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
Tuesday, May 7, 2013
Tuesday, April 2, 2013
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
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.
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.
Wednesday, December 5, 2012
Growing sprouts on a small budget
With just a few pennies and a few minutes a day you can have a very healthy serving of very yummy vegetables every day. You don't really need to buy those kits with special jars and special lids with the "right" size holes in them for sprouting.
I live in Ohio so the gardening season doesn't last as long as I would like. Because there are more than 6 months without ready-to-pick fresh produce growing in the garden, I like to use sprouts in the winter. I can't afford to buy sprouts in the store so I grow my own. Even with the cost of buying the seeds, there is significant savings involved in growing your own sprouts. $30 worth of seeds bought online, this includes shipping, will last more than a single winter for me. I buy them separately and mix them in a pint jar. They are kept in the freezer. So for pennies a day you can have a daily serving of the freshest veggies possible.
Since I have canning jars available these days, that is what I use for growing my sprouts. I simply cut the end out of knee high nylon stockings to put over the jar, then screw the ring on over the stocking. If you only have the small mouth jars that is ok, the only difference between them and large mouth jars is that you have to pull the finished sprouts out, but it is an easy thing to do.
Alternatively, if you don't have canning jars, you could use jars that have been emptied of other stuff like peanut butter, mayonnaise, pickles, salsa, etc. Only use the ones with plastic lids unless you have proper cutters to cut a metal lid. I wouldn't want to use a metal lid anyhow, it could cause a cut on your fingers or hand. Use a good sturdy knife to cut around the edge of the lid, cutting the top off and leaving the ring to hold the stocking on tightly. I have used one of my ginsu knives on plastic lids.
Also, instead of a ring or other type of lid, you could use a strong rubber band to hold the stocking in place on the jar.
To begin, measure out your seeds and place into the jar, put in water to more than cover the seeds, cover the jar, and give it a shake. I use a little less than 1 tablespoon of seeds in a quart jar. Leave the jar sitting upright for about 24 hours, then rinse several times and set it upside down to drain.
Most directions I have read say to rinse your sprouts three times a day. As far as I am concerned, that is the minimum requirement. I keep my sprouts upside down on a saucer on the kitchen counter or in the dish drainer, I do dishes by hand so the drainer is usually on the counter top anyhow. Every time I go to the kitchen, no matter what else I need to do there, I give each jar a rinse. My sprouts grow in around 5 days. I use a blend of red clover, alfalfa, broccoli, radish, and fenugreek. You should find a good source for your sprout seeds and choose your own custom blend. I buy mine from mountain rose herbs. They are organic and kosher certified.
Some directions say to keep the jars in the dark away from sunlight. This is fine for the bigger bean and pea seeds that you want blanched white for those special recipes. For the smaller seeded varieties, you should keep them on the counter where they are exposed to light but not direct sun. This will cause the little plants on the outside to have green leaves, at this point they are loaded with nutrients including chlorophyll.
As you pour the water from the jars, the water might stop flowing, this is because of the nylon stocking. It is holding back the water, just lightly slap the stocking with your fingers to release the surface tension and the water will flow again. It works best when you hold the jar at an angle instead of completely upside down.
To have sprouts every day I keep two jars going at the same time, one is a few days behind the other. Sometimes it happens that they are both being "harvested" on the same day but that is ok, the sprouts will last for a week or more if properly stored.
To store your sprouts, first you must rinse out the seeds. I simply put the sprouts into a big mixing bowl, cover them with water, swish them around and pull them apart to loosen them up. Then I hold onto the sprouts and pour the water with the seeds into a wire strainer. Swish and drain several times until there are no more seeds left behind. The seeds in the strainer go into the compost heap. You want to get all the seeds out because they will start to spoil before the sprouts will and cause the sprouts to start spoiling. Besides, I don't like running into a seed when I am eating my sprouts.
After a good rinsing, let your sprouts drain very well before storing them in a lidded bowl or a zip lock bag. Excess moisture is an enemy to stored sprouts. Sprouts will mold if there is too much moisture on them when they are stored.
I use my sprouts every day on sandwiches, or as a salad with a little vinaigrette on them.
Each variety of seed you use in your mix will give you some very healthful nutrients in your diet. Many of them fight free radicals as well as having specific health benefits due to their vitamin content.
I live in Ohio so the gardening season doesn't last as long as I would like. Because there are more than 6 months without ready-to-pick fresh produce growing in the garden, I like to use sprouts in the winter. I can't afford to buy sprouts in the store so I grow my own. Even with the cost of buying the seeds, there is significant savings involved in growing your own sprouts. $30 worth of seeds bought online, this includes shipping, will last more than a single winter for me. I buy them separately and mix them in a pint jar. They are kept in the freezer. So for pennies a day you can have a daily serving of the freshest veggies possible.
