The beauty of Mason jar salads is they offer the perfect solution for a satisfying, nutritious lunch on the go or as a quick and easy weeknight dinner. The key to success with Mason jar salads is the order you add your ingredients. Always add the dressing first, followed by harder vegetables that won’t break…
There is nothing nicer than home grown beans. A fresh bean with that snappy crunch when you are eating them raw is priceless. You can’t get that crunch from shop bought beans, as they have been off the bush for too long. They are a warm season crop and are perfect for putting into summer…
Growing your own pumpkins is really good fun. Watching the vines grow, flowers blossom and tiny little pumpkins form is really exciting. They require between 6 to 8 hours of sunlight a day, rich soil improved with compost and lots of space or something to climb on. They are extremely easy to grow and can…
Have you ever wondered exactly what a “kitchen garden” is or how it differs from a regular vegetable garden? For starters, a kitchen garden or potager (pronounced puh-ta-zhay), is a special kind of edible garden with a rich history tracing back to old English and French culinary gardens. Much like a traditional vegetable garden, a…
Blossom rot, or blossom end rot, is a common problem encountered by tomato gardeners. The condition is characterized by a dark, rotten spot at the blossom end of developing tomatoes. Fortunately, there are ways to combat blossom rot before it starts, but once it appears on an individual fruit, there is no way to “cure”…
If you have a small amount of space to plant a vegetable garden, you are probably eager to get the most out of it. Succession planting is a great way to accomplish this. This practice involves growing the same or complementary crops in the same spot continuously throughout the season in order to maximize the…
Failure is such a harsh word, isn’t it? But, sometimes it feels like we are failures at this whole homesteading thing. Just this past year we have struggled with: A garden that was, shall we say, severely lacking in real vegetable growth. Losing most of our outdoor animals. We lost our ducks and then most…
Do you enjoy looking at homestead gardens for inspiration? I know I sure do and so I like to share my own homestead garden tour to hopefully inspire and encourage you! It’s harvest time around here for sure and I was out in the garden taking some photos when I realized it’s time for a…
How are those homestead or kitchen gardens looking? Mine is looking quite……green! Well with a sprinkling of color from those little nasturtiums. There are quite a few yummy edible plants (peas, kale, lettuce, carrots, potatoes, tomatoes, cucumber, zucchini and a few more I can’t remember right now!) BUT there are a lot of weeds too….
So, this is our third year on our property and therefore the third year of our gardens life. You can check out last years garden HERE and the first year HERE. Every year it gets better and better and every year I tell myself I am going to stay on top of the weed situation…