I'm only posting today because

writing makes me feel better.  I'm in quite a bad mood otherwise, but still need to carry on with the day, you know?

I am sort of proud of myself lately for a few things anyway. 

1.  I'm glad that I put the garden to bed properly this year.  In the past, I was lazy and then it was too late/too cold, etc.  I got them weeded and mulched.  I planted the garlic.  And I already have my plan set up for seed ordering in late winter and what I'm planting where in the spring. 

2.  I'm glad that I've done enough Thanksgiving meals before that it doesn't stress me out anymore.  Although, every time I go to buy all of the food, I feel like I am playing house. It doesn't seem like I should be old enough to be doing a Thanksgiving meal, but yet, here I am. 

3.  I am glad that we are caught up on our bills.  Money can be so stressful, and I am approaching the end of my latest contract and I have nothing yet lined up for December, and that is REALLY stressing me out, but if we were behind on bills, that would be even worse.  We have enough in reserves that we can probably make it through December too, so it buys a little time. 

Well, not much on my plate besides work today.  I slept in today because of that bad mood, but I'm up now and as soon as I'm done writing this post, I'll start in on my "real" work.  Jelly Bean needs to go to swim team practice, and I need to make a schedule for cooking for tomorrow.  I don't want to leave all the cooking for Thursday.  I'll probably do the potatoes and a couple of the pies tomorrow. 

Why do I garden?

I've talked about gardening several times here, and if I wasn't so lazy, I'd link to all the posts, but I won't.  But I've gardened every year since I started this blog, although that first year, it was just a very small area (like 2' x 3' space) here at the house. 

I've also mentioned that when I grew up, my parents gardened.  From the time I was 11 until I left home, my parents had a HUGE garden.  It was almost a 1/2 acre, and it also included about 8 fruit trees. I didn't love working in the garden back then.  It was something that we did because we were asked to do it.  I don't remember ever just wandering out there to weed or even just to grab a handful of raspberries.

So when I thought about gardening, I thought about that big garden, and I didn't want to do that.  And then, for some reason, I don't remember, Mr. Simple cleared that little patch in 2007 or 2008 and I grew a few things.  Mostly herbs.  And they all grew.  Like magic.

And the next year, my sister asked me to garden with her at a plot - it was 15 feet by 20 feet.  And we planted.  And things grew. Like magic.  (Well, besides the peas.  For some reason, I never had good luck with peas at the garden plot.)  And I grew things at the plot the next year too, and that year, it ended up that I had the whole garden plot to myself.  And things grew. But so did the weeds and it was all on me.  It was great to have all that space, but it was a lot of work too. 

So last year, I did square foot gardening here at the house. And things grew. Like magic.  And there were almost NO weeds.  And it was close.  And I was able to grow as much food as I did at the plot (well, not as many tomato plants, but I was able to watch the tomatoes better, so I ended up with almost as many tomatoes anyway.)

I don't have that much space dedicated to gardening at my house, but what I do have is very productive.  I do spend quite a bit of time dedicated to gardening at the beginning of the gardening season - picking the seeds, preparing the soil, building any new beds, etc. But the thing that I love about square foot gardening is that from that point on, the time I spend in the garden is sort of up to me.  I certainly don't need to dedicate an hour a week to weeding.  And I can harvest the minute that things are ready and I get food in more manageable batches that way.  And I can just sit outside and watch the butterflies and bees and the birds flying around.  I can sit in the sun and enjoy just being outside.  I can take the food and freeze it for days like this in February where there is no fresh produce available, but I can cook up a batch of green beans from the garden from last July.  I can take the herbs inside, and dry them so that I can add them to my (homemade) tomato sauce for the spaghetti tonight. 

And sometimes, on a bright June morning, I'll go outside just to grab a handful of strawberries too.

Love that.

And so that's why I garden. 

Square Foot Gardening - I love it!

I decided this year to NOT garden in my usual spot. For the past few years, I had had a 15' x 20' pot behind the church. There was many good things about it, and I learned lots of things about gardening while I gardened there.

BUT

It was really inconvenient. I had to drive 10 minutes to get to it, and it was in a direction that I don't normally go on a regular basis. That, and I was never organized enough to get some sort of mulch down, and so I would ALWAYS end up with tons and tons of weeds.

So this year, initially, I decided not to garden at all. And then after just a tiny amount of begging, Mr. Simple agreed to make me a raised bed. Which, after the first one went together so easily, he then quickly agreed to make me 3 more!

I followed the directions for the soil mixture in the Square Foot Gardening book as well as the spacing.

He did the beds in early/mid-April, and so I got a spring planting in. It was AWESOME! I can't tell you how much I enjoyed being able to just walk out the back door and grab a little lettuce for lunch or dinner. Or some broccoli and peas.

Here you can see box 1 early on, plus the other 3. Box 4 was actually moved inside the backyard and currently has strawberries planted in it.

