No one likes high inflation, but most people are especially hating what’s going on right now.  Sadly, we seem to be stuck with these rising prices for awhile to come, but that’s not to say we have to take it lying down.  If you’re like most people these days, you’re searching out articles like this, as part of a desperate attempt to claw back some of your hard-earned cash.   Therefore, you’ve probably already seen that one money saving tip it to grow a garden.  Yes, this will absolutely help you to save on your grocery bill, but what some will find to their horror, is that it may actually end up costing you greatly in other ways instead.  So, that’s what this article is for, to try and help you avoid those gardening pitfalls (as much as possible that is).

First off, let’s look at what’s needed to start a garden.  You’ll need seeds of course (or plants if you want to save some time), good soil, water, and some good old-fashioned elbow grease. 

1. Seeds and plants can both be found on sale.  However, the variety you’ll find is often greatly reduced by the time those sales happen.  You can make your own sale when you need it, by looking for discount coupons and/or codes online. 

However, you can also potentially get your seeds and plants for free by joining local garden clubs (they usually call these events seeds/plants swaps).  Depending on where you live, your local library might even offer free seeds via an increasingly popular program called “Seed Saving Libraries.”  Call your local branch for help; even if they don’t have one, they might know who does.

2.  Soil is a big part of gardening success, and the solution to this problem really is unique to your situation.  If you live in a track style home, often the developers scraped off the topsoil to sell it, long before the house was even built.  It’s an income source for them, but a nightmare for homeowners, as they often have to fight for years to fix the poor soil quality.  If you’ve just figured out you have this problem, you’ll need to pick your battle.  Unfortunately, to fix the entire front and back yard, will cost a small fortune, and the amendments you add will often have to be repeated (at least in part) more than once, over the course of a couple of years.  Only then will you have truly addressed this issue fully.  DON’T PANIC yet though, as most people will never need to truly go that far, after all, you’re not starting a farm here, just a garden.

If you’re fixing a small plot, then money output will be minimized considerably.  Often, all you’ll need are several bags of garden soil additive, mix it in, and you’re good to go.  However, you should know you’ll probably need to repeat this every year that you do a garden.   

 If you’re just getting going, the easier route might be to start with a container garden instead.  You can get some inexpensive pots (large ones, not small, plants grow after all), or a starter “Raised Garden” kit.  This will have you starting out with Container or Potting Soil, which will have all the nutrients needed to grow healthy plants.  You’ll only need to fertilize periodically over the growing season, which with pots is much easier overall.  This also has the added benefit of being clean soil, usually free of any plant diseases from previous growing seasons.  Trust me, starting out with good soil will be worth it in the end. Plus, even soil can be bought on sale as well.

3.  Water is often completely overlooked when making a garden plan, and ironically can wind up costing the most.  Consider what you’re really wanting to grow.  Some plants just drink up water, and will wind up cost you much more to grow, than they ever would have from a store.  Watermelons, for example, take a bit of water, and can be very difficult to successfully grow.  Other crops are very susceptible to pests, especially if they are under-watered.  All that work, only to have your plants die, or get eaten up, will only lead to headaches for you, and who needs that right now.  Avoid this pitfall by seeking advice from your local garden center about what is easiest to grow in your town.  Note I said town, as sometimes what will grow in a region on average, actually won’t work at all for your little corner of it. 

Also, make sure to seek out better ways to water throughout the summer months.  Ask about drip irrigation (which is sometimes as easy as just using a special hose), and how to save water by clustering your plantings.  Certain plants can be grown in close proximity to each other, and it actually helps them grow better.  Sometimes that comes from nutrient replenishment from one plant, pest repelling traits that benefit them all, or shade being granted by one plant for another (which prevents excessive evaporation).  It’s worth inquiring about, as this can mean a greater harvest in the end. 

