Posted in Homestead Garden and Farm

With costs for food, fuel, and just about everything it seems, on the rise, growing our own food becomes an even more important part of my family's attempt at frugal living.  I LOVE gardening, but also realize that it can be an expensive, though fruitful, venture if I don't make an effort to do things the frugal way.

This site has lots of ideas for saving money while you garden.  I especially like the tips for using vinegar in the garden.  Vinegar is a must around my home for cleaning, laundry, cooking, etc.  Now it also belongs in the garden!

If any of you have great frugal gardening tips, please share them!

Blessings,

Catherine

Posted in Homestead Garden and Farm

Posted in Homestead Garden and Farm

Have you seen those neat container gardening boxes called Earthboxes?  This weekend we stopped by a nursery just to look around and they had a display of Earthboxes for sale.  At $49.95 , they are just a tad  bit out of my price range!

Container gardening is something I really enjoy- no weeding, less work preparing, and you can "take it with you" when you move (which for my family has been quite often).  So, I thought some of these Earthboxes might be just the thing...well, until I saw the price! 

I showed them to my husband (who builds and designs things for a living) and told him I would like him to design some for me .  Today I did an internet search and found this site with plans and photos of some homemade Earthboxes!  Not as pretty as those at the garden center, but perhaps my husband can make me some that are pretty as well as functional .  I'll let you know what happens there, but be sure to check out the "do it yourself" plans if you think Earthboxes might be for you!  If any of you have plans or ideas for container gardening, be sure to share them.  I'm always on the lookout for new ways to grow!

Blessings,

Catherine

Posted in Homestead Garden and Farm

at the Homestead Carnival .  Pop on over to see some lovely flowers and find lots of great entries to read!  And, if you haven't participated before, plan to do so soon, the Carnival is a great way to share your tips and tales with others .

 

Blessings,

Catherine

Posted in Homestead Garden and Farm

Hello there!  I'm back online after our move, and getting settled into our new nest little by little. 

Good news in the gardening area- we got our garden planted last week!  Bad news- a series of storms came thru on Friday dumping golfball-sized hail on it .  Amazingly, it seems to have survived for the most part, only time will tell.

With all this moving, and other "stuff" going on around here, I've just not had the brain power for blogging  lately.  So, I'm asking my friends and fellow gardeners and farmers to help me out a bit.  Please share some of your favorite gardening tips with us.  Blog about them and then leave a comment here so we can check them out (someday maybe I'll figure out that Mr. Linky thing, or some kind soul will help me out ). 

My best gardening tip of all is prepare your soil.  To get good crops, you need good soil.

We are growing in some very sandy soil, that I honestly didn't prepare as I normally would.  See, not even following my own advice!  Time and money are both in short supply, and my dh said "just plant it"....we'll see what happens .   Everything is an adventure these days!  I did put some organic fertilizer in each little planting hole and will topdress this week with some compost. 

Another tip is only water the plants you want to grow.  Yes, this means more work for you when watering the garden, but you'll spend less time weeding it . 

One last thought, check out those "weeds" growing around the homestead, some of them might be very nutritious and useful!  I learned recently that both nettle and chickweed are very helpful weeds to have around.  Really!  I haven't located any nettle as of yet, but I did find a lovely spot of chickweed and made a great chickweed salve.  That's one weed that I won't mind giving a little drink now and then .

OK, time for this gardener to get busy, hope your week is filled with planting, plucking, and pleasant pursuits!

Blessings,

Catherine Love

Posted in Homestead Garden and Farm

As the snow is starting to disappear, our thoughts start wandering to gardening. We found two interesting ideas this week. The first, a concept called “Earth Box”, is similar to our raised beds, but has built in water reservoirs. A very neat concept in arid conditions, or poor soil conditions.

Thoughts on Gardening

Click on the link above and watch this great video.

The link below is to step by step instuctions for earth boxes.

Tutorial

 

Grandma Rosie 

Posted in Homestead Garden and Farm

Grandma Rosie has an excellent post on growing potatoes this morning.   I plan to try this one myself!

Hope everyone has a great gardening week! 

Our move is set for this weekend after almost an entire month of delays.  I'll be offline for at least the rest of this week, but will be back soon to see what all of you have been growing.

 

Blessings,

Catherine

Posted in Homestead Garden and Farm

Just popping in briefly to wish everyone a belated Happy Spring and a Happy Easter!  Yes, I'm a bit late for both , BUT Spring is still in full bloom, and as a Christian, I believe we should celebrate the resurrection daily . 

