Seed Starting

I started our seeds on April 1st.  By the 3rd, there were already broccoli popping out of the soil! 

April 1, 2019

I planted 8 broccoli plants.  I wasn't planning on doing any broccoli this year as it only grows okay here, but I figured I would try them in the outer garden and see if they do better there.  I should have room, so a row of broccoli should be no problem to fit in!

I started 16 pepper plants (for both Grandma and I) and so far, nothing has sprouted...  I don't seem to have much luck with peppers, but worst case scenario, I can purchase a couple plants from the local farmers at the Farmers Market when it starts.  They usually have some extras!

I also started 18 tomato plants.  These have almost all sprouted now.  I left the pots only half full so that I could add more soil to get a great root base started - hopefully this will work!

Now the trick will be to get these to grow well (and not too tall - I don't have grow lights, only a patio door) and live long enough to make it to outdoor planting time!  I guess I could always look into covering a raised bed with an arch to make a tunnel.  That may be a good idea as the soil is ready, but the weather is not!

We anticipate a foot or more of snow to fall from tonight through Friday, so winter is going to try to give us one last dose this spring!  Have to love living in Northern Wisconsin!

2019 Garden Plans

My favorite part of spring is starting to plan the gardens.  So full of hope and possibility, even when the garden boxes are still covered in snow!

My Mom came over the other day and we started to plan what seeds I need to start so that we can have items ready to transplant come the end of May.  Some things grow really well at her house (like beets, cabbage and squash) so she is going to grow those for me in exchange for me starting some seeds for her.

Such a great trade, if you ask me!


My plan for this year is as follows:

Onions - small amount - never been able to grow these before so going to give them another try

Snow Peas - small amount - only for fresh eating

Spinach - fresh eating only

Cabbage - Mom to grow two cabbage for me (process to kraut)

Radishes - a very small amount - for fresh eating on salads only

Beets - Mom to grow as many as she can for me.  Then help me can them as my stash is running low.

Potatoes - try to grow a few hills - never tried before!

Leaf Lettuce - fresh eating only

Carrots - grow much less than last year!

Chard - double the amount from last year

Green Beans - grow as much as I possibly can!

Sweet Corn - 1 row in the outer garden

Popcorn - 1 row in the outer garden

Cucumbers - try a direct sew this year - growing enough to make a few quarts of dill and refrigerator pickles is the goal!

Zucchini - 1 plant - fresh eating and shred for quick bread

Summer Squash - 1 plant

Peppers - 1 jalapeno, 2 poblano, 2 orange bell, 2 cali wonder (start seed for Mom too)

Tomatoes - 2 Barry's Crazy Cherry, 1 Mini-Bel (for Great Grandma) 2 Roma/Amish Paste for both Mom and I, 2 German Johnson for both Mom and I

Pumpkins - 1 hill of Mini's, 1 hill of Jack-o-lanterns, 1 hill of Pie


Additional Goals:
Fill in the two open beds with soil

Install Landscape Fabric, Pea Gravel and three long, narrow beds.

Plant raspberries, blueberry bushes and strawberries into the three long narrow beds!

One additional apple tree - Choose from Honeycrisp, Cortland or Wolf River.

Early Morning Beauty in my Garden

We made an offer on a home the other day. 

Last night, we made a counter-offer on that same home.  While I don't know how this will play out, I am confident in our decision and will trust that all is going to happen the way it is supposed to.

July 24, 2014 6:30 AM - Peppers, Tomatoes, Cabbage, Broccoli

The best part about the home we made an offer on is the yard.  Two acres of space to set up a wonderful garden and orchard.  There are many restrictions/covenants on the property regarding what we can and cannot do there, but for the most part, I can do almost everything I would want to (except have a few chickens). 
  

Pole Beans

The worst part about the yard is that we have no way to mow that much land right now - and I am pretty sure it needs to be maintained based on the covenants. We will need to hire someone to mow the rest of this season (unless we can find a decent riding mower for fairly cheap!) and save money over the winter to buy one next spring. Then there is the issue of snow removal - our snowblower could probably do it, but it would take a LONG time. Not something we really have a lot of in the morning before work!
 

Chives and Kale - Color is funny - the Kale really is green, not yellow!

