Busy Days On The Homestead

I realized today it has been over 2 weeks since I have posted on here. I am still here it has just been SO busy around here. The garden is producing so there has been tons of preserving going on.

My in-laws went out of town for a week and asked us to keep an eye in their large garden. We were told that if we would water it and keep an eye on things any produce we picked we could keep. Oh my! I had no idea how much I would be getting. We go over every other day to pick tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers. cantaloupe and blackberries. Hopefully their corn will be ready soon.

I keep telling myself not to complain about the work because we have been given a gift of free food that someone else put the work into growing. I seem to go through this every year about this time. I have about had enough of the garden and the heat. There is produce falling off every counter in my kitchen. I have to constantly remind myself what a blessing this is. There are others who would love to be in my place and would gladly do the work.

I have been canning nearly everyday trying to keep up with the tomatoes before they go bad. This is not an easy feat when you have 4 little ones around needing attention on top of the regular daily chores. I do not know how Ma Ingalls managed. That poor woman must have been exhausted all the time. I know I have never been so tired and I have modern conveniences to help me.

I love my children, but I can hardly wait for school to start in 2 weeks so I can get some things accomplished. I know I will miss them, but for the moment I am ready for them to be busy elsewhere. There are days I can not figure out how I used to do all this and homeschool. I guess I had a different rhythm back then. It seems that ever since I put the kids in public school they no longer know how how to entertain themselves. They seem to need someone to tell them what to do every minute of the day. They are doing better now that summer is almost over.

I have lots of posts planned, so don't go anywhere. I will post as I have time during this busy season. I should have lots of time this winter once the garden is done. Hopefully in the next week or so I will be able to give you our August garden update. 

Bucket Tomatoes VS Ground Tomatoes

              Tomato in the ground. Sorry it's hard to see.                 Tomato in a bucket.

The Challenge:

Which plants will grow the best? The ones planted in the buckets or the ones in the ground?

Early in the spring I started tomatoes from seed. They were SO SLOW to get going. I almost gave up and bought transplants. I am slowly learning the how and why of growing my own food. Apparently my seedlings were not getting enough light. I though they were, but once I got them outside they went crazy.

I decided to put most of them in buckets mostly to save space, but also to do an experiment to see which plants would do better...those planted in buckets or those planted directly into the ground.

May

Back in May I really thought I would lose the ones I put in the ground. They just did not seem to grow and I almost couldn't find them with all the weeds trying to crowd them out.

I kept babying them and keeping them as weed free as possible. I think one thing that made the biggest difference was all the  rain we had in May. It was possibly drowning their roots. There was just more rain then the ground could handle.

At the same time the bucket tomatoes were growing really really fast. My guess would be that they were able to drain most of the excess water off.

June

Through out June the plants in the ground really started to catch up and the bucket plants started to put out blooms, but started to wilt under the intense heat and the lack of rain. The ground plants were able to reach down into the ground for extra water.

July

It is now July and so far the bucket tomatoes are doing the best and have lots of green tomatoes all over them.

The ones in the ground are slowly getting there. I think by the end of the season they will be producing.

The Verdict

I am so excited that I decided to keep trying with my seedlings and that I didn't toss them. The thought of starting plants from seed was a bit overwhelming for me since I have almost always bought starts.

I think the tomatoes in the buckets are going to be the way I go from now on since it saves so much space in my garden and I can move them around.