By Meredith Weller, Part-Time Tutor
January 24, 2023

About me:

I’ve never had a green thumb. Not until I moved to Florida at least. Every bouquet of flowers and succulent gifted to me was dead within a week. I know what you’re thinking: Succulents. Really? They’re the hardest plant to kill. They even thrive off of neglect. Well, in your twenties, you’re an expert at neglect. However, after entering my thirties and keeping various tropical plants and succulents alive for a year, I decided it was time to move on to something a little more challenging. I’ve spent the first two years of my thirties watching entirely too much HGTV, and since I don’t own a home to renovate, I decided to start a vegetable garden, and I wanted to create one for under $1,000 that was also relocatable.

If you have big dreams like me, are renting, and don’t have an endless stream of disposable income, then follow along. I’ve encountered a few comical mistakes throughout my adventure, and I’m looking forward to sharing the humor with you. I’ll be the first to admit that I still have a lot to learn, but I hope to use this blog to share the lessons that I’ve learned to save you from repeating my mistakes.

A Renter and Budget Friendly Vegetable Garden: Let’s Get Started

Items Needed:

  • Garden Beds (if your area’s soil is not nutritious)
  • Soil
  • Border to section off the garden (if you choose to do so)
  • Cardboard (save those Amazon boxes!)
  • Weed barriers (if you have enough cardboard saved, you don’t need this)
  • Mulch (rubber or organic) or decorative rock

My first mistake was wanting to build a vegetable garden on a Florida peninsula that has sandy soil. Thankfully, my knowledge from growing up in a farm town, which I never thought I would actually use, came in handy. I knew I needed raised garden beds that I could fill with nutritious soil.

I found a local guy that made garden beds and only charged $50 per bed. I wanted to start off with four, so this price fit in well with the $1,000 budget I set. The most expensive part was going to be the soil, and I had to find a way to fill four, 3-foot deep garden beds for only around $20 each. My neighbor even laughed after I told him how much I paid for the beds. He said I would spend double the price filling them up.

Well, he’s not laughing anymore because I was able to find bags of organic soil at a local nursery for only $10 per bag, and I didn’t even need to fill the beds entirely with soil – more on that later. I had my garden beds and soil secured, which meant I needed to work on making it a little more aesthetically pleasing.

Establishing the Border

The aesthetic of my vegetable garden ended up being more important to me than the actual food itself. I wanted to make sure this was not only a source of food, but also somewhere I could escape to and relax.

First, I needed to create some type of border that sectioned it off from the rest of my yard - so off to Home Depot I went, completely unprepared. I ended up going with a wooden border that came in sections and was priced at roughly $14 per 3-foot section. Of course, I didn’t take any prior measurements, so it took me about three trips to get enough for the outline that I wanted. I highly recommend measuring beforehand to avoid multiple trips.

Lessons Learned

- Take measurements.

- Outline the garden before purchasing the border.

- Shop around beforehand to know your option

Fill it In

While I was at Home Depot I also grabbed 10 bags of rubber mulch (I ended up needing 30). I read somewhere online that rubber mulch would last much longer than the organic kind, and so far it has. The bags came to about $7 each, fitting in with the budget perfectly.

Before laying down the mulch, I put down cardboard and a weed barrier to prevent unwanted growth on the floor of the garden. Laying down cardboard first is a cheap alternative to multiple weed barriers, and it eventually breakdowns down over time. My boyfriend was very happy to see the stack of boxes I had been hoarding in the garage for months finally gone. Once that was done, it was time to put the icing on the cake and lay down the mulch. Once again, I didn’t take any measurements and 10 bags of mulch barely made a dent. I ended up needing 30 bags, and the cashier at Home Depot, Nancy, couldn’t help but laugh each time she saw me walk through the doors for more.

Lessons learned:

- Forget the weed barriers, lay down multiple layers of cardboard instead.

- Take measurements!

Just Keep Filling

Instead of filling the beds entirely with soil, I decided to try to make a natural compost out of cardboard and yard material and only do two layers of soil on the top.

The first step in this process was to line the bottom of the beds with cardboard to prevent any weeds from growing through, just as I did with the floor of the garden. The next step was to lay down logs and twigs and then multiple layers of leaves until there was enough space for about two bags of soil on top.

I was extremely excited about the leaf part because I hadn’t raked my yard in months in preparation for this. My landlord was also happy to see our yard cleaned up. I probably looked like a crazy person gathering leaves into a bucket in my front yard while still in my pajamas; I was a true representation of a "Florida Man" when gathering leaves that morning. After that I had my garden put together, it was time to plant.

Recap:

- Save that yard debris!

- Order more from Amazon so you have more cardboard.

 

Planting the Seeds

Finally! I was ready to plant my carrot seeds as well as the tomato and cucumber plant whose lives my neighbor, Henry, so graciously decided to leave me in charge of. Each plant needs planted differently.

