Garden Harvest - June

Despite some wacky weather this year (snow in April, non-stop rain in May, July temps and drought in June)  i'm still getting a pretty good harvest. The cold in April and heat in June caused a few things to get a late start and then bolt early, but other things are doing just fine.

End of May-beginning of June. We've been enjoying a few mushrooms from the logs we plugged last year. Oyster mushrooms, Shiitake and Dryad's saddle. Asparagus, garlic scapes and lettuce.  

First week of June we were harvesting oysters mushrooms, shiitake and garlic scapes.

June 10. Second week i started to get a few peas. Broccoli was ready to pick and berries were just getting started.

June 19. Peas and berries are really starting to produce. Garlic scapes are almost done and we are still getting a few pyster mushrooms.

June 25th. Peas and berries are producing well. Starting to get some summer squash, pulled a few root veggies just to check them.  This is the last of my garlic scapes.

We love the sugar snap and snow peas. i never grow english garden peas. These are the Purple tendril, sugar magnolia tendril pea, golden snow pea and sugar snaps.

of course berry season is in full swing! i've already made a few batches of jam and the canes are still loaded! Blueberries, raspberries and black raspberries are especially prolific this year and blackberries are just getting started. So far my tomatoes are doing great and beans are almost ready to pick. Everything is a little behind, but still doing great. Hopefully july brings a little rain.

What's Growing? Garden News- First Week of May

Garden season has officially started. My last possible frost date was Mother's Day weekend. i have a lot of crops that were planted very early in the spring that are ready for harvest, and my summer crops have almost all been started in the green house so i haven't been in a huge hurry to get them into the ground.

At the end of April, first week of May my lettuce was really starting to come in. i have it planted both outside and in the greenhouse, so once the greenhouse lettuce is gone, the lettuce in the garden should be ready. 

i have many different varieties of lettuce. They grew really well in the greenhouse in the early spring, but it's starting to get a bit too hot for them now. They haven't bittered yet, but with the rising temperatures they will be soon.  i have the vents open, but really need to set the fan back up to keep the air circulated and temperatures below 100.

Blueberries are looking good this year. i have a couple bushes again this year, with no berries on them, but the majority of bushes are totally loaded. i ran out of blueberries (freezer) a few weeks ago and i'm eager to fill my freezer back up with them. We love having a freezer full of blueberries to use in muffins, pancakes and cakes. i don't think we could ever have too many blueberries.

i planted about a dozen broccoli this year, but may have planted it too early again. Several have buttoned and the rest look a bit stunted. i think this is from the temps being 80 degrees one week, then 16 degrees the next. Broccoli usually does better in the fall, but i always try it in the spring anyhow. 

Outside under row covers i have lots of spring mix leaf lettuce and spinach is coming in well.  Spinach really prefers the cool weather so i'm expecting it to start bolting soon. i have more planted in a more shaded area, so i'm hoping it keeps producing a while longer.  

So far it's been a good spring. Still getting asparagus and eggs, and lots of leafy greens.

This week i'll working on getting my garden planted. Almost everything was started in the greenhouse and had a good head start. i actually haven't done any garden planning so i really need to sit down and figure out where i'm going to put everything.  We moved the potatoes this year into a different garden, so i lost that garden space. We are trying corn in the old potato bed, and i'll be able to put some squash and beans in there as well, but that doesn't leave anywhere for tomatoes.  So i need to check last years garden plan so i know the best way to rotate things this year.

Looking forward to a good gardening season! i'm planting several new varieties i can't wait to check out! What's coming up in your garden?

Garden update- August 16

A few photos from August. 

TYpically my gardens peek around the second week of July, but this year i planted a bit late and things really didn't get going until the first week of August.   My first planting of beans is done, but i have a second planting coming in strong.  Squash and peppers are producing well and more of my heirloom tomatoes are finally beginning to ripen. Some take longer than others, i still have several varieties that are green.

Some of the varieties in this photo are Hillbilly, Cherokee Purple, Violet Jasper, Black Cherry, Pink Brandywine, Yoder's German Yellow and Boxcar Willy.

My squash peeked out around the second week of August. We got quite a bit of rain around the end of July/begining of August and my plants statrted producing like crazy and then wilting and dying. i'm still getting plenty of squash although i had to pull most of my plants due to vine borers and mosaic virus. 

My hens have been on a bit of a break. Many of my girls have been broody all summer, and others were molting so i haven't been getting very many eggs. Just recently, they have begun to lay again.  So excited to be getting the maran eggs again. 

