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It’s National Garden Month!

I have a love/hate relationship with gardening. Kind of like sewing. When it works I’m so happy and when it doesn’t I’m frustrated, irritated, disgusted and ready to give up.

I can never decide if gardening for me is a hobby. Something practical I do to feed my family a bit healthier.  A waste of money (I have had whole crops go south). Or a time honored skill I’m getting better at.

Sometimes I feel very clueless about it all. I do note that I am attempting to garden on a small porch and a very small plot of land in raised beds.

But it is a great activity I share with my mother and my daughter and also my father long distance (we discuss and share seeds). My husband and nephew pitch in when we need some muscle but mostly it’s we three women (my daughter after watching too many Little House on the Prairie videos insists she’s a woman) getting it done.

I have ideas of grandeur and what always works is what I was not working on. I hate spending money for garden implements but it’s necessary when you start from scratch AND garden in pots.

BUT

Gardening is so great. Here are the benefits I can remember. And I’m talking about vegetable gardening. I like flowers but I KNOW I would kill them.

1. Great easy low impact exercise. My retired mother was feeling very low energy and as if she could accomplish nothing until we started dragging her along on our gardening. Now her backyard is flourishing and she’s out there tapping her foot waiting for us to get going.
2. Fun learning tool for the little ones. While my daughter still doesn’t know the best time to pick strawberries she gets up close and personal with the bugs. She loves to just dig in the dirt and attempt to grow things. I give her seeds, her own little plot, and talk about what could happen if she would just be patient. She is also our resident rock collecter so we can make borders and such. She picks weeds too when they are specifically pointed out to her.
3. Fabulous way to supplement the dinner table and the freezer. If you can get to the point where you grow one or two veggies well it is so worth it. Pulling onions out of the freezer mid winter. Or tomato sauces. I’m guilty of being Jack of All Veggies and Master of Non. But last year we did so well with the lettuce and our onions were pretty good too even though it was a wet summer. Our tomatoes and strawberries suffered but I’m hoping that won’t be the case this year. I’m turning into the mindset that you can never have too many onions or lettuce (like soap) so that is what I have growing well out there.
4. Know what is going in your body. Much easier to grow organic veggies on a small scale. You can control pests with row cover and such instead of sprays.

Here are a few links for you for National Garden Month

• Start a small veggie garden in a pot with your children.
• Learn more about Edible Landscaping
• 7 Edible Plants That Look Great in the Garden

I received an email in my inbox today from Tawra at Living on a Dime. In it she answers a question from one of her subscribers who questioned her frugal living but yet having a nice house. I love Tawra’s answer to this because it is so true.

Frugal living does not mean that you live in a hut with threadbare clothes and nothing new in your life. Living frugally does not mean living poor. It means you know where to cut costs and save so that you do have the money to buy quality items and NOT on credit. It means being good stewards of what God has entrusted to you.

We lived frugal waaaay before it was in. My mother brought us up frugal. As a single mother she had to cut costs and after having lived in a third world country she knew how to do it. We had lovely clothes but they were bought second hand. And I shouldn’t say ‘but’. Just they were bought second hand. They were beautiful clothes. Back then you could usually attach a designer name to well made clothing. Not so today. Designer name does not mean that you will get quality clothing. Paying the most does not always mean paying for the best.

The title of my post is a quote from a long time friend of the family. Her mother told her asthey were growing up that because they were poor they could only afford to buy the best. Not the most expensive, the best. When it came to certain items she had to buy the best to ensure longevity and that she would get what she paid for.

We live like that today. We try and buy the best we can afford to ensure longevity, and a quality item that does what we need it to do. From vitamins to household goods.

I bought quality bed linens and bath towels because I’ve seen too many of the cheap ones become threadbare in a year. And I use the past tense because they are lasting. This past year was the first time I purchased new bed linens for us in 13 years of marriage. And only because I poufed the bed up with a feather bed and we needed those deep sheets.

When it comes to clothes we purchase them at an outlet store in our city. It’s a well known brand that I couldn’t afford full price of. The quality of the clothes is one you don’t see in stores anymore and as such I have not had to buy new clothing in quite some time. I buy classic styles that stand the test of time.

When it comes to grocery shopping I use coupons and buy items on sale. But because of food allergies and general health concerns much of what we buy is not found in the coupon flyer. I make a lot from scratch originally from necessity and now for the health and enjoyment of it.

We don’t eat out. First because of food allergies and now because we tend to cook better at home. We cook as a family watching cooking shows, reading cookbooks, and trying new things. We call it Chez Quinn.

I’ve picked sewing back up. I don’t think sewing is frugal because fabric costs an arm and a leg. But I was getting very discouraged by the clothing to be found for my 6 year old. Luckily my mother had some fabric she put away for such a time as this. And I have found a few sales on some nice fabric for her. But some call it frugal so I list it.

I’m not a perfect frugal person.  In fact many say I’m not frugal because we don’t live poor. We give first to God and then try to live wisely…and well, on the rest.

Share some of your frugal tips with me.

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