Spring Garden

Finally, FINALLY I have time to write about the garden! I've been so busy trying to get things in the ground, weeded, prepped, covered, mulched, etc etc. So, here is the update:

One of the new things we're trying this year is corn. Corn! I've never grown corn. I picked a variety from Seed Savers Exchanged called Blue Jade. It is a sweet corn that only gets 2-3 feet high, so it is ideal for containers. And I know corn is best grown in clumps (not rows, per say, unless you clump the rows) so I planted it in the half whiskey barrel we have by the porch. We'll see how it goes.
The radishes are giving such a great burst of color here in this patch. Also planted here are peas, beets, parsnips, and carrots. The carrots didn't sprout. Not. A. One. I don't know why. I think I planted 6 different varieties, and nothing. I'll put in a late batch in a different bed in July, probably, and hope for the best. Everything else did ok in this bed. I'm at a loss.
The two head lettuces I grew this year: Tennisball (right) and Dazzle romaine (left). Aren't they gorgeous? Notice the baby in front. I started a few more from seed, then transplanted them today so when I cut the heads of the older plants, the babies will be established and I'll have another batch coming along.
Another pic of the lettuce. I haven't tried the Dazzle yet, but I'm really happy with Tennisball, which I got from Montecello when we were there a year or so ago.
A flat of things waiting to be planted, including but not limited to tomatoes, lettuce, squash, and okra. Some have been planted since I took this picture.

Also, I have seeded beans and cucumbers, and put in some of the pepper plants. The garlic scapes are starting to show, the red shallots are starting to flower (but not the gray shallots yet), peas are on the vines, potatoes are flowering, blueberries and blackberries are in their infancy, parsnips are flowering (I'm collecting seed this year), and some of the tomatoes are flowering, too!

Garden Update

All the purchased tomatoes arrived today. Add those to the tomatoes I brought home from Barbara's and the tomatoes I started from seed and it is Tomato Central Station here.....and the night temps this weekend are supposed to drop to nearly 40* this weekend. So, the INSIDE of the house is going to be a jungle.

But I know it won't last, next week it'll probably be just fine and I can start planting them outside!

There really isn't much else to report. We haven't had time to work on the garage, the asparagus is done for the year, the cabbages have mostly bolted. Potatoes are doing their thing, as are the peas, leeks, etc etc.

Carrots really haven't sprouted and I'm not sure why. I'm going to keep a better eye on their water situation and go from there. Radishes, beets, and lettuce has all sprouted there fine, though. Hm.

I have started in cups the squash, okra, more lettuce, and a few flowers. I will be repotting the fig this weekend, too. I repotted the Korean Red Pine (pine nut tree) yesterday and I'm pleased to report it has new growth on it. Repotted the bay laurel and it has new growth, too.

Flower bed is coming along. I'll hopefully be posting pics soon.

Spring Planting

I have this habit of taking pictures of every new veggie sprout and every planting of every veggie....every year. Matt has been making fun of me for this. This year I found myself standing in front of the newly sprouted asparagus bed with my camera in my hand and I had the following conversation with myself in my head:

Repeat after me: you don't need to take pictures of the first asparagus every year.

I don't need to take pictures of the first asparagus every year.

People by now know what they look like. Every year.

People by now know what they look like. Every year.

These aren't the droids you're looking for.

These aren't the droids we're looking for.

Move along.

Move along....Move along!!!

So. Now that I have that out of the way, I can tell you that this weekend I planted kohlrabi (for the first time, too), broccoli plants, and leeks. I also rehabbed two tomato beds that I didn't get to last fall, and I tried to fix the pea beds. Too wet, a lot of them became slug food/homes and some others rotted. I have enough seed to reseed if necessary. Oh, and the asparagus is coming up.

Tomorrow I plan on planting some flowers and such in the new flower bed. I hope to get the potatoes in this week as well as the carrots/radishes.

Matt finished up the rafters in the garage on Sunday, I will have pictures of that soon.

And...it is supposed to be 90* tomorrow. Ick.

