Gardening – The Professional Domestic

Ripley Victory Garden 2023-Week 3-4

Week 3-4 zoomed by! Garden stuff done this week: Here is a look and what I have been working on: That’s it for now. It’s going to be a beautiful week weatherwise, so I will have more to share next time. -MM

Ripley Victory Garden 2023-Week 2

Week 2 was spent reading, planning, and planting seeds indoors. Garden stuff done this week: I started plum tomatoes, regular tomatoes, purple and green basil, purple and green sprouting broccoli, purple and orange cauliflower, jalapenos, Lunchbox peppers, bell peppers and eggplant. I used the black bottomed/clear lidded takeout containers I had on hand. They wereContinue reading “Ripley Victory Garden 2023-Week 2”

Ripley Victory Garden 2023-Week 1

As I have gotten older I have found that planning my garden and trying to figure out which varieties to grow is almost as exhausting as doing the actually planting and maintaining. There are just so many choices now, which is fantastic, but it can be very overwhelming. Also gone are the days of seedsContinue reading “Ripley Victory Garden 2023-Week 1”

Ripley Victory Garden 2022

I posted a month or so ago My Garden and Preserving Goals for 2022 and have been working towards those goals since then. So far this year I have planted: Garlic Sweet peppers Lunchbox peppers Eggplant Cauliflower Broccoli Peas Tomatoes Rhubarb Basil Onions Potatoes I purchased 2 blueberry, 12 asparagus, and a new cherry treeContinue reading “Ripley Victory Garden 2022”

How Many Pounds of Food We Grew in 2021

Every year my goal has been to grow 1000 lbs of food out of our home victory garden. Each season I get a little closer to that goal! 2021 was a wonderful growing season for us. The peaches from the 2 trees we have were so plentiful they broke the branches. The tomatoes were overwhelminglyContinue reading “How Many Pounds of Food We Grew in 2021”

Ripley Victory Garden Week 9

Today is weigh in day! Let’s see how many pounds of produce we have harvested in the last nine weeks. Last update was 73.5 lbs of fruits and veggies picked. Total as of yesterday is 181 lbs 10 oz! That’s over 100 lbs picked in the last 2 weeks, and the garden hasn’t even hitContinue reading “Ripley Victory Garden Week 9”

Ripley Victory Garden Week 7

What a glorious day it is today! The garden is really coming along and as the season progresses I will be weighing all of the produce I pick to see just how much I grow. So far I have picked 73.5 lbs of fruits and veggies including, sour cherries, zucchini, yellow squash, black raspberries, onions,Continue reading “Ripley Victory Garden Week 7”

Ripley Victory Garden Week 6

It’s been a while since I last updated but boy has the garden grown! Here are a few shots I took this last week: I also dug up 2 of the raised bed frames and made one large bed that I sectioned into 4 with pallets. I planted buttercup squash, carving pumpkin, pie pumpkins andContinue reading “Ripley Victory Garden Week 6”

Ripley Victory Garden Week 1

Although I have been working in my garden for the past month I am going to label this update as Week 1. Let’s start this series of posts with what a victory garden really is. Copied verbatim from Wikipedia: Victory gardens, also called war gardens or food gardens for defense, were vegetable, fruit, and herb gardens planted at private residencesContinue reading “Ripley Victory Garden Week 1”

From Pumpkin to Pie

Another frustrating item missing from the shelves this fall has been pumpkin puree. The kind of pumpkin used in sweet breads, pies and cookies. The shortage is not due to the pandemic but due to the wet growing season last year. While waiting for pumpkin supplies to replenish in the grocery stores I for theContinue reading “From Pumpkin to Pie”