Truly our adventures in the garden began in February shortly after we moved into our first home in a 1930s neighborhood of Cleveland. We were finally able to grow a garden after living a small townhome for four years. My husband ordered every free seed catalogue avaliable including Park Seed and Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds (which has the most georgeous pictures that truly inspire anyone to grow a garden). We drooled over the dream garden we could grow and we finally received our seeds via the mail man. Instantly the home office became an indoor green house. My husband rigged up some fluorescent lights and planted our tiny seeds.
We received so much rain and snow that year it made us wonder if we would ever get to transplant our small little tomato sprouts in the earth. March rolled around and by that time not only had we started little seedlings in our "make shift" greenhouse, but we were in the middle of tapping our big sugar maple tree out back. We took a gamble with that tree. We didn't even know if it was a maple, but tapped it anyway! We boiled down our first batch of maple syrup on our gas stove not really knowing what to expect. Yes, we burnt a batch or two, but have yet to burn a batch this year.
Being a little anxious, we planted our small plants mid April. The weather as it was, the garden was so wet all spring that we almost lost all our small plants. It took them a while to grow, but eventually we had created our garden. We wated it, pruned it, picked it, cooked it, canned it, and devoured it. Of course, the plenty received in the Fall would not have been possible with out the help of my husbands bees.
Bees, yes, we are backyard beekeepers. My husband decided he wanted to keep bees way before we moved to Cleveland. He learned about keeping bees only one year prior to our move and fell in love with idea of keeping bees and having fresh locally grown, unprocessed honey. Last summer he extracted 50 lbs of honey from one hive.
So we are backyard beekeepers who grow a garden from seeds and tap our own maple trees. I then can, juice, and jam any produce we grow or pick from local farms to create food storage for the year and cold winters. If that is not enough, I also pick up tree lawn trash to create tree lawn treasures for $ free.90.free. I coupon, bargin, sew, craft, and teach other women at church how to do the same things I do on a budget. I have three children and LOVE my job as a stay at home. Don't be fooled though. I finish college and got a Masters degree, but my greatest joy and accomplishment is being a Mom and master of provident living and self reliance.
