Category Archives: Square Food Garden

Gardening Update

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I am so glad I decided to leave the peppers in the greenhouse. We have had two nights of frost this week.  Luckily most of our tomatoes are still protected by the beds but other plants are not as lucky.  I am going to list each plant and then tell you plus or minus from last week. But first I did go ahead and put in the effort to replant some things with poor germinations rates. We planted more Anaheim peppers, only one survived my watering failure.  I also planted a whole row of cantaloupe (only 1 germinated). I also heavily seeded the watermelon (again only 1 germinated).  I replanted with double seeds the yellow summer squash as none had germinated. I also planted an additional 5 seeds for the zucchini. 4 zucchini germinated but the last couple of frost have damaged at least 2.

We have two additional days of temperatures dropping into the forties at night in the next week so I am glad I have decided to hold off planting out the pepper plants they appear to be thriving in the greenhouse and so far I am keeping up with the watering.  We still have 40 pepper plants!  I am on the lookout for a couple of Ashe county pimento plants as well.
Monster yellow- 2
Jalapenos- 3
Lunch box 17 (minus 1)
Rainbow minis 2
Sweet California 15 (plus 1)

We did lose quite a few tomato plants however Zach brought 6 plants home from the school greenhouse so the total only decreased by 1 to 47.
Amish Paste 19 (plus 1)
Tomato ( from seed packet and I will add the free tomato here next time) 13
Cherry Hill 3 (minus 3)
Germain Johnson 5 (minus 4)
Free from school greenhouse 6
Volunteer plants found 3

Green beans we have 26 that germinated but I am thinking that we will lose 4-6 from the frost.
Potatoes 18
Okra 2 (up from none last week)
I had purchased 2 basil plants and both are still alive and it appears I also have germination of basil seeds in my container

Cucumber 2 with one that was killed with the frost. I need to buy a seed packet to replace these.

Sunday Garden Update

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My original thought was to call this a Garden show and tell. As I have a lot of pictures to help document what is actually going on in the garden.  I was thinking I was way ahead with planting this year but to look back, I realized that I am not as far ahead as I thought. This is actually about the same time that I try to get things moved out of the greenhouse.  At first I was a bit upset but then I realized that I am learning that a frost in May is not impossible and is more likely than not. I do know that we have had some of the warmest weather this April so I am hoping the soil is warm enough to support the growth.

As you can probably tell the pepper plants are still in the greenhouse this is definitely a change from the past. Peppers are a hot weather plant. They like temperatures above 50* always. When I checked the weather app this week, 5 of the next 10 days have  lows in the forties. So I talked and thought and decided to leave the peppers in the greenhouse until the second weekend of May. My goal is to check the water at least every other day so that we don’t lose anymore. Here is the current list: 18 lunch box peppers,3 Jalopies (purchased from Zach’s school), 2 monster yellow, 1 great Anaheim and 5 that have been affected by too little water, 2 rainbow minis and 14 sweet California peppers for a . total of 40 definite plants with a possible 5 more. 

We tried to add some nutrients to our Amish paste tomato plants this year by placing a cracked egg in the bottom of each hole.  IF this works I will use for all tomato plants next year. We have also added the automatic watering system. i am optimistic for a huge tomato harvest. We currently have 18 Amish Paste plants (1 questionable), 15 tomato plants from a packet of seeds called tomato.(2 questionable)6 plants from seeds I saved from a tomato from Cherry Hill Farm last year (2 questionable), 9 German Johnson,(3 questionable).. For a total of 48 plants with 8 that will likely not survive.

I directed sowed zucchini plants, so far we have 4 plants that have germinated.

I planted close to 20 watermelon seeds about 10 days ago and this is the one that has emerged. I am planning to replant mother’s day weekend if nothing else starts.

Our potatoes are starting to show some stress because of no rain but we currently have 16 potato plants.

Only four of the 24 green bean seeds have germinated.

Not pictured are 2 basil plants I purchased in addition to the packet of seeds that I have planted. 3 loofas have started as well.

Now for the seeds that have been planted but have no germination, cucumbers, cantaloupe and yellow squash.

I am planning a short update next week as we have special plans but a longer full update will be two weeks out.

Saving on Saturday

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To be honest most of the time, saving money takes time and/or effort. There are, have been and will be times that I do not have the mental capacity to even attempt to add one single thing to my schedule. This week have been mentally and physically exhausting.  And I knew that we needed to get some major things checked off the list as we have a fun outing planned for next weekend.  My major goal for today was to get the tomatoes planted. I am happy to say that I accomplished that goal and will hopefully share more about it tomorrow.  And I definitely did not think I had time to save money but I decided that sometime you just have to go ahead with your plan.

