Listed below are posts I’ve written about individual plants, pests or garden planning and maintenance. Just click on the link to take you to the post. If you want to know more about what goes on in our garden, like our monthly walk-throughs and updates, just click on the garden button in the sidebar (under … Read more
Welcome to Creative Simple Living! Simple living means many things to many different people, for some it means living a minimalist lifestyle in possessions and commitments, for some it means self-sufficiency and doing all-the-things. For others simple living is somewhere in between. Regardless of what your definition of simple living is, I want to help … Read more
July and August are my least favorite months to garden. It’s hot and humid (95+ degrees, 90% humidity most days) and we’ve been gardening for 5 months already. We’re tired and the plants are tired. A lot of people in our area just go ahead and till up their gardens in July. We don’t, we try to get … Read more
We love Tex/Mex food and homemade chicken enchiladas are at the top of the list. This recipe is really more of a process than an exact recipe and you probably already have all the ingredients in your pantry – the one exception might be corn tortillas. There are tons of recipes for making chicken enchiladas … Read more
Homemade vegetable stew can be made with pretty much any vegetables you happen to have on hand. I use a combination of fresh seasonal vegetables, home canned vegetables and dehydrated vegetables to make this use-what-you-have vegetable stew. While I do have a real vegetable stew recipe that I share below in the recipe card, I … Read more
Over Labor Day weekend we worked on our fall garden. One of the great things about living so far south is that we can keep a garden going year round. The only months that it’s really hard is July and August usually we just get okra and peppers then. But that’s great for me because … Read more
Summer is the time for light meals that are loaded with summer vegetables. It’s also the time basil plants are huge. One of our favorite meals is pesto pasta with summer vegetables. This summer vegetable pesto pasta dish is loaded with garden fresh vegetables such as yellow squash, zucchini, carrots, onions, and tomatoes. Ingredients Enough … Read more
One of my goals for 2012 was to have a complete garden planted by May because it gets too hot here to plant anything after May. So far, we’ve done pretty good especially since I was so distracted this spring. We’ve already harvested a lot of yellow squash, zucchini and white patty pan squash. I’m … Read more
I was able to spend a few moments this weekend planning out our spring garden. I’m trying to remember to keep it simple this year. We have so many other things to do this spring and summer that I only want to plant what we can take care of reasonably well. Of course, my resolve … Read more
It reached 100 degrees here a couple of times this week – and that did not include the heat index. Rain also came through our area, we were driving back from a scout meeting in a town about 30 miles away and it hailed on us for about half of the way. We hurried home … Read more
Stuffed squash is one of our favorite meals during the summer months when the garden is overflowing with different squash varieties. This vegetarian stuffed squash recipe has a Tex-Mex flare that my children love, especially when we use scallop squash but you can use whatever summer squash, zucchini (courgette) or delica squash you happen to … Read more
This easy pasta salad is packed with fresh vegetables and topped with a zesty homemade dressing. Pasta salad is so versatile that you can use whatever vegetables you happen to have on hand or in the garden, you can use homemade or store bought dressing, and you can also easily make it gluten-free, dairy-free, keto … Read more
This easy homemade pizza recipe, includes a pizza dough recipe, topping suggestions and even freezing instructions. Use this recipe to make family size pizzas, individual pizzas, or calzones. It’s a super versatile recipe. Pizza crust is a great recipe for beginner bread bakers because it’s very forgiving. This recipe will result in soft chewy crust, … Read more
Several years ago I began compiling information about gardening in our area and putting it into a notebook. I listed each item we grew on its own page and when I would learn something new about that item I wrote it in my notebook. In the back of the book I had planning sketches of … Read more