Harvesting Mulberries and Updates on Our Garden and Old Siding

Harvesting mulberries and updates on our garden and old siding reflected the nature of all the projects we had going on that kept us busy.

HARVESTING MULBERRIES

There is a mulberry tree on the property next to us and the branches hang over on our property. So, I took it upon myself to not let those delicious berries go to waste and harvested them. It was a lot more than I expected to have. There was so much to harvest!

This was actually my first time ever even having mulberries. They are so delicious and such a treat. I felt like I was grocery shopping in my own backyard. But, you won’t find these in the local grocery stores (usually)!

A tip to help make harvesting mulberries more easy, put down tarps! We put down two tarps and then harvested a bunch the next day. There were so many to harvest and I was working fast so that the birds didn’t come down and think I created a little banquet for them.

I rinsed them in a huge kimchi making container and strained them several times. We would eat many fresh, but most of them would go in the freezer for use throughout the year.

In case you were wondering what I did with all those mulberries. I made a delicious mulberry oatmeal bake with them. Such a perfect breakfast treat! Oh and I can’t forget about those mulberry pancakes too!

POLLINATOR SEEDS AND GARDEN UPDATE

I picked up some pollinator seed mix at a local garden store and would add it to my pollinator garden with the previous plants I had already planted in there. I used Botanical Interests flower mix for butterflies and another one for all types of pollinators. It was exciting to think that I would be creating a place for those beneficial creatures in nature.

After all, when man was created, he was placed in a garden and charged with the stewardship of nature and animals. We might not be in the Garden of Eden anymore, but we can do our part to learn the process if we’re interested. And I certainly was! As a city girl, this was a whole new playground for me~ and I loved it.

I also had some Zinnia and Nasturtium seeds to sow. From my experience, it wasn’t hard to grow Zinnias and they are so colorful and beautiful. But, I could never get the Nasturtium to even germinate. I tried several times and read online that they can be tricky and harder to grow.

Before I planted the pollinator seed mix in the garden, I layered the bed with some of my homemade vermicompost~ aka worm poo.

vermicompost (worm castings) in the garden

In the last blog, I shared about how I was attempting to plant a pollinator garden in one of our 4×4 raised beds. I purchased a variety of salvia, marigolds, zinnias, cosmos, and other pollinator plants to bring color to the garden and hopefully attract the bees and butterflies!

My strawberry plants were also growing nicely in their new grow bag homes! The fruits of our labor was finally coming together.

I also attempted to grow my own napa cabbage to make kimchi with. But, after several attempts and with a neighbor’s warning, I realized that it’s too hot for those to grow for me here in Texas, even in the fall!

Since I filled one of our 4×8 beds with mostly veggie crops, I planned on filling the other one with mostly fruit crops. So, I decided to plant baby pumpkins, little Japanese watermelon, Korean melon, and zucchini.

COTTAGE SIDING

Again, Nate was working on sanding down our old original siding to remove the water based primer he previously primed, which ended up peeling. This time he was working on the attached garage siding.

The task that he took on was a lot of work. Again, working backwards always makes you fall behind. But then again, how would you learn and grow if you never had the opportunity to fail and work backwards? A lesson well learned and skills gained.

After he sanded down the flat surface of the siding, he had to sand in between each lap of the old lap siding. It was the grooves he would really need to get into. He used a wire wheel to get the job done by sanding each groove in the lap siding. It was a lot of tedious work! He was getting through a few layers. The layer that was peeling up and the one beneath it. Doing such meticulous work.

Despite all the work, it has been quite a memorable experience to restore an old historic cottage and uncover the beauty of its original nature. Learning about historical preservation, salvaging what we can, and using reclaimed materials when available, has taught us a lot about being resourceful and sustainable. Being good stewards of our earth as we were called to be in the Garden of Eden.

Materials & Tools We Used

Electric Sander: This tool with this attachment was used to remove as much old primer as possible to give the siding a smooth finish, ready for a new coat of oil based primer.
Wire Wheel: This tool was used to sand in the grooves of the old lap siding. The electric sander worked best for flat surfaces, but this worked better when you have to get into grooves and curves.
Power Washer: This was used to remove old chipping primer from the siding. We were prepping the siding for a fresh coat of oil based primer.

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man sanding cottage siding and woman working on garden raised bed

CHECK OUT OUR VIDEOS

Thanks for joining us on this journey! We hope that you will find inspiration watching us learn as we go while we’re attempting to renovate and rebuild this old small historic cottage mostly on our own~ while working full time jobs! Stay tuned for more progress updates ahead. Read more about us here.

You can also watch a video about this here.