Strawberries - 6

I am so excited! I have strawberries growing!! And yes, you do see an ies instead of a y at the end of that word there. I'm thrilled. And curious. Let me show you why.

So first here we have a newly growing strawberry that just started up a few days ago. You can even see the white petals from the flower still curled up around it, right? In the background you can see a future flower and hopefully a future strawberry. This hand pollinating thing is harder then you'd think. I can't help but wonder if  caused what you're about to see next. 

I have no idea what this little guy is going to turn into. A deformed strawberry... or is it going to die? I suppose we will find out at some point! 

And finally we have this strawberry which has happened since my post about hand pollinating. yay for it working. Mostly lol 

This one is a bit farther along then that first one. It's starting to turn white and then, it shall be red. I can't wait. It is going to taste so good! 

Strawberries - 5

Family gardening - strawberries

This is my 5th post about my strawberry plants but this is the first one where I actually show a tiny strawberry that is forming. Turns out, that if the flowers don't get pollinated you won't get any fruit and because my garden is so small, it isn't attracting enough bees and other pollinating insects. There IS a solution to this called hand pollinating which, at least for me, involved a very fine and soft paint brush and me "painting" across the sprigs from the middle of the flower to the petal.

And, as a result I have this little growing strawberry for it! It's about time. I had gotten so excited about all the flowers I didn't even bother to really look into how they work and what role insects play in them.

So, while I have no idea how many strawberries i will actually end up with... I will end up with some! :D

In this second picture we see a different part of my strawberry plant. We have one bloom on the far left that has already bloomed and begun to turn into a strawberry. Then we have a bright strawberry flower that will soon do the same (I need to go and paint it) and then we see two other blooms that haven't quite opened yet. From what I read, my kiddos and I should be eating home grown strawberries within 6 week! Woot.

Cucumber - 4

And finally, we end this group of posts with an image of my cucumber plant. Two of the transplants officially made it and they are doing wonderful. Two leaves have fully come out of the center and a third is working on it.

I think what is most interesting about the cucumber is watching them against the cantaloupe. They are growing at the same rate but the cantaloupe had about a week start so they are obviously farther. Had they been planted at the same time, I really think they would be spot on with one another in growth! 

Strawberries - 4

I have a couple of pictures for you today of my strawberries. The first picture is of a plant that nearly got torn to shreds TWICE. Both times I considered just digging it up rather then waiting for it to die. Instead, I tried to group the soil around the roots (it had been lifted out a bit) and continued to water it with my other strawberry plant and somehow... it is sprouting a little flower that will turn into a strawberry. If it doe indeed produce a strawberry by the end of the season I will be amazed! 

The second image is of my fuller strawberry plant. It is up to about 9 strawberries (crazy right). And when I say strawberries I just mean blooms that flowered and wilted (or whatever the proper word is). This particular picture shows a flower right before blooming. I imagine in a day or two it will be a beautiful white strawberry flower but thought it looked so innocent and beautiful so I had to capture it.

:)

Carrot - 2

Originally, I wasn't going to do a carrot post today. They are still so tiny... but before I decided not to I went and looked at my last post and there is definitely some major change! (Psss... go check it out!)

This is one of two little carrots that I started in a baggie and transplanted. None of the others survived though I have a LOT of them sprouting up from the straight seeds I planted. I know the containers aren't deep enough but am hopeful that we will get a carrot or two out of the bunch :p 

Garlic/Green Onion - 2

I title this garlic/green onion because as it grows more I'm becoming less positive that it is garlic. Darn me for not labeling. :p

Most green onion seems to only have 2 little stems that sprout up so I remain hopeful that it was the garlic that survived. 

