Patio and Porch Gardens

We have had a garden, small garden, every year for the past 6 years now. (Since we became the proud owners of a um, house that needs some love and work;)
We moved away from the city and wanted to get a house we could call our own. Whether it needs and needed lots of work and has lots of things that break and fall apart.
Anyway, I sometimes cheat a little bit and go to a market close to where our doctor's office is, and grab some already made vegetables and flowers and fruits, lol! I love the kind that are in the hanging baskets and have already been started! Plus, my main reason behind this?? They are super cheap this time of year! They start them, take care of them, water them, most already have fruits and vegetables on them, and you just drive them home and pretend you did all the work;)
We do start our own each year, I love growing our own, there is really nothing better then shopping for your dinner out in your own yard! AND it is super cheap and tastes much better then store bought!
So, I found these "Patio Vegetables and Fruits" at the market, and I will be going past thee again this week after a test at the hospital.I just want to get 1 more for me, and a few for my mom, who really doesn't have much of a yard and lives in the city.
I never realized they had these available, and I didn't know Burpee made certain fruits and vegetables that need less sunlight and can grow with half the amount!! (At least Burpee was on the little signs that were jammed inside the soil with these plants)
I already had a couple peppers off of "my" sweet pepper plant and a few cherry tomatoes! Yuuummmmmm!!
I just thought I would post about these, I am sure a more seasoned gardener knows these exist, I just never did. I think I knew about the window sill gardens since I was a kid, I just never ever saw or bought patio vegetables before. So neat though for anybody in the city! You can put them on your balcony, a porch, we have ours on the pool deck, and I just pushed them against the deck so the veggies can climb right up!
Next I need help with strawberries and blueberries.. so if any of you have any tips, please share! We have some strawberries each year, and some weird bug destroys them all! The blueberries have just never grown, not ever come from the ground...
I am beginning to wonder if I just had a bad batch of blueberry plants?? The only tip I have received so far for blueberries is to keep the soil acidic, (No problem!) I drink so much coffee, we should have a yard full of blueberries in no time!!
Please leave any gardening tips for us below! They are very much appreciated!

Free Gardening Club Magazine

You can click here to start your FREE 30 day trial and get your instant digital Gardening Club magazine!

You WILL be charged $1 per month, unless you cancel!
This is a good time to grab this freebie though, and although I personally steer clear of "free trials", this is an actual free trial, and even if you do forget to cancel the first month, if you even want to cancel, it is only $1.
When I sign up for free trials, I always mark my calendar on the 25th day, just in case I run into issues with customer service;p
This is well worth it, and could end up being a club you want to be a part of. I am probably going to stick with them and keep my membership.
Another thing to keep an eye on, they may send you books and items in the mail, with free trials. You can put, "return to sender" on these packages and put them right in your mailbox, and return shipping is free for you!
Always read the fine print on offers like this, I always do. I learned the hard way. (the cooking club, yikes;p) But I love gardening and am anxious to see if there are more tips and offers that are of interest to my children and myself, as we continue to learn more and more about gardening;p

Sausage with Peppers, Onions, and Tomatoes

Here is a bit healthier of a favorite dinner of ours.

Sausage is usually a bit cheaper and more often found on sale at my local store, Boyers. If I am lucky enough, and I get to Boyers on the right evenings throughout the week, I can pick up a few pounds of italian sausage, or peppers and onion sausage for a few dollars!

If the meat is has a date on it, within a day or even 3, most stores will put a store coupon on them, and a $3.49 pack of italian sausage, will end up being $1.49! So, this is when I will stock up our freezers like crazy!

Ingredients:

1-2 lbs Italian sausage (cut into 1" pieces)

1 large red pepper (chopped)

1 large green pepper (chopped)

1 large yellow pepper (chopped)

1 large orange pepper (chopped)

1 medium red or yellow onion (chopped)

1 can Del Monte Italian Diced Tomatoes

1 box Barilla pasta

Spray a large frying pan with nonstick cooking spray, over med high heat, fry sausage until no longer pink.

Cook and drain pasta as per instructions on box.

Add peppers and onions, cook for 5 minutes, stirring often

Add diced tomatoes and cook for about 5 more minutes.

Serve over pasta!

This is a very yummy dinner, and the vegetables add so much flavor! You may end up having to make this a weekly dinner at your house!

Peppers can tend to be expensive! So, if green peppers are cheaper where you shop, you can always switch the peppers up a bit, and maybe add 1 extra green pepper and omit a colored pepper, or buy from your local farmers market, or what my family does, is grow our own!

I am anxious to soon learn the art of canning and freezing our vegetables and fruit, so for now, we only have these eppers through gardening season. When I do learn canning and freezing, I hope to have a much bigger garden by next season, and we will be able to save a lot more through the colder months!

Another tasty recipe you can make with these ingredients, would be sausage with peppers and onions, as sandwiches!

Just omit the pasta of course, and add rolls!

If you don't have diced tomatoes, you can always substitute V8 for the tomato taste! This taste wonderful for the sandwiches!

