Parsnips and Sweet Potatoes

It's not much, but I am pretty impressed that I'm at least eating a few things from our garden still. Last week I pulled a few parsnips to put in a Shepherd's Pie. They tasted quite nice. Yesterday, I grated most of my tiny sweet potatoes to make Sweet Potato Latkes. I also put in some scallions and parsley from the porch. Unfortunately, I killed my thyme so I had to use powdered. And, I still have 4 small sweet potatoes to put in my Hoppin' John for New Year's dinner. Otherwise, there is still one leek, a couple parsnips, and maybe a carrot in the garden as well as some old swiss chard. On my porch I still have scallions, parsley, lemon balm, spearmint, and chives as well as a new rosemary tree I just bought.

I'm still having problems with the neighbor's dogs. They've gotten into our trash several times (twice in one day) and I can see that they've been digging in my garden, the other beds around the house, and my compost. I'm so angry with them. A lot of the leaves I mulched over the rose bed are pulled away, although we have had a lot of wind too. However, I have seen some of the garlic I've planted put up some shoots. Yay! I'm hoping for lots of garlic next summer.

Speaking of next year, garden planning is in full force. The seed catalogs are pouring in, and I'm working up what I'm going to order. I love shopping from home, and I love online shopping even more!

Putting the Beds to Bed

All Tucked in for a Long Winter's Nap

Okay, so I didn't exactly get everyone tucked in today. I did complete the rose bed as you see here. It took a lot of work just to clean it out from both tomato plants and weeds. Then I planted two bulbs of garlic around the front border of both beds. I have no idea what variety it is, but it was free so I'll take it. It is a softneck variety, and it seems to be mild with decent sized cloves. I can't wait to see the little shoots poke up in spring. After planting the garlic, I covered the bed with leaves to build up the soil over winter.

A garlic clove snuggles into its winter bed.

I was able to build up the compost pile quite a bit as well. It's twice as big as it was before. I still have a lot of raking to go as well as porch containers to put away and garden beds to clean up. I'm only planning on putting leaves on the bed that had the brassicas and sweet potatoes this year. That bed will be home to my root vegies next spring. The old bed I'm just going to dig out completely and buy landscape mix to restart it. The newest bed should have had a cover crop this fall, but it will at least get a good dose of compost in the spring.

Fall Update

Actually having a job has taken a toll on my garden, and moreso my blogs. We were able to get quite a bit of corn and okra this summer. If I had kept up with it, we would have had okra coming out our ears. After the middle of August however, everything was pretty much left to its own.

A few weeks ago, I went out to look at the damage. I was very surprised to harvest a few carrots, peppers, and lots of tomatoes. I also dug up the sweet potatoes and got a good basketful. We've been really enjoying those. The chard is still going strong and there is one carrot, one leek, and a few parsnips ready to harvest at any time. I was also surprised to see that the lemon balm came back. Other pots still doing well are the spearmint, parsley, kale, scallions, and chives.

If I can find time this Sunday, I would really like to clean out the beds, plant the garlic my uncle gave me, and at least rake enough leaves to put on top of the bed that will be home to the root vegies next year. I'm probably too late at this point to plant a cover crop on the other beds.

Then I will be somewhat set to start out properly next year at winter break. We'll see...

Corn & Okra

No, this isn't corn or okra, but aren't they pretty?

Okra Blossom

You know it's really summertime when the corn and okra are coming in. We picked two ears of corn yesterday and put them on the grill. They were a little green yet, but it's so hard to wait! David says some okra was ready to pick too, so we'll probably have fried okra for supper this weekend sometime. Yummy!

I hope to have a thorough pictorial account on Sunday.

Discoveries

Look what I found!

Today I enjoyed a lazy Sunday, so I only got about half of my list accomplished. I picked four more roma tomatoes and two cucumbers. I sprayed the bell pepper real good, pulled up all but one broccoli plant, planted a section of broccoli seeds, and checked on/tied/weeded the tomato bed with the roses. It looks like I'll be able to make and can some salsa tomorrow. Yum!

Today was a day of discoveries however. My corn is doing well, and while I was checking on it a hummingbird flew up to me, said hello and hovered for a good 30 seconds and then flew off. It was an awesome experience. Now I need to be more vigilant refilling my hummingbird feeder. I noticed a small roma tomato growing in the rose bed. And....I discovered that there actually is a cantaloupe growing in the office bed. It's about half the size of the cantaloupe we bought and cut open today, but it's coming! I hope we get more than one, but I'm sure happy to see it.

Hopefully I'll have time tomorrow to:

1. Rake grass clippings.
2. Plant mustard and more lettuce.
3. Can salsa.
   

The Harvest has Begun

I've been picking a couple of cucumbers, tomatoes, & peppers just about every day that I go out to the garden. (really about twice a week) Friday, I made sweet relish and canned 3 1/2 pints as well as 1 pint of kosher dill slices with leftover brine from last week. I was so proud that everything in the relish was from my garden, including the onions.

However, that's all the onions from this year. I still consider it an improvement since I didn't really get any onions to bulb last year. This year they got dug up by dogs several times, but persevered. Most of them did bulb, but not a huge amount. Next year I will try to plant two whole bunches /and/ hope that they don't get dug up.

I noticed that I'm starting to get an eggplant, and my Carmen peppers are starting to turn red. My romas are coming in nicely, but I don't think I'll get another round after this one. For some reason the plant is looking very sad. I think it might be a late blight. On a more happy note, I noticed two tiny green Goliath tomatoes. I have about 4 growing watermelons, but I can't figure out why I have no cantaloupes. Must do some research on that.

It's been so nice to really just eat out of the garden every day. I've been harvesting my romaine lettuce and we've had some nice salads. The chard is going strong and we're even getting some broccoli shoots still. I also picked the first few brussel sprouts. There were only three so hopefully they will still be good in the crisper as others become ready.

Sunday's To Do List:

1. Mow & rake grass clippings for mulch/compost.
2. Spray pepper & chammomile for aphids.
3. Plant mustard.
4. Tie up roma tomato by the house.
5. Weed tomato bed.
6. Pull up some broccoli and plant seeds.
7. Work on garden paths.
8. Start layers for berry bushes. (I doubt I'll get to this though.)