Cantaloupe - 4

This post has taken forever to get up. I just got a new computer and it didn't have any of my photoshop actions on it so I had to go figure out how to re-install them. Somehow, mostly via accident, I figured it out and was able to get my photos taken care of. :D

So here we have the fourth set of cantaloupe pictures and this is officially the first time I showed all three in one pot. I'm still unsure if they are to close together but the whole point of this has been to learn and by the end of this, I bet you I have an answer :p 

You can see some holes in a couple of the leaves which was caused by rain. We were down in the city at the time which caused me quite a bit of worry because rather large bits of hail came down there. They were actually large enough that I feared my car was going to have dents. Fortunately it didn't.

Anyways, in these pictures, you can see more leaves coming up and how different they look as well. You can also see the seedling leaves starting to change color and whither away. 

Tomato - 1

This is my second non-organic plant, a tomato we transplanted. It's... hanging in there. We are still kind of waiting to see if it is going to survive the transplant lol. Until then we remain hopeful that we will one day have a ripe tomato from it. 

:D

I'm picturing burgers with lettuce and tomato (home grown of course), a side salad (all home grown, duh) and a dessert of cantaloupe and strawberries. Yup... that will be one hell of an awesome meal.

Everyone says homegrown plants taste better and you have no idea how badly I want to taste the difference! 

Cucumbers - 3

My cucumbers are still growing a bit slower then my cantaloupe... then again, my cantaloupe had quite the headstart so I guess that is to be expected LOL But the cucumber is still doing good. These two are still doing well. The other three I planted... well two died and one, who knows what it's going to do.

I'm excited. 

Romaine Lettuce - 1

Lettuce! Dun-dun! haha I had wanted to grow lettuce so badly and container gardening has made it possible! This little baby lettuce was transplanted (almost as difficult as the carrots but not quite... most of the transplanted ones survived) and they have done really well since. I'm so excited. It's a fearful thing doing a transplant. You just rush out every day to check and see if your plant has survived or not. Mine is so I'm exciting :D hehe 

Because I was afraid the transplants wouldn't make it (and because some wouldn't transplant) I planted some seeds as well. As you can see, the entire group of seeds I planted sprouted so I'll have some thinning to do just like with my carrots but that's okay... I have to learn eventually! What would be really cool is if I could save them somehow. Ah well. 

And here you can see my container filled with lettuce. :) Hopefully it's large enough. With this being my first time I know I'll make mistakes... but now I am confident that I will have at least one head of lettuce by the end of this. One delicious and nutritious head of organic romaine lettuce! Yum! 

Strawberries - 3

Here we have my beautiful strawberry plant. Everything kind of blends in together but you can spot 5 strawberry beginnings for sure (they may be hard to spot but click the picture to make it big and you might find them all) and we have a total of 7 (one that you can see towards the top hasn't opened and turned into a flower yet). So, we have a total of SEVEN strawberries that all should come from this plant.

I'm excited. This is one of my two non-organic plants (which I will remedy next year) but I knew it would be the most fun for my three year old so we got it. :p

This is the plant we picked all of those spider eggs from. Ick. I do think we got them all though and my plant seems to be alive and well! (And making babies.)

Carrots - 1

I've got a couple of pictures of my carrots to finally share with you guys. This first one is a transplanted carrot. Now, let me say that I transplanted about 6 of them that I started off in a baggie method and only 2 of them made it. That was after starting probably 20 seeds in the bag too. These are so fragile and the roots just couldn't handle it. But this guy and his brother have held on. 

This second picture shows a group of baby carrots that I planted for the first time on the same day I did the transplant. I figured none would make it through the transplant so I planted some seeds as well and they are finally sprouting and growing! I've no idea how to thin them but I guess I'll be learning! :D 

Garlic - 1

So... I think this is garlic. And the reason I say think is because I planted it a while ago and this is the only one that survived... and I plannted green onino on one side of the pot and garlic on the other side. Then I didn't label each side.

Now I have this lone plant in the center of my pot and I am pretty sure it is garlic, at least I hope so. Thus, I am labeling it garlic until I figure it out :p

This guy, he's my fighter. :D

Cantaloupe - 3

And, just 8 days later... here is my cantaloupe!! Look's awesome right? The little leaves from the seedling are starting to shrivel away and large leaves that make up the actual cantaloupe plan are getting so big! I hadn't realized so much time had gone since my last photos of my plants. I need to stay on top of this! Going outside every day and seeing them all grow just leaves me in aww! 

