Garden Update

I haven't posted on the garden's progress since July, as, after that, I had a lot of produce from the garden to preserve. Just to give you an idea, I froze 4 cups of peas, 2 cups of raspberries, 6 cups of rhubarb, 4 cups of zucchini,  20 cups of green beans, 7 cups of pureed pumpkin, 10 cups of tomatoes, 12 cups of broccoli, and 16 cups of carrots.  I canned 2 pints of peas, 24 pints of green beans, 10 quarts of pumpkin, 7 pints of salsa, 16 half-pints of pizza sauce, 3 pints of pasta sauce, 8 half-pints of pumpkin butter, 5 half-pints of grape jelly, and 37 quarts of grape juice.  This was all from my yard.  As you'll recall, I live on less than a tenth of an acre.  I have a tiny, tiny yard.  And this list doesn't even get into all the drying I did.  I dried mostly herbs, and onions, rhubarb, sunflower seeds, and dandelion root.

A lot of the stuff I put up is gone.  We're down to the last bag of carrots and our beans are nearly half-gone, as is our broccoli.  Going to have to start shopping for produce in the grocery store pretty soon.

The garden plans for next year are coming along very well.  I have nearly all the seeds I'll need in May.  I have more specific plans drawn up to best utilize the space in the garden.  My patches of grass are going to be a bit smaller this year than they were last year.

My blueberry bushes should be bearing some fruit, and we've made big improvements in the strawberry patch, so hopefully we'll have a lot of fruit this year.  I'm hoping for a modest five pounds from the blueberry bushes, but we shall see.  I'm hoping the strawberries will hit their stride this year.  I'm considering using some of the grapes to make wine.  I'm also hoping to barter the chestnuts, as we don't much care for them.

I'll be making a list of the annual plants I plan to grow in a later post.

Garlic Woes

I pulled up my garlic today. It was time. But boy, was it disappointing! I planted twice the amount of garlic than what actually grew, and from what grew, I ended up with half of those bulbs reaching maturity. I say maturity a little tongue-in-cheek, because these bulbs are tiny! I suspect my problem was I planted the bulbs themselves too deep to begin with last autumn.

I had planned on using my garlic in a variety of ways, including adding it to cans of pizza sauce, spaghetti sauce, and salsa, drying it into powder, and of coarse using the bulbs themselves in fresh cooking. Doesn't look like all that is going to happen. I've decided to try my hand at "dilly beans" for the girls, so I think I'll use my home-grown garlic for that. Beyond what I've got, I'll have to buy my garlic at the farmer's market.

This autumn I'm going to read up on garlic again and plant double what I had planted last year and be sure to take better care of it. I WILL grow garlic in my yard!

Pulling Weeds

I spent the entire weekend pulling weeds. I actually did a lot this weekend with family and friends, but it seems I spent the entire weekend pulling weeds. Since we do everything as natural as possible around here, we pull the weeds by hand. I don't use any tools except my hands. No gloves, no nothing. My hands are beginning to become quite calloused. It's funny because in the winter time I spend a lot of time doing craft stuff, but that type of stuff is gentle on my hands, whereas pulling weeds will put a callous on my hands quicker than I could believe!

Everything in the garden is doing well, aside from a patch of radishes I planted a few weeks ago. Looks like they are being eaten by something. The strawberry cage is completely reinforced now, thanks to my husband, who did most of the work by hand, no tools of any kind involved. Looks like the strawberries may be coming back this year.

The asparagus is looking really nice now, too. It took forever to come up and was plagued with weeds (most of the pulling we did was in the area of the asparagus) but it looks like they'll bounce back.

I recently canned some peas that I grew in the front yard. I'll be freezing some this week. I'm hoping to have an even balance of canned and frozen peas, but we'll see. The vines themselves are going strong and only in the last few days have begun turning brown in spots. I'm hoping to plant another round of peas later and hope they take off before it gets too cold.

My pumpkins are overtaking the front yard. They've grown over the onions, when they were supposed to grow in the direction of the sunflowers. The onions don't seem to mind, though.

Also ahead this week I've got to freeze some lovage and dry some sage and lemon balm.

I'll be writing more in this blog during the month ahead, too, so stay tuned!

