simply not an option.

When we purchased our neglected homestead- 10 acres in Oregon’s Willamette Valley- we truly had no idea how much blood, sweat, tears, TIME and MONEY it would require. Well, we just celebrated our third year here and we’re seeing things a little more clearly at this point. We scrimped and saved and worked our tails off to get a sprinkler system installed last fall, which means there will be quite a bit of finish work come Spring. Finish work that includes “landscaping” in front of the house.

I say “landscaping” because obviously we’ll be doing it ourselves, and I’m still not totally sure what all that will entail, but I know for certain it will cost money. Money that I would usually spend on the garden.

How do I budget for a garden?

Well, I’m far from an expert on this topic as this is my first year ever setting a real “budget” for the garden. But I’ve had my fair share of practice budgeting in general, so I gave it a shot. We decided that $500 was going to be the limit. And before you say “Oh my! That’s A LOT!” Well, for a 40′ x 100′ garden on a homestead where we are increasingly trying to grow more of our own food, it’s actually not that much. Take a look at the chart below, and you’ll see that unfortunately, $500 doesn’t go all that far.

Prioritizing things that will store well- like potatoes- means my cost is a little higher than just buying a bunch of seeds. The other thing that brings the cost up is buying starts instead of seeds. Since I don’t have a good way of starting seeds, though they are more expensive, starts will ensure that I get what I need without worrying about waste. Also, seeds have gone up considerably since I started gardening. It is what it is, but it sure makes you want to save your own doesn’t it?

Here’s the breakdown of this year’s garden budget:

Here’s how I laid out my garden budget:

• Establish priorities. Last summer I spent most of August in the kitchen canning garden produce. Since then, I’ve taken note of all the things we have eaten the most of or used in cooking. And do you know what I found? Tomatoes, tomatoes, tomatoes. As you can see from the chart, I’m going from 4 tomato plants to 10. More money and more space will be allocated to this crop that keeps us in pizza sauce and salsa.
• Be realistic. I had hoped to have a greenhouse for this growing season. I have hoped to have a greenhouse every year for the last three years. And the first two of those three I kept on starting seeds inside like I had a greenhouse. And those seeds did not survive. And my hard work, time and money was wasted. Last year I resolved to only buy starts and direct seed everything else, and you know what? It was lovely. Someday I’ll have a greenhouse for seed starting again, but until then, let’s be realistic.
• Look around for the best price. This is time consuming but worth it financially. Don’t just settle for ordering your seeds from one place. Look around! The beauty of the Internet is that you can whiz back and forth from site to site, finding the best price with a click of a button. Or if you’re the old-fashioned type (like me), cut out what you want from all your seed catalogs and hold them up side by side.
• Know your limits. I love roses. Dahlias. Peonies. Flowers of all kinds, really! Especially the fiddly ones that need to be started from seed and babied until you finally plant them outside in June. But this year I don’t have the extra money for any of that, and that’s ok! I set my budget, I need to- have to- stick to it! And so food is going to be number one- with a few flowers mixed in for companion planting purposes.

How to design a garden

While I talked all about the philosophy behind planning your garden in last week’s post, I didn’t fully get into the nitty gritty of where I am actually planning to plant all the items I’ve included in my budget. Mostly because I hadn’t put my plan together yet. As I mentioned in that post, I love to actually break out the graph paper and sketch it all out. Bed by bed, veggie by veggie.

It’s not something I’m too strict about when it comes time to plant, sometimes things just feel different once you’re actually out there in the dirt. But I do use it as an overall guide for what goes where and how much I space I’ll need. This year I’ve got a few variables as the large bed up the East side will finally be ready for planting. I’m not totally sure how much space that will end up being, but it’ll be fun to figure it out.

Here’s the layout I came up with.

Making a garden map

Every year I start by sketching out the basic structure of my garden. I draw all the beds, paths, gates, arches, any thing else that is actually in my garden, I include.

You can see from the sketch above that I have 12 total beds, 2 longer ones at each end. These beds are around 24′ long and 3′ wide. In real life, my garden definitely doesn’t have the nice straight lines it does on the graph paper, but it’s close enough.

