Garden for 2011

Last year's garden was a bust. We were supposed to move to NC so we gave away everything.. including my precious dirt! So I have to start over now. That's okay.. it will be worth it!

Garden is mapped, and planting and harvest dates are put on the calendar.

So I will have 15 6-ft x 3-ft garden boxes.

The plants this year are:
Early Snowball Cauliflower - 2
Farmer's Extra Early Snowball Cauliflower - 2
Green Magic Broccoli - 2
Green Sprouting Calebrese - 2
Coronando Crown Broccoli - 2
Cherry Belle Radishes - 48
Green Arrow Peas - 136
Purple Pod Beans - 136
Blue Lake Pole Beans - 64
Sugar Snap Peas - 72
Bush Beans White Half Runner - 8
Gotta Have it White Corn - 32
Golden Cross Corn - 36
Boston Pickling Cucumbers - 4
Straight Eight Cucumbers - 4
Big Boy Bell Peppers - 6
Mortgage Lifter Tomatoes - 6
Roma Tomatoes - 6
Golden Rave Tomatoes - 6
Gurney Girl tomatoes - 6
Sweet Baby Girl tomatoes - 6
Danvers Carrots - 80
Nantes Carrotes - 64
Envy Carrots - 64
Nantes Coreless - 80
Crimson Sweet Watermelons - 3
Sugar Baby Watermelons - 2
Field's Sweet Cantalope - 3
Gurney's Giant Cantalopes - 3
Multipik Crookneck Yellow Summer Squash - 1
Black Magic Zucchini - 2
Jack-o-lantern Pumpkins- 3
Lumina Pumpkins - 3
Gurney's Giant Pumpkins - 3
Spinach - 42
Bibb Lettuce - 8
Iceburg lettuce - 8
Black Seeded Simpson Lettuce - 8
Buttercrunch Lettuce - 8
Bright Lights Chard - 4
Lettuce Blend - 8
Strawberries - 72
Thyme - 1
Dill - 1
Cilantro - 3
Mint - 3
Basil - 6

and flowers:
geranium - 7
Nasturtium - 25
Marigold - 4
Sunflowers - 15

Broccoli and Cauliflower Oh MY!

It seems so hard to believe that it is time to start my seedlings. The ground is covered in snow and more keeps falling. How on earth will I be able to plant peas in 2 weeks?? I have started my broccoli and cauliflower and little sprouts are showing. it always amazes me that I plant and then something grows. So thrilling! Of course the new kitty Max finds it thrilling as well and has started nibbling on my sprouts. Bad Kitty!!



The garden in February. Yup, still snow covered. I am supposed to plant peas in a couple weeks, and I can't even find my boxes!!

Garden Planning

Yes, I know, it is negative a bijillion degrees outside and the ground is covered in snow. I am spending my days dreaming of fresh veggies right from my yard. I have decided that gardening is something that I will be handing down to my kiddos so I am starting a garden journal.

In the first section I have calendars with planting dates, transplanting dates, harvesting dates and such. I also have a detailed garden layout plan, where I will be planting each item and how many will go into each square.

The second section has info about each type of seed. Latin names, sun requirements, how to know when it is best to harvest, When and where it was purchased and what I spent.

The third section is the section for lists, logs and recording. In no special order

• Purchase Log
• Weather Log
• Catalog Wishlist
• Seed Starting Log
• Planting Log
• Pest Log
• Harvest Records
• Preserving Records

Next will be the diary section where I will record my thoughts and views and gardeny actions, followed by a page for "What I want to do differently next year."

I think this is really going to help me track changes and trends and get better at gardening!

So I am planning an even bigger garden this year. Adan is going to have to build me 7 more boxes. Hopefully he is cool with that! It is going to be tricky to find a place for such a big garden this spring. Our yard is bordered in the back by a tree line. In the morning, our yard will be shaded by the house, and in the afternoon, the trees will be shading the yard. There is a place were the house shadow won't reach, but there is another tree in the yard that will shade the space at this time. I am going to have to offset the garden a bit so that maybe that tree won't shade everything. The rub with all this planning is that I won't know how it's going to work out until the trees have filled in and everything is already planted. I guess I am just going to have to use my guess as to how it will work out!

If you want the garden layout for this season, post in the comments and I will email it to ya!