Grandma's Garden

Yesterday we went to visit my husband's grandmother and grandfather. They are both in their 80s, retired farmers. Bea, my grandmother-in-law, I guess, still has a huge farm garden. She grows fruits, vegetables, and herbs, still. I find it amazing that someone in their 80s is still able to till the soil, plant the seeds, weed the beds, harvest, and preserve the harvest. Right now her strawberries are coming to fruit. She has a huge strawberry patch next to a huge raspberry patch. She freezes both so they can have fruit on their cereal in the winter time. My girls were quite excited to try some strawberries right from the garden. I was just excited to talk with her about the garden and see the garden: the asparagus patch, the pole beans, tomato plants, potatoes...oh, my!

Pea Blossoms!

Pea blossoms are one of my favorite flowers. I'm not talking the inedible sweet pea vines. I'm talking about the delicate white blossoms that pea vines set before they set their pea pods. I think I like pea flowers so much because they are one of the first blooms in the vegetable garden, and give promise to a lot more to come! I wait so impatiently every Spring for these blossoms. Finally they are blooming in my own garden! Seeing the pea blossoms is the first small garden victory in what promises to be quite a productive season.

The spinach I planted with my strawberries is really taking off. I'm planning on harvesting some tonight to use in dinner. I tried some of the spinach already- it's delicious. So far this year I have harvested some lovage, lemon balm, rosemary (I overwinter it inside), chives, sage, spinach, rhubarb, and radshes. All grown by me, and harvested by hand. No pesticides, no transport costs, all organic, all delicious.

Radishes!

I harvested my first bunch of radishes this weekend! I have never grown radishes before this year because nobody in the family likes the taste of raw radishes. I decided to grow them this year to use for cooking. I used them in a stroganough- type dish I made up. The radishes gave the meat sauce a distinct, but not overpowering, flavor. Later this week I'm going to plant more radishes in a different place in my garden.

I finally finished harvesting all the dandelions I'm going to harvest this year. I roasted the dandelion roots and froze some of the leaves for using later. Next year I'll probably use more of the plant altogether, but this year I just used all the roots and saved a few leaves. I had a LOT of dandelions since the summer before we moved here (07) the garden and yard were severely neglected. We don't spray weeds, so we end up pulling a lot of them.

My strawberries are making what seems like millions of berry babies! I think they'll be ready to be picked starting the end of next week, which is exciting. Still waiting on the raspberry blossoms...looks like they might be coming later this week. The grapes are looking way better now than they did this time last year.

My seeds are starting to sprout all over the garden and my perennial herbs are looking great. My sage is flowering and my lemon balm is looking ready for a harvest. I used some lemon balm in lemonade the other day. It was about the best lemonade I ever made!

Garden Update

Well, it's been a while. Must mean I've been busy outside again...let's see. I've got my 9 tomato plants in, my 9 pepper plants in, 6 kohlrabi, 3 eggplant, and 3 broccoli, all my pea vines are growing nicely. I've planted all my seeds for sunflowers, pumpkins, watermelon, carrots, and beans. I actually am hoping to plant a few more carrot and bean seeds this week some time if I get a chance. I also want to plant some melon seeds, and maybe some cucumbers. And definitely some zucchini plants as well.

I finally got to plant my blueberry bushes. They look fabulous. Well, they look like somebody poked some sticks in the ground, but I love them already. The blueberry bushes are in the front yard, along with all the tomatoes, peas, sunflowers, pumpkins, and, of coarse, a few herbs and flowers for my soaps. I also have some carrots and beans planted out front, too. And maybe 6 square feet of grass...

My strawberries are starting to set fruit. I've been trying to help them along, due to lack of bees. I've been considering getting my own hive, truthfully, to help with pollination, and also of coarse for the honey. My girls and I have seasonal allergies, and honey helps little people to develop a resistance to the things they are allergic to.

I harvested some rhubarb for the first time yesterday! It was quite exciting. I had been letting this plant reach its full maturity before harvesting anything from it, and finally, yesterday, it was ready! One of my husband's favorite foods is rhubarb torte, so I made one for him. It was quite exciting.

I can see in a few weeks we'll have raspberries, which I'm quite excited about. The raspberry canes had been neglected for at least a year before we moved in, but I was able to revive them. I'm hoping for a big harvest this year. We have June-bearing raspberries, so I'm hoping for more than just a few handfuls this year.

Examiner.com

I just started writing for a new site called Examiner.com. I'm the gardening examiner in my area. That's pretty exciting! I've written one piece so far, about growing potatoes in a bucket. As the gardening examiner, I'll be focusing on gardening in an environmentally responsible way.

