Whew!

Well, I am getting tired of the landlord damaging my raised bed frame when he mows the yard. So I have dug up and killed the grass in a 3 inch strip around the bed. Lets see if that stops the damage or I may end up needing a new frame after only one year.

On happier news, we have our first tomato forming! Looks like a single black berry on the bush too. More than we expected for the first year that's for sure. I got the support beams put in for the cukes, just need some twine or something to use to get it climbing up them. I've taken to breaking up the soil and digging the cuttup weeds into the soil instead of just pulling them and moving them away. Not sure if that will help anything at all.

The raspberry bush looks straight dead but I hold out hope that greenery will come up next spring. In the mean time I added epsom salt to the garden areas and have been watering roughly every 3 days with good results. Much better than last year so far. Fingers are crossed for good returns on all this effort.

Growth comes with the heat

The tomatoes we put in first are now over 2 feet tall and flowering, thats good. Our golden grape tomatoes are blooming as well. We have a new cane on the blackberries, and some of the onions are up now. All this and today it hit 101 degrees acording to some online weather sources, others said 97. Not sure which to believe but either way it was hot!

The Cucumbers are showing promise, the romas are almost a foot tall now, and the peppers are looking fairly well too. The raspberry bush got shocked and sits looking brown and dead but we will leave it until this time next year. I think that is giving it a good amount of time to recover.

The garden this year is a good deal smaller than I had hoped for but it will have to do. I feel its too late to put in anything else and have a chance of anything beyond greenery. All the rain we had last month really put a stop to breaking ground and planting. Its alright though. Next year the beds that are going now will not be that hard to prep so we will be faster to expand. Here's to a good growing season, a great harvest and a hopeful next year!

Rain, Rain Go Away. . .

For once the rain saddens me instead of invigorating me. I have an entire packet of watermelon seeds to plant, two packages of onion sets to plant as well as 2 pepper and 6 tomato plants I need to get in the ground. May is nearly over and this makes it frightening as to whether or not these will have time to grow and produce. Was this year's investment a waste? Time will tell. For now though I do have the blackberry bush in and it looks fairly good with some new growth on it already. It holds the promise of berries for next year. Perhaps a few this year. Who knows? The raspberry shocked and has gone brown and dry. Come autumn I shall cut it back and hope for the best for next year. Should it stay brown and dead looking I will have to pull it up and think of what to replace it with. Perhaps another blackberry bush? In the round raised bed I have my 3 tomatoes and 4 pepper plants. The peppers are being slow to grow but the tomatoes are over a foot tall now. Thick and not too leafy but leafy enough to have my hopes warmed by their progress. On the other hand my marrigolds are dying and I am at a loss as to why. I hope to pick up some epsom salts next week to add to the garden beds. This will give a little boost to the plants I think.

In the meantime I look out on a very gray and dismal world of rain.

Triumph!

Ah the sweet feeling of actually accomplishing things! Found an unadvertised low cost tomato plant sale at Walmart, 50 cents a plant! Scored 4 of those bad boys then hit Ace Hardware for the advertised topsoil for 4/$5. This filled up my one raised bed and I planted the tomatoes in it. If I get 4 more and one tomato cage I can have a nice little tomato bed and maybe plant strawberries as an edging. I have plans but its slow going when you are low income.

Will dig out my camera and get photos of the bed as soon as I can.

Happy Gardening everyone!

Bogged down

Its been rainning here and when it hasn't been rainning I have been busy. Whew! Tomorrow I should be picking up my first ever regular sized shovel so I can dig an in ground garden. Unfortunately filling my one raised bed has gone nowhere, so if I want to garden this year it must be using my natural not so great soil. ICK. Wish me luck on that one eh?

Ah lovely weather again!

W got out to the park today and the kids had a blast. We saw lots of robbins, some sparrows, some starlings and a hawk. We watched the water in the creek trickle by, and enjoyed the refreshing breeze which occassionally gusted into a full on wind.

I marvelled at how lovely it was until we were forced to leave by a suspicious truck that kept driving by very slowly and coming back again and again. Then on our way home we were disturbed by the repeated comments from a neighbor who kept telling us how beautiful and sweet our little girl was, especially in her cute little dress. So lovely. . .shiver. Telling someone they have a lovely child once is ok, but over and over. . .going from calling through an open window to opening your door and standing there calling. . . that is terrifying. I hope it was harmless admiration from a lonely lady, but these days you can never tell.

So, a quick warning to those of us with kids. Keep a keen eye on your kids while out enjoying the warm weather. Don't let little ones go to the park with their siblings without you. Don't let your preteens run off with groups of friends, and make sure your Teens have a cell or know every route to home. Its just not safe these days. And that is extremely sad.

It's a nice day, but I'm stuck inside! So here's some notes on compost.

Arg! It turned out to be a lovely day outside but we are finishing up some indoor spring cleaning which means I have to stay inside. Not that that is such a bad thing. See, my rabbit Chinny decided to give me a litter of 7 healthy kits! Makes me smile to see them each time I pass her cage. I use Chinny's droppings in the garden, so temporarily having 8 rabbits giving me poop is not a bad thing to me at all.

Rabbit manure is wonderful for the garden because it can be added straight to it at any time. Whether there are plants in the bed or not, mostly because it does not burn the plants. That is why it is called a "cold" manure. Unlike "hot" manures like horse or cow, which has to age before being added in.

