No land? You can still garden

It's time to plan this year's garden, even if you're a Manhattan condo dweller. With a little work and a little love, you can harvest miniaturized lettuces, tomatoes, cukes, herbs and other crops from a deck, a balcony or even just a sunny windowsill.

The Renee's Garden seed company even offers container zucchini, which means that now city dwellers can have squash surpluses, too.

Your "harvests" won't be giant, but they'll likely pay for themselves -- have you priced lettuce lately? More to the point, have you ever tasted freshly picked greens? A mesclun mix with a light vinaigrette, say, or beet greens and chard braised with a little olive oil and garlic? Just-picked produce is so succulent that you may not care whether you have a meat course. (Post continues after video.)

• Bing:What is mesclun?

And don't get me started on what tomatoes should taste like. I grew up in New Jersey.

Frugal produce
Entire books are written about small-space gardening, so obviously I can't cover everything in a single blog post. For starters, I'll suggest a few resources:

• National Gardening Association. Click "Regional Gardening Reports" in the left-hand column.
• Cooperative Extension System. Invaluable advice offered in every U.S. state.
• Renee's Garden. The company has a downloadable .pdf file all about container gardening.
• The Urban Organic Gardener. Blogger Mike Lieberman offers tons of free advice for beginners.
• American Community Garden Association. If you don't even have a windowsill, search the association's database for a piece of land you can rent.

There will be startup costs, but frugal hacks can keep them manageable. If you already have flowerpots, use them. I've seen pots cheaply or even in the "free" box at garage sales. For larger plants, ask the deli manager for empty potato-salad tubs, then drill drainage holes and add a layer of gravel before filling with soil.

About that soil: Containerized plants do best with commercial potting soil versus "dirt" poached from the park. I've seen the stuff at dollar stores.

You must fertilize regularly; see the garden links above for tips. Or improve your soil (and recycle kitchen scraps) with gleanings from a homemade worm composting box. (They don't stink. Honest.)

A few other frugal ideas:

• Cash in some free gift cards to Home Depot or Amazon.com to pay for supplies.
• Search online coupon sites like Retail Me Not, Savings.com and FatWallet.com for hot sales and free shipping codes. Search cash-back shopping sites such as Extrabux and Mr. Rebates, too.
• Ask if you can have the pots from church flowers after Easter. You'll likely be keeping them out of the landfill.
• Watch for seed sales. I've seen packets as cheaply as five for a dollar at Walgreens.
• Make a self-watering container garden for less than $5 with a video how-to from Lieberman on the Urban Organic Gardener website. 

I've interviewed people who grew decent amounts of food in small, small spaces. All broke even on their investments, and some actually saved money on their grocery bills.

They enjoyed watching their gardens grow and savored some of the best produce they'd ever eaten. They knew what went into the production of their food (chemical fertilizer or organic? bug spray or insecticidal soap?). And they knew exactly how fresh it was because they picked it themselves, right before they ate it.

You can, too.

Readers: Do you garden in containers? Have any tips to share?

More on MSN Money:

• Downsizing makes container gardening easier
• 10 ways to reuse common household items
• A recipe for saving money