The Benefits of Weeds

 Good morning all.  We had a cool May morning today with our low being in the 46-48 degree range, depending on who you asked.  Fortunately my plants remained unfazed.  My morning consisted of harvesting more asparagus and strawberries, but my main thing was weeding.  Hence the title of my post.  

The latest trend among gardeners and you tube homestead influencers is landscape fabric.  I'm afraid they're a day late and a dollar short.  Contrary to popular belief; just because one has a you tube channel, doesn't make them an expert.  Many of us have already traveled the road they're on, only we're too busy with everyday things to stage, film, and edit our tasks.  Do I sound snarky?  I don't mean to.  It's just a lesson I had to learn myself.  Don't get me wrong, I have channels that I follow just like everyone else.  Only I follow more for the personality of the you tuber than anything I can glean from them.  I have learned something.  I take that back.  I learned about putting the cracked egg in the hole for planting tomatoes trick.  I learned that from a personality in Kentucky who learned it from old timers in the area.  Meaning it's nothing new, just new to me.  

So I've tried landscape fabric....Twice.  Once with a cheaper version I could afford, and another from a more top of the line brand.  Both failed, and both failed in the same way.  See there's these pesky things called birds, and wind that move seeds around.  Once the seeds get some water, they grow on top of the landscape fabric, sending their roots through the tiny holes in the fabric and into the ground.  This makes it impossible to get the root out, and if you get some of it, you can't get all; so it grows.  Other disadvantages of landscape fabric: fire ants love to build their nest under it, you can't cultivate, and soil gets compacted cutting off air flow to the roots of your garden plants.  Each time I've tried landscape fabric I've thrown it away and gone back to cardboard topped with wood chips( not green wood chips).  

So while I was weeding I was thinking about these things and decided to write this post!  Weeds do have positive side affects.

1)  Exercise-  Weather cultivating to get weeds out or pulling weeds out you are engaging in activity outside in the sun.  You're reaching, bending, stretching, and pulling.  You're hauling the weeds out of the garden.

2) Aerating the soil- Each weed that you pull away from your garden plant loosens the soil allowing fresh air to get to the roots of your plant.  This makes for a happy plant!

3)  Food for chickens!-  Many of the weeds in your garden are a favorite of chickens.  Just toss the whole pile in there.  They will eat what they want and the rest will compost into the ground.  Stinging Nettle and Dead Nettle are two favorites of my hens.  Plus those plants increase egg production.  

4)  Fodder for the compost pile-  If you have a compost pile, you have free organic fodder to toss in.  

5)  Some of these weeds can be edible and medicinal.  Do your research on this one.  Don't just start grazing.  LOL.  An example would be dandelions.  

I know weeds are a pain, but I just wanted to point out there are benefits too.  

Genesis 3:19-  By the sweat of our brow you will eat your food, until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken.  For dust you are and dust you will return.  

Even in the middle of man's fall and expulsion from Eden; it's nice to know that God saw fit to give benefit to our work.  If we could ever solve the weed problem, then we'd have a pest problem.  If we solved the pest problem we'd have a water problem.  See what I mean?  God's word doesn't change.  Frankly I don't want it to.  There is a sense of satisfaction in battling weeds, pests, drought, etc and still bringing something to the table.  Not gonna lie.  Gardening is work, but it's work that is worth while.

So while I have you here, may I present my garden picture for 2025.  My tomato plants are still small, but I'm thrilled with the garden itself.

It really is the little things

 Yes, yes.  I know.  I'm late AGAIN!  Between gardening, Easter, and my birthday it's been some crazy times.  Now that my plant sale is somewhat over, all of my own plants are wanting to get put into their own garden.  I've been scurrying around finding spots for, not only my own plants, but ones left over from the plants sale.  So when I say "somewhat over", that means I still have folks coming to shop from what I have left.  

One such person returned recently to get more plants, and her daughter had crochet me a chicken!  Cutest thing, and that she would want to do that for someone she barely know is so special.  

As if planting wasn't adventurous enough, I've begun to harvest!  Yay!  Harvest 2025 is underway!  Todays harvest consisted of Beet greens, garlic scapes, asparagus, Cilantro, and strawberries!  Beet greens are a healthy alternative to lettuce in a salad.  Down the line I'll use the actual beet root.  Garlic scapes are the single flower that begins to emerge from the center of the garlic plant.  These can be harvested and used to replace fresh garlic.