Adventures in Canning: Pickles

Friday I tried out a new art to add to my homesteading skills: Canning! I had enough cucumbers from my garden to make 6 pints of kosher dill spears. Yum!

I used a premade seasoning mix because my dill wasn't ready yet, and I wanted to make the canning process easy on my first try. I found a great website: PickYourOwn.org which had easy step-by-step directions, with pictures.

Step 1: Sterilize your jars and lids. You can sterilize the jars in the dishwasher, and I also discovered when I needed one more jar, that you can also do this in the microwave with the jar full of water for 5 minutes. The lids should be in boiling water for 10 minutes.

Step 2: Wash the cucumbers. Trim the ends. Cut into spears or slices.

Step 3: Make up the pickle brine. With the packaged seasoning you just follow the directions on the package of how much vinegar and water to add. Dissolve the seasoning, and warm on the stove to a slow boil on medium heat.

Step 4: Pack the cucumbers in the jars well, and pour the brine in. Make sure you leave a half inch of space at the top of the jar. You should use a funnel, but I didn't have one...

Step 5: Clean off the tops of the jars. Seat the lids well. Tighten the rings on.

Step 6: Place in the canner on top of the canning rack. Fill enough water to have an inch of water above the jars.

Step 7: Bring to a good boil. Leave boiling for 5 minutes.

Step 8: Carefully lift the jars out of the water. Place them gently on a dishtowel, and don't touch them until they've cooled down. You will hear the lids pop as they seal down.

If you just can't wait, you can eat them in 24 hours, however it says for the seasonings to really soak in well you should wait a week. Can't wait to try them next week!

Today's Observations

My carrots have actually come up! (as have more leeks)

The early corn is starting to form ears. (I can't wait!)

All the tomatoes in the rose bed have lots of flowers. (And I'm actually starting to like tomatoes.)

The onions aren't too far from harvest.

The spinach is suddenly being eaten by something. I couldn't find the culprit though.

Turkey, tomato, and basil make a yummy sandwich.

Tomorrow's goals:

1. fertilize cantaloupe and squash
   
2. spray peppers for aphids
3. loosely tape around the forming corn ears so the squirrels can't harvest it this year
4. continue working on sawdust paths around beds
5. attempt making pickles and canning them for the first time

Rain is Wonderful

The Pumpkin in the Compost

I have been worried at our lack of rain this year. The drought last year combined with the crazy high heatwave was just awful. This year is starting to seem the same way, minus the heat, at least so far. I was super excited this week that we had some nice storms. Finally, I don't have to pay to water my plants for a few days.

Since I promised to share a pic of my compost growing pumpkin, here it is! I haven't done anything to this guy, and David even accidentally weed whacked it a couple of weeks ago. It's still doing pretty good though. Very interesting to watch.

Today I planted lettuce again, both a little bit of romaine and green ice, and thoroughly sprayed the roma, eggplant, and bell pepper for aphids. I also harvested three more cucumbers and a bell pepper, as well as snacking off my cherry tomato. I should be able to start picking roma tomatoes on Sunday. I'm going to have to get a canner pretty soon, since I'm well on my way to having enough cucumbers to making a good batch of pickles.

I also noticed that my eggplant is starting to flower and my kale has sprouted. Yay! It's a happy time to be in the garden, even if it is hot and muggy.

July's Visual Report

Rearranging

After rereading about herb companions, I moved some of my herbs around to /hopefully/ help influence the bugs to move elsewhere. The kale regrew, but then I found it covered in cabbage worms and almost completely eaten away. So, I pulled it up and replanted and planted collards putting sage in between the two. I took the container of spearmint and put it between my roma tomato plant and eggplant to hopefully dissuade the aphids. I had just about won the battle over the eggplant, so everyone just moved over to the tomato plant. Around the broccoli and brussel sprouts, I placed the lemon balm and rosemary. Both of those are also supposed to help with cabbage worms. I'm sure it's too late, and I'm still somewhat skeptical anyway, but we'll see what happens. I'm thinking now that some of the broccoli heads are yellow because of the worms. I discovered a lot of them when I picked broccoli yesterday.

Sunday, I also added fertilizer to my two other tomato plants that I hadn't worked on earlier, and then I mulched all four with grass clippings. I pulled off the mulch around the strawberries to fertilize them for the year too, and then put the mulch back of course.

I was saddened that my mom's watermelon plants have 3 fist sized melons and mine just has one or two dime sized ones. I actually had baby melons first, but they rotted. I read on gardenweb that that happens if it doesn't get pollinated, and I'm sure that's a problem with my plants being in a corner of the porch.

Otherwise, I did pick 3 cucumbers today, and I'm noticing that other stuff is getting close. I will try to have my monthly pictures up by the end of this week.

Broccoli

Why is it yellow?

I must start by saying I've been harvesting broccoli for a few weeks now. We've eaten it with at least 3 meals. I know that's not a lot, and I'm realizing I should definitely plant more next time. However, we would have a little more except a few heads from the side shoots are yellow. Is it from the heat or maybe it needs more nitrogen? I just don't know. To make things more interesting, I did harvest some nice heads today. Why are some fine and some weird?

I got the rest of the cucumber plants mulched with grass clippings and added some more around the peppers too. I didn't quite get finished harvesting the grass, but it is all raked. I should have enough to put more around the eggplant and all of my tomatoes. When I went to get the wheelbarrow, I noticed the compost pile was a little smelly, so I turned and fluffed it a bit. It was really cool to see how some of the grass actually is starting to look like dirt just a bit. I also did another section of sawdust path. So, now I can put some herbs next to that bed as companions. I need to ponder which ones though. I'm just about ready to prep the fence with layers to plant berry bushes this fall.

