You can save BIG $$$$$$$$$$$ by growing your own organic veggies. Really...YOU can! The organic produce budget can be 2 to 3 times more expensive than than purchasing conventional produce and a lot of families can't afford that kind of increase when finances are already tight.
We actually SAVE money on our grocery bill in the summer (even though both of my kids AND my husband are on summer vacation and eating ALL of their meals at home) by growing our own organic veggies. You can save even more money by starting those veggie plants from seeds.
Hello…my name is Christy, and I’m a garden-o-holic. Some may say I make fun of a serious condition, but my handsome husband would agree what I deal with IS a serious condition. About 3 years ago, I found a book called “Square Foot Gardening.” I knew this gardening "method" was for me because it was neat & tidy, required no special garden tools (like a big rototiller), and produced a LOT of food. The author had me at "have a weed free garden." Amen.
While we are not a certified organic farm, we do follow organic practices & chemical free methods of growing herbs, food, and raising animals. This makes buying plants from the local greenhouse a bit of an issue. NOT that we don't do it, we just want to give our food an all natural head start, so we start as much as we possible can from heirloom/organic seeds. (from previous year's gardens or Mamaw's seed savings abilities. We do buy a bunch of seeds from Baker Creek Seeds, or Seeds Savers as well.)
Someday, my seed starting endeavors will begin in a location such as this... but until we plop my greenhouse dream in the back yard, my handsome husband built what I lovingly refer to as...
I found this nifty design for a warming bed and we scavenged some materials to make one of our own. The handsome husband gathered some 2x4's, blue foam insulation board, sheetrock scraps, and a few strands of rope lights.
Larry started by setting up his saw horses and topping it with a section of shelving we hope to install in the basement eventually. You could easily use a scrap piece of plywood or a few 2x4's for a base. It needs to support the blue foam insulation. (Larry would like me to note that he ACTUALLY started by clearing out the spot in my garage in order to have a PLACE to put the germination station.) Then, he cut the blue insulation board to size.
This is the base for the warming "mat". (You can buy a warming mat, but to cover this size table would cost over $200.) Larry used 3 strands of rope lights that we saved from somewhere?! (You can buy new from Walmart or Amazon for about $12 each...$36 sounds a LOT better than $200!) He "snaked" them across the board using scraps that he trimmed off as spacers to help hold the lights in place.
Top it all off with sheetrock scraps that are cut to the size of the whole shebang. (We saved these from our house build. You can find these ANYWHERE there's a new construction or even broken pieces at Lowe's...they'll give them to you.)
The last part is flourescent lights (I call them grow lights). These are just cheap-o shop lights from Walmart and hang from the ceiling on chains we bought at Lowe's. And you have...
Now, the fun part... planting seeds. I've always thought this was the hard part....but really, you just follow the directions on the back of the seed packet. The most important part is using a seed seed starting mix and NOT potting soil. And don't push them in the soil too deep!
I planted these flats with several different variety of tomatoes, peppers, and herbs last Saturday.
And 3 days later...
And 1 week later...
Coming next week to Super Saturday:
Build your own Garden Boxes on the Cheap!!!
Now that spring have arrived at Windy Ridge, we'll need them soon. We have over 240 little plants that need a home...
Enjoy ::
Christy
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