Rip up your garden, or go to jail.

This is just crazy. Being thrifty and green is not a crime. I would be willing to bet if there was someone down the street who never bothered to weed the garden but they have gnarled azaleas growing instead of that offensive summer squash they wouldn't be in trouble with he city. If there was a foreclosure where the lawn never gets mowed because, let's be honest if there is a for sale sign in the yard and the grass is a foot tall chances are it's a foreclosure, the bank isn't being threatened with jail time. Lazy gardeners and foreclosures are everywhere in this country- they're certainly all over the place where we live. But someone who wants to feed their family fresh local veggies, gasp! How dare they damage the neighborhood aesthetic!

So how do we change the world? How do we get each other to realize that looks aren't everything? Living well is more important than what's on the surface, right?!

"Michelle Obama put an 1,100 sq foot garden on the south lawn of the White House. If it's good enough for the leader of the free world..." best comment on the original article.

The City Homesteader, reviewed in the 'burbs

It's like this book was written for me!

Scott (the author) starts you out slow. If you're thinking to yourself "But it's the 21st century, I have a smart phone, I've sold out already." this book is still for you!

Who this book would appeal to:

• Gardeners looking for a challenge.


• Home cooks, who love fresh local ingredients.


• Moms who home school or who love to teach their kids about things around the house.


• Environmentally aware people who want organic food but don't want to pay out the nose at the grocery store.

My personal favorites:

• "High Yield Crops" section talks about what to plant, when and where. I thought I was pretty savvy, but reading this section made me realize there are a few things I could easily change to have much greater success without any additional effort. (I even told my husband that I wished I had this book before we started planting this past spring!)


• The whole Save It For Later chapter is really fantastic. If you've ever had a CSA and been frustrated that the food goes bad before you can eat it all or you've bought 10 lbs of peaches on impulse at Costco you can use the information in this chapter. I personally can't wait to try making fruit leather (fruit roll-up)!


• The section about Pests Control is also a great one. But it only helps with the tiny 6-8 legged kind. It does nothing for the 2 legged "Mommy I need another snack" kind. But I hear there are people who can handle that...

The only thing this book doesn't do is break down the growing zones. Which I personally would love, because I think we're right on the line of 6a and 7b, or something like that. This book is not preachy about why you should grow, it doesn't tell you what to grow and what not to grow and what else you should make by hand. It just gives you information. Want to know about growing herbs? Fruits and veggies? Keeping chickens? Making soap? Using a clothes line? It's got that! But it's not one of those "I'm greener than you and you should feel like a crappy human being for killing the planet one plastic baggie at a time."

Speaking of- I have to make a run to Target tomorrow, on the way to my first follow up blood draw. Tomorrow is the last day of my Lyme Disease fighting medication!!! Which means I will be eating Brie and drinking wine while sitting in the sun for dinner on Friday. Maybe I'll even treat myself to an ice cream cake to celebrate!! Woo Hoo!!

My opinions of The City Homesteader are my own. I was given the book to review but my enthusiasm is entirely mine. I cannot be bought. I cost way way way too much, just ask my husband.

The Best Place on Earth

100% Organic blueberries ripe for the pickin', a yoga studio with views of the blueberry fields, a massage and acupuncture... all in one place?! It kinda brings tears to my eyes.

All these blueberries for $25! The place is honor system based, so I don't know how many pounds of blueberries I got but I do know I had 14 cups of blueberries. I washed them all in a huge strainer. I tossed 5 cups into a freezer bag to be used for snacks for the tiny humans or 'ice cubes' in champagne or ice cream toppings or a smoothie add-in.

But the bulk of the berries went to Jam. I cannot wait to spread this stuff on my morning croissant. Speaking of, if you know a great croissant-from-scratch recipe or a biscuit-from-scratch recipe- link it up!

Have you been to a Pick Your Own yet this year? What goods have you scored?

NKOTB

The new kids on this block:
1 green bell pepper plant
1 red bell pepper plant
3 strawberry plants

(all planted in the second quadrant in from the left)

The green spring onions (far left) are looking great. They definitely enjoy their water. The lettuce still looks great too, and also enjoys lots of H2O.

