Gardening Part 3 - Time to Plant

Now that we have our pots and dirt, we are ready to plant!  Oh wait, we need seeds.  We acquired some seeds from my in-laws but still needed a few more.  The hubby and I decided we would make a trip into Menards to get the rest of what we needed.  We ended up going in at 7am on a weekday, which was perfect.  The store wasn't busy and we were able to get in and out in 30 minutes!  

Here is what we purchased.  We also purchased plastic trays to put under the pots.  We spent about $40 on plants, seeds and trays.  I also had a $19 rebate check that we used so total spent on our container garden was roughly $21.

All in said and done we planted 25 containers. 

Cherry Tomatos

Patio Tomatos

Squash

Cucumbers

Lettuce

Spinach

Radish

Peppers

Beets

We also have an herb garden, but I'll blog about that later!   

We placed a pallet at the bottom of our stairs. I am hoping that will keep the critters out.  My family is really looking forward to growing some of our own food again!

Container Gardening Part 2 - Preparing our Containers

 Now that we have all the containers we need and the dirt to fill them, it was time to put everything together!  I visited our old house (my mother still owns it, so I wasn't trespassing in case you were worried) and remembered our compost area!  I decided to grab a few buckets of compost to mix in with the dirt we had acquired.  The compost was perfect!  There is just something about playing in the dirt that is relaxing to me...

We had a handful of 5 gallon buckets so D was in charge of drilling holes in the bottoms for water drainage.  We used a half inch drill bit to make the holes.  We put about 8-10 holes in each of the bottoms of the buckets.  As you can see, he got a little creative with his holes towards the end :)

 We had some pots that were pretty dingy looking even after washing.  I had some old spray paint in the garage so we had a painting party and spruced up a few of the pots to add some color to our collection!

We had a couple different strategies in filling our buckets.  I wanted to make sure that there was adequate water drainage but we quickly found out that adding dirt to the buckets after putting holes in them, the dirt was falling out of the bottom.  We decided to add  about an inch of rock to the bottom of the buckets and then put our dirt mixture on top.  Once we ran out of rock, we used some old mulch that we had on hand and filled the bottom of the bucket with a layer of mulch and then added the dirt.  Both methods seem to work, so I would suggest either.  We just used what we already had on hand, if you are doing this and don't want to spend any money on mulch or rock, you can always go out exploring and find rock on your own.  We live by a lake so the beach is an easy source to find rocks or reach out to people who might have some that you can have.  It doesn't take very many to fill the bottom of a 5 gallon bucket.

Once the bottoms of the buckets were prepared it was time to fill them up with our dirt mixture!  We mixed our compost in with the black dirt we found.  The kids had a blast filling up all the containers.  Once that was done, it was time to call it a day.  Honestly it was one of the best days we have had in a while at the Frugal household.  Getting outside, playing in dirt, working on a project.  I told my hubby I don't think I heard the kids fight once!  It was awesome.

Now, it's time to plant!  Yay.  That will be in my next post.  Stay tuned!

Homemade Weed Killer

I've never been much for putting chemicals on our yard, but weeds are my enemy.  I researched a lot of homemade weed killers.  I found this one and it worked like a charm! 

Homemade Weed Killer:

4 cups Vinegar

1/4 cup borox

1 teaspoon liquid dish soap

Mix together and place in spray bottle

This is what I started off with.  I have pulled these stubborn weeds many a time, and they always come right back.

Here is what it looked like just 24 hours after spraying.

After 48 hours the weeds were completely dead and easy to pull out of the ground.  I sprayed the rest of the rock area in hopes that nothing will come up in the dead weed space.  Keep in mind this solution will kill grass too, so make sure you only spray what you want to kill!

Here is the end product.  It looks so much better!  We will see what happens in a couple weeks.  Crossing my fingers the weeds stay away.

Garden Update

I really enjoy gardening.  There is something so sweet about knowing exactly where your food comes from.  I started off the gardening season a little nervous.  My plants didn't seem to be growing very well.  None of my green beans came up.  I'm not sure if I had bad seeds or if something ate them.  I had to replant my squash, zucchini, and cucumbers because they didn't come up.

Finally things are rolling.  My tomatoes have gone absolutely crazy!  They have outgrown the tomato cages!  My green peppers are doing great.  Usually that is the one thing that does not grow in my garden.  However this year is different.  ALL my peppers are thriving and I have already gotten about a dozen beautiful peppers this season.  Here are some pictures of my tomatoes and peppers.

