Category Archives: Square Food Garden

Sunday Garden Post

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I am so excited! We have been able to harvest both squash and zucchini over the past week. I am actually making the first loaf of zucchini bread right now!  I am hopefully that we will be able to enjoy lots more of these fresh and also have enough to preserve.  I did find that we have 6 bags of squash casserole and now 3 bags of shredded zucchini.

Zucchini bed.

I cant decided if the yellowing of the potatoes is due to all the rain we have had (six inches or more in a month) or are they starting to finish?

This is the watermelon bed along with 2 volunteer tomato plants that are HUGE!

This close bed has 2 okra plants, a marigold and a couple of cucumbers. We did not get any. cantaloupe to germinate in the front bed but replanted some cucumbers this weekend. The last plastic bed has banana peppers and marigold.

These peppers are starting to look better!

Waxman peppers are really starting to look great!

This includes green beans, loofa, tomatoes and peppers.

This flower bed is stunning!  The sunflowers are over 6 foot tall in the back!

Several cantaloupe plants  are growing, I removed a very large cosmos plant from this bed!

slicing tomatoes

Amish paste tomatoes behind the sunflowers

We have removed all the snap peas and replaced with green beans. We are still getting spinach and the gum drop tomato is growing!  I am planning to plant pumpkins in this bed in July.

I am currently planning to pull all of the cosmos plants from the greenstalk on the back deck this week and plant a combination of green beans (bush), cucumbers and peppers. I will try to get pictures of this to share.   Honestly after that I am not sure how often I will continue to share these updates but I am still very hopeful and excited to see what we are able to produce this summer!

5 Things Friday

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  1. I have disappeared for a week. We headed to Disney World for a quick 4 day trip last weekend. I am going to share some pictures of course. but we had an awesome time and it was much needed and enjoyed by all!
  2. The weather continues to be so bizarre. We left Florida on Tuesday morning with a temperature of 83 at 9am.  We arrived home at 7pm and the temperature here was 55*  We have had at least 6.5 inches of rain in the month of May.  I am hoping to return to 80 very soon so I can enjoy sitting at the pool.
  3. Before we left for Florida, we decide to try something. We have 2 rain barrels that are filled by rain water. One from the house gutters and the second from a single gutter on the side of a building. Matt had saw and I did some research on adding goldfish to these. We decided that it was worth a try. We headed to Pet Smart and purchased 20 “large” goldfish. My thought was that I wanted the larger fish so they would not accidentally come out a spout.  I am so excited to report that we can see a visible difference in the amount of algae on the sides of both barrels. So for $10 we have a renewable algae control. We have only saw the fish one time but we can see the evidence they are working.
  4. Due to the wet weather we have needed to add both pine shavings and lime to the chicken coop.  Another “upgrade” is that we are planting mint inside of cement blocks around the sides of the coop. The idea is that the mint can be food for the chickens as well as odor control.
  5. The most disappointing thing that happened this week is that our pool has a motor problem so not only can we not enjoy the pool but both the kids were planning on working this summer as lifeguards. We are all hoping it can open soon!

Garden Update

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Although the weather has been really different and weird, but still are having a lot of growth on our plants and we have started to get some small harvest.

These were sautéed to go with dinner. I honestly think that the wind blew off the tails before they could actually reach any size!

I am excited that a couple of sunflowers are keeping up with the cosmos!

All the Amish paste tomatoes are showing above the bed. We have pruned off the bottom leaves but plan to just let them grow at this point.

German Johnson tomatoes (slicing)

This bed will be the most work in the next couple of weeks. Broccli does not like heat and as you can see is starting to wilt. I will also need to pull out the snap peas and plant some green beans in their place.

The zucchini bed with sone lots of blooms this week!

The squash are huge and they taste wonderful!

I am concerned about this bed as it is just not doing as well as the one on the opposite side. I have been using Epsom salt on the peppers to try and help.

My prettiest bed EVER! It is so full and makes me happy!