This week i've been super busy canning tomatoes, freezing beans and cooking up lots squash!  i'm trying to get my gardens cleaned up so i can put in some fall crops. The tomatoes in my greenhouse are still doing amazing! Next year i may not even bother with garden tomatoes and just grow them in the greenhouse.   

How is e everyone else's garden doing? Did you try any new varieties this year?

Greenhouse Update

i am absolutely loving my greenhouse! It's all still a bit of an experiment for me. i keep the tops vents open and door opened with my screen during the day to try and keep the temperatures from getting too hot. i may eventually have to put a fan in it though, i had a couple days last week where the temperatures reached 109.  

Kenan build a large raised bed along one of the walls. i planted a rainbow of tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, carrots and lettuce so far. i also have some Malabar spinach planted and a couple cucumbers. Some of the veggies will have to be hand pollinated, but the tomatoes, peppers and eggplants i believe are self pollinating. i'm hoping that by spraying them with the hose, it shakes them around enough to pollinate.  The tomatoes have tomatoes on them, and i also have one eggplant so it does seem to be working so far.

So, i wasn't going to over plant tomatoes again...but somehow i did. :) Besides the tomatoes already planted in the garden, i also have over 100 seedlings and potted tomatoes in the greenhouse. i'm still finding places to put them all. i've been able to start so many things in the greenhouse, that i just didn't have room for before.  

Tomatoes and eggplants.  i'll be transferring them into larger pots soon. i plan to keep the eggplants in the greenhouse, they have never done well in the garden. The flea beetles just destroy them. So far they are doing great in the greenhouse! Flowering and producing eggplants! 

Wohoo! baby eggplant!!

So far my tomatoes are doing great in the greenhouse.  They are a little lanky, but overall they look good!

i have lots of seed trays started. i started all my lettuces, beans, flowers everything in the greenhouse, so i haven't been in a huge hurry to put them in the garden. We finally got some rain last night though, so i will be moving a tons of plants outside today.

i'm really hoping that the greenhouse will help expand my season and allow me to increase my production, by actually having a few disease free plants.  i was a bit worried the heat would cause my lettuce to bitter, but that hasn't been the case so far.

So despite my rather laid back approach to the garden this year, i really feel like it's doing fine.  i just need to get out there today while the soil is still damp and finish getting plants in the ground.

Garden Progress June 1st.

i can't believe it is already June!  i haven't started to completely panic about being behind, but i may start to pretty soon. i still don't have my garden completely in, but everything has been planted and is growing well in the greenhouse. So even though it's not in the garden, it's still planted and doing well. i just need to spend one day getting everything in the ground.

Kids are out of school for the summer, and we are starting off our summer vacation with one sick kid (fever and cough) and mama sick from the Doxy i'm taking for Lyme.  Good times!

Picked our first homegrown salad a few weeks ago. All of my cold crops are planted and doing great.   i've been picking lettuce, spinach, swiss chard, kale and asparagus for a few weeks now. Also a few small carrots and radishes.

Just this last week i started getting broccoli and garlic scapes too. i finally decided to use row covers this year and for the first time ever, i have beautiful worm-free organic broccoli! It's your trying to grow anything in the cabbage family, row covers are the way to go!! 

No worms, aphids or bugs of any kind! why did it take me so long to figure this out? lol.

i also have cabbage, cauliflower, purple sprouting broccoli and fractal broccoli all under row covers.  i also have one on some cucumber plants. i'm eager to see if i can actually grow cucumbers without getting sudden wilt from the cucumber beetles.

My peas took a beating when we had a hail storm back in April, so i had to replant most of them and they are finally starting to bloom. i planted regular sugar snaps, and also these Blush tendril snap peas from Baker's Creek. The blossoms are so pretty, and they climb like crazy. The pea pods are supposed to be blushed with pink as well.  i hope that they are as sweet and tasty as sugar snaps. 

Eggplants are doing fantastic in the greenhouse.  They never seem to do very well in the garden. Flea beetles tend to eat the leaves and then they end up somewhat stunted and never really recover.  The last couple years i've succesfully grown them in pots, so this year i planted a bunch in pots and plan to keep them safe in the greenhouse, moving them outside occasionally if it's too hot inside.

