Category Archives: Square Food Garden

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!

 

5 Things Friday

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  1. I feel like I can finally exhale.  We are officially six weeks into foster care, have had two court dates, several medical appointments, and a dental appointment.  The last appointment is an eye appointment which is not for another couple of weeks.  We have started the process of becoming licensed.  We also have had multiple visits from the caseworker.  I feel like we are finally able to get into a routine and not everything is new and needs a plan.
  2. Our chickens have started to lay again!  We are currently getting between 6 and 9 eggs a day.  I am trying to make all the things I can think of to eat currently as well as I do plan to water glass several half gallons of eggs.  I am even debating going ahead and water glassing an entire 5 gallon bucket of eggs. We did actually use some water glassed eggs in brownies and for baking just to make sure we could use them.
  3. This weekend will be very different around here. Kendall and Matt are headed to Greensboro College for an honor’s college day on Saturday.  Greensboro is one of her top two choices.  Kendall has already received 44.000 a year in scholarships from Catawba which is her other top choice.
  4.  Lily is working and also baby sitting this weekend.  That leaves me, Zach and E at home on Saturday. Braxton has a ballgame at noon, I need to go to Dollar General to get some sodas and I want to start working on gardening projects. But we will see.
  5.  We are continuing to work on figuring out what is actually wrong with the Honda Civic that we purchased six weeks ago.   It stales and stops when it is raining or just after a rain.

First Time Playing in the Dirt

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After weeks of snow and ice and with some snow piles still sitting around, we were able to go outside and work on the square foot bed. Just prior to the freezing cold, the square foot bed that I had planted garlic in the bottom fell out.  I was determined to try and save most of the garlic so we bundled up and head out. The good news is that it appears that all 25 of my garlic plants survived the transplant. Today we were focused on making sure that the other beds did not meet similar fate. We had to re-level several beds and add lots of bracing. I was also able to pull some weeds that had started to grow as well. It will likely take another full Saturday in order to redo the bed but it will be well worth the efforts. The SUNSHINE was amazing and even working outside was pleasant at 60 degrees!

I have had some time to look through my seeds and have decided to focus on sowing as many seeds as possible this year to try and get a better harvest. I am unsure how old some of the seeds are so I am going to just give them a try and see if anything sticks. I feel bad buying more seeds when I have so much left to use. I will have a pepper green stalk or maybe a green stalk and half of peppers this year.  I do have a pretty green stalk to use up front for flowers but we will see how that all works out.

I know that I need to purchase a significant amount of dirt, we are again redoing our watering system. But I don’t want to purchase any fruit or seeds except for flowers.  Time will tell and I am always opportunistic this time of year. I would love to get snap peas and broccoli planted next weekend and some peppers started inside as well but we shall see as we an extra body here things take a little more time and energy than they use to.

Seven Things Saturday

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  1. I had every intention to post a five things Friday yesterday but it just did not happen.  So I decided to change it up and post seven things today.  One of the reason that I was not able to post was that Kendall and I spent the entire afternoon at Catawba College where she was interviewed for a full ride scholarship. Although we will not know about the scholarship until March this visit helped to solidify her decision that she would like to attend Catawba next fall.
  2. We are preparing for a major ice storm and some really cold weather over the next couple of days. The current temperature is 25 at 5pm, feels like 14.The temperature is not expected to be above 40 until a week from Monday. We are predicted to reach between 1/4 and an inch of ice. The overall hope is that we do not lose electricity and get to stay nice and warm. Or the kids hope for all snow to play in.
  3. Because of the weather, our church has already cancelled activities for tomorrow. Both the school districts have sent home remote activities. If the weather remains close to the predictions, we all may be home for the next week together.
  4. We have done some things to prepare without going overboard. I took Mom to the grocery store on Wednesday night as we had a swim meet on Friday. We have created an access point at the front of the house which would allow us to run a generator to run space heaters for keeping at least part of the house warm. Chickens have been fed heavily with good bedding and water is full. We will keep a check on the water for the next couple of days.  All warm items and flashlights have been assembled. We have spent lots of time charging things.  Lots of things have talked about and planned. And we currently have load number 5 in the washer. My plan is to wash a sixth load tonight and wash probably 2 additional loads tomorrow. The worst thing that could happen is that we have all clothes clean.
  5. One of our garden beds broke with the bottom falling to the ground. Unfortunately, this was the bed that I planted garlic in. Matt and I braved the cold and moved 21 garlic bulbs. I hope this will mean we get some garlic in the summer but who knows.
  6. I did have a chance to go through my seeds.  I am actually not planning to buy any seeds this spring. I am going to buy some basil plants and some flowers but that should be it.   I will have to buy more dirt as we are adding a green stalk planter. The other big expense will be a watering system to go over the top and connect to the sprinkler.
  7. Food is always  a big deal, I made a huge breakfast bowl for lunch, Lily made sushi bowls for dinner and I have made breadsticks and Chicken gnocchi soup for dinner.

