First week in june 2013

The garden is coming together finally.  At first I thought " what did I get myself into?  why did I make it so big"

There is still a lot of work to do.

Sweet potatoes need to be planted, I am just waiting for the slips to grow roots, then they will be planted.

The bamboo tripods need to have new lashing.

A few small trouble spots have to be taken care of.  These  have grass growing.  I will cover these areas with newspaper and hay or grass clipping to kill the grass, much the same as I do when preparing a new addition to the garden.

Speaking of adding on to the garden.  I have decided to go either another 10 feet towards the road (the side at the bottom of the picture) or another 5 feet along the longer side at the back of the garden (the long side on the left of the picture). 

The new addition would accommodate more greens, carrots, broccoli and brussels sprouts.

Replanting carrots and beets yet again

It seems as though I don't know how to get carrots started outdoors.  I have planted and replanted them already this year and am about to replant again.  This time I am going to try something I read about somewhere online, if I remembered where I saw it I would give credit here but I don't remember. 

I have sprouted the seeds indoors on damp paper towels.

I plan to make shallow furrows to plant them in then I will cover the sprouted seeds with sand.  Keeping them moist until the new plants grow and become established will be a challenge but at least I won't have to sprinkle them several times a day for 8-15 days the way I was doing before.  It should only take a few days for the new plants to emerge. 

Edit:
Yesterday (6-22-13) I planted the little carrots and beets that were started on the paper towels.  While planting them I noticed that 6 or 7 carrots out of the more than 250 I planted have come up.  Not a good ratio lol. 

I think that using the towels is not a good idea.   The roots grow through the towel and it is almost impossible not to break them when trying to pick them off the paper.  It made me think that if I wanted to use precise placement of the carrot seeds on the paper towel, I could simply tear away a piece of towel along with the little sprout, therefore saving the entire sprout, giving it a better chance of survival.  I re-started more carrots in case this last batch doesn't come up.


This time I used a sheet of typing paper on top of the paper towel.  Then I folded it down the center so that each seed would be touching the typing paper on both sides.  The paper towel is there on the back to hold the moisture. I just spread the seeds on half the typing sheet and folded the other half over them (with the paper towel ending up on the outside of the folded rectangle). Then it was sprinkled with water until the entire thing was damp, rolled up loosely and placed in a plastic baggie. 

I will watch the seeds closely to make sure the new little roots don't get too long and try to grow through the paper again.  Hopefully by using the typing paper, which is thicker and not so porous, I won't have the problem of the seed being on one side of the paper and the root on the other :(  what a mess LOL

In about 3 days I will know if the carrots I planted yesterday are going to come up.  In that time the ones I started on the typing sheet/paper towel sandwich will have begun sprouting.  I hope these can go into a new spot instead of replacing ones that didn't grow :)

I want carrots darn it all, and beets too.

tomatoes,peppers, and cucumbers

Well!  The mean old robins did it again.  They pecked my little tomato plants right out of the ground, not only that but, they pecked the little plants to pieces.  The birds are looking for worms, grubs and other tasty treats, they don't really intend to destroy my plants.  These were just a couple of inches tall.  I started them indoors just a few weeks ago and they weren't even close to the size and vigor of the plants you buy from a greenhouse.

I went to the greenhouse today to get a few tomato and pepper plants.  I came home with 6 tomato plants that I don't have room for, a dozen and half pepper plants that I don't have room for and 4 cucumber plants that I never intended to add to the garden in the first place but they will find homes at the ends of my bean trellises LOL

2 of the tomato plants and a dozen pepper plants made it into the ground today and so far the birds haven't uprooted them. yaaayyy

There are three kinds of pepper plants, a red chilli pepper, a yellow Hungarian hot pepper, and a yellow sweet banana pepper.  I have never grown or used these types before.  I think there will be a lot of pickling going on in my kitchen this fall :)  I planted all 6 of the sweet banana pepper plants so I can use them, along with cucumbers, to make my bread and butter pickles.

I plan to make some salsa as well as pickling some peppers and cucumbers to make piccalilli, both hot and mild versions will be made.  I like making catsup also but hardly ever use it so do not plan to make any.

My reason for planting only two tomato plants is that last year I planted 4 of them and half of the crop was never harvested.  I canned a dozen quarts and almost as many pints plus I dehydrated and powdered even more than that and there are still jars of tomatoes in the cupboard so I think 2 plants will be quite enough for my purposes.

Flowers and onions

 As you can see there is more buck weed and crab grass in my lawn than anything else.  I think that is a very good reason to fill up most of the yard with plants :)  Above is a pic of the lilac bush I planted last year.  It is now around 30" tall.  Just look at the blooms on it :)

 This is a mum that my son and daughter-in-law gave me last year.  It was in full bloom and was gorgeous.  I planted it within a few days of receiving it.  I guess it likes the space it was given.  It looks large enough to be divided.  I will do that this fall so I can have 2 of them. 

This is the rose bush that I received from my son and daughter-in-law last year.  It had some very pretty white roses on it last year.  This year it is bushing out nicely.  I hope there are more blooms on it this year.

