Paying for Dirt?

First off, let me say the idea of paying for dirt baffles me. I  moved here from Southern Oregon and  we planted everything right into the ground in our nutrient rich soil! Here in Florida, the soil is basically just dirty sand. So we went to a local nursery and got a yard of good top soil for garden bed #1. It wasn't enough to fill the whole bed, but it was close. Justin made the garden box 10x4x12. We are about 1 week in and  I have 2 tomato plants, and 3 pepper plants planted, plus 2 rows of purple dragon carrots planted, and my starter seeds we planted last week are now sprouting. Things are going pretty good so far. We also picked up some more wood this weekend to build 2 more long skinny garden beds.  I plan to use them for Green beans, Broccoli and Cauliflower. Only problem as of right now, we need more dirt!  Who would have thought you have to spend so much money to buy DIRT! Here is a picture of my seed transplants after about a week of growth. These are organic tomatoes (beefsteak and roma). We used an egg carton to plan them in. It tears apart when damp and we will just transplant the whole little cube. Then it can disintegrate into the dirt.

My adventure of gardening in North East Florida

You might wonder why I chose canning? It's a lot of work, yes. What if your power goes out? We are trying to get a stock supply to last us through a month of no power. I'm pretty sure all my friends and family will appreciate having hot soup or stew, and fresh veggies during a major catastrophe like a hurricane or storm that causes a major power outage. You never know what to expect but I know properly canned and preserved foods can last over 50 years on your shelf. My freezer cannot do that.

So where to start?
Planning planning planning! There are so many individual parts to this "growing-our-own-food-project" we needed to pick a place to start. I broke down everything we need to do, in an order I think will work...

1) Garden Beds - we need them built, and need good organic soil to fill them
2) What to plant- what will grow during this season? What needs sown directly into the ground and what needs transplanted?
3) Planting - we need seeds and starters
4) Rain Barrels - we need to buy gutters and install them &  rain barrels for collecting water
5) Gardening - we need garden beds and healthy vegetable plants
6) Canning supplies - I have some but I have nothing to can yet!

We decided a good place to start on this whole adventure is to buy seeds, and build the garden beds. We spent a good portion of the day building raised garden beds (because here in Florida, we have sand not soil so planting on the ground doesn't make for very healthy plants) we were able to use almost all leftover wood we had from previous projects. I did a lot of research as to what I should be growing in April and May in North Eastern Florida, and what seeds needed to be transplanted vs sown directly into the ground. We bought some starter Strawberry plants, Blueberry bushes and a bunch of Organic seeds and planted the tomatoes and bell peppers into a little makeshift green house. Others (green beans, watermelon, zucchini and pumpkin) will go directly into the garden bed once we pickup the dirt.

That leaves me about 2 weeks to pickup dirt, and get my compost barrels built and ready and to start composting so I have fresh organic fertilizer/soil for my garden.

My kids are planting pots of Blueberries and strawberries right now. They love helping.