Fall Garden November 2013

I love Fall gardening. Here in Florida things just do so much better in the Fall. A lot of that has to do with the fact that the temperatures are much more tolerable and we seem to get a steady amount of rain.

So far in the garden we have cucumbers, 3 different types of green beans, radishes, cilantro, kale, broccoli, bell peppers and tomatoes.

 We’ve already harvested some kale and radishes. The bell peppers and green beans are not to far away.

I know one thing is for sure, it’s more pleasurable gardening in the Fall because you don’t have to fight with mosquitoes and the unruly heat like we do in the Spring/Summer.

Blogging about our garden each year helps us remember what veggies were doing well, where we planted them, when we planted them and so on.

 

If you’ve never grown anything in your life the one thing I will tell you is it’s a lot of trial and error. Sometimes you plant the wrong thing at the wrong time and you just learn from it and move on. It’s imperative that you keep some sort of gardening journal so you can keep track of your successes and failures. Because there will be failures.

 

Have a lovely day my friends.

OXOX,

Kim

Here are some recipes I put together for Kale. If you’ve never tried Kale it’s great and easy to grow too. Click HERE.

 

Fall/Winter Garden 2013

I know some of you up north are like, “What? A garden this late?” And if you’re already under snow it’s understandable that you would be asking such a question. But here in Florida it’s actually our best planting season. Unless of course we get an unexpected hurricane or freeze, which rarely happen at this time.

It was 91 degrees yesterday and my hubby, the boys and I all sported long sleeves and jeans to protect us from getting burnt to a crisp and from the bugs (spiders, ants, roaches, etc. did I mention spiders?). Not to mention it’s a pretty dirty job.

After my hubby tills the Spring/Summer garden up he puts black sheeting over it and it decomposes and gets ready for the Fall/Winter garden. He then just tills it up to make it light and fluffy and away we go.

So far we’ve planted cauliflower, broccoli, kale, bell peppers, green beans, lettuce and tomatoes. We will plant cabbage and brussels sprouts in November when it’s “cooler” because they don’t tolerate heat well but do great in colder temps.

Here are just a few pics from our day.

Dad showing the boys where to plant the broccoli. They were such HUGE helpers. I love that they want to help us.

Here I am fixin’ to give myself a headrush when I stand up. I’ve learned that I can’t squat over and over again without feeling like I’m going to pass out. I think it’s a height thing. Or an old thing. Not sure, but it made planting difficult. LOL!

Headrush recovery, with a smile of course! I am totally sporting this look.

All ready to go.

 Well that’s it for now. Did you plant anything this year? What did you grow?

If you are interested my other gardening posts you can check them out here under Garden.

Have a lovely day.

Kim

 

How to Grow a Pineapple

So you’ve got the top of a pineapple, now what? Well the answer to that question is easy. You plant it.

Any time you purchase a pineapple or in our case grown one, make sure you cut the crown off about an inch down from the top so you can grow your own out of it. It really is simple.

(If you live in colder climates you may stop reading now because pineapples like/love the warmer weather.) For the rest of us, this is what you do.

First of all let your crown sit in water for a couple of weeks. You want it kind of rotten. I know it sounds gross but just let it sit there. If you’re like me you have no problem ignoring plants in your home and watching them die a slow and painful death. Embrace this and just let that pineapple sit there.

 

After a couple of weeks it should look something like the picture below. Yummy huh?

Now simply dig a hole a couple inches deep and then bury it just over that rotten part. Pineapples LOVE dry, sandy soil but we’ve had success in richer dirt as long as there is proper drainage.

Place your rotten and in my case moldy crown in the ground and just bury the yucky part. Leave the rest sticking out.

Voila! You’re done. Easy Peasy right?

It’s not hard. They take little to no maintenance and if you’re lucky, in a year or so you’ll get the best pineapple of your life. I say if you’re lucky because you know who else likes fresh pineapples? Raccoons, squirrels, armadillos etc. So sometimes you have to fight for what’s yours and that could mean putting wire around it when it starts to ripen. It worked for us and we reaped the benefits of one of the best tasting pineapples on the planet.

I’d like to thank my supper fabulous husband for planting this and taking photos for me. Yeah, he’s good like that.

Have a lovely day my friends.
OXOX,

Kim

Homegrown Pineapple!

Update: Here’s my tutorial on growing your own pineapple.

Today I cut into our homegrown pineapple. If you’ve never tasted fresh pineapple then you don’t know what you’re missing. There is no comparison to store bought or canned pineapple. It’s simply THE best.

The hard part is waiting patiently for it to ripen. Critters know when it’s ripe too and sometimes they will get to it before you do so you have to watch it carefully. My BFF Kathy had two of hers get half eaten before she was able to pick them. It’s sad because they take so long to grow and then to not have anything to show for it can be annoying. Very annoying!

But there are ways to protect it somewhat. You can put chicken wire around it or something of the sort in order to keep critters like raccoons or opossums and such from getting to them.

