So check out my new blog please, Tamara Quilts. After learning to sew with the girls in 4-H, quilting has quickly become my new favorite hobby!
But back to the business of of our home and gardens. This spring has been dreadful. The coldest wettest June on record! I have just now got my garden planted in full. Except I still need to pot up my tomatoes. My lettuce is ready to be harvested. My peas are close. We did steal a few sprigs of asparagus this year and they were YUMMY!!! Next spring I will have to replant one half of the row that must have rotted underground since nothing has sprouted from those plants. My strawberries are coming in wonderfully. These are the giant Whoppers that I planted last year. The slugs were getting to them bigtime, of course eating all the ripe ones first, so I did bait for the slugs the other day, even though I hate that stuff.
I skipped planting potatoes this year because last year we only dug up about half of what I planted. The leftovers still underground are doing nicely, hopefully whatever we dig up is edible and tasty! Otherwise I've planted the usual, cucumbers, zuccini (only 2 plants this year!!!), butternut squash, delicatta squash, spaghetti squash, watermelon, canteloupe, beans, radishes, corn, onions, garlic, kale and peppers. Last year I didn't clean up one of my back garden beds full of parsnip, turnip and carrots, and they have reseeded themselves EVERYWHERE! So I didn't plant those again this year, just let nature take it's course. Need to still put in some spinach and beets, and time to put in more lettuce too.
Please post links to your garden pictures! I would love to see them! I will try and post photo's of mine soon.
Summer weather...finally!
Happy New Year...it is 2010!!!
Hard to believe another year has gone by! May this one be filled with health and happiness for all.
Our Fall was busy with getting back into the school/activities routine. Our holidays were lovely and quiet and joyful.
My younger 2 girls have begun to learn how to sew in 4-H, and I have learned along side them. I received a new sewing machine for my Birthday in December and have been busy over winter break sewing two new rag quilts for my oldest two girls. I have fabric on the way to start one for my youngest as well. I will try and post pic's shortly. I am anxious to make my first attempt at a traditional quilt, but haven't made up my mind yet on design or fabrics.
As we hunker down for the winter, I am anxious to thumb through all my seed catalogs and make a plan for the gardens this year. We are also trying to figure out which chicken breeds we would like to try and hatch in our incubator this year. We will need to be ordering some hatching eggs soon.
Happy 2010!!!
Zucinni overload!!!
First, a quick shout out to my middle DD Shannon. It's her 10th B-day today!!!
Second, I hope hope hope I remember to check back here next year and I'm reminding myself right now, DO NOT PLANT SO MUCH ZUCCINI!!!!! I had tons and tons last year, and thought I was under control this year, but no, I am still buried in it. For the record, I planted 3 regular zuccini plants, 3 Italian zuccini, 1 patti pan plant and 1 yellow summer squash. And it is WAY to much. Two zuccini plants really is enough, 3 max!!!! Ok, I feel better now!
Hot Hot HOT!!!!!
Oh my, I haven't posted in ages. Thought I'd come and post and update because it is just way too hot to do much else around here! It's near 100 today, and should break 100 the next 3 days or so. It never gets this hot around here, so we are really not used to it at all. It's also very humid, which just makes it so much worse.
ANYWAY. The garden is booming! We have harvested 5 gallon sized bags of raspberries in the freezer, and eaten our fair share fresh as well. We also have about 3 gallon size bags of blueberries in the freezer. Those are much harder to get in the freezer as my girls wolf them down as soon as they are picked!
Zuccini is coming in like crazy. We've had our first baby potatoes, peppers, tomatoes, beets, turnips, onions and lots of peas, and lettuce although those two are are just about gone now. We should be getting our first beans, cukes and carrots anytime now. Our corn, watermelon, canteloupes, pumpkins and winter squash look to be doing really well. For the first time our apple trees look like we will have a nice harvest and we are excited about that. Next year or maybe even this fall, the kids have requested that we put in some grapes and more plum trees. We have some very old Italian style plums here which are still producing, but they are very small, so I'd like to try and find some type of plum that produces the bigger plums. If you have recommendations, please let me know what has worked for you!
