Garden Update

I mentioned a few weeks back that we have a very random garden this year.  The seeds have started sprouting and so far it looks like we are going to have an abundance of lettuce.  I think I see some tomato sprouts too but I'm not positive that is what is growing.  They need to come up a bit more before I can tell.  I'm dreaming of fresh veggies this summer and can't wait for things to start growing. 

It has been fun having my oldest child involved too this year.  He has been asking every day to look at his carrot seeds and see if they are growing.  I'm hoping he will eat them too when they are ready.  Having children involved in the garden is a great way to get them to try new foods.

Speaking of gardening, if you have not signed up for the Home Depot Gardening Club, I highly recommend it.  They send a newsletter by email that is filled with great articles.  Also, a few times a year I receive coupons by mail.  Seeing as gardening can be a bit expensive coupons are a great way to help out.  Click on the box below to sign up.

Earth Day & My Random Garden

Today is Earth Day and I would love to be outside playing in the earth (planting my flower garden) but it is rainy and icky here today.  Since I can't be outside, I thought I would share about my very random garden this year.

I started tomato and pepper seeds indoors this year.  The peppers never sprouted and the tomatoes were doing great until I hit a few busy days and totally forgot about them.  By the time I was able to check on them, they were dead.  Being that it is planting time right now I decided to simply restart everything in the ground.  I have several other seeds that needed to be started in the garden too so my oldest and I went to work outside last week.  He picked out carrots to grow this year so this is where we started.

I keep all of my seeds clipped together so I can find what I need easily.  I was digging up a rock (we live in a very rocky area) when my son decided to help himself to the seeds.  He wound up dumping half a package of tomato seeds in random places in my garden before I had a chance to realize what he had done.  At that point, we quickly finished his carrot planting and decided to call it a day.


The next day, he was at preschool so I figured that was a good time to finish the garden alone.  I was doing good until I decided it was time to plant the lettuce seeds.  After opening the package, I accidentally dropped it and lettuce seeds went everywhere.  I picked up what I could but I know there are plenty still out there.  


Now, I am anxiously awaiting this years garden to see where all of the random tomatoes and lettuce are going to pop up.  I joked on Facebook that next year I should just mix up all of my seeds, sprinkle them around the garden, add a layer of soil and see what happens.  It sure would be easier and make for some great stories!


How is your garden going this year?

Time to Start the Garden

If you will recall, last year I decided to start my garden from seeds. It was probably my most successful garden to date so I was estatic to start it again this year. A little over a week ago I planted tomato and pepper plants inside.  I checked them after five days and was a bit disappointed to see nothing had even started to grow.  I then checked back two days later and had a few inches of sprout on the tomatoes but nothing on the peppers.  I was shocked to see how much the tomatoes had grown in just two days.  I'm thinking I might need to retry the peppers but I'm giving them a few more days.

I've read articles in the past that gardening can actually cost you more money than buying fresh produce.  I can see where they are coming from if you create a fancy garden, buy high quality seeds, go for the best of everything, etc. but I've found it to be very economical.

My garden is a small plot of land in the back corner of my yard.  We have built a makeshift fence around it to keep the groundhogs, rabbits and squirrels out.  The majority of those materials were found in my dad's garage or at garage sales.  I usually pay less than a dollar per seed packet and after last years results realize that it works just as good as the higher quality plants.  We also tend to fill in with the cheap dirt instead of the higher quality.  In some areas you might need a better soil but this works great where I am located.

Square foot gardening is very popular right now and can have a bit of a startup cost but is still very inexpensive after the initial year.  If you want to Live on Less this year, I highly recommend starting your own garden.  It is fun to see your hard work turn into delicious food. 

Gardening is also a great way to get your children to eat healthier.  We let my son pick out some seeds this year and I plan to let him help in the garden.  All of the seeds he picked out need to be started directly in the ground so I'm looking forward to the day we can actually do that.  Seeing as we had snow and ice on Sunday, that is still a few weeks off though.

I would love to hear about your garden.  Feel free to leave a link or comment about your garden this year.

Garden Bounty

These last few months I've watched with great pride as I started my veggie garden from seeds. I've never had seeds last before but I was determined to make it work this year. This weekend, I finally got to pick my first veggies from those seeds. I normally would have veggies a few weeks before now but the rain delayed my planting by almost a month this year.

Saturday night I went to check on my garden and was shocked to see the green beans had taken off. I picked a handful then and there are plenty pretty close to ready to pick. I've never tried to grow green beans before but they are about the easiest thing I've ever done so they will be back in the garden again next year.

