Category Archives: gardening

call me laura

 

As in Laura Ingalls Wilder. {Thanks, sis.}

As mentioned before, we now have a dozen chickens. More specifically, 11 hens and a rooster. His name is Rufus. I’m not sure why.

Up until this point, he has just been acting like one of the hens. Kind of a sissy. A sissy with a ginormous sharp beak and talons and spurs on his spindly little legs. But I digress.

So yesterday afternoon I went outside to gather the eggs and check the feed/water status of the chicken coop. Even though they are free-range during the day, they act like they haven’t eaten in 7 years when I fill the feed thingy. {I’m sure Laura would have known the correct term to use here, but we’ll go with thingy.} It makes me think maybe they really are super hungry even though they have 22 acres of bugs and plants to eat. So I continue to give them a full scoop of feed every afternoon. Maybe instead of Laura, you should call me a sucker.

So back to the story. I went outside to gather the eggs. Did I mention I am wearing a tank top and running shorts {appropriately mismatched} from my run earlier that day? And garden crocs. So not only am I one sexy lady as I’m gathering the eggs, but my legs are terrifyingly exposed and I’m not wearing getaway shoes. This comes in to play in the next part of the story.

I tossed the chickens some “chicken scratch” {I still don’t really know how that is different from feed, but it is} and they were all happily munching on it. I calmly walked by the gaggle of chickens {or is that just for geese?}, innocently swinging my bag of eggs on the way back to the house.

And then it happened. Rufus the rooster must have not liked the way I was walking or my garden crocs or he just had a surge of testosterone {do roosters have that?}…I’m not sure, but he started trotting at me.

So I yelled Hey at him and shooed him with my hand. The docile creature that he once was would have shied away and I would have been left alone.

But not this time. This time, I saw those beady little eyes narrow in a how-dare-you-shoo-me way and he all out charged me. Wings flapping and spurs coming at me and muscles bulging.

source

So I did what any sane person would do. I executed a plan of tactical evasion, discharged my weapon, and engaged in verbal assault. Which really means that I started running backwards, swinging my bag of eggs at him. And yelling. Loudly. Actually kind of roaring.

Then he stopped. And the look in his eye was one of pity.  So I think he gave up his attack because he felt sorry for me. I don’t think he’d ever seen a human stoop to that type of maniacal behavior.

So there are several lessons to this story. One, never trust a rooster, no matter how sissy he seems. And two, if you act certifiably insane, you can scare lots of things off. {That last one might be a given. But you should keep it in mind all the same.}

Now I’m off to gather the eggs. With full body gear and a BB gun.

feeding and watering and not blogging

I’m back.

Here’s what’s been going on. I have made it through those first 6 weeks of newborn-life, begun to adjust to life with Baby Sister {who is now 4 months old – what??} and Little Bit in all her big 2 and a half year self,  inherited a dozen chickens, and doubled the size of the garden.

Yes, you read that correctly. We have 12 stupid, inbred, loud lovely chickens. That need to be fed, watered, and eggs collected every. single. day.

Then there is our ginormous garden that needs to be hand watered every day because we just planted tons of seeds and half our soaker hoses broke and all the tiny seedlings were drying out too fast with just the hoses we had. Sheesh.

Then there’s the 4 month old. Always feeding and watering her. Seriously, she eats every 2 hours still during the day. But she sleeps well at night, so I’m NOT complaining.

I’m just sayin’. I feed and water lots of living things all the livelong day.

And I love it. Really. Maintaining life. Growing things. Watching His creation grow and blossom and bloom. It is miraculous.

So at the end of the day, I’ve had to come to terms with the fact that there will not always be a lovely blog post written or lots of pretty, edited pictures up. But y’all. My babies and my chickens and my vegetables are all alive and well.

I love other people’s blogs. I love other people’s blogs that write every day or every other day or once a week. And I might get there soon. But I’m letting go of the pressure to have it all together AND blog about it.

So I’m giving myself some new rules. First, there are no rules. Second, I’m going to blog the way I want to and when I want to. Third, no more putting off posting just because I don’t have tons of pretty, edited pictures. Fourth, I’m going to listen to Him about what He wants me to share. Or not.

I’m super excited about blogging now. I think more than I ever was before. Like I can’t wait to tell y’all about what the rooster did to me this afternoon. Or about going to the MOPS Convention. Or about making Little Bit and I both cry at Lowe’s the other day.

