Gardening CAN become a very expensive but it does not have to be. I've been poor for my entire life, that's how I know. I also think gardening gear is kinda like baby gear. Some people swear you need this and that. Maybe they swear by a certain product while to another person that same item is not useful at all. My point is, don't be intimidated to start somewhere if you are interested. Buy Nothing groups are great for finding supplies, and some BN groups also organize plant swaps where people bring plants, seeds, gear, pots, etc.
VALID and agree! I mostly push back against the pressure from MAHA/trad wife culture/also many super crunchy liberals that we should all be growing our own food and that is some kind of systemic solution to hunger and poverty. Growing your own is wonderful if you have the time/bandwidth/resources and enjoy it -- but it can also be a lot of labor and/or cash outlay to get set up, and not available to everyone. So I always like to highlight that piece when I talk about gardening in case it sounds like I'm proselytizing that everyone should be doing it.
I always do a sweep of garage sales for equipment; it's the kind of thing people leave behind in their garage/shed when they move and new owners try and off-load. I've gotten some really great (and probably 50+ year old) shovels, rakes, and trowels this way. Also, if your municipality requires people to bag leaves for collection, you can get mulch for basically free; I just drive around and pick up the bags people leave on the curb every fall.
Tree companies will also often drop wood chips for free. They aren't great mulch (too big/bulky/you don't know what tree you're getting) but good for paths or more wooded areas where you need to keep weeds down.
And I REALLY endorse making gardener friends because the potential for plant sharing is pretty endless once you know a few folks with established perennial gardens!
Speaking from experience, the mulch from the tree companies is not great. AND, also speaking from experience, when they drop 2 literal tons of mulch in your front yard, IT CAN CATCH FIRE after a few days BECAUSE OF THE INTERNAL HEAT IN THE MOUND!!! Talk about a crazy adventure in mulch. (“The mulch pile is smoking!” “NOT IT’S NOT. That’s just condensation!” “Um, the mulch pile is SMOKING.” Reader, it was, in fact, smoking.)
It was a comedy of errors. Nothing like a 10 ft high pile of mulch in a front yard in suburbia with two maniacs WILDLY shoveling mulch in all directions to prevent burning down the neighborhood. 😂😂😂
Also adding that my public library has a seed library and a cutting library where local gardeners drop off seeds and cuttings for others when they have surplus!
We have officially reached the time of year where every other responsibility in my life is swept aside in favor of playing in my garden. I am currently playing my yearly game of "seedling surprise", which is when a bunch of little seedlings are popping up but I have forgotten where I sowed seeds this winter (and what I sowed, tbh) so I can't weed until they get bigger and I can identify them. My recs: I get most of my seeds from Prairie Moon Nursery (https://www.prairiemoon.com) - they are trustworthy and reliable and well priced. Also a wide brimmed hat that you can keep hanging by the back door and can throw on as you walk out so that your "quick morning walk-about" that inevitably turns into 45 minutes of weeding and puttering doesn't give you a sunburn.
I am no gardener but I do love experiencing flowers, so I’ll be happy to see the pictures of your garden and learn the names of all the pretty things throughout the growing season!
Yay! I really think a lot about how gardening is a way to experience beauty that is (mostly) free of all the toxic beauty standard nonsense we get into when we think about beauty and bodies... Flowers are wildly diverse and they are so clearly all good!
Hurricane Helene brought down five magnificent old trees in our front yard (two on the house, but that’s another story!), and crushed many of my beds, where I’d been teaching myself to garden for the past 4-5 years. I am finally emerging from my garden depression and monitoring what survived, though the yard is still a wasteland. Hardscape restoration is scheduled, and I’m getting excited again. Not to mention gardening is a therapeutic distraction from fascism! So, all by way of saying bring it on!
We have 3 chickens in addition to our garden and I overhear so many people saying maybe they should get chickens since egg prices are so expensive. But similar to gardening for food - I don't think we're actually saving any money. But I love both anyway. I try to have lots of flowers to attract the pollinators, and the borage is currently doing a great job of that. And I spread out homemade compost and a bunch of tomato sprouts came up, I'm excited for a summer of gazpacho and panzanella!
I am really hoping some close neighbors get chickens - I like the constant little clucks and would enjoy eavesdropping on their chicken business, but I am not in a place to add another caretaking responsibility right now.
We are a very chicken-curious household rn, but I'm doing the same math as you. It will be super fun to have our own eggs, I'm psyched for less food waste and one of my kiddos is SO into this project. But I am sure by the time we build the coop, etc, it will not be a money saver!
