FDA approved refrigerator and freezer guidelines

http://www.fda.gov/downloads/Food/ResourcesForYou/HealthEducators/ucm109315.pdf

Garden 2013

Here I am, yet again, sick in bed. This pregnancy has kicked my butt!! But hopefully I will be getting back on track as soon as this sinus infection moves out. I *think* my nausea has finally given up! One upside to me being in the bed so much lately is that I've had a TON of time to do some research for my garden this year. I'm so excited that its FINALLY time to get out there and get stuff in the ground!

Last year I went with a traditional, in the ground garden. Didn't have a lot of success. Once we came back from vacation weeds had taken over...I was OVER it. It wasn't a total loss, just didn't get as much from it as expected but it was a great learning experience.

I love going out to tend to the garden, harvest veggies, clip things back, pick a few weeds....but hoe a garden FULL of weeds? Not my thing! So this year I'm doing raised beds. I have two raised beds and a bunch of pots. During my "sick leave" research I've found this is called square foot gardening and you can fit a TON of things in these 4'x4' beds.

Here's what I've got going so far:
I planted some romaine lettuce and some white onions. I also have already planted my tomatoes in pots. They're going to stay on my deck so they can avoid that very hot afternoon sun. I did them in my garden last year and they were horrible, too hot for them and anytime one turned red the birds pecked at it!! I also planted some zucchini, squash and cucumbers already in these raised beds. I planted them way too early, but they seem to be ok. I also planted them way too spread out for this square foot gardening plan (SFG). So I'm hoping they make it through the move to their new location. Also, planted green peppers and pimento peppers, not realizing they're not in big enough pots...so, they need new homes too.

So here's my new plan, my SFG plan! You're going to be amazed what you can fit into these two 4'x4' raised beds!

Bed #1
4 green pepper plants
4 pimento pepper plants
2 cucumbers
2 cantaloupe vines
1 squash
Plus, I'll have one square foot left over for my later planting of peas!! In one square foot you can trellis 8 vines! (So they say! We'll see)

Bed #2
8 square feet of corn, with three stalks in each, for a total of 24 stalks! I'm also going to plant Lima beans to crawl up those corn stalks. This will go in the middle of the bed and in each of the four outside corners left to sprawl out will be 3 squash plants and 1 zucchini plant.

I'm so excited over this garden plan. It will be much more manageable for me since its in less space (with minimal weeds). Cheyenne is very excited over the garden as well. We have the fence up already and she helps me water everything and she just loves going out and standing in there! Just wait til she can pick some veggies! She's going to love it!

To learn more about SFG, here are some of the websites I came across and learned a bunch from:

www.mysquarefootgarden.net
www.squarefootgardening.org

I also typed in square foot gardening in YouTube and watched a few videos about it. I've had a lot of time sick in bed....