Grow Your Own Food

The nutrition of our food in the stores is depleted (we could talk for hours about that), and prices are increasing every week.  More and more people are growing their own food to cut costs and have food that is fresh and nutritious.  The best salad I ever had was grown by my dad in our garden. 

Yesterday we looked at the frost dates and a map of the country so the kids could see how the growing seasons are different everywhere, and how this affects when we start indoor seeds and when we plant outdoors.  I would love to live where the frost season starts in December and ends in January!

Seed catalogs can be a wealth of information as they tell you when to plant and how to harvest.  Yes, there are tons of web sites with this info but there is nothing like sitting down with catalogs spread out, pages earmarked with items circled.   Catalogs offer seeds the stores do not, such as open pollinated seeds-marked with an OP next to them.  I choose these instead of hybrid seeds because you can collect the seeds and save them for next year.  Hybrid plants (usually marked F1) do not have seeds that can be saved.  Why not save money and reuse our seeds each year? The seeds can be put into a zip lock bag, placed in a mason jar and stored in the refrigerator (no wonder stores don't sell them).  There are also seed exchanges popping up all over so we can try new things at no added expense. 

We plant things we know we will eat and some new things we can try or give away.   Local food banks would be happy to get fresh grown veggies. 

I have been gardening for about 5 years now.  We don't have much space in our yard to have a huge garden but its not the space you have but how you use your space that counts.   We use the square foot gardening method.  There is less weeding and less watering and more food in a small space.  I am asking the kids this year what they would like to plant and am giving them their own space.  I highly recommend the book, Square Foot Gardening.  The new edition is filled with color pictures and its really not hard.  People who use this method have been known to put their gardens on you tube as well.  You can find the book on my bookshelf here on the blog.  I bought mine used from Amazon.

Here are some of our garden pics over the years:

this is an old picture but I love it!  these are my 2 youngest with our homegrown watermelon!

 

bush bean

marigolds keep some pests away

ground cover

cherry tomatoes

Since its a little too early to start indoor seeds here (and I am anxious) we put together the Root Vue.  This looks cool!  You mix the soil pellets with some water and place it in the styrofoam  container, put the seeds on top and a plexiglas window in front so when the seeds grow you can see the roots.  It comes with carrots, onions and radishes.  Its a great winter project and my kids really enjoyed doing this.

Gardening Catalogs I have gotten so far:

Gurney's.  I am not overly impressed with this catalog since they offer mostly hybrid seeds but they offer $25 off of a $50 order (expires May 20) and they sell things other than seeds (composting equipment, grow lights, seed starter kits, even worms)

Johnny's Selected Seeds-they sell a mixture of open pollinated, hybrid, and organic.  selection is decent.  They have growing information on many different products like how to grow, pests, harvesting and storage. I've gotten 2 catalogs already in about a months time.

Territorial Seed Company-similar to Johnny's.  This may be my favorite.

Seeds of Change-all certified organic but I don't see any open pollinated seeds.

I requested more than these but this is it so far.

Time For Lunch!