Home Garden
Home Garden
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Raised Bed Vegetable Gardening – Big Yield in a Small Space
Spring is just around the corner here in North America, and the thoughts of many are turning to vegetable gardening. If you haven’t yet considered raised bed gardening, you are missing out on a lot of benefits! The Biggest Benefit of Raised Bed Vegetable Gardening One of the biggest advantages to growing in raised beds is that you can save a lot of space over the traditional row style of gardening. When planting in rows, remember that half of your available space can be taken up in walkways between the rows. That’s a lot of wasted space! Planting in raised beds allows you to plant more per square foot than…
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What to Do With Giant Zucchini
Anyone in my part of the world who has grown zucchini knows how prolific they are. They grow faster than you can give them away! My super-gardener friend Sue had only one zucchini plant in her garden this year and still managed to feed her family plus her friends and neighbors throughout the summer. Thankfully, zucchini is an incredibly versatile vegetable. A mild-flavored member of the squash family, zucchini can be used raw in salads or sandwiches, added to stir-fries, made into tasty relish, or baked into a sweet, delicious bread. Knowledgeable gardeners soon come to appreciate zucchini for its many uses. Even better, plants keep producing throughout the summer,…
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Sarah’s Pumpkin Harvest
“It’s that time of year – the squash and pumpkin vines are starting to die back and reveal the hidden goodies underneath!” And if you are like me, you are already craving a delicious, spicy slice of pumpkin pie with a dollop of whipped cream, or for my lactose-intolerant self, non-dairy whipped topping. Sarah writes about her pumpkin harvest here at Sarah’s Kitchen Gardens. Do you have a favourite pumpkin recipe you’d like to share? Email me here at HomeFreeMedia.com.
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From The Healthy Honeybee: Escape With No Re-Entry
Going to check on the honeybees: “I went for a visit to the beeyard yesterday at sunset. It’s probably the most unromantic place you could think of, what with all the buzzing and stinging and such. The sunset was nice but not memorable. The bees, however, were cranky (in a memorable sort of way). Go figure – I’m there to separate them from the product of their summer labours, and they’re not happy about it. I opened the first hive to find a layer of bees under the top cover, sitting poised with their stingers in the air – straight up – and already angry at the intrusion…” Read more…
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Love My Reel Lawn Mower
I just got in from cutting the grass with my reel lawn mower. In case you aren’t familiar with these marvelous machines, a reel lawn mower is people-powered and has a different type of cutting blade than the typical helicopter-style blade of a more common gas or electric powered mower. While I still get a good workout pushing it around, my reel mower, or push mower, is relatively easy to use and low maintenance. Pros Long Lasting – This machine is durable. It has no engine and few moving parts to break down and cause trouble. There are push mowers 50 years old and older still going strong.
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Home Grown Meat – An Update from Sarah’s Kitchen Gardens
“My baby chicks are not babies anymore! They are getting very close to harvest time. The rooster is the biggest of the bunch, as you might be able to tell from the photo. These four are what I have left from the six I started with. For some reason I ended up with two that didn’t make it. There was no sign of foul play (example: neighbor’s cat), so I can only assume they died of something natural, like a heart attack or something. That’s a hazard with this breed – they are bred for quick weight gain,…” Read more at Sarah’s Kitchen Gardens.
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The Wily Mom’s Secret Reason for Gardening
There are two significant men in my life who don’t eat their vegetables. These are not my children. These are independent adults who, presumably, could choose to eat nothing but ice cream if they wanted. They both make their own dietary choices every day. Unfortunately for them, most of these choices do not include vegetables. They eat lots of meat. I have nothing against meat. They eat lots of carbs. Pasta, potatoes, bread. All these are fine in moderation for most people. But, left to their own devices, very few vegetables pass the lips of these two men. It’s not that they don’t know that we all need to get…
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Growing Garlic in your Garden
Sarah’s Kitchen Gardens has a new post about growing garlic in your garden. Tasty and good for you, garlic is also surprisingly easy to grow. The only twist is that you need to plant seed garlic in the fall. That means if you are thinking about planting, now might be the time to be looking for or ordering your seed garlic. For more information, visit Sarah’s blog at http://sarahskitchengardens.com.
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In Praise of the Tomato
The watery, anemic, store-bought tomatoes of the off season cannot even come close to the rich, hearty flavour of a ripe, juicy tomato fresh off the vine. Whether you prefer a full, red, beefsteak tomato to slice for a sandwich, or the instant gratification of a bite-sized cherry tomato, nothing beats homegrown for satisfying the tastebuds. Sarah’s Kitchen Gardens offers a fresh tomato salad recipe that you are sure to enjoy! Follow the link to read more.
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Considering Homeschooling – Managing Time for Cooking
If you are a stay-at-home parent considering homeschooling, you might be wondering how on earth you will find time to get everything done when you have to spend so much of your day teaching. Providing nutritious meals needs to remain a priority, but that can take time. Don’t let this discourage you. There are alternatives to ordering pizza five nights a week! Managing time for cooking healthy meals is possible, even within the busy schedule of a homeschooling family. It takes planning and organizing and one huge day of effort, but many hard-working moms and dads solve the problem of making dinner with Once-a-Month Cooking. When I was in the middle…
