The Edible Garden

Harvest Monday

2012-02-27T05:00:00.000-07:00

small broccoli shoots

Welcome to Harvest Monday a great blog hop sponsored by Daphne's Dandelions. Stop by and visit with gardeners from around the world!

This week some interesting things are beginning to happen, the tatsoi bolted before I got to it, so it became rabbit feed. Several broccoli plants had small (quarter size) heads and I feared they would also bolt so I cut them all. I had them stir fried with leftover pork roast, stems, leaves and all, they were quite tasty.

Blossoming pea shoots

I'm actually writing this on Friday as I'm leaving for the Creative Painting Convention in Las Vegas on Sat. I'll be back Tuesday night. The pea plants in the greenhouse are loaded with blooms so I picked most of them, along with some of the shoots. I had the blossoms, tasting slightly floral and sweet in my salad and I stir fried the shoots, which were also sweet and crunchy and tasted faintly of peas. Hopefully since I did this there won't be too many over grown peas when I get home.

When I get home it will also be time to ramp up the spring plantings, tomatoes, peppers, eggplants as usual, but also some leeks, more garlic chives, more lettuce, spring carrots and beets. It's been quite warm and hovering just above freezing at night. The peach and the plum tree are in full bloom and I suppose the apples won't be too far behind them. Hopefully we won't get any late snow storms to take them all.

Harvest Monday

2012-02-20T17:08:00.000-07:00

lettuce & other greens, violas, radishes

Welcome to Harvest Monday, a great blog hop hosted by Daphne over at Daphne's Dandelions. Stop over there and visit with amazing gardeners from around the world.

This week besides the usual salads of baby lettuces, chickweed, red mustard, cilantro, sorrel, arugula and a few radishes, I harvested a bunch of carrots, some even actually a respectable size.

carrots

I also harvested some Giant Red Mustard from the large tub in the greenhouse along with some spinach and lamb's quarters to steam together, that was very yummy, but I forgot to take a pic!

Dwarf Grey Sugar pea blossom

All sorts of goodies are promising in the greenhouse, the peas have begun blooming so hopefully there will be a few pods on next weeks harvest tally.

Little Marvel Peas in Bloom

Ferry Morse Gourmet Lettuce Mix in a tub

F-B, onion, radish, misticanza lettuce, chard in the greenhouse bed

Wall pots of Sweet Alyssum smell like honey

All over Italy nearly every house and apartment, no matter how small the space has flowers growing in pots, especially geraniums. In many of the towns blank walls are covered with wall pots similar to these, full of blooms. Theirs tend to be larger and made of terracotta, some of them glazed and painted Majolica style. These are only about 13 inches across the widest part and are made of terra cotta colored plastic. I do like that they have built in saucers. They were easy to hang on two screws or nails in the wall. I got mine from Amazon after searching almost every where for them. They are not very expensive and I'm going to order some more. Wall pots are a great solution for those of us that are space challenged! I don't want the moss lined baskets because it is way to hot and dry here-those things would have to be watered three times a day even in the shade.

Harvest Monday

2012-02-13T08:21:00.000-07:00

lettuce, kale, tatsoi and one lone mache plant

Welcome to Harvest Monday, a great blog hop hosted by Daphne's Dandelions. Stop over there and enjoy visiting with gardeners from around the world!

This week has been warm (for Feb.), dry and very windy. Also very crazy at my work and this week isn't much better. Going on 8 days straight tonight and the past two being graveyard. Looking forward to having 3 days off at the end though. Also looking forward, they are forecasting rain around Wed. and we sure need it badly.

Mostly harvested the usual salad greens this week, many types of lettuce, kale, cilantro, sorrel, chickweed, spinach, along with a couple of tatsoi and one lone mache plant. I did discover that I have mache volunteers in one bed, but they are tiny yet.

Here's a few more pics from inside the greenhouse. You can see some construction details in my post from the other day, Simple Homemade Greenhouse.

Blue bellied lizard

I have several small lizards and a couple of spiders running around in the greenhouse. This lizard fell into one of the big tubs and couldn't get out so I rescued it. It's belly is like electric blue.

The strawberries are beginning to bloom

Salad Bowel lettuce

This 24 inch pot of Salad Bowl lettuce gave me 6 oz in one picking.

tomato blossoms

The crazy Yellow Marble tomato is blooming!

And now I am off to bed; one more night of graveyard....

Simple Home Made Green House

2012-02-08T11:41:00.001-07:00

The first section of the greenhouse was built in 2009. This show it in 2011 when I finished it so it runs the full length of the south side of the house.

A lot of you have asked to see more of the construction of my greenhouse. The design had several constraints. My house was built about 1900-1919 mostly it seems of scrap. There is no crawl space or ordinary foundation. It sits on huge timbers, probably scavenged from mining operations. The center section of the house has 10 foot ceilings and was probably the original structure. It was added onto over the years with shorter shed roofed additions. None of it is straight, level or plumb. Even the roof line is wavy. The south wall of the house is only 6 ft 7 in. on the inside, so the greenhouse is not very tall.


Greenhouse construction

On the outside there was a walkway about 5 ft. wide along the house even with the floor level. South of the walk way the ground rises almost 3 feet, there was a dry stone wall here. There had been a line of trees here which I had cut down about 20 years ago because they were hollow and full of fire ants. The stumps threw up a lot of suckers. Preparatory to building the greenhouse I had to pull down the stone wall and dig out all the stumps as best I could. I then rebuilt the wall along most of it's length and this became planting bed inside the greenhouse, topped with a 2x12 board frame.

If the south side of your house is level and clear then you can build a much wider greenhouse. If the south wall of your house is taller then you can build a much taller one. If you whole area is flat then you could have beds directly in the ground without retaining walls. My dream home will be two stories with a greenhouse room the full height of the south side and about 12-14 feet wide. It will have in ground planting beds with a meandering brick and gravel pathway, a pond and stream running through it, where I can grow avocados and some citrus which I cannot grow here now.

2x4 screwed to side of house, pipe fits into hole, plastic stapled to top of 2x4

Construction of the greenhouse is very simple. I've lost the book mark to the video where I first saw this method. As far as I know in most places this construction will not require a permit since it is made of plastic pipe, but you should check with your local authorities. All of the lumber used in mine is scavenged scrap and second and third hand, which is why some of it looks like it does. I used 2x4s screwed to the house wall with a hole drilled through them every 4 feet to take the ends of the PVC pipe. This sets the ends of the pipe right up under the eave of the house.

I set a 2x12 (you could use a 2x6, I just happened to have a 2x12) at the outer edge of the greenhouse and then played around with my tape measure to get an idea of how long to cut the pipes. Just keep in mind that you don't want the pipes to bulge upward from the house wall, they should arc gently to the ground. Once I figured out the pipe length I cut all the pipes to size.

The frame showing the wire mesh and the wood it's wired to.

Because the greenhouse wall doubles as a trellis for plants in the summer I covered the bottom 5 feet with concrete reinforcing wire, so 5 feet from the end I drilled a hole through all the pipes. These holes are for small bolts to fasten a piece of 1x3 wood to. This is to give me a place to wire the reinforcing mesh to and to staple the plastic to.

The bottom of the PVC attached to 2x12 baseboard on inside

The 2x12 at the outer edge of the green house has metal fasteners to accept the ends of the pipe. Then a screw is put through the wood and into the pipe to keep the pipe from sliding further down.

fairly simple end framing, seen here without the door in place

On the end of the greenhouse I built a frame work from 2x4s to staple the plastic to and I built a door of 2x4s. These areas all have half lapped joints. The hardest part is to work with the curved edge which was a matter of trial and error for me. The two ends of my greenhouse are made differently. I haven't gotten around to building a second door yet. The current door has chicken wire stapled to it to help keep stray dogs and pigs out of it when there is no plastic on it. When it warms up this spring I'll build another similar door on the other end.

When covering the greenhouse with plastic I cover the bottom part by stapling to the 1x3 board, then pull it smooth and staple it to the 1x12 at the bottom. I pull the edges tight and staple them to the wooden frame at the ends; this way you have a pretty good seal at the ends. For the top of the greenhouse first I staple the length of the plastic to the 2x4s that are attached to the house. Then I use fasteners that are made to go on plastic and will accept a rope or bungee cord. I use bungee cords attached to stakes, concrete blocks or what have you to stretch and anchor the top plastic and keep it as tight as possible. With this method I can open up the whole top of the greenhouse for venting when it gets too warm in spring. Then I cover the ends and the doors. I only got one door made, so at the far end I stapled the plastic to the top part of the frame and just weighted the bottom with rocks. That way I can open it for venting if needed.

Sept. 2011 Greenhouse frame covered in morning glories.

When the weather is getting pretty warm I start vine crops like cucumbers or flowers like morning glories to cover the trellis and help shade the house during the summer.

The greenhouse does freeze inside, in fact the air temp is usually almost the same as outdoors overnight. But the sun heats up the pots and soil during the day and I think that warm soil is part of why the plants grow so well in it, as well as the warmer temps during the day. During the winter on warm sunny days I open up the windows and get some of that lovely warm humid air into the house. The greenhouse also helps keep cold drying wind off the plants and I think that helps their growth too. Experiment, build your own little green shelter from what ever you have available and have fun!

Harvest Monday

2012-02-06T06:00:00.000-07:00

Salad mix Jan. 30, 2012

Welcome to Harvest Monday, a lovely blog hop sponsored by Daphne at Daphne's Dandelions. Stop by and check out what gardener's all around the world are harvesting.

I harvested some lovely salads this week. The large 24" pots of Salad Bowl lettuce in the green house are getting big enough to pick, (4 oz from one picking) the chickweed is starting to take off and the Lamb's Quarters are also picking up.

This weeks salads have contained lettuce, red mustard, chickweed, Lamb's Quarters, cilantro, sorrel, violas, violets, spinach, chard, arugula and radishes.

baby carrots

I picked another small batch of baby carrots as well. The totals for January were 7.84 lbs of produce with a retail value of $29.36

In another experiment I have been trying to cut some clover, edible weeds, bolting arugula, even apple tree trimmings, each day to feed to the rabbits. Sometimes there isn't much and sometimes my work schedule keeps me from being able to do this. I've been recording the results in the tab up top about animal feed harvested.

Interesting that feeding less than 30 pounds wet weight of fresh feed resulted in a savings of 56 pounds of purchased feed...... Perhaps fresh organic feed is more satisfying. I will continue to experiment and record the results. I do intend to breed one or two of the does to kindle in March, if I can get their cages fixed. So we'll see how that pans out with the fresh feeding.

*edit* I've realized that there is a terrible typo in my figures. There are only 4 rabbits, not five so the feed savings is 25 pounds of feed....

Harvest Monday

2012-01-30T05:30:00.000-07:00

Yellow Marble Tomatoes, Radish

Well this has been a bit of a crazy week with my work and getting ready for my first art showing (more on that over on Artists Way, my art blog) I did do a little harvesting, but the lettuce growth has really slowed down. I've already made a note to plant a lot more salad fixings this fall!

And of course our lovely Harvest Monday blog hop is sponsored by Daphne over at Daphne's Dandelions, stop over and visit with gardeners from around the world!

Besides the usual salad greens I did harvest a few more little Yellow Marble Tomatoes. I am still amazed by this plant still going strong! There was one little red radish ready to pull and a golden turnip. (I'll have to check up on the actual variety name).

golden turnip

Overall things are looking great in the greenhouse. The peas are going strong, the violets are blooming and I saw a blossom on one of the strawberry plants. Of course there are no bees out yet to pollinate, so it will be a bit before we actually get any fruit set. I'll try and get out there this week and get some photos for you.

Over the weekend I was at the opening reception for my show on Sat. Then Sunday morning had about 3 truck loads of hot horse manure delivered. Later in the day I picked up a couple of waterlily roots of unknown color from a lady giving them away. I potted one up and took it to my mom for her pond. Now I have to get my tub fixed up and put the other one in there. I also have a lot of other work to do around the yard.

And of course it's time to get paperwork sorted out and in order, to get ready for filing my taxes. That means cleaning off the desk along with lots of housework back log. And Yikes! It's Monday and time to go back to work already!

New Plant Hardiness Zone Map

2012-01-25T13:24:00.002-07:00

New Plant Hardiness Zone Map from the USDA

The USDA has just released the new plant hardiness zone map. The new map is based on average minimum winter temperatures from 1976-2005.

The nice thing about the new map is that there is an interactive map feature available if you have a good internet connection. There are static maps available for view if you are still on a dial up connection.

The drawback to these maps is that they are based on average official temperatures. Right away I can see a problem with it. The new map shows me as being in zone 9a with winter temps of 20-25 degrees. The problem is that there are any number of winters in the past twenty years when the temperature has been as low as 15 degrees. And just 6 miles away Globe shows up as being zone 8b with average temps of 15-20 degrees.

Of course the map is just meant to be a guideline, you have to use your own common sense and knowledge of your own yard and micro climate. So I think I'll adopt the colder rating of 8b as I feel it more accurately reflects what is happening in my own yard.

HARVEST MONDAY

2012-01-23T11:35:00.000-07:00

January salad

Well I've been missing in action due to a very nasty computer virus and just getting back online. My thanks to those of you who came by and commented on my last post; hopefully I'll get around to everyone this week. This is also why I didn't get a Seedy Saturday post done!

Harvest Monday is a blog hop sponsored by Daphne over at Daphne's Dandelions. Stop over and visit with gardeners around the world as they share what they are harvesting from their gardens.

Lettuce production has slowed down a bit with the cold temps and low light. This fall I will plant more square footage to make sure I have enough come January. In the meantime things in the greenhouse are getting big enough to begin picking and there are still a couple of little tomatoes on the Yellow Marble plant. In the meantime it's time to start new plants from seed in the house. I'm thinking about taking some cuttings from the Yellow Marble, as a couple of branches still have green leaves on them.

The days are getting a bit longer and have been pretty warm this past week. I'm hoping for a mild but rainy spring and summer!

Harvest Monday & Seedy Saturday Winner

2012-01-09T10:01:00.000-07:00

Pak-Choi

Welcome to Harvest Monday, hosted by Daphne at Daphne's Dandelions! Check it out and see what gardeners around the world are harvesting, some of them are pretty amazing.

This week, besides the usual mix of lettuces, I harvested a few other goodies, like this pretty little baby pak choi.

Easter Egg Radishes

There were some little Easter Egg Radishes. These were a bit hotter than the ones I pulled before, I think maybe they are a bit too warm in the greenhouse with the crazy springlike weather we've been having.

Baby carrots; there are beets hiding underneath them.

I pulled the last of the beets and carrots that were planted in August. They haven't grown much lately so I figured a fresh start would be good. They were in half of a small bed, so I loosened up the soil and added some compost and fertilizer to it so it will be ready to plant.

Yellow Marble Tomato in January!

I got a few more yellow marble tomatoes from the plant in the greenhouse. It's been warmer lately so it is doing well. We'll see what happens if we get another deep freeze.

Dwarf Grey Sugar Peas grow in tubs in the greenhouse

The Dwarf Grey Sugar Peas are beginning to vine in their tubs in the greenhouse, they should start blooming soon.

greenhouse growing bed

In the raised bed in the green house there are some strawberry plants, an odd onion, some little marvel peas and way down at the end, some cilantra and sorrel sprouting up.

And now I know at least one person is anxiously awaiting......Seedy Saturday's Free Seed Giveaway goes to Jennie M.! congrats Jennie!

Seedy Saturday

2012-01-08T09:22:00.000-07:00

Rust colored sunflower

Welcome to Seedy Saturday! This weeks FREE seed giveaway is for some small seeded decorative sunflowers.

In 2009 I planted several packets of mixed colors of decorative sunflowers and they were in all shades of red, rust, orange and yellow. The plants were quite variable also, some just 3 feet tall, up to about 6 feet. Some plants had just one or two larger flowerheads while others branched out a lot and had a dozen smaller ones.

The bed they were growing in was not in the best shape, so they would probably have been bigger and had more flowers in better soil. The flowers attracted a lot of bees and butterflies and the seeds attracted a lot of finches and other small seed eating birds. My idea for growing them was as chicken feed, but the dogs got the chickens before I tried them out to see if the chickens liked them.

Since sunflowers are very much outbreeders there is no telling what you will get when you plant these, they will be a big surprise. I hope that the winner will send me pictures of them when they bloom!

To be in the drawing for these free seeds, simply comment on this post! For the fine print rules, read this post.

In other news the weather has been warm, sunny and dry and I'm having to water the outdoor gardens a bit. And the rats that have taken up residence under the house, in the walls and attic are stirring. One nibbled some pea shoots in the greenhouse. However, I set a trap and got that one. Getting ready to reset the trap as I know there are a lot more of them. Thinking maybe I need to buy some more traps. One might not be enough.

I got a windfall of two boxes of aging produce out of which I canned 21 pints of applesauce and some half pints of salsa. Just lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time. I'll be doing a how-to article for making the applesauce.

Harvest Monday

2012-01-02T08:41:00.001-07:00

Baby Lettuce, viola blossoms, mustard, kale, chickweed, yellow marble tomatoes

Happy New Year! Welcome to Harvest Monday, a blog hop hosted by Daphne at Daphne's Dandelions. Stop by her page and visit with gardeners around the world!

This is my wrap up for 2011. Still harvesting baby lettuces, with bits of kale, chickweed, red mustard, arugula and spinach. The violas and violets are still blooming and amazingly enough the yellow marble tomato plant is still ripening fruit.This was my last harvest of 2011. For 2012 I will be ramping up production in all areas. Next fall should see more greens and root crops as well as cauliflower and broccoli in the fall and early winter. As soon as the weather is warmer there will be beans, squash, tomatoes and corn. Considering that I didn't really plant much until September, I think the garden has done very well.

