Treasure Hunts!

I'm still not done with the garden. We ran out of money until the first of April. There are some things we have to buy. We are doing square foot gardening so we have to buy our soil. It's composed of 1/3 compost, 1/3 peat moss, and 1/3 vermiculite. For our garden it is going to cost us about $100 to buy the additives. The good news is, we only have to buy this stuff once. Here after, we only add compost to the mix and that is free! In the mean time I've been going on treasure hunts. Different parts of the city have "big trash day" on different weeks. When it's in a close neighborhood I've been going in search of scrap lumber to finish off my last box. I also had to hunt for vermiculite. It is a very important part of square foot gardening and is very hard to find. It's also the most expensive part! I've also been looking for a reputable source for free range, organic chicken. I found the most amazing deal from a friend. Www.greatchickens.com is the place she recommended. I can't wait to try their product. Their prices are superb and the chickens are free ranged, slaughtered and processed (with only vinegar as a disinfectant), at the same location. If you are in Oklahoma check them out. Other jewels we found on our hunts were that my parents wanted to get rid of their deep freezer. Score! We traded our 3 cubic foot one for their monster. Now we can go in search of beef and pork to fill it. Plus we will have plenty of room to freeze produce. My mother in law also decided she was done with gardening so she gave us all of her big tools and lawn equipment. Of course, doing square foot gardening, we won't need most of them. But their good to have for other projects. She also had some scrap wood that might help as well as she had a baby fence of ours that was enough to finish (for now) the fence around the garden to keep out the dogs. I don't feel behind yet. It snowed last week so I'm glad I didn't get to plant. Hopefully next weekend we get to plant something!!!