Five Squares & Viney Things

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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.

Willow Stevens

Willow is a mother of six who begins to feel the empty nest, with faer oldest child living with his long-time girlfriend in another state, and the next three begin their talks about jobs and the excitement of college and living alone. Willow started couponing in 2007 to save their family some money on the grocery budget. That's how Freetail Therapy was born, so that fae could share their knowledge of saving money with others. Though the site has become so much more since then, and now includes homeschooling and homesteading info, Willow still does it all on a budget and shares how. Willow enjoys snagging freebies, snuggling with their dog, Xander, drinking decaf coffee, gardening, cannabis and of course, their large frugal family.

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