Preserved 2009

What I preserved through March 31, 2010

11 quarts beans
7 pints beans
12 pints bourbon peaches
13 pints beets
8 pints raspberry chipotle sauce
8 4oz jars mustard
4.5lb shelled peas frozen
6 half-pints mango chutney
14 jars violet jelly
5 quarts peach pie filling
6 pints carrots
3 quarts carrots
4 pints orange-glazed carrots
1 pint getty sauce
7 quarts getty sauce
2 quarts preserved lemons
10 half-pints pickled beets
3 half-pints green tomato chutney
6 quarts Greek potatoes
11 jars cherry tomato cinnamon jam
5 4oz jars lemon chutney
12 half-pints salsa
6 half-pints salsa verde
6 things frozen shredded zuch
6 things frozen roasted tomatoes
7 pints dilled green tomatoes
16 pints applesauce
7 quarts apple slices
1 quart dried apples
5 things frozen pumpkin puree
4 bags frozen squash chunks
3 bags of broccoli
10 pints parnips
Various dried fruits

Adventures with Kohlrabi

We bought some kohlrabi at the grocery store last week.

We've never eaten kohlrabi.

We've never cooked kohlrabi.
.
.
.
Any suggestions????

Veggie Seed Order 2010

Of COURSE I’m buying seeds! It is February, isn’t it? Geesh.

I did a quick and dirty list of what I wanted to grow again or more of this year (more okra, more paste tomatoes) vs. what I didn’t (melons, slightly fewer tomatoes overall and NO hanging baskets this year except flowers). I also did a quick inventory of what I had and made a list of what I needed. Below is the result, and no, it is probably not complete. Some do have links. all have already been ordered and I think most of them are already here. I’m sure I’ll order or purchase some things not listed:

Territorial Seeds:

• Artichoke, Violetto (yes, really. It's hardy to zone 6)
• Cucumber, Boothby’s Blonde
• Mustard, Tah Tsai
• Chinese cabbage, Tenderheart
• Radish, French Breakfast
• Tomato seed, Super Marzano (my paste tomatoes for the year)
• Onion seedlings, Copra (storage onions, which will be in addition to the ones currently in the ground)
• Sluggo, for slug death
• Tomato plant, Princepe Borghese (these are specifically grown for drying)
• Tomato plant, Mortgage Lifter
• Tomato plant, Sun Gold

Seed Savers Exchange:

• Carrot, Paris Market
• Beet, Burpee Golden (two packs, so I have more for pickling)
• Corn, Blue Jade (2-3’ plants, can be grown in containers!)
• Squash, Potimarron (I saw these here and fell in love with them)
• Drying bean, Good Mother Stallard
• Lettuce, Yugoslavian Red
• Tomato plant, Brandywine
• Tomato plant, Cherokee Purple
• Pepper plant, Sheepnose pimento

Bake Creek Heirloom Seeds:

• Cucumber, Jaune Dickeleischige
• Leek, Giant Musselburgh
• Pak Choy, Extra Dwarf
• Cowpea. This is something new I’m going to try. Black eyed peas are a cowpea. I haven’t yet decided what I’m going to get or where I’m getting it from…
• Parsnip, half-long Guernsey

I’m also planning on visiting the PA Herb Festival in April at the York Fairgrounds. Another local blogger, Tulip Tree Hill from Lancaster, will be there. She is starting her farm this year and I have plans to get from her. These were on my lists for catalogs until she published her 2010 plant list:

• Tomato, Snowberry
• Tomato, Japanese Black Trifele
• Watermelon, Orangelo (I know I said no melons this year, but have you seen this thing?)
• Tomatillo, purple and green

So, except for a few things here and there as fun, that's it! I actually bought about half of what I bought last year. Some tomatoe seedlings are already started, as are the artichokes. Pictures soon!

What are you prepping??

Here I am!

Sorry I've been so MIA lately, I've been spending a lot of time working on the application package for the job I'm applying for, due tomorrow.

I hope to have new garage pics up this week, as well as some pictures of my most recent garden harvest. Seriously, I harvested some fresh veggies, and I scared the bejezus out of a coworker with one of them. It is a great story, stay tuned!

Late Fall Harvest

For a garden blog I haven't been talking much about the garden, have I? Here is a bit about what is going on:

This is the broccoli on November 15:
I had 13 broccoli plants this year (14 originally, one didn't make it). I bought them at Lowes in Lexington, VA, because my local greenhouse was sold out by the time I got to them. I really wasn't sure I was going to get broccoli this year because by the middle of October they were but wee little broccoli wannabes. When I picked the first batch at the beginning of December they were huge:I got a great Fall broccoli crop! A little wormy, but I took care of them (for the most part. I hope). You can see the size here, my gloved hand is at the left: A week after I picked the first snow-covered batch we were having a cold and windy spell and I decided to pick the rest before the wind got to it. It has all been blanched and frozen now.

