Radishes are one of those vegetables that everyone seems to plant. . . and yet when you ask if they actually LIKE radishes, well, many do not. I think they are planted simply for the satisfaction of watching something that grows so quickly and lushly. It makes any gardener feel accomplished (unless you get the… Keep Reading
Starting Seeds
Hello, my name is Jenn. . . and I’m addicted to seeds: Yup, that’s right. . . I have a problem! I just love buying seeds. Those gardening catalogs that start arriving around January are like crack to me. Half price seeds late in the gardening season? Yup, those too. And then to make it… Keep Reading
How to Save Seeds (from Kale, Turnip, Beans & more)
This year as the new gardening season kicks off I am using, for the first time, some seeds that I saved myself! Seed saving starts with your initial seed choice, so believe it or not early spring is a great time to talk about how to save your own seeds. In it’s essence seed saving… Keep Reading
How’s it Grow’in: Planting the Early Spring Garden, Checking Coldframes and Starting Seeds.
Yay! Yesterday I got out and got my hands in the dirt. It’s pretty early here still for planting–unless you are a gambler the main garden crops don’t go in the ground until Memorial Day in my area. However there are a lot of cool weather crops that are supposed to be planted “in early… Keep Reading
Using Cold Frames in a Northern Winter — Update
This year Yankee Bill built me some lovely cold frames. They are made out of reclaimed lumber from a building that was being torn down by his NY Guard unit and two glass doors. One of those doors-an old sliding glass door-we’ve had since before we moved in to the Frugal Upstate Village Homestead– because… Keep Reading
Overwintering Ferns year 3
Well we’ve reached the time of year where frosts and cold nights are more and more common–so it’s time to overwinter my ferns! That’s right–this will be the third year that I’ve brought my hanging ferns in for the winter and (hopefully) managed to make them survive through the winter. That means about $40 less… Keep Reading
Mulching Your Garden Part 2 — How to Mulch Your Garden
It’s time to talk mulching again! Last week I gave you my opinion in “Why Mulch Your Garden?”. . . this week I’m going to talk about HOW to mulch your garden. The first consideration when mulching your garden is what to use for the mulch. As I stated before I prefer organic mulches, so… Keep Reading
How’s It Growin? Mid May Garden Update!
It’s time yet again to check out the plantings on the Frugal Upstate Village Homestead! So I’ll ask you-How’s it Growin??? Things are starting to warm up sporadically around here (although there was a frost warning last night!). The daylight hours are indeed getting longer and I’m itching to be able to get my full… Keep Reading
Review: Seeds of Change Kids Watermelon Kit
I love gardening-you all probably know that by now! I love to grow my own healthy, tasty food just steps from my back door, and I love that my kids are able to see how food grows and to make the connections between the environment, what we do and what we eat. So you could… Keep Reading
I’ve Been Busy–Putting up the Harvest
One of the cool things about being a blogger is that everything is a blog post. Whatever you do, wherever you go, pretty much anything can be photographed and turned into a post. The problem is, sometimes the process of taking the pictures and writing about it takes more time than the actual doing–and sometimes… Keep Reading