They are my daughter's pets and they're very easy to take care of - less than 10 minutes a day for daily cleaning and feeding! And they are SO fun. They all have different personalities, all leaning towards bossy and entitled, it's very funny.
We have chickens. They are not cheap, but it’s fun to delight friends and neighbors by delivering eggs. Watching tiny dinosaurs bop in the yard is SUCH fun!
I love gardening (obviously; it's what I write about) and love seeing what other people are growing and what gear they're using!
I love my gorilla cart and found it to be a game changer for lugging stuff around my yard. Supergoop SPF 50, a wide-brim sunhat, and UV blocking lightweight shirts are also a must for sun protection!
Oo I love my gorilla cart - it’s surprisingly so much better on my hilly, terraced yard than the giant, unwieldy wheelbarrow we were gifted when we moved to our first house.
I am a houseplant apartment dweller who dreams of having an outdoor garden one day! Frankly not that interested in growing vegetables - I'll leave that to the folks at my farmers market who do it way better. But I would LOVE to grow flowers and herbs. Someday!
I don’t love gardening but my husband is very into it so I’m interested to hear what other people are doing. He mostly grows peppers and tomatoes but just picked a pineapple and I’m truly impressed any time we get a full grown pineapple. He’s grown a few since he initially had a pineapple plant in 2013.
I love garden toast! I would add white pants and shirt as I am in tick land and it helps me see them if they get on me. My go to’s are thrifted white button down and cotton elastic waist soft pants.
Oh, coming back to say, yes: even if you don't buy anything fancy and already have good soil, growing a subsistence garden is at minimum time-intensive to get started. And if you're learning, it will be time-intensive to maintain. If you don't have sprinklers (of some sort) and a timer, watering alone can be a major commitment. On the other hand, with intensive planting, early season weeding, loads of mulch around the veggies (in my area this keeps back weeds and helps protect from dessication from wind and zero humidity), and even a basic "rainbow" sprinkler on a timer, I've been able to get veggie garden maintenance, by mid-season, down to an hour or so a week. I think this is easier to do if you're somewhere where weeds don't sprout a jungle overnight. And, you'd have to have real tolerance for a somewhat unruly garden. If it needs to be a show garden, it's probably not possible to have it be a low time commitment, period.
I garden at 7200' in elevation in SE Wyoming. We get max about 11 inches annual precip (like Ticson, but way colder). I get max 3 months frost-free and that's never guaranteed. I've also gardener in Quebec City (4 years) and Missoula (5 years). All have no-joke winters and shorter than elsewhere growing seasons. After about 20 years as a professional and hobby gardener, I SWEAR by seeds from Fedco in Maine. They deliberately carry cold-tolwranr and short-seaspn varieties, many are non-GMO and heirloom, too. And their print catalog is required spring reading. Amazing descriptions, hilarious modern limericks, and lovely illustrations. It's black and white on newsprint, so it feels very old school in a good way. Truly can't recommend enough.
Agree with your list. Also love these tub trugs. I have a small city lot and no room for a wheel barrow or gorilla cart. We do have city composting tho so everything goes from the tub trig to the compost.
Also, Our house came with a sprinkler system and I just got little sprayers added on in our raised beds this year. Such a game changer to not have to hand water.
I had to get stitches from that hori hori on my thumb so be careful! still my fave tool
Feeling slightly called out by the “today’s newsletter is not for you” disclaimer at the beginning of this post lol. I have hated the act of gardening ever since I was ordered to pull weeds in my family’s garden as a tween in Texas, drenched in sweat and dodging fire ant piles. Maybe I would enjoy it more in a cooler climate? I also happen to have terrible allergies, so inhaling pollen is not my idea of a good time. Regardless, I love the gardening content because I love seeing the end result. Plants are cool. Flowers are beautiful. I may not have a green thumb but I can still appreciate the fruits of others’ labor.
Gardening CAN become a very expensive but it does not have to be. I've been poor for my entire life, that's how I know. I also think gardening gear is kinda like baby gear. Some people swear you need this and that. Maybe they swear by a certain product while to another person that same item is not useful at all. My point is, don't be intimidated to start somewhere if you are interested. Buy Nothing groups are great for finding supplies, and some BN groups also organize plant swaps where people bring plants, seeds, gear, pots, etc.