Another shot of box 1 early on.
Box 1 a couple weeks later. There are some broccoli, lettuce, cauliflower, onions, beets, and peas.

Box 2 with just the soil.

Box 2 early on. There is lettuce, spinach, and cabbage.

Another shot of box 2.

This is the flower bed. I pulled all the daffodil bulbs out because they weren't growing well anymore. Flower picked annuals to put in here, although we planned on putting in bulbs back in this fall.

This is the area that was cleared for bed 4 - the strawberry patch.

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Then summer came and I planted tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, basil, and lots and lots of green beans. And cucumbers and summer squash. And for the most part (besides the cucumbers and squash), everything did well. Watering was easy. Weeding was practically non-existent.

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This is bed 3 in mid May. The peppers are in.

The other side of bed 3. The basil is in.

Here is the flower bed planted.

Another shot of the flower bed after we planted in early June.
In addition to the tomatoes that I planted in box 3, I also put a few in planters on the side with lattice on the fence for support. These tomatoes did NOT grow well. I will not be planting tomatoes in this way again.

Along the north side of the house, I made a small raised bed on both ends of the house. I planted a zucchini squash in this bed and a crookneck squash in the other bed.

Here is the zucchini after a week or so. The zucchini grew well for awhile, and started producing fruit. And then the squash bugs came and killed the plant and I only ended up with two small zucchinis.

This is bed #2 in June. I put up a frame with netting on the south end and planted cucumbers. They looked good when I planted them. But they never grew very tall. Again, I think I got two small cucumbers.
Here are the tomatoes and peppers in June.
Here is all of bed 3 in June. The board is so that I can rest a foot or two inside the box without pressing the soil down too much. Bed 3 is 3 x 8 and a little bit more difficult to maneuver around in.

Here is bed 2 in June. You can see the cabbages and swiss chard, and the first round of green beans.

This is box 1 in June. You can see the broccoli, beets, onions and peas.

Another shot of box 2 in June sometime.
The crookneck was really growing well, but it never produced any fruit before it also succumbed to squash bugs.

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In September, I planted a few things - some mustard greens, and some chard. I wanted to do some transplants - broccoli especially, but my favorite nursery sold out early on most fall transplants, and their broccoli transplants died, and it was too late to plant seeds, so I didn't get in as much as I had planned.

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And here is box 1 in late September. It had successive plantings of green beans. You can also see the bean tee pee in the background. It was planted in the corner, just inside the fence.

Box 2 in late September. This box had had green beans in it, but all had been harvested from this box by this time, and the bean plants were pulled and composted.

Box 3 in late September. I harvested a lot of tomatoes from this box in July/August, but it really slowed down by late September. I pulled the last of the tomatoes (they were mostly green) in mid/late October.

The other side of box 3

Box 4 or what we refer to as the strawberry patch in late September.

The flowerbed in late September.

Another shot of the flower garden.

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Then a couple nights ago, I planted flower bulbs in the flower bed, and garlic in one of the SFG boxes.

I really, really enjoyed gardening this way, and I already have my garden planned out for next year, including at least 3 more boxes! It really is amazing how much I am able to grow in such a small area. I am using parts of my yard that were basically unused before anyway, and now we have harvested/preserved/eaten so much food from the garden this year!

Gardening: Late Summer Update

I'm sorry. I really meant to be more on top of giving you gardening updates. It would be easier to give you updates because my garden was at the house this year instead of half way across town, but yet, I didn't.

BUT

the square foot gardening has been a smashing success. SOOOOO glad I did it. Especially given that our summer was crazy busy and then I was laid up with burns. If I had had to go across town to harvest or weed or whatever, it just never would have happened. Speaking of weeds, I had to pull almost no weeds this year. A huge, huge, huge improvement over last year. When it seemed like that was all I did, or at least all I should be doing and didn't and by that time, the garden would be overrun with weeds.

So I ended up planting 4 boxes. Three boxes are 4 x 4 and one box is 8 x 3. Oh, and then I planted herbs in the beds in the front of the house. I plan on putting in one more 4 x 4 box soon, and maybe another couple next year.

I did a spring planting of spinach, lettuce, peas, broccoli, cauliflower, onions, swiss chard, beets and radishes. Oh and a strawberry patch in one whole box. The cauliflower didn't grow and I discovered that I still don't like radishes, but everything else grew fabulously. I loved, loved, loved being able to go out and pick stuff for a salad every night for about a month for dinner.

Then I planted beans (and beans and beans, I've done successive planting, so we have rarely been without beans since late June), tomatoes, peppers (2 green, 1 sweet banana and 1 cayenne) eggplant, cucumbers, zucchini, and crookneck squash.

The beans we have either eaten fresh or I have put in the freezer. I don't have a ton in the freezer. Even though I planted quite a few, I think I'll devote even more garden space to beans so that I can put more beans in the freezer/pressure can, etc. Maybe even do some pickled green beans!

