Gardening Archives |

Harvesting Carrots: From Dirt to Freezer

November 10, 2018 By Laura 1 Comment

It’s the most beautiful time of the Fall season here in New England, with tree foliage at the peak of their most vibrant colors, on show. Soon, the leaves will be falling all around us, and swirling around our feet, as we go from here to there. The gardening season for this year, is surely all but behind us. Looking back, we’ve had a wonderful and productive season, for which we are very thank for.

(August 2018 – when all was thriving.)

Now that we are well into this Fall season, where all that grows comes to the end of life, little by little the Fall clean up in our organic gardens has been done, and all looks barren and just about ready for a long winter’s nap.

One of the last fruits of our labors to reap, is the harvesting of our organic, non-GMO carrots!

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Harvesting Carrots

Everyone has their own ways of doing things when it comes to harvesting and processing the vegetation that comes from their gardens. You just tend to find a system that works best for you, with a little experience. In this post, we thought we would take you through how we get our carrots from the ground to the freezer, in the way that we find to be the fastest and easiest manner.

In the spirit of sharing, the variety of carrots we have been growing are Shin Kurodas. The bright orange roots of this type of carrots typically grow five to six inches long. But honestly, we have pulled up a wide range of sizes, depending on how close they are grown together, or how long we have left them in the ground, growing, since we often harvest as needed; ground to table. This type of carrot is stump-rooted in shape, and are tender and sweet flavored.

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As fun as carrots are to grow, they are even more fun to harvest! It’s rather exciting to them pull up out of the earth, one after the other, and see how big (or small) each one is going to be. Ripping the roots from the ground is also rather therapeutic and gratifying, if we do say so ourselves. (Fall clean up in general, is gratifying, in that light.)

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Here we have one of the biggest carrots we have grown to date. It was mammoth, compared to the others.

I’d say it was well over 9″. It had a healthy girth, as well. Me and O couldn’t even wrap our fingers around it towards the top.
(Although admittedly, us girls don’t have the biggest hands.)

O.k., let’s get to our process.
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From Dirt to Freezer:

Our Process of Harvesting Carrots

[Read more…]

The Fruits of the Accidental Jack-Be-Little Pumpkin Patch

October 13, 2018 By Laura Leave a Comment

If you’re a gardener, you know as well as we do that it can be full of surprises! For example, we’ve shared with you about the surprising amusement of the accidental, ever-growing Jack-Be-Little pumpkin patch in our gardens, on our social media accounts on Facebook and Instagram, and gave you a peek of it at the time. So we thought maybe you’d be interested in reading the short tale, and know what fruits that came of that accidental Jack-Be-Little pumpkin patch, in the end!

And by the way, if you’d like to follow us on our other social media, as we invite you to, you’ll see our social media buttons in the right-hand sidebar of our blog here. See them? Old colorful wood boards?
Click on them to get to us on Facebook or Instagram, to ‘Like and/or ‘Follow’ us. And don’t worry, they’ll open in a separate window, so you won’t need to find your way back here. Because we gotchu.

The Pumpkin Patch Madness……

The photo above is the ever-growing patch in progress in our gardens, and frankly, as shown here, it wasn’t nearly done taking over….well, almost everything!
You could say it got out of control. But then, that’s what pumpkin patches of any kind do. They need ample rambling room. And if you don’t give it to them, they’ll just go head and take it!

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What in the Heck?!….

We first saw it started in one of our raised beds. To be honest, we actually weren’t even sure exactly what it was, when it first started growing. We thought maybe cucumbers. Then we realized, no, no, it seems to be a squash.

Next thing we knew, [Read more…]

Front Yard to Garden Sanctuary Transformation| Big Progressions and Little Confessions

July 4, 2017 By Laura 2 Comments

We have our great big garden-sanctuary-accomplishment to share with you today. Big progressions, and also some little confessions! But in order to appreciate it in all of it’s glory, you have to learn a bit about what we started from. If you’ve been following us for years, this post will refresh your memory. And if you are new here, you’ll be able to appreciate it just as much.
We all love a good ‘Before and After’, don’t we?
So we encourage you to read along!

