Free Perennial Foods - Growing Back Yearly

Tightwad Tuesday

I am a lazy gardener. Since, I don't have a rototiller and once the biting flies hatch I don't spend too long in the garden - I have figured out how to do some gardening easily.

My favorite foods to grow are the ones that were planted by the previous owner of this house and they keep coming back year after year. Plus, they grow first thing in the Spring and they grow faster than the weeds - therefore I don't have to weed around these. I told you that I was a lazy gardener.

These foods are very frugal, because they were planted once yet they produce food yearly for free.

These are the perennial foods that I look forward to every year, at my place:

• rhubarb
• chives
• strawberries
• raspberries
• wild blackberries

I am going to plant more perennial foods, too:

• New Zealand spinach
• oregano
• basil
• thyme
• garlic chives
• blueberry bushes
  
• dwarf apple tree

Each spring, I also plant a small18 square foot garden filled with bush beans, bush peas, lots of leaf lettuce, and a couple of tomato plants. It's small enough that I can keep up with the weeds. Since there is no need for walking rows, I can plant the entire area with seeds. This gives us lots of free lettuce for salads, plus the lettuce regrows after it has been cut. Since beans and peas grow quickly, I can get two crops out of the same area in one growing season.

This fall, I'm trying something new - Garlic. I read that you buy garlic from the grocery store and plant the individual cloves, a few weeks before the ground freezes. They grow just like your flower bulbs do. Each individual clove develops into a full garlic bulb. I've found a site that will teach you how to grow your own garlic.