The tunnel is starting to fill in!

Okra, dill , marigold . it also is staring to expand!

The banana peppers that I purchased are looking great, only one of these cantaloupe plants germinated in the front bed.

Excited that the Waxman peppers are looking much more alive!

Officially 6 watermelon plants I want to see this area full! You can also see a couple of volunteer tomato plants.

Watching for the potato plants to get taller than the sign!

Sunday Garden Update

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The weather has been so crazy, today we had a high temperature of 68* with highs of 90 expected by the end of the week. Lots of things are growing with blooms and there are even some small zucchini and squash!

Zucchini bed

Squash bed

This bed is mostly pepper with green beans and cucumbers on the back side. I did end up using Epsom salt to try and get some healthier looking plants

This side has a true mix with green beans loofa and cucumbers

Waxman peppers for Salsa

The bed in front of my office has broccoli, spinach(we are getting a weekly harvest) along with sugar snap peas

Front view of Roma tomato bed, this is cosmos flowers with sunflowers in the back.Roma tomatos are growing well all are finally visible at the top of the bed. I did tie up most of these this weekend so that should be the key to seeing them grow.

Germain Johnson Tomatoes are what we are going to slice for sandwiches.

Cantaloupe seeds were directed sowed in the bed in front of the German Johnson.

We have another type of Cantaloupe in the first bucket bed and I purchased and planted banana peppers in the beck bed in this picture.

Zach’s okra did manage to thin itself and I am guessing we have 4 of the original 12 left.

I am so excited to have the watermelon growing along with several volunteer tomatoes

Finally our potatoes appear to be doing well

5 Things Friday

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  1. The weather is always or maybe just the Spring weather is crazy. For the first time that I can remember, I caved and turn the air on for a couple of weeks in April. The temps were in the 80s and the house was miserable. Much to my surprise last Sunday, it was cooler outside than inside so I turned the air back off. I am watching the temperature like a hawk.  It appears we have switched two weeks in April for two weeks in May. I will likely be turning the air back on again this Thursday. Middle of May is usual for the air.  Uggh but at least I saved some money.
  2. The weather also effects how the garden is growing. I did not think there was a chance of getting a Spring harvest due to how quickly it turned and stayed warm.  But with the cooler temperatures for the past couple of weeks, We managed a decent harvest of radishes and the broccoli plants out front are huge. I am doubtful we will get a broccoli head but I am willing to give it another couple of weeks before pulling and feeding them to the chickens.
  3. When the kids were younger, before a Disney trip we would start walking a mile a day as a family. This was usually at least 2 or 3 months before going so that no one would complain about walking. Last year, we did this with Braxton as he was too big for a stroller.  Matt and I have started walking because we don’t want to be so sore and tired from our short trip.  We don’t even have a month but my goal is to get 10 miles in as prep.  So far we have managed 2 but at least it is consistent and something to prepare for.
  4. Summer count down is on, Lily is finished with college and the graduation ceremony is this weekend.  Kendall is finished with her Spring semester which means she has finished an entire year of community college. Kendall and Zach have 4 weeks of school left and I have 5 weeks left!
  5. Zach has switched from baseball to football and this past week was our slowest week until Summer. He and Kendall both have meetings and Life Guard training for the next couple of weekends as well.

Sunday Garden Update

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The most exciting news is that we are harvesting spinach and snap peas! I also finished harvesting the radishes so that we can purchase some banana peppers to plant in the next week or so. Things are growing!

We are filled the potato’s containers to the brink so we will just let them grow from this point on!

These are the German Johnson tomato’s that are for slicing. You can see some very small cantaloupe staring in front of this bed.

This bed is Amish paste tomatoes; they are also doing well but this bed is a bit deeper so they should be visible in the next week. The front of this bed is cosmos with sunflowers in the back.

This bed is in front of the house. You can see all the snap peas along the back. The broccoli in the second picture does not have head developing however we have cooler (70) temps in the next week so I am hopefully to get some broccoli if not the chickens can enjoy. The every end is a gum drop tomato. It is small but has a long time to develop.

