Homemaking Organized Blog

Archive for the ‘Gardening’ Category

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I’ve been avoiding blogging because when I went to add my linky over at 5 Minutes for Mom I neglected to link directly to my UBP11 post and instead just linked to the whole blog….oh well.

Okay so here is my UBP11 post and then read on…

Right now I want to talk about Pea Trellises.

You know peas need to climb and there are so many things they can climb it might be hard to make a decision. I browsed around the internet and such and my mom drew up some plans (which she promptly signed as works of art so I didn’t take them from her.) So we used her plans and then I had my helpful nephew hack (that is my word for them) a simple frame to place over my pots.

I’ll take a picture one day. I’m too tired right now from all that fresh air.

I’ve never grown peas before. I’ve always wanted to. I’m growing 10 plants in a pot (is that too many). I have a Garden Patch pot. Wish me well.

You can get some ideas from these two videos.

I’m in the throes of planning our spring veggie garden so when offered the opportunity to review GroOrganic‘s online garden planner I jumped at it.

Truthfully I was getting overwhelmed with all the details I had going on about specific plants, when to grow, where to grow, how much can I grow etc.

This year (as every year) I aim to get as much as I can out of our little backyard and patio (yes I container garden). I’ve been trying to pinpoint which varieties will do best in our Northwest climate. What didn’t work the last couple of years (last year was very wet). And did I want to try something new.

So far I’ve been using the GroOrganic planner to pinpoint where and how much of an item I’m going to plant. And also reviewing the tips for planting in my area (did I mention it has you put in your zip code so it can give you specific advice for your area?)

Measure your space and go in there placing veggies. It’s ingenious! It knows how much of each type of plant can go in the designated spot.

1. Start off by watching the videos.
2. Then set your planting region so the planner knows what information you need.
3. Then start drawing your planting space. As you draw the various shapes of your planting beds, containers, what have you, the size shows up which is important in knowing how much of something you can plant.
4. Once you’re done with your design you start adding veggies to your areas. There is information about each plant. When you’re done adding your plants you can go to the plant list which will give your growing information such as the spacing each plant needs and how long during which months are best to grow it (ingenious!).

The planner is also customizable in case you want to devise your own growing seasons for some special plants or some such.

Right now I’m messing with the succession planting features because that is what I plan on doing (sort of). I’m discovering some of the things I was planning to do may not work out and I have to rethink my planting plan.

These are the features of the GroOrganics Online Planner

• Growing information: Just click for full details of how to grow each plant, where to position them, etc.
• Number of Plants: Clearly shown by the number at the top of each plant square
• Personalized Planting Chart: You get a chart showing when each plant will be planted and harvested. Our advanced system works out the dates for your own area.
• Reminder Emails: You can have emails sent reminding you what needs planting in your garden (optional)
• Easy Crop Rotation: The Garden Planner remembers each year’s crops and advises where to place them next year
• Succession Planting: See which crops will follow others and view your plan for each month of the year
• Add Notes: Like a garden journal you can add notes on how each plant did
• Intuitive Use: Works just like software you are familiar with, including features such as copy and paste
• Tutorial Videos: Quick built-in videos show you just what you need to know to get the most out of the software

There are two membership plans for GroOrganic‘s online planner

The Seedling Membership is $39 a year and gives you…
access to the Online Garden Planner

The Premium Membership is $99 a year and gives you…
access to the Online Garden Planner and…
12 packets of non-GMO seeds per year (as you renew)
An Instruction Manual
Members only discounts and gifts
and a free online review of your garden plans

I am thoroughly enjoying the planning and tips for my garden adventures this year. I have to say truly this did help me get organized and ready to get going. So I’ve started some lettuce and cabbage and in the next few weeks I’ll be outdoors planting peas, carrots, and onions. Woo hoo!

Note: I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commissions 16 CFR, Part 255 Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising. Tomoson Product review & giveaway Disclosure.

It’s time to start thinking about gardening again. My mom and I sat down with catalogs and paper yesterday to figure out what we’ll be doing.

She’s got some plans to grow a bit of fruit and I’m going to streamline my veggies.

I’ll have to get her list from her but for me this is how it’s looking…

Spring

• Lettuce
• Onions
• Carrots
• Cabbage (maybe)

Summer

• Tomatoes
• Potatoes
• Peppers
• Cucumbers

Well that’s it for now.

It’s definitely Autumn in the air and even with being a dismal summer as far as gardening goes I’m still picking tomatoes.

It’s time to do all those lovely clean up chores in the garden. So here are some lovely Autumn Gardening Chores for you….

Autumn Gardening Chores (would you like this in a cute printable? Let me know).

1. Clean up excess garden debris. Dead plants. I have plenty of those.  And stalks. Turn your soil over.

2. Clean and oil your garden tools.

3. Drain and store garden hoses. Seriously consider drip irrigation for next year.

4. It’s a good time to do some lasagna gardening. One of my best friends told me about this last year and we’re trying it with a patch of my mother’s yard.

