Sprouting!!!

I am so excited the outdoor peas, lettuce and spinach is sprouting. The broccoli is still producing. One cauliflower bolted but another head is forming on one of the three plants. The garlic could be used now as green garlic. The strawberries are budding with fruit.

Indoors in addition to the lettuce, cabbage, celery and tomatoes that had already sprouted the eggplant and green peppers are starting to sprout. The biggest dilemma now is where I will put the plants in the garden. I only have 160 squares in the garden. Funny the book says one 4x4 will feed one I have 10 4x4. However we are wanting to get enough to can. Dream big!!

I am going to try some of the tomatoes in 5 gallon buckets. Not the upside down just the buckets mainly because I have them and I will have so many plants. I will be looking for more 5 gallon buckets. Also as a reminder to my self I may use the area where the boxes from the back were removed (not enough sun) for extra squash plants as they may get enough sun and need 3 square feet.

Today my plan is to get school done and some gluten free baking.

Indoor plants

These were started on March 16th!!

These are my experiment of the day- I took the plants I had to thin and tried planting them. If it works out I will have another 52 tomato plants!

A Week Later!

I can not believe a week has passed since I last posted. My time does fly. It has been an eventful week.

We were able to pull some frames to extract honey. They are waiting on us in the basement. Hubby put some empty supers in the garage and forgot it. Yesterday there were honey bees everywhere in there. Funny thing is I went in there twice and looked around and they ignored me.

A friend gave us some Silkie chickens. They have three chicks. They are such beautiful birds. When I find the camera I will take their picture. They have been laying an egg a day. I took one of the eggs yesterday. I could swear the hen was saying, "Put it back, Put it back!" She was not happy with me.

My broody hen is stubborn. We have now removed all nest boxes and so she turned over one of the water containers and made her nest in there. I am going to have to separate her I was waiting for warmer weather.

I planted on Monday even with the rain. The beans I planted have already sprouted. I planted three tomato plants that were purchased with the ones I planted on May 1st. I just did not have the room then. They have perked up and are growing. Hubby tried tomatoes from seed I finally got those in the ground. We are have the battle of the bugs. I have slugs, pill bugs, ants, and lots of others that come and go. I am trying not to use anything that is not natural but I may have to give in to save the plants. The herbs I planted to combat some of the bugs have started to spring up. Hubby said I will spend the rest of the summer trying to stop the herbs from taking over. Lovely!

It's a Beginning!

The main purpose of the is blog is to record our efforts at gardening, beekeeping, and raising chickens. Our dream is to one day be able to live off our land wherever that may be. Our hope is learn from small scale and be able to go "large scale." This will be my diary of what works and what does not work.

We started keeping chickens because our family reacts to store eggs. I am not sure if it is what the chickens have been fed or injected or if it is the processing of the store eggs that make us sick. However, we love eggs so to be able to eat them we are raising them. I could purchase them from others who raise in backyard or farms but we were offered free Bantam chickens. So why not try it. Here is some of our flock. We only have one of them named she is Alice. I think the rooster is gorgeous.

We also keep bees. This is our second year. It is amazing how the bees operate. I love looking at the comb they produce. Believe it or not I am allergic to wasps and other stinging insects. I have not been stung by a honey bee yet so I do not know if I will react or not. Yet I love to go watch them take off and land. I do not open the hives that is the work of my husband and kids.

Here they are busy at the front of the hive.

Our wild strawberries are benefiting from the bees this year. We have a cherry tree that for the first time in five years seems to be producing something. We have raspberry plants, grapes and blueberries from last year that are doing better this year.

We are trying a garden using the square foot garden method. I will be recording what works what does not. We will be growing tomatoes, eggplants, broccoli, lettuce, strawberries, beans, carrots, potatoes, artichokes, cucumbers, spinach, and whatever else we might come across. The almanac says this will be a wet year in GA. I am gardening on it! Here are the beds in the back. I will use posts later to record how things are growing.

Well my children are needing my attention.