Plants as Insect Controls

From Carrots Love Tomatoes:

Basil: Against flies and mosquitoes.
Borage: Against tomato worms
Catnip: Against flea beetles
Garlic: Against Japanese beetles, aphids, weevils, fruit tree borers, spider mites
Lavender: Against clothes moths
Marigolds: Against Mexican bean beetles, nematodes, and many more
Mint: Against white cabbage moths and (when dried) against clothes moths
Nasturtium: Against aphids, squash bugs, striped pumpkin beetles, woolly aphids
Pennyroyal: Against ants and plant lice
Peppermint: Against white cabbage moths and ants
Petunia: Against beetles
Pot Marigold (Calendula): Against asparagus beetles, tomato worms, many others
Rose Geranium: Crushed leaves as insect repellant
Rosemary: Against cabbage moths, bean beetles, carrot flies, malaria mosquitoes
Rue: Against Japanese beetles
Sage: Against cabbage moths, carrot flies, ticks
Sassafras: Against plant lice
Spearmint: Against ants and aphids
Stinging Nettle: Against aphids and black flies
Summer Savory: Against bean beetles
Tansy: Against flying insects, Japanese beetles, striped cucumber beetles, squash bugs, ants
Thyme: Against cabbage worms
White Geranium: Against Japanese beetles

Starting Over And Not Needing To

My tomatoes have been in the ground for almost a week now, and they're not dead...yet. I disinfected the cages with a diluted bleach solution and rinsed them off well with lots of water before putting them back.

I've decided that my cow manure corn mounds were a bad idea, but it was a fun experiment. The corn seems to have reached a stopping point in its growth and some of the bean plants have yellow leaves with green veins (a sign of iron deficiency). Two yellow squash, one zucchini, and one butternut have sprouted, but none of the others are coming up. I didn't have anything with iron here, and I didn't really want to go to the store today. However, I discovered that I still had some evil Miracle Grow Shake & Feed in the utility closet. I decided I might as well use it up, so I sprinkled some on the two mounds with the weird looking beans. Hopefully it will do something. The good thing is that I planted extra corn in my new bed and it's doing great! My mom's garden has happy squash and beans, so maybe we'll at least get a taste from her if nothing else.

I can't figure out why I have one great row of okra and one sad one. They're right next to each other. I just don't get it. I decided to do some fill in planting with the okra as well as with leeks, carrots, and swiss chard. We'll see if anything decides to come up. I sprayed the eggplant again with Safer soap. The ants are farming aphids like crazy on it, but I can tell I'm winning. The fertilizer helped too, I'm sure. I think it's about ready to flower. I also pulled up the last of my bolting mustard to repot my spearmint and pulled up the bug eaten collards and replanted more.

Now to the good news, I harvested my first cucumber today! I also thinned out some green onions for my dad, and we got a zucchini from the lady that carpools with DH. My hot peppers are ready to harvest if I wanted them green, but I will wait for red since I have no need for them at present. I noticed today that both sweet peppers, the roma, and cherry are also becoming loaded. And I noticed the first tiny baby watermelons and cantaloupe. I have also been enjoying sniping herbs for whatever I'm cooking. I don't know why I didn't do herbs sooner. They're easy!

Reattempting Tomatoes

I've finally decided to give up on the tomatoes in the rose bed. Whether they have spider mites, cucumber mosaic virus, or burn from fresh mushroom compost...or all three...I don't know, but I give up on them.

I looked all over and finally found these four plants that looked relatively decent, if not overpriced, at WalMart. There is a Roma, a Goliath, a Big Boy, and a Mr. Stripey. I know nothing about Goliath, Big Boy is what my mom remembers as a kid, and I liked Mr. Stripey but didn't have a lot of success last year. I couldn't be too picky this time of year, but they were decent options.

So, my first goal on Sunday is to pull up the old and replace the new. I'll add a bit of lime and stir up the dirt/compost a bit before replanting too. Hopefully I won't kill the second round.

Cantaloupe Leaf Problems & Fall Planning

My cantaloupes are starting to have a little burned look on the leaves. I thought they might need something, but I wasn't sure what. After a posting on Gardenweb, it seems they might need a bit of potassium. (Gardenweb ROCKS!) I searched all over for the fish emulsion I had been using, but to no avail. Nor could I really find an organic fertilizer high on the potassium side. Almost everything was high on the nitrogen side, which is not helpful for my tomatoes and peppers either. Grr... I finally gave up today and got a tomato fertilizer which isn't Miracle Grow, but isn't exactly organic either. It's 4 - 12 - 6. I fertilized the cantaloupe, peppers, eggplant and Roma tomato in the raised bed. I noted that my Roma is starting to have some purple veining, so I'm hoping that the fertilizer will give it the boost that it needs. I also noted that I need to add more grass clippings to that row as well as the rest of my cucumbers.

Friday I planted squash, 2 hills of butternut, 1 of yellow, and 1 zucchini. My last two hills of beans are up now as well as a few of the sunflowers. I saw a ton of ants on my eggplant and realized that it had an aphid problem, so I sprayed it with Safer soap. It still has some ants on it today, but I think the aphids are pretty much gone. I also deadheaded the daisies today. They are seriously taking over. I will definitely need to divide them this fall or spring.

Being the planner that I am, I did a basic plan of next year's garden and calculated out my fall planting. Our first frost is about October 21, and our first freeze about November 1. So, I did some counting back and estimating as well as looking at seed packet suggestions when available. It looks like I can go ahead and plant collards and kale. In July, I will start broccoli, mustard, and romaine. In August: radishes, beets, turnips, and peas. And I will try planting spinach in the raised bed again in September. Of course, I plan to plant garlic in the rose bed in October, and I might plant new roses as well. I read in Organic Gardening magazine last night that planting a cover crop of vetch or crimson clover in the tomato bed helps the tomatoes fight fungi and produce longer. So, sometime in October I will also be planting cover crops in the square bed, the newest bed, and the rose bed.

