Getting the Garden Halfway Planted!

 We planted about half of the garden this week with tomatoes, cabbage, and honey rocks.  It's too wet and cold to plant seeds so hopefully we will get warm  weather next week to plant beans, peppers, and potatoes.  The garlic, peas, lettuce, green onions, radishes, mustard greens, and onions are coming up great already.  Lettuce, radishes, and green onions have made great salads!  

You know, I kind of like planting like this -it's not so stressfull trying to do it all at once.  Here are some of the 25 tomato plants I put in the ground.  I hope the sun coming this week will help them a lot.  Next to them I also planted basil and marigolds.  Basil helps with pests and the deer hate marigolds, or so I'm told.

Yesterday, the chickens were out and husband needed help, like now.  So, after helping him I replanted the cabbage.  Wonderful, just wonderful.  They look so small now!

We had a wonderful sunshinny Memorial day and planted flowers at my Mom and Dad's grave.  Every year my granddaughter helps me plant...actually this year she did it all.  So full of questions about life and death.  Mom passed away 9 months before she was born.  She would have loved her!  

I noticed that the soil was very low by the headstone.  I'm going to put a bag a soil there in the fall.  I think all the rain did that.

How was your Memorial Day?

A Wet., Cold Mess!

 Did I tell you we have the heat on?  Yep, it's chilly and wet here in Michigan.  Yesterday we reached a high in the upper 40's with rain.  

The plants are waiting in the greenhouse.  We managed to plow the garden for the first time but it is too wet and cold to plant.  The seeds would rot and the plants would die.  It's downright depressing. We have went through this before and have planted more into June and still had a great harvest. So, I'm going with positive thoughts 

I ordered two more raised beds for the back of the garden.  With the wooden ones this will make four raised beds back there and two by the greenhouse.  The back wooden ones have onions and garlic growing in them and the ones by the green house have mustard greens and snow peas.  

Eventually we will get more.   I think with the changing weather and  our changing ages 😀 we need to look ahead.  I would like it all done of course now but  Rome wasn't built in a day, husband says. We will get it.

On other news:  I managed to sell something yesterday that I had on marketplace for a month.   Don't give up people -someone will want it!

I woke up one morning and watched Becoming a Farm Girl on youtube.  That woman made me get with it in the kitchen.  Inspirational for sure!  I made Trim healthy Mama pancakes, pickled eggs, and boiled some eggs for the week.  

Grandson is here this morning...I'd better think of something for him to eat that he loves.  Sausage, pancakes, and biscuits might make him happy.

Have a great day!

First Harvests this Week 5/8/25

 

I have been harvesting lettuce from the green stalks that I have in my green house -for salads and wilted lettuce for husband. (yuck)

I also harvested some green onions.

I was able to pull up some radishes for salads too.

I'm thankful for the greenhouse and the greenstalks that sit on higher land than the garden.  It's very wet right now.

I just transplanted the herbs back outside.

I have mustard greens growing in two small raised beds.  There are some peas in the middle of them somewhere.  Crazy idea I had ...I'll see if it works soon.

The fencing is for the chickens...they love mustard greens and digging for no reason.  Help me.

Tomatoes are growing great but I can't grow a pepper plant for the life of me.  

Back is slowly getting better-I do a little at a time and all is well.  Apparently the chiropractor said that I will never feel 16 again but I will get a lot better...I guess that's ok.

How's your garden growing?

Book Review: The Shop Down the Lane by Leslie Gould

 

The Shop Down the Lane (Letters from Lancaster County): (A Sweet Contemporary Amish Letter Writing Enemies to Lovers Romance) 

                               by Leslie Gould

Lois Yoder has always found solace in the quiet life of Paradise, Pennsylvania, where she manages a gift shop that reflects her Amish community's simple values. Her tranquil world is upended when Moses Lantz, a former Amishman turned Mennonite and the man who broke her heart, buys the shop with ambitious plans to transform it into a tourist hub--a move that Lois fiercely opposes.

Seeking a distraction, Lois joins a bird watchers' circle letter under an alias. But unknown to her, Moses does the same at the urging of a friend. While their correspondence blossoms into a tender romance, the enmity between Lois and Moses in real life only intensifies. Can they overcome their animosity and embrace the love they've found through their letters, or will their stubborn hearts keep them apart forever?

My Review:

The Shop Down the Lane was one I would have delighted to walk into and been able to talk to Louis.  I could imagine the bird houses that filled the shop and the woods in the back of the shop filled with different birds.  Always a lover of birds, I now want to bird watch even more.

The twists and turns of different romances were there, with Lois and Moses failed one from years ago at the forefront. A good lesson in the book for me was that no one really knows what the other is going through and for that matter has been through. It's amazing what we can assume of each other.