I've  managed to get everything I HAVE to get in the garden.  Now my focus is on finding spots to throw an extra tomato plant here and there, as well as volunteer marigolds and Zinnias.  Soon I will post a picture of the garden for 2025.  I have to say I'm quite thrilled with it.  Now ask me in July when the weeds are in charge because it's too hot to go outside! 

We finally have the mower working.  I'd like to say I did it by myself, but I can't.  My dear friend helped me replace the deck belt, and sweet hubby mowed the grass today.  What a blessing.  It's so nice not having grass up to ones knees.   

Another friend gifted me a few gallons of milk.  I have rennet and am going to embark on my first attempt to make mozzarella cheese probably tomorrow.  I'm excited and terrified.  We'll see.  If I can do it, I'll be sure to write about it.  If I can do it, we'll have pizza tomorrow night!  

Fast forward to tomorrow and I DID IT!  I made mozzarella cheese for the first time in my life.  It wasn't too hard.  I'll do a post down the line on how to. We are having pizza tonight!

So now I'm off again to get back to work in the garden.  This time of year is super busy!  Isn't that funny.  In the winter when I have time to write, there isn't much to do, and in the summer when I have all kinds of things to write about; I have no time!  

What cool things are going on in your garden, kitchen, homestead, life ?  

Canning Mode!

 You know the saying "Why put off until tomorrow what can be put off until the next day"?  We'll that's me.  I'm notorious for putting things on the back burner.  Problem is there are only so many back burners.  So today is the day to take some of those things off the back burner, and address them.  So we will now enter 

CANNING MODE!

I have Blackberries that need to become juice or jam.  Tomato sauce to can.  Ham bone broth and Chicken bone broth that need to be canned, and jalapeno peppers that need to be made into cowboy candy.  These are from last season, but I've had them frozen, waiting to have them dealt with.  Today's the day.  Getting all of these things out of my freezer leaves only some whole chickens, a brisket, a turkey, ham, and pork roast.  Fresh strawberries will be coming in soon.  Having room in the freezer to simply wash and freeze these strawberries is awesome!

In addition to all that; I've begun harvesting my herbs, asparagus, and spinach.  The herbs are taking their turn in the dehydrator and the asparagus and spinach are in the fridge.  It's a good feeling to shop from the back yard.  

Don't be intimidated by canning, and don't think you need all the latest gizmos.  Canning can be as simple as water bath canning.  Water bath canning is simply having your jars covered with water about an inch over the tops in a large stock pot.  Bring the water to a boil and start your timer.  You don't need a pressure canner for water bath canning.  You simply need a deep stock pot.  Water bath canning will be how the blackberries, jalapenos, and tomato sauce are processed today.  Pressure canning is what I'll do for the broths.  Jars are a necessity, either way.  However, and at the risk of endorsing a brand, Walmart has a Mainstays brand of jars that are very reasonable, and actually cheaper than the jars found at Goodwill.  I always recommend anyone wanting to start canning to simply start with a deep stock pot and begin canning jams, jellies, fruits, and pickles.  Even tomatoes can be water bath canned.  There is such a wide array of food items that can be water bath canned; one can get used to canning before dipping their toe into pressure canning.  

Aside from space in the freezer; canning a good portion of items normally stored in the freezer, allows them to be shelf stable and therefore immune to a power outage ruining my frozen items.  I'm entertaining the thought of taking the plunge and canning the meat I currently have frozen.  All I can say is let me get through this stuff first😁 .  

Okay.  Fast forward to afternoon and I managed to get 7 quarts of chicken broth,7 quarts of ham broth, and 5 pints of blackberry juice concentrate canned.  The blackberry concentrate will be used this summer in Blackberry tea.  It's a simple matter of brewing ice tea and adding the blackberry juice to the tea.  Very good, and can be done with juice concentrate from the store.  I recommend not using juice concentrate that is sweetened with high fructose corn syrup.  I use cane sugar to sweeten ours.  Not wanting to toss the left over pulp from all of those blackberries; I made a fresh fruit crisp for tonight's dinner.  I also made one loaf of banana bread from some frozen bananas.  I still have enough blackberry pulp for a second crisp, but that is another nights dessert or I may use it to make cereal bars, which are a fan favorite.  Unfortunately the cowboy candy and tomato sauce will need to be done tomorrow.  It has to be because it's thawed now!

