Garden Growth

Just a little photo tour of what’s growing around the property.

My “leafy greens” garden bed.  In the back (L-R) is a lettuce lovers delight mix, Flame Lettuce, and Tom Thumb.  Next 3 rows are Bok Choy, which will be ready for harvesting in another week or two, as will some of the lettuce!  It’s hard to tell from this picture, but I have succession plantings of bok choy and tom thumb.

Close up of my tom thumb lettuce, which is a butterhead variety.  Fully matured, they will be the size of a baseball.  Perfect sizing for a single salad!  An added bonus is they are pretty heat tolerant and slow to bolt, so with careful planning and placement, I should be able to grow throughout the summer!

French Breakfast Radishes, then Bloomsdale Spinach, Chioggia Beets, more Tom Thumb, then Black Spanish Radishes, flanked by Golden Sweet and Amish Snap Peas on trellises.  Once again this year I’m trying out yet another type of trellis, it looks similar to chicken wire, only larger.  Notice the imprinted dirt on either side of the sprouts?  That is my designated walk way.  It is important to not compact the soil by stepping where your seeds will be growing; this allows their developing root systems to move through the ground with ease.

Sugar Pod 2 Snow Peas, this particular variety is a bush pea and does not need trellising.  I have additional rows of lettuce mix as well as Imperator Carrots from my seed tape in this photo, but due to their extremely small size, they are not visible.

Violetta Cauliflower, Green Sprouting Broccoli, and Romanesco Broccoli.

Overwintered green sprouting broccoli starting to bud.

Cream Sausage Tomatoes.  I may be slightly premature in planting them due to our official “frost-free” date being May 15th, but I’m all about taking chances.  In the event of frost I can always cover them!

My cream sausage tomatoes are already fruiting!!

 My Russian Red and Blue Curled Scotch Kale transplanted to their new garden home.

 And because 14oo square feet in the main garden is not enough, I’ve decided to add more! 🙂

Hide and Seek

When I was little I loved the Where’s Waldo books; unfortunately, they always ended up being in places that I would have rather not been, like the doctor’s office.  As an adult, I still find myself scanning the kids’ books looking for Waldo while I sit and wait.

Now, I bet you’re wondering why I’m rambling on about a fictional character who wears a little striped hat.  Well dear readers, today we are going to play the garden version of that game, entitled Where’s Borecole…aka Kale (I needed a two-syllable word cause I’m a geek like that)

Pictured below is my (temporary) kale bed.  When I transplanted those vitamin-packed Brassica earlier this year, I forgot about the super invasive violets that show up mid April.  This image contains 7 baby kale plants, can you locate them?

  Have you given up yet?  If so, scroll to the bottom of the post to see their whereabouts! 🙂

Later this month I will be transplanting the kale into my front-side garden bed, once the ivy has been removed, and judging by the tangled root system that task may take years! haha

Last week, I’ve received an email from a reader thanking me for posting the Garlic, Kale & Chickpea soup.  She mentioned wanting to incorporate more odd vegetables into her diet and was willing to give this soup a try.  AWESOME!! 🙂  While I personally don’t think of kale as an odd or strange veggie, I also have to remember not everyone is a veg-fanatic like myself.  This email sent my hamster spinning on its wheel; I’ve decided to begin “featured veggie” postings where I will be sharing recipes and nutritional information about various vegetables.  Initially I wanted it to be something like a Friday’s Feature (there I go again with my alliteration nonsense), but I don’t want to stress myself out with mandatory weekly postings, especially once the growing and canning season is in full swing!  My first feature will be on, you guessed it, Kale.  So be sure to stay tuned for that!

And now I leave you with some pictures of Polonius, who decided to see for himself what all the fuss is about regarding kale!  I tell ya, if it’s not the wild critters, it’s the domesticated ones!

 

 “Why hello there little green plant, I’m going to eat you!”

 Did you find all 7?