We worked or should I say Matt worked adding automatic watering systems to the gardens last night. He focused on getting both our tomato beds set up to water at least daily.  We have been slowly working on this project and it was crunch time as I could not plant the tomatoes until it was complete. While we did end up purchasing a new solar pump and drip line, I am happy to say we re used both the solar pumps and now successfully have a watering system on all the bed. We also had enough of the drip line to not only complete both the tomato beds but also the front bed which this year contains watermelon. After some thought, we ended up using a food grade bucket as the source of the water.

Basically the watering system for this bed was free as we purchased nothing.

I have been watching the sales especially at Dollar General because they have been the cheapest place to purchase soda’s.   Today, I ended up going to two separate stores as the first store did not have enough pack for me to complete the deal. I was able to purchase two small plastic bags/containers for ninety cents each. My plan is that one is a spare bath basket and one is a good way to transport sunscreen.  I was able to purchase 6 twelve pack of soda and some chocolate bars for next weeks adventure for $31, which makes the cans around thirty-seven cent each.

While waiting for CVS to open, I was scrolling Facebook and noticed that the local farm was running a buy two get one free special on strawberries today.  I knew we needed the strawberries and this made them $14 a gallon or $3.50 a quart, this is half price and very similar to what you can purchase in the grocery store. I debated grabbing these as it meant that we would have to spend some time and effort in capping and flash freezing most of them.  I am so glad I did . The strawberries are juicy and delicious and we have frozen three gallon which means that I should be able to grab another two gallons and have enough for the next 12 months.

 

Friday Night Garden Prep

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I have talked about how strange the weather is and it continues. We have a couple of “normal” weather day with highs in the high sixty or low seventy then 85 and 90.  I have been trying to keep a check on the weather to make sure I am plant with the best opportunity for growth and no frost. I checked again today and it appears that things are going to settle down. We don’t have any lows in the 30’s but we do have some 40’s in the next 10 days. I am hoping we get lots of rain as my rain barrels are 1/4 or less. My plan is to get the 100 plus plants out of the greenhouse and into the ground tomorrow.

BUT before we could plant, I really wanted to get all of our watering system in place.  Matt worked hard to get a new solar pump hooked up. We ended up moving one of the pumps to the front bed which I am excited about.  The tomato beds now have a drip line that should keep everything growing!

Here is the watermelon bed. I planted this a week ago but with no rain, I am going to give this bed another two weeks before I replant.

While Matt was working on the water systems, I worked and struggled and finally got the blueberry bed weeded!  This was a long and labor intensive project but I am proud of the results and hope it last.

Yes we have blueberries!

 

I am planning to share again on Sunday when we get everything planted.

Square Foot Garden Update

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The weather in NC continues to be wild and is throwing everything in a tail spin for planting.  The good news is that I have been stalking the weather and trying to make the most informed decision I can.
I currently have 47 pepper plants, 44 tomato plants, several loofas and several Pettie marigolds plant starts in the greenhouse. I did make the right decisions for these plants.  The predicted low for both Monday and Tuesday mornings are around freezing. I decided to keep these plants in the greenhouse with extra water for at least another week.  I will keep looking at the weather to determine just how long they will be living in there. Both peppers and tomatoes like temperatures above 50 so I am hoping to keep them in the greenhouse until I see 10 days with temperatures above 50. But in reality it is not unusual for us to get a late frost in May.  I am also using a window to vent the greenhouse with temperatures hitting 90 on other days.
I did go ahead and plant out both watermelon and cantaloupe seeds last week. My thought was they will take 7-10 days to germinate and this way the temperature will be warmer by then. This will also allow me enough time to replant depending on what seeds germinate as well. I am using older seeds to I am planting heavy in hopes for 50% germination.  I have also planted out all my bush green beans, yellow squash, zucchini  and cucumbers.  I will buy plant starts if I do no have enough germination around Mother’s day.    I was given a bunch of okra seeds which also were planted.
Now is a couple of weeks of watching and waiting and likely replanting and watching and waiting.
I have some potatoes growing and sugar snap peas. The peas are not doing well because of the heat.
I still need to purchase basil seeds, hoping to find pimento plant (as NONE of the seed pack I purchased germinated) and dill after the cucumbers have started to flower.
Hopefully I will have some pictures to add next week.

