The Redheaded Homestead

“We're gonna need a bigger basket." 🦈

My harvest basket tapped out in about five minutes, so I commandeered this bucket my son brought home from the hardware store for a completely different project.

Row 1's first picking of the season and she's already showing out. Beans are one of my favorite things to grow— the plants are loaded, we've got several more pickings coming off this row alone, and two more identical rows are staggered two weeks apart behind this one. When your bucket runneth over on the FIRST pick, you know it's gonna be a good summer. 🫛🪣 🙌🏻

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I love this stage 🫶
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A few years ago this patch couldn't even grow grass — packed clay and not much else. I've been dumping compost and planting cover crop on it every year, and it has been giving back beautifully for a couple of seasons now.

Wildflowers up front (messy on purpose). Behind that: onions, holy basil, several volunteers from last year, three kinds of beans, three kinds of peppers, cherry tomatoes, nasturtiums tucked absolutely everywhere, sunflowers in back, plus some grass I honestly haven't had time to pull if we're being real… The rows aren't exactly ruler-straight but nobody out here is checking for that — it's producing like crazy and that's the part that matters.

We don't have a "back forty." We have a fence line, some blackberry canes, and a neighbor's deer that treats our yard like a stop on her evening walk. Whatever I don't pick by sundown is hers. I've made peace with it. Mostly.

Shhhhh.... we don't talk numbers around here 😂

👍👍👍

Meet Houdini… 😐

If you saw Brae and I chasing him through the yard at 7am the other day in our pajamas and no shoes…

No you didn’t.

And if you DID…

Mind your business. 😂

Not only does Houdini escape in all new ways each time, but he also believes in bringing all of his littermates with him. Apparently if he’s making poor choices, nobody gets left behind.

He’s lucky someone in our house loves him (not me)..after the unexpected early morning cardio, his future was questionable. He clearly has zero remorse.

🧄 Almost 15 pounds of garlic curing in the greenhouse.

We planted several varieties last fall to find our favorite.

Turns out our favorite is garlic.

All of it. 😂

Also, vampires need not apply.