Mavis Mail – Jeannette Sends in Her Garden Photos

A big THANK YOU to everyone who has sent in their photographs and stories. I hope by sharing other people’s pictures and stories here on One Hundred Dollars a Month we can all have a rock star garden this year. Keep them coming!

Hi Mavis,

I’ve been gardening in my rather small back yard (and blogging about it HERE) for the last 5 years. So, below is a little blurb about this year’s garden and some photos (including one of my awesome dried beans).

My vegetable garden creates sanity in my life – a break from the chaos of my graduate studies and role as a mom to an energetic toddler. It also provides piece of mind as healthy food is available for my family year round. And, I absolutely love getting my hands dirty.

Does gardening save me money? I’ll still collecting data to answer this question (after 5 years, my guess is yes, gardening is saving me money, but I could do better). With every harvest, I put on my science hat and pull out the scale. Weights of each type of produce are carefully noted in a kitchen notebook. What gets missed are the piles of strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, peas, beans, carrots, broccoli and other tasty treats my daughter and I eat standing in amongst the garden beds.

This year I expanded my food production beyond tomatoes, kale and squash – I produce boat loads of these, I can store them easily all winter and we all like them, but they don’t fill out a meal. I do get some eggs from my small flock of hens, but complete meals from the garden generally haven’t happened in the past.

To fill us up with home-grown goodness, I more than quadrupled potato production by taking over a near-by family member’s garden. Potatoes are the most calorie dense food I can grow, and I love, love, love them (I could eat them every meal, I’m not sure my family shares the same potato-enthusiasm). We’ve already harvested pounds, and most are still in the ground.

New this year, I started growing dried beans. I’ve carefully selected all heritage varieties with fascinating origin stories. My favourite so far is ‘Eye of the Tiger’ beans because I can’t help but hum the 80’s song with the same name whenever I see them. A bean with a theme song, how cool is that.

To add another frugality piece to my puzzle, I’ve went through several rounds of garden tetris to ensure each bean variety was far enough from each other to not cross so I can save seeds to plant again next year. Now, my dried bean harvest has started and I can’t wait to start taste testing.

Finally, a tip for getting locally adapted seeds for near free – check out your local library, some are setting up seed collections where you can sign out seeds in the spring and save some to return in the fall.

~ Jeannette

If you would like to have your garden, chicken coop or something you’ve made featured on One Hundred Dollars a Month, here’s what I’m looking for:

• Your Garden Pictures and Tips – I’d especially like to see your garden set ups, growing areas, and know if you are starting seeds indoors this year. If so,  show me some picture of how you are going about it.
• Your Chicken and Chicken Related Stories – Coops, Chicks, Hen’s, Roosters, Eggs, you name it. If it clucks, send us some pictures to share with the world.
• Cool Arts & Crafts – Made from your very own hands with detailed {and well photographed} pictures and instructions.
• Your pictures and stories about your pets. The more pictures and details the better.
• Garage Sale, Thrift Store and Dumpster Diving pictures and the stories behind the treasures you found including how much you paid for them.

If I feature your pictures and the stories behind them on One Hundred Dollars a Month, I will send you a $20.00 gift card to the greatest store in the world: Amazon.com.

Go  HERE for the official rules.