Peas!

A lot has been going on around the garden recently. We've been so busy I haven't blogged in over a week! My husband and my dad finally finished pulling out the ugly bushes we're replacing with a fence. They haven't started the fence yet, but we're getting closer. We may buy the materials this weekend.

I've planted quite a few things: about 65 onion sets, pea seeds, carrot seeds, spinach seeds, and the rest of my potatoes.

I planted the onion sets around the garden, here and there, where I could find space.

I planted two kinds of peas- one for canning, one for freezing- in the front yard, 36 of each variety. My husband made some trellises this weekend for the peas. The seedlings are coming up already. Peas are one of my favorite plants. I think the way a pea plant grows, from infancy all the way to old age, is beautiful. I love the flowers they set. Oddly, pea flowers are one of my favorite flowers. Of coarse, you can't beat the taste of freshly picked peas, either. Sugar snap are my favorite for fresh eating.

I planted half my carrot seeds so far. I've got to finish this week some time. I want to get them in early because last year I got them in late and they were very small.

The spinach and the rest of the potatoes are on the balcony. I put the spinach seeds in a window box that I set on the ground. The spinach seems to prefer a bit more shade, so I placed two potato buckets on either side of the spinach. I've got 4 potato buckets altogether. The potato buckets are standard-size plastic outdoor garbage bins with holes near the bottom.

I also planted a bunch of seeds inside for transplanting outside in a few weeks when the weather gets warmer.

Busy Weekend

My husband and I re-did our front yard this weekend. The front yard was unevenly graded and full of grass...we dug up about half of the yard, as the other half was already dug up. We dug it up not only to grade it, but also to expose the weed seeds for the birds to eat and to amend and aerate the soil. We dumped some compost and peat moss over the area where the blueberry bushes are going to go. We put the sod we dug up back in two areas after aerating the soil. I got 2 of my 3 raised beds ready for planting. I planted about half of my peas because I ran out of seeds. I also got my cement blocks set up behind my raised beds. I'll be putting herbs in the cement blocks. My father-in-law should be coming this week to give us a bunch of manure. After that's incorporated in, I'm going to be able to plant my onions and create a path in the front yard.

Now all that's left for the front yard, for now, are about 4 trellises, and, of coarse, planting the rest of my seeds.

Digging In

Since last week a lot has gone on in the garden, though hardly anything has been planted. I did plant about half of my potatoes and start my pepper seeds. I planted potatoes in the garden bed next to the house. I think the front and side of the house will look interesting with some potato bushes growing there. I'm not concerned about hurting any of the foundation or the sidewalk because I allowed for enough space for the potatoes.

I also started green pepper, hot pepper, cayenne, and banana peppers. I am still considering starting jalapeños. I think it will depend on how far we get with the garden beds. We've gotten farther than I thought we would have by now.

It took me six hours to dig in my front horizontal bed this weekend. The bed measures approximately 18 feet by 6 feet. There are so many weed seeds in the bed, since the entire front yard was weeds when we moved in, that I decided to dig the whole thing to expose the seeds for the birds. Plus the bed looked like a giant mud puddle, with uneven divets everywhere, so I wanted to get that a little more even-looking so the neighbors don't start to complain.

My husband and my dad took out the giant caterpillar in the back, as I had been so lovingly calling an overgrown and neglected hedge that separated our yard and the neighbor's yard. Our next-door neighbors, on either side, are really awesome. On the side with the hedge, my husband and the guy who lives there are going to build a fence together. Ripping out the hedge gave us hundreds of extra square feet to work with- space for asparagus, some apple trees, and more room in the garden bed in the back.

My husband also dug in the back bed in the same manner as described for the front bed. The back bed in question is about 12 feet by 7 feet.

Earlier this week I dug in a smaller bed on the side of the house and also raked up most of the space under the grape vines, getting ready to plant oregano there when the weather warms up. As far as the smaller side bed, I'm still debating between herbs and peppers.

Garden Season!

Unfortunately, I think I'll have to cut back on my blog writing to about once per week because of the garden season starting. I am, as always, way under prepared this year. Every year around this time I start to panic because not everything is just so. This year I have a lot more in place than last year as far as the bones of the garden, but I also have bigger plans. I was able last fall to dig some beds that were not previously there, so at least I've got that going for me.

