Simple Hobby Homesteading

Is anyone else irresistibly pulled to the vegetable plants at every single store they enter? No? Ok, me neither then…

Go ahead Wal-Mart, put them on the far end of the store (I’m a creature of habit and always park in the same place…opposite end of greenhouse area), I’ll still find them, pick through them, and bring a few home every single trip! Yes Robin’s Nest, taunt me with your “Tomato plants ready!” sign… I may stop to just “look around” and in turn tell me kids they may need to walk home so I can fit my pallet of produce plants into the minivan. Rural King… your chicks no longer hold their allure… you’ve got cabbage and strawberries that beckon to me now (who am I kidding, I still go and check out the chicks and usually come home with a few).

The nice thing about growing your own produce us that it really does taste so much better… maybe it’s the work and sweat equity in planting and tending or perhaps the delayed gratification in watching something grow for weeks or months and then being rewarded with a treasure of produce that you raised up but growing your own food just makes it taste better!

It’s easier than you may think to grow your own veggies. I have gotten quite creative over the years. From Aerogardens to pallet gardening I have tried almost everything and still employ several interesting methods of planting and growing. We are in southern Indiana so cole crops (your cool weather loving stuff like broccoli, cabbage, lettuce, etc.) should really be in the ground already. If not, that’s ok, get them in the ground as soon as you can or wait for that grouping to plant late summer, early fall,

Here at The Shepherd Hobby Farm we do some pallet gardening, regular in the ground gardening, raised beds and container gardening. I think I’ll tackle each one on a different blog day to keep this post relatively short.

Every couple of days I will also be tackling new gardening projects so feel free to tag along and give suggestions, ideas, advice, whatever! I’ll link the blog post to each project listed below as they are accomplished… Let’s do it, get those hands dirty! Feel free to post your creative gardening ideas for everyone to see and shamelessly copy. Sorry for the post really about nothing (maybe I should call it my Seinfeld post?) but I wanted to check in and let you all know I’m still here even though I haven’t written much lately.

1. Lettuce bowls
2. Cucumber trellis over lettuce I main garden
3. Chicken chunnels and hen house around garden
4. Trim and weed black berries
5. Trim and weed black raspberries
6. Plant mint garden
7. Plant pallets
8. Tomatoes
9. Peppers
10. Transplant asparagus
11. Mosquito repellent bowls – Ready to be read! (click on “Mosquito repellent bowls”)
12. Raised  beds (4)
13. Add another compost bin

Ok, I actually feel kinda guilty that absolutely no gardening wisdom was imparted to you all so let me share a tidbit of one of my projects so you all can get the stuff and do it with me tomorrow… Mosquito repellent baskets! I’m doing it, I’m making more of them this year! I like to get a large shallow round planter or those shallow round hanging ones (and large planting pot will do… by large I mean 2 to 3 gallon size. In this planter I will be planting various plants that not only grow well together (companion planting) but also repel mosquitoes and can be used by me in the kitchen or with soaps…

I will be planting basil, marigolds, catnip, rosemary and lemon scented geraniums in my pots around doorways, windows, and where my dogs and cats like to rest! If you can find citronella grass snap it up in a heartbeat… it’s hard to find around here… it is the star mosquito repelling plant!