Of all the plants I'm growing, I have to say that I think the cantaloupe excites me most with  my cucumber being a close second. When I was little, cantaloupe was a favorite of mine. I begged my parents to let us grow cantaloupe and my dad tried with me but wasn't all that dedicated. We got very tiny melons that slowly died but this time I am determined to see them grow large and healthy and then... I will get to share beautiful images of my little kiddos eating them!

I can't wait. 

Biking Along the Arkansas River

My family and I just moved up to this area of Colorado in February. There is so much of it we don't know and having grown up in a small area, I know just how many hidden places there are in towns like the one we live in now. While trying to figure out what part of the river we wanted to ride along yesterday, we came across this trail that is up on a mountain over looking the river. It is beautiful!

About 1.3 miles in, the tire on the kid's buggy blew and we had to stop and make the rather tiring ride back (riding a bike with a trailer that has a blown tire is not an easy feat... fortunately, my husband's bike was attached to it, not mine). We were able to replace the tire, get it all fixed and went back to the trail today.

We were determined to finish it! What we didn't know that the entire trail was only 2 miles long and we had already done over half of it... but none the less it was a fun ride.

In total, today we biked 4 miles which is great considering we haven't ridden bikes in at least a month. Life caught up to us and it fell to the way side. But here we are again, biking and working on health related things. It's fantastic.

The area is absolutely beautiful! Idk how often we'll do this bike ride since it is only 2 miles one way but I imagine we will do it another time or to. There was wildlife everywhere. Some of the butterflies we saw were HUGE too. It was incredible. 

On both bike rides down this trail we saw people kyacking and drifting down the river. It was kind of funny because when the tire blew my husband had to go a lot slower then me... so after I got a little ahead, I'd stop and wait for him. It was like a game of race with the guys in the little boats because I'd go flying past them and then stop so they'd pass me, so on and so forth :p 

Beautiful huh? 

My husband used his iphone to get a couple of panoramic photos. This one isn't so great... 

but I love how this one turns out. Imagine it without the curve and you'll have a pretty good idea of what our view was :p 

So yeah... there you have it. Our biking experience out on a trail that is, though short, very beautiful! 

Eggs in the Strawberries

Spider eggs. At least that is what I am 100% convinced they are. We found them in our strawberry plant shortly after finding a creepy looking spider in them. I never imagined the damn thingw ould start laying eggs in the soil! I mean, she even buried some of them. It was weird.

The first ones we found were directly on top. There were two. We took them out, destroyed them (yes, destroyed... the idea of baby spiders crawling all over my back porck was less then appealing to me lol). We then moved the mama spider to the large field outside out large yard. After finding even more of her eggs, maybe we should have offed her too.

I know, I know, that sounds horrible... but she looked so creepy! She was black and brown, fuzzy and had 6 or 8 circles lined up in 2 rows on her back. Creepy. And she laid EGGS in my STRAWBERRIES.

After finding as many of them as I did, I started to wonder if it was possible that they were a part of the soil... so I went and did an online search. I found images of what spider eggs look like inside the web sac they are typically in. They look identical to what I found. Then I researched what kind come in soil and sort of found something. Then I found a thread where people had found them too and shared pics... identical! And all agreed they were an egg of some sort and agreed... DESTROY!

:p

So we did. And will continue looking for more. The whole idea just gives me the heeby jeebies (The Grinch anyone?).

We now have a total of 6 flowers either bloomed and gone or starting to bloom on our little strawberry plant too. SIX! That's awesome. I can't wait until I can see actual tiny little strawberries pop off :p

Strawberries - 2

Here is the update on my strawberry plant. I noticed a new little strawberry set up that's about to become a flower (I think). That will make a total of FOUR strawberries that this little plant is working on. I wanted to share this photo because I just think it looks so cool. You can totally see the tip of the strawberry (again... I think - haha). 

