Garden 2024

My topless greenhouse garden experiment (last year) worked out well enough to encourage me to do more this year.  My hubby enlarged the area by adding a fenced in section that is connected to the greenhouse.  I added a lot of compost to the garden over the winter months (I would dig a hole, dump in the kitchen scraps and cover it up).  I did that all throughout the garden so that there is compost everywhere.  I also invested in a raised garden planter and an outdoor potting cabinet to make things easier.

There was also cardboard laid down over the entire garden and leaves dumped on top.

A lot of the leaves have been blown around due to some pretty windy days.  

On February 2^nd, the cardboard was removed, and the new raised planter and potting cabinet were installed in the garden.  

My hubby tilled the fenced in area and all that compost goodness got turned over.  To further enhance things, I bought 7 or 8 (I lost count) bags of compost garden soil and used that for planting seeds and putting around transplants.  

On February 27^th, all the leaves were raked onto the compost pile.  We created a compost pile in the corner of the garden for kitchen scraps to get dumped there during the gardening season.  At the end of the season, the compost will get spread all over the garden area.

March 6^th, the red leaf lettuce, kale and romaine plants were transplanted into the raised planter.  I used almost 2 bags of the garden soil to fill the planter. 

I also transplanted dill and sage plants into bigger pots.  The dill was moved over to the chicken coop as I found out that dill plants will encourage tomato hornworms to visit.  And I don’t want that! 

On March 8^th, I started planting seeds in the greenhouse section of the garden. 

Cucumbers

Corn

Green beans

Watermelon

Pumpkins 

The cucumber, corn, green beans, watermelon and pumpkin seeds were all planted in the greenhouse section.  Trellises were added for the cucumbers, green beans, watermelon and pumpkins.

The onions were already there from last year – maybe I will get to harvest them this year!

March 11^th – greenhouse section done! 

March 16^th, I filled up 2 big planters and planted lavender seeds.

March 17^th, I planted oregano, sage and thyme seeds in the 3-tier planter. 

March 23^rd, I started putting plants into the fenced in portion of the garden and I started with eggplant along with some marigolds.

I also planted a bunch of marigold seeds in the cement blocks that border the gulley that runs thru the garden between the greenhouse and fenced area. 

And some of the basil plants got transplanted into some cement blocks as well.

March 24^th, the beefsteak tomato plants were planted along with some marigolds.  Some of the basil plants still in pots were moved to the tomato plant area along with some thyme plants.  Thyme deters the tomato hornworm and marigolds deter aphids.  The rest of the herb type plants deter various insects.

March 25^th, cherry tomatoes and bell pepper plants were put into the garden along with more marigolds, basil and thyme plants.  Onions were added to the left of the bell peppers (onions are a good companion plant).

Then it was time to plant the potato sprouts.  I had some potatoes that had sprouted so I cut them up and planted them in the laundry baskets.  That will make it much easier to harvest the potatoes!  In the meantime, as the sprouts grow, I will add more dirt to cover up part of the stem.  Eventually, the dirt will fill the basket.  I have read that doing it this way encourages more potatoes to form.  We will see!

April 9^th – my first harvest!  Cut some of all 3 lettuce plants and made a nice salad.  

April 15^th – added another section of onions.

I also added more dirt to the potato baskets.

April 16^th – the fenced in area is looking good! 

And so is the greenhouse - this is the section on the left.  (cucumbers, corn, green beans, onions)

This is the section on the right.  (watermelon, potatoes and pumpkins)

 

There are various planters around the garden with marigolds - the more the merrier! 

This is how things look today (April 16th).  (The tarp building in the back is just storage for various materials.)  So far, so good!

 

Do You Buy Food?

It doesn’t matter if you are single and living at home with your parents, or single out on your own, married with kids or without kids.  I can guarantee that 100% of you are going to eat food!  Even if you are not buying your own groceries now, there will come a time when you will be doing it.  It is a fact of life.  We must eat to live and since most of us don’t live on a farm and grow our own stuff, we will need to make a trip to the grocery store.

Right now, we are having some tough economic times swirling around us.  There may have been a time when we used to have some money leftover at the end of the month - now we have month leftover at the end of the money.  What can we do?  Well, the Bible says we are to be good stewards of what God has given us and to make wise decisions.  Let me show you one way to do that.

Each week we make decisions about what we are going to eat.  There are 3 kinds of shoppers.

