Growing it

October 2016
Again, another neglected section of my blog. Its shameful really, since this year I really went for the gusto with my garden. I had more peppers then I could work with and my husbands tomato plants were the worst failures ever. We moved back to our roots in the summer of 2014, literally 2 months before my twins were born. Were not more then a mile from where my husband grew up, and where he works. That's probably two of the best things about where we live. The other great things are the fresh air and lots of space to run around. So this year I called the garden an experiment. Want to know what got planted?
27 raspberry plants
7 blueberry plants
1 Marionberry plant
1 boysenberry plant
30 pepper plants (mixed seed packet I started the seeds from)
45 strawberry plants
6 gourd plants (Dipper, birdhouse, and bottle gourds)
Peas
carrots
parsnips (I dried these in slices as I have herd canning them changes the flavor)
Beets
radishes
Lemon balm
Catnip
chamomile
Blessed thistle
Roselle
mugwort
Stinging nettle
Echinacea
borage
glass gem corn
sweet potato's

Did you get all that? LOL. Most of these things I have never tried to grow before, so that's why I said it was an experiment. And as you can see most are berries as my kids walk through the garden and eat as they go. Its why I have avoided the use o traditional pesticides and why I have had such a massive issue with cucumber beetles; I was never able to get any decent sized beets. And we were vastly behind in getting things planted and in the ground. Next years garden will have more planning put into it so that I can get more out of it. Like I said, a learning process.




Planting! April 16, 2013
I have been in the planting mood (other then the garlic) and I have old soda bottles and milk jugs with plants in them ready to go outside and be planted. Whee!! Can you tell I am so ready for this? I was testing seeds to see if they were still good. Beans. And my cat ate the leaves off them! Dorky animal. LOL. She eats anything green for the most part. Anyways, Got some of the garlic planted the other day and we are planting more, including the organic today. I have to come up with a way to keep the neighborhood cats from pooping in the pot i am using. Went out and it was a mess. luckily easily cleaned up and the garlic is still in the ground.

I am planting the Chinese garlic on one side and the organic on the other (and yes, i am marking them to make sure I can tell which is which!)

This is what my kitchen counter looks like (this is about 1.5 weeks ago.) The sunflowers are huge now and the beans have sprouted and are taking over. LOL. 

Something to try! April 8, 2013
I have been reading some scary stuff about foods that we have imported from CHINA. lord have mercy I am sick of hearing all this, but it does affect us greatly! So this year, despite my mothers grumblings, I am planting my own garlic which I then will can. I LOVE garlic! So I had a bulb of CHINESE (UGH) garlic and I broke it down and started them in the window to get the roots started. Man do they grow like crazy. only thing is your supposed to plant them in the autumn! But i have read that you can pretty much plant them anytime though the "bulbs" wont be as big as when you actually plant them when your supposed to.

This is actually three "cloves" that stuck together. I don't see a point in separating them. These have been in the window for about 2 weeks.

OK. On the left ORGANIC USA GROWN garlic  On the left Chinese imported. You can tell the Chinese has sprouted and the other hasn't. These were planted 1 WEEK apart. I decided to do the organic after the Chinese stuff. So don't go thinking organic doesn't grow. It does. you cant see all the little roots on the organic, OK maybe you can see a little of them. Once these ones get a bit bigger I will move them to dirt.

Preparation! April 4, 2013
I am anxiously awaiting for the temperature here in Oregon to warm up so that we can plant our garden! So while I anxiously await, I decided to make this Garden shopping list page so that I could write down everything that I want to get for my garden. I am making an attempt to be more organized. You can print this for yourself. Just save it to your computer and print it from there. :-)

Personal use only

City Living Jan 12, 2013 

I have had the opportunity to live in the city for the last 7 years. Prior to that I lived in, what we fondly called, the Sticks. Yup, that's right way out in the boonies where your closest neighbor was a mile away. Lordy I miss that. Took me forever to get used to the trains here in town. But after awhile it becomes a moot issue and you make the adjustment. My husband and I were fortunate enough to purchase a home with a HUGE front yard and a nice backyard are as well. I call my house the Cookie Cutter since it feels like its been made up of various cookies. It adds to its charm, and its overall exasperation.One of the things that we do each year is plant a garden. Considering the prices of fruits and veggies, this is a must anymore. The biggest complaint I hear from people is that they don't have any space to plant a garden. If you have a yard you can have a vegetable garden. You just have to use your head. Fine by me if you don't want to make one, but my husband and I put our time in the dirt and we get one going. My daughters favorite thing to do during the summer is go out and pick tomato's, peppers, squash and to help me water. We have a great time doing it too. I think every moment in life has the potential to teach our children something and being able to grow and eat your own food is a very important one to me. This also helps her stay in touch with the farming roots that both her dad and I grew up with. This year we will be "vegetable-scaping" as I call it. I will be planting vegetable plants among my flowers! I know this is going to look so good and fill in some of the naked space in my flowerbeds while still feeling productive. (I call my daughter the Tulip Terror because she sees a flower and has an incessant need to pick it!!!! But maybe this will draw her attention enough to leave my flowers be! LOL)

This isn't a very good picture of our front yard. (The table and chairs aren't out front anymore.) it doesn't show that we have the whole yard fenced in or the new flowerbeds that we labored to add. But see those verticals of leaves, I will be putting in pole beans instead of morning glories (my husband hates having to take them down.) I cannot wait to show you how things will look once we get everything planted. Its going to be so much fun. I am thinking that if we have any excess we will donate it to the local food bank. They can always use fresh veggies. my mother has chickens and that's what she does when she has an over-abundance of eggs.