Save Money On Healthy Foods

The article  The Twenty Healthiest Foods for Under $1 from Divine Caroline has a list of healthy foods to help you eat healthy while saving money on your grocery budget.  Imagine how much you could save if you grew them yourself.  

Depending on the amount of land you have it may be difficult to grow enough oats for your use.  Purchasing in bulk for storage would save you even more.   If you are in an area that allows chickens you can produce your own eggs.  Potatoes, kale, apples, and broccoli should not be much of a problem for most people.  Apple trees can be purchased in a variety of sizes including columnar and dwarf to save space.  Be sure to get two for pollination or you may not get a crop.  Some variety of nuts can be grown in most climates. Depending on your climate you may or may not be able to grow bananas outdoors.   Bananas can be grown as a houseplant - be sure to purchase a plant that produces edible bananas and be willing to wait about 18 months to harvest.  Beans can also be grown in most climates and also store very well. Beans can also be sprouted for eating. 

Of course if you are growing your own food you can save money growing a much wider variety than this.  Add foods in a variety of colors to get the most range of nutrients - tomatoes, peppers, and berries are all colorful and fairly easy to grow.  And don't forget herbs which can add interest and nutrients. 

Gifts for Gardeners

Need ideas for gifts for gardeners (or for you)?

Some possibilities could be tools, indoor plants (what about a Vanilla vine?), seeds, seed starting supplies, catalogs, books, magazines or ezines, plant markers, books, or ebooks.

Not only gardening tools but what about tools for preserving, storing, or using the harvest?

Compile a list of resources as a gift including websites, forums, elists, and more. I hope you would include some of my resources in your list including Garden Inspire, EatYourLandscape, and HerbLinks

For more ideas check this article and this site

What are your ideas?

Think It Is Too Early To Plan Your Landscape?

Now is a great time to think about your landscape and garden for next year.  What vegetable, herbs, and fruits do you and your family consume? Which of these grow in your area and could be used in place of trees, shrubs, perennials, and annuals in your landscape?

Time to plan for 2012’s harvest

BY LEE ESTERLY RICHTER
SPECIAL TO THE BLADE (Toledo Blade)

It’s almost the time of year when many of us are harvesting the last of our homegrown produce for 2011.

Here it is the middle of September already, and it’s time to start planning next year’s garden. More and more gardeners in northwest Ohio are considering edible landscaping which incorporates fruits, vegetables, and nuts into typical landscaping plans.

Edible landscaping offers an alternative to conventional residential landscapes that are designed solely for ornamental purposes. The edible versions can be just as attractive, yet produce fruits and vegetables for home use.

There are many reasons to incorporate edible plants into the residential landscape, including:

•The freshness and flavor of home-grown, fully ripened fruits and vegetables.
•Controlling the quantity and kind of pesticides and herbicides used on the foods you consume.
•Increasing the food security of your household.
•To save on grocery bills.
•Growing unusual varieties not available in stores
•To get outside, interact with the natural world, and have fun.

Edible landscaping is as old as gardening itself and has undergone a recent revival. Ancient Persian gardens combined edible and ornamental plants. Medieval monastic gardens included fruits, vegetables, flowers, and medicinal herbs. Plans for 19th century English suburban yards, which modeled themselves after country estates, often included fruits, and berries.

The edible components of residential landscapes largely were lost in this country to shade trees, lawns, and foundation plantings. In the past two decades, however, there has been a revival of interest in edible landscaping.

Like all plants used in the landscape, edible plants grow best in certain conditions. Many (but not all) fruits and vegetables do best where they receive at least six hours of full sunlight a day. Most also like well-drained soil. Parts of your yard that satisfy these conditions are good places to start an edible landscape.

To start simply, consider a one-for-one substitution. Where you might have planted a shade tree, plant a fruit tree. Where you need a deciduous shrub, plant a currant or hazelnut. Where you have always had chrysanthemums, plant bachelor’s buttons—you can eat them.

Edible plants come in nearly all shapes and sizes and can perform the same landscape functions as ornamental plants.

Many common ornamental plants can survive with minimal care. Most edible plants, however, require a certain amount of attention to produce well. They might require a little extra watering, pruning, fertilizing, or pest management. The time required, however, need not be exorbitant.

To care for a fruit tree, for instance, might take only a few hours a year, while the yield could be enormous. It is best to treat edible landscaping as a hobby and not a chore. You might find yourself checking on your plants more than required, just because you want to see how they’re doing. If you are concerned about being overwhelmed, just start small.