Taking a Vacation with Animals

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Homesteading/ having a garden and/or animals is hard work.   I have known this fact for a long time. I was raised with animals and growing things.  It takes lots of effort and constant work. The part that I have yet to see on You Tube or any reality tv show is the the fact that you can’t just take a vacation or break. It takes planning and effort.

Paul, the kids’ dog was able to go and stay at Fort Wilderness during out recent trip. However it still required effort and planning.  Most mornings I was the one that let him out of the camper and made sure he had food and used the bathroom before we left for the day. Lily ended up back early on several days just to give him a break.

The chickens required lots of extra planning and preparation.  We ended up purchasing a new feeder several weeks prior to going. The new feeder was not cheap $50 and probably a whole afternoon (several hours) reading, looking, considering all options and trying to make sure the chickens would not run out of feed while we were gone. . This feeder worked out well for several reasons. First it does not sit on the ground and it requires the chickens to stick their heads inside to eat. This SIGNIFICANTLY reduces the amount of waste and extends the time we can be away.  We also noticed a leak with our waterer that required a quick repair as well. I also purchased a mineral block for the chicken just to supplement the feeder in case it failed.   The hardest part with the chicken was making sure they were safe. I was outside 3-5 times a week for a month before we left trying to make sure all the chicken went up in the coop before the automatic door closed.  Unfortunately for me this did not seem to matter as I realized that at least half missed the door on one night. Luckily they all survived and the next night and for the remainder of our trip they have all made it up in the coop. Just prior to leaving the four new chickens started to lay.  We came home to almost 60 eggs!

Just because our vacation is over the work did not end. Yesterday, Saturday, Zach with a little help from Matt did a good chicken coop clean out. He moved at least 11 five gallon buckets of “chicken dirty” from the run into our garden beds. The hope is this will add some much needed nutrients to each of the beds.  We are also going to add the remains of burning and our new fire pit.

 

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  1. We have been extremely busy the last several weeks. We are in the process of converting the fabric metal pole structure that covered the beetle (Matt’s Volkswagen) to a  wooden structure covered in metal.  I knew it would be a process but did not think it would take over a month.  We really focused on getting it under roof.  Last Saturday we spent close to 8 hours solid on it and I made the decision that it was not a worth to try and continue at that pace to get it under roof. The current plan is to get a door on tomorrow. A tarp is currently over the roof and  it will likely be a month before we work on the roof.  My current plan is to start sharing pictures tomorrow.
  2. Zach’s truck broke down in the school parking lot on Monday. We had it towed home and then after some working and investigation, it appears that the fuel pump is part or all of the problem. The goal is to get that replaced tomorrow however the part was delayed so it may take a little bit on Sunday as well.
  3. Working has been a bit much. I am struggling to get in a routine. But I am hopeful that things will start to improve.
  4. Next week Braxton’s baseball starts which means that we have at least 3 evening of games.
  5. I am planning to do some big meal preparation over the weekend. The current plan is to make a double batch of taco soup with half or more canned for convivence. The second big preparation is meatball. The Costco meatball are all gone and we have lots of ground beef that can be used.

