growing season overview

All in all, it was a good year for the garden. We got lots of tasty tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, radishes, lettuce, arugula, and a little bit of several other vegetables and fruits, including green beans, melons, carrots, cabbages, broccoli, eggplants, and squash. Also grew some tasty herbs including dill, basil, borage, and cilantro.

Things to work on next year:

• Harvesting in a more timely fashion.
• Being prepared to preserve the harvest as it comes in (can tomatoes, make pickles, make prepared foods to freeze)
  
• Adding six new beds.
• Growing more of the things that we like best.
• Paying more attention to fall planting (we had a vacation in October, so that threw things off).
• planting more flowers and herbs among my vegetables.
• if my own seedings are not working out, then I will buy seedlings from the local nursery.
• two more earthboxes for my front porch. Plan on growing lettuce, tomatoes, eggplants, and possibly a small squash.
• More hybrids!
• More perrenial flowers.
• Pole beans.
  

Things I grew last year that I will not grow again:

• Okra
• Canteloupe

Things I learned;

• I need to water more.
• For many plants, the particular varieties do not taste all that different.

Reviews of some of the varieties of vegetables:

• Beefsteak tomatoes: I had great success with Early girl. My other beefsteaks did not fare so well, and I intend to concentrate on hybrids for next year, as well as open pollitated varieties that are specifically noted to be heat tolerant. My hybrids were far, far tastier than grocery store tomatoes. I love them and still have a few left.
• I loved all three cherry tomatoes I grew (Ladybug, Jenny, and Snowberry). I'd like to grow them all again and try some others.
  
• Cucumbers: I loved cucumber pepino from Ferry Morse. They were wonderful, and I am definitely growing them again. The lemon cucumbers were cool too. A white cucumber I grew was fine but not worth growing again. I plan to try a variety known for making good gherkins next year.
  
• Eggplant: I tried growing Black Beauty. They were tasty, but very low yields. Next year I plan to try two hybrid varieties from Park.
• Cabbage: Tasty red cabbage Cairo hybrid. Broccoli Packman was good too.
• Melons: I grew several, hated all the canteloupes, thought watermelon Everglade was pretty good. LOVED Amy hybrid, a canary melon.
• Beans: bean festina did great again--only wish I had planted more of it. Next year, I plan to grow it in addition to bush beans. Not so fond of mon petit cheri--kind of bland.
• Greens/lettuce: I love, love, love arugula. It tastes massively better grown at home in cool weather than it does when bought in the grocery store. I also loved my red lettuce mixes, and my heat tolerant mixes, and I have some ideas for extending the lettuce season further by growing it on my back porch during the summer, since it gets only morning sunlight.
  

I may update this as I think of more things...

Garden Update

• Tomatoes not doing so well. I think it's the heat, humidity, and that they need to be watered more. The snowberry cherry tomatoes have done the best, but the orange ones (Jenny) were the tastiest of the three I grew.
  
• Cucumbers continue to produce well. So tasty, and they've been so easy to grow. I have started 3 more regular cucumber vines (can't remember the variety I'm growing) and 3 more lemon cucumbers. I really want to make fresh pack pickles.
• Peppers are holding up to the heat well.
  
• Got more beans on the way. I was surprised by the difference in taste between the two types of bush beans I've tried. I've been saving bean seeds for next year.
  
• We harvested a single eggplant. I'm hoping for a few more, as it was tasty. (Black beauty).
  
• I have 2 canary melons (Amy) almost ripe.
• A couple of watermelons have set fruit!
• My volunteer pumpkin plant is producing a pumpkin, and a volunteer gourd plant is making some gourds.
  
• We harvested some okra, and we both tried to deep fry it, but it was spiney and gross. I should post on a garden forum about that and try and figure it out.
  
• I started about a week or 2 ago 4 broccolis, 4 cauliflower, 2 red cabbage, and 2 white cabbage. They should be ready to go in the garden in September. I hope that will not be too early, especially for the cauliflower.
  
• Things are coming out, and I'm mulching, making space for new plants.
  
• My husband said we definitely need more garden space next year!
• I bought a sprinkler, which I know is not environmentally friendly, but it was taking me over an hour to water the entire garden by hand. Maybe a drip system will be an option for next year, but the sprinkler has been a great source of fun for the children, and I only need to use it for the garden during dry spells, which are not too frequent here.
  

Things I plan to do differently next year:

• Water more when the weather gets hot.
• Forget about growing corn.
  
• Grow melons as mulch around my tomatoes.
  
• Try purple tomatoes.
• Plant more tomatoes.
  
• Try pole beans.
  
• Plant more cucumbers, more varieties, and more of them.
  
• Learn to pickle and can.

More later.

summer planting

Well, I planted more cucumbers and bush beans. I harvested cilantro seeds. I am very confused about how I am going to plant all that I want to plant for fall, when so many plants will probably be going strong until frost. I decided to pull up the corn. It was only supposed to get about 3 ft. high and produce baby corns, but it got much taller than that, only ended up being 3 rows when I had intended for it to be 4, and had just started to flower. I don't want to grow corn--it takes up too much space. I also pulled the malabar spinach. I think it got set back by a cold spell in April or May because it did not seem to be getting any bigger. I put lemon cucumbers in its place.

Update

I haven't updated because I've been busy... gardening.

So, here are a few important things that have happened in the last month or so, especially related to HARVEST...

• Green beans! I still love the festina, not crazy so far about the mon petit cheri.
• Lots of tomatoes! Unfortunately, my green zebra tomatoes are not... I'm not sure if the error is on my end or on the seed company's end! They are red. We've had tasty fried green tomatoes, got early girls, brandywines, the non-green-zebras, and red, yellow, and white cherries. The only problem is that I'm definitely allergic to fresh tomatoes. I get a terrible oral allergy and had to go on prednisone the pain was so bad. So, I'm still trying cooked tomatoes and hoping I can continue to tolerate them!
• We had 3 red cabbages. They were great.
• We did get some broccoli!
  