I am looking forward to seeing how our counter-offer is received today. Hopefully, it will be accepted and we can begin to plan for our next chapter. But if the offer is rejected, we will just start to look again and see what else is available. Honestly I am not worried about the situation at all as I know that no matter what, we will find a wonderful place to call home.
 

July 24, 2014 - Early morning sunshine on my happy place.

For the next three weeks, I will enjoy my little home in the center of town and all that it has to offer. We were playing with the kids in the back yard last night and it seemed almost sad that we will be leaving this place. After 10 years of putting our stamp on this 1/3 of an acre, it truly has become a place I love. Seeing the beauty in the backyard this morning made me remember (once again!) that no matter where we end up next, if I can take our current backyard from where it was when we bought the place to how it is now, there isn't anything I can't make beautiful!

Garden Harvest - July 16

We had a great garden harvest last night for this early in the year (Zone 3).

1. Enough garden peas for a meal (blanched and frozen last night)
2. Enough kale for two large pots of soup (blanched and frozen last night)
3. Two cucumbers - which will be sliced and eaten on crackers tonight
4. A few small carrots from thinning out the patch (most were eaten directly in the garden!)
5. Enough beans for two large meals (my absolute favorite summer vegetable!)

I am going to get everything possible out of this garden before August 15 when we have to be out of our house for the closing.  Everything I can get my fingers on will be preserved or eaten.  Of course, the garden looks great this year too - hopefully the new owner will appreciate it. 

Eddie and Libby helped me pick the green beans - Libby picked beans, Eddie picked plants.  I know he wants to help, but it is hard for me to see him pull up an entire plant that is heavy with blossoms, knowing we will not get to eat those beans!  He also tried to pull out my sunflower plant.  Luckily, I stopped him in time!

On a side note, so far my use of grass clippings as mulch to keep down the weeds is working wonderful.  I need to have William save a few more loads to mulch the kale and carrots, now that they are properly thinned.  Should have had him do it last night when he mowed!

I am going to miss my little garden.  But I am going to enjoy creating a new one!

Outside this May Morning - Wet and Rainy

Hostas finally poking up through the rocks

Peonies - My favorite flower.

Mother's Day basket from William and the kids.  Absolutely beautiful!

Marigold - Church gave one plant to every mother.  In my pot with the kids footprints - Mother's Day gift last year!

Chives are growing like crazy!

Spinach is starting to poke through the dirt.  Will need to be thinned in about a week or so.

Peas are finally starting to grow.  Planted these a couple weeks ago - didn't think anything was going to grow due to the cold and snow (and hail!) that hit us.

Gardening: 2013 Round Three

Our garden continues to grow.  Everything has sprouted now (except the parsnips, which maybe didn't germinate) and it is starting to look like a real garden!

Lettuce is up and the carrots are poking through the ground!

Summer squash and zucchini

Green beans, peas, corn and beets (plus two sunflowers)

The tomatoes and peppers are looking strong!

The hostas have come up beautifully.  I wasn't sure how they would do after being transplanted last year.

The backyard is finally starting to look the way I have always wanted it to!  It only took 9 years!

A Little Beauty Around the Homestead

I use the word "homestead" very loosely.  We live in town.  We have a small garden that doesn't really provide a lot of food.  We don't have any animals, unless you count the cute but very lazy cat.

But, deep in my heart, I want to be a homesteader of some sorts.  And since homesteading means different things to different people, I guess I can call my house a homestead as we are doing what we can with what we currently have available to us.  I love to cook from scratch.  I like crunchy, line dried bath towels (and I think I am the only one in my house that does).  Just this morning before leaving for work I trudged out to the backyard through the wet grass to hang sheets on the clothesline to dry today while we are gone.  Pulling weeds is therapy.  As are beautiful flowers.

While flowers are not a necessity at our home every year, I do like to bring in a little beauty with the limited resources (mostly time these days) we have available to us.  So, I headed to the local store for some dirt and flowers to spruce up the exterior of the house this year.

They aren't much to look at yet, but hopefully in a month or so, we will have beautiful pots of flowers to grace the entrances to our garage and home!  (As a bonus, if we are able to get the house ready to sell this summer, they should help it have some nice curb appeal for our potential buyers!)

This post is shared on Gratituesday at Heavenly Homemakers.

Impatiens next to the kids sandbox.

I also planted morning glories to climb up the rungs, as my kids are a little bit too small to tackle this part of the swing set yet.

