Our Gardening Progress

We had a fun although tiring day today.  We were finally able to dig into the soil in my parents’ garden spot.  My son, daughter, and husband took turns tilling and laying out rolls in which we were able to plant seeds and plants.  We planted tomato plants, a few cabbage plants, squash, pinkeye purple hull peas, rattlesnake beans, cucumbers, corn, sugar baby watermelons, and okra.

Upon arriving home, my daughter and I decided to plant some things in our container garden.  We had thought it was too late to plant lettuce seeds, then we heard of others planting lettuce so decided to give it a try.  We planted red bowl lettuce and butter crunch lettuce.  There were also some plants on the porch that still needed planting so we planted a basil plant and a chocolate mint plant in the container garden.  While looking over the plants we had already plants a couple of weeks ago, we noticed that we had a banana pepper and a tomato growing so we are looking forward to a time when those are ready to be eaten.

Gardening and Chickens

Our Container Garden

We are finally making some progress with our garden.   This week we started on our container garden.  My husband had built it larger than I had expected, and we were having some trouble filling it with soil so he put another board down the middle.  My teens made sure all the soil was moved to the smaller compartment in our wooden container.  We later planted a few things that had started dying while sitting on our porch waiting for one of our gardens to be ready for planting.  So, we planted four tomato plants; one cherry tomato and 3 better boy plants, six banana pepper plants, marigolds since they are good for repelling bug, mint, rosemary, and some flowers for my daughter.

We will be planting in my parents’ garden hopefully sometime this month.  Our tiller needs a new motor, and some other things are kind of holding us up.  We have tomato plants ready to be planted and have seeds galore that we are eager to put in the ground.  I pray that God helps our gardens grow and provides nice, gentle summer showers for good watering.

Our chickens are all growing and doing well.  We bought some chicks unexpectedly last month.  My husband brought home 13 Cornish Rock chicks which have grown really fast, and I believe this is the breed that has been bred to grow fast so you can kill and eat them.  My dear husband did not know this when he bought them, and we have been surprised at how quickly they have grown.  We also have three Golden Comet hens.  These little hens are sex linked which means that when they are little you can tell if they are a pullet by the color they are.  They are supposed to lay nice, large brown eggs when they are grown.  We look forward to finding out.

Our Golden Comets with one of the Cornish Rocks

Visiting Noccalula Falls

We spent an afternoon at Noccalula Falls a few weeks back and I thought I’d share some photos.  We always enjoy visiting this park on the few occasions we make it to Gadsden, Alabama.  They have an animal habitat, the historic water fall where Noccalula met her end, and a historic village.  I remember as a child visiting this park for Sunday picnics with fellow church members.  It has always been a fun place to visit. 

http://noccfalls.homestead.com/



Noccalula Falls

The Little Train in the Park

Animal Habitat



Spring is Here

Strawberry plants we planted last spring.

Spring seems to have arrived here in North Alabama. The weather this time of year is a little crazy. Some days we have warm spring weather, then a cold front will move in. When the cold front moves in, we are either cold or having violent stormy weather.

As we have enjoyed the beautiful weather, we have felt the need to plant seeds so we can replenish our supply of home grown food. So far, we have planted cabbage, buttercrunch lettuce, tomatos, basil, cilantro, sage, spearmint, banana pepper, and jalopeno pepper seeds in seed starting containers. We have also bought some wood to start some container (or four square) gardening for our salad vegetables this year.

One seed starter planted.

We are planning our larger garden spots as well. We have decided that we will probably need at least four or five rolls of pinkeye purple hull peas, two rolls of rattlesnake beans, two rolls of okra along with squash, tomatos, and cucumbers at my parents’ garden spot. We would like to try growing some sunflowers and pumpkins this year as we enjoy eating their seeds and pumpkin pie too. We would also like to find somewhere in our crowded gardens to plant corn.

The new rooster with the hens

Spring has also brought changes to our chicken coop. We have been getting two eggs most days since fall. With warmer weather, we have been picking up four or five eggs most days. My son noticed that two of our hens were trying to sit on their unfertilized eggs. So, we went looking for a rooster last week and bought one for twelve dollars. Maybe in the next month or two we will see some chicks in our coop although we will have to give up our fresh eggs for a time.

We also know that springtime has arrived, because Spring Revivals are taking place in churches throughout out county association and the surrounding counties as well. So far, I believe I have heard of three children being saved since the revivals began. I just pray we will continue seeing God work in our little churches.

A Visit to Arab Historic Complex in Arab, Alabama

Rice Church

Recently, my family visited Arab Historic Complex which is behind Arab City Park in Arab, Alabama. This historic complex has restored building from within the community and a museum. It is like a little town and is quiet peaceful. The old schoolhouse that sits on this property is called Hunt School House. My grandmother and some of her siblings attended this school. One of her brothers even helped with the restoration process. I thought I’d share some pictures of the buildings that are within this historic complex.

