Just curious who else is living super frugal

[perchie.girl]

My apologies for getting off track as well.... its a soap box subject for me....

deb

 

[erinszoo]

I don't find Paleo/ low carb off topic ... just want to know how to do it and save money too. I haven't found anything that I lose weight on. Weight watchers was the worst for me. I was on it four times and gained weight every single time.

I like Paleo ... just can't figure out how to do it cheaply. We do can all our own food while we are gardening and we raise our own meat so those issues are easy ... but fresh greens in the middle of winter???

We tried greenhouse gardening several times. My husband's aunt used to grow lettuce all winter long in a cold frame. For some reason mine comes up and sets there two inches high until spring comes and I could have planted it normally. What am I doing wrong??? All these veggies that should grow just fine in my greenhouse just come up and sit there. I don't have any artificial light. Would that help them continue to grow?? I just can't seem to find anyone who winter gardens in a greenhouse to help me figure this out. Anyone with suggestions please help!!

 

[Kikiriki]

I don't find Paleo/ low carb off topic ... just want to know how to do it and save money too. I haven't found anything that I lose weight on. Weight watchers was the worst for me. I was on it four times and gained weight every single time.

I like Paleo ... just can't figure out how to do it cheaply. We do can all our own food while we are gardening and we raise our own meat so those issues are easy ... but fresh greens in the middle of winter???

We tried greenhouse gardening several times. My husband's aunt used to grow lettuce all winter long in a cold frame. For some reason mine comes up and sets there two inches high until spring comes and I could have planted it normally. What am I doing wrong??? All these veggies that should grow just fine in my greenhouse just come up and sit there. I don't have any artificial light. Would that help them continue to grow?? I just can't seem to find anyone who winter gardens in a greenhouse to help me figure this out. Anyone with suggestions please help!!

I watch a guy on YouTube who has a growroom in his basement... Voodoo Garden (no actual voodoo involved!)

Another guy on youtube has a greenhouse (Canada, I think?) his channel got messed up, so the old one was meanshoes and the new one is Brock Hughes.

Believe it or not, I am in Central Florida and my lettuce did the exact same thing! When it did start to grow in LATE spring it was just as bitter as it could be!! As much as I want a garden, I am throwing in the towel...I am defeated, deflated, disgusted, and doggone sick of all the wasted effort and money to get bitter lettuce, ONE tomato, NO cucumbers, and a mere handful of beans!

The stinkbugs win, the caterpillars win, the nematodes win, the birds win, the ants win, the universe has spoken...I am not a gardener!

 

[Amberjem]

weigh watchers was good program for me but I couldnt even eat enough to deal with the thousand colaier intake I had to cutt down on that even just couldnt eat that much.......when I got out of the hospital last year I stopped eating most processed foods, no margarin cutt back on milk, dairy products seem to be a big weigh gainer for me, and doing things that get me moving and motivated to move, be it exploring caverns, gardening, checking chickens, going to the pool doing daily laps and hot tubbing, you want to talk frugal and this topic that can be done easy, doing things that can help live frugal, keep you active, finding resources taking walks in woods harvesting wild plants going to libary and getting books to identify plants you can use on your property from the woods, lots of frugal gardening things that can be done that also increase your activity composting, weeding, moving around tending pruning looking after garden, bug picking (I started taking small bucket to toss bugs i want off my plantys into a bucket to go to chickens) heck even doing the chicken house and fencing and everything were a work out digging burying wire clearing out hammering, stretching ..been getting into canning that involved gathering bunch of apples lugging them to where I needed peeling working processing, using smart choices when making it to help reduce what we are eating to more healthy choices..........frugal generally involves more work IE doing things yourself instead of ready made processed commericalized and mass produced comes with a cost.......and not just your pocket book is effected.

 

[Amberjem]

are you fertilizing the container garden in the greenhouse? I've been doing very well with aquaponics a few cheap totes an air pump some tubing n stuff works great for me, and my fish tanks I have in my house I grow duck weed which been feeding to chickens and the water I clean from the tanks feeds my garden.. I am going to build a convection heat wall for the winter for the greenhouse next year I wanted to see what I could do with it this winter without that only heat source I have in there atm is a 45 galloon tote filled with water and heated with a fish tank heater and t5 grow light

 

[lazy gardener]

We do can all our own food while we are gardening and we raise our own meat so those issues are easy ... but fresh greens in the middle of winter???

