Peppy peppers

I have had an abundance of peppers, lots of them. Red, Orange, yellow, green and purple. There is no way we can eat them all. I do give some away but also like to keep some for winter for soups, stews  spaghetti and pizza. How do I do that you might ask? Easy peezy I say =)

 First be sure and wash them off under running water. Organic or not bugs land on them, and dirt flies about so keeping things clean is a good thing.

 

Then cut the tops off and take the seeds out (save them)

 I put the tops aside and keep any good parts to freeze and throw the rest in the compost. Put any bad spots  in the trash.

 I save my seeds, take them off the core part and let them dry on a paper plate or paper until dry. The bad ones turn brown, get rid of them and keep all the nice ones.

 I slice mine in about 1/4 inch slices. This way I can use them on pizza in slices or if needed cut them up for stew, soup or spaghetti. Put them on a cookie sheet or tray, I line mine with Saran wrap or wax paper so they don't stick. Don't layer them too thick and pop them in the freezer for a few hours.( or over night should you happen to forget they are there, which I never do.)

 Once they are frozen, clearly label them or you will not know what they are 5 months from now and share some and pop the rest in your freezer. This takes about 20 minutes total work , not including freezing time and depending on how many peppers you have. These shown were all grown from my saved seeds from last year which makes me very happy. Aren't they pretty!

Happy Fall everyone!!

Reduce, Reuse Recyle, how many times have we all heard that...

BUT it can be a great way to do things.

 Things can get very costly out there if you have to buy everything new so I asked 

a few friends and had a few ideas of my own I thought I would share with you.

Be a scrounger! Containers and plant starting trays can cost a bundle. I found 4 huge plant containers in someones big trash! They now house many of my herbs. Need to start seedlings? Save your egg containers. The cardboard ones are great and will decompose.All those plastic tubs your strawberries and cherry tomatoes come in, perfect mini greenhouses! (wash well first)

We had a lovely gazebo, then we had a snow storm, we no longer have a gazebo. We collected the poles and they will now become extra poles for my pole beans. The netting? It will be used to cover my plants like broccoli and cabbage to keep the moths out of them. Awesome!

What about an old pool that has been well used but no longer any good. We cut it up into flat pieces and used it to cover our wood pile and the raised boxes to keep weeds down between seasons.

Have an old wheelbarrow and fireplace liner? We did so it now keeps our wood stove ash nicely housed and covered through the winter until they can be used!

I also got some great ideas from my gardening group friends!

Gardening Jones offered these suggestions! Reuse cardboard boxes and corn stalks to cut down on weeds, use an old garden shovel for your house numbers, glass bottles work as mini cloches to get a jump in the season, her garden gate is the foot board from an old metal bed, a broken windmill lawn ornament supports vining crops, plastic milk jugs painted black help hold the heat in the mini greenhouse.

You can check out her blog here, It's great! Gardening Jones Blog

And my friend Jack Sisler offered these,

Use three or four layers of old newspapers with straw on top between their rows of sweetcorn and other vegetables to keep the weeds down. Can be tilled in prior to the next growing season. Toilet paper and paper roll tubes are used by many for seed starting. 

I hope these suggestions help or inspire you to try some of your own. Happy Gardening!!

10 things I have learned about gardening

I am not a professional gardener, by anystretch of anyone's mind. I have grown plants & flowers and helped with a garden when I was very small, but that is about the extent of my experience except for an occasion dabble here and there.This will just be my experiences that I have had and maybe you can take something with you from it.=)

We do raised box gardening and are attempting to keep it all organic, no small chore, but a worth while one for everyone in the end. We live in Arkansas so we will have some different things than other places but I am guessing the general gist will be the same.

Ten (or maybe more) things I have learned about gardening.

1. Raised boxes makes for great gardening when your yard is a waste  land (provided you follow number 2), drain well and are easy to work with.

2. Make sure your soil is good soil. we went to our local home improvement store and got top soil which came I am guessing from a nuclear waste zone. When our plants turned yellow like they had hapititis , we knew something was wrong. Test your soil BEFORE you waste all the time and effort and it will surely create some better plants.

3. Most things can be started early, although I have read up and there are few things that need to be sewn directly into the soil. It makes for healthy plants,  & allows you to get the drop on nature. Here we have an early last frost and we can grown well into fall.

4.Make sure you give everything lots of room to grow. Plants need some personal space too.I in my crazy exuberance made sure and plants lots and lots of tomatoes in the box. In the beginning they looked great. Now I have a small jungle where gnomes run and hide and eat my tomatoes because everything is so close and following up with number 5

5. Make sure you stake those roomy plants. Mine have grown huge and bushy giving said gnome a good place to hide and not allow air and sun to circulate around your plants. I have lots of flowers now and tomatoes forming but it took them a while to get here. I also blame this on the nuclear waste from number 1.

6. You can get a LOT of cucumbers from a few plants.I mean a LOT! Keep what you need for yourself and share the rest with family, friends and neighbors. Don't eat to many at one time, things do NOT bode well when you do. (pardon the dust in the picture we are renovating and it is everywhere)

7.Cucumber and melons will vine everywhere, up tomato plants, corn stalks and fences. Give them their own little place to climb so it dosen't affect the rest of your plants.Those little tendrils they send out will choke the life out of anything once they hang on.Plus you will have a cleaner veggie that the gnome won't be able to get so easily. ( a big stick helps as well)

8.A little helper in your garden never hurts anything and they will learn the love of gardening as well. Children love to help and Ivy spent a lot of her mornings helping me in the garden.It was very beneficial to both Peaches & Ivy =)

9. I have learned what cucumber bugs, eggs from other critters, squash vine borers and other nasty's look like. I am not afraid to thump them or squish them with my bare hands. nasty buggers. They will kill your plants, so get rid of them when ever possible!

 

10. Your dogs will want to be in your garden, they cannot help themselves. 

You may need to put up a small fence. It is probably more psychological for them but it does help. Unfortunately it does not keep our small dog out. He climbs under it, never occurring to him, it was meant to keep him out as well as the big dogs. We just found a small plastic one from Lowes with some small posts and it works just right.

11. It is always important to have a little fun. After all what is life without some enjoyment. Take some time to relax after you have worked hard. It makes going out to your garden much more enjoyable.

 12. And of course the reason we garden is to get the reward at the end. Since this was my first serious try I wasn't sure how it would turn out but so far I have been pleased, I have learned a lot and we have had some nice tasting garden items with only organic pesticides so no poisoning is eminent

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ENjoy your week