I also cut into the single Australian Butter squash I got, and 'Butter' is the perfect word to describe the flavor. Fantastic! I will grow these again:

1/3 of this squash went into this apple and cranberry dish for Thanksgiving:The remaining 2/3 was cooked (too much, I think) and frozen. This is a great squash.

My remaining carrots and parsnips are still in the ground. I covered them over with the now-infamous bags of leaves to try to insulate them some. Next warmish spell I'll try to dig them up. The cabbages, I fear, are toast. Just got them in too late.

Fall Veggie Update

I was about to post about pouring concrete when I remembered that a) this started out as a garden blog, and b) I haven't posted about gardening in a loooong time, so I'm doing that today.

Onions: I harvested our 2009 onions already and they are in the basement, but on the suggestion of a friend I seeded onion directly into a bed this past August to overwinter. This was a French variety I'd really wanted to try more of, and I'm really excited to see how it works out. So far, so good, as they are coming up and look healthy and sturdy:
Garlic/Shallots: I planted these this past weekend. 35 French gray shallots, 3 red shallots, and I'm not sure how much garlic yet (I haven't tallied them up). Planted Transylvanian, Chinese Pink, Music, Applegate, and Shantung Purple.

Broccoli: I have two varieties of broccoli in, too: this fall crop and a purple sprouting broccoli for next spring. This year's batch is almost ready to pick.

Cabbages: I may have put these in too late, I'm not sure. I've never grown cabbage before.

Turnips: I planted a lot of turnips, ONE grew. It is currently in the refrigerator waiting to be cooked.

Carrots: These did beautifully in my second batch. I've picked a lot, but there is a lot still in there. I'm going to wait until after the first real freeze to pull them.

Parsnips: Still in the ground, I have no idea what's going on down there.

Peanuts: I got about 8 dozen peanuts!! Off four plants!! I'm pretty happy with that, and they are good size, so I think I will grow them again.

End of Summer Review

Whew! What a year!! I can’t believe it is getting cold already. The leaves are just starting to turn down here, I’m hoping it will be a colorful autumn. I’m hoping someone else finds it helpful and informative, too. Please note that I’m also going through my seed stash and I will be doing a Destash list shortly. Look for it, I’ll be happy to send anything anywhere.

Peppers: Terrible year for peppers. I really only got Hungarian wax peppers to ripen, everything else was a bust.

Cucumbers: Still loving my Boothby’s Blonde. I’m out of cuke seeds now, though, so I may try another variety next year.

Melons: I successfully grew two different types of melons this year but, you know, we just didn’t eat them. Note to Self: dedicate the space next year to something else.

Winter Squash: Pumpkins did well, the Australian Butter did, too, but everything else got got by the vine borers.

Summer Squash: Yanoo, it has gotten to be a joke about how zuchinni takes over the garden and you get swamped by them. I got a grand total of 2 zuch this year. Two. Dos. I did get a nice selection of Reve Scaloppini, though, and some croocknecks.

Beans: Provider is still my go-to bush bean. Really happy with the Triofono Violetto purple pole bean, nice and tasty. The Molly Frazier’s White Cutshort was very prolific and I’m happy with it, too. Not sure what I’m going to do next year, I might try something entirely different. I also want to plant more drying beans and some ‘cowpeas.’

Sweet Potatoes: Oh, dear. I planted about 12 slips, the deer ate them. 2 came back and did very well, vine-wise. Then, the guy we hired to do bobcat work buried them in 8” of dirt. I thought it was a total loss, but the vines started growing again. I’m letting them go for another week or so to mark the spots I need to dig.

Tomatoes: This is the long part, so I’m adding it at the end.

Hanging Tomatoes: total bust. They started out so well, I don’t know what happened? I think we will try again next year, maybe with peppers or something else. I would rather put flower baskets in their place, but I think we should try again with veggies, just one more go.

Keeper varieties: these are varieties I have grown before and know I like, and will grow again: Brandywine, Sungold (cherry), Mortgage Lifter, Cherokee Purple, Aunt Ruby’s German Green.

New varieties and my feelings about them:

Ceylon (cherry): Very prolific. Nice fruit, nice size, but I don’t think I’ll grow it again. Tasty, though. I’d recommend it, but it isn’t what I’m looking for.