Hope you are all staying cool and sipping some lemonade while you enjoy watching your gardens grow!
We've been busy!
My how time flies! Last week was just gorgeous weather wise, including the entire weekend, and we got a lot accomplished around here. Our older chicks moved into the new coop about a week and a half ago. I'll post some pics on my chicken blog in a bit. I'm also pretty darn sure at least one of our chicks is a rooster, which is fairly disappointing. No one else sees it, but I'm waiting for it to start crowing any day now to prove my point!
Last week I got my first row of potatoes in and TWO rows of strawberries! I had thought the strawberries I ordered from Gurney's would fill one row, so having two rows full, plus two more small containers on the back deck filled with them, just thrilled me to pieces!
My husband also helped me dig lots of holes this weekend around the property to get a bunch of miscellaneous plants in and we also transplanted a few perennials. We got our 6 blueberry bushes in to replace the 6 our puppy managed to chew up. Although when digging them up, 5 of them had the faintest signs of life, so I stuck them in a garden bed to see if any of them pull through.
Then Monday, we were expecting a huge wind/rain storm to come in, so I frantically got all my onions planted which filled another row. BTW, each row is approximately
25'-30' long. Right after finishing planting them, I had a bit of an incident. The wind was starting to pick up, and it managed to catch our big heavy door in the mud room to the garage, and it slammed really good on two of my fingers. It was not a pleasant experience to say the least. I really thought one finger was broken for sure. I went into shock, blacked out, threw up, the whole nine yards. Luckily, it does not seem to be broken now. In fact, it doesn't hurt much now at all. But man did it hurt when it happened!!! Thankfully, I think it's just going to turn lots of different colors as it heals over the next week. I'm very thankful it won't keep me out of the garden!
Since Monday, it's been raining non-stop, so I've been busy playing catch up with things around the inside of the house. I have a few pictures to get posted and will try and get them up tomorrow. Gotta go catch American Idol....go Danny!!!!
Happy Earth Day!
I hope everyone pitched in and did something kind for the Earth today. My DH and I actually loaded up our SUV and took part in a recycle event at his work. I'm almost ashamed to say we brought in 3 monitors, 2 CPU's, an old TV, a printer, a scanner, and old broken X-Box and 3 old cell phones. It's amazing how much stuff you can accumulate! I'm glad all of it went to an organization that will recycle what they can, and it reminded me again to really think twice about our future purchases. Is that something we really need, or will it just fall into the more "stuff" category? Good things to think about.
Gurney's box of goodies and more!
Look what came in the mail on Friday? 
It includes 5 bags of onion sets, 3 yellow Ebenezer, and one bag each of red onions and white onions.
52 bare root Whopper Strawberry plants
And last, 2 bags each of potato starts, in the Red Pontiac, Yukon Gold and Kennibeck varieties
I had hoped to start getting these planted this weekend, but we were too busy trying to finish the new chicken coop. Check out our progress at my Keeping Backyard Chickens blog. We're almost done!!! I'll have to hope my husband can get the rototiller out tomorrow after work so I can get these in in the next few days.
My seeds I started inside over Easter have been doing well also. Here's a peek at them as well! These include red & green cabbage, broccoli, watermelon, cantaloupe, cukes, zuccini, butternut squash, acorn squash and Burgess Buttercup squash.
I am feeling slightly overwhelmed as all I have to get done in the garden in the next few weeks. I love this time of year, but it sure keeps me busy! Hope you are all checking things off your to do list and making progress on your things to do.
Productive Week and Asparagus is up!
