Radishes, Parsnips, Carrots, Dill, Mache, Borage, Arugula--I can't wait

I am so happy--I got everything planted that I wanted to get planted today.  (I'm not going to have time for the next week or so.)  Last spring, I was traveling and missed the early spring.  This year, I'm really hoping to make a delicious salad for Easter. 

Not only that, but I harvested a wheelbarrow full of beautiful compost that I really needed to spread on half of one of my beds.  And there's still more compost to use. 

Today, I planted these seeds:

Radishes:  How I love radishes.   I went insane and planted a whole bunch of them.  I put three varieties in:  plain round red ones, a multi-colored mix, and a long white variety.  I love all kinds.  Radishes and dip are ever so much tastier than chips and dip.  Radishes give a salad spice.  They have to be harvested while they are relatively small and before the weather gets hot in order to taste good. 

Parsnips:  I've never grown these before, so I decided I would try them this year.  I planted them in with my radishes.  I was expecting parsnip seeds to look more like carrot seeds, so I was shocked to open the packet and discover how big and strange-looking they are.  I'm supposed to harvest them after frost.  I'm not sure how that will work out with such a long growing season here, but hopefully they will be tasty cooked in butter. 

Carrots:  I also planted these with radishes to mark where I planted.  I put in a lovely rainbow mix.  Carrots are fun, but I don't love them as much as radishes because they take longer, and I don't like the way they taste as much.  But I think my kids will really enjoy harvesting them and eating them. 

Dill:  I planted a variety of dill that will grow extra tall.  Dill is so important for attracting painted lady caterpillars.  In fact, I mostly grow it for the beautiful caterpillars and butterflies, but we do use it some for cooking.  It is also a tasty snack  for my boys when they are out in the backyard. 

Mache:  Another experiment for me.  Mache is a type of cool-season salad green.  I'm worried that it was a little late in the season to plant it, but hopefully it will come up.  I actually tried to plant it before but never found the seedlings.  Either it didn't come up, or I thought it was a weed and pulled it.  (Note to self: mache in approximately the center of far right garden bed). 

Borage:  This herb produces cucumber tasting leaves and flowers.  I put it in the corners of the bed I will plant tomatoes in this year.  Supposedly, borage is good for tomatoes somehow.  I don't know if that's true, but I'm sure it attracts pollinators.  It's fun for my kids to eat the flowers.  And I love eating the flowers too. 

Arugula:  I already put in some arugula plants, but I sowed some seeds today too, as you can't really have too much arugula.  I discovered the secret to making the plants last--just pick the leaves mercilessly.  The sturdy, weedy plant does fine with just a few.  But arugula inevitably will bolt, and then the leaves don't taste good, but the peppery flowers are delicious.  Arugula is a funny plant, so expensive in stores but so easy to grow in cool weather.  It is a million times better when picked fresh out of the garden, like all salad greens, but more so. 

And my pea seeds were sown on Monday.  I am so excited about snacking on what we call "pea candy" in late May and early June.  (That makes my kids sound kind of deprived.  I'm not one of those moms who doesn't let her kids eat real candies or sweets--they really do love the garden peas like candy though.)  

To top off such a great gardening day, we're getting a gentle rain on the already moist soil tonight.  With sandy soil and raised beds, I never have to worry about getting too much water.  I love it when my planting works out to be in sync with the weather. 

Grow, tasty little plants, grow. 

Early Spring Planting

On  Friday, I went to the local garden center and bought spinach and, yes, my favorite, arugula.  I also bought some beets on a whim.  I've grown beets from seed before in the fall.  It warms up here so fast, I thought they might do better if I got plants, so that they could mature before it got too hot.

Time to get the garden started after a winter that was colder and wetter than usual.  We don't get much snow here, and it's really not pleasant to be outdoors in a cold, muddy swamp, so I am thrilled that spring is slowly creeping in.

