Container Gardening Together - Week 6

Here's what I ended up planting so far:

4 blue lake bean plants

4 pinto beans

4 kidney beans

4 lima bins

8 linclon green peas

20 snow peas

3 rutgers tomato

2 roma tomato

2 tomato (other)

10 cucumbers (marketmore, straight 8, ashley)

2 jalapeno

2 cayenne

4 beets

4 black eyed peas

2 bell pepper

4 cabbages

1 strawberry patch

1 grapevine

1 zucchini

2 yellow squash

6 rows spinach

6 rows collards

6 rows lettuce

14 celery

8 yellow onion

8 radish

Oregano

rosemary

parsley

thyme

basil

sage

spearmint

cilantro

dill

garlic chives

avocado

goji

raspberry

lilies

I haven't started my sunflowers or my potatoes.  This list is a bit different from the one I started with, I know, but I had to edit it some. 

I planted my lilies directly in the ground.  I bought them from lowes.  The were beautiful.  I say were because they are dead as a doornail now.  Frost got them.  

This is an assortment of various bean and pea plants in the "self- watering" buckets.  If you haven't gotten a chance to check out my tutorial yet it's super fast and super cheap.  It' something you can do with the kids and it's worked great for me so far this season! 

I believe I ended up planting 

 This has been a big experiment!  I planted 12 Beets.  It looks like 4 made it.  I might try some more later in the season.  I've had my hands pretty full lately, though and honestly I HATE beets.  So if I can grow 4 I feel good about it.  So I'll probably not re-plant. 

My Black Eyed Peas are Doing well.  One, for whatever reason is doing better than the other three.  But they are coming along well.  

Look at the wee little cabbages popping up!  

You really can't see anything special at all about the celery.  I almost didn't bother including it.  Except to say that I'm not sure it's even going to come up at all. 

This is my lovely Collard Greens.  Six Lovely rows.  I decided to do them in under bed storage containers.  

This was a Zucchini.  The one in the middle was killed by frost.  You can see his brother on the right there is still kicking along

My lovely goji plant is coming along just fine.

I haven't decided quite where to put my grapevine, so it's kind of in a temporary home right now. 

This is my new herb planter I picked up on amazon.  It can sit down or hang and it's just lovely.  I planted 9 things in it.  

This is my Lettuce Plants.  Coming right on along.  Now if I can only keep the rabbits out of it.  

 Cucumber, marketmore.  

This is parsley that I planted about 2 years ago and it has just lasted and lasted.  I planted it directly in the ground and it has just been the best.  One of the best herbs you can grow. 

My lovely little radishes.  These are so easy to grow. 

rutgers tomato

This is a sage patch that I planted at the same time I planted the Parley.  It has been very hearty as well. 

Spinach.  Not coming up well yet. 

My tiny strawberry patch. 

Spanish Onion.  I'm also not sure if it will come in. 

Yellow Squash.  Just blossoming. 

This is the Zucchini that survived the frost.hopefully it will bring a bounty!

DIY "self-watering" 5 Gallon Planters

I wasn't sure if this idea would even work.  I just kinda did it.  But I'm so glad I did!  First I would like to say I LOVE LOVE LOVE this for my container garden!  I would do it again and again!  

I hate this term "self-watering" because it implies that you never have to do anything.  That couldn't be farther from the truth.  I prefer to view it more of a root hydration system that a watering system.  And it's not foolproof by any means.  If the bottle were to get too full then you could drown your plants.  

It has worked marvelously for me this year so far, and I would love to share it with you!  It's so simple to do and it's inexpensive!  It's early enough in the season that you could pick up some young tomato plants for a few dollars and pot a couple.  You could get pounds and pounds of tomatoes all season long for just a few dollars investment!

You can get the bucket from Firehouse Subs for $2 with a lid, food grade.  Or just a good ol paint bucket from lowes for around $3.  The soil I used cost $1.50. It takes about 1/2 a cubic foot of soil to fill a bucket.  I used the kind for gardens with fertilizer mixed in that's $3 per cubic foot.  Then you need a knife, a 2 liter plastic bottle, and your seedlings.  If you choose to purchase seedlings then it might cost you a few bucks, if you choose to grow them it might cost you a pack of seeds. All in all, you're looking at around 5 bucks max initial investment give or take.  Next year even less because you'll already have your bucket.

