Grow Your Own Money?

If you’re budget conscious and really, who isn’t these days, then you’re always on the lookout for ways to fatten your bottom line. Have you considered growing your own food? I know what you’re thinking. There’s no way you could possibly grow a significant amount of food to make it worthwhile right? And even if you could, it would be a huge time sink. You’re busy and you just don’t have the time it would take.

But what if there was a way to change that? To flip the equation in such a way that you really could grow a significant amount of food for pennies on the dollar compared to what you’re spending at the grocery store and doing so wouldn’t take a huge chunk of your day? Would it shock you to know that that’s possible? Read on and we’ll show you how.

Two broad approaches and two different methods. One for apartment and condo dwellers, who have limited space and may never have considered gardening for that very reason and one for people with a house and a yard who have more room to work with. We’ll discuss each below, and provide links and suggestions. We are not affiliated with the linked or suggested, and do not recommend any one approach or person and do not guarantee any results. See disclaimer below.

Condo and Apartment Dwellers

Space is obviously at a premium. You don’t have a lot of it, and you need to make the most of what you have. There are two approaches you can take. Window boxes and grow towers. You can make both using recycled materials or if you have a bit of money to spend, you can buy window boxes cheaply. Either way, if you’ve got a patio so much the better but even if you don’t, you can set up grows towers along any empty space of wall that gets sun or you can make them out of recycled 2-liter drink bottles. You can even make them self-irrigating, to save you the trouble of watering the plants.

Grow towers go a long ways toward solving the space problem because you go up not out. The key of course is to pick vegetables that you eat regularly and focus on growing the ones that are the most expensive. Peppers are outrageously expensive in this part of the country often $0.89 each so that makes them a no brainier here, but it depends on your tastes and preferences. Learn how to make grow towers here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9vN2eudWcQ

House Dwellers

The first thing you want to consider if you’ve got some yard space is a greenhouse. There are free blueprints all over the internet if you like DIY projects, or you can buy inexpensive greenhouses from a company called Shelter Logic on Amazon and other retailers (just search on the name, once in Amazon.) Easy to assemble and with a few raised beds, you can grow a shocking amount of food in very limited space. To make best use of your raised beds and get the most food you can out of them, use Bartholomew’s Square Foot method, found here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N5Lu-7FIj_g

If you’re more of a traditionalist and want to plant seeds in the ground and not in a raised bed, use Jeavon’s Bio-intensive method, outlined here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FPeAvYrfKkU

Both of these will produce tremendous crop yields in very little space, require little maintenance, and make you healthier. Not to mention, you’ll get a real charge out of being able to head to the back yard to pick dinner. It’s like having your very own grocery store!

Disclaimer:

This website may contain links to third party websites or other content on the World Wide Web for informational purposes only. Loan Libre cannot control these third party links or the content found therein. Loan Libre is not responsible for the content of any third party website, and the inclusion of any links to such third party websites does not constitute or imply any referral, approval, or endorsement of or by such third party websites, unless otherwise indicated.

With respect to the information available on our websites, Loan Libre does not make any warranty, express or implied, including the warranties of merchant ability and fitness for a particular purpose, or assume any legal liability or responsibility for the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any information, apparatus, product or process disclosed. Loan Libre is not responsible for direct, indirect, incidental or consequential damages resulting from any defect, error or failure to perform.