I also was able to pick a banana pepper. There are several more close to being ready and I look forward to adding these to some yummy sandwiches this week. My bell pepper plants are growing like crazy and have tons of flowers but no peppers yet. I'm hoping to see a few soon though since the flowers look pretty healthy.

I have a ton of green tomatoes too and I'm praying the animals stay out of them this year. Last year, the squirrels ate all but two. This will sound crazy but tomatoes are a must in my garden every year and I don't even eat tomatoes. I don't like the texture of them but there is nothing better than the smell of a homegrown tomato fresh off the vine. I'm thinking of using the ones I don't give away to make some tomato sauce or to possibly can as I do use diced tomatoes in several recipes.

How is your garden doing? I would love to hear updates from those who planted this year too.

Home Depot Garden Club

Gardening is one of my favorite pasttimes but I have a ton more to learn about the process. I've been part of the Home Depot Garden Club for awhile now and I've learned several helpful tips from it. I've also received some great coupons from the newsletter. Click on the box above to sign up today for this free club.

I've been talking about gardening the past few months and thought my readers might be interested in this upcoming Home Depot Do-It-Herself workshop on gardening. It is free and a great way to learn more about creating the garden of your dreams.

Garden Update

I think I might get to plant my veggie garden this weekend! I spent this afternoon digging up a few more rocks (I'm sure I'm a sight for the neighbors being 6 months pregnant and digging up rocks). The weather is finally stabilizing so that I think the plants will be safe. As a reminder, if you started seeds, they need time to harden outside before planting them in the ground. This means sitting them outside each day for a week or two so they can get used to the difference in tempurature from inside the house to outside. Everything I've read says to start in a shaded place outside and bring them back in at night. Work towards getting them towards the sunlight and out for longer periods of time. I've been doing this for a few days now and they are so far looking great.

My plan is to only work on the veggie garden this weekend. I will start working on flowers next week but I can only work for a few minutes at a time due to being pregnant and having sciatica issues. I would love to spend hours and hours digging in the dirt but that will have to wait for another year. I'm just happy I've been able to accomplish what I have so far this year.

How is your garden coming along?

Seeds Into Plants

I mentioned several weeks ago that I was going to attempt growing veggies from seeds this year. My past attempts have not been good but I decided to give it another try after several years off. I'm happy to say, the majority of my seeds sprouted and are doing great. I'm getting very antsy to get them into the ground but the weather is not cooperating. According to all of the zone charts, I can start planting next week in my area. The only problem is we've had 3 freeze warnings this week so I'm thinking we are not in the clear yet.

It was a beautiful day yesterday so I spent some more time prepping the garden (aka digging up rocks). I live in a very rocky area and no matter how many times I've planted in this area, I still dig up huge rocks every year. Being almost 6 months pregnant, I can only work a little bit at a time but it is starting to come along.

This brings me to a tip my father in law gave me when we first moved to our house. We moved in the early fall and he told me to figure out where I wanted my veggie garden and then every time I went to the hardware store to pick up one bag of dirt. He said if I put down a bag each time, by the time planting season came around, I would have a great area to garden in. I've done this with one garden and it is very helpful. Unfortunately, when I decided to slightly expand my veggie garden, I completely forgot about this tip. It may be too late to get a great garden this way this year but it could give you a good start and it is something to think about for next year.

After the success so far of my veggies, I decided to start some flower seeds two weeks ago. My zinnias are doing fabulous and I moved them to larger containers yesterday. My impatiens are just starting to sprout and I'm anxious to see how they do. My front flower bed is 80% impatiens because the area is mostly shade and these flowers do wonderful in the area. If I can get even a few viable plants out of these seeds, I feel I am ahead.

Happy Gardening!

Spring Fever

The weather around here lately has been all over the place but the few warm days we have had have given me a major case of spring fever. One of my favorite parts of spring is planting my garden. I'm hoping to slightly increase the size of my veggie garden this year and have been dreaming about getting it going. In order to hopefully save a little money and give me a jump start on spring, I'm going to try growing a few of the veggies from seed (maybe flowers too). I found a great blog,The Dirty Radish that is inspiring me to give this a try. I haven't tried seeds in years and I did no research the few times I tried so I'm hoping that armed with information, I can succeed this year. If you want to try growing seeds, here is her post on how to start seeds. For my zone, this is the ideal week to start seeds so I'm going to give it a try and let you all know how it goes.