More to the present, here's what I need to do this week:

1. Deadhead roses
2. Rake grass clippings & mulch rest of cucumbers, more mulch to Roma, eggplant & peppers
3. Spray eggplant with insect soap again
4. Transfer spearmint to bigger pot
5. Plant collards & kale
   

Pondering Companions

I'm a little disappointed because I planted my tomatoes with my roses to help with black spot, but instead the roses gave my tomatoes spider mites. I will spray everything again with safer soap tomorrow, but I just don't know if anything will be saved at this point. As I deadheaded my roses this afternoon, leaves just kept falling off. A couple bushes have practically no leaves at all. At this point, I'm seriously considering digging up the roses with the tomatoes this fall and starting completely over. Those roses have been diseased since I inherited them.

Since I realized I had spider mites, I have continued to research organic methods. I realized what I need is to attract beneficial insects. I have downplayed the importance of flowers in my garden. I found a good companion plant site: Garden Toad's Companion Plant Guide. Not only does it have a chart of companion plants like I have in several other places, it includes what the plants do, and it has a separate chart of plants that attract beneficial insects and what they attract. Among the most interesting is cosmos which attract praying mantises and morning glories which attract ladybugs and syrphid flies. So next year I will definitely be including, cosmos, marigold, morning glory, pot marigold, and nasturtiums in my garden plan. They are all pretty, and hopefully they will help restore some balance to my little ecosystem.

On the good side, I noticed I have tiny peppers forming on my Carmen plant and a few cherry tomatoes forming. My leeks are starting to come up as well. I planted corn in the raised bed and started some more dill and zinnias in containers. I also fertilized my broccoli and brussels sprouts with bone/blood meal and mulched them with grass clippings. I raked all the clippings into piles from when David mowed Thursday. I will probably put the rest directly on the compost pile at this point. It got too hot to do that earlier, but I will finish that this evening.

June's Visual Report

Finally posted! Some pictures are from June 2 and some are from yesterday, June 6.

Spider Mites

After posting this and a closer pic on Gardenweb, it seems that my problem is spider mites. And now all 4 plants in the rose bed are showing symptoms. It hit them so fast! I thoroughly sprayed all of the roses and the tomatoes with Safer soap. From the different things I've read, I'm getting mixed reports of if I can save everything or not. I sure hope so. I'm pretty sure my Brandywine and Big Rainbow will come out okay, not so sure about the Early Girl (pictured above) and Roma.

I did accomplish my To Do list from early this week. I also sprayed my daisies with the Safer soap to hopefully get rid of the thrips. (This is seriously a year for bugs!) I planted beans in my remaining two corn mounds, more spinach in both the raised bed and container, and sunflowers amongst the cantaloupe. I fertilized my cucumbers and sweet potatoes with fish emulsion, and mulched around the cucumbers and spinach with grass clippings. I'm going to wait until I see which tomatoes survive the mites before I take the time to mulch them. It was too hot to rake the rest of the grass, but I will try to work on that Sunday. I had planned to start zinnia seeds inside, but the heat got to me and I napped the rest of the afternoon.

The other real good news is that my Roma tomato in my raised bed has several tomatoes on it and my Carmen pepper has flowers. Yay! At least I have tomatoes in several locations, so I should get something. I will try to put up pictures tomorrow, I promise!

It's So Hot!

All of the sudden Mother Nature figured out it was summer this week, and it's coming with a vengence! I was only outside for a half hour, and I had to come in. I've been mindful to be much more faithful about watering now that the heat is upon us. For the most part everything is looking great. My new bed is actually doing well this time. The okra, corn, and swiss chard are all up. I took pictures on Monday, but have yet to post them, either today or tomorrow. I will probably take a few new pics today so, it will be more updated with my happy new seedlings.

I've been having problems with cabbage worms in my greens though. We had mustard greens Monday, and I had to pick a worm off every leaf. At least they left me some. I'm not sure that my collards are going to fair as well. I've got to figure out better methods of row cover, and maybe something I can do now.

I've also been a bit concerned about my tomatoes. They've been needing caging for some time. I was so afraid of pinching the wrong sucker after my Brandywine experience that I just let them go. But now they've sprawled with tons of suckers, so I started pruning them to one main stalk, and putting them in cages. I just have my Brandywine to go. A few of the plants have curled up leaves at the top. I can't decide if that's a problem or not. I read though that a sudden stress like the heat of summer suddenly coming can do that, and then they'll be fine in a week or two. Hopefully that's all it is. I also read on the same FAQ that pruning might not be necessarily a good thing. So, I don't know if I should have or not, but we'll see how they do. My Big Rainbow also has what looks like some black spot on the lower leaves. Can they catch that from roses? I thought planting them with the roses was a good thing. Now I'm all confused. Hopefully I'll figure that out very soon.

To Do

Yesterday, I used the second cuttings of spinach in quesadillas with red pepper, garlic, and onions. Hopefully soon, all of that will be garden fresh, but it's a start. I noted that my beans and cucumbers are starting to pop up as well.

Today I was hoping to get a few much needed things done, but it really rained most of the day. I'm not unhappy, we still are in a deficit, and when God waters my garden, I don't have to pay for it. So, here's what I hope to get done tomorrow:

1. Make tomato cages and set up.
2. Plant sunflowers.
3. Fertilize cucumbers and sweet potatoes with fish emulsion.
4. Start zinnias inside for transplanting.
5. Mulch tomatoes & cucumbers with grass clippings.
6. Take pictures for beginning of month progress.
7. Spray daisies & roses with insecticide soap.
8. Dump compost bucket & top pile with leaves.
   

Starting The New Bed Again

Yesterday I finally replanted my new bed with okra, corn, leeks, carrots, and swiss chard. I also pulled down the soil on the onions that needed it to help them bulb. I'm very pleased that the onions that didn't have to high of soil are starting to bulb nicely. Last year I didn't know that and I didn't really get any. Yay! I'm was also excited to see that I actually have a few chard from the previous planting that are starting to come up despite all the trauma.

I noted today that my basil, spinach, cucumbers, green ice lettuce, and one dill plant are all sprouted. My tomatoes and cantaloupe are actually starting to flower also. I was trying to pick off suckers and early flowers from my tomato plants, but I think I clipped the main growth stem from my brandywine. Oops. So, now I'm just letting everything grow free. Hopefully the suckers on the brandywine will take over and be fine.

