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Gardening
Growing food is a large part of our blueprint for sustainability. Ed is an ex-Master Gardener and Maggie has been raising vegetables in a 400-square foot urban plot for over 10 years. We now have plenty of room to scale up...
Mushroom Logs
One project that I was able to squeeze in was inoculating some logs for shiitake mushrooms. I cut these logs back in December, so I only...
Ed
12 hours ago1 min read
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More Garden Mulch - Last Year's Hay
Four Bales of Last Year's Hay (Grass Really) - No Chemicals While we did get woodchips delivered last fall for the garden, I've been...
Maggie
3 days ago1 min read
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Gardening Season Starts Now
Although we had snow today, we have begun our garden for the year! One of the challenges of gardening year after year is that the chores...
Ed
Mar 52 min read
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Garden Planning 2025
With the new year comes a new garden plan. We have reached the point where the scars, trials, and tribulations from last year's garden...
Ed
Jan 112 min read
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Garden Put to Bed
We finally completed one of the hardest tasks of the year, which is getting the gardens ready for winter. Usually, we have this completed...
Ed
Nov 3, 20242 min read
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The Year of Perennials In Review
We are at the mid-point of closing down the garden for winter. We are spreading a giant piles of woodchips across the beds, mucking out...
Ed
Oct 13, 20243 min read
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Lavender Update
As summer winds down, we will be taking stock of our Year of the Perennials. First up is our attempt at growing lavender. Like many of...
Ed
Sep 27, 20241 min read
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My Neighbor's Tomatoes Are So Large!
My neighbor gave me some tomatoes today and I'm looking forward to making tomato sandwiches as my main sustenance for the next week or so....
Maggie
Sep 10, 20241 min read
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A Dump Truck Full of Wood Chips - Woo Hoo!
"Back to Eden" gardening is the long-term goal for our garden (my perspective). The purported benefits of the gardening method almost...
Maggie
Aug 20, 20242 min read
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Gardening with Chickens
Last week, we harvested our garlic. We succession-plant bush beans, which was one of this weekend's tasks. The variety we plant mature in...
Ed
Jul 28, 20242 min read
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Side Project
We have a few side projects going on this summer. These are fun little things we are trying on a small scale, to see how they may fit...
Ed
Jul 28, 20242 min read
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Lots Can Happen With a Garden In a Month and a Half
This picture of our garden was taken a week ago on July 6. We planted this garden between May 31 and June 7. With all of the rain we've...
Maggie
Jul 13, 20241 min read
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Picking Snow Peas Leads to Thoughts on Life
Picking snow peas for the second time today (the first time was only 4 hours prior) reinforced some important life tools for me today. In...
Maggie
Jul 10, 20242 min read
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Cherries, Berries, and Peas
At any one picking, we're not getting a "ton" at this point; however, we are having fun with what we are getting. Today, we picked Black...
Maggie
Jun 29, 20242 min read
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Rainy June
The average precipitation for Richland County is about 5 inches. Last summer, we were lucky to have gotten an inch of rain in June, and...
Ed
Jun 23, 20242 min read
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What Happens When Getting Interested In Medicinal Herbs
I'm in the process of learning about all of the medicinal benefits of herbs and other greens. I've bought reference books that outline...
Maggie
Jun 20, 20242 min read
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Garlic Scapes
I picked our first round of garlic scapes this morning (there will be more). I need to find something new to do with them. ...
Maggie
Jun 5, 20241 min read
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Our First Home Grown Strawberries
Ed first planted strawberry plants in our garden last year; however, it was a drought year AND we had huge problems with some sort of...
Maggie
Jun 5, 20241 min read
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Garden 2024 is in!
It took nearly 3 months, but the 2024 version of our garden is finally completed. The extra time this year was spent installing a fence...
Ed
May 26, 20242 min read
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Buying Sweet Corn Seeds in "Bulk" for Our Garden
Ed and I are still relatively new gardeners. Historically, when buying seeds for garden sweet corn, we've bought little packets of seed...
Maggie
May 10, 20242 min read
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Asparagus Season
This spring has been a little rainier and warmer than usual, which has triggered an early burst of greenery. One of the plants making a...
Ed
May 9, 20241 min read
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Lavender Up-potting
The lavender we started from seed a few weeks ago ended up with a fairly good germination rate. The 'Vera' variety performed best, with...
Ed
Apr 23, 20241 min read
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2024 will be the Year of....
Since we first started our homesteading adventure, we have given each year a theme. While work overlaps from year to year, we find that...
Ed
Dec 31, 20233 min read
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2023 Garden Wrap Up
One of the end-of-year projects we always have is a review of how our garden performed. Every year we rotate crops and try new varieties,...
Ed
Dec 14, 20233 min read
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Rhubarb Scones with Honey Substitution
We've harvested lots of rhubarb this season. I've been canning rhubarb and freezing it as it comes in. While I've made rhubarb Jell-o...
Maggie
Aug 21, 20231 min read
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Orange Pumpkins on August 1st in Wisconsin??
Maybe we're just too new to growing pumpkins, but having an orange pumpkin (3 actually) on August 1st in Wisconsin seems way too early. ...
Maggie
Aug 1, 20231 min read
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Dirty Hands and Some Red Potatoes from the Garden
In mid to late April, a friend gave me some potato starts as a gift. Excited, I planted them right away. Here and Wisconsin, April is...
Maggie
Jul 31, 20231 min read
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First Spring Day
While spring started several weeks ago, today was the first day it seemed the weather got the memo. Sunshine, blue sky, temperature...
Ed
Apr 9, 20232 min read
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Estate Sale Find
I love estate sales and rummage sales. I look at them as little treasure hunts. Stores today all carry the same homogenized merchandise,...
Ed
Dec 25, 20222 min read
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Garden 2023
Every year it is the same. By October, we are tired of the abundance of squash and canning pickles, but by the first snowfall in...
Ed
Dec 10, 20223 min read
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