WILTED SPINACH SALAD

4 slices bacon 1/2 c. chopped onion 3 tbsp. sugar 1/3 c. vinegar 1/2 tsp. salt 1/8 tsp. pepper 4 c. (1 lb.) fresh washed spinach leaves, torn in bite size pieces Cook bacon until crisp in large skillet. Remove, reserving bacon dripping in skillet. Crumble bacon and set aside. Add onion and next four ingredients to drippings, stirring until blended. Cook mixture 10 minutes over medium heat, uncovered, stirring occasionally. Pour over spinach in large bowl. Toss and serve immediately. Serves 4 to 6. http://www.cooks.com/recipe/q06ec388/grandmas-wilted-spinach-mikes-mistake-salad.html

Pallet Gardening 101: Creating a Pallet Garden

http://www.onehundreddollarsamonth.com/pallet-gardening-101-creating-a-pallet-garden/

This year I will be planting a large salad garden, and I thought it would be fun to grow my lettuce and other greens in pallets to change things up a bit in the backyard.

All you really need to do a little pallet gardening is a wood pallet, some good soil and a few seeds. Using a wood pallet to start a garden can be a great space saver, plus as a bonus, there is no soil to til or weed. This is exactly the kind of project young children would love, especially if they could have their own wood pallet.

What to look for in a wood pallet:

If you live in the Tacoma area you can purchase new pallets from Girard Wood Products in Puyallup, Washington for about $9 each. We purchased our pallets here for this years wood pallet garden. The photo you see above is a picture of some recycled wood pallets we found behind buildings last year.

Personally, I suggest using a new, clean, fresh pallet.

But  if you like to live life on the edge, 

Here are a few pointers when looking for recycled pallets:

Look for a pallet that has HT stamped somewhere on the pallet. This means the pallet was heat treated, or kiln dried as opposed to chemically treated.

Because you can never be sure that chemicals were stored on an old pallet or that there is some sort of bacteria lurking inside the recycled pallets, I would scrub the wood down with some bleach and soapy water and let it dry out before using it to plant anything.

Also, watch out for old, rusty nails or staples.

When I first pictured my wood pallet garden, I thought I would only use 3 wood pallets. But every time I walked by something about it didn’t look right. So I decided to expand the pallet garden to include 6 wood pallets.

One of the cool things about gardening, is that there are so many different ways to grow food. So many containers to chose from, and more growing methods than I care to imagine. Everybody has an opinion, and there own way of doing things. And I think that’s the best part.

No two gardens will ever been the same, or have the same growing conditions, but the desire to try new things is something we all have in common. Wouldn’t you agree?

So here we go. This is my new pallet gardening area.  I planted more lettuce seeds this morning, and I’m ready to get started. Next on the agenda is getting the area mulched so it looks a little more put together and like it belongs in a suburban backyard.