Tag Archives: garden

What My Homestead Looks Like Today

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Well every January around this time I seem to get the gardening/homesteading bug.  For the most part I feel it year round, but especially after the holidays have died down, I really get the urge to start planning and making preparations for my garden.  I would consider my “homestead” to be very small.  I have a small garden and that’s about it.  But isn’t that what homesteading is all about, making due with what you have?  Thats why I try not to get discouraged about only have a small garden or homestead.  I know someday I will be able to have a bigger garden and probably even livestock.  I just have to be patient and work hard and it will all work out.

So, in an effort to get outside on a dreary day, I ventured out to take pictures of what my homestead looks like today.

Homestead Today 1As you can see, it was a very wet and rainy day.  So I put my boots on and took the 17 second walk down to my garden.

Homestead Today 2Here is a look at the garden as a whole.

Homestead Today 3The left side had carrots, broccoli, bush beans, lettuce, and some herbs.

Homestead Today 4The right side had parsnips and watermelon.

Homestead Today 5I also put in 2 sunflower plants in the back corners.

Homestead Today 6This is whats left of the lettuce.

Homestead Today 7Homestead Today 8When it came time to prepare my garden for winter, I was too pregnant to really do anything to it.  My back hurt and digging in the garden was one of the last things on my to do list.  So this spring before Little T gets here I plan on asking my husband to till it under.  This should take all of 30 minutes.  After that, planting shouldn’t be too hard :)

What does your garden look like today?  Have you started making plans for it yet?

RT

 

A Garden Update And Some New Additions

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When I first started my garden I planted bush beans, tomatoes, sweet peppers, and watermelon.  So far the only things that are growing are the bush beans and watermelons.  After waiting a couple of weeks to see if the rest of the plants would come up (which they did not) I decided to rework the soil and plant a fall/winter garden.  Here are my choices.

I ordered these seeds from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds.  I decided to go with heirloom seeds because I feel as though I’m preserving a piece of history.  And there’s something about planting the same seed that was planted sometimes hundreds of years ago, that makes me happy.  I think everything will grow, but I’m not sure about the parsnips.  I know they take a while to mature but I’m going to try them anyways.  If we have a winter like we did last year, I don’t think I’ll have a problem.

It’s about halfway through summer and I think my garden is doing pretty well.  Sure my tomatoes and peppers didn’t grow but my beans and watermelon sure did.  And despite the fact that some plants didn’t grow, I’ve still enjoyed being outside every day and looking after the ones that did.  I usually go down to the garden at least once a day, most of the time twice.  I water in the morning and then in the evening, my husband and I usually venture outside after supper.  He plays with the pups and I pull weeds.  This is much more enjoyable now that it isn’t 100+ degrees everyday and I think I’ll enjoy it even more when I have some produce to collect!

Here is what my garden looks like with the new additions.

I planted 1 row of parsnips.

In this picture there is spinach on the left and lettuce in the top right.  The lettuce has to share its spot with chives that I planted about a week ago.

Here we have broccoli on the left and carrots on the right.  Hopefully all my new plantings will grow!

The beans.  About how long does it take to get flowers on bush beans?  I keep waiting and waiting but no flowers yet.

This is the bigger of the 2 watermelons.  

Theres the little guy.  I’m not sure what I do to the big plant that I don’t do to this one, but I ended up with 2 different sized watermelon plants even though they were planted at the same time.  I guess it will just take some time to even them out.

Have you started your fall/winter garden?  If you have, what did you plant?

RT

Garden Update

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My garden is growing!  Well parts of it anyways.  The beans came up great and the watermelons are really starting to take off, but my tomatoes and peppers aren’t.  At all.  I mean there isn’t the slightest hint that they are even thinking about growing.  They are just empty spots in the garden.  I’m not sure what to do about this.  Do I keep doing what I’ve been doing and hope they pop through, or do I dig up the seed and plant something else?  I’d love to hear your suggestions!

Also, I’ve been noticing that the leaves of the plants are being eaten by something.  It doesn’t seem to be affecting the overall health of the plant so I don’t know what to do.  I’m trying to keep my garden pesticide free so any suggestions about how to get rid of the little buggers naturally would be great.

RT