What are These Flowers Part 2

I would like to also know what these gorgeous red flowers are, and if anybody knows what this white thing next to them are, I really would be happy!!
I love these to, and I want to plant them all over the place next year as well!
The white plant is growing like crazy and I do have a lot of them around the front of the house. I just do not know anything about what they are!!
I guess I should have saved those little cards and seed packs this year. But I thrw them all away without looking at them because I really wanted to be surprised!
I am in love with that deep, vibrant, red color though lol!

What are These Flowers Called????

I did our garden and flowers different this past spring, and didn't even know what half of what is growing, or grew, even is!
I thought it would be fun to try and have new things and try new fruits and vegetables, and I just had tons of seeds, some of things I have never heard of!
Well, these real pretty flowers that I thought were dead all year, have recently started to bloom! I think they are absolutely gorgeous and I have never seen these flowers before, and I need to find out what exactly they are so I can get some more for next year!
They started blooming from a plant that was long gone, at least that's what I thought. All of a sudden, these orange and yellow flowers started popping up all over the place! This picture is from last week, and there are lots more since then.
If you can help me with this garden dilemma, I would appreciate this very much!!
Please let me know what they are called so I can plant more of them next year!
Whatever these are, they are almost my favorite flower, lol. But I have always loved sunflowers, so I don't think I can ever change that! My sunflowers, by the way, are doing wonderful this year too!

What do you do with the kids when it is much to hot to go outdoors?

It is a scorching 97 degrees where we live, and as funny as it sounds, it is to hot and humid to even swim in the pool!
The weather report is saying that this will get worse as the week goes on!
So, we are stuck indoors for the time being. I do have a few errands to run in a bit. (Cvs, Boyers, groceries, and my husband is out of Prilosec)I am dreading walking out the door, and having the humidity make it hard to breathe!
I am not a fan of air conditioning, I love the smell of fresh air, and open the windows as much as I can, year round;p My husband hates this, and loves to be frozen to death all summer with the air conditioners, and has them on the entire time he is home.
Well, now I have 4 kids stuck in the house! HELP ME!! The 18 year old, Bethany, is pretty content with her laptop at the moment. The other 3 have been making such a mess, tearing the house apart, bickering and tattling, and basically,just driving me up the wall!
Luckily, we have A lot of crafts, and coloring books, and games, and quite a few fun things to do when they are all restless.
But I believe that this evening, after I am forced outside, by the very thirsty vegetable garden, and screaming flowers, lol, I am going to take the kid recipie book off the shelf, and we will make some snacks and treats!
mMy kids love to creat things, make messes, cook, and do experiments. Anything that has to do with glue, paint, chocolate, sugar, or play doh, is accepted with open arms.
The time spent with them, is something I wish I had more time to do, they really enjoy being together and having a good time,and tend to behave much better when we are occupied!
Not to mention that the homemade Crispix mix and Rice Krispie treats, are much cheaper and taste better!
Do you have any fun recipes you and your children enjoy making together? What plans do you have in your part of the world this week? Are you stuck indoors like we are?
Please post any links to your blog, website, anywhere you may have your favorite recipe! I will be posting our recipes we decide on later!