The “new” bed, which has basically just been weeds the last two years, runs along the East (or right hand) side. It will end up being about 10 feet deep and run the whole 100′ span. I’m hoping to divide it up with some paths and an entry at the big gates so we can dump soil or wood chips in there when we need to. But it’s a big area and I’m excited for all the new growing space. Hopefully someday, a small greenhouse will sit in the corner of this stretch. Fingers crossed.

The other advantage of making a garden map is having a record to look back on for crop rotation purposes. Nothing helps you make sure you don’t deplete your soil like knowing where things have actually been. I always hold on to my garden maps. Here’s a picture of last year’s. I got fancy with the colors.

Where to buy seeds for the garden

Every year this list is a little different for me, but I’ll just take you through the sources I’m using this year.

1. Territorial Seed Company. One of the things that I have found in my decade of gardening is that buying your seeds from a place nearby is almost always a really good idea. Why? Because those seeds were grown in your climate! They’re used to the amount of rain, sun and wind, the kind of bugs you have and the soil temperatures and makeups. Territorial has never let me down, not even once. And is a very trusted source for my staple crops.
2. Botanical Interests. I’m not buying to much at BI this year, but in years past I have bought a lot! They tend to have slightly lower prices which can be really great when you are trying out a crop you’ve not grown before. I’ve also used them for flowers that you start from seed, in case they don’t all turn out. I love their beautiful packaging, it might be my favorite seed packet out there!
3. Baker Creek. This is actually my first year ordering from Baker Creek, even though I’ve admired their gorgeous seed catalog for years. Baker Creek tends toward the pricier side, but for good reason, as they take immense care to provide rare, heirloom seeds with the highest standards. I’m so looking forward to testing out the Honeypatch squash recommended by Becky at The Seasonal Homestead.
4. Johnny’s Selected Seeds. It seems a little silly to recommend Johnny’s, because it seems like everyone knows about Johnny’s. But there was a day when I’d never heard of them before, so I’ll take the chance of being repetitive and include them here. Johnny’s has just about everything and their seed catalogs are enviable as well. My only beef with Johnny’s is that their seed packets could use a little sprucing up. They’re rather…clinical.
5. Renee’s Garden Seeds. New to me this year is Renee’s Garden Seeds, who specializes in seeds for home gardeners. The seed packets are beautiful, she carries beautiful varieties of lots of non-GMO vegetables, herbs and flowers, and the whole site just makes you feel like you’re borrowing seed packets from a favorite aunt or neighbor. I’m so excited to try them!

Sourcing starts and plants

When it comes to buying veggie starts or other plants (like grapes or berries), here’s a few places I always look:

• Find a locally owned nursery. One of my very favorite places in the world is Godfrey’s Nursery. Locally owned, a short drive from my house, super cute and well-laid out, it’s a must stop on a monthly basis in the growing season.
• Check the farmer’s market. I don’t know about you, but once the sun comes out, our farmer’s market fills up with all sorts of fruit and veggie starts. It’s a great place to grab those items from other farmers or gardeners who really know how to grow!
• Online. There are thousands of places to buy plants online, this year I’m planning to grab some grapevines from Stark Bros. I’ll give the caveat that if I find Concord grape starts at my local nursery, I’ll buy them there. But I used them as a price comp for my budget, and I’ll buy them there if needed.

So what’s next?

I’ve got my maps, I’ve got my budget, I’ve got my list of seeds to order and where I’d like to plant them. Well, what’s next is to ORDER THOSE SEEDS! In years past I would have ordered my seeds by now, but without going into too much detail, we have been on a debt-free journey the last year, and every purchase needs to planned and saved for. I’m hoping I’ll be able to place my order by the first week of February, and hopefully everything I need will still be in stock.

As far as the items I plan to buy from the local nursery, for those I will watch the last frost date. When it looks like the coast is clear, I’ll head to the nursery and grab those veggies and herbs I’ll plant from starts. This is usually the end of April or first week of May.

How do you plan your garden?

Leave a comment below and let me know how you come up with your garden plan. Do you make a budget? Do you break out the graph paper?

Pin the image below to help others find this info on laying out a garden! And please, please let me know what you’re planting this year! Happy gardening (in the dead of winter)!

Kali

I’m Kali. Oregon mama, farmer’s wife and creator of the Potager book and blog. Join me and as we cook and garden through the seasons!