So I’ll let you go now, but I’ll be back soon. Cause I’ve got some stories to tell.

 

 

weeds and ants be gone :: thrifty garden

Y’all. I have discovered two huge gardening secrets. {Actually, I just googled it and found these solutions to try. But still.} I hope these will be as revolutionary as I found them to be. Are you ready for this?

#1 Cheap, generic brand white vinegar KILLS WEEDS!!! What?? Yes, it is true!

 

Here are the ugly weeds/nut grass before I attacked them with vinegar…

 

 

And here you can see them shriveling and getting brown.

 

 

 

Apparently, it is the acid in the vinegar that does the trick. Now, I will say it took two applications of vinegar and I’ll probably have to hit any green again that is still left. But I didn’t have to use Roundup. Need I say more?

HEB sells the huge containers of vinegar for $1.98 each. That’s like one-tenth the cost of Roundup. And way better for you, your garden, and life in general. I mean, the only thing offensive about vinegar is the smell. Wherever you spray it, a distinct odor will linger for about a day. But I just breathe it in deep and picture my weeds shriveling to death. It makes me happy. Is that wrong?

At first I poured the entire huge container of vinegar in a watering can and “watered” the weeds with it. But it seemed like I was wasting some, so I switched to a garden sprayer. You know, one with a pump and a long handle. My 34-week pregnant self was a huge fan of the long handle a.k.a. not having to bend over at all. I borrowed the garden sprayer from my mom, but you could always just use a hand sprayer.

I actually had FUN weeding, since I knew this was dirt cheap and effective and I wasn’t spreading toxic chemicals everywhere. Or maybe I just have no life. Either way, good times were had.

And Little Bit followed me around the entire time saying, “No, no weeds. Don’t grow heah.”

Okay, on to the next thrifty garden tip…

#2 Coffee grounds KILL ANTS!! Seriously. In our garden, we had two huge pots of veggies that had gotten infested with  ginourmous ant hills. I was avoiding picking parsley out of fear for my fingers. Anyway, I saved our coffee grounds for a few days and then dumped them on the ant hills. One ant hill is completely devoid of life and the other has just a few ants left. Boo to the yah.

I’m saving up grounds for a few more days, then I’ll resume my ant-killing spree. Apparently, this works because the ants ingest them and then they “implode” according to one website. I keep trying to see this imploding business in action, but no luck so far.

Maybe I’m just a big gardening dork, but these two tips are life-changing incredibly helpful! Did y’all know this already or does this help?

our journey to raw food {part 3}

Eating a mostly organic, living foods diet is more expensive. It just is and there is no way around that, unfortunately. However, you save on doctor bills, prescription expenses, etc. and you save on less eating out. So you could say you save money eating this way. :)


Those of you in bigger cities will probably be able to find lots more options available for where to buy/how to buy. Where we live, we just have an HEB and 2 very small health food stores and I do almost all my shopping at those 3 places.


That being said, here are some things I’ve found that helped with the cost of making this switch.





1. Buy in bulk. I’m pretty sure I told everyone I know when our ancient HEB got an upgrade in the form of a bulk foods aisle!! I still do a little happy dance when I think about it. Almost all the nuts, seeds, and grains that we eat I buy in bulk and it totally saves money. I store the goods in glass canisters Mike got me for Christmas one year and in large mason jars. An added benefit: buying/storing it like this makes your pantry much prettier. Because that IS a legitimate concern. :)


2. Choose your organic produce wisely. I’m sure everyone has heard of the “dirty dozen” and its companion list. I reference this a lot. I don’t buy organic bananas, because they are not that susceptible to pesticides; however, all my berries are organic because they soak up that nastiness like a sponge. Blegh. Here is a great article with these lists: http://www.thedailygreen.com/healthy-eating/eat-safe/dirty-dozen-foods#fbIndex20. It has the “2011″ updated lists. I just realized that I can stop buying organic pineapple and mango and switch to conventionally grown. This is why you should stay on top of the latest research :)

3. Buy from farmer’s markets when you can. Here, we just have a seasonal farmer’s market in Fredericksburg that runs in the spring and summer so we don’t have this option year-round. 