                                           

My Apologies!

 I realized this morning that its been over 2 weeks since I posted anything!  You guys are going to think I bailed again, but no I was just franticly getting ready for my and my friends annual plant sale.  This has been going on for 3 years now.  One day I went on my neighborhood app and said I was starting seeds for my own garden.  Would anyone want me to start extra?  They could come shop for what they wanted, but a lot cheaper than buying at a store.  This gave them the ability to have plants much less expensively, and it covered our gardening cost for the season.  I received a positive response, so we started the plant sale.  We've done it every year since.  This is something we have really enjoyed doing.  

1)  Fosters community that's in person and not just on a social media app.  We've met lots of wonderful people as a result of this.  These are people I may never have met otherwise.  We even had a few that came and wanted to see the greenhouse, and my garden set up in order to get ideas for their garden.  We can talk a long time about gardening!

2)  We get to share our information and answer any questions someone may have about particular plants, how to's, tips and tricks, what works and what doesn't.  I know in an era of search engines; much can be found online(allegedly), but there's something about just having a discussion in person that helps grasp a concept.  In addition, I can tell you search engines don't know everything.  Each customer left with the understanding that if they had further questions they could just message me or call.  

3)  We're helping people get started on providing food for themselves.  It may only be a little, but it's something.  Those few tomato plants they bought this year, may turn into tomato plants and peppers next year.  Someone could be starting an herb garden that expands into a medicinal garden.  I started my journey with two, count them two, tomato plants and now......

4) Savings all round.  This covers our gardening for the season; seeds, soil, and any other garden paraphernalia.  Plus our customers get at least 50% off what they would have paid for something comparable at the store. 

Anyone that can start seeds can start to do this for their community.  First gauge interest, and if there is interest; go for it!  It's work baby sitting plants until spring, but very worth it in our opinion.  I started this before I had a greenhouse.  We had plants all over, but even then it was worth it.  

Alternatives to a Greenhouse for extending the season

 Hello again everyone!  

Grab a cuppa coffee and sit a while!  How are things?  With all the chaotic weather we've had here in the US recently, things may be a bit skewed.  We were fortunate that the bad weather that came through our part of Ga over the weekend had weakened to just a thunderstorm , but many faced a much scarier time.  My prayers go out to anyone affected by this huge system that made it's way across the US.  

This time of year is the most exciting for me; good and bad.  The good is getting out into the garden after a cold dreary winter.  The bad is the upswing of thunderstorms as the seasons change.  Severe Thunderstorms make me nervous because we live in a doublewide mobile home with no basement or storm shelter.  That's changing in the future.  After this last time my husband and I have plans to get a storm shelter.  I love where we live; the house, garden ,city, county.  The only thing I don't love is the lack of emergency shelter in case of a tornado.  So we're saving to get a storm shelter.  I know it sounds like we're always saving for something, but that's only because we're always saving for something!  We save because, aside from our mortgage, we have no debt.  Once we paid off car loans, student loans, and credit cards; we were done! We have no plans to have debt.  EVER.  

With that frame of mind, a greenhouse seemed out of my reach.  Even now, the only way I was able to afford the greenhouse I now have is that my mother shared some of her small inheritance from my grandmother.  Because I didn't have a greenhouse prior to this one, but wanted to get a jump start on the gardening season; I made do to extend the season in other ways.  I wanted to share some of those with you.  

Hoop and cover-  Regardless of it being a row or a raised bed, PVC hoops covered with 6 mil plastic make a wonderful little "like greenhouse".  It's rather simple to do.  Simply take thin stakes or rebar of 18 inches in length.  Drive them into the ground; one on each side of your raised bed or row.  Move down the bed or row about 3 ft and do it again.  Once you have the rebar driven in where you want it, take 3/4 inch pvc pipe.  Slip each end over the rebar, pushing it down to the ground.  Once all the PVC pipe is in place, simply cover with 6 mil plastic.  You'll want some small spring clamps to hold it in place.  Make sure during the day to open each end of your "Greenhouse" to let heat escape.  It can get really hot in there.  Right before sunset, seal the ends back up to hold warmth in over night.  If it's going to be too low during the night, you can always add electric warming mats or heat lamps of 100 watt bulbs.  

