Spring has Sprung!!

Hello there!  It has been a long time since I wrote on here.  It has to do with preparation for Spring!  I spent much of the winter reading voraciously about how to get our garden going.  I spent a lot of time on Pinterest learning how to do it inexpensively as well. 

I also got to meet an author of Backyard Homesteading!  http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/backyard-homesteading-dave-toht/1101007305?ean=9781580115216&itm=2&usri=backyard+homesteading  He is from our local community and he even signed my book.  Too cool!  The book is really well written and there are a lot of pictures too.  Love that! 

So, as I was asked for an update from my niece on my gardening, I decided I would!  I am posting a few pictures too.  As you can see, we are learning that things don't have to be perfect before we start!  That is a huge lesson to learn!  If you wait for everything to be perfect...YOU WILL NEVER START!  So just start somewhere and let nature take its course. 


Here is my update:  Our chickens have completely prepared our new raised bed area.  They are hard to see, but they are on the right of this picture.  This weekend we will be moving them to a new scratching area and then framing the bed and getting some soil.  It will be lovely and full of manure, but only under the soil, so eventually the soil will eat up all the manure and straw. 

We are working on getting rid of all the grass between our beds.  We will probably put cardboard down and then cover with wood chips from our apple tree that split in two during the ice storm.  Yes, some of the chips will be saved for smoking too.  I heard that apple woodchips are lovely for smoking meat and such. 

Our worm bins are CRAZY-full of worms!!  I dug all the way to the bottom of one and couldn't find anywhere where there was a scoop without worms!  I think I am going to need to share some soon so that they don't get over-crowded.  My other worm bin is just starting, so I can probably put some in there though too. 

So far we have planted a full bed of potatoes of different varieties.  It is the first time that we have planted potatoes, but we had a lot of organic potatoes from the store that sprouted so we thought, what the heck?!  We put them in at a good time too because it was a beautiful weekend and then it has rained since then, so we haven't had to worry about watering. 

I also grew a celery plant from the bottom of an organic celery that I bought at the store.  I started it in water and now have transplanted it to some soil and worm castings.  It is very happy.  I lost the other one that I tried.  The trick is to take it out of the water and put it in soil before it starts getting gooey. 

We also started a lot of seeds...I think on this, we have done what every new gardener does.  We believed them when they said to grow extra because you are going to lose some.  Well, we did lose maybe ONE.  That has left us with...hmmm...I think 18 cherry tomato plants, 18 Roma tomato plants, 18 cutting tomato plants, 18 regular cucumber plants and 18 pickling cucumber plants.  Oh yeah and I forgot to mention that we planted 18 pepper plants...they didn't come up as quickly as the others, so we planted 18 more.  Holy Smokes!!  I think we will be able to off them to our friends and family.  Part of me says that I should just have the chickens make me a long bed and I should just plant them all.  Then we would have a serious jungle!!  (This is only part of them!)

Anyway, we have repotted about half of those in a mixture of worm castings and soil.  Need to do the rest this weekend.  You have to understand that we have a very small home that doesn't have a lot of growing area inside, so I am resorting to leaving two lights on in my laundry room to make sure they are getting enough light.  Not so good on the electric bill.  Will have to figure out a better way next year.  I have found some really good, inexpensive ideas on Pinterest. You can see my Organic Gardening board here if you are interested:   http://pinterest.com/pegathea/organic-gardening/

Let's see, what else?  We have decided that we are no longer going to buy ice cream from the store.  The only ice cream we can have is what we make!  We decided to go with and electric ice cream maker...maybe one day we will go with the hand cranker...anyway, tonight is the first night we are going to make some.  Tonight it is organic strawberry!  It is not quite done.  I took a taste and it tastes heavenly!  We are going to have a get together here in a couple weeks, and we are hoping to make ice cream for it.  Doesn't that sound great?  Maybe we could have an ice cream making party sometime soon too! 

...Later...the ice cream was lovely!!  We found that a little bit goes a long way!  And the strawberry chunks are a bit hard on the teeth.  Probably next time we will just puree them. 

That's all for now.  I hope you are enjoying your Spring so far.  Love to all.