Pennsylvania!! Unite!!

I the gardens topic, I just went out to check on mine. I'm SO excited! The potatoes have started growing in the feed bags, the onions are going crazy, tomatoes and peppers are still alive and growing, peas are going crazy and I think the spinach and lettuce are staying to come in (all a newbie trying to figure out what is and isn't a weed lol). I even saw that we have at least 3 sweet corn seedlings starting to come up
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the broccoli and cauliflower. ... I'm not sure if I see seedlings or a bunch of weeds lol and the green beans, I may have to start over with. For now, I'm going to go out and pour a few more green beans and peas in since I have still have some room
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still have to get the carrots, pumpkins, and zucchini planted. ... somewhere and waiting on the cucumbers to show themselves.

I am soooo glad to read your garden update! Last year I did my garden almost exclusivey from seedlings and it did so well that I decided to expand the bed this year. I also tried my hand at seed growing last year which also went well, so most of my garden was started with seeds this year and I started earlier than last year and outside (starting inside would have been a better idea in hind sight... live and learn
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). I was FREAKING out because I wasn't seeing any movement at all for weeks and was afraid I was going to have to spend money to buy seedlings. That would suck right now because we are so broke it's not funny and anything extra is going towards chickens hehe.

Point being, it's great to hear that someone else local is experiencing the same thing, waiting to see what's a weed vs. what's a veggie?! Yeah, I'm livng it right now! We even have little baby corn stalks popping up in weird places from last year's uneducated harvest lmao! But wait on your green beans, they should be up shortly, mine just popped up Monday
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I am soooo glad to read your garden update! Last year I did my garden almost exclusivey from seedlings and it did so well that I decided to expand the bed this year. I also tried my hand at seed growing last year which also went well, so most of my garden was started with seeds this year and I started earlier than last year and outside (starting inside would have been a better idea in hind sight... live and learn :idunno ). I was FREAKING out because I wasn't seeing any movement at all for weeks and was afraid I was going to have to spend money to buy seedlings. That would suck right now because we are so broke it's not funny and anything extra is going towards chickens hehe.

Point being, it's great to hear that someone else local is experiencing the same thing, waiting to see what's a weed vs. what's a veggie?! Yeah, I'm livng it right now! We even have little baby corn stalks popping up in weird places from last year's uneducated harvest lmao! But wait on your green beans, they should be up shortly, mine just popped up Monday ;) !

we started seeds inside but the tomatoes and peppers we started inside didn't do well when we transferred them so we did have to buy those to replace what we lost. Everything else is coming in from seed. The Green beans we also stated inside and I think they couldn't take the transplant. A couple died completely and the rest look pretty sad.

I'm really glad too that I'm not the only one with the seed adventure going on lol. This is our first year doing a full blown garden. We never had a yard until last year and it was pretty much too late last year to do much. And we're in the same boat with the money. All our extra had been going to Terry to finish the coop and it's taking a lot more than we ever planned lol
 
we started seeds inside but the tomatoes and peppers we started inside didn't do well when we transferred them so we did have to buy those to replace what we lost. Everything else is coming in from seed. The Green beans we also stated inside and I think they couldn't take the transplant. A couple died completely and the rest look pretty sad.

I'm really glad too that I'm not the only one with the seed adventure going on lol. This is our first year doing a full blown garden. We never had a yard until last year and it was pretty much too late last year to do much. And we're in the same boat with the money. All our extra had been going to Terry to finish the coop and it's taking a lot more than we ever planned lol

WOW, last year was my 1st year with a full blown garden and for the exact same reason lol! Well, we had places with some yard space before, but not the type of landlord that would allow such a thing. Either that or it was when I was younger and had no interest, you can get pretty crafty/creative and do things you never thought about doing before in order to survive hehe! Becoming self sufficient wasn't on the agenda for my life until a couple years ago, although I've always been able to pinch the life out of my pennies, it wasn't really ven a thougt to do these things for myself. Learning how to can and properly freeze my crops is on the agenda for this year... I can only imagine how delicious my pickled eggs and chow chow are going to be!!!
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WOW, last year was my 1st year with a full blown garden and for the exact same reason lol! Well, we had places with some yard space before, but not the type of landlord that would allow such a thing. Either that or it was when I was younger and had no interest, you can get pretty crafty/creative and do things you never thought about doing before in order to survive hehe! Becoming self sufficient wasn't on the agenda for my life until a couple years ago, although I've always been able to pinch the life out of my pennies, it wasn't really ven a thougt to do these things for myself. Learning how to can and properly freeze my crops is on the agenda for this year... I can only imagine how delicious my pickled eggs and chow chow are going to be!!! :drool

