katlupe's Low Carb Eating Plan

Gardening season is upon us.......and not a moment too soon. With the price of food in the stores who can not afford to plant a garden? Even if it is small one. To get started I always start my own seeds, but you can easily buy plants already started at Lowe's or Walmart for hardly much money. I do most of my gardening in raised beds that my husband built. Some are of wood and then we have some spectacular ones made of rock. They make gardening so easy plus they are very attractive and everyone notices them.

With a raised bed you can start your garden every year without plowing it. You can grow ALOT of food in a small bed. You don't have to worry about spacing them too close because it is an intensive way of gardening and is meant to be that way. It is easier for weeding or watering and for harvesting also.

I planted my strawberry plants last year and did not harvest them, but picked the blossoms off. By doing that in their first year it will make them give better yields in the following years. So this year, in June, I am looking forward to lots of strawberries. I do not have a freezer so I will be canning unsweetened strawberry jam. Maybe drying part of the harvest. As we all know, strawberries are one of the fruits that is on our low carb plans. I have tons of wild blackberries growing all around me so I will not have to plant them. Also have many blueberries and elderberries. Berries are great for the low carber and they are so easy to grow. Instead of hedges......plant berry bushes!

Another great plant for your home garden that is on your low carb plan is the asparagus. And they are easy also. You put in your bed of asparagus and they come back every year just like the strawberries do. Rhurbarb is another fruit that I planted last year but could not harvest till this year. It is ripening and I am planning on canning that without sugar too. I have really gotten into living without that poison now and will not touch it. I feel great and I think that is why.

My lettuce and greens are beginning to come up too. I love picking my greens and salad vegetables right from the garden and bringing them in to put in our salads. Salad is the one dish we eat daily and never get tired of it. There are so many kinds of greens that you can have different ones every night. I mix them and I also add the wild dandelions growing all over our yard and some other wild herbs growing there too.

My garlic bed I started in the fall and it is just beautiful now. I will dry some and keep the rest stored for cooking fresh and then replant for the fall crop. I have many herb beds that I planted a few years back. In fact, a lady from Freecycle offered me free cuts from her plants so they did not cost me a thing. I dry lots of herbs all season upstairs in my attic on a clothesline. I just gave my son some oregano that I grew last year and his friend could not believe how big it was or how fresh it smelled.

Soon I will be adding the green beans, tomatoes (of which I can many quarts of both), winter squashes (different varieties), pumpkin (low carb favorite!), summer squashes (love my zucchini lasagna!), potatoes (grew 250 pounds last year.....but have cut back on that veggie for the time being.......), cucumbers, peppers, stevia, etc.......you get the idea I am sure. Just keep track for the month of how much money you spend on those vegetables. Believe me, you will love your own home grown vegetables and wonder why you didn't do it before!