And the 2-day comparison photo - 

The one that shows most because of my fingers is the same one as you see in the second photo. You can see a good bit of difference here too! And the white flower is no longer around... it's working on the same transformation as the one in the second photo. 

Cucumber - 2

My cucumbers have of course made some progress as well though not near as much as my cantaloupe. Still, though, you can see the difference in the leaves that are coming out. They are much fuzzier!

Here is a comparison shot. Still hard to believe its only been two days though much easier with the cucumber comparison then with the cantaloupe one! 

You know, looking at it side by side shows me more difference then I originally thought. I still think that watching something grow like this is incredible. Imagine if we could do this with our own babies too. Ah! Life is just such an amazing thing :)

Cantaloup - 2

So, I couldn't resist. Just 2 days later I had to take more photos. But that was because amazing things were happening! You couldn't see this two days ago. I'm just amazed at how fast these are growing. I'm excited to go back out and look tomorrow :p

You know... I know I'm a little biased, but I think I have some very handsome cantaloupe plants growing right now :p 

And just to prove I'm not crazy... check out this side by side comparison. There is only a TWO day difference! (both photos are of the same plant)

Isn't that just incredible?! (hint - it is) lol

Produce is WAY to Expensive!

What you see in this picture cost me less then $50 and it doesn't include all the produce I bought!. Read the list to see exactly what is above.

• 3 large pineapples - 8.97
• 3 2.5lb bags of red cherries - $14
• 3.88 lbs of peaches (10) - $3.84
• 5 mangos - $5 (high estimate) 
• 5 lbs of bananas (well note quite, we ate some) - $2.96
• 2 garlic cloves - $1
• 1 yellow onion - $1
• 4 lbs of strawberries - $6 (high estimate)

Missing from the photo are 16 ears of sweet corn ($.33 an ear), 1 head of romaine lettuce ($1) and 1 bag of potatoes ($1.99) -  ~ $8

So, for every food I just listed above, I paid $50 for. That isn't expensive. These will be snacks and contribute to dinners for my family for darn near a month! We get paid once a month so fresh fruit at the beginning of the month and dehyrated after that is the way we do it. 

When I went into the store, I had no idea what fruit I'd be buying other then bananas because we always get bananas. I grabbed an ad as we went in and on the front page (we shop at City Market and Costco) were several of the fruits and veggies that were on sale. 

At Costco, I learned that they typically have their fruit for a good price. At City Market we pay 3-4 (depending on if it is on sale) for a pineapple about half the size of the ones in the pictures. Buy shopping at Costco for the pineapple we get MUCH more for the same amount (or less if it isn't on sale!). The same is true for the strawberries (usually 3-5 dollars at city market but less then $2 at Costco) and the mangos which happened to be out and less then $2/lb as well. 

The cherries were a nice surprise because I love cherries and last time we bought them they were FIVE a lb which makes one bag about ten bucks! Crazy right? We were able to buy THREE large bags of cherries for just 15 bucks because they were on sale for $2.99 a lb. 

The peaches were on sale for $.99 a lb. 

The onion was on sale for $.99 a lb. 

Corn was .33 an ear, lettuce was .99 a head and the 5 lb bag of potatoes were just $1.99. 

The common theme in what I just wrote is rather then going in set on getting apples, oranges and bananas, we get what they have on sale during that shopping trip. Fruit can be VERY expensive so get what is on season or what is on sale to help with the expense. This is the first time we have bought peaches since we mvoed and I cannot wait to dehydrate them! Which is my second tip. 

Buy the on sale fruit in bulk, invest in a $40 dehydrator at wal-mart and you'll have fresh(ish) fruit to eat right away and dried fruit to eat as a snack later or bake with. That's actually why we bought so many cherries. In the picture you can see a container behind the bananas... that's one bag's worth of dehydrated cherries. Took a good 16 hours to do, but darn do they taste so good! 

