Mark & Beth's Homegrown Adventure
We're learning how to live more sustainably at home in the suburbs. Come along and learn with us!
Tag: Responsible Living
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June Garden Update
Patience, patience, patience. A necessary trait for home gardeners, especially if you’re starting from seed. That’s one of the biggest lessons I’m learning here in our first year of gardening. Things are growing, but slowwwwwly. The weather has been a challenge, and apparently many gardeners in my area (Pittsburgh) are experiencing similar problems. We had
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The Good, The Bad, & The Bugly
We knew that there was going to be a learning curve during our first year gardening. Learning where to put plants, how much to water them, when to harvest, what temperatures they like, what diseases they can get… There’s a lot. One thing I didn’t anticipate being so much of a theme was garden bugs.
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Hey, What’s Bloomin’?
While summer technically isn’t here yet, it sure has felt like it lately in southwestern PA. The last couple weeks have been crazy dry (like, no rain whatsoever) and crazy hot (90 degree days in late May). It’s required a lot of work in the garden to make sure nothing was burning out or drying
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We Finally Found Wild Lettuce!
TikTok’s algorithm knows what I want to see (of course). I get a lot of cute animals, funny nonsense, garden tips, and of course, foraging finds. For the past few months, I’ve been seeing videos of people finding or growing Lactuca virosa, or wild lettuce. It’s touted as being nice in a salad when it’s
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Mid-May Garden Update
We got so much done this weekend! Somehow, I’m still feeling like we’re behind. I think next year, I’ll start the seedlings earlier, and give them bigger containers when up-potting, so that they have more room to grow larger before I put them outside. I’m worried about those tiny little tomato and pepper seedlings in
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Here’s What We Did with the Things We’ve Foraged Recently
It’s both a fun and a frustrating time of the year for gardening, because almost all of the plants are in their permanent homes (waiting just a little longer on the tomatoes and peppers for the soil temperature to warm up), but there’s nothing to harvest yet. However, that’s definitely not the case in the
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Work with the Space You Have
I follow a lot of gardeners on Instagram, and sometimes it’s hard not to feel a little self conscious about my garden when I see theirs. I mean, I’m trying to grow vegetables in my front yard, have a hodgepodge of mismatched containers and beds, and am even going to be planting a few things
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First Time Foraging, For Real
I’ve posted just a little bit about using dandelions and field garlic, but those were things we found in our yard. Didn’t have to actually go looking for them. But that all changed yesterday! We decided to set aside some time to go foraging intentionally, and we had some serious luck. First, we went to
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Hurry Up & Wait to Garden
I don’t have a lot of experience, but I’m starting to think that gardening is mostly an exercise in patience. I remember when Mark and I first decided we were going to start gardening, we were so excited. Even though it was January, we were at Home Depot picking out our seed packets and trays.
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How We’re Saving Money when Starting the Garden (Hopefully)
The primary motivation behind us starting this garden (as well as foraging and reusing what we can) is to save money. There are a lot of other good benefits (mental and physical health, helping the environment and native pollinators), but if I had to pick the top reason, it’s the money. But if you’ve ever
Mark & Beth's Homegrown Adventure 