Gardening, Gardening, Gardening - gotta love Spring

Even though I woke up to a small amount of snow this morning, my crocus, daffodils and tulips are poking out so that means Spring is on it's way!!! I couldn't be more thrilled!!!

I have to admit, my life after quitting my full time job about 4 1/2 years ago has changed dramatically. I've learned to appreciate where every dollar goes just a little more.

One of my favorite things to do is garden. Let me caution you though, I'm still a novice. Two years ago, my dear husband built me some square foot gardens (raised bed gardens) and they have been absolutely wonderful.

We brought all the soil in so there are no weeds. I will get a few weeds throughout the year because we have secondary water and weed seeds sometimes come through that, but they are so easy to take care of because the soil is loose and easy to grow in.

Living in Northern Utah, I can plant peas, carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, radishes and potatoes. I'm sure there are others, but as stated above, I'm still a novice. So far I have my peas, carrots and broccoli in and I have my potatoes ready to go in the ground in the next day or so. I'm not planting all of these things in my garden, but at least I've gotten started. The last couple of years I've been late getting my veggies in and they haven't done as well as I had hoped.

This year I brought in more compost to give my gardens a boost. I'm really crossing my fingers that this year will be better than last - I guess that's the hope for every year :0)

My family uses a lot of produce that we get from the Bountiful Baskets co-op. I always have stems, peels, rinds and fruits and veggies that have gone bad before we could get to it. Rather than throwing it away, I try to add it to my compost pile.

Last Spring, I picked up a composter. Now it's not pretty and it was just a $50 investment from Sam's club. I wish I had something a little fancier that I could turn by hand, but this is the box I ended up with. I'm really hoping to get some good compost out of it this year. This will be nice to add to my gardens as well.

Planting a garden can really help your pocket book in the long run. Not only that, but you can make planting a garden a family event. It's something you can take pride in and show your kids how a seed can be so small, yet produce something wonderful to eat. There's nothing better than to prepare a meal using fruits and veggies that you've pulled out of your garden.

If you'd like more information on planting a garden - check out the USU Extension website. You can find a lot of information on this website. Even the proper way to can and preserve all that yummy produce that you've grown.