Homestead Dreams

This past weekend we went to a wedding outside of Charlottesville, Virginia. It was held at our friend's parent's house, which was an old farmhouse that had been renovated and expanded. It was gorgeous. I can only dream and hope that some day we'll be able to find an old farm house and land in such a gorgeous setting to fix up and make our own.

First Blueberry

Just before our extended weekend vacation, I harvested my first
homegrown blueberry. Yes, you read right, one, solitary blueberry, but
grown in our garden. This was the first year for these two blueberry
plants, so hopefully, their yield will improve with time.

Basil & Blue Lake Bush Beans

This past weekend I finally got all the basil that was still in my closet on the light shelves out into the garden and into the ground or pots. The varieties were Genovese, Lemon and Opal. I also sowed all the Blue Lake Bush Beans I had gotten from WinterSown.org at the base of the berm.

As an update, some of the Basil is being attacked during the nights, particularly the Opal variety. I believe the culprits are june bugs and pill bugs (rolypolys). I guess the june bugs may have been avoided had I got the basil started on time, and were more established by this point in the season when all the young june bugs start emerging. I have read that putting corn meal around the plants may help, so I may try that, to hopefully give my basil a fighting chance.

Around the Garden

Here are a few pictures of some plants in bloom around the garden this morning.One of the Balloon Flowers that I transplanted out onto the berm.
One of the giant blooms on the onions.
Radish Flower

Two Zephyr Flowers

Alfalfa sprouts

I started another batch of alfalfa sprouts last night. I've been missing them on my sandwhiches, eggs & salads.

Cooking our Sugar Snap Peas

This past week Julia cooked a dish comprising solely of the sugar snap peas that we grew in our garden. They were delicious and very easy to make. 

Here's what she did:

- Saute some chopped onions in a little bit of butter and olive oil until soft.

- Add a few tablespoons of water and the prepped sugar snap peas. Cover and cook on low for about 5 minutes.

- Take off the lid, turn up the heat and cook on high for a few minutes until the water cooks out. And you're done!

A variation could be to cook some bacon in the pan first, take out the bacon, and then use the leftover grease to cook the onion instead of the butter and oil.

Around the Garden

We've finally got most of the seeds into the ground, and the seedlings as well. The tomatoes are in the ground and doing well in my neighbor's yard (that I had asked earlier in the year if I could plant since she doesn't ever use her yard. I have also done a bit guerilla gardening, I transplanted winter squash and watermelons into the berm behind our house (they are the small plants that have the white plant id tags in the picture). By adding plant tags, I am hoping that the HOA maintenance people don't rip them out or spray them, and let them fill the bare spaces there in the berm. We have had some pretty busy weekends and evenings with the amount of time the garden has taken on top of taking care of two children and two dogs, but hopefully it will be worth it. Sometimes I start to get stressed feeling that I am getting behind on the garden or missing key windows for planting, but I just need to step back and enjoy the small successes that we are already achieving. As Michaela Cavallaro recently said in Organic Gardening: "I hope to be content with my successes--and accept the inevitable failures. Above all, I want to slow down. If we save a few bucks on groceries and eat a few more veggies in the process, so much the better."