Tag Archives: gardening

Everything Gardening {Link Up} — Tips for the Family Garden

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Everything Gardening {LINK UP} @ Walking in HIgh CottonIf you’re a regular reader, you know that we do a big family garden every year. And it’s not always been my favorite part of the homestead. Probably because it’s a lot more work than folks like to make it sound and we’re already really, really busy! Don’t get me wrong–it’s totally worth it! (Hello, we do it every year!) But it definitely takes time and sweat.

Mr. Fix-It and the crew have just kept plugging away year after year and each year it gets better and better and this year they really won me over and I’ve been just as excited as they are–maybe more! This year I’m totally embracing it!

Our kiddos already enjoy it. They enjoy planting. They enjoy harvesting. And they enjoy telling everyone that comes to dinner how they grew the food on our table. (Which is saying a lot about their attitudes since by mid-summer we’re gardening in 100 degree heat around here!)

Want your family to enjoy gardening together? Here’s a few pointers from our last 7 years, if you’re just starting out.

DON’T

  • DON’T plant stuff you don’t eat. Seriously. You will not eat it just because you planted it. And cultivating what you will eat will take more than enough time and energy! (Ask me about the eggplants!)
  • DON’T plant everything. Especially the first couple years! Pick a few favorites and then add something new each year as you get more experience.
  • DON’T forget the fence! Please, please, do yourself a favor and think about fencing. The last thing anyone needs after working so hard is for the dog to run in there and dig up all your work in one afternoon {ahem…grapevines three times!}.
  • DON’T forget the harvest when planting. Sound crazy? When you plan your garden, know what you’re going to do with the produce! Are you ready to freeze? Try canning or pickling? Sell at the Farmer’s Market? Or just eat fresh over the summer? DON’T over plant!

Tips for family gardening @ Walking in High Cotton

DO

  • DO grow at least one thing for each person. It encourages everyone to “own” the gardening effort for themselves.
  • DO let them help! Get kid-sized tools and let them do everything you do. If you want them to be willing workers then teach them, and give them grace. DON’T worry about minor collateral damage!
  • DO work together. Make it a family affair–not just a chore they are sent out to do.
  • DO cook fresh. Nothing brings the value home for your children like picking dinner from the garden straight to the stove top or table! Enjoy all that hard work!
  • DO teach as you go. Not just about gardening, but about math, about science, about history, about faith–those teachable moments are right there if you’re looking for them!
  • DO plan, use companions, and rotate. We have a very conceptual plan, but it’s enough to lay out companion plantings and rotate crops. These all help with soil health and insect control–especially important if you don’t want to have to use a bunch of chemicals. (I’ve got some great companion planting diagrams on my Gardening Pinterest board!)
  • DO gather new recipes! If all goes well, you’re going to have lots of food–gather up some new summer recipes, some canning recipes, directions for blanching and freezing, and a list of needy families from church–DON’T let it go to waste!  (Pinterest is perfect for this too!)

Tips for Family Gardening @ Walking in High Cotton

Looking for even more great Gardening tips, tricks, and helps? (Or do you have some great tips to share?!) Please join us for the Mom Tested, Family Approved Everything Gardening {LINK UP}!

Everything Gardening {LINK UP} @ Walking in HIgh Cotton

Please:

  • LINK UP up to 3 garden-related posts of your own over the next 2 weeks!
  • Visit as many posts as you’d like!
  • Stop by to visit my co-sponsors if you have a chance–Dollie from Teachers of Good Things, Becky Marie from For This Season ; and Vicki from Vicki Arnold!
  • Pin to your heart’s content!
  • Share all the great links with your friends on Facebook and Twitter!
  • Use what you find to grow your own tasty, fresh food for your family!

Next month’s Mom Tested, Family Approved Home {LINK UP} will be Everything Frugal, starting April 30th…be sure to check it out!

You can also find me linking up at…

10 Homestead Updates

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Even though I came from a late meeting on Thursday to find the Cowboy and Mr. Fix-It curled up in the fetal position with raging fevers (and my Ladybug cleaning the kitchen and making dinner–talk about making me proud!) we have managed to have quite a productive few days around here.

Here’s some updates (which I may or may not expand on later this week!)

1. We’re all on the mend again.  Yeah!! I took the Cowboy to the doctor on Friday and apparently we’ve had Influenza B going through the house (and my Cowboy compounded that with an ear infection). But we are fever free this morning and back to our routine. Praise the Lord!

2. Annabelle had her calf! (I had a feeling it was coming–even hinting about it on the blog last week!)

New calf at The Lowe Farm, Tidewater Virginia

3. Our new calf brought unexpected visitors to the farm.  (Yes, I took like a thousand pictures I’ll have to sort through!)

bald eagle over the cow field at The Lowe Farm, Tidewater Virigina

4. We planted 2 apple trees.

5. We planted a second peach tree. That makes 2 peaches, two apples, and a fig, in the orchard so far! (Think you want some fruit trees, but you’re not sure? I love The Backyard Orchardist by Stella Otto. This little book has everything you need for all the basic fruits.)

6. We planted potatoes.

7. We planted strawberries and raspberries. (And The Backyard Berry Book has everything you could possibly need to get started with any kind of berries! Ours is a little grimy from going out in the garden with us at planting time.)

8. We got some Girl Scout cookies…and some ducklings!…and a load of feed. What’s the true number 1 challenge homesteaders face? The “what’s one more [insert anything imaginable]…” impulse buy. {grin} (And hey, Tractor Supply really does carry “everything you need out here.”)

