Homestead Acres » garden

Around The Homestead Sick Days And Garden Update

Kim — Sat, 31 Jul 2010 04:17:48 +0000

This past week we’ve been fighting a flu like bug. It really knocked Hubby, ds and myself for a loop. The girls were a little sick as well. Thankfully it didn’t last long, although I’m still fighting it. I’m sure if I can get enough rest it will pass quickly.

Wednesday we had a cold front move through. Thankfully the heavy rain and storms staid south of us! I was finally well enough to head out to the garden this afternoon. I did a lot of weeding, still have much more to do before I will be caught up. But weeds or not, the garden is producing great!

I harvested a large bowl of cucumbers, 4 more zucchinis and our first cabbage. Then from the children garden we harvested more cucumbers, a few purple beans and cherry tomatoes.

Huckleberry’s

Okra finally starting! This will be our first time growing and eating this. Anyone have good recipes I can try?

Eggplant flower, I think they are pretty!

Sunflowers starting to bloom in the kids garden!

Around The Homestead Gardens & Canning

Kim — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 05:03:03 +0000

Well today was a busy day on the homestead. Today I canned 7 pints of pickled beets and 6 pints of cherry jam, if you don’t count the 3/4′s full jar. That’s getting tuck into the fridge to enjoy now.

We headed out to the gardens this afternoon, to find the Italian zucchinis had exploded with the last rain. We harvested a whole wheelbarrow full. Two had already been taken out before I took this photo. I will have a lot of canning and drying to do! I might start on my zucchini relish soon to.

I also picked 1/3 of a storage bin full of green beans. I guess I’m canning and drying beans tomorrow to!

Hubby just finished building a grape arbor for us. We have a grape vine planted on each end. I love having it as an entrance into the raised beds!

The Swish Chard is growing great to!

More Rain And Garden Flooding

Kim — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 05:19:36 +0000

Each garden season is very different from the last. Or it seems that way the past few years. Our weather has not been the more stable warm temperatures with just enough rain that I remember growing up. It rained all day Monday and part of the night, a heavy soaking rain.

Finally got a chance to go and check on our gardens about mid day. And as I had thought they were under water again. Its drying up slowly, but their is more rain coming latter this week. I’m hoping the plant roots don’t start rotting. Our road was also flooded out farther down the town.

Day's rain almost filled our wheelbarrow

Potato plants under water

More potatoes underwater

Road closed signs

Getting Caught Up In The Gardens

Kim — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 00:54:23 +0000

Well the flooding in the gardens has gone down. Thankfully we have had no rain in the last 3 days. Although the weather has been very cool 16 to 18 C it has been windy. That has helped to dry up the ground.

This afternoon I headed out to do some weeding. The ground is still soft, but not as mucky. At least that makes weeding by hand easier! I finished weeding the Italian zucchinis, eggplant and two rows of tomatoes. Many more to go! LOL! I did harvest to large zucchinis and sadly found a few that had rotted during the heavy rains. I could hear water inside the stems of the zucchini plants to. But at least we are starting to harvest the zucchinis, we love them!

Since tomorrow is Canada Day here we’ll be enjoying a quiet day at home. And I hope to do more weeding.

We have been working at my sewing room renovations. It’s done!! So the last few days I’ve been unpacking bins of fabric and yarn. Its taking a while to get things set up the way I want. But I’ll share photos when I have it done. Now we can start working on the summer kitchen side again!

Garden Flooding June 27 2010

Kim — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 04:39:50 +0000

We have had so much rain this month. The ground hit its saturation point on Sunday. We had a lot of rain and ended up with at least 8 inches of water in the gardens. Thankfully today the water has gone down quite a bit! This week is suppose to be dry and that is so much needed. After a few days, I’ll be able to get in and get caught up on the weeds.

Downpour shuts Union subway station, Lake Shore Boulevard (theglobeandmail.com)

Garden Update June 9 2010

Kim — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 04:09:04 +0000

It’s been raining hard here for some time. We had a week of straight rain. Then it’s been every other day since. The gardens are a mucky mess. Can’t use the tiller or the hoe. The hoe just wont work in the mud. So I’m pulling a lot of weeds by hand, in between the rainy spells. Would be nice to have some warm dry weather again!

*Adding my youtube vids here. I’m behind lol

Planting Sweet Potatoes

Kim — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 04:02:18 +0000

Trying to grow sweet potatoes this year. Something new for us! First time they have been offered by Veseys seeds. A short season type that will hopefully do well for us. These were planted on June 4th. Now they are starting to bush out and growing new leaves.

Homestead Series How To Plant Potatoes Start To Finish

Kim — Tue, 25 May 2010 18:33:13 +0000

We will show you how to plant potatoes start to finish and some of our time saving tricks.

Garden Update May 19 2010

Kim — Tue, 25 May 2010 18:24:14 +0000

I had a really hard time getting this video uploaded to youtube. Finlay got it up this weekend! Our garden update as of May 19. About half the gardens have been planted.

Quick Garden Update May 21

Kim — Sun, 23 May 2010 06:04:22 +0000

: Image via Wikipedia

I’ve been trying to upload a detaled garden video for 3 days on YouTube with no luck. Must be something wrong with the file. So in the mean time here’s a quick one!

Also thank you to our YouTube subscribers that helped us figure out our mystery plant. It’s Greater Celandine herb. I’ve always wondered what that plant was!