This is a weekly blog with a fun vibe that often veers off gardening, so stop on by and join the conversation. We are here every Saturday at 9AM Eastern with new content and chit chat continuing throughout the week.
WELCOME
Why do you have a second job?
It’s that time of year. The garden catalogues are filling mailboxes and the SALE! text messages are a bit too frequent. Is worth that 10% off? It is if you have my budget.
Unfortunately, I was born far too curious for my own good. I want to know all of the things and run all the experiments in my domain, my garden. Adding up all the different beds on my suburban property, I have around a thousand square feet of growing space. That does not include lawn, which I am also responsible for.
GUG’s Vertical garden, 2024
As I am already pushing the boundaries of what some people consider the mores of our neighborhood, I do need to keep the lawn somewhat presentable. The house needs paint, I live in that “jungle house” and my backyard looks nothing like the others.
It’s the least I can do to be a good neighbor when it comes to the yard. Expenses?
1. A new Grandpa’s Weeder, the Fiskars version. Lucky me, the price just jumped from $35 to $55 on December 17th. I have the original weeder, great product, love not having to get ground level to weed, but it’s getting janky. The new product will be Fiskars and plastic handle instead of wood, which does better with my irresponsible and rough tool handling.
2. Grass seed. Severe drought -with a random flood in there- has done a helluva number on my lawn. There isn’t much lawn left in the back per garden obsession, but the front needs to look tidy. I can get a bag of grass seed for around $20.
3. A weed service. Cost unclear yet but to have someone keep the front lawn weed free will be a couple hundred. No service for the back. This one is not a done deal, cost unclear, if I do it at all.
4. Self servicing our old mower. A new blade is $20, small engine oil is $11 and a new air filter is $10.
The newest fruit trees, Suncrest Peach and Fantasia Nectarine. See the slope? That is real, not a camera trick
Those of you who know me know one of my pride and joy garden beauties are my fruit trees.
Fruits trees, if you want them healthy and producing, are expensive to maintain, even if you purchase inexpensive whips. Which I have. That said, I have the same luck whether purchasing from Stark Brothers, Raintree, Lowes or Gurneys. For me, it’s all in the knowledge I have, the care I provide, climate and what Mother Nature throws my way.
If you want a fruit tree, know that everything, and I mean everything, wants that fruit, bark, leaves, all of the damn plant. Especially after it begins to fruit. You will be fighting plant biology (if the tree is not self fertile), squirrels and birds for the fruit, bunnies for the bark and voles for the roots. You will fight climate. I live on one of the highest points in the city, on a significant slope and a FLOOD killed one of my cherry trees. A flood!! Costs for what I need to care for my fruit trees below.
1. Sprayer. I have been rocking a $13 sprayer I buy new every year because they are cheap. I hate the pumping and they clog and break so easily. So I am upgrading to a $33 battery operated sprayer.
2. What goes in the sprayer? A lot. Well, fruit trees in these parts require spray for a variety of diseases. Copper or other fungicide for three of the scheduled sprays, $30. Neem oil, an all around insecticide and mild fungicide for the entire garden, must be with azadirachtin, a small is $18. Captain Jacks Deadbug, one of the elements in my fruit tree spray schedule (yes, there is a schedule and it’s frequent) is $15 for 16 ounces. Three scheduled sprays have BT, which is $17. I do my sprays on the cheap, many fruit tree growers get their hands on commercial products, which run in the hundreds for the smallest amount, and is damn near impossible for a home gardener to procure. Getting Surround Kaolin Clay in a home gardener size is difficult. I got lucky and got my hands on a five pound bag a few years ago. Shhhhh.
Excellent website and forum for the fruit tree curious
3. Protecting the fruit. Kaolin clay helps with codling moth. Doesn’t fix the problem though, bagging the fruit is better. Is it tedious, yep, but doesn’t take as much time as one would think. Organza bags get me 85% of my fruit instead of the 5% I got before covering it. $10 gets you a lot of bags. I just cover what I can reach. This will be the first year I will likely get peaches from the replacement peach tree (&^#$%^ bunnies). Since a squirrel has found my yard, I will be protecting as many peaches as I can with steel mesh bags, $50 for 50. Getting the correct size in bulk is quite spendy. This is the one item I am buying that is more security than need. Or perhaps it will be a need. We will likely see this summer. Stay Tuned.
