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Our garden Journey season 2 week 11 and 12

Our garden Journey season 2 week 11 and 12

by alexa parisi ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

Ok so I know that I haven’t been giving very many blog updates lately. It’s not that I don’t want to but it’s that things around here have been touch and go with the weather here. Georgia weather doesn’t want to make up its mind weather to be hot or cold around here. I do have a few updates though when it comes to our garden area/ space and also what plants have made it this far with the wacky weather that we have in the south.

The first update that I have for you all is that I have finally built our second raised garden bed. I’m going to have so much more space now for my transplant crops this year! Im going to start transplanting more crops in this next week. I’ve also have to order more supplies for my drip irrigation system. Those drip irrigation kits that they sell on Amazon are kinda a rip off because then you will realize that you actually don’t have the right sized tubing that you actually need for the system to actually work. So then you end up spending more money than you were anticipating. I think I will do a future post of how I set up my drip irrigation system.

The second thing that I wanted to talk about is the fact that I’ve kinda lost a few more plants from the freeze that we had this past week. I’m so bummed about it but hey you can’t control everything. I might have to replant some winter squash outside. I’ve tried to record some short clips of the garden to show you all too. I do think however learning about the weather in your area and the frost dates is a great way to learn from your mistakes and to either not plant so early or try to find other methods of covering your crops for those freezing nights. Now I know for next year to start my indoor seedings in March rather than February too.

So as a recap of everything that has happened I think I’ve learned these past two weeks some pretty important things on how to not kill your plants faster. Im all about learning from my past mistakes because I’m only human. If you would like to join me on my journey and learn a little bit about growing your own food then please subscribe to my blog down below or follow my YouTube channel!

Our Garden Journey season 2 week 8

Our Garden Journey season 2 week 8

by alexa parisi ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

So this week might be a week where I don’t know if all my crops out side will survive. If your wondering why my blog this week is written a little weird then it’s because I’m trying to write it day by day at least for this week. We have had some pretty weird weather happen this week in the good old south!

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So if you guys don’t already know I live in Georgia. Not the country the state that is in the USA. If you are from Georgia then you know that the weather is bipolar. One day it’s warm and in the 60’s then the next day it’s in the 30’s and you see sleet in the forecast. Let’s just say that no farmer, homesteader or hobby gardener liked that little surprise in the forecast. Now I did do some preparation to kinda help it. I don’t think I did enough but something is better than nothing right? Well, I did put a covering on my plants outside with what I could find in my garage. I did find a thin blanket sheet that was super long and I put that on my raised garden bed outside. I also extended a ground cover that was already on the hill over to where my plants are. If I would have been more prepared then I would have bought some plastic wrap from the grocery store like this one guy did in my neighborhood. Yes he literally wrapped his whole front garden in it. Last but not least I just covered my smaller raised bed with the plastic from my garden soil. That last one flew off the bed already. As you can see from the pictures below that I got a little creative with pinning everything down. Also, I should mention that my husband and I tried moving that smaller raised bed but it is too heavy.

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Now I usually do my gardening on the weekends because I work a normal 9-5 kind of job during the week. I decided to do my gardening on Sunday this time around because on Saturday as you all know at this point we had a freeze. I decided to video document my experience of the morning after. I’ve got to say that I’m not sure that everything will survive but I’m hoping so. The top soil was fine but digging deeper into the soil it was a little bit rock hard. For this week, I planted flowers, herbs and vegetables outside. I planted red knight marigolds, mixed marigolds, winter and summer squash, and parsley. I also transplanted cauliflower and cabbage too. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that I will still get a good harvest this year.

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The last thing that I did was I also planted some new seedlings indoors. I’m supper excited about these because these are the fruits that we eat the most in my house during the summer. We planted Georgia rattlesnake watermelon and cantaloupe. I also planted some varieties of cucumbers as well. I know I sucked at growing them last year but I wanted to give them another chance this year.

So far this year I’m still hopeful that it will be a great harvest year despite the little set back of the below freezing weather we had this past weekend. I’m hoping a lot of the seeds that I’ve planted outside will pull through. My goal for this year is to not only grow as much food as I can but also eat healthier and also to save on some costs and lower our grocery bill too. Please like share and subscribe to my blog. Comment down below if you guys think I should start a YouTube channel!

