Experimental Grocery Bag Garden

And here it is...Our "Grocery Bag Garden"!  As mentioned in my last post, we are renting a home here in sunny San Diego, so our best option for growing food is via container garden.  My husband challenged me to do this on a super tight budget of less than $50.  Since we had saved seeds from last year's garden, seed cost didn't count in the budget.   After hours of looking for inexpensive containers, I found some fabric "containers" called Smart Pots on Amazon and even found those to be pricey for what they were.

So, I started thinking about what I already had on hand that resembled the Smart Pots and thought about the fact that I have TONS of fabric grocery bags, many that I received free from the grocery store or as a free "goodie bag" from Half Marathon races I ran.  So I thought, why not use them?!  They allow water to seep through the sides so the plants can never be over watered.  However, I do need to remember to water them every day. These are not "self watering bags" as I wish they were ;-)

We started all of our seeds in a seed tray which you can buy for around $10 from Home Depot or Lowes.  You can also recycle your egg cartons, or borrow them from a neighbor that eats eggs.  Put Organic potting soil in them and place one seed in each egg place.  I used Miracle Gro Organic Potting Soil for Vegetable container gardens.  It's not the best, but it works for people who want to keep it simple in the beginning.   You can also make your own soil by mixing together separately purchased bags of Humus (not to be confused with Hummus that we eat!), Azomite, Vermiculite, Worm Castings, and Compost.  So some of our grocery bag containers will have the Miracle Gro and some will have the soil mix.  I know the Miracle Gro soil will eventually need to be topped off with some of my soil mix as the nutrients deplete.

My husband planted some of the seedlings into the ground, which I warned him was a bad idea for three reasons.  1. The soil is most definitely lacking nutrients (and may contain chemicals!), as apparent by the near death of our existing rose garden.  2. The dog will definitely pee and poo on them.   3. The garden/landscaping crew will eventually forget that the plants are food/ mistake them for weeds, at which time they will be plucked and tossed....which actually already happened.

Let's see which group of seedlings does the best over the Winter/Spring seasons.  If you found this idea helpful please leave a comment in the comments section below this post.  You can also follow me on Facebook.