Time Well Spent

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     I don't think my garden has ever been more important to our family. With Mike out of work, we are going to need all the help we can get. My husband's work would not clear him for 'light duty' like the doctor ordered. He does not go back to the doctor until the end of June. Even if he starts work the following Monday, it will still be mid July before we see a paycheck form his job.
    My paycheck usually goes to groceries, gas in my vehicle and any odds and ends I feel necessary. The less food I have to buy, the more of my paycheck that can go to paying the bills. So far we are doing okay. Thank goodness I prep! We have been using the food I have tucked away for a rainy day. Well, baby, right now it is pouring! ;) Only problem is, my family is more of a 'Fresh' fruit and veggie type of family. We don't eat a lot of process foods. When you prep, you buy a lot of foods that have a longer shelf life. Unfortunately, most of those are processed.
     Until the garden comes in, I am buying a lot of my 'fresh' items from the grocery store and some from a local produce stand. I can't wait till the garden is in full force! 
     Biggest problem we have had is the rain. Good grief I wish some of it would save its self for this summer! By August, I'm sure we will be begging for this weather. For now, we are gardening in between thunderstorms and wading to the garden to get covered in mud. What we have managed to get in the ground is growing well. WE CAN"T WAIT!! Thought I would share a few pictures with you of the garden thus far. 
     

I saw mound gardening somewhere.. Thought it was a really cool idea. Just in case we can not weed fast enough, we can weed only the mounds and then use the weed eater to cut the grass around them. Crossing my fingers on this! 

This was supposed to be full of potatoes, but a sink hole created by the way the yard is leveled and all of the rain took most of the dirt and the potatoes seed plant under ground and washed them away. I planted some tomato plants instead. Regular sized heirlooms and cherry tomatoes. We have no money for tomato cages, so I am hoping these cut saplings help to keep them under control and out of the dirt.

Most of the garden is shown here. It is only about 20x20 feet. On our land, it is mostly clay dirt and this is the best place to put it other than in the very front yard. 

Our green beans and peas. In the background, what looks like tall grass is actually our corn growing. We never have much luck but we love corn on the cob and keep on trying. 

So we planted some cherry tomatoes in here.. but they didn't grow. So Zoey planted some more. Then they ALL came up. Believe it or not.. this is AFTER I have already thinned them out into other parts of the garden and containers. 

Last year we had lettuce, spinach and onions in here. This year I have cabbage and onions. We have almost eaten ALL of the onions already, I think will go get some more onion bulbs to plant. I like home grown onions a lot better than store bought. 

Not sure about tire planting, but we had one and needed another container to plant in. I have heard good and bad things about using old tires.. We will see. More Cherry Tomatoes. 

I have not grown cabbage in YEARS. My amazingly awesome neighbor gave me some plants a while back, so I thought, "Why not?" We do not eat a whole lot of cabbage but it looks like I will be selling the extras and looking for a whole lot of new cabbage recipes. For some reason, they remind me of Harry Potter...

Hard to tell here, but there are four tomato plants and a pumpkin plant here. If you look to the upper right, those are dandelions and other 'weeds' that my rabbits like to munch on. We let the weeds grow up on that side. 

We had to put the bucket Cherry Tomato plant into the ground. It just did not look healthy. We have been getting lots of rain, but the soil always looked dry. Maybe too many drainage holes? I hope we did not kill it, beacause, it is LOADED with cherry tomatoes. 

The new potato bucket is growing strong! At least I hope.. Sure looks pretty though. 

Remember last year? This spot was covered with the 'Mystery Pumpkin' plant. This year we have two tomato plants. We still have 4 more that need to get in the ground. Not sure where I am putting them though. 

     So there you go. A little tour of our garden. I am really loving all the time spent as a family to help grow us food. Even my 'I hate gardening' teenager and my injured husband are pitching in! 

Does your family garden together? We <3 your comments!

