I have debated a long while over what to do, and have finally decided to consolidate my two blogs. I just have not had the time to maintain them, and keep up with everything I want to do. So, for those of you who still wish to talk about organic gardening, come visit me at www.thedelightfulday.blogspot.com. I look forward to seeing you there!
Planting Season
As usual per this time of year, I have been outside planting and doing general cleanup activities. Unfortunately, I am not completely finished. Mostly, because I can’t decide if my broccoli is finished producing this season and whether to pull it out or not and I still have plenty of carrots left and am not ready to pull them up yet as I still have a bunch in the fridge. My husband is rooting for the snow peas to go, as he is very tired of them in everything we have been cooking.
We have had so many rainy days along with a little colder weather than we are used to, that the asparagus have been slow to come up this year and are just now coming into their full season. I am planning to try a new recipe for an asparagus frittata that I found in the newest issue of “Hobby Farm Home”. The strawberries are tasting rather delicious. I haven’t ever planted them and had them do well, so I have been so pleasantly surprised to see that happening. I am really loving this SFG thing! Out here we have such clay soil that with the SFG you don’t have to worry about that and it is amazing what you can grow.
Speaking of that, a few posts ago I mentioned that I was trying an experiment in growing celery. Well, unbelievably, the celery is almost ready. So funny that it actually worked. It is still rather small compared to full grown celery, but I am impressed. It looks like if you plant it from seed in October, it will actually grow all winter and do well.
I have plans to spend the afternoon out finishing up some cleanup projects outside and putting up a frame for a support for the Bayberry and Blackberry plants that I finally got planted on the north side of my house.
Happy planting!
Winter Storm Cleanup in the Garden
For the last couple of weeks we have had some pretty constant days of rain and blowing wind. The garden looks terrible. Leaves are everywhere, and weeds are starting to show their ugly faces. So, with Saturday afternoon came some nicer weather and I decided to try to tackle some long overdue garden chores. I mainly worked on the grape vines which needed to be pruned back and the leaves raked and put into the compost bin. That took a little bit of time. I debated on saving the vines and wrapping them into a wreath, but in the end, they ended up in the garden waste pile.
I have been thinking vaguely about purchasing a wood chipper, but I am not sure I will have enough use for it to justify buying one. And, my husband, wasn’t too keen on the idea when I mentioned it in passing one day.
The peas, which are “Mammoth Melting” variety, are huge. I haven’t really had them get so big that they are tumbling over the supports. I put up some small supports because I usually don’t have them grow over about 4 feet. These vines are probably pushing 6 feet right now. I am just starting to get some snow peas off them, and they are very fresh and lovely.
As you can barely see in the bottom of the picture, the broccoli is ready for picking. We have oodles of broccoli right now, which my family does really like, so that is good. Out of the garden, for some reason, I have decided it tastes so much more tender. Yum!
My bell pepper plants really suffered this past month, because for a couple of days we actually had freezing temps. I know! Can you believe it? Anyway, I forgot to cover them and they just look pathetic. I am trying to decide whether to pull them out or not. If you look closely, you can just make out some new leaves that are popping out.
Bell Pepper - frozen back
Be that as it may, I am starting some others from seed inside under a grow light. YAY! I got myself a grow light! I wanted one for my birthday, but my husband said that if I did, the government would track it and come to check that I wasn’t growing marijuana! Right! So, I purchased one for myself a couple of weeks ago.
New seedlings under grow light on kitchen counter
It is actually working wonderfully. I just put a couple of hooks under the cabinet and suspended it from them with some wire. I leave it on for about 14 hours a day, and after 1 week they were already getting their second leaves. So exciting. I am trying to grow enough extras for my mom and father-in-law also. One day at a time. The only downside to having this light right in my kitchen is that my husband says he needs to wear sunglasses to watch TV because it is too bright on his poor little eyes. 
Above you can see on the right, one of my brussel sprout plants that I started from seed back in Oct. On the left, the little seedlings are celery. I am trying that as an experiment. I am not too sure they are going to have enough time to grow before it gets too warm. We will see. They are definately slow growers!
My father-in-law is just putting up an awesome chicken coop. Here is a picture of it. It isn’t quite finished yet, but when it is, it will be really great. He has about 38 chickens which include 8 babies. On Saturday, we found 2 more hens roosting. I love to see those babies following after the mothers scratching for bugs.
New chicken coop
Baby chicks
This one is a rooster.
I am hopefully getting a couple of new hens today from a friend of mine. We had one of ours die a couple of weeks ago and now we have 4 hens. I am not quite sure what happened. It is possible she was egg bound because she had not yet started laying and was due any time to begin. I went out there and she was just dead. So sad. I really hate that, but it is part of having animals. My son always has a hard time.
Other random things happening in the garden right now:
- strawberry plants are starting to set fruit
-lots of carrots (By the way, I had planted some carrots of the variety “Tonda di Parigi” which are small round carrots similar looking to a radish. They are a little sweeter and very good raw. Interesting to taste the difference when compared to a regular baby carrot – “Little Finger” variety.)
