Homemaking Organized Blog

Posts Tagged ‘garden’

As the end of summer looms near (sorry to be so dramatic) I’m given to thoughts of what to plant for a fall/winter harvest.

I’m in Zone 8 BTW.

So far I’ve been thinking of.

Carrots (carrots don’t like me. I have to work on them)

Lettuce (I didn’t do that great with lettuce this year)

Swiss Chard (we’ve been really enjoying swiss chard this summer)

and my Egyptian Onions should be arriving soon.

The late summer start has me thinking I should wait a few more weeks before starting anything but I’ll be tilling the soil to prepare soon.

 

I’m sorely behind in updating about what is going on in the garden. I’ll try to remedy that here.

What’s Growing

-strawberries, June bearing so the flowers are out

-peas, I started these babies in March but still no flowers

- swiss chard, a new one for me. Rainbow lights or something variety

- mini Bok Choi. I have a few of these already starting to go to flowers. We ate some last night.

- Lettuce.  I love lettuce so I have tons of kinds going. Pom pom is the only name I can remember. Both head and cut and come.

- Potatoes. Purple Viking. Growing well.  These are yummy. We also found a rogue potato plant in my Mother’s yard from last year and I’ve transplanted it to ours. It’s either Purple Viking or German Butterball

- Onions, red zepplin, walla wall, and some white one’s the name of which I’ve forgotten

- carrots,

- garlic, for fall harvest

- Tomatoes, Brandywine, Black from Tula and some Oregon variety

- cucumbers, pickling and I will plant the non-pickling ones on Friday

- Peppers, some sweet something or other.

-Herbs, basil, thyme, lemon thyme, oregano, chives, parsely (curled)

One would think we never need go to the grocery store again with all of this growing around but due to the fact that you have to take into account plant failures, pests, just a few plants in pots and raised beds, we really don’t have that much. But boy it is fun and rewarding!

 

It’s National Garden Month!

I have a love/hate relationship with gardening. Kind of like sewing. When it works I’m so happy and when it doesn’t I’m frustrated, irritated, disgusted and ready to give up.

I can never decide if gardening for me is a hobby. Something practical I do to feed my family a bit healthier.  A waste of money (I have had whole crops go south). Or a time honored skill I’m getting better at.

Sometimes I feel very clueless about it all. I do note that I am attempting to garden on a small porch and a very small plot of land in raised beds.

But it is a great activity I share with my mother and my daughter and also my father long distance (we discuss and share seeds). My husband and nephew pitch in when we need some muscle but mostly it’s we three women (my daughter after watching too many Little House on the Prairie videos insists she’s a woman) getting it done.

I have ideas of grandeur and what always works is what I was not working on. I hate spending money for garden implements but it’s necessary when you start from scratch AND garden in pots.

BUT

Gardening is so great. Here are the benefits I can remember. And I’m talking about vegetable gardening. I like flowers but I KNOW I would kill them.

1. Great easy low impact exercise. My retired mother was feeling very low energy and as if she could accomplish nothing until we started dragging her along on our gardening. Now her backyard is flourishing and she’s out there tapping her foot waiting for us to get going.
2. Fun learning tool for the little ones. While my daughter still doesn’t know the best time to pick strawberries she gets up close and personal with the bugs. She loves to just dig in the dirt and attempt to grow things. I give her seeds, her own little plot, and talk about what could happen if she would just be patient. She is also our resident rock collecter so we can make borders and such. She picks weeds too when they are specifically pointed out to her.
3. Fabulous way to supplement the dinner table and the freezer. If you can get to the point where you grow one or two veggies well it is so worth it. Pulling onions out of the freezer mid winter. Or tomato sauces. I’m guilty of being Jack of All Veggies and Master of Non. But last year we did so well with the lettuce and our onions were pretty good too even though it was a wet summer. Our tomatoes and strawberries suffered but I’m hoping that won’t be the case this year. I’m turning into the mindset that you can never have too many onions or lettuce (like soap) so that is what I have growing well out there.
4. Know what is going in your body. Much easier to grow organic veggies on a small scale. You can control pests with row cover and such instead of sprays.

Here are a few links for you for National Garden Month

• Start a small veggie garden in a pot with your children.
• Learn more about Edible Landscaping
• 7 Edible Plants That Look Great in the Garden

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.

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.

