Letsgogardening

A blog dedicated to my homes gardens and other homestead things we do.

[thestudentfarmer]

4.13.2026

Hello hello :)

Garden update today 😀

The free ball patch has been cleaned up and out of all the dead and dying

Looks very need now, I added 2 bhsofcompost an threwouta variety of random seeds. Good luck to the seeds! Ive left some flowers so I can get abitmore seed from them and some what I cutrentlybelueve us mullien starts (I want the leaves for herbal tea and for smoking purposes)

The tomato doesn't seem to be growing all that much, nor are the peppers. im hoping it's a plant issue, rather than bed issue.

Also direct seededsome zuchinni seeds here, though i have yet to see growth.

Some of the Easter egg rafishs are growing, ill likely be leaving most of them to go to seed toreplenish the bag that was lost.

Green onion still flowering throughout the garden

Corn and replanted area. I see 1 lil stalk starting 🥳

Thy grass grew back fast. If the corn cant or grows in Poorly i may do corn transplants with the next batch, just to see if I can.

The other batch of radish is flowering more and has started developing pods

Ill be collecting these pods. I am not yet sure what ill be replacing the radish with yet when the time comes.

Thr chard got a serious trim and bounced back fast!

I was hoping the trim would force more bolting,but it didn't yet. The chickens will continue to enjoy more chard once a week for awhile longer

A close up of one of the 2 chards which is getting ready to seed

Last but not least, the carrots.

Couple are getting ready to flower, if ive time i intend to going and thin out/harvest som of these carrots and just let a few go to flower and seed.

In addition i direct seeded some melons in oneif the beds and bush type beans in another.

Sadly the chayote squash is planted kicked the can, but one inside has sprouted by accident, so thy will be planted soon

Got some seeds started for transplants

Pear tomatos

Louffa

Watermelon

Tobacco

Zuchinni

Armenian cucumbers

Bird gourds

Okra

At the moment, as well ive slowly been getting the back garden into some sort of order. Updates to come when its a bit more ordered.

And i believe thats it for the current update

Thanks for stopping by :)

🌱🐝Happy Gardening 🐝🌱

[letsgogardening]

An update on whats been going on in our garden w/ @thestudentfarmer

[thestudentfarmer]

3.13.2026

Ladybugs!

Ladybugs everywhere! Full grown, lady-gators and the pupation stage in between! Im sure somewhere even is the eggs, tho I haven't yet seen them.

Enjoys the pictures of all stages :D

And a pic of their food sources, aphids that went nuts when fhe dill and cilantro/ parsley started flowering.

This one's just some seeds coming in :)

🌱🐞Happy Homesteading and Gardening 🐞🌱

[letsgogardening]

An update from my sisters gardening blog :)

[thestudentfarmer]

2.27.2026

Hello hello 👋

Wanted to share some kitchen stuff ive been doing. My husband on occasion is able to get produce through work. (Stuff the buyer declines for various reasons and would get tossed otherwise)

Now, depending on how the produce looks, sometimes i just end up giving it to our chickens as free chicken feed. But if it looks good, I'll try to use it up in various ways.

This week they had sliced apples, we got 2 bags, but we dont eat a lot a fresh apples. But thats okay, because I know how to process them into different things 😊

This is what I started with. To be honest, i dont actually know how many pounds it is. I was sort of just winging it because originally, I was just going to cook them and turn the whole things into apple leather.

From raw

To cooked below. I added just a bit of water and lemon juice to keep them from scorching on the pans bottom. Medium heat for about mayby an hour- hour and a half. I did put a lid on it to help speed along the process.

Made the house smell very good! I was originally going to add pie spices, but decided not too.

There was water inside the pot, I poured it into a half gallon glass and diluted it to make apple juice. (Though i added a bit too much water, so its a little weaker than it should be.) I forgot to take a pic and it got drank quick! 😅

I used the blender to puree all the apples, saved a jar of apple sauce for snacking

Old peanut butter jars are awesome for fridge storing!

The fresh apple sauce/puree on the dehydrator trays

I did 2 trays as plain and realised i had a few bananas that needed to be used, so pureed them up with some of the apples and made 2 trays of appleXbanana fruit leather too.

The dried fruit leather, this one is the appleXbanana leather, the plain apple is a might lighter and not as sticky.

The remaining apple×banana mix i put in silicone molds and put in the freezer to make a chilly treat for later. Ill eventually get some sticks to make true Popsicles.