Then there’s that free water that available to us all, RAIN.  Rain-harvesting, or gathering, can help to cut into the water bill of a garden considerably. Even if you don’t get a lot of rain in your area, it’s still worth grabbing what you can.  This can be done via a rain barrel (there are still rebates available for these, so look for them), or by simply putting some buckets/large bowels out on your patio (just be sure to weigh them down with a rock to prevent them from blowing away during windy storms).

4. Finally, stagger your plantings.  If you’re going to plant carrots for example, you should plant a couple of rows, wait a week or so, and then plant some more.  That way not all your veggies will ripen at the same time.  It may seem great, at first, to be pulling in bags and bags of tomatoes, but how many of them can you eat in one week?  Staggering your plantings, or planting varieties that will ripen at different intervals all on their own, will help make sure that you can fully benefit from the fruits of your labor.  Unless, of course, you want to give most of it away to others who didn’t even help with the weeding.

Don’t forget that you don’t actually have to grow everything all by yourself.  If your neighbors are growing a garden too, then think ahead, and talk to them about the possibility of doing a swap, if you have a good turnout.  Then you each get a little bit of variety, without all that extra work that variety would usually entail. 

Gardening can be fun, and relaxing, which can only be viewed as a bonus in times like these.  Get the kids involved if you have them.  It’s also a great way for them to learn about where their food comes from, while they simultaneously burn off some excess energy to boot.

If your garden grows the way you hope it will, then your food budget can get a bit of relief as a result.  Which sadly, can then be used to help pay for your gas.  I’ll leave you to search out gas saving tips on your own I’m afraid.  I’ve got my own garden to start, so see you next time.  Happy gardening Everyone!

Masking has been such a ridiculous part of the whole Covid-19 controversy, that really, we should all be ashamed.  The fight, especially in light of the now raging Ukraine struggle over retaining their actually endangered freedoms, has been a petty squabble from start to (hopefully soon) finish.  One of the most long-lasting problems involved though, is the fact that so many people seem to be walking out of stores, tearing off their mask as if declaring freedom, and then throwing it on the ground.  There it stays as a gross piece of litter that no one wants to touch. 

Littering is littering, no matter what your political values are.  Most of us grow up learning that you aren’t supposed to throw things like Kleenex, and napkins on the ground when you’re done with them.  So, why are so many people acting like spoiled children when it comes to their masks?  It doesn’t matter if you love or hate them, at the end of the day, they are still your responsibility. 

With mask mandates either lessening, or ending in various parts of the world, the reality still remains that masks will continue to be a part of our lives for a while to come.  If you go into a hospital, doctor’s office, or use public transport then you will still be required to wear one.  If the infection rates start to climb again, due to a new variant popping up (and I think we can all agree to hope that this doesn’t happen), then you will need to mask up once again.  Regardless of why it might be needed, your reaction to having to wearing it should not, and cannot, include tossing it on the ground once done. 

All of the free N95, and KN95 masks that the government is now handing out, via local stores and pharmacies, are all disposable.  Please use them when required/needed, and then properly dispose of them.  Regardless of what is happening to us right now, the world, as a whole, simply can’t afford for us to toss yet another item into the ecosystem.  I know that all those masks going into the trashcan isn’t great either; but it’s a far better fate then all them all winding up on the ground, where they can eventually be blown into storm drains or wildlife areas.  This is so easily avoided, shame on us if we don’t do our best to do so. 

Please, be the better version of yourself, and show your care of the world around you by doing your part.  In this case, it isn’t even hard to do.  The Earth will thank you. 

This will be short, as with a year like 2021 who has much left to say. May we all see better times. Happy New Year 2022.

So, to wrap up events in July: Fire has proven once again to not be our friend. Thanks to the Delta variant, masks are back on; and finally, the high heat and low water supplies are about to kill your garden. Well, I might be able to help you out with at least one of those things.

Here are a couple of tips on how to conserve water and still have a garden survive.