We tried greenhouse gardening several times. My husband's aunt used to grow lettuce all winter long in a cold frame. For some reason mine comes up and sets there two inches high until spring comes and I could have planted it normally. What am I doing wrong??? All these veggies that should grow just fine in my greenhouse just come up and sit there. I don't have any artificial light. Would that help them continue to grow?? I just can't seem to find anyone who winter gardens in a greenhouse to help me figure this out. Anyone with suggestions please help!!

What gardening zone are you in? Read: Four-Season Harvest by Eliot Coleman. I think the issue you're having in your wintertime garden is that you're not planting those greens early enough. The important thing is that they need to get their early growth before the days get too short. To get the best advantage from winter gardening, those crops actually need to be planted in July to at the very latest, mid August. By growing in a tunnel with a layer of spun agri-fabric over the crops, you can gain 3 garden zones of heat for winter gardening. For example, If I grow in a cold frame and use an extra layer of protection, I can increase the heat of my zone 4 garden to the equivalent of zone 7. But, no matter how much heat I can supply, growth will be limited by winter time lighting, unless I supplement that as well. BTW, a cold frame is actually better for winter gardening than a green house... unless you can afford to keep that green house heated. BUT, IF YOU BUILD A COLD FRAME INSIDE YOUR GREEN HOUSE, NOW YOU'VE GAINED 3 ZONES!!!

 

[LindaB220]

The only problem with low carb/paleo is the cost. Its not a very frugal way to eat, especially in winter. We do okay on it in summer with eggs and fresh produce from the garden but without beans or bread or pasta to extend meals in winter, how do you do it? I can't feed four of us that way. Lettuce is $2 for a skimpy head right now, cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, even carrots are ridiculously priced as well. I still have a supply of squash and sweet potatoes and tomatoes plus I have meat in the freezer.

Get yourself a pressure canner.

They are very cheap right now and will save you hundreds of dollars in the long run. Imagine next winter having canned cabbage, cauliflower, maybe not broccoli because of the smell but carrots and mixed veggies.
Search google for The Perfect Health Diet. Best website ever and you can have potatoes, white or sweet and boiled white rice. Part of the diet. This was so good for me. I transitioned over from locarb to this after losing 30 lbs. The last 20 came off a little slower but it "woke up" my metabolism so I can eat normally without having to constantly be on a diet.

 

[LindaB220]

I don't find Paleo/ low carb off topic ... just want to know how to do it and save money too. I haven't found anything that I lose weight on. Weight watchers was the worst for me. I was on it four times and gained weight every single time.

I like Paleo ... just can't figure out how to do it cheaply. We do can all our own food while we are gardening and we raise our own meat so those issues are easy ... but fresh greens in the middle of winter???

We tried greenhouse gardening several times. My husband's aunt used to grow lettuce all winter long in a cold frame. For some reason mine comes up and sets there two inches high until spring comes and I could have planted it normally. What am I doing wrong??? All these veggies that should grow just fine in my greenhouse just come up and sit there. I don't have any artificial light. Would that help them continue to grow?? I just can't seem to find anyone who winter gardens in a greenhouse to help me figure this out. Anyone with suggestions please help!!

I did the same thing. Two inches high. Then I found out that you must plant 4 weeks before the first frost. That was it. Even covered it wouldn't grow.

Edited to say I just read Lazy Gardeners post and it's dynamite. Great info about the cold frame inside the greenhouse. I'm in zone 8b so no worries. about snow and such. I just planted too late.

 

[erinszoo]

Quote:
See, this is part of my problem. I'm in zone 6b in northern oklahoma. I can not plant anything in mid July or August. It will simply shrivel up and die in our 100 + degree temps if it germinates at all. If I set up my greenhouse before October, it gets too hot. AND I'm still growing summer stuff in October so I don't have the room in the garden beds for winter things yet. But we rarely get a real fall. We have 80+ degree weather with lows in the 50's and the next day we've had a freeze already. It's really challenging.

I've learned how to extend spring. I've planted tomatoes in a small hoop house the beginning of March with great results ... and lots of heat applied at night.

I'm going to try the cold frame inside the greenhouse. That might actually work for me. I also just hung a light fixture and will be getting some grow lights to add next week. We'll see if that helps. I was really hoping to grow some zucchini or yellow squash because we can not beat the squash bugs here. I've tried everything and they just eat my plants and I never get a thing.

We do add lots of compost from our chickens and rabbits every year and leaves from the neighbors, so the soil is great.

 

[erinszoo]

Quote:
We do pressure can what we can but I wouldn't eat canned cabbage unless I was starving (and the subject hasn't come up lately ...

). I will look into that diet though. I've been trying Paleo and while it helped with inflammation and arthritis, I haven't lost any weight on it at all. Sigh. Story of my life. And it left me so tired I couldn't exercise.