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koran pouch 2 back.jpg (JPEG Image, 541x773 pixels) - Scaled (68%)

koran pouch 2 back.jpg (JPEG Image, 541x773 pixels) - Scaled (68%)

I just love this little embroidered bag. I think it's mostly satin stitch for the larger areas. I need to learn more:>.

More jam

Hurray. Eight more half pint jars of strawberry jam:). Today was the last day of strawberry season around here and the local farm is done now. We have two and a half more gallons to can and I'll be done:)

Plus 4 pints of strawberry jam with four more on the way before I call it a night.

I messed up my earlier count. Those were pints. I used 4 containers that were 2 qts each and ended up with 7 pint jars and 12 half pints and just a small bowlfull left over. I think the first 5 pints aren't going to set well and instead are going to be renamed blackberry syrup.

1 gallon of blackberries apparently makes 5 half pint jars of jam. It would have made more but we had a little bit with some Angel Food cake.

Time

So if you miss the harvest you get flowers.

Tomatoes

Can you

Anyone know what this flower plant is?

Chamomile

I'm harvesting blossoms about every three days and drying them for tea. I've come to the conculsion that I should have planted at least four plants to use as a supply for tea.

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So I'm testing out mobile blogging.

Coming back from an Sca event this weekend I found that the storms over the weekend had caused the garden to really take off. In some cases the plants had grown between one and two feet between Thursday and Tuesday which amazed me to no end:>

Using wasted space

We have a couple of huge Oak trees in the yard that really cast a lot of shade. This means we have to get a little creative trying to find full sun locations to garden. This weekend my dh removed monkey grass for me in the latest grand gardening scheme. We'll use this previously wasted space to plant tomatoes and herbs----training the tomatoes up the fence for support. On paper is sounds like a good idea:>. Two more 8 ft by 18 inch boxes are going to go in along the fence line. The cool part is that the herbs and maters will be close to the side door for easy gathering around meal times.

Well, 12 cabbages and 9 broccoli plants are now in and mulched with straw from the bunny pen. Potatoes are in the first of three boxes. Tomorrow is garden day for the whole family so we'll all spend time tomorrow working as a family.

Since it's too cold to garden right now and littleman is sleeping so I have some quiet time I've been looking at ideas and websites of urban and suburban gardeners/farmers to get ideas for small space growing. I think I have Way more potatos to plant then I have potato boxes so I'll need to pull some wool out of the extra trashcan and get that set up for planting this week. I may need to set up more then that one. I want to find out if sweet potatos can be grown that way cause I have a lot of them with slips on them ready to go. Another project I've been looking at is self watering containers made from things like plastic soda bottles. We don't buy any but we have friends who do and it seems like it'd increase the usuable, plantable real estate in the backyard. I haven't had much luck regular container gardening cause they just dry out too fast (plus I'm forgetful about them). Also still need to make the clay pot irrigators for the upper garden as an experiment. I have a ton of clay pots down at the old house but no plans to go there for months so I guess I'll be buying some around here:<. It'll still be cheaper then the gas to go get the old ones. After tonights freeze I'm going to pop some hardy spring transplants into the ground like leeks and cabbage and cross my fingers. I know this violates the "don't plant till after Easter" rule but they are cold weather plants. My mom is still in shock at the concept:>.

http://www.homegrownevolution.com/
So the entry on this one today is about SIPs with nice links

greenroofgrowers.blogspot.com/2008/07/how-make-two-bucket-sub-irrigated.html
nice tutorials

and for fun....Rebar in the Garden...maybe I'm just too Scadian cause this seems like a cool idea to
me...www.ramshacklesolid.com/2008/06/rebar-bean-poles.html

I have an old clawfoot bathtub in the family that I'd also love to find a semi-tasteful way to incorporate into the yard. Maybe filling with dirt and planting with big, overflowing flowers or something:>.

Gardening spaces

These are our current raised beds. Planning on about doubling this over the next month or so to be ready for Summer.

Cheap, homemade potato chips

I am having a lot of fun exploring how to minimize the things in the pantry.  Last night I made yogurt with a crockpot and dry milk.  Tonight I experimented with making potato chips!  Now, there is a fine line between a potato chip and home fries which took a bit of time to discover but once sucessful....YuMMY!  Surprisingly the best chips to come out were the ones I microwaved rather then frying on the stove.  I still want to try the oven with a batch.  I'll be doing that again though.  I don't buy chips for the house at all...too much of a temptation and too little value for the price.  This would be a nice way to have a treat and keep the serving the right size.  Also I brought out some of the plain yogurt and used it as a sour cream sub. as a base for french onion dip.  It worked wonderfully!  We used both white and sweet potatos.

http://southernfood.about.com/od/deepfryerrecipes/r/blbb555.htm

http://www.elise.com/recipes/archives/000879oven-fried_potato_chips.php

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Potato-Chips/Detail.aspx  ----this recipe worked the best.