From My Home to Yours: 3/27/26

   From My Home to Yours

3/27/26

~  It's about the garden this week!  ~

reminder:  our gardening this year is solely in containers and raised beds.  This year we opted not to have a row garden which cuts our garden space in half.  At the same time, our goal is to grow as close to the amount we usually grow as possible by using the intensive gardening method.

Isn't this a silly picture!!

It's my gardening hat and gloves ... after a day of working in the garden and yard, my hat was sweaty and my gloves were wet.  I hung them on the fireplace tools stand!  Almost everything in our small home serves many purposes ... it's the way we make it all work!

We completed a new raised bed this week and connected it to an already established one by forming an arch using a cattle panel.  I planted climbing roses at the end of each bed with the hope and intention of them growing up and over the arch meeting somewhere in the middle.  I specifically chose a fragrant variety of roses for this arch.  If this turns out half as pretty and fragrant as I hope, it will be a sight for our eyes and a fragrance for our senses.  I can almost see and smell it now!  Next week, I plan to fill all those 'cinder block holes' with soil and plant bunching onions in each!  We've had our bunching onion plants for several years and have kept them going each subsequent year.  We plant one onion plant and by the end of the season that one onion turns into a whole bunch of onions.

In the smaller bed, along with the climbing rose bush, I planted the rest of it in lemon balm.  I love the smell of lemon balm too, and it's medical properties make it something I want in the herbal part of my pantry.

Our green peas are coming up and growing!

Our carrots are too!  (No picture this week, their up but are still so small they are hard to photograph)

Our potatoes are coming up in this raised bed, as you can see the onions are doing well, and I planted  speckled pole lima beans to grow up the arch trellis. (I used old seeds for the lima beans, so I'll be watching closely to see if they sprout.)

I completed my weekly harvesting of nettles on Monday and let them air dry, just as I did the nettles from prior weeks of harvesting.  

I powdered about a half pint jar this week to start using in my morning smoothie.  A half teaspoon should do the job to start out with and then we'll go from there.  What do I hope to accomplish by adding powdered nettles to my smoothie each morning ... here are a few benefits that my research has uncovered:  helpful with allergies, arthritis, inflammation, bladder infections, UTI's, and a good source of hard to get vitamins and minerals.  (I found many more uses not listed here.)  Please note, I am not a doctor, nor do I have any medical training, I'm simply sharing what my research has shown.  Please do your own research and as always, consult your doctor or a trained herbalist.

I transplanted more echinacea plants.  The ones I transplanted last week are doing well, so I decided to transplant the rest of them.

I planted this container with mustard greens.  It's located under one of our pear trees in the orchard!  To the left of it are some garlic chives that come back every year. My plan for the mustard greens is to use them as an ingredient in a greens powder mix.

Can you see the little green tomato plants under all this "critter" protection?

I planted the first of our tomato plants (old fashioned German Pink variety)!  Yes, I know it's a bit early, but I was daring and decided to try to get a head start.  I only planted 2 small plants and am keeping a watch on them and the weather forecast!   If I have to, I can replace them as I have additional plants waiting to be planted after our last frost date that I started from seeds the same time I started these.  Like I said, I just couldn't resist pushing the season a bit!  We'll see how it turns out ... I would love to have slicing tomatoes for sandwiches in June instead of waiting until July as is the norm for our area!

A neighbor was having a well established fig tree removed from his back yard and hubby just happened to be driving by while it was being removed.  Hubby called the neighbor and asked if he could have some of the rooted portions to transplant to our property.  The neighbor was generous and told hubby to take all he wanted.  We planted out enough for 4 trees, if they all live, we'll have enough for our use, to share, barter and or trade.  God is good and we are thankful for good neighbors!