Tasty Purple Flowers

Did you know that those pretty little violets growing all over your yard are edible?  Well, if you didn’t before you do now!  Last Spring I made several batches of violet  jelly.  The flavor is tangy-sweet, similar to that of Sweet-Tarts candy.  It sets more like a honey than a fruit spread.  I thought about adding additional pectin; however, this being my first ever attempt at making a flower jelly, I didn’t want to mess with the recipe ’til I tasted it.  I thought it may firm up after sitting a few weeks like my grape jelly does.  This year, I have different plans for that pretty purple flower, if it ever stops raining long enough for me to pick them that is!

Spring Has Sprung!

Although it snowed April 1st, nice joke Mother Nature, slowly but surely signs of Spring have been making an appearance around my neck of the woods! Here is a little of what’s blooming, growing and sprouting.

Pussy Willow Tree, the pollen stage.

Glory of the Snow

Daffodils breaking ground

Hyacinth, next to the lilac and gardenia, this is my favorite scented flower!

The dreaded Dandelion 🙂 I happen to like them.

Daffodil buds

Moss

 Either a Water Lily Magnolia or Royal Star Magnolia

Images and content copyright © 2009-2011 Danielle R Limoge.

Dirt Therapy

You how sometimes you just need it, and by need it I mean NEED IT! That undeniable feeling is especially strong for me after a long cold Winter, and Sunday I got my fill in the form of six glorious hours of uninterrupted dirt therapy! Several times throughout the day I caught myself smiling. I was saturated in bliss, completely content. I wasn’t hungry or tired or sick; I was satisfied in mind, body and especially soul! You want to know the best part? It’s just the beginning!

The garden before anything went down. (that is old potting soil in the middle, not poop!)

I was delighted to see one of my Swiss Chard plants had overwintered, safely hidden underneath some dead leaves.

Overwintered broccoli, not sure if it Romanesco or Green Sprouting…guess I’ll find out soon enough!

Beautiful tilled Earth. I just wanted to roll around in it; I refrained seeing as how my neighbors think I’m weird enough as it is!

My garden is FULL of worms; I couldn’t resist sitting down and “playing” with a few!

My salad garden bed, something new this year.  What was an area of “wasted” space containing ground cover and an old dead tree-like stump, now holds several varieties of  lettuce, bok choy, and as of yesterday a tee-pee of  golden sweet peas.

Bok Choy

Tom Thumb – quite possibly the cutest lettuce ever!

Lettuce Mix

Alaska Bush Peas – planted with seeds saved from last year’s harvest.

 

Repotting Seedlings

I’ve got “true” leaves so you know what that means, right? Time to repot and bury those stems! By doing so the newly buried stem will begin growing roots, encouraging the development of a healthy and strong root system.

When a seed sprouts the first leaves to emerge are called cotyledons. If there is only one leaf, it’s a monocot, if it has two, it’s a dicot.  The primary function of those leaves is to serve as a food source for the growing seedling. Now that I have true leaves and my plants are actively photosynthesizing, it’s time to make sure they’re getting proper nutrition! I will now begin supplementing their potting soil with a bit of compost tea.

In a few weeks my plants will be repotted again and then make their way into cold frames so that they may begin to acclimate themselves to the cool Spring temperatures. If I place them directly outside, without protection, the cold weather is sure to kill them! Even though Lactuca and Brassica are cold weather hardy plants, I will harden them off for a few days before placing them into the ground, since they too were started inside and are used to a comfy 76+ degrees (my growing lights kick off some warmth)! I will begin introducing them to the outside world next week. The daytime temps will be in the mid 50’s but the nights will dip into the low 30’s, so they will come back inside once the sun sets.

Since we received a good amount of snowfall this winter, and several inches of rain recently, the ground is still very wet! Local tradition is to till and plant peas on Paddy’s day, unfortunately that did not happen this year. If I did any direct sowing right now my carrot, pea and spinach seeds are sure to rot in the ground! I did however inoculate some legumes and started a bit of container planting earlier this week. I was hoping to begin tilling and spreading manure this weekend, but since there is more rain in tomorrow’s forecast I don’t think that will happen. Oh well, there’s always next week!

 

Images and content copyright © 2009-2011 Danielle R Limoge.

If you build it, they will grow.

