My Garden Project 2012 Part 2

February 22, 2012 By Leave a Comment

As a single mom, the budget bottom line dictates a lot in my home, including my ability to garden.  For the first time I actually have some space to garden, but not so much financing to start a garden.  Part of the process of my garden project this year is to do it as close to free as I can.  To that end I am using, reusing, recycling, repurposing whatever I can to make my garden dream a reality.

Here are some regular household items I am using to help realize my garden dream.

1.  Egg shells-I have been saving all my eggshells for a few months in preparation for starting my seedlings.  The trick is to just tap the top of the small end of your egg when cracking to save the most of the bottom of the egg to be a seed cup.  Plus, these are FREE seed starters.  You are already buying eggs, right?

2.  Seeds-I am using seeds from a seed saving workshop my CSA held last year.  These are organic seeds that were harvested and saved appropriately to use for planting this year.  This is another ‘freebie’ since it was just an added bonus to my CSA membership.

3.  Containers-I am using all sorts of containers I already have on hand to repurpose for seed starting and gardening.  Some I am using are juice bottles, two liter bottles, Styrofoam containers, reusable shopping bags and whatever else I come up with this season.

4.  Compost-Some items you normally compost like pineapple tops, avocado pits, green onion bottoms, or celery root cores, can be planted to produce more pineapples and celery.  So even though you bought this produce from the store, there is value in what you normally discard.  Essentially you can grow some more for free.

I have purchased a few seeds and organic seed starting soil so far.  I am going to keep a tally so I know what the bottom line is when all is said and done.  But for right now my total spent so far is approximately $28.

Enjoy the experiment with me as I attempt to grow a low cost, almost zero waste, and organic garden.

Anyone else starting seeds indoors yet?


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Fresh and Clean from Scratch

February 2, 2012 By 2 Comments

Thanks to my sister in law and her BFF, their blog is Recycled Soup, I had a pre-researched and pre-tested recipe to start making my own homemade liquid and dry laundry detergent, fabric softener, stain remover and dishwasher detergent.  I have been looking into doing this for a while through Pinterest and other blogs I follow.  But I just hadn’t actually gotten up the gumption to do it.  Well, I ran out of dishwasher detergent.  It wasn’t on sale anywhere.  And I was being cheap.  So, I thought now is as good a time as any to start making my own.

I followed all their recipes linked to above and learned a few things in the process.

  1. It’s not that hard to make your own.  If I recall correctly, the longest part of the process was waiting for the soap to melt into the water of our soap pot.  The other thing is, to make the powdered laundry detergent you have to grate the soap bar.  That takes a minute and some muscle.
  2. It works!  I washed a blanket I had left at a relatives house that was a smoker.  This blanket was soaked to the core with stale smoke smell.  I put it in the wash with my new homemade liquid laundry detergent and presto-NO SMELL.  The smoke was replaced by a clean, soap scent and the blanket was clean.  As was my next load of white with very dirty socks thanks to the 15 year old.
  3. The best thing I learned, IT’S SO CHEAP!  Here is a breakdown of the cost:
  • borax-$4.09
  • vinegar-$.65
  • citric acid-$4.29
  • fels naptha bar-$1.29
  • washing soda-$3.15
  • baking soda-$.50
  • kosher salt-$2.00
  • one large soap pot-$5.00 at Goodwill

 

Ingredients for liquid laundry detergent

I agree with the Recycled Soup girls in that the dry laundry detergent is a little more cost effective and less time consuming to make since you don’t have to melt the soap.  After I finish using all my liquid detergent I will be making a bucket of the dry with my leftover ingredients.  We made a total of 2 gallons of liquid laundry detergent, one batch of dishwasher detergent, and 2 pints of stain remover.  We spent $22.91 for everything, no coupons were used on ingredients.  You CAN buy some of these products with coupons to make your initial investment cheaper.  We have enough products left to make lots more of everything!

Liquid laundry detergent after adding Borax and washing soda

My cost breakdown boils down to this:  $0.33/batch for 1 pint of stain remover-not sure how long it lasts yet, $0.78/batch for 192 loads of laundry-liquid recipe (0.004 cents per load), and $3.38/batch for 12 loads of dishwashing detergent (0.28 cents per load).  I’m pretty sure I can find a cheaper, online source for the citric acid to make this more cost effective in the future.  But, all in all, I will NEVER go back to store bought laundry products again.  Because even on my BEST coupon deal I have never been able to score free laundry detergent and stain remover.  And as cheap as this is, it’s practically free!

Has anyone else tried making their own homemade products?

Have any recipes or tips to share from your experience?

Shared on the Hearth and Soul Blog Hop.

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My Garden Project 2012: Low Cost from Seed to Table

January 27, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Garden site between the trees.

I have been blessed with a landlord that supports my green food ideology!  They have given me permission to plant a garden in my huge backyard this year.  And somewhere in the back of that huge yard is where my garden will find its’ home!  I’m so excited I am beside myself.  For days I have been thinking and planning to make this the best first year garden I possibly can.  Now, I’m not romantically naive in believing it will be the easiest and highest producing garden ever.  But I do  have hopes of it at least being worth half the effort and resources put into.  Then hopefully each year it will increase exponentially.

Because of the many what if’s, I have personally decided to pay for another spring/summer CSA membership this year.  It would be a tragedy in my family if the garden failed AND we didn’t have all those delicious, healthy vegetables to rely on from Madison Creek Farms!

