A morning of gardening.

Planting Sunflowers is HARD WORK!

I gave up my dream of keeping everything on the farm native to Texas. I just can't wrap my mind around how to landscape with them. If I ever actually learn enough to do it then I'm writing a book about. One is ABSOLUTELY NEEDED! (Now that I've said that I'm sure that folks will point me in the right direction. You know, since I've already planted a slew of non native sunflowers, and such.)

It's not like this year was going to be a perfectly landscaped year anyways. I think it may take about 3 years or so before I'm happy with the way things look. Or 10 years. Or 20 years. 

Kiska shares her step with her Bubba.

I knew that if I didn't go throw some things in the ground that we would have NOTHING. I get caught up in that perfectionist thing that wants everything to look just right. (You would think that by now I'd know myself well enough to know that I don't do things that way.) I just hope that all the seeds that the littles planted make it up. Some of them looked a little deep to me.

Ronan assured me that they would be just fine.

Comforting.

 

Conner and Auriana preparing their Mammoth Sunflower beds.

Is it best to garden with a plan? 

Yep.

But if the plan gets in the way of actually

GROWING something....

all by YOURSELF....

Then forget the plan.  

Grab a shovel and some seeds and get to work.

(I PLAN on saving the seeds so that I control what goes where. HA! We'll see how that goes....see above mentioned inability to stick to a plan.)

I can't help it though. I think that even if the place were taken over by morning glories and sunflowers it would still be better than the rotten stickers we have around the house. 

Tyler is trying to thin out the stickers.

(disclaimer.....I know that it seems like I'm belittling native plantings...I'm not. But I finally decided that if I could plant non native tomatoes, herbs, potatoes, and pumpkins in my garden then why not sunflowers too?)

 

Raised Bed Gardening

Our Free Wood Chip Source

I have often heard that you could find lots of places that would give away free wood chips. I never seemed to be able to locate any.:o) Then I stumbled across this gentleman.

He is WONDERFUL!! 

He loaned us his truck to bring the full load of chips home and we get to do this every weekend until we don't need any more! 

Thank you George!

The "Raised Beds".

This is the same spot that I put my garden last year. My reasoning was that it would be easier to fence off, since it had buildings on two sides. And the garden went pretty good. What I didn't know when I placed my garden here is that Scott had been spraying sterilizer on this spot for about 8 years. I found out when he mentioned that he was amazed that ANYTHING had grown there.

Sheesh Honey. :o)

Love ya.

So I decided that this year I would work on amending this soil and using it as a test spot for all of the soil building information I've read over the years. 

We had the area plowed and then we set to work with our shovels. We dug "paths" through the beds and I'm still hoping to line the beds with wood that I'm scavenging from pallets.  I've seen this frameless bed technique used quite a bit though, so I'm not too worried about that part. 

We incorporated a truck bed full of compost from our local nursery. I think that it could have used a few more loads, but this is what we're running with this year. 

Then we're layering wood chips over the whole thing to help keep in moisture and for weed control. 

Last year I used straw. It worked great in the areas that the straw was thick enough. But we have really high winds here in Texas, and if the straw was dry it would blow away. With the supply of free wood chips I know that I can get the layers thick enough, and I'm pretty sure they will stay put. 

I LOVE THE NO WEEDS GARDENING METHOD!!!

This will be the last year that we till up this patch. After this we'll just add compost and see if we can get this soil to come alive.

I'm going to be spraying a molasses mixture on the area and drenching the soil with it once I plant. I'm very excited about molasses! I had no idea that it could be so beneficial.:o)

Tyler did a good job unloading the chips.

He created Mt. Tyler.:o)

It was hard work yesterday. The wind was blowing hard and getting dirt everywhere. I'm sure glad that I had Scott and Tyler there! Those beds wouldn't have happened without Scott, and those wood chips wouldn't have gotten unloaded if it weren't for Tyler.

Thank You Boys!!

 Conner "helped" too.

Summer Soup

Overgrown Zucchini Soup

2 Tbls of fresh butter

1 1/2 large Sweet Onions

1 mondo zucchini and 1 small zucchini

3 small potatos

Enough chicken stock to cover

about 1 tsp dried Thyme or a 2 Tbls of fresh Thyme

  2 Tbls of fresh Basil

2 Tbls of fresh Rosemary

Fresh Ground Pepper to taste

I diced the onion, zucchini, and potatoes about the same size and tossed them into a heavy bottomed pan with the melted butter. I also tossed in the herbs and pepper. I left them there, stirring often, (mostly because I like to stir things) until they were partially cooked, with the onion on its way to translucent. 

