Spring has Sprung!!!

I just couldn't stay out of the dirt any longer! I had to start some seedlings.

I saved seeds from our pumpkins, green peppers, & squash. I tested them out by laying some on wet paper towels & leaving them in zip lock bags until they sprouted. After they sprouted I planted them in some dirt. So far they've done well. I may have pumpkins ready in August, but maybe they'll just be HUGE!!!



I also started some petunias & sweet peas, along with pole beans & eggplant. My issue last year was that the seeds didn't get in the ground soon enough to produce much at all. We had late frost. Now I'm just hoping I didn't start too early!!!

I also started a cherry tomato plant for my Princess. Hopefully it will thrive & she will have tomatoes all season!

I started a couple containers of grass to use as decor for Easter. I think they look cute, especially after I trimmed it yesterday! I'm thinking they'll look even better with a couple eggs hiding in there!


Going to start saving my containers for when I transplant outside

Some Links from my Google Reader

How to save $100 this year and Living Below Your Means It's a link to more links, but very helpful links!!!

Decadence on a Dime, great advice on making the everyday special.

Budgeting with a Purpose - Keeping your Goals in mind

Frugal Decorating tips.

For those of us already thinking spring Square Foot Gardening Roundup. And What to do with toilet paper tubes including a transplant alternative for seedlings.

Making a little girls canopy is going in my project file for after we finish the bedroom ceiling in the Princess' bedroom. Such a cute easy project!

One of many new quilting/sewing RSS feeds I am getting is Moda Bake Shop. Yummy!

And thanks to How About Orange for posting the link to Sproost Now I know my design style & why I can NEVER find anything I like LOL! I was equal parts Mountain Lodge & Nantucket with a little Wine Country thrown in to confuse things a little more!

My Garden #4

I am blessed with a large yard, so our gardens are large. But I think we took on too much. I have a bumper crop of weeds and very little harvest to show for all our work. I seem to be weeding a lot, even 15 minutes a day I have become over whelmed. The weeds are alien & they are taking over! Of course I am counting the flower beds too. One of which is 90% natural so I can't fabric & mulch it. The other needed this season to gather some more organic matter, why we used the straw for mulch. I have planted some perennials there but most of it was annuals. So next season I will till in the organics, fabric and mulch it around the perennials.

I was inspired by I've Paid for this Twice Already...'s shopping bag challenge to think of a creative use for my horde. So I bought a couple bags of ceder mulch on sale (love end of season) and I'm going to edge my "natural" bed with long pieces cut from plastic shopping bags & cover it with the mulch. I think I'll hold it in place with flat rocks & just cover everything. I'll share pics when it's done. I was just going to use landscape fabric, but this way it's practically free!


Today's harvest netted 3 ears on corn & a bunch of green beans. Now that the bushes have finally started producing more than a handful at a time I am going to have to restrain myself into leaving pods to collect seeds from.



Things I am noting for next year

• Study - Newspaper, Pennies, Cardboard, and Eggs--For Growing a Better Garden: More than 400 New, Fun, and Ingenious Ideas to Keep Your Garden Growing Great All Season Long
• Sprout my difficult seeds before planting in seed starter, I had too few actually become seedlings
  
• Use Willow branches as a "rooting" hormone to take cuttings off of my lilacs, wisteria & roses and pot them.
  
• The pumpkin garden can't have other vine plants in it. I'm thinking next year we stick with corn & sunflowers along the outside.
• Cucumbers should be on a trellis
• watermelon is hard to grow
  
• I am going to use landscape fabric, or start saving my pizza boxes now (and the neighbors)
• Plant 2x as many plants as I think I need, except for tomatoes.
• Save seeds from your harvest, the pumpkins we saved last year are doing great!
• I may have our soil tested next year
• I am not going to plant perennial fruits here, but I am going to put some in at my Mom's
• The kids I babysit cannot be trusted in areas of the yard where plants are. Or animals, or toys...
• The compost bin has been neglected & needs some TLC.
  

