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By eliza_cross, on May 10th, 2012%
 Photo by Jeremy Bronson If you never got around to starting any seedlings this spring and now you’re fretting about the expense of buying vegetable plants at the garden center, fear not! Many vegetable seeds can be sown directly in the dirt, where they’ll happy germinate and provide you with a nice harvest. Here’s a list of easy-to-grow vegetables (most of which prefer full sun) that you can plant from seed now:
- Beans – pole beans and bush beans are easy to grow, and if you harvest them regularly they’ll keep producing.
- Beets – grow in loose, moist soil.
- Corn – easy to grow if you have a large garden plot; corn needs lots of space.
- Cucumbers – bush or vining varieties are both easy to grow, and give them plenty of water so they don’t get bitter.
- Lettuce – plant now! Lettuce prefers cooler temps. If you sow some seeds every week or two, you’ll have a constant supply of fresh lettuce.
- Melons – grow well in hot, dry weather but like lots of water. To avoid crossbreeding, plant melons away from pumpkins, cucumbers and squash.
- Onions – less expensive than buying onion sets, be sure to buy onion seeds suited for your climate and amount of sun. Onions store well, making them and especially economical crop.
- Peas – plant now! Peas prefer cooler temps. If it’s already hot in your area, try planting peas in the fall.
- Radishes – like to be grown in moister soil.
- Spinach – especially easy to grow. Plant in full sun or part shade.
- Squash – zucchini is an easy, prolific plant for beginners to grow, especially if you have lots of friends who like zucchini!
If the danger of frost has passed in your area, prepare your garden bed and amend the soil if needed. Plant the seeds on a calm day at the depth specified by the grower and top gently with a layer of fine soil.
Need a great source for your seeds? These are some of my favorite companies, and they all offer non-hybrid, heirloom varieties:
Happy planting, and I’d love to hear what you’ve got growing in your gardens right now!
By eliza_cross, on January 30th, 2012%
 By PotteryBarn.com Organizing has many benefits. Along with the inner peace that comes from working and living in a calm space, organized living means less time looking for lost items and a visually pleasing, harmonious environment.
Clearing space is a gift you give yourself.
Today’s challenge is to organize one area. It can be a small or big project, depending on how much time you want to devote to it. You could simply take ten minutes to straighten up your desk and get rid of unnecessary papers. Or spend thirty minutes organizing the medicine cabinet. You could clean out your refrigerator. Unclutter the coat closet. Tackle one wall of the garage. Spend a day straightening up the basement. It’s up to you. Just organize a space, and bask in the rewards.
For inspiration, you might enjoy these websites — with tons of tips and information:
Unclutterer
Organized Home
Get Organized
Creative Organizing
If you clear a space and like the result, be sure to let us know about it!
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P.S. In case you’ve just joined us, the January Money Diet is a challenge to take a 31-day break from nonessential spending. Even though January is winding down, you can learn more about the money diet here — and jump right in!
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Win a Deluxe Happy Simple Living Gift Basket
In honor of the January Money Diet, I’ll be giving away a gift basket chock-full of home and garden goodies plus several books at the end of the month. On January 31, 2012 (that’s tomorrow!), I’ll draw one random name from everyone who commented during the month and that lucky person will win the gift basket. I hope you’ll stop by often this month and share your own ideas, thoughts and experiences about taking a 31-day break from nonessential spending.
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By eliza_cross, on January 21st, 2012%
If you’re accustomed to always cooking dinner that includes some sort of meat, try to sneak a vegetarian meal in from time to time. Pasta, burritos, soup, stir-fry, a hearty salad, bruschetta — many recipes are already vegetarian or just need a substitution (beans instead of beef in chili, for example) for a yummy, meat-free meal. Need a little inspiration? This collection of vegetarian recipes is culled from the best of the best at the award-winning blog, 101 Cookbooks. With food as good as this, maybe your meat-and-potatoes man won’t even notice.
Cook at least one vegetarian dinner this week, and be sure to let us know what you prepare.
P.S. In case you’ve just joined us, the January Money Diet is a challenge to take a 31-day break from nonessential spending. You can learn more about the money diet here — and jump right in!
—————————————————————————
Win a Deluxe Happy Simple Living Gift Basket
In honor of the January Money Diet, I’ll be giving away a gift basket chock-full of home and garden goodies plus several books at the end of the month. On January 31, 2012, I’ll draw one random name from everyone who commented during the month and that lucky person will win the gift basket. I hope you’ll stop by often this month and share your own ideas, thoughts and experiences about taking a 31-day break from nonessential spending.