lol wow! Being self sufficient had been on our agenda for a few years but we had to wait until we could manage to get moved. We started Canning things last spring and have had a lot of success with making jellies, caning beans and corn, and we even fermented and canned 200 lbs of sauerkraut last fall (of which is almost gone it was such a success!) Canning is awesome! We need to load back up on jars over the summer to be ready for this fall. We'll be caning A LOT more this year :)
 
great job! when I built mine I got a door out of somebody's trash, and wood molding out of a restaurant dumpster, and the wooden 'nesting box' out of some business trash, and $1 windows at a ReStore shop, and a friend gave me metal roofing...... all I bought was plywood, framing, and paint
 
lol wow! Being self sufficient had been on our agenda for a few years but we had to wait until we could manage to get moved. We started Canning things last spring and have had a lot of success with making jellies, caning beans and corn, and we even fermented and canned 200 lbs of sauerkraut last fall (of which is almost gone it was such a success!) Canning is awesome! We need to load back up on jars over the summer to be ready for this fall. We'll be caning A LOT more this year
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Do you have one of those canning contraptions (pressure cooker thingy) or do you do it the old fashioned way and boil the jars to seal the lids? I would looove to make jellies, but I'm not growing any fruit besides strawberries and I know no one will let them keep long enough for me to use them haha! Do you buy your fruit from farm stands or at the store or grow it yourself? Sheesh, I sound like a 5 year old babbling, I just get so excited about this new found "hobby" of mine!!
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Must be a good kraut recipe, we love it at my house too. I want to try my hand at apple butter this fall so we'll be making a trip to that orchard in Conestoga this year and pick our own apples. DH thinks I may be losing my marbles a little, but this keeps me from having to work outside of the home full time. The amount of money we spend to feed 5 peope (mostly males) is insane, ya know?!
 
Do you have one of those canning contraptions (pressure cooker thingy) or do you do it the old fashioned way and boil the jars to seal the lids? I would looove to make jellies, but I'm not growing any fruit besides strawberries and I know no one will let them keep long enough for me to use them haha! Do you buy your fruit from farm stands or at the store or grow it yourself? Sheesh, I sound like a 5 year old babbling, I just get so excited about this new found "hobby" of mine!!  :weee

Must be a good kraut recipe, we love it at my house too. I want to try my hand at apple butter this fall so we'll be making a trip to that orchard in Conestoga this year and pick our own apples. DH thinks I may be losing my marbles a little, but this keeps me from having to work outside of the home full time. The amount of money we spend to feed 5 peope (mostly males) is insane, ya know?!

We do have a pressure canner but only because some thing HAVE to be pressure canned. If we CAN do the water bath, we do. It takes less time and is simpler. We don't have any of our own fruit yet but we have wild black berries and black raspberries that grow all around our house and a neighbor that has about 30 blueberry bushes. We also do the pick your own strawberries and such. The strawberry jelly we made last year was to DIE for lol. I think we're on our last jar lol. The sauerkraut recipe we used we found online and it turned out so good! We ended up with about 87 quarts and are down to about 9 now. Basically any time we find any really good deal on frit or veggies, we load up on it and can it :) I don't work either so we have to live on a budget too. It can get rough sometimes but we're working on it :) we just planted 8 blueberry bushes for ourselves and 2 Apple trees with a whole Orchard planned. .. Once we can afford to buy them lol. The Apple yes we got for free though not sure what type of apples they are lol.

ETA: my hubby is the monster in the family. He is ALL about homemade anything and caning everything and once it's in his head, Thera no getting it out until we do it lol.
 
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