4. Bird netting to protect the blueberries and strawberries, $6.
From a bareroot tree.
All that said, there are fewer event in life more satisfying, to the point of tears, for a certain northern gardener to bite into a fresh peach that she grew. Transcendent.
Pests. Most gardens have some. Whether bacterial, fungal, mammalian or insect, some lil bastard will want what a good gardener has. SVB traps cost money — $17 for two. Bug spray -such as Picaridin — 2 cans for $17- same deal. Did your city cut back the mosquito sprays in prime West Nile Virus country? Fifteen dollars for a biological skeeter control. With ticks and mosquitoes and their diseases aplenty, I take bug control very seriously.
GOTCHA
We can start seeds in garden soil, correct? Just bring it in from outside? Not if you don’t feel like cooking your soil in the oven first to kill fungus gnats and other buggies. I am already a messy gardener, I am not putting bulk yard soil in my kitchen or oven. Plus my soil is on the clay side of the composition spectrum. Seeds really do better in a finer soil type product. What I am buying this year? Keep in mind I already have a small indoor greenhouse around $50 maybe, as well as pots, trays, tubs, heating mats, grow lights and other tools I recycle every year. A few hundred bucks worth over the past few years.
1. Coco coir, a better-for-the-environment replacement for peat. It’s $30 for 10 blocks. Which will be mixed with…
2. Compost/Potting soil, Coast Of Maine. Quoddy mix. A blend of shellfish shells, compost, peat ect. $25 for 1 cubic foot. Love Coast of Maine products and obviously I cannot get a lot of products local, so they must be shipped. Which will also be mixed with…
3. Vermiculite, $7 for 15 ounces. Also mixed with….
4. Char Bliss, a small bag of biochar — $10 for one quart. Also mixed with….
5. Dr. Earth Gold Potting Soil — 8 quart for $14. Also mixed with…
6. Premium Mushroom Substrate — Premium Mushroom Substrate — $26 Also mixed with…
7. Miracle Grow Garden Soil — on clearance, 2 cubic feet for $7.
Yeah, it is a lot. Does everyone need to do all of this, absolutely not! I am continuing my process where I improve my soil through a variety of methods, one of which is seeding in small pots with a mix that adds diversity to the soil when I transplant. My clay suburban soil loves all my odd additions. I just make a list of what I want to add, find the cheapest quality product, get out a tough XL trash bag and mix it all together.
Planting a few hundred small pots takes some time and a lot of soil medium, for sure.
The cheapest seed starting mix I have done is clearance soils mixed with vermiculite. That worked very well for me. Many fungus gnats though.
8. Cheap plastic saucers as I am saving the cardboard for the garden. $9 for 20 in the correct size I need.
9. Garden Markers, two for $9 — LOVE these, I reuse tags, and cut my own, but some fade each year so….
10. Sturdy garden tags — $10 gets you a lot.
11. A small USB fan as seedlings need air movement for those hearty stems. I have two, need another. $8.
ok…damn I buy a lot. Anyway, we are not done.
This is a very expensive photograph. All mine
Dahlia tubers. Dear lord. I am intentionally going to avoid adding up how much I have spent in tubers over the years. One of the best and worst garden decisions I have ever made, choosing to just try three dahlia tubers. The good news is, that after years of expensive errors, I have mastered the art of storing dahlia tubers over a long winter without a proper environment. Still lose some each year, but even the most seasoned growers do, so it’s all good. Hence, I have very few dahlia tubers on my wish list. So this year, my dahlia spend will be very low. Honestly, if you are a northern gardener who has to dig up dahlia tubers every year (and I have to, yes, I tested this), if you can’t store the tubers over the winter, buying new tubers every year will be expensive.
