Garden Prep For Fall and Winter/Planting a Fall Garden

 

The "BER" months are upon us and you can feel a shift in the air. This is the time when many gardeners start seeing a decline in harvest. Summer is at an end,  and the plants are slowing down on production. Unless you have things like pumpkins still going strong. For us this year it is at an end. 

This is the part of the season or year that you start to clean up your garden from the summers harvest and prepare it for next growing season. If you are growing a fall garden, we will get to that later down the post. 

If your closing your garden for the season, here are some things we do on our farm. We pull out all plants that have died out and finished producing. We throw them in a compost pile or sometimes we let them compost in the garden. We do this one of two ways. First way if dear hubby will run the tractor through with a bush hog or disc. This cuts down and mulches things down to the soil where they will compost on their own through the winter. Corn stalks, and okra stalks are a perfect example. They make great compost and add nutrients back into the soil. The next way is to pull up other plants and let them compost in the garden as well. If you don't want to leave them in your garden at all, just pull them up, pile them into a compost pile or feed them to live stock. Just take precautions if you have used any kind of bug spray on them. You do not want to make an animal sick. You can burn off your garden as well. Sometimes we do that too. It depends on what our garden needs at that time and what kind of time we have as to what method we use. 

We remove t-posts, twine, clips and then the cattle panels. We take down our solar fencing for the winter too. 

If we need to lime or fertilize, we will do it before a snow so the snow will melt and carry the nutrients further down into the soil. Some years we don't have to lime or fertilize like this. Soil testing comes in handy to tell us what our soil needs and doesn't need. 

Some people will plant cover crops like native grasses or peas with high nitrogen content to put those  nutrients into the soil to be ready for early spring season. 

We play it year by year and according to what we grew that year as to plan how we need to prep for early spring season.  You will have to be the judge and planner according to what your garden needs. 

Now, if you are growing a fall garden, just clean out what needs to be cleaned out according to the rows and space you need for your fall vegetables. If you don't need the whole garden space, only clean out what you need. 

Follow the same process as above to clean it out. Then plant those wonder fall vegetables and repeat your growing season. Not sure what vegetables to grow in the fall? Here are some ideas. Basically it is any plant that needs cooler temperatures and can be harvested before the first frost. Sometimes you can still protect them even in a frost. I have many times. I have covered tender broccoli, cauliflower and cabbage plants with sheets before or heavy hay. Now, a freeze in completely different. I have lost several plants to freeze because I didn't get them covered. 

Here are some creative ways to keep them covered and protected. I may have just found some new projects for dear hubby. 😂 Cold frames can be built many different ways with ingenuity. You can also just use row cover material. I've seen gardeners with cold frames and still gathering vegetables with snow on the ground. Talk about extending your season. Nurture and take care of the fall season crop just as you would spring and summer but at least the weeds and bugs want be as bad. After your fall season is finished, follow same steps as above to do a clean up and prep before early spring season or you can just let it go and wait until early spring to do the prep work. Either way is ok. 

If you are harvesting your pumpkins, here is some ways to make sure you are utilizing every part of the plant. You can also take the leaves and dry them, grind them into a powder and use in cooking, baking and even use in teas for medicine. 

I hope you have found this information useful and as always, thanks for hanging out with me. 

Tracy

Keeper of the Home 

#fall #garden #fallgarden #gardenprep #fallcrop #fallvegetables #gardening 

Girls Room Makeover/DIY

 This whole summer, I worked and finally got our granddaughters bedroom made over and organized like I want it. I was not blessed with the home designer gene, nor do I have a creative mind. I took what I had and rolled with it. 

In their rooms I have play zones. This one is the baby station. They have dolls, and all accessories but it was just jammed in there.  They don't play in there by themselves anyway. They drag everything one at a time to the living room and I came up with the idea of rolling storage drawers and rolling carts. I found the storage drawers in the section where storage tubs and lids are in Walmart. The rolling carts were on  the laundry isle in Walmart. 

 They helped me separate whose things were whose and we organized it all. Each girl has their own drawers and cart now. Some of the pieces like the bed, high chair, stroller, etc. they share. 

It was so much easier for them to roll their things into the living room. We had a play day one day and played daycare center and baby sitting. 😃😉 They love it. 

The next thing I needed to work on was something for all their stuffed animals. They had so many stuffed animals on their bed up against the wall that the granddaughter that sleeps there had no room. So I decided to go vertical. I put the biggest ones above their bed and then I bought two nifty stuffed animal towers and hung them out from the wall using plant hooks. Nifty huh?

This one area was an eye sore and it had a different system but they had outgrown it's baby colors. So I went to Walmart and got two 6 cubed shelving units, put them together and stood them side by side. I bought all the cubby holders from Dollar Tree. I divided them among them and they have their own side. 

This little corner is now the dress up station. I had a three drawer storage drawer in their closet that was empty just begging for me to dig it out so I did. I bought the little mirror from 5 Below and added two lights to each side (not pictured). I got so many ooooohhhs and aaahhhhssss on this one. 😉

It was time to update their bedding for girls and new curtains. I bought a bed in a bag from Ollie's that had a comforter, queen sheet set, two pillow cases and two pillow shams for $29.99. Pictured above. Then I wanted to do something totally different with their curtains. My mom and I went to some thrift stores one day and that's all I was on a hunt for. I prayed before we left and asked God to help me find something.We'll, he did. Not just one but two sets of curtains. The one pictured matched perfectly with their bed set. The other is polka dotted with all different colors that I can use in the summer. I will buy a few sets of new sheets that will match and interchange them. I love the new rod and set up because I wanted to give the window an appearance of being higher. Dear hubby hung it for me. It turned out perfect and they are black out curtains as well. So is the other set. 

