The Frugal Garden: Raised Beds

 I have recently been trying out using a raised garden bed.  I am thinking ahead to the future and how to continue gardening as I age.  So I ordered a tall (waist height for me) Birdies raised bed from Epic Gardening.  I chose this type of raised bed because it can be configured several different ways and the materials should hold up to the Florida weather.

They come delivered in a flat pack and heavy box.  I assembled the bed by myself using the tool that was included in the box.  It took a half day, but only because I took my time and didn’t rush.

Next came filling it.  Based on the size of the raised bed, there was no way I could fill it up completely with garden soil.  I decided to use the lasagna method by adding different layers of materials.  The first layer was large pieces of wood from pruning trees and shrubs.  The second layer was smaller trimmings.  Third we’re several layers of flattened cardboard boxes.  The fourth layer was grass clippings.  The last layer was garden soil mix with perlite or vermiculite and fertilizer.

It’s interesting that I still have the same weed and insect problems with this raised bed as I do in my regular gardens, but it’s much easier for me to access for planting and weeding.  

I’ll keep using it and will let you know my thoughts on this type of garden bed.

Another seller of this type of garden bed is Vego.  Shop around for sales as these beds are pricey.

God bless Pm

The Frugal Garden: Potatoes in Pots

 If you live in an area with poor soil or extreme weather try growing potatoes in pots.  You can control the soil quality, move the pots before inclement weather and the potatoes are much easier to harvest.

I used fabric pots this year, but I’m transitioning to recycled plastic trugs.  The sides of the fabric pots tend to collapse and make watering tricky; however, they fold flat and are easy to store.  The fabric pots and trugs are around 11 gallons, enough to hold three potato plants.

Place several inches of soil into the pots and plant two or three seed potatoes.  After they sprout and start growing add more soil into the pot, leaving a couple of inches of plant showing.  Keep adding soil as the plants grow, which encourages more root growth resulting in more potatoes.

When the plants begin to die back it’s time to harvest.  Dump the pots out and just pick up the potatoes from the soil.  Much easier than digging the potatoes out and possibly damaging the potatoes with your fork or shovel.

Next season I’m going to buy organic potatoes at the store rather than ordering seed potatoes.  I haven’t been impressed by the quality of the seed potatoes available in my area.

We had boiled potatoes with butter, salt and pepper for supper.  Yum!

God bless,

Pam

The Frugal Garden: Mulberries

 Two years ago I decided to order mulberry seedlings from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds.  They were as big as my thumb, but grew quickly with me transplanting them to bigger and bigger pots.  After a couple of months they were ready to transplant into the ground.  Here’s my biggest tree:

It’s as tall as the roof of my one story house and has been producing berries since late April.  The first year we only got a handful of small berries, but this year the berries are larger, prolific, and are very sweet.  These are dwarf, everbearing mulberries.

The berries look pretty when they are growing.

But wait until they are black to harvest, then they are at their best.  They should fall off into your hand with the slightest touch.  If we had more trees we would lay tarps down under them and give the branches a shake to knock them down.  However, I enjoy going out in the dusk sun and picking the berries for tomorrow’s breakfast.  It’s feels very meditative to me and clears my mind of the day’s troubles.

God bless,

Pam

The Frugal Garden: Dooryard Garden Update

 A Dooryard garden is an easily accessible garden space, just outside a doorway, for easy harvesting of herbs, flowers and sometimes vegetables.  Mine is by my front door, so I work to keep it visually pleasing.

I keep a seed starting area inside my house and every week I replace dying plants with new seedlings.  If I do have a blank area, I keep a variety of attractive pots planted and move them into the empty space.

Here are my dooryard garden at the beginning of the growing season and now when most of the plants are maturing.

Experiment with the plants that you use for cooking and with your favorite flowers.  Two of the larger pots contain hot peppers, one yellow and one red.  Both are attractive and tasty.

God bless,

Pam

The Frugal Kitchen: Beans and Greens II

 Earlier this week we were expecting storms, so we harvested our collard greens and mustard greens.  Now remember that I live in Florida, so our growing season is Fall, Winter and early Spring.  Collards taste better after a little cold weather making early Spring a good time to harvest.

I soaked the greens in lightly soapy water, then soak them and rinse in cold water.  In the meantime I have lightly salted water boiling in a large pot.  I cut out the tough ribs and cut the greens into manageable pieces.  Put the greens in the boiling water and blanch for three to five minutes.  This neutralizes the enzymes that can effect the quality of the greens.  Pack the greens into freezer safe containers and freeze.

Today I made beans and greens using collard greens and dried white kidney beans.

INGREDIENTS 

1 cup dried beans soaked in water overnight

2 or 3 cups frozen collard greens 

1 smoked ham hock or 1 Tbsp. ham soup base

3 finely minced garlic cloves or 1 Tbsp. garlic soup base.

4 cups water

2 bay leaves

Black pepper to taste

Salt to taste ( I didn’t need to add any)

1 Tbsp. vinegar if you feel it needs it at the end of cooking

Place all ingredients, except salt and vinegar, in an electric or regular pressure cooker.  Cook on high for 45 minutes or, if you like very soft beans, 1 hour.  After cooking taste for salt or vinegar.  Adding these two ingredients before cooking will result in tough beans.

Serve with corn bread or soda crackers.  Enjoy!

God bless,

Pam

The Frugal Kitchen: Oil Hardener

 Putting cooking oil down the drain can damage septic systems, government sewer systems, and the pipes in your home.  I don’t know why I never heard of oil hardeners, but they have been available in Asia for years.

Once you are done cooking you add the hardening powder to hot oil, stir until dissolved and when the oil cools it hardens.

At that point just scoop the hardened oil out of the pan with a spatula and put it in your trash.  Wipe out the pan with a paper towel and wash as usual.

An added bonus is that the hardener is a natural substance derived from oil and is not harmful to the environment.  It’s made cleaning up much easier than when I was saving containers to dispose of oil rather than recycling them.

God bless,

Pam

Pav Bhaji, a Frugal Recipe

 You know that time of the year when the tomatoes from the garden won’t stop.  This vegetable stew with slightly sweet dinner rolls to sop up the juices is a perfect way to use up tomatoes and any spare vegetables you have lying around.  

I got this recipe from Indian Healthy Recipes and I adjusted it for my family’s taste.  The Pav Bhaji spice mix that I have includes the hot chili, so I didn’t add more.

The dinner rolls are fromSally’s Baking Addiction and this is one of my favorite dinner roll recipes.  This recipe calls for whole milk which I didn’t have on hand, so I added a tablespoon of dried milk to the low fat milk I did have.

Pav Bhaji is a popular street food in Mumbai, India.  Vendors pride themselves on how much butter they use but I was conservative (stingy?) and only used a couple of tablespoons.  Enjoy!

God bless,

Pam

bb65b9cd010b14bc30