Once you get your white whale, in my case, Bloomquist Jean, the thirst abates. Thank all the gods, old and new.
Video mine, about a minute long.
Seeds and other food. I spend around $100 total on seeds every year. This year is a bit less because I am significantly reducing my tomato garden and focusing on favorites for the entire garden. I already have seeds for most things I need. I did spend $54 on 4 varieties of onions from Dixondale and $60 on three varieties of potato.
Onions last year
Other Items:
1. T-posts for dahlia support. $50 for 10.
2. Hardware cloth to protect main garden from *&^%#$%^&*. One hundred feet for a hundred dollars.
3. Steel and plastic stakes for tomatoes, as bamboo holds the bacterial speck that plagues my tomatoes. 6ft stakes, $52 for 25.
4. Hedgers. Always needed, never had room in the budget (see above). Finally getting one, Fiskars, $27.
5. Garden twine — $7.
6. Wire to secure the hardware cloth. Old hardware cloth will be used to make more plant protection, much is needed. $15
7. A tin snips for the wire. $25
8. Crate to store onions, potatoes and tubers. Large is $40. Have two, need another.
9. Insect sticky traps for fungus gnats — $7
10. Liquid fertilizer for pots (mostly) — Jacks, around $23.
11. Plants! Oh boy, plants. The Lowes clearance section can’t fill all my needs. I do buy a few plants every year. Plant buy will be very low for 2026. I will buy a few herbs, Strawberries, a filler for the front walk and one rose bush (lol). Hopefully keep it under $100 (more lol). I grow most of my plants. I have purchased most of my perennials already. Hosta, Mock Orange, fruit trees, lilac and so many trees ect. All done. WHEW.
12. One and two gallon storage bags for tomatoes – $40
13. Canning supplies — Maybe $20 this season. Lids.
My soil. Tons of worms
I saved the most important for last. My soil. I have spent the past ten years converting my heavy fill soil and clay to sexy soft loam. With a good deal of success, honestly. Most of this work and the materials are free. Cardboard, leaves (so many leaves), chop-n-drop, soil snacks. Yet, a few purchased products have also improved my outdoor soil.
1. Manure/Compost mix. $5 for a one cubic foot bag. I buy around 12-15 each year to top off any sinking soil and to improve new garden beds I have created. Adore this product almost as much as my plants do.
2. Soil tests. Every few years I do a MySoil test. $32 for one test. Test for both macro and micronutrients. This year I want to do 4, but we will see what the budget allows. No, my state extension does not offer free testing.
3. Wood mulch for the perennial plants. $6 a bag, I need about 8 every year. I have a small wood chipper, but it is not enough. It is a lot of work. The bigger wood chipper I need is out of the budget.
4. Soil Acidifier for my blueberries — $13
5. Bloodmeal. A small bag -$9- to sprinkle lightly in new beds and bed heavy with dry leaf mulch.
Taters
Gardening at this level of diversity is not cheap. I wish someone had filled me in on all the the garden costs that add up as you add plant types and garden space. Probably wouldn’t have changed much, but would have a better idea of what I was committing to and made better choices for higher quality products as the budget allowed.
My house needs paint. Our cars are used, new furniture would be nice. Vacations? Nope. My garden though, is my mental health, and this is what I have chosen as my hobby. Additionally, I have done multiple seed giveaways, as well love love love sharing extra dahlia tubers. It’s all good for me.
Not to mention delicious.
One of many harvests in 2024
Can’t even begin to tell you how generous gardeners are. I have received MANY gifts from fellow gardeners here at DK. Appreciate you all, so very much!
Malarky Matt Canna
No moral to my story, but if there were, think carefully about taking on fruit trees and dahlias if money is tight.
I have no doubt, in fact demand, that my fellow gardeners use this opportunity to go Well, Actually on me and share their stories of budget gardening. Fill up those comments!
I’ve yet to meet anyone who shares my gardening style, climate and philosophy. But perhaps I have a garden soulmate out there?
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