Well for the most part the weather was great this week. Supposed to be even nicer this weekend, which will be perfect for finishing the new chicken coop. Over the last few days, I got quite a bit done. I planted alot outside, including 3 packs of peas, two Early Frosty and one Lincoln Homesteader. I also planted two packages of Shallots and half a packet of spinach, and three types of lettuces, red romaine, green romaine and buttercrunch. I also got all my Sweet Peas planted. Most of the seeds I planted inside last weekend are up too. What I'm most excited about though is I have some asparagus coming up! I planted a 30' row last year, and had almost given up hope! But the first spears are starting to peak through! YEAH!!! Now I just have to resist harvesting them this year so they can grow stronger for the years to come. I imagine I'll have to pinch a few though, just to have a taste!
Happy Easter!
I hope you all had a wonderful Easter! We had a quiet day at home. We cooked a big ham dinner last night for some friends, and the family has been munching on ham leftovers all day. The girls woke early to see what the Easter Bunny had brought and have been eating more sugar than they should be. It's our last day of Spring Break with everyone home, and we are basically having a veg day, with lots of heavy rain outside.
We didn't quite finish the new coop yet which was the plan. The weather wasn't cooperating. Hoping to finish it next weekend as it is very very close to being done. Just have to finish the run and put in the pop door for the birds.
I did manage to get some seeds planted today and now have them under my new grow lights on heated seed mats. I planted 3 types of cukes, 2 types of zucchini, 3 types of winter squash, red and green cabbage, broccoli, watermelon and cantaloupe. I'm very excited about the last two as I have never planted them before. Our growing season here is rather cool and short, but I found a short season variety of each so I'm giving them a go. Whatever I can do to grow more fruit is a good thing as my kids go through it so fast!
I'll be watching the mail this week as I got my shipping notice from Gurneys.com that my potato starts, onion sets and my strawberries are on their way. I couldn't resist these Whopper Strawberries!
First week in April
Just an update on things around here at the end of the first week in April. Did I mention we are refinancing? We locked in a 5.0% rate. If you haven't looked into it yet, you really should! We will be saving a nice bundle each month at this new rate. We should close in the next two weeks. Make sure you also consider changing the term of your loan. If you have had your mortage for awhile and started with a 30 yr, it may be worth it to refi and go with a 15 yr or 20 yr term. Those shorter term loans will often give you an even better interest rate!
This week is spring break for the kids, and my husband took it off as well. Our primary focus for the week will be building a new coop (our third...yikes!). We are using recycled wood pallets that we got off of Freecycle. You can check out our progress on that on my Keeping Backyard Chickens blog.
The weather has been absolutely perfect the last few days, and it is well deserved! We have had such miserable weather. March was one of the coldest March's on record here, and it seemed more like January. February was actually warmer overall! I had planted some peas and swiss chard in February, and there has been no sign of them whatsoever. I think the seeds just rotted away in the cold wet weather. Today I planted two packs of Alaska Bush peas, as well as half a packet of spinach and two bags of shallots. I am hoping to get my husband to till the rest of the veggie beds by the end of the week. I also need to get my indoor seeds going as I haven't started them yet! I will only be doing easy to grow things inside like my squashes, cukes and melons. I will by tomato and pepper starts later in May.
Last week I got all my apple trees and raspberries pruned. I have 6 new blueberry bushes that need to get planted this week. I think that sum's up what's happening here lately. What's new with you?
Have you made a Rag Quilt yet?
So while I wait for the spring rains to subside enough for me to get outside and acually enjoy working in the garden instead of freezing my buns off (did I mention it is supposed to SNOW again tonight?!?!?!), I've been sewing. Now let me let you know, I do not sew. I am just learning. My 9 year old daughter wanted to sew, so last year, we joined a 4-H sewing group. This is her second year in the group, and I have learned via her learning. Over Christmas break, I got brave enough to sit down and try my first ever sewing project. I made a Rag Quilt for my youngest daughter. Here's a picture:
A close up:
For all you other fearful wanna be sewers, let me tell you this is a great easy project to start with. I have in fact, started a second one for our bedroom, in turquoise, tan and chocolate brown prints with a chocolate brown backing. Here are the squares.