Now if you prefer not to put manure straight in the garden, that is ok. Its fine in the compost pile too. I adore composting so if my beds are full everything will go into the compost pile to get broken down to be dug into the bed the next spring. All kinds of things can go into the compost pile. More than most people think can. Of course I am an oddball and do not compost in the traditional way. I take a 5 gallon rubbermaid tub and drill 8 holes in the bottom to allow drainage. I put a scoop of garden soil in and daily add stuff to it. I turn it each time I add to it, stirring it up similar to a cake mix, I want it well blended each day and after I turn it I pour on about 1/2 cup of water, once a week pouring in milk instead of water. This process fills the tub after about 9 days and then I have to setup another one. But I keep turning and adding water or milk to the old ones until they are done then they get added to a new raised bed or an old one that has had some settling during the growing season.

The only time I can not compost this way is during deep winter. This means temps that rarely get over 50 during the day or night. Night temps can be lower if it is warm during the day, but once day time temps get inconsistant composting takes a break.

That's my post for today. I'll be back!

Sabotage!

Ok I know critters will be drawn to garden beds but people need to keep their cats inside (I know the offenders) and their dogs on leashes or chains or behind a fence (again I know who owns the dogs)! If people can not propperly restrain their pets I will be forced to report them to animal control because I refuse to have my beds dug up or defficated in. I refuse to eat animal feces. Having raised beds seems to keep out the voles, mice and wild rabbits but invited cats and dogs to come and play. What's that saying? Good fences make good neighbors? I will teach these country folks that this is VERY true and that just because I moved from the city to this small "city" does not mean I am nieve or down right stupid as they seem to think.

I will not put the money and effort into food for my family only to have to dig out and toss the entire beds contents dirt and all due to contaminant. Anyone with non-harming deterrant methods for cats and dogs please let me know, because right now my only method of defense is to run out and yell after getting photos to show animal control. Would prefer minimal to no chemical introduction here if at all possible.

Cookies to push back winter weather blues

Well it snowed today. Actually had the nerve to snow. Felt bad so I dug up a chocolate chip recipe to play with online. I don't think I can share the original recipe but I can post the recipe post alterations as they technically make it mine. I call them Fig Chip Cookies.

Ingredients:

1 cup butter or margarine
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 cup white sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp imitation almond extract
2 tbsp powdered milk
1 tbsp water
2 2/3 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup dried fig chips

Directions:

Melt buttter gently in microwave for 45 seconds on high. Slowly blend in both sugars. Fold in eggs, extract pwdered milk and water. Gently add in flour, baking powder and soda with salt. Lastly add the chips.
Stir well and place on lightly greased cookie sheets, makes 24 to 48 cookies depending on size of spoon drops you use.

Cook in oven set to 350 for 7 minutes.
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Review: Too almondy, next time I try this will reduce the extract to 1/2 tsp. Also feel the sugar had it too runny so would cut the brown sugar to 1/2 a cup and omit the tbsp water. The figs came out soft and moist like broken bits of fig nutons, YUM!

Will deffinitely try again with alterations. If you like the flavor of almond you will enjoy it as is!

Whew what a day!

Well, I did not get as much done today as I would have liked but that was because my husband got called in for extra work. Extra work means extra money so I am not too disapointed. I got the frame up for one raised bed and its about 1/4 full of soil. I have to say the topsoil sold at the stores seems to have a bit of debris in it so in the future I will only be buying the humus with manure mixture. I am hoping to setup one or two composting boxes this year too. I did not get a before or afte shot of the yard unfortunately as my batteries for the camera are charging but I will get a photo in the morning before I begin the next stage of work.

It will be a week or so until I can get more soil for the bed but I can still do other prep work. For example I plan to grow flowers around the outter peramiter of the raised beds so I can strip that area around the one bed that is in of grass and other unwated junk. Oddly I did find trash buried in the soil I turned for the raised bed, and a lot of rocks but those were expected.

The bed put in today will have our 3 tomato plants and 4 or 5 pepper plants. Those will be bought later on when they are available at the local greenhouses. Once we have the soil in to the level needed for this year we plan to turn the soil with some fertilizer. We plan to water every other week with a special mix of:

1 tbsp powdered milk
1 tbsp epsom salts
1 tbsp store brand fertilizer

dissolved in a gallon of water per raised bed. Otherwise, water will be either from our tap or a container we plan to put out to catch rain water for the beds. We also have plans to start a new watering method shared with us by a friend. The method involves cutting the bottoms off of pop bottles and poking holes in the sides. You leave the lid on and bury in the ground with the open end up and not burried. This lets you fill it with water for a slow release and thorough soaking. They should be filled as early as possible every 3-5 days depending on temperatures and rainfall. Obviously if the soil is still damp you would not want to fill them.

That's all for now, but stay tuned as we also plan to share about our canning in this blog!

First day of Gardening!

Today the weather is delightful! Last night we heard FROGs chirpping away at the creek, this is a good sign that its time  to start prepping the gardens.  Today we are going to rake the yard and choose the place for the first raised bed.  This bed will hold Tomatoes and bell peppers. It will be surrounded by flowers which will include marigolds to incorporate some natural pest control as well as encourage bees and other polinators to visit our garden. We will also be choosing where to put our raspberry bushes we plan to put in this year. 3 should be good for a start.  These will be surrounded by flowers as well and given trellises to climb instead of being left to their own devices.  We will post photos as they are taken so you can enjoy our work with us.

This year we will be using rabbit manure in our beds as a natural fertilizer. We will also be composting. First photos to come soon!



Things are turning green!