Category: Gardening

No Garden This Year

I have an extensive travel schedule lined up for this year. It started about two weeks ago, and will continue until the end of October. At one point, there will be an entire month that I’m away from home (although, thankfully it will be summer time so my family will be with me.)

In the past, once the growing season really kicked in, I would spend time in the garden every day, weeding, tending plants, etc. When the harvest started coming in, I’d preserve by drying, freezing, or canning…

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Garden Update Video Blog Week 8

You get to see my weedy garden in this garden update. I have spent hours in the garden since returning from vacation. This is what it looked like when we got home:
So, while it may seem like I need to weed, be impressed with what I accomplished (HA!).

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The Garden: Week 4

This has been a very strange beginning for my garden. I was late getting any seeds planted, for one. The day that I planted my seeds, it was 90 degrees outside, so I went ahead and put corn, beans, winter and summer squash, watermelon, cantaloupe, radishes, carrots, and onions into the ground, worried I was too late. But the next weekend, the temperature drastically dropped. I don’t think it actually froze, but on my morning walk one morning, I saw several houses that had outside plants covered in protection, so if it didn’t frost, it came really close.

The end result? One single green bean plant grew, one single winter squash plant grew, and one single cucumber grew.

No melons or summer squash came up. Last week, I planted more, but put them in seed trays instead. Which, is probably a good thing, because last night it got down to 40.
The radishes, onions and carrots are doing great. I haven’t weeded around the carrots, because they’re still very young.
I had a friend give me a couple dozen tomato plants that are in the ground. They are still very small and hard to see:
I even have a little tomato growing already:
I have mixed batch of lettuce growing in a container:
I replanted the corn, and while I was taking pictures, found two of the four rows I planted growing (this picture was taken before I thinned them out.). No idea what happened to the other two rows. I have more planted, though, and will see what happens next. I will also plant green beans that grow on a vine instead of a bush at the base of these corn once I get in there and thin them out.
I have two blueberry bushes that had a nice amount of blooms on them this spring.
I also have a grape plant that has survived multiple hits with the lawn mower. I’d love to plant another one and build an arbor right where this one is and see if I can get some grapes out of them!
And, when cleaning out along my back fence, I found a massive blackberry bush!
And, as always, my horseradish plant is going to take over the world one day. This plant is four years old now. I’ve even cut off two major chunks of it to share with friends.
So, here in this Memorial Day Weekend…how does your garden grow?

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A Gardening Confession

It’s April 1st.

It’s April 1st and I haven’t planted a single seed. Not in a starter planter, not in a container, not in the ground.

I also haven’t cleared out my yard, tilled the earth, or prepared any rows.

I also haven’t even LOOKED at my compost bin in a year.

*sigh*

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Honey Spiced Pears

Some friends of ours have a pear tree that just overwhelms them with abundance on an annual basis. I am always happy to take as many pears off their hands as they’ll give me. This year, that turned into two laundry baskets full of pears. I am always on the search for real food canning recipes – that cut out the processed sugar that is used as a preservative in anything using fruit. I was thrilled to find this recipe.

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Garden Fail

If this had been my first year gardening, it would have been my last year gardening. If I hadn’t successfully gardened for the last few years and had bounty to show for it, I would never delve a into seed-to-dirt lifestyle again.

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Whole Wheat Brown Sugar Apple Crisp with Cinnamon Whipped Cream

It’s apple season here at our household, and our apple tree is bursting with fruit. While planning to take a meal to a family at church who just had a baby, I decided to make an apple pie. But, when I inventoried my aluminum pans, I discovered that I’m out of pie plates. Since I try not to take anything that needs to be returned to me (so that the family doesn’t have to keep up with dishes from so many church members bringing food) I decided instead to use a square cake pan and make an apple crisp. This was so good, very simple, and so easy to make.

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