Homestead Acres » garden

Thinking About The Gardening Season To Come & Testing My New Camera

Kim — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 02:02:03 +0000

I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about our garden lately. I guess the spring bug has bit me! LOL While I’m still deciding what to grow and what variety’s I will try this year, my main thoughts are on how to make the work load easier. The last normal garden season I remember was about 6 years ago. Each summer since then has been “extreme” in some way. We have had very hot summers with no rain, cold and dry summers, summers that were hot and heavy rains leading to the gardens flooding. It’s hard to know what variety’s to plant some times! I’ve lived all my life in the same growing zone and until these past few years I have not had so much trouble in the gardens.

This coming year we are going to start using a living mulch system. I posted some videos in our forum last fall about these. Basically to start we will be using black plastic mulch in the planting rows. In between them we are planing a mix of red and white clover and alfalfa. As this grows through the season it will be cut and let to compost in place. This should provide cover for many beneficial insects and feed the soil steadily through the season.

I filmed this video yesterday with my new camera, it was a Christmas gift. I love it! The video is coming out very well! Sorry for it showing so small, I had a setting wrong in the video editor. I think I have it ok now.

The weather has been so nice, truly a very mild winter for our area! Maybe that’s why the gardening bug is biting eh? The winter storm I mentioned in the video so far has not been much. Last night we had a little rain, a few snow flurries this afternoon and now more rain. It’s funny what the weathermen are calling storms this year!

Tomato Forest, Chickens and Egg Yolk Tomatoes

Kim — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 16:07:46 +0000

I just realized that although I was making videos this summer for YouTube, many I had forgotten to post over here! I’ll be re posting them although a bit late. I often look back at my garden videos in the late winter, they serve partly as a garden journal for me.

This summer was the first in a long time that we did not have chickens. The last of our old hens had passed away. They left behind an empty but well manured out door pen. What a surprise I had when I noticed that we had a “forest” of tomatoes growing in there! All the seeds left behind from their favorite scraps were growing nicely. This first vid was in early August.

A few weeks ago the tomatoes finally started to produce. They turned out to be yellow cherry tomatoes, funny thing is the variety is Egg Yolk! Yes my chickens left me a harvest of Egg Yolk tomatoes!!! LOL!

Garden Update July 14 2011

Kim — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 16:32:40 +0000

Oops late getting this one up! Everyone is moving slow in this hot weather. lol Slowly getting caught up on the weeds in the garden.

Garden Update May 17 2011

Kim — Tue, 17 May 2011 16:28:41 +0000

A bit late getting this one up. We are still getting a lot of rain here, really slowing down the gardeners and farmers.

Garden Update May 2 2011

Kim — Mon, 02 May 2011 16:19:00 +0000

Update on whats growing around the homestead. Still 4 weeks until our frost free date and the weather is rainy and cold.

Finally Getting The Gardens Started!

Kim — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 04:25:38 +0000

It’s been a cold wet spring so far. We’ve been lucky to get a few nice warm days, but they are followed with a week or more of cold temperatures and rain/snow. Thankfully it’s been about a week or so since we’ve seen any snow!

This past weekend we were able to get some work in the gardens done. The raised beds have been turned over. I’ve planted garlic and onions in half of one. Also started some spinach in another. It’s far to cold to start anything else in the garden yet. Although we are hoping to get our new pea trellis up soon! Then they can be planted. We found the trellis we used last year was far to short for this variety. Most pea plants I’ve grown only went 2 to 3 feet tall. But this Laxtons Progress peas we’ve been growing the last few years, wow do they grow! Last year they went up a 4 foot trellis, over the top and down to the ground again. The problem was the vines would rub on the top of the chicken wire and break. I’m hoping that a taller trellis will fix that.

In the greenhouse I’ve started some of our seeds. So far cabbage, broccoli, celery, basil, parsley, catnip, sage, thyme and some green peppers. Also a flat of Hinze paste tomatoes, and another flat of tomatoes that are a mixture of types. I can’t remember all the names right now, but they are mentioned in the video below.

I’m hoping the weather clears up so I can get back out to the greenhouse and finish starting my seeds!

Save 10% Off Holiday gift Cards at Burpee!

Kim — Sun, 21 Nov 2010 11:08:31 +0000

Do you have gardeners on your Christmas list this year? All gardeners are different, some love to grow heirlooms others are into giant plants or maybe flowers are their thing.

If you have a gardener on your list maybe consider getting them gift cards so they can buy the special plant when the growing conditions are just right. Burpee is having a 10% off sale on all gift cards until Nov. 30th.

Use the coupon code below!

10% OFF Holiday Gift Cards at Burpee.com, now through November 30th when you enter code GCARD10 at checkout!

Summer Has Flown Bye!

Kim — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 20:19:22 +0000

I can’t believe that it is September 1st already! This summer seems to have flown bye so quickly. In some ways it wasn’t quite the summer I had thought it would be. The year started off with heat waves in March, sooo not normal for us. Early summer was very dry, with gardens needing to be watered almost daily. Then the rains started… And seemed never ending for much of the summer. I think I lost count on how many times our gardens were flooded. We lost some things, like the new potato patch and 100 or so tomato plants and others were stunted. But other things did quite well! The huckleberries are loaded with fruit, potatoes in the dryer gardens have done nicely. Despite the squash bugs, the zucchinis yielded very well to.

I’m still working canning my way through the garden. We should be digging up the potatoes for storage in another week or two. I really am looking forward to Fall and Winter! I’m ready for a quieter time of year.

I haven’t been on here much lately. In between the gardens and canning, I’ve been reorganizing the house. Sorting, packing and purging. And lots of school lesson plans to! I’ll share a little about them latter.

Garden Update Aug 26

Kim — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 14:36:25 +0000

Well I’m finally feeling pretty much better. I’ve talked to a few people hit by this virus. Its a nasty one. Anyway now I’m playing catch up with the garden.
Harvested the onions today, yesterday (forgot to post last night lol). Then laid them out to dry. They will need a few days to harden the skins well. After that they can be safely stored in the cellar.
Then I started working on the tomatoes. I lost some that got over ripe and split. But they’ll make good chicken feed. Still ended up with lots of tomatoes. There are still green ones out there to.
I guess I’ll be starting more sauce tomorrow! Also going to dehydrate some.

Garden Update Aug 4 2010

Kim — Sat, 07 Aug 2010 04:27:39 +0000

I haven’t posted a garden update vid in a while. We’ve been getting almost non stop rain. So some things like our new potato patch rotted, other things like the cucumbers are doing well.

Don’t mind the weeds. With all the rain the ground is so soft you can’t till it and the hoe just gum’s up with mud. I’ve been hand weeding when I can between rainy patches. But most of my time is held up canning right now.