I got 10 pallets for free from a friend who had some at work and we're going to make a fence out of them to keep our dog out of the garden once and for all!
I'll post pics when we do it this week :)
Sunday, March 16, 2014
Wednesday, January 22, 2014
Getting the Garden Ready
I've been hard at work getting ready to garden this year. We have a lot of things going on - garden, house stuff, planning homeschooling for when we start in fall...more and more I can't think of right now.
But garden wise, we want to grow as much as possible! Last year in about March, we started eating differently - whole foods, local produce, organic, no processed foods, etc. And gardening will really save us a lot of money. I've been doing tons of research and have learned sooo much about gardening. I'm excited! We've been asking people to donate to us things they aren't using and are going to throw out - gardening stuff, buckets, clean trash cans - any type of container, so that we can save money and grow as much as possible. Hopefully we'll be able to grow enough for us, enough to store, and enough to share.
Some ideas of what I'd love to grow this year:
Eggplant, Bell Peppers, Tomatoes (slicer, plum and cherry), white or red potatoes, sweet potatoes, radishes, green beans, snap peas, peanuts, maybe zucchini, pumpkins, watermelon, cantaloupe, lettuce, spinach, sunflowers, onions, and carrots. Lots of herbs and flowers too.
Do we have all the room for this? Probably not, but I want to try anyways! We probably won't try it all, just what we have containers and space for. I'd also like to get some small blueberry plants that are self pollinating.
My thoughts are that a lot of these plants will look excellent in the front yard, so it won't take up backyard space - sweet potatoes grow beautiful vines, cherry tomatoes, lettuce and spinach, and peanuts - they all would look great in the front yard so if I have nice containers to grow them in, I can do that. And if they need more sun, I'll just move them to the backyard! (Our front yard has 2 huge old trees, so it can get shady). I'd grow sunflowers in my front yard, but the bees love them and I don't know if I want to scare off people from my door. Last time we grew them, we'd have about 30 bees buzzing around them, fun to watch and I felt great helping them out while they helped my garden, but I really didn't feel like poking around the garden with that many bees everywhere. I'd like to stick them in a corner so I can feel free to harvest and tend to the garden.
I'm still trying to gather more things together. Someone from our ward gave us a bunch of buckets with their old food storage in it (they don't need it anymore) and so I was trying to find a use for the stuff inside - salt, wheat - not ground and I don't have a mill, honey, rice I think is in there too. We love honey, we could go through that no problem. And I plan on using salt for playdough and for killing grass on the patio we're going to put together. But it's a lot of salt...like nearly 10gal worth. Maybe if I get a grain mill I could use that grain and make a ton of playdough....hmmm...
Anyways, we also need to build a good fence to keep the dog out of the garden, she always gets past our attempts. This time I'm going full out. I want to get pallets and build a fence to keep her separate from the garden area. I am tired of that dog digging up my onions. She loves to get in the onions.
I also need to replant my strawberries, I think 2 plants have died but my other 6 might be good, we'll see in a month or two when it finally warms up. It snowed here yesterday...again! But it's still January, so it's to be expected.
If I decide for sure to plant sweet potatoes, I'll start slips early next month! Yay! Super excited for my gardening adventure!
But garden wise, we want to grow as much as possible! Last year in about March, we started eating differently - whole foods, local produce, organic, no processed foods, etc. And gardening will really save us a lot of money. I've been doing tons of research and have learned sooo much about gardening. I'm excited! We've been asking people to donate to us things they aren't using and are going to throw out - gardening stuff, buckets, clean trash cans - any type of container, so that we can save money and grow as much as possible. Hopefully we'll be able to grow enough for us, enough to store, and enough to share.
Some ideas of what I'd love to grow this year:
Eggplant, Bell Peppers, Tomatoes (slicer, plum and cherry), white or red potatoes, sweet potatoes, radishes, green beans, snap peas, peanuts, maybe zucchini, pumpkins, watermelon, cantaloupe, lettuce, spinach, sunflowers, onions, and carrots. Lots of herbs and flowers too.
Do we have all the room for this? Probably not, but I want to try anyways! We probably won't try it all, just what we have containers and space for. I'd also like to get some small blueberry plants that are self pollinating.
My thoughts are that a lot of these plants will look excellent in the front yard, so it won't take up backyard space - sweet potatoes grow beautiful vines, cherry tomatoes, lettuce and spinach, and peanuts - they all would look great in the front yard so if I have nice containers to grow them in, I can do that. And if they need more sun, I'll just move them to the backyard! (Our front yard has 2 huge old trees, so it can get shady). I'd grow sunflowers in my front yard, but the bees love them and I don't know if I want to scare off people from my door. Last time we grew them, we'd have about 30 bees buzzing around them, fun to watch and I felt great helping them out while they helped my garden, but I really didn't feel like poking around the garden with that many bees everywhere. I'd like to stick them in a corner so I can feel free to harvest and tend to the garden.
I'm still trying to gather more things together. Someone from our ward gave us a bunch of buckets with their old food storage in it (they don't need it anymore) and so I was trying to find a use for the stuff inside - salt, wheat - not ground and I don't have a mill, honey, rice I think is in there too. We love honey, we could go through that no problem. And I plan on using salt for playdough and for killing grass on the patio we're going to put together. But it's a lot of salt...like nearly 10gal worth. Maybe if I get a grain mill I could use that grain and make a ton of playdough....hmmm...
Anyways, we also need to build a good fence to keep the dog out of the garden, she always gets past our attempts. This time I'm going full out. I want to get pallets and build a fence to keep her separate from the garden area. I am tired of that dog digging up my onions. She loves to get in the onions.
I also need to replant my strawberries, I think 2 plants have died but my other 6 might be good, we'll see in a month or two when it finally warms up. It snowed here yesterday...again! But it's still January, so it's to be expected.
If I decide for sure to plant sweet potatoes, I'll start slips early next month! Yay! Super excited for my gardening adventure!
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