Category Archives: Square Food Garden

Saving on Saturday

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A couple of weeks ago we realized that one of the rain barrels for the garden had a HUGE crack across the top.  We have used these for several years but I am still very disappointed.  Matt and I decided that we would find on Facebook market place a better water storage unit like the one we use for the chickens.

We were really lucky in that we did find a storage tank the same week for $40 which is $15 less than we paid for the chicken rain barrel!  Although it is not as big as the chicken one it would not fit where our current rain barrels are.

Here is where we are saving money!  We were able to place the new barrel further down the side yard at the point where the deck connects to the house. We reused the black tube and the gutter spout from the original rain barrel and tied that into the gutters on the back of the house.  To level we used cement blocks and post that we already had as well.  We purchased a faucet from Amazon ($24) to add to the front of the barrel. Total cost $64 which we should be able to save in water cost over the course of the summer! Definitely a savings!

Gardening Update

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What  a difference a week makes.  This week we have had more seasonable temperatures and I had lots of germination this week as well.  But on a sad note I also lost all three of the Cherokee purple tomatoes that I planted and at least 2 green pepper plants.   I decided to try something different and plant 4 more seeds for Cherokee purple tomatoes behind the greenhouse. I had the packet and seeds and empty slots so I have nothing to lose.

I have at least 10 cucumber plants that have germinated! The ones that I planted several weeks ago are starting to climb the wire as well.

I decided to try and utilize all my available space so I took a packet of pea seeds and plant those at the very front of this box all the way across.  I also planted one cantaloupe plant in the middle between the peas and the cucumbers.

Six of the eight zucchini seeds that I planted have germinated as well.  I also planted an additional four seeds to fill in the space where the tomato plants died and for hopefully a few next plants. You may also notice that the snap peas are starting to bloom.  I am hoping to enjoy at least a few dozen of these in the very near future.

The tomato have started to grow. Some are starting to touch the first ring of the cage!

And most of the green beans that I planted have germinated!

You may notice the spaghetti squash in the bottom picture. I decided to pick up a three pack which was actually 6 plants at the farm stand this week. I also purchased a three pack of watermelon and cantaloupe as none of those seeds germinated.

And the continued struggle of the week is basil. NONE of those basil seeds germinated so I planted both packets that I had in a bed on Thursday of this week. So this will be another week of waiting to see what happens.

5 Things Friday

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  1. The goal for tomorrow is to move the chickens outside!  They have been in training all week. First Lily sat their cage near (1-2 feet) from the chicken run. Next she moved the cage to beside the chicken run and finally inside the chicken run. They spent over 4 hours in a small cage in the chicken run today. Tomorow we open the door! After doing some research this is a full 2 weeks later than when we moved out the original chickens.
  2. We did determine that before we leave the new chickens we must create a barrier at the bottom of the chicken run. It would be possible one of the small chickens to fit through the wire and escape. The plan is to use cable ties and cardboard as a solution until the chickens are bigger.
  3. I have now purchased 4 gallons of strawberries from a farm in Mocksville. They have been the sweetest and best tasting strawberries we have eaten. I do have 2 bags frozen I am hoping to add another 2 bags to get us through the winter.
  4. Lily’s community college graduation was yesterday!  It was so neat. Check out yesterday’s post for pictures.
  5. We need to install the cardboard on the chicken run, install a new radio in Lily’s car and work on our new rain barrel tomorrow.  Sounds really busy!  I also have an awesome garden update to share!

Garden Update

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This will be a picture heavy post. I wanted to make sure that I documented the garden this year.  I know in my mind that gardening is a slow process but days like today I want to make sure that I look back and confirm just to give it time.

I planted seeds 8 days ago, but none of those seed have germinated, probably because this past week has been extremely cool. I need to allow an extra week for most of these plants to germinate.  We have not lost any of the transplants so that I am going to count as a success.

Both of the GreenStalks (vertical planter) are full of plants! I am waiting for the Basil to germinate. I had absolutely no luck last year. I have another 2 packets of seeds. My theory is that I need to keep using the seeds until I have no more. If they don’t germinate, I can always purchase a start even in June. The bottom row of one of these contains 4 bell pepper plants. I ended up purchasing 3 plants to get started.

These are the current plant located behind the greenhouse. I am debating on if I need to go ahead and purchase some tomato start and fill the empty 6 buckets?

This is the bed in front of the office window. I have 8 zucchini plants seeds and 3 Cherokee tomato plants along with the sugar snap peas that are climbing. I will be replacing any zucchini that don’t germinate because I have none in the freezer!  Again not sure about any more tomato plants.

This bed contains 5 squash plants that I purchased. I thought I killed one when transplanting but it appears to have survived!

Tiny tomato plants. We currently have 21 plants in the tomato beds along with 8 marigolds. I am ready for these to take off and fill the entire bed!

No new cucumbers have germinated but so far these 5 plants have survived well!

14 additional green pepper plants they have survived but are struggling.

No signs of life in the green bean beds. I have planted 2 entire seed packs… Waiting is not easy for me.

Last ditch effort to grow either cantaloupe or watermelon. I used all the seeds so I may purchase a couple of starts the last week of May.

We have already watered twice since planting a year ago. Tonight we discovered that our front water barrels  has a huge crack. This is not something that requires an immediate fix but we will work on upgrading to a water tote sometime this fall.

 

Five Things Friday

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  1. Countdown to Summer!
    5 weeks till Lily’s High School Graduation!
    5 weeks of school for the kids and 5 weeks and 3 days until my Summer Break!
    60 days till we go to the beach!
  2. We are all ready for the newest chickens to move outside. Last weekend, Lucky the rooster escaped!  This evening they have knocked over the water so much that the cardboard box is mushy and the floor is wet!  They should move outside full-time next week!
  3. I am starting to organize and prepare for canning this summer. I have been slowly purchasing jars since October. I have been lucky enough to find on sale at Walmart, Target and Tractor Supply for around $1 a jar including rings and lids.  I was hoping to pick up some jars used but they are at least $2 a jar so today on Walmart, I found an ordered 3 dozen pint jars and 3 dozen quart jars.  One of my goals for tomorrow (Saturday) is to get the canning closet organized and cleaned!
  4. This weekend is probably the least busiest one in a long time. We do have several small projects to complete but the goal is to rest and prepare for the busiest week of the school year!
  5. We tried one of the new recipes that I was hoping to use to stock the freezer this summer and it was a bust. No flavor!

Homesteading Update

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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

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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

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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

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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

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  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!