Now... let's put this in perspective. At this shopping trip, we spent less then $50 on fresh produce. Not buying milk, eggs or hardly any meat (we did get bacon and sausage that was on sale) we spent an additional $100 and it doesn't take up near the amount of room on my counter nor is it all as healthy. (We bought a lot of cooking spices/wines/vinegars which can rack up the bill.) 

Eating healthy CAN be expensive (particularly if you do buy organic which we don't at the time... not because we don't want to but because we are skeptical of what the label actually means) but if you shop sales, buy from the sales in bulk and preserve your food in healthy ways (food saver bags or dehyrating or even canning) you'll save a ton of money in the long run!

A few more things we buy in bulk (from Costco... I do recommend a membership, it is worth the money for these particular items) include: 

• organic coconut oil - 78 oz - $23 
• extra virgin olive oil - 101 oz - $20 

I'm not even kidding. Coconut oil and olive oil are EXPENSIVE in stores. With what I save on just these two products damn near pays for the membership LOL And for my family of four, the coconut oil lasts 4-5 months and the olive oil will probably last a year haha Other items I feel justify the membership cost are toilet paper (lasts my family of four several months and is $15), wipes (big box lasts us about 3 months and is $20), dog food (large bag lasts about 3 months and is $30), eggs (last an entire month and is $10) or egg whites (also a month's worth and about $10).

We get some not so healthy things at Costco too but I won't go into them as they aren't the point :p 

So yeah. Buying in bulk and preserving your food for later and shopping sales is where its at. Do this and you WILL save money. And sometimes you might want to hold off on a meal or even just wait a week to check the next weeks sales (we went without bell peppers this time which means no fajitas for us). 

In total, I saved over $30 dollars at City Market. So, my $150 bill would have actually be $180+ and those savings don't include the discount in gas I earned AND I only used TWO coupons on the entire purchase. Sales are really where it is at, particularly if you have coupons with the sale items.

I hope this helps you gain an idea of how to eat healthy as far as fruit and veggies go when working with a budget. My family gets paid just once a month and our food budget is typically just $400 a month. This month we did spend a bit more then that because we had some bulk items we had to catch up on but next month, we won't spend a penny over $400 in food for the entire month and that will be with fruits and veggies, not chips, snack cakes or any other processed snack.

Eating Healthy on a Budget

This is long - bear with me - look for enlarged words to get the jist of what will be covered in that section so you can skip some parts if you'd like. 

Myths & Reality 

I stumbled upon a post on a mom website that I frequent. The lady was asking, what I feel, was a genuine question. Her claim was that fresh foods are expensive which makes eaty healthy expensive and her question was how anyone on a budget does it. The reason I think this is a fair question is because I grew up being told we didn't eat healthy because it was to expensive. I grew up believing that.

Here are a few examples of things I was taught growing up and whether I find them to be true or false.

• Buying apples is more expensive then buying chips. - True AND False!
• Buying all the stuff to make a salad is more expensive then buying a can of beans. - True AND False! 
• Fruit goes bad before it gets eaten so it ends up being a waste of money. - True AND False! 

Bullet 1 - You pay more but get less. 

I could go on and on with examples but there isn't really a need to. You all have most likely heard the same things. Now, before you go dismissing me, let me explain why I think these things are both true and false. 

The last time we bought chips was last month (before then it had been a REALLY long time). We bought them because they were on sale for $1.76 if you bought three. That meant we would get THREE bags of Doritos for barely over $5. That bag of apples I just weighed only had five or six apples and was about the same price. So you hold them right next to eachother and one is clearly bigger then the other so you get the bigger one. 

