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Post by jen51 on May 4, 2016 7:11:23 GMT -5
This is my herb spiral, early-mid season last year. It was a really low budget project or I would have had nicer looking stones but it's great. A few things survived and are doing well this spring: lovage, sage, tarragon, thyme, echinacea, and chives. Not sure about the parsley yet. That's looks really nice! Like Rita, I like the stones. Did you find yourself making use of your herb garden a lot in the kitchen? I plant basil every year and never end up using much of it. The herbs that I use the most of are dill and cilantro, followed by oregano then sage. I use the most fresh herbs in canning and preserving.
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Post by jen51 on May 4, 2016 7:13:18 GMT -5
Rita, your gardens look so nice! I'm trying not to be envious of your space in the country! We're currently living in town, so our space is limiting as far as a garden goes. Our yard is huge, but there are too many trees. We do pack a lot of food into a small area, though. That is funny because sometimes I wish we had less space, because keeping everything up is a lot of work... Big gardens tend to get away from us very easily. We know that if we don't mulch heavily as early as possible after planting, the weeds will get the best of us.
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Post by jen51 on May 4, 2016 7:30:23 GMT -5
I used Paint to resize the picture. I hope it doesn't show up too big. Here's our broccoli and onions. I plant the onions really close together so we can eat little green onions as we thin them out. Because they are so close together they are very difficult to mulch, so I sprinkle wood shavings on top of them. After I get them thinned out to where large onions can grow, I'll mulch them with hay. The plants popping up amidst the onions are volunteer potatoes. We didn't plant potatoes this year, so I decided to let them grow. No heads on the broccoli yet, but close! Attachments:
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Post by jen51 on May 4, 2016 7:40:54 GMT -5
Sorry for the bad pic- the sun wasn't allowing me to see what I was doing. But you can see that it's lettuce and spinach. Greens are perhaps my favorite thing from the garden. For lunch, off of this little patch, we've been eating a heaping plate full of greens nearly every day, topped with veggies and vinaigrette. Attachments:
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Post by jen51 on May 4, 2016 7:43:10 GMT -5
Thankyou for the tips, Voxx and Marlelar. I got it worked out!
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Post by mundacormeum on May 4, 2016 8:38:42 GMT -5
Y'all have some beautiful gardens! I'm with Jen, and trying not to be envious I'm anxious for my kids to be a little older (well....kind of anxious), so they can really help me take up my slack. I have four raised beds that my husband built for me, and I love working in them. However, it always seems that once I get some really good steam, and things are progressing well, I end up pregnant again, and it turns into a unkempt, ugly patch of weeds, because I am too tired to keep it up. Oh well....to each his own season. All in good time, I suppose.
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Post by Clotilde on May 4, 2016 9:48:59 GMT -5
Y'all have some beautiful gardens! I'm with Jen, and trying not to be envious I'm anxious for my kids to be a little older (well....kind of anxious), so they can really help me take up my slack. I have four raised beds that my husband built for me, and I love working in them. However, it always seems that once I get some really good steam, and things are progressing well, I end up pregnant again, and it turns into a unkempt, ugly patch of weeds, because I am too tired to keep it up. Oh well....to each his own season. All in good time, I suppose. Exactly. This is is why you just do what you can when it comes to hobbies. I can't knit with littles because I cannot keep track of my stitches. I find it hard to sew with a toddler running around. I let my dahlias rot last year, instead of overwintering them because I was just out of energy. I do okay with outside stuff because the kids like to help and I excel in division of labor and delegation.
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Post by Clotilde on May 4, 2016 9:52:50 GMT -5
This is my herb spiral, early-mid season last year. It was a really low budget project or I would have had nicer looking stones but it's great. A few things survived and are doing well this spring: lovage, sage, tarragon, thyme, echinacea, and chives. Not sure about the parsley yet. That's looks really nice! Like Rita, I like the stones. Did you find yourself making use of your herb garden a lot in the kitchen? I plant basil every year and never end up using much of it. The herbs that I use the most of are dill and cilantro, followed by oregano then sage. I use the most fresh herbs in canning and preserving. Jen, yes. I use them almost every day. Basil, I use in Asian dishes and curries but also Italian food. I also preserve it by making it into pesto and freezing it in cupcake tins, then wrapping it up. Then I plop it into sauces or soups, if I'm making one that takes basil. I also use the pesto for herb butter and sandwich spread. What I don't use beyond that, I dry (leaving the leaves whole!) It last forever but I usually have it used up by the following year
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Post by mundacormeum on May 5, 2016 12:29:09 GMT -5
Y'all have some beautiful gardens! I'm with Jen, and trying not to be envious I'm anxious for my kids to be a little older (well....kind of anxious), so they can really help me take up my slack. I have four raised beds that my husband built for me, and I love working in them. However, it always seems that once I get some really good steam, and things are progressing well, I end up pregnant again, and it turns into a unkempt, ugly patch of weeds, because I am too tired to keep it up. Oh well....to each his own season. All in good time, I suppose. Exactly. This is is why you just do what you can when it comes to hobbies. I can't knit with littles because I cannot keep track of my stitches. I find it hard to sew with a toddler running around. I let my dahlias rot last year, instead of overwintering them because I was just out of energy. I do okay with outside stuff because the kids like to help and I excel in division of labor and delegation. Yes, I'm a big proponent of the "do what you can, when you can" system. I definitely find sewing to be a hassle with littles around. It take too much time to set up and clean up to do what might amount to 10 minutes (if that) of actual sewing, before being needed by a small child. So, I save that for when my husband has the kids for large blocks of time, or for insomnia nights. Our whole family enjoys outside projects, so they do help me in the garden when I have the energy for it. It's a fun hobby to enjoy with them. Knitting/crocheting/handwork are always my go to projects. I find it easy to pick it up and put it down quickly, and even five minutes of knittng while watching the kids play is enjoyable....you can get a good bit of stuff done in small increments, depending on the project. I try to stick to simple, easy to memorize patterns, so I can look at my work and easily tell where I left off.
