Independence Days Update #4

Whew! What a busy two weeks we've had.

Plant Something:
42 tomato plants (12 different varieties)
carrots under burlap:


16 cabbages under floating row cover (It will go over the hoops):


60 green bell peppers
1 green zucchini
1 yellow zucchini
1 row leaf lettuce
1 row of English cucumbers
'Beurre De Roquencourt' bush beans
Set up and planted our herb bed

Harvest Something:
Rhubarb
Mint
Trimmed the onion transplants and ate the trimmings
Chamomile flowers
Basil

Preserve Something:
Dried the chamomile flowers for tea
Dried the leftover mint and basil

Reduced Waste:
Used moldy hay to mulch new garden section
Used lots of cardboard under the hay
Kept the baler twine and am using it instead of bought string for marking garden rows

Build Community Food Systems:
Dh and children very busy putting in the market garden:



Eat the Food:
Local Bought- wheat, eggs, beef, honey
Home Preserved - pickles, green beans,
Pantry Storage - lots as I'm starting to just buy things on sale and really stock up so a lot we eat from storage instead of buying as we need it.
Fresh from garden - rhubarb, herbs

Try Something New:
I took a good look at what we use as dried herbs for cooking and for teas, many of these could be grown in our garden. So our something new is putting in the herb bed in the garden and stocking it with herbs that I want to dry. This is a step towards independence from the industrial farming machine.

So far I've planted: basil, sage, oregano, parsley, thyme, rosemary, chives, tarragon, mint, lemon balm, and chamomile. I'm going to add dill and cat mint this week.