I'm seeing more and more gardening posts, and I am so glad to see so many of you digging in and getting things growing.  I have 2 trays of seedlings just getting started and lots of seeds to plant as soon as I have a garden dug at our new home.  Hopefully that will be next week!

This weekend we purchased a grape vine and a few strawberries to plant in keeping with our family Easter tradition.  We plant something new each Easter in celebration of the Life of Jesus and our own new life in Him.   Both the grapes and strawberries will be container grown at least this season, which brings me to a little "gripe"......

Have you noticed that virtually all of the bagged planting mixes have fertilizer already in them???  Why do people have to mess with everything these days?  Maybe I'm just being silly, but I really don't need someone to add my fertilizer for me.  

I did finally manage to find a bag that contains "organic" fertilizer, which is better than the other option.  But still, I really prefer to add my own organic fertilizer when I feel the need, and be able to control the amount used , AND know exactly what kind of "organic" nutrients I am using.   I'm not sure that my idea of organic is the same as some of these big companies'. 

OK, I'm done complaining, and I know there are folks who enjoy this convenience.   I'll just go back to mixing my own planting mix as soon as I have a place to keep it.

Here is the basic formula I use:

1/3 blended compost

1/3 peat moss

1/3 coarse vermiculite

This is the soil mix Mel Bartholomew suggests in Square Foot Gardening.  I've had good results using this mix, though I sometimes add a bit more  compost so it won't dry out quite so quick in the Texas heat.  

I buy the large square bale of peat, several bags of compost (if I don't have a compost pile going), and a large bag of vermiculite (or several small ones, because the big ones are tricky to find).  I put my soil mix in a large plastic garbage can.  It is easy to store and you can drag your "can of soil" over to the garden or planting area easily when you need to add planting mix. 

If anyone has a favorite soil mix formula, please share it with us, too .

Happy Gardening,

Catherine

Posted in Homestead Garden and Farm

If you're looking at all those garden catalogs and wondering if you can get better quality plants for your garden at better prices, you can. I've written an article at my blog with some great resources for fruit and veggie plants. You can find the article here.

Have fun planning & planting!

Kristin Hoffman homesteads with her family in the hills of East Tennessee and blogs about alternative energy, family farming, and home schooling with her husband at www.solarfamilyfarm.com. She can also be found feverishly weeding the strawberry plants that survived last year's drought and dreaming about strawberry preserves, strawberry shortcake, strawberries and cream....

Posted in Homestead Garden and Farm

Hi guys!  Just popping in here for a moment to share this idea with you .  Seed balls - we are definitely making some of these!  These will be great fun to make, and then scatter in bare spots that need a little "life" added to them .

I saw this on what may become one of my favorite sites- tipnut.com . 

OK, back to packing and preparing to move.  See you in a few days!

Blessings,

Catherine

Posted in Homestead Garden and Farm

It is time in my area to get things cleaned up and cleared out in the garden.  Time to trim any dead branches, pull up and plants that didn't survive the winter, cut back the roses, and shape up any perennials that have overgrown their boundaries.

It is also time to refresh the planting beds by adding a few inches of compost, and adding fresh mulch around trees and to flower and herb beds. 

The Spring gardening season will soon be here, so take some time to do a little Spring Cleaning now. 

Speaking of new seasons, our family will be moving sometime within the next week or two.  I'll be back online once we get moved in to our new place and jump back in here on the Front Porch as soon as possible.   Until then....

Garden Blessings,

Catherine

Posted in Homestead Garden and Farm

Spring is in the air in my area .  The daffodils are beginning to bloom, and the wrens have returned to the gourd birdhouse outside my kitchen window.   I'm sure there's at least one last cold snap in store for us; but I'm ready to get things growing! 

How about you?  Have you started seeds yet?  Anyone have their garden beds prepared and ready?  Seeds and transplants ordered? 

I am planning to order a few seeds from Seed Savers Exchange today.   For those of you interested in heirloom vegetables, be sure to check their website and order a catalog.  It is beautiful to look at, and will certainly have some things you simply "must grow" this year . 

What is on your "must have" list for this season???  I have quite a few things... Cherry Roma Tomato , Painted Lady Runner Bean , and Eden's Gem Melon , are 3 I've chosen from Seed Savers Exchange. 

My family is praying about starting a community garden project in the near future.  Anyone with experience in this area, please share any tips or words of wisdom you have with us! 

Garden Blessings,

Catherine