page contents

How To Start Your First Garden

by

How I Started My First Garden With Less Than $60

Sometimes starting a garden can be quite  expensive and overwhelming. I remember 7 years ago when I was starting out on my gardening adventure I did everything on a budget. I Started my garden for less than $60. Not knowing if I was going to be good at gardening or like gardening I did not want to sink a whole bunch money into my first garden. Fast forward into my today’s garden I have over $10,000 to $15,000 worth of equipment and is still growing strong. So for this article I’m going to discuss how I started my first garden with less than $60.

Starting Your Garden

Lights

The first thing that I needed when starting my garden was to figure out what kind of lights I would be using and where to get them from. Keeping my decision simple wasn’t my main objective but not knowing how complex gardening can be I was oblivious to how complicated the decisions could be . I bought my first set of lights from HomeDepot and they were T8’s lights. The fixture cost around  $17 dollars and the bulbs cost around $10 for a 2 pack from HomeDepot. A little more pricier today then when I bought mines but we should still be under budget.

T8 Light fixture

T8 Light Fixture $17

T8 Light Bulbs $10

______________________________

Total Cost $27

So far just for the lights we’re at $27 dollars. Now keep in mind that these lights are not the best for the full grow cycle but will still get the job done! My first grow yielded me a little bit more than an ounce. I wasn’t growing pounds and pounds like I do now and just using these lights you might never grow a pound. But will still always have a use for them, for example I use T8’s now for my seedlings sprouts. I even still use the fluorescence bulbs instead of leds bulbs at this stage. I found that the Leds don’t produce enough heat for seedlings and would require a heating mat. Adding extra cost and breaking our $60 budget.

Soil

Buying soil will be one of the highest recurring cost associated with growing along with nutrients. As you advance in your grow garden the type of soil you use can be the difference between top shelf and mid shelf. Example:When I started out I was using a cheap bag of Miracle Grow that had premixed nutrients into the soil. As time progressed I realized that each strand of cannabis or type of plant required different combinations of nutrients and that a all in one bag of soil and nutrients wasn’t ideal for advancing my grow skills to the next level. But for beginner purposes all in one bags of soil are more cost effective and entry to barrier is easier because most big box retailers carry those brands. 

When starting my garden 7 years ago I knew nothing about soil and amendments. I originally grabbed soil from my yard but had no success. I bought one those cheap bags from Walmart that’s always sitting outside. Note to self, “there’s a reason why they’re super cheap.”  The bags worked for my first garden but buying soil that has been sitting outside  is a boiling pot for pest!

Cannabis Seedling

For this article we’ll be bypassing the mistake of buying outside soil or not treating your outside soil. A brand that I have used in the past was Kellogg Organic Garden Soil. It’s not the best soil on the market but gets the job done. For the price you can get a decent harvest from it. A bag of this soil normal cost about $10 dollars and can fill close to 2 five gallon buckets.

T8 Light Fixture $17

T8 Light Bulbs $10​

Soil $10

_____________________________

Total Cost $37

Containers

If your planning on growing outdoor then this step isn’t needed. For the most part you can get used garden pots for free from a nursery. Believe it or not I actually picked up dozens of used flower pots from my local Walmart. I went to the nursery department and asked what do they do with the pots when plants die. And pretty much in a bunch of words they said they throw them away! Now if free isn’t your style then you can always pick up 5 gallon buckets for about $4 at the most from big box retailers. Note if you go to a grow specialty store you can expect to pay around $10 -$15 dollars for a 5 gallon grow pot. For this exercise we’ll budget for two 5 gallon buckets at $4 duckets a piece.

T8 Light Fixture $17

T8 Light Bulbs $10​

Soil $10

5 Gal Buckets $8

_____________________________

Total Cost $45

Nutrients

Starting out I knew nothing of organic and inorganic nutrients. The only thing I knew was that a few people suggested Age Old Grow to me, and that is the only bottle of nutrients I used for my first grow! If you would like to know what each nutrient is used for read this post!

T8 Light Fixture $17

T8 Light Bulbs $10​

Soil $10

5 Gal Buckets $8

Age Old Grow $15

_____________________________

Total Cost $60

Special Consideration

This guide is meant to be the first steps of action and  to simplify complicated decisions. Everything in this post is the same way I began minus a few mistakes along the way.  When asking people for advice when starting out I was always told that growing cannabis is close to growing tomatoes. If you would like a more complete grow guide visit my 14 step guide to growing Cannabis!