Thats it for now :)

🍏 🍽 Happy Gardening and food waste reduction 🍽 🍏

[letsgogardening]

An update from my sister on whats going on at our home as of late

[thestudentfarmer]

11.18.2025

Hello hello, time for a little garden update!

First up. The freeball patch 🌱 as soon as the weather is less drizzly out, I need to get in here and thin out/weed a bit

From the back side

From the front

Peas next

No blooms yet, though im hoping we shall see some soon

The breakfast radish

This is the bed made of the old bookshelf, I cleaned out one side as id like to plant some rainbow radish :)

Rat tail radish

Im starting to see a few lil pods, hoping the birds wont help themselves before we get a few.

Sunchokes

The flowers on this one didn't seem to last very long :( when the shrubbery bit dies back im gonna dig them up and likely just replant them for now.

Corns next

There's some ears now!! :D ill be harvesting and replanting soon

New green onion patch, just a few lil sprigs popping up yet. The weeds here will go to chicken salad soon :)

The old green onion patch, I trimmed about half of them for now.

Chard that self seeded 🌱

I cant put any more pictures but the cucumbers are doing well. Ive harvested o believe 10 more since the last post. Half i gifted away and I swe plenty more getting ready to come in.

The broccoli is seed started, about half have sprouted. Soon as their a bit bigger ill be transplanting them.

In addition i got to visit a seed program recently and got a lot of lovely seed, update on what I'll be planting (di tree with seeding and starting) soon.

Thats it for now

🌳🌱Happy Gardening and homesteading 🌱🌳

[letsgogardening]

Reposting from sisters blog

[letsgogardening]

Hi all! I know it's been a long time since I last posted. Me and sis have been working hard in the garden with the weather being a bit nicer in our neck of the woods. I plan on posting some updates later this week!

[thestudentfarmer]

Yaaay!! We have a confirmed sighting of 2!

Cute, Cheeky lil visitors! They are definitely enjoying the sunflowers. ❤️I was only able to get good pictures of one though, but that's okay :)

Now to finish what I can on the fence panels to expand the garden and to half birdwatch too 😉

🦜🌱Happy homesteading and green spacing! 🌱🦜

2 3 2024

[letsgogardening]

An update from my sister's blog @thestudentfarmer of some cute little visitors that started showing up in the garden!

[thestudentfarmer]

Garden update today :)

We had some more gloomy wet weather so unfortunatly some chores and errands fell through and I'm a little behind on some maintenance as well as seed uppotting

Sadly I don't think any of my peppers are going to grow. A few of the tomatoes have sprouted so there is at least that. Unfortunatly i dont think they will be ready for transplanting by valentines day. They'll be a little behind anyways.

Here's the cabbages now~

I'm very excited to see these growing so well this season :D they are transplanted and these 4 are the survivers so far.

The carrots (don't mind the weeds, I'll be yanking them as soon as I catch up, as long as I get them before seed they make excellent salads for the chickens)

The nasturtium, there's some flowers tucked up inside them, a few yellows this season, not to many red or orange so far.

The broccoli and a close up of one that seems to be growing multiple little florets now :D

The lentils I put in the L bed are starting to sprout now too :) I think this upcoming season I may plant cucumbers or melons of some sort.

And a bit excited, a lil garlic peice is starting to peek through!!

Oh! I also saw 2 of the wild love parrots this morning in one of the neighbors' trees!!! I have no choice but to always have sunflowers growing and will need to accommodate some grow space for them now 😂 their pretty rarely sighted in the area im at so I am super stoked to see them.

hopefully, they are able to find enough food to hang out for more than flying through, and that people get to see why having green spaces in cities is important to more than just human benefit.

That's it for now :)

🌱🌻Happy homesteading and gardening 🌻🌱

1 26 2024

[letsgogardening]

An update from my sister @thestudentfarmer

[thestudentfarmer]

Super mini did it grow? Update!

The subject? Green onions

I snipped about an 1.5 inches up from the root and just popped em in the ground.

And yes! Their currently starting to go upward!

Not sure why when i check on them there's usually 1 or two popped up out of the ground on their side.

Best I can figure is mayby a bird or perhaps when they get watered since their not yet fully rooted they wiggle out? I just pop em back in and cover them up with a lil soil pat.

Nothing above ground yet for garlic, turmeric or ginger. The lentils I hot for green manure for the "L" bed are starting to sprout though :)

🌱🧅Hapy Garden growing and experimenting! 🧅🌱

1 21 2024

[letsgogardening]

An update from my sister's blog @thestudentfarmer!