This was just part of today's harvest. 

It's time to get out the canner!  I love growing our own food!  

What is growing in your garden?

The Start of Gardening Season 2015

April 4th I got my first seeds planted.  Peas, lettuce, spinach, kale and swiss chard.

Thanks to my son Tony for snapping some pictures for me!

I am so excited for the nicer weather and getting out and digging in the dirt.  My wonderful husband got my garden all tilled up a couple weeks ago.  I have added a new area along the edge of my original garden.  I'm hoping to transplant some raspberry canes.

If you are curious if you can start planting you can check out this site to see what zone you are in. It is important to know what zone you live in so you can determine the last frost dates.   Garden.org is also a great site.  You can enter your zip code and it will tell you what zone you are in.  Local folks, Iowa is Zone 5 and this site will give you a calendar of when you can start planting your vegetables.

Garden Thoughts

Here in Iowa we are getting a taste of Spring.  The weather has been wonderful-temperatures in the 40's and 50's.  It makes me start thinking of my garden.

(Our garden June of 2012)

There are so many benefits to having a garden.  At the top of the list of course is the money you save.  The food you grow can also be much healthier than store bought produce.

 There is just something about growing your own food that I find appealing.  I like being self sufficient.  I enjoy being outside.  I feel good about providing my family with clean, healthy food that we grew ourselves.  Knowing exactly how and where everything was grown.  Knowing and controlling what chemicals, if any, where used.  Getting your family involved with the planting, harvesting and preserving.  An added bonus, you get to play in the dirt!  I absolutely love having a garden.

I have started getting seed catalogs in the mail which is another sign that Spring is near .

I've been thinking and planning out this years garden.  Here is the list I have so far of what I will be planting...

Tomatoes
Bell peppers
Green Beans
Peas
Lettuce
Spinach
Radish
Carrots
Cantaloupe
Onions
Zucchini

I am so ready for Spring!

Do you garden?  What are your favorite things to grow?

Planning for the 2013 Garden Season

I sat down this weekend with my in-laws and planned out what I will plant in my garden this year.  We compiled a list of seeds we needed to buy and my father-in-law is getting everything ordered for us.  We both plant large gardens, as well as my cousin, so we all went in together to order our seeds, saving money by ordering in bulk.

My FIL plans to start seedlings inside next month.  The goal will be to have strong, healthy plants to put in the ground when it's warm enough to plant outdoors.  Starting seeds indoors gives us a jump start on the planting season.  It saves tons of money starting your own seeds verses buying already grown plants from the greenhouse.

I am hoping to be a little more vigilant in keeping a garden journal this year.  I always start off well, and then putter out when things start getting busy.  I have my previous years garden maps so that I know where all my crops have been and what needs to be rotated this year.  I still have to do some rearranging and figure out where I am going to put everything this year.

I no longer have my peach trees.  We had to take them out at the end of the season last year.  I would love to put something in their place but have to look into seeing if that is even possible since the roots are still in the ground.

My strawberry bed will need some thinning and my raspberries pruned, but they both produced well last year and looked good going into the cold season.

Here is what I have planned for this years garden.

2013 Garden
Tomatoes
Bell Peppers
Onions
Peas
Green Beans
Carrots
Lettuce
Spinach
Arugula *New this year
Cucumbers
Zucchini
Summer Squash
Snap Peas
Cantaloupe
Watermelon
Sweet Corn *To be grown at my cousin's farm

Have you started planting your garden?  As I type this it is 4 degrees outside and the wind chill is -20.  Before long though the spring showers will be here and it will be time to garden.  I am so looking forward to getting out and getting my hands dirty again!

The End of the Green Beans

I had high hopes for my fall bean planting.  Things were looking great.  I had one episode with beetles but after one spraying with an Organic mix they seemed to dwindle.  They were almost as tall as me and flowers were setting on.  See how pretty they looked?  (You have to look past the giant Swiss chard!)

Then the weather forecast predicted our first frost.  Lows in the 30 degree range.  I dug out all the sheets we had in the house and covered up all of my green beans.

2 nights we dipped below freezing.  It stayed too cold for too long and my beans bit the dust.




Over night they went from luscious bright green leaves to wilted, shriveled up vines.  Needless to say I was pretty bummed.  I was hoping to get another batch of beans preserved and stored away in the pantry.  From the looks of it, had it not froze so early I think I would have had a pretty nice crop.

Oh well.  I guess sometimes you win some and sometimes you lose some.  