Mid February I walked into Home Depot with a sketch, a list of materials and a mission, 90 minutes later I was ready to begin construction! More often than not when I’m walking around Home Depot or other testosterone type stores, I find myself surrounded with more help than I need. At one point I had 4 guys cutting wood for me when one person could have easily handled the job. Seriously, I had one sheet of plywood and five 2x3x8’s. I’m building a light stand people, not an addition to my house! But whatever, they were sweet and clearly thought I was some kitten stuck in a tree…so cut away boys, I’m not gonna stop you.

Armed with my trusty power drill, some drywall screws and a whole lot of determination, I was able to build my shelving unit in a little under 2 hours. My biggest obstacle was maneuvering it in such a confined space…and screwing the top shelf into place. Let me just say that placing a step-ladder on top of a chair is probably not the safest way to go about things, but it got the job done!

The unit stands 6′ tall and eventually will have a total of 6 shop lights. I initially set the lights up this way so I could get a better visual of what it will look like when full of growing transplants!

I originally thought 2 lights per shelf would be enough, but some of my brassicas are getting a bit leggy (which is to be expected when using anything except high pressure sodium bulbs). I’m going to pick up an additional light in the next few days and once I’m ready to start round two of my plants, I’ll purchase the remaining three. I also re-lowered the lights so that they hang approximately 2 inches above my seedlings. Even though fluorescent bulbs don’t get that hot I’m still a little geeked out about burning the place down! I anticipate this first round of plants to be somewhat trial and error.

Speaking of trial and error I’m conducting a little experiment with a bit of tin foil. I don’t know if it is going to work but I’m hoping to reflect additional light back onto my plants that would otherwise be wasted. This also helps in trapping the humid air that surrounds my plants from being watered from the bottom up. (Since these pictures were taken I’ve lined the shelf as well.) The only issue I’m running into (which can easily be corrected) is the foil being blown off when I turn the fan on to prevent damping-off.

Somewhere along the line I got it in my head that starting everything from seed would just be too difficult. Then about three years ago I became very obsessed serious about my food growing endeavors. Seeing as how the local greenhouses’ left much to be desired when it came to plant variety, I decided to just dive in and start growing everything from seed. I’m so glad I did!

 I’ve been kicking around the idea of selling some transplants too. Most of my varieties are heirloom, some are from rare and hard to find seeds; all are organic. Maybe on the weekends when the weather warms, I’ll set up a little stand under my front pines. Nothing elaborate or expensive, just reasonably priced organically grown vegetable plants. This way I can recoup some of my seed investment, additional utility expenditure, and hopefully offset the amount of GMO varieties making their way around town! 🙂

Images and content copyright © 2009-2011 Danielle R Limoge.

Black Gold

Ask anyone with a green thumb what their version of black gold is and I’m willing to bet the answer is compost.  Whether you have decomposing organic matter in a hot pile, a cold pile or facilitated by worms, compost is not only a nutritious supplement for your garden, farm and house plants, but it is environmentally responsible too!

The key to making great compost is moisture and the proper balance of green and brown, also know as your C/N ratio.  Too much green and your pile will stink of ammonia, too much brown and you won’t have enough nitrogen to support a growing colony of bacteria.  Ultimately you want a 30:1 Carbone Nitrogen ratio.  Now, before you start to feel overwhelmed by numbers, most green matter already starts out at a 20:1 C/N ratio, so really you just need to make up the difference.  If you are still confused think of it as a 60%/40% ratio; that will get you close enough to a target balance for your compost heap to even itself out.  A good example would be layering two parts dried leaves with one part grass clippings and ta-dah, there is your C/N balance.

There are various methods to creating compost, which I briefly mentioned earlier.  The fastest way would be to build a hot pile, which requires a bit of maintenance, but it kills pathogens and weeds.  A cold pile, also known as slow composting, is just that, slow.  It can take up to two years for your heap to break down but it requires you to do nothing except allow nature to take its course.  You can also make compost using worms, which is called vermiculture.  This was something I researched last Summer and had planned to start in the Fall, however, due to life throwing a few curve balls in my direction, I had to put it on the back burner… ’til now. 🙂

At my last home I had a 3 sided cinder-block structure that I practiced slow composting.  My new house, however, is not conducive to an open pile, so I ended up purchasing a 3 tiered locking structure.  It just so happens that the day my compost bin arrived I was also gifted a double barrel tumbler… the exact one I had been lusting over but could in no way afford!  I love when the universe evens things out!!

