Posted by Mama but written by DH
· We have increased our garden footprint. – Last year we had about 20 x 10 so200 sq. ft. of garden space where we grew tomatoes (6), broccoli (6), cauliflower (2), jalapeno peppers (4), celery (4), lettuce (4). We finished the last of the frozen broccoli from our garden this January. We still have some frozen tomatoes and peppers, and like 12 jars of spaghetti sauce.
· This year’s garden – vegetable, herb, pots, greenhouse, trees, misc.
o Vegetable garden – 20 x 80 so 1600 sq. ft. of garden in here thus far tomatoes (12), eggplant (4), squash (12), corn (3 rows of like 40 plants), beans (3 varieties, 4 rows, 50 plants), radishes (60), broccoli (6), lettuce (6), celery (5), garlic (100), onions (100), Baking potatoes (20), red potatoes (20), sweet potatoes (3) and more coming as soon as seed starters get bigger from greenhouse. We will eat off the bounty, collect heirloom seeds, and sell/accept donations for seeds, starters, and vegetables.
o Herb Garden – Wife decided we needed to go more natural and started a medicinal herb garden with culinary herbs thrown in. 15 x 30 450 sq. ft. Won’t even begin to know what all she is putting in there, but I know what I put in for cooking. Basil (3), rosemary (2), horseradish (1) , thyme (4), cilantro (3). We have more sprouting in the greenhouse. From this we will dry herbs, use fresh, collect seeds, and make essential oils from the herbs.
o Pots – we are splitting herbs and extra plants as we get them. These pots can be bartered, sold, used as thank you for donations, gifts, and increase our growing space to areas that either currently do not have gardens, or are non-gardening area (deck, concrete etc.) We took mineral lick containers that were trash given to us by a friend, and turned into large pots on our deck. These are at least 2 ½ foot across and 2 ½ foot deep. We currently have three on our deck and are growing 4 watermelon plants and still have more space. I turned 4 others into a water fountain/garden on the deck. In here we may put fish, or other water plants. Have cat tails and horse tail in there currently along with like 30 tadpoles. Mainly to help clean water and get ready for fish.
o Greenhouse – We bought a greenhouse 12 x 10 last year at a huge discount. In here we have a hydroponics/aquaponics system. Although still in development, it is working and growing. When complete we will have a 3 x 8 x 8 foot pond in the base for fish (we hope tilapia) and 100+ growing sites for plants. The fish waste feed the plants, the plants clean the water, and feed the fish. It is all a closed loop system and sustains itself. Totally organic, and you cannot use any chemicals or risk one of the balances for the fish or plants. The whole system is continually cycling the water and nutrients. We estimate we can produce between 200-1000 pounds of fish each year. That is only ½ the function. The other function is our plant nursery. We start all of our seeds in here and have gotten quite the system for growing. We start about 100-200 seeds at a time. We have a 95% success rate with all the seeds started. Currently on batch 2 in the greenhouse. The seedlings are used in our gardens, bartered/sold/used as donation gifts, gifts, etc.
o Trees – three years ago we bought and planted three fruit trees. We transplanted on from another house we owned. We have an apple, pear, had a cornucopia (peach, plum, and others combined), and what we were told was a Kentucky peach. Last year we thought the peach dropped all its fruit and turns out the oldest of the girls had been eating them all summer. This year the apple has fruit, the pear has fruit and the peach has a bunch of fruit. This fall we plan on taking cuttings and rooting the trees to either plant on our property, pot for sale/trade/donation gifts, or use as gifts. We have to prune all the trees anyway, might as well use the cuttings rather than add to compost.
o Misc. – here is everything we have added plant wise that is not captures elsewhere. We added strawberry plants all over property as ground cover. So anywhere in-between bushes or between flower gardens there is strawberries. They are prolific growers and produce fruit. Much better than just mulch or some other ground cover. We have about 60+ plants. We got our first harvest yesterday. 6 big strawberries. Cost us nothing.
We have 3 grape vines we put in this year. We cut down our existing cypress trees, used all the needles as bedding for the grapes and to acidify the soil. We have blueberry bushes we put in this year. We have about 10 red raspberry bushes and another 20 black berry bushes around the fence and house. These cost us nothing as we dug up from woods by family’s house. These just went in so not much production yet. We plan on adding about another 20+ bushes.
· We have no credit cards and never plan on signing up for them again. We both have learned from the bad spending habits of others, which sent us into debt.
· We changed our debt payoff plan from 5 years to 3 or sooner. Every extra buck goes to debt reduction or savings.
· We now do a ROI (Return on Investment) for everything. If it will not save us money, or produce income, we don’t get it or put low on the priority list.
· We use the app Gas Buddy before filling up. While I once said “it is just a few cents savings” I now say “it is $1 today, and that $1 adds up over a year”
· We stopped or greatly reduced going out to eat. We pack lunches when we go to Zoo, Children’s Museum or other activities. One out for a meal is not that big of a deal, but 6 is a bit more and that adds up fast.
· We buy used if we can. Why pay $100 for something you can get for $5. Example, I wanted some silicone muffin pans for making fire starters. New they are like $10 a piece. I paid $0.50 each. ½ price at Goodwill.
· We have 16 chickens that produce between 6 and 12 eggs a day.
· We make our own pasta. We had to do something with the extra eggs. After we sell, trade, give eggs away, still have more than we can all eat. Plus making your own pasta is healthier, is easy. 4 ingredients, (oil, salt, eggs, and flour) base recipe. Then you can use whole wheat flour, and add in other ingredients like spinach, tomatoes, garlic etc. Look at what is on the back of the box you buy at the store. How many things are in there that you cannot pronounce? Start looking at all the boxes you buy. What is it that you are eating?
· We take our own school/family pictures. With 4 kids, and pictures offered at least 3 times a year and the cheapest package costing $30 that is $360 at least a year, not to mention sports pics, family pics, baby pics etc. We take our own with a backdrop we made, and print at CVS for a few bucks.
· We buy in bulk and often repackage. For example a jar of pizza sauce is $2 and will make two large pizzas. We make pizza’s often. We buy a restraint size can of sauce for $6 and repackage in individual jars (we heat can them to keep longer) and get 8 jars per can. 8 jars in store costs $16 or more. Once our tomatoes come in this year we will make our own sauce, even cheaper! Ketchup, we buy can for $4, then refill ketchup bottles. We can get about 6 bottles out of one can. This would cost us more than $20 at store.
· We make our own pizza. Delivered pizza is around $14 for a large cheese. We make ours for about $2 or less and is ready in <1 ½ hrs and that is to let dough rise. If we make quick version is ready in < 20 min. We buy bulk flour, yeast, oil, cheese, and sauce. All of the ingredients we use in other applications.
· We can/freeze produce from our gardens.
· We barter. Our 16 chickens cost us almost nothing. We traded extra produce from our garden last year to someone wanting to downsize their chicken flock. We did pay some because they are rare breeds.
· Nothing gets wasted at the house. What we don’t eat the cat/dog gets. What they don’t eat goes to the compost for either the chickens, worms, or our garden to reuse.
· We compost, and add everything to it, except meat/protein and oils. The compost gets grass clippings, leaves, weeds, table scraps, shavings from the guinea pig cage, anything organic. Then it produces great soil for next year’s gardens.
· We use ceiling fans rather than air condition, and a fireplace insert for heat in the winter.
No comments:
Post a Comment