This year i totally over planted tomatoes again. i have a bunch in the greenhouse, and a bunch in the garden...plus tons of starts just waiting to be repotted and planted.  Having a place to actually start seeds has been so wonderful.  Everytime i move plants out of the greenhouse i start more seeds. :) 

Growing in the greenhouse is a bit of an experiment this year. i'm not sire if it will get too warm for the plants to pollinate or if some will have to be hand pollinated...or if they won't work out at all. My husband built a larg raised bed inside the greenhouse and i have tomatoes, eggplant, peppers, carrots and lettuce planted in it. So far everything is doing great.  i'm able to vent the greenhouse, and with the magnetic screen door i can keep the doors open.  i already have lots of green tomatoes. My only challenge is keeping everything watered. The plants tend to dry out quickly, and i feel i'm constantly watering them.

We have the rainwater collection cistern set up for irrigation, but it really hasn't rained much this spring so i worry that i'm going to drain it by the amount of water i've been using.  

So far it all going well, and i'm trying to make a point of documenting it all so that next year i know what works and what doesn't.  i'm really hoping for a productive year though and feel like the greenhouse is really a benefit for my garden and homesteading path. 

Garden Season- May 2016

This year my garden season is having a bit of a slow start.  Typically i would have all of my summer garden seeds in the ground by now, however with my green house i have so much already started that i'm not in a real hurry to put my plants out.  My beans are already a foot tall, and cucumbers and squash are way ahead of schedule. So when i do finally plant the garden, i'm expecting it to like an instant garden that just popped up over night.  :)  

My spring garden was doing great, then we had some crazy hail come down a couple weeks ago. We were not even home at the time, but it did a lot of damage in the garden. Much of the lettuce/spinach was shredded and smashed. My sugar snap peas were all broken and all the new broccoli and cauliflower plants i had just put in were destroyed. i did have a few broccoli plants under a cover that were undamaged, but most of them had to be pulled.   

 So i had to replant much of the spring plants.  The damaged lettuce leaves died off, but new leaves sprouted and it's finally starting to fill back in a bit.  This is my spring salad garden. i have leaf lettuce, spinach, kale, Swiss chard, onions, garlic and purple orach planted here. i also have asparagus, carrots, radishes and beets planted in the raised beds.  Sugar snaps and cucumbers coming up on the fences, and broccoli, cabbage and cauliflower all the way to the right. 

My packman broccoli is under the row cover and is doing fabulous. i also had planted Fractal broccoli, purple broccoli, purple cauliflower and purple sprouting broccoli.  These are plants that were damaged. i do have more in the green house to put out, but they are smaller and i'm not sure we'll have enough coooler days for them to be happy. Once it starts getting warm, the cold crops tend to start bolting. 

i love growing a spring mix of lettuces. This year i planted, Ruby Red, Red Salad bowl, Oak leaf, Spotted Aleppo (harvested from Monticello),

One of the few green oak leaf that wasn't damaged by the hail. i had to reseed this row, so most of the plants are just coming up. The bed should have been full of plants ready for harvest. 

The broccoli plants are looking good.  They are forming nice sized heads this year instead of buttoning again like they did last year. i have a row cover on them, and so far they are worm free!!

Purple orach in a new favorite i planted for the first time last year. It's sometimes called purple spinach, as it tastes similar and can be used in the same way.   It's a beautiful plant and adds a  lovely splash of purple to any salad.  We eat a lot of spinach, but spinach prefer the cool temps and tends to bolt if it gets too warm so i started looking for spinach alternatives. Orach and Red Malabar spinach can both be used in the same ways that spinach can, and they can tolerate heat much better.  The red malabar spinach actually thrives in hot conditions.  

i haven't been in a huge hurry to get my garden in this year. i have almost everything already started in the greenhouse, so i feel like my garden is planted, just not in the ground. Tonight we have a low of 36, and today is our average frost free day. So this week i'll think about getting my plants actually planted in the ground. The greenhouse has been fantastic. It's been such a help having place to start my seeds and they grow so quickly in there.  

We did soil tests this year, and added quite a few amendments to the soil. So i'm really feeling very optimistic about it this year. With the added nutrients, i hoping to see healthier plants and less disease.   i'm planning to keep a few tomatoes in the greenhouse all summer to see if i avoid early blight and Septoria lead spot, which was especially bad last year. i just need to learn to regulate the temperature a little better so my tomatoes are able to pollinate. This year the greenhouse tomatoes will be a bit of an experiment, so if they fail to produce tomatoes i'm not going to be that bummed. 

