Fall Gardening: An Easy Way To Save Big

Here in middle Tennessee and many other parts of the country, it’s high time we got our fall gardens going.

Those of us who haven’t already started our longer season stuff, such as cabbage and broccoli, will want to either buy some plants or skip them. Still, there’s a lot of other stuff that you can grow, and all it takes is scattering a little seed and periodically sprinkling a little water on it.

The return on that small investment of time and space is pretty amazing. You can get a lot of salads out of a square-foot plot of leaf lettuce or spinach. You can also grow a lot of kale and garlic in a very small space. And don’t forget peas! Peas love cold weather.

My green lettuce and pea garden from last year

The quality of these easy, homegrown greens far surpasses what you’ll find in any grocery store, and how much will you save from your grocery budget by growing them yourself?

By my estimation, spending a dollar or two on a packet of leaf lettuce seed will yield about as much edible lettuce as you’d spend $15 on in the produce aisle – more if you’re diligent about watering, cutting, and weeding.

Speaking of weeding, one of the things I love so much about fall gardening is that the weed growth slows down to the point of being almost non-existent.

So, this time of year, Saving a little money by gardening is not very labor-intensive at all.