Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Garden 2012

We were with out internet for 3 days.. and I realized just how much we could get done when the internet was off... 

Even though it's March I feel a huge Garden Pressure.. why? Because it's already been 80 degrees for a week straight! Highly unsual. After the year we had last year where it was 90 degrees in June and it killed all of our started plants.. I feel like we need to rush this year.. and pray tht April rains don't drown everything!

Over the weekend we managed to not only clean the house, but clear out and plant all but 1 of the raised beds. The only reason why the 1 was not planted is we need to put dirt in it first :)  Granted 2 boxes were already planted and growing Garlic. ;) 

As of right now we have these things seeded.
  • Lettuce
  • Carrots
  • Kolrabi
  • Asian Cabbage
  • Radish
  • Garlic
  • Onions
  • Basil
  • Oregano
  • Dill (1 whole bed for Pickling)
  • Ginger
  • Horseradish
  • Mint (came back from last year)
  • Lemon Balm (came back from last year)
  • Strawberries (came back from the last few year's)
Inside in flats I have these Seedlings Growing

  • 4 Diffrent Tomato's 
  • Mini Bell Pepper's
  • Green Bell Pepper's
  • Golden Bell Pepper's
  • Red Bell Pepper's
  • Peppercinie's
  • Tomatillios
  • Asian Cabbage
  • Onions
  • Sage
  • Basil
  • Dill
  • Parsley     
Seed's Waiting to be planted
  • Spinach
  • Pea's
  • Harcord Vert Green Beans 
  • Luffa
  • Cuecumbers
  • Mini Cuecumbers
  • Strawberry Pop Corn
There are also a few flower seeds started and waiting to be planted

I am trying to grow Sweet Potato slips in my windowsill but I may have started to late.
I still need to buy some more Onion Bulbs and potato's... but this sums up my list for this year.


New this year
  • Sweet Potato's
  • Mini Cuecumber's
  • Mini Green pepper's
  • Ginger
  • Horse Radish
  • Asian Cabbage
  • Radish
  • Hardcord Vert Green Beans
  • Kolrabi

Back after an absence
  • Spinach
We realized how much we missed this veggie in our salads!

We still have the Rose bushes and Iris's in our flower beds and a few misc flowers that were planted here before we bought the house. 


This sums up this years Garden excited and can't wait! I love watching things grow!

Thursday, March 15, 2012

2012 in PICTURES!! :)

Asparagus that came up after being planted over 2 years ago.. this had never come up before! It was located at the original end of our Garden


Microwave update 6 months

Okay.. so it's been over 6 months since we put our Microwave on a shelf in the laundry room... Do we still have it ... yes... where is it? ... still on the shelf.... why? because we are waiting to find someone in need of it instead of trashing it.  

We have not used it at all since retiring it to the laundry room closet. I will never have a microwave again.
I don't have to worry about plastic containers or food not fully cooked. I have reclaimed the space on my counter top and have stopped wasting the power use for each plate... And popcorn tastes so much better in a pot on the stove with a little bit of olive oil!

Weather?? Is this the new norm?

Okay.. I know that freak weather systems are normal.. but do we now have a new norm.. and if so what's really going on?

Last year we had unseasonably warm weather early in the year.. A lot of crops suffered or were not able to produce fully because of the fast onslaught of heat and then another fast onslaught of cold... but there was never a real winter here in IL. I never shoveled snow, only 1 day did we have severely slick roads and they melted by noon.. highly unusual for the backwoods area I live in.

Now they are predicting a heat index of 97!!! Yeas 91!! On next Monday. It's only March 15th!!  This to me is getting super crazy scary! 

So I've sceen the posts.. oh your just doomsdaying good weather enjoy it it's fine... As someone in my position.. I can't ignore it.. my family depends on the Weather to grow the  food that we live off of every year... We save $1,000 's  because we can and dehydrate and try not to have to buy vegetables or herbs and spices... If we can grow it we don't buy it!

So for those that say quit making this into global warming... what else is this? And why is this?  How do we prevent this or fix this? 

 This is why my family is doing their best to go Green... honestly if we had the money, we'd be the first to do all solar and wind... I'd love to convert into it and we've been looking into it. It's so expensive and on a low income budget impossible to do.  But there are things we can do.

Reuse,  recycle,  re-gift, re-purpose, and much more!

Please join us in our fight for a healtheir planet.. we may not be able to reverse the damage that's been done but maybe we can slow it down so that our kids don't have to wear sun suits to walk outside!