Sprouting Update

It has been twenty-two days already, and they are still growing! I am looking forward to eating fresh green salads during the winter! Now, I need to thin them, but I'm not sure how far apart. I'm going to do some research to see. I'd hate to throw away all of the thinned plants! Maybe we can plant them in the house. :) Anyway, I just wanted to share their progress and keep you updated on my gardening experiment! Oh yes, and there's...


This sweet little angel! He is so bad! ;)

Have a wonderful weekend everyone! ~Alli

Autumn Walk In My Herb Garden

Fragrant Oregano

Rosemary and my reading bench

The last colorful blooms before Winter

Chive seeds need collecting

~Alli~

Can You See It?

Look right in the middle of the picture...

It's a tiny lettuce sprout! I can't believe how fast they came up! I went out in the garden this morning to water my plants and looked really closely to find tons of small lettuce sprouts. I only saw one spinach sprout coming up but hopefully there will be more soon! I'm so excited!!! I hope they continue to grow and don't whither away.

As I am typing this, 1 Peter 1:24-25 comes to mind:

"For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away: But the word of the Lord endureth forever..."

We are reminded to not place our trust and find comfort in our own abilities as sinners, but in our Almighty Father. Even though my little plants may wither away, I can be confident that the truthfulness and goodness of God and His Word will always last eternally! That is definitely something to trust in! ~Alli

Fun With Seeds and Family

Today I have started a project that I have never attempted before- growing vegetables from seed during cold weather. I'm kind of nervous. :) We have grown vegetables in our cold frame in the spring and they did extremely well so we'll see what happens! I tried growing flowers from seeds last year and wasn't very successful. :)

Yesterday, Eric helped me relocate our empty cold frame to our open garden plot so our veggies would get more sun. After loosening the soil today, I planted my seeds! For my experiment, I decided to plant some lettuce and spinach for salads throughout the cold weather. Also, planting lettuce and spinach is pretty fool-proof since they're both very versatile vegetables. I planted half of the cold frame with lettuce and half with spinach. We shall see if they grow!

Buddy watched me plant today and was constantly running away with my seed packets! I guess his cuteness makes up for his mischievousness. :)

At around lunchtime today, Nan, Aunt Rhonda, and Emily came over for a visit! It is always so nice to have them. :) We had spicy vegetable soup, pasta salad, and turkey wraps for lunch. Emily loved playing with Buddy!

After everyone had left, Mom, Eric, and I went for a country drive to pick Philip up from college. Mom surprised us for dinner by taking us to an Italian restaurant! Now we are all stuffed and sleepy. :) A perfect ending for a wonderful day! ~Alli

Time for a Change

Seems like overnight my front porch baskets went and died. Lack of attention I guess.....
One trip to Wal-Mart will fix that. Mums and ornamental cabbages are on sale! Now if I can just keep them watered :)~Julie

Canning Day

One of the joys of having a garden is being able to enjoy it. Today, we decided to harvest our beets and pickle them. I do love canning, although it is hard work and takes forever! Here, Philip, Eric, and I are plucking up our row of beets for canning.


Finished! Eric looks like he's in pain, but the funny face is really from the heavy load. :)
After we picked our beets, we brought them over to the picnic table, washed them, and sliced off the excess stems. Mom then boiled the beets in our big pot until they were tender and ready to peel!

Once the beets were peeled and sliced, Eric and I stuffed them into hot canning jars. Our hands were beet red. :)

We then poured the brine over the sliced beets, removed the air bubbles, screwed on the lids, and set them in the canning pot to be processed.

"Pop!", "pop!"

Ah, the sound of a good canning day! Since we had some leftover brine, we decided to squeeze in a few jars of pickles as well. :) ~Alli

Tony's Garden

Here is a picture of Tony's garden. We thought our Papa in GA would like to see. HI PAPA AND SHERRI! Tony has been working very hard on it this year. In the past, due to our schedules, it was a little over grown with weeds. This year we have purposed to keep the weeds down. So far so good. It can however, get away from you quickly :)


These are beans ready to go up the trellis. Hopefully the rabbits will only eat the first plant. We are going to try our hats at canning squash and zucchinis. Recipes anyone? I prefer something really easy. I've made zucchini relish is the past and that was yummy. We'll keep you posted. ~Julie p.s. thank goodness for spellcheck for zucchini:)

Eggs in a Basket

We have been noticing some commotion on the front deck for a couple of days. The cats have brought it to our attention. They have been very interested in one of our ferns so upon closer inspection....Eggs!!!

