Spring is on the way!

This is the wifey. It's sunny outside and the ice is melting. Fifty degrees in March is a heat wave in our part of the country! It will be our first spring at the new house and we are really excited about having a garden. We bought a lot of our seeds already and are trying to figure out just how we will lay it out. We plan to make a raised bed garden because the soil in our area is not the best. Last year our son planted strawberry plants and I am eager to see if they come back this summer. I believe fruit trees are also in our future.

Gardening is a great way to stretch your food budget and free up more money to buy starch and protein items. Also with all the pesticides and waxes that get put on our produce, it is nice to eat something that you know isn't filled with chemicals. Even if you live in a little apartment or trailer park where you can't dig up the yard, container gardening can give you a surprising amount of food for very little money and can be kept on your patio or by a sunny window.

We will be using some of our free pickle buckets for container friendly plants like tomatoes, radishes and lettuce/greens. I also got sunflowers because I love the seeds and they are so pretty. I can't wait to eat produce that I grow myself and am excited about how much money we will save on produce. We plan to can and freeze some of what we don't eat for storage. I also plan to make weekly donations to our local food pantry to share the wealth. Below are some articles I found on About.com for building raised beds and container gardening; hope they inspire you to get your hands dirty!

http://organicgardening.about.com/od/startinganorganicgarden/a/raisedbed.htm

http://gardening.about.com/od/vegetablepatch/a/ContainerVeggie.htm