Yay! It’s finally Spring! We are so ready for nice weather and Spring is such a beautiful time of year. All the new growth and green in our yard that we don’t see the rest of the year.
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We definitely have had an abundance of moisture this year and it seems like most of it was in a short amount of time. It’s muddy everywhere from either rain or snow.
We we are excited and ready to get our garden going and the garden area itself isn’t bad because of all the bark that was put up there, walking up there in the mud is another whole story. We hope that the moisture benefits our growing area this spring & summer but time and temperatures will be unpredictable factors. Blessings all! Gardening in Arizona has been a challenge for us. Each year we try something different to see if it helps grow more bounty. We have been blessed with great neighbors with animals that give us all the horse manure we can use. That in itself has improved our soil in our garden. Our soil is clay that is on the alkaline side with lots of rocks & weeds and needs lot of amendments so when have opted for above ground and/or raised beds. We also grow in containers too.
In the Ash Fork area where we live we have to haul water or have it delivered which is a challenge in itself but when it comes to gardening are water usage doubles in the growing season or until monsoons arrive. Starting plants from seeds seem to do well for us but keeping the plant alive through the hottest days of summer is another challenge. Final challenge is the wild life and free ranging cows-cows are much easier to deal with we just have to keep our gate shut but the wild life so frustrating! Last year a gray squirrel kept digging in my raised beds and eating some of my vegetables. The photos below are from previous years. After much thought we have decided to close our online store. It’ll give us more time to work on other projects. We will still share thrifty tips on the blog as that is part of our every day lives. Thank you everyone that supported our store We truly appreciate you
So it’s been one of those nights and have been awake since 3 am but I’ve gotten some reading done and had a couple cups of coffee. My “Growing Places” course is almost done and I’m learning more about growing produce in my area. Which isn’t easy considering it’s clay soil. As time and weather has allowed me I’m working on the garden area preparing for this coming growing season. Finding and using natural products is essential for us. We don’t want to use the traditional chemicals that can be easily found in most stores. At the beginning of the year I decided that I wouldn’t spend as much money on groceries and household items and use up what I already had in my house. With the exception of dairy products and meats. Plus over the summer I bought local produce from our farmers markets.
While I don’t consider myself an extreme couponer I am pretty good at saving money using coupons, buying what’s on sale and stocking up on those sales items. For example- I have not bought paper towels since March 2018. Granted my supply of paper towels are getting low so at some time I will have to buy more. For now I’m using what I have and will start looking for sales. Another thing my my hubby and I have been doing is eating foods from our freezer, pantry and cabinets. This is a good thing because I had lost track of what all we had where. Having a simple inventory sheet for each area helped for quite a while and I highly recommend using one, but I admit I got lazy and quit using them. So instead of looking on the inventory sheet we had to dig through the freezer to see what was in there. Not fun! Pantry and cabinets are more organized because when something goes in there it gets put in the right area right away. So how did I think we did at using what we had on hand- Fantastic! Not only did we save money but we used up things that were the oldest. No more finding something that expired 4 months ago. At the end of the year I ‘ll add up my receipts and compare to last year and see if I was truly successful. Even before that happens I feel that we were successful and saved our household money. Happy Saving! The weather is changing and the nights are getting colder so it’s time to put the gardens to bed for the winter. Pun intended because all my gardens are raised beds. Since I don’t have the funds to spend on gardening this time of year I have to get creative on ways to get what I’ need to get the job done. First I added 2 to 3 inches of soil dug from around the beds in the chickens run or from the center raised bed that is used for composting. Next layer is dried grass followed by coffee grounds then leaves I raked up from a yard that the owner never uses any chemicals on plants or trees. All items were free- coffee grounds came from a friend and rest took a little labor and time. Over the winter I’ll be add compost items to the beds as well. Doing this now will give the items some time to break down and some of nutrients will be available next spring when I plant the garden again. Hopefully soon I’ll get another truck load of horse manure like last year it really helped my gardens this year because most of it was fairly broke down when we got it. You can get creative too about items to use in your garden. Ask family, friends and neighbors for leaves, grass clippings, manure, etc. Sometimes you find compost items on Craigslist. Most people who raise animals are happy to get rid of manure too. Blessings I got a great deal on these canning jars and rings at dollar store I go to often. These were sitting on the 90% off table so I asked how much they were, regular price $2.75 each but I only paid $0.20 each so I bought all 13 that was sitting on the table. What a smoke’n deal!! I normally do more canning of beans, potatoes, soups, etc in the winter time so theses will be put to good use. Not to mention maybe a few of my mixes in canning jars for Christmas gifts this year. I love it when I can save money!
Blessings! Buy only what you need not what you want. We hear that over and over but it is something that I live by. This time of year especially, my jobs slow down- from now until March of next year. So I take stock of what I already have in my pantry, freezer, refrigerator, cabinet and closets.
I f something goes on sale and it is something I need then I’ll buy at least 2 or whatever my budget always for that week. Our first priorities are to pay our bills so some weeks I may not buy anything. We don’t have a huge stockpile of food and paper products like I wish we did but we have plenty for just the 2 of us. Cooking from scratch and eating whole foods really does help to save money and tastes better too. Our website is 5 years old this month. How time flies when your having fun. We strive to give money and time saving tips on many categorizes including gardening, cooking, cleaning and more. Thank you everyone who has supported us in these 5 years. Here's to many more years....
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AuthorHello I'm Michele & I'm the matriarch of the Leverone Family Farm. I'm a wife, a mother of 2 grown/married sons and have 4 adorable grand kids. Thrifty for more than 30 years. I love gardening, cooking and saving money. Archives
November 2021
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