garden Archives - Hampers and Hiccups

Put Your Gloves On, It’s Gardening Time

Yep, that’s right, it’s time to get your hands dirty. If you’ve left your garden unattended for a while, apart from the odd mow of the lawn here and there, we guarantee it is ready for some TLC. Garden’s are always the last to get the attention, and it’s pretty sad. There’s so much potential to a garden, and so many things you can put in it to make it beautiful. All you need to do is harness your inner gardening abilities, and find a vision that you know is going to look good. If you’re struggling with ideas, we’ve got a few for you. Read on to find out more.

How to Clean Out Your Garden

by Hampers and Hiccups

Get through your garden clean out quickly and efficiently. Keep up on produce and cleaning throughout the year to minimize labour at fall time. Now that you have your produce under control you can easily tackle the garden clean out. Start by getting rid of all the growth aids (markers, strings, cages, fences). Next you'll want to get rid of plants that will cause an issue with your tiller, or wreak havoc for you in the next season. I'm looking at you corn & tomatoes! Trim back your raspberry bushes and haul away the rest of the organic matter that you don't want tilled into the soil. Once you have everything hauled away, reward yourself with a nice cold beer! Congratulations, you're ready for the fall field work!

It’s only the middle of August, but already I’m looking towards garden clean out and fall work. With a baby …

Simple Tips & Tricks to Preserve Your Garden Harvest

by Hampers and Hiccups

Garden preserving. Tips, tricks, ideas for a stress-free, easy, efficient preserving season. garden. harvest

As I mentioned here, once the first of the produce starts getting close to being harvested, I'm busy planning for garden preserving!

Garden Preserving – A Marathon, Not A Race

This means from the middle of July until about the end of September, my kitchen looks like a (very ill-managed) factory! The canner takes up permanent residence on my stove and my dishwasher is constantly loaded with all sorts of garden preserving utensils.

How to Harvest Your Garden Efficiently!

by Hampers and Hiccups

It's getting to that time of year when we're all closely monitoring our gardens in great anticipation of that first harvest of some yummy produce. I'm talking the stuff we have to really wait for – beans, carrots, peppers, tomatoes, corn and potatoes – not the quick-to-grow veggies like lettuce and radishes!

The Harvest Issue

It seems to take FOREVER to get everything in to harvest and process! From about mid-late July until we pull the last of the potatoes out in September or October, I'm busy picking, blanching, freezing, canning, and preparing. Phew!
Since we try to use every last bit of produce and not let any go to waste, it can get pretty crazy 'round here trying to get the harvest done and processed before it spoils.

Over the years, I've slowly become more and more aware of the craziness, and more and more adamant about efficiency (in every aspect of our lives). So, I've figured out a few ways to save some time and stress during garden harvest.