2012 Canning Totals

2012 was our most successful garden year to date. We planted 28 tomato plants and ended up canning 21 pints of tomato sauce from them. The last batch I canned today, yes, in December, thanks to freezing the tomatoes whole in gallon sized bags in our deep freezer. I will definitely do this method again next year. It wasn't the best year for tomatoes, so I was glad I planted so many of them. We grew many different varieties as an experiment, and some didn't do very well. Next summer we will know what does well in our area and can hopefully grow more!

Back in June, I was able to buy 6 or so pints of blueberries for just 99 cents each. I made blueberry jam for the first time from them, and ended up with 10 or so half pints of blueberry jam. It is so yummy, and nice to get a taste of summer in the middle of winter! We love it with toast or peanut butter on bread.

I had planned on canning more applesauce, apple butter and some more jelly, but the apple sales never materialized and I figured we had enough jelly as it was. The lowest the apples ever went was $0.99 lb, a far cry from the 49 cents the previous year. It was a bad year for apples though, and Michigan lost most of their crop. It was a bad year for farmers too - the corn here withered into nothing in many areas from the long, hard drought. I did end up stocking up on canning jars anyway, and that will help me with next years canning. I'm hoping to acquire a pressure-canner and can other vegetables such as green beans and maybe peas.

Early Spring

Today is a special day, it comes just every 4 years on Leap Year. I was getting kinda down that February, my least favorite month of the year, was going to be prolonged another day. But it hasn't been bad at all, it's been a wonderful day of welcoming spring!

It was 67 degrees, and let me tell you, after a long winter of being inside, that 67 degrees feels like heaven! We went on a mid-day walk and spent the afternoon exploring the new plants and flowers poking through in our garden and enjoying the fresh air.

It was also the first time Snowflake was able to be outside without being covered up. She was able to feel the breeze and taste the air!

I know we can still can get snow for another month, but I think the worst of winter is truly behind us now. Fresh open windows, flowers and sun are so close I can taste it!

Vegetable Garden Update

For those interested in reading about how our vegetable garden fared over the summer, you can read the post I wrote on my natural and organic living blog:

Vegetable Garden Update and Report

All in all, I consider this past season a success, and I can't wait for the possibilities of next year!

First Summer Harvest

Today we worked on weeding our flower beds and tearing up the spent vegetable plants in the veggie garden. After some further research, we decided it would be ok to harvest what we could from it, as long as the veggie is thoroughly washed and cooked (our cat has used it as her litterbox). After harvesting a small roma tomato as well as a large yellow squash, we decided to go ahead and stake the poor tomatoes who were struggling to hold themselves up!

First harvest of August:

Successfully staked tomato plants: (note: we used existing pieces of wood laying around in the garage, so the cost of staking 8 plants was completely FREE)

Lovely La Roma tomatoes:

Nicely growing Better Boys:

Staked tomato patch from front:

Bell pepper who was previously suffocating under all the unstaked tomato vines:

Now, least you think our garden is all up and running, please take a moment and view the other side. A weedy mess indeed. The far right bed we actually completely ripped out, where the 2 squash plants previously resided. It was just not going well (lots of cat poo), and we need to restore that soil anyway. The middle bed is a project for another day, but you can see one lonely tomato plant staked in the middle. I'm not entirely sure that one will survive amongst all the grasses attempting to take over, but we'll see.

And here is our brush/compost pile after all the weeding today. You can see the remains of several ill-fated broccoli and lettuce plants:

I'm still here! Summer Garden Update

I know I have been major MIA lately on this blog! I've just had to step back and take a break due to intense morning sickness that is just now starting to go away. I am 17 weeks along, and finally starting to get some of my appetite back as well as my energy. Taking care of an active toddler definitely makes being pregnant more of a challenge, so I have not had the chance to blog like I used to. However, I hope to resume a somewhat more consistent blogging schedule now that I am feeling better!

Our garden is doing great so far! We have been able to harvest lots of broccoli, and endless amount of lettuce (which really was a mistake because we could not eat it all!), several heads of cauliflower and cabbage as well as a few onions. I sorta let the garden go while I was feeling sick, and so I am embarrassed to admit quite a bit of our broccoli went bad before we could get to it! I also planted tons of tomato and peppers plants and they were doing pretty good despite me remembering to water them during dry spells.

Unfortunately, during this time we also took in another cat, Pickles. My mom, who is moving, asked us to take her in and we agreed as this is my childhood pet were we talking about. However, much to our dismay, we recently discovered Pickles has been using the vegetable garden as her litter-box!! I was so upset when I discovered this. Because of the risk of toxoplasmosis during pregnancy and to babies, we decided to stop harvesting and call it a year for this gardening season.

I am so sad, since I especially was looking forward to canning endless amounts of tomatoes and freezing all those peppers! I cannot even tend to the garden anymore, which makes me really disappointed. Thankfully, after some research, we discovered a way to restore the soil once fall comes. Next year we will have to build a fence of some sort to keep Pickles (and other neighborhood cats) out, but should be able to resume gardening then. It's definitely been a year of learning what not to do as far as vegetable gardening, so that will at least give us a leg up on the next season!

