Kale Salad with Lime Dressing

Yummy!

This summer we are sharing a garden with our neighbors and decided to grow kale as both our families enjoy it. I like kale in soup, salad, smoothies, etc. and our kale has done fantastically well. With the kale doing so well and us trying to eat healthier, I decided to make a kale salad for our ladies mission society's annual picnic. The nice thing about a kale salad is the fact that it really doesn't wilt. You can make up most of this salad the day before and then just add the remaining ingredients a couple of hours before serving. It also pairs nicely with some grilled chicken if you decide to make it a "Salad as a main dish" sort of night.

Breakfast in the Garden

I love Saturday mornings. Our family generally sits down to a delicious brunch. I make coffee and Jared makes some sort of eggs, potatoes, veggies, cheese, and sometimes toast (from breakfast skillets to over-easy eggs, toast, and hashbrowns).

We have to fertilize to keep the raised garden beds in good shape so I talked to my uncle (he has raised beds and helped us build ours) and he said that he uses coffee grounds and crushed egg shells as fertilizer. So I've been doing the same. Then about a month or so ago I happened to see a pin on Pinterest about using egg shells as seed pots. I decided to try it out and I'm so glad that I did. My little plants are doing so well!

Step 5

Step 1: Eat an egg, but be sure to crack the egg toward the top so you leave 2/3 of the shell for a "pot".

Step 2: Fill half the egg with dirt.

Step 3: Put your seeds into the dirt.

Step 4: Fill the rest of the shell with dirt.

Step 5: Pat the dirt down so that the seeds are nicely "snuggled" in their dirt beds.

Step 6: Add more dirt till the egg is completely filled.

Step 7: In permanent marker, write the name of the plant directly on the egg for easy identification.

Step 8: Place the egg "pots" into an empty egg carton where the top cover has been removed.

Gardening with Newspaper

I buy the Sunday paper almost every week for the coupon inserts and we also get a couple of free local newspapers. After I’m done looking through them I usually save them for use in starting the grill or the fire pit in the back yard, but I always have more “leftover” newspapers than I could ever possibly use.

While on Pinterest (I know, Jared says I’m addicted), I saw a couple of ideas for using old newspapers in gardening and decided to try them with our garden this year.

The first idea that I saw was to form seed starter “pots” out of old newspapers. You use a soup can to shape your newspaper, fill the new “pot” with dirt, plant the seeds and set them in a leak proof container (so you can water the plants without making a mess). Then when you are ready to transfer the seedlings to your garden you just unfold the bottom and place the plant (newspaper, dirt and all) into the ground. I was getting ready to start my tomatoes indoors so I decided to give it a shot. I’m so glad that I did, too. My plants are growing nicely and it saved me some $ (which is always nice). I plan to do this with the rest of my seeds this weekend.

My tomato plants are already a couple of inches tall after only few weeks

The second idea that I saw was using newspaper for weed control (it's #5 on the list). The article says that you can take newspaper and spread it out over your garden like you would with “landscape fabric”, spray it with water, cover with mulch, and let it will keep the weeds from growing. I’ve used landscape fabric before and it never keeps the weeds away as well as I’d like it to so I plan to give this a shot when I plant my garden outdoors. I am curious how well the newspaper holds up to the wind even with the mulch on top. If you’ve done this before please let me know how it went.

Harvest Time Ideas

With Fall fast approaching, I have begun the task of harvesting the fruits of my labor - from tomatoes and peppers to melons and summer squash. Here are things that I do with my "extra" produce (what I don't eat up or share).