Category Archives: Square Food Garden

Homesteading Update

Posted on by
Reply

Yeap we officially have a homestead now that we have both a large garden and chickens! And today we have spent alot of time between these two things.  I had planned and mentioned that I would do gardening updates on Sundays but I wanted to get all the numbers on paper while I can remember.

Lily’s chickens are now four weeks old; they will need to remain inside for at least 2 more weeks. Today, as we have feared one of the chickens escaped from the brooder box.  It was likely my fault as I was getting an Amazon package out of the closet to use in the garden and the screen was knocked down and out came the rooster.  Oh yes by the way we have confirmed that we indeed do have a rooster.  This was the first chicken she picked so it is here to stay until it attacks.  We were able to find a taller cardboard box and transferred the chickens. This was only possible as we are turning off the light today for good.  Rugar got into the excitement as well but all is well that ends well at least for now.

Now on to the garden update!   I decided that because it is only 70 days until our beach trip we needed to get  the garden planted. I will wait 2 weeks to plant/ replant to help avoid a big harvest the week we are gone.
Snap Peas-   50 planted in front bed, only 26 seeds germinated and they are finally tall enough to reach the trellis.
Tomatoes- We moved 34 to the greenhouse and transplanted 32 today into several different spots.  Most of these plants are very small but I am hopefully that we get some tomatoes’ this year.
Green Peppers- After a second planting and removal of the heat lamp we moved  21 pepper plants to the greenhouse.  Today we transplanted 16 plants.  These again are very small but if we can get 2 peppers per plant I will be happy. I purchased 4 green pepper and 3 banana pepper plants this week from a farmstand.  I want tons of peppers this summer.
Squash- I have lost a packet of yellow squash seeds. Instead of attempting to purchas another packet, I purchased 6 plants for $1.75 from the farmstand. I broke the roots of one plant so I am hoping to have 5 yellow squash plants. Which will be an abundance of squash.
Zucchini- We have used all of the zucchini that was frozen.  So I planted 8 zucchini seeds today. I am hoping to go big with Zucchini this year!
Cucumber- I purchased 6 plants to count as my stagger planting.  I also planted around 20 seeds today. I am not sure of the exact number but if they have not germinated in 2 weeks I will be purchasing more plant starts.
Green Beans- I have planted an entire package of bush commander beans and blue lake green beans. I am planning to plant the same amount in 2 weeks.  I would love to have enough beans to freeze this year.
Basil- an entire packet planted in the green stock. This is another thing that I will be replanting in 2 weeks if they do not germinate. I grew no Basil last year so I have to get something going this year.

In other purchase I did purchase sage, thyme and oregeno. And several different types of flowers. I have plant marigolds around the tomatoes with the rest in the greenstock vertical planter.

Money Spent
Lowes      $52
Farmstand  $42 including a gallon of strawberries
Nursey- $15
Total $105

Saving on Saturday

Posted on by
Reply

The chicken coop needed to clean out and new bedding added. I am allergic to both hay and straw so I have been purchasing shaving to use. Although it is not extremely expensive, every little bit counts so we are cleaning out at work and have an abundance of paper.  I bought home some of the paper and shredded it using my shredder. Today, we clean the chicken coop of the shaving and filled the coop with shredded paper bits.  We re-used the bedding and chicken poop by adding it to our tomato beds to help with growing.  Total spent for new chicken bedding was $0.

Last week, I had meal planned but that plan went out the window. This meant that I had 2 cups of chicken left in the fridge. I had also planned to do a fried rice with brown rice and a cup of black beans.  These items needed to be used.  I ended up making chicken enchiladas with enough leftovers for 2 lunches.  and Lily used the brown rice, black beans and added a can of chicken to make herself a rice bowl for lunch. This actually made enough for 4 meals for her!

So far this month we have spent $215 on groceries. This includes $144 Amazon subscribe and save. This has become a huge money saver for me as it allows me to stay stocked up without buying everything at once. This month I have also used rewards from a couple of credit cards as well. I am hoping to keep the grocery spending under $350 for the month.  The kids have been bagging up snacks for school at night was we have used most of the individual bags but have plenty of larger bags. They also have been “digging” in the freezer for treats such as popsicles and “Hot Pockets” I know the Hot Pockets were purchased in August of last year and forgotten about.  Money spent on food this weekend $0!

