Seedlings

They are here!! Look close to see my first little seedlings that have popped up there little heads! At the end of March I planted peas, spinach, radishes, broccolli, and cabbage. I have seedlings up for all of them now. Now is a great time to plant any of those and onions, lettuce, eggplant and corn, among others. Check your seed packages to see what else can go in. Don't wait until May to plant your peas and spinach, they don't do well in the heat and need to harvest before it gets to hot.

Children's Garden

We are trying some square foot garden boxes in addition to our traditional garden this year. We have made a herb box, a salad box and a children's garden box. We made them out of 2 x 6s we had left over from another project. We painted them for one family night and planted them for another. The soil is compost, peat moss and vermiculite (or pearlite). We got the compost from the land fill for $25.00 for a cubic yard and a half ( a good buy), the peat moss ($10.00 for a large bag) and vermiculite $23.00 for a large bage at Lowes. We were able to fill 6 4 x 4 garden boxes for that (some for our parents).

I think the garden box will be a fun way to get the kids involved in the garden. Hyrum got to pick out his own seeds (he selected honey dew melons, popcorn, lettuce, little finger carrots, green onions, peas, bush beans and a sun sugar cherry tomato plant- tasty and I don't like tomatoes.)

Kristi Moultrie Hone on Square Foot Gardening

"Square Foot Gardening is exactly what I am doing this year. We have a fairly small yard. We just bought our wood to make our 4'x4' boxes. I am going to do two boxes this year with vertical supports at each end so I can grow my vine plants. Next year I may add two more. I also got peat moss, vermiculite and I am going to get a truck load of compost. We are going to dig out a section of lawn and put some sort of barrier between that and our fresh dirt we are putting in. Hopefully that will slow the grass from coming back up in my garden. Some of the bigger plants like squash and pumpkins I am planting in my front yard with my flowers. That way they won't take up all the space in my SFG. For the last 5 years we have planted our tomatoes in the front and they have done really well. I'll try and take pictures as we garden this year.
I also believe you can grow a garden for way less than $700. With all the supplies I have got for the boxes, the vertical supports, the good, rich soil, and my seeds I bought in bulk I will have spent less than $200. And I have enough seeds for probably 3 years. I shouldn't have to spend anything else for a few years. I am now just crossing my fingers that it all goes as planned!" - Kristie Hone

Thanks Kristie for that information on starting a square foot garden!

Urban Gardens

Not everyone has a large back yard to grow a garden. This news story was on KSL and I thought it might inspire those with little or no yards. I definitely think this can be done for less than $700 though!! I plan on trying some square foot gardening, which can be modified to look like what the guy in the story has. I would love to hear from any one with experience in small scale gardening. Post in the comments or send it to me in an email and I'll put it up as a post.

http://www.ksl.com/index.php?nid=148&sid=6053177

LDS church food storage counsel

I have been working on my food storage for several years now. I got started when I was called in my ward (local church congregation) to serve on a cooking with food storage committee. I believe the best place to start is with the counsel from LDS church leaders, from there use the inspiration to direct you to what is best for your family. The more we worked on being prepared, the more direction and help we received.

The food storage posts will all reflect what I or other friends have done, use them as suggestions and ideas, not as the only way to do things.

Because each family is different, you will notice the church has given broad guidelines, not specific lists.

http://www.providentliving.org/channel/1,11677,1706-1,00.html