Our garden journey season 2 week 7

Our garden journey season 2 week 7

by alexa parisi ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

I’ve got to say that I’m so excited to garden this year! I’m excited to be pushing my own boundaries and learning how to become better at it. Not only have I started some new seedlings inside and outside this week but I’ve also done a bit of research into learning companion planting. I’m so excited to you you guys what I’ve planted this week and how I’m going to use my garden beds.

So for this week I started planting one of each of my fruits and vegetables. I’ve also planted out some different types of flowers as well. Inside I planted Roma tomatoes. I’m really excited to be growing this variety so that I can make pasta sauce. However, outside I’ve planted strawberries and Danver carrots. I don’t know the variety of straw berries because they are store bought ones that started to go bad and well I just really wanted to at least not let the seeds go to waste. We go through a lot of strawberries so I really didn’t want those ones that went bad to go to waste. I’ve also started planting flowers as well too. The flower seeds that I’ve planted are echinacea, painted daisy, lupine, asylum and ornamental grass (a smaller variety). I’ve selected those flowers for two reasons. The first is that I wanted something that is a perennial and would come back year after year. The second is that they can attract pollinators (bees) and fight off unwanted pests too. I do not want to use any pesticides on my plants. I planted my perennials in two different spots and for slightly different reasons. The first is the obvious in my planter bed to help pollinate my garden and the second place is in the bed in my front yard for aesthetic reasons. Also, I wanted to make sure to tell you guys as a tip when you planting new seedlings inside or outside is to make sure you water your soil first before planting. The is so that your seedlings don’t become washed out and “misplaced”. You defiantly don’t want that to happen.

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What I did to prepare my backyard garden bed!
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This is part one of my flower bed in the front of the house
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This is part two of the flower bed in the front of the house.

Another important aspect of gardening is what is called companion planting. Companion planting can help your crops grow by not only sometimes giving it nutrients but it can help ward off unwanted pests. Take for example tomatoes and basil. The herby smell of the basil helps repel bugs and more specifically hornworms. I’ve learned how important companion planting for your garden is. In the next few weeks you guys are going to see me do a lot of companion planting with different herbs and plants.

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What I put in my backyard garden!

I can already feel that this year is going to be a big year for growing my garden. Especially with what I’ve learned on how much companion planting and having pollinators (flowers) in your garden can help in the growth of your harvest. I’m not that great with growing flowers but it is something that I’m willing to learn. I’m just hoping that all this rain that we have had this week is going to help with the seeds that are germinating outside.

Our garden journey season 2 week 6

Our garden journey season 2 week 6

by alexa parisi ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

This week has been a crazy week between my son being sick and my husband starting to go into the office again, thanks covid, I haven’t forgotten about you guys. So where do I start with the updates on my garden? Well, I guess I need to give you guys an update on what I’ve been growing indoors and outdoors. I also need to update you guys on some things that I’ve been doing in my garden this week! I’m so excited to be giving you guys this update! Also, I’m sorry for the lack of pictures! I suck at remembering to take pictures at times.

To start off with my plants have been growing like crazy!! Induct I’ve already had to transplant one type of flower into a bigger container. I also have so many peppers and tomatoes that I’m growing too! It is literally crazy too! My end goal for this year is to see if I can learn and grow as much food as possible to sustain my family and also create a business to sell produce at farmers markets. I want to be able to share what I’m growing with other people. Now outside I’m already seeing black seeded lettuce, sparkler rashes and Nantes carrots growing too. I see a lot more of them growing. I know that I probably mentioned about them popping up last week but since last week I’ve had a few more come up. I think that the raised garden bed that I have my radishes and carrots in was a great investment. If you guys would like a review than please comment down below!

The second thing that I have been busy doing other than taking care of a sick toddler is getting my in ground raised garden bed ready for some plants and seeds. If you read my post last week then you would have seen that I built that thing in about an hour. However, this week I’ve decided to fill it. I started off with putting down some card board (thanks Amazon) at the very bottom. I then bought the cheapest compost manure I could find at lowes. I did already have some compost of my own but it wasn’t enough to fill it so I bought 30 bags of compost. All I’m going to say is that boy oh boy that was quite a workout! I still have some left over for my grow bags too. Before I buy another bed I’m going to see just how many seedlings/plants I can fit into the one bed that I do have.

