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Planting Vegetables in a Potted Garden

Well, not long ago, I decided to plant some big pots of vegetables while I did some landscaping in my front area. I had two nice big pots that were already available and so I decided that it would be a good idea to go ahead and plant some vegetables so that I would have some nice eats during the summer. For the vegetables that I picked, I decided on peppers, cucumbers,  string beans, and lettuce.

Of course, one of the pots was unfortunately one that had no holes in the bottom and lots of rain threatened to wash out these newly germinated plants. But, after a trip to the store and a quick transplant, they seem to be much better. Now all of the plants are doing well 3 weeks into the planting process. Although some of them are a bit close to one another so I might end up moving them apart to give them more room. But the news so far is encouraging and I am hoping to save some money on groceries in the fall with lots of nice, fresh vegetables.

Understanding the up front costs is a major issue though. First there was the dirt at about 5 bucks per bag. Then there was the seeds at 1.29 per package. And then there was the pot which was like 5 bucks. So it is not likely that I am going to "save" any money this year. (The water is a non issue because the regular usage falls under the cap so it is a flat fee.)

Next year is when I expect to hit a good upside. There will be no up front costs and it will be all profit since I didn't use all of my seeds from any of the packages. One good thing is that the seeds for the beans were from a couple years ago and they germinated just fine.


Vegetable Swapping is also a likely possibility if I get enough because my neighbor is also doing a garden and so is my mother and some of the veggies that they are planting are different than mine. That might also save money.

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Anonymous said…
I recently made two short posts on my blog along these lines that might interest you.

Grow some herbs

Use what you have: Water

I hope you have much better luck with the veggies than I have!
1:03 PM
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