 

·      The first type goes to the store and hope they see something that they want to buy to make for dinner or whatever.  They don’t have a list and buy whatever strikes their fancy at the time. 

·      Another type of shopper will plan ahead and pick a menu and then make a list of things they need at the grocery store and then go shopping.  They may see some sales and save a little money on their shopping trip. 

·      Or, we can do be like the 3^rd type.  Instead of planning our menu first, we look at the store sales flyers first.  All the stores have their sales flyers on line, so we don’t even have to buy a newspaper.  Check over the flyers and see what meat is on sale - what vegetables are on sale, etc.  Then, look over your coupons - wait, you guys do use coupons, right? When you don’t use coupons on products that you actually buy - you are throwing away money. Most grocery stores have digital coupons on their website – you don’t even have to cut them out! 

We now have our list of ingredients made out according to the sales flyer and we have matched up our coupons to get the best deal.  But is it the best deal? Some of you may think that I have come from another planet when I tell you about my price book.  Before I buy something that I think might be a good deal, I check my price book.  For instance - maybe I need butter: 

Example:  (these are not real prices, just an example) Publix has it on sale for $2.00 a lb. - is that a good deal?  When I check the price book, I see that Costco sells 4 pounds of butter for $5.99 which means that one pound costs $1.50.  The sale at Publix is not a good deal.  It would be better to buy the 4 lbs. at Costco for a savings of $2.01.  The “upfront” cost is greater than buying just one pound but we have stocked up on butter and we won’t need it for a while - which means we won’t have to buy it again at $2.00 or whatever the price may be.  It does cost money to have a Costco card and that’s a decision that needs to be thought about carefully.  (Note: the membership fee is $60/year which works out to $5 per month.  I save more than that with the lower prices which makes it a good deal for me.) 

Sales and coupons not worth it? Here’s an example of my food purchases for one month.  My groceries cost $511.65 but I only paid $346.13 for a savings of $165.52.  That is just one month.  We don’t just purchase exactly what we need each week - we take advantage of sales to store up supplies for later use. For example: Quaker Instant Oatmeal is 3.89 a box.  A couple of weeks ago, Publix had a sale of buy 1 get 1 free.  So, I got 2 boxes for 3.89 which means I paid 1.95 per box.  That is a good price.  But, I also had 1.00 coupons.  I was able to use 2 of those coupons - even though one box was going to be free, they still accept a manufacturers coupon for it.  So, instead of paying 3.89 for 2 boxes of oatmeal, I paid 1.89 total for both boxes  - which means the price per box was only .95 cents.  So, the average person might pay 3.89 for one box of oatmeal and I paid .95 cents because I am paying attention to sales and coupons.  I bought several boxes that day and now I have a nice supply that will last me for a good while.

Where do we get these coupons?  Some are in the Sunday newspaper.  But if you don’t get the newspaper, there are websites online where you can print out just the coupons that you will use.  And, the store’s websites have digital coupons – you create an “account” and choose the coupons you want.  When you check out, you give your info and the coupons come off your total.  It doesn’t get any easier than that.

Some things are cheaper at Publix with their BOGO sales.  Some things may be cheaper at Walmart (for items that are not on sale at Publix).  And some things are cheaper at Costco.  But you won’t know it unless you do your research.  Meal planning, checking sales flyers, coupons . . .it does take time and requires planning ahead, but there is a reward – saving money! 

 

BACON WRAPPED TURKEY

Around Thanksgiving, I read an article that Chef Gordon Ramsey wraps his turkey with bacon.  So, I decided to try it!

Ingredients: 

Turkey

Bacon (1 lb)

Butter (1 stick to 1.5 sticks)

Spices (I used onion powder, garlic salt and Italian seasoning) I didn't measure, just eyed it.

You will need a good size pan for the turkey.  Don’t forget to remove the stuff inside the turkey.

First, I put some butter under the skin.  (I used a butter knife to get the butter under the skin.)  Then I melted some butter and added onion powder, garlic salt and Italian seasoning and spread it over the top. 

 

 I put the turkey in the over for an hour.

I removed the turkey from the oven and completely wrapped it with bacon and then put the turkey back in the oven to finish cooking.

When it was done, the bacon was browned and the meat was moist.  It was probably the moistest turkey that I have ever made.  I will definitely do this again!