Well I just moved from the small town of Stratford, WI. to Milwaukee, WI. without even a vehicle.  It's amazing how fast you understand what's really important in your life.  My new container garden trumped a vehicle and with gas over four dollars a gallon my next purchase will be a bicycle.

  Well I ended up moving last fall so my espalier came with me.  She recovered nicely this spring and hopefully this is her resting place.  Started working on the new garden as you can see.  Clay is not fun to work with in a garden and since all work is done by hand Im not sure how much will be planted or grown here this year.  I want my espalier to grow up the side of my new house, just kiddin thats an old wore down house on the property.

day one of my hot sauce concoction

Just started receiving a great magazine called "Mother Earth News", and i love it.  In this issue there was a recipe for homemade hot sauce.  So today i went out in the garden and picked all the hot peppers that were ready, threw them into the blender, and now have this smooth sauce.  I ended up with about a cups worth and according to the recipe i added a teaspoon and a half of salt to start the fermentation.  The process takes alittle over a month so more to come.  Special thanks to my mom for giving me this bowl 6 years ago that i thought i had no use for, I geuss i was wrong its perfect!

A Better Way to Fertilize Your Garden: Homemade Organic Fertilizer - Organic Gardening - MOTHER EARTH NEWS

A Better Way to Fertilize Your Garden: Homemade Organic Fertilizer - Organic Gardening - MOTHER EARTH NEWS

Here is my broccoli and cauliflower.  The broccoli did very well and has been a nice treat for dinner now and again.  The cauliflower however did not really produce good cauliflower, grubs got into the florets.

The corn is ready to harvest and have had quite a few excellent ears over the past few days.  The tomatoes and peppers are kind of hit and miss.  The tomatillos are really growing great and cant wait to make some homemade salsa verde out of them. I did not add any manure to the soil this spring which Im sure hurt me all around but will have access to plenty of it for next year at my new homestead..

Here is the first watermelon of the season carefully protected under chicken wire because the deer love the sugary vines.

Now my espalier has room to grow.  Since the branches have hardened i will plan to start training it again next spring.

I successfully transplanted all my apple trees to my new homestead.

My house plans

I found this little cabin and think it would suit my needs just right and would be very easy and cheap to build.