This year we will be planting:
Early Snowball Cauliflower - 3
Farmer's Extra Early Cauliflower - 3
Red Russian Kale - 3
Cherry Belle Radishes - 32
Lettuce Blend Lettuce - 4
Green Magic Broccoli - 2
Green Sprouting Calabrese Broccoli - 2
Coronando Crown Broccoli - 2
Green Arrow Peas - 144
Purple Pod Beans - 144
Blue Lake Beans - 72
Sultans Beans - 72
Strawberry Popcorn - 24
Yellow Dent Corn - 24
Golden Cross Corn - 24
Boston Pickling Cucumbers - 2
Japanese Climbing Cucumbers - 4
Listada de Gandia Eggplants - 3
Bell Boy Peppers - 2
Sweet Pepper Mix - 4
Chocolate Beauty Bell Peppers - 2
Napoleon Sweet Bell Peppers - 2
Tolli's Sweet Italian Peppers - 2
Mortgage Lifter Tomatoes - 6
Roma Tomatoes - 6
Golden Rave Tomatoes - 6
Gurney Girl Tomatoes - 6
Sweet Baby Girl Tomatoes - 6
Aunt Ruby's German Green Tomatoes - 6
Yellow Pear Tomatoes - 6
Green Tomatillos - 2
Burpee Golden Beets - 16
Danvers Carrots - 64
Nantes Carrots - 64
Envy Carrots - 64
Paris Market Carrots - 64
Yellow Crookneck Squash - 1
Black Magic Zucchini - 2
Anna Swartz Hubbard Squash - 1
Burgess Buttercup Squash - 1
Waltham Butternut Squash - 1
Bibb Lettuce - 8
Iceberg Lettuce - 8
Jack o Lanturn Pumpkins - 2
Lumina Pumpkins - 2
Gurney's Giant Magic Pumpkin - 2
Black Seeded Simpson Lettuce - 8
Buttercrunch Lettuce - 8
Bright Lights Swiss chard - 4
Crimson Sweet Watermelon - 3
Aunt Molly's Ground cherry - 1
America Spinach - 9
Teton Spinach - 9
Gurney's Giant Cantalopes - 3
Bidwell Casaba - 1
Charantais Melon - 1
Boule d' Or Melon - 1
Strawberries - 72

Holy beans, that is a long list!! Can't wait for harvest time!!!

Want some trashy jelly?

I made some.. okay my mom made some while I did English homework. See linky

http://grammie710.vox.com/library/post/apple-waste-jelly.html

Gardening!

the garden is doing fantabulous and I an in love with it.. i wish i wasn't married so I could marry my garden. I could be so much in love because of how bad I failed with last year's ghetto garden. Maybe.. maybe my garden just rocks. How is everyone else doing? Melissa... if you read this.. tell me how your garden is doing. My pictures suck arse because it is so humid here that my lens fogged up. I will try to take some new ones soon and add them here.

We have eaten all the sweet peas.. in fact, none even made it into the house. They were that good. One side note to peas, eat them while they are little.. they get a tad bitter and hard if you wait too long.

We planted two kinds of green beans, purple pod, and green lake or something like that... the purple pods produced earlier and about twice as much as the green ones.. those are definitely a keeper. Next year I will plant twice as many!

Our broccoli did not do well at all.. we got 2 tiny little heads and it took way too long.. so they probably don't taste very good. Also the carrots.. out of 170 planted, I think we have 5!! I need to work on those again next year.

the tomatoes are rockin the house.. we ate our first garden tomato 2 days ago and it was so yummy I wanted to curl up in bed with it. I can't wait for more tomatoes to be ready to eat.

We have eaten 5 small strawberries, and i expect them to rock next year, with our blackberry bush.

Our watermelons and cantelopes are vining and flowering, and look good.

The zucchini is going to produce a ton of squash, which is good, but it looks weird to see all the baby zucchinis on the plant, very phallic.

We only have 1 little summer squash which is sad. He must be very lonely...

Say good-bye to your garden.

Apparently it is against the rules to have a garden in your front yard. You can't even have a cute garden with a cute picket fence around the whole thing, and nifty blue planters hanging from the outside. It doesn't matter if you really really love your garden, and gardening makes you happy. It doesn't matter if you spent A LOT to make that garden pleasing to the eye so no one will complain. It also doesn't matter if you have already started planting vegetables and you now have to kill all your future salads, side dishes, and sandwiches with strawberry jam as you take it apart and put the fence away.


Have I mentioned lately how much I want to buy some land in the country? Like 25 acres, with a house smack in the middle, and no drive way?

Our Garden is working!

it's not broken this year!!!!

Here is what we have so far:


9 Little bitty baby pea plants per square. We planted 6 squares.



16 Little bitty carrots per square - We planted 4 squares so far, will have 12.


8 youth broccoli - We will plant pumpkins here this summer



4 baby lettuce plants per square - Will have 6 squares.