We have started 34 tomato plants and 24 pepper plants from seed this year. Today we moved all these plants to the greenhouse. I was so excited to find that my “mosquito” plants have all survived the winter in the greenhouse. The goal is to keep as many plants as possible alive so we can transplant the first of May!

We did use a bit of sweat equity today but we also saved alot of money!

Growing on Sunday

Posted on by
Reply

I like themes and schedules and list!   Therefore I am going to combine all three and make Sundays  a good time to talk about what is growing around here!  I can easily know where to look back to see how things are changing as well.
The green peppers that were planted the first of February have decided to grow.  I had already given up on these plants and even started a second batch. This afternoon I counted and we have 22 pepper plants that have germinated.  The only difference until today was that I turned off the heat mat. I seriously think that it was drying out my dirt and kept the seeds from germinating.

This afternoon we decided to rotate the table that everything is growing on to be directly centered at the back door window. This window has better light exposure as well and without the need for electricity just works.

We have four different varieties of tomato plants growing including Roma, Cherokee purple and cherry tomatoes. Some of these plants have developed their true leaves.  They are definitely a little leggy (taller) but they are growing and I can even tell a difference with sun exposure today. We have a total of 34 tomato plants growing.

I was able to plant 50 sugar snap pea seeds in the front garden bed on Saturday, A gift of dirt was given to us by a neighbor. We were able to top dress or add extra dirt to all of the raised garden beds to bring them back up to full!
We have kale seeds sprouting outside in two different spots and radishes are growing in the green stock!
We will be moving the peppers, tomatoes and lettuce to the greenhouse next week. This will be a temporary (3 weeks at most) spot for them to stay warm, get lots of sun and grow!
The chicken are giving an egg each a day. We are so excited!  The current plan is to purchase 3 additional chickens in the middle of April!  On Saturday, Matt and Zach were able to hopefully fix the automatic chicken door. As of today, it is working without fail!

Tuesday Thoughts

Posted on by
Reply

The temperature outside is currently 38* with wind gusts up to 20 miles per hour so of course, I want to give a square foot garden and chicken update.

I had decided last year that with all the additional expenses we had including 2 new Greenstock’s/vertical planners that this year I would try to just use up the seeds we already had.

I had purchased bare root strawberries last year which did not survive well. I contacted the company and received 25 more this year. I planted these in one of my green stocks. The goal is for this entire planter to be strawberries which will be a total of 48 plants.  These bare root strawberries have really taken off. I currently think we only have 5-7 empty spots on this planter. I will be hopefully using runners to fill these. In the future, I would like to have 2  entire green stocks filled with strawberries.

I did my research and started my pepper plants on February 4th.  I did break the rules and buy a heat mat that I was hopeful would help with germination.  I was wrong. Using the heat mat we got one of 20 plants to germinate. I think that the mat actually dried the soil out too much. We did go ahead and attempt to start a second 20 seeds as this was a packet that I already had, We currently have 11 small pepper plants!  I did not use the heat mat this time.  After thought and debate. I am planning to plant all 11 of these in our greenstock.  I am also going to plant some basil seeds in the green stock with the pepper plants.  This will be a total experiment to see how well they grow.  One plan with the green peppers is to make and can sloppy joes for next year. I would like to can 8  pints of sloppy joe  mix.

Tomatoes were started on Monday February 20th.  We had almost an 100% germinate rate with these.  I think we have close to 30 tomato plants. We planted a variety of different kinds including Roma, and cherry tomatoes. . We currently have 7 bags of diced tomatoes and 10 jars of spaghetti sauce left from last year. My goal is to can at least 24 quarts of spaghetti sauce and freeze 20 bags of diced tomatoes by the end of the year.  Both the tomatoes and green pepper plants will be relocated to the greenhouse during our Disney trip (approximately 2 weeks) and then moved outside to their permanent beds after we return and when there is no frost risk for 2 weeks.

My plan is to plant one 12 foot bed of cucumbers. The goal would be to can up some whole pickles as well as pickle slices to use instead of buying. I also would love to find a good bread and butter pickle recipe to use for canning as well.

Another 12 foot bed will be filled with succession planting of green beans. I will start one 4 foot section then 2 weeks later another 4 foot section and finally 8 weeks later a third 4 foot section.  The goal is to freeze 50 packs of green beans before canning. I would absolutely love just to freeze 50 packs.

I will be planting a 8 foot bed with snap peas.  The goal is to eat as many as humanly possible and freeze the rest of stir-fry in the winter.