So far i've been harvesting salad greens and asparagus.  Broccoli will be ready to harvest soon. My radishes bolted again, but i replanted and am hoping they'll do better this time around. i think i left them in the greenhouse too long.  It's all going to be a learning experience for sure.  i'm excited about it though, and very optimistic. 

Around the Homestead- Garden Season, Progress and Planting fruit trees.

Spring is always such a wonderfully busy time of year. It has been several years since we've had any real time to do real things on our property. For a while there was the financial struggle, then Kenan's glass business really started to do well, but there just wasn't enough time to do all the work that needed to be done. Then in 2013, we lost everything in a fire and had to start completely over. 

We are beginning to feel somewhat recovered, and are really trying to catch up and make some major progress this spring. Broke my heart when we had to clear some land, but now we have a great place to plant an orchard! Put in 6 new fruit trees so far. Kenan has been busting his butt to get stuff done so i can get planting!

The gardens have been tilled and fenced. This is garden #3. It use to be my cold crop garden, but after clearing some of our land it is now getting full sun. So i will probably plant mostly beans and squash in this spot this year, still trying to plan out where everything will go.

 

Garden #4 is inside the goat field. It's been tilled and fenced, and potatoes have been planted. This year i put in blue, purple, red, yellow and white potatoes.  i'm going to put something in with them, possibly beans and onions, but i haven't decided what i'm going to plant in here yet. Last year i planted corn and squash in this bed, and the temptation for the goats was too much and they broke down the fence and ate all of the corn right down to the ground. They didn't bother the squash at all though, so i may try planting squash as a border. 

The tiered beds have been tilled and expanded. :) Always expanding.

Garden #2, is my early spring garden. There are 3 small raised beds in this garden. One has asparagus, garlic and lettuce. Another is strawberries and garlic and the last one i put in beets and carrots. My soil is so full of clay and rocks, my root veggies never do very well.  So i thought i'd try them in the raised bed.  i also have sugar peas planted along the fence, broccoli, cauliflower, lettuce, spinach, garlic and kale in this garden.  i planted packman broccoli, which has always done really we for me. i also planted Romanesco (fractal) broccoli, Sicilian violet cauliflower and purple sprouting broccoli. i tried some of these last year, but they didn't do well. i got an earlier start on them this year and am hoping they will well.

i've got all kinds of pants started inside my little cheap greenhouse.  The wind rocked it pretty good last week and the shelves fell off, so i had to restart a bunch of tomatoes.  i reinforced the greenhouse to hopefully keep it from rocking as much and ziptied the shelves, so they can't fall off as easily. When i first saw the greenhouse i was devastated, as it looked like i'd lost almost everything. However once i started lifting up the posts i found i was able to recover almost everything.

First garden harvest was this week. Most of these baby greens came from my hoop house (pvc hoops covered in plastic). As i was weeding the lettuce i picked and  added some dandelion and chickweed to the salad. Also picked a couple asparagus, and added the sweet violets for color. 

Besides getting the garden tilled and fenced, husband put in a rope swing for the kids. He  transplanted several nice peach trees, and moved the Nanking cherry bush which had been dug and dumped on the edge of the driveway during construction.  

He is also working on cleaning up the land that was cleared, and has already started planting fruit trees in what will hopefully eventually be a small orchard. We planted several apple trees; Winesap, Stayman - Winesap, Red Delicious, and Honeycrisp. We are planning to add a couple more including a pink lady and a Gala. We also put in Tartarian black cherry and  another Moonglow pear tree.  We have another cherry tree, two plum trees and 4 blueberry bushes that need to be transplanted into the new location.  Once the cleared land has been cleaned up we'll be putting in more blueberry bushes there.

We also planted a new Clematis vine, Crepe Myrtle bush, Wisteria vine, and 2 new Lilac bushes. We are just starting to work on the landscaping a bit.    We're having a week of rain, so everything is really just starting to come up and grow but we have to put our outside work on hold a bit. i'm already loving the progress, though. We are getting our chicken coops set up better, so that we can travel a bit without worrying so much about them.  The way they are set up now, they have to be closed in every night, or we risk predators getting in and killing them. So even an overnight trip is stressful. i'm hoping the new improvements to the coop and feeders with make things easier, and allow up to travel a bit again.  i love the springtime.  i love all the new growth and transformations. It always feels like the beginning of everything.