My roma tomatoes grew well, but the other tomato plants didn't. I got very few tomatoes on the 5 non-roma plants. But I planted 10 roma tomato plants and they have grown like gangbusters. We are still semi-drowning in tomatoes, with no real end in sight. I've been making tomato sauce out of the tomatoes. I don't have a lot of sauce so far (10 pints?) but I'm hoping by the end of the season to have 20 pints or so.

The peppers have done o.k. I just haven't had that many green peppers or banana peppers. The cayenne peppers have grown really well though. I tried those in the dehydrator and then put it in the food grinder and made my own red pepper flakes. The eggplant hasn't been a big hit, and the cucumbers and summer squash got squash bugs and died.

So this weekend, I'm planting some spinach for my fall garden and hoping to put in some more spinach, lettuce, chard, broccoli, and maybe peas in the next week or so.

This post is already long enough, but the next post (hopefully tomorrow or Tuesday) will be a picture of the garden areas and the crops growing in them, etc.

So do you miss me posting yet?

Summer's are crazy for us around here. The kids are in Swim Team - this year all the kids, even Super, are on the team, and it seems like we are always at practice or at a meet. Practices are M-F from 7:00 to 8:30 am and 5:00 to 6:30 pm. And meets on most Tuesdays and Thursdays evenings. So that's where I've been quite a bit of the time.

Then, I no longer teach preschool really. It has morphed into daycare. During the school year, for the 2-5 year olds, I do do preschool activities from 9 am to 11 am, but during the summer, we do mostly free play. And I have a school age child that is here full-time for the summer. So when I'm not at swimming practice/meets, I am watching my own 3 kids plus 3-5 other children from ages 7 to 1.

Then I haven't had much to blog about in terms of holidays. We did go to Bass Lake for both Memorial Day and 4th of July, but I didn't take any pictures. And then, to completely add to my lameness, I didn't even watch the fireworks this year. I wasn't feeling well, so I just stayed back and went to bed early. I know. COMPLETELY lame. Can you even imagine what a fuddy duddy I'll be by the time I get into my 60s? Or even my 50s? Sheesh.

I have been doing lots of gardening, and I SHOULD post some pictures of that. Let's just say that the Square Foot Gardening has been a 90% smashing success! And I love that the garden is just steps away from my back door. And the weeding has been almost non-existent! Mostly just green beans are being harvested in my garden right now, but it is nice to be able to just go out every night and pick a cup of green beans for dinner! I planted green beans successively, so I'll be harvesting green beans for the next 8 weeks or so. And I'll be starting to preserve them soon. I'm hoping that between my garden and picking some up at farmer's market that I'll be able to can about 36 pints and freeze about 10 quart bags. Speaking of preserving, I made pickled beets this year! And they are good!

Sometimes, I really can't believe how different I live than just a few years ago. I always wanted to do less formal activities and do more with gardening and preserving and all of that, but just didn't. And now, 2-3 years later, it is just a part of regular routine. And for Super, who is 6, it is just mostly what he knows. He doesn't remember when I didn't make our own pickles and spaghetti sauce. When I didn't shop at farmer's market most Saturdays. When most of our food doesn't come out of a box. When we didn't spend most of our time together doing "whatever."

All right, next time I get here (which probably won't be until August. Just being honest.), I'll try and post pictures. Pictures of swim team. Pictures of the garden. Pictures of canning and dehydrating and freezing.

Oh, and did I tell you I picked up a great Summer Recipe book at the thrift store.

You know, there really are many things that I enjoy about my life. :)

I'm going to stop gardening

O.K., not really. But I've decided to stop gardening at the "big" plot. For the past few years, I've had a plot behind our church. It was 15 feet wide by 20 feet long. It was great to be able to have that much space. It gave me plenty of room to grow stuff like cucumbers or corn or other plants that are space hogs. But I decided not to - at least this year. For all of the advantages, there were disadvantages.

The first being that it isn't THAT close to my house. It is about 10 minutes by car to get there - which isn't far - but when I'm trying to do weeding in the morning before the daycare kids arrive, it makes it is 10 minutes there, and 10 minutes back, and only leaves me about 20 minutes to weed.

And speaking of daycare kids, it just wasn't working in my daily schedule to have a garden over there and have to watch small children. If I needed to go over to there to plant or weed or harvest with the daycare kids (and my own children), it was difficult to try and do that and watch children.

I also had to drive. There was no storage space for my tools and supplies, so I'd have to drive just to transport my supplies. I'm talented on a bike, but not talented enough to carry a hoe AND ride a bike. And so it costs me gas every day that I went over there. And that seemed like not quite the point of gardening.

But of course, I'm not ACTUALLY stopping gardening. I enjoy gardening. And eating fresh food. And preserving food. So what am I doing?

Square foot gardening and raised beds.

