Gardening

Now is the time to start planning your spring garden and preparing your beds.  Here in Texas….2 days after Christmas and I’m wearing capris, tank tops and flip flops, so I’m thinking veggies!  Of course, I AM in Texas, and the old saying in Texas is, if you don’t like the weather now…blink!  It changes just like that.

Soil, like our bodies need nutrients replaced. Compost!  Banana peels are wonderful for replenishing potassium.  Used coffee grounds have many uses after drinking that cup of Joe!  Using coffee grounds add nitrogen in the soil, eggshells add calcium.  We keep bags of Epsom salts in the house for so many reasons.  Epsom salts are packed with magnesium and is so nourishing to the body as well as the garden!

With winter here and fireplaces going, wonder what to do with the ash that you have to clean out?  Use in your gardens, veggie and flowers!  Wood ash neutralized the soil, allowing it to absorb all those nutrients.  Almost anything can be used as compost, even lobster shells!  After dipping those luscious tail meats in drawn butter, crush the shells and add to your garden.  Lobster is loaded with phosphorus!

Preparing now will help grow your gardens into masterpieces!

We went with a raise bed last year that was marvelous.  No stooping for planting, weeding or harvesting.

Happy Halloween!099

 

I just love Halloween!  Watching the kids carve pumpkins and getting so excited over what their costume is going to be.  I miss the days when my kids were young and we took them out trick or treating.  We live way out in the country now, so we don’t get any goblins knocking on our door.  That doesn’t stop us from decorating and getting into the spirit of things though.

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Oh yes…Autumn is right around the corner.  Randy planted our fall garden and the squash is coming up beautifully.  We got an added bonus too.  Our tomatoes we had planted in the spring decided to pop back up!  We have at least a dozen tomato plants that re-germinated and are already almost a foot tall.

Autumn is my favorite time of the year.  Cool days, brisk nights, open windows instead of the AC and PUMPKINS!  Whether its carving them into Jack O’Lanterns, roasting the seeds for a snack or pumpkin pies, I love them!  I love the mystique of Autumn…Charlie Brown’s The Great Pumpkin, Hocus Pocus, Halloween and costume parties.  Ok, I just talked myself into getting the decorations down from the attic and I’m going to get started.  Again, I want to thank Tim for the pictures of his first harvest.

 

 

 

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Gardening and country living go hand in hand.  The satisfaction of raising your own vegetables, fruits and herbs/spices is second to little else!  Not only the benefit of eating a more healthy diet, but the money you save in growing your own gardens is a great way to put that money to other uses; paying off bills, a larger savings account, etc.  Whether you live in the city, the burbs or the country, you, too, can have your own gardens.  Green thumbs up!

We decided to utilize a bottom-rusted out 500 gallon galvanized steel water trough to become our garden this year….no tilling!  I have to tell you though, we did a lot of soil hauling!  We went to Lowes and bought the Lowes brand of top soil, mulch and potting soil.  It took 40 40 lb. bags of top soil, 6 50 lb. bags of potting soil and 6 20 lb. bags of mulch.  Yep, my hubby, son and I off loaded almost a ton of dirt by hand!  Once we had it filled, it was well worth the initial work of hauling, since all maintaining of the garden is at a level we don’t have to break our backs bending over to tend to.

Randy planted Sweet Georgia onions.  Roma, Better Boys and Sweet 100 tomatoes.  Zucchini and Yellow Squash.  Jalapeno, Habanero, Red and Yellow Bell peppers.  Love our veggies!

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