Showing posts with label Garden. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Garden. Show all posts
September 6, 2010
Monster Moe
Remember Larry, Curly, and Moe ? Those were my three little tomato plants. Larry and Curly died...poor little guys. But Moe? Well Moe did what all little seedlings dream of doing! He grew up BIG and Strong....and has blessed us with tons of tomatoes! In fact Moe has grown into quite a monster! He grew right out of the flower bead and took over the sidewalk! I should have staked him up better...but I honestly thought he was gonna die too. Little did I know! Good job Moe!!
September 5, 2010
September 4, 2010
August 25, 2010
Apples
Apples for applesauce from Jason and Becky... Thanks guys!! Peel, core, chop, cook, mush, eat!!
June 17, 2010
Larry Curly and Moe
Meet my three stooges....Larry Curly and Moe. They are my three tomato plants. Yes, I named them. Notice anything funny in the picture?? Well Curly and Moe aren't doing so well...they're the far left and center guys. It took some thought and a phone call....but now I know what happened. It's all my fault. It has to do with my rabbits. The tomatoes live where my rabbit hutch used to be. I thought it'd be the perfect spot.
Larry who is the farthest from where the hutch was is doing GREAT! Thick lush foliage and flowers a plenty. Premo mater plant!
Curly is in the center and while he's green...his leaves are curling and compact...he has some flowers too. But he looks a bit strange....kinda dumpy and sad.
But Moe?? Poor poor Moe. He lives right where the rabbit hutch was. He's kinda yellow and has very few leaves...just a poor sickly thin guy. So what happened? We tilled the ground well and the rabbit poo/ fertilizer was 2 years rotted. Well it wasn't the poo...it's the peeps! Poor Moe is living in dirt that has much too much ammonia for his liking.... Curly and Larry are doing better because each is that much farther away from the pee zone. So long story short....I should have waited another year to plant tomatoes in this spot...but who knew? Larry will do fine and give me plenty of maters....not so sure about Curly. And Moe? Well I think he'll just continue to turn many different shades of yellow then slowly wither up and die.....poor guy. I'll snap a few more shots here and there as they try to grow...we'll see what happens. Maybe...just maybe with all the rain Ohio is seeing...maybe they'll all pull through. We'll see. You live and learn!!
Beyond the gate on the left is a little white bird bath. I'm planning a quick video to show you how I get free fresh water for it. It's not the rain either!! The birds seem to really enjoy it and I enjoy them...so it's a win/win!!
~Moxie
June 12, 2010
Tiger Lilies
The tiger lilies have bloomed! They are a nuisance to most here in Ohio ...a weed that mainly grows around drains and culverts....but I just LOVE the bright orange against the summer green!! Here's a few shots from my back yard.
~Moxie
~Moxie
June 1, 2010
Garden
LOL! Last years garden with the Ruth Stout method went SO well!! (Just sold her books on E-Bay for $23.50 EACH so if you own them and want to sell...NOW'S the time!!- Once you "get" the system...you really don't need the books any longer and the extra $$$$ can fund your garden upstart!!!) Garden went well...up until the end that is. NO WEEDS THOUGH!!! Life took over and the garden got left. I did snap out of it and get most items into the freezer. BUT the weeds didn't take over...so overall Ruth Stouts method DID work and if I go a gardening again in the future ....that will be the preferred method. This year since life is still in a recovery mode....I planted 3 tomato plants. That's it...that's my garden. Home grown maters and summer go hand in hand to me. Being able to pick a warm fresh mater from my back yard makes me smile. I have felt no call or nudge from God to put in the garden to end all gardens this year....not one single prompting....so I'm not. I only mention this because certain friends think I'm nutter for NOT putting in my depression garden...my recession trump card?? May God bring blessings and full harvest to those who He may be calling to monster gardens....only He knows His perfect plans. In fact God has me in a period of release right now....releasing things I "thought" I HAD to do....needed to do....must do. All He is asking for right now from me is TRUST and go Day by Day. This summer I found homes for my two beloved bunnies that lived outside. Since they moved outside two years ago....the kids have simply lost interest. That's OK. The kids are that much older and some pets have lost their sparkle. That's OK too! So we talked as a family and decided new homes were in order. They were no longer blessing us and costing us time AND money in care and food. Craig's list is a wonderful tool and within 1 Day we found them a wonderful new home together with a new family! My garden is now located where my bunny hutch was. We tilled the ground under with all it's natural bunny fertilizer, finished the boarder (FREE wood from flower bed we took out) ...mulched with two bags of leftover mulch from last season that didn't even match-we just mixed them well ( FREE) and planted my 3 tomato plants- these I did buy but could only get a six pack near me so I blessed my brother with the three extra plants for his garden!! They will thrive and give me plenty of fresh for mater sandwiches and even a few bags for the freezer and chili this winter....please consider freezing your whole tomatoes...it it SO easy and will set you FREE !!! Here's a video on it if you missed it Tomato Talk. Hope your gardening is going well!