Since I have canning jars available these days, that is what I use for growing my sprouts. I simply cut the end out of knee high nylon stockings to put over the jar, then screw the ring on over the stocking. If you only have the small mouth jars that is ok, the only difference between them and large mouth jars is that you have to pull the finished sprouts out, but it is an easy thing to do.
This is a small mouth quart jar with a square cut from a nylon stocking held on with a canning ring. I stretch the nylon as tight as I can.
Also, instead of a ring or other type of lid, you could use a strong rubber band to hold the stocking in place on the jar.
To begin, measure out your seeds and place into the jar, put in water to more than cover the seeds, cover the jar, and give it a shake. I use a little less than 1 tablespoon of seeds in a quart jar. Leave the jar sitting upright for about 24 hours, then rinse several times and set it upside down to drain.
Most directions I have read say to rinse your sprouts three times a day. As far as I am concerned, that is the minimum requirement. I keep my sprouts upside down on a saucer on the kitchen counter or in the dish drainer, I do dishes by hand so the drainer is usually on the counter top anyhow. Every time I go to the kitchen, no matter what else I need to do there, I give each jar a rinse. My sprouts grow in around 5 days. I use a blend of red clover, alfalfa, broccoli, radish, and fenugreek. You should find a good source for your sprout seeds and choose your own custom blend. I buy mine from mountain rose herbs. They are organic and kosher certified.
A jar in the dish drainer. There is a north facing window here so there is no problem with direct sunlight from that one. There is also an east facing window so I cover the jars at night with a dish towel before I go to bed so they won't get direct sunlight in the morning and become overheated in the jars.
This jar is about a day away from readiness :)
As you pour the water from the jars, the water might stop flowing, this is because of the nylon stocking. It is holding back the water, just lightly slap the stocking with your fingers to release the surface tension and the water will flow again. It works best when you hold the jar at an angle instead of completely upside down.
To have sprouts every day I keep two jars going at the same time, one is a few days behind the other. Sometimes it happens that they are both being "harvested" on the same day but that is ok, the sprouts will last for a week or more if properly stored.
To store your sprouts, first you must rinse out the seeds. I simply put the sprouts into a big mixing bowl, cover them with water, swish them around and pull them apart to loosen them up. Then I hold onto the sprouts and pour the water with the seeds into a wire strainer. Swish and drain several times until there are no more seeds left behind. The seeds in the strainer go into the compost heap. You want to get all the seeds out because they will start to spoil before the sprouts will and cause the sprouts to start spoiling. Besides, I don't like running into a seed when I am eating my sprouts.
After a good rinsing, let your sprouts drain very well before storing them in a lidded bowl or a zip lock bag. Excess moisture is an enemy to stored sprouts. Sprouts will mold if there is too much moisture on them when they are stored.
I use my sprouts every day on sandwiches, or as a salad with a little vinaigrette on them.
Each variety of seed you use in your mix will give you some very healthful nutrients in your diet. Many of them fight free radicals as well as having specific health benefits due to their vitamin content.
Monday, December 3, 2012
New toy
I bought myself a Christmas present for the garden. It is an
Earthwise TC70001 11-Inch 8-1/2 Amp Electric Tiller/Cultivator. I tried it out today, Dec. 3rd. It is over 55 degrees and earlier it was not rainy but now it is.
This tiller worked great, I am most happy with my purchase. It was on sale on Amazon.
Here is a little patch that it tilled up in just a few minutes. I could have kept going but the garden needs to be cleared of the piles of dead plant material first. The tiller can't be used on long vines or branches because they will wind around the axle. I will save the tilling for spring. At least I know it works like a charm. I love it.
My plan for early spring is to till the entire area then cover some parts of it with the old hay I have waiting. This will keep the weeds from growing, then I will remove it to the compost heap, or to mulch tomatoes or other plants, when I want to plant. The areas that will have wide spaces between rows like the corn and pole beans will be left uncovered. These will be regularly tilled throughout the summer to help keep weeds down, along with a little hoeing.
The garden will be expanded next summer to 50' X 25'. This should be enough to supply one person with vegetables for a year, and then some, weather and pests permitting.
This tiller worked great, I am most happy with my purchase. It was on sale on Amazon.
Here is a little patch that it tilled up in just a few minutes. I could have kept going but the garden needs to be cleared of the piles of dead plant material first. The tiller can't be used on long vines or branches because they will wind around the axle. I will save the tilling for spring. At least I know it works like a charm. I love it.