Now, let me let you in on a little secret. Those bags of chips didn't last the month. We went from never buying chips to devouring them. Why? Chemicals but I won't go to much in to that... just know there is a reason you crave them! :p 

Now that I've agreed, the chips do tend to be cheaper, let me explain why they actually aren't. The way food settles in our stomach, these artificial foods don't take up much room. Think about it... take that large looking chip and crumble it up. It practically disappears. Try doing the same with the apple. Unless you dehydrate it, you'll have the same amount of substance in your hand. In other words... you will have to eat MORE of those chips then the apple to get the same "full" feeling.

Bullet 2 - Processed food is cheaper then fresh food.

Next is that a salad is expensive. Okay, I'll give it to you a little. By the time you pay that DOLLAR for the lettuce... the DOLLAR (or less) for the tomato)... the DOLLAR for the entire bag of baby carrots (or whole carrots, whatever floats your boat)... and the DOLLAR for the cucumber... you've got an entire salad that will feed 4-6 people for 4-6 bucks (just in case your salad stuff costs most do to different areas). The expensive part of a salad is all the extras you want in it. 

Bacon - $4 for a jar

Dressing - $2-3
Cheese - $3 - 6 (I always try to give a range for various costs of living)

I'm sure you get the idea of what I'm trying to say. A basic salad isn't expensive, feeds a lot of people and will fill your stomach a LOT more with a lot LESS calories. It's science. It's true. 

Bullet 3 - Fruit goes bad and that's money wasted.

Finally, we arrive at that last bullet point. Fruit and veggies go bad. This is true. This is 100% true, actually. Some people love fruit it never goes bad. I'll be the first to admit I've wasted my fair share of expensive ass produce. Then I stopped. How you ask? By investing.

We have a FoodSaver (my in-laws gifted me) and we replace the bags as needed. That thing has literally saved me HUNDREDS in meat and produce. No lie.

We also have a food dehydrator that we got at wal-mart for around $40. We dehydrate a ton of fruit every month because then it won't go bad. We've all but stopped throwing out fruit that has gotten to ripe or straight up gotten forgotten. And the dehydrated fruit makes a perfect snack. So now, the $20 dollars worth of fruit we just bought will last for a while! We get some fresh and some dried. The nutritional value stays the same as does the calorie count... just be careful because they don't take up as much room without the water so you can rack up some healthy calories pretty quickly on these... but they are amazing for baking and on the go snacks! 

Now for the best part. Check out my next post to learn  just how I buy fresh produce for a reasonable price! You can find it HERE.

Strawberries - 1

So this is one of two plants that I have going that I did not start out as seeds and that are not organic. Next year I'll start them sooner so I can either start them as seeds myself or at least get in on the organic selection before they are gone! They will appease my children for now.

In an earlier post I mentioned that my strawberries had a story. Originally, they were an "on whim" buy as I thought they would give my daughter a good experience. And boy have they. After either my youngest (my son) or my dog ate the leaves off of my second plant I got a new one that had strawberries already on it (it was a bit farther along). That one is barely hanging on. Most of it is gone and I don't know if what remains will make it. My first little strawberry plant has done great though. It hasn't produced strawberries but it is about too!

Two flowers just closed up and a third bloomed today. I'm excited!

See!! Within a few days I'll be seeing little white buds pop up from both of them. The second one is harder to see but they are both right next to eachother and look like little strawberrie hat leaves (that's what I call them anyways). 

I love strawberries. I have a couple of lbs of them currently sitting in my fridge waiting to be dehydrated (the cherries are going right now). They make such perfect little "chips" and are good for baking too. I didn't get any more pictures of the strawberrie plants but I can see a couple others prepating to let out some flowers and will definitely post more about my strawberries. 

Before my daughter killed off (well, almost killed off) the second plant, it had a tiny strawberry on it that would have gotten a lot larger but since it got pulled off... small is better then nothing so I somehow managed to get a little taste in for me and the two kiddos. It was heaven in strawberry form. I am not exaggerating. ;)

Because I've only got one little plant and it will only put off a few strawberries, the family and I are going to a pick-ur-own farm in August (or two) to pick a whole ton of fresh strawberries. We'll eat some and dehydrate some. I'm excited for August haha.