As I have gone through this planning phase, one of the best resources I have found has been Pinterest!  It has been so quick and easy to scroll through the gardening topic and look for pictures and captions that are related to my particular interests.  For me it’s been much quicker than researching everything by hand on Google.

In the coming weeks I will walk you through my planning process including:

  • the size of my garden,
  • the vegetables I chose,
  • the layout,
  • the type of garden,
  • my planting calendar,
  • starting my seedlings,
  • compost, pest prevention, and getting dirty,
  • and finally, the harvest.

My seed starter shells.

My goal is to grow things that are great money savers on the grocery budget, vegetables we love and eat all the time, and vegetables that are wonderful to use in my compost cooking.  I hope to use items that are normally thrown away like leftover lumber, eggshells and two liter bottles to build my raised beds, start my seedlings and plant some of my vegetables in.  I will even use seeds from my seed saving experience to cut costs in that area.

The trimmings from the vegetables will be harvested and eaten of course.  But after that I plan on keeping the trimmings and getting as much value from them as I can by making soups, stocks and whatever else I can create, and then finally putting them in the compost heap to have zero expenses and zero waste in the garden AND in the kitchen with what I make of the harvest.

Next week I will be showing you how to use every day items, even compostable items, to start your garden seeds indoors.

 

Anyone planning on doing a garden for the first time this year?

Or any experienced gardeners have some tips for us newbies?

Shared on Hearth and Soul Blog Hop.


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Seed Saving Part Three: Wet Seeds

October 1, 2011 By Leave a Comment

So far we have talked about the importance of

saving seeds to ensure our food heritage

and how to save dry seeds.

This week we are talking about how to save wet seeds.

Wet seeds are found in tomatoes, eggplants, melons, cucumbers and many squashes. Cleaning wet seeds requires washing the seeds to clean them and separate them from the surrounding pulp.  Wet seeds are easy to clean, but some need to be fermented to shed the pulp casing that is sticking to the seed.

Fermenting Wet Seeds

Seeds which require fermentation should be cleaned after-not before-fermenting.  Some wet seeds (such as tomatoes) are best fermented for several days to remove germination-inhibiting substances from the seed coats.  Fermenting can also help some seeds, like members of the squash family, by killing molds, mildews and other disease organisms that may be present on the seeds after growing.

Steps to saving wet seeds:

1.  Allow the produce to fully mature on the plant before harvesting.   If you harvest the seeds before the fruit is ripe, the seeds will be sterile.

2.  To clean wet seeds, scoop the seeds from the fruit, pulp and all. Pour the seeds and pulp into a tall glass or bowl and add water.

3.  Leave in water for 2-4 days stirring a couple of times per day.  Healthy seeds will sink to the bottom and dead seeds and pulp will float.

4.  Skim off the dead seeds and pulp then drain the water.  Repeat this rinsing and pouring process several times.  This helps to get the seeds more clean and prevents them from sticking to whatever surface they are dried on.

5.  Dry your seeds after cleaning, by draining them with a strainer.  Then spread the seeds on a piece of glass or a shiny ceramic plate to dry. Anything else you place them on, they will likely stick to.  Place the glass or ceramic plate in a cool, dry shady spot for several days.  After the seeds are dry, they can be carefully removed from the glass or plate and final-dried before being stored in your coffee filters.

Come back next week when we talk about:

Seed Saving:  Putting it All Together,

and how you can  help ensure our food heritage.

Seed Saving Resources:

http://howtosaveseeds.com/seedsavingdetails.php

http://communitygarden.org/docs/learn/articles/howtoseedsaving.pdf

Is anyone getting ideas about saving seeds

and maybe starting your own traditions

to help preserve and make sustainable choices for our food system?

 


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Seed Saving Part Two: Dry Seeds

September 24, 2011 By 3 Comments

Remember, last week we talked about

seed saving to ensure our food source heritage?

This week we are going to talk about saving dry seeds.

There are a few things to keep in mind when you are making your seed saving plans.  There are two types of seeds- wet and dry.  There are also semi-wet, but they are treated the same as wet seeds.  You will need proper storage for your seeds.  Peggy at My CSA Farm, Madison Creek Farms,  recommends unbleached coffee filters.  They are inexpensive, natural, disposable and easy to tuck away until planting season.  Another suggestion is an empty coin roll paper.

Peggy putting seeds into an unbleached coffee filter.

‘Dry’ seeds include beans, okra, peppers, basil and members of the onion and carrot families. Cleaning dry seeds usually involves simply drying and crumbling the pods or husks, then screening or ‘winnowing’ the seeds to separate them from the chaff.

Harvest dry seeds from their plants when their pods or husks have dried on the vine. Some seeds can be picked before they are fully dried on the plants if rains threaten. Other plants, however, (i.e., the Mustard family and others), will not finish ripening once they have been removed from the plant. Leaving seeds on the parent plant to full maturity and dryness is always preferable.

Once pods or husks have been harvested, store them in a dry place and wait until they are thoroughly dry. When the pods or husks are dry enough, they will easily crumble between your hands. Crumble the pods or husks until all the seeds are released.

Place seeds in storage container, such as the coffee filters, and label filter with type of seed enclosed.  Put in a dry, cool place until planting season comes again for that particular plant.

Edamame seeds are an example of a dry seed.

 Come back next week for Seed Saving Part Three:  Wet Seeds.

 Shared on Hearth and Soul Blog Hop at Penniless Parenting.  Check it out!


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