Blanchin Behind

The blog is behind, but I'm caught up at work.  I'll take it.   I know you have all been on the edge of your seats, dying to know what is happening at the Frugal Farm.  Over the past two weeks, it has just been growing.  I have pulled a couple of big hauls of spinach, and we have begun the blanch and freeze phase I of this frugal expedition.  

So it felt like a lot of spinach

It looked like a lot of spinach

It was one blanchin bag of spinach!

Summer Crop

I know everyone has just been dying to know what has been going on at the Dunn Plantation over the last couple weeks!  Well, things are looking good.  We saw signs of the cabbage worms back on attack so we have put out more dipel dust to eliminate this pesky creature.  We are still getting TONS of spinach and lettuce.  Yesterday, we harvested about 5-6 pounds of spinach and a pound of lettuce.  We filled two gallon bags (packed extremely tight) of spinach and one gallon bag of lettuce.  That's about $24.00 in spinach and $8.00  in lettuce!  The spinach looks as if it might be slowing down, but there is still more to be harvested!  The strawberry bushes are getting tiny green strawberries and the broccoli plants are starting to form heads.  All and all, things are looking great!

We are off to a later start than usual, but the summer crop has been planted.  Right after buying our seedlings we had two rainy days and then two nights with really cold weather.  I guess we got lucky that our plants did not go in before that last scare of frost!  Here's what we planted on April 25th, 2012:

• Watermelon - 8 plants
• Cantaloupe - 8 plants
• Cucumber - 12 plants
• Zucchini - 6 plants
• Squash - 4 plants
• Bell Pepper - 8 plants

Bell Pepper

Charleston Grey Watermelon

Squash

Pickling Cucumber

Zucchini

Cantaloupe

Our first strawberries!

We didn't get to the bush bean seeds in on this day, but on April 27th, 2012 we planted 216 bush beans (from seed).  And no, that's not a typo....really.....216 bush bean plants!!! 

Bush Beans

Would that be $36 in green leaves? Yes, sir!

Blog, Blog, Blog is all I hear all day at work.  Well the Big C is going to meet the Big T.  Oh yea, blogdown 2012.  I'm going to unleash some pent up, frugal, farmin' produce!  

We pulled out a good deal of spinach over the past week and a half along with some Black-Seeded Simpson Lettuce.   Here is just a little Popeye taste of what's to come.....

Harvested 4/17/2012

1.1  - Before I cleaned and condensed that luscious, sweet leaf.

1.2 - Gallon bag with all the air pushed out
(Estimated Worth: $12.00)

Harvested 4/14/2012

2.1 - Large Colander
(Estimated Worth: $7.00)

2.2 - A little cooked leaf.  As Ozzy would say...they call it the Sweet Leaf.

Harvested 4/13/2012

3.1 - Black-Seeded Simpson Lettuce - Large colander
(Estimated Worth: $4.00)

3.2 - Friday the thirteenth makes for some of that crazy full moon lettuce. 

3.3 - Spinach - Large Colander
(Estimated Worth: $5.00)

Harvested 4/11/2012

4.1 - Chh chhh ching!

4.2 - Large Colander
(Estimated Worth: $4.00)

4.3 - Lettuce and Spinach Salad Mix




Harvested 4/9/2012

5.1 - Black-Seeded Simpson Lettuce - Large colander

(Estimated Worth: $4.00)

That's $36.00 worth of GREEN in just TWELVE days!  Now that's what we call FRUGAL FARMING!

Got to get that GREEN

We have about $80.00 invested in the garden so far this year.  We needed to purchase a new, reliable sprinkler and also decided to splurge for a timer for the sprinkler this year.  This cost about $55.00 out of the $80.00 invested, which is very reasonable since the sprinkler and timer are a long-term investment.  We are planning to record all purchases and the value of all of the produce harvested from the garden this year to see exactly how frugal we are!  

Spinach was the first plant to reach maturity and ready for harvest.  We pulled three colanders of spinach from the garden this week alone.  Frugal Farmer straight farms.....

Harvested 4/6/2012

1.1 - Spinach

Large colander

(Estimated Worth: $5.00)

Harvested 4/4/2012

1.2 - Spinach
Medium colander
(Estimated Worth: $2.50)


Harvested 4/3/2012

1.3 - Spinach
Medium colander
(Estimated Worth: $2.50)


Total Weekly Worth:  $10.00 in Spinach

Grow Garden Grow

We are a month and three days in and getting some good growth.  We have been putting dipel dust down like crazy to try and ward off cabbage worms.  If you have never used dipel dust we strongly recommend it for cabbage, broccoli, and brussel sprouts.  Dipel dust should be a staple in every gardeners storage shed!  

Take a look at how things were doing on April 2nd, 2012....

1.1 - Red Potatoes

Potatoes worried us at first, but they have come up now and been covered once. 

1.2 - Close up of potatoes

Onions and Carrots 

(Onions on left and right; Carrots down the middle) 

                        1.3                                                                                         1.4 

1.5 - Artsy Onions 

Looks like the Dipel Dust did the trick......

1.6 - Broccoli, Lettuce, Spinach, and Brussel Sprouts

(from left to right)

1.7 - Spinach

1.8 - Spinach is looking bountiful!

1.9 - Onions, Carrots, Cabbage, Broccoli, Lettuce, Spinach, Brussel Sprouts, and Strawberris

(from left to right)

1.10 - Strawberries

1.11 - Early Jersey Wakefield Cabbage

1.12 - Much improved after the chemical warfare!

Chemical Warfare and Nature's Fight Back

Clearly I'm not cut out to be a professional blogger.  I had wanted to update weekly, but have fallen behind for various reasons. One reason though was an insane amount of yard work this past weekend.  I think me and Miranda did near nine hours straight on Sunday.  Dreams of a TV yard.  Funds of a yard sale yard.

We have been getting killed by the cabbage looper for nearly two weeks.  I have been trying to get a moment to put the Dipel Dust down, but it has been a bit too rainy.  As you can see, the cabbage worm hit us pretty hard.

Eleven days ago (3/26), I dusted the plants with the Dipel Dust.  It worked wonders.  As you can see these plants were a cabbage looper clan's buffet.  Things are looking much better.

We have had a remarkably warm winter and spring this year.  We have had several days in the 80s and weeks of consistent sunny and 70s.  A day after dusting, we got a frost scare.  It did not turn out as frosty as the weathermen suggested.  But we had to prepare.  I did a last minute cover job.  I covered the strawberries with a large sheet of plastic and the potatoes, unnecessarily,  with a makeshift combination of Tupperware, sand toys, and a wheel-barrel.  It didn't frost really.  Better safe than sorry though.

Weeded and Fertilized

We put down our first round of 10-10-10 this past week.  We have had some pretty heavy rains over the past two days, which should set the fertilizer off.  Today, we got out there and ran the big tiller and the Mantis down the rows.  We weeded each row thoroughly.  Things are looking good so far.  I am waiting for the rain to move out to put down the dipel dust for the cabbage worms.

3/25/2012 

Potatoes
(planted 2/26/2012: 4 weeks) 

Onions (left and right)
Carrots (between onions)
(3 1/2 weeks)

Left Row (onions and carrots)
Middle Row (Broccoli)
Right Row (spinach)
(3 1/2 weeks) 

Broccoli
(3 1/2 weeks)

Cabbage
(3 1/2 weeks)

Carrots
(3 1/2 weeks)

Spinach
(3 1/2 weeks)

Brussel Sprouts
(3 1/2 weeks)

Strawberry
(3 1/2 weeks)

Strawberry 2
(3 1/2 weeks)