I really need to take some pictures of the state of our garden now that we have let things go. Our lettuce plants are going on 5 feet tall! The broccoli plants have flowered completely and are also very tall. Oh and the squash is spreading beautifully. At least it still looks pretty, lol.

This post is linked to the Frugal Gardening 101 Series hosted by Smockity Frocks.

Garden Progress and Harvesting Time!

It's been a while since I've updated this blog, but rest assured everyone, I am still here! About 8 weeks ago, we found out another Campbell Baby will making his or her entrance in December!! Since I suffer from rather terrible morning sickness, some things have sorta gotten thrown to the wayside. However, I am feeling a little better now that I am about to enter the 2nd trimester.

My garden pretty much got neglected the entire month of May. Terrible, I know! But we had one of the wettest springs in decades, meaning I really didn't have to water anything and some growth was stunted for a while. However, now that we've dried out, the weeds have been growing like, well, weeds! In fact, I was too embarrassed at the state of my garden to even take a picture- the vegetables were completely overtaken by those nasty intruders! A good 2 hours of weeding was required to get it back in shape, but now you can see how things are really doing.

My onions are starting to pop out! I expect in another month we will have plenty of onions for our cooking needs!

I think I was a little over-zealous with the lettuce plantings. I think we could feed the whole neighborhood with this harvest!

I really did not know what to expect from our cauliflower plants, but they turned out great! Here's a picture right before harvesting:

Beautiful cabbage heads ready for picking...

Our garden, 2 months along! (The empty space in the front bed next to the cabbage is where our radishes were. We harvested them about 3 weeks ago - they were perfect! My mom was a grateful recipient since we don't really care for radishes.)

Today I bought tomato, pepper and squash plants. I also plan on getting some zucchini, peas and beans. I can't wait for our summer harvest!!

How does your garden grow?

We've planted our first garden here at the Campbell Castle, and as the lingering spring days continue to bring more sunshine, it's been such a blessing watching it grow!

Homemade rabbit sign: Rows of radishes:

A radish seedling!

Romaine lettuce and broccoli:

Our entire 10 by 15 plot (constructed entirely of salvaged materials!): We're so excited about growing some of our own food this year, allowing us to have extra fresh organic produce on hand while saving money at the same time!

*This post is part of Frugal Gardening 101, hosted by Getting Freedom From Debt.

Back to Basics: A Lesson in Frugality

Last month we moved into our first house- an out of state move that required lots of planning and praying. God has provided for us in tremendous ways since we've been here, but one thing that has been difficult to adjust to is the temporary dip in monthly income. Daddy C was able to land a work-from-home position with his company, but the start date isn't until later this month. So we've been tiptoeing around practically everything, trying to save money and get back to the basics when it comes to practicing frugality.

It's hard to remind yourself to be cautious and do without when you're used to not worrying too much about extra unplanned purchases or little impulse buys. Going out to eat is a luxury, not a right. Cooking meals from home is the standard, as is baking your own treats.

With the rapidly rising gas prices, it's also been hard to remember to stay home as much as possible in order to stay within the gas budget. We've been walking to the park instead of driving and combining errands as much as possible. Sometimes, it takes all day when we combine 5 different things at once, but the savings make it very worth it.

We've also been using the cloth diapers during the day to help conserve the disposables we do have. It's not much effort to use them instead, but when you get used to the disposables, it does require an attitude shift!

As we started our vegetable garden, we tried to reuse as many materials as we could. The wood for the edging were all scrap pieces leftover from the previous homeowner home improvement projects. The walkways were made from spare bricks leftover from the front garden beds, and the the mulch was leftover from last season. So far, we've only had to buy extra topsoil and composted manure as well as a few transplants. To date, the total cost for our vegetable garden hasn't even topped $100, a truly frugal garden indeed!

What kind of things do you do differently when money is tight? Have any favorite frugal tips?

Apartment Vegetable Gardening

I'm a plant lover. I spend part of my days writing about gardening, yet I've never had the opportunity to plant my own. This is due to the lack of outdoor space in the Campbell household. But now that we have a fabulous little balcony that receives a fair amount of sun, I am determined to create one!

To start off with, I planted a tomato plant, zucchini plant, cilantro and some inpatients. I think they look lovely, and I can't wait until they start to bear fruit.

I choose to plant more vegetables than flowers, because Mommy C is frugal and thrifty at heart. I'm hoping these veggies will provide fresh produce for Daddy C and Baby C. We like to buy organic, and that can get expensive. By growing our own, I'll save us some cash (that is, unless something dreadful happens to them)!

The cost of the veggies were just slightly more than what I would pay at the store for them: $5 for the tomato plant, $3 for cilantro and $2 for zucchini. I also had to buy the pots, but hopefully that's a one-time purchase (provided the Campbell cats do not break them :-/)