Day: January 5, 2017

Reasons for my vegetable garden

Opening this gardening only blog was a real incentive to get the garden going, increase the growing space, take more pics but I thought today I’d share my incentive to start the edible garden in the first place.

Back around Spring last year I had started to get interested in the green movement, going back to basics and living more simply. I subscribed to a couple of blogs and one led me to Path to Freedom. If you’ve never seen the Dervaes video below I suggest you take the 10 minutes to view it. Totally inspiring and because they live just 45 miles away I figured if they could do it, then so could I!

The main differences is the Dervaes have 4 people to tend to their garden and there is just me, but with small steps anything is possible! The hardest part is the initial change, digging over, weeding and in our case removing plastic, nails, screws, glass, rebar, and stones! After the initial part the upkeep comes in, the sowing of seeds, maintenance, watering and harvesting.

We’re vegetarian so we eat lots of vegetables, I’ve grown veggies before, albeit in a different country, so why not now? So last May I got some veggie starters and began my own Homegrown Revolution. I’ll share some pics of my first growing season last year, the changes I made in the back garden lessons learned, and plans for the future.

The great part was when others were worried about ecoli in spinach and salmonella in tomatoes I had my own growing fresh in the garden! THAT alone was more than worth all the work! It hasn’t been easy, it has been a lot of work, along with some initial expense, but I am trying to do everything as frugal and green as possible along the way. Some of those tips I will also be sharing.

It has definitely changed my outlook on fresh fruits and vegetables just in one year. Store bought tomatoes are just not the same as homegrown fresh off the vine. Lettuce tastes better homegrown, and carrots are super sweet fresh out the ground!

I think the message that rung loud and clear on the Dervaes site is that with just a trowel and seeds you CAN grow food. Anyone, anywhere can do it. Why not you? Why not now?

February Quest Update

Work on East facing strip of front garden: This project is on hold right now. After working on the area for a few hours it occurred to me that ‘if’ we do get an RV or similar vehicle that we’ve discussed previously this is the area that it would be parked! I’d been told by a friend that it was against city ordinance to park the RV on the driveway so I called the city (and checked the site online) and nope it’s perfectly fine. We just have to pave the area and we’re golden. Needless to say that area is on hold till we decide what we’re doing. I’ll still work on the plot as we need to clear the area either way no matter what we do on it, but it’s not a priority right now (not like the rest of the yard!) so I’m changing the goals to reflect this change of focus.

  • Work on sidewalk strip: This was the area I started first but it was disheartening as there are palm trees that needed removing, juniper roots and a whole lot of stones and debris. I was lucky on Thursday that a neighbor saw me out and asked if I wanted help removing the palm trees! Naturally I accepted the offer and we made good headway in the 3 hours I was out there! Pretty much since then it’s either been raining or soggy wet. The picture above is an old one from last year but you can see the highlighted area I’m talking about, and the arrows point to palms/trees we took out last week! I just need to dig over, remove weeds/grass and work my way down. Right now I have dug over from the driveway to about a foot past the mailbox. As you can see LOTS of work to do!!! I need to get out there and take some new pics really! Will do that this month for the month end round up!
  • Plant seeds for Summer crops: Planted lots of seeds, but then we had a frost so hopefully they will be ok! Planted: tomato, eggplant, herbs, pumpkin, peppers and more. I need to get a better system for keeping track! I also need to find a good seed starter trays. The ones we saw at walmart looked ok but I prefer individual cells and theirs were ones that you had to buy the coir/peat pots each time which is not me at all. But then maybe I should try them? They did smaller ones so perhaps I will give them a go? Be nice to have something that lasts season after season.
  • Get ground cover between raised beds: Not done yet. Honestly the weather has hindered this. Basically I need the ground cover cos when it rains it’s muddy (plus it’ll stop weeds) but it’s too wet most days to get out there, or I can’t rely on good weather for drop off and me hauling it round the back! *sigh* Someone tell mother nature to cooperate with my gardening schedule please!!!