Overall, I think I’ve got off to a good start with my crops this year. Ive learn a lot in between seasons about what Ive could have done differently and I think it’s really paying off now with how much I am now growing. I’m also super excited to be growing crops in my raised garden bed this year too!

Our garden journey season 2 week 5!

Our garden journey season 2 week 5!

by alexa parisi ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

Here we are at week 5 and boy oh boy do I have a lot to tell you guys! I have some changes that are going on in my garden from upgrades that I’ve made and some landscaping that I’ve done. I’m so excited to tell you guys so let’s get started.

The first thing that I’ve done is worked a little bit more on the hill. I’ve cleared out a good section of it. While it is a big project to work on I know that I can get a majority of it done my summer if I work on clearing it out on the weekends. I’ve taken pictures of my progress so far of before and after. As you can see in the pictures below I’ve decided to start from the top and work my way down. My thinking is that instead of growing fruits and vegetables all over it I may put a lot of flowers and attract pollinators and put my fruits and veggies somewhere else.

Before
After

Which comes to my second point. I’ve finally come to a point where I bought a huge 8 foot raised garden bed. I think I’m going to buy another one in the next few weeks. It was easy for me to put together as a woman on my own. It took me about 45 minutes with one mess up. It only took me that long because I was screwing in the screws and bolts by hand. (I was too lazy to grab a screwdriver) I’ve also took some cardboard that I was going to put in composter and I put that at the bottom of the bed. It wasn’t super hard to put together but it was very time consuming.

Lastly, I wanted to update you guys on seedlings that are started to emerge outside. I finally have two lettuce plants emerging, some radishes and a carrot coming out. I am ecstatic about it. I was a little bit nervous that my lettuce seeds that I planted on the hill had washed out from all the rain we have had but nope they did not! One tip that I’m going to give you guys and I do this with both my seeds inside and outside when first planting is that after I put the seeds in the ground is I will water them with warm water. I do this because in February the ground here is sill on the colder side so it helps the seeds germinate.

My one little carrot that is growing. This type is called Nantes half long
These are called sparkler rashes
One of my lettuce black seeds that sprouted
These are both of my lettuce black seeds that sprouted.

Overall, I’m pretty ecstatic with what I’m growing. I just hope that I have a good outcome of crops for this year. Like I’ve said that my goal for this year is to cut down on cost of our groceries and that my goal for next year is to hopefully start my own farmers market business. At least that’s what I want to do in the next two years. I think with all the supply chain issues that more and more people are going to start producing and selling locally.

Our Garden Journey week 4

Our Garden Journey week 4

by alexa parisi ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

So this week I’ve been having some changes in my garden that I really want to tell you guys about. I wanted to tell you guys about a few changes that I have made to the hill that I’m going to put my garden on as well as seeds that I’ve planted and also how I’m keeping track of my garden too. I’m so excited to tell you guys about some of my future plans.

My biggest project to date with my garden is prepping our hill/slope to grow fruits and vegetables. We have already cleared off a lot of the over grown weeds and kudzu. However, we still have a lot of ground weeds that are left over. So far I’ve already got a little area started for my lettuce at the bottom. This past weekend I started to hack away at some of the weeds at the top. My goal is to do it section by section until the whole slope is weed free so that I can start putting my compost soil on. This will really give me time to figure out the best spots that are flat enough on my slope to actually put some plants in. While walking on the slope I noticed that it has some parts that are curved into the slope where I could potentially put a plant or two in because apart of the curve is a little bit flat and in pushed into the hill so I don’t think those areas will have much erosion. One thing is for sure though I that clearing all the weeds out is making me work out a lot that’s for sure! Sorry that I don’t have any updated pictures of the progress that I’ve made so far but my goal is to work at it every weekend so next weekend I will make sure to take some pictures for next weeks post.

