About My Journey....Not So Dirt Cheap.....Part 1
About my homesteading journey, not so dirt cheap... Part 1
I started gardening years ago, after I graduated from junior college. I had a lot of extra free time, but no money to indulge in any fun or meaningful activity. I needed to keep myself busy with something I enjoyed before the monotony of my usual routine took over my sanity. I was sick of sitting around the house, watching television all morning, while simultaneously checking email, reading articles I found interesting, and playing games on my phone. All in all, I was wasting my day away. I felt exhausted from all of my usual chores that keeping up a household, while working a full-time job required. I was sick of the daily cleaning, cooking, working. There was just no fulfillment in it for me. Not that I didn’t love to do those things for my family, but after a while, you feel like you are just drifting through life on autopilot. I just needed to feel more connected to something I enjoyed.
It all really began from visiting a good friend of mine who had her own garden. Let’s call her Momma J for privacy. She is a self-taught gardener with probably over 40 years of experience. Momma J’s garden took up most of her tiny backyard. It was always lush, and produced plenty of food over the decades. I have made frequent visits to her house over the years, and each time during the growing season, she would take me on a tour of her back yard and show me the hidden gems she had growing in abundance. I loved those tours, but I never considered trying it myself. I was content to let Momma J surprise me with her accomplishments and take home a few samples of her garden delights. I would share them with my family, and tell my guy all about Momma J’s garden over dinner. I would ramble on excitedly, while he quietly listened. I half assumed he wasn’t really listening. But as it turns out, he was.
One day when I got home from work, I was surprised to find a gardening book, bought by my wonderful guy. It was such a thoughtful thing for him to do for me, that I felt a real obligation to get something out of that book.
I didn’t read it with the idea in mind of a homesteading adventure. Instead, I read it like a text book. I soaked in every detail as if I had a book report due when I finally finished it. I didn’t fully understand most of what I was reading, but it was interesting to me. It wasn’t long before I was telling my guy about all that I had learned in that book, still not considering doing something like this myself. Instead, I considered it useful information to use in the far-off future. But oddly enough, a seed had been planted inside me, and it began to grow.
I started browsing websites that had information about how to garden in your backyard. Wow! There is a lot of information out there, both good and bad. But I didn’t know the difference at the time. So, down the Google wormhole I went. Suddenly, I wanted to know everything on how to garden. Really know what I was doing before diving into something that I would fail at due to lack of time or know how. Within a few days’ time, I had signed up to over a dozen newsletters from gardeners who all seemed like interesting people to me. I didn’t know if any of them had any real experience, I just started reading whatever they sent out. Again, I considered this useful information for a long off future endeavor. I started to think that when I retired, I could use all this info to start my own garden. Maybe.
A few weeks later, I took a visit to my friend’s house again, but now when I walked through her yard, I could identify some of the seedlings I was looking at. That got me really excited. Here I was, the amateur, recognizing and naming some of the tiny little plants that were being pointed out to me. Momma J had told me the names of these before, but it never stuck. I could never remember them no matter how hard I tried. But now, it was different. It was satisfying to understand what she was talking about. As we walked around her small, yet productive backyard, the tiny seedling inside me suddenly started to grow. Later at home, I stood in my kitchen tasting one of those luscious tomatoes she had given me. No one can argue the taste difference between a store-bought tomato, and a home grown one. Juice dripping down my arm, hanging over the sink, I savored the excellent fruit.
Now here is where that seedling inside me really took root. At this time in my life, I really loved to cook. Thanks to the internet, I was acquiring new skills with lightning speed. I had quite a few of these skills down pat, but somehow my dishes lacked flavorful deliciousness. There is nothing more disappointing than spending a few hours preparing a meal that looks fabulous, then tastes disappointingly bland. I began to connect the dots here. The problem with grocery-store bought produce is usually the lack of taste, and it was killing the dishes that I was working so hard to create. I know some of you are quietly thinking that maybe I just couldn’t cook. I was thinking it too. Maybe I was just a lousy cook.