As you can see the weather is hindering plans and gardening activities. What I am trying to do is get ahead with other tasks in the house/work so that once the weather dries up a little I can attack the garden with full force! At least that’s the plan! The forecast so far is 2 days sun, 2 days rain followed by 3 days sun, 3 days rain, and temperatures between 55 – 70 degrees.

These boots are made for walking…

All the rain we’ve had recently has made me go out and buy a pair of Wellies, gum boots, rain boots whatever you want to call ’em! To us they’re Wellies – Wellington Boots. I bought them at Target for $19.99 and I’ve had lots of opportunities to try them out and I love them.

They come to about mid calf level which isn’t really a good look for anyone but sooo comfortable! Plus with my chunky calves probably a good thing they don’t go any higher! Another good reason for buying them is I can use them for walking the dogs in the rain. So they pretty much have lots of uses. Good job I got them too as we have MORE rain on the way this weekend and later in the week. After a really dry and warm January this February downpour is really drowning us. At least it’s one less job as I don’t have to water the plants…

Also for some reason, now I have wellies I feel like a proper gardener, lol!

Trying new produce

Until last year I’d never cooked eggplant (aubergine to fellow Brits) and I love it, especially eggplant ‘Parmesan’ and in Indian curries. Having this blog makes me try new things with a view to growing them in my garden. Or sometimes I have the items in the garden and just need to try them, like radish greens last year. The other week I was researching how to cook collard greens and noticed that you can eat beet greens! Well when out in the garden and thinning the green tops on the beets I had to try that didn’t I? Thinning the beet tops I harvested 5oz of the greens, I washed them and grabbed a bunch (1oz), chopped them up, and threw them in a pan to saute. Mixed in some peas, and corn then served it as a side with Spaghetti.

I have to say they are delicious. Also they take on the flavors of herbs/spices quite well! I’d read that some mixed greens can be bitter so I was wary of them, but now I could eat them every week! Much nicer than radish greens too. Plus I hear they are similar to Chard which is good as I have some of that growing too. Next I plan to use them instead of lettuce in a salad!

Wintersown.org

I’m gardening on a budget. There are many reasons for this, whether economical, environmental, sustainable and just plain frugal. I was tipped off that a site called wintersown.org is promoting their winter sowing techniques ( which are great btw!) by offering your choice of 6 tomato seed varieties in exchange for postage! All you have to do is send in your SASE (with two first class stamps) and your choices from the tomato list and they’ll send your seeds in the mail! Full details are here on their site!

I thought what the heck I can squeeze more room for tomatoes, especially if I put some in the front garden, so I narrowed down my list and sent in my SASE. 2 weeks later I get my envelope in the mail : Here’s what I got:

That’s a seed saving brochure and 10 packets of seeds. I guess they put more in as it’s the start of the season, or they are just enablers that want me to grow more tomatoes! lol! Here’s the list of seeds they sent me:
  • Tomato – supper Sioux
  • Tomato – Celebrity
  • Tomato – Black Cherry
  • Tomato – Yellow Pear Cherry
  • Tomato – Elberta Peach (my wild card choice)
  • Tomato – Yellow Lemon
  • Tomato – Green Zebra
  • Tomato – orange banana
  • Herb – Parsley
  • Watermelon – crimson sweet

Over the moon at the different tomato varieties! I also like that they use plastic baggies. Sure they are plastic but they are reusable! I may change my seeds over to this style! Plus I can take out a few at a time, reseal and come back to them later!

Now I need to get busy sowing the seeds! Whoohooo!

Freedom Harvest Challenge

If you’re a freedom gardener and not signed up for Freedom Gardens then go do it now to join in our 2009 challenge! You can find full details here


Collectively we aim to grown 1 million pounds! Obviously January is over and most of us have our tallies for the month (mine was 10lbs 8.5oz) and eventually there will be a little widget on the site to add your totals. Together we can do it!

On a side note my goal for the year was 50lbs! Looks like I’ll definitely make that, barring any disasters!