Sylvia From Salem, Oregon Shares Her Garden Photos

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

Check out these photos Sylvia, a semi-retired Early Childhood Special Education teacher living in Salem, Oregon sent in.

Here is what she had to say:

Although I live in town, I have found ways to satisfy my gardening fever. Our yard has only so many full sun spots and each is filled with raised beds. When plots became available at a nearby community garden, I decided to apply and was able to secure two plots in a newer, full sun garden. For $50 a year I have two plowed plots with free water.

Last year, due to an injury, I was unable to dig in the hard clay ground and had to forgo using the plots. This year raised bed boxes are allowed and I was able to have my partner David build 10 3’x6’ cedar boxes and had them moved them on site. With some help from my daughter and her boyfriend, I had them filled with mixed garden soil.

I have a greenhouse and started all my vegetable plants from seed.

This past week I planted all the plants that were ready in the garden, along with flowers, a bird feeder and a birdbath to attract birds and bees.

So far I’ve planted: sugar snap peas, spinach, romaine lettuce, asparagus, tomatoes, basil, sunflowers (to be the supports for the tomatoes as they grow), nasturtiums, green pole beans, bush soup beans, lima beans, crook neck squash, zucchini, pumpkins, corn, melons, cucumbers, cauliflower, romanesque broccoli,radishes, bok choy, Pak choy, scallions, shallots, carrots, kohlrabi, rhubarb and currant bushes.

I have compost bins and compost our coffee grounds and vegetable scraps. A red worm bin provides compost and wonderful black manure tea that I use to fertilize my plants. I also applied for and received a license to keep a few hens and they are amazing us daily with their spunky personalities, additions to the compost bins and wonderful free range eggs.

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Wow Sylvia, your pictures are awesome! I love how you turned a simple patch of dirt into a gardener’s paradise.

Stay Green,

~Mavis

Garden Photos and Drawings From the Netherlands

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.

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.