Container Gardening...

When I moved all our herbs, I didn't really have a good place to put them so I threw them in a container. I've never done much container gardening before so this was new to me.


Basil, chives, sage, oregano, and something else

I also wanted to grow some more cucumbers and peas. I had these two long containers that had annuals in them. We chucked all of them and planted more seeds. I've shown photos in the past but here are they today! Cucumbers are already blossoming!!!



So far, so good! Can't wait to see how high they will grow! At the moment we are using twist ties we got from the produce section at the market. seems to be working like a charm! The vines are already 3 times longer than when I had them laying on the ground.

Farm Update #16

Lots of things are still growing in the garden.

Pumpkins




Bell Peppers


Salad Bar


YUM!!!

Zucchini Bread

Yesterday I ventured over to Farmer Bob's house and got a TON of veggies. While the majority of them are going to be chopped up and put in the freezer, I decided to make some nice and yummy bread.


Zucchini Bread

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1/3 cup flaxseed
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon baking powder
1 egg substitute
2 tablespoons of Agave Syrup
1/4 brown sugar
1/2 cup applesauce
1 teaspoons vanilla
1 1/2 cup grated zucchini


Directions

1. Mix dry stuff and set aside.
2. In a separate bowl, mix egg, sugars, applesauce, and vanilla and mix until smooth.
3. Stir in vegetables.
4. Add dry ingredients.
5. Pour into greased bread pan. Bake 45-55 minutes at 330 degrees until an inserted toothpick comes out clean.

Outcome:
1 loaf yields nine servings




Nutrition:

Recipe Section

With all the food we've grown, I wanted to start an area about what to do with it. All the food highlighted here is from either our garden, a friend's garden or the farmer's market down the street from us. We'll be showcasing all sorts of meals from appetizers to desserts.

Thanks again for baring with us during this time of transition!

Learning to grow a new life...

When we first started out, we didn't have any idea of what we were were doing. To be honest, we didn't even know if what we planted would even grow. We set out and built a wall on our hill to use up some of the wasted space and made a garden. It started out pretty simple and then grew to take over most of the hill we had. So far we've harvested more the 54 lbs of food and realized we had a bit of a knack for it. Not to shabby for our first year in production.

Now, I'm not saying we know what we're doing now, if fact we don't. Every day I'm wondering if I should do this, or do that. I'm constantly looking up plant diseases and tend to fall asleep with my organic gardening book on my lap. But with all the said and done, I'm amazed at what a garden can do.

The garden not only taught us alot about micro farming but also about our lifestyle. We became more eco-friendly and conscious of what we ate. We exchanged the rice for squash and left the canned tomatoes at the grocery since we had a bush spitting out tomatoes left and right. Snack time meant going to the snow peas and pulling off a few to nibble on before dinner. It's been quite a journey these last few months and can't wait to see what errors we made and what surprises we stumble upon.

Website Changes

Hey everyone,

I'm making a few website changes over the next few weeks. I've realized the more I want to talk about something I'm usually wanting to talk about all things dirt related. So, I'm going to spruce up this blog a bit. First off, I finally bought a real web address:
www.learningtosow.com. If you're already using an RSS Feed, you're fine.

Now, don't hate me for the fact I'm adding paid advertisers too. Right now we are just showcasing Google Ads but I'm in the process of setting up a real ad network of sorts. If you'd like to advertise please email me at linda@learningtosow.com.

Also, if there is anything you'd like to see more about, please feel free to drop off ideas of what you'd like to see. I'm also looking for any newbies who'd like to contribute to this blog. :) The more the merrier I think!

So, bare with me in the next two weeks getting all the changes completed. Thanks again for following my little journey!

Our Favorite harvest

We've grown, so many different things if I had to pick something I was the most excited about, it is this: GARLIC!!!!



What's been your favorite thing to grow?

Things you learn along the way...

Okay, so like I said before, we're learning as we go! Before last spring, I had no clue that we needed to "feed" the plants. I never knew that marigolds are nature's way to keep pests away. I never knew egg shells are the answer. I just figured you dig, throw seeds in and just water. For some, it is that easy, for other things it's a little more difficult.

One thing I realized is how important bees are. I first read how they are needed for corn. With no bees, there's no corn. Now, I realized how extremely important they are to pumpkins. Well, I just found this fantastic article on how to do the pollination yourself if you find yourself deficient in bees. I usually see a few bees chilling out in our pumpkin blossoms. Now I understand what they are doing when they go from one blossom to another. I had no clue there was a male blossom and a female blossom! So tonight I am going to go inspect our "little" pumpkin vine and see how many females we have on there. I know we have lots of males and those males are good for making tempura with! Yum!!!

Off to see what else is worth finding in the garden!

Farm Update #15

I usually do this weekly but wanted to give a little glimpse of what the garden looks like every morning.



Pumpkin blossoms


Tomato Blossoms


Cucumbers learning to climb


Our mini giant pumpkin

Baby Star Melon




New Pea Seedlings


Radishes from the Salad Bar area

Farm Update #14

If I could pick one color describe the garden, I'd pick yellow. We have lots of blossoms and flowers coming out right now. Too many to photograph, so here are a few highlights!

Giant Pumpkin Vine

Bees doing their thing in one of the many pumpkin blossoms

Pretty Giant Sunflowers

Star Melon Blossoms


Our friend Farmer Bob has a big garden at his ranch. His puts ours to shame to be quite honest. In fact, we went over there on Saturday to "steal" some veggies and fruits. Below are just a FEW of the squash he's growing on top of some corn. We also grabbed 15 lbs of oranges. Oh so juicy! I could feel bad but I did give him a spaghetti squash... ya, just one, but it really was a big one! :) Thanks Farmer Bob!

Making a salad bar

Finally a not so hot Saturday. We ended up spending the day in the garden. Planting more seeds and moving around some herbs and flowers. Remember our Herb garden? Since we harvested a lot of the herbs already (while the rest we moved to a container plant) we decided to create a salad bar. We planted spinach, carrots, beets, radishes, and lettuce. I know I know, it's August 1st, and why would I do this. Well, I don't know what I should plant or not because of the seasons since where we live we don't get more then two seasons here (Yay Southern California!). So we'll see how this goes.

We did something different too, since we wanted to make sure some these crops get enough moisture, we took a few six packs (no not the beer kind), cut them up and placed them in the ground. This way it can catch water and take the water to the roots too! This could be an ingenius idea for doing this but I will wait to see how everything grows before I mark this as a victory for thinking outta the box. :)



In our salad bar garden, we have carrots, beets, radishes, lettuce, and spinach. Can't wait till next weekend and hope we'll start seeing some sprouts!