Frugal Gardening - Starting Seeds - Part 2

A note on seeds: Even most small seed packets come filled with far more seeds than one average gardener can use. Save more money by splitting seeds with a friend! You can also save seeds from many plants in the fall and then plant them the next spring. Visit WinterSown for more information and ideas.

Once you have your seeds planted, use duct tape to tape the jugs closed.



I generally put a plant marker in each jug, but I also write whatever the plants are on a piece of duct tape and attach it to the bottom of the jug, just in case it fades too much from the sun.

As long as there is condensation on the inside of the jugs (as shown in the top picture), you don't need to water the plants. If they look dry, either spritz or drip water in until all the soil is moist.


According to what I've read, if you live where it's colder, you can leave these containers out all winter in the snow and everything. We don't really have much winter, so ours grow pretty fast. Once your plants are big enough, you can remove the duct tape and let the little plants get some sun during the day, then just tilt the top back over for protection at night.

I don't follow any hard and fast rules about when to transplant from the containers into the garden soil, but generally if the plants have some secondary leaves and the weather is good enough, and they have been "hardened off" by having the tape removed for several days or a a week, I will transplant. The little swiss chard seedlings in the photo above will go into the ground sometime this week.


Another one of my favorite containers to plant in is foam cups with clear lids. These are great for plants that need a little more space, like tomatoes. You can plant just a couple seeds in each of these. There is a great step-by-step tutorial at WinterSown for these.

Frugal Gardening - Starting Seeds - Part 1

Disclaimer: I'm sure there are just as many ways of doing this as there are gardeners, but this is how I do it. I am by no means an expert, just someone who likes to garden. This is the process that works for me. For more information, I highly recommend you visit WinterSown. You can learn all about winter sowing as well as get free seeds to use in your own winter sowing efforts.

Supplies Needed:

• milk jugs (or cartons, or tall foam cups, or any other container you can re-use that will hold at least 3" of soil, plus plants)
• good quality potting soil (go ahead and buy the good stuff, you'll save enough everywhere else)
• heavy duty kitchen shears or a utility knife
• duct tape
• plant markers (optional) and a marker
• seeds
  

First I gather a lot of milk jugs and other containers. I don't like having these sit around all year, so I just ask friends and family to save them for me for about the month before I plant. I always end up with enough. Make sure these are SUPER CLEAN. I wash them out beforehand and then after cutting them to make sure they're really clean.


Start by cutting slits in the bottom of the container for drainage.


Then, pinch the corner of the jug that is opposite of the handle about halfway up the jug. Snip with your shears.


From the snipped point, cut around the jug, leaving the handle section intact.


Fill with at least three inches of good quality potting soil. Soil should be moist before you put it in the containers. Not dripping wet, but damp.


Next plant your seeds in the dirt according the the package directions. I plant a lot more than the package calls for, and then divide them when I transplant. But how you do this is really up to you.

Butterfly House

We loved the butterfly house - so fun! Next time we may try to visit on a day that isn't quite so sunny though, since there were not as many butterflies as we were hoping would be out and about. It was just too bright out from what I heard. The ones we saw were beautiful though!

So Far Behind...

Here are some pics from January. These are taken at Callaway Gardens. We did a day trip since they were having free admission in Jan and Feb. Had a great time and plan to visit again! The birds of prey show was better than any I've been to before-the birds were flying through the audience the whole time.

Hitting the Pause Button

I've been under the weather for weeks now. Bronchitis didn't totally clear up after the first round of medicine and came back hard along with a sinus infection. Now on a stronger and longer round of antibiotics, but still mostly useless. Lying on the couch and watching tv is about as much as I have energy to do.

No school.

No shopping.

No cooking.

No scrapping.

Life is on pause.

Mini Vacation

Having a little mini-vacation this weekend. First weekend all to ourselves in what, five years? Really wishing I wasn't sick with bronchitis and laryngitis, but still having a very fun time.

Week Two Wrap Up

Spending for week two $5.65! We bought quite a few freebie groceries, but only had to pay for half and half and soyoy bars. So we're now $25.16 under budget for the challenge. On to week three.

Freebie Shopping

So, I am doing the pantry challenge to clean out our excess supply of food, but couldn't resist picking up FREE stuff at the store. Believe it or not, we have just about used up the yogurt and we only got it three days ago. It's AWESOME! So I will be getting quite a bit more of it this month. :-) It's great because the Greek yogurt is so thick and tangy, you can use it in place of sour cream as well. Actually, I think it tastes better!

Another Pantry Meal Plan

So, we have a lot of leftovers and we'll be eating a lot of those for lunches. Also getting a bunch of delicious Greek yogurt free after coupons, so we'll be eating that for breakfasts. I LOVE Greek yogurt. And I made homemade granola yesterday to top it with. YUM!

Breakfasts: fruit, greek yogurt, homemade granola, waffles

Lunches: leftovers, tuna, PB&J, out on Wed

Dinners
Sunday: "Leftover Buffet"
Monday: Shrimp Pasta (ended up getting a free pizza instead)
Tuesday: Chicken Cordon Bleu, Collard Greens, Homemade Pear Sauce
Wednesday: Breakfast for Dinner
Thursday: Asian Pork Tenderloin, Steamed Veggies, Rice
Friday: Fried Rice
Saturday: Leftovers or Baked Potato Soup

School

Autumn working on her math activity book today. I'm trying to figure out what we're going to be doing for school next year, but I have a feeling the decision is going to take me a couple months to make. There are a lot of things I DON'T want to do, but still not sure what I DO want to do. If you have any curriculum suggestions, especially for math, I would love to hear them!

