Have you considered starting a home garden? With so much uncertainty and business shutdowns, we thought it was time to start a home garden this summer and in this blog we’ll be sharing our journey along the way.
I am great at raising children, driving 1000 miles straight on a road trip, and hiking from sunrise to sunset, but give me a plant and there’s a good chance it will be dead within a week. The problem is, I love eating vegetables and it’s my dream to grow all of my own produce.
We recently took a break from full-time RVing in order to pursue this new goal. I wanted to be as self-sustainable as possible and so we have a huge property in Montana where we can one day raise cattle, sheep, goats, and grow food.
Even if you aren’t planning on planting this year, it’s a good idea to stock up on seeds for the future.
Having organic produce to eat is very important for our family. That’s why we’ve teamed up with True Leaf Market for all our garden needs.
Non-GMO Seeds for your Home Garden from True Leaf Market
True Leaf Market has everything you need for growing a high yield, healthy garden including a wide selection of seeds, microgreens, sprouts, and wheatgrass to worms, planters, grow racks, and greenhouses.
Whether you are just growing herbs on your counter, microgreens for salads, starting an indoor greenhouse, or trying to be completely self-sustainable, True Leaf Market is the place to start.
While I could’ve just got seeds at Walmart, I wanted to ensure that I am not planting GMO seeds. True Leaf Market is a brand I trust to deliver high-quality products at an affordable price and they never sell GMO seeds. They also have a wide selection of organic and heirloom seeds, as well as seeds for beautiful flowers in your garden.
True Leaf Market also carries a wide variety of prepackaged storage seeds for long-term storage. Given the state of the world today, it’s a great idea to have emergency food supplies in your home in addition to starting your home garden.
True Leaf Market Products For Our Garden
In this blog, we are covering all the products we are using to get our home garden started this year. Growing food is completely new to us and this will be the first time for us to grow a garden.
We are also still traveling a lot so some of these products are being grown while we travel in our RV and some will be planted in spring after the last Montana frost. We will continue to update the blog to share our successes and failures along the way.
We are working on growing a few different things from True Leaf Market:
True Leaf Market Start A Home Garden Guides
One thing I really love about True Leaf Market’s website is that they have a page dedicated to starter guides. This is very helpful to anyone like me who is a total newbie when it comes to starting a garden.
True Leaf Market Microgreens Kit
Our first attempt at growing a garden was to try out the Microgreens Starter Kit. We started our first round of microgreens this past December, thinking it would be a good way to supplement our grocery shopping and if things in the world started to get worse, we could just grow more. I’ve realized we did three things wrong along the way:
Our house is cold and where we live in Montana, it seems to always be cloudy. Because of this, I tried putting them under our indoor greenhouse light and I think it burned them. I’m starting to have doubts that I can figure out this growing thing.
We made sure to put the next round by a window that received more light and it helped but they wilted quickly and I didn’t get a very high percentage of seeds that actually sprouted.
In the third round, we tried overwatering them. The microgreens kit comes with a spray bottle but that is way too little water to keep the soil moist.
Oh, and speaking of water, be sure to test the ph of your water. If you buy the microgreens kit it comes with ph test strips. I do think our first round might have failed because our well water was a little acidic.
Grow Microgreens In Your RV
We are currently on the road and trying our luck with the microgreens again but this time seeing if being in warmer weather and having the right amount of sun helps. I have an empty shelf above my washer/dryer that is perfect for getting the seeds started, which takes about 3 days. After that, I can put them outside during the day and then move them into the kitchen overnight.
Growing Wheatgrass While Living In Our RV
We are also trying another True Leaf Market product, Wheatgrass. In my book, A Playful Life, I talk a lot about the benefits of drinking a greens juice every day.
We don’t have enough room in our 5th wheel fridge to hold that much produce so making wheatgrass shots are a great substitute. We already have our own mini Kombucha factory in our RV so why not add wheatgrass to it!
Start A Home Garden: Get Your Seeds
Did you know that a lot of the produce you buy at the grocery store was picked months or even a year ago? Plus, a lot of the produce is GMO and full of pesticides. Even when the label says “organic” I’m pretty skeptical because there is just too much money behind getting that word on a package.
I used to be a part of a CSA and would actually go to the farms to see the growing process, but then we moved into the RV in 2015 and traveled so much it was impossible to have a membership like this.
My uncle is our neighbor in Montana and every summer when we visit, it is wonderful being able to go outside and pick all our own lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, and radishes for our salads.
We are hoping that this year, we will be able to do this from our own garden. In fact, we have a creek running through our property that we plan on using to keep our garden watered even when we are traveling. (Check back for updates on that)
We are planning on getting our seeds started indoors at the beginning of April and then moving them outside a few weeks later.
Of course, I’m overly ambitious, and besides wanting to start a garden to make my own salads, I would love to produce enough squashes, root veggies, as well as herbs, garlic, and seasonings to feed our family this summer and even stockpile some for next winter.
Waiting To Start A Home Garden Is Hard
Unfortunately, winter still has quite a while left. For the next few weeks, we will see how our wheatgrass does and just keep dreaming and researching for more tips on how to become self-sustainable while playing in Utah.
Check back to see the progress on our home garden this summer.
In the meantime, spring will be here before you know it. If you want to start your own indoor garden and then take it outdoors when summer arrives, I highly recommend getting your non-GMO seeds at True Leaf Market.
Do you grow your own garden? Share with us your favorite growing tips in the comments below.
Related Blog: How To Make Kombucha At Home
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