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Pumpkins, Knives, and Becoming Independent

    

     
     By the time I was 10, I was cooking and preparing all the meals for my whole family on a daily basis. On my own. Both of my parents worked full time jobs and I always felt cooking and cleaning was my way of helping out the family. That is how I learned to use a knife. The way I held the knife and cut things always scared my parents to death. They always thought it looked like I was going to cut myself. I slice things, cutting straight towards my hand. Always have, always will. Yes, I have sliced myself on occasion, but nothing terribly bad. I've never had stitches unless they were surgery related on something normal. You couldn't tell me my method was ever anything dangerous, because I've never felt any danger or severely hurt myself. I have learned to have great control over the knife, even if it was pointed straight towards my body. 
     Now you ask why I am telling you this... cause my daughter is 10. She has not been made to cook entire meals on her own, we do them together. I am over protective as a mother and at the same time, I try teach her to do everything on her own. Using a knife, I realized lately, is not one of those skills I have let her practice much on her own. I have always hovered over her, tell her what to do, what not to do. 'Don't hold it like that', 'Never cut straight towards your body.' Everything my parents have told me or told me not to do over the years, (and I ignored) has come out of my mouth. I need to let go of the control and just let her learn on her own. But, GOODNESS, it is scary! 
     Why wouldn't she do things like me? I am her model. Everything she knows, she has learned by watching me. We do not spend a lot of time apart. My little shadow, my mini me. I love this. I need to break this. Sometimes, I feel like she is not as independent as she should be. She does not venture out much on her own, preferring to have me close. I am very independent. My mini me, not so much. I need to break this by allowing and encouraging her to go out and do more on her own with out mommy hovering over her every step when she is completing what I feel is a dangerous task. 
     So when she asked if she could cut a pumpkin we harvested yesterday to get the seeds out, I said yes. I sat back and took photos while she cut the top off of the pumpkin and TRIED not to tell her to 'do it like this' and 'don't do it like that.' She has watched me her whole life. She knows what she is doing, but GOODNESS, it is scary! My daughter has my technique... 

     

      I'll just pray she develops my control. At this point, I think I need to issue an apology to my parents for freaking them out all those years, and a thank you to them for allowing me to learn to become independent. Love you guys! 

Update On Landscape Garden- The Mystery Plants

 

      Edible landscape is a gardening technique we tried out this year. In the front yard, I planted 3 little mystery plants that had fallen out of the egg container and away from their labels. 
     At the time, they were just little balls of dirt that had not seeded yet. I was not sure what they were, and decided to name them my 'Mystery Plants.' My choices they could be were watermelon, cantaloupe, squash, and cucumbers. Either way,  aesthetically, I love the lovely green plants and yellowy/orange blossoms of all of these plants. Win, win right?
     I planted them in our little front yard, around our flowering Bradford Pear tree, thinking the flower bed would resemble having elephant ears in a way, circling our tree. I imagined after they grew and produced fruit, we would just go out and pick what we needed. A beautiful landscape with the added benefit of harvesting it's production. Ahhh.. daydreams... 

     The reality of it, I no longer have a front yard. The pretty little setting above, quickly turned into the monster below...

     So what is this 'Mystery Plant?' Well, if you are an experienced gardener, you might have already figured it out. Maybe, I should have figured it out as well. However, every time it started to fruit, there would be wrinkly little yellowish balls on it that would quickly die out. Hmmm... maybe cantalope? I was really hoping for cantalope or maybe zucchini. I posted pictures of it in gardening groups asking, 'What is it?' No one had an answer for me. I was told to just wait and see.

      In the mean time, my 3 little plants started to take over the front yard. And while they were lovely, I was not expecting to have to pick up they 10ft vines so my son could mow around them either.

So what is this mystery plant? 

Pumpkins... Pumpkins? Are you serious? 

     Not that pumpkins are bad, just was not expecting these plants to be pumpkins. Yes, I seeded out pumpkins, but I thought they were part of the regular garden that died out after the freak end of May freeze. I am a little disappointed. We do not eat any pumpkin products except for the seeds. We LOVE pumpkin seeds, but I was wanting something I could feed my family with a little more. We eat pumpkin pie only once a year at Thanksgiving and we are not big 'pumpkin flavored' fans. 

     At first, only 6 pumpkins grew from the 3 plants. I guess that was okay. Then we got cooler weather and lots of rain. Now we have nearly 20 pumpkins growing. We have decided to keep a few and try selling the rest. 

