One project down, about a million to go...

I finished the vertical planter box tonight with Steve's help. We got it installed under the porch after about 20 minutes of fighting the tight fit. I think we will stain it dark since the front porch is going to be stained dark when we rebuild it next year. After the stain goes on, we can fill the boxes with soil and plant the herb garden.

We have seeds for Cilantro, Parsley, Basil, Chives and Mint. I also want to grow dill for pickling this summer, but that has to be grown from the ground because of how tall it gets. The rest of the herbs will supply us with ingredients for fresh salsa, soup, stir fry and so on.

My next project is to get the actual garden boxes built and dropped into the ground. I also have to drop a couple of 4x4s and build the framework for the raised boxes which will contain my lettuces and smaller veg plants. These high boxes will be built with what I have left from the vertical planter. The dimensions will be 6x6x48. The 4x4 posts will have a 2x4 rail every 2 feet and the boxes will hang from the 2x4 rails.

After the garden is built and planted, I can focus on other projects. I want to get the rain barrels in to supply the garden, but part of the barrel system I am constructing requires new gutter to be installed on the extension at the back of the kitchen. I also have to get new downspout on both sides of the house to adapt for the barrels. Between these and redoing the whole backyard I have my work cut out for me in the next month. Be sure that I will update the pictures of both the food and projects I am creating.

Speaking of food, I recently got into TVP. It is even easier to use than gluten and can replace ground meat in most situations. The one big downside is that TVP is made from soy, and therefore does not offer as much protein as gluten. I made a huge pan of homemade sloppy joe from scratch using TVP and tomato sauce with some other ingredients. Essentially, you mix the TVP with hot water and in about 2-3 minutes, you have a nice chewy meat replacement. Not a bad way to get taco meat or any other ground meat substitute. And it's cheap. you can buy a pound of dehydrated TVP for about $1.50. I only needed about one cup from this to make enough sloppy joe for 4 people to eat and I have enough of the pound left to make maybe 7-8 more batches! Talk about sustainability!

After this summer, we should be able to cut our grocery bill down to about a quarter of what we spend now. At some point we may be able to get rid of our "grocery bill" altogether.

Here is what I made recently:

From Stuff I Made