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Have you ever thought about growing your own food? Maybe you want to grow only herbs, supplement a few of your daily vegetables or grow your entire diet. Growing your own food is very rewarding; you tend to savor it more because of the effort it to took to get to your table. You can pick it when you need it, there for it has more nutrients then store-bought vegetables. It also motivates you to eat more fresh veggies and fruits, including your kids they will love to watch them grow and help pick them.
Just starting out?
If you’re new to growing veggies and fruits. Here’s a few tips;
- Start small – herbs are very easy to grow and a great way to start
- Plant things you’d really like to eat or eat a lot of
- Check out the farmers almanac for your area and see what grows well in your region, ex. citrus isn’t going to grow great in Western Washington
- Pick a sunny spot with at least 6 hours, or if you don’t get very much sun pick shade loving plants
- Consider using a raised garden bed or containers, allows you to control the soil and nutrient blend, move around, just be prepared to water more
- Be prepared to learn and grow yourself, this year we planted potatoes for the first time and I totally didn’t plant them correctly but it was just the lesson I learned this year!
Repurpose Kiddie Pool Into a Garden
Over the past two years our container garden has really grown, it’s one of our favorite spring/summer projects. This year’s garden project we saved two kiddle pools from going to the landfill. They were broken and heading to the garbage, so we brought them home and transformed them into their new purpose. A raised garden bed!
Instructions
- Pick up your kiddie pool. Tip: don’t pay for one! Ask your local Buy Nothing group, friends, family, I’m sure someone has one laying around broken or not in use. Add drainage holes by either drilling a ton of holes(like we did) or cut holes and place landscaping fabric along the bottom. On the bottom and the sides.
2. Put your planter/kiddie pool in the spot you are leaving it, whether you’re doing sun loving plants or shade loving plants. I added a thin layer of mulch to help with the drainage.
3. Now you’re ready to add your soil, be sure to see what type of soil works best for your plant. You may need a mixture of potting soil and garden soil, and if you need to add peat moss, perlite, or vermiculite. Be sure to mix in an appropriate amount of granular slow release fertilizer. Fill about 12 inch deep.
4. Even and gently pat down your soil, if you have a small rodent problem you can easily wrap a fence around to keep them out.
6. It’s time to plant your seeds or starters. Pick shallow growing vegetables and/or herbs. Plant according to package. We’ve got kale, lettuce, green onions, spinach, brocolli and 2 zucchini plants in our kiddle pools right now. Which are growing amazing!
7. Water frequently, you may need to water twice a day during the warmer days. Just pay attention to how dry your soil is. Consider fertilizing weekly and spray for bugs.
Please consider making someone else’s trash into your treasure and make a garden out of a kiddie pool. There are so many things things you can upcycle, repurpose and reuse!
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