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 should figure out how to label these updates. I also need to post the pictures I took. I’m writing content before adding that great media but here is my exciting container garden update!!!

I know you have all been wondering and tearing your hair out for the next installment of The Container Garden – How Not To…

All kidding aside here is the update.

Carrots: I don’t know where these are. Seriously. My sister says I they come up as little tiny sprigs reminiscent of tiny chives but mine are so tiny there are almost invisible. She has bigger ones in her kitchen window. My verdict is still out on these. I have some mini tom thumb variety growing.

Corn: The corn sprouted so fast I’m a proud mama. I need to thin them now as my little Peanut and I planted 3 per hole. They have two long leaves each. These are also in the Garden Patch pot.

Cucumbers: My first two transplants died. I have another growing in my office but I’m not sure I even want to continue with him. I may put him in my rogue pot. More on that later.

Herbs: My aunt gave me one of those dollar store herb selections and I planted the whole pack in a pot. I’m not even sure what it was. It’s growing kind of. We’ve had a ton of rain so I had to move the water drain catcher thingsy from under most non-self watering pots.

Lettuce: We’ve eaten all of the transplants bought from Whole Foods…or is it Wild Oats? Oh well. My family says this was not a true  test of my gardening skills because they were already doing so well when I purchased them. My indoor flat is not doing well. I put it in more light but I think I’m going to scrap the indoor lettuce. The seeds I started in a pot (non-self watering) with some onions are doing really well. This was a mix from Seedsavers.org. I’m going to sow some more in a week or so to have continuous lettuce for a while.

Onions: These just baffle me. They are doing so well in a pot that I forgot to put the bottom on. They are big and I’m just going to leave them alone. I don’t even remember if I added fertilizer (keep notes unlike me). These were the onions I bought in a bunch at the beginning of the growing season. I put some more out a few weeks ago since they seem to like pots.

Potatoes: I am just so tickled at the potatoes. We have… well four pots actually but one is just

a very small pot I started so my daughter could really see the potatoes. We have 3 big Smart Pots on the ground and they are doing really well in there. We covered them with the next layer of peat moss/ soil mix.  We are following this method pretty much to the T. Just using Smart Pots instead of barrells.

Strawberries: These poor babies have been in a pot most of their lives. I’ve been carrying them around as we move hoping to put them in our backyard when we finally buy a home. I purchased them before I got married so they are about 12 years old now. They are in a Garden Patch pot and have several flowers on each little plant. I’m glad they didn’t give up on me.

Tomatoes: Tomaotes. So tempermental but so worth it. I have my second transplants outside permanently as of Sunday. So far so good. One did go and break in half on me so I gave that to my daughter who was making ‘soup’.  My first set all turned into my version of lazy compost except one plant which had hardened up and was growing well. It actually has a flower on it. Replace the Gold Medal I lost today. I don’t know which variety it is though so this will be interesting. All the tomotoes are in Garden Patch planters.

I have one rogue Garden Patch pot where I put thinnings and odds and ends to see what will happen. I really shouldn’t be wasting a self watering container like this but my husband and I like to do things like this for surprises.

Technically this could be a very long blog post. There is just so much information. But I will try to stay on point, make it short, and just set you up with good links.

This year I have decided to grow all of our vegetables in containers. There are a number of reasons but I won’t go into them.  I’ve heard you can do quite well in containers and since I had good success with the in ground garden I’m always up for a challenge.  So my Peanut and I have started the process.

We ordered our seeds from Seed Savers.  If you don’t know about them they are non-profit group of gardeners who share heirloom seeds. You can become a member or just buy from them. My very good friend is a member but I just bought from them without becoming one. I have to see how well I do first. It’s been a while since I did actual food gardening.

We purchased 3 kinds of tomatos, onions, potatoes (yes I’m going to try potatoes in a pot but they won’t come until fall), garlic (same as potatoes fall), corn (yup), lettuce, carrots and cucumbers.

We are using these Jiffy Greenhouse little pot things to start our seedlings. I thought about making some from newspaper and all that but at this stage of life I just need to get the job done so I bought these.

We have planted the tomato and onion seed.

Next we will be ordering our pots.

There are these new fangled pots out there for container gardening. The first ones we heard about were these. Then we saw the Earthbox and thought that was nifty. Yes it is expensive but you get the dirt too. And finally I opted for a combination of these and these.

Even though I took pictures of the seed starting I don’t think I will post any until we get the box stuff happening.