Tlacolula: Interesting shape, would be a good stuffer, but probably won’t grow it again.

Kellogg’s Breakfast: Terrific, huge yellow/orange fruit, great taste. I will grow this again.

Fancy Hill: I only got one ripe fruit off this plant so I really can’t comment.

Japanese Triefel: Mine didn’t produce much, but the taste was terrific.

Amish Paste: Nice, basic past tomato. Large fruit, nice taste. I will grow this again.

Purple Russian (paste): I truly think that the only way I would grow this tomato again is if it were the last tomato on earth. It was too sweet for my tastes, the bottom was overripe by the time the top ripened, and it cracked a lot. If you like sweet tomatoes, this one is for you.

I have some fall crops in now. Some are a total failure: peas, beets, the cold weather greens didn’t come up, neither did the turnips. Broccoli, I might not get before the cold really hits. Same with cabbage. The Chinese cabbage I planted is doing OK.

August VA Trip part 2: Here Be Good Food

When I was little, we used to pull the 12+ hour trip to Atlanta in one fell swoop. Several times on the way I remember stopping at a truck stop in Virginia. This is a REAL truck stop. With REAL truckers. Rough looking guys. Lots of trucks.

The cool thing about truck stops is that they serve very good, very hot, very large plates of homestyle food. It is a wonderful thing. If you can ever get to a real truck stop, do. Matt and I stopped at White's Truck Stop on the way down to see Barbara. We'd been stuck in traffic for almost an hour on the highway due to an accident we never did see. We were hungry. It was so funny, I hadn't been there in more than 20 years....and it hadn't changed a bit! Same wooden tables and chairs, same gun collection in glass cases. Same sign. It was a nice bit of nostalgia.

While we were trapped on Rt. 81, the funniest thing happened. We were behind a Toyota Higlander driven by a woman with PA plates. Local to us, actually. She was behind a double FedEx tractor trailor.

The FedEx truck would creep forward and stop.
The Highlander would creep forward and stop.
We would creep forward and stop.
Ad nauseum.

I was driving and I could see the Highlander driver in her side mirror. She was texting on her phone while all this was going on. *texttexttext* *glance at the FedEx truck* *text* and so on. After about half an hour of this the following occured.

The FedEx truck crept forward and stopped.
We crept forward and stopped.
(pause)
The Highlander crept forward...crept....crept....and hit the FedEx truck at about 1mph, but hard enough that the trailor MOVED. She quick put it in reverse and backed up about a foot and a half.....and kept texting. She didn't get out an look for damage. She didn't go tell the driver she'd hit him. We were carrying on about this for the next half hour. We even made up lyrics to Enter Sandman that fit the situation:

Nah nah naah nah na! Hit the FedEx Truck! Nah nah naah nah na!
and
Text with one eye open! Gripping the wheel tight!!
Feeed Eeexxx Truck!! It went THUMP!!!

Anyway, we finally made it to our destination. Barbara always feeds us well. The first evening we had pork barbeque and a fritata. It was divine.

The next day, we made Sage Wine Lemon mustard from the Ball Jar book. The recipe is also available online. She loves the mustard so instead of making it at home I suggested we make it together, and she agreed. She's pouring in the honey above.

Saturday night, she made for us a red curry chicken. Now, I have never liked curry. I had it a few times as a kid and hated it. I didn't tell her this (sorry, Barb).

I LOVED this chicken!! It was to die for. I would happily make this once a week because it is so good. We had a mix of condiments, too, including sliced banana (my favorite with the curry), sliced tomatoes, diced cucumber, shaved cocoanut, a mango chutney I'd made, and some flat bread we'd attempted but didn't turn out quite right.
We also went bean picking in her garden but forgot the basket....so I stuffed the beans in the side pockets of my capri pants. It worked well. See, there is a reason to buy cargo-style pants: picking veggies.

Drumroll Please: We Have Broken Even

Yes, we have officially broken even in our garden.

What does this mean? Well, I’ve been keeping a spreadsheet of all the money we’ve spent on vegetable seeds and plants this year VERSUS how much we would have paid (on average) at the grocery store or farmers markets for the same produce…..and we have broken even.

In 2009, we spent a grand total of $241.68 on vegetable seeds and plants. This does not count what I planted this year from seed packets I purchased in previous years, please keep that in mind.

I just tallied up the latest prices and poundages, etc, for our veggie harvests and IF we had purchased these veggies at the grocery store, we would have paid ……(drumroll)…..(suspense)…...