I curled up on the couch one morning to read this book and stayed that way most of the day. I didn't stop till the last page was read.  Wonderful wonderful read!  

**Thanks so much for helping to support Vickie's Kitchen and Garden! As a Amazon affiliate I earn a small percentage when you purchase items from one of my links (the item doesn't have to be what I have linked here).  

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What's Going On...

 

Hi Guys, 

Just a quick note to tell you where I've been and what's going on.  I have a bad back as many of you know for the past year and I have decided to try something besides physical therapy.  Physical therapy helped me walk better but not far without pain.  So, I decided to go to the chiropractor.  This took a lot because I had heard so much all my life against them but I put all bad thoughts aside and went in.  I hope it helps.

It's going to be awhile I think before I feel better in my back again constantly.  I don't think I should sit at the computer too long so that's why I've not been here.   I think of everyone all the time but I know sitting and typing is not the best thing to do for now.  Someday soon this will be a bad memory....I'll say remember the year of the bad back...and I'll be typing up a storm.   I believe it will happen!  

Thinking of all of you!

Vickie

Book Review: THe Innocent Rebel: A Young American Revoluntionar War Adventure (Young American Adventures Book 1 by J.E. Ribbey

 

The Innocent Rebel: A Young American Revolutionary War Adventure (Young American Adventures Book 1) 

                                    by J.E. Ribbey

My name is Mercy Young, I’m 12 years old, and up until a couple days ago, my life has been pretty uneventful. But it’s 1775 and I live in Lexington, which apparently God Almighty has deemed fit to be the birthplace of a revolution!

My papa was one of the men from town who went to confront the Red Coats (British Soldiers), who marched onto our town green and demanded that we submit ourselves to their rule. There was a terrible battle and papa was taken captive.

My mama passed away a few years ago, and with no one else to look after us, my brothers and I have decided that the only sensible thing to do is set off to Boston and fetch papa back. We don’t know what lies ahead, and this awful war has only just begun, but if I was captured and alone, I’d want to know someone was coming for me.

Even as the cannons drum in the distance, I feel a mixture of fear and excitement at the adventure that awaits us. Slipping out into the cool April night, I can feel it – there’s no turning back now.

Historically accurate fiction is one of the best ways to teach students about our amazing history and we’re proud to join authors such as Joe Giorello (Great Battles for Boys), Lauren Tarshis (I Survived), and Esther Forbes (Johnny Tremain) in this important endeavor. From gritty battles to the daily struggle for survival, to comical adventures in the woods, your family will live it all along with the Young siblings! 

My Review:

I was drawn to this book not only with thoughts to read it to my grandkids but I wanted to read it myself.  It sounded like an adventure that I wanted to hear about.  It was!  

I marveled at how brave the children were as they heard the battles raging but stayed determined to find out where there father was, not knowing how they themselves would survive. 

I so respect people who stepped in along the way to help the children.  They were such caring strangers.

I also loved the lessons they learned in survival.  Children as they read this will be amazed and want to learn more I'm sure.

Just a warning the first book is good but the story doesn't end..there are more books and I'm sure you will want to see what happens to Mercy and her family!  

**Thanks so much for helping to support Vickie's Kitchen and Garden! As a Amazon affiliate I earn a small percentage when you purchase items from one of my links (the item doesn't have to be what I have linked here).  

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The Mistake We Made on Our Raised Beds 3/15/25!

Back in January of last year (2024) we bought these two wooden boxes for $10 a piece thinking we could use them for raised beds. I don't know guys but they said they would be great in the garden.  We fell for it and we were excited for the deal.   The thoughts of the extra room to grow things excited us as well.

Well, not much grew in them this past season and the wood just swelled and then eventually came apart.  We knew it was time to let them go.   We found a good deal on steel raised beds that were approximately the same size but we needed a little extra help to get the old ones out.  So, when the grandson wanted to earn $30.00 I told him,  I know just the job! 

Yesterday was the perfect 70 degree day to do it.

The old dirt was put in a wheelbarrow.  Then, husband and grandson threw the wooden beds upside down in to the main garden to wait till garbage day.  Then we put the new ones down and put in all the old dirt plus more to fill them up.  

It was quite the heavy lifting and after it was done the grandson ran away.  I told him I have more jobs but he didn't seem interested.  ha ha but he will.  He just needs time to recover.  Money talks!

Thanks so much for helping to support Vickie's Kitchen and Garden**As a Amazon affiliate I earn a small percentage when you purchase items from one of my links (the item doesn't have to be what I have linked here). 

Be sure to follow me on Facebook,and Bloglovin where I share my frugal list, gardening, recipes, and more!  You can also sign up for my email list on the top right hand side of the blog.