Thrifty Thursday

Sorry I didn't post yesterday. Honestly, I haven't worked in my craft nook for a few weeks... But I have next week off, so it is the NUMBER ONE thing on my to do list.

This Thrifty Thursday post is about GARDENING.

Gardening, is something that can save you lots of money. If you can get it to be bountiful... We have tried 3 time before. Last year, we got a couple handfuls of tomatoes.

This year we decided to go ALL OUT! My Man from the Palouse, made me raise garden beds. We even got plant starts this year.

Yes, it is cheaper and more thrifty to not have to buy lumber or soil for raised beds. But if you use pallets...

Yes, it is cheaper and more thrifty to do seeds, but if you are like me you get seeds to germinate and then... nothing...

At my husbands's work they get pallets all the time. He has built a few things with them because it is free lumber. Not great lumber, but lumber none the less.

A couple weeks ago we got a nice stretch of weather and my husband and his friend spent the whole day cutting up pallets, putting the beds together, adding compost and soil. I think they did a great job!

We don't just garden. We also compost. Even in our apartment, we have a worm compost bin. We started one last year. Which was very successful, just too small. This year we 'upgraded' from 10 gallons to 18.

You can put a lot in to a compost. Composting out side you can put more things in than when vermicomposting (worm composting). In our compost bin we put any vegetable food scraps, any vegetables and fruit that have 'past their prime', fruit scraps, shredded newspaper and all those credit card offers that come in the mail. We shred those and throw them in.

We have an old plastic container we keep on the counter, and when it is full I dump it in and cover the food with some of the bedding in the bin. It takes a few months to get nice compost, but it is not going to the landfills. We use red wriggles for our worm box. They are the best for composting inside. Worms are also cheap and they are prolific!

Here are a couple of site that I like for gardening help or vermicomposting:

GARDENING:
The National Garden Association--http://www.garden.org/
Square Foot Gardening--http://www.squarefootgardening.org/
Organic Gardening Learn and Grow--http://www.organicgardening.com/learn-and-grow

VERMICOMPOSTING:
Red Worm Composting--http://www.redwormcomposting.com/
Great site for Troubleshooting: All Things Organic--http://www.allthingsorganic.com/How_To/07.asp
Journey to Forever--http://journeytoforever.org/compost_worm.html