Rosemary Seeds

    We have a rosemary plant and the seed pods have finally come out, they came out green, though, but I am ready to dry them for planting. .  The problem is, is that taking out rosemary seeds from the pods takes a very VERY long time.  But, it all is worth it after you get the product, because with rosemary, you have unstoppable uses.  I just got barely 1 stem and I have over 50 seeds.  The seeds do have a very low germination rate unfortunately, but that's okay.   I have been doing some seed trades lately with my rosemary seeds and have been getting new plants and seeds

        We have had a rosemary plant for a pretty long time now.  We had fresh rosemary to marinate our meat, and boy is that good, it's so much better than dried herbs.   Also rosemary contains carnosol which is supposed to be a cancer repellent.  If you are interested in rosemary I recommend you get some!

Potato Growing 101

    As you know, I have been planting potatoes, and they sprouted not too long ago.  I decided, well, if they were so easy to grow, mine as well grow some more and give a tutorial video on how to plant potatoes so you could grow a bountiful crop of your own.

      So, first go to your local grocery store and buy a potato with a lot of eyes such as the one on the right.  All you have to do is make some marks where your eyes are and make some lines to cut it up to grow more plants. Like on the right =====>>

     Then use your lines to cut up the potato in shapes, and make sure your eyes aren't cut.  Then with your shapes, just plant a 3-4 inch hole and stick them in and cover it up with dirt and in 5-6 days you will start to see it sprout!  

     This is just to show that you don't need any dumb ol' seed potato.  Just buy a potato from Safeway with a bunch of eyes and use that as your seed.

Garlic Sprout

      A few days ago, was cooking with some garlic and when I went to get a garlic it was sprouting, so I just threw it out into my compost bin.  Little did I know that it started to root and grow to a garlic plant hoping to be grown to produce me a full bulb.  It grew kinda lop-sided though, probably because it was trying to reach the sun to photosynthesize.  I planted it this morning and it is growing pretty well.  If you are wondering why my garlic just grew out of nowhere, it's because first of all it sprouted, and I threw it in my compost bin where it has all the key factors for growing conditions, humidity, like a greenhouse, moisture, and heat.  This also works with bird seeds, that's how I got the seedling for my Seedlings In Eggshells post.  With the right factors you can sprout basically any type of seed!

         Clearly, garlic is a very easy plant to grow but they take almost half a year to grow which isn't the best thing for impatient people like me.  I have my fingers crossed!  I hope that I can get some fresh garlic before my chickens dig them up.  If you are interested in growing some garlic, I have provided some helpful links on the side!  Just click for more information!  The have great garlic bulbs that are cheap and there are some very helpful books that I bought myself!

Sprouting Potatoes

   As you all should know from reading Pots For Root Vegetables 6 I am growing potatoes.  Not too long ago they finally sprouted.  I am hoping to be able to dig them up in about 1-2 weeks, trying to get some "high quality" potatoes, which is basically your tubers.   Before I even get started about getting my potatoes, I have to cross my fingers before my Evil Chickens get there, and destroy it.  I am most likely to not harvest all the potatoes and let the life cycle of potatoes to keep growing.  Here's how the life cycle of a potato works.  First, I plant it, it grows, I harvest some of them, I eat them and while I am eating they start to scream in terror realizing the skin of Joe (for you guys that are named Joe just use Fred and vice versa) is their fertilizer and immediately tries to reproduce and while they are reproducing I am waiting for another season for harvesting.  Anyways, my potato is about ready to harvest.  Keep up and follow!

Adorable Breakfast

       If you guys have eaten pancakes, which I am sure you all have, you know that you can shape them.  Well, today we had pancakes and that's what I just did, shaped them, but not your regular old mickey mouse but your abnormal chicken that lays sunny side up egg.   I let my kids make their own eggs and my son got this cute idea.  He decided to make a chicken with the pancake batter.  Then, my daughter thought it would be even better if the chicken laid an egg, and thus this was born, the adorable breakfast.  This is a great way to start your day.  Please comment about your most interesting breakfasts!

