Backyard Money Saver: A Guide to Growing Your Own Food

For many, the ever-rising cost of living can seem overwhelming. Whether a person is single or raising a family, it's beneficial for them to find ways to cut costs and save money whenever possible. One way to do that is to plant a vegetable and fruit garden. Food is an unavoidable expense, and eating healthy can be costly, but by planting favorite vegetables and even certain fruits in a garden, people can avoid the substantially marked-up prices charged by grocery stores. In addition, people can save money on the gas needed to drive to grocery stores or farmers' markets for fresh produce. For the cost of seeds or starter plants, people can have an abundance of food, often enough to share with friends and family. To obtain the best results, however, it's important that people educate themselves on how they can grow their own food, whether it's in a large backyard or on the balcony of an apartment.

• Three Gardeners Share Their Design Secrets: Sunset offers this article to gardeners on how to start a vegetable garden of any size in their backyard.
• Vegetable Gardening for Beginners: Novice gardeners can learn how to start growing a small garden, including how to efficiently make use of space, getting rid of rows, and rotating crops.
• Backyard Gardening: Learn how to start a backyard veggie patch by clicking on this link to a BBC slide show.
• How to Grow Your Own Food Even if You Live in a Tiny Apartment: Urban gardeners who live in an apartment can find information here to help them grow crops.
• Growing Vegetables in Home Gardens (PDF): Individuals and families interested in starting a garden in their backyard can click here for basic and advanced gardening techniques that will make their efforts more successful.
• Getting Started With a Vegetable Garden (PDF): Click this link to open up and review a University of Nevada Cooperative Extension fact sheet on how to start a vegetable garden, what to plant, and when.
• Healthy Gardening: Tips for New and Experienced Gardeners (PDF): Both new and experienced gardeners who click this link will find a booklet of helpful tips on finding the best location for a garden and how to grow and harvest vegetables and fruits.
• Soil Amendments: People preparing a garden can read about soil amendments, including compost, on this Oregon Metro page
• Starting a Home Vegetable Garden (PDF): When planning a vegetable garden for the home, click this link to not only learn how to get started but also read tips on pest control and plant disease.
• Planting Your Garden (PDF): New and intermediate gardeners who read this article can learn about different aspects of gardening such as types of planting, selecting seeds, buying transplants, and transplanting to gardens.
• Growing a Kitchen Garden: Individuals who live in apartments, townhouses, or houses with minimal yard space can get four tips on how to start an indoor garden when they visit this page.
• How to Make a Raised Bed Garden: People who are interested in gardening should visit this page to learn how to make a raised bed garden and what the advantages are.
• Healthy Gardens Grow From Healthy Soil: Learn about healthy soil for gardening and soil amendments by clicking on this link.
• A Vegetable Garden How-to: Planning: Click this link to read the first step of a vegetable garden how-to guide.
• Edible Gardening: Five Top Tips for Growing Your Own Food: Edible home gardens are a smart tool to help you eat healthfully and save money.
• Go Green With Your Own Indoor Garden (video): An herb garden is a popular way to start gardening indoors.
• Starting Seeds: Visitors to this page can find information on how to start seeds for gardening.
• How to Grow Your Own Food in a Small Urban Space: People who are learning to garden in urban spaces should click this link to watch a video on growing food on a balcony and read information on soil and fertilizer, maximizing space, what to avoid, and filling a garden toolkit.
• Vegetable Harvest (PDF): Gardeners can find a lengthy list of harvesting tips for vegetable gardens here.
• Planting the Vegetable Garden: Soil preparation, planting early crops, and transplanting are all topics gardeners can read up on at the University of Minnesota Extension website.
• Beginner Vegetable Gardening Made Easy: Anyone who is new to gardening can get helpful guidance by clicking on this link to the Better Homes and Gardens website.
• Month-by-Month Guide to Vegetable Gardening: Gardeners can read helpful advice on what to do each month when growing their vegetable gardens by clicking on this link to the website for Real Simple.
• How to Choose Favorite Crops for Your Vegetable Garden: This Reader's Digest article offers readers simple tips on how to choose which vegetable types to plant in their home garden.
• How to Start an Organic Garden in Nine Easy Steps: Starting a garden can be confusing, but this Good Housekeeping article offers nine steps that can help make it easier.
• Vegetable Garden Prep: When planning a vegetable garden, check out this page to discover how to properly prepare plant beds.
• Seven Secrets for a High-Yield Vegetable Garden, Even When You're Tight on Space: Discover how to get the highest yield from a garden by reading the tips on this page.
• How to Grow a Vertical Vegetable Garden: Discover how to grow food in a tight space by reading this article on how to grow vertically.
• Go Vertical to Make the Most of Your Veggie Garden Space: Families can learn how to grow a vegetable garden that will give them the ability to plant more food and save valuable space here.