How Does the Garden Grow?

Well, this past month has been full of.....waiting!  we did add 8 sweet potato vines, 3 corn plants and transplanted a few more mystery vines. we lost 1 watermelon vine, 2 eggplants, and 2 yellow squash.  we also lost a huge crop of tomatoes to the squirrels.

Added 3 new chickens - 1 buff orpington (now deceased, thank my dogs), 1 rhode island red (happily freeranging in the back yard), and 1  ariconda (freeranging in the neighbors bushes till I catch it). I do plan on getting a couple more at teh next workshop July 23rd.

this morning it was delighted to see progress and smal veggies on my plants - jalapenos, cucumbers & ichiban eggplants!  have a few baby tomatoes left, but definitely need some netting or something.


I also want to take a minute to rant - and you wont see this often - but all the raids on raw milk companies and farms and herb companies are making me crazy.  i'm going to start putting together all the docs i need for a passport and move my family to Canada...I swear it!!!!!  I feel so bad for the woman facing 93 days in jail for gardening in her front yard...



So how is your garden growing?  And what scares you most about the Food Safety Modernazation Act?   If alcohol is legal to buy, why cant we buy raw milk???

oh the things you find when not looking.....

So driving around the neighborhood the other day to assess storm damage (to be nosy really) I noticed I was not the only one in the 'hood with chickens!  Just a couple streets over there is a nice family that has some, I have yet to talk to them, but it is on my list.  On this same trip, I noticed my neighbor that had solar panels had taken them down.  (Note to self: go pick their brains about solar energy).  And then, as I turned the corner to come home, I saw something I haven't seen since my childhood growing up in rural IL - my neighbor has a manual lawnmower, you know the kind you push that has no motor just a roll of blades.  I WANT ONE!!!!

This has been a good week for discoveries.  I found out one of my high school friends, who I am back in touch with thanks to facebook, just got a beehive and is now beekeeping.  He is also an avid veggie gardener and home brews his own beer.  (Note to self:  talk to him about bartering!).  It really warms my heart to see so many people trying to be more conscious of their impact on Mother Earth and more self sustaining.

So I was playing in the backyard yesterday with the kids (read: getting horribly sunburned) and noticed some plants with large leaves growing by my patio.  Upon furthur inspection, I noticed they have blossoms on them...to my surprise I had canteloupe or watermelon growing from where we had spit out seeds last summer!!  I quickly and carefully pulled them up and potted them and fertilized them, I pray they make it, I am so excited to see which type of melon they are!!

On the agenda for this weekend:  Replace lost plants, go grocery shopping at farmers market, and hopefully find time to pick strawberries at the Agricenter and make preserves and sugar free preserves for Cory!  (Expect a post about preserves coming soon)

Oh, I almost forgot, Zombie Apoc. survival tip #1 - cardio