Earth Day Every Day - The Frugal Way

In honor of Earth Day, I have decided to make a photo essay about how it is possible to make every day an earth day, and how to do it the frugal way.

I grew up on a farm in Denmark, and every summer my mother would have a huge vegetable garden. I wanted to pass on the love for nature and growing things to my boys, but for the past two years we have lived in urban South Florida. When my oldest son was little we lived in a second floor apartment in New Jersey, and I still managed to have a little vegetable garden on the fire escape.

Now that we live in the city, I am very fortunate to some space where I can do a little gardening. It is not much, but it is amazing what you can do as long as you have the determination.

I have chosen to do my gardening the frugal way, and by that I mean growing plants from seeds, taking seeds from the produce we eat, and by keeping the garden pesticide free.

A little over a month ago I bought a fence at Home Depot with a gift card from Gather. The back yard was very open when we moved in, and I was so scared that my youngest son would run into the street. To give us a little more privacy, I have put up the plants along the fence, and the boys now have a great space to play on. We share the back yard with our neighbors, but fortunately they are great neighbors and I often exchange gardening ideas with them as they are great foliage farmers. In fact my neighbor planted seeds from a habanero pepper today after he saw how well our chili peppers are growing, and I have the feeling that it is just the beginning of his vegetable gardening.

This is the top of a pineapple that my family enjoyed, it was so sweet and tasty that it definitely deserved to have a continued life.

It has been about a month, since I put the pineapple top in water. I just cut the bottom of a juice box, and it seems to be doing well. You can see the roots beginning to grow at the bottom, and it won't be long before I plant it.

Below you see a pineapple plant growing. We put this top in water last summer, and even though it has been through a move and a bit of a paint job, it is still doing well. Soon it will have a friend growing next to it.

Below is the start of new pepper plants. I'm not exactly sure what kind they are, as I just spread out a lot of seeds from different plants in these containers. The containers came from some Marigold plants that I bought with a Gather gift card back in February. Most people would probably just have thrown out the containers, but I decided to reuse them, and they are working very well as starters.

The picture below was taken in February, after I re-potted the chili plants from the starters. My husband found the planter someone was throwing out, and I planted marigolds around the chili peppers in an attempt to keep the bugs away.

As you can see the marigolds did their job, and I now have lots of chili peppers. In fact I have so many that we are sharing with our neighbors. I can definitely recommend using marigolds, since I had so many annoying bugs eating off the leaves, and now I rarely spot a bug on the plants.

Another great thing about marigolds is that once a flower dies, you can take it apart and find the seeds. Here is a little marigold flower that has been created this way. A beautiful frugal flower.

Many months ago my boys and I decided to do a potato experiment, since I had two potatoes that were sprouting in the kitchen. We planted them in a pot, and soon they began to grow. At one point I separated the plants, and I kept adding more soil every few weeks.

A couple of weeks ago the plants began to look as if they were getting too much of the South Florida heat, so yesterday my youngest son and I decided to take a look at what was under the plant.

We found about a dozen small potatoes, and we turned them into a delicious dinner with fresh herbs from the garden.

I usually have a little bowl with seeds from the different fruits and veggies we eat, and then once in a while I go out and plant them. Below you see a melon plant that I re-potted today, but which kind of melon it will turn into will be a surprise. The marigolds surround the plant, and I think I will have to add more as the South Florida bugs love melon plants.

A couple of days we received a free package of organic lettuce seeds from Earthbound Farms. While I used to have lots of lettuce in both NJ and Denmark, I have not had any success with growing lettuce in South Florida. We found this planter at Dollar Tree, and we are now making another attempt at growing lettuce.

I try to always have tomatoes growing, as the bugs just love them and I lose many plants along the way. I have switched to growing grape tomatoes in an attempt to be able to beat the bugs in the process. I just replanted these plants from the starter containers today. The pot is one of many that I have received from our local Freecycle group, and the seeds came from some delicious Florida grown grape tomatoes.

Here is a plant that is a little further along, but this one was replanted today as well.

This plant has some beautiful grape tomatoes on it already.

We have a lot of shade in our back yard, which is an amazing thing here in South Florida, but I am experimenting with where to put the tomatoes. These plants are growing at the front of the house.

As you can see it does not take much to start a garden, and you can chose whether you want to do it the frugal way or not. In a time where lots of people are looking for ways to save money, growing your own veggies and herbs will be a great way to save money, especially if you try to do it without having to buy plants at the store.

I am having lots of fun experimenting with gardening in South Florida, which really is a completely different thing than gardening in Denmark. Every day I admire the huge mango tree we have in the back yard, and I will one day figure out how to successfully grow both mangos and avocados. I have yet to be successful, but I will continue to try.

Are you having a vegetable or herb garden this year? Will it be bigger than other years, and do you have any frugal gardening tips to share?