I've been enjoying the exciting challenge of being more environmentally and community focused. My husband and I are really assessing our lives, and finding ways we can be more self-sustaining, organic, friendly to the environment and pour into our local community. All of these things combined are so great for the world we live in. A "greener" lifestyle and perspective lead to living more simply, which often leads to frugality (which we are all striving for in this economy, am I right?). You can accuse me of "Going Green," or being an "Environmentalist," or even a "Hippy," but I will not let it damper my spirits. I'm also REALLY not into labels..
I still have so far to go in being more Green, but it's a worthwhile journey and an adventure. So, while I am striving for this change in lifestyle and perspective, please don't call me a hypocrite for the things in my life that have yet to change. It's a process, and every little change counts!
Here is an easy way to be a little more green, a little more organic, and a little more friendly to the environment. It's a great project to do with kids, with a lot of educational opportunities that go along with it!
Plant a Vegetable Garden
Our little family started our own little vegetable garden this past weekend. I'm so excited! This is a surprisingly EASY project to undertake, with a bounty benefits! Here's how we did it:
1) We went to the West Chester Grower's Market Saturday morning. It was booming with produce, homemade soap, cheese and good conversation. It is still early in the season, so the market has little fruit - but it was packed with lots of good vegetables, awesome flowers, unique cheeses and aromatic soaps. The Market also had a lot of great Vegetable Plants, which we gladly bought. (I also bought the WC Grower's Market Cookbook - AWESOME and TOTALLY WORTH IT! Get your copy for a mere $4 next Saturday at the Welcome Booth!)
2) Stopped at Agway (hardware/home improvement store) for some pots, a bag of soil, and tomato cages (for support when the plants grow taller).
3) Came home, filled each pot halfway with soil, planted each plant, and topped with soil.
4) Water them daily and watch them grow!
Many people often think that you cannot have a vegetable garden if you rent or do not have much (if any) land. We are renters, and have yet to own our own home. I cannot WAIT for the day wherein we have a yard to plot out our dream garden. Until then, we have a Patio Garden, with our plants in pots. We have actually had a tomato plant each summer in this Patio Garden/Pot fashion - so I can say from experience it works beautifully!
Here are pictures from our Patio Garden:
Our 2 Tomato Plants
Our Lone Sweet Red Pepper Plant
Our Lettuce Patch (Salad Mix)
Now, we can look forward to FRESH vegetables from our own garden - without the grocery store prices! It's the purchase that keeps on giving, easily making up for the $10 we spent for all the plants.
I can't wait for our first Garden Salad, fresh from our own GARDEN...Mmm!
If you plant a garden this summer, email me and send some pictures to inspire the rest of the community! moderndaydonnareed@gmail.com
~G0 HERE to view a great blog about gardening by a dear friend of mine who has a majorly GREEN thumb! He actually has a post about planting vegetables in pots if you cannot plant a "real" garden. Read about it HERE.
~ Check out You Bet Your Garden, the website by the WHYY/Public Radio show of the same name.
More Green Ideas to come! If you have any to share, contact me and I will post them...
This is a great post...I would really like to start growing my own herbs and some veggies. I have major issues when it comes to keeping plants alive, so I'm a little scared.
ReplyDeletePlus, this may be a dumb question, but how do you harvest the salad mix? Do you just rip off leaves and they grow back?
Way to go! We're putting in a garden too. Didnt think we would this year as we'll be gone most of August but Dave will only be gone one week of that and I've purchased a mix of veggies that will mature at different times. Great idea about the lettuce. I want to get that too. We also put some basil and oregano in our kitchen window. One major change we made recently is going with cloth bags for the grocery store. Now I see plastic everywhere. You can't seem to get away from it. Even if you use cloth bags you still have plastic for veggies and meat. I see that there is a bin outside our grocery store where you can recycle the plastic bags.
ReplyDeleteCheck out wind power in your area.
I have been called a hippie most of my life. I consider it a compliment.:)
I love the Farmers Market and totally believe we should all do our part to support local farmers.
Thanks, Steph.