growing food – Page 2 – Domestic Felicity

Bright and cheery

I just love how bright and cheery the garden looks after some heavy rains and with a nice bit of sunshine and warmth. Yes, the tomatoes are actually blooming! It feels like spring.

The garlic is growing at amazing speed too. The fresh green leaves are delicious in salads.

Almond tree in full bloom – quite seasonable for the month of Shvat in Israel.

This gorgeous little fellow was darting to and fro among the flowers, and I managed to capture it during a moment of rest.

Beautiful winter roses. What can be prettier?

Listen to the rain

Time for another garden update! I’m really behind on weeding, because we’ve had so much rain and the outdoors are so chilly and unwelcoming, but at least things are growing.

Tomatoes – one of the varieties we’ve planted.

My husband’s container potatoes. It’s his special pet project.

White beans… I did do some weeding here since this photo was snapped.

Garlic shoots are just poking out of the earth.

A row of mustard – we enjoy the tender young leaves in a variety of soups, stews and salads.

What about you? Growing anything? Or are you waiting for the thaw?

Making the land come alive

When we first arrived at this new home of ours, I looked around and said in despair, “there was beautiful, living land all around. Why would the owner choose to kill it by smothering it in concrete?”

I mean, I know some people aren’t really into growing stuff. All they want is a hassle-free, low-maintenance yard with no mud, weeds or critters. I get it, I really do. But there are options that are less damaging, less ugly, and less permanent than concrete. Breaking concrete apart can be difficult and costly for those who aren’t used to this kind of work and don’t have the right equipment.

We didn’t give up, of course. We’re too stubborn for that.

Read more in my recent Mother Earth News post:

“There’s nothing like having the freedom to grow and raise whatever you want on your own piece of rural land, but town living has its potential for homesteading and sustainability. Our gas costs have dropped dramatically since we no longer need to drive for every little errand. Also, in a larger local network of people, there is bigger potential for swapping, trading and giving things away.”

A winter garden

Our new little garden-in-progress is starting to reward us with its first seedlings just poking out of the earth:

Tomatoes.

Beans.

Squash.

Mustard greens – the latter actually sprouted from seeds I pulled off the spice shelf and stuck in as an experiment!

So far we’ve had pleasant mild weather with rain from time to time, and there are usually no frosts around these parts, so hopefully we’ll be able to grow some food this winter.

Progress!

Remember this?

Last week, we rented a tractor, carried away a ton of debris such as old moldy mattresses, concrete rubble and rusty poles, plowed under the weed jungle, handpicked another mound of smaller scale litter (old plastic bottles, beer cans, ancient shoes), and started preparing the space for our future garden.

The place now looks like this. There is still a slab of concrete in the middle that was too difficult to remove, but we figure we can use it as a foundation for a chicken coop or a greenhouse.

I’ve already marked some beds and planted beans, squash, and peppers. I know it’s unorthodox to plant at the end of October, but I figure there are plenty of places where the summer is about as warm as our winter, and people still report being able to grow tomatoes and peppers there, so what have we got to lose? One thing is certain – outdoor work is a lot pleasanter in winter around these parts.

Stay tuned for more news about us and our work to make the most of this little urban homestead-in-progress.

Puttering around

Once in a while, my phone puts together these little videos for me, and the one above is a pretty good representation of what we’ve been up to in the previous week: puttering around the yard, doing paper art, and hair art.

There is still a lot to do, but now that the big unpacking frenzy is more or less behind us, I have more time to devote to something I’ve been itching to do: working on the small abandoned plot of land next to our yard. This week, I’ve moved whatever junk I could lift, raked huge mounds of fallen leaves, and did some digging to break up solid clods of dirt and let the ground breathe.

We were promised some major rainfall today and tomorrow, so hopefully after that the ground will be nice and soft. I’m then going to get to some planting. This will be rather an experiment, because it’s our first winter here – it’s supposed to be very mild around here, without even any frosts, so hopefully many things can be grown year round.

I will let you know how we progress.

The tomato tree

Because of the house move, we didn’t plant anything this spring and summer, but we did have a nice surprise: a volunteer tomato plant that sprang up in the garden and wrapped itself around a bush, turning into a mighty tomato tree. On our last visit, we discovered it to be full of red, ripe, beautiful (and delicious!) tomatoes.

We were surprised that the people who are currently renting our house didn’t pick them. Apparently, they thought tomatoes that don’t come from the store aren’t safe to consume.

We collected literally a bucketful of produce from this one plant, which just goes to show you don’t necessarily need a large garden to grow a lot of food. And there wasn’t a single worm or a sign of blight or rot! I have never seen such lovely tomatoes.

Also wanted to take this opportunity to wish a Shana Tova (happy new year) to all the Jewish people out there. In our family, Rosh haShana is always a double celebration, as it’s also our sweet Tehilla’s birthday. It’s unbelievable that 8 years have gone by already!

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