1. Prioritize: Yeah this is going to suck, but it’s time to choose. If some plants aren’t doing well, or if they just aren’t needed, then pull them. That means by the roots, because if you don’t, the remaining plant pieces might still take up some water.
2. Shade helps: If your plants already provide some shade to their neighbors, then great. However, you could also add a shade element to help out. This prevents both water loss and leaf burning in more sensitive plants. Use a small tarp, sheet, or beach shade tent; either will work as long as they can be moved, but still be braced to not blow away.
3. Gray-water safely: You can reuse bath water, or water collected from your shower while you’re waiting for it to reach the optimal temperature. If it’s bath water, just make sure it doesn’t have any bath oils or salts in it, as those will hurt your plants and soil. Also, gray-water should be reserved for non-food bearing plants, like flowers, shrubs, and trees not producing fruit.
4. Finally, water wisely: Water in the early morning, or at night when evaporation is less of a problem. Water deeply, so it will do a thorough job (do you want just a sip in 100 degree weather?). Using mulch can also help with water retention, just choose the type carefully if you have pets. A local nursery, or garden center can help get you set up the right way. Good luck fellow Green Thumbs.

Reusable bags, once banished thanks to Covid, are now once again welcomed in most retail locations. You’ll want to double check with your local store to be sure, but most seem to be embracing their use once again.

Now, more than ever though, it is so very important that you take steps to make sure your bags stay clean. Inspect them every so often, and clean them when needed. Also, swap out old, and fraying bags for more sturdy new ones, so you don’t wind up hating life when an older bag tears on you.

Despite everything we’ve faced over the last year and a half, it looks like we might finally be rounding the corner on this whole thing? (and yes that is a questions mark you see there….)

What does that mean to you personally, well only you can answer that one. Despite what the econ people say, and the health people, and don’t get me started on the political rhetoric people taking up positions surrounding this thing; in the end what this means to you personally is whatever you need it to mean. The buck isn’t being passed here by having said that. Keep in mind that there has been a lot of talk amongst the experts, not to mention media, about what people can expect, and how they should handle the recovery process, but that doesn’t mean you have to follow that advise like it came out of a post-Covid instruction book.

For example, if you still feel safer wearing a mask when you go to the grocery story this summer, then wear one. No one should be judging you for feeling like this is still necessary (now if you’re doing it three years from now too, then we’ll need to talk, but for right now, who cares!?!).

This has been a crazy time for us all. We went from one high anxiety incident, to another, and then back again. As much as we’d all like to get back to “normal” as soon as possible, it really isn’t going to be that easy. The question needs to be asked: “Are we ready to be fully back yet?” The fact that some people say yes, simply because that’s what is going to work best for them doesn’t matter. All of our answers need to count.

The reality is that Covid still isn’t gone. When you hear a reporter talking, in a chipper voice, about how we only had 2500 new cases reported today, that doesn’t mean those 2500 people aren’t sick. Most experts agree that we will be living with this disease for a while yet, and that requires some adaptation on our parts. So, here’s the hard part that no one wants to hear. Life as we knew it pre-2020 isn’t coming back. However, even without Covid, it wasn’t going to be the same life for us in 2025 anyway. True, the changes might not have been as radical, and would have happened without the psychological trauma we’ve all shared, but changes would have occurred anyway. Ironically, without Covid spurring all this hate along, no one would have cussed you out for not wanting to wear the latest earbuds in 2025, yet somehow they feel perfectly justified ridiculing people for sending their kids to schools with masks, or for wearing them in the local Target today.

The bottom line is that people just need to get over themselves. If you’re vaccinated and want to go maskless once it’s legal, then fine. If you don’t, well then simply don’t. What else can we do. The thing that is making this situation worse ultimately, is us. No one can deny that this whole thing has been a giant pain in the you-know-what. That said, there’s no reason for us to continue going at each other in the way we’ve been doing, and making the situation worse. As long as people are taking responsible steps, and moving forward at a pace they can handle, then let them. Just don’t be the that guy, holding the whole healing process up by still pretending that none of this mattered, or wasn’t real to begin with. Playtime is over, and it’s time to get serious about the road ahead. Join us if you can, an any pace you feel appropriate. The important thing is that we all get there in the end.