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Day 14 - Urban Gardening

It's Day 14 of the 23 day challenge over at Frugally Sustainable. Today's topic is Urban Gardening. Have you given any thought as to how much money you could save growing your own produce? You could tuck some herbs in to your landscape, have a couple of raised beds, tubs of fruit such as blueberries and citrus trees, even do some sprouts right in your own kitchen. Saves a bundle of money!


If you need some help on figuring out where to start, check out the Urban Organic Gardener. Mike has A LOT of ideas no matter how big or small your gardening space is. I really like his sections on composting and natural pest control.  We are organic gardeners and sometimes I think the bugs must spot the "open for business" sign. Mike has some pretty good, and funny ideas on how to control those little BUGgers.... get it? Bug.... Well, onto the Daily Goal......


Daily Goal: Share with us your gardening goals for 2012.


Gardening Goals? Wow! I have a bunch! We started gardening on a much larger scale about 2 years ago. I kept hearing in my head, "Garden like your life depended on it." So I did!
LAST YEAR                                                                                    
2 raised garden beds                                                                     
2 big pots for potatoes                                                                    
2 8' section Gutter Gardens                                                            
1 - 4 x 4 strawberry bed                                                                 
2 - Rain Barrels to save water for drip                                    
About 15 different kinds of herbs                                                   
We grew sprouts throughout the summer to add to salads
(mung bean, alfalfa, pea, sunflower, wheat berries)
Added a greenhouse


THIS YEAR
Add 4 more raised beds
4 Potato Pots (russets, white, reds, golds) 
4 more outdoor raingutter gardens 
3 more Strawberry beds   
More rain barrels working in tandem for drip irrigation  
More herbs & medicinal varieties as well                                                                                           
Espalier a pear, cherry and apricot along a fence
With extra gardening beds, try to preserve more of what we grow
Get an earlier start in the spring utilizing the greenhouse
Ok, not necessarily GARDENING, but I am pushing for 2 to 3 hens for fresh eggs

Last year we grew peas, beans, celery, onions, leaf lettuce, baby carrots, potatoes, spinach, chard, tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, peppers, zuchinni, and much more! Basically, we looked at what we eat in the way of fresh produce and tried to grow it. We even have fruit (lemon, lime, mandarin orange, fig, apple) and avocado trees.... dwarf varieties so we didn't take up all our backyard in trees and blueberries, grapes and ollallieberries too. 
HERE'S a little video of what we are doing.....

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