Hello Garden Gals and Guys! There’s been a lot growing on here at the Fat Earth Backyard Farm! Last week, I canned for the first time ever and it was a great success. I am looking forward to doing much more of it throughout the growing season. If you missed that blog post, you can read about it here.
Well, let’s get started because there’s a lot growin’ on here. I’ll start with the oregano that I dried. This year is the first year I have dried my herbs. I usually just use them fresh. But since I am looking to save money and not go to the grocery store, I decided I would save my herbs, too!
There are two ways to dry herbs. One is in the oven (you can see a video on how I did that here) and the other way to let them just hang dry. This batch I just let hand dry. I’m not sure which method I like better. The oven method is certainly quicker (for those of us that are impatient). Here are pictures of my oregano:
Oregano is a bit dusty when you are crushing it! And apparently it is like cat nip for cats! My cat Rameses had to check me out, then promptly grabbed a stem of oregano and was chasing it all over the house!
Now on to what’s growin’ in that lil’ ole backyard farm of mine. Everything is doing really well!
My new little blueberry bush has been very busy ripening since being transplanted. She seems very happy so far.
My apple tree is also doing well, despite some little brown spots on the apples. I’m eating them regardless! 🙂
My rain gutter grow system is really going crazy! Look at these:
Those are collards in the blue buckets, my ketchup and tomatoes plant in the orange bucket (which has cherry tomatoes on top and potatoes growing in the bucket), carrots in the white buckets…and some extra tomatoes in the ground. The plants in the buckets, I kid you not, grow exponentially every day. I can see the roots sticking out of the bottom of the buckets into the rain gutters. I couldn’t be more pleased!
Here are the tomatoes, peppers, and cucumbers:
Here is a closeup of my Mexican Gherkin cucumbers. They will look like miniature watermelons with the taste of a cuke when they are mature:
I know…so cute, right? Next up is the basil in my raised bed that seems to finally be taking off. I grew all my basil from seed, so I am quite proud of this little beauty.
Here is one of my raised beds with tomatoes, basil, and two rogue garlic plants that finally decided to grow (it only came up a year late!):
Last but not least, here’s a shot of the girls. It’s been hot the past few days and they have been very thirsty!
The latest addition to the Fat Earth Backyard Farm is this lovely little item:
It’s a beautiful cedar garden sign that is now hanging in my garden cage. If you’d like to see it and my plants in all their glory, you can watch this little video I did of my garden update:
So…that’s all for now folks!! Until next time garden gals and guys….
Happy gardening!!!
What a great blog you have and I am thinking about drying my basil and parsley but a local chef here said that dried herbs lose their potency very quickly so they have to be used quickly. I will use the conduction cycle on my oven to dry them.
Thanks for the kind words!! I figure my dry herbs can't be any worse than what I get from the store…that stuff probably sits for weeks or months. The way I use oregano, it probably won't last very long. 😉
I came by to return the blog visit and thank you for leaving a comment on mine. I dug around in my past posts, thinking I had my tomato sauce recipe there, but discovered I'll have to write one.
Your blog is fantastic. Did you know your enthusiasm comes through as inspiring? I'll definitely have to start checking out your videos.
Hi, Leigh! Thank you for stopping by. I'm so glad you did. I read your blog all the time, this is just the first time I commented on it. Thank you for the compliment, but did you know that you inspire ME? I'm looking forward to getting a recipe from you. I'll have a bunch of tomatoes (I hope) that I will be canning and making into sauces. Garden hugs to you!