These are #10 cans painted blue with rust paint. I am going to plant herbs and flowers in them and hang them off the fence and screw them into our brick wall. I made sure not to get any paint on the inside so it would not pollute our herbs.


Do you think housing is going to like my new lawn decorations?

Thinning Seedlings

I planted 2 or 3 seeds in each peat pot. And actually almost all of the seeds have sprouted. Yesterday I decided it was time for thinning. Remember to use scissors and snip out the seedling you don't want. That way, you won't disturb the roots of the other seedling with your yanking!

Seed Starting and Storage

This morning we started all the tomato plants, bell peppers and various other herbs. We just purchased peat pots so we can plant the whole pot into the garden and not have to fuss with transplants. I feel all gardeney and official now.


Starting the seeds got me to thinking about my seed collection. I had quite a few packets of seeds from last year, and this year I ordered a LOT more. Gurney's had a hiccup and sent me twice my order. Since I am doing Square Foot Garden, I am only using a few seeds from each envelope. I probably have enough seeds to last 5 more years! I decided it was time to educate myself on seed storage.

Seeds need to be stored in a cool dry place, with as little moisture as possible. Canning jars are ideal.. wide mouth is easiest but since i had regular mouth in my cupboard, that's what I used. If you have any of those little "do not eat" packets that come in your jacket pockets and with electonics, throw one in each jar. If you don't, take a small amount of dry milk powder and wrap it in a small square of tissue or kleenex. Toss that in the jar to absorb any moisture. Label the lid of your jar with the types of seeds in the jar, and store in the fridge until next year! Most seeds will last 3-5 years if stored properly.
See my pink kleenex dry milk packet?

Garden Beds....YAY!

We spent this weekend planning for our garden and building our garden beds for our square foot garden.

We built 8 3'x6' garden beds and placed them in the front yard we share with the neighbors. The garden beds were very simple to build! We also added a picket fence around this part of the yard to keep random deer and children out of the veggies.

So the final planting list is as follows:
(This list is plants, not veggies or fruits)

168 carrots
48 strawberries
27 green pole beans
27 purple pole beans
54 shelling peas
1 summer squash
19 vine tomatos
2 watermelons
2 giant cantalopes
2 zucchini
6 lettuce (salad bowl variety)
4 pepper
2 white pumpkins
2 orange pumpkins
1 cherry tomato
1 yellow cherry tomato
2 roma tomato
8 broccoli

So we built the boxes, and started on the fence.. BUT the fence is unfinished because I thought the planks were 6 inches wide. I told Adan how many to buy... and the fence planks were really 4 inches wide... so yeah, we did not buy enough.

We also still need to buy the materials for the soil, and for the trellises... we need 9 trellises. This is turning out to be a bit more expensive than I had hoped, but I have to remember that these initial purchases won't have to be repeated. That makes them cost effective in the long run, but oh-so-painful now! LOL

Pics of the building process!

Garden Time!

Everyone is talking about seed starting and gardens.. so it's my turn. Hopefully I can get Adan to build the garden boxes this weekend.. I am going to order my seeds today. What are you all planting?

We are getting:
Roma tomatoes
cherry tomatoes
slicing tomatoes
zuccini
summer squash
pumpkins
sweet peppers
peas
watermelon
cantalope
lettuce
cauliflower
carrots
broccoli
pole beans

Awesome pictures

This lady takes some amazing pictures.. Happy Sleepy

I have had her bookmarked for a while because I wanted to do this: Awesome Container Garden

Our new house has a brick front! I think I will contact Pizza Hut tomorrow.

Where has the month gone?

I haven't posted anything in a long long time, and I wanted to post like 5 different posts just so I could neatly tag and file these updates away and find them later shoudl I want to find them, but then i decided that was way too much work. So one update it is!

First the Garden... We moved the garden to the side of the house, luckily it was all in pots!! Unfortunately with it being out of eye sight, we slacked a bit on the watering, but I don't think it mattered. We had mushrooms growing in a few pots. Our tomatoes did not really produce at all and I don't know if it is because there was not enough drainage, or if the soil wasn't good. Basically we got no produce from our big ole garden. It was sad. This winter we are going to build raised beds, and I am going to get the book square foot gardening and see if I can do better next year.

Daycare - I have opened a home daycare. It took a while to get everything together and I still feel slightly under prepared, but I am open and 3 children in my care. 2 are only before and after school care and one is all day. They are all 3 really nice children and fit in well with my three. The only downside is waking up at the butt crack of the morning every day. I am now seriously dragging arse!