Not willing to admit defeat, I returned once again to Momma J’s, who also happens to be an excellent cook. The food she makes with her home-grown goodies always tastes amazing. I got her to show me how to cook something I really enjoyed. I made her show me step by step so I could go home and duplicate it. But, when I returned home to make it myself, there was that bland taste problem again. Yep, regular store-bought produce had to be the problem. I decided to experiment, and bought a few fairly priced organic items for a dish I knew could pull off. Now, if you are already a gardener, then you know that the organic produce was what was missing from my previous attempts. If you haven’t done a taste comparison, then you really are missing out on some wonderful flavors. I can’t really put into words for you how much better of a cook you could become if you use the right ingredients.
There was just one tiny problem with that organic tasty produce. I couldn’t afford the good organic stuff sold at the local markets. I mean they charge $12 for a pound of butter! Now, don’t get me wrong. Those growers have exceptional produce, packed with all the flavor I was looking for. They deserve every penny for all their hard work, but I simply couldn’t afford paying $3 for one tomato. It was never gonna happen for me, to be able to shop at those pricey markets. So, I needed a solution. How was I going to get organic produce for around the same amount of money I was spending on the crappy stuff? The answer was staring me right in the face, but still I couldn’t see it. I had no experience growing anything. All of my house plants died within a month of purchase. There was just no way I had the time or energy to become a gardener. I was in the middle of remodeling my home and had enough projects at hand. I considered my plate full already.
Then one day, a second gardening book arrived. I had no idea that my guy was still paying attention to my ramblings. I guess he saw how excited I got when I started talking about my friend’s garden. I dove into that book, thinking that maybe I could grow something. I could try a basil plant on a window sill. Seriously, I never considered that I could be a gardener with all I had going on in my life at the time. I was burnt out a little from school, and I didn’t want to dive into something as ridiculous as trying to garden. I mean, imagine me, a person who screamed and jumped at the slightest sign of a bug in my home. I wasn’t a “digging in the dirt kind of gal”, yet. I hated the idea of having dirt under my fingernails. I am the kinda gal who just spent the last 2 years learning about germs, bacteria, and viruses. Let’s just say that gardening wasn’t my thing, but I did enjoy reading about it so far. Reading that second book triggered the seedling inside me to fully sprout, meanwhile, the problem of paying good money for crappy produce started to frustrate me.
I couldn’t very well just raid Momma J’s backyard every time I wanted good produce. I didn’t really know how to grow anything. What was I going to do? I set out on a search mission for cheap local food. Down another worm hole I went. I used all of my skills to try to locate reasonably priced organic produce. Not only was it hard to find local organic food, but as it turned out, there were very few farms within a 50-mile radius of my sprawling suburban neighborhood that actually sold food directly to the public. Most of these places were only learned through word of mouth by attending a farmer’s market. I happen to have great farmer’s markets in my area. Washington DC is less than 15 miles from my house, and has one of the oldest and most famous markets in the country. But, again, I couldn’t afford most of the offerings and sometimes due to my long work days, I couldn’t even get to these places due to their limited hours. When you have a job where you have to work every other weekend, would you want to spend half a day at a farmer’s market on your weekend off when you need to clean the house, do some paperwork, etc.? For me, I just had more pressing commitments for my time.
My frustration grew over the next couple of months until I reached a boiling point. You see, when you venture down the internet wormholes, you are always sure to see something else that catches your eye. I started to read about pesticides causing cancer, Monsanto, what GMO really meant. Now looking back at things, I can’t believe that all that valuable information was right at my fingertips the whole time, but I had no idea. This information just isn’t on your usual venues of entertainment. After all of my research, I concluded that our nation’s food industry valued profits over human health, and even human life. I think I probably already knew that, but again, sometimes I can’t see the stuff right in front of me. I think a lot of other people are just like that too, otherwise, McDonald’s wouldn’t be so popular. Many people today can afford fast food, not healthy food. I have no judgement on anyone who enjoys fast food, but everyone knows that McDonalds food isn’t healthy for you, but it does tastes good.