• Had some sweet peppers, but only green ones so far. We keep needing to eat them before they turn red! Well, we did get a couple of little orange ones.
• Cucumbers, tons of cucumbers. I have really enjoyed these.
• I have a few little melons developing, and I'm very happy about that. Not sure how long it will be before we can eat them.
• Winter squashes and pumpkins are all planted and sprouted.
• I'm starting to think more about fall now--already. I have plans to put in more beds.
  

Update

Here's an update:

Tomatoes: Huge, fruiting like mad. Pulled Glory out because it looked sickly. Have been pruning suckers constantly. Can't wait to eat them!
Borage: blooming!
Cilantro: tasty, letting one flower so I can save seeds
Arugula: trying to figure out how to save seeds from my one huge flowering plant that I have left.
Sweet potatoes: planted
Basil: Thriving
Cucumbers: Growing, starting to get big.
Peppers: Some starting to flower
Green beans: flowering like crazy, at least the first batch
Lettuce: Delicious, delicious
Broccoli: Tasty, but the worms are annoying to pick off
Malabar spinach: Still small
Melons: all varieties planted, with Amy and both watermelons sprouted. Minnesota Midget never grew. Crane, Hale's Best, and Banana seeds just planted a couple of days ago.
Squash: Scallop and spaghetti planted and sprouted.
Cabbages: Huge, forming heads.
Carrots: also tasty, harvested all but the tiny ones, getting too hot. I can't believe I finally grew some carrots!

All trees and bushes planted are going strong, including that raspberry bush I was worried about. I am happy Oliver didn't kill them by pulling them up.

I love eating fresh salad greens. LOVE LOVE LOVE it.

I am really anticipating my tomatoes and peppers and can't wait to taste them.

Broccoli heads!

Well, my broccolis have really started making heads. I don't know if its too late for them, if they'll be ready to harvest in time... My heat-tolerant lettuce is growing in well. I'll just know from now on that I've got to constantly be making little plantings of lettuce. (Or starting it inside).

I did some major tomato pruning today, pruning off some rather large suckers. I hated to do it, but I planted my tomatoes so close together that I kind of had to. Hopefully, I didn't damage the plants. It looks much less like a jungle there. I do wish I hadn't planted my tomatoes so close together, and had interplanted them with other crops, but next year I'll do it a little differently.

I started three types of basils very early (back in February) with the intention of setting them outside on warm days and bringing them in at night. Well, it was annoying to bring them in. The purple basil is doing great, but the other two basils (long-leaf Italian and cinnamon) seem to be permanently stunted. I'm going to replace them with flowers (zinnias or bachelors button probably). Basil does great out in the garden beds, so I doubt I'll do too much container basil growing after the purple flowers.

My sage flowered on the back porch, and the purple flowers were absolutely gorgeous. Didn't get a lot of blooms, but the ones we've had so far have been very impressive.

Did I write about how I almost killed my Greek Oregano plant by leaving it on the front porch in its peat pot and not watering it one day? It looked horribly wilted and dead, but after I brought it in and watered it, it perked up over the next hours and days, and I only lost a couple of stems. I potted it in the largest container I had and then got a 12" clay pot (when they came back in stock in the stores) and put it in that, to be its permanent home.

My nasturtium hanging baskets have enough growth that I'm ready to get them hung on our front porch.

plant overload

More and more thing have been planted. My sweet potato sets came, at about the right time for my area, and they are in the ground. I planted cumin and parlsley seeds.

I started indoors anaheim peppers, mild jalapenos, okra, and more basil. Right now, pretty much all of my beds are completely taken up, which is as it should be. I hope I'll have a patch free up in a week or so, so that I can plant some more bush beans.

But everything seems to be mostly going well. My tomato plants have begun to flower. I'm wondering if I should now start some more tomato seeds, so that we'll have some fresh plants for late in the season?

One of my raspberry bushes has not come out of dormancy, which concerns me. I hope it does. The other 2 are fine, and my 3 blackberry bushes are looking good.

I put mulch mats around my persimmon tree, which is leafing and looking beautiful, as well as my crape myrtles and forsythia. I now only have one forsythia because Tim ran over the other one with the lawn mower! That's okay. It was hard to see.

I planted shasta daisies around one of my Rose of Sharons. I wanted to plant them around both bushes, but I didn't have nearly enough. I will plant white cosmos around the other one this season.

Still enjoying lettuce and arugula, although my last batch of arugula is probably not going to hold of from flowering for long. I will look forward to it again this fall.

My borage is growing. Both Isaac & I tried the leaves, which supposedly tastes like cucumbers. They do... Like fuzzy, weird cucumbers. I don't plan on using it in salads! The taste is fine, but the texture is just weird. Maybe the flowers will taste better.

We also planted white scallop squash today and watermelons (everglade hybrid and malali) the other day. As far as the other melons, still waiting on Minnesota Midget to make an appearance, but Amy hybrid seems to be doing good.

spring woes

Had a salad for lunch and a salad for dinner. There will be no lettuce ready for tomorrow, though. Possibly none for a week or two. This is why lettuce must be started every 7-10 days. Still have the 2nd patch of arugula that has not gone to seed, thankfully. Next year, there will be much more lettuce.

Isaac & I planted more bush beans today (mon petite cheri).

I'll be happy when the sweet potatoes get here, and I know how much space I'm going to use for them. They will be there for a while.

I'm a little disappointed about my broccoli.

I attempted to prune suckers off my tomatoes today. I think I did it mostly right. Next year, it will be easier.

So ready for the summer vegetables to start producing.

Brassicas suck as much as bras do. I think I hate them both.

Need to start more basil.