As I have already mentioned, I will not be planting sweet potatoes this year.  I currently have carrots planted in this bed. I will be adding watermelon seeds to this bed. I have never had much success with watermelon but want to use up the seed packet I have.  I also plan to plant the remaining cantaloupe seeds in a couple of ground planters again to just use up seed.

I am still working on plans for both squash and zucchini plants.  These will likely either go in a bed with green beans or be split between several beds. I know I do not want to plant them directly next to each other as I don’t want cross pollination. I have 4 packs of zucchini left in the freezer so this is a definite need for the year. I do have plenty of squash in the freezer so squash may be a fill in or not at all plant this year.

Currently, I have Kale growing both in a black plastic bin and in one end of a bed.  This will be used to feed the chickens.  Again I am using up seeds that we already have.

Speaking of chickens, we are consistently getting 4 eggs a day with 5 eggs about 3 days a week.  I am leaning toward purchasing 3-4 new chicks this Spring to add to the flock. This should give us enough eggs to share with my mother. I also am thinking about the 1-2 month laying break for them in the winter.   I will make the final decision once we get back from Disney.

With the plan limits on our grocery budget, a huge garden with lots of stuff in the freezer is going to be essential for the summer.

 

5 Things Friday

Posted on by
Reply

  1. I have been really emotional this week. Probably the most emotional I have been in years. There are a couple of reasons. First, I am transitioning off a hormone I have been taking for a year.  Next is stress!
  2. Matt has a second surgery coming up on Tuesday. I am believing that this will be the final surgery!  This is hard on us on all levels. Physically- making sure everyone can get to and from everything!  Mentally- I don’t even need to describe this stress. Financially- We have been able to cover the cost of both surgeries, but we are stretch really really thin.  Emotionally-see above.
  3. Lily tested positive for COVID today. She has not experienced this before. We are trying to prevent it spreading to the rest of us!  She has been extremely tired with a sore throat.
  4. I am going to declare that first planting of green peppers a failure! We have one seed to germinate. We decided to go ahead and plant a second batch of orange peppers.  My plan was not to buy seeds this year, so I am hopefully we get a couple of plants from this one.  Tomatoes have started to grow!  We also planted kale and radish to feed the chickens.
  5. We have plans to clean the camper out tommorow so we can start preparing for our upcoming trip!

5 Things Friday

Posted on by
Reply

  1. One of the things that I have realized while participating in the #3RiverPantryChallenge, is that over the past several years I have spent alot of money “stocking up” and really have not been making using of the items I already have. For example, in April 2020 I purchased 90# of chicken. I processed all but around 20#.  I currently have 3 or 4 bags of this processed chicken left.  I also realized that I am a food hoarder, even if I have a lot of stuff when finding food on sale I purchase. This is not neccessarily a bad thing, but I am spending money on items that are not really getting used. My goal for this year is not only to reduce the amount of money I spend on groceries overall but to use items we have in addition to only purchasing items that I know we will eat within a year.
  2. Our chickens are currently producing exactly the amount we need!   I have been able to use all the eggs we are getting and honestly have not put a single dozen in the fridge it.   The debate is currently do we just keep what we have with exactly enough or do we attempt to purchase more chickens?  This is a work in progress and a decision that I don’t have enough data to really decide at this point.
  3. Our living room is currently home to a table full of dirt. The hope and goal of this dirt is that we will have pepper and tomato plants to plant in the garden so far, our only seeds that have germinated have been a lettuce mix.
  4. We have decided not to plant sweet potatoes this year.  I realized that some of the potatoes we harvested back in October were beginning to sprout.  Matt and I spent several evenings baking the remaining sweet potatoes and bagging up in 1 pound bags. We currently have 13# of baked sweet potatoes in our freezer for use during the next year.
  5. I stopped at Walmart on my way home from work today. I decided to check out the marked down bread. I grabbed a loaf of French bread for $1.03. Half was used for  our garlic bread tonight and half is drying to use for French toast tomorrow. I was also able to find 2 bagels of everything bagels for $2.20. But overall my best find was bathroom cleaner with bleach for $0.98 each!

Successful Sunday

Posted on by
Reply

Sunday are usually a less stressful day around here. Today was less stressful but I am so happy with all we were able to get accomplished that I wanted to share.

