Tulip Spring garden, veggie garden & blooming fruit treed

There's many beautiful varieties of tulips in the garden right now. I composted around them too to help them along.

Plum and pear trees blooming

Peach and nectarine trees blooming

Their enchanting and when I'm feeling uneasy about life, I look at the flowers.

I also have broccoli and cauliflower transplanted in the garden beds, a long with onion bulbs. I transplanted these today and I transplanted a lilac bush today as well.

I have more broccoli and cauliflower that are seedlings I started from seed. They're growing very slow, so I'm waiting to transplant them when they mature, and then transplant them in my other garden.

There's tomatoes and pepper seedlings I started from seed as well, and they're quite small so I'm waiting to transplant them when they mature.

There's strawberry plants I put in pots, as well. I don't seem to have luck with these if I'm growing them in beds. And I have purple potatoes planted in the pots as well.

I bought a 50 lb. Bag of kennebac potatoes to transplant those on good Friday as the saying goes. I'll be planting them in the grow bags again because that seems easy and successful.

If you want to see a little garden tour, go on over to the YouTube channel at vegans living off the land to watch the newest video and others like it. Or you can simply watch below.

Spring flowers and hoop tunnels garden tour video

Garden harvests & gardens tours (videos)

Oh-so many things are fruiting in the garden. The berries, cucumbers, and squash everyday. Here are the blueberry harvests so far this week...

I'm fighting all the animals and insects in the meantime too. The beetles are ripping into the grape vines, cherries, plums, peaches, and the nectarines. So today I sprinkled all spice, nutmeg, chili powder and bkack pepper and everything I could. We'll see if this is effective.

The pears aren't bothered surprisingly. But the birds are finding their way in through cracks in the netting to eat blueberries.

Anyway...I'll post the video tours of the gardens below...

3 sisters garden, potato grow bags, and bucket tomatoes:

Home orchard and permaculture garden of melons, cukes, squash, peas, tomatoes and peppers. Everything in the gardens besides the potatoes were all started from seed.

Here is the video of the hardy kiwis as well. Last week I made a trellis arbor out of an old swing set that I recycled.

Fall Mulching food forest/garden + scarecrow halloween + harvest (VIDEO)

Hugelkultur trellis garden, pineapples beans pumpkins scarecrows (VIDEO)

Pumpkins, Kajari, Watermelons, Cucumbers Trellis Garden VIDEO

Garden tour video + Foraging for Chanterelle mushrooms + HUGE mushrooms & buttercup squash growing

Yesterday I picked some Chanterelle mushrooms that were growing behind my house. With the mushrooms, I put them on the garden pizza I made yesterday. Knowing that the Chanterelles are growing, I'm going to explore the woods behind my house in the next couple of days to forage for these mushrooms.

Foraging for Chanterelle mushrooms

 There are other mushrooms growing in the woods. The picture below is of a Bolete mushroom. Some people eat these, but the only mushrooms I eat from the woods is Chanterelles, Chicken of the Woods, and Morels because they are the most easily identifiable and delicious mushroom.

I'm not sure what the mushroom is in the picture here, but I assumed it was an edible mushroom at first. Observing it more closely, the mushrooms didn't look like the Chicken of the woods or Chanterelles that are growing in the woods now. Because I wasn't sure what the mushrooms were and considering they were old, I decided not to cut them to study them closer at my house.

Along with the mushrooms growing in the woods, there are also blackberries and dewberries growing in the woods and around my yard, so I have been foraging for these berries as well, and collected some today. I'm freezing the berries in the glass bowl for an hour (depending on how many berries you have), then put the berries in a plastic bag in the freezer. This method is so that the berries can freeze individually without getting mushy and freezing into a hard clump.

The pictures below are of the Buttercup Squashes that are growing very quickly and becoming huge.I also show them in the garden tour video below.

Cukes, melons, squash, greens hugelkultur garden & potatoes in grow bags (video)

April Tulip garden tour video

Indoor starter garden update Feb 20 2017 & how I overwintered Figs (VIDEO)

An Indoor Greens Garden for COLD climate February harvest! (video)

MIgardener shows you that you can grow an indoor garden in a colder climate and harvest in February.

