Square Foot Gardening, part 2

So, the jury's still out on this Square Foot Gardening thing... or really, just this "gardening" thing.

Since I last posted about SFG, we built a little 4x4 SFG according to the book. We planted several peppers,basil, lots of lettuce, one square of corn and two of pole beans. We also started 15 heirloom tomato plants in containers (the free nursery kind). We really wanted tomatoes, hence all the plants. The rest of the garden is based in part of expenditure (soooo much money spent each week on greens that usually go to waste!), partially on the timing of the season (a little late to plant, missed spinach season, etc) and also in part an experiment to see what would do best in our little homestead project.

Sadly, no sooner was the garden set when a deer strolled on by and munched its way haphazardly through. Most offensive was the fact that the deer ate some of our tomato plants!!! I thought those were poisonous!??!? We lost about 15% of the original planting. I bought some string and tin foil and used it to bolster the height of the fence around our yard. A week later, the deer returned, finished off the pole beans and peppers, took out two more tomatoes. :-(

I guess gardening is about learning and experimentation. The start-up costs have been significant and grossly outweigh any potential costs of buying fresh vegetables at the farmer's market. I'm hoping that by next year, it will be more equitable, since we won't have to re-purchase materials to make a box, add soil or deer abatement.

Thusfar, we're in the hole $265 in this endeavor.

$75 materials for box

$75 for soil mix ("Mel's Mix" of 16 square feet of 1/3 peat moss, 1/3 vermiculit, 1/3 compost)

$75 for new deer fencing

$35 for plant starts (next year will have time to grow from seed)

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$260 --- that would be TONS of vegetables

Also, the hidden costs in this project is our time and all the water we're going to use to grow these vegetables.

We'll see how it all pans out by the end of this growing season... One of the advantages of the SFG method is that you can swap out mini-crops and therefore, grow through three seasons.

Even Yet Still More Broke-Ass Gourmet: Black Bean Soup

Have I mentioned my new obsession with BrokeAss Gourmet yet? ;-)

The third recipe I've tried so far was the Black Bean Soup. This is a very, very simple recipe that is so pure (and inexpensive!).

I swapped out the canned beans for dried. I triple-washed the beans after they'd soaked, so we haven't been living in a fartastic household. (There's a little tip for ya - wash, wash, wash your beans after soaking and they won't be so much of the "magical fruit.")

Also, on a wild hair, I whipped up this Cilantro Chile Cream notion I came across at Recipezaar. Finally, I added a little curry to the cream. The flavor combinations is outstanding.

More Broke Ass Gourmet - Kale and Cannellini Soup

Another recipe I'll endorse, so far, from Broke Ass Gourmet:

Kale-Cannellini Soup with Garlic Toast

I doubled the recipe, mixed in some Swiss Chard (from a pre-mixed, pre-washed, pre-cut bag of kale / chard from Trader Joe's) and added chicken for my sick hubby - he's already requesting I make it again! The second night, instead of having it with garlic toast, I ate it over a baked potato. Delish!!!

Even doubling the recipe, the dish cost less than $20 ($18). It was super nutritious and made two complete meals for us - that's $5 dinner / head!

Broke Ass Gourmet - Hearty Quinoa Salad = Yum!

I recently discovered "Broke Ass Gourmet" and have road tested a few of the recipes. So far, I'm impressed! They're inexpensive, simple and very tasty. They also require very little time.

I tried the Hearty Quinoa Salad today. There are no tricks up this recipe's sleeve, everything is so straightforward that I assumed it would be fairly bland, but it was fantastic! Such a fun mix to flavors! The simplicity of the recipes is great because it's teaching me about some basic combinations that work very well together.

I altered the recipe a bit by tossing the garlic into the pan for the last few minutes of cooking the sausage, instead of using the garlic raw. Also, the recipe seems to be missing the information about what to do with the sausage. Fortunately, while I'm fairly new to the ways of the kitchen, I'm not a complete idiot.

I don't eat pork, and it's nearly impossible to find a sausage that doesn't use pork casing, so I substituted the Italian Sausage flavored Tofurky. Also, I forgot to add the olive oil at the end, but the salad was more than succulant enough without it.

Square Foot Gardening

Frudgal Dad makes a great point on his blog that the drought in California is going to skyrocket produce costs this year, which should inspire many people to take up growing their own. This is the case for us for sure!

I've been reading up on making a square foot garden - a way of economically utilizing space and water resources to produce three crops / square foot. Again, Frugal Dad has a great article about square foot gardening, or "SFG" as it's sometimes called. I wish his site had more follow ups from his previous year's attempt, though!

A great resource for SFG is the Square Foot Gardening website, which has videos and books about the method, as well as lots of info on how far apart to plant certain crops, etc.

Sheepishly Cheap Nursing Pads

I've been planning a sub-section of this blog to put up examples of the ways people are sheepishly cheap. Like spending big money on eating out, but agonizing over finding the most dirt-cheap hotel to stay at on a trip. Or getting fancy suits, but getting a secret thrill out of finding $1/pair socks.

This little ditty about using cut up panty liners as nursing pads would DEFINITELY qualify as a "sheepishly cheap" thing for me, since the only reason I'd do it is for a better deal, but the author, Amy Storch's reasoning is pretty sound and based not just on price, but comfort too. I learned the "panty liner" trick at the hospital this second time around - since I'd had a c-section and was there when my milk came in (you stay longer)  - I was surprised they didn't have nursing pads... until a nurse snipped up a couple of those gigunda sanitary pads and told me to stuff my bra with 'em. Pretty brilliant.

A Hip and Snappy Word on Frugality

I've already covered a few of these basics here in this blog, but Liz Gumbinner has a snappier take on them, plus a few others I haven't gotten around to talking about yet.

I'm particularly fond of her last suggestion - about not going cheap on key items like baby's first shoes. Her point? "Spending 30% more for something that lasts beats spending 100% more because the first pair wore down in two weeks."

True. That's the difference between thrifty and cheap.

Make Hay While The Sun Shines

This should really go in the "duh" department, but... it is very thrifty to buy Christmas ornaments, decorations, etc NOW, while the post-holiday sales are going on.

Also, I'm still new to the idea of having children, but I realized today while hunting for a last minute snow outfit for my daughter that I should have bought one last year during the big post-holiday sales. With children it's pretty easy to guess where their sizing will be the next year and, if they're outsized, the outfit will make a nice gift for someone.

I ended up getting something at a consignment store - another bit of thriftiness there. Reusing is great!

Play-Doh or Play-Don't?

Okay, play-doh isn't exactly one of those break-the-bank items. It's pretty cheap - something like 70 cents a can. But, here, at this blog, cheap isn't the goal - thrifty is!

Sure, it's easy to buy Play-doh, but the stuff comes in plastic tubs, is made in a foreign land, has to be shipped all over the world to get to your store... the environmental impact is fairly significant, especially since you can make salt dough for LESS (incredibly!) and it only requires ingredients you would have in your house for the most basic recipes - in other words, you're not contributing to the merchandising and shipment costs on a product you don't actually already NEED (flour, salt, vegetable oil).

Yes, Play-doh has a convenience factor - you don't have to make it. However, making the salt dough is a qualitative project that my daughter and I enjoy doing together. As she gets older, this simple little project will teach her progressive skills - math in measuring, dexterity in pouring, etc.

Here's the latest, greatest salt dough recipe I've found.