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!
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.
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!
Hey everybody! Long time no posts! First of all I’m so excited to be gardening again and that it is a new season. I’ve been itching to start posting again but I didn’t want to start blogging to soon but I thought that this week would be a great week to start!
So to start off with I wanted to tell you guys what I’ve been doing during the winter to start preparing my garden for this year! I’ve been doing a lot of things lately. For instance, I’ve started composting in the late fall early winter. So far I’ve got a few gallons of soil composted in my composter. I have also invested in a raised garden bed this year and I’m planning on using one it as a way to attract pollinators. Speaking of garden beds I have made it my mission to fix up our hill in our backyard and transform it into my garden. which I’ve started going already. My plan is to do that in late February or early March because it’s still cold outside and I haven’t been able to do it the last few weeks because we did get some snow recently. Lastly, on what I’ve been doing is I’ve also been watching and learning from other gardeners on YouTube. So far I’ve learned so many things from MI gardener, roots and refuge farms, epic gardening, the veggie boys and ace homestead just to name a few. I kid you not they are amazing gardeners to learn from. I’ve learned new ways of making a raised garden bed to how to combat certain diseases on plants.
So what seeds have I started already? Well, I actually started a couple in December just as a tester seed and let’s just say that they aren’t doing too bad. I started strawberries and pear plums from store bought seeds. My one strawberry plant is doing alright and my pear plum trees are thriving right now. I’ve also just started lavender, rosemary and sage as well just this week. As you can tell I’ve also upgraded my green house trays to fit more seeds. I hope that one day I’ll be able to get a grow light but I think that will be later on down the line. I’ve also added a picture or two of some of the plants that I’m going to try to grow in my garden this year down below.
My one strawberry plant
Overall I’m so excited about growing my own food this year. My goal this year is to get to a point where I don’t need rely on groceries stores. I also want to hear what you are planning to put in your garden this year too!
Hey guys I wanted to jump on here to say that I’m still going to be blogging. I just wanted to give you guys an update on everything going on around here. It has defiantly been a minute from everyone in my house getting sick to me planting new seeds.
Everyone around here has been sick this last month. Tis the season for colds! No we didn’t have COViD this year even though 2 out of the three of us did have it last year. Weirdly enough since my body has had many colds in the past from teaching that ever since I had COViD I have symptoms that mimic COViD. Yes I did test negative for COViD and yes I am fully vaccinated. As a side note I believe it’s your choice to be vaccinated or not. The whole vaccination thing is not why I’m posting this update. I’m posting this update to let you know where I’ve been and what I’ve been up to!
If your asking if I’m still going to garden in the spring then the answer is yes! My son is a bit older and walking now so I hope by summer that we will get to have some fun gardening together. After all toddlers do like to play with water and dirt right now I’ve already stared to plant some seeds. Yes I know it’s early but some of these seeds are more like tester seeds for me because they all are from fruits that are store bought. I’m trying out different ways and methods to get them to grow. I should also mention that I learned to harvest the beans from the green beans so that I can grow more green beans next spring. Even though it’s the dead of winter here in Georgia I have been preparing my garden for the next growing season. I will make another post about that later on though.
Overall, I’m excited for this next growing season. I’ll have some pretty big updates to give you guys in the next couple of weeks. Right now it’s our dead season down here in Georgia so nothing is growing and everything is pretty much dead. Don’t forget to sign up to receive blog updates down below!
So it’s the end our our gardening season this year and if you have been wondering why I haven’t been posting as much then this is why. I’m going to make this post short, sweet and as simple as can be.
First off I would like to say that I think I had a pretty good season considering I started late in the game. I think I did pretty well for myself. I had one cucumber, tons of green beans and a few red tomatoes and many green ones of course. I know that I have a lot to improve on going into my second year next year.
Secondly, the reason why I haven’t been writing and updating as much is because well their isn’t really much to update on. Other than my garden is starting to die off. I’m trying to dry out my green bean seeds so that I can grow them next year. I also decided to pick all of my sweet tomatoes (even the green ones) because it is getting cold here in north Georgia. The only plants that are still somewhat growing but I don’t expect to last very much longer are my radishes, carrots, and lettuce. I do expect those to die soon too with the colder weather coming.