~ Moxie
January 26, 2010
Tomato Talk
In this video you'll get a glimpse of how I deal with tomatoes plus you'll get to see a quick beef vegetable soup. Here's the "official" recipe. You can leave out the ground beef for just a veggie soup.
1 lbs browned ground beef
1 large can tomato sauce or (5 large tomatoes)
Diced potatoes (about 2 large or 2 cans pre diced)
Mixed veggies (1 can or /2 bag frozen or anything leftover)
2 beef bullion cubes (or 1 can beef broth)
Salt, pepper, garlic powder to taste.
Heat all together- eat! Serve with a good crusty bread.
1 lbs browned ground beef
1 large can tomato sauce or (5 large tomatoes)
Diced potatoes (about 2 large or 2 cans pre diced)
Mixed veggies (1 can or /2 bag frozen or anything leftover)
2 beef bullion cubes (or 1 can beef broth)
Salt, pepper, garlic powder to taste.
Heat all together- eat! Serve with a good crusty bread.
~Moxie
October 28, 2009
Blog memories...
Little by little bit by bit...I'm getting back to blogging. I don't think I'll get back to it as regular as before as God has my plate a bit full right now....but all in a good way! I took some time and read back over my blog....what fun that was! To reminisce over the past year was quite fun. There are a few things that I blogged about that I thought I'd update on:
The Family Summer Sunday"s sadly never came to pass. I don't really know why except that we had such strange weather this year...rainy a lot of the time. We did invite individual families out here and there...but never managed to get them all here together. Oh well there is always next summer :)
My oldest son E~ has had all his tests done and everything is OK! I am so thrilled that God watches over him. His bones are fine and his growth is fine for him and all his blood work came back just fine....There was some concern at first with his bone age test but turns out our regular Doc didn't read it right...the specialist cleared that up for us...oh God is so good to us. E~ got to see first hand for himself that prayer really can and does work!
The guitar lessons over summer went really s-l-o-w. In fact...we put it away for a time. I think that may go better during the quiet indoor times of winter than the busy roar of summer outside fun time....but I did learn a few simple songs.
Crochet went very well....I may blog on that later. The small projects went well and I have started my first blanket....again though working on a blanket when it's HOT out and it has to sit on your lap.....didn't go so well. So when I'm cold and sitting inside this winter, out will come the blanket to get finished up :D
The garden did Ok this year. We had SO much rain that I lost some things to mold. The pelting of the hard rain knocked my tomato plants over and they were even in good cages. With all the rain the tomatoes ripened FAST and many split open before I could get to them and they rotted quickly. I did get a good amount of fresh and enough frozen for many batches of chili this winter, so I'm totally happy with that. The green peppers did really well this time and I chopped and froze most of those for winter use. Part of the problem also this gardening season is that I had some personal troubles to deal with this summer that kept me out of the garden more than I would have liked. I really had to come closer than I have ever been to God over this summer than any other time in my life....so I probably did more growing this summer than my garden could have ever hoped to!! LOL! I want to take a moment to just remind everybody that God is really there for us when we need Him most. I know sometimes life gets really busy....and we may secretly wonder if He's really out there. Well let me tell ya, He IS!