VALID and agree! I mostly push back against the pressure from MAHA/trad wife culture/also many super crunchy liberals that we should all be growing our own food and that is some kind of systemic solution to hunger and poverty. Growing your own is wonderful if you have the time/bandwidth/resources and enjoy it -- but it can also be a lot of labor and/or cash outlay to get set up, and not available to everyone. So I always like to highlight that piece when I talk about gardening in case it sounds like I'm proselytizing that everyone should be doing it.
Totally agree re: growing your own food! What a bunch of bullshit
I always do a sweep of garage sales for equipment; it's the kind of thing people leave behind in their garage/shed when they move and new owners try and off-load. I've gotten some really great (and probably 50+ year old) shovels, rakes, and trowels this way. Also, if your municipality requires people to bag leaves for collection, you can get mulch for basically free; I just drive around and pick up the bags people leave on the curb every fall.
Tree companies will also often drop wood chips for free. They aren't great mulch (too big/bulky/you don't know what tree you're getting) but good for paths or more wooded areas where you need to keep weeds down.
And I REALLY endorse making gardener friends because the potential for plant sharing is pretty endless once you know a few folks with established perennial gardens!
Speaking from experience, the mulch from the tree companies is not great. AND, also speaking from experience, when they drop 2 literal tons of mulch in your front yard, IT CAN CATCH FIRE after a few days BECAUSE OF THE INTERNAL HEAT IN THE MOUND!!! Talk about a crazy adventure in mulch. (“The mulch pile is smoking!” “NOT IT’S NOT. That’s just condensation!” “Um, the mulch pile is SMOKING.” Reader, it was, in fact, smoking.)
OMGOMG. That is stressful and I’m glad you flagged this!
It was a comedy of errors. Nothing like a 10 ft high pile of mulch in a front yard in suburbia with two maniacs WILDLY shoveling mulch in all directions to prevent burning down the neighborhood. 😂😂😂
Also adding that my public library has a seed library and a cutting library where local gardeners drop off seeds and cuttings for others when they have surplus!
Lol. I’m not a gardener, never gonna be a gardener, and this still amused me. When you’re happy, we’re happy.
We have officially reached the time of year where every other responsibility in my life is swept aside in favor of playing in my garden. I am currently playing my yearly game of "seedling surprise", which is when a bunch of little seedlings are popping up but I have forgotten where I sowed seeds this winter (and what I sowed, tbh) so I can't weed until they get bigger and I can identify them. My recs: I get most of my seeds from Prairie Moon Nursery (https://www.prairiemoon.com) - they are trustworthy and reliable and well priced. Also a wide brimmed hat that you can keep hanging by the back door and can throw on as you walk out so that your "quick morning walk-about" that inevitably turns into 45 minutes of weeding and puttering doesn't give you a sunburn.
Oh gosh yes, I forgot the hat! So important. And love Prairie Moon!
I am no gardener but I do love experiencing flowers, so I’ll be happy to see the pictures of your garden and learn the names of all the pretty things throughout the growing season!
Yay! I really think a lot about how gardening is a way to experience beauty that is (mostly) free of all the toxic beauty standard nonsense we get into when we think about beauty and bodies... Flowers are wildly diverse and they are so clearly all good!
Hurricane Helene brought down five magnificent old trees in our front yard (two on the house, but that’s another story!), and crushed many of my beds, where I’d been teaching myself to garden for the past 4-5 years. I am finally emerging from my garden depression and monitoring what survived, though the yard is still a wasteland. Hardscape restoration is scheduled, and I’m getting excited again. Not to mention gardening is a therapeutic distraction from fascism! So, all by way of saying bring it on!
Oh my gosh how devastating to lose those trees and that hard work! But excited to hear how restoration goes…
Thanks! One problem is that there are shade-loving plants where there are no longer trees to shade them. Ugh!
We have 3 chickens in addition to our garden and I overhear so many people saying maybe they should get chickens since egg prices are so expensive. But similar to gardening for food - I don't think we're actually saving any money. But I love both anyway. I try to have lots of flowers to attract the pollinators, and the borage is currently doing a great job of that. And I spread out homemade compost and a bunch of tomato sprouts came up, I'm excited for a summer of gazpacho and panzanella!
I am really hoping some close neighbors get chickens - I like the constant little clucks and would enjoy eavesdropping on their chicken business, but I am not in a place to add another caretaking responsibility right now.
We are a very chicken-curious household rn, but I'm doing the same math as you. It will be super fun to have our own eggs, I'm psyched for less food waste and one of my kiddos is SO into this project. But I am sure by the time we build the coop, etc, it will not be a money saver!
