Productive day

Today was a productive/tiring day. First, I spent all morning planning my weekly menu, and grocery list. Then, I went out shopping. Old Navy is doing this special weekly coupon promo, where they add a few hundred high dollar coupons to their website. I have been watching the releases of new coupons, and also been on a chatroom, where other ladies help each other get coupons. Some of them were nice enough to give me $45/$100 coupons.

A few days ago I switched all the winter clothes for the summer clothes, and did an assesment of what I have and what I need. It turned out Sterling had only 2 pair of shorts, and NO long jeans (without holes in the knees). So,.. he got 4 pairs of jeans, and 2 pairs of shorts. Ginger also needed jeans for next fall, and shirts for this summer. When I got to the checkout, it turned out that some of the clothes were actually cheaper than marked, so I had to get another $30 worth of stuff to get to $200. Guess what I got... I actually got myself something! Just jeans.. but still.

I also did my weekly grocery shopping, and used like 40 coupons at target. Then, I also headed to Lowes for some tomato cages, and plant feed. I ended up seeing a eggplant plant, and never having eaten it, thought it might be fun to grow in the garden. If I can get it to grow, I'll have to look up some recipes. Oh yeah, Ginger stayed home!!! It was her naptime anyways, and it's sooo much easier without a toddler on my side. By the time I got home, it was already 6pm, so we had a quick dinner.

After dinner we all headed outside. Joe mowed the lawn, the kids played on the dock, and I worked in my garden. I installed the cages, spread fertilizer, spayed insecticide, pulled some weeds, sprayed roundup on some weeds, and planted my new plants. Another project I have wanted to do is growing potatoes in tires. During some of my research on how to grow potatoes, I came across several website that recommended growing potatoes in old tires. Well, we just happen to have plenty of those laying around our land!! (the previous owners used them for land preservation...)

This is how you grow potatoes in tires:

1. Place a tire in a spot without weeds
2. loosen the dirt
3. place a layer of manure or other compost
4. Add dirt to almost the top of the tire (this is the hard manual labor!!!)
   
5. Place seed potatoes, eye side up, and cover with an inch of dirt.

Once the potato plants are about 8 inches tall, you place another tire on top of the first, and bury most of the plant. The plant then will send shoots of roots up to the top, with potatoes attached. You keep doing this until you have 3-4 tires on top of each other. This method takes less space and makes it easier to harvest the potatoes. I have never done this before, so I'll let you know how it turns out.

Another picture of the garden to come soon. I am very proud of the progress so far! The plants are actually visible now!