Jul. 23, 2009 What a Beautiful July!
This July has been one of the most comfortable that I can remember. I love having my windows open and enjoying a nice, crisp night's sleep.
My garden is a bit confused, though. I am still harvesting tomatoes, but not as many as some, I am sure. Still, I am quite happy because it is far more than I ever harvested before.
Here is my first brandywine:
and the first of two Arkansas Traveler:
We also harvested our black beans. It was quite exciting to pull up all the plants and sit around hulling them. They are not huge and I only harvested about 2 cups, but for the little bit I planted, I am happy. We are using them in different meals to "stretch" them. I still have a cup and a half left!!
Here are the acorn squash and the first ears of corn. I harvested a total of 6 squash and about 15 ears of corn this year.
Here is a photo my Darling Daughter Number Number Three took of her holly hock doll. She learned how to make it from her Nana a few weeks ago. Cute, don't you think?
I had a few friends ask me how my garden was doing. They said their gardens were not faring as well as mine. I feel like my garden was a success, but then I suppose I need to share my parameters for that success. My goals were:
- Harvest something from each plant that we can eat
- Learn
I was almost completely successful with the first. The only plants I have not harvested off of were brusssel sprouts and cauliflower. I am still waiting on the potatoes, so I will let you know.
I can tell you I was a 100% successful on the second point. I have learned so much from this years "walk through the garden". I have learned to start earlier, the best way to water my garden, what types of cages and trellises I need to use and so on.
Now, to be completely honest, I have had my share of "learning experiences". I have been completely overrun with squash bugs (but, my plants did not succumb until after they gave me lots of good things to eat). I know what a Mexican bean bug looks like (there is a difference between that and a ladybug). My corn was not perfect, but what I got was yummy.
Lots of things to improve on. I think my only failure would be in not trying at all.
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May. 12, 2009 How to Cut Lettuce
My Dear Friend asked in a previous comment how to cut lettuce so that it will come again. I hope you will not mind my simple tutorial:
As you can see, this buttercrunch lettuce is a type that heads up (like romaine). 
I am not willing to wait for it to finish so I have been harvesting leaves. When harvesting leaves, you want to be careful not to clip them too short. If they are too short, they will stop growing. This way they continue to send up leaves for future harvest.
Here is the overgrown oakleaf lettuce. I cut it the same way, being sure to leave enough so it will grow again. 
And finally, the mesclun lettuce. This patch is probably coming to an end since I have been harvesting it since March. I still cut it at the same length, being sure not to trim it too short. You can see where I am trimming it and next to that leaf is a whole section I just recently "mowed down". It is starting to come back again.
I hope you enjoyed this little tutorial. Lettuce is the easiest and most rewarding thing to plant. Not to mention you can eat it for almost any meal! Ask my children...they go out in the garden and eat it for breakfast! |
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Apr. 29, 2009 More on How It's Growing...
This is for my parents (I promised my mom some updated photos):
The garden went from this....
To this....(wow is spring pretty)
 This is my overgrown garden. I have sugar snap peas and radishes along the back. Next forward, a long row of turnips, then a row of kale and inside the cover 4 brussels sprout plants. Along the front, a row of sweet onions and a row of garlic. On the left side, two rows of carrots surrounding my patch of mesclun lettuce. There is also a row of beets. On the right side, a patch of carrots, buttercrunch lettuces (which I have chosen to treat like the mesclun lettuce and continue clipping the leaves), and a row of shallots. Do you think I over planted? Well, so far, so good.
This is the buttercrunch patch. You can see the swirls of the lettuces starting to make heads. I just keep cutting leaves. They might start fitting better that way.
 This is my bean and corn patch. I have a row of bush green beans and then a row of corn, a row of wax beans and then another row of corn (peaches and cream variety). I left the rest open to succession planting of beans and corn. I am hoping that by the time I make it to the end of the bed, I can start over with something else on the other end. There are assorted tarragons and sunflower seeds dispersed along the sides.
About 2 months ago, I left several packets of seeds out in the rain. They were brand new packs of oakleaf lettuce. With the seeds wet, it was the choice between throwing them or sowing them so...I sowed! It is now growing up as ground cover under my cauliflower and cabbages! I will probably treat it the same way as my mesclun and buttercrunch. I think we should be set for lettuce this summer!
I have aphids on my peas! Who ever heard of that?! We also have them on mint (you know, the plant that is suppose to repel aphids?). After researching how to rid myself of them, everything has said that nature will balance them out and just to do no more than spray them off with quick bursts of water. Here are my guys working on that. Funny, that doesn't look like a quick burst as much as a gentle mist...