Paintbrushes are Bees

        After reading the title, you might be saying I'm crazy and wondering if I am lying or telling you the truth. Well, I don't blame you, it does sound crazy, but I am telling you the truth.  If you don't have any bees, or have an indoor plant that needs pollinating, just buy a paintbrush.  To pollinate without bees you first have to of course, grab the paintbrush then, rub it on the flowers you wish to pollinate.  The paintbrush will grab some pollen and rub it off to the other flower, allowing them to pollinate.  This happens because of the tiny bristles that make the pollen stick.  Now instead of the bee being the pollinator, you are!  I recently did the technique to my rosemary plant, and in about a week or so, they were sprouting so many seed pods, it was crazy!  If you don't have the time to use a paintbrush and hand pollinate it, you can shake the plant which will release the pollen and hopefully pollinate.

        Also, pollinating by hand has a lot of benefits such as having a purebred seed.  (as long as you pollinate with the same plant)  You can also, do this to mix up the genes a little bit and mix up the kinds.  Allowing you to breed to your own taste.  Happy pollinating!

Seedlings in Eggshells

         I have so many eggs it's even heard to imagine.   Everyday, I get three to four eggs.  Basically every week I get minimum over a dozen!  It's almost like my chickens are laying just because it's almost Easter.  Either that or they want to lay more eggs 'till I get sick of them and start giving it to them!  Nearly every morning I eat scrambled, sunny-side up, over-easy, or boiled eggs.  Eggs will never get old, to me they taste like heaven.  As you can tell, I get a ton load of eggshells everyday.  Most of the time I give them to the chickens, or put it in my compost, but this time I had a crazy idea.  Put seedlings in eggshells!  I got this great idea from my favorite blog called Tilly's Nest.

Spring's Magic

   With spring right around the corner, my flowers on my decorative tree is blooming, non-stop.  The flowers are so beautiful!  They are this nice pink shade with beautiful purple leaves.  (leaves came back now)  Our family just loves this and we like to put it in a little pot when we need a little touch of spring to our house.  The good part about these flowers is that it adds a nice scent in our backyard and instead of smelling chicken poo we can smell flowers.

       Seeing the flowers every time I go outside to do gardening work, gives me a great feeling.  When I look at the flowers, it gives me a reason to garden.  To enjoy what comes from all the hard work, and that it all pays off.  It's like, the flowers, sign of growth, and knowing my tree is growing every year, it represents my garden.  The flowers are all the little plants that grow every year.  That my garden is improving. It shows that my garden is going to thrive and that I will get some good crops.  When there are no flowers, that year is going to be as good, and that I won't have as many crops.  This is how I interpret the flowers and growth of my tree.  To me, this tree is my fortune teller.  I love this tree and can and never will part from it.

Green Eggs and...More Green Eggs

  As you all may know, yesterday was St. Patrick's Day.  And what color should you wear in order to not be pinched?  GREEN!!  For breakfast, I cooked some eggs, but not just any eggs, but green eggs!  I scrambled some eggs and put some food coloring in there and viola!  Green eggs and... green eggs!  We all just loved it!  It was really hard to keep the surprise away from the curious children, but somehow, I managed to make the eggs without them finding out what I cooked for them.  I cooked them in a silicone heart shaped "shaper"  making them into a heart shaped green egg.  When they saw the eggs they nearly squealed in delight.  The smiles on their faces were longer than the Golden Gate Bridge!  Funny part is, is that I nearly tricked them that because, Almond, my ameracauna, laid the green egg which caused the egg to turn green on St. Patrick's Day.  Yesterday, was one of the best St. Patrick's Day we had in a long time.  Well, what did you guys do for St. Patrick's Day?

Chamomile Seedling

        So, lately, I found a small little chamomile plant.  I used to raise these flowers when I was younger.   So, I came across this plant when I was walking around a little trail near my neighborhood.  I found a big plant, of this flower and a small little plant like this one.  I decided, to uproot the plant because I remembered growing the same plant a while back.  With the small plant I uprooted it and planted it in a little pot.  Hopefully, it will grow to be a big plant and I will be able to plant it outside.

          I just want this to show that, you don't need any seeds or anything.  If there is a small plant that isn't supposed to be there, like from seeds that grew that were from flying seeds or from critters that dug them there.  All you have to do is uproot the plant, make sure that you don't destroy the roots of the plant or, of course it won't grow.

         So far, the plant is growing really well as you can see.  If you would like to grow a plant, this is so much easier than growing a seed or using a cutting!  I find this way easier than planting seeds, If you don't well that's okay, I just recommend that you try this method.  Honestly it really works and you don't have to be worried about the germination rate, because of course it is already grown.  Hopefully, you find this way easy and you will use this method as well.

