Town House Homestead Tuesday

This week was good for harvesting a few herbs and veggies from the gardens. I'm beginning to consider these practice runs for a larger garden next spring. 

We got a very large colander of mint that I have drying for tea. My lemon balm is recovering from insects that tried to eat it away, and I have chives and oregano ready to harvest this week.

I harvested patty pan squash and a pepper along with some calendula blossoms. My daughter is going to start making soap soon. We try to leave some blossoms for the bees too.

I boiled the squash whole and then stuffed and baked them. They are so good and make a complete meal or a great side dish. Not a large farm harvest for sure, but for the two of us it's fine. Our garden will grow larger in time. 

I have five buckets of beans growing along the walk and am hoping the deer leave them alone. They know we have Hunter now so we haven't seen them around, but you just never know..

If they leave them alone we may have a couple of meals that will have fresh beans as sides.

I've been cleaning and polishing a couple of vintage mid century chairs that my daughter got for her living room. I'm just taking advantage of the cooler temperatures and the sun. 

The big project has been the restoration of the shed. Something we've been waiting 16 months to get to. Our great friends at CCH Lawn and Landscape spent time this past weekend power washing it for us, measuring for new doors and investigating the way to secure the floor. This out building is needed to store our tools and garden supplies and we are very excited about it.

As soon as it was dry my daughter headed out to apply some paint. It will be gray with white trim. For now the doors will remain in place until they are replaced. 

I spent a couple of hours yesterday cleaning all the weeds and making sure she could paint all the way down to ground level. I discovered there is a border around the shed that has been covered in grass. On the shaded side of the shed I will transplant some Hosta's. There are plenty of them around the yard and it will be a nice touch. 

She came home from work last evening, ate some dinner and went out to paint another side. This is what it is becoming. Everything can be fixed up with a little TLC.

Of course Hunter has been such a big help lately. He's seven months old now. While we have been working on projects outside, and trying to build a garden, he has very nicely removed and torn to shreds the cardboard we laid to be a weed barrier. It upsets me to see my work undone, but I have learned to let it go, but not really. For every step forward we make in our relationship we always take a few backwards. I keep getting told to wait and he'll grow out of it. He probably will, but waiting is hard for me. So, until then, that's what's been happening at the Town House Homestead. Thank you for stopping by and have a wonderful week. To all those recovering from hurricane Harvey, we wish you the best and have donated to help you out. Love to you all and stay safe. 

Town House Homestead Tuesday

Yikes! Where did this past month go? Many differences since my last post, sooooo long ago. 

The weeds are higher and my sunflowers are as tall as I am and getting taller. All five have blossoms and I'm so hoping to get some seeds. The squash is also growing up the tomato cages and up to my neck.

Two five gallon buckets growing fast and steady. Lots of blossoms, and the start of some fruit. I am thrilled with this venture. Patty pan squash growing in five gallon buckets.

My ginger plant is now 35 inches tall. Lots of activity in the pot, so maybe in a year I'll be harvesting ginger. Watching ginger grow is a new experience. It's a different plant to say the least.

The zinnias I started from seeds are starting to bring wonderful color to the garden. In the next week there should be many more. I love the fact that a package of seeds gives me so many different colors.

This is butterfly milkweed that I started from seed and it's doing it's job attracting those beautiful pollinators. I will add more next spring. It is tall, dainty, colorful, and environmentally friendly.

I was literally gifted a 13 gallon kitchen bag full of freshly harvested basil. I do not say no to these or any food gifts. I got busy washing and preparing it for pesto. I froze 16 four ounce servings so that through the winter I can make pesto anything. I used walnuts this time because I had them on hand and I love the flavor just as much as pine nuts.

All individually wrapped and ready for the freezer. This was a wonderful blessing.

I was also given six wonderful fresh cucumbers that are all prepped to become bread and butter pickles tomorrow morning. I know they are not pickling cucumbers, but I had all the ingredients and they will be awesome.

I harvested the pot of shallots and ended up with eleven healthy ones. They are hanging in the breezeway drying and make a wonderful piece of wall art. Next year I will do a lot more, but not bad for the first time from seeds. I planted beans in the empty pots as a second batch. The bucket beans are almost ready to blossom and there are now three peppers that I can see growing.

The adventure I am on as far as gardening and becoming a little more self sufficient goes back a few years when I lost everything and hit bottom. My daughter and I started searching for ways to stop the waste and make everything work. All usable vegetable scraps go in the freezer for vegetable stock and gets canned for use. Then the scraps are added to the compost. I keep a small empty coffee container by the sink so I can add the scraps as needed.

Not everything goes to the making of stock or compost. This is the bottom of a red onion that I soaked in water to stimulate the roots. It will grow into a new onion and I won't have to purchase any. I do this when I buy different varieties because I'm the only one who eats the onions here and even though it takes time, I still benefit from waiting. Call me crazy, but it's working for me and I'm not starting everything from seeds. 

With my daughters back injury and the swarming we were sure we had lost the bees, but this weekend she did another inspection. To our surprise there is a queen and she is laying brood and they are producing honey. They seem to be very healthy and as I watched them daily thinking they were dying off they always appeared to be getting stronger. I guess mother nature was telling me that is was meant to be. We will be watching them closely to make sure they keep moving forward and will think about protecting them for winter.

And to put a nice end to this weeks blog, there is Hunter. I've admitted in the past that I am not a dog, or for that matter, a pet person. However, this little guy and I have taken those obedience lessons over the top and he is becoming a good puppy. He has quite a ways to go, but we are bonding. He is now six and a half months old and weighed in at 31 pounds. I would like him to stay this size, but who knows. For now the path to a good relationship with him is going okay. That's some of what's been going on at the new Town House Homestead. We grow more and more each day and learn constantly. Things are moving along well and we are happy here. Spread Love and thank you for stopping by.