Start Your Home Garden for Two Dollars

You want to start a home garden but your budget is tight. With a little creativity and a dash of imagination you can create a functioning healthy garden with just a few dollars.

One of the major expenses in starting a small garden is purchasing pots. A garden pot is nothing more than a fancy container. Take a look at the items you throw away every week, items that could be repurposed as gardening containers. Don't stop there what about friends, neighbors, and relatives who discard what could be future pots for your garden starter garden.

I use cups, milk cartons, and mushroom containers like the ones on the left as starter pots.

One of my favorite containers is old dishpans like the one I grew spinach in above or the white pan with the onions below.

Lettuce is also growing in an old dishpan.

The point of vegetable gardening to grow your own food in a way that is both healthy and less expensive than going to the produce section of your local supermarket. As I said earlier why not make it creative and fun. The repurposed bucket on the left was originally a gator aid bucket given to me by my neighbor. Now I use it to grow sweet potatoes.

In a former life, this pink bucket was used to haul water. One night water froze inside the bucket causing it to split now it is used as a container for growing potatoes.

So now that you have your containers you will need a pack of seeds. Although you can find seeds at the dollar store Walmart sometimes sells seeds for twenty cents a pack.

If you are looking for something larger try using storage bins. I used the old screen from an air conditioner unit as a trellis inside a bin to grow small yellow watermelons.

If you want to go upscale you can buy your seeds Burpees.

Last year I built a raised crate garden using old milk crates and plates. I just planted bush beans in it last week.

If you have a garden even a small garden you have soil. Soil is easily accessible for most of us but if you are having a problem finding it one again your friendly dollar store sells small bags for a buck.

Once you have your garden up and running you will need water. I have several barrels for my catchment system. The white barrel was originally used for pickles. The blue barrel was a gift from my son-in-law and the window screen was something I found in the garage.