3 Layers Of Garden Space

        Today was a good day for building.  I made a three layered raised garden bed out of materials I got from my garage behind everything.  I was doing some wring clean.  Yes wring cleaning, wring, winter and spring cleaning.  It's in between winter and spring.  Anyways, while I was cleaning out my garage....you probably don't want to hear my life story. So, lets fast forward just a little bit.  So, I made a three layer gardening bed made of recycled materials.  Well materials that were unused for a long time.  I built this so I could have more room to plant things such as, tomatoes, beets, flowers, herbs and other plants.  I even planted 8 flowers already and they bloomed as fast as you can click your mouse!  As you can see I didn't put any fencing on there, only because I didn't want the fencing to block your view.  But, if I don't put any fencing, it allow the chickens to get in there and make little dust bath crevices in the dirt.  I have to clean it up which is a pain. I have to dust of the bricks with a broom which takes a pretty long time because you have to try to get the dirt in the garden bed and not the floor.  To fill the crevices is even harder.  Luckily you guys have the cleaned up picture or else it will look like a mess.  If you guys have any ideas on what I should plant just leave a comment and I will take it into consideration!

Raised Garden Bed

   Like I said in my last post, Pots for Root Vegetables 6, I have a raised garden bed.  While my Internet was having issues, I decided to make a raised garden bed, for some vegetables.  So far, I have made some plans in the future for what I am going to plant.  Here are is one of my blueprints on what I will try to grow later on in the spring/summer. Hopefully all will go as planned!  The type of beets I am wanting to grow is Dark Detroit Red and am open to other varieties.  If you guys know any beet plants that you would like me to grow, just send in a comment and I will most likely grow it.  Also, as you can see in the picture, I am wanting to grow carrots. if you have read Pots for Root Vegetables 5, I have had some carrot seeds before.  Luckily, I had gotten two seed packets.  Hopefully my chickens won't do the same thing that they did to my carrot plants last year.  About radishes, I still have no clue on what I want to grow.  I am wanting to grow a different colored radish than you buy at the stores so I can try something new.  Hopefully, all goes as planned!  Tomorrow there will be a follow up post on my raised garden bed showing you what it looks like!

Pots for Root Vegetables 6

        Sorry for the delay of posts guys.  I have been having some trouble with the internet lately.   Anyways, I have decided what I should plant in my pot.  Finally yes, I know.  I have decided to grow potatoes.  I have decided to grow potatoes for many reasons such as, potatoes can be dug out much easier in a pot rather than in the soil where you have to search the whole darn earth just to find one potato.  Also, I have decided to grow all the other root vegetables in my raised garden bed (I will talk about later).  The reason is, is because carrots, and other root vegetables are so much easier to pull out of the ground unlike potatoes, where you have to search until the sun goes down to find one darned potato.

         Today I just planted, some tubers and hopefully they will come out.  As you can tell in the picture to the side.  I didn't use potato tubers.  Instead,  I sort of sprouted the potato eyes, cut of the non-sprouted part and just planted it.   To plant potatoes in pots, it's actually quite easy, all you really have to do is dug a 5 inch hole(appx.)  and just stick it in, then plant it.  Most likely, you won't have to plant any more tubers because you are bound to forget a potato, it will sprout eyes and the whole life cycle begins again.  In a few weeks I will get back to you guys and show you how my potato plant is doing.  Thanks for waiting! ~Sunny

Pots for Root Vegetables 5

          I am thinking and thinking of what to grow in my pot!  I am having the hardest time!  First my mind tells me to grow potatoes,  then the other half tells me to grow carrots!  So my decision is down to those two.  I think I just might grow carrots because of a earlier accident with my EVIL CHICKENS.  I planted a bunch of carrot seeds on a raised garden bed and let them sit, protecting them with bamboo.  Somehow my chickens got into it, started eating every single one of the leaves (the carrots were just 1 week into sprouting)  and turned the seeds to compost.  It was horrendous!  All four of my chickens were killing the plants non-stop!

     Why do I want to grow potatoes?  Well, there are so many different kinds of potatoes it's unbelievable!  The colors range from yellow to purple!  Also, they come in different shapes and sizes which I think is kinda cool.  Not only that but they are really easy to grow!   Also, on top of that they grow so fast, in like 2 months.(considering some plants take a whole season)

          Hopefully I can choose today before it's too late!  I am down to two plants!  Thanks for keeping up!

