We are a tea loving family. In fact, I joke that growing up while other kids drank Kool-Aid® or Tang®, we drank tea (meaning sweet iced tea, I am from the South, you know). As a young adult I was introduce to herbal teas and fell in love with them, too. At first I would […]
Fall gardening in zone 9 {with links to other zones}
Depending on where you live you are probably at least thinking about fall gardening by mid-July. You maybe doing more than just thinking and actually planting some of your cool weather crops. Every summer while our heat index reaches 100+°F day after day, I tend to get frustrated hearing about everyone’s fall garden knowing that ours is […]
Frugal Gardening Tips: How to Save Money in the Backyard Garden
I’ve heard it over and over again, “Gardening is expensive!” Well, yes it can be. But it doesn’t have to be. Our family spends about $300 a year on our garden and orchard. We’re able to grow about 75% of the produce needed for our family, which at this time is mostly 6 people – […]
Preserving the Harvest…Zucchini
We are in the height of zucchini and summer squash season right now and while it is overwhelming at times, it’s also a huge blessing. My grocery budget is happy! Because we often have a problem with vine borers, I try to begin preserving zucchini and yellow squash at the beginning of the season. Anything […]
How to eat zucchini everyday and not get tired of it
Because we grow most of our vegetables and eat very seasonally, it’s either feast or famine when it comes to zucchini and other summer squash. Right now we’re in the feast season and I’ve been looking for zucchini recipes to diversify our meals a bit so my family won’t complain about eating zucchini every day. […]
Zucchini Lasagna {it’s not about going low carb}
A few weeks ago I mentioned in the weekly newsletter that we’ve had a few overgrown zucchinis this season. This happens every year but this year we seem to be having more than normal and I already have enough dehydrated and frozen zucchini for the year. I’m trying not cook sauteed zucchini every evening and […]
How to read a seed packet
I was chatting with a new gardener recently about growing vegetables from seed and she mentioned that she doesn’t really understand how to read a seed packet. The information on the seed packet confuses her and it’s just easier to buy transplants. I felt the same way when I first started gardening and I’m sure there […]
The May Garden in Zone 9
Our May garden is just delightful! Granted I was traveling for the first two weeks of May so it’s been a really short month for me. We’ve also had much more rain and cooler temperatures than we normally have in May so working in the garden has been a delight. While I was gone, my […]
Ultimate Guide to Growing and Using Sage
When I think of sage (or smell it) I always think of turkey stuffing.Funny how smells can bring back all kinds of memories and when I was growing up, the sage bottle only came out on Thanksgiving. I’ve been growing sage for many years now and we always have more that we can use just […]
The April Garden in Zone 9
Our April garden is truly delightful! We’ve had quite a bit of rain so we haven’t had to water very often. The plants are growing and fruiting, and the heat isn’t too bad just yet. On a sad note, it appears we won’t have a citrus harvest this year. In January we had temps that […]
