The "Free" Garden

I knew I wasn't going to be able to garden much this year because we had planned a trip during (what I believe to be) a crucial growing window. Because of that, I didn't buy a single plant or vegetable start this year from the store. My sage recovered from the winter. As did my green onions, citronella, and rosemary. My cilantro is flowering and going to seed. My kale is still going, purposely planted in the back of my raised bed to get some shade from the summer heat.  I'm excited to harvest more seeds to grow more cilantro in the fall. 

Cilantro flowers

As for any edibles, I wasn't planning on growing anything significant this year. I had pole bean seeds from a while back which I wanted to plant and experiment so I planted a row of six. That was it. So why does my garden look like this?

April 17, 2025

It's...a funny story. So I planted my row of six pole beans, but while I was waiting for those seeds to germinate, I decided to dig a trench around the front edge of my garden bed and dump in some incomplete compost into there to continue composting in the ground. My actual composter is a bin so it is not in the ground. Well, after a few weeks, I started seeing sprouts pop out. A lot of sprouts. I ended up with six tomato plants and two cucumber/squash/melon plants which have been yet to be correctly identified. This doesn't include the numerous tomato plants I had to pull due to natural selection to allow the six I wanted a better chance at thriving. 

Fast forward 10 days, and here's what my garden looks like currently:

April 27, 2025

Nature is pretty amazing. When I look at these two pictures next to each other, I'm still in awe at how much growth can happen in 10 days given a balance of moderate heat, good rain and sunshine. 

When I said I didn't buy anything for the garden yet this year, I really meant it. My net spend this year is $0 and that includes the water! I'm even impressed myself, but it's the truth and here's how I did it:

I didn't spend money on any plants this year. The bean seeds I planted were from a free seed box found at our local environmental center. Every single tomato plant was a compost sprout. Every single cucumber/squash/melon plant was a compost sprout. The kale was free from an event hosted by Central Market last fall. The broccoli from that same event has since bolted for the summer and been removed. 

My kale is still growing.

I didn't spend money on any soil this year. The leftover soil in the raised bed was kept and I added to it from last year's pots of tomatoes and pepper plants which didn't survive the winter. I've tried various overwintering methods and been unsuccessful now for two consecutive years. I probably shouldn't try anymore, especially when my compost sprouts tomatoes and I have a never ending supply of pepper seeds. 

I didn't spend money on fertilizer this year because I still have garden fertilizer leftover from last year. The efficacy of the fertilizer probably goes down over time, but I'm not at the point to care or to want to buy a new bag. Also, for my purposes, it works great. I mixed it in when I topped off the soil into the bed for this year and everything has been growing wonderfully.

I haven't spent money on water to water my raised bed this year because all the water I've been using is recycled! (Just for clarification, yes, we water our lawn with the sprinklers and that is not recycled water. But all of my potted plants and raised garden bed have been watered with recycled water) Ever since we moved into this house, we've been collecting the cold water as we wait for the hot water before we shower. Each evening, we collect about 3 gallons. I have 4 giant laundry detergent jugs (approx 2 gallons each) to catch the water and I empty them each day so I have space to collect more water that evening. 

During the winter, we don't use as much so I empty it slower. During the summers, we empty faster than we collect so there's no surplus. In addition to recycling water inside, we have a rain barrel outside which collects rainwater. I've been making sure to empty it before every storm so it can fill up again with new water. As the hot summer months approach, I know we're going to have to supplement with more water to keep the garden thriving.

Honestly, I'm busier than I intended with the garden, but the joy I get from growing my garden is really a fun adventure each year. Not sure what kind of harvest I'll get this year, but it might be the only year my garden is "free". 😊