Guest Post: Gardening with your children

I've had such a busy week that I completely forgot to share my guest post that I wrote about gardening with my kids. Going Green with the Grizls featured my post on Monday, check it out!

Gardening with your children Guest Post by Sage @ My Name is Sage

What's the Word June Blog Challenge

Tabi (tabi happy) is hosting a June blog challenge called 'What’s the Word June.' The challenge is to incorporate the word of the day (which Tabi has listed) into your daily blog. The words Tabi has chosen are fun and some are not commonly found in most blog posts so it will be interesting, but I am always up for a good challenge!

The word of the day is: smitten

It’s been close to eight weeks since I planted veggies for my indoor container garden. I have been watering them, hand pollinating them, and sometimes even cheering them on!  I am excited that I have been able to keep them alive and healthy this long. I was pretty nervous I would have a hard time growing vegetables indoors.

My cucumber plants grew amazingly fast. Remember this post? You can see how tall they have grown and how they are taking over my windowsill. When the cucumbers began to get larger, they started to hang down, applying a lot of weight to the plant stem and I saw places throughout the plant where the stems were breaking. I panicked because I didn’t want them to die. They have been growing so good and I didn’t want them to take a turn for the worst. I bought a metal cage to insert into their pot and entwined the plant up the cage, alleviating some pressure from the stem. A few leaves were damaged in the process but I read if the damage is minimal, they can heal themselves. Phew!

So far I have spotted a cherry tomato on one plant and on another, a larger tomato is growing with signs of two others coming along nicely. I am completely smitten over the tomatoes. I had a rough time growing them outside on my patio last year. They are doing so much better inside.

Veggie Update & Baby Chicks

It's been a week since I measured the veggie plants so I opened up my gardening journal, grabbed the tape measure, and went to work. It's hard to get an accurate measurement because the plants are twisting around so the measurements are close estimates.

The cucumber plants measured around 6 1/2" - 7 3/4" last week and now they are between 10-18 inches! We've spotted close to a dozen teeny tiny cucumbers, too.

Do you see the teeny tiny cucumber?

The tomato plants started off around 8 1/2" - 11 3/4" and now they are both 14 inches tall. A few flowers are beginning to open. Thankfully, we have had quite a few sunny days so the plants are getting lots of sunshine.

Since the plants are growing lightning fast, I decided I needed to stake them. I went to Big Lots and found a 4-pack of marshmallow sticks (for camp fires) for $2.00. They work perfectly. The onion seedlings are 3"- 4" tall and we've harvested & enjoyed most of the spinach.

Since repotting the chives, they have doubled in size!

A few days ago I received a wonderful surprise. My apartment manager delivered a gigantic planter full of beautiful flowers. Our manager offers a monthly contest for residents who pay their rent early or on time. Each month a random winner is chosen and we won for the month of May! Our back patio was bare since all of our plants are indoors so this prize was perfect. The maintenance man even hung it for us on a decorative hook since it is extremely heavy. 

Yesterday my friends Krista and Jess posted they would be live streaming their hatching eggs. I made sure to check their blog throughout the day and after dinner the kids and I watched two chicks hatching. It was amazing! As soon as Bella woke up this morning she asked about the chicks and when we checked, we caught the third chick hatching, lucky us! And then a fourth.

It was beautiful to watch and I am thrilled the kids experienced the chicks hatching. It's not too late to go to their blog to check out the chicks. I'm sure they'll be documenting the chicks' progress.

"Mama Doesn't Waste Vegetables" Soup

It is a cool and rainy day here in Olympia so I thought some veggie soup for dinner sounded delightful. I also have a bunch of vegetables that are on their last leg in my refrigerator.

I am the queen of sales, BOGO (buy one get one free), coupons ... I'm an all around frugal gal. While being thrifty is not a bad thing, especially with a family to take care of, I can go overboard with veggies when they are on sale because let's face it, buying fresh produce is not cheap.

That's when I make "Mama Doesn't Waste Vegetables" soup. I literally pile up all of the vegetables on my counter and prepare them for soup. The fun part is that the soup is different every time I make it because you never know what veggies are in the fridge.

This is what I have today.

I wash the veggies, cut them up, and then saute them in olive oil for a few minutes.

I normally make my soup with homemade broth but today I am using a store bought broth because guess what? I had a great coupon for them & I have 3 boxes in my pantry. Let's do this.

The only helpful thing Heath does in the kitchen is help himself to the food. I don't complain because I have a 2-year-old chomping & enjoying raw veggies, yay!

Finally, I add the delicious smellin' veggies into the slow cooker, along with the broth, pepper, and some parsley to taste. I let the soup cook for 6-8 hours on the low setting. Usually on the last hour I will add more broth if need be. We like our soup chunky though.

If I still have vegetables left over then I use them for homemade vegetable broth. It is a simple process! While my stock pot is heating up with a little olive oil,  I wash and chop the veggies I am going to use. I toss them into the stock pot to saute and if I have some cloves of garlic on hand, I add a few, too. Basil, pepper, rosemary, and thyme are great to include in the broth mixture. After a few minutes, I add 8-9 cups of water, bring everything to a boil, and then let it simmer for an hour.

I strain the broth into plastic containers to keep in my fridge for the next week and I also add some of the homemade broth into ice cube trays to freeze. These come in handy and will stay good in the freezer for around 2 months.