Those of you who have been to my house may wonder where I am going to put the beds. Especially since I have a large wooden playset in my backyard. Well, I have 5 feet of yard that is outside the perimeter of the backyard fence that is still part of our yard. So that is where the majority of the beds will go. I'll have two beds in the actual backyard and then 4 beds on the perimeter. I'll also be adding a couple of small dwarf fruit trees. I

n addition to changes in the backyard, I am pulling some things out of the front beds and adding medicinal herbs. I've already got a raised bed of cooking herbs in the back. Next year, I'll be adding some native plants in the front yard and another tree.

Now, if I want to get up in the morning and water or weed, it will take me about 30 seconds to get there. I can weed or plant or harvest in the afternoon when the daycare kids are napping. I can store my tools in my own garage.

It isn't perfect, of course, either. When I had the plot, I didn't have to buy the dirt. LOL I didn't have to make the beds. So there will be some work that I didn't have to do before. And more money. I'll let you know at the end of season what I thought. And if I'll be headed back to "plot gardening" sticking with "square foot gardening."

Gardening - My Plan for 2011, Part 1

Now that the 2010 garden is officially put to bed, I feel like posting about the 2011 garden. This post is going to be more of an overview. I'll post more specifics/pics, etc. as it gets closer to next Spring.

(Oh, and I just have to mention, while I love Spring and planting the garden, and things beginning again, isn't Fall wonderful too? )

I've been gardening, seriously, for 3 years now. Well, as an adult anyway. My parents had a garden when I was a child/teenager, and I helped with that (and ate lots of food from it too LOL)

My first year, the garden was very small. It was just two small beds - one with herbs, and one with zucchini squash. My second year, last year, I had the two beds at home, and then I shared a 15' x 20' plot with my sister. We grew tomatoes, onions, beans, broccoli, and cauliflower. But I didn't know much about gardening, for better or for worse. Basically, I just planted things, and they grew. Well, there were the peas that got washed out last year, but that was it.

This year, I did a lot of reading about gardening. TONS. All the reading, of course, for better or worse, was after I planted the garden this year. I still had the two beds at home for herbs and zucchini. When I planted the garden at the plot in early Spring, I still planned on gardening with my sister. Then, she went and MOVED, LOL, but I was still planning on sharing with someone. The woman came out once, and we planned on what we were going to plant, and I bought everything that we had decided on, and then I never saw her again. So I ended up planting things a little differently than if I had been doing it on my own, but still, I didn't really have a real "plan." I grew tomatoes, beans, eggplant, peppers, and broccoli. I planted, but failed at actually growing, sweet potatoes, zucchini, corn, and peas (they are conspiring against me, I think). Oh, I also failed to get any beans after the first planting. I planned to plant spinach as a fall crop, but I didn't do that either.

I have a pretty ambitious plan for 2011- I'll be expanding at home from 2 beds to 6 beds. I would have 7, but one of the original beds has now become the compost pile. (I'm so proud of myself for having a compost pile. I was all worried that it was going to be complicated, and it is, uh, NOT. LOL) There will be a bed for cooking herbs, and two beds in the front for medicinal herbs (these are already dug, but they have perennials & shrubs right now), a bed for strawberries, and two beds for salad stuff - spinach, chard, carrots, lettuce, greens, etc.) In addition to the beds, I will also be planting two dwarf pear trees and if I can figure out how to do it, grapes. I won't see strawberries this in 2011, and I won't see pears or grapes for at least a few years, but I feel like I want to plant anyway.

For the garden plot, I'm planning tomatoes (of course), beans, cucumbers, peas, broccoli, summer and winter squash, potatoes, and cantaloupe and honeydew melon. I think that is it. Seems like there is something else. But those are the major crops anyway.

Oh, and I'm planning on paying attention to you know, frost dates, and when plants should be planted in my zone, and such this year.

I still plan on buying apples and peaches at farmers market/local orchards, as well as strawberries next year (and I will probably still go after that for one big picking. My goal next year is to can at least 24 half pints of jam, 6 pints of syrup, as well as have a bunch to freeze, and enough to make at least one or two strawberry pies. ).

How about you? What are your garden plans for next year??

Garden Update - Early October

So there was one more eggplant that I harvested a couple nights ago. They were predicting frost, so I wanted to try and get out to the garden one more time to pick things.

So I picked one more eggplant (although there are SEVERAL small ones on the plant. I will probably leave the plant alone and see if I get anything else to salvage in a couple weeks) and I picked the last of the tomatoes that I'm going to pick. All told, I got less tomatoes this year than last year, but I think it is because I wasn't quite as on top of harvesting in August as I should have been. But I'll still end up with about 24 pints of tomato sauce, so that will go quite a ways for us. Definitely through the fall and winter anyway. I also picked all the peppers off the pepper plants. A couple were "regular" sized, but I picked the small ones too, so in total, I picked about 8. I plan on making stuffed peppers with the big ones, and chopping up the smaller ones and dehydrating them.

I'll go clean up the garden in a couple weeks, and then I'll give a big ol' end of the season report. Well, not that big.