The possibilities for edible landscaping are endless. By incorporating just one—or many—edible plants into a home landscape, you can develop a new relationship with your yard and the food you eat.

Why Do You Garden?

A survey by the National Gardening Association came up with several reasons why people garden.  Is the reason you garden on this list or do you have another reason?

To grow better tasting food
To save money on food bills
To grow better quality food
To grow food I know is safe
To feel more productive
To spend more time outdoors
To get back to basics
To have food to share with others
To live more locally
To have a family activity
To teach my kids about gardening

Canning?

This new canning funnel, invented by a friend of mine, makes canning safer and easier. 

• Fits securely on the rim of jars preventing tipping and reducing spilling. 
• Fits 1/2 pint, pint, and quart jars whether wide mouth or regular size.  
• Keeps the rim clean - reducing cleanup time. 

Made in the U.S.A.
BPA free
Top rack dishwasher safe

Writing A Book About Herbs

I have been writing a book about herbs and so have not been posting much on my blogs. 
What About Herbs? is now available for Kindle and soon for Nook.

Small Green Roofs book

I won the book Small Green Roofs by Nigel Dunnett, Dusty Gedge, John Little, and Edmund G. Snodgrass from Gardening Jones blog!

It is interesting reading about green roofs on everything from apartment building carports to birdhouses.  I think I will try one on a birdhouse - maybe using edible plants for birds.

Although the book is not specifically an edible landscape book growing edibles on rooftops is discussed along with some photos and instructions for green roof building. 

Bush Cherries

Bush cherries are cherries that grow on a shrub or bush instead of a tree.  There are several types of cherries with the common name of bush cherry including Sand Cherry (Prunus x cistena), Hansen's Bush Cherry - also sometimes called Sand Cherry (Prunus bessyi), Nanking Cherry (Prunus tomentosa), Prunus cerasus X Prunus fruiticosa, and Prunus japonica x P. jacquemontii.  That last one is the only one I have tasted the fruit from so far.

Bush cherries can be grown as a hedge, windbreak, or as a single shrub in situations where you may not want a cherry tree.  Their cherry-like fruit may not be recognized by the passerby as an edible fruit and so if planted along a sidewalk you may not have the fruit picked by others without permission. The bush cherries I planted ripen later than tree cherries and so a crop may not be lost due to weather or birds.

The fruit of Prunus japonica x P. jacquemontii is red like Montmorency tart cherries and has a simliar flavor and size.  At my house they ripen around the first part of August.  My two shrubs purchased by mailorder from Hartmann's Plant Company are about 1' tall and are producing a small amount of fruit.  Their mature size is 4 x 4' when they will be producing a few pounds of fruit. A minimum of two bushes of different varieties should be planted.

Bush cherries vary in mature height from 4' up to 10' or more.  Flavor, color, size, and harvest time and quantity will also vary.  Some would be better used for jams than fresh eating.  Bush cherries may also keep birds away from other fruit in your yard that ripens at the same time. Bush cherries are something you may want to consider in place of non-edible shrubs in your yard.

Bush Cherry in Spring

              

Bush Cherry beginning to show Fall color

Edibles Native to the Americas

To celebrate this Fourth of July why not plant and/or use some plants native to the Americas?  Some such as tomatoes and potatoes were unknown in the old world until they were imported from the New World.  Thanks to all those over the thousands of years who propagated these plants so that we might have them today.  I cannot imagine life without tomatoes, peppers, and many of these other delicious and nutritious plants.

Some other edible American plants are quinoa, corn, monarda, camas, cattails, wild rice, miner's lettuce, peanuts, and chocolate (an excuse to eat chocolate to celebrate the 4th? : )).  Before consuming plants be sure you are identifying them properly and that they were not treated with pesticides.

See more Fruits native to the Americas

Swiss Chard

Swiss Chard or Chard Beta vulgaris cicla is a vegetable often grown as a spinach substitute because it can handle the heat of summer while spinach cannot.   Chard can be harvested for a longer period than spinach due to its tolerance to summer heat.  Chard can also be planted early - before the last average frost.  Plant in full sun or partial shade.  Chard varieties can be green with white ribs, red ribs, or the rainbow varieties which also include purple, orange, or yellow ribs.   Plant chard in your yard where you would like something unusual, leafy, and colorful.
Cut the outer leaves first when harvesting leaving the inner leaves to grow larger for a later harvest and to keep this colorful vegetable as part of your landscape. 

Chard can be eaten raw or steamed, or in a stir fry.
Chard recipes

Swiss Chard

Chard In The Landscape