tomatoes Archives -

Super Fan Giveaway

Author: Walking Softly Upon the Earth September 16, 2014

Our Facebook page recently went over 500 fans! I was so excited and so grateful to hit this milestone. I can’t even begin to thank you all enough, but I can give one lucky fan a super fun prize. 🙂

One winner will receive a gift package that includes:

~A Back to Eden film DVD. It is a beautiful documentary detailing a simple, natural gardening method that models nature. It’s what I use in my garden and little orchard. The results are nutrient dense food with very little weeding or watering. The method and film are amazing. (Even if you don’t win, you can watch it free on the Back to Eden film website).

~Five packets of seeds from Botanical Interests. These were some of my very favorite varieties I grew in my garden this year. Cherokee Purple Tomato, Lemon Cucumbers, Purple Petra Basil, Borage, and Sugar Snap Peas. I’m also going to throw in some seeds that I saved from my monster marigold plant that grew in my garden this season. It was so huge and gorgeous. Hopefully these will be some of your favorite varieties next year.

~A jar of my favorite bath salts that I made in this post. It’s total bath bliss. 🙂

The rules are simple. The giveaway will run until 11:59 p.m. EST September 24, 2014. Winner will be chosen and notified the following day. You can earn up to five chances to win. You may not enter more than once under each category, and I will check to make sure you followed the rules. I don’t like cheaters. 😉 You must be 18 to enter and live in the continental U.S.. (Sorry international peeps. Maybe next time I can swing it). You must provide a valid email address when you submit your comment so that I can contact you. (This doesn’t post with your comment, so don’t worry about privacy). The winner will have 48 hours after I send them an email to reply with their mailing address. If I don’t hear from the winner in that time, I will choose another winner. Winner will be chosen at random.

How to Enter (You may earn one entry for each item below. Do just one, or all five. It’s totally up to you).

1. Comment on this post below telling me what was your favorite thing you grew in your garden this year. If you weren’t able to garden, then tell me what your favorite homegrown fruit or veggie is. Maybe you can help me choose some new varieties to try next year. This comment earns you one entry.

2. Subscribe to this blog by entering your email address into the field on the right. You will receive an email every time I post so you never miss anything new. I promise no spam. Comment below letting me know you’ve subscribed and you get another entry.

3. “Like” Walking Softly Upon the Earth on Facebook here, come back and comment below telling me you’re a fan. Already liked my page? Just tell me you are already a fan. I’m not going to leave you out! 🙂 Earns you one entry.

4. Follow me on Pinterest here, come back and comment below telling me you’re following. If you are already following me on Pinterest you get another entry by telling me you are already following. I love me some Pinterest.

5. If you are on Twitter, you can follow me here and comment below for another entry. I am embarrassed by my lack of Twitter knowledge, so forgive me if I fumble as I learn. 🙂

That’s it. Good luck!!!!

Essential Oils, Gardening, Healthy Living

Back to Eden Film, bath salts, essential oils, gardening, giveaway, marigolds, organic gardening, seeds, tomatoes

Sweet, Sweet Summertime!

Author: Walking Softly Upon the Earth August 15, 2014

What is it about time that makes the summer go by so super quickly? Time seems to go so fast now anyway, but summer flashes by at light speed. It’s crazy! It breaks my heart to think about the kiddos going back to school next week, but I will have more blogging time if there is an upside.

Gardening this time of year mostly means a little weeding and a lot of picking. We have also started seeds for our fall garden under grow lights in the basement. I want to do some canning soooo badly, but I haven’t been able to get a whole bunch of tomatoes ripe at the same time yet. We have had several dinners with marinara sauce from scratch though. There’s nothing quite like it. 🙂

The Super Awesome Husband looks at our haul every day, shakes his head and asks what happened to the good ‘ole red tomatoes. Hee hee! I have some of those too, but honest to goodness people, the colors and flavors of the others are incredible! And purple peppers? Heck yeah! 🙂

See?? I have red. (Or it’s actually pink, but shhhh don’t tell him)! 😉 😉 Problem is, the stupid squirrels and birds like them too. UGH!!! I think what bothers me even more than the fact that they steal my tomatoes, is that they leave half of them to rot on the ground. If you little jerks are going to rob my garden, at least eat every.single.delicious.nutritious.bite!!!! Don’t waste half of it. OR there are plenty of little ones, so leave my huge slicers ALONE!!!! Sorry. Deep breath. I can’t stand waste or tomato thieves. 🙂

Can’t have tomatoes without fresh basil. Mmmmmmm. I’m getting hungry now. My favorite meal in the summer is sliced tomatoes with fresh mozzarella and basil, drizzled with balsamic vinegar. Never gets old.

