Finally, our first step to independence

Quote of the Day:
Vegetarian is an old Indian word meaning bad hunter.
--Anonymous

This has been a long winter. It has given us a lot of time to brood and plan and think about where we want to be, and where we want to be is independent. With the world economic climate being what it is, it makes sense to be self-sufficient, or as self-sufficient as possible.

One of the easiest ways to start achieving this without spending a crapload of money is by growing our own vegetables. Unfortunately, we do not have a huge garden like we used to have at our old house, so space is a bit of a problem.  We realised that we would have to make some sacrifices in terms of lawn, but the spot also had to meet some of the basic requirements for growing plants, such as receiving some sunlight during the day (because it would be hard to find a sunny spot at night, right?)

We finally found a spot a couple of weeks ago, and started preparing it, but life happened, so we didn’t do much with it, really.

Q got up early this morning, and cleaned the spot up, and we finally planted our seeds this morning.

He put some nice decorations on each bed to try and deter the cats :)

We planted carrots, onions, spinach and morogo. I also cut up a tomato and mixed it into the bed in the hope that it would yield at least one plant.

Sinead prepared the butternut seeds, and this will be her little project. I have never grown butternut before, so we thought we would treat the seeds the same way she did her beans earlier this year for a school project, and wrap them in wet cotton wool until they sprout.

We prepared some baby potatoes. We eat a fair amount of potatoes and it would be nice if these ones can grow, so we can always have some handy.

We’ve never really actively grown vegetables. Oh, we have planted the seeds before, but never really put much effort into them before. But, with the rising cost of food, I am sure we will take it more seriously this time round.

If we can get these ones to grow, the next step would probably be to grow some sunflowers and mielies in the front garden, and see if we can attempt making our own bio-fuel, if not for use in the car then at least to power the generator we may one day buy.