5. Make notes on things you’re going to do better next year. (we’ll do better at staking the tomatoes and organic bug control).

Happy Gardening

My Purple Viking potatoes got scab! They taste great anyway. Something new to read up on for the winter months.

We had such a great crop of potatoes last year that we knew for sure we would have a great one this year.

Well….

Yes and No.

We planted two varieties again. The Purple Viking and last year’s winner German Butterball. All derived from Seedsavers.org (love em).

So it’s now mid-August and even though we’ll be harvesting all of them at the end of the month (like we did last year) we pulled a few today for dinner.

Waahhhh! The Purple Viking have scab. We pulled 4 of them and 2 had it really bad and two were not so bad. The German Butterball were lovely as usual.

Purple Viking Potato with Scab

I like to think of myself as a new vegetable gardener. I did have a veggie garden eons ago while I was still in college (go figure I told you I was domestic) but we lived in an area that must have been toxic because there were no bugs and we didn’t really know what we (my mom and I) were doing but we got a good harvest. I only did it one year and I ordered plants from those places you see in the inserts in your Sunday newspaper.

So like I was saying I’m new at this. I didn’t read about all the things that can go wrong with potatoes. I found one article about how to grow them in pots and went for it. I’m reading about it now.

That being said I now have started my list on growing succesful potatoes so next year we hopefully won’t have this problem.

Gardening is not perfect. A learning experience all the way.

Okay so here are today’s gardening links…

Seed Savers Potatoes (out of stock until later)

Dissertation to Dirt (I just liked this blog on gardening. Cute couple. And yes the link is about potatoes)

WSU’s page about purple potatoes (don’t be mad UW)

Saving of Seed Potatoes how to

And old post on a veggie garden

I don’t have any pics…yet but I have little green tomatoes all over our many plants. Again this year some are unlabeled (the ones my husband gleaned from our starts). My husband wants to see what will happen when some tomatoes are left to their own devices so we will see.

We have Brandywine (some rogue lonely dying plant that I picked up at a store), Green Sausage, some cherry tomatoe variety I have to go read the pack again. And my favorites, Black from Tula, Amish Paste (these grew well last year) and Gold Medal.

More to come…

Have I mentioned before my love/hate relationship with lettuce?

I love it. It’s so fresh and adds so much to a sandwich, or salad.

I’ve been trying to grow it forever.

I’ve discovered I’m not patient enough and I usually start cutting and picking leaves long before the stuff has matured.

This year I bought a lettuce bag and planted tons of little tiny lettuce seeds.

As I mentioned before I’m impatient and I got my nose out of joint because they didn’t sprout soon enough for me.

So now I have tons of lettcue.

I wanted to plant a succession of lettuce crops but that means planting thinly which I did not.

My other pet peeve is washing lettuce.

This is my method…

1. Spray lettuce before cutting.
2. Soak a few minutes in a cold water bath in the sink
3. Drain the water and soak again.
4. Drain the water and soak again
5. Spray leaves as I’m pulling out to spin (my mother finally gave me back our lettuce spinner)

On my drain yesterday an earwig went down the drain…

WHAT?!

I had washed the mess THREE times!

I still love lettuce and we ait it anyway.

BTW I’ve had the stuff from the grocery store hatch larvae in my fridge before sssshhhhuuudddderrrrr!!!! It was organic

By the way this week’s e-newsletter from Molly Green was about lettuce. Recipes and all. If you don’t subscribe you should. It’s free for the weekly newsletter and you get nice tips and some free resources.

How do you wash your lettuce?

Just discovered this lady’s lovely fruit garden post the other day. I thought it would offer lovely inspiration. She tells how she put it together in a pretty frugal way if you ask me.

Anyway. Enjoy…

My New Fruit Garden at The Pleasures of Homemaking

I’ve been helping my mother with her garden and with all of the rain we’ve been having in the Northwest slugs are becoming a big problem. I remember as a kid dealing with them with salt but that doesn’t seem so grand anymore.

So to the web it was and I browsed the internet looking for nice eco ways to get rid of them. I landed upon using a barrier of oat bran. So I picked up some nice Bob’s Red Mill Oat bran with which to cut those icky slugs with. But then after sprinkling a bit we noticed the ants walking off with it. Not really wanting to feed the ants it was back to the drawing board.

Then I called my Master Gardener friend and here is what she suggested.

a) There is the slug beer drowning method. I guess they go after it and drown. You have to clean out the bowls regularly so as not to be too disgusted. Not being a drinker I really didn’t want to go buy any and bring it into the house. That method is out.

b) Then there is the copper shock method. I guess copper shocks them. You put a barrier of it around your plants and when they touch it they get shocked. So then you just have to get your hand on some copper. She also suggested you could use pennies. Here is a smidgen article about how much copper is in which pennies in case this is you method du jour.

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