Rhubarb...I am beyond excited!
So, I have shared with you way more than you ever cared to know about my garden! You were warned! |
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Apr. 27, 2009 Does My Garden Still Grow?
Why, yes it does. Thank you for asking. We find that we are working hard to grow earthworms more than anything! What do you think of this beauty?
When I put my broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower and Brussels Sprouts into the garden, I immediately put covers of them to keep the pests off. I chose tulle, but with the hot weather, I may need to change to something white. Hate to have them bolt before they even begin to grow!
No, I am not growing milk jugs. I "planted" them to fill and water the roots of the plants. It seems to be working. The plants are doing well, even in the heat.
My mesclun lettuces are growing like crazy! We cooked out last night. Instead of making a salad, we all walked over to the garden and I snipped a salad for them! I LOVE it!
Remember my baby kale? Well they are growing. I keep snipping the largest of the leaves and throwing them into salad with my mesclun. They are wonderfully tender and very sweet. Baby kale is the best!
My radishes are coming faster than I can pick them. My children did not like radishes until they could eat them fresh. Another good tip: pull them young and keep them watered. This keeps them from turning hot.
I will get some photos of my garden soon. There have been lots of changes since the last shots.
Also, I made a sponge cake recipe which came from my Grandmother. I converted it to fresh ground Kamut flour. I will post that soon! It was the best sponge cake I have ever made!!
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Mar. 16, 2009 Gardening - What Color Is My Thumb??
It is....GREEN! My Wonderful Husband built me gardens. I started with two, but can see I am going to need more. In my heart, I really want to start small, but with nine people to feed I need more produce! What good is a harvest the size of one meal going to do me??
Some of the beds have wood, some do not (No, they are not burial plots, they are gardens!!).
I bought my seed locally this year (locally, at the international garden import center ). I had great goals of buying them online through one of the many heirloom companies, but I realized that I needed to see the seed packets this first year. I bought everything I thought I would need. I limited myself to one packet of each. They can be spread out over the whole year of planting! No wasting of seed here!
To begin, I planted my sugar snap peas and snow peas a month ago. Check them out:
I started my "winter crop" indoors. The winter crop includes: cauliflower, broccoli, Brussel sprouts, cabbage, acorn squash and assorted herbs to plant as companions to help avoid pests. Check out how they are doing:
I also planted artichokes. They are suppose to take a year to get started so I figured I would get a jump on things!
I seeded radishes, lettuces, carrots, beets and kale in the garden. They have already started coming up:
Radishes
Lettuce (I know it is hard to see, but trust me, it is there)
and Kale (isn't it cute?)
Here is the garlic (the onions and shallots are not pictured):
I started asparagus, but they are probably over planted. I am planning on putting tomatoes in there in a couple of months. Might help, but if not I will try again.
I have about 40 strawberry plants in the ground. Those are not looking good. At least I only have about $15 invested in them. They will probably be replaced next Fall. There are six blueberry plants, 2 raspberry, 2 blackberry and 2 grape plants waiting to be planted. I need to get the ground prepared for those and then they will go in.
This is the start. I am so excited that the things I started in the garden are doing so well. The winter crop should go in in a couple of weeks and then I am going to seed more of the root crops to I can harvest longer! In a few weeks, I will start my summer crop indoors. I will keep you posted!!
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Mar. 16, 2009 How Does Your Garden Grow?
So far, so good! I have decided I am going to become a gardener. You might remember my attempts from last year. We did harvest before we moved, but I would not say it was a huge success. There were a number of reasons why it did not work well.
- I decided to garden and bought everything all in one afternoon. Not a good idea. Nothing was prepared. My Little man, seven at the time, had to dig up all the sod and tree roots. Even for him, that was a tall order!
- I bought out the store. Not only did I not have a plan, I did not have the space, either. I tried to fit 16 tomato plants, 9 pepper plants, 9 sweet potato plants and assorted squash, onion, melon and cucumber plants into the size of a queen size bed. Not good.
- The biggest mistake I made, truly, was not having a plan. Without a plan, you have no idea what you are doing. I do a lot of things "flying by the seat of my pants". I realize now that growing a successful garden is not one of those things!
With all that said, I have built a library of gardening books. I probably have twenty to thirty gardening books packed. Additionally, I have purchased about twenty books. I have read on everything from asparagus beds to water-saving watering techniques (I could not think of a gardening term for Z...oh...zucchini!). I have about 50 gardening and sustainable living websites bookmarked on my computer. I have a plan! Stay tuned! |
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