Tomatillos germinating.

Isaac and I snacked on dill and cilantro today in the garden. It was very peaceful.

more plantings

I planted more heat-resistent lettuce (broke out the Park Seed Summer Glory Blend) today on the far right end of the bed next to my asparagus. I also planted my baby corns (bonus). I do have lettuce coming in, the Burpee heat wave, but it has been germinating very slowly, and I wanted to see if the Park blend did any better. I'm addicted to homegrown salads!

Not sure how excited I am about the baby corn. I put it in my garden schedule to plant every 10 days, but it takes up a lot of space. I think I'll just see how much space I have once my sweet potato slips come, and then plant more baby corn if I have room.

I'm finding that I have space to grow more plants than I realized. I do get nervous about bugs and diseases attacking my beautiful tomatoes. I wish I had interplanted them with other kinds of plants more.

I ordered seeds from Nichols Garden Nursery yesterday, some okra, anaheim peppers, mild janapenos, and some greens to plant this fall (mustard, claytonia).

Investigating options for winter gardening. Should I make a hoop frame with metal stakes and PVC pipe and put a frost blanket over that?

The first melons and cucumbers have sprouted. I'll plant my watermelons this weekend.

I do feel kind of impatient for more things to be ready to harvest! It will be June probably before I get much else. Next year, I think I can have a lot more success by using some technology to protect my plants from the cold springs we have here that so quickly turn hot.

salads

We've had some great lettuce and arugula salads lately. Tim's also been buying bell peppers to cut up in them. In a couple of months, we'll have our own bell peppers too! I've been sowing heat resistent lettuce, but not much of it has germinated yet. I'm afraid we may have a couple of weeks with no/few greens, which makes me sad. I'm finding that it's really important to keep sowing them once a week. It will be easier next year. This year was just so crazy what with all the beds getting put in. I do wish I'd started more lettuce inside, even before we got the beds/dirt.

I just love growing salad greens. It's so convenient. And so much fun to go out to the garden and pick them right before a meal.

I think we are going to get a few carrots. I hope so. I like carrots. I will try again this fall if they don't turn out.

I have plans to save seeds from many of the vegetables in my garden. Arugula, dill, cilantro, beans, anything that I'm only growing one variety of, that isn't a hybrid, and that doesn't cross-pollinate easily, and that is relatively convenient. Tomatoes, peppers, squash, pumkpins, and melons I'll just have to buy when I need them.

I planted the seeds I saved from my cosmos last year, which was cool. I will have a lot more confidence when they germinate. I remember feeling so overwhelmed when I read about seed saving last year. (Oh great, another hippy thing I have to learn to do), but it seems pretty easy for a lot of vegetables and saves a little money. I hope to give some seeds away to friends.

I did take some pictures but haven't uploaded them yet. Some of my tomatoes look like they are going to start flowering soon.

I have put fertilizer pot shots in all my perennial herb pots, except the ones just planted this year. I put about half the recommended amount since herbs aren't heavy feeders.

We planted dwarf runner bean hestia in the earthbox. I thought the beans would be pretty on the front porch.

garden update

Well, over the past several days I've planted basil seedlings (including the ones Isaac & planted together in his bed), more lettuce, cilantro, bush beans. My malabar spinach is coming up. I planted cucumbers. 4/31 we planted 2 varieties of melon, Minnesota Midget and Amy Hybrid.

I found out (from my Heirloom Gardener magazine) that tomatillos have to be planted near one of their own kind in order to set fruit. So, it seems that last year the problem wasn't so much that I was late getting started, just that I grew only one. It pained me to do so, but I pulled up the tomatillo I had planted and started seeds for two more, which I will plant together.

Really enjoying our lettuce and arugula salads. They are so fresh. It's great not to have to eat the greens out of the bag. I got Tim to whip up the oil and vinegar dressing we used to enjoy in California (where we had an awesome grocery store, Jimbo's). The dressings we had been using mask the taste of the greens too much. I need dressings that you can taste the greens through now!

I don't know how some of my vegetables have handled the three days of 90-degree heat we got. My tomatoes seem very happy, as do my peppers, but the broccoli and cabbage seemed to like it much less. I also think my lettuce and arugula turned a tad bitter but still better than grocery store stuff.

Oh yeah, and I planted my persimmon tree and my blackberry and raspberry bushes (3 of each). And Oliver pulled out one of my blackberry bushes twice, another one once. Let's hope they survive. Ah, the hazards of a 16-month-old boy running around the yard!

Right now, I am feeling very positive about providing the majority of our family's produce in the coming months. Next year, I'll be able to do much better, as I understand more about what can grow in our climate and when to plant it.

more flowers

Planted Isaac's marigolds in the front of his playhouse, red sunflowers for a "fence" in the back of it, and then we planted the first row of giant sunflowers that will hopefully shade the tomatoes. Put eggplant out as well. Pulled the peas out. It is getting up into the 80's now. I'm not sure my broccoli or cabbage will make it.

more spring stuff

• Another delicious lettuce, arugula, and radish salad today.
• I planted zinnias around my vegetable garden. Tiny seedlings and seeds. In two months or so, should have beautiful flowers.
  
• A bird is making a nest in a tree in our backyard--with my shredded paper mulch! I am so pleased.
  
• I put bush bean and cilantro seeds in the ground today.
  
• I noticed the bush beans I planted before are sprouting. Borage has also sprouted.
  
• The tomatoes and tomatillo are growing fast.
  
• The coneflower looks so comfortable, all tucked into its mulchy bed. I am really looking forward to seeing what they look like in a few months.
  
• I have tons of flower seeds to plant, so that the backyard is ablaze with blooms from early summer to frost.
  

garden update

A brief update:

• Lettuce, arugula, & radishes harvested yesterday. Isaac had so much fun cutting the leaves of the letture and arugula. Very tasty.
• Coneflower white swan bed prepped and planted with my precious little seedlings started all the way back in February. I am hoping for a very low-maintenance, cheerful little bed there. Read the description from Park.
  