Lastly, we have been trying to prepare our garden for next year. I have been trying out composting and it seems to be working out really well so far. My husband and I have been also focusing on our front and back garden by adding mulch and taking out all the weeds. He is also trying to put tarp out on our hill to try and kill the kudzu. We don’t know if it will work or help but I will be doing updates on it. Even though I gave up on planting flowers I am going to try and do it again. I still have lots of seeds left over that I’m planning to use. I also almost forgot to mention that I’m trying out a little experiment of growing plum prunes. I originally bought them at Costco and I loved them so much that I want to see if I can grow them from a seeding. I really wish that I took pictures but I basically used a hammer to hammer the seed out of the shell and then I took the seed and put it on a damp Scott towel in a ziplock bag and I set it in a window that has lots of sun for a week until it sprouted. Then what I did was after it sprouted I put it in this small pot with soil and I sealed up the bag. I don’t know what will happen but it can’t hurt to try it.
Overall, I’m really happy with my garden. I will update soon on what is going on around here. Especially with my new seedling starting to emerge and with my compost bin currently baking. I hope to update you all soon on my composting journey.
This weeks post is going to be a little bit different. I’ve decided to combine my weekly posts because well not much is going on here in our garden. It’s almost the end of our growing season and right now I’m in sort of a planning stage of deciding what changes we want to make in our garden.
First off our plants are still doing great. Knock on wood I’m getting some great output from my tomato plant. I haven’t harvested them yet but I see lots of them growing. I recorded some short clips of my tomato plants. It’s starting to get a little bit colder here in the south. If you live in Georgia then you know that Georgia weather can be bipolar as I call it. Where it can be cold in the morning and hot in the afternoon. As a result of it turning into fall my green bean plant has slowed down with growing and my cucumber plant has completely died on me. My plan for this week is to let my beans dry out so that I can use the seeds for the next growing season.
So what do you have planned next? Well, my husband and I already have a couple of projects planned out for this fall. The first three projects are putting up Halloween decorations, fixing up our plant bed in the front of our house and starting a compost pile. This is a brand new house so our front yard has a lot of crab grass and weeds because of the sod. It’s been kinda crazy around here with Halloween coming up. We haven’t been doing much to the garden this week because it has rained so much. As for the composter though, I found this outdoor duel one by for less than $100.00. It did take me a while to put it together but I think it will be well worth it.
Overall’ we are super excited to start planning out our garden for the spring. We hope that with adding in mulch it will give it a much cleaner look. I’m also hoping that my composting adventure will cut down on the cost of soil in our yard while also growing lots of food for us next year.
So this week has been a good week for our garden. It starting to cool down just a tiny bit here down south. I’m trying to let what I have grow and harvest until the end of October. Just a warning for you that this weeks post is going to be a bit short.
So let’s start off with the good. I’ve grown a ton of green beans that now my son and I eat it at lunch. My husband, however, likes them raw as a snack. He is weird I know. I literally thought this plant was going to die weeks ago and then all of a sudden it came back to life. The next awesome thing that is happening is that my tomatoes are growing and sprouting. I don’t have any to eat yet but I’m excited! Even if it doesn’t get ripe I won’t be mad. I just wish that I had planted them earlier However, despite the good things I think I’m going to let my cucumber plant die. I took off the mesh covering because the rope that was keeping it together broke. While I’m glad that it sprouted one good cucumber I think I’m going to let this plant die out and just replant it next season.
Over all I think I did okay for my first season of gardening. I’ve learned a lot of tips and tricks. I’m already starting to plan out our garden for next spring.
So this post this week is going to be sort of a reflection post. In the past few weeks I’ve come across a YouTuber named James prigioni. You could say that I’ve been inspired by the knowledge of his food Forrest. Well, this past week he inspired me in showing that even he can make mistakes or have problems as someone that has been growing his own food for years. We are all human and constantly learning.
Over the course of this past summer I’ve learned a lot about what I can improve on with growing my garden. For one thing don’t keep on transplanting plants or fertilizing them too early cause they may die faster. That’s a mistake that I did twice and my basil suffered because of that. I’ve also learned to properly trim my cucumber plant so that I can get a good harvest. I learned that one this past week. I’ve also learned that even though it looks half dead that it can still have a comeback like my green bean plant. I’m still getting a good harvest out of my green beans. I love growing my own vegetables and I love blogging about it. One thing that James prigioni taught me is that no matter if you are an amateur gardener like me or have lots of experience like him that mistakes and disappointment happens.