A Look Back at a Bunch of Nothin’.

For as many years as we have been blogging, we have talked about this project. Plans to transform our hideous (oh, we have proof!) front yard of simple garden beds, into a beautiful garden sanctuary. And in these conversations with you and talking about our little garden dreams over the years, these changes were always imminent! Definitely about to happen.
Except that it really never did get very far.

First, we confess, that although every time we were all hyped up and ready to get going, every time too, for one reason or another, our grand plans always got sidelined. The seasons to get it done would end before we really accomplished much, and so we never really made any progress! Whether it was lack of time, lack of money, or how things are just easier done in your head than in reality – well, most times it was probably all of those things! Weekends are short, and our family is busy. All of that. Every time, we only got as far as maybe building some garden beds, which we have just done for the 3rd time at this point, since we originally told you of any real front yard transformation gardening dreams. And some planting for the season.

But the aesthetics and bigger vision for our garden area, in our front yard mind you, never really came in to play, as we just kept talking about it. It was pathetic.

You can see where we generally started with our little blah-lot in here in 2009, and how we expanded what little space we had, by sacrificing some driveway.
And how we were still just getting another garden bed up or whatever here in 2010.

And since then, there has only been many seasons, where we have just shared lots of photos with you, of all of the beautiful and bountiful vegetables and flowers that we have grown in what garden beds we had. You can find countless blog posts on them in the garden archives here at the blog.

But the little garden sanctuary dreams just weren’t coming together. The space as a whole, where these garden beds resided, has been just so UGH.

ANOTHER CONFESSION. . . .

Yes, I have enjoyed working in these garden beds over the years, anyway. But I have loathed feeling like I am doing so, in such an on-display manner, in our front yard! I often wonder if I might be mistaken for one of those yard ornaments, of the bent-over woman’s bum, weeding her garden. You know the one? Ugh. Granted, we live on a short dead-end road, so the traffic is next to none. But there are also neighbors frequently walking by on their way to the beach and such, and to be honest….when I am out working in my gardens, I just want the peace and solitude to do my thing! By myself. Alone. (Or with my family) I don’t want to say hello to people, and make small talk as they walk by. Call me a witch. Of course I do say hello and chat anyway, if it so happens, because it’s only polite. But I don’t want to, in the least bit. Especially when I am hot and sweaty, with dirt sticking to me . . . . just . . . . no. Please, leave me be while I play in the dirt. Thanks.

During this season in the photo above (circa 2010?), though it is hard to see here, we actually had 4 garden beds at that point, and then the ground-level pumpkin patch which is closest to you in the photo.
In the gardening seasons 2013-2015, the kids kept a super cute square garden as well.

It was during that period we tore down the wooden beds and put up cinder blocks gardens, which I came to be a big non-fan of.
I was almost immediately like . . . . disassemble and build wooden beds again, please. (That didn’t get undone for 2 years I think. My knees and shins hated it, and I also especially hated the concrete jungle in our already-ugly front yard.)
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– BEFORE –
Proof of Hideous . . . . .

But aside from the garden beds we built, growing beautiful, delicious and healthy produce and blooms over these many gardening years, the space itself has remained fairly ugly!!
Without the garden beds in season, it’s been actually hard to look at.
For me, anyway. In part probably, because all I see is the garden dreams in my head, missing. And a whole palette of blah-colors, that blend together like yuck. I felt bad for the neighbors passing by daily. Whether I’m out there bending over, or not.
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(It’s coming, hold on . . . .)

Then last year, we took our first gardening season completely off, to, you know, really get something accomplished in our ultimate goals for the front yard. Or that was the plan, anyway. :/ I was SO MISERABLE, not having my gardens to work in, Y’all. It was rough.
But again, even still, we didn’t get much done, again! We did take down all of the cinder block gardens, and got building new beds. But we only got 4/8 done that we wanted, not to mention all else we were definitely going to get done. (Yeah, right.)

Busy family, flying time, the whole 9 yards . . . .