Tomatoes and basil are meant to be together. They are fabulous companion plants. Many of my tomato plants in the garden (like this one), and all of my tomatoes in pots have basil growing around them. They are supposed to make the tomatoes taste even better when grown together. Plus, it makes it super easy to pick your maters and grab a handful of basil to put on top. 🙂

See! I told you I could grow carrots once I got them sprouted!! It’s a jungle in there!!

Beets!!! So far (fingers crossed) the evil mole/vole duo hasn’t cleaned out the beet patch. This guy has a hot date with my juicer in his future. Yummy!

I really hate the flavor of black licorice. The Back to Eden film got me curious about fennel though. Paul swore it was sweet and delicious and everyone seemed to love it. Then I found a Bronze Fennel plant at our local farm stand and couldn’t resist how pretty it was.

Now I can’t walk out to the garden without breaking off a little sprig and eating it. The flavor is amazing!! I could probably sit and eat the whole plant. I don’t know if they all taste this way, or if it’s my rich, Back to Eden soil. You HAVE to try some!

Still only a couple of honeybees this summer. I can’t wait to keep some bees one day. Until then, we’ll have to rely on the little baby bumblebees.

My daughter’s Scarlett Runner Beans. We love the flowers!

So I’ve been meaning to share with you some of my favorite gardening books. I LOVE to read. Though I don’t have a lot of time for it right now, these books keep me happy all winter while I can only dream about my little garden.

The Heirloom Life Gardener

The Gardener’s A to Z Guide to Growing Organic Food

The Weekend Homesteader: A Twelve-Month Guide to Self Sufficiency

Mini Farming: Self-Sufficiency on 1/4 Acre

And because I am OBSESSED with getting chickens:

Homemade Living: Keeping Chickens

I promise you will be hearing more about my chicken obsession. 😉 Lots more….

DISCLOSURE: This post may contain affiliate links, and I may receive compensation for sharing products and information on this site. All thoughts and opinions are my own. Thank you for supporting Walking Softly Upon the Earth! See this page for full site Disclosure.

Gardening

carrots, chemical free, flowers, garden, gardening, gardening books, healthy living, heirloom tomatoes, learning to garden, organic gardening, peppers, permaculture, tomatoes, vegetables

Walking on Eggshells

Author: Walking Softly Upon the Earth August 3, 2014

Let’s chat a little about reducing waste and building soil. These things are so very important! We began going green here several years ago when we started recycling. We began with mixed recyclables, and then a year or two after that I started keeping a box for paper recycling. We were truly amazed at how much those two things cut down on our trash. It was a wonderful feeling knowing I had cut our contribution to the landfill by about half. It always made me sad seeing bag after bag and box after box of garbage after Christmas morning, so this year I made the decision to go through all of the wrapping and packaging and separate the paper as well as the recyclable plastic. I was thrilled to find we were left with only half a bag of actual trash after this. I’m happier when I’m doing my best for my children and our beautiful planet.

Two years ago we bought a compost bin. (This one actually: Lifetime 60058 Compost Tumbler, Black, 80-Gallon) Once again our trash can filled even more slowly, and you just can’t beat free compost for your garden. It always seemed like such a complicated thing that I didn’t think we could keep up with, but it’s really not a big deal at all. When it is time to empty our bin next month, we’ll go through some steps to making great compost.

If you have a garden I hope you are not throwing away your eggshells. Please tell me you’re not! If you are, start saving them now! When we started out we were throwing our eggshells into the compost. I knew they were good for it and would add lots of awesome calcium to the soil eventually. I then read more and more about ways to use eggshells more directly, so I began to rinse them out and place them back in the carton. When we use the whole dozen, I bake them to dry them out and kill any bacteria. You can either bake them on your lowest oven temperature for a couple of hours or pop them in the oven after baking something and let it sit in there as the oven cools. Once they’ve cooled, grind those bad boys up. You can just crush them into small pieces but it will take quite a while for them to break down and really be beneficial to your plants. I bought a mortar and pestle and set the kids to work.

It occupies them for a while, and they get to work on their arm muscles. 😉

When they are very fine to powder texture we dump them into a storage container.