Sunday Garden Update

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It is still really early in the gardening season for us but with the use of the greenhouse I am really encouraged about what I am seeing.  I actually looked back at last year and my plants are not nearly as large but  I am still hopefully! We are heading out of town so I wanted to heavily water in the greenhouse and decided to take a detailed inventory as well.

I have 23 Amish paste tomato plants, 6 German Johnson tomato plants, 6 plants from seeds I saved from Cherry Hill farm and 8 plants from a packet that says tomato. For a total of 44 tomato plants.

14 Sweet California peppers, 6 Anaheim, 2 rainbow mini peppers, 2 monster yellow peppers and 20 Lunch box pepper plants. A total of 44 pepper plants as well.

1 loofa gord, and 7 pettie Marigold plants.

i am not going to start cucumber or squash plants in the green house this year, I did not find it was worth the effort to have to transplant.

I might be most excited by this bed, it is a potato bed. we will be adding dirt this evening!

Asparagus bed

Snap peas are growing.

One small lettuce plant

Garlic plants are surviving as well!

Sunday Garden Update

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I have moved all the plant starts from the house to the greenhouse. The reason is that with the wild temperature swings we have been experiencing I wanted to make sure they stay above 50*. I am so pleased with the growth and am hopefully again for a very productive season.

We currently have approximately 50 pepper plants.

15 Amish tomato plants and 10ish regular tomato plants.

And a tray of random marigolds and loffa

It does make a nice shelf view!

Five Things Friday

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  1. The weather has been all over the place. On Monday, Zach and Kendall were out of school due to a high threat of tornadoes.  Tuesday and Wednesday the temperatures stay in the 40s. Today on Friday we had a high of 74. We are expecting a very nice weekend with highs in the 80s. Next Tuesday we swing again into the 50’s and 60’s.
  2. Zach has been working really hard last week he got all the mulch put out for the year. Today, he was able to get our garden bed repaired and filled with paper and dirt.  Next up on his list is to get some pellets and wood shavings in the chicken coop.
  3. The chickens continue to range between 5 and 9 eggs per day. I have been water glassing some eggs for future use. But this week, I have not been able to add to them due to the dirt that is currently covering all our eggs. I am hoping to finish at least two or more gallons this spring. We should have a full solid year of good egg production but next fall/winter may be a slow period again. I have no plans at all to add ANY chickens to the flock this entire year. I may consider .add in 2027 depending on the amount of eggs we have at that time.
  4. I am very hopefully that we can get the heat set up in the greenhouse so that we can move both the peppers and tomatoes to the greenhouse this weekend. I plan to keep the greenhouse going until the first week of May. When after checking the weather, I can transplant out to start growing.
  5. I am going to declare that the white Honda we purchased in January, is officially fixed. It has been running just fine after using that initial tank of gas along with new spark plugs and wires. We are hopefully to get Zach’s truck fixed and running so that it can go up for sale very soon!

Garden Update #1

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This past weekend was BEAUTIFUL!  I was so excited and thankful to get outside and actually see some things growing.

Rhubarb plant that survived the winter!

Garlic plants that have now been transplanted and look like they are going to survive!

Zach was able to spread some mulch . . . . . .

We have worked again on a watering system that is mostly hands free!

Finally we have some pepper sprouts!

 

Sunday Gardening Update _First of 2026

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Spring fever has hit hard and yes I know it is early but I am working to try and keep ahead of the gardening season. I want to grow a bunch of food but also want to keep my expenses lower.  Last year, I was able to purchase several item that should make seed starting much easier and neater.

Last weekend, we were able to spend some time outside and got our green stalks moved around and set up.

My goal is to plant all my pepper plants in Green stalks this year.  I am going to fill one entire planter with “green peppers”  I will also have 6 pimento plants and 6 Anaheim peppers to use as diced green peppers.   I did end up purchasing seeds for the pimento peppers.   I started 36 containers of peppers on Saturday. I am hoping this will allow me to get at least two harvest from the peppers.

This set up is from Green Stalk and I really like the way they are self contained and look nice. I have them sitting on my kitchen sink for now. When they outgrow the domes I will move them to the green house.

This is the new green stalk that is supposed to be for flowers only but we will see.

I am excited that we were able to “save” most of the garlic plants.

This is what the bed that broke currently looks like. I am not worried because we still have about 10 weeks before our last frost date.

My overall goal for the garden this year is to plant and use as many seeds as possible. Throw away seeds that don’t germinate or have a poor germination rate and grow a successful garden!

 

YAY for the garden of 2026!