The zucchini smells like squash which is exciting and the garlic appears to be thriving.

3 HUGE squash plants that are taking up a whole bed!  We decided to plant mint under this bed in two containers in an attempt to keep the squash bugs away!  I have planted 2 additional seeds in this bed but no germination yet.

The marigold is huge!  I transplanted the dill on the left yesterday as well. I think that we have 4 orka plants in still alive out of the 11 that we planted. I am truely not upset but thankful for the poor survival rate of these.

Asparagus plants that are only a year old, one onion plant and 4 wax man pepper plants have survived.

Green beans and pepper plants in this bed are doing well.

4 of the loofa plants have taken off!

Another view of the green beans!

Despite the yellowing these cucumber plants do have blooms.

These plants look the worst, I am hoping to add some Epsom salt to help them later in the week.

Watermelon plants and 3 volunteer tomato plants that we have provided cages to.

Blueberries

Apples! If we pick more than  5 this will be our largest harvest!

Pears that we did not expect due to the loss of one of our trees this winter and the significant pruning that we did on it this year!

 

 

 

Sunday Garden Update

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I am excited to share the results for this week!  We transplanted the remaining plants from the greenhouse a week ago.  This was early based on our last frost date but I had been watching the weather like a hawk and one week later, I feel like I made the right decision. I did end up losing 2 squash plants to wind, so I have direct sowed two additional seeds.

Squash bed

Sweet California peppers

More peppers, with green beans in the very back that were direct sow.

Garlic and Zucchini

Amish Paste tomatoes

Slicing German Johnson tomatoes

Last Saturday, I direct sowed seeds for green beans both bush and pole beans and we have a lot of sprouts.

I also sowed some cantaloupe seeds in front of the Germain Johnson tomatoes and they are sprouted!

Zach decided he would be in charge of the corn, and he has some sprouts as well!

I am most excited to see that we have a couple of watermelon that are starting!

We have ended up adding all the dirt possible to the potatoes and they are still doing awesome things!

The bed in front of my office gave us our first harvest of spinach and snap peas!

Last but not least is the flower bed in front of our Amish paste tomatoes

We are currently waiting for the dill and basil planted last week to make an appearance but otherwise things are in full swing!

Saving on Saturday

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This week I have been focused on doing the small things that add up to make a huge savings overall.

Let’s start with the yard improvements/maintenance. Mulch is something that needs to be replaced and replenished at least very couple of years. That becomes expensive especially if you need to replace most of it at the same time. This year we ended up needing 22 bags.  I know that usually in the spring the big box stores run a special for bags between $2 and $3 at bag. This year it was $2.50 a bag which is a savings of $1.28 per bag or $28.16.  Because of the work that we have been doing and trying to add different growing areas I also ended up purchasing 18 bags. This was another savings of $23. That adds up to at least $50 in savings. That is besides the saving that I talked about yesterday when buying plants only on clearance or from Facebook marketplace.  I would say that in addition to the money we have saved by starting all the vegetables from seeds would put us around $1000 which is over a months’ worth of groceries for us! This is before we get any food to eat!  Another way we save money outside is by capturing and using rainwater for all the watering outside.

Food saving is another big area for us.  I did a lot of cooking this week. I mentioned yesterday about canning. Another area that saves us money is menu planning.  A third way we save money is by buying our meat in bulk. We have purchased several cows in the past. Last year as we ran out of steaks and were low on hamburger, we found and purchased a whole cow.  We have been enjoying the steaks and some hamburger from the new cow but today we ended up using the last packs of meat from the previous cow purchased about 4 or 5 years ago.  I don’t regret at all purchasing the whole cow last year because meat prices have risen significantly in the past year and will continue to rise. I know that we saved money by purchasing and storing meat in bulk.  A much bigger and sometimes hard way that we save money is by not eating out. This has been hard at times but a cheap meal out for us is around $70, fast food using coupons and drinks at home is usually around $40 and a full regular meal is at least $100. We usually eat out on Sundays for a full meal and at least one other time during the week.  We saved at least $50 this week by eating only at home.