Garden Update - Mid September

Roma Tomatoes and my sole eggplant

Apples

Super holding the eggplant (I swear he has other clothes. It is just a big coincidence that he is wearing the same shirt in all recent pictures. Really.)

Well, I had big plans to plant a fall garden. It didn't happen, and I think it is a little late now. Which is mostly fine, except that I spent about 5 hours over at the garden weeding to get it ready for fall planting. Oh well, it was good exercise, I guess.

The first few weeks of August, it was just too hot and dry to plant. (After the wettest June in YEARS, it has been mostly rain-free since then.) Then I was either out of money, out of time, or out of town until this weekend.

The eggplant, I planted three eggplant plants forever ago, like the end of May. One of them just sat there, and didn't look dead or anything, but never really grew any bigger. I eventually pulled it. Then there was one that grew a little, but never had any flowers on it. It is still in the garden, but I'll probably pull it next time I am out there. The last one grew pretty well, but I didn't see flowers until probably August. I had given up on all of them by that time, but I hadn't pulled any of the plants yet, so when I saw flowers, I decided to let it go. We haven't eaten the eggplant yet, so I'll have to let you know if it was worth it.

Tomatoes have been pretty steady since the end of July. I've been picking them and then running them through the food saucer and then putting the pulp in the freezer. Some day in October, I'll defrost the pulp and boil it down and can them. My sister and I did it that way last year, and it worked out well, so I think I'll do it that way again. I'm not sure how many more tomatoes I'll get. Maybe another couple bagfulls. I won't have as much as last year because it got so cool so fast, but I'm not splitting the harvest with my sister either (since she went and moved away on me!) so I'll probably end up with about the same amount of tomato sauce anyway.

My garden plot (and about 10 other peoples' plots) are in an area behind our church. A bunch of years ago, somebody also planted some apple trees out there. They aren't maintained at all, as far as I can tell, so they aren't sprayed or pruned or anything, and they are there for anybody who would like some. So I took the preschool kids out to the garden the other day, and we picked some apples. I'll boil them and run them through the saucer and make some applesauce with most of them, although I plan on drying some apple slices too and probably making some Apple Dumplings. These apple dumplings are probably the best thing that I've ever had. SERIOUSLY YUMMY!

In a couple of weeks, I'll probably go over to the garden plot and pull plants and throw some straw down. I am going to create at least two raised beds in the back yard for spring planting, and trying to figure out a place to put some raspberries, and a dwarf apple tree and a dwarf pear tree (these will also be planted in the spring, but I want to get the areas selected and prepped.) The raised beds will be mostly for salad stuff (spinach, carrots, radishes, etc.) so that I can just step out the back door and get my salad everyday. During the summer, I'll have some other crops in there, but then when it gets cool, I'll plant salad stuff again.

Summer 2010 in Review

In June, we went to a sort of local berry farm and picked 15 pounds of strawberries. I would have liked to have picked more, but I ran out of funds, and my helpers ran out of steam.

Most of the strawberries turned were turned into jam, although I also made a scrumptious strawberry pie.

The jam cooling. (We've gone through 6 of the 12 jars already.)

We spent a lot of time watching the girls at the pool this year. They were both on the Parks and Rec Swim Team. The girls did pretty well, and the team went 7-0 in dual meets and took 1st at Conference. Woo-hoo!

This is Flower adjusting her goggles.

Jelly Bean getting ready to dive in.

Super went for a non-water sport. He really enjoyed T-ball.

In July, there is an Arts Festival that is held

in the downtown area.

This is a picture of one of the main downtown

streets and the booths.

And here is Super eating ice cream from one of our favorite places. (Well, eating and wearing. In this pic, he just got some ice cream on his cap.)

In August, swimming and T-ball are over, and so we do a lot more just hanging out. But we did go to a minor league game last week. The kids had fun, for a few innings anyway. Here are the girls.

And here is Super. Yes, his hair is shorter. It was actually much shorter than this too. He got his haircut almost to "buzz cut" length earlier in the summer. He wasn't a fan of the short cut, and to be honest, neither was I, so I think that his curls will be returning as his usual look.

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I don't have pictures of all the things that I have harvested from the garden this year. In June, we had broccoli and green beans. Beginning of July, there were cucumbers, and by the end of July, tomatoes had started and peppers too. August has been more tomatoes (lots more) and more peppers. Zucchinis, sweet potatoes, and sweet corn were failures. Oh, and in the herb garden, I've been harvesting basil, oregano, and parsley.

I've also been preserving food. In addition to the strawberry jam, I've canned beans, pickles, peach jam (SOOO good), and tomato sauce. I plan on canning applesauce and peaches in September. I've dried the herbs and I plan on drying apples.

Busy, Busy

I've finally got motivated to get started on my "book." It will be a book about Simple Self-Sufficiency (shocker, I know) and so I've been reading, and reading and reading and deciding on the format, etc.

I've also been making dried herbs (from my herb garden) - this year, I've got parsley, basil and oregano. I love making my own. I am probably just kidding myself, but I swear the homemade tastes better.

