Right. Most families would barely be able to produce even a small fraction of what they need in order to feed their family based on their living situation.  For families that can't produce a significant amount of food, I still think it prudent to save seeds, produce what you can and learn to preserve it. If we don't teach our kids, who will? I guess that's part of what I'm talking about when I say it's our responsibility. Our children need to understand the value of such things, and to understand that they may find themselves in the situation where they will be glad they have those skills. In that sense, it's more about looking towards the future.

As far as supplies go, it could be expensive if you go to the store and buy new everything. But it doesn't have to be. I collected my massive collection of canning jars in a multitude of different ways. I didn't pay full price for many of them. The nice thing is that they are reusable, except for the lids (at least that's the recommendation, not to reuse canning lids for canning purposes). I do repurpose the lids for fermenting or storing dehydrated goods in jars.

Some examples on saving money (I've done all of these because I've never been "well off")
-Don't go out and buy an official water bath canner. Your 2 gallon pot will do. You'll just have to do less at a time. You don't need to go buy that "canning kit" either, with the apparatus you grab the jars with, the tamper and the magnet. Just use some tongs for grabbing and a butter knife for tamping.
-If you must buy dirt for your pots, buy some dirt once and just keep building it with compost you make from your table scraps. You don't need to go and buy all that fancy fertilizer and whatever else the garden center tells you that you need to grow lots of tomatoes. I've used some crazy things for fertilzer!
-Look for canning jars at estate sales, online buy sell trades, garage sales etc.
-If you can't afford a tiller, just use a spade. It's killer exercise! Better yet, practice no till gardening.
-Don't buy mulch, just save your boxes and newspapers and put grass trimmings down on top of them to prevent weed growth. Fall leaves work great to put on the boxes too. This will help build your soil as well.
-Trade with like minded people in your area for things you need.

Truly, it does not have to be expensive. Once you have your supplies that you can use year after year you are golden You will have to spend some $$ on supplies, but the reward is great.

Some great tips and advice here, Jen!  Thank you!  🤗

We have actually been doing the composting, cardboard boxes, and leaves because fixing our clay soil is a must for gardening and buying soil can get expensive.  We did find out that our town offers free mulch to residents.  So, we have also been trying to take advantage of that.  If only we had a truck to help ship it...  But, we have been making due with filling large black trash bags and reusing them and putting them in the back of our van for now. 😅

The only Ball Mason jars we have are hand-me-downs or been bought at thrift stores and we always use our biggest pan to do our water baths.  Just liked you talked about!  I do need to get some better thongs though!  😜

Seed saving is new to me but I have this year saved seeds from some plants: parsley, fennel, tomatoes, acorn squash and pumpkins. 🥰

Oh, I understand about the kids pulling up plants. That has been an incredible frustration for us as well! One particular time I remember- our kids (we had 3 of them 3 yrs and younger at the time) had pulled all the tulips the year before, but one yellow tulip, which happened to be the most beautiful tulip among them so I felt fortunate to still have it. The following year it bloomed all by itself. It was beautiful. The kids were playing while I was hanging out clothes and I came back to find that our little one had pulled up the tulip. She was holding it to her face sniffing it when I came around the corner. For a brief moment I mourned so pitifully, but she looked so sweet smelling the tulip, so I snapped a picture. It was a great picture, one of my favorites! So in a sweet twist of God's kindness, I enjoy that yellow tulip every time I smile at that picture.

On a different note... have you considered raising meat rabbits? They are a really efficient way to grow your own meat and the their poo is REALLY good for the garden.  We love our meat rabbits!

Aw!  That is SO cute about the tulips and so terrible at the same time!  So...  Terribly cute?🤣

How old were your children before they started being more careful about plants and such?  Once we have the new baby...  We will be at the 3 boys under 3 stage for a couple of months under our oldest turns four.  😅

I love it when the boys get excited about flowers in the spring!  We were outside yesterday and our ancient winter honeysuckle bush/tree is starting to bloom!  The boys were so excited and Xander loved smelling them over and over again!  He was a bit upset that he couldn't reach them but I picked some for him and he took them into my husband to show him as well.  🥰


My husband's mother has done rabbits but I think our town doesn't allow them if I remember right.  I know that husband looked into it before.  🤔

My mother did let us have a big batch of horse manure last year though!  😅

I will be honest in saying they have not completely outgrown it yet. 🥴 They are currently 6,5 and 4. It’s not as bad as it used to be. The 4 year old is still very impulsive, and the 5 year old is the best about it. Surprisingly enough it’s the 6 year old that is the worst about it. She’s old enough that she gets in trouble for it now.

We do plan on planting a bunch of perennials this year because we feel they are old enough to not completely destroy them. 😂

Well, that makes me feel a little better...  I guess I should be grateful for anything that survives at this point.  

I would love to hear more about how your gardening goes this year!  

We went ahead and got some hardwood cuttings from my parents' farm yesterday:

Blueberries
Mock Orange
Hedge Roses
Butterfly Bushes

Oh, and some rhubarb while their big plant (10 years old or more) is dormant.

We made homemade root hormone out of honey, aloe and cinnamon.

We didn't have time to plant them yesterday so we soaked them in water overnight and they boys helped me plant them directly into our front yard flower garden and a couple backyard plots this morning.  I was actually impressed at how much our older boy got into helping and he actually listened (for the most part) and wasn't very destructive.

I shall be happy if 30% of the cuttings survive and am particularly hoping that the blueberries and rhubarb do.  It would be nice to eventually have fresh fruit to pick at home (I know it can take a couple years before fruiting) without having to pack the boys up and go to the my parents' farm every time.


We took grape cuttings from the game last year and a few other things.  Most died but I never used root hormone or anything and had trouble watering with the morning sickness last summer.  

We did have one butterfly bush survive though from last year's cuttings, one grape plant, a bunch of hydrangeas and Japanese spirea.  Oh, and we managed to successfully transplant a crape myrtle.  So, I am hopeful.  😅

I haven't had much success with saved seeds because I rarely plant them. 

However, I do get seeds growing out of the compost that I spread. I've had cherry tomatoes, capsicuмs, pumpkin, passionfruit, pawpaw and a lemon tree.

That makes sense...  We have had some good compost volunteers over the years!  😅

What are capsicuмs?

Are passion-fruit hard to grow?  Do you have to be in a warm area to grow them?  We one had an avocado seed sprout in our compost!  I saved it and got the plant to grow about 3 ft tall before it was too big to have inside and then the winter killed it.  🤷

My parents have pawpaws which grow in the wild by their stream.  ...but I could never figure out when they were ripe.  They always seemed so hard and never soft enough to eat.  Any info you can share there?