BUT THIS YEAR . . . .

. . . . come the first sign of spring, we hit it hard! Time was not going to get away again. Really, really, really.
We would make time, we had the money, and after some good collaborating brain storming, as usual, Michael had some loose garden-layout plans down on paper.

We have finally….really….seriously…..put a BIG dent, in the transformation of our front yard, into more of the garden sanctuary we have been envisioning for all of these years.

And we’re so excited to show you today!

*Just know first though….

>>>>> That it’s all not done yet! Consider this Phase 1! We’re just excited to show you what we’ve done already.
It’ll continue to be a work in progress, and grow in beauty, as there are still many exciting plans still left undone.

>>>>>> What is planted in the garden at the time of these photos, were still little seedlings, and the rest hadn’t been planted yet! So while it’s not the lush beautiful full gardens they will be this early in the season, it’s the structure and set-up of the new garden space layout we really want you to show you all at this point.

That said, we think it definitely qualifies as a transformation at this point. It looks completely different now.

Will you agree? We are about to see!!

Take a look for yourself!
– AFTER –

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Tropical Hibiscus and Blueberry Bush Blessings

July 20, 2016 By Laura 1 Comment

No one could have known how sad I have been this season, without my gardens to work in, and watch grow.
But I have been. Until I was blessed by surprise, with a Tropical Hibiscus and Blueberry Bush.

We had decided to completely overhaul our garden area this year, in an effort and plan to re-plot and grow a lot more of our own food. Although I’ll be the first to admit, there’s been many plans made over the years, that never materialized. And considering we’re deep in July here now, with little accomplished still, I’m losing hope on this one, too.

But I’ve happened to get a lot of joy and satisfaction out of working in the soil and growing things in my gardens over the past years. Growing anything, beautiful or nutritional. This year, however, there has been nothing out there, but dirt. Then, some gardening-related joy came my way. On two separate occasions, I was given these two very unexpected gifts:

A Tropical Hibiscus and a Blueberry Bush.

And oh, how they helped soothe my little gardenless-woes! I have been loving having them to tend to, and seeing them grow. But what makes them mean the most to me, is where they came from. Let me tell you a bit about that.

The Tropical Hibiscus

This is probably the kind of beautiful plant that I would always want to buy, but never buy for myself. And therefore, I would have probably never had something so bold and lovely. But now I do.

And how is that? Because . . . . a very special and thoughtful young man in my oldest daughter’s life, surprised me with it. I think he got quite a surprise, himself, by [Read more…]

The Kids’ Gardens

August 12, 2015 By Laura 5 Comments

After intending to for far too long, I am finally sharing with you our kids’ little gardens, today!

All 4 of our kids help in our family gardens at some point or other through the gardening seasons; although some do with more joy and ambition than others. There is always some weeding, dead-heading flowers, or picking vegetables, that needs tending to. I do much of it myself, but sometimes I could use another pair of hands, and the company is nice sometimes, too.

But just prior to the gardening season in 2013, I pitched the idea to the kids, of having their very own little garden.
I explained that they could plant and grow whatever they wanted, but they were also responsible for keeping it up. That meant keeping it weeded, watered, dead-heading their own flowers, and generally tending to it with love. Not only that, but after their father built the frame base, they had to be a team and prepare the bed themselves. They all loved the idea, and each have had their own little garden ever since!

It may have been more work than they anticipated, that first year! Because although we have had loam brought in by the truck full for our other garden beds, we had a perfectly good dirt pile next to the driveway that we didn’t really want there. It had been overgrown with weeds and grass, though. Basically, it was less of a dirt pile any longer, and more like a grassy hill, riddled with rocks! So they did work hard, like a team. The boys dug the hill up, pulling and shaking out the grass and weed clumps, and putting shovel fulls earth onto the handmade screen on the wheel barrow. The girls sifted the dirt through, to remove all of the rocks, and then wheeled the barrow over to the garden bed, and dumped the dirt in.

That was the less than fun part. But they made the most of it, and it was good and done for many years to come.
Now let’s look at their gardens, today…. [Read more…]