HOMEMADE SAVINGS

I bought a second, smaller jiffy greenhouse for some lettuces, onions, beans and honestly I can't remember what all we put in there.... call it salad surprise.



Thisis day 3 on these seeds.

I can almost taste 'em!

   We planted tomato seeds about 3 days ago. I peeked beneath the greenhouse cover this morning to check the water level and was surprised by a bunch of little tomato shoots.

   Looks like the jiffy tomato greenhouse works.

   I love strawberries and will often spend a pretty penny for them. This year I have decided to grow a garden to cut down on grocery costs as well as teach my children the lost art of "Eat What You Grow".

   I planted tomatoes in an indoor greenhouse a few days ago and I am anxiously awaiting a nice fresh tomato sandwich. While waiting for that I am continuing on with the planting. Today I planted 3 strawberry plants 2 of them were a gift from my sweet momma.

   Strawberries seem to come in only one form a dirty messy ball of dirt and roots. I searched high and low for strawberry seeds, no luck. Strawberries seem to be pretty fail proof (watch mine not grow now) you just put the root thingy in some dirt and let her go.

   All I really have to work with is red clay here in the south, but I read that strawberries aren't picky about soil, so I just went with it.

• add dirt to pot
• make hole
• put root ball in root side down, if there is a plant visible leave it above ground level
• cover all but plant with dirt
• water
• wait for strawberries.

invested $2.00 per pot and the strawberry roots were $3.00 each. The pretty red dirt was dug from our yard by my daughter= free.  Total invested $15.00 or same cost as 4 packages of strawberries at grocery store. Will see how much I save when it is time to pick them.

   You can never have enough tomatoes. We cook with them, eat them on burgers, sandwiches, we have even been known to slice them and serve them with a meal in place of a vegetable. The problem with tomatoes is they cost too much. It is not uncommon for tomatoes to run between two and three dollars a pound.

   This year I invested 3 dollars in Tomato seeds, and 12 dollars on a jiffy tomato greenhouse to start the seeds inside the house because being March there is still a danger of frost on my area. The greenhouse came with 36 seed starter pod/disk things, but I decided to start out just using 16 of them. Tomato plants can run anywhere form 2-4 dollars depending on size, so at 15 dollars investment so far the same number of plants would have cost at least $32.00.

Yes i realize this looks like turds in a sock

   I will Add more information as I have it including what the garden costs and saves me.

   I haven't planted anything in years with the idea that I may eat it. Times being as they are I decided it was not only healthier but more economical to grow what we can in out little half acre lot. This is my first time attempting any sort of garden without guidance so I am doing research online for the best times to plant what, the best crops for my zone etc.

   Here are some helpful links

Find out your gardening zone

Food garden guide

Buy Seeds Online