Last Frost Date - April 15 - Time to start planting

That is what I have been focusing on over the last week. This will be my third year of full scale gardening on my home property. I think part of the fun in this gardening process is watching the transformation of my yard. My goal this year is to add a full scale rain collection system that I am in the process of implementing. I really think this is the way to go when it comes to any type of full scale gardening effort. There are many reasons that utilizing Mother nature's water is best, but my two biggest reasons are because I don't think city water is good for a garden with all of the chemicals that are injected into it and because the cost of using city water is prohibitive.

My rain barrel system will be developed utilizing the 4 downspouts at the corners of my house utilizing some very large (275 gallon water tanks). Even if you aren't looking to develop something this large, Lowe's Home Improvement has a video of an inexpensive setup on Youtube utilizing regular garbage cans.



Over the past week, I have been transplanting the plants that I started back in February in Peat Moss containers. I believe that I have enough of a head start to where I might possibly get two rotations out of this garden this year. My hope is that I will be able to get some raised bed gardens built, which will allow me to raise some root vegetables along with leafy vegetables come late summer and early fall. Lowe's Home Improvement has a video of an of a raised bed garden setup on Youtube which can incorporated the rain barrel system above.




There are a lot of great videos on Youtube about the gardening process and there are infinite amounts of information all over the internet that will help you whether yoy are a novice an expert or somewhere in between.

My final project is one that I have been working on since the beginning of the year and has been delayed until fall. I am going to build a small geodesic dome greenhouse as an experiment to see if it is better than a regular green house. My hope is to have year round vegetables at a point in time in the future.

I really think that we are living in a time where you need to be as efficient as you can with your assets. You can have a productive property even when you live in a city. You can virtually cut you food expenses to next to nothing. Look at the prices of food in the grocery store. Anecdotally, I can tell you that over the last year I have witnessed food inflation rise 25%. I don't see that getting any better as we see fuel prices begin to rise above $3 again.

There is a lesson to be learned here. I hope that people will start growing food, trading their food specialties, utilizing local farmer's markets, share meals with family and friends, and use the land for its intended purpose. The global world makes us vulnerable. Everything coming from these far off lands can be gone quickly. We need to start producing food locally again and I intend on doing my part. Think about it, is this not Independence.