More On My Garden

Well.. I talked to the Cooperative Extension about my mildew problem.. they said I could try a fungicide on my plants.. but probably the best thing to do is pull them up and destroy the plants (dont compost them).. luckily for me I plant them in pots, so I just got to bag up the plants.. dump the soil (probably not the yard), and then bleach the pots for next year.. sigh.. guess that was a learning lesson.. no zucchini and yellow squash for me this year.. Then I think I also will bleach the whole area and tables where the pots are..

Tomorrow, I will have about the chickens.. just wanted to tell you what I found out.

Being Self Sufficient! Part 4

#4 Raise Chickens

All the pictures here were taken at the Erie County Fair, when we went yesterday.. We go almost every year.. as I love it.. smile.. 

As much as I would like to have a chicken or two.. I can't... one, my neighbors are too close to me and two, my boyfriend isnt for the idea.. but if I could.. I would.. there are so many benefits to having chickens, even in the city..  They are a natural source of fertilizer for the garden, as well as a wonderful way to control insects!  Plus you get farm fresh eggs.. cant get better than that! 

This chicken above is the Rhode Island Red, which many consider one of the best breeds for the back yard.. You can read more about them HERE.

Here are some links for advice on starting this.. 

Why A Great Garden And Raising Chickens Go Hand In Hand - Old World Garden Farms

Raising Chickens in the City - Urban Farming Guys

How to Raise Backyard Chickens - Backyard Chickens

Raising Chickens for Dummies - Cheat Sheet - Kimberly Willis, Rob Ludlow

And there are alot more!! Just do a websearch.. 

Next, I am going to discuss some of the breeds I and pictures I took at the fair.. See you tomorrow!

#myeriecountyfair

Being Self Sufficient! Part 3

#3 Learn to Can and Preserve

Picture used from Scrapgirls.com

I used to can years ago.. both with my grandmother, my mother.. and myself.. only thing we really canned were tomatoes.. and I also remember doing peaches with my grandmother.. now.. I just freeze.. I specifically got a small chest freezer to store my produce in.. it iis so nice to not have to pay high prices for my veggies in mid winter!
One of these days I do want to try canning and making jelly again.. but usually I dont have the time.. with my orders and stuff.. 

716 Buffalos

This is one of her designs.. I have to say I love her ideas.. she takes some of the most unusual things and makes the prettiest Jewelry.. Here is my favorites.. do check her stuff out! 

#Etsy, #buffaloetsyteam, #handmade


https://www.etsy.com/treasury/MjE0Nzk3Mjh8MjcyNDA1MzAwOQ/716-buffalos-for-all-things-buffalo

Being Self Sufficient! Part 2

#2 Grow Some of Your Own Food – Plant a Garden

One of steps I like and have been doing now for 4 - 5 years is gardening.. the prices for food seems to go up every year.. especially for healthy, fresh veggies! I started just with tomatoes and peppers (yes, I am Italian.. so use those alot).. then every year I tried one or two new items.. This year I didnt try anything new.. the planting season started late.. plus it has been a cool, rainy season.. 

First having a backyard that is tree covered and with a bad clay soil with tons of weeds.. I didnt want to spend the energy gardening in it.. so I decided to do patio gardening.. my first attempt was to check out pots. um... large pots were way too expensive.. so thought about it and said.. why not recycle those plastic cat litter containers.. we get our cat litter in 40 lbs or larger and at the time was using Tidy Cat (yep.. those plastic containers).. so just took those. and punched holes in bottom for drainage.. I first tried using gardening soil.. discovered it was too heavy.. now I use potting soil.. If you look closely, you often can see the cat litter containers.. lol.. 

What I do is every year I take out half the old soil.. (saving it).. and mixing the old soil with new potting soil, coffee grinds, eggshells crushed really fine, and compost.  Then I transplant my seedlings (I dont often grow my seedings from seeds.. get them ready grown) in the pots with some fertilizer and more coffee grinds and egg shells.. You need to use eggshells in things like tomatoes to prevent with Blossom End Rot.. One of the things I discovered this year is you need to soak your crushed egg shells in vinegar before putting it in the soil and it really helped my tomatoes this year.. 

Anyways.. I discovered that these items seems to grow really well in pots: all kinds of tomatoes, peppers (both green peppers and Italian sweet peppers), eggplant, lettuces of all types, cucumbers, green beans, carrots, and the summer squashes.. I tried regular squash and broccoli.. no luck with those.. They just didnt produce enough for it to make it worth my while..The pictures here are recent.  took them a couple of days ago.. 

Baby Dresses on Etsy!

Just made a treasury of crochet baby dress patterns I would love to make..smile.. check them out! These dresses are just perfect for both a gift and to dress up your little one.. I checked them out and most are made with yarns I can use (no thread for me.. hurts my hands)..

I will take orders for any of these for the next month!

https://www.etsy.com/treasury/MjE0Nzk3Mjh8MjcyNDAzMjc3OQ/baby-dress-patterns-on-etsy

New Order I am working on..

Well.. I got a custom order for dishclothes and hanging towels.. she supplied the towels.. so far I made her dishclothes.. she ordered Bands of Lace dishclothes. I made them in the following colors.. bone and autumn red.

Then she dropped off the towels.. three different styles.. so I decided to match the towels to the dishclothes.. I think it worked.. what do you think.. 

I still have the cream color ones.. (same color as the off white tab).. these are actually the same color tabs.. just taken in a different place.. a bit hard to get good colors with artificial light. I probably will have the others done in the next day or so..