• The arugula is growing so fast that I anticipate another harvest tomorrow, along with the lettuce on the front porch that has VERY quickly grown back! And some radishes too.
• I wonder if I'm picking my radishes a tad on the early side? They are very small but very tasty.
  
• I planted another small lettuce planting today (Burpee heatwave looseleaf type). I guess I will make one more small planting this spring, and after that, I think it will be too hot for even heat-resistent lettuce.
  
• I'm reading The New Victory Garden by Bob Thomson and am getting all kinds of good ideas from him. It's a very thorough book.
  
• I'll be planting melons and cucumbers soon. Starting gourds. Planting squash and pumpkins. And planting tons of low-maintenance annual flowers in the backyard.
  

It's very cool to look out the window and see so many plants out in my garden. I can't believe that this is real. It's been a dream of mine for so long.

Weekend Projects

Today, I went and bought landscape fabric to cover my little coneflower bed. I plan to rake off the mulch and paper, fertilize and add soil, put down the fabric, cut slits and plant my little seedlings (20). Then, I plan to put paper over the patch right next to the sidewalk where the grass grows extremely vigorously (will already have landscape fabric on it) and put a rubber mulch strip down on top of that. I am hoping that this will be a very, very low maintenance bed!

A couple of pink tulips are blooming. I'm not real happy with the tulips. They seem to be a mix that blooms at all different times, so I won't get a big mass bloom. I may cut off the leaves after they bloom and start with a new mix next year.

I think I'm going to go ahead and plant the peppers out tomorrow.

I've got to put one shasta daisy and one banana pepper seedling in peat pots.

I really want to plant some flowers. I have some ideas for a row of flowers around the edges of my vegetable garden space. I don't know how much I'll be able to get to until next weekend.

The shasta daisies got really unhappy in my seed starters, and I had to move them all to peat pots in a potting mix. The coneflower is still in my seed starter, looking very happy and healthy. I hope it remains so out in its new home.

I bought a new plant friend today, a greek oregano plant, at Lowe's. I originally tried to grow oregano from seed with little success. And then I read that its best to buy a young plant because you can't reliably grow a really tasty oregano from seed--each plant will taste a little differently. Also, I had plain oregano seeds, and Greek oregano is supposed to be the best for cooking. All according to Ed Smith of the The Vegetable Gardener's Bible, anyway.

I'll have to get a new clay pot for it. My perinneal herb collection now includes:

• peppermint
• spearamint
• sage
  
• garlic chives
• chives
• St. Johns Wort
• oregano

I got a nice new load of garden books at the library today. I wish I were less tired so I could stay up and read them. I have water my houseplants before I crash.

The Self-Sufficient Suburban Gardener by Jeff Ball

Title: The Self-Sufficient Suburban Gardener
Author: Jeff Ball

Review: I found this book at the library. I thought the title was a bit overly ambitious, but I took it home anyway, and I really liked it. It has many ideas for growing most of ones own produce in the backyard. Many of the ideas he presents (raised beds, crop rotation, successive planting) are very much in vogue right now. The author's tone is pleasant and practical. One thing that strikse me funny is how gardening authors talk about how cheaply gardening can be done (but, of course, they themselves invest a sizable sum of money into their garden). Ball is no exception to this.

My only major criticism of the book is the chapter on backyard agriculture (bees, bunnies, and chickens). It's a purely speculative chapter with no personal experience to back up the ideas, nor any interviews with people who have. My husband's family did try the bunny thing one year (on their hobby farm), and let's just say that killing bunnies wasn't much fun for my husband's dad. I just think the author could have reduced that chapter to a paragraph, since it didn't contain much practical information.

Overall, a good read.

book reviews

Since I've read so many gardening books, and I'm not stopping anytime soon, I decided to start writing reviews. Plus, tonight I am plumb out of gardening books to obsess over. I must go to the library tomorrow and replenish my supply.

winter greens

These are the fresh greens I'd like to try for this winter:

• arugula
• corn salad
  
• spinach
• claytonia
• mustard
• sprouts

I want to see how much of the year I can keep us in tasty fresh vegetables.

Tomatoes

Planted out all the rest of my tomatoes today! I may still have to protect them a couple of nights, but the forecast is actually looking warmer than it was. I am very much looking forward to some tasty tomatoes in a couple of months.

Our first harvest of the year and more photos

Picking radishes on Easter morning

Radish Pink Beauty from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds

Lettuce (various from Park Seed) grown in a self-watering container (Earthbox)

Washed and prepared for our Easter salad

Arugula

Broccoli

From Norfolk Botanical Garden

Onions

Good link for planting onions in the fall for those of us in zone 8:

Onion Planting

Know Before You Grow

I have found the information in the Park Seed catalog and newsletter to be extremely helpful, one reason I've bought so many seeds and supplies from them.

Their Know Before You Grow fact sheets are very helpful and can be found here:

Park Seed: Gardener Library

more

We started Isaac's basils today. He did it all himself, really. He is growing the three types of basil I bought: long leaf Italian, cinnamon, and a purple kind.

I put some protection over my tomato plants, confused about what day it was. It's actually tomorrow where it's getting down to 37. Oh, well, I guess I'll just do it again.

I need to make a database where I check of when I start things indoors, when I set them outside, , when I see sprouts, and when I harvest, especially the first 2 because I have no idea when to expect them to be ready.

first mow of the year

My husband is out mowing for the first time this year. I remember last year I was so proud when he would go out and mow on Saturdays. It just felt like we were real grownups with a real house, and we actually are.

I have taken a lot of space out of the lawn--we had plenty to spare--for my vegetable garden, so the backyard should be considerably faster now.