Welcome Back

It's been about 6 weeks since my last blog post.  Of course each week I have been posting our Frugal Tuesday Tip linky, which if you haven't checked it out-you should.  I have learned many new frugal tips and ideas from our participants.

Things are finally starting to slow down a bit at our house.  Well, kinda.  School has started.  All four of my boys are in all day classes this year.  It's just me and the baby during the days.  Ok, maybe baby isn't the correct term-she will be 2 years old in less than 2 months.  She keeps me busy enough though as every toddler should.  And I still consider her my baby. 

My canning and preserving has scaled way back.  I think I spent about 3-4 weeks straight canning at least something every day.  I have put up a large amount of food for this Winter (post about how much and what coming soon!)  That feels pretty good.  My house and my family both are happy that preserving for the year is nearly done.  It takes alot of time and doesn't leave room for much else.  Let's just say my dear husband had to pick up some major chores for a couple weeks!

My garden is doing pretty well.  Things are dying off as they should.  I only planted green beans, kale and peas for the fall.  Here are a few pictures.  The kale is growing nicely.

My beans are doing great, with the exception of some beetle damage.  I am hoping that I can get a good crop so that I can put up a little more for the winter. 

I didn't take a picture of my peas because they are almost dead.  We are have mole issues or some other critter that keeps digging tunnels in the garden.  It pretty much dug up my entire row of peas.  Grrr. 

Other than gardening, and massive preservation of this years garden abundance I feel like I haven't done a whole lot.  I'm getting used to new schedules and routines that comes with having kids back in school  I have a lot of pictures and posts to share with you.  Hope you stick around! 

Garden Harvest - Carrots!

I harvested my first batch of carrots yesterday.  Carrots are a favorite in our house.  The kids thought it was really cool to eat them straight out of the garden.  I found the key to getting the carrots out of the ground is to have the ground very water logged. If the ground is too dry the carrots will break at the stem or break further down in the ground. 


I have also started harvesting squash, zucchini, onions and green beans.  It has been a busy week in the garden. 

c

Shelling Peas

Today was another day of shelling peas.  We have been picking almost every day out of our garden.  I usually get lots of help when it comes to getting the peas out of their shells.  Some make it in the bowl, some make it on the floor and some make it into little mouths.

Tomorrow I plan to preserve the large bowl that we have collected throughout the week.  I will be blanching and freezing them.  I will share that process with you in an upcoming post.





Everyone should have this much fun shelling peas!  

Garden Pictures

One of the most frugal things we do is keep a large garden.  I save a lot of money in my grocery budget not to mention the fact that I just plain love gardening. There is something about growing your own food and eating right out of your own backyard.  Here is how our garden is looking these days.

This last weekend we got over 4 inches of rain.  The temperatures this week are going to be hot.  Today was almost 100 degrees.  I took these pictures a couple days ago and already things are growing larger.  This is a look across most of the garden.  Spinach, lettuce, kale, swiss chard, carrots, onions, green beans.

Here is summer squash, zucchini, cucumbers and a random potato plant that came up voluntarily.  

Peas.  I have been harvesting lots of snow peas and just harvested my first batch of regular peas yesterday.

Here is my first squash!

Here is the other side of the garden.  Green beans, bell peppers and tomatoes.  Next to the peas at the top are cantaloupe.  

My green beans are blooming and I suspect that after this week I will be seeing some beans.

Growing your own food is an easy way to save money.  Not only do you save money but you know exactly where your food came from and how it was grown.

Garden Harvest

We are harvesting daily from our garden.  We have been so busy I haven't had the time to take pictures of all that we are getting.

We are still getting lettuce and kale.  With the hot temperatures the lettuce is starting to get a bit of a bite to it.  We are still eating it though and have enjoyed salads every day.  Planting a large crop of greens has been a huge money saver for us this Spring.  My husband has been on a strict diet and has salads everyday for lunch and sometimes dinner.  He has been able to eat almost entirely from our own garden.  

 

We have been harvesting snow peas every couple days.  My daughter has become my official bowl holder.  She usually sits there and nibbles on the peas as I put them in the bowl.  So far we have collected over a gallon.  I am excited to be able to put some in the freezer for future use. 

 

The first crop of spinach is starting to go to seed.  I have been picking it but it still seems to want to seed. I have a new row coming in nicely and hopefully I will have a few more weeks of picking.

We have also been picking raspberries.  We are getting a couple handfuls each day.  They are wonderful!