The pollinator garden is starting to put up some beautiful blooms! Yarrow was all that bloomed here for a while! Now, more beautiful blooms are popping up! They are gorgeous!
I haven’t seen too many pollinators, other than my honeybees! Hopefully I will see a monarch soon! What’s blooming where you are?
So, I haven’t been updating in a really long time! My momma was in the hospital for all of April. It was scary times for sure. It’s like life was the same every single day! But, goals are still being worked on and checked off!
1. Get rid of more, use less and be more minimalistic– We spent a nice chunk of quarantine decluttering. We majorly cleaned out the garage. We cleaned out closets and even gave away the teen’s bike that he’s too big for. It’s been great knowing that so many are getting things that they want and we are getting rid of clutter!
2. Do good, be a good person and spread kindness– I made several seed giveaways, since seeds were hard to find. I also made face masks for sooo many people. I’m so tired of sewing them!
3. Grow food, flowers and enjoy new plants– I have planted out the backyard garden, the big garden and pollinator garden! Everything is growing!
4. Be creative! Craft, forge, sew and do whatever makes our creative souls happy!– I mainly spent my time making masks! The two guys in the house built our new patio area and the Mr. blacksmithed a kindling cutter and wood rack.
5. Travel, spend as much quality time that we can with our ever growing teen. Time is precious. Oh my! This is hard to achieve over quarantine times! We did take a couple little trips out hiking locally! Great times!
Secret goal! We accomplished this a month or 2 early! We are debt free! We are super excited about this! Read about it: https://littlellewellynhomestead.com/2020/02/16/were-debt-free/
Overall, goals are still being checked off. I hope that you all are staying healthy and happy! Let me know what you’re growing at your place and if you’re still accomplishing goals!
Keep blooming! 🌸🌱💚❤️
This weekend we were lucky to have some beautiful weather close to the sixties! It definitely made me start getting more excited about what I’m growing this year and it has me checking out the flowers that are coming back!
On Saturday I was able to meet a friend for some coffee at the local place, pick up their coffee grounds to compost, ride my electric bike to tutor a student at the library. I also started my native seeds and peppers!
I also was working on my next idea that I’m hoping to get moving! I’d love to be able to get a seed library for our town’s library. So, I crafted some emails for the director of the library system and our local master garden coordinator to persuade them!
I’m looking forward to hearing a response back! While I’m waiting, I’m going to enjoy planning all of my growing spaces and working on my quilt!
Have a great week and keep blooming! 🌸❤️
Hello 2020! After staying up finishing my quilt on New Year’s Eve, I am proud to say that my goals went pretty well this year!
2019 can be best described as the craziest roller coaster ride that I have ever been on. The ups have been going fantastic places and meeting fabulous people! The rough part has been watching my favorite person battle cancer and have way too many complications.
Beekeeping in December!
Crabbing in the Chesapeake Bay
And now, the goal updates:
1. Sew my first quilt– ✔️ Yes, it’s finished! And I love it!
2. Keep doing good for our community.✔️ we have done a lot with our little free library and also decorated the town for Christmas. We helped organize the town cleanup and did a few of our own street cleanups.
3. Can and save money on our groceries:✔️ We has a pretty rocking garden this year. We canned so many green beans, some salsa, jams and some pickles!
Dickinson pumpkins
4. Use that camper some more!: ❌Maybe in 2020!
**so here’s the change: I have lots of traveling with being the teacher of the year, so we couldn’t get the camper out.
5. Compost!: ✔️We composted 148 pumpkins, several bags of leaves and over 100 pounds of holiday waste. So much future garden food!
6.Little free library/seed sharing- ✔️The Mr. built it, so many donated books towards it and many have utilized it. And the best part, it’s in memory of my sweet sister who loved reading and always wanted to be an author.
7. Grow some new plants: ✔️We grew so many new plants this year! The ground cherries turned out to be my favorite! But I also love how different and pretty that the Dickinson pumpkins are! Plus, the nest egg gourds are beautiful!
Our last harvest of the year.
Nest egg gourd
8. Yard to garden our bottom yard. ✔️We doubled the size of the garden last year and produced lots of extra food. That swing set was reassembled by a friend for her adorable twins. We harvested zucchini, purple tomatillos, green beans, carrots, luffas and peppers too!
**we have some trellis ideas for this space and ideas of what we are going to grow next year!
The after!
9. Keep reducing our trash ✔️We took out 7 bags of trash this whole year! Since I have been away a lot this year, I can say that I missed out on always getting pictures! But, we will try to do better in 2020!
10. Create a Monarch waystation and tagging supplies-✔️ It happened! We created a monarch waystation! That habitat was loved and used by so many pollinators! We released 186 butterflies (108 females and 78 males) plus a few swallowtails and even this beauty:
Pollinator garden in late September!
11. Teach the teen life skills– ✔️He had several tie tying lessons and he’s kind of getting it. Lucky for him, his momma is a good at that! Plus, he’s so much better at managing time and tracking his own grades.