The tomato loves being in a pot on the deck. I'm not sure how the herbs feel about the window box... they're alright... but cilantro usually is a trouble maker and this season is no different.

I believe Sylvia Plath and I have an understanding

About the high jinx and the sarcasm, not the electroshock therapy. Today we went to pick strawberries at a local Pick Your Own (click to find one near you!). Since my townhouse is on a plot of land slightly larger than my bathtub any real farming is impossible. So when we want to get the goods we go to the farm and pick them ourselves. I was told by a few friends that the crop of strawberries was not-so-hot this year, but I figured "What the hey!"

I'm glad I went! Jack made a friend right away and his mom and I seemed to agree that as long as they weren't hurting anyone or bothering anyone we'd let them entertain themselves.

With one less kiddo to watch I was able to pick LOTS of strawberries. (Maybe I got a lucky row or something.) There were a few little old ladies (with their husbands in tow) muttering about slim pickin's, but that didn't seem to be true for me.

So with Henry on my back I squatted and stood and squatted and stood and squatted and stood.

Workout for the day- CHECK!

6.67 lbs of strawberries later we were ready to go!

I dusted off my Ball (bell) jars read some very complicated Jam-making instructions. Which must be followed exactly or the house could blow up like a meth lab. (Remember that episode of Grey's Anatomy...)

But here's the thing with making Jam- there is probably instructions inside the pectin (which you should buy from a store if it's your first time, don't be a hero and harvest it from apples yourself). The instructions in your brand of pectin are going to be the most exact because every brand of pectin is slightly different.

I used my potato masher to smoosh the berries before cooking. Sterilize the jars & lids while making the first (of three) batch of jam.

Funnel into jars.

Put on both lids, and place using special tongs (on right) in boiling water. This pot is youge!

One of the ladies I was chatting with was talking about making strawberry ice cream with some of her take. She just mushes and freezes some and then adds it to the ice-cream maker when she's ready. With 6 jars of jam I decided to save the remaining berries for some ice cream of my own. Yum!

Veggies- Oh My!

So while we were enjoying our fabulous family beach getaway our garden was growing. Like, a lot. Radish flowers. I never knew what they looked like... now I do. Cute. I hope the radishes still taste okay. Because if you let basil flower before you eat it it's not-so-good.

All the radishes.

See. Radishes? Gone!

Lettuce- Overflowin'!

Onions- On their way!

Weeds- A problem.

But because you should not mulch a veggie garden we weed when we can. Just don't let the weeds choke out the good stuff!

Lettuce. Seriously, I harvested 2 lbs!! And there is so much left. I just cut the leaves near the base yesterday morning and there is already new growth today. We're going to have many a summer salad.

Washed and ready to be stored. Picking the lettuce right into the strainer I then used to wash the lettuce certainly streamlined the process.

Now I'm trying to choose the summer crop (to replace the radishes).

The choices seem to be:

Summer Squash- which are easy, great for the space but not my fave thing to eat.

Sweet Corn- not ideal for the space, but might be fun, and so yummy!

Peppers (Bell or otherwise)- not a success 2 years ago, but I've learned a lot and think I could manage not to kill them this time.

Share your thoughts either by voting in the poll on the right or by leaving a comment! It's like Choose your own Adventure... garden.

Also, my hydrangea is looking a little sad, any suggestions? Other than more water could I give it some coffee or something? It needs to perk up!

Water

The thing with water is, when you have it it's easy to take it for granted. You could leave your tap running every time you brush your teeth and hardly notice a difference on your water bill. (If you have well water -I'm very jealous of you- and you would notice a difference on your power bill.)

You turn on your tap and have access to safe filtered water any time for any purpose. But you don't need to water the garden with drinking water. You don't need your kids to swim in drinking water. You don't need to wash your car with drinking water. But there's rarely an alternative to using water from the tap. Fortunately, now we have a choice. While it's impractical to wash my car from my rain barrel I can water the veggies and fill the kiddie pool with rain water. We put it right next to the garden to make it even easier to get the water where it needs to go.

The tomato plant likes it.The garden likes it.

The radishes like to be rinsed in it.

