Wednesday, July 29, 2020

Be a Seed Saver


*This post was written a few weeks back and with all of life's happenings, I totally forgot about this post....Oops!
**I grow heirloom varieties only.

A bit of my Saturday was spent collecting seeds from the radish pods that were allowed to dry in the driveway for a few weeks.
Last week I spoke about seed collecting as being an exciting part of gardening and how summer is the height of gardening season, and just knowing that you grew something that will nourish your body, and help ease your grocery budget.

Another financial ease is seed collecting and if you grow your own food, you should at least consider saving seeds. It would be great if you could save seeds from everything you grow, but if you can't that's okay, but try to save seeds from a few of your favorite things to grow, and then add to your seed collecting over the time.

Tomato seeds were the first seeds that I ever saved in my first years of gardening--mainly because that's the only thing I ever grew in my garden, my first two years as a gardener. I guess you could say, I was the female, Benjamin Buford Blue--Bubba, of Forrest Gump fame. Not only did I use tomatoes in a variety of dishes, I tried to grow a plethora of them: yellow ones, cherry tomatoes, paste or Roma, and I can't forget Cherokee Purple- such a beautiful tomato. These were the mainstays in the garden, and others would come along overtime.

Growing my own tomatoes and tasting the incredible deliciousness of homegrown tomatoes convinced me to always grow tomatoes in my garden for years to come, and in order to save some money when it came to seeds, I would need to start seed saving. Of course, every now and then there's a new tomato variety I might want to try, so I'm okay with spending a little money here and there.

Saving tomato seeds is a pretty easy task and collecting radish seeds are, too---it's fun, they germinate better,and saves us gardeners money, too!







#agreenhaven, #growfood, #saveseeds, #backyardgardener,#tomatoes, #budgetgardener, #radishes




Thursday, July 16, 2020

The Height of Gardening Season

*There are no photos or pictures in this post, just my thoughts and words.

The joys of midsummer for this gardener are: seeing the abundance of crops that I've invested my time and energy into become a source of nutrition for me and my family, and if I have enough, friends and neighbors as well.....preparing new compost bins/piles for the fall garden, collecting seeds and making wish lists for seeds that I would like to order from my favorite catalogs or shops. All of these things make midsummer so special to me: its the height of gardening season--- growth, harvest time and planning all wrapped up into one season!

As a gardener, what thing(s) do you love most about this time of year? 



#growfood, #harvest, #gardening

Thursday, July 2, 2020

Before the Rain

Picked two carrots for a salad before the rain came in today.

Saturday, June 27, 2020

Corn Is Coming In


Corn and zucchini plants are coming along, even have a few
ears--eight to be precise.

Here's another angle from my yard. As you can tell some of the corn is a lot shorter than others, that's because some corn became stunted and died off early on and my daughter and I had to plant more.

We also had to tie one of the stalks up with a grocery bag around a stick for some extra support---we've been experiencing some very windy and wet weather, lately. Hopefully, staking those particular plants for a bit can eventually make them stronger and no more staking will be needed.

The corn is a real headturner;my children and I have noticed several cars slow down to look or point at the corn. Now, people could be geniuely happy to the corn in the yard, and I'm sure there might be some that don't think corn should be out front like that---but guess what....I don't care...I feel it's neatly placed and besides, I can't grow it in my partially shaded backyard, as well as the front. 

Until next time my gardening friends....keep growing and happy gardening!

#corn, #growfood, #organicgardener, #agreenhaven 

Monday, June 22, 2020

Quote of the Week


There are no gardening mistakes, only experiments.

                   

                      - Janet Kilburn Phillips



Friday, June 12, 2020

Compost: Two's a Great Start

My two bins of compost have been producing some fantastic compost for the garden; I'm really impressed with how much compost I've been able to produce this year.
Last year, I only used one bin and that definitely wasn't enough to maintain my midsize garden.

As a former open composter-it's still my favorite way to compost;however, where I live now I don't have the space in my backyard to compost like that anymore. So, since bins are the only way I can make compost, I can honestly recommend two large bins for a small to midsize garden to make your compost in. 
Happy Gardening!!

P.S. Don't forget to put holes in your bins for drainage. Sometimes a rain shower might sneak up on you and you might have to tilt the bins to get the water out. If you don't mind tilting the bins then don't worry about adding the holes. 



#agreenhaven 
#composting
#growfood 

Monday, June 8, 2020

Quote of the Week

No matter where you are, you can grow something to eat. Shift your thinking and you'd be surprised at the places your food can be grown! Windowsill, fire escape and rooftop gardens have the same potential to provide impressive harvests as backyard gardens, greenhouses and community spaces.

                                 --Greg Peterson,
                    Grow Wherever You Go!
                    Discovering the Place
                     Where Your Garden
                                Lives, 2009





#gardenquotes
#Greg Peterson 
#growfood