It’s only been a couple of years now since I passed beyond the idea that growing a profitable garden was simple. I was that person who, when it starts to get warm in the spring, would go out and dig up the garden bed with a shovel and then put some seeds in there and water them with great optimism.
I can now tell you from experience that, plants being the fickle creatures that they are, using that method will result in, at best, you becoming known as the free zucchini lady. Possibly, if you buy some already-been-started plants at the hardware store for $15 each, you will have tomatoes and basil.
Gone are the days when you could get six packs of vegetables for 3.99. Buying started plants is expensive now. If you want to grow things without spending so much that your family says “Hey why didn’t you just buy the vegetables at the store and save time and money?” you have to be strategic. You need to become aware of the basics of garden theory and plant tendencies. Water and dirt alone is not enough.
Reading a book such as the Beginner’s Guide to Container Gardening can help you begin to see the error of your ways.
Through reading, you may begin to become aware that different plants have different light and water needs and even differences of soil. Who knew?
Planning my Garden
Somewhere in the process of reading that book, I began to plan my garden to think about what seeds I was putting in the ground and whether they might, so to speak, ‘work.’ Just because it looks healthy on the seed packet doesn’t mean it will be healthy in my back yard.
Some of my Failures:
Tomatillos. Why, when tomatoes are relatively easy, are tomatillos almost impossible to grow? And then there’s peppers. Most years the peppers just never get past the bloom stage. Carrots… my carrots are an inch and a half long. They taste good but you only get about two tablespoons full, which would only be useful if you were a baby and eating your first strained baby food.
And then there’s okra.
I was able to grow okra without too much problem. It was a sturdy strain of okra called “Heavy Hitter” guaranteed to produce tons of okra pods. But I couldn’t get anyone to eat it. I certainly didn’t want to. Okras are slimy.
Cilantro goes to bolt in about 2 weeks. Oregano grows well but, for cooking purposes, there’s basically no difference between fresh oregano and dried. Dried oregano is just about free. Onions take 180 days to mature which is why they grow them in Texas which basically has no winter. You shouldn’t try to grow onions in Colorado, which is a winter state. At least it was until 2026.
The kinds of things you learn from reading gardening books! For example, zinnias need 8 hours a day of light, and that means they won’t work on the west side of the house under the eaves!
And My Successes:
I did have some successes. Since my squash is always being destroyed by mildew, last year I used mildew resistant seed varieties to increase mildew control. This resulted in markedly less mildew loss. Squash returns were good in 2025.
Also, since basil is so critical for my pesto pizza obsession, why stop at three plants? Last year I had 20 basil plants, and I harvested them, made a gallon of pesto, and froze it. This is called playing to your strengths.
Arugula can be grown by anyone just about anywhere. You plant it and about 6 weeks later you can make a salad. It has thin lobed leaves and a strong flavor, but can be made more tasty by putting some grapes and onions with it. Just don’t let it get too old or it gets bitter. Some people say you can also put arugula on pizza, but I wouldn’t go that far.
The Garden Fork
I finally broke down and bought a garden fork this year. This because every garden magazine and book I’ve read for the last 5 years says I need a garden fork in order to lift the soil instead of turning it over with a shovel. This is for weed control, worm health, I don’t know what all. Every year before I balked at the cost. This year I finally got one, even though it was $60.
In the end, of course, no matter what, it seems I end up spending in money and time far more than my vegetables are worth. Last year I made a tally and determined that when you subtracted my expenses from the value of the harvest, and then broke it down into an hourly wage, my earnings were approximately 82 cents an hour.
I came up with a new response to the family hecklers.
I had to. Several of them in fact.
- My garden may not be making money but it is way way cheaper than owning a horse, which was a previous hobby.
- I’m getting exercise gardening and so I’m saving on a gym membership.
- I’m not doing this to make money I’m doing it because I love growing plants.
The third one’s the charm. The family will then smile and say “well yes of course.”
As for me, I expect to continue with my plants, occasionally marveling at those farmers who have hundreds of acres of healthy rows of vegetables just waiting to be trucked to King Soopers. Thank God they know how to do this. If growing food for my community was left to gardeners like me we might all go hungry.
And, by the way. If I had to grow all of our food with my plant knowledge we would have no more corn flakes. I have never successfully grown an ear of corn. I’ve tried again and again with golden corn, white corn, speckled corn, none of them grow for me.
When the time comes I’ll just sneak off and get the ears of corn for 25 cents over at King Soopers. At my current rate of compensation for gardening time, I can get three ears by working for an hour, and have 7 cents left.