Frugal Friday: Gardening

It's that lovely time of year again when the world starts awakening out of it's cold, deep sleep. Bulbs burst out of the ground into amazing blooms. Buds start to form on trees and then flower into beautiful blossoms. Bees begin their busy work of pollinating.

Daffodils that bloomed this week are covered with snow today...
...that's spring for ya!

This week has had some ups and downs for me, like all weeks do. Yet it has seemed like this week the ups have been higher and the downs have been lower than even most weeks. Towards the middle of the week I decided I needed a break from the stress and put myself in full-day timeout in the garden. I spent the day planting peas, onions, carrots, beets, turnips, rutabagas, and spinach. I puttered around cleaning out weeds and straightening flower and strawberry beds. I love the feel of my hands in the rich earth. The breeze on my face. The sounds of excitement as the birds prepare to build their nests and raise their families. I came in after the long day so refreshed with life again and ready to tackle the problems and stresses of the week. That's what a garden does for me.

Today for Frugal Friday I want to talk about some of the other benefits that I've found from gardening.

Frugal Benefits of Gardening

1. Health Benefits - Gardening is active. It gets you out in the fresh air. It gets your heart pumping and your spirits souring. It's good for the body and the soul. Not only that but you start to eat healthier because healthy food is convenient - it is literally on hand in your backyard. The health benefits of gardening is actually a frugal benefit too. It saves you money in long-term health problems (and even short-term sickness, etc). 
2. Storage Benefits - Growing food in your garden usually creates an abundance of healthy food. Usually more than you know what to do with. That's where the canning, freezing, preserving and storage comes in. Not only do you eat healthy food while it is growing, but now you are storing the excess for those months that it's not growing. One of our favorite things to grow in the garden for this reason is Winter Squash. It's now March and I still have winter squash in my basement from last year's harvest (in October) that are still good. In fact, we ate one just last night. If you store them correctly, winter squash do not even need to be processed to store. Since I can store my own healthy food from the garden, I don't have to purchase as much from the grocery store, which saves me money and keeps us eating healthy all year long.
3. Cost Benefits - Gardening can be expensive when you are starting out. The cost of tools, land, water systems, etc. seems a little weighty at first. But I like to think about those things as an initial investment. If you take good care of those things, they will last for many years and the initial cost starts to level out the more years you do it. There will still be the costs every year like seeds and water, but those things I've found to be minimal in comparison with all the benefits you receive from the garden. In our area, spring gardens are wonderful because we don't have to pay much to water them during most years. There is enough rainfall to keep the ground moist enough to grow. If you can't afford to start a full garden, even just growing a few things in pots and containers around your yard is a great way to start adding healthy food into your diet at low cost.

For more posts and ideas about gardening, see my Gardening Page. 

Now it's discussion time. Do you grow a garden? Or want to start? What frugal benefits do you see in growing a garden? Happy Frugal Friday everyone. Hope you've had a wonderful week.

This week I'll be linking to some of these link parties.