I have orange tomatoes! Maybe some day I'll be able to pick some, even can some.









Stumble It!

My Garden #3

Out in the garden today! It was time, everything is so wet, but I had to, it's been days since I've been able to get into it.

It was a good thing, I found 2 of the largest cucumbers EVER! All of my plants seem to have died, so they are the last 2.

Look, I finally have beans! There should be more than a zip bag here!

My one lonely jalapeno pepper! I finally have A flower on my green pepper plants. We also have lots of green tomatoes. The yellow guys are the last of my garden's lemon cucumbers. The one's I have in the planter are flowering, but not fruiting yet.




Stumble It!

Summer Squash (yellow) recipes

Roasted Baby squash with Feta and Thyme

Fried Squash Puffs

Summer Squash Pancakes

Sauted Yellow Squash

What I am going to do with the 1 I have right now:

Thinly slice the squash on my mandolin
Steam it in the steamer
drizzle it with olive oil and toss with some minced garlic


Stumble It!

13 Things I've learned about gardening

This is our first cucumber and the reason why I will plant lots more beans next year.

1. Plant more beans, 10 plants is not enough to fill a quart size freezer bag.

2. When starting seeds, label the containers better. I have a pumpkin where a cucumber is supposed to be (and vice versa). Or just avoid help from small people...

3. Start tomato seeds at least a month before you think you should, no matter what the package says. Ours are about a month behind, although the ones that self seeded in the garden I had them in last year are already fruiting... I'm thinking End of January for next year!

4. Newspaper and straw(hay) make good mulch, but landscape fabric is the only thing that will BLOCK all the weeds. And I HATE pulling weeds.

5. Newspaper, pizza boxes and hay help with the weeds. And make great mulch. Although my dad says we'll regret it next year when we have MORE weeds, I told him I didn't think that was possible...

6. Watermelon plants don't like to be extremely wet, or transplanted. Only one survived transplanting and all 5 that sprouted in the lower "wet" garden died.

7. Homegrown cucumbers taste so much better than store bought.

8. I don't know how to grow spinach, I think it needed to be colder when I sowed the seeds, but who knows!

9. If you want to make a tepee out of pole beans for your kids, more than 8 plants need to be planted. Think next year I'll try 20. Oh, and the rabbits will find them and eat at least one.

10. That the mesh fencing my hubby bought for no GOOD reason makes a great fence, it just looks really unattractive.

11. Cleosia (Pampas Plume)which is an annual flower will self seed, at least it did for me! And in the most inconvenient places! I left it thinking that if it was a weed it was pretty with it's reddish leaves, but then the flower spikes appeared, who knew!

12. That no matter what the internet says you cannot prune a wisteria in the early spring. I think I hacked off all the flower buds. Of course I didn't know what I was looking for to avoid it. *** I spotted a new flower last night, so that makes 3 clusters for 2008!***

13. That cardboard and drywall pieces covered with all our fall leaves do not breakdown as readily as I read they would, at least not if you have a light winter. Also, picking out pieces of drywall after tilling is not a fun thing!

Oh the things I've done to increase the organic content of my sandy flower bed!!! I'm sure I'll have learned more by the end of the season, once the other plants start producing.

We have tons of cucumber buds, even the Lemon cukes are budding like crazy. The pumpkins have started as well. I hope we get at least 5 of those to make it to October!

Zucchini Fritters

Zucchini Fritters
1 lb of zucchini (about 2 medium sized), coarsely grated
Kosher salt
Ground black pepper
1 large egg
2 scallions, finely chopped
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup grape seed oil or olive oil
Sour cream or plain yogurt

1. Salt the zucchini with about 1 teaspoon of salt. Try to remove the excess moisture from the zucchini by either squeezing the liquid out with a potato ricer, or by squeezing with paper towels.