Hunt School House
Elvin Light Museum, a General Store, and a Quilter's Cottage

Our First Field Trip this Year, September 3, 2011

As the Summer heat is showing brief signs of fading into a cool Fall, my dad decided to take my two teenagers on their first field trip for this school year. This field trip did not take place within the borders of beautiful Alabama this time. They traveled a little north into the edge of Georgia and on into Lookout Mountain, Tennessee.

They visited Point Park A Chattanooga and Chickamauga National Military Park. A lot of battles took place across North Alabama, Georgia and Tennessee during the Civil War. Point Park is located where the Battle of Lookout Mountain or the “Battle above the Clouds” took place. It is a beautiful park fill with Civil War history and a little family history for us. One of my great-great-great grandfathers’ fought in the Battle of Lookout Mountain, and another great-great-great grandfather fought at nearby Missionary Ridge and was captured there. So, to say the least, this was a good history lesson for my family.


There is a museum nearby where you can look at pictures and Civil War memorabilia. They also have a gift shop where you can buy souvenirs.


On the road home, my dad stopped at Sequoya Caverns and Ellis Farm Homestead in North Alabama. They did not go into the Caverns, but they did visit with a peacock in the parking lot and a duck that followed them around the place. So, all in all, my two young’uns had an awesome outing with their grandpa.

Still Harvesting and My First Attempts at Canning

Well, as HOT August has advanced across the South, we haven’t had any rain in weeks. Our plants have done fairly well in spite of the lack of rain although they are kind of drying up. If we had more rain, I believe our squash would have continued producing well, but they had slowed down some. My husband finally just turned them under in preparation for the fall garden plants. We were getting a little tired of squash although we love squash.


We have to water our tomatoes most nights because they have just started ripening. The cucumbers are still producing in spite of the lack of water although the leaves are drying up a little. The green beans are finally coming in some although they seem a little tough, and I wonder if that is due to the lack of water. Our pink eyed purple hull peas are still producing as well. The corn has been eaten by the deer. They knew that they would be fully ripe last week and paid a visit to eat as much as they could. Since the cornstalks were down on the ground, our friendly visiting skunk decided to eat his share while we were picking butter beans, cucumbers, tomatoes, and peas. He literally ran us out of the garden last Saturday although I think he was more afraid of us than we were of him.


I have been canning pickles. This has been my first attempt at preserving cucumbers, and it has gone better than expected. I have a home preserving book with more than 400 recipes, but as I looked on the isle of the local grocery store for spices and canning supplies, I saw all kinds of pickle mixes which makes the job of canning pickles fast and easy. Since the vinegar in the pickles is so acidic, I just used a water bathing canner to seal the lids on my canning jars. So far, I’ve canned about 37 jars of pickles; sweet pickles, kosher dill pickles, and bread and butter pickles.


We have about two rolls of pink eyed purple hull peas this year and have planted a third, late roll down the middle of the corn. We have had enough to eat mainly, but we have gathered enough at times to be able to freeze about 8 quarts or rather 16 pints of these wonderful peas for my family in addition to the 6 quarts my mom was able to freeze for she and my dad.


As the tomatoes have just started coming in, we really haven’t done much with them although I have made about 3 pints of salsa and eaten a lot of tomato sandwiches. Umm, good! Hopefully, we’ll be able to can some stewed tomatoes for the winter. They are always awesome in soups.


We have begun our fall garden in the midst of all of this harvesting and the lack of rain. We have planted some late tomato plants that I had started from seeds. We have planted more squash seeds and turnip green seeds in my parents’ garden. At home, we have seeded some cabbage in preparation for them to be put in the garden as soon as possible. This coming month should be an awesome time to plant broccoli, cauliflower, lettuce, cabbage, turnip greens, carrots, and radishes. I love gardening!

Busy With Harvesting and Other Things

July and August have certainly been a busy time for us here in North Central Alabama. The gardens have been producing. Revivals are in churches everywhere with us seeing more saved for the Kingdom of God this year than I’ve seen since my growing up years. We’ve also had more sick amongst my cousins so this has meant visiting the hospital at least twice a week as well. I think everyone is on the road to recovery now though. So I thought I’d take a breath and write a little on the blog.

