What flowers are blooming in your garden?

What Flowers are Blooming in your Garden?
Wednesday September 8, 2010


These are pink cosmos that we continue
to plant year after year. These guys got
really tall this year in the middle of the garden!

Four O' Clock Marbles, you got to love these
little flowers. The flowers open in the morning
and the evening. They are closed all day though.
The seeds are large and black when they are ready
to be collected. I have these with my lavender plants.
This group is multi colored. We purchased these
seeds from Select Seeds and they are heirloom
flowers.

Here is a flower I planted at the beginning
of July, Benary Zinnias.

Flowers on the Table
That is one good reason to grow
cut flowers.

Enjoy the flowers!
See Gods Glorious Work!

Eggplant

Eggplant
Thursday August 19, 2010

Eggplant got a slow start this year. To be
truthful, it always gets the backseat to
everything else. This year I have 15 plants.
They are all about the size of the eggplant in the
picture.


Below I planted a few late bloomers on the deck.
The deck gets a huge amount of sun. Why not
grow late season plants that still need the heat
to keep them producing. We will see which ones
do better, the ones in the garden or on the deck.

Happy growing!

Traveling to Kentucky

Traveling to Kentucky
Friday June 18, 2010






We went on a road trip. Rachel got to spend
some time with her cousin in Kentucky. We
got to spend some with the family, it was a
great trip.
God has led us to an open door.
We are going to be property owners
in Springfield, Kentucky.
God is good! His timing is perfect!

Cool Season Vegetables

Cool Season Vegetables
Tuesday May 18

Cool season vegetables are plentiful.
We are enjoying some very nourishing
food, which is great after the winter.

Due to being one of those people who try
to only eat whats in season. It sure was
nice to eat these vegetables. I am starting
to understand how great food taste when
you have to wait for its season.

We put most of these crops in late October
of last year. This is called overwintering,
which makes your spring work a lot easier.

Tulips

Tulips
Friday April 30





The love of flowers,
brings me joy!


Tulip is probably one of my
favorite flowers.

Starting Seeds

Starting Seeds

Monday April 26

This is how my husband started our seeds.
Amongst all the wedding activities he sat
down and began planting. This all happened
one day before the wedding, while I was
finishing my dress.

In a small amount of space you can start about
200 plants. We have two lights on top of our
refrigerator which helps with the germination.
Your biggest job at this stage is spraying the
soil with water. We also build our own soil,
using deyhdrated cow manure, peat moss,
triple phosphate.
These squares are called the mini blocks.
You can buy the tool from Johnny Seeds.
All the information came from Eliot Coleman's
book The New Organic Grower.

Cutting Food Costs

Thursday April 15
Cutting Food Costs

This is the time of the year where our food costs
start to decline. My husband and I love eating our
own produce. We are eating greens we planted
last fall, that we grew in our cold frame. This is
what I call the salad season, which means we are
eating local produce from the right season.
We are currently munching on broccoli we
put in last fall, it is quite tasty.

The Freedom Harvest Challenge that the Dervae Family
did last year I am attempting to do this year.
Click on the title for a link to the family site.

Cold Frames

Cold Frames
Monday Feburary 1

This cold frame sits outside my kitchen.
In the fall I put arugula in a container.
This is called over wintering. If your not
familiar with this its a great way to start
extra early. Basically, you start it at the
in the late fall and then it continues to slow
as the temperatures decline. In the very
early spring when the weather starts to
warm your plants start to come alive.
My dear husband made the frame and
then he placed some old windows on the
front. This way you can get into the frame.


Inside this glass box are vegetables. As
above they were put in the box in late fall.
Spinach, kale, lettuces, parsley plants are
growing inside. The big piece of
glass lifts up to allow air in.

The great concept behind this is that when its to
cold for seeds to germinate outside. No problem
they are already plants. They just need a little
warmth to get them going.

Your biggest job is timing. In the fall getting your
seeds germinated by a certain time is critical. Then
getting your plants into a protected place.

The rest your creator takes care of.

Hebrews 6:7
Lord that drinks in the rain often falling on it
and that produces a crop useful to those for
whom it is farmed receives the blessing of God.

Parsley plants

Living Simply

Living Simply

Living Simply is the life I strive to live.
My husband and I live on one income.
We don't live the typical suburbia life.
Although, we are surrounded by suburbia.