And I canned some bread and butter pickles last night as well as started making tomato pulp in preparation for making tomato sauce. I run the tomatoes through a food strainer as I pick them, put them in freezer bags until the end of the season, then defrost them, boil them down, and can them. Making the sauce is a couple days of hard work, but it keeps most of the other stuff spread out and manageable.

The girls finished up a great season of Swim Team, and Super finishes his last T-Ball game tonight. The Library Program ended last week.

I'm sad that there is only one month of summer left, but August should be much less busy (well, except for all that gardening LOL)

Garden Update - Early July

Two rows of green beans - I harvested a bunch of beans last Friday. Hopefully the first of several.

Third row of beans that was planted three weeks ago - washed out. Not even one seed was able to hold on and grow. I'm debating about replanting the row now.

30 tomato plants - all caged, and I've got several tomatoes that are starting to turn red. I don't know if I'm excited or scared, because I'm going to have hundreds of tomatoes that all turn red at the same time soon. Keeping up is going to be a real challenge.

8 broccoli plants - basically done. The broccoli was YUMMY. It was all eaten raw, mostly by me, on salads.

Three cucumber plants - I'm not sure what happened to two of the plants, but I do have one cucumber plant that is growing vines and starting to flower.

One zucchini - Growing slowly but consistently. Flowering, but no signs of squash yet.

6 sweet potato plants - No idea. I don't know if they were mistakenly pulled by the kids when they were weeding, or if they just died, or if they were eaten, but I don't have any left.

15 corn stalks - About waist high. I'm not sure if they are actually going to grow corn. Some of the stalks are at least a foot away from each other, and I'm not sure if they will manage to pollinate.

3 eggplants - They look o.k., but they don't appear to have grown much, and they've been in the ground for at least 2-3 weeks.

3 pepper plants - I'm not sure. They look pretty green, but I've only seen a few flowers, and no signs of actual peppers.

So far, it appears that I'll have some beans, and plenty of tomatoes. Everything else is a maybe right now.

I do plan on planting some spinach, lettuce and peas for a fall crop next month.

Garden Update - Early June

Well, things will be different with the garden this year, what with my sister moving away and all (how dare she! LOL Seriously, nothing but good luck in the new place, sis!) And so far, it is going pretty well.) FYI, The garden plot is 15 feet across by 20 feet long. (One of these days, I swear I'll post a picture of the garden.) There are about 10 other plots in the same area. It is behind our church. It gets full sun all day, which is good, but if you need to water, it is a bit tricky because you have to use the pump by the church, fill a bucket, and walk about 500 feet to the plot. So far (this year and last year), I've just been depending on rain. And so far, so good.

I planted a couple rows of green beans, and they are growing pretty well. Broccoli was planted (10 plants) and I harvested a couple stalks last night. Seemed early, but I didn't want them to start flowering. A couple of weeks ago, I planted 29 roma tomato plants and they are to the flowering stage (I did see a couple of small tomatoes too). The romas are for making tomato sauce, diced tomatoes, and salsa. There is 1 beefsteak tomato plant for sandwiches. Last night, I planted two cucumber transplants, 1 green pepper transplant, 1 yellow pepper transplant, and 1 red pepper transplant. I'll be surprised if any of them make it. They were looking really wilty when I planted them. On the other hand, there was a big rainstorm last night. I also planted a zucchini transplant.

Still to plant: another row of beans and corn (from seed) and sweet potatoes (from transplants). I've been meaning to get the corn in for a couple weeks now, but whenever I get time over at the garden, I've only had time to do weeding. And then I always mean to go back the next day and do the seeds, but something always comes up. But I have been managing to get over to the garden a couple times a week, so the weeds haven't had a chance to get totally out of control like last year. Really hoping to avoid a repeat of that! But I've really got to get the rest of the plants in by this weekend.

Speaking of weeds,and watering too, I guess, I keep meaning to put grass clippings down. I have someone who is helping with the garden and she was going to bring the clippings, but so far, she hasn't had a chance to get out there since mid May. I think this weekend, I'll have to go to the City outside waste area and pick up a couple bags full. Grass clippings certainly help keep the weeds under control and keeps more moisture in the ground too.

At the home garden, I have strawberries (in season right now, and they are delish!) I need to grow more. Right now, I just have enough to snack on. We will be going to a u-pick this weekend to get enough to do some jam and some to freeze for smoothies. In the herb garden, I have basil,oregano, parsley and cilantro. In the front of the house,I decided not to do annuals this year, but I am planting some perennials instead.

There is a small apple orchard next to the garden plots and later in the season, I plan on using apples from there and some other local orchards to make applesauce and dried apples. I also plan on getting some peaches from local orchards and canning some peaches.

I still won't be able to be self-sufficient on the food that I grow/preserve, but this year, I will be able to be much closer than I was last year. Progress. Of course, most of this is dependent on the garden doing well. It is always easy to assume at this stage, that everything will grow. Here's to hoping anyway!

