This Is Us

Day 10 is what we are dreaming of. We have big dreams...  We would love to have at least 10 acres with a big farmhouse, a huge garden, and lots and lots of animals and bees.  I would have a little farm shop that we could sell our homemade and fresh food out of.  Oh how wonderful that all would be. What are your dreams?

  In the seed swap the beginning of 2019 we were in a drawing for a start to a dragon fruit, and we were one of the winners. We were (and still are) so very excited. We researched how to take care of one.  They are usually grown outside in zones 9 to 11, but they can be grown inside in a big pot. They are in the cactus family, and are very pokey... 🤣 The flowers only open for one night, and gives off an inviting fruity fragrance. Because it’s a cactus, it loves the sun and to be dry. However the best temperatures for it is between 65° and 80° It’s a climbing cactus so it needs support. A trellis is the best option for it. Many varieties are self-pollinators, but some require cross pollination. (We are not sure which one we have. 🤷🏻‍♀️) They can be grown from seed, but take a lot longer. It can produce fruit within a year of being established, and can produce for 20 to 30 years. Here is a photo of our cutting Here are more pictures of it growing over the last year. Hopefully...

In order to effectively grow plants, flowers, etc. you need to know what your growing zone is. Ours is 7a. If you google growing zones, there are lots of websites to help you. The website we use is  The Old Farmer’s Almanac It has so much helpful information! If you know your growing zone, then you can find out when your last and first frost dates are, then you will know when you can start seeds in doors, you’ll know how many days you have for a growing season, and so much more!

Last year (2018) our urban farm really started to grow.  We got more planter boxes, planted a lot more fruits and vegetables, and had a lot more flowers too.  We put in a fire pit, which I absolutely love! We participated in the #superduperseedswap in October and January and got a lot more seeds.  Lots of tomatoes, flowers, watermelons, peppers, beans, onions, garlic (I will be growing for my parents since Nick is allergic to garlic), carrots, peas, and so many more!  We also hope to get some chickens this year.  Here are some photos from last year... May: June: July: August: We don't have any photos from August.  We were to busy having fun in Germany and France for our 20 year wedding anniversary, taking the kids to Moab, and Freemont!

We were looking up the different sunflowers and came across this blog article from  FTD - Sunflowers Some interesting facts about sunflowers: Did you know... •There are about 70 species of sunflowers. All but three species are native to North and Central America. •Their seeds are edible and yummy! •Sunflowers 🌻 can clean the soil? Thousands were planted after the nuclear disasters in Chernobyl, Hiroshima, and Fukushima to soak up the toxins in the ground. Don’t you just love Sunflowers? Which ones are your favorite?

For a couple years now we have been trying to grow 🌱some of our own food. We get really excited and then get overwhelmed when the bugs 🐛 🐜🐌 start eating everything. We bought lady bugs🐞and that seemed to help some. We also planted different flowers 🌸🌻🌼🌹 to help repel them.  One of Zain’s friend’s parents had an amazing urban farm (follow them on Instagram @urbanmannfarm). They moved to a house with a bigger yard, but we haven’t seen it yet. It’s probably even better! Anyway she introduced us to the seed swap. For those of you who don’t know what that is, people from all over the United States 🇺🇸 send seed packets for each person participating, into a designated person. Then that person separates them out and sends them to each person participating. In 2016 we had about 40 different packets of seeds. With everything that went on last year we didn’t participate, but hopefully this year we can! We started growing our seeds and Nick made some raised planter boxes. We are h...