Garden Green Gems

 

Jordan Smelling the Flowers

I am growing some drought proof flowers in pots to see how they fair for the summer. We have very sandy soil and it is challenging to grow anything without adding compost monthly and a lot of starter dirt. Wanna recycle and reduce your garbage? Composting is awesome. Our tomatoes or over 5 feet tall now, we have tasty cucumbers and lettuce that actually has flavor! And, every once in a while we get a surprise sprout from our compost. Right now I think we have a red bell pepper joining our plot. 

I started our compost with old dirt from dead flower pots, a bed of shredded paper, vegan trimmings from our kitchen and red worms that speed up the compost. The worms add a little extra umph to the soil. We have a small can in our kitchen that we dump all of the banana peels, apple cores, orange peels, wilted lettuce, etc and dump it into the compost bin at the end of the week. Oh and by the way, our garbage is much less and less stinky. 

So, how does your garden grow? Do you compost?

I love to hoe

My garden brings me so much peace. I get home from work, go outside and look at the growth of my garden. 

I have started most of my garden from seeds. The lettuce, the cucumbers, tomatoes, watermelon, basil and various flowers. I weed the little plot, fill it with dirt, aerate the soil and carefully plan how the garden should grow. Once you see the little seedlings pop up you get this burst of excitement. I surround them with the compost I create from our kitchen (and some help from red worms) and my little seedlings just thrive. You should see my roses! The fragrance will put a smile on your face every time. 

The best part about gardening is not how good the fruit and vegetables taste, but the knowledge that you grew your own food and it is good for the earth. See? You can be a tree hugger without wrapping your arms around bark