Nature finds a way - sometimes . . .

My MIL gave me a lilac bush last year. It had been in her yard for a few years and now she was moving to a new place, but the bush was a gift from her sister, and so she wanted to give it to someone instead of just leaving it at her old place.

I've grown a lot of plants in my yard over the past 8 years. And almost all of them have been successful. So I just sort of assumed that I'd plant it and it would grow.

But it didn't. The leaves just got drier and drier and they all fell off. Then the branches started to look all brittle. It looked pretty dead.

This fall, my MIL asked me about the lilac bush. I reluctantly told her that I thought that it had died. But I had left it in ground. I figured I'd leave it in until Spring. And maybe, just maybe, it wasn't dead. Maybe it just needed some time to adjust to its new home. It looked pretty dead though.

Spring began. The tulips bloomed. The roses started to grow again. The grass turned green. The birds came back. And yet, the lilac bush was still bare. I had hoped, but it looked like my hope was in vain.

I kept meaning to dig it up. One weekend passed. Then another. And another. And then, one day, I was over by the lilac bush and looked over. And what did I see, but little green leaves!! It was coming back! Then there was more leaves. It was alive.

And what do you think I saw this weekend??? Lilacs! Just a few little blossoms. But they were definitely lilac blossoms.

I had given up on the lilac bush. But there was life still in it. Way down there. Sometimes I give up too soon. And not just on lilac bushes.

Post Script - Things don't always work out for me though - with plants or otherwise. I pruned my hydrangea bushes after the first year. I read after I pruned that you shouldn't prune them. Oops. But it said that the blooms should come back the 2nd year after you prune. This year will be the 3rd year, and it isn't looking promising. SIGH.

Another thing to help me get through February

is I start thinking about planting the garden. It helps me realize that it WILL be Spring one day. Even though, in Illinois, in the winter, it always feels like it will never be Spring.

Here are the vegetables that I like that can be planted in early Spring. I got the information on planting schedules at this website.

Zones 5-6 Planting Schedule

Broccoli: Mar 25 - Apr 5
Carrot: Mar 25 - Apr 10
Cauliflower: Apr 1 - 20
Kale: Mar 25 - Apr 5
Lettuce: Apr 1 - May 15
Peas: Mar 25 - Apr 10
Potato, Irish: Apr 1 - 15
Spinach: Apr 1 - 20

So 4-5 weeks and I should be putting plants in the ground. I planted broccoli and cauliflower last year. I'm probably going to broccoli again, but not cauliflower. I tried carrots at home last year, and wasn't overly successful. The peas never grew last year because it was so wet last spring. I am still trying to decide about peas, but I might do a row, but not a lot of peas. I probably won't do potatoes, but I probably will do spinach and lettuce. Maybe kale.

Pictures of the Home Garden

This is the herb garden - well, there is a butternut squash plant growing at the end. Long story as to why I planted it there, but it is slowly but surely taking over the herb garden. This is the second year I've done something like this . . . But the herbs, and the squash are growing well.

A closeup of the herbs - I'm growing parsley, basil, oregano, and cilantro.

The smaller garden - a small strawberry patch and two zucchini plants. I pulled 5 more zucchinis last night.

Gardening - Some Good/Some Bad

For years, I've had a couple of small beds in my back yard. The first few years, I just put flowers in, and then last year, I put in vegetables. Everything always grew GREAT. I didn't always plant effectively (FYI, not a good idea to put two pumpkin transplants on the very edge of the bed, unless you are sure that your neighbor doesn't mind pumpkin vines all over his yard. LOL He actually didn't mind.)

This year, I decided to put a couple zucchini in one bed, and herbs in the other bed. They've done GREAT. I've already harvested 5 or 6 zucchinis, and harvested the herbs multiple times (I'm growing parsley, oregano, basil, and cilantro.) I take the leaves off, put it in the dehydrator for a couple hours, and then in the food chopper, and voila! Freshly dried herbs. I've done the hanging method, and found that with my lifestyle, that the dehydrator works better.

Then I decided to do a garden in a plot behind our church. We put in about 30 tomato plants, onions, broccoli, cauliflower, beans and peas. We planted the onions, the broccoli, the cauliflower, and beans and pea seeds in April. We were so optimistic. And it was almost Fun. The kids played so nicely while we planted. We waited for the seeds to grow into plants. Hmm, not looking so good. In May, we put in the tomato plants. We didn't have cages yet, but there was time. The plants were small. We put some grass clippings around the tomatoes, onions, broccoli, and cauliflower to keep the weeds under control. We put down one, then two layers. There was time to do more. Plenty of time. The beans and peas - ugh, still not really growing. By the end of May, we had to admit defeat. The only thing that was growing on that side was weeds, and LOTS of them. So we made the decision to till it again, put some manure in, and replant. It is early June. And HOT. So HOT. We tried to plant, but it was too unbearable. We'd do it next week. Then it was RAINING. And COLD. And more RAIN. And then it was July. We hadn't planted yet, and we hadn't put more grass clippings down. So even on the part of the garden that was growing vegetables, we were also growing plenty of weeds. Oh, and the tilled part? Weedy again too.