I harvested another radish, and it looks like I about have enough lettuce and spinach for another salad. Yesterday, I harvested three broccoli crowns for supper, and today I clipped the first of my flat leaf parsley in my potato salad this evening. It's so nice having my own fresh herbs and really eating out of the garden again.

Catching Up

May has been one busy month! I've found time here and there to do stuff in the garden, but no time to write about it. So, now I'm catching up with what I've done.

Two weeks ago, I planted 4 tomato plants among my roses. I read that roses, tomatoes, garlic, and basil are all good companions and together, it should help with hornworms and black spot. So far, my roses are still fighting black spot, but my tomatoes seem to be doing well. I added mushroom dirt on top, and added fish emulsion as I planted. I also tried burying a gallon jug with two holes in it as a perpetual waterer. I shouldn't have put in two holes though as the water goes out almost as fast as it goes in. Next time I'll try one hole and see what happens. I also planted my canteloupes in front of the office. I added mushroom dirt there too, but this time I mixed in a bit of peat moss. I was also able to plant the other two mounds of corn, although the dogs reflattened one, and put the cherry tomato and hot pepper in pots.

Speaking of dogs, they are now chained, but only at night. What's with that? The good thing is that it does alleviate most of the problem, but we did catch one of them in our yard just as we were heading out this evening. I did look at electric fencing at Lowes. I can get a starter kit for about $50, so I might just do that shortly. I did buy some cheap fencing to make better tomato cages.

I have been harvesting strawberries. Some of them haven't been fully ripe, but it's a race to harvest before my mockingbird does. They're still good though. I will probably only get a pint by the end since I only have three plants, but it was nice for a tasting and in a couple of years we'll really have berries hopefully. Yesterday, I also clipped the first of my green ice lettuce, spinach, and radishes, as well as a couple small broccoli crowns for a very yummy salad. David said they were some of the best radishes he's had. Yay! (I might get him to really like vegies yet...) I'm noting that I really should plant a lot more lettuce and spinach than I do. I'm also trying to figure out why my broccoli crowns don't get very big. I can't complain too much though, this year is the best my broccoli has done yet.

Today I planted pole beans in the first two corn mounds. I also planted more spinach, parsnips, cucumbers, dill, basil and green ice lettuce. I also transplanted the lemon balm, rosemary, and watermelon to bigger pots. And, I finally finished the second half of my new raised bed. I started soaking okra seeds tonight, so tomorrow I hope to try planting that bed again. This time I will do swiss chard, carrots, leeks, turnips, okra, and probably some more corn. I will try to water every morning, and hopefully if the dogs stay out I might get some better results this time. We'll see.

I Love Dogs, But This One Must Go!

It took great restrain not to get out the .22 and shoot the neighbor's dogs right in their fence as they sweetly looked at me this evening. I've been having problems with them, but they really had quite the party last night.

Damage report: The last of the cabbage is totally trampled, as are half the onions. Radishes, parsnips, spinach, and chard are all dug up. One corn mound totally flattened, fortunately it wasn't planted in yet. And the cage for the eggplant was taken. I finally found it in the woods. (I might have marched right over to the neighbors house if my eggplant had been smashed.)

Must... Stake... Fence... ASAP!

My Plant Obsession

Hi, I'm KalykoKatt, and I love to buy plants.

Okay, time to move from the 12 step program, but it does seem that everywhere I went this last week I had to buy at least one plant. I promise though, I'm really, really done for this season. So, I got 4 Ambrosia cantaloupe, an Early Girl tomato, a Sweet 100 cherry tomato (I hope. It was the last plant left in the tray, and wasn't exactly individually labeled.), and a New Mexico mild hot pepper.

My mom got me a pickup truck full of mushroom dirt as an early birthday gift too. We put some on the rose bed and some on the office bed. The rest is piled waiting to be used. I haven't had a lot of time this week, so I've only gotten that done and planted the Brandywine & Early Girl tomatoes. I will talk more about that once I get the other tomatoes planted.

Yesterday, I noted that the corn, parsnips, last planting of radishes, swiss chard, maybe beets, thyme, spearmint, & parsley are all up. Yippie! I also noted a lot of digging in my beds. Boo! I really need to get an electric fence.

May's Visual Report

The Rest of the Story

As of today, it looks like the dill, chamomile, kale, next succession of green ice lettuce and radishes, and possibly one swiss chard plant are all sprouted, /and/ there is one rosebud just opening.

Tuesday I fertilized my roses with the last of my chemical fertilizer. Now I need to figure out how to take care of them organically. I also planted a second row of zinnias and weeded out the office bed. For some reason this year, a ton of vetch took over and climbed all over the box wood. Since it can be grown as a cover crop, I put the huge mound of it on the compost pile.

I have been unsure of having peat moss as the top layer of my lasagna bed. It dries out so fast, and I'm afraid my seeds will never germinate. I decided that I really should be watering that bed every morning, at least for a couple of weeks to see if that will help germination. I've also been having issues with the neighbors dog trampling through it, but I won't start on that rant. (I may not stop for a while.) However, Friday I saw that perhaps one seed has germinated (the aforementioned possible swiss chard), so things may be okay yet. I'm trying to work on patience, but it's so hard.

As I mentioned in the previous post, Thursday I discovered that cutworms had taken out another two plants. I wish I had followed through last month and put collars around all of my plants. I looked to see if there was any other remedy, but found nothing except collars and digging them out. I suppose late is better than never. I dug down to the roots, wrapped aluminum foil around the stem up to the leaves, and put the soil back. In the process, I did find two very fat cutworms and cut them in half. That felt great! I'm sure I missed some, but I dare them to cut through the aluminum.

Friday, I went to Ace and bought plants: rosemary, California Wonder bell pepper, Beuregard sweet potatoes, Brandywine tomato, Big Rainbow tomato, and 2 Roma tomatoes. I'm super excited because I also got a freebee cutting of lemon balm from my uncle today.

So, tomorrow, I hope to get a lot of planting finished and then post pictures of the garden as of the first part of May.

