kitchen garden.
10/14/2016
We are on a major reset with our finances right now so in addition to me trying out a new (very low) grocery budget, I had an idea that I could plant foods that I like to eat. When I shop for foo, I pretty much stick to foods for Kevin and Finley. Then the animals get their food. Then I get to buy what I really want. So usually I don't buy vegetables and you know what, I really miss them! I hadn't realized how much I missed eating veggies until I had a salad at church last week. Lucky for me, I had a stack of seed packets that I bought last year for a fall garden.
I planted some seeds the first week of October. It would probably have been better to have planted them in September but hopefully October works too! I did not want to make another spot in the yard for the little garden so I used our front bed. Kevin is already aggravated about the stuff I have in the yard, so I figured he would be much happier with me this way. I cleared out the mulch from in between the elephant ears and then worked the ground for the seeds. In one of the little plots I planted two different varieties of carrots and on the other side I planted broccoli and a lettuce mix. And then the next morning, my dogs helped themselves to digging in the fresh dirt. I raked the dirt back in the holes they made and now I'm just hoping for the best. It's not very high hopes because I'm sure there will be more digging.
Because I'm an impatient gardener, I also bought some romaine lettuce plants and a cherry tomato plant. I'm including the cost for this as a part of my grocery budget because I would bought lettuce and tomatoes anyways. I planted those in pots at the beginning of the week and they are starting to look pretty perky! I was very pleased with the lettuce because it looked very healthy at the store and some of the little seedlings even had two plants in the individual compartment, so that's a bonus! I also looked over all the tomato plants they had and chose one that already had several tomatoes on it and many more blooms. Currently I have a few tomatoes that are the right size for a cherry tomato but they haven't turned red yet. I'm wondering if I should go ahead and pick them and then let them ripen in the window sill. I can't decide. I suppose it won't hurt to do that, but I do love to see a beautiful little red tomato peeking out among the green leaves. The dirt I used to for the pots is kinda old so in hopes of helping the soil, I used a couple shovel fulls of chicken poop! I grow a little mini garden in a spot where my chickens used to live and it does very well! So hopefully this will give me good tomatoes and lettuce!
I had my first little mini salad from my lettuce plants and it was super yummy. My mother introduced me to adding green onions to my salad and omg. I love it! I didn't have any tomatoes yet but I did add some carrots which added some pretty color to the salad. I can't wait for my little plants to grow some more!