$298.04

Seriously. AND that only counts the following:

-Asparagus
-Yellow Beets
-Blackberries
-Blueberries
-Garlic
-Leeks
-Spring Peas
-Potatoes, Red
-Raspberries
-Spinach
-Strawberries

It does NOT count in the 76 onions, dozens of heirloom tomatoes, 45lb of paste tomatoes, fall crops, beans, carrots, cucumbers, lettuce, okra, herbs, peanuts, sweet potatoes, fingerling potatoes, or the Yukon Gold potatoes. Oh, and saffron. The saffron alone will probably put us over $1000.

I will be posting an overall list eventually, but probably not until winter…when I have time.

So. Save yourself some money. Grow your own food. It is worth it.

End of July Review and Notes To Self

I had meant to post this at the beginning of August, but I forgot and then I didn’t have time and then…well, you know. So here is my Spring/mid Summer roundup:

Peas: I pulled these SPRING pea vines on 8/2. Really happy with the Little Marvel pea. I have no idea if it is because of weather or the variety, but it was still producing when I pulled the vines! Shocking. Note to self: plant this variety next year, too.

Garlic: I already posted about the garlic harvest. However, as some of you know I’m keeping tabs on $$ when it comes to this garden with the hopes of seeing how much $$ I put in vs. how much I will get out. Here is a tidbit: if I had purchased the 156 heads of garlic at the grocery store through the year, it would have cost me $117.

Leeks: I am happy….but. I overestimated my leek needs and while they were staggering in for a while, they started staggering in really quickly and then I couldn’t keep up. I pulled all the rest today and only 7 were salvageable (they got hit by the onion maggot, and if I had pulled them at the beginning of August they probably would have been fine). Note to self: try to find two varieties next year, an early and a late, and try to find 2-3 people to share them with so I don’t have soooo many leeks all at the same time.

Potatoes: Note to self: if you think you have enough straw/hay on top of the potatoes to keep the sun off them, you don’t. Put another few inches on. About 1/4 of my fingerling potatoes had green spots on them. The red potatoes did well, even though the plants looked like hell. I got 3:1 out for both of these.

Golds did VERY well, I think I got 6:1 out of these. Note to self: plant more golds next year.

Carrots/Lettuce/Radishes: I really think I’m going to grow the Baby Ball/Thumbelina varieties almost exclusively from now on. They’re small, quick, easy to pull, easy to know when to pull, and cute….and I’m guessing easy to can. This year I don’t have too many carrots coming up in the first batch but I was overrun with lettuce and radishes. I usually mix the seeds together, then sew them. Note to self: keep the seeds separate and sew them separately in the same row to make sure I get enough carrot seed sewn.

I did pull and dig some yellow carrots, they looked nice, very carrot-like for our dense soil.

Pole Beans: really happy with both that I put in this year, but the Molly Frazier is going like gangbusters. I emailed the company (Baker Creek) to ask if ‘short vines’ meant 12 feet, and they said no. I emailed them pictures of the beans (not sure if they qualify as ‘cutshort’). It may be the wrong bean, it may be the wrong description.

Bush Beans: I like the Burpee Provider variety again, but something is nibbling on them a lot. Same with the Roma that Barbara gave me. Not slugs, though, these are small fuzzy green worms. The critters don’t get the pole beans as much.

Tomatoes: Happy with: Sun Gold (of course), Ceylon (very nice), and the other varieties I’ve grown before (Brandywine, Cherokee Purple, Mortgage Lifter, Aunt Ruby’s). DO NOT LIKE the Purple Russian paste (sweet, splits easily, the bottom starts to turn to mush before the top is ripe!). Still waiting on most others.

Squash: Really like the Reve Scaloppini, but I have yet to see a zucchini. The yellow crookneck and the Zephyr are doing so-so. Not a good year for summer squash?

Winter squash is doing really well and the vines are rooting along the way, hallelujah. Several vines are 20’ long already, and I have at least 8-10 winter squash on them that I’ve noticed. I have lost a couple to vine borers, and we do have a couple small infestations of squash bugs.

Okra: Nice. Note to self: need more than 4 plants.

Peppers: Really bad year for peppers, and everyone is saying this. Of the 13 plants I have more than half have yet to even show a bloom, much less an actual pepper. Many are dropping leaves every time you look at them funny. But a few plants are doing really well. Go figure.