4. Grow your own. Okay, before you laugh in my face and tell me you don’t have space and tell me it takes too much time, hear me out. First of all, there are lots of things you can grow really well in containers or pots. As in, almost any vegetable besides corn. You can ask your local nursery/landscaping company for their extra tree pots – they almost always have extra HUGE black plastic containers that big trees come in before they get planted. All of our asparagus, parsley, and blackberries are currently growing in these ginormous pots that we got for FREE. As for remembering to water them (I of course never have this problem, just so you know…I just thought some of you might – ha!), you can invest in some standard soaker hoses (in the summer, I bought a 2-pack of 50′ hoses for $13 from Wal-Mart), shove your containers all close together or at least in a row and run some soaker hoses on and around your plants. Even better, for about $30, you can get a good water timer that you put between your faucet and the soaker hoses and it automatically turns the water on and off whenever you want. You can set how often, how long, and mine even has a button called “Rain Delay” when I don’t want it to water that day. GREAT investment, I’m telling you. If you do have space in your backyard or side yard or patio, you can try a raised bed. We built our first raised beds using scrap lumber that was FREE. There are lots of budget-friendly ways to do this if you Google it. Or ask me for the deets, if ya really want to know :)

I recently discovered that I actually can grow SOMEthing in our garden year-round. Right now, we’ve got evergreen onions, cauliflower, broccoli, spinach, lettuce, garlic, and kale growing. Growing your own food does not have to be just a spring/summer thing.

I hope this helps…please ask if you have questions or want more info about something in particular. 


Plants on the cheap-o! {Tips and tricks}

Over the past few years, I have grown to love growing things. Ha – I just read what I wrote. Funny stuff. Anyway, my mom’s years and years of green thumb advice and instructions have finally paid off, and I am growing things and not killing them! Whoop whoop!


Here are some basic tips that have helped me without breaking the bank.


1. Check Lowe’s nursery OFTEN for plants on clearance. Almost every time I go to Lowe’s, I just run through that part of the outdoor garden section that has the clearance racks. Sometimes I find good stuff, sometimes I don’t, but I have probably landscaped our house so far with 75% of it from Lowe’s clearance racks. Seriously. Good deals to be had. I was told by Miss Ivy (yes, I know our Lowe’s nursery lady by first name) that most of the time, plants are put on clearance because they are just between bloom times (so they just “look bad”) or it comes down from corporate for whatever reason. Meaning there is NOTHING wrong with these plants, people! I can’t tell you how many plants I have paid $1 for. Like my sweet potato vine:

Or my coleus: (the coleus are the bright foliage behind and to the side of the pink geranium)

Which leads me to my second tip…

2. Don’t grow things that don’t grow well in your area. Maybe this goes without saying, but I have killed many a plant because it was pretty, so I bought it, but it is native to the deep, dark jungles of Peru. Know what I mean? Ask the people at the nursery – they know their stuff! And get online and check this site out…Texas A&M Extension services are full of resources, plant lists, growing advice, etc, all related to your specific region. Turns out plants from Peru aren’t on the “Grows well in the Texas Hill Country” list. Go figure.

3. Plant stuff in masses. Just like good design, combine textures, heights, and colors when you plant in containers or in beds. In the above picture, the coleus has height and color (and it will get taller), the geranium provides medium height and different texture, and the seedum that spills over the rim of the bucket provides yet another texture. I’m a fan of spilling over. Always plant stuff that spills over. Yummy!

($5 big plumbago from Lowe’s clearance racks plus native verbena that spills over in a $12 pot from Big Lots)

4. Plant stuff in big containers for decks/porches. Who wants to water everyday? Not me. To avoid having to do that, plant stuff in larger containers with Moisture Control soil. Good soil is worth the extra money. 

5. Make planters/containers out of what you have or repurpose or go cheap. I have a bunch of plants on my front porch planted in galvanized buckets. Just drill some holes in the bottom of stuff to allow drainage. I’ve used wire baskets with coco liner in them, regular baskets (they look super cool when they get all weathered and chippy), and some metal office supply holders I found at Home Goods. Anything goes, as long as it holds plants and allows drainage! Big Lots has some good containers (for awesome prices) that you can easily spray paint. 




My thumbs are starting to develop a greenish tinge, after all :)


Anyone else have some good landscaping tips?

Eat Your Vegetables!


I love having a garden! This is my first experience with having my own (thanks, Mom, for all the help and advice!) and I believe it is a little addicting. Now I don’t ever want to NOT have a garden :) Today, I picked myself some squash and zucchini and our tomatoes are looking good. We also have onions, lettuce, chives, oregano, coriander, green beans, and cowpeas. It just looked so beautiful and green and healthy today that I had to share it!

 

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