[thestudentfarmer]

Good afternoon everyone~

It's cold, windy and it's been raining on and off all day but I finally got out to harvesting the sweet potatoes.

I started with the 'L' bed.

This is the bowl I'll be using to collect the spuds for this deep raised bed.

Those are full size scissors btw. This is the absolute biggest strainer I own and when I do harvesting I'm always glad to have it! Helps with carrying and washing off dirt outside so much easier!

It was pretty fun digging round for the spuds and to be honest the size and shape of some of them really suprised me!

For some size comparison, my hand is right on top of them.

All cleaned out!

Next was the little round bed in the corner. I wasn't really expecting much, but it filled the bin pretty good.

I've washed the spuds off and am letting them dry off but I'll be finding a spot inside soemwhere to let them sit and cure for a bit of time. (I probably will let them cure until end of febuary.)

Curing your sweet potatoes is what makes them sweet, you can eat them right away but their said to be bitter. (I will be trying 1 potato to see if this is true!) Curing them should be done for at least 2 week in a cool dry space (around 80*f). If you under 80*f space add 7 more days.

I thought this was neat and wanted to share it. since I've not seen a sweet potato grown or dug up before

I wasn't expecting so much differance in spud size from one single root.

And one last pic,

The ducks quite like the greens, while there's not much left of it I'm going to leave the vines a couple days so they can use it as enrichment/snack opportunity.

Weigh in on the spuds later!

🍠🌱Happy Homesteading and Harvesting!!

🌱🍠

1.11.2024

[thestudentfarmer]

Good marrow!

I got around to weighing the potatoes out!

Spuds= 29.2 pounds.

Greens = 15 lbs (though to be honest it was likely more, I was bad at weighing the greens out 🤦‍♀️)

Will I grow sweet potatoes again?

YES!!! (So far!)

Why?

1) They grew fast, quickly and did well right up till the weather dropped.

2) I was able to find use for every part of the plant.

3) in honesty has been the most sucess I've had with any kind of potato.

4) the greens are easy to trellis and they make a very nice bushy cover, for me with the heat we get in the summer, shade structure that can be organic is very useful and helps make it prettier.

5) The chickens love the greens! And I'm all for a more varied diet for them :)

6) they were pretty easy to get slips from.

7)if your looking for subtle ways to bring up food in your yard or patio these could work. Neither of the grow spaces was very big.

Considerations to keep in mind

The vines will grow fast once established. I could absolutly savage the vines for human and chicken eating and it would look practically the same within maybe 3 days?

I used a deep bed cause I cannot dig easily in the ground soil of my area (it's like caliche, rocky-clay hardpan.)

Do not plant root or potatoes in the same bed 2 yrs in a row. Make sure to plant soemthing like peas, lentil, clover or beans and let them grow. You can harvest them if you want, but when the crops done till the vines/plants in the soil to help reinvigorate the soil.

Pill bugs. Pill bugs seemed to be my worst adversaries. I have no solution to this currently (not really sure if there is one?) They burrowed into a few sweet potatos and have been munching away.

Thanks for swinging by today :)

🍠🌱Happy Homesteading and Urban gardening!🌱🍠

1 12 2024

[letsgogardening]

An update from my sister at her blog @thestudentfarmer in regards to the sweet potato's we grew :)

[thestudentfarmer]

Hello and Good day!

Today I got to move the chicks from the grow out pen into the run 🐣🐥🐔 thought I'd share their journey so far :)

We chose to purchase chicks, rather than hatch as we don't currently have a rooster. To be perfectly honest, I'd like to test out with eggs from another source to be sure I know how to incubate properly before getting into that venture. (Though selling or trading chicks with the neighbours would be fun someday!)

They get put in a large tub, with a chick waterer on stone and wood shaving bedding. I leave the box they came home in the tub for shade from the heat lamp. They are so stinking small at this time and cuuute!

Later when they got bigger we upgraded to what we call the grow out pen. It used to be a trellis for one of the raised bed but got repurposed along with a few other things. No sense in wasting perfectly good material.

I started switching to grain and seed feed around 6 weeks of age. Mixing 50/50 chicken feed grain till the last bagw as empty. I also started sharing kitchen and garden scraps around this time. Mostly leafy greens and occasional bread slices.