12. Keep track of $ from gardening– ✔️We decided to use the money made from the garden cart to go towards the teen going to Disney with band. We made some spending $ for his trip and lots of neighbors enjoyed the cheap and local produce!
The last garden cart of 2019
Disney World was a delight!
See you later 2019! I am planning out what I’m going to accomplish in 2020 in my neighborhood/home/classroom! I hope that you’re completing your goals and thinking about 2020!
Keep blooming friends!!
Goals are meant to be crushed, right?! That’s exactly what I’m trying to do as a mom, teacher and organic gardener. But, I don’t feel like I have been focused enough on these goals. So, I’m going to be working harder in October!
And now, the goal updates:
1. Sew my first quilt– The craft that I wanted to try was making my first quilt. Everything is sewn and I just need to quilt and bind it! ** When momma feels up for it, we will quilt it!**
2. Keep doing good for our community.
We had a big book exchange in honor of my sister for her birthday! It was nice to see so many people utilizing the library!
3. Can and save money on our groceries: We are still harvesting a good bit from the garden! (Especially cherry tomatoes, peppers and cucamelons!) So, not much preserving, but at least produce is still good coming in!
4. Use that camper some more!: In September I spent some time on Tylerton Island (Smith Island) and learned all about the Chesapeake Bay and met lots of locals!
**so here’s the change: I have lots of traveling with being the teacher of the year, so I don’t think that we will be doing much traveling this summer.
Sunrise paddling!
Smith Island Cake!
That little dot is a baby crab!
5. Compost!: We are still getting some food scraps dropped off. Plus, we compost everything that we can here! We will be taking in pumpkins, corn stalks and leaves in months to come!
Composting on the island!
Our compost is looking good!
6.Little free library/seed sharing- The Library has been having more guests, since the garden cart has been out so much!
7. Grow some new plants: The ground cherries are still growing well! Now the Hawaiian peppers are taking off and I’m harvesting some gourds. In the garden, the Mexican sunflowers are a great nectar and pollen source!
Hawaiian peppers
Egg gourds
Mexican sunflowers
8. Yard to garden our bottom yard. We doubled the size of the garden last year and produced lots of extra food. That swing set was reassembled by a friend for her adorable twins. We are still harvesting zucchini, purple tomatillos, green beans, carrots, luffas and peppers too!
The after!
9. Keep reducing our trash We are now on bag 4. Bag 3 was thrown out while I was out of town and the Mr. doesn’t take pictures of our garbage. 😆
10. Create a Monarch waystation and tagging supplies-It happened! We have a monarch waystation! That habitat is being loved and used by so many pollinators! We are still finding caterpillars out there. We have released over 150 and I have sent in our data for all of our tagged monarchs!
Pollinator garden in late September!
11. Teach the teen life skills– the boy is growing up way too fast. He will be in high school next year. I want him to be ready to be an independent adult when he decides to leave the nest many years from now!
*he has been learning lessons on time management! Between long practices, not getting back until late on school nights and lots of homework, he’s still getting his work finished.
12. Keep track of $ from gardening– We decided to use the money made from the garden cart to go towards the teen going to Disney with band. We are slowly making a little bit at a time! (We should be having a few more garden cart sales this year!)
September was filled with lots of fun events, and this whole teacher of the year thing is such an honor! I’m already planning out what I’m going to accomplish this year in my classroom! I hope that your completing your goals and thinking about 2020!!
Keep blooming friends!!
Just 2 years ago I got a slightly crazy idea. I threw it by the Mr. because he’s really good at telling me when my idea is a little too much. My idea was to cover all of the grass by the garage with cardboard and wood chips. Then, take that area and turn it into a bunch of flowers; therefore, turn it into a pollinator garden!
Here’s the area as just a grass patch:
Next up was the part that made me wonder if I made a bad choice. Turns out that just wood chips isn’t a great look!
But, I planted out what I could (mainly seeds) and slowly the area was starting to show some small blooms and green plants!
By the end of the first season, I had lots of ideas for next summer. Overall, I thought it looked pretty great though! And, I also was able to have this area registered as a certified wildlife habitat!
Over the winter I started more plants from seed, and I was excited to see that lots of flowers came back up the next season!
We were able create lots of nectar and pollen sources for the bees and butterflies!
Cosmos
Bee on bee balm
Sulphur cosmos
After giving the planted milkweed a second year to grow, we also had this area certified as a monarch waystation. And I don’t know if the butterflies read the sign (ha, ha), or really liked the 3 varieties of milkweed (swamp, butterfly weed and common) but they have showed up in huge quantities this year!
Butterfly weed
Monarch caterpillars
Male monarch
Monarch on a cosmos
Swallowtail
Tagging monarchs!
And here is how it looks today! I can honestly say that I’m very glad that I had a crazy idea and just did it! I love feeding us with our garden food, and I love being able to feed our bees and butterflies too!
The weather has been HOT!! When a rainstorm does happen, the plants grow right in front of my eyes! We had a nice harvest this morning! And, the flowers are blooming!
A jalapeño!
Tomatillo
So many green beans!
Bird egg gourd!