Walk in hoop greenhouse-  This is the same concept as above, but you can walk in to it.  It takes a little more effort to set it up, but it does the job.  Here's a link for your entertainment!  Our hoop greenhouse is now a hoop coop.  So it is a versatile item.

Pop up Greenhouse-  What we like to call the green tent.  I bought this one about 3 years ago.  It has served me well.  It isn't a permanent structure, and so over time it will wear.  It's inexpensive enough to give you the benefits of a greenhouse without a crazy amount of money.  You will need some form of supplemental heat during the dangerous temp times, but I found simply adding some utility lamps with 100 watt bulbs did the trick.  Extremely low temps, I'd cart your seedlings into the house until the cold temps pass, but this does extend the growing season.  Plus it's wonderful to be able to go out and work in the green tent even with it raining and still be dry.  Ironically, we'd been using the green tent for our riding mower this past winter.  I'd moved it when the greenhouse was built, but had not really installed it per package directions.  I simply anchored it with clothesline over the sides tied to stakes driven into the ground.  Well.  My advice is to follow the directions.  I did initially, just not after I moved it.  Here's what I found when I went outside yesterday after a good windstorm.  So yea, guess what I'm doing today!

The cheapest alternative for staring seeds and/or extending your growing season is still using a sunny window in your house.  This is how I first started growing seeds. We don't really have a lot of great sunny windows in our house.  Grow light bulb put into your every day table lamps did the trick, but once the babies emerged, and weather permitted; I'd move them out to our back porch during the day and back in at night.😁 This insured a workout for me!

Regardless of what method you use, starting your plants from seeds is the least expensive.  Using saved seeds too is even better, but you'll get to that later.  Just start!  Start small, and work your way up.  That way you aren't overwhelmed.   Happy Spring! 

Getting my garden mojo on!

Hello all!  The weather is turning warmer and I'm out in it as often as possible!  My garden is my happy place.  There've been some changes on the home front, and I'm just chomping at the bit to have everything in place.  Pictures of it all finished and put together will be following, I hope soon.  In the mean time:

PROJECTS IN MOTION

1.  Finish painting my new greenhouse! Yes I was able to get a 10x12 greenhouse built this past November.  A wonderful neighbor gave me the windows from and old house they restored.  A wonderful handyman built it, and I finished the inside.  Now I'm needing to paint the outside to protect it from the elements.  I'm about 75% finished.  It will be white to match the house.  I'm hampered by either rain or cold temps.  Right now it's more rain, but I'm not complaining. This is what it looked like once the build was almost finished.  This greenhouse was something I've only dreamed about over the years, and I have to say it's my happy place!  It's worked rather well.  Neither I nor the handyman that built it realized that the bottom needed to be sealed up so that the greenhouse could utilize the ground heat.  So I added boards across the bottom down to the ground.  Now it works like a charm.  In fact it kept my tomato plants happy in 17 degrees!  

 2.  Raising seedlings for both my garden, and my yearly plant sale.  It's been tough trying to find potting soil, but I've managed.  Some soils are better than others I'm finding.  I don't get a sponsorship from Promix, but that stuff is good.  Apparently that's common knowledge because it's hard to find it in stock! 

3.  Adding raised beds to my existing garden.  This will have to have a picture taken later as I don't have the beds finished at the moment.  

PROJECTS I'VE FINISHED

1.  Fencing in my backyard garden so my chickens can free range year round.  Up until I did this one thing, my chickens would and did devastate my garden beds.  Kale is their favorite.  I'm loving the fence, and I must say am pretty proud of my work setting the 4x4 posts.  Most of the time my posts lean to one side or the other; much like the villain lair in the old 60's Batman series.  Like I always say, my garden will never be featured in Better Homes and Gardens, but would get an honorable mention in the redneck quarterly!  Use what you have available before you spend.

2.  Finishing the inside of the greenhouse and moving all garden stuff and tools into my new greenhouse freeing up our front shed as well as closets in the house.