I will try and take more pics as I assemble the quilt and show them in another post. Right now I have about 2/3's of the squares assembled, meaning the backing, batting in the middle, and top print square, are sewn together by stitching a simple "X" through all three layers. I have to finish doing this to the rest of the squares, and then start sewing the squares together to make the rows.
Spring Rains are here....
Now that it is officially spring, I guess I can call them that! Since I posted a few weeks ago about it raining, and it still is. We've been busy with my mom visiting, and trying to refinance the house, so we've been pretty busy and not really able to get outside much. We did score a bunch of free pallets off of Freecycle.org almost 2 weeks ago, and will begin working on the new coop this weekend. DH took spring break off with the girls, and we plan to focus on the coop project while he is off. That's the first full week in April. The chicks are growing so fast, they need to move outside! I also purchased our first incubator this week. No using it until the coop is done though! Right now it will just be used to help the breeding project of the Japanese Bantams if it is needed. But I've been spending a lot of time on BackyardChickens.com and am really really tempted to buy some eggs off of some of the members there. But that's on the back burner for right now.
Garden projects are piling up way too fast! I've set up my lights for starting seeds, but haven't acutally started any yet. I still have winter cleanup to do in several garden beds. I need to get more peas in. Haven't planted any since I posted here last, and none of those are coming up yet. I fear either the birds have got them, or they've rotted, or maybe it's just too cold still. I've got all my seeds purchased, and just waiting for my final order to come in which included potato starts, onion sets and some strawberry plants.
March 1st and more planting done!
Well, my to do list was very long today, but I made a good dent before the rain came in. I planted 2 more packets of peas, this time the Little Wonder variety, last weekend I planted 2 packets of Early Frosty peas. I also got in 1/2 a packet of Swiss Chard, the Large White Rib variety...that was when the rain started! I had wanted to get some spinach and shallots in too, but I had to stop planting and put up a little fence around the garden bed as Toby the 1 yr old Puggle puppy keeps getting in the garden beds and digging around. He has also been eating my new young blueberry bushes! I planted 6 new ones last summer, and he's chewed them down to the ground! I bought two more to start replacing them, but need to put a fence around them too, so didn't get them planted today as I had hoped.
My husband and I also worked on the chicken coops a bit today too. Their run's are so muddy and gross, I bought tarps to put over them and needed the hubby's help to build a support to help the rain run off of the big one. I checked it out before coming in and it seems to be working well and not pooling too much anywhere. We need to find a rain barrel to place where all the run off goes. We also put 1/2" hardware cloth around the base of the smaller coop where we keep our Japanese Banties. They are the nicest birds we have and the girls want to use them for fit and show at the fair this year. Unfortunately, a hawk was fighting with our rooster this week, and through the chicken wire, the hawk managed to bloody up our rooster Charlie pretty good, by just reaching through with his talons, he was able to grab onto Charlies comb. He wasn't looking very pretty when we found him! I've been reading a lot on www.backyardchickens.com, and they say the 1/2" hardware cloth is the most predator proof material you can use, so hopefully it works!
Thinking of getting chickens?
Now is the season where your local feed stores will start carrying baby chicks! They are so adorable and hard to resist! If you are thinking of getting some and are new to chickens, here are some books I recommend:
Planted my first batch of peas!!!
I'm so proud of myself! I've never gotten my peas in so early before. My Mother-in-law and many others in this neck of the woods, have always said February is the time to get the peas planted, and I was determined to get it done this weekend. Hubby even tilled the garden bed for me after I cleaned it up. It's been in the 50's and sunny for the last week, but rain is supposed to come and stay tonight or tomorrow. So yeah for me!!
We have new baby chicks in the house!
I had to share what has been keeping us busy these last 2 weeks. We got new baby chicks! 13 in all, including 3 Buff Rock, 1 Barred Rock, 2 Speckled Sussex, 2 Ameraucana (aka: Easter Eggers), 2 Silver Polish, 2 Rhode Island Red and one mystery chick that we know is a feather footed bantam of some type who is yellow in color right now. Here's the pic's!
