I have been making masks since the beginning of the pandemic, but I’ve lost track of all sense of time, so I am unsure of which point I made masks for a local nurse and her office, but a couple days ago, she contacted me and told me that she had a thank you gift for me, and asked if she could drop it off and pick up one of the free plants I had listed on the NextDoor App. Well, that amazing team gifted me a beautiful tube scarf, a little wall hanging, a beautifully hand-written (WOW handwriting ENVY!) card, along with a $25 gift card to Meijer! It made my whole months! (Yes, that’s now a pandemic timeframe. Feel free to use it.) I was also gifted a few yucca plants and empty starter pots by a kind stranger on the NextDoor app! I am really loving that app, and getting to know those around me.

I found out that Meijer had great prices on soil and LOADED UP! I ended up buying a total of 30 bags of soil ($1.59 each), 2 bags of potting soil ($2.49 each), a bag of mushroom compost ($2.99 each) and a bag of manure compost ($2.99 each). This will allow me to have 1 more bed than I expected to this year, and I am THRILLED!

We also seem to have a robin nesting in our tree! I tied a blue ribbon around the tree to remind the kids to not climb that one. While tying it off, I noticed little sunflower sprouts, from when I accidentally dropped some seeds over there a while back. They’re so cute!

That leaves 1 more bed to fill, then I will start saving for more bricks, so I can build more raised beds. I’d like to eventually add 6 more, in front of my current 6.

The one I filled tonight, I am using as an experimental garden, since I have a ton of plants without homes right now. I’m doing the square foot gardening and companion gardening methods in that one bed, to see how much food I can produce in the smallest of area. I’ve planned out a good variety so far, and a few things are planted already.

I currently have 5 full squares and a few half square plants that vine, left to fill. It got too dark to continue, so I cleaned up for the night. I’ve been having more, and more memory issues, so I decided to create a little chant, so that I would remember to look up what to fill the remaining squares with. The entire time I walked from the garden, to the greenhouse, and all the way inside; even as I was washing up, I was chanting “Five squares and viney things.” and that’s actually how I decided to write this in the form of a blog post.

I’m looking forward to the science experiment. Even the kids were helping with it. Great fun! I hope you’ll follow along, because I plan to post about the process.