Free Mulch

For 20 years, our municipality has collected Christmas trees and then mulched them, giving out the mulch for free to residents.

This is the first year that we made a point to participate in this windfall. My son and I went down to the fairgrounds. The nice people loaded it, and smoothed it. We didn't even have to get out of the truck. We were only responsible for the unloading.

It started with more than this, but I forgot to photograph it until we reached this point in the process. 

Filling the wheelbarrow, to put the mulch in our back yard gardens. 

My son and I posing as we put the mulch in the back yard. 

We ended up with enough to go around every tree that lines my property line. Next year, we might come home and drop the load and go back for a second load. The people said that it was fine to do this. We didn't know how much we would need or how long it would take us. We also didn't know how much energy we had to devote to the project. We know for next year!

It was a wonderful blessing to us, saving us somewhere in the area of $400, had we used purchased pine bark mulch for the same area. And it is so good for the environment, re-using what would otherwise go to the landfill, and avoiding all those plastic bags that would have been on the pine bark mulch. Win! Win!

Winter Harvests

I don't always plant a fall/winter garden, but when I do I am always reminded of how nice it is to have a winter garden. The crops are so much easier maintenance than a summer garden. And the flavor of fresh picked broccoli and English peas is divine!

This year I have broccoli, which we are harvesting at least 3 times a week now. We have English peas, which are just starting to produce pods, Then there is Swiss chard, which I love, and am so glad to have in the garden again. I had really missed eating Swiss chard.

I also have 3 cabbages, which look really good.

I tried to grow 2 types of onions from seed. The seeds all sprouted and looked good until I transferred them into the garden. Now I have 2 little sections of about 10 onions in each. I don't know what happened. There were probably 100 of each variety before I transferred them to the garden. Maybe I didn't water enough. I don't know.

I also planted some garlic, which looks great.

I hope to plant some bok choi and Red Flowered Fava beans next week. I may plant more Swiss chard, too.

That's it for me. See what others are harvesting on Daphne's Dandelions. Happy New Year!

Harvest Monday Labor Day Edition

This week, I harvested the last of my tomatoes and pulled the plants. They had wilt in a bad way and I found a tomato hornworm on the plant when I pulled it. (yuck.)

I am starting to harvest more okra than I was. I guess it is coming into its own. The plants look really good and healthy. The okra makes me so happy!

Every day I harvested some okra.  Every day I also harvested Lima beans, Mississippi Cream peas, and Ruth Bible beans.

This week, the local news was talking about sweet potato harvests in town, so I harvested my sweet potatoes. They looked really good. I don't know how many I should have gotten out of the number of slips I planted, but I feel pretty happy with the harvest. That bucket was pretty heavy and the sweet potatoes in the photo with the tomatoes are not the same sweet potatoes. I put them on the picnic table to start curing them. And then I brought them into the garage to finish curing. It was about 24 big sweet potatoes and quite a few more little bitty ones.

I am linking up with Daphne's Dandelions for Harvest Mondays. Go on over and see what everybody else is harvesting!

Harvest Monday August 18, 2014

I have only been gardening for 3 years. Here is a picture of my first garden.

Yep. That was it. 3 four by four squares of soil. Wow, how times have changed. Here are a couple of pictures of it now.

I am grateful for all the posts people write for Harvest Mondays. I kept trying because of all those posts. Thank you to every person who has posted a Harvest Monday post. I read your posts and they have inspired me. And to Daphne, thank you for hosting it all these years.

Strawberries on the vine

A representative harvest basket from this week.

okra, green beans, strawberries, and lima beans in the harvest
basket

Linking with Daphne's Dandelions Harvest Monday.

Harvest Monday July 14, 2014

A big thank you to Daphne from Daphne's Dandelions for hosting Harvest Mondays!

Okra, cherry tomatoes, pears, and cucumbers

crushed tomatoes in their own juices

okra, cucumbers and cherry tomatoes

Pears

Here are some pictures from this week's harvests. The tomatoes are not from my garden. I went to a you pick place and bought enough to can some crushed tomatoes in their own juices.

Blueberry Crunch Recipe

If you have an abundance of blueberries and are looking for a good recipe in which to use them, you might try this recipe. I changed the amount of blueberries to 3 cups and, therefore, used 3 T corn starch and 3 T lemon juice.

Blueberry Crunch

I love it.

A Few Life Hacks for Canning Jars

I was talking to my husband this morning, wondering why anybody would buy these (theoretically affiliate link)

when there are things we regularly purchase that are the size of regular mouth canning jars. He said that he thought most people did not know these things would fit. Well, I thought I would tell you so that you will know from now on.

examples of regularly purchased products that fit canning jars

Canning jars with these lids on them. I am currently storing
dried basil in the one on the left and the 2 on the right contain
my pepper sauce.

The smaller size peanut butter jars fit perfectly on regular mouth canning jars. Most mayonnaise lids do, too, but Bama Mayonnaise does not for some reason.

I haven't yet found a lid that fits perfectly on wide mouth canning jars, but I have something that works really well. I will try to explain it to you.

That jar on the left in the picture is the type of coconut oil I regularly buy. Its lid is just slightly too large for the large mouth canning jars.

Here is what I did to fix that.

Take a large mouth canning ring and the lid you want to use. 

Snap the lid over the top of the canning ring. 

Press hard. It's tight, but the fit is good. 

Here's what it looks like when you have them connected. 

Then you just use it as you would any lid. It fits perfectly! I love finding ways to use everyday things!
It is better for the environment. And it's better for my pocket book.