Success of the Green!

I've been enjoying my lovely greens garden all weekend and I must say it feels good. I love venturing out in bare feet with a bowl to pick my own salad. I sometimes venture a bit further to my neighbors driveway to pick cherry tomatoes! All in all my experiment of throwing a bunch of seeds in a barrel and watering daily have worked, though I'm not sure it's the type of garden for me.

I had read about this type of gardening in The Urban Homestead book. Basically you plant a bunch of different stuff to cover the whole area and eat your thinnings. That way there are no weeds and with the variation, not as many pests. I definitely liked the no weeding aspect of the method, and there were only a few holes in some of the lettuce leaves from insects. My main problem, is that if I wanted something in particular, say cilantro or chives, I really had to search. I did find a tiny amount of cilantro, but I am the type of person who needs A LOT of cilantro. I may have to have a barrel just for cilantro!



I also found that I am not a big fan of the mustard greens a planted, to tough and twig like. I gagged a few times while eating my salad and that is never pleasant. So no more mustard greens and tons more cilantro! In the future I will use this planting method again, but restrict it to varieties of lettuce only, and maybe the odd herb here and there.





Very soon I am planning to figure out exactly what to plant in the spring, and also what to plant this fall. I'll ordering some seeds for West Coast Seeds soon, and couldn't be more excited! Garlic is one crop I want to plant this fall, and see about some carrots as well.

Since first dumping a thick layer of bark mulch on our front lawn, I've been adding some order. I've carved out a pathway and area by the driveway, so we can get to the car and home without tracking bark mulch inside! I lined the pathways with landscaping cloth and piled on some pea gravel. For a border I just used some river rock that we had laying about. I think it turned out rather well.

We bought some large pots from Capitol Iron and plan to put something in them .... maybe carrots? Not really sure, but they look nice. We decided to have the pots in place of the grape arbour we had planned. Building things are just not on the agenda right now, so that will have to wait. So that's it for now. We are slowly getting there. I can't wait until the spring to plant edibles in our mulched areas!!

Before shot .... didn't get the patio space (it had a big california lilac and big river rocks)!

My work as of this weekend! Just imagine how nice things will look once I put edibles in!

The Homestead Alone

This weekend it's just baby and I. Husband and our eldest son have taken the train to Grandpa's farm. I really enjoy going there as well, but baby is not so good in the car for three hours. Also we have our old car at the farm, and would like to bring it here to sell. So now I've got the homestead to myself, what am i going to do? Clean, organize, socialize and garden hopefully! Right now gardening is last on the list. The house needs some major work! okay, off to work i go, hi ho hi ho!

Treasure Hunting

My recycled items came in the mail yesterday! No more disposable razors and cutlery in this house!

My Value Village Treasures!

We have a very busy weekend, with family visits, pot lucks and bbq's! I've make cheese scones, cupcakes and an orange toque for my eldest son. I'll make another for my baby when I get the chance. I also stumbled across a large stash of cotton yarn, so I am making some dish cloths. Next week I am hoping to list some items in my etsy shop ..... it's been on vacation mode for some time. I will not be listing the items that I was getting rid of. I just got sick of having them about, so they are now at Value Village. Happy weekend!

Total Failure

This is it, the last time! I have now tried three times to start a sourdough culture and each time it's grown mold. Of all of times, this last one was going the best. It constantly had bubbles and seemed great. The mold forms on the side walls of the container, so maybe I should try one more time and take special care to scrape down the sides after mixing. Perhaps even wipe with a cloth. So, should I try one last time? I know I said this third attempt was the last one, but I have a hard time quitting! I don't fail at anything I do, so when I do fail, I find it quite hard to accept. So perhaps after the heat dies down a bit, I will try again.

In the mean time I have been making delicious scones and pastries. Albeit, a bit hard without a pastry cutter to cut the butter in. I decided today was the day to find one. I also have been on the hunt for a hand crank egg beater and a scale. Oh and just for kicks I HAD to buy this cool mixer! To top that off, I found the same one, minus some parts at the thrift store today, so now I have two. One for parts I suppose!

My lettuce is doing well .... oh no! I gotta run, it's dusk and I have some ant hunting to do! We may have carpenter ants!

Tired Housewife

Hubby did a lot more spreading of mulch today. We tried to tae it easy this weekend. I got my snack packs finished, made a quiche and spent the morning at the beach with the family. Toda was an amazingly tired day. I am trying my sourdough culture for the third time. I am feeding it every 8 to 12 hours instad of every 24 hours and that seems to be helping. I really want to get a vintage food scale to weigh the ingredients for my sourdough bread. Okay I am exhausted, and our eldest is not sleeping ......

Does Not Compute

I am a robot dog toy, but i look too cool to go to the dogs!

KEEP, DONATE or SELL? or give to the dog?

Real Progress Today!

The Shaker!

Lovely Herb Butter for Tomorrow!

Picking through our salad barrels.

The harvest!

Today marks the first day I was able to harvest from my own vegetables! I have grown vegetables in the past, but I took them for granted and even wasted some (gasp!). My eldest son and I carefully picked out some various greens from our two salad barrels, in order to thin out the crop. We got just enough for three small green salads, and will have to thin out a bit more in the days to come. Now these had to be the best tasting little salads I have had in some time. We took handfuls of salad and dipped them in a wee bit of ranch dressing, i was too proud of the little greens to pour dressing on!

Also today, the big boy and I made butter! We shook the heck out of some cream, washed it, then salted it. I decided to make it a herbed butter, but now kick myself for not trying some of the whipped goodness before adding all the flavoring! From the butter making, we have some real buttermilk and will make some yummy cheddar buttermilk biscuits to accompany some bean soup tomorrow. The weather calls for sweaters and soup this week!