It’s getting quite hot here and I feel like we are in a race against the heat to finish the garden. I sowed seeds for sunflowers and butternut squash with the children. These are large enough seeds to have the children help plant. Seeds that are only covered with 1/8 inch of soil (like lettuce)…
I bought a few more plants for the garden on sale. A couple of weeks ago, I bought a tomato plant along with the rose bushes. I accidentally stepped on it while I was moving the roses, cutting the entire top off of the plant. I stuck it in water, and it rooted. I planted…
I’ve noticed a lot fewer sales on items that I normally buy, in addition to higher prices since the start of the pandemic last year. In the most recent article I read about rising food costs, I noticed it said that citrus had risen 11.8% in price. Planting more fruit trees in our garden is…
We celebrated a daughter’s birthday with a simple celebration at home. My mom was getting rid of her garage refrigerator and asked if we wanted it. The one we have now tends to freeze inside the fridge and the freezer door does not close properly, so I said we would love it! We switched over…
Early in March, there is a short time when the white garden has a few pink blooms. Three of the four main trees in the garden design bloom with pale pink blooms (the two flowering plums and the Katy apricot) and the fourth, the Early Elberta peach, blooms with deep pink blooms. The first of…
I took more cuttings from my bushes in the front yard to start new bushes for the backyard. I hope these take; my last cuttings were not very successful, though I had a few that rooted. Still, try, try again is the method of the day! I need around 1300 plants to make my hedges,…
On Sunday evening, our dishwasher went out. In 15 years at this house, we have gone through three dishwashers already. With a large family, we run our dishwasher two to three times a day (plus wash fifteen to 20 pots and pans and large bowls each day by hand), so I expect it will break…
I hope you are warm and well wherever you are in the world! We borrowed a tractor to work in the garden (saving us the $1400 it would have cost to rent an excavator for the same period of time) in order to dig more of the beds in the garden. This was a much…
In between the work in the garden last week, I managed to read an e-book from the library, All Things Bright and Beautiful, which I enjoyed very much. I purchased two sweaters (one pullover and one cardigan) on clearance for my daughters. I sowed seeds for lettuce, spinach, and hollyhocks in reused nursery pots since…
The weather is beautiful here and it has been wonderful to work in such lovely weather in the garden. We borrowed a jumping jack to help us compact the new soil in the garden beds as we were filling it, to prevent it from falling later. While garden soil needs a certain amount of air…
Most of the week we were delayed on working in the garden due to weather, but we are grateful for the rain and the little bit of snow that fell. The mountains around us were covered with snow to the bases, which was beautiful. I sifted our previously purchased garden bed soil to remove rocks…
It’s been another week at home, as it has been for many of you, too! I cut a few roses from the garden to enjoy. I began pruning them back this past week to keep them healthy and productive for the year. I made some cuttings from my Thompson’s seedless grape, to hopefully start new…