3.  Getting my cool weather crops in the ground.  Happy to say I have everything in except my beets.  They'll get planted in the next bed.  They are seedlings at the moment though.

FUTURE ENDEAVORS

1.  We're saving to turn our back deck into a screened in porch.  This will hopefully help with high cooling bills in the summer as well as give us a nice place to be to enjoy the garden.  We are also planning to replace the very  rotted 4x4 side porch with an 8 ft wide porch that will go the length of the side of our house and meet up with the back screened in porch.  You can see our current back deck in the picture above of my garden fence.

2.  Adding a new heritage breed of chicken called Jersey Giant to our farm.  Upping our chicken game with the idea of taking chicken and eggs off our grocery shopping list.  We've ordered them, but they won't be available until the end of May.  That's fine because it will give us a chance to get things ready. 

 

Everything in my garden came over 25 years.  You start where you're at and add to it each year as you learn.  That includes learning about different plants.  When I started this garden I didn't have a tiller to start.  I paid a guy $40 dollars (that was 25 years ago)  to till up my back garden.  I didn't know then what I know now and that is you don't need a tiller!  I'd say for the past12-15 years I've maintained and expanded my garden with a shovel, cultivator, and garden fork.  I have raised beds made from cinder blocks no one wanted.  I've repurposed old fencing, old 4x4 posts, etc to use for garden structure.  I've even gone into the woods behind our house and cut down invasive privet trees to use for tomato stakes or even as fence posts.  Some things have been gifted to me.  My point is to make the most of what you have available and don't compare your garden to anyone else.  Make your garden yours and you will enjoy every moment you're out there.  Well maybe not the bugs...don't like the bugs.   

SAVE THE SEEDS!

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With inflation being what it is; there's a larger number of people wanting to grow at least something of their own.  The most budget friendly alternative is starting your plants from seeds; either direct sow or in pots based on the seed you're starting.  The cheapest alternative of the budget friendly start is to start that process with seeds saved from previous seasons.  That's right.  Heirloom seeds come to mind, but that's not necessarily the only way.  Yes, I've purchased Heirloom seeds, mainly because I have a plant sale each year and that's what people like to buy.  For myself I'll use either some of the "Heirloom" seeds or just average run of the mill seeds from plants not bearing the "Heirloom label".  My logic is this: it's a pretty lame business plan to have to recreate seeds every season because your "non Heirloom" seeds won't reproduce.  What is a good business plan is to package your seeds with an "Heirloom" label and charge more.  Even though they're the same seeds.  Not saying this is the case.  I wouldn't want to malign anyone, but I can see it happening at least in some cases.  Heirloom or not, saving seeds saves money! Your plant wants to make more of itself.  Let it do that, and you too can be blessed with a never ending supply of food.  

1)  Saved seeds will acclimate to your climate first season.  So you may(or may not) have a so so harvest that year as they adjust.  Following years will be better because the seeds are now used to your soil, temp, etc.  So what you want to do is save the seeds from the prettiest fruit produced that year.  Save a lot.  That way you can be generous with your planting, and sharing.

2)  You can also save seeds from fresh produce purchased at the store.  I've successfully saved seeds from store bought Watermelon, and a variety of different types of peppers.  I've also planted things like store bought dried beans, and  popcorn successfully.  These are the packages of dried beans or popcorn normally used for food.  In those cases it does depend on the store.  Kroger had the best germination for pinto beans.  However, a couple of years ago I purchased a 5 lb. bag of organic non gmo pinto beans from Azure Standard.  They were for cooking, but I set aside about 20 to see how they would grow.  They grew, and produced true to their parent plant.  In other words, they made more pinto beans.  I saved those seeds and planted them year before last.  I had enough to set aside 100 seeds and have about a pound of dried beans for cooking.  Last year I planted those 100 seeds, and so on and so forth.  I will set aside some for next years planting and save the rest for cooking.  

3)  Don't think you have to use only Heirloom seeds.  Packages without that label are still good for seed saving plants.  I've saved seeds from Blackeye peas( cow peas), Speckled Lima, Tomatoes, Peppers, Squashes, Cucumbers, Green Beans, Marigolds, Zinnias, and Snow Peas.  Non of these were marked "heirloom", all produced true to their parent plant.  Last year I saved seeds from some non heirloom spinach.  Planted this year they came up and were...spinach!  Your best bet is to buy seeds from a feed store or local mom and pop garden store.

