Category Archives: Square Food Garden

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!

 

 

Saving on Saturday- Garden post

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I am actually going to do a series of post about gardening this week.  One of my goals for this year was that I started all the plants from seeds this year!  So far with a little help from volunteers I have been successful.  This has amounted to a HUGE savings.  Plant starts in my area are averaging around $5 each.  I started some seeds back on February 16th, I was amazed at what actually I was able to grow. In the greenhouse, until today we had around 160 plants. The total before taxes is $800!  I paid less than $5 a pack for seeds so even at worst we saved $775! 

These pictures were taken just before pulling them out for planting. Next are the pictures after we planted. I will not be including these in the update tomorrow just for ease and space.

Tomato beds are BEAUTIFUL!

I also have a huge section of California wonder bell peppers.  Planting took a long time probably close to 6 hours but I am so excited to have everything in the ground.

Tomorow will include pictures of the things we got planted out last Sunday as well!

 

Sunday Garden Update

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Today is one of the most important days of the garden season….. We moved the squash and cucumbers to the outside garden beds! Cucumbers are small but…

Yellow Squash is next

Zucchini is behind the garlic

Finally, these Loofa’s just were attaching themselves to the old sprinkler system.

Sugar snap peas are out front

The cosmos are growing and in the very back we have SUNFLOWERS!

The tomatoes and green peppers are still in the greenhouse for another week at the least.

Another 36 marigold plants are ready to plant as well. Along with another 6 loofas. I gave 6 to the neighbor today as well.

I transplanted some volunteers to the Greenstock on Friday night which is a good thing because a frost killed the others in the beds on Sunday morning.

And last but not least we added soil to all three of the potato containers

I am hopefully that we can finish planting out the garden next weekend or at least the following week. Then it will be time to take a break while we watch things grow before harvesting and preserving!  I am hopeful that our hard work will pay off with lots of fresh produce and veggies!

Sunday Garden Update

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Spring has sprung!  The temperature were above 80 for several days and we still have at least one spring frost left. But things are growing!

Tomatoes and peppers- maybe 2 weeks left before we plant but maybe one and half.

Marigolds are the smaller plants and more peppers!

These are cucumbers and squash that were planted last week!  I hope to get these plant at the end of next week. I am worried they may not last that long…..

I have an abundance of loofa plants…. not sure where they will end up but I have plenty!

Excited to see the potato plants are grow!

first planting of sugar snap peas

garlic

Asparagus bed

Radishes with a few carrots mixed it. My attempt to thin was not successful so I stopped!

See all the volunteers… I am thinking they are basil (actually crossing my fingers)

Volunteer cucumbers?

These are cosmos and Borge  all volunteer!

These actually came with the house 33 years ago.  Now I know I need to work on this bed! .

 

Sunday Garden Update

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It is definitely Spring, we have lots of things growing.

These are Raspberry plants, I have purchased 9 so far and may have two that are actually growing.

We added two apple trees, replaced a pear tree a second time and attempted a peach tree a third time. All of the new trees have buds and these established trees are starting to bloom.

We actually have eaten a couple of Asparagus stalks, and the rest will grow and go to seed as this is our second-year growth.  The picture really does not show how tall they are. Interestingly we have something growing in the bed in the front of this picture. I tried to thin out the radishes yesterday, but I may have just killed half of them if they don’t perk up I will

I tried to identify, and it said a butterfly bush, but I am thinking either loofas or cucumbers.

I may have overplanted the loofa as I have 15 growing in the greenhouse!  This should at least provide a years supply of sponges.

Snap peas from the first planting have started to shine, 3 broccoli plants that have survived begin transplanted and some very small spinach is also starting to sprout.

Tomatoes and peppers are really enjoying the greenhouse!   I am watering every other day or every third day depending on my schedule. The current plan is to plant these our the week of Spring Break which is three weeks away!

This year is the first time I have attempted to start Marigolds from seeds. I currently have 36 small, tiny plants less than 7 days after planting!

No potatoes yet!

I am probably most excited for this tray. I started cucumbers, squash, zucchini and basil all from seed yesterday!  This is also the last tray that I will be starting inside as we start planting outside in 3 weeks!

 

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1. I did not post a garden update last week. On Sunday, we went to the movies with friends and so I was not home most of the day. I did have pictures, but this week has shown a lot of growth and change so I will just share an update this Sunday.  I did start 42 ish marigold last weekend and have been amazed that we have over 50% germination even before the 7 days.
2. The weather continues to be on the improving side. We had a frost on Wednesday night/ Thursday morning. And the high today is supposed to be 78*
3.  My chicken math! Over the last 6 months, we gave away a rooster, lost one chicken to a predator and lost another to natural causes. That leaves us with 5 total hens. We are getting 3 eggs a day but honestly, I would like to be getting at least 6 a day with more in order to store. So we need at least 4 if not 6 additional chickens this spring/summer to keep us happy with eggs! I also think this is the best time to get chicks as our older 3 chickens are 3 years old, the younger 2 are 2 years old so this should be a good time to add so that our egg production stays steady. So yeap we need 6 chicks!
4.. Zach is currently taking an Agriculture Class in which they are incubating and raising chickens.  They keep the chicks at school until they are ready to be outside without heat lamps!  This is the perfect time for us to get these as we can work on integrating into our flock. We are picking up 2 chicks today and likely another 2 in a month!  We made a run to Tractor Supply to purchase some chick starter and a new watering container as we can’t seem to locate ours!
5.Last Fall we lost a chicken due to a failure in the wire cage.  I decided last night that we would go ahead and add a layer of poultry netting around the bottom of our existing chicken run. In the past when we have had smaller chicks, we have added cardboard because the current wire has a large enough opening that smaller chicks could escape.  By adding the poultry netting this will eliminate the need to add cardboard when we get additional chicks as well as a layer of protection!   We are planning on installing the netting as well as finishing up the deck this weekend!