One Hundred Dollars a Month

It’s that time again. You ask, and I pretend to know things and answer your burning questions. It really is so much fun to open my inbox and see the wide variety of questions you guys have. Reminds me that my readers are so diverse and pretty dang awesome. So keep those questions coming and I’ll keep racking my brain for answers. As always, please pipe up if you have any input or are knowledgeable when it comes to any of the following questions:You completely transformed the backyard of your previous house into a gardening paradise. That’s not everyone’s cup of tea, though. Did you have trouble selling the house or did it actually become one of the selling points?

~ Erin

Great question! Because our last property was on a little over an acre in a development of like homes and like-sized wooded lots, I don’t think the vegetable garden factored into the sale of the house either way. However, if I had a smaller lot {like I do now} I wouldn’t go super crazy with the vegetable plots like I did at the last house. We had 16 garden boxes/plots with about 2,000 square feet of {food} growing areas. This time around since we are on a little over a 1/3 acre and have less people to feed, I think my garden plan is for 2 large {6×12} raised garden beds on the side yard and a boatload of containers on the patio {along with several “secret gardens” tucked in as well}.

That way I can scale down the vegetable garden when we eventually put the house on the market. I will replace the side vegetable garden {where I have cabbage and radishes growing now}, with annual flowers for a bit of color.

Were you able to grow okra in your greenhouse? You mentioned getting the seeds, but I didn’t see anything else about how the okra were doing. Curious because I live in Sammamish, WA, and want to grow okra this year. Last year I did really well with other plants like eggplants and peppers, {and tomatoes and cucumbers, of course}, so now that I’ve learned some tricks, I wanted to try my hand at okra. I got two varieties that have low Days to Maturity, and only want to proceed if it is worthwhile.

Much thanks for your input!

~Anita

I had high hopes for my okra but they did not do well. I think it’s because I planted them too early and because it just isn’t warm enough here. Okra grows best in hot climates, but I thought I could get away with growing it if it was in full sun. I researched it a bit and I think I might have needed to add a fertilizer to my soil to get it to grow. I’m not giving up though. I just might try again this year!

Hi last year on your site I read a dog tick repellent recipe and can no longer find it…please help!

~Lynda

I haven’t done a dog tick repellent recipe post yet, but it sounds like I should! I’ve always just used one similar to this recipe. Any of you lovely readers out there have a go-to repellent recipe you use? Please share in the comments section!

A question for you, my family and I are preparing for a move {about 30 miles from our current home} this summer and I am wondering about the food that I have accumulated in my pantry and freezer. I am curious if, in preparation for your move, you found yourself consuming much of what you had on hand in order to have less to move or if you just went about your family shopping/eating habits as usual?

~ Mona

Glad you asked because this was something I actually planned out. Once I knew we were moving, I took an inventory of everything I had that I didn’t want to have to move. Some of my bulk items I knew would travel well and I also knew we could never eat them down, so I ignored those. I really tried hard to plan meals around pantry items I wanted to use up. It changed our menus a bit, but nothing crazy. I duplicated more meals than normal and didn’t eat through as much as I had hoped, but it sure helped when we were packing everything up!