This is WAR!

Lost two more plants today, one broccoli and one brussel sprout. I started digging down and wrapping the stems with aluminum foil. I found two cutworms already and CUT them in half. I wish I had gone ahead and collared my plants last month. Grr...

I will write a more detailed update soon.

Corn

Today I weeded out my old raised bed. I'm impressed to see that the soil is actually starting to look fairly decent. DH & I were discussing digging out all the old soil and replacing it with Beaty's landscape mix next year, but it looks like I may not have to really do that. I'm so glad too, that would be a lot of work.

Anyway, I divided the bed in fourths and dumped a bag of composted manure in each fourth to make a mound to plant my three sisters properly. Well, I'm not sure if manure is too strong to plant in, so that's not very proper, but we'll see. I made a little well at the top of the mounds for the corn. I read that you should plant corn that way to retain more water, since corn needs a lot. I planted 4 seeds of Early Sunglow in one mound and 4 of Golden Cross Bantam T-51 (a later variety) in another. Once they germinate, I will succession plant in the other two mounds.

Unfortunately, this bed is smaller, so I won't get much corn this year. I probably could have done 6 mounds instead of 4. I just realized I fit in 8 in the other raised bed. Oh well. I'm actually kind of wondering if I really should do three sisters at all. In that plan, the corn is planted so far away from each other to allow room for the beans & squash, so I don't really get a lot of corn. I'm wondering if I would get a better yield of all three just doing a regular rotation plan & doing bush beans instead of pole. It's something I definitely want to calculate as I plan for next year.

I also found a little surprise in my new lasagna bed. Apparently, all the seeds from last year's fall pumpkin decided to germinate out of my compost. The one end was covered with pumpkin plants! I pulled them all up and put them on the compost pile. And if you're wondering, there are about 3 plants growing there too. It will be interesting to see if we inadvertently grow pumpkins this year.

Containers & Flowers

Seedlings waiting for warmer weather: Cat grass, Carmen sweet pepper, Rosa Bianca eggplant, & two pots Sugar Baby watermelon.

Today I was excited to see that most everything I had already planted in containers has sprouted, as well as my cucumbers and the watermelon seeds I started (as you can see). I used my second bag of potting soil finishing out most of my container plantings. I started green onions, kale, thyme, spearmint, Italian parsley, and German chamomile. I also transplanted the herb plants from Crabtree Farms into bigger pots. I am so excited to be having fresh herbs this year.

I did some more succession planting of spinach, radishes, lettuce (both the Romaine & Green Ice), and cucumbers. My cole crops are really taking off now, minus the fact that I've lost half my cabbage to cutworms. I'm really excited that I might actually get decent broccoli this year.

I also spent some time weeding my front flower bed and planting black-eyed susans and mini zinnias. It looks like my daisies are pondering putting up flower stalks. I have tons of rosebuds waiting to open too. I can't wait! The only downside to my roses is our little Eastern Tent Catterpillar plague this year. (I kid you not, I've never seen so many.) They aren't doing too much damage all things considered though.

DH & I went by Ace this evening for screws to put up the rest of the shutters on the house. I was super surprised by the amount, quality, and price of their plants this year. I'm pretty sure I said that last year too, although I don't remember them having heirloom tomatoes or quite the variety of so many other things last year. I think I will just buy my tomatoes, peppers, etc. there sometime this week and not worry about another trip down to Crabtree. I did go ahead and get a bunch more composted manure this evening, so I can build corn mounds. Hopefully I can get that bed started this week.

Other goals for the week: finish planting zinnias, fertilize roses, finish building 2nd half of new lasagna bed, weed & prep office bed & plant sunflowers.

Containers

Monday I was able to finish up the back porch, so I could start a few seeds in containers. I planted Florida Broadleaf mustard, Georgia collards, Green Ice looseleaf lettuce, and spinach. Then I ran out of potting soil. I got another bag, and my first job Sunday will be to get my herbs, kale, and green onions started in containers.

I noticed today that my mustard or maybe collard seedlings (I'm not sure which) have just popped up. I also clipped a little of my fresh chives, including the flower, for tonight's baked potato. It's so nice to start having my own fresh herbs!

Planting Continues

I took a field trip to Crabtree Farms this morning for their spring plant sale. Crabtree Farms is an urban community garden on the southside of Chattanooga. I've been wanting to visit for a while, and it was awesome to check it out. They have 5 acres, and you can volunteer, rent your own plot, attend their free workshops, or buy local meat, eggs, & produce from their farm stand. It's really amazing to be in the center of industry and suddenly find yourself in a beautiful country farm. Since their plant sale started yesterday, the good stuff was gone, but I managed to bring home a plant each of Rosa Bianca eggplant, Carmen sweet pepper, common sage, Greek oregano, and chives. They said that in a few weeks they will have more tomato plants available, so I left my email address and hope to go back down in May. Hopefully they will have cantaloupe plants available as well. It's just as well that I get those plants later, since they really shouldn't be transplanted until then anyway. I put my pepper & eggplant plants inside on a window sill, since I'm a little afraid it might get too cold at night for them. I'll have to ask about that on Gardenweb. The herbs are currently sitting on my front porch.

When I got home, I finished one half of the new lasagna bed. (I will finish the 2nd half when I collect more grass clippings.) I planted Bright Lights swiss chard, 1/2 row Detroit Red beets, about 2 dozen sweet onions, 1/2 row carrots, 1/2 row American Flag leeks, 1/2 row Seven Top turnips, & 1/3 row Spacemaster bush cucumbers. I also started seeds for Sugar Baby watermelon and some catgrass inside. They're now in the windowsill next to the pepper & eggplant.

As for stuff already in the garden, I discovered that a cutworm got another cabbage. :( Otherwise, I think the extra fertilizing did a lot of good. The broccoli and Brussels sprouts look great for the most part. The cabbage is looking better too, I think. My second planting of radishes are just starting to come up. Wow, do they sprout fast!