My garlic grew beautifully over the winter, and I expect to be able to harvest it in June.  I won't make the same mistake I made a couple of years ago, when I planted tomatoes amongst the garlic.  The tomatoes grew so fast that I never found most of my garlic!  Of course, I managed to kill one of my garlic plants while I was weeding, but those things happen.  I have many garlic plants, so I did not grieve too much.  

On Saturday, I had a swim meet and meant to at least water my seedlings but didn't.  Today (Sunday) I planted them.  Four of the arugula plants looked a little wilted, and so did a couple of the beets.  I am so mad that I didn't water them yesterday.  But I watered them as they went in.  I'm pretty sure the arugula will recover.  And I planted while it was drizzling.  Hopefully, we'll get plenty of rain this week so those roots can grow.

This week, I'd like to plant these seeds:

• garden pea
• radishes
• parsnips

And if I get to them

• carrots
• more radishes
• arugula
• lettuce

But the first ones are my priority.  I always plant radishes with carrots, and I think I'll do the same thing with the parsnips.

I love early spring crops.  I wasn't looking forward to planting today, as the temperature was in the 40's, and the sky was overcast, but it was a humid nice kind of cool outside, a lovely day.  

Worm Bin: One Year

Wow, I can't believe it's been a whole year since I got my worm bin, the Worm Factory 360.  I am just now getting ready to harvest my first tray.  I meant to do it quite some time ago but didn't get around to it.  I have four trays in use now.  When I examined them today, the bottom one was seemingly empty of worms and is completely made up of castings, except for some very little bits of paper, cherry tomato skin, egg shells, and cherry pits.  I am going to add it to my tomato plants out in the garden tomorrow.  I have put it on the top tray and left the lid open, so that it can dry out just a little, and to make sure all the worms migrate down. 

The next-to-bottom tray also appeared to be mostly castings.  I will add it to my garden in July.  The next tray from the bottom is still a work-in-progress.  The top tray is kind of smelly right now because I added some old blanched cauliflower a couple of days ago.  I added additional paper to cover the smell, but I think the worms are just going to have to eat it to make the smell go away, so I won't add any more food for about a week. 

I continue to be very unscientific with feeding my worm bin.  I try to give them a lot of variety, and I feed them when I think it might be a good time.  If it gets smelly, or I get fruit flies, I know I have overfed them.  I'm glad I have a backyard compost also, because my bin isn't yet able to handle most of the fruit and vegetable waste that we get rid of. 

I'm very excited about adding the castings to my tomatoes! 

The orange tree I keep almost killing

A few years ago, I bought a dwarf orange tree for $10 at Lowe's to keep in a container on my back porch and bring inside during the winter.  Container plants can be a challenge in the summer because it gets so hot here, and we usually have a spell without rain, AND my biggest problem with gardening is not watering enough. 

So, each year it struggles during our hot spells in the summer and struggles with my lack of watering it indoors in the winter.  This year, I went out of town for a few weeks, and realized that I had forgotten to give my husband instructions on watering it.  I figured that was it for the tree and kicked myself for not remembering.  I had also intended to repot it before going out of town, but didn't have time. 

When my husband joined me on the trip after 4 weeks, he mentioned that my tree had seemed "dry" and that he had set it outside, to soak up our ample spring rain, since he figured the danger of frost had past.  I was surprised to hear that my tree was still living and thanked him for his thoughtfulness. 

When I returned home, I discovered that his version of "dry" was that it was brown, and all the leaves had fallen off.  "It's dead," I told him.  "It's not your fault; I didn't tell you to water it."  He expressed optimism that it might come back.  I am too lazy to take care of anything in a timely fashion, so before I could compost my little dead tree, it started growing green leaves like crazy. 

I remained concerned that I had stressed and damaged so much that it will never be capable of producing fruit, and wanted to get rid of it anyway, but those new green leaves looked so pretty and vigorous.  When I shook the think loose of its pot, I saw that it was potbound.  It just looks like it wants to live, so I won't kill it. 