Cucumber - 1

Cucumbers tend to be fighters, I think. I'm not sure. It was the only seed that managed to germinate in my alkalie infested waste of work (lol). Though a tomato is holding on as well. I also started these via the baggy method. I figured since 1 seed didn't germinate with my cantaloupe I would do an extra one of the cucumber to make sure it worked out. Well, all five of them germinated! Unfortunately, it appears only two survived the transplant. (Exact opposite of my cantaloupe huh?) I'm thinking it's possible the roots were damaged when I tried to separate them from the paper towel. Regardless, so long as two survived I should be good!

Look familiar? Well it should! It looks practically identical to my cantaloupe. It is a seedling as well and once the little center starts budding leaves (you can see the start just a bit in the picture) a difference will be more obvious. I'm excited about these too.

If I manage to grow this garden like I want, we'll have some burgers with home grown lettuce and tomato (hell, I'll have to make the buns myself just for good measure), a home grown salad, fresh fruit (strawberries and cantaloupe) for dessert. If I make some pinto beans myself we'll have an almost 100% homegrown meal and almost all of it will be organic too... that's 100% awesomeness right there!

Cantaloupe - 1

Alright, so I went and took pictures of my garden and am going to write a post about each one I'm growing. It will be awesome to go back through the tags and see my plants in progress! First up is Cantaloupe. Cantaloupe is the only thing that my dad ever tried to grow with me when I was a child and it was an epic failure. Needless to say, I didn't learn anything and the only thing I do remember from that time is the plant dying and the ground being blamed.

I refuse to let that happen again! haha

So, today, this is what my little cantaloupe plant looks like.

Doesn't it just look so nice? You can even see the little leaves that will make up the plant truly starting to bud in the center. I can't wait to do my second cantaloupe picture. *Place excited squeal here.* 

Right now all I really have is a seedling. In one of my previous posts where I still had the cantaloupe in the bag, it was a seedling. (Bare with me, I'm learning on the terminology so if I'm wrong on something I imagine I'll correct it in a future post.) From what I can find online these little leaves are called cotyledons and my cantaloupe has two of them (some plants only have one). I currently have all three of my little cantaloupe seedlings. I had put 4 on the baggie, but only 3 germinated. I transplanted all three hoping two would survive the transplant but so far, all three seem to be surviving though one does seem to be touch and go. I'll have to keep an eye on it (not that it will do much good but it makes me feel better).

I'm so excited. I have a baby cantaloupe! :D

Trial & Error

With this being my first time gardening, a lot of what I'm doing is a trial and error. First I tried to prepare the land, add fertilizer to it and grow straight from the ground like tons of people do. But that was an epic fail. I tried so hard to!

That was the space after I finished working it. That black trash can if silled with all the weeds and rocks that we plucked and pulled by HAND. We broke up all the clumps of hard dirt by HAND. It was crazy. We just moved and had no idea what this yard was going to have before we moved and we also had no extra funds for hundreds of dollars of equipment to do the work for us. So, I sat... on my butt... and took my little hand shovel and scooped, grabbed a weed and smashed the clumps. It was probably really funny except that it was a TON of work and I was REALLY proud of myself and nothing grew. Nothing. Not at all. 

Here is after we built our mounds for our viney plants and our rows for our pole plants. At the end farthest from the house, that mound... yeah, it grew a cucumber for like 3 days and then the poor little guy dried an acidicless death. :( Broke my heart. I had high hopes for that fighter. Then one by one all of my tomato plants died. Well, except for the one in the very back. That little guy is still holding strong today! I'll have to get you a picture. :p 

This sadness had me frustrated, disappointed and ready to never grow another thing again. Well, not quite. See... It seemed like the Earth was trying to tell me I had a black thumb and in the event of some type of apocolypse I would either be killed quickly, not allowed in any of those groups that hoard food just in case which would then result in me starving to death or eating poison berries in desperation. Maybe I should start hoarding food. Hmm. 

