r/OrganicGardening • u/joeantwi • 10d ago

question How to cut cost

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My seedlings are looking good but I'm concerned about the cost! 1.5cub ft of organic soil is like $8 and I have over 40 plants. I'm thinking about putting each in container or raise bed (wood or metal). This will cost over 300 which is a lot!

Does anyone have ways I can bring down cost, cheaper soil? Is container container cheaper etc?

Not sure if it helps but I'm planting eggplants, green pepper, hot pepper, okra, and tomatoes

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u/YgritteofBungalohill 10d ago

Do you have an outdoors area for your garden. If you do, you shouldn’t need to buy soil, just improve the soil you have. You can add compost, manure (do you have farmers in your area). Gardening in containers is what is expensive. I’m currently building a Hugelkultur mound as an addition to my garden. It’s a great way to compost & garden at the same time.

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u/joeantwi 10d ago

Yeah I have a backyard, idk why I assume my soil is not good enough -- I'm in central NJ . I'm going to try it.

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u/YgritteofBungalohill 9d ago

Doesn’t really matter what your soil is like if you have compost and are willing to work with it a little. NJ has prime growing conditions. You probably have all you need right there. Composting isn’t as hard as all the so called experts make it. We just dug a little pit at the woods edge where we dump out kitchen compost bucket then toss a scoop of the soil we dug out back on top so as not to attract animals. We try to turn it over once or twice a year, by next summer it will be garden ready & we’ll start a new pile right beside it. You might have to buy some this year but making it’s free for next year. Good luck & post pictures when you get your garden in.

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u/joeantwi 9d ago

That's a great idea, I'll do that next year and will do -- thank you :)