Saving Some Green in the Garden

With spring approaching quickly, we've been busy planning and preparing the garden for planting. Tim has tilled the entire garden and laid a fresh layer of compost and manure. He's also created raised beds and has started building supports for climbing plants. I've been put to use drawing a to-scale version on our garden. I've also been put in charge of keeping a record of our gardening endeavors.


This year we're trying to save some green while growing some green. Part of our goal was to spend as little money as possible to get the garden started. So far we've only spent a few dollars out of pocket. This may sound like a small feat, but this is what we've gathered for the garden this year:

~ 2 truck loads of manure (free from a friend who has chicken houses)

~ 4 truck loads of mulch (free from a kind tree cutter)

~ wooden and metal stakes (salvaged, a few purchased from the Habitat for Humanity store)

~ yarn and twine (on-hand from last year)

~ seed starting soil (free with a coupon from Garden's Alive)

~ 3 seed starting trays with lids (free with a Lowe's gift card from our Discover card points)

~ Growing lamp with 2 light bulbs (free with the same Lowe's gift card)

~ 2 Packs of pole beans and 1 Pack of ground (husk) cherry seeds (purchased from Johnny's)

~ 2 Packs of heirloom tomato seeds and 1 Pack of heirloom pepper seeds (free from a gardening friend)

~ 10 packs of seeds: Lettuce, Spinach, Melon, Watermelon, Grape Tomato, Eggplant, Roma Tomato, Snow Pea, Pole Bean (free from Amazon using gift cards from Swagbucks, click to find out how you can get free gift cards and more)

We'll be posting more about our garden as the spring progresses. We hope to be able to eat well, can a lot, and share our abundance this year. Head over to Heavenly Homemakers to see other Green Projects.

Are you planning a garden this year? We'd love to hear about what your planning to grow. If not, what would be the one thing you'd like to grow if you could?