When we first moved in, the yard was a few hostas and a bunch of 4-foot tall weeds. I kick myself all the time that I didn't take pictures right away. Instead I just dug right in! Considering all the weeds, all we started with were some overgrown grape vines, some straggly raspberry canes, and a chestnut tree. Oh, and a climbing rose bush, too. That's about it.

Right now the yard is about 35% usable garden space. By the end of the growing season, I plan to have dug about 50% or so, and by the time I'm done altogether, I'm planning on having about 70% of the yard to be usable growing space. Oh, and I should probably mention that last year we went from 15% usable space, covered in weeds, to the 35% we have now. I'll continue to keep you all posted throughout the season. For now, time to plant more seeds!

Master Gardener

I am currently in training to become a master gardener. A master gardener is a volunteer who exchanges their training for volunteerism. I'm basically learning horticulture in practical terms in order to optimize my garden and help those around me with garden-related issues. I've been studying gardening voraciously for about three years now independently, so sometimes I feel like I'm not learning much. On the other hand, there are a few things here and there that I pick up from the class that I know will help me later. Plus I got two giant binders full of info. I really like the binders.

I still have to figure out what my volunteer project will be for the year. I need to submit 24 volunteer hours over the next year. I think I'll make a monthly display at the library, if I am allowed- I haven't asked yet. I'd rather just do one project, even if it's ongoing, than do a bunch of small stuff.

Peppers!

I'm excited to announce we are planting the pepper seeds today! Of coarse we'll be starting the seeds indoors. Where I live, we don't have a long enough growing season to plant the seeds outdoors when the weather warms up. It is possible to grow pepper plants to maturity here, just not probable. So we start them indoors 8 to 12 weeks before we set the plants out.

I like to make my own seed starting mix as opposed to buying one. Pretty much all seed starting mixes are just peat moss and perlite, so that's what I use. The trick, though, is that I like to change the proportions depending on the type of seed I am germinating. For a pepper plant, for example, I'll put a bit more perlite in the mix so the soil drains faster.

Well, off to start seeds!

On Growing Vegetables

Growing vegetables is easier than one may think. I plan to expand my garden this year to grow more vegetables than I did last year. In a few months, my entire front yard will be green with vegetables and flowers and herbs- no grass!

Most vegetables are annuals, meaning they die after one season.

Some are biennials, meaning they can live for two seasons. Usually we grow biennials as annuals and pull them out after one season. Biennials spend their first season making what we can eat, and their second season making seeds, which we don't eat. Carrots, for example, lay down their roots (the orange part we eat) their first season, and make a flower stalk, then seeds, the second season. During the second season the root part becomes woody and not so tasty. It's still edible, just not as delicious as if you had picked it the first season.

Then there are the vegetables which are perennials. Rhubarb is a vegetable that comes back every year. We eat the stalks, not the leaves. Same with asparagus. I'm growing both this year.

Later in the week I'll be back with a list of the vegetables I'll be growing this season.

Seeds!

I finally got to count my seeds over the weekend. I estimate I have at least 50 different kinds of seeds. The only two kinds of seeds I was missing, so far as I could tell after preliminary checks, were large pumpkins (for making pies) and zucchini. I'll probably have to buy more peas, too.

As far as the garden planning goes, I'm just about set...I think. Every time I come up with a new plan, I end up changing it in a month or so. This cycle repeats itself all winter till Springtime when I have to make the final decision of what to plant where. A great panic ensues until my friend B convinces me this stuff is only going to be planted here one year (the perrenials I always know one year in advance where I'll plant them- I won't even consider them until I already have a specific spot lined up). So if I plant bean seeds in soil with less-than-ideal pH, they won't suffer too badly. Then I just have to try to get them in a better position next year.

My plan this year is just about complete (at least, this revision is) aside from a few herbs. I have everything planned down to the square foot or less of where it will go. I just have to match a few square feet to a few herbs.

Seeds of Doubt

I still haven't counted my seeds collected and saved over from last year. I still have no idea how many seeds I need to get. I like to trade seeds rather than buy them. It may seem counter-intuitive, but I'd rather get my seeds through exchange with another gardener than from a packet at Walmart. And seeds from catalogs are so expensive....