This week is also another round of seed planting! This week I planted different types of tomatoes, cabbage, two types of basil, cauliflower and more lettuce! The types of tomorrows that I have are super sweet hybrid 100, red cherry tomatoes, beef steak tomatoes, tomato sweetie and cloudy day tomatoes! I think what I am the most excited to grow this year are tomatoes especially the little varieties. It brings me back many fond memories of eating tomatoes from my grandpas garden in the summer. I’m also excited about growing cabbage and cauliflower because those are new plants to me and I feel like I’m ready for a challenge to have and grow them in my garden.

So to wrap up this weeks post I hope you will join me in subscribing to my newsletter which will let you know when I post a new blog! Please let me know what you are growing in your garden down below!

Our gardening Journey week 3

Our gardening Journey week 3

by alexa parisi ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

So this weeks post is going to be a little bit short. We haven’t had a whole lot of changes this week other than one major one. I only made one major change with our plants this week only because 2 out of the 3 of us have been sick. My son and I both got some kind of weird cold virus. Yes I was tested and no it’s not covid.

What’s is the major change you ask? Well, I’ve finally caved in and I bought grow lights. It’s been 3 days and I don’t know if it’s a coincidence or not but I have had more seeds sprouting in the last three days. When I say a lot of seeds I really do mean it. So far a lot of my pollinator flowers like my purple cone flowers, sweet William and John jump ups have sprouted. I also have some jalapeños and sweet peppers that have sprouted too. These grow lights that I bought are ones that have a timer so that it will automatically go on and off by itself. I personally like it because I don’t have to manually do it. I think I didn’t want to buy them buy them at first because of the extra costs and also the issue of where I would put them. In the end it all worked out and I managed to fix up a spot in a closet under our stairs.

Overall even though this week has been kind of a cruddy week for me physically I’m happy that I made that changed with germinating my seeds. I know I keep on saying this but I’m so excited to be starting our growing season! Also please don’t forget to follow and sign up for our news letter down below!

Our Garden Journey week 2

Our Garden Journey week 2

by alexa parisi ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

So for this weeks post I’m going to update you guys on what items I bought to prepare for this garden season, what I started to seed this week and what problems that I’m having with my plants that I’m trying to fix. I bought some new items that I figured out that I needed to have a successful garden season this year. I not only took pictures but I took some short video clips as well.

The first thing that I bought was more planting cells. I decided to go with a pack of 5 containers that have 72 cells each. One advice that I will give you is if you are looking on Amazon to make sure that you are looking at suppliers that are not sketchy. I’ve noticed that the quality of sellers and product is going downhill. You want planters that have good reviews. The ones that I have are so far going ok with the seeds that I planted so far. I also bought a composter this year to make my own organic soil. I buy so much stuff from Amazon that I figured that I could compost some of those boxes. I think investing in a composter was a good investment. For one thing it will help keep down the cost of soil. I also bought a soil tester too. All I’ve got to say is that I’ve had it for two days and I really do think it’s going to help. If you keep on reading I will explain why later on.

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I’ve started planting my seeds for my garden now. Mostly all of them are brand new seeds that I’ve never grown before. The seeds that I’ve started are:

Rosemary
Jalapeños
Oregano
Sweet peppers
Bell peppers
Spearmint
Snap dragon
Sweet William
Purple cone flower
Jonny jump up
Lavender
African daisy

I’m really excited to start growing flowers and food this year as you can tell. Every day when I get home one of the first things I will do is go check out the seedlings. Right now I only have one rosemary seeding that already seeded. I tried taking a picture of it for the blog but it didn’t come out too good. I also have a couple of pear plants growing too. One major problem that I’m trying to fix with the pear plants is trying to keep them from dying after I transplant them. I bought a soil tester probe to test out the soil and while I think it is a great product so far I, however, don’t think that I can save my pears from dying at this point. From the research that I’ve done is that pears love acidic soil and my PH balance in my soil is too high. I tried saving my pears from dying by putting vinegar in the soil. I think by doing that I either may have not done it right or I should have not put it in at all. If you have any suggestions on how I can save my pear transplants please let me know in the comments below! After all I think that whether your a beginner gardener or not you are constantly learning from your mistakes and learning how to improve.

Overall, I’m so excited on gardening this year! I know I have a lot to learn about gardening still but I’m hoping to somewhat sustain my family off of the food that I’m growing. Don’t forget to like share and subscribe to get weekly updates!