In Him,
Moxie~
June 8, 2009
Growings on.....
Summer's so on! We "tried" swimming yesterday....brrrr the water's still too cold for me, the kids had a blast, do they even feel cold, I wonder? Things are really taking off in the garden. We had our first lettuce and radishes are almost ready! Some of the tomatoes are starting to flower too. It's so exciting to watch things grow! Here's some pictures...the first are about 2 weeks after planting the second are today. I've added grass clippings once and so far the weeds are nill! There were a few that popped up in the lettuce when it first started...but once the lettuce got tall enough I put grass clipping all around them and now the weeds are gone! Oh and I DID have some failure....my herbs didn't sprout. The seeds came free and were marked last season...mint sage and parsley didn't grow ( I don't know if the seed was bad....but the radish seed and lettuce were fine (also last season...) It's ok as sometimes these things just happen.
I
can't find a before of the cucumber...but he's growing great!
Thanks for stopping by to watch my garden grow with me!
~Moxie
I
can't find a before of the cucumber...but he's growing great!
Thanks for stopping by to watch my garden grow with me!
~Moxie
May 16, 2009
My Little Garden
After Mother's Day is safe planting time here in Ohio....so we made use of that weekend to get the garden in. I am trying out the Ruth Stout heavy mulch method this season. In a nut shell you use 6-8 inches of hay on your garden spot to stop weeds, keep the soil moist, and act as a natural composter and soil amender as it rots down. Through out the season you add your grass clippings and later leaves to the garden. You compost right in your plot by lifting the hay with a pitch fork and placing your peelings and what not right under the hay to decompose. So far so good. We prepped the beds a few weeks ago here and have seen nary a weed since!!! To plant we just pulled back the compacted hay to reveal the dirt. If you plant a full plant you can then push the hay right back up to it like a nice little blanket.....but if you plant seeds like we did for lettuce and herbs you cannot cover it until the seeds sprout or else you will just smother and kill the poor little things! It was very easy to plant. The earth was soft, moist and perfect- not hard as a rock!! Secretly I was surprised. Now we'll just have to see how everything grows!
Here's the area where we planted herbs. The other half of this bed got one row of lettuce and will get two more rows a few weeks apart. We planted a small row of radishes too.
Here's the lettuce half....it will hold 2 more rows in a few weeks.
Here's the whole area. We ended up with 6 tomato plants, 6 pepper plants, various herbs, lettuce, radishes, and a few sugar snap pea plants. There are cucumbers in the background near the rabbit hutch too. There are a few marigolds planted here and there, I'm told they help with bugs...we'll see...I just happen to think they are a cheery little flower that I can collect seeds from this fall too!! If you click the picture you can see better. Some things have already sprouted this week and started to grow! In a few weeks I'll do an updated post with progress!! We decided that this year we really only wanted a garden to eat fresh from and don't plan on canning this season. Although I know that if the six tomato plants do well, I will have to freeze the extra...but that will be just fine and it's easy to freeze tomatoes! I just pick them whole and place in freezer bags straight off the vine and freeze. To use them you just pull out the bag, rinse the frozen tomato under hot water and the skin splits and pulls right off. Then into a pot it goes to cook down for chili or spaghetti sauce or fresh tomato soup. I mash mine a bit with a potato masher or whirl with a stick blender if I want it really smooth.
As a dear blogger friend, Kim ,reminded me....lets all ask God to bless our gardens this year....however BIG or small they may be and that through Him they will help to provide our tables with many wonderful blessings!!!
Happy Gardening!
Here's the area where we planted herbs. The other half of this bed got one row of lettuce and will get two more rows a few weeks apart. We planted a small row of radishes too.
Here's the lettuce half....it will hold 2 more rows in a few weeks.
