Category Archives: Square Food Garden

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!

 

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.