Imagine, for a minute or two, that you lost your job and had to take a much lower-paying one for the next 12 months. While your new job pays the bills and keeps the proverbial “wolf from the door” there is nothing left to fritter away on your favourite pastime. Instead you must make do with what you already have and continue to cultivate your garden without spending another cent.

Could you do it?

At this point you’re probably thinking that it’s a relatively easy assignment. You’ve got last year’s bulbs in storage, you managed to keep a few of your favourite seeds and the garden tool rack, while modest, allows you to achieve most gardening tasks.

But I want you to think deeper than that. Skimming the surface may help you for the first month or two but it won’t sustain your garden over a whole year.

So, to start off with this challenge you need to think back over the past 12 months and assess your purchases. Let’s make a list;

  • Fertiliser
  • Pesticides (organic or chemical)
  • Fuel and oil for your lawn mower
  • Cord for your line trimmer
  • Stakes for your vegetables and plants – and the string as well
  • Potted annuals, vegetable seeds and new spring bulbs
  • Mulch
  • Manures
  • Replacement tools
  • Soluble minerals
  • Gardening books and/or magazines
  • Garden club membership fees
  • Entry fees to open gardens or botanical gardens
  • Garden whimsy
  • Potting soil and containers

How did you fare? Is it still an achievable task? For me, the glaringly obvious one was fuel for my mower. While I’ve reduced my lawn size by about 50% over the past year I still have some that I manicure and enjoy. Without fuel, my lawn would become unwieldy.

I find this an interesting hypothetical because if we were to embrace it it would force us to problem solve outside of ourselves. We would begin to depend on other gardeners for tools, seed-exchanges, and bartering of other resources. Our own natural resources (composts etc) would become much more important and perhaps we could visit the big-box outlets a little less this year.

So, would you be able to do it? Could 2009 be a year where not a single cent could be spent to sustain your garden?