This evening, I'm hoping to get a 2nd coat of paint on my back porch. That way I can start planting containers tomorrow. This week I also need to fertilize my roses, prep the bed for my 3 sisters plot, deadhead my tulips, and maybe get started planting my flower annuals in the front of the house. We'll see what happens.

Building, Planting, Reading

I've been continuing to work on the new lasagna bed. So far the layers are: newspaper, peat moss, shredded paper, compost, old soil from containers, and grass clippings. I still need to put half the layer of grass clippings, then it will be peat moss, sawdust, peat moss, and a sprinkling of lime. Hopefully, I will be able to finish by the end of the week.

I have to say a little note about composting. Last year was the first time I tried, and I was really worried about the science of it since I really didn't do half of what they say you should. However, after harvesting my first pile, I am super impressed. It was so cool to see all the organisims that were living in and decomposing all that stuff. And I've never seen such big earthworms! I am definitely fully hooked, composting is actually very easy and very cool!

Today, I actually started out by replanting the broccoli, cabbage, and Brussels sprout plants that had died. I discovered that there really was a cutworm next to the dead Brussels sprout, and that the soil wasn't really too dry once I dug down in. I did double the blood/bone meal when planting as well as add a generous side dressing trench. The Brussels sprouts are still a little purple and some of the cabbage looks yellow/stunted. I actually tried to mathematically figure how much fertilizer they needed this time, so I hope I did okay.

My radishes look great, and the lettuce and spinach has started to come up as well. I planted another 3rd of a row of all three. I also planted Fernleaf Dill among the brassicas and a half row of Harris Model parsnips.

I finished Four-Season Harvest: Organic Vegetables from Your Home Garden All Year Long
by Eliot Coleman last night. Coleman is making a successful sustainable living on the Nearing's old property in Maine. The fact that they eat year round in Maine is amazing to me, and certainly tells me that I should be able to do it so much better here in Tennessee. What I especially appreciated and made copies of in this book was detailed instructions, including construction, of various cold frames & greenhouses and how to use them. There is also a very practical chapter on storage including root cellaring. At first I thought that it wouldn't be very helpful to me since my seasons are so different, but the advice was thorough and practical and occasionally had comments of this is what you can do in zone 7 & south. I feel that I have a much better handle on when to start fall planting and how to keep it going. It is definitely a book I will refer to again.

Row Cover Ponderings

This evening when I looked at my plants it seemed that my Brussels sprouts were wilty. One was even shriveled over. I became concerned that the rain isn't getting through the row cover very well. I'm now thinking that that was the cause to my cabbage damage and not a cutworm. Interestingly, the one cabbage plant that wasn't under the row cover (because the wind had pulled it up) seemed to be much bigger than the other ones. I pulled up the row cover. I think it's doing more damage than good, especially since I keep reading that healthy plants shouldn't really have a big insect problem. As soon as I have time for more planting, I will go ahead and plant my dill, so that should help a bit too.

On a happy note, I noticed my radishes are just starting to poke out. I watered everything well. Hopefully, my Brussels sprouts will spring back to life. Fortunately, I have a couple extra plants to replace the ones I killed thus far.

Container Garden Workshop

Today I went to a workshop on container gardening presented by one of our church members. He has created an awesome garden using specialized "barrel troughs" of his own invention. I won't be more specific on this blog because he has requested that we remain fairly confidential while his patent is pending, but his idea is awesome. The pictures of his own garden were incredible, especially the size of his cabbages. I intend to make a few of my own at some point. So stay tuned, but don't hold your breath, it could be a year or so.

He also had a guy from our local feed and seed store make a presentation on soil quality. As part of his presentation he showed some of the organic fertilizers, insecticide, and soils that he personally sells. I'm really excited about this because I've been wanting to check out his store, and now I know I will be buying his soil mix and some other stuff very soon. I can't wait to have time for a little field trip (with my Dad's pickup). {Edit: I just figured out it's not the same place, but I know where to find it!}

I thought I would record a few of the notes I took since he had some nifty info on plant specifics, etc.

Soil:

• Organic matter & draining well are necessary qualities, but equally as important is a neutral pH.
• Test your soil at several spots to get an accurate reading.
• Nutrients won't even work if soil is too acidic or too akaline and trace elements will become toxic.
• Acidic soil - add lime. Alkaline soil - Add sulfur.
• Be sure not to over lime in raised beds. Test, test, test.

Planting:

• Peat pellets work very well for starting seeds.
• Can soak seeds overnight for faster germination, but not necessary.
• If starting plants early, put koozies over them during the night to protect from frost.
• Daylight is the best time for watering. This prevents mold growth & water evaporation.
• Plants with a big rootball (i.e. broccoli, cabbage, tomatoes) can be grown individually in half barrels (whiskey barrel size - about 20 gal. of soil).
• As spring stuff finishes in midsummer, succession plant with carrots, leeks, peppers, melons, onions, or something else that needs long growth for fall.
• Can use irrigation ring in barrel containers with hole drilled in side for hose to go through.

Plants:

• Potatoes/Sweet Potatoes: Start the 2nd week of March with 4 inches of soil at the bottom. Place seed potatoes on top, evenly spaced (no need to cut). Cover with soil. As they grow, continue to cover. Don't let them leaf until well hilled up and safely out of frost season. Harvest, when flowers die. Wrap with newspaper and store in cool place for winter.
• Onions: Need space to bulb. Scrap out soil to the roots for it to bulb. Break top over before it goes to seed. Pull up gently with fork. Leave roots on bulbs for them to store longer.
• Leaf lettuce: Put seeds in coarse pepper shaker and shake over area. Gently tap in with rake. Clip with scissors to continually harvest. Should be able to get about 4 harvests until mid June (then will be too bitter from heat).
• Tomatoes: Plant 75% under the soil. Mulch with grass clippings, but keep them an inch away from the stem. Clip suckers up to 3 feet. Cage them using concrete reinforcement wire.

Freezing Vegies: Blanch in boiling water for 1 1/2 minutes, then dip in cold water. Use vacuum sealer.