They are always up and going! Even around 2 am lol

Today's moving day! Their a little skittish still when I snapped this photo and I expect they will continue to be for a few days yet as I try to remain fairly hands free for them. I'll probably move the lamp in tonight, but after awhile more, ill be removing it entirely. Tomorrow I'll be giving them a half tray of fresh lentil sprouts as a treat and they'll be getting some garden clean up too :)

That's it for now :)

🐣🐔Happy Homesteading!🐔🐣

12 29 2023

[letsgogardening]

An update from my sister's blog @thestudentfarmer regarding chicks we've been raising

[thestudentfarmer]

Hello hello, sharing a bit of food post as promised the other day :)

I made squash noodles! Yes, I was inspired by tiktok, Food use inspiration can be shared and come from anywhere :) this was my first time making noodles of any kind and I'm glad I tried it out!

I used acorn squash and delicata squash. I washed, halved and gutted them. Saving the seeds for a snack for us this time.

Baked them at 350-375 *f for about an hour. I like using a roasting pan and cook a few extra at a time to save heat and supplies. I also like to bake some potatoes to cook for breakfast the next day.

Cooked up and scooped out into containers for various meals for the week. The shells I set aside for compost/chicken feed.

Mixed some scoops of both squash w/ flour. I didn't measure but I did add quite a bit more flour throughout. Mix it well till the dough is no longer sticky and is fairly smooth. It may take awhile, if you have a stand mixer I'd suggest using it to protect your wrists.

Smooth enough for me. I let the dough rest a few hours before cooking so the flour could get more springy. I don't think it's necessary but I just didn't have time to cook immediately and like how it came out.

Used scissors to snip them into peices and dropped straight into boiling salted water.

What they looked like after boiling. I tried one right after and it's a bit bitter. Definatly wouldn't suggest eating as is (though I can't say all squash pasta will be so! Could jsut be that I used delicata/acorn squash)

To finish off I used green enchilada sauce, some salt, pepper, garlic and cumin. Mixed w/ the pasta and some shredded pork and let it reduce a bit. Plated and topped with a sprinkle of cheese and a lil more Chile sauce.

Came out very good, even the most skeptic veggie eater of the house enjoyed it and asked if we could have it again sometime! :D

Was it good? Yes.

Would we eat again? Also yes!

Personal food idea/suggestion w/for these noodles?

Maybe a carrot soup broth w/ coconut cream or heavy cream would be good w/ the noodles.

Chicken noodle soup would be tasty too, just cook the noodle in the chicken stock to take advantage of the startchyness of the flour for thickener. Lil more black pepper. Garlic and use pumpkin or a bit more sweet squash for the squash puree.

Now on to the seeds, I prepared them similarly to pumpkin seeds.

Wash well, let dry and then use a bit of oil, seasoning of choice and cook 375-400* f till crispy on both sides.

Much smaller seeds. But equally tasty as pumpkin seeds, I kinda burnt these ones a lil bit, I got distracted with tidying the kitchen a bit.

Well that's it for now :)

🌱 🎃 Happy Homesteading, gardening and good cooking! 🎃 🌱

12 28 2023

[letsgogardening]

An update on some things going on in the kitchen from my sister @thestudentfarmer

[thestudentfarmer]

It's wet and rainy today, so I'll be cooking today and staying indoors to keep warm and dry :)

I'm cooking some acorn and delicata/jester squash in the oven for making noodles and soup broth.

I'll be taking the seeds from both to make some seeds snacks.

Frybread is in the making and I started some pork loin in green sauce In the crockpot~

Breakfast will be made soon. A lovely scrambled eggs (from our hens), chopped jalapeno and a lil shredded cheddar. Plus a leftover chopped seasoned potato (I like to make extra when I cook them for supper so we have quick fried potatos in the morning:) )

More later, when ibhave some pics :) Stay safe, warm and dry :)

🌱🌧 Happy Homesteading and cooking 🌧🌱

12.22.2023

[letsgogardening]

An update on some stuff my sister @thestudentfarmer is up to!

[thestudentfarmer]

Hello and Welcome to the garden!

Today I have a bit of a smallish and short post~

The pumpkin is developing pretty good, the one on the trellis is a little smaller than this one. I'm starting to see new flowers on the vine, but I think I'll be picking them to use for stir fry/fried rice varient, ommlettes, or salad.

The first planting of the velour beans is starting to get what I think might be the end of their cycle, a few more flowers arrived but the plants aren't really b taking off to much in growth or producing. If I recall right I got around 48 oz of beans. (Their being crowded out by the sunflowers now.)

I'm gonna leave them in and jsut see how long/well they do.