Cukes: So far, so so. I really like the Boothby’s Blonde.

Melons: I have 3 of the Prescott melons and 5 of the Haogen melons. I watch them and drool a little. I can’t wait.

Onions: did surprisingly well. I think I planted 90 something and I got out 76. Some of them were tiny, but still. And I got some that I had originally started from seed in January, which really shocked me. They weren’t hit by the onion maggot, either, I got them out early enough.

A Few Thoughts for Thursday

We had some rain here finally. I probably won't have to water the garden for a few days, which I'm thankful for because it takes me about an hour to do it thouroughly. I like watering the garden, don't get me wrong. It gives me a chance to stand still and look around at everything. But it is tedious.

The winter squash vines have vine borers in them. So far none in the pumpkins, though (knock on wood). For those of you unfamilliar with these evil beings, read this and this. I have been digging them out using the method described in the links. I hope it is enough. I also bought some (ahem) injectable nematodes and hope they do the trick. How often can you say to your coworker "OH BOY!! My Injectable Nematodes shipped today!!" It was worth ordering them just for that opportunity.

The humidity is just starting to really hit here, I think the A/Cs are going to go in soon.

Someone else wrote a very nice blog post about hard work, I recommend you read it. I totally agree. I think I would have liked to have answered that you can not get those veggies in the grocery store, which leads me to....

We have been eating sides of veggies out of the garden, thankfully. This is the time of year that reminds me why I do all this: the taste of the fresh-picked veggies. The beans are soooo good. The squash fresh and tasty. Peas are so sweet, and yes I'm still picking them (I can't believe it, either). The promise of fresh tomatoes and peppers and such. Can't wait.

End of June Update and Status

Spring Crops: Peas are starting to peter out, I think we may get 3.5lb of shelled peas out when it's all over. Looseleaf lettuce is just starting to bolt. I'm really happy with the Amish Deertongue, I'll add that to my permanent grow list. Munich Bier radishes are still plugging along.

I'm eating lunch out of the garden almost exclusively now:
Summer crops: I've started harvesting some of the really early garlic, Chinese Pink and Inchelium Red. They both look good, some signs of too much water but that can't be helped. They are hanging in the basement drying.

The red potatoes I planted (that I picked up at the grocery store cheap because they were sprouting) seem very unhappy. I'm not sure why, the leaves have what look like rusty spots on them. When I pulled away the hay, though, there are some plants with gorgeous red potatoes, so maybe it won't hurt the harvest. The Yukon Gold potatoes, however, have beautiful plants:
Most of the tomatoes have fruit, including the ones in the hanging pots. I'll do a post on those soon, I know a few of you are following them. The okra is fruiting, too. Cucumbers are just starting to climb, and the pumpkins and beans are blooming.

The sweet potatoes. *sigh* I planted 13. Of those, 4 sprouted. Of those 4, the deer ate...4. 2 came back, I have since mulched them more and put some deer fencing over them, hopefully it will be enough.

Blueberries are starting very slowly to ripen. Wild raspberries are starting to come in, and the blackberries won't be far behind. Here is a picture of the wintergreen I planted:


And an update on my Adventures with Rooting Hormone: of the 8 baby blueberries I tried to start, it seems this one has made it. I haven't dug it up yet to check for roots, but I can only assume that something is happening because the other 7 were crunchy and this one isn't:

I Haz a Sweet Potato*

More adventures in vegetables: sweet potatoes. I've never grown sweet potatoes, but when we were at Monticello last fall their crops looked so interesting and, well, pretty. We decided to give it a go.

They arrived on Tuesday. I put them in some wet sawdust until Thursday, when I created the bed for them up on our highest terrace.

I had to push three loads of dirt up the hill. It really should have been four, but that just didn't happen.

We'll see how they do! They looked really dry, but I've been assured that they'll do just fine.

*Today's title is in homage of one of the funniest dog stories I've ever read. If you haven't read I Has a Sweet Potato, please head over there right this instance. If you have dogs, you will love it. If you don't have dogs I'm sure you'll love it, too.

*starving*

Weekly Update 5 13 2009

No pictures, just words this time.

The re-tagging project is finished.

I took a half day Wednesday so I could work on the last of the new beds: got two beds done and planted nine peppers and three tomatoes. Four beds to go. I’m down to 16 tomatoes and only four peppers that need homes.