Pots For Root Vegetables 4

Radishes, radishes add a nice spicy taste to every salad.  They are great for veggie dips as long as you have hummus.  Radishes are probably, one of my favorite vegetables of all time.  I love to pack a little container of radishes, have a bit of hummus or ranch on the side and pack it for lunch radishes are also among the easiest and fastest vegetables to grow.  There a more than 250 radishes that gardeners can choose from and each and every one of those radishes have unique colors, sizes, shapes and flavors.  Most of them cannot be found in supermarkets. In addition, radishes can help cure constipation and aid in digestion.  Also, radish juice soothes the digestive and excretory system to relive piles.  Another health benefit is that the help clean and protect against infection.  Radishes are basically just a health benefit waiting for you.


   Why do I want to grow radishes?  Well, radishes, of course have a lot of heath benefits which is good.  But also, radishes are my comfort food, when I feel down, I can take out a radish.  The radish will sort of lift my spirits (don't ask why  I don't know)  The nice crunch and the flavors combine and make a great combination.

    Radishes are also one of the very few plants that take very little time to grow which is helpful.  Also, like beets, radishes don't require much maintenance.  Unfortunately, radishes are so small and don't last too long in our fridge before they run out (because we eat them all in one sitting)  Hopefully, I can grow a big batch of radishes!

Pots for Root Vegetable 3

  If you haven't been reading the last few posts, I bought a new pot for root vegetables only.  Today, I'm trying to convince myself to grow beets.  So far, my mind is set on potatoes, carrots and now beets.  One beneficial value of beets that they are high in fiber and rich in vitamins A and C, beets have more iron than other vegetables, including spinach. And they're rich in calcium, potassium, and phosphorus, as well as folic acid, which helps protect you from heart disease and guards against birth defects.  These are just some of the health benefits beets  provide.  Also, beets are very easy to grow and require very little maintenance as long as you water them once or maybe even twice a week.  

          Another reason why I want to grow beets is because of the rainbow colors they produce.  Also, in salads, they are mighty tasty.  They add a nice crisp to you salad or even beets salad purely made of beets and no lettuce!  Also beets are relatively disease and pest free, and even the problems they do have are relatively easy to manage organically.  Also, with beets, you can make a beautiful red dye the young ones just love!

      Beets are just one of many of natures wonders.  Hopefully this post inspired you to grow beets, try a beet salad or do what ever you feel like doing.  Now my mind is set with so many great root vegetables to grow my head is spinning!

Pots for Root Vegetables 2

  Just a little recap from last weeks post. So, last week, I bought a pot to grow root vegetables in, and I don't know which plant to grow. I am thinking about growing potatoes, carrots, beets and etc. Today I am going to talk about why I want to grow carrots in the pot.

So, I've been thinking long and hard about why I would like to grow carrots in my pot. Well, I have grown carrots before and they have turn out to be a success. I want to grow carrots because it's almost a fail-proof vegetable unlike most other roots. Also, I would like to try growing heirloom and different colored carrots as well as it would be a nice thing to try. Also, with carrots, you can eat them straight from the ground, which I really love about carrots. I love the carrots nice, crisp, crunchy taste about them. I also find carrots to be a comfort food, like when I'm hungry, I can always pull out a carrot, peel it and eat it just like that.  

A reason why I was a little reluctant to grow carrots is because they are so cheap at the supermarkets like Safeway or Costco. One reason, why I decided to grow carrots is because you know you aren't getting hormones in your food. Also, for some odd reason, carrots taste better when home-grown. Maybe it's the freshness of the carrot or the fact that you grew it yourself, I really don't know, all I know is that it is without a doubt in my mind, it's true.

Now, I have even more plants to think about! I have to choose between potatoes, carrots and the upcoming posts! Hopefully, my mind will be made up before the week is over!

Pots for Root Vegetables

So, lately, we bought a big ol' pot for some root vegetables.  I am thinking about growing potatoes because I haven't grown potatoes before.  Also, an awesome thing about potatoes is that they can basically grow in all seasons as long as they are kept in the garage or in a moderate temperature.  Also, growing potatoes is an awesome thing to grow because there are no "seed potatoes" or "tubers."  You can use store bought potatoes and cut/trim it to make it a smaller potato as long as it has "eyes."  Then doing this, you can plant either your small potatoes or you cut potatoes.  Also you don't want to let your potatoes sit too long in the dirt or else they'll turn into the crappy store bought potatoes.  Growing potatoes and harvesting them for 10 to 13 weeks gives you high quality potatoes.  Tomorrow there will be a follow up post on carrots.