I hope you're seeing that you don't have to have a lot of land, we have less than an acre, nor spend lots of money to have a garden.  Thus far this year we haven't purchased any seeds nor seed potatoes.  Everything we've planted thus far, except the 7 cabbage plants we purchased along with our onion plants the end of February, have been from our own stash of heirloom seeds we save from year to year or old seeds in our seed bank.  The potatoes we planted are some left from last fall's harvest.  This is the first year we haven't purchased seed potatoes to plant.  As you can see from the picture in this post earlier, they are doing well thus far.

Let's talk about something else that I think is important when we think about gardening ... flowers.  They're important for pollination purposes as they draw bees and insects that do the actual  pollinating and also ... when times are lean or troubled, beauty is important.  Beauty lifts the spirits and it's a reminder that God still controls the universe. With all the uncertainty in the world right now, it's good to be reminded of that!

With all the time I've spent outside this week, my facial skin was beginning to feel a bit dry, so I applied a thin layer of jojoba oil over it.  I really like the way it makes my skin feel and use it on other areas of my skin that get overly dry as well.  This is the brand I use.  I also sometimes use jojoba oil as the carrier oil when making essential oil roller bottles.  (I use fractionated coconut as a carrier oil sometimes as well.)  The more uses I can get from one product, the few products I need to keep on hand!!

For the pantry, I dehydrated two jars of hot salsa, that hubby found on clearance nearing it's 'best buy' date at the grocery store, and turned them into a powder we'll use for seasoning purposes. (The regular price for each jar was $7.97) I knew we wouldn't use the salsa before it got old, so I turned it into something we would and could use ... before it got old.  Sometimes, you need to think outside the box!  Let me just add that it has a really good smell!

Here's how I did it ...

spread the salsa out on dehydrator trays lined with dehydrator dryer sheets

dehydrate at 125 degrees until crispy dry  (I don't have a set time to give as part way through the drying process we needed to run an errand, so I turned off the dehydrator, slid the trays in the refrigerator and then when we returned home, put them back in the dehydrator, turned it back on to 125 degrees and continued the process until it was dry.)

let cool

turn into powder using my nutri-bullet machine

condition the powder by putting it in a 170 degree oven for 1 hour stirring half way through.

let cool and jar

Use to season dips, tacos, burritos, soups, casseroles, stews, cheese balls, etc.

I also found chicken legs at a good price and purchased enough to can up 7 jars of chicken and 5 jars of chicken broth for our pantry.  We are making it a priority to shop hard for bargains at the grocery store.  These bargains are being turned into a well-stocked pantry!  I'd love to hear how you're using the grocery store to add to your pantry ... in non conventional ways!

I finished reading book 5 in the Bregdan Chronicles, The Last Long Night by Ginny Dye and started book 6 in the series, Carried Forward by Hope.   I also continued listening to With Each Tomorrow by Tracie Peterson and Kimberley Woodhouse during my daily exercise routine.

I completed my last upcycle project in my stack of WIP (works in projects), another dress turned skirt.  This is the last dress I have that needed a new life.

Ladies, the 7th lesson in our Bible study on Naomi has been posted.  You can find it HERE!

the helter-skelter arrangement of this bouquet was on purpose ...

Take a look at this pretty bouquet of baby's breath.  The ladies of our congregation hosted a shower for a first time expectant mother over the weekend and after the shower these were going to be tossed.  I was asked if I wanted them while being told that they were fresh and wouldn't last long.  I said 'yes, that I would enjoy their beauty for as long as possible.'  I brought them home and put them in this mason jar ... aren't they just so pretty ... and you can't beat the price!  (It's Friday and they still look as pretty as they did on Sunday, when I brought them home!!! That's 5 days of 'pretty' for the price of 'free!')

Repurpose ...

Use What You Have ...

Get creative ...

Enjoy God's beauty ...

That's it for this week, I hope you've found something in my ramblings that will help and or encourage you in the upcoming week.

Until the next time ...  

mrs. patsi @ A Working Pantry  

~ quietly holding the home front ~

She looketh well to the ways of her household … Proverbs 31:27 

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