I love that this change is more eco friendly. I love that we're saving money (even if it's just a little bit). But I really love that this makes caring for the veggie garden even easier. No more lugging the hose out there and then needing to wind it neatly back up when I'm done. This is one of those "Why didn't we do this before?!" type of projects. It's genius!

Harvest!

We are now officially enjoying fresh veggies from our garden! I've had a few radishes here and there but now the lettuce is bountiful enough to enjoy as well. So here's the thing with lettuce- even if you get it from a store, if you want it to keep longer store it in water in a plastic or glass case. This means you've already washed the whole stash so all you have to do is grab a handful and shake it off. I HATE when lettuce goes bad before I can eat it all and I love this sollution!

If you grow your own lettuce and you want to keep the plant alive you can pluck individual lettuce leaves and the plant will just continue to grow more and more leaves for your culinary enjoyment!

I like to look back at early pictures to see how the garden is changing.

Onions- not ready yet. Radishes- ready a few at a time. Lettuce I- delicious. Lettuce II-and nutritious!

I made that!

Hanging clothes and diapers on the line to dry is great. Trying to juggle clothes pins and wet clothes is not. Move over June Cleaver! Problem solved.

Perfect!

Cold at night while watching TV?

No problem!

Okay, I didn't exactly make this but I grew it and it was delicious!!

Hold the phone!

Henry is excited to report we have our first signs of radishes! It's so much fun to grow things, watching plants evolve from nothing. It's also really exciting to see Jack understand exactly where vegetables come from.

Pick Your Own season is fast approaching, our local farm now has a tentative date set of May 27th and the first day of the season. I already have the pectin ready for strawberry jam.

Cannot. Wait.

How does my garden grow?

Awesomely! Thanks for asking! Hanging off the railing of the deck we have a window box with cilantro, basil and rosemary. (Just planted yesterday.)

The veggies are looking good! From where they were before to how they look now! I've had to thin the radishes and both lettuce varieties. (And it looks like I'll have to thin the lettuce again soon!)

This will be awesome with Tiki Lights

I don't live in the country. There aren't acres of trees or amber waves of grain surrounding my charming 1900's farmhouse (covetous). But that won't stop me! Power tools- Check! Able-bodied, feminist, power tool wielding wife- Check! 3 flag holders (brass color) & 3 eyes (silver color)- Check! Napping baby- Check!Assembly under way.

With dowel rod in place. The top of each dowel has another smaller eye drilled into the top so I can string up the clothes line... or party lights!Ready to rock and roll! Freshly washed diapers reporting for drying!They look so happy in a row. Our little slice of suburbia- simplified.

In related news- I was walking by the veggie garden to take this picture and the onions are starting to come up! Squee!

ZOMGarden!

Nearly everyone I know in real life and everyone I know through the interwebs is excited that it's springtime. Plants store up so much energy over the winter. They're patient, unless they are my daffodils which came up in November, but I digress. They let energy build in their roots and seeds and bulbs until one day they decide it's time to start releasing the energy- it's time to grow.

We do it too. We stay in and keep warm and bide our time until the weather beckons us to spring forth from our houses. "Come out and play!" It calls to us. So we get out our spade... or a hoe... and we show love to the Earth for warming up and inviting us out. We put plants in the Earth and we watch them and water them and love them while they grow.

Or maybe it's just me. I am a crazy hippie after all.

Spring is fun because the kids get out and we get to play and we feel the warm sun on our faces, but there's something more than that for me. It seems to go deeper. Every day or two when I go to check on the veggies and they're growing bigger every day I do a little happy dance and get a little gitty (literally).

The spring onions (far left) haven't popped up yet but they have a longer germination and they're more bulb-like I'm not too worried.

So tell me, what are you growing? In a pot or in a field, it's time! Happy growing!

How does my garden grow?

When we planted veggies in our garden we broke the rules and planted outside before Mother's Day. I mean, really, what do farmers do?! So I was thrilled to see signs of life out there!!

Yep, I'm crazy.

Crazy in love with my sewing machine. Ha ha ha! Now, I didn't make these, but I ordered them online. I'm so psyched to use them- less waste and better for my skin! Wohoo!