I wasn't sure where to post this but I just wanted to share my gardening savings this weekend!!!!

I spent a lot of time this weekend deciding what I wanted to grow in the spring (started some annuals from seed, on the windowsill) and I spent a couple of hours outside with a shovel moving some plants and made a couple new flower beds (I live in Louisiana and when we get warm spurts it's easy to get Spring fever too early). I was thinking that I really needed to get some more gardening soil for my new beds and to fill my veggie garden up (I have a raised bed made out of landscaping timbers and though it has enough dirt in it to plant, every year I add more dirt and eventually it'll be full to the top like I want)......

By coincidence, I was at Big Lots this weekend and saw they had 40 lb bags of soil on sale for about $7. I didn't get any right then but later that evening, after telling my grandparents about the sale and finding out that they had a coupon for 20% off entire Big Lots purchase that expired that day, I went back and got the bags for about $5.50 each. Also, my grandparents found a great deal on humus and manuer (sp?) at Walmart this weekend for 25 cents a bag!!!! They got 4 truck loads full! Anyways, I am going to mix the manuer and bags of soil I got and will have a lot more soil in my garden than I thought I would be able to afford this spring.

I just had to share...

God bless,

Julie

Julie, do you compost at all?  If you do, you could get free "dirt" once the composting has finished its process. And, it's full of rich nutrients and a great soil amendment! 

We compost, and have for several years, but this past year our city has come out with "green bins" which are very conveniently located in the garage, as opposed to the compost bin which is across the snow-filled yard.  So, our compost bin has gone hungry for a while :(  But it's really almost a miraculous process to me, how all this stuff that gets dumped into the compost bin turns into soil in a few months.

Happy gardening!

Wow, wish I was there for the .25 sale. I added alot of worms to my raised bed gardens last year and put a thick layer of dead plants, with coffee ground and egg shells into my garden last fall so I don't think I will need to augment the soil at all this year. I bought alot of weed block when it was on sale last year so I won't have to wait until they stock it before I plant like I've had to do a couple of years. I was looking at what seed I have last night and dreaming about how soon I could get it in the soil. Last year I put some big tomatoe cages in the soil covered them in an arch with chicken wire and covered that with thick clear plastic to act as a green house. I was able to eat fresh greens well before the last frost. Right now we still have a couple feet of snow on the ground and we are expecting more tommorow, but I did see a Robin for the first time which is a good sign spring is on its way.

momto4cats:

Hi! Acutually, it's funny you ask about composting.... This weekend I printed out a bunch of information on composting and want to get started with it very soon. I have 2 main reasons: first of all, (as you said) it would definitely help by providing free "dirt" for my garden... but also I have been determined to cut down on our "trash production". Composting is a great way to eliminate landfill trash and will benefit my garden and the environment as a whole in the process. I think I am going to try to make some composting cages out of wooden pallets. I see them for free all the time by grocery stores and businesses and the directions I found online show that they are easy to throw together. So, I'm going to keep my eye out for some....

My grandparents are really into composting. They also use the worms and make composting tea and such. So, I'll get tips from them.

Thanks!

God bless,

Julie

 !!!!!  What on earth is composting tea????

For us composting tea is the spring run off from the manure pack in the barn yard LOL! It puddles outside the fence before we clean the yards out so i scoop it up and pour it in a bucket and douse my transplants with it!

Cinnamonhuskies:

It puddles outside the fence before we clean the yards out so i scoop it up and pour it in a bucket and douse my transplants with it!

  That's hilarious!!

for the rest of us, compost tea is compost (or compostable matter) that is steeped in water and then poured over plants, like a "tea" for the plants.  mmmm-yummy!  (well, for the plants that is)

 Oh my goodness you all had me frightened....it sounded as if you were using it for human consumption!

Looked thru my seeds last week to determine what I needed and planned my garden for the year.  I hope to change the layout alittle.  I currently have 2 rows of 4 raised beds.  What I'd like to do is combine the 4 boxes in each row and just have 2 -22 ft raised beds, then I wont have to worry about keeping up the walkways between them.  I saw a HUGE flock of Robins the other day and hope that the groundhog is wrong.  I am so very ready for spring.  Marked on my calendar what seeds need started when.  Plan on growing more herbs this year for drying to make potpourri for Christmas gifts.  Regarding the "tea" issue,  We've raised rabbits in the past and have made tea from their manure.  It was the best garden I've ever had.  I currently go across the fence and collect cow manure and put it in the raised beds in the fall. I've never used any other kind of fertilizer.  I don't have a compost pile-  I have dogs that roam and to me it takes too much to keep it up.  I just add mulched leaves, grass clippings, and the like to the beds in the fall.  I do have a tip for those who may have trouble with tomato worms- (I've been plagued with them for a couple of years)  I read somewhere about planting sweet basil in with your tomatoes so I tried it this past summer and it worked!  Not a worm in sight all summer!

Checked through my seeds and made a have, and a need, lists...

WE HAVE- seed potatoes, cantaloupe, zuchini, peas, cucumber, cabbage, tomatoes, radishes, lettuce, spinach, broccoli, green pepper, cauliflower, carrots, eggplant, watermelon, wax bush beans, green bush beans, green pole beans, sweet corn, pumpkin, butternut squash.

WE NEED- more green bush beans, yellow summer squash, acorn squash, onion sets, and possibly sunflowers.

I also need to repair or replace the covering on the outdoor mini greenhouse before mid April.

Long way to go until Spring....winter storm warning for tonight and tomorrow.