Here's the whole area. We ended up with 6 tomato plants, 6 pepper plants, various herbs, lettuce, radishes, and a few sugar snap pea plants. There are cucumbers in the background near the rabbit hutch too. There are a few marigolds planted here and there, I'm told they help with bugs...we'll see...I just happen to think they are a cheery little flower that I can collect seeds from this fall too!! If you click the picture you can see better. Some things have already sprouted this week and started to grow! In a few weeks I'll do an updated post with progress!! We decided that this year we really only wanted a garden to eat fresh from and don't plan on canning this season. Although I know that if the six tomato plants do well, I will have to freeze the extra...but that will be just fine and it's easy to freeze tomatoes! I just pick them whole and place in freezer bags straight off the vine and freeze. To use them you just pull out the bag, rinse the frozen tomato under hot water and the skin splits and pulls right off. Then into a pot it goes to cook down for chili or spaghetti sauce or fresh tomato soup. I mash mine a bit with a potato masher or whirl with a stick blender if I want it really smooth.
As a dear blogger friend, Kim ,reminded me....lets all ask God to bless our gardens this year....however BIG or small they may be and that through Him they will help to provide our tables with many wonderful blessings!!!
Happy Gardening!
May 15, 2009
Spring Spruce up!
Spring brings so many out door projects, doesn't it?! I don't know about you, but after being trapped indoors all winter....I LIKE to get out there and do some work! We decided this year that a cement pad was needed by the bunny hutches. We wore the grass out and ended up with big mud spots where I had to stand twice a day to feed and water. Not very nice on the wet days. So we got some pavers and placed them....problem solved! I also decided this year to grow my cucumbers on a trellis. This saves space as they go up and not out all over your garden ground. I'm only doing a few as we don't want to can pickles this year. We just want some fresh one's for salads and sweet and sour cucumbers. We used some stakes and some fencing wire we had left from our big fence around the backyard. It turned out pretty good. As the cucumbers grow I'll post back in with some pictures as to how the trellis thingy is going/growing. We made sure to get the stakes extra deep so the thing won't fall over.
Before: This bed used to have beautiful flowers in it...but for the past year has been home to the bunnies...it was time to fix it up! We plan on painting the hutch with white wash to make it pretty and to protect it from the elements...but that's for another weekender project!
DH and youngest setting the pavers. They had a great time and youngest is learning how to be quite the little man around the house!
And so you don't think I got out of the work....I helped lay the railroad tie boarders, then I got the bed ready, helped staple the wire fencing , laid the mulch AND planted the cucumbers...so my plate was very full that day also. It's so much more nice now than the weed patch it had become!!!
All finished! (I planted the cucumbers after I snapped this one.)
Before: This bed used to have beautiful flowers in it...but for the past year has been home to the bunnies...it was time to fix it up! We plan on painting the hutch with white wash to make it pretty and to protect it from the elements...but that's for another weekender project!
DH and youngest setting the pavers. They had a great time and youngest is learning how to be quite the little man around the house!
And so you don't think I got out of the work....I helped lay the railroad tie boarders, then I got the bed ready, helped staple the wire fencing , laid the mulch AND planted the cucumbers...so my plate was very full that day also. It's so much more nice now than the weed patch it had become!!!
All finished! (I planted the cucumbers after I snapped this one.)
April 27, 2009
Weekend Warriors!
Weekend Warriors! We got the garden area all ready this past weekend. We decided to leave the boarders around the raised bed. Our septic tank clean out is under there ...so underneath is a rather large cement pad. If we take the boarder out there really would be no growing things there as the dirt level would get too shallow. So we opted to till a space right next to it for deeper planting items and do lettuce and radishes (and probably some herbs) in the raised part. I covered everything over with a deep layer of hay for mulch a la Ruth Stout. It looks rather funny right now...but we are due some rain the next few days and that will flatten it all out. We tilled the new area just enough to turn the sod over and in the fall when we shut down the garden we will deep mulch again...this mulching should decompose through the winter keeping us from having to till again and amend the soil to boot! I'm just going to have to try this method a season or two to see how well it works...I will post thoughts as I move along....the flops and the successes! Planting here in Ohio is in about three weeks....so this should give everything time to settle in. It's really fun to be able to put in a small garden this year.....the past two years we did not and I have really missed it! I always keep some sort of flowers in the front....but there's just something about growing your own vegetables 
Here's my DH tilling....I did some to but he enjoyed it more than I did! I thanked him VERY much for helping me and he said he can't wait to eat some good cooking!
