March 15, 2011

My First Real Garden

Well it's about time. I get to have a garden! No potted garden that gets eaten by aphids. No teeny tiny garden that has limited sun. This time it's the real deal. At first, the boy listed the various scary expensive stuff we needed to do. It was an intimidating thought. But each hurtle has been jumped so far with savings and new knowledge.

At our place the landlords are letting us use the land at the end of the driveway. It will be quite a bit of work but I think we can pull it off. We have gravel and weed blocking plastic to remove, but we're hardcore. That is something that will be done soon. Right now though we got to start the new life.

The first expense that we were fretting was the fact that we may need a grow light. The apartment has very little light. If we didn't have the screen porch I would really dread the lack of sun in the summer. Thankfully I have a boy that labors over things that bug him and comes up with a great solutions. This nice high metal shelf that we had stashed away from the move takes advantage of our ONLY south facing window. It's in the bathroom and fits just right where it doesn't block the towel rack or get in the way, keeps them far from the cat, and gives our little seeds the grow-the-f-up notice with plenty of sun.

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We also saved money by using newspaper for our starter pots. Not only are they pretty much free if you get the paper from your newspaper obsessed father, but they also bio-degrade safely in the garden so you don't have to mess with the root systems. The $10 of bricks of soil we got also expanded a ton and filled all the pots we needed. We still have extra.

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Aren't they cute?

I'd like to thank my friend Bruce for saving us from starting way to early and possibly before the last frost. I have no sense of that since RI is all coastal and warmer. The middle of CT is a little different. I also <3 the farm and Bruce again for making it easy and inexpensive to get loam for the garden. Saves a ton of effort and money. I'm really excited to enjoy the fruits of our labor. Well now to get back to knitting. I'm hoping this loofah design works out. Night everyone!

4 comments:

  1. this is so cute and awesome! i want a farm so i can grow absolutely everything i need :) and so i can have goats of course. hope the garden grows nicely!

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  2. Thanks! I have seedling pictures to post soon. How could anyone not have goats? :)

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