As I said earlier, I had just recently gained the ability to keep a succulent alive, and I think Henry had a little too much confidence in me. I had to learn how to properly transfer plants while not letting neighbor down in the process. One peek over the fence and he would easily be able to see if I killed his precious gifts.

Tomatoes

Things to know:

- Plant it deep.

- Trim the lower leaves.

I was advised by Henry to plant the tomato pretty deep and to trim the lower leaves. I did just as I was told, and things were going great. The little guy was growing tall, and I fully thought I was well on my way to having fresh tomatoes. All was well until there was one of Florida’s infamous storms. With hurricane season in full swing, this storm brought wind strong enough to blow over one of my banana trees. The banana tree conveniently fell right over the garden bed that homed my tomato plant and decided it was a good idea to drop a seed right next to my thriving friend. I didn’t realize what had happened until my tomato plant slowly shriveled to the point it resembled one of the “Unfortunate Souls” from the Little Mermaid, and a banana tree sprouted in its place. I wasn’t looking forward to sharing the news of the death of the tomato plant with Henry, but at least my cucumber plant was going strong.

Cucumbers

Things to know:

- They like water

- They can get out of control if left untamed

- Trellis or not to trellis? It's up to you

- Pick your cucumbers as they ripen. If you don't, your cucumbers will stop producing

My cucumber plant has been through harder times than the tomato plant. It started off thriving and bore multiple cucumbers (none of which I had the courage to eat), but quickly succumbed to pests too strong for natural pesticides. I didn’t want to use any harsh chemicals, but I had to stop whatever it was from devouring the leaves.

I tried a mixture of dish soap, olive oil, and water, and it was useless. Whatever was destroying the cucumbers was also leaving behind a yellow jelly-like substance that I have yet to be able to identify – Google image search couldn’t even tell me what it was. After the temperature cooled down a bit, the plant started to take off and grow even larger cucumbers than before! I was so excited to see fresh green leaves that had yet to be chewed through. I thought I finally had gotten the hang of this gardening thing, but once again, the yellow jelly-like substance was on my cucumbers, and something chewed a hole through them. I’m still on the search for a natural pesticide.

Carrots

Things to know:

- Plant them shallow

- Plant them 6 inches apart

- Do not drop multiple seeds together

- Have patience. Carrots take 75 days to fully grow

I think my attempt at carrots has to be the most comical part of this whole experience. I initially planted them entirely too deep. They’re not like tomatoes and need to be planted pretty shallow.

My first attempt only produced what I initially thought were three sprouts but ended up only being one. I noticed two of three sprouts looked different than the other, but I chalked this up to being at different stages in the growing process. I babied all three sprouts and made sure they were watered daily, and I made sure to keep the garden bed clear of debris. When the two different sprouts started to grow something in the middle, I quickly realized they weren’t carrots. I looked down at my yard and lo and behold, these suckers looked just like the weeds that were in my yard. I had been watering and babying weeds! Out of the 20 carrot seeds I planted, only one actually sprouted. My second attempt was much more successful. I made sure to plant them right under the surface and now have 13 carrot sprouts. I’m using the sprout from my first attempt as my test-dummy. I have no idea how to tell if a carrot is ready, and I’m hoping I’ll learn as I go on that one!

Carrot (Left), Weed (Right)

Success and Failures

Lessons learned:

- Know your environment

- Take the proper precautions

- Be willing to fail and learn from it

- Be patient

- Know how deep to plant your seeds (every plant is different)

I may not be a vegetable garden connoisseur, but I definitely have a better grasp on the do’s and don’ts of gardening. I can identify a carrot from a weed now, and I finally mustered up the courage to eat one of my cucumbers. I don’t know why I was so scared; it tasted fine, and I just cut off the part that had the hole from whatever chewed through it. I’ve also learned that I need to find some sort of shelter for my garden from the Florida storms.

Hurricane Ian recently tore through my area and took out the majority of my garden. My cucumber plant was ripped off the trellis, and I don’t know if it will continue to thrive; though the root is still intact and planted firmly in the soil. My carrots will probably end up having a bunch of new friends grow alongside of them. The amount of debris I scooped out of the garden bed was absurd, and between the palm and banana trees, there’s no way I found every single seed that dropped in there. I have a feeling it will be round two of the Banana Tree Fiasco, but only time will tell. Luckily, the banana tress got pummeled in the storm and were snapped in half. I cut every single one of those suckers down to the stump, and I really hope they don’t grow back. The flowers I planted at the entrance were completely flattened, but like a crazy person I went outside and weathered the storm intermittently to pick up the branches that snapped off. I’m hoping that with a little propagation I’ll be back in business come Spring. This garden has been the most stressful yet most satisfying hobby I’ve tried.