5 Things Friday

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This first week back at school has been extremely busy, but not in the overwhelming busy way but as in productive busy.
1.We started working on  and almost finished adding pickets to the fence that our neighbor placed on the property line.  We ended up finishing this project on Wednesday evening. I am hoping to post pictures and more of the explanation on Saturday.
2.The chickens have taken more time than normal. On Friday and Saturday, we left the dog cage open and closed it at night. On Saturday night instead of closing the door we moved the new chickens into the coop. The new chickens have responded beautifully, they go up in the coop every night.  HOWEVER, two of our oldest chickens have decided that they do not want to go in the coop.   For the first three nights we moved these stubborn chickens but we have decided to let them be. The coop is secure but they need to learn.
3.On Wednesday, I noticed that my favorite farm stand had corn on sale for fifty cent an ear when you bought 5 dozen.   I purchased these along with several other good things. I was able to vacuum seal these into our family size portions.  Zach also worked on his truck most of the evening.
4.Both Zach and Kendall have been schedule to work every day this week. We did not complain as this is the last week before they head back to school. Zach has had football practice everyday along with a game on Thursday.
5. I want to end on a positive note, I have continued/restarted listing to my Bible reading in the afternoons coming home from work this has given me back a good half an hour.

Thursday Thoughts- Every Bit Counts/ Pantry Challenge/Goals

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I talked a little bit on Monday about the changes/ goals I have for the next school year. My goal is to use up  the food that we have both in the freezers and pantry. At the same time, I want to reduce the amount of money we are spending on food as well. My goal in that area is to spend less than $475 a month on groceries. I would also like to put at least $300 a month toward meat purchases next summer.  The final piece of that is that we have to have meals that are easier to fix on some days just because of your busy lives.

After watching a video on You Tube, I decided to start a meal rotation to make menu planning a little bit easier for me. I tried to make a good list of all the items we have to use for meals. Looking at this list I am estimating that I have at least 100 full meals that can be made with the items we already have on hand.  This should be at least 3 full month of meals. So in December, I may need to purchase some additional meats for the remainder of the school year. At that point it should be very easy to purchase what we need as we continue to use up the food we already have on hand. The hard part of this challenge is that we like certain foods and we gravitate to those foods/meals. I am going to have to be very diligent on making a variety of foods using what we have.

Part of my planning was to try a new recipe for each day for the next two weeks.  On Monday I made BBQ short ribs. It was very good and it will definitely be something we do again.  Tuesday was a Beef Enchilada, not a repeat, just not.  Wednesday was chicken parmesan casserole, this one will be a repeat.

I have been canning ALOT this week.  I always want to fill up all the empty jars so that we have plenty of food in the winter and this summer I am successful. I also filled the extra 5 cases of jars that I purchased from Walmart.  I added 10 quarts and 2 pints of beef stock, 18 pints of pears and 6 quarter pints, 2 half pints and 8 pints of pearsauce to the canning closet.

Not  bad for four days!

Every Bit Counts Challenge/Goals left

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The end of Summer break if fast approaching, in fact I have 8 days left. I have mention multiple times before that I begin working on the Every Bit Counts Challenge as soon as school ends because I ended up back at work several weeks before the challenge ends.  I am very pleased with the amount of food that I have been able to prepare for the school year. One of the goals of the next year is to use as much of the food that we have as possible and also to spend as little as possible at the grocery store as well. I do not have a source of diary so this will continue to be a huge expense.

We made a planned stop at a roadside farm stand on the way home from the beach. We purchased a half a bushel of peaches. These are some of the best peaches that I have eaten in a long time.  I have made a peach cobbler and everyone has eaten peaches this week as a snack. I was also able to can 26 half pints of peaches that will be used in lunches this year.

Before leaving for the beach, I harvested all the ripe tomatoes and threw a couple of quarts in the freezer. We came home to an explosion of volunteer tomatoes as well. With this bounty, I canned up 22 half pints of pizza sauce. I also made a big batch of spaghetti sauce which we used for meals during the week.

Finally, our pears have started to come in. One branch actually became so heavy and broke off. We have been able to can 12 half pints of pears for lunches as well. The goal for this next week is to can another 12 pints of pears for eating and then use the rest to make pear sauce which can be used in place of apple sauce and makes an excellent fruit bread.

The last thing I was able to preserve this week was Waxman peppers. These peppers are growing beyond belief. I am actually thinking that we will freeze as many as we need to use for salsa next year!

One finally way that I am making Every Bit counts was our dinner meal of Friday. I did not feel like pizza so I decided to use some chicken sausage and a couple of boxes of Rice A Ron.  The box called for a 14.5 can of diced tomatoes. I did not want to open two cans so I decided to try and use cherry tomatoes instead. I went out to the the volunteer bed and was able to use all cherry tomatoes for dinner. This turned into a very well received and need to be repeated meal. I doubt I will be using cherry tomatoes so the taste may be a little bit different.