- FAQs for first time gardeners
- About the Planty Garden
- What is a Planty Garden in a nutshell?
- Hi, I'm Jelle
- What can Planty Gardening do for you?
- What is a Planty Garden exactly and how does it work?
- The Planty Gardening system
- Growing vegetables in your Planty Garden
- Sowing in your Planty Garden
- About where to put which vegetables and crop rotation
- Plant, sow, or pre-sow?
- Harvesting as long and efficiently as possible
- Mistakes beginners make in the vegetable garden
- What isn't a Planty Garden
- Square Foot Gardening: the starting point for Planty
- Why not grow a regular vegetable garden?
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- FAQs for first time gardeners
- About the Planty Garden
- What is a Planty Garden in a nutshell?
- Hi, I'm Jelle
- What can Planty Gardening do for you?
- What is a Planty Garden exactly and how does it work?
- The Planty Gardening system
- Growing vegetables in your Planty Garden
- Sowing in your Planty Garden
- About where to put which vegetables and crop rotation
- Plant, sow, or pre-sow?
- Harvesting as long and efficiently as possible
- Mistakes beginners make in the vegetable garden
- What isn't a Planty Garden
- Square Foot Gardening: the starting point for Planty
- Why not grow a regular vegetable garden?
The costs of a vegetable garden
A vegetable garden or allotment is not a cheap hobby. Certainly not if you have to rent the land. The costs of a regular vegetable garden are therefore rising quickly. After all, you also need a lot of tools.
A Planty Garden is a lot cheaper. On this page I compare the costs.
A Planty Garden is a lot cheaper. On this page I compare the costs.
The land
Not everyone has enough land to start a vegetable garden in their garden.
Then the land is rented from an allotment association. The rent varies, depending on the place. On the site of the association of allotment gardeners are amounts from 200 to 750 euros, but here in Groningen it costs less.
A Planty Garden takes up very little space. Therefore, you can almost always find a spot for it in your garden.
Then the land is rented from an allotment association. The rent varies, depending on the place. On the site of the association of allotment gardeners are amounts from 200 to 750 euros, but here in Groningen it costs less.
A Planty Garden takes up very little space. Therefore, you can almost always find a spot for it in your garden.
The garden tools for a beginner
The heavy work in a regular vegetable garden is of course not done with your bare hands. That's why you need all kinds of tools.
On a garden site I came across the following basic necessities for a beginner gardener:
On a garden site I came across the following basic necessities for a beginner gardener:
- a spade for ordinary digging
- a shovel for shoveling sand or garden soil
- a digging fork for heavy soil or soil with many weeds
- a hoe for removing weeds
- a trident for loosening the soil
- a wheelbarrow, oh so handy
- a watering can
- a rake
- a pair of secateurs (think fruit trees)
- a bulb planter perhaps
- a weed whacker (preferably long and narrow)
To give you an idea, in 2008, I took a picture of my neighbour Gerrit's garden tools.
What would be on top of that for an advanced gardener. A plow perhaps? A tractor? A spray airplane 😉
Good quality tools are expensive: you already have to pay 50 euros for a good spade. Altogether, the costs quickly run up to hundreds of euros. Not to mention the shed to store all those tools.
Good quality tools are expensive: you already have to pay 50 euros for a good spade. Altogether, the costs quickly run up to hundreds of euros. Not to mention the shed to store all those tools.
My tools
Compare that to the tools I work with now:
- one or more trowels and a hand rake
- a couple of buckets and some little plastic containers - for watering
- plantlabels with a marker - so you don't forget what you sowed
- cheap scissors
Total expenditure: a few tens.
Seeds
In a regular vegetable garden, you quickly scatter an entire bag of seed per seeding round for each vegetable.
In a Planty Garden you only sow what you need. So you do quite a long time with the bags, and you'll spend less on seeds than in a regular vegetable garden.
In a Planty Garden you only sow what you need. So you do quite a long time with the bags, and you'll spend less on seeds than in a regular vegetable garden.
Fertilizers
In a regular vegetable garden, many fertilizers are used. A little surfing on the Internet quickly brings up the following: lime, horse and/or cow manure pellets, leaf mold, compost, bone meal, blood meal, seaweed meal, potash, etc.
In a Planty Garden we use the same soil mix for all plants. As a supplement, we only use some MM-Plantfood and occasionally some new mix to refill the boxes.
In a Planty Garden we use the same soil mix for all plants. As a supplement, we only use some MM-Plantfood and occasionally some new mix to refill the boxes.
Pesticides
Fortunately, most people who have a vegetable garden do not use chemical garbage to control insect pests or stubborn weeds. So I find it unimaginable that products like Roundup or Bayer's insecticides are still allowed to be sold.
Yet the garden centers are still full of all kinds of pesticides, organic or not. Like slug pellets. I'm not going to talk about the desirability of these products, but about the price: 10 euros a bottle is nothing.
In the Planty Garden I usually use nothing or some simple home remedies like garlic.
Yet the garden centers are still full of all kinds of pesticides, organic or not. Like slug pellets. I'm not going to talk about the desirability of these products, but about the price: 10 euros a bottle is nothing.
In the Planty Garden I usually use nothing or some simple home remedies like garlic.
In short
The annual costs of a regular vegetable garden quickly run into the hundreds of euros. Outside the hours, because I do not count those. The question of whether a vegetable garden is profitable is therefore usually answered negatively.
I disagree with that. Maintaining a Planty Garden costs you almost nothing. Once you have it, you only have to spend on cheap tools, some nutrients, and the purchase of seeds. Then, with a few tens of euros, you are ready to go, and you will get the money out of it.
A Planty Garden is, therefore a profitable vegetable garden 😀.
On to my last assets to convince you to also start with a Planty Garden:
I disagree with that. Maintaining a Planty Garden costs you almost nothing. Once you have it, you only have to spend on cheap tools, some nutrients, and the purchase of seeds. Then, with a few tens of euros, you are ready to go, and you will get the money out of it.
A Planty Garden is, therefore a profitable vegetable garden 😀.
On to my last assets to convince you to also start with a Planty Garden:
Continue reading:
Verschil gewone moestuin
Planty system
- FAQs for first time gardeners
- About the Planty Garden
- What is a Planty Garden in a nutshell?
- Hi, I'm Jelle
- What can Planty Gardening do for you?
- What is a Planty Garden exactly and how does it work?
- The Planty Gardening system
- Growing vegetables in your Planty Garden
- Sowing in your Planty Garden
- About where to put which vegetables and crop rotation
- Plant, sow, or pre-sow?
- Harvesting as long and efficiently as possible
- Mistakes beginners make in the vegetable garden
- What isn't a Planty Garden
- Square Foot Gardening: the starting point for Planty
- Why not grow a regular vegetable garden?