Red cherry tomato
Corn is tasseling
Dickinson pumpkin
Noodle beans
My first ripe ground cherry! It was delicious!
The garden is growing less weeds and more food!!
What are you harvesting from your garden? Growing some beautiful flowers?
Keep blooming friends! 🌻🌱❤️
June went by as quick as a flash!! We made our way to Ocean City, so that momma could have some fun this summer. School came to an end, lots of time was spent in Baltimore, I had an interview for MPT and spent the last part of the month attempting to get rid of weeds!
And now, the goal updates:
1. Sew my first quilt– The craft that I wanted to try was making my first quilt. Everything is sewn and I just need to quilt and bind it! ** When momma feels up for it, we will quilt it!**
2. Keep doing good for our community. The school garden is looking better by the day! I was able to finally meet the hometown healthy coordinator and we will be getting our own farmer’s market here!
School garden tomatoes!
3. Can and save money on our groceries. Even though I had to buy the strawberries, I did get a few jars of jam made! And it is delicious!
4. Use that camper some more!: The boy and I enjoyed our trip to Ocean City! And I spent around a week in Baltimore too. I’m hoping that our family of 3 get to go on some sort of trip this summer!
**so here’s the change: I have lots of traveling with being the teacher of the year, so I don’t think that we will be doing much traveling this summer.
5. Compost!: We are still getting some food scraps dropped off here at the house. And, we are continuing to compost our food waste too! Thanks to all of that compost from last year, we had a great garlic and potato harvest this year!! Around 60 pounds of potatoes and 80 heads of garlic!
6.Little free library/seed sharing- The Library is open!! I love watching people stop by and grab a book! So far this is my favorite goal! (and we have been receiving lots of book donations too!)
7. Grow some new plants: This year we are hoping to grow ground cherries better, and we got a lot of volunteers! The purple tomatillos are growing great and the purple potatoes look great!
8 ball zucchini
Purple potatoes
8. Yard to garden our bottom yard. We doubled the size of the garden last year and produced lots of extra food. This year, we want to took out our huge swing set that hasn’t been used in such a long time and start getting rid of grass. The yard to garden is coming along!!!
After!!!
Beautiful fencing!
9. Keep reducing our trash We are now on bag 3. We are continuing to watch what we throw out! And we are participating in plastic free July and tracking how much trash that we are producing.
10. Create a Monarch waystation and tagging supplies-Last year we made a wildlife habitat area and we will continue to add to it! The butterfly weed is blooming, along with so much else! Plus, we are not collecting and raising monarchs in my new outdoor cage!
Chilling on the butterflyweed
Lady monarch on milkweed
Totally upcycled monarch cage!
11. Teach the teen life skills– the boy is growing up way too fast. He will be in high school next year. I want him to be ready to be an independent adult when he decides to leave the nest many years from now!
*he really stepped it up when I was out of town. He got himself out the door to school. Plus he has done his own laundry this month and has been putting the chickens away some nights.
12. Keep track of $ from gardening– I’d love to eventually break even on all of our gardening! We have only sold a couple dozen eggs so far, but the garden cart will be opening this month with some produce!
(No garden cart sales yet! But hopefully soon!)
June was a busy month! Lots of trips and then lots of work getting rid of the weeds when I got home.
End of June garden!
Keep blooming friends!! 🌸🌱💚
Hello! I have had a long break from posting! I wish I could say that I’ve been off on adventures or vacationing. Instead, I have been spending lots of time with a loved one who has been in the hospital and not feeling well. I must admit that the waiting room in the hospital is pretty nice!
While in Baltimore, it was a quick drive over to MPT to be interviewed for the teacher of the year gala! It was a fun experience and it was so neat to have a behind the scenes view!
Since I have only been home about a week this month, I have a lot of weeding to do around here! So, here is my before picture of the garden. It will look so much better weed free!
My Mr. has been working hard on the yard to garden conversion! The space is being utilized so much better than just a patch of grass!
The butterfly weed is putting off the most beautiful blooms right now! (And the pollinators have been enjoying it too!)
Our little free library has been having a nice amount of visitors!! Plus, I have been excited to receive so many free books to put in there! Keep reading this summer kids!!
Last night I had a great moment! While working on bringBig mulch to the garden, I spotted a monarch caterpillar on the butterfly weed! So, monarch raising has officially started!
June has been a blur of running all over the state and finishing up the school year. But, there have also been lots of good moments too!
Keep blooming friends! 🌸❤️
Life has been a whirlwind lately. But, Spring has finally arrived!
The milkweed is springing back to life! I think the pollinator garden is going to be pretty this year!
Swamp milkweed
Butterfly weed
The grapevine has also started to vine! It looks the healthiest that it ever has since I planted it. Maybe we will get some grapes for the first time!
We also have a lot of volunteer sunflowers popping up too!
This week we have been doing lots of green activities at school and we even planted our raised bed garden!
I checked in on both hives last night and they both look very healthy! They are bringing in lots of pollen and nectar!
I’ll soon be sharing what all we did on this Earth week!
🌸keep blooming friends!
llewellynhomestead 