They are my daughter's pets and they're very easy to take care of - less than 10 minutes a day for daily cleaning and feeding! And they are SO fun. They all have different personalities, all leaning towards bossy and entitled, it's very funny.
We have chickens. They are not cheap, but it’s fun to delight friends and neighbors by delivering eggs. Watching tiny dinosaurs bop in the yard is SUCH fun!
In my private, fantasy life I am a gardener. As such I will continue feeding this dream by consuming any and all gardening content.
I love gardening (obviously; it's what I write about) and love seeing what other people are growing and what gear they're using!
I love my gorilla cart and found it to be a game changer for lugging stuff around my yard. Supergoop SPF 50, a wide-brim sunhat, and UV blocking lightweight shirts are also a must for sun protection!
Oh man I meant to put Supergoop on there! Just ordered the giant bottle for the season...
I should order mine now, too! I love how long the giant bottle lasts!
Oo I love my gorilla cart - it’s surprisingly so much better on my hilly, terraced yard than the giant, unwieldy wheelbarrow we were gifted when we moved to our first house.
Same!
I’ve never smashed the heart button harder in my life
Yayyyyyyy
I am a houseplant apartment dweller who dreams of having an outdoor garden one day! Frankly not that interested in growing vegetables - I'll leave that to the folks at my farmers market who do it way better. But I would LOVE to grow flowers and herbs. Someday!
I don’t love gardening but my husband is very into it so I’m interested to hear what other people are doing. He mostly grows peppers and tomatoes but just picked a pineapple and I’m truly impressed any time we get a full grown pineapple. He’s grown a few since he initially had a pineapple plant in 2013.
A pineapple!! So cool.
I love garden toast! I would add white pants and shirt as I am in tick land and it helps me see them if they get on me. My go to’s are thrifted white button down and cotton elastic waist soft pants.
Oh, coming back to say, yes: even if you don't buy anything fancy and already have good soil, growing a subsistence garden is at minimum time-intensive to get started. And if you're learning, it will be time-intensive to maintain. If you don't have sprinklers (of some sort) and a timer, watering alone can be a major commitment. On the other hand, with intensive planting, early season weeding, loads of mulch around the veggies (in my area this keeps back weeds and helps protect from dessication from wind and zero humidity), and even a basic "rainbow" sprinkler on a timer, I've been able to get veggie garden maintenance, by mid-season, down to an hour or so a week. I think this is easier to do if you're somewhere where weeds don't sprout a jungle overnight. And, you'd have to have real tolerance for a somewhat unruly garden. If it needs to be a show garden, it's probably not possible to have it be a low time commitment, period.
I garden at 7200' in elevation in SE Wyoming. We get max about 11 inches annual precip (like Ticson, but way colder). I get max 3 months frost-free and that's never guaranteed. I've also gardener in Quebec City (4 years) and Missoula (5 years). All have no-joke winters and shorter than elsewhere growing seasons. After about 20 years as a professional and hobby gardener, I SWEAR by seeds from Fedco in Maine. They deliberately carry cold-tolwranr and short-seaspn varieties, many are non-GMO and heirloom, too. And their print catalog is required spring reading. Amazing descriptions, hilarious modern limericks, and lovely illustrations. It's black and white on newsprint, so it feels very old school in a good way. Truly can't recommend enough.
Agree with your list. Also love these tub trugs. I have a small city lot and no room for a wheel barrow or gorilla cart. We do have city composting tho so everything goes from the tub trig to the compost.
Also, Our house came with a sprinkler system and I just got little sprayers added on in our raised beds this year. Such a game changer to not have to hand water.
I had to get stitches from that hori hori on my thumb so be careful! still my fave tool
https://redgorillausa.com/collections/flexible-gorilla-tubs
Feeling slightly called out by the “today’s newsletter is not for you” disclaimer at the beginning of this post lol. I have hated the act of gardening ever since I was ordered to pull weeds in my family’s garden as a tween in Texas, drenched in sweat and dodging fire ant piles. Maybe I would enjoy it more in a cooler climate? I also happen to have terrible allergies, so inhaling pollen is not my idea of a good time. Regardless, I love the gardening content because I love seeing the end result. Plants are cool. Flowers are beautiful. I may not have a green thumb but I can still appreciate the fruits of others’ labor.
All very valid and I would say Garden Toast is therefore very much for you!