Both of my composters contain yard and garden waste from last year.  Over the winter the majority of my kitchen scraps went into the dark green container.  It’s just easier for me to take off the lid and toss my pale into that one then it is to unlatch the tumbler, especially when its bitter cold and there’s snow on the ground!  Yes, I realize that is an omission of laziness; please forgive me, I’m an imperfect person.

Last Sunday we had a lovely pseudo-Spring day, so I started cleaning up the side beds in preparation for planting.  I ended up with a decent sized pile of partially decomposed leaves and weeds that I added to the tumbler.  I also decided to check the progress of the compost I started last Summer which is held in the dark green unit.  I haven’t aerated it since winter began so I grabbed the pitchfork and started turning and mixing and you know what?  There is some seriously beautiful humus going on in the bottom third of that container!  Just look at it seeping out!!  I didn’t want to open the door for fear I wouldn’t be able to close it and I’m not quite ready to add it to my garden.

Compost is typically not this wet but seeing as how I had just added more organic material and then hosed it down, a bit started leaking out of the bottom.  After filling both sides of the tumbler it too received a good soaking; I then began turning the hand crank to give it a thorough mixing.  I quickly grabbed my bucket and waited for the tea. Not the herbal kind mind you, but the compost kind.  One of the benefits to having a tumbler is the nutrient rich tea that drips out of the unit!

After giving my (many) house plants a thirst quenching drink of compost tea, I still had enough left over to bottle up in jugs.  I will store this to feed my transplants with over the next few weeks.

Images and content copyright © 2009-2011 Danielle R Limoge.

Seed Tape – A Tutorial

Seed tape is something that is mind-blowing kind of simple, as in palm to forehead “why didn’t I think of that?” type of moment. It quite possibly may change your life. Yeah, it’s that awesome.

Tiny seeds, like carrots and lettuce are somewhat of a pain to work with, especially when it comes to spacing. Their ability to blend in to the point of becoming invisible is beyond impressive! There you are planting along and something catches your eye. You look away and the next thing you know you’ve lost track, so you find yourself with your nose in the dirt (looking like an idiot) trying to locate where you left off! Plus I refuse to germinate seeds only to thin them out later. What a waste of time, energy and most importantly seeds! This is where seed tape comes into play!

I’m sure there are lots of variations to making seed tape and I’m willing to bet you can probably even purchase it, if you’re really that lazy. It takes but only a few minutes to make (depending on how many seeds you have of course) and when it comes time for rolling it out you will be so glad you have it! Besides it a nice activity to help beat those mid-winter doldrums when you’re convinced that Spring is never going to get here!

What you will need:

• toilet paper
• seeds
• flour paste (mix a little bit of water with a little bit of flour)
• ruler
• pen
• small paint brush

Step 1, roll out your toilet paper. Mine was approximately 4′, the length of my table (when it’s time for “planting” I will line them up, end to end). Mark where you will be placing your seeds, my spacing was done in 2″ increments.

Step 2, place a small amount of “paste” everywhere you made a mark, then add your seeds.

Allow your tape to dry completely, then roll it up and store it until you are ready for planting.

When it comes time for planting just roll it out and lightly cover with dirt. The toilet paper will rapidly decompose and the flour will add additional organic matter to the soil.  It’s that simple!

This year I’m going to try my hand at square foot gardening, so I think I’ll use tissues. I will place my seeds in 2″ increments in every direction. I may need several tissues to cover the right amount of space but it should work all the same!

Images and content copyright © 2009-2011 Danielle R Limoge.

A Precious Harvest

Last October I harvested 21 threads of Crocus Stigma, aka saffron. I needed just 13,104 more threads to make an ounce. I’m hoping my bulbs will rapidly and magically multiply in time for this year’s harvest without me having to perform the ritual known as dig and divide, but I’m not holding my breath!

 

 

Images and content copyright © 2009-2011 Danielle R Limoge.