Together my husband and try to grow our
own food. We are working towards a
self-sustaining style of living.

We purchased a video which I thought
was worth mentioning. Below is a link to a
documentary called A Journey Home.
What an inspiring film.

Tomatoes

Tomatoes

Wednesday August 26

This year they say was a bad year for tomatoes.

I have to agree, here in New Jersey we got a Tomato blight

on our tomatoes.

This is the crazy part, I did not to bad with my crop.

I did want to share a few things I tried this year.

First, my husband started them from seed, which

we had saved the seed from previous years.

Second, he built the soil using compost from our yard,

bone meal, rock phosphate. We put in 168 tomato

plants, heirloom ugly tomatoes, cherokee purple,

amish paste, san marzano. At the beginning of the

season I put bone meal down, I did this twice.

I read this will build your root system. In past

years I got more leaves than fruit, so I believe

this helped. I also put down a organic fertilizer,

Feed N Grow 4-24, which I got from a Organic

Farmer here in New Jersey. The organic fertilizer

did not go down until after fruit was producing.

Of course, the most important part is I put down compost

along with leaf mulch. I also wanted to share that I do

stake my plants with bamboo. Pruning is another

technique I do every year. This means getting rid of

the sucker leads, which is a perty big task in the beginning.

I also keep leaf branches away from the ground as I feel

this can add to fungul problems.

My creator, My God is my provider!

Psalm 104

He makes grass grow for the cattle, and

plants for a man to cultivate-bringing

forth food from the earth:

Potatoes

Wednesday August 12
Potatoes

We have havested 32 lbs!

These are the cages I built for what

I call no dig potatoes. Last year I lost

to the voles, they ate everything I put

in the ground. This year we came up

with a new plan. We planted 5 potatoes

seeds around the edge and then one in the

middle. We used composted leaf mulch

altrenately with straw. We did this in two

layers and then put more leaf mulch on top.

The straw seemed to help keep the mulch

cool, although the rain probably helped too.

I was very pleased with what we harvested.

I built 19 cages, I did purchase wire to build these.

I feel this was an investment, I will have them for

years to come. I am planning on building more for the

next growing season.

Sweet Peas

Saturday June 27

Sweet Peas

This was my first picking of my peas this year. What a

great harvest. Getting out in the garden very early in the

season has payed off. How early you ask, the end of

Februrary I was getting my site ready. I thought

I would be ready to put the peas in right at the

beginning of March. Wrong, here comes snow.

The peas went in after the snow,

According to my picture dates that would mean in the

first week of March.

If there were no stores to buy food from how hard

you would work to get the first crop in.

Maybe, next time I will just put them before the

snow melts. That would start the germination nice

and early.

We are having a great harvest due to good planning.

Geneticaly Modified Foods

Geneticaly Modified Foods

Watch this video!

If we care about the foods that we eat!

Action needs to be taken!

http://video.stumbleupon.com/#p=35a4l23hf9

Path to Freedom

Path to freedom

This is the name of this video I came across.

What can we do this year?

Check this video out!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mCPEBM5ol0Q&feature=PlayList&p=33B0FAF643177515&index=0

Now tell me will you ever look at your front lawn the same?

Food or grass!

The Cool Season arrived

The frost covering the ground was the evidence of the cool season. I have always known I could live in cool season climate. Since, when it gets cool I am rejoicing. Maybe, that is from a child living in Kansas where it seemed to get cold by the end of October. I love the winter months of watching the snow come down. The next step is running to the phone to call my brother, we got snow. Due to him living in Kentucky he doesn't get much snow. I can't say my animals feel the same way about the snow as I do. The second sign of cool weather is we are in full schedule of schooling. The third sign is collecting of sticks becomes something we need to do everyday. The last sign is hanging clothes inside by the wood stove. Just another season God has brought me to.

Today we went for a hay run. With our new trailer that we built over the summer getting hay is a lot easier than loading a couple of bales in our minivan. Of course since we went and got hay we cleaned out our barn. Well, I have to confess its not really a barn, I just call it my barn. I do believe getting all that hay will make the winter much easier. Well, you could say I am on my way to being a better homesteader. Last week after our rain I got another area where I planted grass and spread my dirt. It was a leaf pile last year and this year it is dirt. I may not be able to do a lot but a little bit each day.