4)  Seed saving is not hard.  Google is your friend in this if you need to learn specific how to's.  I can , however, share a few ways.  

Broccoli, Cabbages, Brussel sprouts, Kale, and other members of the Brassica family.  When your plant bolts it can make you sad; especially when you didn't get anything , or very little, before it did so.  That happens to me often because we have Ga weather which can be a bit unpredictable.  Now when my plants bolt I will let one keep flowering and pull up any others that have bolted.  Trust me, one plant is enough!  Bolting means it began to flower.  That means the vegetables on it are now bitter tasting and not much good for anything...except seeds.  This can be a sad moment when you're having to pull this up, but you need that space to plant something else.  So get to it! Once your one plant is done flowering, you will notice what looks like little bean pods.  These little bean pods will swell and get bumpy like a bean pod would when it's full of beans.  Don't pick it yet!  Wait until the little pod is brown and dry.  Then carefully remove the pods.  Might want to clip them, because if the pod crushes when your pulling it, you will have tiny seeds on the ground.  No telling where they'll grow!  Once you've gathered your dry pods, you can open them onto a tray or plate to catch the seeds.  To be honest, once the little pods are brown and dry, you can just rub them between your h ands and the seeds will come out onto whatever you have to catch them.  Put your seeds into a container and store in the fridge /freezer.  This simulates a change of seasons.  Plus helps keep the germination rate good.  Seen below in this picture are the pods.  It's hard to tell, but there are brown pods mixed in here.  I just went ahead and harvested because I didn't need all of them!  

   

Spinach.  This will also bolt or flower.  Let it.  It will continue to grow and flower and you will see clusters of little beads at the main stem.  Wait.  It needs to turn brown and dry out before you harvest your seeds.  Once those little beads are dried out, you can begin to remove them from the stem.  Pretty much at this point your spinach plant is done, and it will look done.  Put seeds in a container and store in the fridge/freezer.

Peppers are easy peasy.  You will simply pull the seeds out when you prepare your peppers to eat.  Lay the seeds out on a saucer and sit to one side on your counter to let them dry.  I leave mine out weeks and weeks until I am certain they are all dry.  Then store in a container in the fridge/ freezer. 

Tomatoes-  Now you can go on Youtube and find plenty of videos where they are saving their tomato seeds by fermenting them a few days and blah, blah, blah.  That is a way the you can save seeds, and then plant one at a time the following year.  That's all fine and good if you want to be all organized and such, but I know tomatoes are seriously resilient plants.  They endure transplanting well.  So I simply just squeeze the seeds, still in their juice and gel covering onto a saucer and let dry. Then I chip up the seeds, dried pulp and all into my bottle and into the fridge/freezer.  It means I'll plant 4 or 5 seeds at a time in each pot, but it also means I know at least one will emerge.  I simply separate the tiny plants and put them each in their own pot. Never had an issue this way. 

Green Beans-  As green bean pods mature they get bumpy as they begin to fill with seeds.  Allow the pods you've designated for seeds stay on the vine until they're brown and dry.  Then harvest your pods, shell out the bean seeds.  Store them in a container in the fridge or freezer to use next year.  Don't store if the pods have gotten wet.  Make sure they're good and dry before storing. 

Squash.  Last but not least.  This one is also easy.  Simply choose one of your best squashes and let it stay on the plant.  It will grow, get hard, and bumpy.  Pick the squash when the squash is hard and bumpy,  Cut it in half and scoop out the seeds.  The pulp should be pretty spongy at this time and the seeds should be able to be removed easily.  Put your seeds on a plate or saucer and let air dry well.  Then put in a container in the fridge/freezer til next year.   See below my bumpy babies.  You can pick when they're like this.  The smooth ones are for eating.

There is no need to expend extra cash on all heirloom seeds or 25 year seed vaults.  Save seeds you're interested in having in your garden; what your family likes to eat.  Save them each year and you will always have seeds on hand regardless of what's in stores.  Plus, you will have more than enough for your family and to share with others!