Sunday, December 18, 2011

'Tis the season for seed catalogs

As I slowly get my seed catalogs in the mail I can't help but get excited for this coming year! I have decided to be more relaxed, per se, in 2012. I will explain. 

This past year I tried out square foot gardening. Although I didn't have the 4x4 foot beds as suggested I made it "work" for me. Not only was this year a total bust for some of the crops I found them to be quite difficult to keep weeded because I had all this extra space so I planted a ton of extra stuff to "try out". Now of course I was also pregnant this entire past summer and canning season SO I don't know if I really over did myself or not. I also am not quite sure if I just didn't like some of the stuff I planted because I was pregnant or if it really was that funny tasting.

So I have decided to plant my 2012 garden with totally new seed. I am sticking with as many open pollinated heirloom varieties as I can. I found out I get the best harvests from open pollinated heirlooms. Well at any rate I'm only planted 3 different varieties of squash. a C. pepo, C. moschata and C. maxima. That way I will help to minimize cross pollination. I'm only planting bush beans as I found out this year that pole beans didn't grow well in my garden compared to the bush beans (I also HATED the taste of the pole beans). So I'm only planting one variety. I haven't picked it out yet but I intend on canning and freezing them mostly so I will be planting quite a few of those. Thankfully those are easy to take care of for me. 

I'm still not sold on growing sweet corn this year as I always wanted to try popcorn but I started thinking about it and I really don't eat much popcorn so I may just forget about popcorn this year. I'm only planting enough peas for fresh eating  because it was too much work for me to process them to freeze with the kids underfoot so I will just enjoy garden peas fresh this year! I can buy them organic cheap enough where it really doesn't pay to do it myself. 

I am trying out a different type of carrot, not planting potatoes this year (they did absolutely awful in this soil and I don't have enough compost to fix it). I can buy organic potatoes from a farm for just about the same price I could buy conventional potatoes. 

I'm still deciding on the other garden type items and I also found myself  getting overly enthusiastic but I just look at my little baby in my lap as I browse these catalogs and then I remember to calm down and keep my garden simple and useful this year. Not  fancy or too exotic. That can wait until my kids are older and can help and also pick out their own varieties of things to plant! 

Simple is not less but more! More produce, More time with the kids, More enjoyable summer and less weeds :) haha


Thoroughly enjoying my yearly shipment of seed catalogs,
~KT~

Friday, December 16, 2011

Days Go By

Well it has been almost a month since my last posting. So much has been going on it's hard to get online to write anymore! A month after baby was born I ended up having surgery to remove my gallbladder and now I am on the mend from that. It's supposed to be an easy outpatient type surgery but I had to stay an extra night in the hospital and also have an extra procedure done to remove some stones stuck in the duct as they didn't want to do open surgery on me since I have little ones at home plus the baby. 

I have been so blessed with my Mother in law's help the past few weeks while my husband is at work. Without her help the house would be a total disaster and I would be in a world of hurt and not be able to have healed up as much as I have up to this point. I'm still on the 10 pound lifting restriction and no hot tubs for a few more weeks. Oh well, such is life sometimes.

On the flip side of this, the timing of it happening was a blessing. Since I just had the baby our insurance deductible is now met before the surgery had it happen next year- yipes! Also the surgery was between Thanksgiving and Christmas so I have been able to heal up enough to enjoy the Christmas season with my family and extended family and also be acute pain free and no more stomach aches(which were actually attacks!)  Also it happened in winter so I don't feel sad about having to stay inside and take it easy whereas in the summer I would have wanted to be outdoors and then we all know I love to garden so I would be doing that and getting myself into more trouble!

So over all I am very thankful that since it had to happen, it happened now for all those reasons and I'm sure I'm forgetting some! Praise God from Whom all blessing flow!!!

We are also praying for one of my friends from my college days (a whole 4-5 years ago now!) who is fighting stage 4 brain cancer. They are blessed with 2 little sons I believe are ages 2 and 6-7 months (not positive on the ages) but either way she has two little boys, a husband and family and friends who care for her so we are praying for her and a miracle from God. Please pray for her also.

Well I have to go get myself some lunch before it's time for me to feed baby her lunch! Winter is a fabulous season to spend indoors with family and friends and of course play outside in the snow, that is of course if we ever get any :)

~KT~