I just finished reading an interesting book (The Quarter-Acre Farm: How I Kept the Patio, Lost the Lawn, and Fed My Family for a Year) about a family growing 75% of their food. It was a very interesting book that I actually had no intention of reading. I can explain. Mr. Green Stuff sent me to the library (without a list, mind you!) and asked me to bringing home a book about gardening so he could plot out our summer garden. There were so many that I came home with four. I thought this one sounded perfect (good thing I brought home three others!) but he dismissed it before he even read the first page. There weren't enough pictures. Plus, he wanted a book that explained the planting/growing process in scientific, biological terms. Personally, I thought one woman's struggle sounded interesting so I read the first couple pages... then I was hooked. Anyway! I read this book and then this appeared in our back yard:
Wow! I know! Perfect, right? Well, maybe a perfect coincidence is more accurate! Mr. Green Stuff has had it planned all winter. He's actually built a raised bed three out of the past four years... usually on the weekend closest to Earth Day. It just happened to be a warm enough day over the weekend and he couldn't wait any longer. He even used some of our left over barn wood flooring as the braces on the outside.
After it was built I "lined" the bottom with our worn-out cloth napkins and dish towels, some used "disposable" bamboo plates, and the paper bag I'd stored them all in. They'll eventually breakdown and hopefully keep out some pesky weeds in the meantime. Then we emptied our compost bin on top of them.
A quick note on "compostable" utensils. The ones you can see in the picture above have been "composting" for a couple years. They're clearly not breaking down and are no where close to becoming compost! Last year, I read that it actually means that it's compostable in an industrial compost facility not my cute little back yard composter. (Now I know why we had to keep tossing them back in the bin when we'd use some of the finished compost.) Here's a interesting video about it:
But back to the happy, exciting, feel-good stuff!
Woo hoo! We have another garden! Do you plan to grow any food this year? Do you feel like you can hardly wait too?
It's still cold here in the Midwest but we're already dreaming about Spring at our house!
Every year we plant a garden in our tiny yard but this year we've decided to try something new. We're attempting to grow our plants from seeds. Yep, seeds. All of our plants! From seeds. Not just the peas and marigolds like other years but the broccoli, peppers, and tomatoes too.
Who knows if we'll succeed but we're excited right now. The plan was to use empty toilet paper rolls to grow the seedlings but even after saving them for months, we didn't have many. I ended up buying one of those peat cell trays and some organic seed starting mix to (hopefully) give our heirloom seeds a boost. Someone thought it would be exciting to try to grow a monster-sized fruit this summer. Off we grow! Have you ever grown your garden from seed? Feel free to pass along any tips you might have. (Please.)
