One Hundred Dollars a Month - Page 1524 of 2143 - I am your typical housewife living in high maintenance suburbia. I have a handsome husband, 2 kids and a flock of pet chickens. I try and feed my family with $100 a month. With the help of coupons, gardening and bartering I am able to squeeze the most out of our grocery budget and still manage to have a little fun along the way.

Container Garden Ideas – Clever Ways to Fill Your Pots

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By Mavis Butterfield on July 17, 2013 · 5 Comments

While I was in San Francisco touring gardens with my buddies Harriet and Ryan, I couldn’t stop taking pictures of container gardens. Although a lot of the plants were beautiful, more often than not I found myself snapping pictures of all the clever little ways people had filled their pots instead of the flowers that were in them.

The container gardens were filled with everything from chunky bark to wine corks. And you know what? They all looked great. Here are a few of my favorites:

I think my favorite one was the pot with polished rocks.

How about you? Do you have a favorite?

~Mavis

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Filoli Gardens and Mansion Tour

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By Mavis Butterfield on July 17, 2013 · 13 Comments

Have you ever gone on vacation and taken way too many pictures?

Well that’s what happened when I cam home and noticed I had taken over 400 pictures of an estate named Filoli which sits just 30 miles outside of San Francisco, California in the lovely town of Woodside.

If I was ever going to live in a 36,000 square foot mansion on 654 acres and had a slew of people to help me with a 16 acre renaissance garden, I think I might want to live at Filoli for the rest of my life.

This is where I would have my afternoon tea and crumpets.

And gaze upon my fresh flowers that Lawrence the Gardener {yes, that is what his name would be} would clip for me every third day and artfully arrange for me.

Here is the hallway I’d ~~waltz~~ dance down listing to The Black Eyed Peas.

This is the main kitchen. Mrs. Patmore {from Downton Abby} and her crew would love the well lit kitchen and cupboard space, don’t you think?

I might need to get a few more dishes though.

And darrrrling, here is the gate Lucy the puggle dog and I would walk through on our morning stroll to the garden.

A sign for visiting dignitaries.

I must tell Lawrence the tops of the hedges need to be trimmed.

The cutting garden.

The koi pond.

Lilly pads.

The conservatory.

This is where I would take my afternoon nap.

One of my many orchards

A girl can dream right?

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How to Grow Your Own Food – 7/17/2013 Garden Tally

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By Mavis Butterfield on July 17, 2013 · 10 Comments

This year I’m on a mission to grow 4,000 pounds of fresh fruits and vegetables in my suburban backyard. In 2012 I was able to grow 2,028 pounds, and in 2013 I’m going double or nothing. I have absolutely no idea if I’ll be able to achieve my goal. But, as with any adventure, half the fun is getting there. ~Mavis

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A few days ago I made a deal with Mrs. Hillbilly that I am now regretting, or at least, I don’t think I’ll make again.

Her son is currently hooked on fresh eggs so I decided to trade her a weeks worth of egg rations for supplies to make smores and some sugar. Since we always have such an abundance of eggs, I didn’t think anything of it at the time. But now, I only have 3 eggs left in the refrigerator for my family to use until tomorrow. Yikes!

I guess it’s true, you don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone. 😉

Luckily my bartering deal with her ends tonight.

As far as the garden goes, this past week we harvested cabbage, kale, Swiss chard, potatoes, raspberries, a few strawberries and a handful of herbs. Oh, and fresh peas too. We are now up to a whopping 198+ pounds of homegrown goodness. Life is good!

Here is what I have harvested so far this year:

Basil – 7 ounces

I LOVE making fresh pesto.

Beets – 14 ounces

I planted more beets over the weekend. I predict roasted beets will be on the menu this Thanksgiving.

Bok Choy – 4 oz

Check out this Asian Noodle Salad with Bok Choy I made. It’s pretty awesome.

Broccoli – 13 ounces

Is it normal for puppies to eat all their vegetables? Why can’t kids be this way?