My plan for early spring is to till the entire area then cover some parts of it with the old hay I have waiting. This will keep the weeds from growing, then I will remove it to the compost heap, or to mulch tomatoes or other plants, when I want to plant. The areas that will have wide spaces between rows like the corn and pole beans will be left uncovered. These will be regularly tilled throughout the summer to help keep weeds down, along with a little hoeing.
The garden will be expanded next summer to 50' X 25'. This should be enough to supply one person with vegetables for a year, and then some, weather and pests permitting.
Wednesday, November 14, 2012
Growing sweet potato slips for next year's crop
Since sweet potato vines are pretty, in my opinion, I am going to grow them in a pot this winter. My indoor greenhouse is still set up so they will get enough light in there. I will plant them outside in the spring when the time is right. But first I will have to grow the vines so that there will be a lot of leaves.
Wherever a leaf joins the stem, there is a place where the vine will send out roots if it is in moist soil or even if it is just placed in water. It only takes a week to grow roots long enough to support the little plant.
Wherever a leaf joins the stem, there is a place where the vine will send out roots if it is in moist soil or even if it is just placed in water. It only takes a week to grow roots long enough to support the little plant.
Sweet potatoes will produce several crops of slips. Here is the beginning of the first set of slips. I got three from this batch.
Here they are after sticking them in water and growing the roots. I picked off the leaves that would be under the soil when they are planted, leaving the ones that would remain above the soil even though where they join the stem will be under the soil. Where the leaf joins the stem is where the roots grow.
This is the same sweet potato with new sprouts on it, there are 6 this time. Note the line marked on the side of the jar. This allows me to keep the water line consistent. The water gets changed daily.
Here is the pot with 3 plants in it. I think only two more will go in here. Then I will have to start a new pot for the rest of the sprouts.
As the vines grow, naturally there will be more leaves. In the spring, when it is about a week before planting time, I will cut the vines from the pot and lay them in a shallow pan of water to sprout. There will be roots at every joint of leaf and stem. Each leaf will make a new plant. When I am ready to plant them out, I will simply cut the vine between the leaves to get the individual plants. I will either sell or give away the extra ones. Or maybe I will just re-pot them and keep the vines going.
Sunday, October 14, 2012
Planting garlic and growing sweet potato vine
A couple of weeks ago I ordered some bulbs of a thin neck garlic variety for my garden. They sent 4 nice big bulbs. I just finished planting half of them. That made a 10 foot row with approximately 24 possible plants for next summer. If this variety grows like the one plant I had this year that means I will have somewhere between 48 and 72 bulbs of garlic next summer. And that is if I don't get the other two bulbs planted. Vampires beware LOL I can't wait until I can make a garlic braid out of it to hang in my kitchen.
About a week ago I took one of my cured sweet potatoes and put it in a jar of water, suspended with 3 toothpicks. There are a few little sprouts on it now and some roots as well. I will use this to get plants for next year's garden if I can keep it alive. It is in my eastern kitchen window.
Update:
After three weeks of growth that sweet potato has some new healthy roots and 3 healthy shoots. When the shoots reach 5-8 inches, depending on how many leaves there are on the vine, I will detach them from the potato and root them, then plant them in a pot to grow over the winter.
I was reading a very informative site about sweet potato growing. It said to place a vine with several leaves in shallow water so that where every leaf joins the vine it is in the water. Keep the water level constant and in a week there will be little roots at every leaf joint. When the roots are long enough you then cut the vine between each leaf and you have your new sweet potato plants, or slips as they are called. These can be planted directly in your garden. It doesn't save time to transplant them to a pot then to the garden because they will have to go through transplant shock twice. This will cause a set back in their growth.
About a week ago I took one of my cured sweet potatoes and put it in a jar of water, suspended with 3 toothpicks. There are a few little sprouts on it now and some roots as well. I will use this to get plants for next year's garden if I can keep it alive. It is in my eastern kitchen window.
Update:
After three weeks of growth that sweet potato has some new healthy roots and 3 healthy shoots. When the shoots reach 5-8 inches, depending on how many leaves there are on the vine, I will detach them from the potato and root them, then plant them in a pot to grow over the winter.
I was reading a very informative site about sweet potato growing. It said to place a vine with several leaves in shallow water so that where every leaf joins the vine it is in the water. Keep the water level constant and in a week there will be little roots at every leaf joint. When the roots are long enough you then cut the vine between each leaf and you have your new sweet potato plants, or slips as they are called. These can be planted directly in your garden. It doesn't save time to transplant them to a pot then to the garden because they will have to go through transplant shock twice. This will cause a set back in their growth.
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