So I weeded again, and my sister planted beans (too late for peas by now). Oh, and the tomatoes? Remember those cages? Well, we got a hold of some, but not 30. Not even close to 30. But since we are Resourceful, we took the cages that we did have, put one in between two plants, and used twine to lift the plant off the ground and tied it to the cage (I've got a picture somewhere, I just couldn't find it today.) Not the best looking, but it seemed to work.

And guess what, some of those beans are growing! They are still small, but at least they are growing this time. And we've harvested tons of broccoli (oh, and is it YUMMY!), cauliflower (it was o.k., but I won't be growing it again).

I'm still fighting a battle with the weeds. It has always been something this summer - too hot, too cold, too raining, too many kids screaming, too busy. If all those things would have been different, I would have had a perfect garden. But you know, with big garden, it is always Something. Kind of like Life. If you try and control one small little thing, like cleaning, you might be successful, like I am with my small beds. But if you try and control your whole Life, well, something is bound to not go quite as you planned.

Life has a way of getting in the way of my plans -

I kept trying to get to my blog to post FSD (Food Storage Deals) but every day it was something else. This summer has been so busy. Flower is on swim team (pics coming soon) this summer and they have practice in the AM and PM, and meets every Tuesday night. Jelly Bean and Super are in baseball and have stuff on Monday, Wednesday, and Saturdays. So mornings and evenings are crazy busy. And then during the day, we are at the library, or somebody needs to be fed, or someone is getting picked up, or someone needs to go somewhere, or someone is having a playdate. We are having a good time, but things are busier than I expected.

And hotter. I don't remember a June this hot in years. And when it wasn't 100 degrees outside, it was raining. I do remember June is usually raining. Of course, since the heat started, they hasn't been much rain, and so some of our late planting is frying, but of course, the weeds are growing nice and tall! Ugh! Our beans and peas didn't make it, and we are trying to get more beans planted, but it has been rainy, or hot, or I've been busy. Oh, I think I mentioned that already.

OK, now we CAN relax . . .

and just wait until it is harvest time because we are ready now. My parents were in town this week, and my mom had agreed to get her two daughters a lovely, lovely present. One that we had actually asked for. We asked for the thing that all women want - canning supplies.

In all seriousness, we both did ask for them, and so tonight, off we went. We hit Farm and Fleet first, and bought this pressure canner, a set of 12 quart jars, and a strainer/sauce thing, that hopefully will help us make our tomato sauce much easier & less messy. We decided to go next door to Wal-Mart and look for a cold bath canner. We found one, and we also found the very same pressure canner except that it was $11 cheaper. So we hurried, bought the cheaper canner at Wal-Mart, and then hurried over to Farm and Fleet to return the more expensive one. We had to hurry because Farm and Fleet was closing in 15 minutes, and my parents were leaving in the morning.

So for now, we wait. And hope for a bumper crop. And that our children will be good while we are canning our "Simply Tomato Sauce". And beans, if they ever start growing. And applesauce. And peaches. And jam.

I'm getting hungry now.

Wednesday: Home Storage: Gardening

Well, this year I'm trying to grow more food and buy less, and I don't have space in my yard, so this year I'm doing most of my gardening in a plot behind our church. I've got a plot with my sister and we also have another family that is using the plot next to us, and we are all sort of planting together.

Last year was my first real year of gardening. I just used the small raised beds that I have here at my house, and I recommend this to people starting out. Just do small raised beds, and see how it goes. We were successful with almost everything we grew. The carrots didn't do very well.

With the bigger garden, it was initially tempting to just grow all different sort of things. But the more I though about it, I (and my sister) decided that we really needed to focus on a) what our families would eat and b) what would be best in terms of preserving. So that's what we are focusing on growing.

Last weekend, we planted peas (seed) and broccoli and cauliflower (starter plants). We are doing succession planting with the peas, so we need to go back over this weekend and plant more peas. We will also be planting green beans, tomatoes, cucumbers, and garlic. (There might be a couple of other things. My sister has the chart.) I'll be growing spaghetti spices at my house, as well as lettuce, and strawberries. Ideally, I'll have fruit trees here at the house, but realistically, I think that we continue to get apples from the church trees, and some from my friend hopefully, and then apples, peaches, and cherries from local orchards.

It was some work getting the planting done, but with three adults (me, my sister, and my BIL) and the kids helping on and off, it really didn't take too long. And it was, dare I say, enjoyable?? It was nice to get out in the Spring weather, and fresh air, and working with the soil and plants. Some kids were helping with the garden, some were watching my sister's baby, and others were playing - running, playing with sticks, doing make-believe. As I stood looking us, it made me smile. I'm sure not every day at the garden will make me smile, but it sure did that day.