Anyways... I started thinking back to elementary school where we put a lima bean on a wet papertowel and into a plastic baggie so we could watch it germinate. I didn't have any lima beans (hate those damn things) so I figured let's do it with cantaloupe. I mean why not, right?

So I did. And about a week later (because I'd forgotten about them thinking it was a hopeless possibility) my husband brought the bag to me and low and behold!!!

I couldn't believe it! I was so damn excited. Seriously. Very excited. I was like a kid at Christmas as I ran to the kitchen window multiple times a day just to see if they had grown anymore. This actually caused me to do more research about the baggie method and it's actually a well known method of starting your garden. And it is simple and can really give the kiddos an opportunity to watch something grow! The top pic was literally just several days before the second. The growth was tremendous!

I also started other plants in baggies! 

My cucumber seeds germinated within a few days. 

So did my lettuce seeds! 

I also did carrots, watermelon and yellow squash... and the carrots did germinate but by then the excitement of my new "toys" had worn off I guess because I didn't get pictures. I'm a lame-o. And for some reason, my watermelon and squash never did germinate which kind of worked out because in my excitement I forgot that I'd have to buy containers and soil for all of my plants which can rack up quite the bill.

That's okay though because in about 70ish days I will be saving money one carrots, cucumbers, cantaloupe, tomatoes (we went and bought another plant), strawberries (I haven't mentioned them yet but they have a story too) and garlic (they too have a story - maybe I have like a grey thumb... I can grow but very carefully?) LOL

I have officially gotten everything transplanted to my porch-top garden and have excitedly checked them every single day! Check out the next post to see how they are all growing!

A New Journey

My name is Amanda! I'm a work at home mom of two with a wonderful supportive husband. Some of you may know me from my crochet patterns website, MNE Crafts (www.mnecrafts.com). This new blog is to explore another hobby of mine that isn't crochet related at all (okay, that's a lie... I have a cute design in mind for my little gardening shovel that I will have to share).

2014 marks my first year at making a go of a garden. And it has been quite the adventure. In February, my family and I moved to a small town about an hour away from the city we had been living in. When we picked the place we'd call home for a few years I was so excited to see a little area for gardening! Once summer officially started I started weeding, working and prepping the ever living heck out of this area. I even did a ton of work in the other areas of the yard.

Here's an image to give you an idea of all the work I had been putting in and you can't see the seed we had planted just yet. The rose bushes the house came with looked pitiful. So many dead branches! So, for the first time in my life, I set to trimming them. My goodness, they looked pitiful. There were hardly any branches at all. Some beautiful roses did spring forth though! And I'm really excited for the branches to spring back next year! I did manage to get some really beautiful roses, particularly one which is my favorite. 

These two roses are really pretty though they had some rough edges. My favorite was one of the last to bloom and almost doesn't even look like a rose! It was incredible to go out my back door and see it! 

See. I told you it was beautiful! :p I didn't edit this at all. The colors were that bight. And it was from the asme bush as the pink one above! Crazy huh? I can't wait to see how it does next year when I can start working on them sooner, get some rose fertilizer around them and what not. 

I'd share more current pictures of my yards but weeds have taken over again and its to hot to do anything about it today (but I shall not give up! Those weed will not win!). 

So, after all of that yardwork was done I really buckled down to preparing the area for the garden. No rocks, no weeds. broken everything up a good 6" down. Watered thoroughly... etc. It's a long list of everything I did and with only basic tools.

Then I planted everything only to find out that nothing would even germinate because of the alkalie in the entire area! I'd have known that had I lived her longer. Okay, I have to back up. I say nothing germinated but that isn't 100% true. One little cucumber plant managed to spring up out of the ground. It gave me hope only to die within a week. Hope dashed.

Somehow, One of the tomato plants we transplanted has survived as well. I wonder if it will produce anything. I guess we will find out :p haha

So yeah, here's my intro. Check back for more because one way or another I'm getting fresh freakin' produce to eat at my table! :p