Experiments in the Garden

It's been a week or so since I logged onto my blog, and this new format is ... interesting. We'll see how well it allows me to format things the way I want.

Blogging formatting aside, with the weather suddenly shifting into Warm gear, my mind has left the house (and all interest in housework) behind. Every year I decide to try some new fruits or vegetables to see how they grow and if we will like eating them. This year my garden is taking on added importance as we work with a reduced income due to my husband's ongoing health issues and the related medical expenses. A couple of very interesting websites I was introduced to are driving some of my experimentation this year. The first is a site called "Back to Eden" by this gardener up in the Olympic Peninsula of Washington. He believes in layering compost on his orchard and garden and planting directly in the composted material as opposed to tilling it in. His experiences are documented in a feature-length film you can watch for free. Enriching and building my garden soil naturally, reducing weeds, and avoiding tilling are very appealing! My neighbor is providing the hauling help for the compost from our city landfill. I got three yards of the beautiful stuff last week and got started today:

I put down a base layer of newspaper three sheets thick and sprayed it with my garden sprayer on "shower." Next came layering on the compost. I think my layer is about four or five inches thick. It was slow progress, but I rewarded myself by planting a set of onions I bought at Home Depot for .99. I really would love to get some broccoli seeds in there next, but my gardening time is over for today. Hopefully I'll get some in tomorrow morning.

The other website I found fascinating is called "The Prudent Homemaker." This blog is written by a Las Vegas mom whose family income was lost for 8 months and then has only regained about 30% of it since then. She's had to be extremely frugal, which to some people may imply doing some very strange things to cut back on expenses. I think she has some great ideas. Her recipe for graham crackers is to die for, from what I hear, and a friend swears by her homemade laundry detergent mix. 

I'll keep you along for the journey with photos and updates about how all of this turns out.