More garden pictures, you say?

July 2, 2020July 2, 2020 / Teresa Robeson

Or maybe I only imagined you said it, but you’re getting more anyway! 😀

This year, hubby extended the main fenced garden out in the front on both sides.

Parts of the south garden is now fenced, too. The greens in the foreground are comfrey. We have no idea what to do with it.

And now for some close-ups: first the eggplant!

The stuff on the leaves is not mildew; it’s pyrethrin powder to try and get rid of the flea beetles that are constantly decimating those plants.

Red cabbage is such a diva and always beautiful.

Walking onions caught in mid-walk. Uncle Pete gave them to us a couple of decades ago, and we always smile and think of him whenever we see them.

A new apple tree! Yet another we have to fight the squirrels for. 😛

Growth and a sense of hope

June 4, 2020 / Teresa Robeson / 1 Comment

The events of the past week have sunk me into the depths of despair. I have done what I personally could to help out..not only my Black sisters and brothers, but also to give myself some sense of being in control when the people in power seek to take that away from us. I’ve donated to causes, signed petitions, amplified Black voices on social media, and bought books from Black creators.

The Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators, the organization I volunteer for, has put out a list of Black-owned bookstores that we can all frequent:

Black-Owned Bookstores

In my own little corner of the world, watching nature renew itself and grow, reaching with energetic optimism towards the sky also helps to calm and center me.

“What’s so funny about peas, love, and understanding?” indeed.

Using basil as perimeter defense because apparently nothing besides humans likes that stuff.

Stay safe, stay sane, my friends. And hold onto hope.

Green is life

March 26, 2020March 24, 2020 / Teresa Robeson

Every year around this time, hubby starts the seedlings for another full year of gardening. It’s a season of hope and optimism for good harvests that we can eat and preserve (until voles, vine-borers and other vermin destroy that dream).

This year, with so much fear and uncertainty in the air (not making a joke here), starting seedlings is even more important as an act of defiant hope and self-preservation.

So here is what we’ve started so far…

these cuties are situated beneath a big window

These other ones are on a warming mat and are therefore in the somewhat filthy utility room:

Are you growing something for hope and food this year?

Summer foods…make me feel fine

October 3, 2019October 2, 2019 / Teresa Robeson

And if that doesn’t make you start singing, then you are obviously not as old as I am ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTXat-LsxHA ).

Hubby noted last night that it’s the beginning of October and we are still eating bounty from our garden. We’re also still processing tons of veggies from the garden. Oh. Yay.

But you’re here for the food photos, I know, so I’ll get straight to that…

Well, I’m getting hungry now…

I never promised you a rose garden

July 5, 2019June 24, 2019 / Teresa Robeson

Hubby is practical and has become more so as he’s aged. We used to grow flowers, partly because his mom was into flowers so when she was still alive, she would encourage it and even buy us plants to put in.

But as we’d gotten into homesteading, we don’t want to bother putting in so much labor, time, and water for annuals that don’t feed us. We grow plenty of native flowering perennials which are good for wildlife and don’t require much work of us, but for ourselves, we focus on what we can eat and put away for the winter months.

It’s been a cool, wet spring, so the garden has yet to truly take off. But here are a few photos of what is growing outside of the main fenced garden…