I recently received a copy of Caleb Warnock’s new book, The Forgotten Skills of Self-Sufficiency Used by the Mormon Pioneers and of course was quite interested in finding out what I could learn. Forgotten self sufficiency skills? Right up my alley. I live in Utah and I’m a Mormon. With my own Pioneer ancestry, I […]
Hurry Up and Grow Seed Experiment Fail
We put our garden in late. I mean really late. The corn was planted on July 4th and the rest of the garden went in on the 5th. So I thought I’d test out a seed starting method recommended by my grandma and the folks down at the local co-op where I picked up a […]
The New Herb Garden
The new herb garden got planted this last weekend during one of baby brother’s nice long naps. I’m pretty excited about growing some of these herbs. Last year I had sweet husband spray and kill the grass around where my sage, chives, and thyme are planted by the house. Then we didn’t get it tilled […]
Celery–Free Plants to Grow
Guest Post from Linda at Practical Parsimony. Thank you, Linda–I’m going to have to try this! April 8, 2011–celery on day ten at 4 inches No, I do not like to buy celery. It is rather over-priced in my opinion. As long as I can grow even what I have in the last ten days, cheaply, I […]
The Garden Map
When you’re planting your garden, it’s nice to make some kind of markers so you know what you planted where. This is especially good if you are trying different varieties of the same vegetables. Some people like to put little sticks or papers stuck to sticks to mark their rows. I’ve found that at least […]
A Little More Catch Up
It’s been a crazy weekend here, so sorry for no post Friday. The kids are off for spring break for one more day and we’ve been busy cleaning out the house to make it ready for the baby. This has required sweet husband’s time as well since I can pack a box of things, but […]
Things Are Growing
Spring is actually finally here. We had 70 degree weather last Friday and Saturday and then snow on Sunday. I spent some time in the garden Friday. I must have had morning/all day sickness in the fall, because it is a mess out there! I raked and cleared some of the beds so the kids […]
Starting Seeds
Well, it’s finally time to start planting around here. We’re about 8 weeks out from our last frost, so cold crops like peas can go in the ground outside and the plants I’m starting from seed to transplant later can be started inside. It’s windy today, so I did the inside plants first. I’m using […]
Saving Seeds: Squash
Saving squash seeds is pretty simple. The pictures I’m using are from a winter squash called Long Island Cheese. For summer squash, you want to let the squash get big and over-ripe like we did with the cucumber so the seeds can mature before trying to save the seeds. The squash will be long past […]
Saving Seeds: Cucumber
Saving cucumber seeds is a bit more tricky than saving radish seeds. So how do you save seeds from a cucumber? First, start with a non-hybrid cucumber plant. You can get non-hybrid seeds at a number of places–I do my shopping online, and a couple of my favorites are Hometown Seeds and Baker Creek Heirloom […]