Garden Update

Posted on June 13, 2026 by Sheila

We have worked really hard this year to try and an irrigation to the raised beds. We are also struggling with water due to the drought conditions that we are experiencing. But I am so impressed with how good things are looking that I just wanted to share pictures!

First up the front Green Stalk and other flowers are pretty!

The tomato beds are growing! They require us to fill the drum about once a week or closer to every 10 days.

We actually have some volunteer tomatoes as you saw in the Green Stalk, we have one in front of the actual tomato bed as well as a couple of beds in the back. Matt was so excited to find this in the back garden!

We have some zucchini plants but I am not sure why they are significantly smaller than the squash!

We even have a baby squash on the plant! As well as huge healthy looking plants.

Our one lettuce plant is still going strong. I am thinking that I am going to let it bolt and go to seed to see if we can get some lettuce this fall. Cucumbers and green beans are growing as well

The peppers appear to be thriving as well on the back deck. I am hoping for a large harvest from these as well

Next up the spice and pepper and flower Green Stalk!

Finally the watermelon bed!

Sunday Garden Update

Posted on May 24, 2026 by Sheila

The rain was exactly what we needed! The garden has taken off as you can see in these pictures. I am most excited that we now have full water barrels and have even purchased a third barrel. Because of clean out, I am not sure when we will be able to use it but that will put us at over 900 gallons of rain water! First up is the tomato beds! I did not lose a single tomato after planting in these beds! I am equally excited at the row of sunflowers that have started in the front!

Next we have watermelons! I am positive these will not be ready to enjoy until at least late August but I am still excited!

Everything in the garden beds are green and growing! We have been enjoying lettuce on BLTs and even enough for a couple of salads!

Finally the Greenstalk planters are alive and beautiful! I am hopefully for lots and lots and lots of peppers this year!

We have determined that the peacock from next door is munching in the garden! I am so hopeful that we have stopped his access!

5 Things Friday

Posted on May 22, 2026 by Sheila

1. For the first time in 22 years, Matt and I have made plans to go away for the weekend without any children! I need a break and this worked out to be just at the prefect time. I am not going to give any more details till we are home safe but I am super excited!

2. The garden is looking really good! One big change is the amount of watering we are doing. With that in mind, the current plan is to get one more tote to fill with water. So that even in drought we should be able to not use water that cost money!

The up front cost should be around $50. We are hopeful to get this put in place this weekend as we have a solid week of rain chances and have already filled most of the 2 tanks we have.

3. Foster care is stressful. I have a ton more stress in relationship to the agency and it’s policies, procedures and expectations than actual dealing with every day kid stuff.

4. Kendall has to attend graduation practice next week otherwise she is completely finished with High School. Zach took an exam today and he is also finished. Davie County has 9 official days with the last one being an early release day. The count down to summer is really really close. I have less than that due to Kendall’s graduation!

5. Since this is Memorial Day weekend and we don’t have school on Monday, I want to finish the book I am reading. And do small repairs on both the Tahoe and Rogue. Added stress of the Honda has stopped again!

Sunday Garden Update

Posted on May 17, 2026 by Sheila

This is the happy update that I have been waiting on posting! Except for the need to start supplementing our rain water with spigot water, the garden is coming along nicely. First up our barrier is working and nothing is eating the plants. We also have okra growing!

Our tomatoes are doing awesome! We actually have a couple that are taller than the bed! I am most excited to report that we did not lose any in the regular bed!

We have lots most of the tomatoes that were in the regular beds. I think we are down to 2 tomatoes but the ones that are lower are still looking good!

We have lots of cucumbers that have germinated along with the ones I purchased and planted

. We have around 6 watermelon plants that are growing and lots of cantaloupes

I am very pleased with the squash and zucchini that have finally germinated!

We have two vertical towers on the back deck, one is entirely peppers and the other is peppers and herbs!

We have two planting of green beans ,both are a bush variety! I will plant vines after the sugar snap peas come out probably in the next 2 weeks!

Finally we have sunflowers growing in front of the tomato beds!

And look how pretty my front door planter is

Five things Friday

Posted on May 15, 2026 by Sheila

Fun Fact of the day that explains how busy my life really is. The last time I posted a 5 things Friday was March 20th, almost two months ago
We are currently still in a significant drought. We did get some rain a week ago but we are quickly using up all of our rain barrel water. I am hoping that we can keep enough water to support the gold fish and algae eaters that we purchased and put into two of the rain barrels. My current plan is to use regular water in addition to Epsom salt to the barrel for the tomatoes. We don’t have enough to fill from rain barrels so hopefully the Epsom salt will be beneficial.
Kendall graduated from Davidson Davie Community College yesterday. This marks the beginning of the end of the year. Next week both Zach and Kendall go to school but the following week, neither are required. E and I have a full week after they finish but that is only three weeks till Summer Break begins!
Matt and I are scheduling lots of fun trips this summer. I will get to visit Disney World for close to two weeks! We also have a beach trip planned to Myrtie Beach as well.
I am hoping to have some extra time this summer to rest and recharge! We have been doing some extra cleaning both inside and out. Last year, I paid a maid for the first and last cleaning but I don’t think that will be necessary this year!

Sunday Garden Update- Spring planting complete!

Posted on May 10, 2026 by Sheila

Saturday we spent most of the day working outside. I managed to weed a couple of the flower beds, and we ended up planting out all the peppers in 2 and half green stalks. After a stop at a local farm stand and an additional trip to Lowes, we also finished filling all three green stalks. We planted out green beans and seeds to replace the loofa gourds that the frost killed. My plan was to go outside today and take lots of pictures to share like this one.

I was so excited to share that we have squash plants, cantaloupe and more watermelon plants and zucchini plants that have germinated as well. The only sad news was that multiple tomato plants were damaged and lost from the frost this week. I was actually taking pictures when I discovered this…

Yes something has decided to start using my garden and hard work as a snack buffet. Matt and I scrambled around to try and put up some barriers to stop the attack before it gets worse. We added a pallet to the only entrance to these plants as well as some wire fencing on one side.

I am hoping this works otherwise we have to figure out what and how to barricade the side closest to the house as well. I re aimed the camera in hopes that if the critter is coming in from the house side the cameras will capture. I will definitely keep posting about this.

Maybe next week a picture heavy post with lots of sprouts and things!

Gardening Update

Posted on May 3, 2026 by Sheila

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

Posted on April 26, 2026 by Sheila

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

Posted on April 25, 2026 by Sheila

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

Posted on April 24, 2026 by Sheila

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.