 Then I poured in enough stock to almost cover it. After placing the lid on tightly I wandered away for what was supposed to be 15 minutes. 

25 minutes later I raced back inside to discover that it was perfectly cooked and ready for blending. (I don't recommend leaving your stove when you're cooking or anything. I just often forget that I'm cooking. Not sure how, but I do.)

I blended it up and tasted it with the intention of adding some heavy cream and cheese. It didn't need it. It was PERFECT!!!

I'm in love. 

Slightly Sweet. Perfectly Creamy. 

Super Duper Yummy.

What's cooking from YOUR garden?

Summer Blessings!

 

Conversations with a Turtle

The picture of Innocence 

"What's that you say? 

Oh! You weren't saving that tomato for me?! 

So, so sorry! Won't happen again.:o) 

Did I see the fence? Well, yes. Of course I saw the fence. 

I just didn't realize it was meant for me.

I suppose you're also upset about the peppers and the squash.....

Oh. 

You....umm....didn't know about the squa..... 

um. I'm just gonna go now. 

No, no. Stay where you are. Don't get up. I think I hear my mother calling."

 

Nourishing Traditions and Garden bits

I Finally bought it!

I've looked at this book online at least a hundred times over the last couple of years. Read all the reviews. Read blogs that referenced it. Wanted it, but hated to lay $25 bucks out on a cookbook that I might find useless. 

Then I got lucky and it just "happened" to be at one of the health food stores I visited this weekend. I skimmed through it.....and promptly bought it.:o) I spent parts of my headache ridden day reading/skimming through it and I'm thrilled with my purchase. (I will admit however, that as I haven't yet tried any of the recipes I have no clue if I will find any of them edible......lol....but they all sound like they will be good...or like something I already cook but with a slight twist.) 

They have a whole section on wild game, and a section on organ meats. I will admit that the brains idea is a little scary, but the idea of "hiding" small amounts in other things is an interesting thing. 

Will I ever manage to actually eat brains? Probably not...but hey, if I decide to then I'll know how to do it. And that's pretty cool in my book.:o)

I believe in using every portion of a harvested animal and I'm excited that this book will help me out with that in the future. 

I'm very interested to see what the effect of cooking with these methods will do for our health and behaviour. Tyler has always struggled with everything from weight to anger. I know that I feel completely different when I eat crap than I do when I eat well. 

Yay! (Okay, I'll get off my "got a new book" happy wagon now...lol)

That was happy, this is the current BANE!

They are EVERYWHERE!!! Driving me crazy! Sharpies! Owies! Mean! Rotten! STICKERS!

I picked 3 bags full out of the garden the other day before I laid down 8 inches of straw mulch in a desperate hope that I won't have to pick them any more....lol. Now they're on the edges of the garden. I know, I know...give it a couple of years of picking and they will go away. But for now. Icky Icky Owie Ow.:o)

This is pretty.

I think they're called puff flowers, I'm going to look them up later. They are such a weird flower, but so pretty. I'm going to try and transplant them into my garden edge so I don't have to mow them down.

Look at THIS!!!

I know that I should have expected it. Perhaps I shouldn't be as in awe as I am. I mean, I suppose that one should expect a watermelon plant to produce a watermelon...but I don't think I did. The watermelon plant however, knew what it was doing.....and we have sweet little watermelons that seem to be doubling in size every day. 

How cool is that?!!! 

Happy Summer!!

In the Garden

Tomato Cages

 

The pictures are awful, but I'm hoping you can see enough to understand why I love this idea. We took some of the branches we trimmed and used them along with bits of string to make our tomato cages. They work great and I love the organic feel they give off. I know that once we actually have our garden beds established the look will be amazing! 

Plus, they're wonderfully cheap and practical.:o)

What is it about Squash Blossoms?

Checking on these guys really make me smile. I love the view under the canopy of leaves. It's always beautiful, usually dew covered, and filled with promise.

Beautiful Basil

There are many things I like to grow, but basil might be my favorite.

Or is is Rosemary? Lavender? Mint? Thyme? Those yummy 'maters?

Oh well, perhaps one day I'll narrow it down.

We use it in everything. I LOVE fresh basil. It's so easy, and does so much.