-some tomatoes are starting to ripen and for some reason the starter plants that I purchased from the local garden center were labeled wrong and I have 3 cherry tomato plants. (Although, there is no where near the amount that I get in the spring/summer, even with a greenhouse type effect of growing them.)
-the eggplant are still producing the dreaded eggplant. I am definately pulling them out in a couple of weeks. I have just left them really because the little sparrows sit inside the plants and I feel sorry for them.
Happy Gardening!
The bees are back!
So, a couple of days ago, my son came in the house having a fit. “The bees are BACK!” And, of course, he was right. It really bothers me to have to spray these things, because I really do need them in the garden. I didn’t have half the pollination from last year during the summer, because we had to spray this hive. But, we really did have to spray it because we had honey dripping off the front of the house, as I have previously blogged about. And I just had this feeling the bee “guys” were going to show up during the baby shower I was throwing for my sister. Sure enough, the doorbell rang and that is exactly what happened. Oh well. SIGH. So, now we have a constant shower of dead bees on the front porch as we wait for the hive to die. So sad.
Awesome Quote
I just found this awesome quote at this site for the Herb Companion Magazine: http://www.herbcompanion.com
I am trying to use my herbs a little more & there is a giant herb book I really would like over at Barnes & Noble for my birthday. (hint hint…)
But I just love this…
“If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need.”
—Marcus Tullius Cicero
Preserving & Etc.
So, do you ever wonder what to do with all those jalepenos, or other peppers that your plant just keeps on producing and you can’t eat quick enough? My mother-in-law makes jalepeno jello, which you can do. I just really only have one recipe that I use that for, & I’m pretty sure I haven’t made that in oh, about 5 years. So, last week, I was looking through my trusty Ball Blue Book and came across this recipe:
Hot Peppers
1 1/2 pounds banana peppers
1 pound jalepeno peppers
1/4 pound serrano peppers
6 cups vinegar
2 cups water
3 cloves garlic
Leave peppers whole or cut into 1 inch pieces. Mix peppers together. Combine vinegar, water, & garlic in a large saucepot. Bring mixtu to a boil; reduce heat & simmer 5 minutes. Discard garlic. Pack peppers into hot jars, leaving 1/4 inch headspace. Ladle hot pickling liquid over peppers, leaving 1/4 inch headspace. Remove air bubbles. Adjust two piece caps. Process 10 minutes in a boiling-water canner. Yield: about 5 pints.
Note: When cutting or seeding hot peppers, wear rubber glovs to prevent hands from being burned.
I definately do not have that many peppers, so what I did was fill one jar crammed full of whole peppers (mostly because I didn’t feel like cutting them up). I then put 2 cups white wine vinegar (not distilled) with 1 cup of water & 2 cloves garlic, minced into a pot and continued to do the recipe that way. I didn’t even process the jar after I was done, and the heat sealed it on it’s own. Also, as I make flavored vinegas all the time, I figured the vinegar would preserve it without having to actually can it. Guess what? Today I opened that jar of jalepenos and it looked & smelled just like the jar’s you buy at the store. YAY! The jalepenos even changed color to look like the ones you buy in the jar. So, I was happy!
Also, for those of you who have trouple with your bell peppers looking as big as the ones at the grocery store, I have been doing some research on this topic. This year, my peppers have had a few problems. Mostly, I think, because I have a fungus in the soil that they are growing in, so the leaves look wilted. I have buried banana peels under each plant, because apparently this is good for them as it provides magnesium as the peel breaks down (which it does rather quickly, despite the fact that it is very thick). I have also read to do this for rose bushes. I have also given them a good dose of epsom salts for nitrogen, which has helped them a little bit. Anyway, to make a long story short, the other day, I was picking up my vegetable basket from boutiful baskets and I had done the organic one (yes, even though I have a garden, I do get other veggies, mostly for the fruit right now). There were lots of bell peppers. They were smaller ones, just like the ones in my garden. So, apparently, it doesn’t matter. So, don’t fret about your peppers. I was pretty happy when I saw that!
I let the dove out of the chicken coop this am. The dog simply couldn’t stand that there was a dove in there and was trying to dig into the coop. Ridiculous! I had my husband go out there and look at the coop and he couldn’t figure out how these birds are getting in either! It’s a mystery!
Lots of long beans came off today! I really love those. If anyone would like some seeds for these, I have been saving and drying a few in my window. You really only need a few beans for a meal. And they are really tasty sauteed with a little jalepeno. Even my husband likes them, which is saying something!
Bay leaves, long beans, peppers, & radishes
Pictured above are the leaves from the laurel bay that I am drying. Apparently, when you cook with them, you are supposed to tear the leaf a little to release the flavor. Who knew? All these years, I have been putting them into my spaghetti sauce recipe and didn’t realize I was supposed to be doing that.
Yesterday, I went to lunch with my delightful friend, Roma, who is so incredibly talented, if I do say so. And, afterward, I dropped by the fun boutique, Rustic Hutch, which is located on Gilbert & Baseline, in Gilbert. I found some really awesome candles there. I have been burning one this morning & love the smell.
McCall's Country Canning Candles
I bought 2 of them. The one above is for Christmas, & is really lovely. The one I have been burning this morning, is “Raspberry Lemon Tea” & I do believe I love it!