They belong to a pair of purple finches. The eggs are about the size of a dime. Yesterday morning there were only two and this morning there are three.

The only problem is how to keep the kitties away! They like to sit on the rail directly under the fern. It's going to drive me crazy :) ~Julie

Yard Work

Yesterday, my sister Rhonda and niece Emily came over to help me do some work in the yard. I have always wanted to plant a flower bed at the base of our oak tree, so R and I pulled out the shovels and our landscaping juices started flowing! We had a great visit yesterday with lots of planting, chatting, and lunch. Today, the boys helped by adding the finishing touches. It's nice when the men come along and do the mulching :) ~Julie

Garden Update

A few days ago, Mom, my aunt, my cousin, and I took a trip to a local nursery and that inspired me to get my garden into shape! Mom bought many flowers to plant around her red swing, and I was able to purchase a few herbs to freshen up my herb garden. I also bought a couple of packs of flowers for some spring color!

Basil, Italian parsley, oregano, and thyme all found homes in my garden along with some zinnias and vincas. It's looking better already... minus the snake I came across while I was weeding. :)


Our vegetable garden is growing well also! Mom found a great tip off of the Pleasant View Schoolhouse blog that will help take the bitterness out of garden greens. To make them sweet, all you have to do it soak the picked greens in a bowl of cold water. Mom soaked ours for a few minutes one night for dinner and it really works! The greens are crisper and much sweeter. A great tip! ~Alli

Weed Invasion!

Ah spring has finally arrived...and so have the weeds! This, I'm embarrassed to say, is my poor little herb garden. Every year around the time of my birthday, I get to work- weeding, mulching, and planting in my garden. I had always wanted to have a garden of my very own after seeing how beautiful they were when we went to old southern plantations, Williamsburg, and other historical places like that. My first herb garden was a little raised bed in the backyard of our old house. I loved watching the plants grow and experimenting with new, unusual herbs. However, when we moved to the country, I couldn't take it with me :). When we moved here, I thought I would design a garden that was inspired by one in Williamsburg. We took one day to clear out the brush and brambles, and we started laying down a gravel pathway. Next, the beds were raised and tiny herbs were planted. It has been about five years since that day, and there she sits! During the two years that I worked, my garden was not tended to at all, and as you can see from the picture above, it needs a little TLC. :)

This year, I decided to try something new and start growing my herbs from seeds. Well, it was going great and tiny sprouts started peeking out of the dirt. On one of the hottest days this week, I forgot and left the plastic covering over my growing herbs, and they turned into deep-fried herbs! Poor little guys. Anyway, I decided to give-up, I mean put that project aside for a while. :) I will try again next year! Right now, I'm going to focus on de-weeding my garden before I add anymore herbs to the beds. I can't even see the beds because they're covered in a blanket of weeds!

So, stay tuned for an herb garden update. I will post an "after" picture when I have tended to my business. I kind of feel like I was acting like the slothful man in Proverbs 24 when his garden was "...all grown over with thorns, and nettles had covered the face thereof, and the stone wall thereof was broken down...Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep: so shall thy poverty come as one that travelleth; and thy want as an armed man." (Proverbs 24:31, 33-34) I had better get busy!

~Alli

They're Growing!

This year, our family has decided to save some money by growing our own veggies from seeds. This has been our first attempt to do so, and so far things are actually growing! Dad built us this cold frame from two old windows. We found these antique windows at our old farmhouse that has been in the family for many generations. It's amazing how the cold frame works just like a greenhouse!

Spinach is growing in the closest flat. Then we have assorted annual flowers in the middle and tiny tomato plants in the round pans. Our garden plot is ready and waiting for these new little plants to join the already planted salad mix, beets, and cabbage that we grew from seed as well. We didn't realize how simple it was to grow our own plants from the start! The other day, Mom and I saw a flat of flowers for 24$! It is such a great bargain to buy a pack of seeds for less than a dollar, and you end up with more for your money! Of course it takes a little more effort and patience to start from scratch. But on the other hand it is interesting to see the growing process of a plant , so intricately designed by our Creator! ~Alli