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I do! If you go to my profile you can check out my greenhouse pictures. It's a little outdated, now the cabbage, brocolli, and squash are developed and ready for harvest too!
I have had friends that have gone and loved it. Never gone myself tho because my husband would never go for it.
That's awesome! Me, too. My parents were veggie farmers that sold at farmers markets, a roadside stand, and to the local grocery store. It's in my blood.
I can and freeze as well. I learned how to do everything from my mom & dad (mostly my mom, lol) but my dad is the authority on making the mustard, horseradish, and sauerkraut. My mom did the veggies, pickles, and preserves.
I make all my own canned tomatoes, fruit preserves, pickles, and apple sauce. I also freeze a lot of different veggies. I wish I lived closer to family to do this together, but we do bond over the mutual love of doing it. I get my apples from my grandparents trees, the raspberries from my mom, and we exchange jars (we all have our own favorite recipes). It is a really great way to know what is in your food besides tasting WAY better. The difference between commercially canned tomatoes & my own is huge. It's almost like eating two different things. Oh, and you can't forget about how much money one can save by doing this. I haven't bought canned tomatoes, preserves, pickled veggies, apple sauce, or frozen veggies in a long time.
Yes yes yes and more yes! Also quite surprised by the fact that Shae was sent to Pentos? What's up with that? Since I'm a book person... Not sure how that's going to work out now haha. But can I just say I do NOT like the fact that they changed up who is training Jamie in swordplay? Is that a book spoiler? My husband says I ruin the books for him when I say stuff like that (since he hasn't read them yet...)
Certain veggies need that full sun to produce the best, but there are a lot of things that will do well with only a part days sun.
http://organicgardening.about.com/od/vegetablesherbs/a/shade veggies.htm
If I had twins I'd take time off, too!
I almost do the official square food gardening, but with some changes. Straw works for slugs and snails, too, but in a different way. They cannot crawl on the straw because the sharp ends cut them/kill them, so they stay away. Slugs can be a problem here, too. I use Marigolds to keep as many rabbits & deer out of my garden. They will still come in, but not as many do because they don't like the smell of them.
I've seen examples of growing strawberries through holes in the side of raised bed. It's a great idea to grow more without using as much ground space.
I've read up on it. I do something similar, but it's different. In my community garden plots I do no-till gardening. It is so much better for the soil. Adds nutrients year after year, keeps the worm channels in tact, which softens up the soil, and more. It relies on laying heavy mulch year after year, then just parting areas to plant your seeds/starters. The mulch (I use wheat straw) also keeps most of the weeds away and helps retain the moisture which means less watering. Yay, less work for me, especially since I need to haul water from the well at the community garden. My two plots there equal 30' x 40' so when I do water it's a 1-2 hour job minimum.
In my back yard my food producing gardens are raised beds. I use a lot of the principles of Square Foot gardening, but I don't follow all of the rules. For example, I don't use the layers of vermiculite and other things. I just have soil mixed with compost from the city covered in straw mulch for weed/water control. I use organic chicken manure at both places for fertilizer. That stuff is magic.
That's awesome! Gardening is incredibly rewarding.
I totally get how you feel about the getting up and down. Last summer I was very heavy for my frame and a chunk of it was some new fairly new weight I was working to back off. I had a very hard time doing anything. I gardened anyway, and did most of it myself, but I relied on my hubby to do a lot. I used a 2' kids step stool as a garden bench. I sat on it for weeding & planting. It was even annoying to get up from that, but if I would have sat on the ground or kneeled I would have never been able to get back up without help and great difficulty.
I am amazed that this fear is now gone. I still have a lot to lose, but I sit down on the floor with my daughter to play and can easily get back up. It's awesome! This is one thing about gardening I look forward too that I didn't mention, but is on my mind. Kneeling on my garden pad and sitting on the ground to work. I'll be able to get stuff done much faster overall, but also because I won't me moving around my stool as I work. I can just crawl around :)
In my experience, having had several dogs, getting a younger dog to support an older one depends on the personalities of the dogs. I've had good luck, though, when I had two dogs. Now I have only one, and she's been that way since we first brought her home. She's doing great, but then she has 3 cats to play with.
Good luck making your choice!
"What the caterpillar calls the end of the world, the master calls the butterfly." Richard Bach
"Support fosters your growth. If you are getting enough of the right support, you will experience a major transformation in yourself. You will discover a sense of empowerment and peace you have never before experienced. You will come to believe you can overcome your challenges and find some joy in this world." Katie Jay
I have two senior dogs, and the older of the two is on borrowed time (diabetes, arthritis, elevated liver enzymes, hair falling out, hearing lost, already exceeded the life expectancy of his breed). The other can't stand to be an only dog. My roommate and I are debating whether to get another dog now, so our younger dog (by younger I mean 11) can bond with it before the older dog passes, or wait until the older dog is gone.
The vet says it depends entirely on the dogs, so there is no definitive answer. Some of our friends have brought in a younger animal and had it reinvigorate the older ones, others have done it and had the younger animal wear the older one out and make it grumpier. We are talking about getting another adult rescue dog, not a puppy. Anyone have experience in this kind of situation?