Time flies and here we are already at the summer solstice. The sunrise was at 5:30 am and the sun will set at 9:00 pm. It’s going to be 81 degree outside today. Boy, did this just turn into summer overnight? The changing of the seasons is always time for me to take stock of what’s happening on our little slice of homestead. There is
2011 Vegetable Varieties
It is always fun to see what fellow urban homesteaders have growing in their backyard. After carefully sorting through my many seed packets, I narrowed down the list of what we are growing. Here is a recap of the varieties I am planting this year: Arugula Beets, Early Blood Turnip-rooted (from Thomas Jefferson Center for Historic Plants) Beets, Gourmet Blend (includes golden, Chioggia, Detroit Dark)
2011 Vegetable Garden Plan
We are working with a small space for our garden this year, which is always a fun challenge. I have plans to plant potatoes, summer and winter squash, onions and more in flower beds next to the house. The garden beds are reserved for everything else and I felt like we needed a plan to make sure we maximized that space. I did an inventory
Monticello
This has been the summer of visiting great American gardens! I enjoyed a long visit to George Washington’s homestead at Mount Vernon earlier this summer. On our recent drive West, we made a stop in Virginia to see Thomas Jefferson’s estate – beautiful Monticello. It is difficult to compare the two estates because they are so different. I think Mount Vernon was more interesting in
White House Vegetable Garden
I mentioned in my last post that we got to see the White House vegetable garden from a far when we were there visiting. I thought I would share my few photos from it because it’s pretty and also kind of funny to me. It’s hard to see exactly what they are growing in here, but this as close as I could get. I could
Fall Crops
There is a changing of the guard going on outside in the garden. The change is most evident in the powdery mildew creeping across the vegetable patch, telling our plants that it’s time to close up shop for the season. Powdery mildew can affect plants in the prime of summer as well, most often if you are watering at night and that moisture is left
May Ripening
This is the first year where my vegetable garden has really been where I have wanted it to be by June. The tomato starts are all doing well, the arugula keeps trying to go to seed, the red mesclum mix lettuces are full, and the kale is enormous! Outside the raised beds, the rest of the garden is doing well. Baby figs are developing, cherries
Vegetable Beds Planted
The raised vegetables beds have been planted periodically since early March. The cold weather spinach and kale went in first and I used thick plastic as row covers to keep them toasty. A few weeks later I added carrots, lettuces, beets and parsnips. The plastic have given all those vegetables a great start and they are flourishing! We’re eating kale chips and salads almost every
American Victory Gardens in World War II
For those of you who commented on my last post or emailed me asking to read the research paper I wrote on Victory Gardens, here you go! Keep in mind this is a short research paper, so it is a little dry. My favorite part by far was reviewing the reseearch material. Those old, yellow paged booklets from the 1940’s were a real treat to