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By eliza_cross, on January 20th, 2012%
 Photo by Cuyahoga jco Don’t you love daydreaming about planting the spring garden when it’s January? Now is the perfect time to begin making plans and sketch out some ideas for your ideal garden. Even if you have a small yard, you can grow a surprising amount of food if you choose seeds and plants that grow well in your climate. If you want to tour the ultimate urban homestead, check out the Dervaes family’s website ‘Path to Freedom.’ You won’t believe what they grow in their 1/10 acre yard in Pasadena.
I love perusing the new seed catalogs each year to see what new varieties have been introduced, and these are some of my favorite companies:
For additional ideas, MicroEcoFarming.com has tons of information and articles about growing your own food. WinterSown.org is a site dedicated to an easy, inexpensive method of direct-sowing seeds. There are some great, wacky pictures on this site of people sprouting plants in pop bottles and all manner of recycled containers.
If you have favorite gardening sites and sources, we’d all love to know about them and invite you to share them in the comments section below.
P.S. In case you’ve just joined us, the January Money Diet is a challenge to take a 31-day break from nonessential spending. You can learn more about the money diet here — and jump right in!
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Win a Deluxe Happy Simple Living Gift Basket
In honor of the January Money Diet, I’ll be giving away a gift basket chock-full of home and garden goodies plus a signed copy of my latest book 101 Things To Do With Bacon. On January 31, 2012, I’ll draw one random name from everyone who commented during the month and that lucky person will win the gift basket. I hope you’ll stop by often this month and share your own ideas, thoughts and experiences about taking a 31-day break from nonessential spending.
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By eliza_cross, on September 6th, 2011%
Got mint? Summer may be winding down, but if mint grows in your garden I’m guessing it’s going nuts. You may feel like you’ve got enough mint to feed the entire state of Rhode Island, but fear not — here are some fresh ideas to help you make the most of the harvest.
1. Whip up some mint whipped cream and put a dollop (such a great word, and there aren’t nearly enough opportunities to use it) on strawberry mousse, chocolate cake, cookies and cream ice cream, brownies, hot chocolate, etc.
2. Add a handful of fresh mint to your next batch of pesto — like this.
3. Roll up some of these colorful, mouth-watering Vegetable and Mint Spring Rolls with Peanut Sauce from The Kitchen.
4. Bake a batch of milk chocolate cupcakes with fresh mint frosting – from our friends at the aptly-named blog How Sweet It Is.
5. Take off your shoes and make a batch of Natural Lemony Mint Foot Scrub.
6. Now that your tootsies are happy, make the Barefoot Contessa’s Tabbouleh salad.
 7. Make a mojito. We love this recipe from Jo Lynne at Musings of a Housewife with a mint-infused syrup that adds an extra punch of flavor. Plus, how often do you get to “muddle” something? Not nearly often enough, if you ask us.
8. Put up some homemade mint jelly. We like this recipe from the cleverly-named site Simply Recipes, which uses Granny Smith apples for natural pectin. Plus it’s a beautiful amber color instead of the typical artificial green. Enjoy a jar at home and give the rest as holiday gifts.
9. Make a batch of Fresh Mint Chocolate Truffles. Oh, yes yes yes. If you have extras, I can easily provide you with my shipping address.
10. Make minted iced tea — like this.
11. Who needs a still in the back yard when you can make homemade hooch in your kitchen? Brew some homemade Creme de Menthe and you’ll be able to make the Pioneer Woman’s Grasshopper Pie whenever a craving hits. It’s good to be prepared, I always say.
Do you have a mass o’ mint this year? If so, what are you doing with it? I’d love to hear your ideas.
By eliza_cross, on August 27th, 2011%
“When weeding, the best way to make sure you are removing a weed and not a valuable plant is to pull on it.
If it comes out of the ground easily, it is a valuable plant. “
We are growing some impressive weeds here at the suburban homestead this summer. With such robust specimens, why should the flowers and produce get all the photographic glory?
We garden organically, so we don’t use weed killer, fertilizer or pesticides on our plants. As a result, we have bunnies in the back yard all summer long and plenty of bees, birds and butterflies visiting the gardens. But we also have weeds.
I find pulling weeds to be somewhat cathartic, as long as I don’t get too stressed about perfection. Because we’re a long way from that.
Which is okay. How goes your battle with the weeds this summer? Are you enjoying being out in the garden, even if sometimes the weeds threaten to take over? I’d love to hear from you.
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