I planted more Pink Beauty radishes. Planted them in the Miracle Grow soil just to see if they grow differently/worse there. I am working on ammending that soil with compost and more of the soil I bought locally.

I am glad that I've been trying several varieties of different plants because I learn so much that way and feel like I have a higher chance of success. If all I planted was the Sparkler radishes, for instance, in that one spot, I would be very disappointed in radishes in general.

I am disappointed in carrots. I am getting A FEW carrots in one of my local-soil beds, but the original ones I planted disappeared. I have harvested NO CARROTS yet, although I have planted them several times. I will keep trying, and if all else fails, I will grow some baby ones in an Earthbox next spring.

Tonight is supposed to be cold, so I will have to protect my tomatoes. And then we have only one more cold night forecast--April 23. We'll see. Unless the forecast changes, I won't plant out any more tomatoes or peppers until then.

I put away my grow lights, since I'm just setting my seedlings out every morning and bringing them in at night.

My aluminum plant cutting appears to be developing some roots. I did not buy root powder for it, since that was $5, and young aluminum plants are quite cheap.

work before the storm

Showers forecast for tonight--I am always happy about that.

I got some work done today, since my husband had a little time off. I am preparing the garden along our back fence. I put cardboard down, and then shredded paper, and then a thin layer of cedar mulch for aesthetics. It doesn't completely cover the shredded paper, but it makes it look better. I am done with half of it, have another half to do. I think it will look fine once I have lots of flowers growing.

I had started some lettuce seedlings, and Isaac happily helped me plant those.

I have decided to go head with harvesting my Earthbox lettuce for Easter lunch. Hopefully, it will grow again. Next year, I will be sure and start lots of greens much earlier. I'm hoping that I'll be able to keep us in arugula and claytonia (if we like it--haven't tried claytonia) all winter.

Now, we are concentrating on starting flower seedlings. Easy things that could be self-sown, but I find I don't have the patience to go out and water seedlings for 2 weeks. It's much easier to use peat pellets and just pull off that plastic netting stuff, and then plant them out before a rain is expected.

I'm afraid that 2 of my chive seedlings died--set them out too early. I guess I will try again! It is ridiculous growing chives from seed--I know it's ridiculous, but I can't stop myself.

Cow Pots

CowPots sound kind of cool. I might buy some to start seeds in next year. They do seem quite a bit more expensive than peat pots, but better for the environment, so I don't know. I may just make newspaper pots.

Saving arugula seeds

I don't plan on sowing any more arugula until the fall, and since I'm only going one variety, the basic one, and don't have to worry about cross-pollination, I plan to save seeds from it. It sounds pretty easy:

Gardenerd: Saving Arugula Seeds

Arugula

I somehow missed this funny story about President (then Senator) Obama and arugula from 2007:

Obama talks arugula -- again -- in Iowa

I am so excited about my own arugula. I gave Isaac an arugula sprout this afternoon, and he wanted more. It shouldn't be more than a week or two when we can start eating it. It looks like I planted arugula first on March 10. So it hasn't even been a month since I planted it. I'm very impatient.

The pink beauty and saxa 2 radishes appearto grow a lot faster than my sparkler ones. I would have thought the sparklers would be ready by now. Well, I'm planning on a fresh salad for Easter, so I'll be harvesting some lettuce from my earth box and hopefully radishes from the garden too.

Tuesday night is looking really cold. I hope the newspaper that I plan to cover my tomatoes with works. The forecast is currently showing a low of 33 F.

We got a good rain today, so I'm off the hook watering for a few days at least.

It's funny that I'm doing everything so early this year when last year it was all so late.

The weekend ends

Today, I planted the rest of the cockscomb that looked alive. I won't have as much of it as I wanted, but I'll just hope that some of it comes up. I saw seedlings trying to grow in that bed. I think I will have many cosmos and zinnia "volunteers." Which is just fine. I also planted some alyssum seedlings with my son. They should be very pretty.

I need to dig out the edge of that front garden, put paper down as a weed barrier, and then cover that with a few inches of mulch. I don't know when I'll get to that. The tulips look like they are coming in strong! I imagine that they'll bloom in early May.

I had my husband try an arugula sprout that I thinned earlier today. He was actually impressed, which pleased me. (He's not easily impressed.) They do taste quite wonderful.

I'm hoping that in a week we'll have some lettuce and radishes for salads. It may be two weeks though.

My tomato plants outside have a nice color and seem to be settling in. The ones I'm keeping indoors do not look quite so happy. I put the rest of them in peat pots and am getting them ready to live outside too. Tues and Wed now are both expected to be cold nights. So Thursday or later they will go out. I'll keep the peppers and eggplants another couple of weeks.

Plants I want to try next year

I'm already thinking ahead to what I'll try next. I'm forcing myself not to buy any more seeds until I make my order for cool-season flowers and vegetables (if I need/want any more) this fall.

I want to try (that I haven't tried yet or have seeds for)

• Peanuts
• Huckleberry
• Alpine strawberries
• Pole beans
• Black-eyed peas
• Snap peas
• Spinach
• Onions from seed
• Baby Carrots
• Pattypan squash
• Mustard greens
• Okra
• Purple tomatoes
• Ornamental corn
• Claytonia
• Garlic
  

flowers and more

OK, let me say, it was a poor idea to use garden soil in my peat pots instead of potting soil. My cockscomb became very unhappy in the wet conditions, and then I let it dry out too much, and it got all wilted. Several of my seedlings died from drowning, and others died from drought. But some have prevailed. I planted several out in the garden and plan to plant more tomorrow. I hope that they will be okay on these cold nights Tues. and now Wed. But I feel like they're safer out there than they were in the poor conditions I was subjecting them to. Okay, only potting soil in containers. Yes, only potting soil in containers. (My blueberry bush is growing happily in garden soil in a container.)

