Trying to be like the original example of a homesteading woman:
"She's up before dawn, preparing breakfast for her family, and organizing her day. She looks over a field and buys it, then, with money she's put aside, plants a garden." Proverbs 31:15-16 (The Message)
Is anyone out there in the Upper South or Mid-Atlantic states prepping a fall/winter garden. I've been searching seed sites and I think I'm going to try some garlic, Shvelisi (Chesnok Red) Hardneck Garlic from Seed Savers, in the winter garden. I'm looking at putting in some Buttercrunch lettuce and spinach in a cold frame. I'm also gonna spend a little time the rest of the week prepping another bed of peas...hoping for a last minute crop. I never tasted fresh peas before this season and I don't want to go back to canned if I can help it.
Any other suggestions for the winter garden or the cold frame. We're not very adventurous with lettuce. I'm about the only one who likes a little bite to my salad.
We're still getting okra from the garden. I've made my own cornmeal batter and they're better than any I've tasted at a restaurant. If we get a few more cool nights I might be able to start bringing in the pie pumpkins and the buttercup squash. The spaghetti squash has been a big hit with the chickens...but I haven't found a way to prepare it that the family likes. My son told me he only ate the casserole I made so he didn't hurt my feelings. I guess I'm going to set it all aside for the hens if I can't come up with a more creative (and tasty) way to serve it. My dear husband said the flavor was good, but the texture was odd. Suggestions? And of course, the tomatoes are going strong. I will have more than enough to can again in about a week.
Tonight's menu is:
Leftover brisket (from my dear son's 18th birthday party yesterday~~my husband is a wonder with a smoker grill!!)
Some homemade slaw
Sliced cucumbers
Sliced tomatoes, garden fresh
Maybe a bit of corn, if I can salvage any off the remaining stalks from our first planting
To drink...Sweet Tea, of course~~what else can a girl born in Mississippi and raised by a mother from South Carolina serve her family??? Although only my daughters (they get email updates of the blog) will know ahead of time that I'm starting to experiment with Stevia and will be gradually blending it with less and less sugar until maybe we'll be able to eliminate the sugar all together.
Dessert is leftover cake: German Chocolate Cake & Old-Fashioned Chocolate Layer Cake.
I'll post pictures & recipes of the cakes when my camera batteries finish charging.
I am an early start gardener. I have repurposed the beautiful oak and walnut changing table my father made for my grandson and have turned it into a seed growing table. I have plastic bins to protect it and I'm using a lamp with a strong bulb to give light to the seedlings. A grow light is in progress - I've bought the hardware and the bulbs. We just need to make a support to put the light fixture on.
Here is my journey from seed packets to produce so far:
February 12: All the echinacea plants are up. I've got more peat pots to transplant the rest of my lemon basil. My lavender still has not sprouted. Patience, Patty! The seed envelope said 14-28 days. This is just day 15. I put a small space heater on the dryer with the lavender pots to use during the day to help the lavender think its spring. ;->
February 7: All of the tomato pots have seedlings popping up. 2
echinacea seedlings are peeping out. I transplanted all but the last of
the lemon basil...I ran out of peat pots and with the snow coming down,
I didn't think it was a priority.
Hurray!!!
My dh got the grow light installed over the seed starting table. It's
adjustable so I can keep it 6 inches above the plants to give them the
maximum exposure they need to grow well indoors.
February 5: The Sweet 100 Hybrid cherry tomatoes are up!! I bought a downloadable book from The Old Schoolhouse Store: Momma's Guide to Growing Your Groceries by Kimberly Eddy.
She has a great tip for putting your heat loving plants in the garden
earlier. She says to make cloche's from gallon milk jugs (well washed!)
with the bottom cut off and the lid left off.
I love to reuse
items rather than throw them out. I'm already saving the occasional
2-liter plastic pop bottles to use for watering my heavy water using
plants like watermelons and squashes. I'm ordering nifty little "Aqua
Spikes" ($7.95 for 4) from the Gardening with Kids catalog from the
National Gardening Association. You just cut the bottom of the pop
bottles off, screw the Aqua Spike onto the top, place in the ground
next to the thirsty plant, and fill it with water. It also helps
control diseases spread by top watering.
February 2: I replenished the seed starting tray with peat disks last
night and put water in them to prep for planting. Today I planted all
12 disks with Echinacea (Purple Coneflower), 2 seeds per disk.
February 1: I transplanted some of the basil to individual peat pots -
only the ones that had a single plant come up in the starter disk. I
divided a starter disk of chives into three peat pots. I am not going
to transplant any more until I see how these survive. I hate to chop
off little seedlings when I thin my pots. I'm hoping to get a plant
from every seed that sprouts.
January 30: I grabbed some peat pots (10 cells per pot) and some
organic seed starting mix. I planted tomatoes seeds from my Burpee
order today. Super Sweet 100 Hybrid (cherry tomatoes) - 10 cells Golden Mama (yellow paste tomatoes) - 10 cells Big Mama Hybrid (red paste tomatoes) - 10 cells Organic Beefsteak (large slicing tomatoes) - 10 cells Tomatillo (Physalis ixocarpa) for salsa - 5 cells Salsa Delight Hybrid Pepper (mild hot peppers) - 5 cells
My grandson brought in a pine cone a few days ago. We gathered seeds
from the family room carpet and I planted 6 small pots with the seeds.
We'll see how they grow. I've never planted pine trees from seeds.
January 29: I've washed and sterilized planting pots I've been saving
to get ready to transplant the seedlings. I also bought some more peat
pellets, but these aren't Jiffy brand and don't fit in the seed
starting tray. I cleaned a tray and put all 20 pellets and planted some
True Lavender (Lavendula angustifolia). I want to line my front walk
with lavender. I've had great success with three plants in a planter
next to the house. They're three years old and huge.
January 23: The chives are so tall I had to remove the tray lid. I
boosted the tray up to within 6 inches of the light to avoid damping
off disease. The little basil plants are doing well. I've moved the
tray to the changing table.
January 18: The seeds are up! The chives are the quicker growers,
already an inch high. The basil is just starting to show green. I've
put the lamp over it.
January 13: I bought a little Jiffy seed starting tray last night. I also got some seeds: Lemon & Cinnamon Basil and Garlic Chives (Allium Tuberosum). Today I planted 4 peat pellets each. I put the tray on the dryer to give it some extra warmth. Basil likes it hot!