We have had squash, squash, and, yes, more squash during July and now in August. We’ve had enough rain that they just continue producing when I thought they would just go ahead and die. We’ve had fried squash, boiled squash, broiled squash, squash dressing, vegetable casserole with squash, green beans, and corn, and my teenagers’ favorite, squash fritters. We’ve shared with my parents, sister, and grandma. I was hoping to see my sister can some squash relish, but I haven’t talked her into that yet. Maybe she’ll give me the recipe, and I’ll have to do that myself.
We’ve also had an abundance of cucumbers. I love cucumbers, and I think I eat at least one a day. We are getting so many that even with sharing amongst family that my mother is talking about us making some pickles. She had told me that they never made them that much when she was growing up, but I think we might give it a try soon.
The pink eyed purple hull peas, bell peppers, Alabama black butter beans, Dixie butter peas, and Kentucky wonder pole beans have all started producing as well. I thought that the rabbits or deer had eaten almost all of our Kentucky wonder pole beans, but we are still getting a little bit of green beans a couple of times a week. We’ve had all kinds of critters eating our plants at both gardens. My parents have had a skunk that visits for the last couple of years. It likes to eat the pears that hit the ground below the pear tree which is located close to our squash in the garden. One evening we were out picking late, and my husband noticed the skunk behind my son. We just continued picking, and it finally moved on without spraying us.
We would like to be canning and freezing, but with sharing with family and planting a late garden, we haven’t yet harvested enough to put up for the winter. My mom mentioned that next year we might need to think about planting four rolls of pink eyed purple hull peas and maybe more than two rolls of green beans so we’d have plenty to put up. Our rattlesnake beans and Kentucky wonder bush beans haven’t yet started producing although the rattlesnake beans are blooming like crazy. Maybe in the next couple of weeks we’ll be able to freeze some peas, put up some vegetable soup, and can some green beans. That would certainly help us save money on vegetables this winter.

It Finally Rained and Our Garden is Growing Good

The last time I blogged about our garden it hadn’t rained in Alabama for quiet a while. Folks around here prayed for rain, and now it’s rained almost every day for weeks. The plants are looking great; so are the weeds and grass. We were able to till between the rolls at my parents to help deal with some of the weeds, and we’ve had to weed in between the plants as well. Morning Glory, trees, and many other weeds have tried to overgrow our gardens.


I have finally figured out which two vining plants are growing in our garden; Alabama Black Butter Beans and Kentucky Wonder Pole Beans. There for a while we didn’t have a clue, but they definitely look different.


Our oregano didn’t ever grow from seeds. I think someone had commented that they were difficult to deal with sometimes. So, after trying to grow oregano from seeds a couple of times and not succeeding, we went ahead and bought some pretty healthy looking oregano plants from a local seed and hardware store.


We haven’t harvested anything yet, but our plants are looking pretty. Some have some blooms so we know that will happen in time. We planted peppermint on one side of our garden. That side doesn’t seem to have that many bugs or ants. We’ll want to plant a lot more of that in the future.

Our Plants are Growing in the Alabama Heat

June in North Alabama has been hot this year as it usually is. We are trying to water our plants every evening so that the water can absorb into the soil overnight instead of it evaporating in the heat every day. When it is 98 degrees or so in the shade, it can be rough on our plants.


We have planted most of my parent’s garden at this point. I think we’ll still plant another roll or two. So far, we have planted tomatoes, squash, pink eyed purple hull peas, banana peppers, green bell peppers, more Dixie butterpeas, Alabama black butter beans, spinach, cucumbers, and two rolls of corn. If the crows and other critters will stay away, we might actually have a good garden over at their house. They already have pears growing.


The soil in my parent’s garden is very different from the soil in ours even though we only live about five miles away. My dad and mom’s garden soil is somewhat on the sandy side while ours is very rocky. The more rocks we get out of the garden, the more seem to be there the next time we go water or work in the garden. Plants will still grow in our rocky soil so that’s okay.


Well, I hope everyone is enjoying their summer and the opportunity to grow God’s bounty. If you have the opportunity, you could visit www.sheconsiders.com. They are having a contest called From Seeds to Harvest on the website.

How Does Our Garden Grow? Well, let's see....

Spring here in North Alabama has been an eventful time for us, but we had begun our garden long before April’s Fury. We’d begun our current garden last fall with cabbage and turnip greens. The turnip greens were awesome, but the cabbage never seemed to reach their potential.



When January came along with it’s snow, we tilled up anything that looked dead. With February’s snow, we just tilled the entire garden and tried to make it larger.



In March, we planted onions, more turnip greens, and strawberries. The onions are tasting nice and spicy now which is how we like them. The turnip greens didn’t grow too well. My daughter’s strawberries are still growing, but some of my son’s strawberries died. Today, my son planted strawberries that he’d had growing in pots on the porch for over a year. This time he planted them in a container like garden spot.



My daughter prefers flowers to edible plants so she has planted some of the more decorative plants we have. She and I had tried to seed some marigolds and herbs like basil, but they never grew like they should. So, today, we planted in the garden a bunch of herb seeds; basil, oregano, borage, catnip, and even some peppermint. We’ll see how they turn out and, hopefully, post pictures later on.



The first week of May I had my son and daughter go out and plant some beans; Kentucky Wonder Pole Beans, Dixie Speckled Butterpeas, and Alabama Black Butter Beans. I really should have went with them to supervise because now I don’t know which row has which type of bean, and they don’t remember either.



We’ll be planting in my parents’ garden next week too. They haven’t used their garden spot in years so we’ll just have to see if we are able to grow a good garden there too.