You can grow 5 pea plants, 4 bean plants, or 2 tomato plants in them (I believe) spaced properly.  They seem to be coming up well for me that way anyway so far.  I will certainly keep you guys posted on it.  

Start with your plastic bottle.  Carefully punch 4-6 slits in the bottle I usually punch 2 near the neck, 2 near the middle, and 2 near the bottom.  This just allows any water that you fill into the bottle to seep out into the roots.

Once your bottle is sufficiently holey you'll place it in the 5 gallon bucket with the lid still on (so as to not fill the bottle with dirt)

Fill all around the bottle, trying to keep the bottle in the middle.    Fill all the way to the top, some dirt will settle in the coming days. 

Once the dirt is all in, remove the lid.

You can now plant your plants.  In this example, I am planting tomato.  I will plant one plant on either side of the protruding lip of the bottle equidistant from the bucket's edge.

I got these droopy tomatoes from a local farmer.  I put the little stake in indicating which type of tomato is planted there.  And in just under a week...look at the transformation!!!!

NOT SO DROOPY ANYMORE ARE WE????

As with any plants you will want to steak them and support them as they grow.  I plan to do mine with wooden dowels and twine.  

I have successfully done this with Peas, Tomatoes, and Beans so far.

You can see where I used my K cups to start this one.  I wrote a blog on that, in case you didn't see it.  

I use the K cups to cover the top of the 2 liter bottle because it's easy to remove, identifies the plant, and keeps rainwater from overfilling it!

Spring has Sprung April Has Begun First Day of April Brownies for The Office

How to butcher and process a whole chicken

First you will need to set out a whole plucked thawed chicken.  If you butcher the live chicken you will need to get a Large pot of water boiling,  kill the chicken, make certain it's dead, put it in the boiling water for 10-30 seconds and then pluck it.  

Most people will probably skip all that and go to the grocers and get a whole chicken, so I am starting there.  You can wait until whole chickens go on sale,  buy as many as you like,  and butcher them up yourself.  It will save you a Ton of money.  The more you buy,  the more you save!! I usually wait until they go on sale for about $1 a pound before I buy.  This makes them about $5.00 per bird.  Otherwise they are $1.50 per pound or $7.00 or so per bird.

Start with the wings first.  You are going to make a circular Cut shaped cut all the way around the chicken's "armpit" area. 

Once that is completed continue the cut all the way around to the back.  Remember!  We do notwant to cut through bone.  Only meat and tendon and cartlidge if you do it right,  it should go smoothly. 

Once you have cut all the way around,  then you should be able to pull the wing out from the body and see where the joints connect.  Sever any remaining connective tissue with your knife and the wing should detach with minimal effort  

Once both wings have been removed and set aside we flip the bird over.   

Pull The leg away from the bird's body

Follow the natural contours where the legs connect to the inner bird with your knife.  

Once you do this on both sides this will put the bird in a spread eagle position with the legs still attached to the bird.

Now you will flip the bird over again 

make a cut straight down it's spine

Similarly to the way that you cut around the wings, you will cut around the remaining piece that connects the leg portion to the torso of the bird. 

You should be able to sever all tissue around the joint that connects the leg to the body and then pop the joint out with little or no difficulty.

Now is the point where I like to remind folks to get the insides out of the chicken.  Especially if you are using the carcass to make broth.  

I like to remove the fat off of the breasts.  You don't have to do that, but I personally like to.  

Once the Skin is removed you can actually see where the two breasts separate.

As you cut away the breast you reveal a smaller breast area, I don't know exactly what it's called (feel free to comment if you do!) but I like to use it for chicken tenders, so that's what I call it).

Once you're done separating the main parts from the bird it's time to separate out the wings.

First Cut off the Wing tip.  Just the tip. (Shout out to all my Archer Fans!!!!)

  

Now make a circular cut at the joint to separate the wing from the drummy

Pull apart at the joint and set aside.

Once I get the chicken processed I do all kinds of fun stuff with it to prep for dinner.  I utilize my Food Saver a lot.  I make freezer pack crock pot ready hot wings.

Lemon Pepper Garlic Chicken

Honey Mustard Chicken

A freezer FULL of meat only cost me $15.00 

Additionally I got 3 Quarts of Chicken Stock

 And using my foodsaver, everything fits in the top part of my small freezer, no problems.  One small afternoon.  LOADS of savings.