Here we are…
Sparkler radish planted October 5-6th.
Ok. I finally took some pictures, but then had to load the new PS Elements 8.0 before I could bring them to you. Lame, I know. And that took a few more days because then my mouse was out of commission. So, finally we are back in business. Thankfully. It has been so beautiful outside that I am just loving it. Unfortunately, so are the birds. And despite the fact that they have plenty of bird seed, they are thinking that my lettuce and newly sprouted lettuces are wonderful and eating them down to the ground. At first, I thought I had some kind of worm, but then discovered the birds. Some baling wire to make some little hoops to fit over the lettuce and seedlings & a trip to the local hardware store to buy some bird netting to fit over those hoops has solved the eating problem, but not the bird issue. They are seriously everywhere. My dog is going crazy chasing them. And somehow, every morning I go out there, they are getting into the chicken coop. I just came in from there, and there were seriously 10 sparrows and a dove. The dove is still in there. It wouldn’t come out. So, I say, whatever, to it!
I planted some celery this year, and don’t know if it will make it, but it has sprouted and they are seriously the smallest little leaves I think I have ever seen. The brussel sprouts have sprouted and the peas are starting to climb. YAY! I have a couple more new little basil plants that if anyone wants, they are free to come pick up, since I have 3 already and really don’t need anymore. Although, I did discover that my chickens love basil. I have been giving them the extras. And I started with 9 strawberry plants and am already up to 12.
Overall view of garden
Celery seedlings
I am excited to see the scarlet runner bean growing just like a bean! And by that I mean, it is a fast growing plant, so much that I can probably measure it’s growth every day! I am excited to see it in a few weeks. I do have a laurel bay that I really need to get into a pot, as it is sitting in it’s plastic nursery pot in the garden. I am pruning it into a topiary and it is pretty so far. The leaves look awesome as wreaths so that will be kind of nice to have as well as the culinary uses.
Ok. Gotta go. I have tickets to “New Moon”.
TTYL
Most of the planting is finished!
YAY! It has taken a little over 2 weeks of toil and back pain, but the cleanup & planting is finally done. I am planning on taking some pictures in the am. It was a beautiful day today, but is now pretty windy!
One of the new varieties of long beans that I decided to try (for the first time, I might add) was definately a keeper. that is saying something, for sure, because my husband is extremely picky about his vegetables. So, if he says it’s good, and eats it without me begging him too, it is! I will post more on that tomorrow, with pictures.
Boy, the summer was brutal on the garden. Around the end of August & into September, with temperatures soaring into the 110′s & hotter, I just cannot go outside. So, the garden suffers. And if something can make it in that kind of heat, it truly deserves praise. However, to be honest, the garden was truly a mess. And it has taken most of the last 2 weeks to get it into shape.
The asparagus needed cutting back to the ground and mulching. That took a while.
I used up a lot of my compost in preparing the beds for planting so had to add some manure to the compost bin yesterday. That was a smelly job.
My hands have been so dry and felt chalky so I have been smearing “Burt’s Bees hand salve” all over them every night. It helps.
These are some of the things that are growing:
carrots-3 varieties
shallots
onions
garlic
several varieties of lettuce
strawberries
tomatoes
various herbs
asian peas
long beans
snap beans
bell peppers
jalepeno pepper
anaheim pepper
and more eggplant – that plant will not die!
sweet peas
marigold
celery (I don’t know if this will grow…we will see)
cabbage
broccoli
I came home from disneyland all energized to garden, as their gardens there are truly inspiring. It was wonderful, because I decided to put in a little hedge in front of my roses and it looks good, but of course isn’t grown in. I can hardly wait.
Talk to you tomorrow!
August in the Garden
I saw an idea somewhere where they had put dried sunflower heads on a topiary for a fall arrangement and thought it looked pretty awesome. Since I still have some small size sunflowers hanging on, I decided this would be awesome to try for fall, as I can hardly wait for it to cool off and I am pretty sure the garden feels the same, as it’s supposed to be 112 degrees today.
This little melon is called “Sakata’s Sweet” from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds at www.rareseeds.com and is listed as an asian melon & actually is known as Japanese. It’s leaves are somewhat smaller than a traditional american melon, so far anyway, and as I have never grown this, but thought is looked interesting based on the description in the Baker Creek catalogue, I hope it bears fruit, because I would definately like to taste it. According to the catalogue, the author of Melons for the Passionate Grower, Dr. Amy Goldman, recommends this particular variety. I haven’t read her book, but would like to browse through it the next time I am at the bookstore.
Other Gardens
So, recently we went on a family trip to Sandy, Utah. Of course, this is their main growing season there. We drove by some awesome gardens and so here are a few pictures. The picture below was so beautiful in person. The older couple who owned the home, had mixed in some really beautiful flowers along the border of the garden and it was truly lovely.
Garden in Utah
Front View of House
This other garden was strictly as open area that they had tilled. I was not surprised to see the number of gardens there that we saw, just driving around town, from small to large ones, depending on the yard size. I really do think that gardening & being “eco-friendly” has become very popular. Awesome.
Tilled Type of Garden
