My area’s been getting pounded by thunderstorms and heavy rainfall (like 1"/hr) and luckily my plants have survived and it knocked off almost all of the aphids! My tomato plant is fruiting, I’ve got jalapeños, serranos, and bell peppers on the vine. The basil is going crazy and the rest of my garden is just doing great also :3
I think total the amount of money I’ve put into this garden for soil and a couple tools (a transfer shovel was like $20) was only about $50. I got the milk crates for “free” (thanks dollar general hehe) and the woven bag for free from a coffee shop, the cardboard boxes for free from Walmart, I bought one bucket and had this metal truck on hand from moving in college, but could’ve just as easily made the wall supports out of free pallet wood. If I had an actual yard I could’ve done everything for less than $10 not including water and seeds/starts, but I got all of those on SNAP EBT so basically free. The mulch and compost I got for free from my city.
Green thumb praxis. You don’t need a million dollars, herbicides and pesticides to grow your own food. You just need some dirt, water and seeds (and probably some microbial assistance. Maybe also urine.)
A few sources of free supplies for those who want to grow with less.
- Free seeds - look for a seed library- check with family owned nurseries at end of season, they have to toss expired seed, they still germinate. Save seed from food - tomato, potato, pepper, squash
- Free containers. Know anyone in a landscape installation company? Ask them to save you 5 and 15gallon pots. Make newspaper pots, sew felt bags ( get felt at a craft thrift store . )
- free fertilizer: coffee grounds from neighbors, guinea pig litter or rabbit litter if you know people with pets, bean soaking liquid,
Thankfully you used the boxes. Pallet wood often has pesticides and chemicals to keep insects from being transported with the freight.
The garden looks great! Your peppers are doing much better than mine, although we’ve never been great at growing them.
It all looks healthy, not too many slugs and snails in your area I’m guessing. Apparently a saucer of beer is a good low cost way of dealing with them.
I found a couple of snails on my broccoli last night and threw them over the fence
Thanks for sharing! I think your approach applies even when it’s not out of necessity: the most sustainable gardening is done with minimal external inputs, and the best way to get plants is sharing with community 💗
Oh yeah and my squashes haven’t fruited at all yet, lazy bastards