I am so pleased with how this turned out and they love it too. Now I just need to organize their drawers and I bought those organizers at Dollar Tree as well. 

Just goes to show,  you can still organize and decorate even if you don't have a creative bone in your body. And you can do it on a budget with functionality. 

Tracy

Keeper of the Home 

#organization #makeover #home  #cleanout #organize #roommakeover #decor #decorate #DIY

Here Are Some More Nifty Little Hacks

 Here is a great traveling hack with kids. This is a traveling inflatable port a potty. This has saved us plenty of times on the road. I even carried it in a back pack when we were out some where that we couldn't get to a bathroom or stand in long lines at events to wait our turn. You can easily shield your little one by holding up a blanket around them for privacy. Close the back hatch of the vehicle for privacy. It is easy clean up also. You can line it with disposable liners, grocery sacks, puppy pee pee pads, a diaper or pull up. Then grab, wrap up and dispose of in a trash can.

Another neat way to fix homemade uncrustables 😁

You have to give these a try for easy grab and go breakfast ideas. 😋

This makes an awesome homemade yellow cake mix.

We watch for sales on meats all ths time. Whether it's chicken 🐔, pork 🐖 or beef 🐂, we shop the sales and buy in bulk. We bring it home and repackage into meal portions and vacuum seal the packages and place in our freezers. This has saved us alot of money on the grocery budget.  

Maybe some of these ideas will help you out. 

#momlife #Homesteading #homemaking #lifehacks #hacks #kitchenhacks

Tracy 

Keeper of the Home 

Nifty Home Ideas and Encouragement For Women

 Today I'd like to leave you with some encouraging words and throw in some nifty ideas for the home. 

This is an awesome idea for a plant stand. Go vertical.

Cute idea for fall 🍂 🍁

I have no clue whose garden this is or where it is, but it is awesome 🍓🍅🍆🥔🥕🌽🌶🫑🥒🥬🥦🧄🧅🫛

I am so glad our boys 👦 know how to cook and clean. We made memories and they learned life skills that now help them in their own homes. Im working on the next generation. They will have the same memories and learn the same skills to take care of their homes and families. My work is not done yet. There will be more to come and the same will go.

I love having a prayer journal. Even if it takes 1, 2, or more years for them to be answered, it is a great joy, I mean the kind you want to shout from the roof top joy, when you get to go back and mark them as *ANSWERED*. HALLELUJAH Praise the Lord. Sometimes he answers in a different way, sometimes he answers it specifically just like you asked. Sometimes he just shows up and shows up in ways that just suprise you. He knows what he's doing. Never doubt that for one minute. Keep praying and keep pressing on. 🙏 

Don't let go of the hem of his garment. You grab it and hang on as tight as you can. 

The Prayer of Jabez is powerful.❤️💛💚💙🩵💜🤎📖

We are traveling at the moment because work had to come calling. I brought along a homemade loaf of bread 🍞 😋 and when we got to our destination, I made the best PBJ sandwich with some of my Mommas home canned muscadine jelly

Ladies, young girls, pray for a husband that will not even get mad when you back your truck into your front porch steps and knock them down. Instead he asks if you're OK first or did you get hurt. I swear this man God gave me is so patient. He saves me from my silly self sometimes 🤪 Yes, this actually happened before we left and yes we will have a project to do when we get back. But this proves that good men still exist. 😁😁🤣🤣

We really need this especially in today's world where society is trying to tell our young ladies and girls this. We need to get back to raising girls and young ladies as to how God intended.

Here are some encouraging posts to carry with you today. 

I hope everyone has a blessed day. 

Tracy

Keeper of the Home 

Happy Labor Day

 I hope everyone is enjoying their holiday today. Although there are some who still have to work today. 

A good day of rest is always necessary to the body, mind and soul. 

Work is also a blessing within itself. God gives us the ability and the knowledge to do what is necessary to provide for our families. Alot of people think of work as a burden and dread it. 

I always like the verse that says, 

I love to eat so therefore I'm going to work. My dear hubby is the provider of our home and he takes this role seriously.  His thoughts are, " it's not about me anymore, I have a family to take care of". 

As far as me, I take my role seriously too. I may not have a job outside the home now but I take care of my home and my family. I help put food on the table by growing and Preserving our food. In my younger days, I use to be in the working field and helped pay living expenses. So I have been on both sides. 

Work is just something that has to be done in order to survive. We had it made until the fall of man in the Garden of Eden. 

But God gave a way to still help us sustain our lives. We may have to labor and toil but I count it a blessing that I have a family to take care of and bless. 

I try not to see my work as a dread, hindrance, nuisance etc. I count it as joy. 

Dirty laundry means we have clothes to wear. Dirty dishes means we have food to eat. Thus also means dear hubby has provided these things with his own two hands by going to work. 

Let's try to have a better outlook on work from this day forward. 

Tracy

Keeper of the Home