I think I also prefer to use a special "moisture max" potting soil for my containers rather than the organic one I've been getting. I'm no purist.

My echinacea is still growing in my seed starter, and it looks very happy in there. I will be transferring it to peat pots soon, because I need to start getting it used to the outside world, and I need the space under the lights. Most of it can go. I will have 18 seedlings in all, which should fill up the area I have designated for it nicely. I was looking at pictures of it (coneflower white swan) on google images, and I think it will be such a lovely planting and perfect for that difficult spot next to the pavement. I hope it will smell nice as we walk by it on our way in out of the cars. My first perinnial flower to commit to...

Four of my chive seedlings are ready to go to their pot, so I will get them fixed up tomorrow. I'm ready to put St. John's Wort out there too. It is still very small.

I like the way all my clay pots look from the street. The herbs should be very striking when they bloom. The speariment looks crazy healthy. I'm glad it is so happy. The peppermint is coming in nicely too. It had a more difficult start than its cousin. It was put out in the heat of the summer and not watered enough. But it seems to have recovered from my initial neglect.

When we moved here, I wasn't so interested in flowers--only vegetables. I didn't know that most of my vegetables would be producing flowers! And my herbs. And I learned about how flowers would attract bees to my vegetables. I love the flowers that basically grow themselves, and those are the only ones I'm much interested in.

I tried some garden planning software tonight, a 45 day free trial. It was interesting, but I honestly prefer to make loose plans and then improvise.

How many plants?

Well, this is a helpful link! I don't know how accurate it is, but it is a good starting point, when trying to figure out how many vegetables to plant.

How Much to Plant Per Person in the Vegetable Garden

Found Another:

What to Grow for a Family of 4

They totally contradict each other!

Planting Schedule

The website Heirloom seeds has a really helpful planting schedule based on last frost date for spring and first frost date for fall.

Spring Planting Schedule
Fall Planting Schedule
Flower Planting Schedule

spring, spring, spring

The maple tree I planted in the front yard a few weeks ago is coming out of dormancy, as are the crabapple and dogwood in the back. I'm still waiting to see about the crape myrtles, but I did see some green on my blue rose of sharon bushes. I am so excited about those. I am going to plant shasta daisies around them, and I think they will look so beautiful in the summertime.

When my other saplings came a few weeks ago, I received 2 free forsythias from the Arbor Day Foundation. I wasn't sure I wanted them though and didn't get around to planting them. However, the forsythias around town have been so lovely this week that I regretted that. I had shoved them in the pantry, and I went to look at them, and they were coming out of dormancy. Any shrub that hardy deserves a place in my yard. So, I planted them. Hopefully, they'll be all right and produce beautiful yellow flowers next spring.

No frost forecast yet, but it is supposed to get down to 35 on Tuesday night. I'm going to investigate my options for protecting my tomatoes. This article has a lot of good ideas: Protecting Plants from Frost. I'm hoping the forecast changes by then. If it doesn't, I will try covering them with newspaper. My tomato seedlings are very small.

Speaking of that, I saw at Lowe's many large, lovely plants for planting in the garden, including large specimens of Early Girl, which I have growing. They were cheap. It made me wonder why I bothered starting my own seeds... Except that I enjoy it.

My tomato towers finally came, and I have them installed. I had bought bamboo stakes since I was convinced the towers wouldn't be here in time, so I'll have to find another use for them (shouldn't be hard).

I feel like my asparagus should be here by now. I will have to check on it.

One of my houseplants, my "aluminum plant" got very "leggy" and ugly in the low light situation that my parlor palm and spider plant do not mind. It also prefers its soil to stay moist, whereas they prefer a wet-dry cycle. I moved it upstairs to the office, where it could get more light, and I could water it more, but it is just ugly. So, I am going to root a cutting of it and then compost the poor thing. I think the dry winter air upset it. This will be my first attempt at rooting a cutting.

So much waiting! Waiting for asparagus crowns, waiting for spring vegetables to grow, waiting for the weather to warm to put in later plantings. I'm already planning for fall, winter, and spring as well. Thinking of naturalizing daffodils in the front lawn since my crocuses croaked/bulbs were likely eaten by squirrels. (Here's a link I liked on Naturalizing Daffodils.)

Tomatoes out in the garden

Maybe I'm crazy, but I am pretty sure we're not even going to get close to having another frost. My tomato seedlings looked unhappy, and I decided it wouldn't hurt to put one of each kind of tomato out in the garden. If they die, I have a back-up for each. If the weather stays nice, I think they'll be much better off.

I may not plant the back-up of all of them, if the ones currently out make it, especially the hybrids. I marked each with a little wooden plant tag. I guess I'm going to go to Lowes and get some stakes since my tomato towers STILL AREN'T here. I would cancel the order, but they were a good price, and I will just use them next year.

The tomatoes I planted:

Early Girl (hybrid)
Glory (hybrid)
Container Choice (hybrid, bush)
Brandywine (heirloom)
Pineapple (heirloom)
Green Zebra (heirloom)

The cherries:
Jenny (non-hybrid, yellow)
Ladybug (hybrid, red)
Snowberry (heirloom, white)

Depending on the forecast, I may plant my peppers out within the next couple of weeks, at least one of each type.

I think next year, I will probably start an early variety this early but save my mid and late season varieties to start 3-4 weeks before the last frost.

watching my plants grow

Every day, I check my little plants. The lettuce in the Earth Box is looking pretty tasty. I imagine we'll have some great harvests of that in about a month.

My tomato seedlings aren't looking the greatest. I think I am overwatering so will watch that. Next year, I will not start them until about March 15th.

Peppers continue to look nice.

My broccoli seems happy planted out in a bed.

Very excited about the arugula. I keep eating the thinnings, and they are so damn tasty.