Cutworms

Broccoli, Cabbage, & Brussels Sprouts Just Planted And Tucked In

I went to check on the garden this afternoon. It looks like I might have lost one cabbage and most of one broccoli transplant to cutworms. I thought this only happened with smaller seedlings? One edge of the insect cover has become untucked also. Tomorrow I need to make some cutworm collars for the other seedlings and get another stake for the middle part of the tulle to raise it a bit better. I hope that the plants are doing okay under the tulle.

Planting Finally Begins

Today I tried to multitask between painting and planting. I got a bunch of seeds and plants at WalMart (I know, I know...) yesterday, and I couldn't wait to get started.

I topped off last year's lasagna bed with six bags of compost/manure. (I'm going to need two more to finish the top covering.) Then I planted 6 Brussels sprout, 6 cabbage (Dutch flat?), and 8 broccoli (Early Dividend) plants. I played around with a wide staggered row for the cabbage and broccoli, almost like a square foot garden. I left room in the center to plant dill in a week or two, which will hopefully help keep pests away. I put about a teaspoon of bone & blood meal in the bottom of the hole before putting in each plant. I hope this will give them a good shoot of energy without burning the roots. Then I covered everything with fine tulle to protect from cabbage moths. I read about this in last issue's Mother Earth News, and I can't wait to see how it does, especially since I haven't been able to harvest broccoli yet because of cabbage loopers.

I also planted a third of a row of radish (sparkler) & romaine lettuce interplanted & spinach (teton hybrid). I will add a third of a row each week and then start containers, so I should hopefully have constant salad basics.

New Beginnings & The W-O-R-D

Today, I finally got out and picked up some extra materials to start my new lasagna bed for the year. I got two bales of peat moss, some compost/manure, a bag of potting soil (for containers) and my tool for the year, a spaded fork. I looked at plants at both Wal-Mart & Lowes, but they looked nutritionally deficient.

I weeded my bed from last year. (I thought the idea was that you wouldn't get weeds?), and actually built some walls from some freebie lumber. I took the old wood scraps to lay out the new bed, but it was getting too dark to do any more. In the next couple of days, I hope to get my broccoli, cabbage, brussel sprout, & onion plants. Ace has had decent plants in the past, for better prices actually, and I have also been dying to check out the local feed & seed store I just found. I will lay the compost/manure as a new layer and get that bed planted. Hopefully, I will get my new lasagna bed made and planted in the next week or two as well. We'll see what I get done.

I just finished The Vegetable Gardener's Bible: Discover Ed's High-Yield W-O-R-D System for All North American Gardening Regions by Edward Smith this last week. Over all, it has pretty similar concepts to the Lasagna Gardening method. WORD is an acronym for Wide Rows, Organic Methods, Raised Beds, and Deep Soil. Smith does choose to till the ground rather than building the soil up, but the concepts remain basically the same. The plants, including the roots, need lots of room to grow. He has good information on composting, disease/pest control (with recipies), companions, rotating, and a huge section on individual vegies/herbs with everything you need to know from sowing to storing. I wish I had discovered this book earlier because it is a better one-stop source for info instead of the two or three other books I read for specific stuff such as companion planting. I took a lot of notes and definitely plan to copy a few of his charts/recipies. At some point, I will probably add it to my library as well.

The Herb Spiral

In my perusing around today, I discovered a neat little technique called the herb spiral. This is a beautiful and simple way to create microclimates for all of your herbs. It's basically a pyramid in spiral style created by rocks or bricks. As you water the top, the water seeps down. So, the herbs at the top require the driest conditions, trickling down to the ones wanting the most water at the bottom. Then of course the ones that want more sun would be on the south side.

I would like to try this at some point. However, my question is how do you keep certain plants (like mint) from getting out of hand?

First Blooms of Spring

So here I show you spring, and it's fixing to snow! We're pretty confused around here, but we're never bored. Anyway, I picked up some spring onion and black-eyed susan seeds at Wal-Mart this week. They tell me plants should arrive in a couple of weeks. Hmmm.... I also picked up a book at the library that I especially liked last summer: The Backyard Berry Book by Stella Otto. Eventually I would like to add this and it's companion, The Backyard Orchardist to my collection. They are both very informative with a lot of specifics by fruit and region.

It's Spring!

It was 74 degrees today, and my daffodills are beautiful. The tulips and day lilies aren't far behind. My windows were open, and I sat perusing seed catalogs while recovering from the lovely crud that's going around. I can't wait until April when it will be 6 months from transplant, and I will be officially allowed to garden again.

I actually did a basic garden plan a couple of weeks ago. My big goals are to add another lasagna raised bed, really get into growing herbs, and build up the soil along the fence to add raspberries, blackberries, and blueberries in the fall. So without further ado, here's my basic plan:

Small bed: Rotated to 3 sisters (corn, pole beans, squash), possibly adding peas in the fall.

Last year's established bed: broccoli, cabbage, brussel sprouts interplanted with dill, romaine lettuce interplanted with radish, bell & chili peppers, cucumbers, okra, and possibly peanuts if I have room (but likely not) --- I might also what doesn't fit in containers.

New bed: Swiss chard (we just tried it, very yummy!) interplanted with beets, carrots interplanted with onions, parsnips, more carrots interplanted with green onions, leeks (if I can find them) interplanted with sage and chamomile, turnips, and sweet potatoes --- again, some might go in containers

Rose bed: Tomatoes (hopefully Brandywine, a striped kind (maybe Big Rainbow?), an early one, and a grape) and garlic in the fall

Office bed: Sunflowers underplanted with cantaloupe.

Containers: strawberries, spinach, leaf lettuce, Roma tomato, eggplant, Sugar Baby watermelon, basil, chives, rosemary, thyme, mint, lavender, and bay

I wasn't going to mail order seeds, but actually Pinetree Garden Seeds, recommended by Foodie Farmgirl, has better prices than Walmart, for the most part. So, I'm happily making up an order. Tomorrow I'll see if my mom wants to share an order with me for her garden.

So, in the next couple of weeks I want to get any mail order out, put up our bat house, and build the raised beds. Hopefully in the next few days I'll have a few pictures of spring for those of you who haven't seen it yet. :P