Top Ten Ways to Save Money with an Organic Vegetable Garden

1. Do it yourself:  Don’t pay someone else to dig, plant, cut and prune for you.  In addition to saving money, the exercise will make your feel better.  If working in the yard makes you grown – get over it.

2. Set your mower deck higher: set it at its highest setting (or at lease higher than you do now.  Don’t bag..leave the clippings where they fall.  You save on fertilizer and your lawn will look better.  Clippings don’t cause thatch, fertilizer does.

3. Make your own weed killer: vinegar, salt and dish soap, evidently boiling water kills weeds, and gin dish soap and vinegar.  Hit google…or this link: Hit Me! Evidently the vinegar kills the weed, salt keeps it from growing back, and soap sticks to the weed so the first two things can work. Amounts vary from recipe to recipe (or is it a formulation…again I digress) and do not appear to be very important. As the salt sticks around for a bit, you need to wait a little before replanting. [Didn't someone sale fields in the bible or something?]

4. Get your tools at yard sales and use hand tools. Never pay retail. Good tools last forever. Power tools use gas, stink, pollute your yard and the world at large, and leave you smelling like gasoline after you are done. Oh yeah, they are expensive too.

5. Compost. Make your own dirt. Don’t buy a bin, you don’t need one. Dig a hole. Make a pile. If you just pile up everything that was once once alive [and not an animal] that is left over from your kitchen, you will have compost in six to nine months. If you follow the rules and mix your compose and turn it, you can have some super dirt in two to three months.

6. Make your own mulch. Shred your leaves with you lawn mower. Contact a tree service and ask for chipped branches. You may get them for free since you will save the company the dumping fee. Be prepared though, it doesn’t look as nice as bought mulch but it works great on your garden and saves money. You may also consider stones or pebbles, the initial outlay is higher but they don’t have to be replaced. A truck load of local stone costs less than you think.

7. Divide plants, share seedlings, ask you neighbors. Talk to you neighbors and see if they have any plants that need dividing. Join a garden club or plant exchange. Look for sale by garden clubs and botanical gardens.

8. Watering. Get a rain barrel. You don’t need some expensive system. Contact your water department or look for recycled plastic barrels. Use soaker hoses in your beds and garden; you will use much less water. Water deeply once or twice per week. Daily, short watering make for shallow roots and unhealthy plants.

9. Grow Vegetables and Herbs. The saving will take to be realized but you can save a lot of money growing your own food. The savings will only increase over time. Especially if you follow the above tips. See my previous post for a calculator on gardening savings.

10. Cancel your cable and get outside in your yard.

Raspberries…Yummy!

Who doesn’t love raspberries? Rubus idaeus (red raspberries) and R. occidentalis taste good! Your best bet for growing raspberries is to transplant them. They should be planted in early winter or spring when the suckers are dormant. If you live in zone six or higher (read further south) you can plant in the fall. They should be planted two to three feet apart in rows that are four feet apart. If you use deep beds, you may plant three feet apart. The plant should be mulched about six inches deep to keep the roots warm in winter and cool in the summer.

Raspberries may be propagated by taking cuttings. Make sure to take your cutting from a cane (branch or stem) that did not produce fruit. The fruit producing stems die back after fruiting and cannot be used for propagation. If your cutting doesn’t root, it is most likely due to exhaustion from fruiting earlier in the season. Don’t use tired canes!

Raspberries like on inch of rain per week prior to fruiting and one and a half inches of water while fruiting. The water can be from rain or your watering system. Feed them with slow acting fertilizer early in the season and spray with the liquid seaweed extract three times during the growing season for the happiest berries. Happy berries taste better!

There are numerous pests that may afflict your berries. If your foliage curls, puckers, and turns yellow, and then is also stunted, you may have aphids. If there are ants on your bushes, they are attracted by the honeydew from the aphids. There will be clusters of aphids under the leaves. Dang pestilence. Be gone! They are the about the size of a pinhead and may be green, brown, or pink. They will be destroyed by insecticidal soap sprayed on them every two to three days until they are gone. The big concern from the aphids lies in the virus carrying properties. They bring the mosaic that can kill your plants.

If a cane borer comes a calling you can expect to see sudden tip wilting. Closer examination of your plant will reveal two rows of punctures about one inch apart at the tip of your cane. The adult beetle has deposited eggs in your cane and is killing your berry. You just have to cut off the wilted tips below the low row of punctures and burn up the beetle larvae. Nothing to it as long as you pay attention to your plants.

Japanese beetles will make your leaves look like skeletons of leave. The shiny green beetle is about a half an inch long and has copper colored wings. If you put up pheromone beetle traps at least fifty feet from your crops to lure the beetles away. If the traps can’t handle the infestation, the infestation won’t be able to handle pyrethrum. The pyrethrum will get rid of the infestation. Leave traps up id beetle infestation is regular in your garden spot

The raspberry root borer in an insidious foe. Your plant will break off easily at the base and show general lethargy and lack of vigor. You may often find the half inch grubs eating your plant in the crown of roots. Sometimes you and off the buggers by stabbing them with a wire; however the only surefire way to rid yourself of the pestilence is to cut the affect canes below the soil line and destroy them. Dang those bugs.

Whiteflies are another common garden pest that may affect your berries. The whiteflies honey dew encourages fungus growth on your leaves and weakens the plants. You can tell you have them if, when the plant is disturbed, it looks like dandruff is flying around your plant. Insecticidal soap applied daily for a few days will control the outbreak and send the whiteflies to an appropriate end.

Pay attention to your raspberries and take good care of them. Plant them where they are happy and protect them from evil. You will be rewarded with big, fat, juicy fruits! Raspberries are fun to grow, fun to pick, and even more fun to eat in jams, tarts, salads, cakes, breads, and even right off the plant. Plant some today!