Starting at the far left, sunflowers+ velour beans and pumpkin

2nd in from left. Starting closest to us. The broccoli and nasturtium. I'm gonna pick some of the broccoli leaves this week for pan fried veggies. Broccoli leaf+rice (not sure if blanching, pan fry w/garlic+butter or a cheese/broc soup.)

3rd row from left starting closest. The eggplants, who have some flowers but I've not seen any eggplant yet. Cabbages (2), they've got little heads coming in. I have not yet sprayed down with the tea but I haven't seen much more pest issue. And last the cucumbers. One is pretty much done, the other has teeny lil cucumbers coming in, but I don't expect too much more growth from them. If they do I may just let it go to seed and see if it does better next year in a different spot.

Edit to add, I forgot the last row!

4th row from left, second planting of velour beans, with the surviving cabbages and carrots. I picked a few of the carrots this morning

Close up of the dying/dead and the hanging in there cucumbers.

Finally got down to the hardware store. We got wood, pipes for extending the garden fence, dirt and some time.

We got 2 boxes made up. So next step is to get the fence panels made up to extend the garden space and protect it from the stray/feral cats.

I got peppers, tomatoes seed started this week, though im hoping I didn't lose a tray of peppers due to a watering malfunction. (Always check your seedlings daily!) I also got some garlic in the ground and some ginger root too.

Thats it for my update for now :)

🌱🌻Happy Homesteading and gardening! 🌻🌱

12 18 2023

[letsgogardening]

An update from my sister's blog @thestudentfarmer

[thestudentfarmer]

Small progress picture,

Working on a gift for the holiday

A more sustainable washcloth alternative to plastic.

I love the idea and think I might make a few more for gifts.

🌱🧶 Happy Homesteading and Sustainable efforts🧶🌱

[letsgogardening]

An update on my sister's blog @thestudentfarmer

[thestudentfarmer]

A little while ago I made some fridge pickles

These guys.

Well they've sat a little longer than need to so tonight we popped them open to try~

They were a little salty, not super crisp. But firm. Taste wise will make again. Has been like by all, so will use the recipe and time wait again.

The jalapeno was similar texture. Good taste.

The onions honestly I feel shone through in texture and taste. I want to amend 2 jars of that for snacking, with jalapeños for hot dog and sandwhich topping, haha.

🌱🥒Happy homesteading and Happy pickling/fermenting! 🥒🌱

12 5 2023

[letsgogardening]

An update from my sister's blog @thestudentfarmer !

I thought they were really good even if it wasn't the same sort of crispy I'm used to from pickles!

[letsgogardening]

FRONT GARDEN UPDATE 11/29/2023

Full side view

Row 1= a pumpkin, variety of sunflowers and Valor beans

The pumpkin has two fruits on it at the moment! I'm gonna post a few pics of what it looks like currently a little further down.

For the sunflowers we just mixed a bunch of different ones together so there's some Mammoth, Boss (black oil sunflower) and some stuff we had left over from the last sunflowers we grew!

Row 2 = nasturtiums further away and cabbage

A little view of row 2

Row 3= Armenian cucumbers and egg plants

The Armenians aren't spreading out too much but that's more our fault than the plants, it's not in a super sunny spot and it tends to do better when it's slightly sunnier spot in the winter.

Row#4= more valor beans closer with some remnants of cabbage, carrots and radish.

Close up of the pumpkins!

One of the eggplants is starting to show signs of getting flowers/fruit.

A valor bean on the plant

While they aren't really branching out one of them does have a lot of little cucumbers starting!

And some bees on some of the blossomed sunflowers!

[letsgogardening]

Reblogging from this morning for evening feed

[letsgogardening]

FRONT GARDEN UPDATE 11/29/2023

Full side view

Row 1= a pumpkin, variety of sunflowers and Valor beans

The pumpkin has two fruits on it at the moment! I'm gonna post a few pics of what it looks like currently a little further down.

For the sunflowers we just mixed a bunch of different ones together so there's some Mammoth, Boss (black oil sunflower) and some stuff we had left over from the last sunflowers we grew!

Row 2 = nasturtiums further away and cabbage

A little view of row 2

Row 3= Armenian cucumbers and egg plants

The Armenians aren't spreading out too much but that's more our fault than the plants, it's not in a super sunny spot and it tends to do better when it's slightly sunnier spot in the winter.

Row#4= more valor beans closer with some remnants of cabbage, carrots and radish.

Close up of the pumpkins!

One of the eggplants is starting to show signs of getting flowers/fruit.

A valor bean on the plant

While they aren't really branching out one of them does have a lot of little cucumbers starting!

And some bees on some of the blossomed sunflowers!