Pawpaw flower & Fruit identification (Kentucky backyard native wild edible) video

I made a tiny video showing the identification of the Pawpaw flower and fruit. The pawpaw flowers in the spring (mid-April.) This year, there was one pawpaw fruit in my backyard. In Kentucky, the pawpaw flower was out on April 19th of this year. The video portion of the pawpaw fruit was taken on June 21 2016. I harvested the one pawpaw you see in the video on August 13th. I believe I waited a week or a couple of weeks later to eat the pawpaw. By that time, it was brown so I was unsure if it was rotten, but considering it was such a small fruit, I didn't think it would ever be ripe. But, from the amount I tasted of the pawpaw, it was a delicious caramel taste. Although I have heard the distinct flavor is like mango or banana.

Buttercup squash, capegooseberry, Blue gold tomatoes growing

Huge Peaches & Figs in the Fruit tree garden (Early July 216)

Tulip garden & Fruit trees blooming + Vegetable garden (VIDEO)

Over wintering protection for Chicago hardy & Brown turkey fig trees (VIDEO)

I am in zone 6, on the north eastern side of the United States, so there needs to be some light protection of the fig trees. You can look back on the video where I show you how I protected the fig trees last year here.


I have mentioned before that some people bury their fig trees before a fall frost, and dig them up in the spring. But I do not bury the fig trees here, and so in the video below, I show you my process for protecting/over wintering the Chicago hardy fig trees and the Brown turkey fig tree.

EPIC GARDEN HARVEST PHOTOS May to November 2015 (VIDEO)

In case you have not been keeping up with all of the harvest photos, here is a collection of the garden harvest pictures in one video. Some pictures I did not add to the video such as this picture below and the blueberry harvest photos, and pictures of some of the lettuce harvest. Watch video below for an idea of what we grew throughout Spring, Summer, and Fall.

How much water for garden vegetables (VIDEO)

In this video I show you the progress on the garden of greens as well as how much water to give certain garden vegetables. 

Lowes mini Greenhouse product review (VIDEO)

Here is another product review I have finally made. This is the mini greenhouse that is sold at Lowes, so I share with you my experience with this product for the (almost) year I have been using it in the video below.

List of Frost loving vegetables to grow (& extending the garden season VIDEO)

persimmons picked in late October 2014

Although it may be too late to grow these vegetables outdoors, you can always grow them in containers and take them indoors at night. And although you may not be able to sow these seeds now, this list is a reminder of those cold weather vegetables that you can grow throughout the cold Spring months, and what to plant before Fall of next year. This list of vegetables will prepare you for next year, so that you can grow where you are, and grow year round.

Regardless of where you live, there's a few crops that withstand cooler temps, frost, and even sometimes snow. You may have heard before, persimmons are best picked to eat after a frost, and  likewise, some of these vegetables listed will become sweeter if they grow through a frost too. Below I have listed the root and leafy vegetables that grow during the cooler months in February, March, and April, and October through November. In the pictures below, are the root vegetables and leafy greens I harvested in these colder months.

Most of these vegetables listed can withstand temperatures as low as 15 degrees Fahrenheit. The most common crops which you can grow through the cool winter months are root vegetables including,

Turnips





Turnip harvested in late October 2014

Radishes

Radish harvested in early October 2015

Parsnips

Beets

Green onions

Rutabaga

Carrots





Carrots harvested from garden in late October 2015



The most common green leafy vegetables you can grow throughout the winter months are,

Brussels sprouts

Cabbage

Collards

Mustard greens
Broccoli

Leafy vegetable growing in early March





Leafy vegetable growing in early March



Cauliflower

Celery

Kale

Leeks

Spinach

Swiss Chard

Lettuces

Late Fall and Early winter lettuce garden 2013

Remember when growing through these colder months, to use garden cloths, transparent plastic sheeting, and garden cloches. Polytunnels are elongated plastic coverings that are good for covering long rows of plants. Cloches are any type of covering that protects plants from snow, cold temperatures, and "pests". Cloches can be made with any recycled plastics, glass, and other materials. This method ensures plant protection in  early Spring months, or when extending the growing season into Fall and Winter. Cloches that are bell or tent shaped allow room for individual plants.

View my post  in the link for more ideas at Cloches plant protection (early planting & extend growing season).

A couple weeks ago I showed you how I was protecting my greens and root crops in this post: Keeping greens warm at night & protected from rabbits. And below I show you in the video how I am protecting my pepper plants from the frost: