Daisy's Kitchen Garden

Niko, Chioggia beets, and such

2012-01-27T17:10:00.000-08:00

I was able to enjoy the sunny and cool winter day out in the garden today. I removed some old kale and celery plants left from last year and I added some manure and brown leaves to the garden bed.

This is "Niko" our greenhouse mascot. Isn't she adorable. She loves spending time in the greenhouse munching on kale. If I try to take her away before she is ready, she runs to the other side of the basket to get away from me.

Niko

I wintersowed "Garden Bells" penstemon in the greenhouse a few days ago...

along with "Tutti Frutti" Lupine

Their home.

Some of my spanish onions and leeks have sprouted and I find myself having to fill in the empty spots with new seeds. The first seeds I planted were a couple of years old, hence the low germination rate. I'm trying to use up all my old seeds. I know, I should have sowed them in a papertowel first.

Sweet Pea "Perfume Delight"

I find it hard to reset the low and high indicators on this thermometer. First, not that it matters much, but the blue indicator needs to be on the low side and vice verse with the green...and when you get both needles on the same side of the red one, it is hard to seperate them. I need to ask someone that has one of these how they work it.

My new coat hook. Now I have a place to hang my coat, hat, and camera while I'm working in the greenhouse.

Sedum "Autumn Fire" from last year; and waiting for me to make a bed for them to lie in...I need to continue the arduous task of removing the landcaping rocks and fabric.

My "Blue Flax" have sprouted along with my "Portulaca", and "Bombast Poppies." The last two are not pictured.

My surprise "Chioggia" beet harvest. Last year, I remember sowing these seeds and forgeting to label them. I thought they were swiss chard and I remember not being impressed by their leaves. Well no wonder. By the way, I had some for lunch and they were deliciously tender.

Finally, I have renewed hope . My "Elvas" amaryllis is growing.

I got a great deal from the local garden center... I know they look dead in the picture but they are alive and healthy. I bought six 6packs of strawberries for .25 cents each. Ahh love the deals. I planted two packs in my garden and the rest are for the Pathfinders' garden I will be helping to start this spring.

Here is the before picture of another thrift store treasure. I bought this wood planter for five dollars and I am in the process of painting it white. It will be a window box. I can't wait till it's up. More pic to come.

This is "Coco" our rescued dog. Look at those innocent eyes.

Till next time. Have a wonderful weekend.

Wind and Fire

2012-01-19T16:03:00.000-08:00

It's windy today with 55mph wind gusts. Last time this happened we had a fire in Reno that made national news. About a dozen homes were burnt and a lot of land charred. We lost part of our fence.

I took a break from blogging to pick up my child from school and the second I walk out the door I could smell it in the air....another fire in the area. Our firefighters are really working hard for their money. These wind fueled fires are so hard to contain because they can't use airplanes or helicopters, only ground firefighters and the paved roads only go so far. I pray no one looses their home.

On a lighter note, I recently did some winter sowing in some containers.. I planted some chinese lantern, guara, armeria, lupine, blue flax, snow-in-the-summer, cleome, portulaca and some varieties of hollyhock.

Excuse this poor picture, but what you see here is the bane of my existance. Let me explain. The perimeter of my yard is covered with various layers substances that keep me from turning my yard into the paradise that I have imagined. First, I have a layer of what started off as a decorative grass which has become invasive. Next I have a layer of landscape rock followed by a sheet of thick landscape fabric which has the roots of the grass growing right through it and last but highly significant is the hard concrete-like clay soil. I've been working at removing these rocks small sections at a time and it's taking forever. I also have a growing pile of rocks on the side of the house and I'm running out of room. I need to place an ad on craigslist to get rid of these rocks

My back and fingers hurt just from the sight of this picture.

A picture of Lake Tahoe.

Update on Paperwhites, Amaryllis and my Thrift store find.

2012-01-17T18:42:00.000-08:00

My Paperwhites have flowered. They are a beauty.

I really like these paperwhites because they're not really tall. I've had some in the past that were so tall they would fall over...a real mess. I'm glad I overcame my apprehension of trying them again. I've read that you can add vodka (1:10 solution) to the water and it helps to keep them from getting too tall.

No sign of growth from my "Elvas" amaryllis. I've been careful not to overwater so the bulb doesn't rot and the bulb feels firm and it has a green color. Hmmm...patience!

My thriftstore find. It started out as an old ugly brown stained stool that you would never think about bringing home, but here it is in its new glory...naked. I still haven't figured out whether I want to stain it or paint it. What I like about it is that it has a lazy susan type seat and I can twirl around from one side to the other. It will come in handy when I place a bench on the other side of the greenhouse.

The four rows on the left have sprouting spanish onion seedlings and the three rows on the right have leeks. So much for my little flag labels...they melted right off with the the high moisture level. My seed starting box is housed in a heated propagater seen below which I think helps them when the temp drops below freezing.

Last night the temperature dropped down to three degrees outside and the inside of the greenhouse went down to 20 degrees. Not bad for an unheated greenhouse with no extra insulation. This spring I will be turning on the heater when I start my warm season vegetables

Euro Tree, Paperwhites, Amaryllis, and Lake Tahoe

2011-12-22T11:43:00.000-08:00

My Euro Tree purchased from Trader Joes. It is so pretty. It looks like a mini topiary. I would love for it to grow and grace my front porch with its beauty.

I planted my "Elvas" amaryllis last week and I'm anxiouly waiting for signs of growth. It is to early still.

"Elvas" Amaryllis

My paperwhites. I wasn't thinking clearly when I purchased these. They had already started to grow in a curved manner when I found them in the box at the garden shop. I should have purchased ones that hadn't had any growth on them.

They look like "claws"

Beautiful Lake Tahoe on a Saturday evening.

Our new greenhouse

2011-12-01T11:00:00.001-08:00

Thank you Julie for inspiring to pickup my blogging. Though I had stopped blogging and had given up hope of starting again due to embarrassement of blog abandonment. I have put those feelings aside and here I am. I will share some exciting changes that occurred in my gardening life in 2011. Here goes. Hope you enjoy.

We removed the lawn from around the garden boxes and cleared the area for the greenhouse.

My greenhouse arrived!

Almost done!

We layed some wood chips around the boxes. Thank goodness because it was so much work to mow around them.

Chives

Hope you've enjoyed the quick tour. The next pictures that I share were taken in the spring of this year.
Daisy:D

P.S. My introduction picture is too big. Does anyone know how to reduce its size?

2010-04-01T10:46:00.000-07:00

Spring update

I wish I could tell you what types of carrots I’m holding here but my daughter seems to have misplaced the package. I keep all of my seeds in a shoe box and recently she’s decided that she wants to have her own seed box. So she went through all the seeds and took half of them and made her own packages. She was so excited I couldn’t say no but let’s just say there’s alot of unidentified seeds at the bottom of my box and hers. She’s a gardener in the making.

I soaked my peas in some water diluted with inoculant for about for about 24hrs. Most of the peas sprouted.

Peas about 2 inches in the ground. BTW these are the bush type that don’t need support.

This little guy standing between my wall o’ waters is one of my regulars. He doesn’t go for the seeds like the other guys, he’s more of a “worm” guy. I don’t mind sharing my garden worms with them anymore, as long as they leave some for my dirt.

This is my daughters spaghetti squash living in the wall o' water. The temperatures having been dropping to freezing and we’ve had lots of rain, snow and 60mph winds and this little guy is doing just great. I am now a believer in wall o’ waters. The wall o’ waters in the previous pics(the red ones), I’ve sowed some tomatoes seeds, but they haven’t come up yet…not surprising. I much prefer to start them indoors and transfer them outside as soon as I can so they can develop a better root system.

We decided to make some garden labels out of rocks. There’s my daughter’s artwork. I think she did a pretty good job.

I’ve always wanted a concord grape vine… I think they produce the best tasting grapes. So when I saw these small vines at a local hardware store, I decided to take a bite. The vine is a one year old vine but they grow rather quickly and I get a great sense of satisfaction when I nurture something and watch it flourish. I keep it snuggled under a glass pitcher and so far the little bud it has has been growing.

That is all for today. Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!

I've sold my compost tumbler

2010-03-04T11:25:00.000-08:00

Remember my green compost tumbler?....well, I've sold it. It was difficult letting go at first because it was a really nice one. The bin worked really well, and I thought it was cute too, except the compost it produced looked like turds ...anyways that's not why I sold it. It was just not big enough. I ended up buying two more soilsaver bins from Sam's club for 39dollars each. They were a great deal. I'm very happy with the one I already have. It is difficult to turn the contents in them once the bin starts getting full...I just aerate it with the aerating tool and make sure it's moist enough....after that I don't do anything else to it. Three years is enough time to let the compost decompose enough.

On the left is an artichoke seedling. This one is going to planted in the border that travels around the patio. I've decided to incorporate perennial vegetables in the landscape whenever I can since I don't have enough raised beds.

I have some radishes, onions, leeks,mache lettuce, curly mustard, sweet peas and echinacea in my coldframe.

Despite the temperatures dropping into the twenties at night and cloudy days, the seeds are still sprouting and growing...just at a much slower rate.

Tulips in the patio bed. I had to place a small wire border to keep Coco out of the tulip bed. I amended the soil with sheep manure and bonemeal last fall.

Left overs from Fall

2010-02-20T15:29:00.000-08:00

Last fall I planted some cool season vegetables for my fall garden and they never really got to full size, I know I started them too late(late August)....and so by the time winter came around I also didn't bother covering them with a hoop. I thought the wind would probably blow the plastic away(we get 80mph winds)....so why bother, I thought. After so many snow storms I went outside to assess the damage....and most of the greens were dead.... brown...goners...and so I left them in their grave yard for a couple of months(It was much to cold for me to deal with them at the time)...and then I started seeing some growth. I was really excited about that.
So I cleaned off all the dead stuff and debris and covered two of the boxes with plastic....and here are some pics:

Here is one of my lolla rosas. It's still growing. The spinach in the background doesn't look good and I was thinking about leaving them in so that I may collect the seeds but then again, you want to collect seeds from healthy looking plants. So next time I get out there...they'll be gone.

The swiss chard in the background have perked up and look really good. I can't wait to taste them. They should have a nice salty flavor thanks to the cold temperatures.

The beets are also thriving...some of the roots are almost two inches across.

A picture of a tree that produces baby pinecones. I love to collect them. I like to place them in decorative bowls for the winter.

This picture is of the Fairytale Town garden across from the Sacramento Zoo. The kale in the background box are like little trees. When I first saw the vegetables in the boxes, I thought they were fake b/c they looked so vibrant in color. My daughter was like...no mom... they are real.

That is all for today and thank you for stopping by. Till next time.

Resurfacing

2010-02-05T12:23:00.000-08:00

Hello my fellow bloggers and readers. I'm back again. For awhile there I thought I was done with the blogging business. I would check every once in a while to see if the blog was even there. I thought it might have even been deleted by now from inactivity. I just wasn't ready to get back. Writing has never come naturally to me....getting my thoughts down in a flowing and natural manner....well, has always been a struggle for me, but never the less I have a need to share what has been happening in my own backyard , along with my desires and dreams for it.

Some new stuff:

I have a new camera... a Canon rebel xs 10 pixel...quite the step up from my previous 2.o megapixel ...along with a canon compact-macro lens. I wanted this lens so that I can take close-up pictures of flowers and food...it also does awesome portrait pics. I'm delighted with it. I just need to use it more often. My problem is that my laptop is now ancient and doesn't have the memory to handle all this data. Uploading pics is a hassle because I have to delete stuff off my computer so that I can make room for pics. So I haven't bothered with the process. Hopefully a friend might be able to help me out with that. I'll keep my fingers crossed so that I may be able to enhance the experience of this blog.

I've also doubled the size of my garden(I'll have to wait till I can post some pics to show you.) So that is all I'm going to mention in that department.

Last night I went to Whole Foods and attended a seminar by Full Circle Compost on one of their products, Soil Essence elite 1:9. Everyone that attended walked away with a complimentary bag. Thank you! This fertilizer not only has all the good stuff but it also has rock dust, something I've recently learned about. Individuals involved on the edge of organic farming are trying to remineralize the earth with rock dust and are getting great results. So I'm excited about incorporating this product into my garden.
The owner of the company(also a gardener) brought along many seeds to share with everyone. I picked up some brandywine tomato seeds from his own tomatoes. You shoud have seen how big his tomato plants were....10ft tall and the tomatoes were massive. I have seeds from his tomatoes so hopefully I'll be blessed with a better crop this year.

He brought some books that he recommended: Seed to Seed by by Suzanne Ashworth. On how to harvest and save seeds. Another one is How to Grow World Record Tomatoes by Charles Wilber. The presenters tomato plants were as big as the one in the book by Charles Wilber, no kidding....and he uses organic methods.

Overall it was an informative and enjoyable evening...I even ran into a friend there. Full Circle will be having another seminar next month. Not sure what their topic will be but you can look it up on their website or the Local Whole Foods website.

Well that is all for today. Thank you for reading and sorry there's no pics.
Have a great day.

Update on my garden

2009-08-08T13:18:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone...I hope you are enjoying your summer as much as I've been. I've been busy with other things in my life...always meaning to get back to my blog, but not quite making it.
One of things I've done is visit a friends garden....it was so bountiful....and I thought I was doing well. Yes I have lots of tomatoes, but most of them are cherry tomatoes...small. I musn't be so hard on myself....I know. I am realistic and realize that my soil is not up to par with the years of sheep manure and leaf mold she has on me. I will get there. So...two days later after visiting my friend, I dragged my husband and a large bucket to the university to pick up manure. Up to this point, it had been bagged manure from the local garden shop and I believe I didn't add enough. So I added the freshly obtained manure to the compost and two days later when I checked it...it was steaming hot. Yes!
So I just want to add...that despite the lack of major abundance and some failures(cucumber plant died, poor developing corn, infested cabbage) my garden has been a source of enjoyment and education. I can now identify what an eggplant plant looks like...or what flowering zucchini bud will produce a zucchini....I've had the experience which I lacked. All that I had learned...I learned from a book and now I have been able to put it together with experience.
So here are some pictures I want to share:
My bush bean...kept from spilling over into the next square with a makeshift tepee. I've harvested some and steamed them. They were tough...too bad. I won't give up on them. It must have been something I did or didn't do.

My strawberry plant...she has produced some off springs and has a couple more flowers.

I picked up these little grape seedlings from a generous soul on freecycle. I'm going to transfer them to the coldframe when it starts getting cold. Hopefully they will make it.

I've started some broccoli and kale seedlings....ready for my fall garden.
The brown spots on the leaves are just organic fertilizer stains.

I have some swiss chard growing in the back right hand corner. In the foreground a pumpkin plant gifted to me from a friend. And in the left side, potato plants. They look like they are dying but I'm told to keep watering till they are dead....that will produce bigger potatoes.

I sowed some bok choy seeds under these mosquito covers. I would like to plant two more boxes of bok choy, but I will wait till the kale and broccoli plants bolt....if that happens.

Kale, broccoli and beets in the foreground.

Eggplant.

Another eggplant. This plant and the one pictured about came from the same packet of seeds...they must have had a couple varieties in them.

My pole beans don't look so healthy and they haven't produced. I'm wondering if I should leave them there or just pull them out and plant some fall crops there.

Lemon boy tomatoes.....these have been divine! When I make my salads, I usually add lemon, olive oil and salt. With these lemon boys you'll want to leave out the lemons...it make them to acidic tasting....just olive oil and salt is plenty.

Some swiss chard. I do treat them like cut flowers...by placing them in a jar of water till they are ready to be steamed...otherwise they wilt so quickly. Makes me think of those greens in the grocery store that look sooo perky for days. Hmmm....what's in them?

The harvest of three squarefoot boxes. Next year, God willing, I'm planning on making some sides for the squares so that I can add height and keep adding soil and increase my harvest. I had had too many projects going on this spring for me to do this year.

The largest potato I harvested...it weighed one pound.

My beets....they were small yet delicious.

Thank you for stopping by. Have a great day!

Daisy

dehyrating some herbs

2009-07-16T11:52:00.000-07:00

This potted tomato plant was a sucker on one of my plants. I had failed to spot it growing out from the soil, no wonder the main branch wasn't growing as quickly. Usually I kept my eye on the area between the mainstem and the side shoots ready to pinch off those suckers, but this one ecaped my sight and I'm glad it did. I rooted and planted it and now my friend has a yellow pear tomato plant of her own.

Last evening my child harvested some vegetables for dinner. The one swiss chard leaf was hers. I asked her if she wanted more than one...shes like no mom... ones enough. So I steamed it and sprinkled it with olive oil, lemon and salt. She said it was her favorite.

This morning I decided to dehydrate some herbs from the garden. I filled three trays with spearmint leaves. Under a couple of leaves I found some eggs attached. I didn't kill them or dispose of them as I would have in the past. I held on to them to placed back in the same area. Hopefully when they hatch they will be insects that are beneficial to the garden.

I also harvested some basil(purple variety) and filled two trays. I hope the bushes will grow back and give me enough for a second cutting. I placed my five trays in the dehydrator and set the temp. at 105F. When they are completely dry I will transfer them to labeled mason jars and have them available for cooking. I love to make split pea soup with lots of basil, pepper and salt. Simple yet delicious.

another garden update

2009-07-08T09:27:00.000-07:00

Lately I've been planning out my fall garden...not that I'm through with my spring/summer crops...no that is far from the truth. We've been enjoying generous helpings of kale and swiss chard....and when I felt that I couldn't even think about having them for dinner again. I would snip them off and give them to my neighbors. The lettuce...I've been most impressed with. So delicious...I couldn't think of having store bought lettuce after having fresh ones from the garden. And that is why I'm planning my fall garden. I used to think a short garden season was such downfall...oh...not true because I get to look forward to all the cool season crops.

Anyways. I'm planning to dedicate a whole box 4ftx4ft to lettuce. Yes we'll be able to have many varieties... plenty of tom thumbs, bibbs, mesclun baby greens and deer tongue red.

Everything else in the fall garden will have a 1/4 of a box dedicated to each vegetable.

Yesterday I purchased a bag of soil to start my seedlings and within the next couple of days I will be starting my broccoli.

My mesclun greens shaded with a cloth to keep from bolting.

Three corn "heads" coming through.
Tomatoes on the vine. I counted over one hundred tomatoes on the vines. We've been harvesting 2 or 3 tomatoes every couple of days. I think we'll be bursting at the seams with tomatoes here pretty soon. I'm planning on making some sun-dried tomatoes.

We'll be having the ones towards the bottom for dinner this evening.

The broccoli rabe plants I had drying by the bench have completely dried. When you shake the pods the seeds rattle inside. I harvested many to fill a small packet. I placed the dry arrangement in a vase and it's still loaded with seeds. So if any of my local neighbors would like some let me know...you can come by and get some pods.

By the way I got the template for the seed packet in the picture from a book called "You Grow Girl" by Gayla Trail. A chic modern gardening guide book with lots of gardening crafts ideas .

Summer

2009-07-05T14:53:00.000-07:00

I've been feeling guilty again for not blogging all the work I've done in the garden. Part of the reason....I changed my password and then when I went to sign on a few days later, I realized that I had forgotten my password after a few tries. So with a few quirks here and there and some distractions ...I never made it back to my blog till now. So here I go:

Spring has gone along with my broccoli rabe and peas. The pea stems and leaves went into the compost, but the broccoli rabe has a new life for now. As you will see it is hanging upside down drying and loaded with dry seed pods which I will pass on to friends. The stalks are too pretty to discard yet...I will place them in my tall blue vase to display as a dry arrangement. For now my vase holds arugula from my friends garden that has bolted. I also plan to harvest those seeds.

I recently made a propagating pot to root cuttings. I used a small clay pot and a larger glazed one(you can use a plastic one if you like and it can have drainage holes, mine doesn't though), some vermiculite and a pencil eraser head, cuttings and water. I plugged the inner clay pot with an eraser head and it sealed it perfectly. You don't want the the water draining out of the bottom..you want it perspiring out through the pores of the clay pot. Then I add some rocks to the bottom of the bigger pot and then some vermiculite enough so that I can still place my clay pot inside it and filled the area around the clay pot with enough vermiculite. I then saturated the vermiculite with water using a watering can and made sure it was moist and I filled my clay pot with water. I added rosemary, lavender, petunia and chamomile cuttings and it's been about a week and the cuttings still look healthy. I'm very pleased with this system because I don't have to be so vigilant about watering it.

Lately I've been reading "Inner Gardening...A Seasonal Path to Inner Peace" by Diane Dreher and I must say I've been enjoying it...it's romantic and intellectual. She shares bits of her life and those around her , lessons about gardening and cultivating friendships and more, the history of gardening including poems, quotes and more. This book makes me want to reach out to my friends more often.

broccoli rabe

Arugula arrangement.

Propagating pot

my garden helper

Composting tool and vegetables

2009-06-24T21:04:00.000-07:00

In the following pictures I'm demonstrating my new composting aerator tool. It consists of handles with a long metal rod which has horizontal folding rods on the bottom, designed to puncture down into the different layers of decomposing material, loosen, mix, and as a result help decompose faster by providing oxygen deep inside. Prior to having this tool I couldn't get my husband to turn the pile...well it was work...and hard on the back. I felt bad asking him to do it ...that's why it got done only once this season;however, with this new tool...I couldn't get him to give it back to me. He said he was helping me...but I couldn't get him to help "before tool." My analysis was that he really liked it. Here I am in the picture...but of course he already worked on the pile for about 5minutes.
The bottom half of the tool....and I almost bought a pitchfork instead. Whew...I don't think a pitchfork would have been as easy as this tool...plus this tool was only 19.99 compared to what a new pitchfork goes for... about$50-60 dollars. So now my favorite compost bin is this black one. The green tumbler is still nice but smaller...this black one is much bigger and the pile has been running hot. One thing I don't like about the tumbler is that if you don't have the right amount of browns to greens(3to1) you can end up with lots of compost "balls".

These onions I harvested today are the product of the onion end piece I had thrown into the compost and I found sprouting and so I ended up planting them in the box. I had a picture of these growing in the snow on a previous entry. Aren't they pretty. I harvested them because the onion stalks had fallen over...and I had read that that is when you harvest them...but I found out from a farmer at the farmers market that once the stalk fall over you can keep them in the ground longer and that is when they gain size. She much prefers them this size because they are sweeter. I can't wait to try them.

Peas in the pod. Sweet as can be. They don't usually make it to the house. They get eaten right on the spot..in the garden.

We had this swiss chard for dinner. We loved it. Compared to kale, swiss chard is tender and has a mild flavor. I will plant more of this in the fall.

Garden Update

2009-06-18T17:38:00.000-07:00

Hello it's time for a garden update. Lots of plants growing. The picture below has potato plants taking over. I've had to trim some stems/leaves because they were starting to block the sun from the peppers. The potato leaves have some holes in them and I haven't bothered treating the problem because it's not that bad. Maybe a potato box will be in order for next year.

Swiss Chard is thriving.
Just one of my tomato plants. Most of them have tomatoes with the exception of the Black Krim which I started later and the newly rooted ones which were suckers to begin with. This trellis system works really well with the squarefoot garden. So far it is holding the tomato plants up really well.

I harvested some dark rich worm castings a few days ago for some squash plants a neighbor gave me. They were starting to yellow....the castings did the trick.
Fresh cut roses. They usually last about a week in the vase changing the water frequently and re cutting. I may just have fresh roses on the table till frost.

Currently I'm in a state of happy gardening bliss. I can't help it. It's so beautiful and lush and I can't really capture all the beauty with this camera. The flowers integrated in and around the vegetable garden have really embellished it. I do however have some vegetables that I won't be planting again....like broccoli rabe...too bitter even cooked. I'll be giving those seeds away. My cabbage has leaves but no head yet, plus I'm not really a fan of them. I will dedicate 1/2 a box to lettuce next time(like this fall) and maybe one more kale plant(six total). Kale is like lettuce...cut and come again. I have other aspirations for my garden but I'm in the brainstorming stage. We'll see what the future brings.

Till next time.

P.S I wish I could have more than five pictures per post but I haven't figured out how to do it yet.

Out in the country

2009-06-09T20:59:00.000-07:00

Today we spent the day in the country....beautiful Nevada country. Along the way we saw curious deer that seemed to think we were interesting....they raced along our vehicle for awhile before leaping across our path. Somehow I was expecting that to happen and we were ready for it. No collisions or derailments occurred and we managed to make it our friend's ranch.
At our friends 100acre ranch the kids fed the chickens, mingled with the horses, rode the quad around the property and stopped by the creek to catch tadpoles and watched lizards do push-ups(part of their breathing process)....such a beautiful place. We had a fabulous lunch. Our friend made delicious spinach casserole. I'm sure she used the eggs from her very own chickens. I kept going back for more. In the end I was delighted to be gifted a bag of composted horse manure and ashes for the garden. Oh the things that make me happy these days.

The roosters in the pictures have no tails. Plucked out by the "females"...chickens. I thought that was interesting. I felt sorry for them. I thought they looked funny with their bottoms exposed.
Along the way we stopped by a wild horse adoption center. So many beautiful horses and colts available.

We arrived home hungry and tired. I thought it would be nice to have some soup. I needed some beans and I didn't have any canned ones. So I took out the pressure cooker and cooked a mixture of garbanzo, black and pinto beans for about 35 minutes. Then I added some kale from the garden, some pasta and seasonings. Ahh...my favorite soup.

as my garden grows

2009-05-31T15:46:00.000-07:00

Today I fertilized, weeded and did some planting in the garden. Mostly everything looks pretty good, except my swiss chard is starting to look like swiss cheese...lots of holes. I will try bunched up moist newspaper to put at the base and see if the culprit little bugs hide in there.
I think by broccoli rabe has bolted. It sent up a tall shoot with flowers. I will wait and see if I can find seeds to harvest for another crop.
Today I discovered that I have some peas. I was standing in front of them and I couldn't even see them at first. I just stood there and stared and the longer I looked the more seemed to pop out at me. They are so well camouflaged. The peas in the pod look like little bumps not much in size. I'm hoping that with time they will grow. I've never grown peas before.
Today I added two more tomato plants to my garden and no I didn't go out and buy anymore of them. They were suckers that I had removed from my other plants. I placed them in a cup with water and let them sit on my windowsill.... in about five days they rooted. It's still amazing to me.
Some sunflowers growing. The tall thin plant is a hardy hibiscus I started from seed.
I planted a pickling cucumber plant today which I bought at a nursery. Cucumbers aren't really popular in my household but I wanedt to fill a space in my garden and also learn about how cucumbers grow. I can always share with my neighbors.

Soil test and more

2009-05-22T11:29:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I tested my soil with a soil kit. It was a little tricky trying to decide where my samples fell as far as the colors on the comparison chart. I called the cooperative extension and they suggested a soil test they perform for $10dollars and it takes about a week or so to get the results. They weren't confident with the accuracy of the home soil tests. Well, now I know. For the most part the soil was adequate on all except the nitrogen. It came out as deficient which explains why the bottom older leaves on my kale, tomatoes, eggplant and such are yellow. I do have homemade compost and most of it is in small lumps(it don't think the plants are going to be able to absorb the nutrition it needs from them). I fed them miracle grow vegetable fertilizer about four days ago and I believe they quickly absorbed it but the soil is still deficient. I also sprinkled some worm castings around the plants, but I don't have enough to really work it in the soil. I think I will head over to the nursery and pick up some bloodmeal and mix it in the dirt around the plants. This fall, I will be mixing in some major compost, leaves and some manure in the soil.

What do you, my fellow bloggers, as a fertilizer maintenance do(if anything) to keep your plants adequately nourished?
Thank you

I have some more pictures to share:

The pole beans are surfacing. I can't wait till they start to trail up the trellis.

Above are some bush beans.

Some corn.

Radishes, breakfast variety.

If you look closely at the beet greens, there are yellow/orange vines growing up the the stems. What is that....an anomaly? Does anybody know?

Some Garden Highlights

2009-05-18T13:57:00.000-07:00

The temperature has been in the mid 90s for the last couple of days. So I've been visiting my garden when I can bear it-morning and evening. I spend more time on my front porch(shaded from the afternoon sun) so I thought I'd share a picture of my avocado tree that I have there. I started it from an avocado pit about a year and 1/2 ago. The brown leaves were earned last year when I was hardening it next to a window...it got sun scorched. The rest of the leaves look quite healthy. I'm already starting to think ahead as far as a suitable home for this plant It will definitely require a much warmer climate...California. I can picture myself driving it to southern Cal. to gift it to my aunt when we visit her. I don't know if it will be capable of bearing fruit one day, hopefully it will. It was fun growing it though. The progress of my seed started petunias. They look like they are bursting at the seams and will be cascading down the sides pretty soon.

Swiss chard. The bottom leaves are starting to yellow. I gave them a drink of high nitrogen fertilizer that I usually use for my lawn. Next time I will use vegetable fertilizer. Below the chard is my tom thumb lettuce. Next to them I sowed some Summer Bibb and many other varieties of salad mixes. I'm looking forward to them.
My tomato plants. The bottom leaves are a bit pale in color. I stopped fertilizing about a month before planting. I thought I wouldn't fertilize them to discourage them from getting root bound in the pot, but all it did was turn the plants pale in color. I have about twenty small tomatoes growing on these four plants.

My little herb garden. In the foreground I have two small oregano plants that I started indoors.

To the left chamomile...planted last fall. In the background, chives, from a friend. Thank you Larry!

Today we will be planting corn purchased from a nursery. Yes, I did plant some corn seeds, but I'm just going to plant the corn plants there and if the corn seeds sprout I'll just pull them out and plant them in the spot I now have my peas in or elsewhere.

Finally...warm season plantings

2009-05-14T13:28:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was the day I had long awaited for. I planted all my warm weather crops. I planted seven tomato plants, two of which have little tomatoes growing on them. I did lose one plant...it had previous bent over and the stalk became somewhat damaged but what finally brought it to it's death was when I bent it again to plant it on its side. It didn't tolerate the bend(it cracked open and within minutes it was completely wilted. Luckily I had a back up.
I also planted three pepper plants and three eggplants
.

I also sowed some corn, bush and pole beans. I placed the beans in a small bowl of water with some inoculant and placed it in the sun for about an hour. The skin of the beans wrinkled and one even started to sprout. I also placed more inoculant in the hole that I planted them in.

I finally(for the first time) harvested some beautiful radishes. I was beginning to think I didn't have the green thumb I thought I had. So my spirits were lifted when I was able to bring plump radishes to the dinner table. They were all impressed, including my very picky daughter which took a bite and didn't make any funny faces like she does.

We also enjoyed our first butterhead lettuce(tom thumb) of the season. It was crisp, delicious and fresh...no bitterness whatsoever. I wish I had planted more of them...I look forward to plenty more in the fall. I will stop by the nursery and see if I can find some come-again-lettuce to get us thru the summer.

Here are some pictures:

Last night I harvested our first butterhead(tom thumb)lettuce. Quite the delicacy. I will definitely plant more of those in the fall. They were crisp, fresh and no bitterness. I wish I had planted more of them. Tonight we will enjoy the kale for dinner.

Meet Max

2009-05-08T12:44:00.000-07:00

This is Max, our budgie, and every morning I take him out for some sunshine while I work on my garden. Max loves to play with his toys and sing. We've been trying to teach him to talk, but so far he hasn't learned. Just so you know we don't keep him locked up all day. While he's indoors his door is always open. He comes and goes as he pleases and spends time between his cage, gym or the fish bowl(he loves to sit on the ledge). Poor fish, I think Max tortures him, although Max isn't after the fish, he just loves to pull on the plants in the bowl....it's a challenge for him.

Mostly tomato plants and some pepper plants too.

These are how many plants I cart in and out of the house twice a day. I'm counting down on the day that I can plant them in the ground-May 15, one more week. I was thinking about getting some wall-o-waters, but my plants are too tall and they wouldn't be protected from frost completely.

The plants hardening off in the coldframe. I do have to throw extra plastic over the frame to provide extra protection from the sun. They wilt with just the 4mm plastic the coldframe has to offer.

When my daughter comes home from school, we'll plant petunias in the flower boxes, start some corn, pole beans, okra and sunflower seedlings and we'll plant our cilantro and dill in the garden.

Catching up

2009-05-04T17:36:00.000-07:00

I have a slight feeling of guilt for not having blogged recently. This must be a common sentiment when we don't report on our blog as often as we feel we should.

Today I uncovered one of my garden boxes which I keep continuously covered and I inspected all that I have. I'm so happy with the progress. I stepped back and I admired the little bit that I do have and how healthy it looks so far. I'm tempted to keep the cover off so that we can enjoy the look of the garden becoming dense and green but I'm more interested in keeping it bug-free.

My coldframe is mostly done. I need to trim the extra plastic around the edges, and connect/ drill holes on the stick that will prop open the box. For now a regular stick will do. The one thing I am not happy about are the eyelet system holding the box together. They were difficult to place evenly and the dowels are very difficult to slide in and are temporarily held in place with some slim bamboo sticks(flimsy). We will try pushing in the dowels or maybe get smaller ones, which would still leave the system loose. In the end we may just use screws to hold the box together. I don't have any plans on storing my box and am planning on keeping it out year round.

One more thing. My vining tomatoes are very tall. Due to the lack of strong direct light they have gotten quite lanky. The window does face west, so it gets sun for part of the day although not the full 6 to 8 hours required and it has been cloudy for a while. I think I may start my tomatoes a little later next year or make the shelf spacing taller so that I can accommodate my tall tomato plants under the lights. ...ahh the challenges of gardening in a short garden season area...only 90 days long.

Now for some pictures:

new seedlings

2009-04-27T15:46:00.000-07:00

I think I have some clues as to why some of my radishes are not fully developing. If you look closely at the picture you'll notice that the outer parts are dry and they slope inward towards the center which is nice and moist. I need to make sure the soil is level all the way across and I remember I didn't rake my box before planting. I just patted the soil down with my hands. Another live and learn example.

So using the above mini greenhouse I've started more seedlings(three days ago):

3 black krim tomatos

3 chives

6 butterhead lettuces

6 nasturtiums

6 swiss chard

6 cosmos

6 peaches and cream hollyhocks

6 cleomes

6 leaf lettuces

6 morning glories

I really like this jiffy pellet system because of the ease of use and how neat they are. I tend to be quite messy when I use the multi-cell containers and dirt system and plus I start my seedlings in a room in the house that is not meant to handle dirt and water. I quickly vacuum and wipe any dirt/water that may fall on the hardwood floor.

I think my butterhead lettuce are coming along beautifully. There always seems to be a runt lagging behind, but I've learned not to give up on them because eventually they grow to full size and go on to contributing to an enjoyable meal. What I'm learning is that gardening teaches good lessons about life.

I've planted some cascading petunias, alysiums and climbing black-eyed susans. The latter are in a bit of a shock since I didn't harden them and the fluctuating temperatures. I do cover them at night for frost protection. I think they will do just fine.

Eighteen more days till my last frost day of May 15th arrives. My garden window is bursting at its seams with two feet tall tomato plants and more. I may even have some tomatoes growing on them even before I plant them outside. The flowers are opening up and I'm just waiting till they are completely open so I can begin pollinating them.

Coldframe in progress

2009-04-23T11:27:00.001-07:00

I was having some doubts as to the size of this coldframe...it's so large, but as you will see further down, I filled every inch of it.

Since we didn't dabble in carpentry till we started gardening, our tool collection had been very minimal. So as I mentioned before we borrowed a circular saw and we did manage to get the wood cut without getting injured, but we couldn't figure out why the saw would kick back or not finish cutting the wood completely. We had a friend do the diagonal cut on his table saw and he mentioned that it helps to have a sharp blade. That's when we realized we had been using a dull one. Live and learn.

Coldframe with unfinished lid. It still needs the hinges, chicken wire, plastic and lid propper.

I was happy this morning when I realized I could shelter my plants from the wind in my unfinished coldframe.

I'm considering painting the box with sealant to extend the life since it wasn't built using redwood or cedar....I think it was pine. When I'm done with the box for the season, I can easily take it apart and store flat.

Cost of box $60.

Hubby making the lid.

2009-04-20T18:47:00.000-07:00

So because of my radish failure I'm convinced that my soil needs a lot of humus. Not only because of that incident but because these raised beds are brand new. So I decided to give my beds a super jump start since it's going to take a while for the compost in the bins to breakdown and I'm not going to spend anymore money on this garden(at least for this season.)

I took what I had in my kitchen bin, eggshells(calcium), rotten bananas(lots of potassium), plantain peels, oatmeal and veggie pieces and I put them in the blender with some water and viola! ...and with the help of the soil microbes this vitamin concoction should be readily available for my plants.

The "shake" ready to be mixed into the radish bed( I know it looks gross.) I also removed some little pebbles and sprinkled a small amount of Epsom salt and planted my radish seeds. I hope it works, and if not I'll keep trying till I finally get it, b/c I love radishes.

This is my lumpy compost. I believe I can avoid the lumps next time by constantly maintaining a 1to3 nitrogen to carbon ratio(that is my educated guess.) I had to many greens at the beginning and not enough carbons. Does anybody have any input about the lumpy dilemma?

Tiny Radishes

2009-04-20T16:05:00.000-07:00

As you can see, my first harvest of radishes are just tiny. I'm not too disappointed since you can grow them so quickly. I did a little research on the internet and found on gardenweb that stunted radishes can be due to ...too much nitrogen, low magnesium, and/or erratic watering(they need constant moisture.) I also checked some of my reference books, including my Jerry Baker gardening books, and he recommends epsom salt use in the garden.
So before I plant new seeds I will add more compost and mix in a small amount of epsom salt and add more mulch. We'll see if this works.
I also read about dropping a small handful of epsom salt where you are going to plant your tomatoes. Apparently tomatoes are heavy magnesium feeders and this prevents yellowing of your tomato leaves.

Eggplants.

The one on the far right is doing much better than the ones on the left. The ones on the left were planted in a smaller container and were root bound. I did transplant them and provided them with seedling food to reduce the shock. I placed them indoors to let them recoup.

Gorgeous Day

2009-04-19T15:52:00.000-07:00

Today has been a gorgeous day and I was so excited about building the coldframe but unfortunately I didn't get very far. My brother-in-law let me borrow his circular saw but I have to say I'm a little intimidated by it and I'm usually quite comfortable around tools. I don't have the right table for it so I placed the wood on two chairs and I was going to proceed and make the cut in the middle, but it is unstable and I have no one to stabilize the wood for me at the moment. I will have to wait till Mr. H gets home. I also tried using my jigsaw but the wood is so thick I don't want to overwork it.
I also wanted to staple my trellis up on the box frame but I ran out of staples. That will have to wait too.

Some pictures I took today:

Some of my peas

These are just three of my tomato plants out for some sunshine.
One month to go before I plant outside.

Shallots

Rapa centroventina. I received the seeds from wintersown.org
I've never had these greens before, but I've read that they are very nutritious and bitter, so you'll want to cook, steam, or saute them.

I found two of these mushrooms in my garden this morning. I think my boxes are getting too much water from the sprinkler system. I will have to cut down on the time. Do you guys agree that this is a mushroom?
One thing I do want to share regarding mulching with straw is that you will end up with straw weeds. Luckily it doesn't take much to weed with this squarefoot system because you can just tell the weed doesn't belong there when it pops up in places you didn't plant anything in. So think twice beore deciding to use straw or hay to mulch with. I do like how it looks though and right now it give me something to do in the garden.

Spring Snow and more

2009-04-14T21:45:00.000-07:00

My garden received about 1inch of snow in less than one hour. My heart sank when I saw the snow; it's like I'm afraid of loosing what I've put so much love into. I know I have to get over this feeling, because I know there will be many times when I won't be successful. I'm hoping this will be our last storm of the spring.
The thin polyester fabric amazingly enough did manage to keep my crops from freezing. I am convinced that it does work. It felt much warmer under the cloth when I stuck my hand underneath,
but for the 50mph winds that we're expecting tonight with 20 degree temp , I felt I had to go one step further to protect what I have. I purchased a roll of 3.5 mil plastic from the hardware store and placed it over the garden with the pvc pipes in place.

My new covers. Much nicer than those old sheets. As you can see the snow didn't last very long, it quickly melted.

My wheatgrass is ready for juicing.

I am convinced that a cold frame would make my life much easier as far as sheltering my seedlings from the weather and for hardening off my plants. While I was at Home depot today, I decided to price out the cost of all the materials for a cold frame. I thought I was going to have to walk around a lot, which I knew I wouldn't be able to do in one visit. This nice man came to my rescue. I gave him the list of the materials and we went to the contractor services desk. He searched for all the materials on the computer and printed out a merchandise list and summary which includes the price...then he told me that he could have it all ready for me tomorrow morning. All I have to do is pay over the phone and drive up and pickup my merchandise. Sweet:), That will save so much time. The man told me that this contractor service is always available. I thought I'd share the knowledge.

I am looking forward to sharing some pictures of the building of my cold frame. I'm using the plans from Bob Thomson.

Flowers, wheatgrass and herbs

2009-04-12T21:45:00.000-07:00

The last frost date for my region isn't till May 15, but I just couldn't wait till then. I planted some flowers in a pot right outside my front door. I figured that if the temperature drops to freezing I can easily cover it with plastic or some old bed sheets.

I started these plants from seed. I have here three allyuims, two pearl petunias and three avalanche petunias(cascading types) from Park seed. I have more pots that I can start, but this seems to have quenched my desire for planting for now.

2 purple basil seedlings

1 larger green basil seedling

4 oregano seedlings

I'm waiting till May 15 before I plant these in my garden. Out of all my plants and seedlings, these are the only ones I took out for some direct sunlight, I have too many to be carrying in and out of the house. I wish I can just drive them in and out of my garage in a pick-up, like Annie does(clever idea.) Hopefully soon I'll be able to build a coldframe so that I can harden my plants in.

I just want to share a picture of my wheat grass growing. I started this about four days ago. I simply placed some wheat berries on this tray and I spray it with water a couple of times a day. It will get pretty dense and look like lawn. Then I'll cut it and stick it in a blender or wheat grass juicer. Apparently, it is such a nutritious drink that only 1 or 2 oz is all that is needed to drink in one shot.

Garden Girl Tv-Patti Moreno

2009-04-11T20:03:00.000-07:00

I just wanted to write about Patti Moreno. I found her on youtube one day when I was looking for information on caring for blueberry bushes (I wanted to learn how to take care of mine) and that is when I fell in love with her videos. They are professional, informative and interesting; I was quite impressed to see her make her own chicken coop using drills and other tools. She inspired me, I thought, hey if she can do it so can I.
Do you want to learn how to garden, put together a shelving unit for seed-starting, make a chicken coop that will fit over your garden boxes to fertilize your soil or shave your rabbits and make yarn and more...well just tune in to Patti, she will teach you how. I have to say that I've learned so much from her videos and they have been a source of inspiration to me. ...and that is why I have a widget linking to her website. So stop by and check out her website . No I'm not getting paid, but I'm hoping that she will send me some seeds and if she doesn't I'll still keep the widget.

By the way, I will soon be sharing some pictures of me setting up a patio garden box w/ legs for a friend. She was concerned about having to bend down to garden so we've ordered a waist high box from the square foot gardening website and she is so excited . At 84, she thought her gardening days were over. So I'm really excited about helping her get started. We are just waiting for it to arrive in the mail.

Medley

2009-04-09T09:46:00.000-07:00

I'm snuggled on my couch writing this post. It's cold and cloudy and I've no desire to step outside. I'll wait till that window of sunshine comes through the clouds before I go out and check on my plants.

I did manage to re pot my tomato plants into 1 gallon containers. I planted them deeply into the pots removing the lowers leaves so that I can get more roots from them. It's helpful with those tall lanky plants, I only had two of those. and they are much more stable now.

The recycled pots were courtesy of Dry Creek Nursery on S. Virginia ave. They were kind to give me some old plastic pots and trays when I asked them for them. They just told me to come back and shop there. I was going to do that already because I like it there. Small friendly atmosphere with all the stuff I need. I was impressed to see their heirloom tomato plants when I walked into their greenhouse; they even have tomatillo plants. I'll have to wait till next year and incorporate them into my garden b/c I don't have any more room this year. On second thought, they grow pretty well in containers and I have plenty of those. They also carry onion plants and sets and more.

I just want to show you the progress on one of my kale plants.

It's doing great. I have lots of other types of seedlings surfacing but they are too small to really appreciate in a photo yet. I think if you click on this photo and look towards the top you'll see some shallots have surfaced.

Liisa, thank you for dedicating one of your post to answering my question about the hoops. I purchased 12gauge electrical wiring (they didn't have regular galvanized wire at Homedepot and I didn't feel like driving all over town) and made some low-lying hoops to lay the fabric on. I need to adjust the wire length some more but it held up through some strong winds we had. The fabric didn't hold up, I had to lay it flat on the beds and hold it in place with rocks... but when the fabric is setup over the wire it create a greenhouse environment...so pleasant inside . The fabric disperses the light, offers pest and frost protection well worth it.

This compost tumbler I purchased on Craigslist last fall. It is very easy to move to different locations and to rotate. It does have drainage on the bottom so you either have to catch the tea with a tray or let the tea fertilize the ground. It's been full for about a month. When It rains the water seeps in and makes the contents soggy so I add more straw and newspapers and that helps with the odor. As far as the odor if you add enough "browns" it shouldn't stink. I don't think I was adding enough. I'm slowly getting the hang of it.

With my green tumbler full, we weren't able to compost anymore so I needed to get an additional bin. A pile in the yard was out of the question with Coco ready to dig in. So I got lucky again and found another bin on Craigslist. It's much bigger than my green one and no it doesn't rotate but I like it just as much. I'm not planning on turning the pile. I will do the french compost method: layering kitchen waste, yard waste, dirt(need those microorganisms) and water.

Tomato Scare!...FalseAlarm.

2009-04-06T22:46:00.001-07:00

This evening I went to check on my seedlings and found the leaves on one of my tomato plants all curled up. I thought...oh no...I'm losing my plant to some viral disease, but I also noticed that the peat pot it was housed in was bone dry and when I turned it over some of the roots had outgrown the pot. So I watered all of my tomato plants quite generously(and here I was trying not to over water.) I have to remember that peat pots lose moisture much quicker and that tomatoes are water guzzlers. So I checked on my plant an hour later and the leaves had mostly uncurled, as you can see from the picture. Whew!!! I don't have much room for error. I have a total of 12 plants...six for my garden and the remaining I've gifted to some friends and family.

"Evidence of Neglect"

Tomorrow I will be repotting these.

I'm just admiring my plant... like the proud mom of a newborn.

I just wanted to show you a picture of my sprayer. I love this thing. I use it to fertilize my plants(spray the leaves)...mist my little seedlings...and my worm bin. It makes my life easier and yes It's my toy...but I have to admit that my little tomato fiasco occurred due to relying on the sprayer to provide all of the plants watering needs. It just doesn't spray enough. You'd have to stand there long time spraying the plant, which just isn't efficient. I'll stick to my watering can.

Spring Wonderland

2009-04-03T09:30:00.000-07:00

This is what I woke up to this morning-a beautiful spring wonderland. I had a hard time removing the sheets off the hoop; they were frozen solid. I could have easily cracked them into pieces. Yes I'm still using those old sheets. Yesterday I bought a protective garden cover to protect from heavy rain, frost and more... and you would have thought I'd used it last night. Well, I'm trying to figure out how to lay it on the hoop. It's 5 ft x 25ft so I'm thinking I may have to cut it and sew it together to make it square. I need to decide soon before it warms up; I don't want to give the cabbage worms and loopers the opportunity to setup residency in this box full of greens.

My first shallot seedling. I had it covered with a salad container last night. I don't think I really needed to cover it, but as a careful and inexperienced gardener, I'm babying all my seedlings. I do have a couple of other onion plants which I rescued from my compost last fall.

This was one of the decaying onions from my composter. It is now a beautiful onion plant. Hopefully I will get to harvest an onion from it. I'll show you what I end up with when that time comes.

Here is my completed worm bin. I made them a "milk shake" of decaying bananas, lettuce and apples. I'm sure they had a feast. As you can see, they still have room for growth because

there's six to eight inches of height for them to occupy and fill full of worm castings. I'm going to wait till it's full before I harvest.

This is how I covered my bin last night. It's not covered with snow because I cleaned it off prior to taking the picture. I wasn't' thinking.

I think the worms survived because it was much warmer in the bin.

I'm really enjoying this book by Bob Thomson. It's full of tried and true gardening tips and information.... and the pictures are great. I believe a valuable gardening book not only has to be resourceful but it has to have great real life pictures...and this book has that. The soil pictured in this book is the type you dream of...black, rich and full of fertile matter. The chapters are divided by months with tasks to perform in during that time period. He also includes plans on how to make a coldframe, bean trellis, composter and more. I highly recommend this book. You can check this copy out from the Washoe County Library...of course, you'll have to wait in line or buy your own copy.

"Keeper of the Garden"

2009-03-31T20:22:00.000-07:00

This is Coco, an Australian Shepard/Rottweiler. She is very intelligent, loyal and a great watchdog for the garden or at least we thought.

Here she is being the watchdog that she is.

Well apparently we haven't been feeding her enough. You see... this is our worm bin... cement blocks housing a mound of soil with worms followed by decomposing kitchen waste, moist shredded newspaper and finally a thick layer of straw. The worms are thriving so beautifully with this living arrangement that Coco has been able to sense this air of contentment; and has decided to partake in their jovial feasting. I found some holes in the hay with chunks of decomposing strawberries on top and I though, it has to be that raccoon that we saw coming out of the storm drain the other night. Then I saw Coco approach with that guilty look and face covered with hay. Ha! the culprit! So I made sure the worms still had plenty to eat, filled the holes with more straws and proceeded to scold her with "NO" getting in the worm bin and then she did it again the following day.

So I decided to cover the bin with plastic, for now, since it's still chilly and it would serve as frost protection. Actually I don't think it really needs it for frost protection, but it does keep Coco out. If you look closely, you'll be able to see that the left side is actually taller than the rest of the bin. We ran out of blocks and are in need of four more. We'll have to take care of that on the next trip to the hardware store. So I'm hoping that Coco won't be able to reach the inside of the bin once the rest of the blocks are up.

I purchased my red wiggler worms from Dick Devine(that is his name) nice man that lives in Washoe Valley and advertises on Craigslist. He keeps his worms in the same type of home environment as mine, in fact, I learned how to build my bin from him. His bins are about three feet wide, 12 feet long and about 2 feet high. His worms survive the Washoe Valley winds, hot summers and cold winter and they do just fine. The man is very knowledgeable, and resourceful. He even gave us a sample of worm castings and taught us how to make worm tea. Our visit felt like a field trip to the farm, educational and enjoyable. He charges $35 a pound for the worms , but he also includes the housing that they are in.

I just wanted to show you what I cover my garden with on a cold windy night -worn sheets...I use clothespins to fasten them and pin them down with rocks around the edges. It's been working well so far. I know, it's esthetically pitiful but I make sure it's off early in the morning. Oh, I also want to mention that in addition to the sheets I cover the crops with plastic containers (milk jugs, sport drink bottles and so on.)

Another Cold Night

2009-03-29T19:53:00.000-07:00

I just looked at my seedlings. The radishes have pop up and so have the broccoli. It's really exciting but on the same note I'm a little discouraged by the weather. Today it will drop to about 26 degrees. I don't have plastic to drape over my box so I just grabbed some old sheets and draped them over the the boxes and fastened them with clothes pins and rocks. I hope this works. Next year I'll either plant my cold weather crops a couple of weeks later or I'm not sure. You're probably wondering why I would be so worried about the cold weather crops, they're supposed to be sweeter when they are exposed to cold weather. Well I've discovered that my seedlings are a little yellow and I believe its from the frost, because I've have been fertilizing and I don't think it's from lack of nitrogen.
I've been dreaming of a greenhouse. Oh I want one so badly. I've found one that I would love to have. It's made by gardener supply company. It's a 4by 6(tiny, yes) and it double insulated with 6mil poly carbonate walls. I've read that the 4 mils are not insulated enough for this type of region(cold region) otherwise I would just purchase one from harbor freight for under $300.
What do you think? Any suggestions?

Some of my seedlings

2009-03-26T20:46:00.003-07:00

Cherry tomato plants. They're not yellow it just appears that way.
I also have some beefsteak and roma tomato seedlings. I decided to grow some extra ones for friends and family.

Black-eyed Susans

I use this large bucket to hold my potting soil. I love it because it's spacious and I don't make a mess when I'm potting my plants.

Avalanche petunia

Avalanche petunias potted into Styrofoam cups. The top portion of the cups are cut off and used to protect plants from cut worms...and I also poke holes in the bottom sides around the perimeter for drainage. Some Styrofoam are recyclable or you can reuse them if you remove them from the plans without braking them.

Styrofoam "collars"

Some Great Gardening Resources

2009-03-25T12:56:00.000-07:00

I'd like to mention some of the great local gardening resources we have here in Reno that have helped me get on my way to gardening.

The University of Nevada Reno Cooperative extension is a great place to start. Located on Mill street. You can stop by and they will answer all your questions and even provide you with tons of information on gardening in our area. The individuals working in the horticultural department are graduates of the master gardening program and are required to volunteer so many hours serving the community, and answering phones at the cooperative extension. So don't be shy, if you have any questions, just pick up the phone and ask for the horticulture department and they will steer you in the right direction. Oh one more thing I'd like to mention is their annual sale of plants and seedlings. I've never gone but I've heard it's a sale($1&2 dollar plants) that many in the community line up early in the morning for and it is usually done Saturday mornings once a year. So call them up and ask them about the date. Hopefully they haven't had it already this year and if they've had it already, well you can go next year.
http://www.unce.unr.edu/counties/washoe/reno/

The next place I'd like to mention is the Washoe County Library. I love this place. You can stop by any of their branches and look in their gardening section. What I like to do is visit their website and let my fingers do the walking. From their website you can look up books available from all their branches, put them on hold( and it doesn't matter which branch they are at)and pick them up at the branch that you designate.
http://libwww.washoecounty.us/

Also don't forget some of our local used books such as the Paperback Exchange and Zephyr. Just do a search for used bookstores in Reno. You'll get a list of them. Oh and don't forget to call them first, it'll save you a trip if they don't have any gardening books... and I don't think I need to mention the national chain bookstores.

The next place I like to turn to for gardening items is Craigslist. I love this classified service. I've found many great items at such great prices. All of the gardening items that I've acquired from Craigslist were from individuals that were moving... and the items were in good condition. So make sure you look under farm& garden and garage sales.

Well, I think I've divulged most of my gardening resources. Oh, wait. I just want to mention my favorite catalog for gardening items...The Gardeners Supply Company. They sell some really nice gardening items and their website has some useful articles on gardening. Of course they promote their items in these articles but I just love looking at their bright colorful pictures.

As far as gardening, I have some peas soaking in water with some inoculant and molasses ready for planting. I think I will do that tomorrow. I will plant them in the shady box next to the fence.

Grids and Such

2009-03-23T10:37:00.000-07:00

Not much was done in the garden this weekend, except for watering and visually inspecting my little kale plants. They seem to being growing so slow, but I believe kale likes to take its time. Patience, Daisy! I've even named one of them my little runt. I did fertilize them with Dr Earth's All Purpose Fertilizer, four tablespoons in 1 gallon of water. I'm considering a gallon sprayer so that I can spray the foliage of my smaller plants without damaging them and I believe it will be much more efficient than just dumping the water on the plants.

I will be adding worm castings as soon as my supply increases. I have a homemade worm bin with new tenants. More on that in the near future.

I just wanted to show you the grid in one of my boxes. I used butchers twine (I believe that's what it's called) and thumb tacks. I think thumb tacks are smoother, you're less likely to cut your wrist on them, and you can reuse them without even having to remove them.

These are the 1" copper tube straps that I used to anchor the pvc pipes and they are just resting on the ground.

Miss M planting carrot seeds comfortably on our garden cart. I picked up the garden cart on craigslist for $10 and the compartment was full of good tools. Thank you to the lady that sold it to me.

I also built a trellis for the indeterminate tomatoes and climbing beans. It was so easy to build and inexpensive. I believe they were 1 inch wide and 8ft tall. I cut them with a hand saw and screwed the pieces together. The wood might have been $4.50 for the three pieces. The netting was the most expensive at $5.00.

The trellis netting

I need to do more adjusting as it was very cold and windy the day I was setting it up. I'll be making one more of trellises for the box on the right.

I don't know if you can tell but I've placed a netting around this box to keep the birds and those white butterflies that lay eggs out....and what do you think I found in there the other day..A white butterfly struggling to get out through the 1/2 inch holes. Who knows, it's probably laid a thousand eggs in this box already! So I'll probably be getting plenty of loopers on my greens.
That just means I'll get to spend more time in my garden. I love it, as long as I'm winning the battle.

Building of a Garden

2009-03-20T14:24:00.000-07:00

Here is my first box, 3by8 ft and 16 inches high. The location was a total mistake. I believe it gets about 3 hrs of direct sunlight. I'll have to use it to grow greens in there since moving it is out of the question. I did recently plant some potatoes in there against my better judgement. We'll see what happens I may just end up pulling them out and replanting them in bags.

Presenting my new square garden. Inspired my Mel Bartholomew. I found one of his first books on squarefoot gardening at the Paperback exchange. His books are a great source of information on raised bed gardening. Each squarefoot area in the boxes turned out to be 11.5 square inches. I don't think the guy at the hardware store did a very accurate job at cutting the wood or I just didn't build them right. We placed weed block cloth down and this allows the water to drain but keeps the weeds out. I hope it works. Pulling the lawn out was going to be too much time and work. We did the best we could trying to align them but some of the sides of the boxes were longer and the lawn was not very level.

We purchased one yard of double mix from Oxburrow($26dollars and $30 for delivery.) 2 bags($4.99each) of manure compost and a 3.8c.u ft bag of peat moss. We over payed for the peat moss. We bought it at Moana Nursery for $25 and we just saw the same size bag at Homedepot for 7.99 just recently. It's too late to return it. I need to remember to shop around.

2009-03-19T18:54:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone and thank you for stopping by my new blog. This website will be about my gardening experience in Reno Nevada. Yes, I know there are many blogs out there on gardening, but I'd like to think that there is someone that would like to read about my gardening experience in Reno.

I live in the south part of Reno, a zone 5 climate area. There are many microclimates in Reno so make sure you do some research as to what zone you are in.

Victory garden on the White House Lawn

2009-03-19T16:43:00.000-07:00

The White House will have a Victory Garden planted on the South Lawn, starting tomorrow. Yes!!!! Kudos to the Obamas, the staff, and elementary school that are involved in this project. I am so happy that they are taking a stand and to be prominent role models for the rest of America. Michelle, you just got another star in my book. Oh...and Michelle, I would love to watch this garden as it is being constructed, a video would do.