Spring is approaching and this time of year I daydream of moving to the country. We have remained in the city and in our small house and small yard. Several years ago I realized that I was bringing the country to me.
Many of my relatives have lived in the country as I did for a time as well in my younger years.
Our small front yard garden can produce a surprising amount of vegetables and herbs. The past two weeks we have been preparing the beds and planting. This year I have decided to plant mostly carrots in the beds since this past year did so well with the small test spot of Danver Carrots.
We decided to go back to a potted garden in the back yard and it is coming along well. We keep the plants that the squirrels like to eat in frames with wire around the sides and the top.
We now have planted potatoes, cabbage, broccoli, beans, sugar peas, lettuce, basil, cucumbers, zucchini, tomatoes, onions, carrots, parsley, eggplant and bell peppers. We transplanted our two peach trees because they did not do well where they were and our citrus trees have made it so far this winter. We must keep a daily check on the weather forecast because if it dips down too cold we must cover or move some of the potted plants indoors as we have planted early.
I miss having chickens and our city is becoming a little more open to the idea of chickens so this may be something in our near future. We will not be able to keep a rooster but about six hens would be something possible.
I have a brother-in-law that I admire and respect tremendously. He grew up in the country and his Father farmed so the children grew up helping on the farm and that was during a time before running water and electricity out on the farm.
Many years have passed and he and his wife (which I also love and admire) live on a small piece of property with a river and a canal. He is quite sustainable as he can walk out and catch fish and go out in his well tended garden and harvest many kinds of vegetables. He and his wife put up their vegetables by blanching and freezing them which is a lot easier than canning. The only problem with freezing is if your power goes out that could be a big loss without a generator. Many people keep generators for this purpose.
They have brought the country to them on this small piece of property.
I don't have a picture for this so I will use one my husband took the other day of me planting an eggplant. A very dear friend of ours lived in an apartment before he moved to another town and he grew a surprising amount of vegetables in five gallon buckets out on his patio. They were all lined up and had tall stakes in the buckets and he grew beautiful tomatoes and peppers, eggplants and herbs there in his pots. There were other vegetables too I just cannot remember the others because there were so many. So he brought a bit of the country to his apartment.
If you are new at gardening Tomatoes and Bell Peppers are very easy to grow in pots or in the ground.
Also we have planted several fruit trees. We have pear, peach, plum, fig, lemon and satsuma trees. A fruit tree can provide us with fruit that preserve.
Even if our harvest comes slow we can still can or freeze what we pick. It will eventually add up to more than what we had.
This is a pear pie that is ready to be topped and put into the oven.
I am looking forward to another year to try again. We never know from one day to the next what will happen. Right now this arbor is a bare slate because we are still in winter but I have visions of the possibilities. We do have just a little bit of the country in our small place.
Grandma Donna
