Posted in Homestead Garden and Farm

Hello there!  Hope your gardens are growing well and you are having bountiful harvests.  Though the heat is taking its toll on garden and gardener here, the squash and okra are hanging in there ! 

I spend the morning hours outside watering and puttering about in the garden and enjoying my containers of herbs, and the afternoons trying to beat the heat indoors, enjoying a good book.....or two, or three!

I've gleaned some great tips from the book, Companion Herbs for Natural Health by Juliette de Bairacli Levy that I thought you might be interested in.

Use your "less than fresh" dried herbs, mixed with wood ash to not only deter pests, but encourage growth. 

In Mexico, Sage leaves mixed with goat manure and wood ash produced superb vine and corn crops.  The author says she grew wonderful grapes using this mixture, too.  Wild sage was used, but I wonder if garden sage wouldn't have maybe at least close to the same benefit? 

Bitter herbs, such as wormwood, southernwood, mugwort and rue, powdered and sprinkled in when planting beans, peas, peanuts and cereal grains, will deter birds and act as insect repellants. 

I hope those tips are of some use to you.  Herbs are simply wonderful, aren't they? 

Have a great week!

Blessings,

Catherine

p.s. Sorry that I've been hit and miss here on the Front Porch.  The computer is in an "uncooled" room of our little house, and quite honestly, I try to avoid it as much as possible these days .  A dear friend from a more temperate climate, likened being in Texas in the summer to being in a clothes dryer !  Pretty accurate description of my office/storage/junk room, too.  But....change is coming, not only in the seasons, but in our home situation, too.  I'll post more about that on my blog later.

Posted in Homestead Garden and Farm

Most of you probably know about Path to Freedom and their great story.  This video  really makes me want to dig in and get started on some new gardening ideas.   Definitely some much needed inspiration for this gardener! 

I found several projects on their site that I've put on my "Honey Do" list for the summer .  Check out their DIY links- you might just find some for your own To Do list .

Hope everyone is having a great gardening season.  The heat is on here in Texas, so I'm trying to keep both myself and the veggies hydrated.  Plans for the Fall garden are underway, as well! 

Blessings,

Catherine

Posted in Homestead Garden and Farm

Here is an article that shows how to harvest rainwater .  This is one of those things that I plan to do someday!  For now, we resort to plopping a few buckets out to catch what we can :) .  This is a great idea, though.   In my own experience, the garden definitely thrives more when watered with rainwater than with what comes from our water hose. 

For the even more industrious...I bought a bottle of rainwater (to drink) at a nursery this weekend.  Clever gentleman harvests rainwater and then filters it with reverse osmosis (I think that's what it said, well, he filters it nonetheless)....and makes a pretty penny selling it, I'd imagine .  Sure tasted better than the "mineral water" that comes out of my faucet . 

Happy Gardening,

Catherine

Posted in Homestead Garden and Farm

Great idea! Grandma Rosie

Theme gardens are a great way to spend time with your kids

By JIM GAINAN
With school ending soon and prime planting season upon us, now is the perfect time to get your kids involved in the garden. Planning and planting a theme garden together is a fun way to foster some creativity.

Ideas for theme gardens are as unlimited as your imagination. Plop down in your yard with your kids and some lemonade for a brainstorming session. They'll be sure to surprise you with some of their ideas.

Here are some themes to get you started:

Pizza garden: planted with ingredients that can be used on pizza - oregano, parsley, basil, onions, peppers, Roma tomatoes
Salsa garden: hot peppers, tomatoes, onions, cilantro, garlic

Kitchen garden: named so because traditionally these gardens were usually planted with all edible plants and located just outside of the kitchen door, but may include some cutting flowers for the kitchen table: chives, basil, parsley, rosemary, thyme, sage, dill, oregano, marjoram, savory, mint or tarragon for the herbs. Then you could include vegetables that your family likes to eat: tomatoes, onions, beans, lettuce, radishes, cucumbers, beets, carrots, etc. - This list is limited only by your space.

ABC garden: Plant one plant for each letter of the alphabet. Alyssum to Zinnia. Hint: Q - Queen Anne's Lace and X - Xeranthemum

Fairy garden: Think small, low-growing and tiny-leafed plants and create a space for these magical people. Carpet their dance floor with creeping thyme or moss. Foxglove, miniature roses, bells of Ireland, coral bells, fragrant herbs, sweet woodruff, wild strawberry, hollyhocks

Wizard of Oz garden: poppies, "munchkin" pumpkins and of course, a scarecrow!

Outer Space garden: cosmos, snapdragons 'Rocket Series', moonflowers, 'Moon & Stars' watermelon

Butterfly garden: 'Autumn Joy' sedum, Asclepias (Butterfly flower), Scabiosa (Pincushion flower), Coneflower, Lavender, Shasta Daisy, Butterfly bush, lilac, coreopsis, Achillea, Astilbe, Armeria. You also have to plant to feed the caterpillars - borage and dill work well.

Color Gardens: From the all-white moon garden to a rainbow garden, masses of plants in the same color are eye-catching. Choose colors from your favorite sports team and show your support all season long or select plants that have the same name as colors - lavender, goldenrod, cornflower, pinks. If planting a moon garden, be sure to select flowers that do not close at night: white petunias, babies' breath, chrysanthemums, roses and try some silvery dusty miller or greenery with variegated leaves such as hostas.

Whether choosing to plant a structured English Knot garden or an untamed wildflower garden, make it a family affair and enjoy the rewards all season.


Copyright © The Billings Gazette, a division of Lee Enterprises.

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