We actually went in on an order with a couple people my husband works with, so you may see some other breeds in the photo's like the cornish. We babysat theirs for a week or two. Now we have to get busy building another coop, as our current one is not quite big enough for those we currently have and these, so that will be our spring project.
I've also been browsing at www.backyardchickens.com for coop ideas. Members there have posted lots of ideas and it's a great place to get inspired. Also been browsing on Craigslist.org to see if I can find a previously used coop or shed at a good price. We are also thinking of maybe using pallets to construct the new shed. You can usually pick them up for free on Craigslist quite often, and it a great way to recycle them. If you have a cool, cheap coop design, please share! I'd love to see them!
Spring Fever!!!
Well, guess what? I got soooo busy in the garden's last year, I didn't post here! Sooo sad! Well now it's that time of year again, I'm just itching to get out there, and it's still too cold and wet to do much.
So let me fill you in on things around here. The gardens were a HUGE success! It is February, and we are still eating our own potatoes, carrots, leeks, parnsips, turnips and winter squashes.........LOTS and LOTS of winter squashes! In the freezer we still have corn, beans, diced green peppers and raspberries.
This year I need to make a few changes. LESS SQUASH!!! Both summer squash and winter squash! Here is just one wagon load of summer squash we had, and trust me, we had many more!
I did waaaaay too much of both last year! This year, I want to do a lot more peas, enough to put a ton away in the freezer. We did a lot of green beans last year, and the kids are not so hot on them frozen. They prefer them fresh. They prefer the peas fresh too, and last year they ate most of them before I could get any in the freezer, so need to plant at least 2 or 3 times as much! Also would like to do a little more variety of things this year to take up the room the squashes took up. Maybe some try some celery, kale and beets and plant a little more cabbage and broccoli and spinach.
Rain Rain go away!
It's been chilly and wet this week, and it's supposed to stick around over Memorial Day weekend. Needless to say, we haven't gotten much done outside this week. My husband did dig another potato row/trench for me. The first row I planted quite few weeks ago is due for it's final hilling. Hoping to get him to do one more row for me for a total of 3 rows of potatoes. I also got in my misc "leftover" 6 packs planted out front. They filled up one row with cauliflower, broccoli and both red and green cabbage.
Because of the chilly weather, I'm glad I haven't put out my tomatoes, peppers, squashes and cucumbers yet. I pulled them all up close to the house earlier this week, and they seem to be doing ok. We've had a few nights this week in the low 40s, so I've been a bit nervous. I'm hoping next week it finally warms up enough to get them all planted.
We also picked up a bunch of bamboo poles to build a support for the scarlet runner beans. Hoping to get that built this weekend along with a cucumber support structure. If I can get my husband to help me build those, and till the remainder of the garden in (again!) this weekend, I'll be happy. I'm really hoping to get the remaining items in next week.
Oh! And we've harvested our first radishes this week and lettuces. Anyone know what to do with radishes? We are not big radish fans, but we have a TON of them coming in! I'd appreciate any ideas! Have a great holiday weekend!
Vegetable Gardening Tips for Beginners
It's that time of year, and a lot of people would like to have a vegetable garden, but don't really know where to start. Especially this year, with the cost of food prices on the rise. Here is my advise for what it is worth.
First, make a list of the things you would like to grow in your vegetable garden. Include all your favorite foods that you would like to grow. Then figure out how big a garden you can have.
Then you need to do a bit of research. You need to find out which items on your list will grow well in your area. Cross off the ones that won't. Take the items left on your list, and you need to find out a bit more about each item and how much space it takes up. Than figure out what will fit in your gardening space. Taking your list to a local nursery is always a good place to get local advice. Or you can do some reading on the subject. The two books below are the best place to start.
My favorite book of all time is Dick Raymond's The Joy of Gardening.