And the squash. Melons. Okra. Oh, and the sweet potato slips that haven’t even arrived yet. Sweet potatoes are going on a terrace, nine tomatoes are going in hangers, so I THINK we’ll have enough space. I think. Fingers crossed.

Broccoli has broccled, but it looks weird so I don’t know if a cold or heat wave has gotten to it or not. Lettuce (heading) is doing beautifully, some were large enough that I had to replace the milk jug cloches with row cover.

The only things I’ve been harvesting is asparagus and spinach. I picked from the new asparagus bed for 2 weeks this year because they were so huge. I’m letting them branch out now, though. Spinach I’ve been picking at a bit, the babies are growing very quickly so I hope to have an actual meal from them this week.

The wee itty bitty fringy carrot and parsnip leaves are finally making an appearance. I see little baby leaf lettuces coming up, and the radishes are growing fast.

Peanuts are planted, and I went to look at them yesterday and it looked like someone had bitten them off. I took a closer look. No, there is new growth at the top, and the ‘branches’ have taken a nose-dive for the ground, which is what threw me. It just looked so strange as most things reach for the sun. Peanut branches dive. And YES, I DO KNOW that peanuts grow underground. I have known this since I was a child, as my father is from Atlanta. My husband felt the need to explain this to me yesterday, though, which earned him a wifely glare. Ahem.

In two weeks we are going to Virginia to visit a friend, and the three of us are going to be visiting Edible Landscapes, a nursery that specializes in, you guessed it, trees and bushes that produce food. We are going to pick up a few things, we are thinking about a couple Hazelnuts (aka Filberts; you need two to pollinate) and possibly one of the varieties of Trifoliate Orange, which is hardy in our area {insert shock and awe}.

In other news, I have dug and separated the saffron crocus. I planted 8 a couple years ago, and I must have dug 10 times that many. Several friends and coworkers have received some and I had plenty to put about 10 different places around the house.

And finally, there may be a guest post by the Garden Ninja sometime. Possibly. Not sure, but worth mentioning.

Beans are not musical, nor are they a fruit

I planted the beans over the weekend. I have three varieties this year: Provider bush beans and two pole beans Trionfo Violetto and Molly Frazier White. I soaked them all for a few hours, then mixed them up with some innoculant.

Last year I let my pole beans climb on the fence supports, but it wasn't user-friendly. This year we had to do something else.

Hmmm. What to do....what to do....

Hey, how about those 15' bamboo poles we keep tripping over in the garage?


So, Saturday I cut them down to about 10', tied them into tripods with bungee cords, and ta-da! Pole bean supports are born!

I propped them all up on the bank and climbed up there, which made it easier to do the bungee cords.

I climbed back down and dug a fairly deep hole for each pole, then set them up, tamped down the dirt around them, and planted the beans.


So, up they went.

And when the wind blew, down they came.

Hmm....

I carefully picked the beans back out of the dirt, dug around the bases of the poles and put a pretty big rock at each one, put the dirt back and replanted. So far that's done the trick, hopefully they won't blow over again.


I think they look quite nice. You can see the pieces that I cut in the background, we're probably going to use them for....uh....

Weekly Update 5 6 2009

I'm going to start doing a weekly update again, hopefully this will keep me on track with things that are happening around the house.

We've had nothing but rain for the past week, with another week of nothing but rain coming up. I was really hurting for something to post about here until Matt mentioned that the potatoes were up! I was so happy, I went and got a picture. The red potatoes are on the right, yukon golds on the left.

A shiny orb appeared in the sky and cast shadows through the window, I circled the resulting shadows as they appeared on the yellow fan, right.

My tomatoes are looking weird, and I'm going to move them back inside, probably to the greenhouse. I really hope they aren't diseased after all the work I put into them.

So far we've picked 1.5lb of asparagus. I'm really impressed with that number considering they are all new plants. One thing I'm planing on doing this year is keeping track of our bounty and trying to put a price tag on it. I want to figure out how much we'd have paid if we bought all this in the store, including things like jarred salsa vs. the salsa we make ourselves. I have a spreadsheet started and everything. Stay tuned!

I took this cool picture looking down the milk jug cloche I have over the heading lettuce plants. They are doing really well.

Spring Virility

Spring.



The time when things start growing. Ahem.



The time of the birds and the bees.



Spring fruitfulness.



Fertility.


Things just BURSTING from the ground in abundance.




I didn't take these pictures on purpose, but when I looked at them later....well. I blushed. :)