Category: Gardening

Bush Green Beans

Green Beans and Sweet Bell Peppers in the New Garden

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We had the delusion that we could get a good size garden planted this year even with the move. We thought the first year we would have a smaller one than the garden we had at the old place, and then by next year we would have double! But with all of the moving, projects at the new house, and keeping the old house up so it can sell…it didn’t seem like any garden was going to happen at all. This was just unacceptable because our stored canned goods are running quite low and we just wanted our garden! So although it was later than planned and thrown together Jon just got out there in the side backyard and just tilled up one row for some green beans and a couple of sweet red bell pepper plants a couple of weeks ago.
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Mint to Repel Insects and Rodents Around the Chicken Coop

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Mint is one of my favorite scents and plants. It has such a crisp, clean, fresh aroma. We have a nice mint patch growing at our old house. Mint self propagates rapidly. This is a blessing as it is so easy to grow. However, you do want to give considerable thought to where you plant mint as it will spread and could become a nuisance if planted in the wrong location. Two months ago I dug up several of our spearmint and orange mint plants at the old house and put them in temporary pots. Those mint plants set for two months before I finally got around to transplanting them at our new home.

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Lavender in the Herb Garden

Establishing a New Herb Garden

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Since moving to our new home we have been working hard to get our plants established. We were quite blessed at our last home and had accomplished a lot. So in some ways it depressed me to have to start over. However, we learned a lot during that time. We learned a lot about what works and what doesn’t. We are able to apply what we have learned as we establish our plants at our new home. Our herb garden must be near the kitchen and easily accessible. We decided to start our herb garden around the well house which is to the side of the house close to the back door at the kitchen.

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Second-year-raspberries-canes

Growing Raspberries Year 2

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How wonderful it is to see everything coming alive in the spring. Last year in February we planted 4 bare root raspberry canes. Along the trellis you can see how much our 4 raspberry canes have grown.

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Food, Inc Documentary

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Yesterday evening Jon and I watched the Food, Inc documentary on Netflix.

Food, Inc. Documentary
Food, Inc. Documentary

We were already aware of much of the horror unveiled in the film, yet still were shocked at times. This kind of thing is one of the major reasons we started growing our own food. We still have a long way to go before we are self-sufficient, but we do sleep better at night knowing that we are doing something.

View the Food, Inc Documentary Trailer

http://video.pbs.org/viralplayer/1402965302

Synopsis from PBS

In Food, Inc., filmmaker Robert Kenner lifts the veil on our nation’s food industry, exposing the highly mechanized underbelly that’s been hidden from the American consumer with the consent of our government’s regulatory agencies, USDA and FDA. Our nation’s food supply is now controlled by a handful of corporations that often put profit ahead of consumer health, the livelihood of the American farmer, the safety of workers and our own environment. We have bigger-breasted chickens, the perfect pork chop, insecticide-resistant soybean seeds, even tomatoes that won’t go bad, but we also have new strains of E. coli — the harmful bacteria that causes illness for an estimated 73,000 Americans annually. We are riddled with widespread obesity, particularly among children, and an epidemic level of diabetes among adults.

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Seeds of the Month Club

Seeds of the Month Club

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Are you as tired of winter as we are? Jon and I are both so ready for spring. We are as tired of the snow and ice as the chickens are. Although I understand the importance of winter and that every season has it’s place, I am just not a fan. We have done our winter chores, planned our garden, and ordered our seeds. And still we wait during another snow and wintry mix. Sigh.

Last year, I thought long and hard about joining The Seeds of the Month Club, but did not. I just do not join things on a whim. The more I pondered it the more, I wanted to join. When you look at the price per seed packet for these Non-GMO heirloom seeds it really is a great deal.

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New Pepper and Tomato Beds

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As we continue to add things we want to grow, and wanting more of the things we already grow in our garden, space is becoming a big issue.  We fenced off a corner of the back yard for our garden to keep the chickens and the dog from digging up our produce and now we have filled up that little space with our annual crops and find that we need more space.

Last year, we almost tripled the size or our garden.  We installed permanent fencing around our garden area because we have a line of pine trees that prevent us from expanding the current garden area any farther.  Expanding the fenced in area, as we did last year when we went from a temporary movable fence to our current permanent fence, is no longer an option.

We decided that the next step in adding some more garden space was to install a couple of beds for our tomatoes and peppers.  This would be a simple and easy addition to our gardening area.

First, we cut down a couple small but tall and straight pine trees from our land in an area that we are needing to clear any way.

Nice and straight logs for the edge of our beds.

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Fall Around Our Place

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You would think that now it is fall things may be slowing down around here and I would have a little bit of time for blogging. But it seems my paying job, church, and Sarah’s ever busy calendar has kept me on the go. I must admit I am looking forward to slowing down a bit and trying to get back to a little crocheting. But I cannot seem to be still long enough for that or when I do have a moment, I’m just so darn tired and brain dead.

Sunday afternoon I had a couple of hours to myself. I walked around and took inventory of how everything was looking around our place. I honestly have not done much of that lately. Jon has been doing most of the lingering garden tasks as things were still growing and coming in. I decided to take a few photos as I did my walk about.

The Crabapple Tree is Loaded Down
The Crabapple Tree is Loaded Down

 

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Heritage Everbearing Raspberries

Bare Root Raspberries 8 Month Progress

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Back in February we planted 2 Latham and 2 Heritage Everbearing bare root raspberry canes. We were pleasantly surprised when they began growing and did not die like our attempt last year. But what was even more amazing to us is that the 2 Heritage Everbearing canes were putting out fruit! A few weeks ago we were doing our evening walk in the garden and out of the corner of my eye I saw bright red over at the raspberries.

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