School - We are homeschooling the kidlets this year. We are using www.amblesideonline.com for our curriculum. This is a literature based curriculum with "living books". This plan appeals to me because i love to read, and really love classics. I like the idea that our children will know all those stories that our culture is built upon and that are alluded to frequently. I am so thankful that an atmosphere of great reading and learning was fostered in my home as a child. I was given books of classic literature many times as a child and now i already own many of the books on our school book list. Unfortunately we are po' and can't afford many of the other books, but luckily many are now public domain and I have been able to print off their readings for the first term already. I also found Paper Back Swap
I was able to post 35 of my fluff books and have gotten many books for our school years present and future. Ambleside online is great also in that there are many support groups and they are super active. Any questions I have are quickly answered in a very friendly way.

We are currently reading the Bible, An Island Story, This Country of Ours, The Discovery of New Worlds, The Awakening of Europe, Fifty Famous Stories, Retold, Parables from Nature, Aesop's Fables, Burgess Bird Book, Paddle-to-the-Sea, Robert Louis Stephenson's poems, Trial and Triumph, Assorted Fairy Tales, James Herriot's Treasury for Children, Just So Stories, Benjamin Franklin, Tales from Shakespeare, Da Vinvi, Marco Polo, The Story of Inventions, William Blake poetry, American Tall Tales, The Heros, The Princess and the Goblin. And that's only for the first term!!

I decided not to start LK this year, and she will start next year when she is 6.

Business endeavors - I have been renewed in making DD a business that actually makes a profit. I can already see a difference. I decided that I just don't have time to devote to 2 businesses at once. I can't do it. I believe this is why i have failed to show large profits with my businesses. I told ArmyMan that I can't continue PP because I just don't have the time for it, and he professed a desire to do it himself, so I told him if he made all the paper, I would do the decorating into cards, and he could take pics, and then I would put them on the website. So far, he hasn't made any paper LOL. We shall see if that works out. I just have to find time to finish the website.. Maybe next month LOL.

Anyway that's the update for the month. Hopefully, in the next couple of days I will post my 101 things in 1001 days list and get going on that again.

planning ahead in the garden

So I am really contemplating next year's garden... I know, I know... get through this year first! But as I rearranged all my ghetto pots I began to think about next year. I am a total novice when it comes to gardening so I am not sure how to do all this. I decided I want this outcome:
15 pints of applesauce
3 lbs dried apples
3 lbs dried cranberries
5 qts. frozen blueberries
5 qts. frozen strawberries
20 pts diced tomatoes
20 qts spaghetti sauce
20 half pts tomato paste
10 pts salsa
5 lbs. dried mushrooms
10 qts froz. sweet peppers
25 ears of corn on the cob frozen
15 pts corn
15 pts of jam
15 pts of peanut butter
10 lbs of wheat berries
10 qts of carrots
10 qts of carrots frozen
5 qts of peas
25 lbs potatoes
25 pts refried beans
25 pts black beans
5 qts ketchup
5 qts froz broccoli
5 qts froz. cauliflower
4 qts zucchini
10 qts pickles

I also want to plant celery, but it doesn't freeze well.


So I suppose I need to plant
Blueberries
tomatoes
peppers
strawberries
corn
wheat
carrots
peas
potatoes
black beans
pinto beans
broccoli
cauliflower
zucchini
celery
and swiss chard for greens
lettuce
cucumbers

I am going to buy
apples
cranberries
peanuts
fruit for jams


the only thing left to determine is how much of each, and how I am going to plant that much food in my yard.. i don't have so much sun... so this should be an interesting thing.

Garden Update!

We are starting to get food! It is the coolest thing to see that the plants I have been nurturing are starting to produce food that I am going to eat! YAY! Here are some new and updated pics of the garden.


Baby Bell Peppers


Baby Strawberries


Baby tomatoes


From the back door


Beans and Pumpkins!

The Garden!

This year we finally planted a big ole garden. I am hoping to can a ton of veggies to help out with the grocery bills this winter. Of course the cicadas were so bad that we could not plant them in the ground so I ended up with tons of ghetto container plants! Our yard isn't quite sunny enough so the plants are taking a bit longer to flower than I had hoped, but we do have flowers on our tomatoes, and some on our strawberries. YAY!!
These pictures are from May 13, 2008

Garden from back door

Up close and personal with the tomatoes!

Pepper, strawberries, beans and pumpkins, OH MY!

Cicadas crawl out of these holes.

Cicada skins under my tree. EWWWWW!