This book not only has garden plans you can use or customize to your liking, but it covers the requirements for almost every vegetable out there. From how much space it needs, to how often to fertilize it. It covers starting seeds in flats all the way through to having a winter garden. It has root celler plans and lists his favorite varieties of vegetables. It explains how to develop the best soil naturally, to how to get the biggest harvest possible. It focuses a lot on wide row gardening, as you can really maximize how much you grow by using this method. It really is a must have if you are even slightly into the idea of having a vegetable garden.
Another book that is excellent for beginners and to those who might be feeling intimidated by the whole concept of growing their own food, is Square Foot Gardening by Mel Bartholomew:
You just have to get started. Start with the best soil you can. Add some compost and well composted manure. Make sure it is in the sunniest spot possible. If you are doing rows, try and orientate them north/south. Take notes or keep a journal (or blog!) so you can come back next year and see what did well, what didn't. Make note of what you planted when, how much you planted. Sketch up your garden plan as you plant things, because some crops need to be rotated to limit disease, so next year, you will want to know where you planted things, so you can make sure you rotate the crops as needed. Make note of things you wish you had planted more of, what didn't do well that you might skip next year. If you try several varieties of a certain veggie, take note of which ones did the best or had the best flavor or biggest harvest. Most of all, have fun, and enjoy eating what you've grown. You'll be amazed at how simple it really is. :-)
Happy Mother's Day!
WOW! How did two weeks fly by already since I've posted last? Hard to believe!
I hope all you mom's out there are enjoying our special day! I woke up to breakfast in bed and we are heading out soon to buy all our veggie starts we still need for the garden. Looking forward to that.
Let me fill you in on what's been happening in the garden since my last post! Ok, in the back beds, in the one with the broccoli and brussel sprouts, I nixed the 2nd path on the right, and made one super wide row on the right side of the bed. I did almost half with beans, which went in about a week ago, I did about a 3' square plot of lettuce, and did the other half with another batch of peas yesterday. That bed is now completely full and the broccoli plants have the first teeny tiny heads of broccoli in there if you look real closely.
The other bed in back is full now too. The peas are up about 6" or so now. I should have lots of radishes in another 2 wks or so. I sprinkled them in with all the root crops I planted and they are getting big and leafy. The last root crop that went in were my parsnips and they are starting to sprout now. I already have loads of carrots up, rutabagas, beets and turnips as well. I also planted the lettuce (some starts and some by seed) in the middle row of this bed where I had an open spot. They went in about 10 days ago or so. The walla walla sweet onions are doing great, and have about 8-10" of green on them now.
In the front garden, we got one row of potatoes planted about a week ago. I have plans to do 3 rows, but was hoping to find a furrowing attachment for our tiller, but no such luck. So this depends on if my husband will help me dig the other two rows out because it's a lot of work! Yesterday I planted two more bags of onion sets, one yellow and one white. Also got the shallots in and one 6 pack of leeks. I have another 6 pack of leeks, but ran out of room in that row, will have to stick them in somewhere else. I have been wanting to put in all my "left-over" 6 packs (1 cauliflower, 1 red cabbage, 1 broccoli, the leeks) but have been nervous to do so with the rabbits our front. So yesterday I started with the chicken wire at the bottom of the fence, and need to get the rest of that done this week before I put the new starts in that we are picking up today.
It's warm enough out now to pick up the warm weather starts, so on my list I have some more (4-6) determinite tomato plants (I'm doing them all in pots this year), cucumber plants, zuccini, pati pan, yellow summer squash, pumpkins, acorn squash, butternut squash, blue hubbard squash....I think that's it. I started most of these by seed in flats this year, but they didn't do well. I still have seed left and may plant some of those as well and do a few starts of each with a few by direct seed and see which fairs better. I also have another misc row out front I want to put another batch of beans in, but I may stagger them out a bit since I just planted a batch out back. Oh! and the asparagus is starting to poke through out front! Just a few tiny purple stalks peeking up. I hate having to wait a year or two before being able to fully harvest them!
OK, I think that's about it for now! I'll try and post more pic's this week. It's supposed to reach near 80 degrees by the end of the week! :-)
