03 Magazine: September 01, 2023

54 Magazine | Feature
BARRIER
Expense.
DISCOVERY
Growing a garden can be as expensive as
you want it to be. You have choices regarding
the level of investment you want to make
at every turn, with cost-saving options to
take in nearly every aspect of growing. I find
that money can sometimes save me time,
but if I am patient, exactly the same results
can be achieved by taking a cheaper, albeit
slower, route.
If creating your first garden, start small.
Garden in containers if renting or carve up a
little piece of lawn to have your first go.
Learning the difference between annual
and perennial plants can provide options for
when you might choose to purchase or grow
from seed. It can be vastly cheaper to grow
from seed but this takes more effort than
plugging in purchased seedlings or mature
plants. Scanning the perennial table during
autumn garden centre sales can reveal money
and time-saving deals! Many plants can also
be harvested for cuttings, which you can
propagate to increase your stock. And after
a couple of years, many perennial plants can
be dug up, divided and replanted to instantly
bolster that plant’s presence in your bed. The
only expense here is time!
When buying tools, buy once by buying
well. A good hand trowel will last you years –
the cheapest one will bend at the first dig of
a potato.
All in all, the biggest barrier I see in people
choosing to start gardening, is they do not yet
know the immense satisfaction and reward
that awaits them. From their first homegrown
salad greens to their first vase of flowers,
surely gardening is the most beautiful and
simple of life’s pleasures.
Extracted from A Guided
Discovery of Gardening by
Julia Atkinson-Dunn,
Koa Press, RRP$50.