I do a few different things with these now. When I put my tomato plants in the ground at the beginning of the season I have a whole “cocktail” I add to the dug hole before adding the plant. They get some Epsom Salt, an aspirin, rock dust, organic fertilizer (Fish emulsion or worm castings are wonderful) and a scoop of the ground eggshells. If you have ever had a problem with blossom end rot, adding ground eggshells or bone meal at the time of planting, before your little tomato plants are even thinking about fruiting, is a wonderful preventative. I also add them to the areas where I plant my squash and zucchinis since I’ve had trouble with blossom end rot with them as well.

Ground eggshells also help to ward off slugs. I don’t know about your garden, but mine is a slug magnet in the spring, so I need all the help I can get protecting the plants. I make a ring around the ground at the base of the little plants with the ground shells and, for the most part, the slugs won’t cross the shells because sharp edges cut their soft bodies. It’s not perfect, but it is a HUGE help.

Since the pictures of eggshells aren’t overly exciting, I thought I’d add a few that I took this week of a couple of our dragonflies. We have TONS of these guys flying around the yard lately and the kids and I just love them.

Sometimes they sit and pose for me for as long as I would like, but this week they were a little too busy and kept flying off after a few seconds.

I love the blue ones.

My daughter looked at this and asked if the patterns on dragonfly wings are all different, like fingerprints. I LOVE when my kids come up with really awesome questions. 🙂 Of course, it also ruins the mom knows everything card. 😀

I am amazed by their eyes. It’s probably the photographer in me obsessing over eyes, but W.O.W.!!!

Summer is going way too fast! I hope you are enjoying every second of yours!!!

DISCLOSURE: This post may contain affiliate links, and I may receive compensation for sharing products and information on this site. These links help support this site, and do not cost you extra to use. All thoughts and opinions are my own. See this page for full site Disclosure. Thank you for supporting Walking Softly Upon the Earth!! 🙂

Gardening

blossom end rot, chemical free, composting, farm fresh eggs, food, garden, garden problems, gardening, green living, organic gardening, plant health, reducing waste, tomatoes, vegetables

Chasing Away the Crickets

Author: Walking Softly Upon the Earth July 1, 2014

Sorry for the crickets this past week. Summer vacation started for the kidlets, so we’ve been busy living it up with trips to the beach and park and hitting up their favorite playgrounds. And yes, there has been ice cream involved. We take summer vacation very seriously in this house. 🙂

The kids totally freaked out this week when these guys made their return:

I had no clue until very recently that our friends on the west coast do not have fireflies. It’s one of those things I take for granted seeing every summer and I just assumed that everyone had them. I can’t imagine summer without the kids running around catching these magical little guys.

I have a bunch of really cool posts in the works, but instead of making you wait while I finished them up, I thought we’d see how things were going in the garden.

Remember the sad state of affairs my marigold window box was in? Well, I spread out the few marigolds that sprouted and added some nasturtium seeds to fill it in and it’s not looking half bad now. Way less sad.

The kids and I were so excited to find a few Sweet Pea Currant tomatoes and Sun Gold Cherry tomatoes ripe this week. Sooooo tasty!! It just doesn’t get better than homegrown tomatoes! If I HAD to choose just one thing to grow in my garden, it would probably be tomatoes. Now ask me what kind of tomato and I would have a problem. You need one for every color of the rainbow, right?!?! 🙂

Purple Beauty Pepper. It’s teeny tiny, but we don’t judge. 🙂 I can’t figure out who is chomping on her leaves. I suspect a Hornworm, but haven’t found one yet and they are usually very easy to spot. It’s a mystery.

Rosita has finally gotten over her transplant shock and her unfortunate run in with a slug. She really liked the compost tea I gave her, but what lady doesn’t like her tea? 🙂

I am loving the ground cherries. They form little lanterns like tomatillos. If you are new I’ll tell you now, I love the out of ordinary when it comes to my garden. I pick a lot of my seeds based on unusual colors and I love stumbling across something I’ve never seen in the grocery store before.

My Sweet Pea’s lavender. She loves it like I do.

Garlic scapes I think. I planted all soft neck garlic though, so I’m not completely sure. Hmmmm…..

I may have a new garden obsession. Borage. It is so, so, so pretty!! I killed it all last year before I saw any blooms. (It’s a learning experience people)! 🙂 The plants in front of my strawberries are all way ahead of the ones by the tomatoes and are now blooming. Take a look and I bet you’ll be planting some seeds yourself.

I’m so in love with this shot. The fuzzy leaves and stems make it look like a watercolor painting. I may have to print this one for the wall.

