Mavis Mail – Gertrude From Western PA Sends in Her Garden Photos

A big THANK YOU to everyone who has sent in their photographs and stories. I hope by sharing other people’s pictures and stories here on One Hundred Dollars a Month we can all have a rock star garden this summer. Keep them coming!

HI! I really enjoy your blogs and thought I would share our garden photos.

A little about us. We (my Mom and I) are doing this garden with my 3 sons, 15, 9 and 9. We turned up the garden area that has not been used in years on the property.

We live in an old farmhouse in Western PA and the house is the where my grandfather grew up. The apple tree next to the garden is the same apple tree that my Mom used to play in when she was little.

So aside from the history here, our garden is unique because we are doing it on a larger scale than most. We have over 200 tomatoes plants and at least 5 dozen pepper plants (hot, sweet and bell – my middle son LOVES peppers), greens, lettuce, squashes, gourds, giant pumpkins, tomatillos, leeks (which are not doing great), peas, beans, corn, carrots, parsnips, radishes, rutabagas, zucchini, cucumbers, watermelons, popcorn, cantaloupes and potatoes, garlic and maybe close to 1000 onions (my sons planted every single onion).

Everything is growing pretty well, but we are battling groundhogs (aka woodchucks) for our cabbages, broccoli, cauliflower and kohlrabis and brussel sprouts. Granular coyote/fox urine and kids barking and howling at odd times around the garden is helping quite a bit! And foil pie pans tied on sticks so they can bang around is helping too.

We didn’t get to start our plants from seed, so we went to the greenhouse that our family has been going to for five generations and bought a majority of our plants.

We lost some to groundhogs so we had to replace and went to another local greenhouse and found heirloom varieties and bought about 15 plants there too. We are doing this organically and are using fish fertilizer and epsom salts and we worked some organic chicken manure into the soil as we tilled.

We did have to replant our corn, beans and peas because a few days after we planted we had a freak snow/hail storm with below freezing temperatures and lost it all, so our second sowing is doing great!

~Gertrude

If you would like to have your garden, chicken coop, pantry or something you’ve made featured on One Hundred Dollars a Month, here’s what I’m looking for:

• Your Garden Pictures and Tips – I’d especially like to see your garden set ups, growing areas, and know if you are starting seeds indoors this year. If so,  show me some picture of how you are going about it.
• Your Pantry Pics – Submit at least 5 HIGH QUALITY pictures of your pantry/fridge/cabinets, as well as a short blurb {at the very least} about you and your food habits.
• Your Chicken and Chicken Related Stories – Coops, Chicks, Hen’s, Roosters, Eggs, you name it. If it clucks, send us some pictures to share with the world.
• Cool Arts & Crafts – Made from your very own hands with detailed {and well photographed} pictures and instructions.
• Your pictures and stories about your pets. The more pictures and details the better.
• Garage Sale, Thrift Store and Dumpster Diving pictures and the stories behind the treasures you found including how much you paid for them.

If I feature your pictures and the stories behind them on One Hundred Dollars a Month, I will send you a $20.00 gift card to the greatest store in the world: Amazon.com.

Go  HERE for the official rules.