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DFA Link Rally: Gardening Saves Money

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Jabs family garden plans 2010

You may remember that we fancy ourselves amateur gardeners, and while we never grow a lot, we do like to grow at least some of the things we love to eat.  When you grow your own… you know how it was grown, how it was fertilized, and where it comes from – and we love that.  We also rather enjoy paying $2.00 for a plant that grows to produce 10x its cost in delicious bounty, and we love walking 30 feet to get it… we think it’s a darn good ROI.

This week we weeded the garden and readied the homemade organic fertilizer from our diy vermicompost bin.  Now all we have left to do is plant, which will only take about an hour.  In the photo you can see our new plants on the left, both our garden beds in the middle (with the herbs already present in the small bed,) and our rain barrel on the right.

One other thing worth mentioning is that our Thyme and Sage plants are apparently perennial… we did not know that and seeing them come up on their own was a pleasant surprise.  Another thing that came up on it own was the Cilantro from the Coriander seeds I planted last summer.  I had forgotten about them because they never came up last year, but they sprouted all over the place so far this year.  Cool stuff.

This year we have:

  • Sage
  • Cilantro
  • Thyme
  • Basil
  • Tomato (Rutgers, Primtimes, and Sungold cherries)
  • Zucchini
  • Lettuce (Green leaf and Oak leaf)
  • Cayenne Peppers

Although we are yet undecided, we may supplement what we are growing with a local CSA membership.  Either way, we cannot wait to taste our homegrown veggies, and cannot wait to break in our pressure canner to preserve whatever we cannot eat or turn into salsa.  What about you, are you growing a garden this year?

Link rally for this week