As you can imagine, a great way to save on food costs is to keep a small garden. The Grocery Shrink Ebook has charts in it to tell you how much of each type of plant to grow to be completely self sufficient for the year. But even just a salad garden will help. If you are short on space, stay tuned. We’ll talk about your options another day.
My favorite place to shop for seeds is Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds. All their seeds are heirloom which means you can save them from this year’s plants to grow again next year. The company is run by a young homeschooled family, and they’ve grown the company from a small Missouri based company to stores in California and on the East Coast. I also like to buy from our local bulk seed store, Antoines. They have a great selection (most are heirloom), good prices, and they weigh everything on antique balance scales. I love it! They are also a great resource for herbs and spices. They have an online order form, but the best experience is to visit their store in Independence, MO.
I’m not a seed starting genious, but I have friends who are! They all use a method similar to the step by step tutorial here. My cousin, Rachael, has a black metal shop shelf with aquarium lights strapped to the underside of the shelves. She makes gorgeous plants in that. If you can start your own seeds, you’ll save a bundle, but even if you’re like me and have decided to buy plants from those more capable, you’ll still save.
I realize that I have readers from several different countries and planting zones, but if your growing season is roughly April through mid-October, then start your seeds now!
We did a square foot garden last year for the first time and had AMAZING success. We did mostly plants from local big-box stores, but this year we are considering doing seeds. We got all our info on building the garden boxes, etc. from a wonderful website:
http://www.mysquarefootgarden.net
My husband built the boxes in about 10 minutes from 1X4s that he screwed together into 3×6 boxes (approx). We then mixed our soil ingredients and had the whole garden planted in less than an hour. A neighbor saw what we did and did the same. We traded produce all summer and frankly, were a bit sick of tomatoes and squash by August.
A few of my other friends have also mentioned the Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds. It’s a sweet company 🙂 🙂 What you will try and grow this yea r? Love and hugs from Oregon, Heather 🙂
Heather, I’m not sure what I will be planting this year. Lettuce and cilantro for sure! I’m due right around our typical planting day so will probaby just have a small salad garden this year. The Baker Creek catalog has been tempting me with tiger melons, strawbery spinach, and garden huckleberries. I should order soon!
I had no idea that Baker Creek had a store in Independence! I thought they were just in Mansfield, MO and out in California! I might just need some more seeds this year…. The kids and I started some indoors last week and they are already sprouting. My Dad recommended putting them in front of our patio door (which is where I was thinking about putting them, but my Dad was a farm boy… so I trust his judgement better than mine… also, he grows a lot more veggies in his garden than I do!). Thanks for sharing the info!!!
Oh, forgive me, I see Baker Creek isn’t the store in Independence. I must read more carefully. Antiones bears checking out anyway. I have not heard of them that I remember.
I LOVE Antoine’s!! It’s been around… forever… and reminds me of my grandma, who was an amazing gardener! I remember going there with her. Because of the economy, Antoine’s has had to really downsize into a small little building on Crysler, but it’s really cute now! And they had the best gardening plants last year. I love to support them.
I could use some help with this. I am so curious about your friend with the aquarium lights and black metal shelves, because my trouble is space. We have no windows with sun exposure. I know that sounds crazy but it’s true. And the ones that have even a minimal amount do not have a big enough sill for anything–the few mini mugs I have displayed on it are constantly knocked over/against. My kids rooms do, but I don’t even consider that an option (my children are 1 yo-6 yo, so no WAY I would trust them not to mess with plants!), even IF their sills were big enough. So I REALLY could use some guidance on what I could possibly do to start my seeds indoors. NEVER done this before, just starting with gardening/self-sufficiency. Just point me in the right direction. THANKS!!! (Writing to you from Japan, btw)
Hi Tonya. How fun to have a reader from Japan! I just wrote to my cousin and asked her for more information. I’ll get back to you.