New ducklings at The Lowe Farm, Tidewater Virginia

9. Then it snowed. (Where on earth did that come from? It’s almost April! In Virginia!)

Snow over the garden at The Lowe Farm, Tidewater Virginia

10. And we had a new lamb. (Of course–because it’s been snowing and sleeting. They love to come in bad weather!)

New lamb in the snow at The Lowe Farm, Tidewater Virginia

In between rounds of antibiotics and Mucinex and naps and catching up on a bazillion worksheets from missing almost a week of school…I think we did pretty good, actually. We also managed to fit in getting a load of hay (although it wasn’t a family affair this time and I was worried sick for most of the afternoon while Mr. Fix-It was gone!) and reading 10 chapters of our current family read aloud (we call it “the Joshua Jones book” and you can currently get the whole four book set on Kindle–unfortunately in-your-hand copies are awfully hard to come by!).

How was your weekend?!

And tomorrow I’m excited to be linking up with Dollie, Becky Marie, and Vicki to bring you the Mom-Tested, Family Approved Everything Gardening link up! (If you follow me on Pinterest, you know I’ve been garden-pinning like crazy lately!) So be sure to come back by and link up your own super-helpful gardening posts and check out all the others as well–it’s that time of year!

You can also find me linking up at…

boots button

VF spring banner

 

 

Outdoor Fun {Family Connections Summer 2012}

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Once again I’m joining Aurie, Lisa, Amy, and Connie to share ideas for fun, family activities for the summer. We hope you’ll stop by every Wednesday to share in our theme or link up your own posts about great summertime fun for the whole family!

This week we’re all sharing ideas for Outdoor Fun. Hot, sweaty, fogging up the lens of my camera, outdoor summer fun. {smile}

As I mentioned before, it’s been really hot around here. I thought it was so hot that it was evaporating the water from our bird baths, but it turns out there was a different culprit there…

It turns out “Fee-Wicks” the Great has been lapping from our bird bath under the butterfly bush on a regular basis!

But does that stop us from getting outside?

Oh no, not this crew!

It also doesn’t stop us from wearing boots–with our shorts!

We spent a recent weekend digging potatoes like Almanzo Wilder. Well, maybe not exactly the same.

What simple outdoor activities do we enjoy as a family?

We enjoy blowing bubbles and eating popsicles on the porch.

We enjoy walking the dog, seeing turkeys, and hunting for bird feathers that don’t belong to chickens.

Our garden seems much small when you put a hoe in everyone’s hand. {smile}

We enjoy reading books on the porch with a glass of ice tea, and playing cars in the dirt.

We enjoy weeding the flower beds…umm…well, we enjoy hunting up fresh buds and examining new blooms while we weed the flower beds anyway!

We enjoy horseback riding. Well, I don’t know if Hokie necessarily enjoys being riding when it’s 100 degrees out, but he doesn’t mind the wash down afterwards with cool well water from the hose.

I don’t know what’s up with the Cowboy’s sock there, but I love this picture!

And you know what else? Our kids love to help us with work outside. They’re not crazy about having to do their own chores–but they really enjoy helping us with ours. Working as a family. Being together. Especially when the work has serious rewards for completion!

Like your very own fried potatoes and onions and steamed green beans for dinner.

Those are happy faces! They had to stop just to come show me this big one.

And it never hurts to offer a little time to run in the sprinkler afterwards!

When our kiddos put in a full afternoon outside and are headed straight for the shower, I love to offer to spray them with the hose for 5 or 10 minutes first. The laundry already has to be done and they earned it and it ends the whole afternoon on a good note!

Ok, I just love this one too. This is Speedracer’s “can I have fruit snacks?” face.

What summer fun have you been up to lately? Link up a new or old post about your great summer family activities. Please keep it family friendly and link to you post, not your homepage.


And be sure to come back next week and join us. The theme will be Around Town Fun and I’ll be sharing about some of our Summer Plan field trips!

How’s Your Garden Growing?

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Are you gardening this year? We are, of course. And it’s a whole family affair over here.

Today I’m over at The Tuckers Take Tennessee today talking about how to bring some simple, real-time learning into your gardening adventures–like math, science, and bible…READ MORE

 

Build Me Up, Buttercup

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Welcome to spring!  A time when things just start happening.

One day your field looks like this…

Back field on Sunday

And four days later it looks like this…

Back field today, with Hokie and Hannah

And the yard…don’t even get me started…

They are EVERYWHERE!

I guess it could be worse.  I took a picture of this field on the way to the office.  And no, I didn’t have a couple margaritas for lunch, this is a terrible photographer’s efforts to take a picture of a hill.

Not our farm, thankfully!

Don’t get me wrong.  I actually think it’s beautiful.  But buttercups are really just another dandelion when it comes to pastures and livestock.  That’s why there’s so many–almost nothing eats them.

And I have allergies.  Really bad allergies.   I have no doubt that pharmaceutical companies wring their hands in glee over people like me.  People who should have the good sense to stay inside during pollen season but just can’t help themselves.  People who should close the windows and turn the A/C on so their couches aren’t dusted with yellow every evening when they come in from working outside.  People who are allergic to hay dust, grass cutting dust, and wheat dust, but insist on being farmers.

But there’s more blooming around here to talk about.  For some reason our yard doesn’t hit it’s season until a couple weeks after everyone else around here.  It makes me impatient, but it’s worth the wait when this…

Climbing roses

Turns into this…

Double blooming Lemon Meringue climbing roses

(I’m looking into that strange, moldy leaf spot thing that showed up the other day.  If you have any idea what it is, please let me know!)

And this…

Early columbine

Turns into this…

Blooming giant columbine

God sure knows how to make me smile…

Our first irises of the year!

Now how can you resist being outside with all this going on?