2. Whisk egg in a large bowl; add the zucchini,flour, scallions, and 1/4 teaspoon of pepper. Mix to combine well.

3. Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Cook fritters in two batches. Drop six mounds of batter (2 Tbsp each) into the skillet. Flatten slightly. Cook, turning once, until browned, 4-6 minutes on each side. Transfer to a paper towel-lined plate. Sprinkle with salt. Repeat with remaining batter.

Serve immediately, with sour cream or plain yogurt on the side.

EASY CHEESY ZUCCHINI

In preparation for all the zucchini I am most likely going to have!

EASY CHEESY ZUCCHINI

Serving Size : 4

1 T olive oil
2 T chopped garlic
1 pound zucchini - cut in half length-wise and then in half-inch thick half moons
2 tablespoons fresh basil, chopped
salt to taste
2 T freshly grated Parmesan
4 T grated mozzarella

In a large skillet with a cover, heat the oil til shimmery.

Add the garlic and stir to coat with oil, then cook for a minute or two, just until garlic begins to turn golden in color.

Add zucchini, stir several times to coat with oil and garlic. Cover and cook for four minutes, stirring once or twice.

Uncover and let continue to cook til done or slightly crisp. Stir in salt and parsley. TURN OFF THE HEAT.

Sprinkle cheese over top, cover and let rest for 1 - 2 minutes til cheese is slightly melted. Serve immediately.

86 Calories; 4 g Protein; 6 g; 6 g Carb; 2 g Fiber; NetCarb 4; 2 g Sugar; 95 mg Calcium; 1 mg Iron; 86 mg Sodium; 7 mg Cholesterol.

Frugal Friday #11

Farmer's markets & road side stands are a fantastic resource. I frequent them for all the things I don't grow myself.

Take this week, we stopped at a local farm to buy some hay for mulching the garden. I also picked up 2 quarts of strawberries and a quart of cherries.

Well we ate most of the cherries & a quart of strawberries that day and the day after, leaving me with a quart that didn't get dealt with right away. We mulched all of our gardens including the flower beds so the day was pretty much spent on that. By the time I got to cleaning & taking care of them 3 days later I had to toss about a 1/4 of the quart.

So my frugal tip is to only buy what you know you can handle in a short period of time, if not that day. The produce that goes to the grocery store will last longer "on the shelf" than fresh picked local. Something I get out of the habit of during winter!

My Garden #3

We have only 1 bed completely fenced so the other hasn’t been planted yet. I am hoping to have it up by the weekend so I can get my tomatoes & peppers in.

Lettuce – Doing well

Carrots – doing well enough that I think I can remove the window that I have over my “cold frame” (apparently I need to weed them).

Spinach – Hasn’t sprouted yet

Watermelon – one survived transplanting, will have to re–sow I really only wanted 3 or 4 plants

Pumpkins – 4 have survived, I will be planting another couple seeds

Tomatoes – I have 9 cherry & 4 regular. I will go buy a pack of regular for earlier picking. The seeds I started 8 weeks before the frost are not as far along as I think they should be.

Corn – I have some ruby seedlings to go in this weekend, a few peaches & cream variety as well, I will also start some directly in the garden

Cukes – I have 10 plants between the regular & lemon shaped all doing well

Beans – I think I might lose a couple plants but they seem to be thriving.

Pole Beans – Haven’t finished preparing the pole but the seeds have sprouted

Green Peppers – Sprouted & not nearly as far along as I would like

Jalapeno peppers – Not sure if these guys will make it, the 6 seedlings I have seem to be failing.

Wild Strawberries – what is left of them in the yard after mowing, we did leave a bunch of plants undisturbed up by the house.

Strawberry plant – only one came back this year from last but I think it has several flowers on it.

If I can keep the critters away I should do fine. (our back yard has recently been visited by a family of bunnies)

The neighbor kids started some peas & Black Eyed Susans at school that I have been put in charge of & we are going to plant some sunflower seeds too.I need to build some trellis for the vine plants, finish my pole bean structure and mulch the flower beds. At least that's what I plan to get done by the weekend!

