Clicky

Magpie’s Garden 2014 – Holly Homesteader. Chickenbees. And The End.

PinSave to Favorites

Site Index

This post may contain affiliate links. See my privacy policy for details.

I’m going to come straight out and admit it; holy Dinah, I am done with my garden. D-O-N-E.

I could wax poetic about how ah-mazing it is to grow your own vegetables all summer long and oh my goodness, my children ate pesticide free, straight from my yard vegetables all summer long and now it’s time for the fall bounty and oh my, pumpkin pies are on the way. I didn’t even have to take a car/bus/bike/walk to the farmers market , I grew all my own and what I didn’t grow came from second hand stores! Next year I’ll grow the newest Chickenbee hybrid – lays eggs, fertilizes AND pollinates your hipster backyard garden all at the same time!

Alas, I would never be mistaken for a hipster. Like, ever.

Here’s the thing; I only wish I could be Holly Homesteader for you guys, I really do. I love the ideas of a millions jams, preserves and more “put up” for the winter. It would be nice to make my own wines, my own hand lotion and soaps, and show you pictures of my children petting their backyard goats and chasing my Heritage Breed poultry while I paint the cutest little chicken coop you’ve ever seen.

I sadly will never be a Holly Homesteader either.

Dudes, this was a big garden and the weeding alone – which I sucked at, by the way- was a crazy amount of work.

Yes, I totally made fun of people who shone sunshine out of their er, garden boots, all summer long. Heck, I am one of them, for a couple of months. I enjoy my garden to the extent that I wake up ready to water it while having my morning tea and my soul literally craves the contact with dirt and plants.

And then September hits.

Garden, you can hit the road.

Tomatoes? I love you.  You love me. You can keep on growing forever.

blue bucket full of fresh red tomatoes

Cucumbers, you can stop growing. We’re over you.

full grown green cucumbers

Butternut squash (my first one ever!) you can ripen the heck up.

close up of White Butternut squash

Red runner beans?

Beat it.

close up of Red runner beans

Sugar pumpkins?

Get ripe.

close up of green sugar pumpkin

Monstrous Giant pumpkins that are the weirdest things I have grown squash wise?

You’re cool. We’re cool. You can stay there until Halloween.

monstrous giant pumpkin

Especially you.

I think I like these Giant Atlantic Pumpkins. While you aren’t as gigantic as you can be, I think you will rock Halloween.

Close up of Giant Atlantic Pumpkins

Cantaloupe?

Listen, you little bugger. I don’t care that you are the size of a baseball, there are two of you, I’ve never gotten this far before EVER with growing musk melon and you better ripen.

We. Want. To Eat. You.

baseball size green cantaloupe

I am, however, turning into Holly Homeschooler this fall. I can only wear so many hats before they start to fall off and Greta Gardener is done for the year. She’s turning in her garden gloves for pencils, books and learnin’. I still have potatoes, carrots, beets and beans that won’t stop. I’m ok with that, but not sure when I’ll find the time to harvest them all. It will work out, I am sure.

It was a beautiful garden, but I’m pooped. I’m ever so glad that we are just going to eat what we grew and there’s no canning involved this fall.

So, what have we learned this post?

I will never be a Holly Homesteader.

I secretly long to be a hipster. I have no cred and will never be a hipster.

I am turning into Holly Homeschooler.

Turning into Holly Homeschooler also means that I am turning into Winnifred WineDrinker.

I completely lack imagination when coming up with characters names. Never ask me to write a novel.

I want to create chickenbees.

The. End.

Karlynn

Learn to cook like the Kitchen Magpie

A Very Prairie Christmas Bakebook

Cookies, Candies, Cakes & More: Vintage Baking to Celebrate the Festive Season!

Learn More

a copy of Flapper Pie cook book

Flapper Pie and a Blue Prairie Sky

A Modern Baker’s Guide to Old-Fashioned Desserts

Learn More

The Prairie Table

Suppers, Potlucks & Socials: Crowd-Pleasing Recipes to Bring People Together

Learn More

Karlynn Johnston

I’m a busy mom of two, wife & cookbook author who loves creating fast, fresh meals for my little family on the Canadian prairies. Karlynn Facts: I'm allergic to broccoli. I've never met a cocktail that I didn't like. I would rather burn down my house than clean it. Most of all, I love helping YOU get dinner ready because there's nothing more important than connecting with our loved ones around the dinner table!

Learn more about me

Site Index

Reader Interactions

Comments & Recipe Tips Share a tip or comment!

  1. sbabij says

    I feel the pain 🙂  I love my garden but by September I am more than ready for it to be done for the year… and by November miss it again 

    • KitchenMagpie says

      BLGSinYEG lol good, I’m not the only one!

  2. Melanie Harmsma says

    YEP. I am looking at my massive crop and thinking I have a heck of a lot of work in front of me! Probably a couple hundred carrots, a hundred beets, spaghetti squash, zucchini, potatoes, tomatoes… I always forget just how much work it will be in the fall. Time to start paying the kids to work the garden. A buck per bucket of beets? A penny a pea? Ten cents a tomato? NAH. I’m too cheap. Slave labour it is.

  3. The Kitchen Magpie says

    No matter now little or big my garden in, I always feel the same this time of year lol!

  4. Peggy Doyle says

    I felt the same way the year I attempted gardening. Over it now. I only grow tomatoes and some baby lettuce greens now. Hysterical post though 🙂

  5. The Kitchen Magpie says

    Aw thanks! I am glad that I am not the only one!

  6. Shelley Jones says

    This post is great! I am great at tending my plants, but by mid-August I am SO over it. Maybe that’s why hubby refuses to build me a garden every year. P.s. I also dream of goats and chickens, but I’m guessing it would be a disaster.

Leave a Comment or Recipe Tip