The best way to live frugally foodwise, if you have the climate and a little land is to keep a garden. I don't care if you think you have a black thumb, anyone can grow something! I truly believe that.
You may not be P. Allen Smith or the world's most knowledgeable horticulturist but everyone can find something they can grow and eat.
Some seeds are pretty forgiving and fool-proof....just throw em down and even if you ignore them(and the skies provide rain when you forget to water them) and the bugs don't chew their way through everything, you'll end up with something to eat. Imagine if you make any kind of effort to fend off the bugs, water and nurture these little seeds, what you could accomplish! ;-)
I am a lackluster gardener. I like to garden but my old decrepit body does not, so I like my gardening simple and I don't put a big effort into it.
We don't have acreage here, we have about 1/3 of an acre lot. We've got a deck over part of the land, drainage ditches & underground buried power lines in other parts of the land and an above ground pool taking up more valuable real estate. Take away the areas with large shade trees and there isn't much ground for gardening but we use what we have.
Seriously, if you don't garden but you have a little plot of land or even a pot of soil, get a packet of seeds and try growing something this summer. ;-)
Here are some piccies I snapped last weekend(June 6th) of the garden. 10 days out so it's still early here and not much to see....lol
The butternut, peppers and marigolds in the front....still no sign from the sunflower seeds.
Here's the side bed on June 6th....
Peppers doing ok. The tomato plants have blooms already! Here's what the tomoatoes looked like on May 26th....
DH sewed zuke, squash and bush bean seeds in the middle 3rd of this bed Sunday so nothing to see there yet.
Now to the back bed.....
Here's what our salad greens part of the bed looked like last summer at it's peak in mid-July....the greens sort of took over due to the wet and cool summer we had last year and just wouldn't die!lol
Looks like it's time to get the fencing up though. Our resident rabbit(who lives under the shed)has been eye-ing the plants..... 8-(
Sluggy
We don't have a lot of garden space but try to do tomatoes each year. Last year we did heirlooms and had no luck. My gardening buddy (he's got a link on my blog) failed with the heirlooms to, so I didn't feel too badly about it!
ReplyDeleteIf you haven't planted oregano, I suggest you do. I planted it once and it comes back every year -- bigger each year! Parsley is good for coming back too. My Sage didn't survive a harsh winter -- but I've had that return to.
Right now we are fighting the never ending losing battle of the cherry pits from a big tree the previous owner planted. The only one happy about that is the dog...
Shane and I are considering building a cold frame or a green house to extend our season a little. We can have something growing here at least 6 months of the year. We might be able to extend that a month or two.
ReplyDeleteIn your picture of lettuces from last year, what is that wispy kind in front of the basic green leaf lettuce? Our lettuces didn't do well this spring for some reason. Hopefully a late summer, early fall planting will do better.
AlexM--I'm trying cilantro this year in a pot. If I can fit in Oregano I'll pick some up too, thanks! I've done basil(both reg. and purple)before in pots and it always does great.
ReplyDeleteAnnieJ--The wispy stuff in the pic is Mizuna, aka Japanese Mustard Greens. It has a slight bite and you can use it cooked in stir-frys as well. It was in the mix of seeds & went nuts.
ReplyDeleteYou are making me hungry!!! It looks great.We have green onions up the ying-yang! Don't forget to throw the bottoms of the green onion in the ground too. I can't wait to see what it looks like in a few more weeks!
ReplyDeleteSonyaAnn--I never really cook with green onions or scallions....weird huh? I love any kind of onion plus leeks too! It's just a character flaw I guess...lol
ReplyDeleteI'll try to make an effort to remember to pick some up.
Your garden beds look great! About all the gardening I'm doing this year is a pot of basil on the deck and the usual asparagus bed that pretty much takes care of itself (I feed it in the spring). I tried heirloom tomatoes last year, and they were thriving until that damn blight killed everything - rotted all the beautiful tomatoes right on the vine. Anyway, I was wondering exactly what seeds you sew for the salad greens bed? Do you just buy a mix of different lettuce seeds, or is there a specific combo you like? Thanks!
ReplyDeletePretty--Yah, the late blight got all my maters last year too...ugh!!!
ReplyDeleteAs for the salad greens...I just buy a random packet marked "mixed salad" or something along those lines....this year's said "gourmet salad mix".....yah, we'll see how 'gourmet' it turns out.lolol
The trick to the salad greens is to just sew on top of your soil....don't bury the seeds. Just sprinkle a few handfuls of dirt over where you put the seeds and keep it moist until they sprout.
Like Alex M. mentioned, I'd go for the perennials if you want a garden, but don't necessarily have the green thumb for it. In addition to oregano, mint, strawberries, asparagus and rhubarb are all good ones. (Just be careful with the mint and strawberries, though - they have a tendency to take over!)
ReplyDeleteBest of luck with the garden this year, it looks great! - especially the tomatoes! (I wish I could get my salad greens to look like yours did last year!!!)
This post makes me wish I had a house....and a yard.
ReplyDelete