Gardening for the New Year

Happy 2011!  So it's been a while since I've posted anything and I could give a bunch of excuses but I'm chalking it up to end of the year madness.  I'm sure you know what I'm talking about!  I am super excited to get back into the swing of things and today, I wanted to share with you how I plan to make one of my resolutions a reality...by gardening!  Just hear me out.

One of my resolutions this year is to really cut back on my spending.  These are lean times, my friends.  Luckily, I have a super smart mom who knows all kinds of shortcuts and has shared some of these with me.  So how am I going to cut back my budget by gardening?  Easy!!!  I've always had some herbs growing in the garden, but I never realized what a savings this is.  My husband and I love to make guacamole but aside from the avocados being mucho expensivo, buying cilantro at $1-$2 a pop adds up.  Especially when you don't usually use all of the cilantro.  This year, I planted cilantro seeds and put them in the kitchen window to start.  I now have a wonderful window box full of the stuff.  The beautiful thing is, in another month, I will plant another container with cilantro seeds so that once the current plants die out, I'll have another crop ready to go outside!

Have you ever bought a bunch of green onions from the store and thrown half of them away?  Another great idea from mom is to plant the leftover green onions.  All you have to do is chop off the green tops and plant the white root portion in a pot.  Water it regularly and watch your green onions grow!  I'm hoping I won't have to buy these babies anymore once I've established another pot of them.

Other herbs I'm growing are: thyme, rosemary, oregano and dill.

Here's a picture of some spinach plants I started.

Good luck and happy gardening!