Nina's Soap

On 7-1-2022, we took a tour in our garden t share how to start your garden to save money in groceries.

Raspberries canes from last fall produced raspberries that were ripe to harvest in July in our garden zone 5A.

How to grow raspberries in your home garden

When you plan raspberries the first time, they will produce canes in spring. These canes will produce fruit in fall the same year. You could cut these canes down in fall to leave room for the next spring canes. However, it is not necessary. The canes that produce fruit in fall, will produce fruit in early summer the following year and will be done producing. You will cut them down at that point. The canes that will grow in spring the following year or the year you harvested your early summer crop, will produce fruit for harvesting in fall that year. After you harvest the fruit in early summer from the previous year canes, you cut them down to leave room for spring canes to grow. In our garden, we get more harvest in early summer from previous year canes than we do in fall from the same year growth canes. It could be probably because in fall it is chilly, and we are not outside much or because school starts, and kids are not out in the garden much.  Raspberries fall crop could have less bugs in the berries as the weather is cooler.

To save money in your groceries, once you purchased and planted few raspberries canes, you could propagate from spring new growths. Raspberries grows plants around where you planted them expanding the patch. You could dig some that are a foot tall to plant in another area of your garden to expand your raspberry patch. In 2014, we planted 2 raspberry varieties. In a year or 2 later we planted 2 others. From these plants, we propagated them in spring when we have raspberries growing in pathways in the garden. I purposely dug some new growths to plant in the front garden and expanded our raspberries plants in your home garden. Now that our fruit trees are growing and expanding branches, I started to cut down some raspberries plants to move garden pathways to where they are growing. Raspberries produce fruit early compared to other fruit trees like apple tree. It is a good idea when planting your fruit garden to save money, to incorporate some berries you like with fruit trees so that we can start harvesting some fruit from your garden early while waiting on your fruit trees.

How to grow Egyptian Walking Onion in your vegetable garden

Right next to the raspberries in our front garden, there is an herb garden where Egyptian walking onions (Allium proliferum) also called winter onions started to grow their buildings. Egyptian walking onions have edible top onions, edible below ground onion, and edible green leaves. All these 3 parts of the plant can be eating raw or cooked. However, if you are growing your vegetable garden to save money in groceries overtime, you might refrain from eating the onions below ground and leave them to keep producing for you year after year. Overtime, you may not need to purchase onion bulb or green onion from the grocery store. Egyptian walking onion will produce enough for your supply.

How to propagate Egyptian walking onion?

You let them grow the bulbils or top onions in summer. In fall you harvest the top onions to replant to increase your patch. You plant them as soon as you see the onions below ground started to grow green onions at the end of summer. Or you plant them when the main stem carrying the bulbils started to turn yellow and fall on to the ground. In spring your Egyptian walking onions produce green leaves in early spring and fall. In our zone 5A, they start to grow green leaves in March and September. You should harvest the greens in spring and freeze some as in summer they do not grow green leaves but rather focus their energy in growing the bulbils. The frozen green onions can be used in cooking.

Red currant (Ribes rubrum) Red Jade

Red currants are ripe in before July and ready to harvest. Red currant is a fruit bush.

White currant (Ribes rubrum) Swedish White

White currants are ready to harvest.

How to propagate red currant?

You can lay down a red currant branch that is low to the ground and cover with dirt and use a stone to hold it down. After a year, you could dig to remove the dirt and check. If you see root below the branch, you could cut it in spring while the plant is still dormant to plant where you want it.

How to propagate white currant?

You can lay down a white currant branch that is low to the ground and cover with dirt and use a stone to hold it down. After a year, in spring you could dig to remove the dirt and check. If you see roots below the branch, you could cut it in spring while the plant is still dormant to plant where you want it.

I have done that to both the red and white currant bushes, but I didn’t cut the branches. Therefore, they are growing next to the mother bushes.

Concord grape seedless

They started to fruit in June. They were still growing in July.

Concord grape seeded

They started to fruit in June. They were still growing in July.

If you fenced your garden to keep deer and bunny out of the garden, you could use the fence to support your grapes vines. You make good use of your fence. Fencing your garden could be expensive. Galvanized fence wire and t-posts are the first most expensive purchases to make for your garden if you have wild animals around. The second most expensive purchases are the fruit trees. Because your fruit trees are expensive and take years to grow, you want to protect them from deer and bunny. The best way to utilize your fence is to grow vertical by introducing fruit vines. Grapes produce a lot. They start producing before tall fruit trees. They can start producing as early as 2 years.

How to propagate concord grape vines in your home garden

You can also propagate grape vines in spring. You prune the vines that produce the prior year and the new vines that are too long, you cut these new vines in pieces 1 foot long. Then you put them in wet dirt where you want them to grow. You just put in the dirt holding the vines the right way not upside down. From your own propagation, it could take 3 to 4 years for the new plants to start producing. Concord seeded grape vine is easy to propagate.

Concord grape grows well in zone 5A.

How to grow blueberries in your home garden?

Blueberries are ready to harvest in July in our zone 5A.

How to grow garlic as perennial?

Garlic leaves are edible raw and cooked.

You can leave your garlic in the ground year around.

In summer hard neck garlic will grow bulbils on top that could fall and grow more garlic. Or you could harvest the bulbils at the end of summer to propagate.

Black currant (Ribes rubrum) Black September

Black currant started to ripe by as of July 1^st, they are not ready to harvest.

Honey berries

Honey Berry (Lonicera caerulea var. edulis) Blue Moon

Honey Berry (Lonicera caerulea var. edulis) Blue Pacific

Honey berries were harvested in June in our zone 5A and only few fruits were left on the bushes.

You can mix your vegetable and fruit trees and grow at the ground level. Once your fruit trees are tall and wide, you will be able to move your vegetables around to adjust to the size of your trees and moving your pathways around.

When you grow perennial vegetables and fruit trees, you don’t need to till your garden. While in spring gardeners are planting, you will be harvesting, as perennial vegetables grow a lot in spring and you must be on top harvesting and freezing your vegetables for winter use. Overtime, your vegetables will produce enough that you may not purchase some vegetables and spices in the grocery store saving money that could be used to purchase other food staples in your grocery list that you do not grow.

Annual vegetables are great to grow in your garden the first few years you are waiting for your perennial vegetables to establish. Annual vegetables grow fast. However, you must weed, water, and fertilize the garden for your annual vegetables to grow well and produce a bouncy harvest for you and you must purchase their seeds every year if you do not save your own seeds. Perennial vegetables are slow growing the first few years, low maintenance, grow long roots to search their own nutrients in the ground and don’t mind wild plants nearby. They produce year after year.

How to start a garden to save money in groceries