We just picked this one the other day. It smelled soooo good but still had a couple days left to ripen.

A couple days went by and today I cut it into these delicious golden chunks of sweetness. Oh they were soooo good. So good!

If you live in the South they are sooo easy to grow. All you have to do is cut the crown off, set it in a bowl with water and let it rot for a couple weeks. Yes, I said rot. The lower part will start to rot and then you just bury that part in the ground and you’re done. They like sandy soil and heat so these probably don’t do well in colder climates.

I’ll do an update post when this one is ready to go in the ground. *smile*

Have you ever grown a pineapple? Do you live in an area where you can try growing one? Give it a shot, you’ll be glad you did.

Have a lovely day my friends.

OXOX,

Kim

Today’s Harvest!

I love picking produce from our own garden. It’s so inspiring, so fun, so wicked cool.

Today we harvested our first round of green beans and lettuce. We (hubby) planted 4 types of beans. We have bush, wax, purple and dragon tongue. I LOVE the diversity of them all.

We are still getting tons of brussels sprouts and jalapeno’s are in abundance. I may have to make jalapeno poppers before the season is over. Tomatoes are on their way out but our zucchini and cucumbers are doing great. We should be harvesting them next month.

I tell ya, with my husband being laid off I appreciate our bounty now more than ever.

Have a lovely day and thanks for stopping by.

OXOX,

In the Yard - April - New Growth

I decided to do a little walk about the yard today. It was so nice outside it was hard to stay inside. I brought my camera with me because you never know what you might see.

I started to realize there is a lot of new things springing up or getting ready to.

Like this gardenia bud.

 

I can’t wait till it blooms. It makes the back yard smell heavenly. Especially when I’m out hanging clothes.

Then I went over to check on our blueberries and grape vine. We had thought that they had kicked the bucket but look at all that new growth.

And looky here. Another pineapple peeking through. I LOVE fresh pineapple.

 

Our strawberry plants have been spitting out strawberries here and there. And our front flower area has a bunch of new wild flowers popping up.

We (hubby) put a lot of starter plants in the ground a few weeks ago and they are doing really well. We have some brussels sprouts in the back there that are still producing from this Winter. YUM!

 That’s the update to what’s new in the yard.

What’s popping up around your yard?
OXOX,

Garden Update

Ah, the garden. It’s overflowing with veggie goodness right now.  The two that we are harvesting from almost every day right now are the cucumbers and the green beans.

   I love fresh green beans. Here’s my favorite way to cook them. First you cut up 4-5 pieces of bacon and saute’ until crisp. Drain bacon pieces on a paper towel but reserve a TBS or 2 of the bacon fat in the pan. Add your trimmed beans, a chopped onion and a 1/4 cup of water and simmer until tender; approx. 20-25 minutes. Add your cooked bacon during the last 5 minutes of cooking. Salt and pepper to taste.  It’s THE best way to cook green beans. SO GOOD!

We (meaning my husband) planted 3 types of cucumbers this year and they all went crazy. “We” planted telegraphs, sumter, and market mores.

Underneath this canopy of vines are tons and tons and TONS of cucumbers.  (Yeah, my hubby gets a little over zealous! LOL!) It’s a good thing my kids love veggies.

We’ve been able to make a little money from them and we’ve eaten tons and tons and TONS of them ourselves, which also saves us money at the market.

We are going to the store soon to get some mason jars so I can make some pickles. Tons and tons and TONS of pickles.

 

Soon we’ll be harvesting onions, lettuce and more bell peppers. Squash and zucchini are on the list of things to plant as the weather continues to get warmer.  I love eating seasonally. Just when you are about sick of one veggie a new one is ready to harvest.

If you are new to gardening, a book I might have recommended in the past but is worth repeating is this one. It’s called The Joy of Gardening.

Even if you have to grow in pots and containers I highly recommend giving it a try.  Just start with a favorite and go from there.

Happy Gardening my friends!

The Garden Transition! Fall/Winter to Spring!

To say that we have had a mild Winter is an understatement. While it did get quite cold at times it never stuck around for more than a few days at a time and in the month of January our average was probably around 75 degrees.  With that said, our garden doesn’t know what to do. “Normally” everything would be done by now but we are still getting tomatoes like there’s no tomorrow and our onions and cabbage, brussel sprouts and green bell peppers continue to press on. So we are leaving them alone for now and my hubby is tilling up the part that has been resting since Summer.

This is what the scene looks like right now. The garden extends all the way to that little shed in the back.

Up until now we’ve (meaning exclusively my hubby) been tilling and planting without much preparation to the soil. But hubby’s getting VERY serious about it now. He recently had two dump truck loads of “special” dirt delivered and he and the boys are slowly getting it spread throughout the garden.

Boys and dirt make for a good time!

He is ready to get planting. These are just a few of the seed packets that he’s ordered.

He tries to get organic, Non GMO, heirloom seeds. Plus he saves some seeds from previous crops as well.