A Pic For Tonight

Autumn and Miriam the night before Tristan's wedding

Week One Wrap-Up

Week one of the pantry challenge was a success! We spent a total of $9.19 this week on groceries.
What did we buy? Dairy: milk, half and half, organic greek yogurt. Produce: pears, apples, shredded cabbage, big tub of baby spinach, and a tomato.

I can see that the pantry stockpile is dwindling, but the freezer is actually filling up more! Not what I expected. But as we've been trying to make the most of what we have, we've been ending up with lots of leftovers. We now have baked potato soup, vegetable soup, lots of collards, and pizza sauce all added to the freezer this week.

I'm going to be cutting the budget to $20 a week for the rest of the month and rolling over the extra from this week into next week, since there are some extra things we will need to buy next week like dog food.

While we had been planning on not doing the pantry challenge at all while we go on vacation later this month, I think we will try to take enough food with us that we only go out once a day. Hopefully will have a free breakfast at the hotel and I will plan either lunch or dinner from our pantry, with the other meal being out.

Pantry Update and Menu Plan

So, only a few days in, but so far so good! We've spent a total of 1 cent so far on groceries (soyjoy bar deal at CVS). And the food so far has been great (if I do say so myself). I will have to do a little shopping either tomorrow or Tuesday so we have milk and produce, but here's the simple menu plan for this week:

Monday
(B) oatmeal/smoothies
(L) tuna and veggie wraps
(D) homemade pepperoni pizza

Tuesday
(B) homemade toast or rolls with preserves
(L) baked potatoes with steamed broccoli
(D) Indian-spiced turkey burgers with veggie dippers

Wednesday
(B)toast or soyjoy bars and fruit
(L) out for playdate? or PB&J
(D) pasta with homemade marinara sauce and meatballs and salad

Thursday
(B)cereal
(L) "snack tray"
(D)barbecue chicken sandwiches

Friday
(B) waffles
(L) potato and kale soup
(D) broccoli cheese quiche

Saturday
(B) cereal and fruit
(L) leftover quiche
(D) tacos

Happiness Is...

A morning spent thrifting with the best husband in the world.

Happiness Is...

...a surprise birthday cake made from clay and the sweetest "happy birthday" song ever.

January Eat From the Pantry Challenge

So I'm going to take a stab at the pantry challenge for January. We've actually been eating mainly from the pantry and freezer for all of December, so I don't have much of a stockpile, but I do really want to work through what we have and also put together a donation for a local food pantry.

My goals:

• Keep grocery spending under $25 a week for the month of January. This will be mostly produce and dairy.
  
• Clean out the freezer in preparation for defrosting and a thorough cleaning at the end of the month.
  
• Work through pantry to avoid having food expire.
  
• Inventory freezer, fridge, cupboards.
• Gather and deliver food pantry donation.
• Grocery budget money will go towards supplies for the garden. I want to add another raised bed and we also need to purchase another truckload of mulch/compost as well as plants and seeds.
  

24 Days of December

Check out my scrapping blog for lots of tutorials, gift ideas, and recipes leading up to Christmas!

Baking Day - Cookies

I'm planning on using this month's OAMC day to do most of my holiday baking. I'll also be trying to find the time to make some tutorials, create gift tags, and get gifts shipped out.

So here's what I'm planning on:

Cranberry Pecan Biscotti
Lemon Meltaways
Pecan Tarts
Ginger Cookies
Peanut Butter Chocolate Bars
Carmello Candy
White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies*
Mini Chocolate Chip Cookies*
Homemade Bread

*from pre-made dough

Craftday - Part One

Not feeling great, so not getting much of my to-do list done for craft day, but here's what I did the first day.

Finished off these kusudama origami ornaments for my etsy shop (all the folding was done already):

Made these altered letters for a gift exchange:


And put together a banner that I don't have pictured yet.

Then, in the middle of the night, dealing with insomnia, I did all the folding for another kusudama. Hoping to get it done tomorrow.

Indian-Spiced Turkey Burgers

Those of you who know me know, that while I love to cook, I don't buy cook books. Most recipes I can find online for free. But a while back, I did purchase a copy of Anjum Anand's "Indian Food Made Easy" because I really wanted to learn to cook the Indian food that we enjoy so much when we go out to eat. Everything I've made from the book has been delicious and enjoyed by all of us (as long as I make milder versions of the spicy dishes for Autumn).

I adapted her Chicken Burger recipe from the book to make turkey burgers for lunch today and they turned out soooooo yummy. I'd love to try the original recipe as it's written in the book, but adapted it to use what I had on hand in the house. Here's my version from today (oh, and this made about 13 burgers, 10 of which I'm sticking in the freezer for quick lunches):

2 lbs ground turkey
1 1/2 t ground ginger
1/2 small onion minced
2-3 large garlic cloves minced
handful of fresh parsley leaves and stalks finely chopped
2 heaping teaspoons salt
1 1/2 t garam masala (common Indian spice combination - you can find this one in the grocery store)
1 1/2 cups bread crumbs
2 eggs
2 t ground cumin
2 t fresh lemon juice
1/2 - 1 t ground red pepper
2 T EVOO, plus extra for oiling pan

Pre-heat oven to 400. Mix all ingredients together with your hands until well-combined. Shape into patties and place on an oiled pan. Cook for 10 minutes, flipping halfway through. Serve on toasted buns with tomato, lettuce, onion and (herbed) mayo.