     We harvested the first 6 this week. It took a hack saw to get them off the vine. We were told to leave them on but one started to rot. Never smelled something so foul in my life! We cut it in half to see if the seeds were salvageable. HUGE mistake! PEE YEW!

     So what will we do with the pumpkins we harvested? Storage is going to be an issue. I have no pantry, cellar, or any cool dark, dry place to store them. Right now they are on the living room floor. 

     My daughter could not wait for seeds and decided to cut one open so she could roast pumpkin seeds for a snack. Our pig also got a snack. He was very grateful. My neighbors were over while she was carving the pumpkin. While we sat on the porch watching her, my husband and our company talked about how much they love pumpkin pie. How wonderful it must taste fresh! Really? Okay, Google how to make homemade pumpkin puree and pie filling. Maybe I will be able to feed my family from this unexpected bountiful harvest after all! Maybe I will even try my hand at making pumpkin bread.... Maybe... 

So let's make a list of all I can do with my 'Mystery Edible Garden.'

1. Pumpkin seeds to eat
2. Pumpkin seeds to put back to grow for next year
3. Feed the animals (natural dewormer in pigs)
4. Less gas used mowing front yard
5. Make pumpkin puree for baking pies and bread
6. Sell extras for a little profit
7. Halloween Jack O'Lanterns that will save me $10 this fall

Not bad! (Even with it taking over our yard!) 

Edible Landscape

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     I've been seeing a lot of posts about 'Grow Gardens, Not Lawns.' This year I decided I would try my hand at it. I have ran into a few problems, but all in all, I am pleased. I chose a couple of beds that were already in my yard and planted herbs and veggies. 

     This one only worked out 1/2 okay. Originally, we planted dill on one side of our peach tree and carrots and spinach on the other. A little gopher/mole type thing decided we had planted it for him, and ate all of the spinach and carrots. (Insert sad face here) He never touched the dill and drowned in a bowl of water about a week later. Too late for our poor carrots and spinach. I can't wait to harvest my dill and then I will try again with the lettuce and spinach for the cooler months. Not sure if I will ever try carrots again though.. I've never had any luck. 

     This is as much of our container gardening/recycle project just as much as edible landscape. I found an old tractor rim with the center cut out at my mom's house that was abandoned by my brother in law. I loved finding it! It was pretty heavy but I managed to get it in the back of my truck all by myself. My daughter and I planted a few sweet onions, lettuce and wild onions in it. Then after the gopher/mole thing ate my other spinach, we planted spinach in it as well. The lettuce has done better here than anywhere else, but the spinach, not too well. There is also a redbud tree growing in it. It is a temporary home till we decide where we want to put it. Might not be too bad there though. 

     In our front yard we have a 'mystery' plant growing! It is a mystery because my seedlings got dumped over and mixed up before they were able to be planted. The leaves and blooms are huge but the fruit is not producing well. The only ones that even started to grow died out before I could tell what they were. I thought it was zucchini but the fruit looked like little round balls. This is the area of the front yard that scored very high in our 'Soil Sample' project. Maybe it just needs some more time. There has also been a lack of bees in our yard this year, even with the flowering privet trees. Could that be why the flowers are not forming fruit? Also in the photo are my little flower pots with cilantro, spinach and lettuce in them. 

     There is another bed around a tree that I started asparagus in but it a new growth and photos do not turn out well. The plant is thin a wispy looking. Hard to see what you are looking at.   

   Well, that concludes my edible landscape. I know it is not much, but its a start. I love this idea along with container gardening. However, I am determined NOT to buy any containers to grow in. Recycle, Reuse, Re-purpose is our motto!  I would love to hear about and see your edible landscape! One day, I hope to have so many containers, my place looks like this :) 

https://www.facebook.com/GrowFoodNotLawns

http://theselfsufficientliving.com/vegetables-that-grow-well-in-a-container-or-pots/

Disclosure: This post contains no affiliate links, however, I am Amazon Affiliate and may receive a small compensation for including links on my blog. Buying through my links is not necessary, just appreciated. Amazon does not charge extra for linked items recommended by their affiliates.  I only recommend products that I use and trust OR plan on using in the future. Please buy responsibly and do your own product research before buying anything online.