Food Prices are Going Up – Plant a Garden!
Every time I go to the supermarket, I cringe. With the high price of groceries, it makes it hard to put even the basics into the shopping cart. Now that more corn is going toward ethanol production, it is becoming more and more expensive to feed animals. This may be one reason the meat and dairy prices have gone sky high. In addition, the escalating cost of fuel is making it more expensive for farmers to grow crops and get their products to the stores.
Analysts don’t see the prices coming down any time soon. These prices are affecting staples such as milk, meat, flour, produce, and eggs. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the price of eggs has gone up between 30 and 40 percent! Now, I’m not too much of a pet person, but suddenly the thought of getting a couple of hens doesn’t seem like a bad idea.
What can we do? I like to eat.
Unfortunately, there’s not a whole lot we can do to prevent the cost of goods from skyrocketing. What we can do to save on our food bills is get out our shovels and plant a garden.
Learn from the past
I come from strong pioneer stock. My ancestors built their own houses, raised cows for milk and meat, and grew their own food. When their pantry was bare, they couldn’t rush out to the local Piggly Wiggly for macaroni and cheese. My ancestors learned how to plant a garden and how to preserve what they grew to last through the winter. Bottom line: they learned to be producers, not consumers.
Self-Reliance is a good thing
For the most part, we can’t control what happens to the economy – but we can try to be more independent and rely more on our own skills and resources. You don’t have to live on a large parcel of land to plant a garden. You can plant fruits and vegetables, even if you live in a high-rise apartment building. If you’re strapped for space, get a five-gallon bucket (any container that size or larger will do), fill it with good potting soil, put a tomato plant in the middle, water and fertilize it, and put it in a sunny spot. That’s it. A tomato plant can yield approximately 10-15 pounds of tomatoes, depending on the variety of tomato and growing conditions. If you bought 15 pounds of tomatoes at the grocery store at about $3.00 a pound, you would spend $45 on waxy, tasteless tomatoes.
Compare this with growing your own. My husband just purchased a few different varieties of tomato plants for $2.50 each. If you have a garden spot or some good soil, just place your tomato plants in the ground and water. If each plant yields 15 pounds of tomatoes, you’re paying approximately $0.16 per pound for flavorful tomatoes. If you’re planting your tomatoes in a container, you will have that extra expense – but it still beats buying them at the supermarket!
Tomatoes are just one example of how to save money growing your own food. I bought a package of Swiss chard seeds for a dollar and planted a couple of seeds in my garden. Once my plant starts producing, I can harvest it all summer.
Make the most of your space
No matter how much gardening space you have, make the most of it. Put your yard or balcony to work in helping you combat the high price of supermarket produce. Instead of planting marigolds or geraniums in outside planters, try planting a few herbs or strawberries. Different varieties of lettuce look great, make a tasty salad, and take little space to grow.
Put your scraps to work and save more money
You could save even more money by making your own compost. I have a compost bin out back. I just throw my kitchen scraps in to it; then I add some yard waste and water. I continue to layer the ingredients, stirring the contents occasionally, until my bin is full. After several weeks I have rich, nourishing soil for my plants. Compost is great for the garden and helps the environment.
Go from “Consumer” to “Producer”
We are a society of consumers. Everywhere we look, there are stores, restaurants, and other companies wanting us to buy their products. Billboards beckon to us as we travel down the highway, enticing us to buy more stuff. We can’t get away from it. We need to start relying more on our own skills and resources. Learning to produce some of our own food is a step toward independence – and independence is a wonderful thing in this shaky economy.
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Gardening is sure to make a comeback with rising food prices. Another good idea is the get a trailer full of black dirt from your cities compost and put it in your garden before planting. Fresh dirt and irrigation are the secrets to a large produce.
I’m with you here! When it got to the point I couldn’t buy razor blades for under $10, I knew somethign was going to have to give, so we doubled the size of our modest garden and moved space-suckers like squash and cucumbers to another plot to make room for more varieties in th emain garden. (and BTW–if you’re strapped for space you can grown climbers like cukes and summer squash, etc. on a fence)
I would encourage anyone to try growing some veggies–it’s a lot easier than you think, even if you have no experience. Even a less-than-bumper crop will ease your grocery bill. You really don’t have a lot to lose.
Last year we grew several different kinds of tomatoes in urns on a rear porch due of the bad soil quality in our neighborhood. When doing this you should be sure the pots are big enough for given plants possiblel root growth and you will likely need to water them almost twice as often as the dirt tends to dry out. Also right before they turn red either cover them or harvest them as birds will ruin your tomatoes as they cant stay away from the brigher colors.