Month: April 2022

Never thought I’d be one of those homesteading gardeners…but here I am killing it! LOL  

In all seriousness though, there is always more to learn, but I am SO EXCITED!!! I have sprouts coming up!!  If you read the back of a seed packet, it will say “This seed takes XX days to germinate”…well I DON’T CARE!  I was out there almost every day checking to see if anything was poking through the dirt yet. And, finally they have! 🙂

All of the seeds that I sewed directly into the garden have started coming up. Like a mom with a new child, here is a bunch of pics of my new “garden babies”…

There is also some new growth visible on the onion starts that were planted.

Here is where the “I still have room to learn” comes in….  I’ve said it before, I have not had a lot of success starting my seeds in the house and then transplanting them outside. I tried again this year, and I will keep trying until I get it right.

Here are some of the seeds that I started in the house. I’ve been trying to strengthen the stems by blowing a fan on them and rubbing my hands across them, and I’ve also positioned a light very close to the sprouts so they aren’t reaching for light…  But we will see what happens. I’m pretty sure that my brussel sprouts are a lost cause, so I may just direct sew them out in the garden. I’ve done this once before and had some success with it, but it takes so much longer for them to be ready in the fall.

I still have a couple other seeds to get started, like corn and green beans, but those will be coming soon.  We need to get the rest of the rows put in our garden addition, and the fear of frost to go away, and then we will be able to plant the rest.

Then, we sit back….relax….tend….and let God do his work, and we should have quite the bounty in fall!!! 

Let me know you stopped by with a message telling of your favorite veggie dish.

**I’ve found that in order to add a comment, you need to click on the title of the blog article on the right side of the screen. At the bottom of the page you will have a place for comments. Thanks for visiting our site!!!

Finally, I think the weather is taking a turn towards spring. Let’s just hope the last of the cold weather is behind us. After our trip to Florida, I’m ready for it to get warm and stay warm!

Luke and I were able to get outside over the past 2 weeks and get the expansion of the garden fenced in, and I was able to get some of my cold-hardy plants in the ground, like onions, cabbages, lettuce, and spinach. With warm weather planting around the corner, I thought I’d chat a bit about some different gardening styles, and maybe inspire others to “get in the dirt”.  I realize that most of what I grow is centered around edible plants, but these same methods can also be used for flower gardens and landscaping, as well. 

I’m going to try not to get too wordy with this blog post, so please bear with me. LOL

In-Ground Garden: 

This is the most common style of garden. This is a plot of ground that is tilled, worked, and planted directly in the dirt. You have many planting options, and you have the ability to change your garden layout from year to year.

Raised Row Garden:

We use this style of garden at our homestead. There is no tilling involved, which is convenient since we don’t have a tiller. The garden is created by layering compostable materials, both green and brown, into rows directly on top of the ground. Dirt is then placed in a layer on the top of the mound. You plant your seeds and plants in these created rows and add more compost around the plants. This method really does a great job of holding onto moisture for your plants, and since the rows are raised, there is less washout if it is a wet year. Once the rows are established, it is not as easy to change up your planting arrangement.

Container Gardening:

I have touched on this before. You can literally plant in anything! This allows you to be creative, unique and resourceful. Use what you have on hand. You can also build a container to plant in as well. Just plan accordingly. Don’t plant a potato in a coffee mug. Make sure that the size container will allow for adequate growth.

Vertical Gardening:

Don’t have ground space??? Health issues prevent you from bending to work a garden? Plant vertically! You can grow vertically on the side of a fence, hanging on a wall, on a door…any vertical space that gets adequate sunlight. And you can be creative with this as well. You can get a wall planter from the store, or you can create one out of a pallet or even a hanging shoe organizer.  Root vegetables would not necessarily be the best plants for this, but lettuces, spinach, herbs, and tomatoes would all do well.

Hydroponic Gardening:

This style of gardening grows plants in a water solution instead of the ground. I have talked to someone who specializes in hydroponics, and while it is super neat….he said that the water needs to be tested on a regular basis and make sure the appropriate nutrients are added to the circulating water. If you have the desire to do this kind of growing, they sell vertical hydroponic planters, or you could get creative and build your own with PVC pipe and a pump.

Edible Landscape:  

Are you part of a housing development that has HOA and doesn’t allow for a garden? Maybe you are in a town/city and have a very small outdoor space and do not have room for a garden. You can plant edible plants in your landscape. Instead of having flowers planted around your house, put in some vegetable plants. Make use of the space you have.

Greenhouse/Cold Frame/High Tunnel:

These structures can take a bit of space. The biggest benefit of growing in one of these structures is it extends your grow time and allows you to get more out of your plants. You can use any of the above forms of gardening in one of these structures, or a combination of several of them.  If you don’t have the room to put up a big structure, you can start small and make mini-greenhouses out of some windows. 

I hope this has inspired you to be creative. To see that the options for gardening are endless. 

Leave a comment…..I want to see other people’s gardens and plants. Share what worked or didn’t work for you. Show me some creative planting containers.  Thanks for visiting the blog!!!

Sorry this post is being done so late. It was quite the eventful week.
Last Friday at 2 am, the family packed up and we drove to Destin, Florida.
It. Was. Beautiful!!!!
We left home with snow coming down, and arrived in Florida at dinner time with temps in the mid-70’s.

The weekend was spent at a family member’s house. It was a great visit! We haven’t seen them since Thanksgiving, so it was nice to talk with them face to face again. We went on a walk around their neighborhood, had a bonfire, hung out by their pool, and celebrated Luke’s 43rd birthday!!! It was a nice, relaxing weekend.

Sunday afternoon we left their house to head to the Hilton Sandestin Resort, where Luke had a business conference. It was absolutely amazing! The beach was white powder sand, the water was crystal clear…it was perfect! Naturally, while Luke was doing his work thing, the kids and I had fun!!! We played in the pool, sat in the hot tub, walked the beach, tried some interesting restaurants, and just enjoyed the much needed break and down time.

One of the highlights of the trip happened on Tuesday evening. Ella and I wanted to go take a nighttime walk along the beach to see if the storm brought anything to shore. As we were walking, we were taken aback, and concerned that someone had lost a silicon breast implant on the beach!!! As we walked a little further, we kept finding more and more of them…..JELLYFISH! They were so cool!! Ella even touched one and said it was kinda sticky LOL We also found a shark tooth on our walk, which was pretty awesome. The most comical part was that the boardwalks going down to the beach lock at a certain time, and you need your room key to open the gate. Not thinking anything of it, I gave my room key to Luke to head back to the room while Ella and I went on our walk……we got locked outside the gate! Apparently, we weren’t the only ones, and we followed suit and we had to climb over the gate to get back into our resort LOL There is always an adventure! HAHAHA

The extent of anything “homestead” that we did was watch the maintenance crew do some gardening. Watching them only made me wish that the weather would get warm and stay warm, here in Ohio, so I can plant as well. But, I’m still waiting.

I hope you enjoy a couple of the pics we took on vacation.

Let me know you visited the blog…Leave a message with a topic you would like me to write a post about. Have a great week!!!