After 5 years of being a stay-at-home mom, I found the wonder of mothering slowly starting to get crowded out by the mundane feeling. I realized our world seems to surround people with the negative, and complaining about blessings seems totally acceptable. So I decided to fight against that "normalcy" and focus only on the positive. I look back to my first year as a mom when everything was new and keeping house was fun and I aim to have that attitude again. This blog is my outlet to showcase the daily miracles that surround me in my blessed life as a stay-at-home mom so that I will never forget the wonder of it all.



Wednesday, April 4, 2012

Around the Urban Homestead

I LOVED doing these posts last Spring - Fall, and I'm excited to start them again now that the mass Spring planting has begun on our tiny little urban homestead.  So, here's what we have going on right now.

I planted these greens back in November I think.  Yes, right before Thanksgiving.  I know nothing of late Fall and Winter planting, but would like to learn more since our climate is mild enough to definitely grow things through those seasons.  Basically, being sick of my empty beds, and mourning my put to rest Summer garden, I threw out these seeds to see what would happen.  And we are now reaping the rewards of that.  They grew slowly, but are now ready to eat and we enjoyed our first harvest last weekend on turkey burgers.

This wine barrel was planted around Thanksgiving too and I casually threw handfuls of different things in there, figuring I had nothing to lose. So there's more greens in here, which we've been eating, as well as carrots and some sweet peas towards the back, just because I LOVE sweat peas.

On one side of the A frame I planted a line of peas.  I think I planted these a month ago as I just couldn't wait a second longer to get my Spring garden going.  They started off slow but are now growing fast and doing great.

Down the center of the A frame, I plant a row of greens each week.  I rotate between a mix, and arugula.  I'm hoping the peas and beans (which are planted on the other side of the A frame) will grow up the frame and then shade this small lettuce patch underneath.

Here you can see the other side of the A frame where the blue lake green beans are growing.

Um, did I mention I love sweet peas?  I got a little carried away in November and now most of this bed is over run with sweat peas.  But that's ok.  I can't wait to have tiny vases all over the house full of sweat peas and their wonderfully powerful smell in every room.

I haven't taken pictures of the new raised beds because, though they are fully planted, nothing is sprouting yet.  I'm very excited to go home and see what is awaiting me this weekend.  That's the nice thing about being gone all week...I take a tour of my garden each weekend right when I get home and SOOO much changes in just that short time.  Its very exciting. 

What's coming up in your garden?

7 comments:

  1. oh so exciting! I so wish I could start planting! I've got to wait a bit more to make sure we are frost free here in Maine. Your garden looks great so far!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you! I'll be excited to see your garden once it wakes up!

      Delete
  2. we just came home from a week away to find many new sprouts from seeds we had planted. It's so exciting, isn't it?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes! Can't wait to see what you've planted. I came home today to find my peas about 3 inches higher (been gone since sunday). I wish the green beans were going as crazy as the peas. We LOVE green beans around here. Lots more greens came up too. Sadly, the "big bed" still hasn't sprouted. We got ripped off with the dirt we bought. Its terrible. Hoping to get some money back. After the first rain it sprouted weeds like mad!!!! I have to weed around my baby seedlings just so they won't get strangled out!

      Delete
  3. Oh, I love sweet peas too! My mom gave me a little bricked off bed beside our breezeway when I was very little and I grew sweet peas. They eventually took over everything and I do believe they are still there.

    Happy Easter!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Everything in our garden right now was planted in November. Our lettuce has been producing since February. It's a lot of arugula and other loose leaf types. The sugar snap peas and snow peas just started producing last week or so but they burn up by early summer because of our high heat. The carrots, celery, green onions, garlic and cauliflower are growing growing growing! I love getting dinner from the garden!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. So you planted all of that in November? Do you get a lot of frost? Do those plants not mind the frost? I REALLY want to become a better winter gardener so I need to learn the trade. I plan to keep planting lettuce all year and just see what happens. I expect it to tapper off once our high heat comes, but I have lettuce seed coming out of my ears so I'm just going to give in to the experiment and see. I plant one row a week. I have a shadey bed so once the high heat comes, I'll start planting it there and just see what it does. I harvested a HUGE bowl of lettuce for our family Easter lunch. So yummy. Most was the stuff I planted in Nov, but I plucked some baby greens too, which I'd planted in Feb. SO tender!

      Delete