I would like to get on my seeds right away, but I have other projects to do first. For one thing, I've got to sort and put away all the herbs I grew and harvested like four months ago. Before that, even, I've got to make birthday party invitations for my "baby", who is turning two in a few weeks.

Another garden challenge I'm currently facing is a dilemma between how much I can grow, given the amount of room and time I have, versus how much I would like to grow. I want to be as self-sufficient as possible, at least when it comes to fruits and veg and herbs, but at the same time, I want to be able to give some of my produce away. It's not so much a sense of pride as much as it's a sense of being able to help others. I have other family members who could really benefit from fresh and canned food. I definitely understand there are plenty of people worse-off financially than we are, and I just want to help them! I'll probably end up striking a compromise between how much I save and how much I give away. In the process, I may just be able to convince a few people to grow their own, seeing as I have a limited amount of space to begin with.

Garden Politics

The meeting last night was not exactly a smashing success...not that I assumed it would be precisely successful, but still. First of all, I was the youngest person there, which I already knew would be the case. So no big surprise there. I don't know why, but I was a bit surprised to find I was the youngest person by about 20 years. I expected at least perhaps a 30-year-old or two. We didn't go around the room telling everyone our age or anything like that; I'm just guessing.

Second of all, because I was the youngest person there, nobody took me seriously. I guess I hadn't considered that aspect. It's going to take some time to gain all the retirees respect. But once they realize I know more about gardening than they do, then perhaps they'll at least take notice. Maybe they'll all hate me. Maybe they were just prejudging me the same way I'm prejudging them.

Lastly, I left the meeting with the feeling nothing really was accomplished. The only thing I really took away from the meeting is a clear understanding of where the classes are going to be held. So I guess, if anything, the meeting was a mediocre failure. At least I know the classes will be better because the facilitator won't be taching them.

Linux

So my husband just installed Linux on our computer last night. I like it so far. I had been wanting him to install Linux for a very long time. I don't know much about computers, so I was waiting for him to do it. The best I can so, so far, is setting up Adsense...and I even needed his help for that!

The main reasons we're doing Linux is for open sourcing and ease of customization. One of my husband's hobbies is to get the computer customized just the way he likes it. He could spend hours doing it. For the most part I don't mind because he usually comes up with some pretty cool features when he's done. So we're both dorks- I love gardening and he loves computers.

By the way, on the gardening front, the Master Gardener's info meeting is tomorrow night! I'm so fired up about it! I haven't told my girls yet, though. Mommy being gone during bedtime is a huge deal. A lot of times one or both of them simply will not go to sleep without Mommy here. I'm going to tell them today.

Write Now

I like to write. When I was little, I always thought I would grow up to be a famous author. So far that hasn't happened. When I got a little older, I thought I would go to New York City or someplace just as glamorous and go to university there. I had this whole plan in my head: go to University, let a much older, very rich professor fall in love with me and have a lurid affair with him while he supports me while I write until I become famous. Then I would dump him and let a younger, richer celebrity fall in love with me and only use him for some of his money while I made my own money writing. All of that fell through.

I wound up marrying a guy I met in high school. We hung around the same group of friends, but we didn't even start dating till I was 19. Then we got married, had our first baby, and he became an engineer. We had another baby, and now he has a "career" while I'm home with my girls, nowhere near New York City.

Don't get me wrong- I love staying home with my girls. I don't have a boss to report to, and I can do all my work in my jammies. While sitting around in jammies and being spit up on isn't quiet as glamorous as the lifestyle I had in mind, it does have it's perks. Jammies are much more comfortable than mini-skirts or power suits. In all fairness, I find jammies to be more flattering than power suits most of the time.

Since my husband is an engineer, we have money coming out of our ears. At least, that's what a lot of people tend to think. While we don't lack the money to provide basic nessecities, and a few niceties, we don't have a money tree growing out back. I like to think that part of the reason we can afford the things we do is smart money-management. I'll be talking a lot more about that in future posts.

The last thing you should know about me is that I love to grow food. I have quite an extensive garden which takes up most of our front lawn and a good part of our back yard, too. It's growing every year. My ultimate goal is to have about 100 square feet of lawn, and the rest of our space will be dedicated to growing useful things. I estimate I will approach that goal within the next four years or so. I want to become as self-sufficient as possible. I'm not some Doomsday Loonie, I just like to grow things and I find grass to be a waste of space. There are plenty of other reasons, but I won't get into that now. I've got dinner to make.