I think that no matter how old or infirm I may become, I will always plant a large garden in the spring. Who can resist the feelings of hope and joy that one gets from participating in nature’s rebirth? ~Edward Giobbi

Holidaze 2014- Thanksgiving and falling behind!

 Holidaze is my term for the complete craziness that starts with Thanksgiving and goes through New Years. i typically take a break with my craft business and spend all of december making cookies, handmade gifts and focusing on family. This year i took a break on blogging as well, and this is my attempt to catch up.

Winter came early this year. We were hit with a pretty good snow storm on November 26th.  

The kids were excited to play in the snow and go sledding.  i went outside just long enough to snap a couple pictures then came back in to warm up.  i'm really not a fan of snow.

Earlier this month we purchased a small woodstove as a supplemental heat source. i had some pretty mixed feeling when we first brought it into the house (i may have even cried a bit), but i was truly glad to have it when the storm hit and our power began flashing on and off. We have plenty of firewood too get us through the winter, thanks to the beautiful oak tree we had to cut in order to build the house. We had so much wood that we shared with several neighbors that were in need of firewood. 

The day before thanksgiving, i was just beginning to prep food for our feast and the power went out. We spent our day outside in the snow, reading Harry Potter and playing board games.  The woodstove was very appreciated, keeping us nice and toasty and heating water for my tea. 

On Thanksgiving day we were still without power.  This was our first Thanksgiving in the new house  (last year we were in the camper) and we had no way to cook our meal. The roads had cleared and most of the snow melted away.  So we ended taking a drive to NC and having a rather non traditional thanksgiving meal at the Golden Corral. :)   When we returned home that evening we found the power was back on. 

We decided to celebrate our traditional feast on Sunday instead of the day after. As always my favorite part of the feast is that it is almost entirely homegrown.   This thanksgiving we had a beautiful garden salad, roasted root veggies, green beans and mashed potatoes. Sweet potatoes with garlic and rosemary, garlicy greens, deviled eggs, apple sauce, canned peaches and a blueberry/blackberry cobbler. i did purchase a Quorn roast as our vegetarian 'turkey' substitute. 

It was a small feast with just the four of us, simple and nice.  We are constantly reminded of our blessings; a warm home, food on the table and a family to share it with.  Although i believe we should thankful every day, and not just on Thanksgiving it is still nice to take a day together to truly reflect on all of our blessings. 

Gratitude is an art of painting an adversity into a lovely picture. ~Kak Sri

October Garden and New Projects.

October garden is still going strong.  Although most of my summer crops are done i replanted many back in July/August and i'm finally beginning to get a good harvest from them. The peppers and tomatillos that were planted in the spring and are just now ripening and ready for harvest.  We have had two frosts so far but i've had most things covered and so they are still doing well.  My fall carrots are still a bit small but i'm getting lots of snow peas and swiss chard.  Zucchini and yellow squash are still hanging in there despite the cold temps. 

i have lots of new lettuce, kale and spinach planted in the tiered garden.  Kenan bought a tiller so two of my four gardens have now been tilled!  Nasturtium and marigolds are finally in full bloom.   Seems like every year they wait until right before it freezes/frosts to finally come into bloom. Hoping they stay pretty another week or two. 

With the cooler weather i am spending more time inside, which means i'm attempting to focus on my business again.  Although i keep saying i'm done making bendy dolls, i always go back to making them. :)   i'm really hoping to focus more on Waldorf dolls this winter, but until them i have lots of these bendy dolls available.

i've mainly been focusing on Halloween themed dolls, trying to sell a few so i can buy the supplies needed for other projects.  The two witches and wizard above are sold, but the pumpkin girls and ones below are still available. 

i've mainly been working on Halloween themed dolls, trying to sell a few so i can buy the supplies needed for other projects.  :)

i've also been working on organizing and creating a craft space.  i'm setting it up inside the tiny little laundry room. The space is really just a place to store my supplies and keep them organized, as i tend to take my projects into what ever room i am in at the time.  i'm hoping to eventually put cabinets and a counter top in here  so i can set up my sewing machine.  

Just for fun, i made my boy a Doctor Who Tardis hat. 

i've been thinking about stocking my etsy shop again, but until them i'm still just selling on my FB page.  i have bendy dolls, jewelry and a few hats for sale.  i rarely take custom orders, but if it sounds interesting and i have the materials i may consider.

i'm still spending a good amount of time in the garden.  i have quite a few fall crops in and i won't give up on it until it's buried in at least a foot of snow. :)