Our money saving goal for the next month is to try and save $1000 to use on our Disney trip.  This will be a stretch but we are focused and by not eating out we have making huge strives.

5 Things Friday AKA What I did for Spring Break.

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1.We, Lily and I planned a short but packed Disney trip for the end of May, approximately 2 weeks ago.  It is something I am convinced we all need and will enjoy. So, in anticipation of the trip, I am going to save as much money as possible between then and now.  I would love to have $1000 but that is going to be a stretch.  The catch to the saving is that it has to come from extra money, not money that I am budgeting. I have worked out the budget for May already, so this is truly going to be a challenge. One caveat is that money left over from the grocery budget can be counted as savings. In addition, I am also going to say no Amazon buying unless absolutely needed.  I will try and deduct this amount from any savings we get.

2. This is week has been both the kids and I week of Spring Break. I have really really tried to get alot of things caught up and prepared ahead for the next month as well. Which hopefully will help with the goal above. Braxton has been with us for at least half of four out of 5 days this week. He is actually enjoying screen free time!

3. One of the areas I have focused on this week is outside both for gardening and landscaping. I have spent $300ish on additional plants, soil and mulch. This includes paying Zach for lots of hot work applying mulch and helping getting the yard looking it’s best.  I have been able to purchase 2 hydrangeas for $14.00 each on clearance, along with several other “clearance” plants that have helped to completely fill by Greenstalk vertical planters. I found angel trumpet trees on Facebook marketplace. Zach helped me repurpose by painting several older planters with a fresh coat of paint which I think turned out great!

I will give a better garden update on Sunday, but we have not lost any plants from transplanting, and we have a watermelon growing!  I am so pleased. Several hours and bags of dirt went to finishing up the planting space. My goal is to finish all the Spring planting today!  I really only have one area to plant now that the dirt is filled.

4.. The other area that I have worked on this week is cleaning and organizing parts of the house. One was the living room, where we found a 5-gallon bucket of water sealant. Zach used this outside as well. I also moved all the plants outside for the fresh air and sunshine.  The living room is so open now it is amazing!  I also spent time filling and organizing the canning closet. I added 28 jars of beef stock and 8 cans of white beans.

5. I also planned to work on getting our food together for the next 4 to 8 weeks (until Summer break). I actually made multiple trips to Costco and Food lion. I also attempted to use up items in our freezers.  I am proud to say other than 1 lunch at McDonald’s for $10.69 We have eaten at home all week. This is huge! I have made multiple batches of sour dough and frozen some.

Overall this was a great productive week!

Sunday Garden Update

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I did an update on our planting yesterday!  All the plants from the greenhouse are now in  the ground!  Today, I am going to share pictures of our other plants.  First up is potatoes

The potatoes are growing in fact we needed to add dirt for the second time. My plan is to keep adding dirt until it reaches the top and hopefully we have lots of potatoes this year!

Zach is currently enrolled in an agriculture class. He helped starts lots of plants, I spent $10 on plants but did not count that but considered it a donation to the school. Zach purchased 12 okra plants.  I am afraid that we will be overran with okra but at least it was cheap and we can always share with the chickens.

We transplanted cucumbers last week, so far so good.

I also purchased 4 additional cucumber plants from the school.

Zucchini plants look the best a week later. Garlic is in the front

Squash plants are alive but small, must have missed that picture.

I had previously transplanted 6 loofa plants but I am afraid that they are not looking the best, but it may not be warm enough for them.

Sugar Snap Peas are growing, and we have a couple of blooms.

We placed marigold all around the garden and in both vertical planters. We planted both bush and climbing veins for green beans. I added cantaloupe in the front and watermelon in the back.

Now things just need to GROW!