The Start of a Homesteader Mom

Anyone have a grain mill they can share insight on with a clueless newbie homesteader?

Start of my garden for this year

With moving I thought I would do some container gardening this year. There is just too much to do around here and the garden is getting pushed aside. Well I got my containers and some plants and various things. Dh comes home and says what?! I just want to till it up for you. So he wants me to return the pots. We compromized. I am going to pot 2 (out of the 6 I had) and he will till up the garden for me this weekend to plant the rest. Well if I am going to have a real garden after all this year I have more I want to get.

Today I got tomatos, cucumbers, onions... I need to get peas. Starting slow because we really don't use a ton or have space. And way too many projects as it is. We have a great spot though. The spot my brother in law had his garden was wonderful. Full of sunlight and feet away from the farmers field where he fertilizes (I know not natural but fine for us) with a spray. So it gets on the garden too.

Oh I also got a cool hanging strawberry plant. Thought I would try. And 4 thornless blackberry bushes. I gave those to my dad because I figure incase we move I know they will be there for a while. And we want to actually get to enjoy them. I think they take a few years to really get a crop on them. I could be wrong. But I am thinking 2 years? I can't wait. I LOVE blackberries.

Question about Container Gardening and Talking about Heirloom Seeds.

I got the Seed Catalog I have been waiting on! Yay!

Seed Savers Exchange. I have been reading about Hybrid seeds and saving seeds. How the seeds we buy in the stores are now manufactured so saving seeds will not produce you the same products year after year. And buying heirlooms is the way to get the natural stuff. Not man made veggies.

This is very intriguing to me. So I ordered a catalog thinking they would be $$$ pricy. Not so. The cost is $2.50 a pack. Sure I could get 10 centers from Biglots or the dollar store. But we have some really neat options going on here that you can't find at Cheapskates.

Now Dad and I are reading every last detail trying to decide what to buy.

I know I want to try my hand at some popcorn. Dana grows that and I think Alyssa would enjoy it. I want to do the main part of gardening in containers. But if I want something else dad will plant it in his garden for me. So I am trying to find things that container well. Anyone have any suggestions for something that worked well for them? Is it the word BUSH I am looking for? What keywords am I looking for to know what containers well.

I am also going to try to learn how to preserve the seeds. It would be very cool if I could just keep a running garden from my own seeds! Anyone have a link to how to do this?

3 more weeks and counting...

3 more weeks... that I will be here at this desk. But who knows how long until we move! We have to wait until the weather is not wet so we don't rip up the yards. Um... it is April! April showers!

If I container garden - like in pots... maybe I could start them at this house and enjoy them at the next location.

Anyone know what plants would do best in a smaller scale containers?

My mil informed me of a great farm that she knows of that sells their produce by the bushels. So she said if we did not get a great garden this year we could get some produce from them. Keeping that in mind for canning.

4 more weeks...

Well I have 4 more weeks of working from the office. Then 6-10 weeks of working from home. I think this will be a challenge yet a blessing. I have the $ spent a ton of ways already. We need $ to move the trailer. And we need a load of gravel.

This month we are having a cherry tree and chesnut tree cut down. Justin said we can use the wood for the kids sandbox, and I would like some to make raised garden beads from it. I just hope his dad does not have the wood planned for. I will have to ask Justin to make sure. They are huge and father in law says they might fall on the trailer. So we are cutting them down and going to the nursery to pick out trees for behind the trailer. Fil wants to put a row dividing the land from the farmers field. Kinda a property line. I think it will be nice to add some trees in the field. I just dont want any that get overly tall. That would defeat the purpose of cutting down the HUGE ones. But the men will pick them out.

This coming weekend I am praying for nicer weather. We have to pressure wash the trailer. It is getting green on the sideing. My dad has one he is going to lend us.

And Justin is going to start hacking apart the back deck.  How silly, I know it will be rebuilt and only doing this so we can move it. But I have a fear Justin will ruin it... and my nice deck will be screwed up. I know he won't... but you know any hacking apart of an object gets me nervous.

I have a really nice planter on the front deck. It goes around the front and side. I planted a wild flower mix there last year. I hope that I can get that to be just as nice as it is here. I am going to try to put some good soil into it so it really works. Not sure what I am going to plant in it though. Any PA people have an opinion for a nice plant (perinnial is it) that will come up over and over for in it? I think I want to mulch around a few plants in there. Not sure what kind though. Nothing that will go over the rail though. So just some small plants. I guess I have to see what I can find.

Here is a pic of Alyssa helping me to weed it out last year before we planted any flowers. I had her ripping up the weeds.

Around the front near the steps it is 3 boards high. Where she is it is only one. I want Justin to make me one just like it when we put it at the new house. I like how being in a box like that it is less intimidating to me. That is why I think I want to build raised beds for gardening. I think it is less intimdating.

So I am thinking of starting fresh with the dirt in it with a good mix to plant in. What I am reading is putting down peat moss first then potting soil mixture? is that right? Gotta read more up on that....

Rambling thoughts on planning a garden...

I head Kayinpa talk about square foot gardening so I followed the links on her site.

This is VERY interesting to me. I think not only does it look nice, that it is very managable. I am going to talk to Justin about making boxes like this. Seems so much easier than tilling up the garden! Yuck.

So... anyone doing it? Kinda like flower pots all aranged in a box. I want to put herbs on my porch and do the garden like this. http://www.squarefootgardening.com/

Wondering if some things grow better than others or some dont grow at all in these boxes as the roots don't seem to get a large area... I would love to hear opinions on this. I am just this past hour looking into it. So I might learn more as I read. But then again. there already is a garden plot tilled up there. I might just make a small square foot garden and then put the rest in the traditional one. See which way I like best yk? Then go from there next year.

I have one seed catalog ordered. Anyone know any good herb catalogs to have sent to me?

I am not decided on what I would use the most to start and try. I know Garlic so I plan to plant some as soon as I get there. I hear it does not grow for a year.

I WILL be planting Blackberry bushes as soon as we move in! I love PA blackberries and always said when I had my own place that is the first thing that was going in after the house! I love eating them, having jelly with them, putting them in milk and sugar... and did I mention just eating them?? Oh how I love blackberries!

I also said I wanted lilacs. But lucky for me there is already a big bush of them at mils. I might sprout some off and place it along my trailer some once we get set up. I can't wait to pick some and put it on the table with the sun shining in. I LOVE lilacs! Love the fragrent smell filling the house. Oh how my mom hated it! ha ha ha. My dad always got up and cut some and put it in a vase on the table. Mom would get so annoyed!