Garden Planning

Although we are back to cold and snowy days, the recent warmer weather was a little reminder that spring is coming soon. With spring comes the excitment of peparing and sowing the backyard vegetable garden. Before it gets to late we need to start planning for that awesome veggie producer. Now is the perfect time to choose which vegetables and how many of each you would like to plant this season. Check your notes from last season to see what you liked and what worked to try again this year. It is also important to see where each crop was planted in the garden and make sure to rotate this year.

As early as it may seem, in many areas, now is the time to start planning and start some seeds indoors. Use this CHART to figure out when you need to start your indoor seeds for the coming season.

Now is also a great time to get a quick inventory of your seed stocks and gardening tools. Do you need anything? I know I do. Last year my seedlings that were started indoors were started a little late and were weak and leggy. I had only used a germination station and some shop lights with growing bulbs. This would have been ok except for the temperature of the basement at night. This year I will be adding a propagation heating mat. This mat will keep the soil an average of 10-20 degrees above ambient room temperature. This mat can be more precisely controled with the addition of a thermostat. I have found that Seeds of Change has a great selection of seeds and other supplies. I also plan to organize my set up better this year. Last year was slightly rushed and not PLANNED well, hence the reason for this post. Don't let it happen to you. Once I have everything set up I will post some pictures that can be used as examples. No copyright on how my stuff is set up. I am here to help and share.

Simple steps to self sustainibilty

The road to self sustainability is a long one with great rewards. This is can be a problem, however, with most peoples lifestyles today. Everyone wants results instantly. As you travel down this road there are things that can be done to help achieve this smaller, but more rapid results.

Garden: I would have to say that one of the best ways to start down the self sustainable road would be to start some type of garden. Even if it is only a couple vegetable plants in a container garden. This is also a very important step.

Food Storage: Storing non-perishable food items can fall more under the "survivalist" or "prepper" category, but isn't life survival? Being self sustainable is being able to survive on your own without needed to rely on an outside source. You could easily start a substantial food storage supply and plan by grabbing a couple items every time you go to the grocery store. Look for things on sale or discounts for buying in bulk.

Cooking At Home: With the amount of restaurants and take out places around today it is easy to grow distant from the traditions of home made meals. There are a good number of people that can't even put together a simple meal on their own. Being able to create healthy and nutritious meals is essential in becoming self sustainable. This is also a quick and simple way to start towards self sustainability.

The path is long but it can be taken in mostly small steps. It is really changing your lifestyle more than anything. The reward is well worth the work even if you don't become a full off-gridder.