My next garden adventure

I am thinking about growing mushrooms. I think the kids would be interested in watching the

I've done the research & I swear I am now on a watch list somewhere. Seriously I really do only want to grow the edible kind... Portobello, shiitake, oyster. I think that as a beginner a kit is the way to go. Once you become more skilled there are other methods (cheaper of course, but more labor intensive) it requires logs & a lot of patience!!!

I am thinking about getting this for a fall/winter growing project. I have enough on my plate with the outside gardens right now!!!

My Garden #2

We have been cramming in gardening around the rain drops! Saturday was a busy day in particular, Tuesday was even busier! Since Saturday we have:

1. put in a second "cold frame" using an old laundry basin & 1 pane from the window we replaced in the living room. The first tub houses our carrot crop & the second is now planted with round 1 of leaf lettuce & spinach.

2. Moved a boxwood shrub.

3. Tilled the bed in the front yard where we had some veggies last year & planted the new hydrangea & the boxwood shrub. My plan is to get a couple more boxwoods in there & maybe some perennials along with a few annuals. We will need a huge amount of mulch to cover this bed, it beats having to mow the awkward spot!

4. Transplanted all of the seedlings into slightly larger containers. I realized I have only 4 regular tomato plants (12 went to my parents) and 12 green pepper plants. Of course I counted & I have 9 cherry tomato plants. Hope they are good producers, I only need enough to can anyways. The princess is the only family member who eats raw tomatoes.

5. Created a 3rd green house/cold frame using a tote & the 2nd window pane, temporary just to get the seedlings outside. I am leaving it uncovered until the evening so they don't get cooked.

6. Moved our picnic tables back into our yard. For some reason we have left them in between us & the neighbors since they borrowed them for a party last August. Not that we haven't been using them, we were just going to their yard. Strange!

7. Put in a rock border around the un-edged part of the bed in the front.

8. Picked up a bunch of broken sand box toys & a lot of stuff that has blown in.

9. Planted some cherry tomatoes & "lemon" cukes in containers with trellis.

10. Cleared off the front porch & brought out the rest of the furniture.

11. trimmed the wisteria a little & took a picture of my first & only flower bunch.

12. created a pot for my Mom for Mother's day & planted one of my antique tool boxes with the left overs.

13. admired all the wild strawberries that are growing in my yard & trying to get our teen neighbor (who mows our yard) to not hack them to death like he did my locust tree seedling.

14. Planted (moved) 2 maple tree seedlings (hubby did this all on his own, I hope they live).

15. Gave our future pole barn a new "location" in the yard. We were going to put it out where we now have a REALLY LARGE & UGLY batting cage, but I think it would make more sense if we put it where we currently have the swing set. We have 2 really old maple trees there now & they will have to come down in the next couple of years (they aren't the most healthy things) so it's the perfect location & we don't have to put in any extra blacktop (think air port runway here, I am so tempted to order some line paint...)

16. Cleared up our old campfire area & tilled it. I am going to sink a pole & create a pole bean tepee here. Should be fun for the kids. As soon as the pole is sunk & the lines are run I'll lay down a stone floor. They aren't supposed to be out in the yard barefoot, but flip flops aren't much better & I want to have a nice surface for sitting on!

We were outside as much as possible so I'm sure I've missed a project or 10 here!!!

We are waiting for the gas company to come & finish their project in the front yard, they ran new line all the way up our street & are going to replace the "tie ins" as well. I am hoping they don't have to dig up more yard but I'm not making any plans for out there until they are done!


I am thinking about "borrowing" Stephanie's idea and creating some potato planters out of old tires. I just happen to have a couple in the garage & I think I have the soil at the top of the pumpkin patch worked up enough to give the crop a try...

My garden #1

These guys are my cherry tomatoes. I am hoping to have a few ready for pots early. All of our seeds have been planted in starter pots. They won't be planted outside until the end of May.

Frugal burnout & the garden

I feel like I crashed & burned! It's like I hit a wall, no motivation!!! I have been busy feeding sourdough starters & cleaning the house. Of course all the flining of the clutter has me frustrated. It's like I know where it all comes from but it doesn't seem possible that there is that much of it.

