Tag Archives: Sustainable living

Tomato Time

Here is a quick photo update of the garden. This HUGE basket is just what I picked today!

The full size tomatoes are finally getting ripe. We have been eating the cherry and small yellow pear tomatoes for a couple weeks now.

Zucchini and squash are also still coming along. Needless to say we’ve been eating a lot of them too. I also made three loaves of zucchini bread Sunday night! This weekend will be a huge batch of zucchini tots to freeze. Should time ever allow…aka Josh not need my help with his garage, I may even find some time to can. Or not, time will tell!

Do you have a garden? How is it coming along?

Guess what’s for dinner here tonight? Pasta with homemade tomato sauce. Imagine that! Lunch was salad with lots of tomatoes and cucumbers. Breakfast was scrambled eggs with tomatoes. See a theme?!

Garden Update

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I can almost taste the tomatoes! We tied the plants up a couple weekends ago and it is smelling like tomato plants. They have such a distinct smell, I just love it! There are plenty of blossoms and even some baby tomatoes. The cherry tomatoes seem to be the first to grow. Continue reading →

Spring is in the air…and my garden too!

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I am so excited to see our garden growing. My boys are excited too! Over the weekend they helped weed. They actually did a decent job too!

The season always starts with the lettuces. We have been eating quite a few salads lately. Expect another salad recipe later this week! The asparagus also comes early, though we haven’t harvested any. It is all still too thin so we leave it. Each year we get a little more, someday we may actually have enough.

Last week I went out and did a count since I was curious. My guess was very close. I thought we had around four dozen tomato plants, we actually have 51. You read that right, 51 tomato plants! We even had about another two dozen to plant but just have room! I sent several to school with Jack since his class is planting a vegetable garden alongside the flower garden the child development program planted.

As of now we have no bug issues. Fingers crossed this continues. Not even any deer problems either. Each day I watch everything grow bigger, looking forward to everything I will be able to make. Clearly I will have more produce than I can handle. In years past I take LOTS to play dates, needless to say people are thankful for garden fresh goodies.

So here are some pictures of our garden….

Picture all the salads with yummy fresh greens!

Boys, big and small, weeding near the asparagus.

Blossoms on the blackberry bushes.

These are the rows of tomatoes!

Squash plants.

Pepper plants.

Oh yum, Napa cabbage!

Kohlrabi….so many possibilities.

Broccoli, a family favorite!

Our first blueberries! We just planted four bushes last year. We will need many many more to feed our boys!

Garden Preparations

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I have lost track of time, not sure how many weeks old my baby seedlings are! They are coming along beautifully. I can just taste the tomato cucumber salads. The homemade pesto on pasta and pizza. Mint in my mojitos or on fruit salad. Zucchini bread, grilled zucchini. Pumpkin EVERYTHING! Salsa, hot peppers on pizza… Boy oh boy is my mouth watering. All I have to say is this better be a good year for the garden, I have such big plans!

This has been such a crazy winter. We have had snow here, in South Carolina! It is warm, then cold, then warm, then cold again! Last year we planted the garden St. Patrick’s Day. This year we are still waiting. We are still expecting lows in the 30s next week so we wait. The lettuces are already planted, but they tolerate the cold better.

This year we put some covering over all the rows. We grow weeds incredibly well and I just couldn’t keep up with them, it is a HUGE garden. Someday the boys will be able to help weed, until then I hope this works!

The far right here with the hoses running through is where all the lettuces and carrots go. The asparagus in the very last row next to the garage.

This flat is mostly tomato plants, the smaller ones in front are peppers.

Hello my dear sweet tomatoes, I can’t wait to eat you up!

Last week I started more seedlings of everything. We are hoping to pace the harvest out a little.

My darling basil, I can taste the pesto already!

Seedlings, Day 10

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The boys are enjoying watching all our seedlings grow! They know these will turn into plants that will grow in our garden. If you want your children to eat well I highly recommend you plant some vegetables and let the kids watch things grow. Let them help you in the kitchen. I know, they get in the way and slow things down, but they really do pay attention. My kids will eat just about any vegetable raw while I am chopping getting ready to fix dinner. Sean’s favorite is usually raw onion! Good thing he also eats the mint leaves off my plant, well good for his breath, not good for my plant!

Everything has sprouted except the peppers. The cabbages and broccolis are the biggest. Notice the leaning plants…always need rotating as they grow towards the sunny windows.