Flowers at the entrance to the gated back yard.

Left side of the garage entrance.

Right side of the garage entrance.

House entrance, bottom of the stairs leading to the deck.

House entrance, on the deck next to the entry door.

Gardening: 2013 - Round One

I finally got around to working on our raised bed gardens yesterday. 

Planting time!!!

 I turned over all the soil with a shovel and pulled out the big clumps of roots that were left from last years plants.  Eddie helped me by eating dirt.

Once Libby woke up from her nap, we went back out and started putting the seeds into the ground.  She was so excited to help plant the garden that I couldn't do it until she woke up and could help.  Hopefully, she will be just as excited to start seeing some of the plants grow!

Planted and ready to grow!

We started with the bed with the chives and oregano (that survived the winter?!?).  We planted about 10 parsnips, 5 rows of carrots, and about three square feet of a wonderful salad mix. 

Decorative Corn

Next was one of the large raised boxes.  We did one row of decorative corn (doesn't generally grow well in our garden, but I would like for decorations come fall so I am trying again), eight rows of wax beans (seed saved from two years ago, so I don't know how well it will do, but I am hopeful), a short row of snow peas under the small trellis, two sunflowers (one on each side of the trellis) and finally, a bunch of beets.  I love beets and would really like to can up my own this fall.  Even if I could get 6 pints out of this garden, I would be so happy!  I haven't done much with pressure canning (and don't own one) so I would like to try it and see if it is something I would be interested in purchasing in the future.  I will borrow my Mom's to process these if it works out.

2008 German Johnson

I still have to buy some dirt to add to one of the small beds as I pulled out all the strawberry plants and the bed is only half full.  I didn't like the strawberries that were there (very tart) and so I figured we would try planting some summer squash and zucchini there instead.  I love these on the grill and it is always nice to have some grated in the freezer for breads in the winter.

2009 Sweet Bell Peppers

I need to get some tomato plants, sweet bell pepper plants and some basil and rosemary for the other large raised bed.  I hope to do that this week.  Since I will buy these all in plant form this year, it doesn't matter if I get them into the ground right away (as long as I can still find some at the local nursery!)

Northern Wisconsin in May

Plus, we had a frost advisory last night and temps are supposed to be in the low 40's for the rest of this week.  This year has been really strange for weather.   Much colder than ususal and snow very late into the spring/summer has made it hard to get things planted.   Even though I ususally don't plant until the middle of May, so I am really not too far behind!

Until the next update, we will be keeping the beds moist and hopefully will see some plants germinate very soon!

Water*

It is no secret that I love water.  Sitting in a canoe on a lake or river, surrounded by water is one of my favorite places to be.   A sunset cocktail cruise on Big Sandy is always a great way to wind down the day.  A nice warm soak in the bathtub can rejuvenate me like nothing else can.  The sound of the rain hitting my roof is like a lullaby.  I was married on the bank of a beautiful creek.  I labored in the water with my son before heading to the hospital.  Amazing how many important moments of my life are connected to water.

I have been thinking a lot about our drinking water lately.  Actually, I have been thinking about it for years, especially since we have chemically treated city water at our home.  It was only recently that I decided to do something about it. 

We ended up purchasing this bad boy, the Big Berkey.  I like the fact that it isn't a whole house system and that it is portable.  Plus, it filters out some pretty nasty stuff that can be in our water supply.  While our water doesn't taste bad, it doesn't taste all that great either.  Especially when they up the chlorine because they found "above acceptable" levels of bacteria.  I don't drink water from the swimming pool and so when the water coming out of my faucet smelled like the pool, that was the last straw for me. 

So far I really like the filter.  We got a little table for it to sit on and I have been filling it each night and by morning we have great tasting water.  It does take a little while for the gravity filter to work in this unit, but with the quantity that we drink, I think we should be okay.  Now I realize that I need to figure out someway to get this good water to my office.  I drink between two and three quarts of water at work everyday, so it is a bit to carry with me.   I will have to think about that...  And how do I get the chlorine out of the water we bathe in?  A simple shower filter will not work for the kids as the tub they bathe in doesn't have a shower head to fill the tub with.  Something else to start research on!

This post is shared at the Homestead Barn Hop.  Hosted by Kendra at New Life on a Homestead.