All I seem to see are all the projects that need to be done & things that need to be bought. New bathroom towels, new bedding for me & the Princess, new curtains all around the house, table lamps (my current desk lamp is a kitty, very grown up!) some more totes for the stuff going into the basement for storage.... buy buy buy spend spend spend. I can't wait for yard sale season to start, maybe I'll be able to pick up some things that will fit my design style (oh who am I kidding, I don't have a "style"!) Of course this is why I think I am reluctant about removing the clutter, with the clutter gone I see the "house" as it is, badly in need of repair & decorating.

I think I'm feeling this way over my last trip to the grocery store, anyone try to buy shortening lately, yikes! Everything is going up in price which is going to seriously cut back on the amount of things we bring home for the same money. Even with coupons, it's going to get harder. My plan is to make more things from scratch, but even the basics are more. Milk, eggs, flour, butter, cheese, all are basics and all are way over priced.

Guess I'll go back to watching the ads & coupons & only buying what's on sale for the rest of my food items! We do have our seeds for our garden. I've already started some cherry tomato plants, mostly because we are going to put them in pots for the Princess to pick at. I might try to sun-dry some if she doesn't eat them all!!!

We will be planting corn, peas, peppers, jalapeño peppers, cucumbers, beans, zucchini, tomatoes for canning & salsa, pumpkins, watermelon, and for a change lemon cucumbers. I am thinking about doing the lemon cucumbers in a pot too with a trellis. I also have to find a permanent home for my chocolate mint plant & try to encourage the strawberries we planted last year, so far I've only spotted one of the 2 out there. I need to get the tiller up here & work up the garden so I can add the compost & improve the soil before it's time to plant.

We won't be planting outside for about a month so I have time. So we'll have the garden to look forward to, but I do need to go spend some $ first. WE need some peat, mulch & fertilizer, I don't have tons of compost but I have lots of garden to cover!!!

The front garden didn't get as decomposed as I thought it would, I tossed some ouf our dry wall scraps out there after reading about it online & used papers, leaves & cardboard to cover the area. It didn't really all decompose over the winter like it was supposed to but I'll remove what is left & work in the small stuff. Then we'll have to go buy some plants to put there. Right now it is an empty garden begging for landscaping. Maybe I'll submit pics to the DIY ugly yard contest! I bet I'd qualify!

I added it up...

The new with tags items I purchased from yard sales totaled $63. Most of those were clearance sale prices. But I think the nwt stuff was maybe 1/3 of the stuff I bought & I didn't spend $60 the whole day (at least not at yard sales!). Felt good to put a bunch of things in storage for the Princess, I hadn't done it in a while so there is this "prepared" thing I feel! Now if she has another growth spurt (she's grown almost 2 inches since April) I should be able to still dress her!!! Shoes is another problem! I just can't seem to find good CHEAP kids shoes. I'd just love a pair of sneakers not to fall apart before they are outgrown, but then I don't think they need to be in perfect condition for 3 children either...Anyone found a good compromise? I usually just pick through whatever Walmart or Payless has to offer. And hope I don't have to go back in 3 months because they outgrew them, or worse, fell apart after 2 weeks...

I have to check the paper & see if any good sales are happening this weekend. I still need to look for clothes for the Prince & sports equipment is the best to find at yard sales!

My wild strawberries are looking good! We have several with fruit on them, hopefully we will get to them before the animals do! I may put in a few plants once we get the garden going. Still waiting for my Dad to come till. He hasn't done his own garden yet. I have gotten the plots cleaned up a little so the big rocks are gone & I rescued a couple of locust trees that were sprouting. If we don't plant them here I'm sure my Dad or Brother will take them for down at the farm. Locust is good for firewood & fence posts! I thin if we go to the store I'm gonna buy some soil & get the pumpkin seeds started. I probably should have already, but last year we had pumpkins so early we weren't sure they'd be around for Halloween!