Here's everything tilled up waiting for it's mulch covering. You are supposed to use 6 to 8 inches of hay. We guessed 4 bales. I'm sure there is some formula for figuring inches per square foot out there, but I don't know it.
By the time I spread it....it only took 2 bales...but that's ok because I will just store the other two by the shed for during the growing season as the mulch needs added to or to help feed the rabbits!
Our total space ended up at 12 feet by 16 feet and here is our final plan. Tomatoes, green peppers, about 4 different lettuce varieties, radishes and whatever herbs I want this time out. We are doing cucumbers too but they will not be in this bed. They will get their own special area beside the rabbit hutches to grow. We are making a fence trellis for them to grow up on instead of ground growing. That's next weekends project to prep for planting....for another post! Thank you for stopping by to enjoy my garden adventures!!! Remember to be thankful for even the smallest of blessings each and every day!!!
Here's my DH tilling....I did some to but he enjoyed it more than I did! I thanked him VERY much for helping me and he said he can't wait to eat some good cooking!
Here's everything tilled up waiting for it's mulch covering. You are supposed to use 6 to 8 inches of hay. We guessed 4 bales. I'm sure there is some formula for figuring inches per square foot out there, but I don't know it.
By the time I spread it....it only took 2 bales...but that's ok because I will just store the other two by the shed for during the growing season as the mulch needs added to or to help feed the rabbits!
Our total space ended up at 12 feet by 16 feet and here is our final plan. Tomatoes, green peppers, about 4 different lettuce varieties, radishes and whatever herbs I want this time out. We are doing cucumbers too but they will not be in this bed. They will get their own special area beside the rabbit hutches to grow. We are making a fence trellis for them to grow up on instead of ground growing. That's next weekends project to prep for planting....for another post! Thank you for stopping by to enjoy my garden adventures!!! Remember to be thankful for even the smallest of blessings each and every day!!!
April 13, 2009
Blogging Without Obligation
Blogging Without Obligation...what a grand thought we should all dip into from time to time. I had this logo up before but neglected to add it back in when my blog got it's face lift. I'm bringing it back today. It's about time for the garden to get under way and summer is close on my heels. My "relationships" garden needs some tending this summer too and to do this I must give the time. Here's the wonderful blog post that inspired me to add the logo the first time around found at Seeking the Old Paths (great blog BTW) : here The other freeing thing I have done recently is cull the number of blogs I prescribe to. If I used to be a reader of your blog and now you don't see me under your list of readers I am sorry. It has nothing to do with your blog because I loved each and every one I read regularly. This simply has to do with my TIME. I still plan on visiting my favorites on occasion and you can FOR SURE still expect to see some comments to pop up from time to time...cuz like old habits die hard, right?
April 9, 2009
Front Yard Fixes
We worked hard in the front yard to get it back in shape this past weekend. It always amazes me just how FAST weeds can get going.....a little rain...a little warmth...then BAMO...WEED FEST!! Now how come the things we want to grow don't always have such luck? Go figure. Every thing is all mulched now, fresh and ready to go. In a couple weeks I'll plant just a few annuals in some spots here and there. We are hosting Easter dinner this year for my side....so I'm glad the weather was nice enough to get some outdoor work done. It felt good to be out in the sun and to mark another task off the spring to do list...tell summer to hurry on up!
Start: Overgrown and weeds everywhere
Weeds gone, old mulch scraped off
All done!!
Well, almost. We will plant some pretties later...we are still getting light frosts some mornings. Looks kind of bare now but it won't once the weeping cherry blooms then leaves out. There are a few hostas there that will pop up soon, their first leaves are poking though. There's another bed on the other side not shown in the picture....we separated and replanted a hosta clump that has gotten large....yeah free plants!
My helper.
Here is my youngest, he's 9. Show me a 9 yr old boy who doesn't like to dig in the dirt
Start: Overgrown and weeds everywhere
Weeds gone, old mulch scraped off
All done!!
