One significant way I plan on cutting costs in 2011 is GARDENING. My very first attempt at gardening I was pregnant with my oldest. My mom and her boyfriend helped me and it turned out pretty good (wasn't just huge, but it worked). Last year I had big plans. Well, by the time we got the tiller running and I got out of my funk (I had just been let go from work), it was May or June before anything made it in the ground. We did have some cherry tomatoes in October and a row of under productive beans. I learned 2 things from last year: planning is key and you can grow plants from seed.
Planning
This year I have put LOTS of thought into my garden. To start with, the tiller and water pump is already in working order (and we have plans on checking it the first of March to be on the safe side). I bought a Farmer's Almanac at the Dollar General and have been reading on it. Lots of people believe in gardening by the moon. So by golly that's what I'm gonna do (or at least try). I have all my dates listed in a day planner and I'm ready to go!
Growing from Seeds
As anybody knows seeds are significantly cheaper than buying the actual plant. Even if you only plan on 3-4 tomato and pepper plants, 1 pack of seeds will be cheaper than those plants. Not sure if you have a green thumb? Don't worry. It's almost foolproof! We are taking empty yogurt cups, butter tubs, and cool whip containers and starting our seeds in there. Another pitfall from last year was planting the seeds too late. So I actually plan on getting our seeds started about the first of March and transplanting in April. I'm super excited!
What I am Planting
Well, I plan on lots of goodies. Tomatoes, green peppers, jalapenos, cayenne, squash, eggplant, cucumber, corn, green beans, herbs, green onions, carrots, spinach, cabbage, turnips, and lettuce. I know that is a huge list to work on. I believe I can do this. It doesn't hurt to try! My mouth is watering thinking of all the fresh veggies we will have to munch on this summer.
Do you plan on putting out a garden? If so, what are your favorite vegetables?
Lets see, hope your also planning on canning a lot of those fresh veggies
ReplyDeletecucumbers-can pickles
tomatoes-lots of tomatoe juice and homemade veg soup too
i canned some awesome pickled okra last year, it was my first year for this and i didn't can near enough, i will share my recipe if you like let me know.
I couldn't even BEGIN to tell you my canning plans! lol, but they mainly include letting my mom do it! (she wants to, honest!) But yes, we do plan on pickling some stuff, a little bit of tomato juice (jr is the only one who wants that). Lots of tomatoes, greenbeans, turnip greens, we haven't decided on the soup just yet, it's going to depend on time and such.
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