See, I told you I was obsessed!!! I get so excited when something I’ve planted from seed grows and flourishes. If you have always purchased plants to plant in your garden, you HAVE to try growing at least one thing from seed this year. It’s nothing short of a miracle to put this little, tiny seed in the ground, and a few weeks later get this. ^^^

This week will be packed with fun posts. I promise not to stay away this long again. Happy Summer everyone!!

Gardening, Uncategorized

borage, egg plant, fireflies, flowers, garden, gardening, ground cherries, healthy living, organic gardening, tomatoes, vegetables

Anyone can plant straight rows

Author: Walking Softly Upon the Earth May 22, 2014

I figure I owe you a good, photo-packed post after the long ramble that was my last one. Let’s take a walk in the garden, shall we?

The beans have popped up and are so pretty. I’ve planted all of the bush beans, but still need to fix the supports for the pole beans and get them in. The way I see it, anyone can plant in perfectly straight rows, so why would I want to do that? I’m so awesome I even manage to plant crooked rows when using a length of twine as a guide. So I don’t do that anymore. 🙂 I’m going for the wild, natural look. Ha!

It’s squash ba-by! Woo Hoo!! If you’re wondering what the heck the cage is for, it’s a little “basket” we made to save the main root and stem from the mole/vole invasion that occurred last year. I had the biggest, most beautiful squash and zucchini plants, until one by one they died. I’d pick them up and find the root missing and a big ‘ole hole under the dying plant. It was so sad. The micro-destroyers took out a lot of my garden, as a matter-of-fact. It’s war this year!

Poor Rosita! She’s not too thrilled with life outdoors quite yet. A slug fell for her and nibbled her pretty leaves before I caught him. I’m hoping she’ll find happiness soon and start sinking her roots deep.

Tomatoes are going in. Things just got real people.

Some romaine in the garlic patch. See what I mean? Straight rows are totally for amateurs. (Woo Hoo! I spelled it right the first time!!! I’m a TERRIBLE speller and was sure that nasty red you’re-wrong-you-stupid-idiot line would appear under amateurs as soon as I hit the space bar. Nope. I’m rockstar awesome today! Dang. Is it rock star then? Crap).

How in the heck did I get a head of Speckles Butterhead Lettuce growing out of the compost pile? The tomatoes I understand, because a ton of tomatoes made the compost bin after the rotten scoundrel squirrels took bites out of them. But the lettuce? No clue. It’s lookin’ good though. I see a yummy salad in my future.

So I dug up a bunch of wild blackberries and raspberries and put them in the garden last year. I know. I know. You’re not supposed to do that. You’re supposed to buy the good, reliable ones if you want fruit. I ran out of garden cash, so I thought I’d give it a try. I didn’t get any berries, so yeah, I told you so is appropriate. If I get a lot of nothin’ this year I’ll be doing a lot of painful pulling and digging to get rid of them. There are tons of flowers…

Strawberries are going strong. We’ve only been able to pick one so far, but look at all the berries they are cranking out!

I wish I could have captured just how juicy this was. In “Back to Eden” they mention and show how water-filled Paul’s fruits and vegetables are. I won’t have anything like his for quite some time, but if this is any indication, wow!

Happy Dance! Happy Dance! We have baby peaches!

Yep. I dug up some dandelions, potted them up and am taking care of them. I need to find a bigger pot and put them all in it soon too. Their roots are CRAZY!! Why? We have bunnies, so I’m not only trying to grow healthy fruits and vegetables for my family, but for a couple of cute, fuzzy bunnies as well.

The only thing making me more excited than baby peaches and tons of strawberries about to ripen? THIS:

While we are peeking into the greenhouse, here is some fennel, bronze fennel, pineapple sage, ground cherries and other assorted goodies waiting to go in the ground. My daughter also asked if we could save a few of the volunteer tomatoes from the compost pile, so we dug up 3 and are going to see what we get.

Super awesome husband got the gutters up in the greenhouse. 🙂 I need to get something planted in them now!

This is the pup-sicle. He was hanging out waiting for me to finish so he could go back inside. I thought I’d introduce you, but he wouldn’t look at me. This is the look I got after asking him if he wanted a cookie. Love the curled lip and “huh?!?!?! What did you say???” expression. So everybody, this is Echo, the seriously spoiled pup-sicle. Eater of carrots and apples and see-saws. He doesn’t believe in straight rows either. 🙂

Gardening

gardening, greenhouse, organic gardening, peaches, tomatoes

Tag Archive: tomatoes

Super Fan Giveaway

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Sweet, Sweet Summertime!

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Walking on Eggshells

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Chasing Away the Crickets

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Anyone can plant straight rows

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