My mints on the porch and my garlic chives look wonderful. I got pots today for my St. John's Wort and my regular chives. Soon they will join the other herbs on the porch. My herb pots look cool from the street, or so I think.

I also got today a couple of hanging baskets to grow nasturtiums. I have high hopes that they will look quite striking.

My crab apple tree is coming out of dormancy, as is my sugar maple.

My little dwarf blueberry bush is leafing out like crazy. I love it.

I am getting a little antsy waiting for April 15th. I think it will be very safe to plant out everything by then, particularly with global warming.

I turned my compost today, both piles from last year, combining them. I was going to use more of the older one, but I really didn't think it looked quite finished enough, so I just used a few shovelfulls. It looks pretty good though, and I think after the hot summer, with a few turnings, it will be beautiful, finished compost that I can probably work into the soil late this fall. I am very proud of it. I even liked the way it smelled, a nice earthy smell. Interestingly, I saw absolutely no unpleasant creatures in it, just worms. I only seem to see gross bugs in the very fresh stuff.

Our yard is so pretty with blooming weeds, purple, white, and blue, and the yellow dandilions. I read that clover draws nitrogen from the air into the soil. We have plenty of that--free fertilizer for our lawn!

I am devouring gardening/farming books.

more seeds in the ground

I planted more radishes, carrots, and arugula yesterday. I planted the carrots and radishes together, as was recommended, since the carrots are SO SLOW at germinating, and the radishes supposedly break up the soil for them. Carrots really are slow to grow. Really, really slow. That's my third batch of carrots and radishes. I am guessing I'll have some radishes to eat in a week or two and carrots maybe in a month, maybe more. The peas get a little taller each day, but they are still small.

I now understand why a lot of people just go to the store, buy young plants, and stick them in the ground. (Not that you can do that with carrots and radishes.) But still. Starting from seed takes a lot of patience and a lot of hope. And a lot of making sure the soil stays moist.

Garden update

Well, things are going well. The six new beds are in, along with all the soil. The surrounding area was mulched by my wonderful husband this weekend, including a large area in front of the beds to be used for melons, winter squash, and pumpkins. We had the mulch delivered in a truck, just like our soil, much cheaper than buying by the bag, and we were glad we could support a small local business.

I am beyond excited.

My carrot seedlings are finally making a mass appearance. I am doing my best to stay on top of watering, unlike last year.

I am confused about what is growing in one bed. Of the two cabbage seedlings I planted, one perished, and the other seems to be doing okay. Radishes have sprouted. I think arugula has sprouted. Broccoli may have. I was suprised that the watercress I planted didn't come up at all. Weird.

We lost one seedling of tomato pineapple to my toddler.

My seedlings that I'm growing indoors are doing great. My cockscomb is sprouting in its pea pots, and I can't wait to see how that looks in our front yard this year. I should have blooms by early summer!

There are a few things I can do, but so much of it is just waiting until late April/early May to really get stuff planted. I have some supplies ordered that have not been shipped yet, which is making me nervous.

My lettuce continues to grow in the front. Herbs doing well.

Need to plant some more spring vegetables this week, more carrots, radishes, and arugula.

I'm wondering when my asparagus will be shipped? I'm ready for it.

All the pine tree saplings I planted died. I plan to try container saplings this fall instead of bare root.

The compost that I turned has sunk several inches. I love decay.

I've got big plans for incoorporating (easy) flowers in and around my vegetable garden, as well as all along the back fence. I'll just plant as I have time.

some recent garden pictures

Pretty Weeds in our lawn

pea seedlings (maestro)

radish seedlings (organic radish sparkler)

ornamental pears in bloom

6 cubic yards of soil (well, some had already been wheelbarrowed to the backyard)

Snow day! You can see my 6 beds and the compost pile. The peas, radishes, and carrot seeds all survived the snow.

Composting paper (including glossy)

I thought these links had interesting information about composting paper. It seems like a lot of information and misinformation is repeated on the Internet, until something seems true, even if it isn't.

http://earth911.com/garden/composting/13-common-myths-of-composting/
http://mailman.cloudnet.com/pipermail/compost/2000-November/007651.html

I'm going to start using all types of paper as mulch because I need vast amounts for my backyard flower garden.

nice link on tomatoes

Helpful link on starting tomato seeds:

http://faq.gardenweb.com/faq/lists/tomato/2005015135020413.html

indoor seedlings

Well, my grow light finally came. I ordered it months ago, and it was put on backorder. I was impressed that it came on a Saturday. I wonder if other customers complained (I didn't) because it was really kind of annoying to have it come after the time that many people have already started their seeds. It's nice having my seedlings all set up under it. The windowsill worked okay, but having to put a cardboard box over it to keep a baby and a cat away from it was annoying. I'll have to take some pictures of my new setup.

I am very happy that my echinacea (white swan) has sprouted so well. It was very slow to sprout, and it is supposed to be a major part of my front garden this year. I started 18 little pods of it, and I have 12+ sprouts now.

I started cockscomb/celosia (bombay and china town) in peat pots for the other side of my front garden. Last year, We moved in around the first of April, and it was weeks before I got seeds in the ground. I'm hoping for some early summer blooms this year!

I also started 3 kids of shasta daisies (dwarf snow lady, crazy daisy, white knight) for the backyard around my blue Rose of Sharon bushes that I hope are going to come out of dormancy.

I'm really unsure of how the trees I planted are going to do. I worry about them.

My peppers are looking vigorous, and nearly all of the pods have sprouts. I moved my St. John's Wort to a peat pot. It should be a pretty plant.

My garlic chives and mints seem happy, although the regular chives I'm starting from seeds are not doing so well. My sage seems to be doing better in the backyard, even though it got snowed on.