Cabbage – 32 pounds 10 ounce

Here is my recipe for homemade sauerkraut

Carrots – 3 ounces

This is a picture of carrots we harvested last year. We had to plant our carrots 5 times this year due to slugs. We are just now starting to see a row of green tops.

Chives – 1 pound

We are picking about an ounce a week to use in recipes.

Egg Count – 1,546

Yes, more eggs were collected last week, but I have no idea how many. I forgot to ask Mrs. HB to count them. 🙁

Garlic 9 pounds 2 ounces

If you have never harvested garlic before, be sure and read my How to Harvest Garlic post. It’s super simple.

Garlic Scapes 11 ounces

We used these to make Garlic Scape Pesto. Yumm!

Kale – 3 pounds 11 ounces

The chickens like it! 🙂

Kohlrabi 5 pounds 10 ounces

All out spring kohlrabi has been harvested. Be on the lookout for a kohlrabi recipe soon!

Lettuce – 34 pounds11 ounces

All of the lettuce was harvested from the pallet garden last night. I forgot to harvest it before we left for our trip so it was a little past it’s prime. Luckily the chickens didn’t mind. 😉

M icrogreens 5 ounces

I need to grow some more of these. My favorite way to eat microgreens is with egg salad sandwiches.

Mint 5 oz

I made some blueberry mint jam and also harvested some mint for tea.

Oregano – 6 ounces

Onion – 11 oz.

We are using our onions as we need them. They still have a ways to go until they are ready.

Peas – 29 pounds 11 ounces

Fresh shelling peas are the best. Out neighbor Hulda came down yesterday and harvested some for her family and Lucy the Puggle Dog and the Girl Who Thinks She’s a Bird have been munching on them like they were candy nonstop.

Potatoes – 15 pounds 12 ounces

We harvested these beauties yesterday. I think we’ll have potatoes for dinner tonight.

Radish – 22 pounds 2 ounces

Raspberries – 7 pounds 11 ounces

Our pup Lucy not only loves vegetables, but she loves her berries too. Blueberries and raspberries seem to be her favorite so far.

Sage – 14 ounces

Stay tuned to see what I’m doing with this!

Spinach – 15 ounces

Sprouts –2 pounds 2 ounces

Here are instructions for growing your own sprouts.

Strawberries 8 pounds 13 ounce

The strawberries have slowed way down. I’m not worried though, production will pick up again in the fall. So far this summer we made strawberry kiwi jam, strawberry freezer jam, strawberry pie, and homemade strawberry shortcake.

Swiss Chard 4 pounds 14 ounces

Chickens love it! 🙂

Tomatoes 3 ounces

Sun Gold tomatoes are the best cherry tomato on the planet. Nuf’ said.

Wheatgrass – 7 ounces

Total Food Harvested in 2013: 198 pounds 15 ounces

Total Eggs Collected in 2013: 1,546

If you are new to gardening or just want to learn more on the topic of organic gardening, my #1 favorite book is The Gardener’s A-Z Guide to Growing Organic Food By Tanya L.K. Denckla.

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Puggle Puppies Can Dig! The Unexpected Potato Harvest

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By Mavis Butterfield on July 16, 2013 · 21 Comments

Monkey Boy has been busy this week pulling weeds and cutting back some brush that has started to creep up along the fence line. Yesterday I showed him a 30 foot section that needed to be cleared. But when I went out there today to take a look, I noticed something was missing.

The potato plants that were in front of the chicken coop.

“Did you pull up all my potato plants?”

“Huh? I thought they were weeds.”

“Well did you see any potatoes?”

“No.”

“Hmmm.”

Remember me telling you what a good digger Lucy the puggle dog is?

Well with Lucy’s help, we were able to dig up a little over 8 pounds of potatoes.

Gardening is cool, even if the harvest comes in a little early. 🙂

Now, I just need to figure out what I’m going to make with all those baby potatoes.

Got any ideas?

~Mavis

This post may contain affiliate links. These affiliate links help support this site. For more information, please see my disclosure policy. Thank you for supporting One Hundred Dollars a Month.