today is almost over

ok, i fell asleep for about an hour, but i am awake again, and anxious to get a few things finished up online.
but my 7 yr old, aaron, decided that he is wide awake and says, "i am not even close to being asleep!"
so, i will have him standing here next to me, reading every word of everything i do. hmmm. plus, he does not stop talking, not for a minute. there are times i just want some time alone, without any children around. as much as i love being able to watch them grow up and find their little ways around, i would love for just 30 minutes a day, without kids talking my ears off!
that is exactly what this whole day was like. this started at 6am with my youngest daughter. she is normally an early riser. then the baby is soon after, and then the day officially starts!
today i was waiting for the directv serviceman to show up with a Fathers day gift for my husband. they were running a real cool deal on hdtv programming and installation, and a free hdtv dvr, so i ordered one. i have been waiting on a deal on these for about 6 months. ( i refuse to pay full price for anything;p, and after the Fathers Day promotion, this ends up being completely free!)
of course i had my to do list finished for the day, and the "waiting on directv service" was first, and everything else was going to have to wait until he was here and gone.
when i made this appointment, i kept the rest of my schedule in mind. so i opted for the "somewhere between 8am and 12pm" ( but we all know this means, 11:59 am, lol)
i started cutting out my coupons, started a shopping list. yes, just 1 store today with the little ones! this was all stopped abruptly with mr climber. the only way to outlast him, is to strap him in high chair or walker, lol. we started breakfast and aaron woke up around that time. "aaron is making faces at me!", "MOM aaron has his tongue out", "mom! genevive is staring at me", had already started. this is unbelievably annoying, and why does this have to be a several time a minute, especially in the morning? when does this even end? then we start with the cereal boxes. if one wants Rice Krispies, the other says, "I want Rice Krispies! he/she is copying me!", " i said it first" , " I want the box in front of me, not her/him". AAAAAAHHHHH!!
please tell me this also happens at your house, so i don't feel so wierd lol.
so, finally they are all eating breakfast, deegan, (the baby), is throwing half of his on the floor, the other 2 are fighting, i'm trying to get my lists, and coupons done. i also want to get the days housework done, pay some bills, and most importantly, i have to get online!!
i have so much going on online, it's sometimes so overwhelming. but i really enjoy it, plus it is a decent supplement to my income. (which is needed very much). there are quite a few of the "earn gift cards with points" websites, that i am very active with, and i must say, i am impressed, and very thankful for these sites.
that is another thing i will be mentioning from time to time. i have been using these sites for a few years, and believe i have found the best ones. i earn enough gift cards to take care of school clothes, gifts, holidays, help with groceries, the once in a while need for pots and pans, coffeemakers, sheets, towels, candles, etc etc. so, it is an important part of my day, to get the online "work" done.
back to my morning;p
after breakfast, and some spills, messes, a very quick needed diaper change, and a dog eating crumbs from the floor, (thank God!), i realize the time, and that the serviceman still hasnt arrived.
i plan on charging my cell phone, and calling directv, but there are to many battles and messes, and of course, mr. climber. then the "MOM, genevive smacked me" and "mom, aaron is looking at me", starts again, well, with this day and age and the terribly annoying voice activated customer service calls, they usually end up disconnecting me. i have to literally go into the bathroom, lock the door, and call them again. well, this time, there was something wrong with their phone lines. lol, just my luck. so, i figure i will get the laundry done, the housework, and everything else, and just wait for him to show up.
now its after 12, we are starting lunch, he has yet to contact me, and i am getting pretty aggravated. i finally get a hold of somebody at directv, and they say, "oh well, he has been there several times, and has called you over and over agin" um, ok, well, i know that isnt true. at least he wasnt calling my number or knocking on my door. i dont have the time to argue, so i'm happy with the answer, "i'm very sorry. mrs.oliver. we will have him call you within the half hour". well, i thought, ok, even though i needed to get to the grocery store up the road, among other things. i figured i could still have a chance when he was done with the job.
by this time, our oldest gets home from work. she is a huge help with her brothers and sister. even though, she also likes to argue with them, and shes pretty messy herself! usually with leaving things lay around the house, and the bathroom is the worst! but all in all, she's trustworthy and a very good sitter.
i have a weekly schedule. we are very busy with errands, dr appts`, (the baby and i have some usually every week)and i also try to get at least 2 days a week, where bethany can keep the kids out of my hair for a few hours, (no, it doesnt always work out as well as i'd like it too;p), so that i can get online work done, and run a few errands by myself.
in turn, she gets to choose, (unless there are special dr appt days), which days she would like to have her free time.
alright, i get a decent amount of online work done. my goal was to answer several emails, play a few of the free card games on worldwinner.com, (another fun site, as long as you are very careful!), write a few blogs, work on my website, work on my facebook pages, order from www.oldnavy.com (they had an awesome promotion with 24% off everything and free shipping on orders of $50 or more), check out the sales on kmart, and i am in need of a few more gardening supplies. oh and check on my upromise account, online banking, and pay a few bills.
i did get a decent amount done, even with the constant little kids running in and out of the room, tattling on each other.
i am very content when i finsh an actual project, or a pretty big daily goal. so, i was pleased with the small amount of time i had, and what i had accomplished.
well, now it's 4pm, and still no knock, and no phone calls. i grabbed my cell and called them for the 4th time since noon. again, "i'm very sorry, mrs.oliver. we seem to keep missing you. he is calling you and you are not answering." well, no, i'm sorry, but he is not calling me, and he has yet to arrive.
bethany did mention at one point during the day that a blue truck was outside of the house, but it ended up, not being our directv guy.
well, he never called, and never knocked, and it is 3am;p
i'm pretty aggitated, as i really needed to get to the grocery store. not to mention, get to the market to pick up a few things for our garden that we have to finish. especially a fence! since we have families of bunnies, living throughout the yard!
i have a problem with feeling as though a day was wasted, when i can't get my "to do list" finished. it drives me crazy, and i have long lists for every single day, and i hate to have to add to it.
tommorrow especially will be crazy, because, i most definately must get the little ones to the grocery store, and we have to finish the garden. i'm certain that directv will call me in the morning to tell me to stay home between the hours of 8am and 3am, again, lol. i doubt it. i'm probably going to play phone tag with them again.......
oh, that's right, i didnt finish the whole day yet;p
well, after some arguing, corner sitting, and finally cleaning up their toys, i begged bethany to run up the road to Subway, for dinner. (thank God for Subway!!) however, our Subway is closing down. which is absolutely terrible to my family, and im sure, our whole community. the kids love their food, and i love them, because they are making my day a lot easier, by making my family their dinner lol. ( i often turn in points for Subway cards too! Subway also offers a points program, where you can earn free subs, chips, sodas, etc).
after dinner was the ever dreaded bathtime, and finally i had 2 out and 1 to go.
ps; aaron fell asleep very shortly after the 1st paragraph;p