I cut off the parts that appeared to be truly dead and repotted it today.  I hope it is happy in its new pot with fresh soil. 

Basil Perpetuo, a dream come true

Today, an order I had placed with the Burpee catalog came.  I got 2 more tomato plants and a pepper plant.  All were varieties I couldn't find enough of at my local garden store, but then, of course, after I had ordered them, I discovered the garden store had gotten more plants in stock, including one of the tomato plants I had wanted, as well as the pepper plant (poblano). 

In addition, I ordered 3 basil plants, of a variety called "perpetuo."  I grew it last year.  It's a great plant because it never flowers.  Flowering makes basil taste bitter, although I do know people who keep on using it after it has flowered.  I don't recall the flavor of perpetuo being quite as strong as that of the regular old basil, so I will have to check on that, but it was quite good.  And it was very nice to continue to have basil after all my other had flowered.

 So, perpetuo is a mutant plant that doesn't flower.  It also has pretty green and white leaves.  And, the best part is, apparently it can be wintered over indoors!  I can have basil all year without starting seeds.  I am putting two of my perpetuos in the garden and one in a pot on my deck.  In October, I will bring it inside and hope that it will get enough light in my bedroom to survive the winter.  Apparently, these plants can grow up to 4 feet tall.  Imagine having a beautiful varigated basil 4-foot in a pot to make pesto out of year round. 

Hopefully, I will not kill my basil perpetuo.  I will post again this winter as to how my mutant basil is doing indoors. 

Picking up the pieces after a gardening hiatus

Well, I have not blogged in some time because I have not been gardening for some time.  But I got started back again last weekend. 

One thing I had to admit is that with homeschooling and all of my other activities, I didn't have time for as large of a garden as I had.  I also wanted my beds pushed together, so that there weren't spaces between them to worry about.  I had eight 4' by 8' beds.  When I tried to move them, I realized many of them (the non-cedar ones) were rotton.  I had to get my superhusband to help me, and now I have three 4' by 8' beds all in a row, no spaces in between, and superhusband can mow around all of them.  (Before, I had put mulch around them to keep the grass weeds out, but this proved to be a lot of trouble and expense to keep up.  I'd rather just pull the bermuda grass out.  Or at least we're going to try it.) 

I've used my cardboard weed barrier technique to plant 2 of my remaining beds, and one is ready to be planted.  I also want my superhusband to help me put in one additional bed. 

That will give me half the space I had last year, and I don't think it will affect my harvest.  Last year was a disaster, with me not having time to water or weed, and a lot of my garden died in mid-summer.  I'm going to take care of the space that I have, choose my plants very carefully, and try not to go overboard. 

Plant addiction is no joke. 

Garlic Ordered

I haven't updated this blog in a while because not much has been going on garden-wise.  I'm still getting peppers, I've got some lettuce planted, and that is all.  I will try again next year and hope that I can find a better balance between homeschooling, gardening, and everything else I want/need to do. 

I did finally order my garlic today.  So far, garlic has been one of the easiest plants I have ever grown.  Here in the south, I plant a warm-weather variety and plant it in the fall.  I use cardboard as a weed barrier, which is all I need in those cooler months, so I don't have to weed it.  We get enough rain where I don't really have to pay it any attention all winter or spring.  Then in early summer I harvest.  This leaves us with our own homegrown garlic for much of the year. 

I did make a major error last year.  I planted tomatoes amongst the garlic, not realizing how fast the tomatoes would grow.  They soon grew so crazily that I never could find a lot of my garlic when it was time to harvest!  I still got quite a bit that was growing on the outer edges.  This year, I might plant peppers or herbs around it, since those shouldn't bury the garlic like the tomatoes did. 

This year, I also hope to grow enough where I don't have to buy any and can just plant some of my bulbs from the previous year.