There are some irises that someone planted at the NW corner of the house.  They have not bloomed since I moved in here.  I want to move them to the area where I have the other flowers planted.  Maybe they will bloom next year if they are in the sun instead of the shade where they are now.

There has not been much going on in the garden the past few days.  I did manage to get carrots, beets, herbs, and onions in.  It was a bit late for the carrots, beets and onions but I am hopeful that enough of them will grow so I can get some canned.

I got the onion sets in very late but they were above the ground in less than a week.  Must be they were shocked into growing because I kept them in the fridge until I could get them planted.  The week they were planted, it was very warm.  I planted approximately 150 of them.  Am hoping they grow into nice sized onions instead of being just green onion size.  If the onions grow to a nice size, I will dehydrate and powder them for use in my garden veggie soup.

Now all I need are some lilies and a poppy plant :)

Late start in the garden 2013

Wow the weather has finally been gracious enough to warm up and dry up enough to get some stuff planted, although a bit late.

This week I have planted blueberry plants that replace the ones I planted a few weeks earlier.  The first ones were eaten by rabbits.  The new ones have chicken wire fences around them.  HaHaHaaaa


I just got in from finishing my planting of beets.  Carrots and onions were planted a week ago and the onions are peeking up over the surface now :)  They all went in late so I am not confident that they will grow well.  If the weather stays like it has been this past week, for a while, they will be fine but if we get that awful sweltering hot hot hot that we get here almost every summer, they will not do well at all.

I started some amish paste tomatoes and several kinds of herbs for planting out.  They have been outside this past week getting strong and healthy even though they are still very small.  Got a late start on them too.  

I think the garden might be a challenge to keep up this year since it is so  much larger than last year.  The hardest part is keeping up with the canning when harvest begins.

I have been using my grass clippings and slices from the hay bales to smother grass on either side of the garden fence.  I hope this turns out like I envision instead of being a big mess like it probably will be LOL

cow peas, black eye peas, and bantu beans

 I took this from a google search page that came up when I searched for crowder peas

Cowpea

The cowpea is one of several species of the widely cultivated genus Vigna. Four subspecies are recognized, of which three are cultivated: Vigna unguiculata subsp. dekindtiana, the wild relative of the cultivated subspecies Vigna unguiculata subsp. Wikipedia

Scientific name: Vigna unguiculata

Rank: Species

Higher classification: Vigna

Lower classifications: Black-eyed pea, Yardlong bean, Catjang

I love my cow peas that I started 2 years ago from 6 seeds.  This year I had a gallon freezer bag full of them.  They are so good that I am going to plant more of them this year.  I do not know which subspecies mine are.  All I know about them is that they came from Italy and they were originally called beans by the seller. 

At the same time I bought some beans that came from Africa called bantu beans.  They are very colorful and also very tasty.  I didn't plant them last year but this year the garden is expanding so there will be room for some of these.  I started out with 6 of these also, and had a jelly jar full of them a year ago.  There is now a half a jelly jar of them :)  I had to taste test them :)  The seeds I have will make a lot of new beans. 

The beginning of the 2013 gardening season

I'm all happy happy that it is finally gardening season.  Spring took it's time this year.

Back in December I ordered an electric mini tiller from Amazon because I have been wanting one and they were on sale.  I got to try it out a little in December before the ground froze and it seemed to be able to do what I wanted it for.

WELL after using it this morning to prepare this year's strawberry bed and etching the sod off the places where I want to plant blueberries and raspberries, I am completely happy with the choice.  It was $200 less costly than the major name brand you see advertised a lot "Mantis".   Mine is an Earthwise TC70001 11-Inch 8-1/2 Amp Electric Tiller/Cultivator.  I am not getting anything for naming this brand, I just think people might want to know it is a less costly choice than the other one :)

 I am fortunate to have that lovely sandy soil in my yard.  It makes garden work a little easier.  One drawback is that it drains too well so watering needs to be frequent.

Here is my new strawberry patch.  They will be transplanted down the middle of this tilled strip.  To the left is where the rhubarb is,  To the right, in the row of hay, is where the garlic is growing.  It was planted last October or November, don't remember exactly when.  They are doing well.

Tomorrow I will get it out again and dig the holes for the blueberry and raspberry plants, then they will be planted on Thursday.  I could do it today but am waiting for a warmer day to plant them.


I got two blue ray blueberries, one blue crop blueberry and 5 latham red raspberry plants.

The blue ray blueberries are 3-4 feet at maturity and the blue crop variety will be 5-6 feet at matirity.
It is best to plant more than one variety of blueberries to increase production.  They will bear fruit on their own but the production will be increased by planting at least 2 varieties next to each other.  Both varieties I planted are mid season producers.  I plan to add an early and late variety, either this year or next spring.

The latham red raspberry is a mid season producer with 10' canes.  I might have to put in some restraints for this one.  But I will wait and see what they do before going to that extra expense and work.  They may do just fine left alone.

Last year I ordered some bare root red raspberries online and due to the drought they died off one by one, all but one.  That one gave me 12 (if I remember right) berries last fall :)  It is named Caroline, a late season variety that also gives a small crop in the early summer.  The plants are short too, needing no fencing or trellis to hold them up.



These are all varieties that do well in our climate here in NW Ohio.