Discount Homesteading

If you have been to the home improvement stores lately no doubt you have seen all that spring has to offer.  Most gardeners only need a few of this or that.  Maybe one shepherd hook and a couple bags of mulch.  If you are like me you need that times ten at least.  Twenty bags of mulch barely covers the flower beds around my house.  My kitchen gardens measures about 1200 square feet.  That's a lot of mulch.  To stake tomatoes, beans, and cucumbers I need more trellises than I can afford.  I also want conveniences like any gardener.  Those hanging bag planters for strawberries are super cool.  At my local big box garden center each one is seven dollars and a short hook to hang it from is fifteen.  To get enough for my property would cost a small fortune.  I had to come up with some thrifty but also attractive options.

I went to my favorite discount store and found the name brand strawberry bags for a little under two dollars each.  I bought four bags.  I also found really nice, sturdy hooks for twenty a piece.  They are about six feet tall and each hold two bags.  What I have saved on the setup alone I can invest in the sixty plants I need to fill them.

I am also building my own towers for some of my vining veggies.  Here's how:

Purchase three fan trellises in your desired height.  You will also need one small terracotta pot and a porch finial. 

Attach the three trellises together forming a pyramid with the widest part at the bottom. Then place the pot on top covering the narrow end of the trellis pyramid.  You can glue it in place with construction adhesive.  Place the finial's screw end through the hole in the pot and glue into place.  You can leave it natural or paint your tower whatever you like.  It's very inexpensive and lasts a while.

I also have a few shortcuts for keeping my garden looking great.  We ran a few rolls of weed blocking fabric to keep unwanted plants out of our veggies.  We also installed a microsprinkler system.  Traditional sprinklers wet the tops of the plants which can encourage bugs, rot, and other problems.  I have specialized misting heads and other sprayers according to my plant's needs.  I can always add more heads or change them depending on what I plant where.  It works great and each piece is a few cents.  It hooks onto any hose connection and lasts virtually forever.  Once I have my plants in I spread pine needles for mulch which is collected from my brother's yard.

I put some veggies like carrots, berries, potatoes and onions in pots for better yield.  Any inexpensive pot will do.  I prefer plastic since it keeps the soil moist longer.  It only takes one sunny afternoon to dry out a pot and kill your crops here in the south.  We have a long growing season so I can rotate my crops for nonstop harvest.

My chickens are also raised on the cheap.  I repurposed a garden shed on my property for their coop and I installed some dog doors for acess to their run space.  We reused a dog run that is chainlink from our last house.  I want to buy a few more panels, about seventy five dollars a piece, to add a second run on the front of their house.  We had to install a top on the run because a family of three racoons has decided to visit our house every night to scavenge for acorns.  Chickens and eggs are a tasty treat to a racoon.

Having a new baby and a budding homestead are a challenge.  Whatever I can do to make my chores easier is a good idea.  I can't wait for
when we can really enjoy our time outside.  The saying goes, the best things in life are free.  Cheap isn't bad either.