more garden planning

 my son is a natural born comedian

 her eyes glow, even in the daylight

 decided to make some pasta sauce from scratch. baked a bunch of halved plum tomatoes, a few carrots, an onion, some celery, and some garlic. peeled the skin off the tomatoes and food processed it all, then simmered it with some chicken broth and dried italian herbs and spices.

 added some shredded cheese as I was out of grated parmesan and my son and I shared a plate

he enjoyed it very much, repeatedly saying "mmmmmmm!"

Did some more research today on what we will need for our garden, and since deciding to DIY a rain barrel with an old lidless garbage bin we have, i ordered a  rain barrel kit from amazon. What sold me on this one was that it includes the saw blade for the holes you have to make. I can always go and buy my own rubber and taps for the next rain barrel I make and use the blades again from this kit. We also looked up how deep gas lines are usually dug to make sure we weren't in danger of coming across it as we were mixing up the soil, haha.

I also made a list of things I am going to need/want for a successful garden. They include: 

cheese cloth (for the top of the rain barrel

cinder blocks (to sit the barrel on)

tulle fabric (to protect from weather, insects when plants are younger- going to look at a fabric store)

compost

mulch

a dual hoe/fork tool

organic slow release fertilizer

calcium? maybe

plant labels - i'm going to retain my son's popsicle sticks for this

wood that will border the garden and allow it to be slightly raised - possibly from my uncle's sawmill for free

stakes for vine plants

string to tie between stakes

possibly a cheesy sign post that we will paint a name for our garden

That's all I can think of for now. So far I have spent $55 on seeds and $32 on the rain barrel kit. My pots I have been using for starting things indoors have all been donated to me by family and friends or are containers I bought salad greens and spinach in at the grocery store. I will keep a running tally of how much the start-up of my garden costs me and post it once it's is up and running.