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Post by RitaMarita on May 5, 2016 14:47:32 GMT -5
This is my herb spiral, early-mid season last year. It was a really low budget project or I would have had nicer looking stones but it's great. A few things survived and are doing well this spring: lovage, sage, tarragon, thyme, echinacea, and chives. Not sure about the parsley yet. That's looks really nice! Like Rita, I like the stones. Did you find yourself making use of your herb garden a lot in the kitchen? I plant basil every year and never end up using much of it. The herbs that I use the most of are dill and cilantro, followed by oregano then sage. I use the most fresh herbs in canning and preserving. You can and preserve? I wish that I knew how to and had time to do that! Mom used to make tons of raspberry jam every years from our home-grown raspberries back in the day. Yet, she never has time anymore, and she never showed me how to... Maybe one day I will sit down and figure it out when I have time...
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Post by RitaMarita on May 5, 2016 14:49:36 GMT -5
That is funny because sometimes I wish we had less space, because keeping everything up is a lot of work... Big gardens tend to get away from us very easily. We know that if we don't mulch heavily as early as possible after planting, the weeds will get the best of us. Exactly! Except that for our garden, my parents don't like to use mulch... So, it is even more work! This year has not been as bad as last year though, so I am grateful! (We were busy most of the Spring re-painting the house and organizing for my sisters wedding that the garden sort of fell into disuse, and so we had a lot to catch up on...)
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Post by RitaMarita on May 5, 2016 14:52:50 GMT -5
I used Paint to resize the picture. I hope it doesn't show up too big. Here's our broccoli and onions. I plant the onions really close together so we can eat little green onions as we thin them out. Because they are so close together they are very difficult to mulch, so I sprinkle wood shavings on top of them. After I get them thinned out to where large onions can grow, I'll mulch them with hay. The plants popping up amidst the onions are volunteer potatoes. We didn't plant potatoes this year, so I decided to let them grow. No heads on the broccoli yet, but close! What a great idea with the shavings! We have never managed to grow broccoli or cabbage. Onions occasionally. :-) Thanks for sharing the pictures! Lettuce is one of the best to have! I love salads!
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Post by RitaMarita on May 5, 2016 14:57:53 GMT -5
Y'all have some beautiful gardens! I'm with Jen, and trying not to be envious I'm anxious for my kids to be a little older (well....kind of anxious), so they can really help me take up my slack. I have four raised beds that my husband built for me, and I love working in them. However, it always seems that once I get some really good steam, and things are progressing well, I end up pregnant again, and it turns into a unkempt, ugly patch of weeds, because I am too tired to keep it up. Oh well....to each his own season. All in good time, I suppose. I have a number of good friends who have the same trouble in keeping their gardens weeded because the kids take up so much of their time and energy... If I ever get married, I guess that I probably will not have much time for gardening either... It is sort of my distraction to keep me going until God leads me to what He wishes of me in my life. Once that happens, it will become more of a background thing. Don't worry! You will have plenty of time once the kids are grown up to work on gardening. For now, enjoy your time with them gardening their souls into beautiful gardens for God!
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Post by RitaMarita on May 5, 2016 15:00:36 GMT -5
Y'all have some beautiful gardens! I'm with Jen, and trying not to be envious I'm anxious for my kids to be a little older (well....kind of anxious), so they can really help me take up my slack. I have four raised beds that my husband built for me, and I love working in them. However, it always seems that once I get some really good steam, and things are progressing well, I end up pregnant again, and it turns into a unkempt, ugly patch of weeds, because I am too tired to keep it up. Oh well....to each his own season. All in good time, I suppose. Exactly. This is is why you just do what you can when it comes to hobbies. I can't knit with littles because I cannot keep track of my stitches. I find it hard to sew with a toddler running around. I let my dahlias rot last year, instead of overwintering them because I was just out of energy. I do okay with outside stuff because the kids like to help and I excel in division of labor and delegation. Having the kids help is such a great idea! I learned most of what I know in gardening because my mother made us help her every year from the time we were very little. Yes, we would complain at times, and the younger ones of us didn't help out as much at first, but each of us had our section to weed, and so the garden was kept up relatively well.
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Post by jen51 on May 5, 2016 15:39:35 GMT -5
Exactly. This is is why you just do what you can when it comes to hobbies. I can't knit with littles because I cannot keep track of my stitches. I find it hard to sew with a toddler running around. I let my dahlias rot last year, instead of overwintering them because I was just out of energy. I do okay with outside stuff because the kids like to help and I excel in division of labor and delegation. Having the kids help is such a great idea! I learned most of what I know in gardening because my mother made us help her every year from the time we were very little. Yes, we would complain at times, and the younger ones of us didn't help out as much at first, but each of us had our section to weed, and so the garden was kept up relatively well. My mother always made me mulch. Mulching is still my least favorite garden job! lol
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