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

Container gardening has been my sanity this summer. I have been working diligently at cleaning and bringing our little piece of earth back to life. There's so much more to do just cleaning growth from a chain link fence, and working on the pollination garden a few shovels full at a time. I started two five gallon buckets of green beans yesterday. These will be growing in the breezeway so that the "friendly" animals around here won't eat them. My sunflowers are doing well. They are in the best pot of all, Mother Earth's. They are more than three feet tall at this point and I'm hoping with the heat we're going to be getting they will soon shoot higher.

A couple of weeks ago now I planted patty pan summer squash in two buckets and they are showing off at how well they can do in containers. 

I planted another bucket with basil. This is purple basil and it's also doing well growing in the breezeway. Beetles ate my basil last year and I am so looking forward to something more this year.

My potted shallots are growing and so is the one and only survivor I put in the ground. Gardening is a learning experience for me. I will succeed.

I started a pot of green bunching onions. Yes, I know they grow and spread, but I love them, cook with them, and am tired of buying them.

For a little change for our meals and salads I also started a pot of scarlet bunch onions. Although I have these in pots, I have also put a patch of each in the ground. I know it's late, but they will winter well and I'll have sets for next spring. 

My most exciting venture with container gardening is my ginger. This is my second attempt and I am happy to say it is sprouting and getting roots. It's been in the container for a little over two weeks and I think I'm in a bit of shock. I use so much ginger in my cooking, baking, and beverages. It takes about a year to grow before any harvest, but I've got this. 

In the pollination garden I have a five gallon bucket of mint growing that survived the winter and is ready to harvest. I also have a five gallon bucket of lemon balm growing and harvested that this past weekend. It is drying to use for tea. So, that's what's been going on this week at the Town House Homestead. We are making better progress than we expected. Thank you for stopping by and have a wonderful week. Happy gardening.