This is what my green bean plant looks like now. now is really pumping out green beans!This is what my cucumber plant looked like a few weeks ago. Since then I have really trimmed back my plant.
Overall, I really do enjoy it. It’s something that I take pride in and I hope to someday to inspire people to garden themselves. If you don’t know who James is and have not seen any of his videos then please go to his channel on YouTube.
Ok so since I kinda missed last weeks update I’ve decided to combine this weeks and last weeks updates. A lot has happened since I’ve last blogged. I’ve learned that I’m good in some areas and I kinda suck in others.
Onto the good parts. Well, let’s just say that my green bean plant came back from the dead and now it’s thriving! I’m having so many green beans growing it’s crazy. It’s fuller and thicker. Also a very shocking surprise that I had today was that I had my first cucumber grow! I checked it out the other day and I must have missed it. I do have lots of little ones towards the top but they aren’t growing as well. It tasted very sweet and my husband agrees that it was a very good cucumber. My other plants are growing very well outside too. I have a small variety growing outside that has grown a lot this week. I thinned them out last week so I think that helped a lot.
Even though I had some positives happen this week I also had a major blow happen. I ended up losing my remaining basil plants. I think it had something to do with the fertilizer. It was a good run while I had them but I still have more seeds for more basil plants in the future.
Overall, this has been so much fun for me to do as a hobby. Slowly I’m learning more and more about gardening. It feels great to know that That at least I know what I’m putting into my own body food wise. I think I’ve come a long way with gardening and this is something that I’m going to continue doing.
I have so many things to update you guys on. I have had both good and bad things happen over the course of the week. This week has been a whirl wind of things going on.
So to start off with the bad. I think that I may not be using the fertilizer right or maybe my plants just don’t like it. Every time I fertilize my plants die a few days after. I’ve already lost a basil plant. My plants outside are doing fine but it’s my indoor plants. Not only did that happen but I accidentally killed my large tomato’s. I made the mistake of not putting them in a pot with drainage holes. All the rain last week killed them. I’m so mad at myself for doing that. Also, if your probably wondering why I didn’t post anything last Wednesday it’s because I was sick for a couple of days. No it wasn’t covid and I know this because I was tested. Now I’m okay and almost feeling 100% myself.
Ok so onto the good. Where to start is the question. Well, let’s see my cucumber plant is doing really good so far. No cucumbers but is it growing like crazy. It’s flowering like crazy now. The next awesome thing that is happening is that I’ve got more green beans growing. I’ve seen a difference with those ever since I put the netting on. The new leaves are not as eaten up as the others. I think it took literally a few days for the leaves to be eaten up without the netting on at the beginning. Literally my mouth dropped this week when I saw the green bean plants. The leaves have come back to life and they aren’t half eaten. I don’t think that I will get a lot of green beans this year so I’m probably going to use the seeds for next years harvest.
So what is new around here you ask? You can kinda say that I got bit by this thing called the gardening bug. I ended up also sowing some new vegetables and herbs into my garden this past weekend. I’ve also become inspired by watching some YouTube videos of people who grow everything in their garden and have become somewhat self sustainable. My goal is to cut down on grocery costs. I’m also trying to get my husband, the accountant, into it as well. For one thing I think once he sees that it will make a difference in the long term then he will be more involved. Plus I think it’s a good hobby for us to do both together and eventually with our son. However, I also like the fact that it gets me focused on something other than just being a working mom. I don’t have to think about work and it is relaxing for me after putting my son down for bed. Plus it counts as a workout for me too.
So what new crops am I growing? Well, since our first frost date is for the end of October I’ve sowed crops that I will be able to harvest in about 75 days or so. I mostly tried to put out crops that we eat like cauliflower, lettuce and carrots and more tomatoes. Yes we have a obsession with tomatoes. We have to have them every Tuesday night for taco Tuesday. However, I did try to plant some crops that we also don’t normally eat as well like radishes. I also put in some new herbs such as oregano as well.
Also, last but not least I’m trying out a little experiment of using sandwich bags as a mini green house to make my super sweet 100 hybrid tomato seeds grow. I’m also thinking of maybe trying this on my basil as well. I still have my jiffy plastic container box started but I ran out of starter pods. I figured hey I have soil and I have all these pots why not do a little experiment.
Overall, I learned some new things this week that are both good and bad. I may not be the best gardener but I do have room to improve. I am determined to get my grocery costs low and to eat a over all healthier diet.