Peas and radishes coming in well. Carrot sprouts are still few and far between, which I'm disappointed about. I really, really want to grow delicous carrots!

The lettuce in the Earth Box looks lovely. I'm very pleased with it.

sprouts

So, I now have pea sprouts (maestro) and carrot sprouts (purple haze, scarlet nantes) in addition to the radishes (organic radish sparkler), which I never wrote about here I guess, but I have radish sprouts. Radish and carrot seeds were planted either at the same time as or a couple days later than the peas. Very exciting. Especially since I put them in the ground weeks ago. So much waiting and wondering if anything is going to come up.

I'm restless. I have so many different seed packets, so many interesting varieties of vegetables and herbs, and 192 square feet of raised beds in addition to the hills I plan to sow melons, squash, and pumpkins in. But I have to wait another month to put most things in. And then there are the flowers too...

I'm a little overwhelmed, a little afraid that everything will fail. I've done so much planning and dreaming, and now is the time for the DOING.

I starting turning my compost today, the pile that I started in the fall. The contents were very recognizable for the first couple of feet, but the bottom of the pile looks very compost-y. That was gratifying. I would have finished turning it, but it got dark. I plan to let that pile sit for a year, with periodic turns, of course. It should do well in the summer sun. I am confident I will have some nice homemade compost for next spring.

update

The new beds are in. 6 cubic yards of soil dumped on our driveway and hauled to the backyard by my husband! (Not all of it was for the garden beds.)

I planted more carrots (scarlet nantes, purple haze) and radishes (saxa 2) today, 2 cabbage seedlings (cairo), cabbage, califlower (amazing), and brocolli (packman) seeds, dill (fernleaf), arugula, and watercress.

So far, in the bed I planted earlier, only the radishes have poked up, but I dug up a pea seed last week that had sprouted. I still have hope for the carrots, and I'm doing my best to keep it watered.

My tomato seedlings are doing beautifully! I have most of them in peat pots and my hybrid determinite in its pot. My pepper seedlings are also doing well. Got a tomatillo seedling too. I had trouble germinating those last year.

I planted my self-watering earth box with lettuce, and I am very pleased. It's on the front porch.

I also put three pots with 3 basil plants each out. I can move them in if it gets very cold.

I moved my sage to the backyard where it will get some shade and morning sun but no afternoon sun. I think it will be happier there.

late winter projects

Put some peas in the ground today. I decide to try growing them around some tomato cages, since I have them.

I started seeds yesterday for:

• lettuce (3 loose-leafed varieties)
  
• basil (large leafed Italian, red rubin, cinnamon)
  
• cherry tomatoes (jenny, ladybug)
  
• regular tomatoes (early girl, container choice, pineapple, glory)
  
• peppers (karma, carmen, sweet pickle, sweet banana, golden summer, ancho 101)
  
• eggplant (black beauty)
  
• califlower (amazing)
  
• cabbage (cairo)
  
• some herbs including coneflower white swan, which I intend to plant in the trouble side of my front garden.
• tomatillo (toma verde)
  

I feel like the califlower and the cabbage may be a little too late, but maybe not...

I also mulched the front beds. I called a local supplier of soil and was much impressed by what he told me about their soil/compost blend. My husband is going to build the rest of my beds this weekend, and then I intend to have soil and mulch delivered near the next weekend.

It's funny to think back on last year and how I planted everything so late and didn't water nearly enough, didn't mulch, had no idea what I was doing... I'm surprised I grew anything at all!

Reflections on 2008

Well, I stopped updating, but I thought I would just write a little bit about everything that I grew last year, so that I'll remember!

Warm-Season Vegetables:

• Beans: I grew bush beans, Bean Festina, purchased at Park's Seed. They were so easy to grow and delicious. I plan to grow lots of them again this year and hopefully save some seeds too.
• Tomatoes: I tried growing Tomato Container Choice and Tomato Glory Hydrid. I failed. I did not understand how to harden off seedlings, and I started them way too late.
• Peppers: I grew two Pepper Golden Summer Hybrid plants. (Was available from PS.) They survived my inexperienced hands, and produced four peppers. They would have produced more, but we had a frost. They were tasty, but not that much different from bells in the store.
• Tomatillios: (Toma Verde from PS) My beautiful tomatillo plant was killed in a frost. I started it too late in the season for it to fruit in time.
• Squash: I grew Early Butternut Hybrids from PS. They produced 2 squashes, which were delicious. Again, they needed to start earlier and needed more water and mulch.
• Pumpkins: I grew Little Pumpkaroon (PS) and Howden (PS). I got one or two Pumpkaroons. The Howden didn't fruit--too late and not enough water.
• Gourds: Grew several types. Harvested one small gourd. Gardener error.
  

Cold Season Vegetables:

• Califlower: Califlower Amazing (PS): failed due to gardener error.
• Cabbage: Cabbage Cairo (PS): failed due to gardener error.
• Carrot: Scarlet Nantes (PS): failed due to gardener error.
• Lettuce: Various from PS. We had one really awesome salad from a red type. The bunnies appeared to eat the rest, sadly.
• Radishes: Organic Radish Sparkler (PS). A few of these did quite well.
• Onions: The onion sets I got from PS did not grow. I think maybe they were planted too deep or didn't have enough fertilizer. OR WATER.
  

These herbs did pretty well in containers. All from PS.

• Basil Large Leaf Italian (also grew in garden for son to munch on)
• Garlic Chives
• Sage
• Peppermint
• Spearmint

These herbs didn't work out, I need to try again:

• Fernleaf Dill (Burpee)
• Lavendar Sancho Panza

Free Issues to Gardening Magazines

I love to read magazines, and I love to garden, so I've been looking for some magazines that I could try for free first. The following magazines offer a free issue (at this time):

• Organic Gardening
• Horticulture
• Gardening How-To
  

If you know of more, please comment.