We did the usual of course, church and lunch out! Then we came home and I got an hour nap which was much needed!
This afternoon, Matt worked on getting some plants started in our living room. I live in zone 7b, which means we have long summers but still not long enough to grow a ton of peppers. So this year, we are trying something different. We have sown approximately 35 pepper seeds in our living room. I am not currently planning to purchase any seeds this year so I am hoping that we get at least 15 pepper plants to grow!   I did purchase a grow mat to keep under the seeds until they germinate.  Matt also planted a batch of lettuce seeds.  If we get to eat some leaves I will be happy if not we have only wasted time.
We ended up purchasing a Costco chicken yesterday an ate for dinner. Last night I pulled off all the meat and threw the skin and bones in the crockpot. They finished 18 plus hours this morning before we left for church.  This afternoon I was able to can up 9 pints of chicken booth and used the remaining bit for dinner and for a chicken pot pie later this week. I used the remaining meat from the chicken along with several bowls of vegetable soup I found in the freezer to make a chicken pot pie. I will add a topping for dinner on Wednesday this week.
Matt was able to fry up 6 pounds of ground beef on the Blackstone. I used a pound for green pepper soup, a pound for a taco casserole I am going to try this week and the remaining 4 turned into my chili.  I ended up canning 5 pints of chill with one left out to use for Junk Food Sunday.
This week gets slightly more busy with baseball workouts starting but we no longer have swim in the morning.

Thankful Thursday

Posted on by
Reply

November is one of my favorite months of the year and it is definitely not the weather.  I absolutely LOVE Christmas, but Thanksgiving is a close second. I need the reminder to be grateful for what I have!!  This year I am going to try something different.  I want to take some time each Thursday to express specific thanks.  I am going to add my normal disclaimer that I am always very thankful and appreciative of my husband and kids, but I want to be more than superficial with these post.

First, I am thankful for our garden this year. We are continuing to see small (2 cherry tomatoes and 2 carrots) harvest, and this is November.  We are still enjoying tomatoes as they ripen on the kitchen cabinet!   I honestly can’t think of a better harvest than this year.

Next, I am thankful for steady jobs for both Matt and myself. At this time last year, Matt was expectedly unemployed.  This was a huge hit for us and lasted much longer than expected. Thankful we were able to survive and even enjoy his extra time!

Jeremiah 29:11-12  “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. 12 Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you.”

Fall Gardening

Posted on by
Reply

It feels like we are finally catching up on some projects and finding a rhythm to life these days!!!!

  • Matt has installed the automatic chicken door and so far it has worked perfectly. We are continuing to check to make sure that everyone makes it inside at night but this will make everyone’s life alot simpler!
  • The strong winds that we received form Ian a couple of weeks ago tore the plastic that we have been using for the greenhouse, originally our plan was to purchase plexi glass to cover the windows as we did with the one in the back.

But because the size of the other windows is odd, we were looking at $100 to purchase and repair. That was just not doable. So, we reused the plexiglass that had previously been a chicken door on the side facing one of the buildings and just used scrap wood on the other side. Matt also used scrap wood to fill the rest of the hole. Total cost $0

  •  The benefit of Ian is 225 gallons of rainwater stored.
  • The garden is starting to end. We still have some tomatoes ripening on the vine, green peppers are the most abundant they have been all year!  Zach harvest all the sweet potatoes this past weekend.

     

  • I have planted carrots in the sweet potato bed to see what we may be able to produce over the winter. I have cabbage, broccoli, and several varieties of lettuce all growing as well

Five Things Friday

Posted on by
Reply

  1. The weather is so strange this year. We kept the air conditioning on until the first day of fall (9/21). Since that day we have not had a hard freeze, but the temperature has stayed below 70 degree most days. Today was 80 and tomorrow is forecasted to be 58*. We have turned on the heat and I am just hoping to keep the bill as low as possible. The good news is that our house holds heat, so we are very fortunate that way.
  2. Tomorow, we have a college visit with Lily. Decisions are hard and some just appear to be impossible College is a huge decision and honestly, I think that it is a little more difficult for Lily.
  3. I am absolutely LOVING my digital pressure canner!  I have been purchasing jars as I find them.  I have already canned 5 pints of split pea soup, broth, red beans, white beans and pear sauce.
  4. In true Give a Mouse a Cookie fashion, I now need to find a better storage area for the cans. After thinking about it. I am going to clean out the hall closet, move all the food to it and have Matt add some shelves so that we can store lots of stuff!
  5. I have one more week at work before the new person starts. “I think I can, I think I can…..