Here’s some of our tomato bounty. This is about the 2nd round of mator’s and he just brought in two bag fulls yesterday. I’m making and freezing sauce out of them because frankly I don’t even like tomatoes in their “raw” form. It’s a texture thing, but sauce I use all the the time.

Well that’s the update from the Homestead Garden. I’ll keep you posted on any new developments!

Have a GREAT day my friends!

Because I know you care!

Here’s what’s been going on around our homestead, because I know your Monday wouldn’t be the same without you knowing. I’m good like that. Always thinking of others.

Our garden is slowing springing back from the all that rain and standing water. We lost about a 1/3 of our seedlings but everything else seems to be doing okay. My hubby harvested these sweet potatoes the other day. It was our first time trying to grow them and it’s always a surprise when things actually grow. LOL!

There were more but we ate some for dinner that night and they were soooo good!

If you’ve hung out here at my blog for any length of time you know that buying next years wall calendar is always a big deal to me. Okay, I probably MAKE it a big deal but if it’s going to be hanging on my kitchen wall for 12 months I want to LOVE it, not just like it.

So this year the new Gooseberry Patch Calendar won out over the others. I loved their artwork in this calendar and thought it would be a happy addition to my kitchen.

My hubby is going to town on our closet. He’s got the inside framed out the way we want it and now all he has to do is paint the wood. I’ve been taking pictures of the whole process. Here’s a sneak peek.

Here he is working on his side of the closet.  There’s just something about a man that can build things…….*swoon*…..Huh? Wha?….Okay I’m back!

I’ll stop there for now as I know you have other things to do and only 37.5 seconds to spend reading each blog. LOL!

Have a lovely day my sweet friends!

Homestead Happenings!

Let’s see, what’s been going on around here?

Well hubby has got the Fall garden all ready to go. So far I think he’s planted tomatoes, green beans, brussel sprouts, cabbage, broccoli, cucumbers, lettuce, chard, onions and bell peppers.

The Fall garden does much better than the Spring garden here in Florida so we are really excited about it. We were goofing off and experimenting with growing sweet potatoes and we actually harvested some yesterday. Fun!

Let’s see, I went to the Dentist the other day. That’s always fun. My appointment wasn’t until 2 and I kept freaking myself out because I kept forgetting that I had to leave and kept thinking I was going to miss it. Next time I’m making it earlier so I can get it over with.  My kids get to go have their “fun” today.

I’m on day 15 of my no added sugar diet and I’ve lost almost 5lbs. My energy levels are high and I feel really good.  I’m so proud of the few of you who decided to join in. Let me know how you’re doing.

I’ve been busy spray painting. If you’ve “like” my Homesteader’s Heart page on FB you have already gotten a sneak peak at what I’ve been doing, but I’m going to save that for a separate post.

My BFF brought over a red rose from her garden the other day and it looked so pretty. Every time I passed by it, it made me smile!

Well I guess that’s about it. Other than that, it’s life as usual.

What have you been up to?

HUGS!

P.S. Don’t forget about Friday Funnies tomorrow. Not sure where you all were last week but I missed ya!

Wrapping Up the Summer Garden!

As most of you know our planting time is Florida is WAY earlier then most of the country. We’ve been harvesting different veggies for months now. We’ve pushed our over abundance of squash and zucchini on anyone that would take it, but we are ready for a Summer break. It’s REALLY hot here right now and not a whole lot of things want to grow in this extreme heat nor do we want to be out in it.

We had quite a drought here about a month back and a lot of our watermelons and cantaloupes didn’t make it. We then had an influx of rain and a lot of them split open and or rotted. *sigh*

We did manage to get a few and what we did get was delicious!

So this will wrap up the garden for the Summer. My hubby is getting ready to turn everything in and throw oak leaves over it and let it sit for a couple months. But watch out, because Fall planting is right around the corner and we have some yummy veggies we want to try this year.

If you started growing any kind of veggies this year, when did you start planting?

HAVE A FABULOUS DAY!

More Gardening Love!

My hubby and I are so excited about how well our garden is doing. About a month or so ago he tilled up another area that I’m calling Phase 2. There he planted watermelon, cantaloupe, butternut squash, zucchini, and summer squash.

Here are some pictures of that.

Here’s what’s still growing in Phase 1

We are still harvesting onions but the green beans and cucumbers are done. The remainder of the carrots were picked a couple of days ago.

You can see my past garden posts here.

Oh I almost forgot to mention. We were just messing around with growing potatoes and we actually harvested some the other day. And there’s more still to come. So exciting.

This really has been such a blessing. We couldn’t grow anything when we lived on the beach. Moving out here has been so much fun. We call this our trial garden because we are trying to see what does well and what doesn’t but so far everything with the exception to some corn, has done very well. Yay!!! And I don’t think my kids have ever eaten so much salad in their life. BONUS!

I’ll be keeping you posted.

Have a fabulous day my friends!!