Im baaaack! (Tazzy post, and giveaway update)

Hello Lovelies, I know its been like a month since I posted. I went to Indiana to visit the husbands family, and some friends of ours for 3 weeks we were there, and when I got home, I got a MASSIVE tooth infection that lead to an abscess, and I have been working on dealing with that. The Infection is not fully gone, but with Echinacea and Goldenseal I am dealing with it and it barely bothers me anymore so there is that. So As promised soon I will be figuring out the details for the Giveaway where I will be giving away prizes to 4 people, and I might do another soon since I have a lot of stuff for giveaways.. I love paying things forward, because there have been many times in my life where I needed a hand and people have helped me out. so yeah.. this is a very short update I just wanted to let people know what is going on in my life.

July Garden Update

It's July, so I figured it was time for an update in the garden.

We are slowly starting to do some harvesting. We have had new tomatoes to pick each day for a week or so now. We've actually been picking them right before ripeness due to tomato worms starting to attack! So we have a ripening bowl sitting inside so they can continue to do their thing.

Our peppers are just now starting to really take off. We've collected a jalapeño and a bell pepper that had a soft spot forming on it. It won't be much longer and we'll have more jalapeños ready and some poblanos.

The green beans are pretty much done, so we've been taking them out to make room for the 2nd growing season's planting.

Yesterday our 3 varieties of pumpkins were seeded. We also seeded Roma and early salad tomatoes, as well as zucchini and 3 types of cucumber. We had planted zucchini and straight 8 cucumber previously, but we haven't had much luck thus far. Hopefully we'll have a bit more success for the 2nd season of the year.

And in preparation for the 2nd season, we're working on a new 24'x24' garden spot.

We've also taken cuttings from the hybrid tomato plants we bought. Hopefully they'll take root and continue producing into the fall. I'm also hoping to keep these plants going for several years so the seeds produce the same tomato plants in the following years. They say it takes 5 years for this to happen so I'm crossing my fingers!

This season is really starting to take off and I'm already dreaming about the cooler days of the 2nd season! Until next time, happy homesteading!

June Garden Update

After all the flooding and once our yard dried out, the weeds were almost as tall as we are. So, we had to move all the containers, makes for easier mowing and weedeating. I took the opportunity to reorganize the gardening when it was time to move them back. So many tomato plants were sitting in part shade and they really needed more sun. So as you can see, we placed the containers a bit differently, more organized. This also gave me the chance to really look over what was going on. So here's the June update!

Tomatoes - We have a total of 56 plants. Most are flowering and 3 are already producing tomatoes. The majority of the containers you see are indeed tomato plants lol.

Peppers - There are 20 of them. One plant is starting to produce peppers, some others are blooming. We moved them to a sunnier spot, which hopefully will help. I also recently read that peppers like to touch one another, so we grouped them all together.

A quick note, while doing the up close and personal plant check, I discovered a few plants that were still tiny. So as much as I hated doing it, I yanked them out and am repurposing those planters.

Summer Squash - 2 out of 4 plants are already producing, the other 2 are starting to put on blooms.

Potatoes - So far so good. I just planted a grow bag of russets. So now we have 3 types growing and 7 containers lol.

Broccoli/cauliflower - The grasshoppers have turned the broccoli and cauliflower into skeletons. Grr! So, we will be trying these again this fall.

Green Beans/Peas - Both are still blooming. One of my sons spotted a green bean yesterday. I guess grasshoppers don't like these as much thankfully.

Everything else is still just doing their thing. I did trellis our cucumbers and melons. Replanted carrots, as those were taken out by ants or flooding. Yesterday we planted baby corn and are waiting on the demise of a fireant bed before we can plant the peaches and cream corn.

Well, I have a kitten trying to help me type, so time to go lol.

Containers/Raised Beds VS Flooding

I have never seen so much widespread rain in one year, much less in one season, in the state of Texas and I've lived here my entire life! I live in what is deemed "The Big Country" area, where highways were shut down, entire towns were flooded and people were being evacuated. Luckily my family wasn't devastated during all the craziness. My heart goes out to those who have lost so much, we've been in that kind of situation before, not even a year ago and if you haven't experienced such, you just can't understand.

However, to the topic at hand. Luckily most of our gardening wasn't planted directly in the ground and it is close to impossible to over water raised beds and containers due to them having such good drainage. We would have lost a good portion of the plants if they hadn't been potted up! So far the only thing I have found that we may lose is one tomato plant that's stem was broken in the down pours.

Disasters happen folks. I know shows like Doomsday Preppers painted an insane picture of preppers/homesteaders. But, you never know what mother nature is going to throw at you and it is always wise to be prepared as much as you can be. Take the time to do research for your area, pay attention to the weather and your surroundings, keep tabs on mother nature predictions and think it through! It honestly was a fluke that we put most of everything in containers this year as I've stated before, but it's a great thing that we did!

Garden Update!

Good morning from Texas! The picture is our view to the west this morning. Simply beautiful.

Today is the next to last day of school here, my kids are super excited! And we have many things in the works around here. We're hoping to get a propane tank soon, so we'll have a working stove again, which means canning will be easier and homemade baked goods, like bread! We're also hoping to get some building done this summer, building a shed, various livestock areas and maybe even a greenhouse (fingers crossed)!

Now on to the garden!

Our morning glories are going crazy and I never trellised them, however I like the way they look without it so not worried about it this year.

The marigolds planted by the front steps have a bloom that's almost ready to burst open. We have a lily about to bloom as well. The rest of our flowers are still doing their thing.

The green beans should be ready for harvest soon and probably the peas not long after that.

Several of our tomato plants have buds or are already blooming. I'm excited to see how many tomatoes we end up with this year and to find out which types do the best for us out of those we planted.

Our pepper plants give me some worry. Most of them just don't seem to be taking off. But it's still early so maybe, we'll just have to wait and see.

The squashes, cucumber, cantaloupe and watermelon are growing away still. And my stick garden seems to show more signs of life each day.

As I said, we're still early in the season. I'll keep you updated as things progress into harvesting!