I Continue to Wait

Hi. I know. I'm slacking on updates lately. But not really anything to report about. Pulled the radishes but I waited too long so they had started going woody. Gotten some peas off my plants but not really much to mention. Very tasty though. Many of the greens I planted have been getting eaten by birds so I've had to put cut off juice bottles over them for protection. I've also found caterpillars on several.

The one thing the birds or bugs haven't really touched is the mustard spinach. And I can understand why. It's pretty bitter. I'm going to let it stay for a while longer to see how it does during the cooler weather. If it's still bitter than I'll just pull it. I prefer my salad greens to not be bitter. I have to use less dressing that way.

One salad green that I'm still really pleased with is the red russian kale. It has a lovely flavor, seems to do well in the summer (I keep it in mostly shade), and has just grown really well the two years I've grown it. I've planted some more in a couple of buckets that didn't survive the birds. I might also put some in the big container where the radishes were.

Or I might put my raspberry and blackberry plant in it. Then again, don't think I'll put the berries in there. That container is way too heavy to move so I'll have to empty it when we finally do get our own place and I'll have to find something else to put them in. Maybe I'll put the asparagus in it since they don't have any room in the small containers they're in. A year of growth in the big container will do them some good. But asparagus roots don't go very deep so the depth of that big container might go to waste. Aaahhh! I don't know. I'll figure out something to put in there. I need my own friggin place to actually plant a garden in the ground!

With the realization of how difficult it's going to be to save about 5k for a down payment, I've been kind of down in the dumps. Besides the fact that with winter coming, any potential projects are on hold. Also the fact I can't make a whole lot of plans for projects since it's going to be a while before I can put anything into practice. Like the greenhouse for example. Not enough room in our little patio to put a 10x20 foot greenhouse. Can't even think of livestock yet. Still plan on doing a small scale aquaponics idea with barrels if I can get them. But that can't start until the spring because I don't want to make my first attempts at aquaponics while trying to keep the fish and the rest of the system from freezing.

I may have to severely cut down my 'wants' for our future house. Like I would 'like' at least 5 acres. But most of the places I've found with that kind of land are either farther away then we want, have houses that are run down, or are mobile homes which are a lot harder to get a mortgage for. Or they're WAY out of our price range. I want to keep our mortgage to something very manageable. I want our new place to be a pleasure. Not a financial burden.

But right now I'm pretty much back to waiting and maintaining what I do have. Maybe in the spring I'll be able to get some more buckets and grow some summer veggies like zucchini, tomatoes and beans. But for now, I'm just waiting. Like always.