Finally, that little sprout started to blossom into a full-fledged, hard core need to grow my own food. I had reached a breaking point after researching what chemicals are being allowed to enter our food system, and my family’s mouth. No wonder my supermarket produce sucked, it was laden with chemicals, preservatives, things I can’t pronounce just so it looks pretty. There are all kinds of reasons to start gardening, but I think this simple fact pushed me over the hump of being a spectator, to actually growing something besides a lonely basil plant. I was not going to pay good money to be poisoned by the food I ate.
The more I researched, the more I complained to my guy about my new dilemma. I guess he had finally heard enough, because the next weekend that I had off, we were headed to Home Depot to purchase some wood to make a garden bed. He had decided that I needed a little push, so he offered to make me a large bed out in the backyard. Or, he figured if he didn’t get me out of the house, he would have to listen to me complain about the food industry for the rest of his life. It wasn’t the ideal time to start gardening, June, but it was now or never.
I decided to go with that first book as to what a garden bed should be. A double dug, raised bed is what was described as the best. We purchased the supplies, and by the end of the day, I had bought lumbar, screws, deck hangers, dirt, compost, manure, mulch, weed fabric, and plant labels. I had gotten excited about this new project, and my guy wasn’t going to let a few hundred dollars stop me from achieving my goal of having a garden. I forgot that I didn’t have an experience, plants, or time. I went along full steam ahead, racking up my credit card. Soon, we were home, laying out the lumbar, and picking an ideal spot. I had not yet begun to fathom the amount of money you can spend on gardening.
At the time, I had no idea about what an ideal spot was. So, again, I referred to my books like they were the bible on gardening. Whatever advise it offered, I took. We began to work feverishly double digging the dimensions of my new garden bed. Sifting out the large stones and other debris took forever. Finally, I laid out my weed barrier and my guy built my very first garden bed facing the south. I would like to mention here, that years later, that first garden bed is still here, but the grass is very abundant throughout.
We filled that bed with dirt, and I took a few pictures. I was so proud of what we had accomplished. But wait, I forgot the plants. I didn’t know what I was going to fill this brand-new bed with. I hadn’t really thought it through that far ahead yet. Can I just admit to not being the best at planning here, and leave it at that? It was getting dark anyway, and I was tired from the day of digging. I decided that I would consult Mama J about this issue.
The next chance I had, I went back to Mama J’s house and we decided we would hunt for some transplants to put into my new garden bed. Turns out, that when you try to plant a garden in June, you have an extremely limit supply and choice of transplants. We went to a few garden centers before we finally found a place that had a few tomato and broccoli starts still left. They were sad looking plants, but I really didn’t have a choice unless I put my plans on hold and waited until next year. No, these would have to do. I also purchased some herbs, cabbage, and lettuce seeds after the urging of Mama J that they would grow if I just threw them in the bed and watered them. Mama J. coached me on how to plant everything and what to do when it sprouted. I went straight home and planted those sad little things into my bed, along with the seeds. More pics followed by a proud sense of accomplishment. My very first garden! I was actually doing this!
Looking back, I cringe at the thought of how much I spent on my very first garden bed. To tally up what I spent: $45 on lumber, $15 on hardware, $24 on mulch, $40 on dirt/compost, $20 on seeds and transplants, $ 10 on weed barrier. That’s a total of $154 investment strictly in supplies, before I even produced a single food item. I cringe now because I realize that if I had a little more advice, and was less concerned about “doing it right”, I could have cut that investment by 90%. That would have made it less risky, had I not succeeded at gardening.
People say hindsight is 20/20. I now know that if I had a little more patience back then, I could have saved myself hundreds of dollars instead of trying to have the perfect garden. I was more concerned with how my garden looked, than what it could produce. Anyone who has caught the gardening bug, knows that you can go way overboard in your spending. My story and my spending spree doesn’t end here. I had garden fever, and there would be plenty more endeavors to come.
Join me for part two of my story…….