Well, almost. We will plant some pretties later...we are still getting light frosts some mornings. Looks kind of bare now but it won't once the weeping cherry blooms then leaves out. There are a few hostas there that will pop up soon, their first leaves are poking though. There's another bed on the other side not shown in the picture....we separated and replanted a hosta clump that has gotten large....yeah free plants!
My helper.
Here is my youngest, he's 9. Show me a 9 yr old boy who doesn't like to dig in the dirt
April 7, 2009
Garden Spot and SNOW?!?!
It seems strange to blog about a garden spot when it is SNOWING today!! It's kinda funny and SO our typical Ohio weather. This is my #2 video and please don't laugh! I sound funny...maybe it's just me....but don't we all think we sound funny in audio and look funny in pictures? Please excuse the grass :) our first mow is due this week before our Easter Family event...over the past weekend we worked in the front yard, mulched and moved some plants and borders around. So we're getting started, we just have to keep moving along to get it all finished, slow and steady wins the race! Some of our seeds can be sown directly in the ground but this year I am going to purchase our tomato plants...I did get free tomato seeds last week, but it's kinda close to planting time to start them now...so I'll just save those for next year. Our safe planting time here is around Mothers day, May 10th...so we'll till our spot soon..it won't really be too bad since we've decided to just expand a current bed. And this year we have a tiller...it isn't much to look at but DH found it end of season last year and he says it's a good older sturdy brand that will be a super work horse for us over the years! I am not mechanical at all and am so blessed to have a man like him in my life!
April 3, 2009
Sorting Seeds
Seeds
It's time to sort seeds! Look over what we've got and get any we need. I actually don't need to get any this year as I got some free one's this week. My brother in law is the local barber in the town I live in and one of the locals donated all their leftover 2008 seeds for him to give away free! He had a HUGE box and about 4 bags. There were many high quality seeds from Burpee...I couldn't help but notice some Christian Tracts were thrown in the mix too. What a great way to spread the Word! It was nice to be a part of that blessing as seeds can get expensive. I got 15 packs ranging from flowers to veggies...and since I kinda already knew what I was short on....I filled in the gaps-FREE! I don't know just how long seeds can stay active, but my MIL who gardens year after year says that they can be kept for quite a LONG time if kept dry. She even went on to tell me she has read of 1000 year old seeds dug up in archeology digs that have been planted and grown! She is in the know and I just LOVE her stories! So we both agreed that was good enough for us! LOL! If you sow your seeds indoors first, you'll always know ahead if they're good or not. I wouldn't just plant the whole shebang in the garden then have nothing sprout! I like to keep my seeds in a simple Rubbermaid box. I just sort them by kind, with the oldest up front (to use first) then rubber band them together. Any seed I gather from around the property in the fall goes in a zip lock bag. I'll talk more about this after some pictures...
Sorting seeds:
All sorted, tucked in and waiting to get to the garden!
Now if you grow flowers you can save their seeds in the fall. Zinnias and Marigolds are super easy and I'm not sure what others but just let the dead flowers dry and turn brown then collect the seeds. I just go out with a box of zipper bags and a sharpie marker and collect seeds....it only takes a bit of time and you'll have more than you can use....you could pack some up for gifts too. Veggie seeds can be saved too if you don't grow hybrids. I did save some hybrid tomato plant seeds one year that did grow tomatoes the next year, but they were very small and not at all what their parents were the year before so not worth the effort. Here's my stash of home seeds.
We "think" we may have picked the garden spot for this year. I have a 6x4 garden spot already right out my back door that has in the past held just tomatoes, herbs one year and also just been flowers. It's in a good spot and close to our hose so watering would be very easy. Right now it is bordered with railroad ties and they have rotted down and need taken out this year. Our first thoughts were to pull the ties and re seed back to grass there....but now we think we'll just pull them out and expand the area to maybe 12 x 12. That's probably big enough. The location is convenient and the only other good spot would be way out back and not near water at all....plus I'm hoping closer will keep the critters out more as we go in and out the back door oh only a hundred times each day during summer (or so it seems!!) Happy gardening!
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