Frugal gardening 101: Getting your vegetables started indoors
CBC
Horticulturalist Heidi Wood says growing your own vegetables is easy, fun and can save hundreds of dollars on your grocery bill every year if you preserve your food right.
As rising inflation causes food prices to soar, consumers are doing what they can to try to save on their grocery bills. Part of the answer could be right in your backyard.
"You can do it, and it's so much cheaper," said Wood, who is the horticulturalist for the Town of Stratford, P.E.I.
She said everything you need to start seeds indoors can be purchased for $100 or less.
Wood feels strongly about helping people live sustainably and with food security. She looks after plants and trees in public areas, including Robert L. Cotton Memorial Park, where her office is, and is a resource for Stratford's community garden, where she has a plot.
First, decide what you like to eat and plan to grow that, Wood advises, while also realizing you may need to handle an abundance of one thing (zucchinis anyone?) and be able to preserve it quickly.
Her favourite thing to grow and eat is green beans.
New varieties developed in the last decade have improved flavour and they can be grown three times in one season, she said. That's called succession planting and is also done with lettuce and other quick-maturing vegetables.
She parboils beans for three to five minutes, freezes them on a cookie sheet then bags them; she ate them all winter and just finished the last bag in her freezer this week, she said.
She also loves tomatoes for sauce, pickling and salsa all winter; plant plum-type tomatoes for that, she said.
Then decide where you will grow your garden and get your soil tested.
Take a cup of soil for your plot to the P.E.I. Analytical Laboratories in Charlottetown or to an Access P.E.I. location. For about $15, you'll find out what you need to add to adjust your soil's PH levels.
"It's an investment into your garden for the whole year," Wood said. "It's a cheap investment really."
Wood worked for years at Veseys Seeds in York, so that's where she buys her vegetable seeds. Buying quality seed from a garden centre ensures the best germination rate possible, she said, and is not expensive: her seeds this year cost about $60.