Total poundage harvest in 2011, 24 pounds, worth about $87 at the grocery store. This was harvested from just 86 square feet of garden space. The garden is of course bigger than that and there is a lot more planted right now, broccoli, cauliflower and peas, especially, but they are not ready to pick yet. This year I will also be trying to keep track of expenses. At the moment I have plenty of seeds from past years and only really needed to order a few larger tomatoes for processing, some sweet corn and cucumbers. I have really restrained myself when it came to ordering seeds! About the only other thing I will be ordering will be seed potatoes as I intend to grow a large amount of potatoes this year.

HAPPY NEW YEAR

2012-01-01T16:06:00.001-07:00

Neon Eggplant in my garden, 2009

Happy New Year, one and all! I've enjoyed a lovely sunny day here in Arizona, though I'm sure it won't last. I actually had to water some of the garden beds today because they were getting too dry.

I'm looking forward to a wonderful new year and our all too short spring growing season. I've got my grow lights and heat mat set up, though I probably won't start a huge number of plants until after March 1. I will be gone a few days then to teach at a painting convention.

In the meantime I am doing what is really more germination testing. I have a lot of really old seeds so have planted some in the hopes of getting at least one plant to save new seeds from. I also bought some fresh tomato seed because apparently I never saved any from a couple of years ago. Be sure that will not happen again!

A fun project I'm looking forward to is growing some seedlings from this Neon eggplant. Neon is a hybrid and really is a shocking pink color, the photo doesn't really do it justice. I saved some seeds from this so I expect to get all different kinds of eggplants from it in several colors. There probably won't be any this particular color, but that's ok. What I'm really after are prolific plants that have fruit with thin, tender skins and not much or any bitterness.

Be sure to check for Harvest Monday and Seedy Saturday will be back next week!

Harvest Monday

2011-12-26T10:13:00.000-07:00

Baby lettuces with red mustard, chickweed & viola blossoms

We had some snow again on the 22nd so didn't harvest as much this week as I could have, with everything being frozen. This fall I will start more lettuce and things in the greenhouse earlier to have more salad under cover and easier to get to.

This Harvest Monday blog hop is hosted by Daphne over at Daphne's Dandelions. Stop over there and visit with other gardeners around the world showing off their harvests. Don't you just love the internet!

Baby carrots

I also harvested some baby carrots.

This week I harvested:

Salad           8 ounces
Carrots        8 ounces
total            1 pound

15 bean soup cooking on the airtight woodstove

This week I used the ham bone from the ham I cooked last week to make 15 bean soup, one of my favorites. I cooked it on top of the airtight woodstove in the living room, since I had it going all day anyway.

Put the Fat Cats on a Diet: Stop Buying Tainted Food From Billion Dollar Corporations

2011-12-24T10:21:00.000-07:00

Put the Fat Cats on a Diet: Stop Buying Tainted Food From Billion Dollar Corporations

Seedy Saturday

2011-12-24T10:15:00.002-07:00

Home grown bean seeds, Yard Long, Kentucky Wonder, Hopi Purple Pod

I'm going to take a couple of weeks off from seed giveaways for the holidays, in the meantime you might want to read Garden Seed; Grow Your Own if you have never saved your own seeds before.

Having control of the seed supply equals having control of the food supply and both are in grave danger. Monsanto and other corporate giants have stated outright that control of the food supply is their goal. Which means that there will be less variety and fewer options not only for farmers but also home gardeners, especially as these corporations try to get new laws passed against small seed companies and seed saver exchanges, preventing the free and easy availability of many types of open pollinated, home saved seed. In addition it means that we will be totally at the mercy of the corporations.

This has already happened in the EU where the only commercially available seeds belong to the big companies because only seeds and plants on a special approved list can be sold. And of course the cost to get on the approved list is prohibitive to the small company. There are already things like this that are being pushed on us in the US and the fact that it isn't law yet is only because we are hanging on by the skin of our teeth. You can read more about this at Stop the White List

Seedy Saturday Winner & Harvest Monday

2011-12-19T23:01:00.000-07:00

Cooking a ham on my airtight wood stove

First my apologies for not getting this post done earlier today. I have been having some technical difficulties with my computer and it is a pain. But I'm working them out one by one.

The Harvest Monday blog hop is sponsored by Daphne over at Daphne's Dandelions. Stop on over, say howdy and check out some of the other folks around the world and what they are harvesting.

MMmmm well now it doesn't seem that I've taken any pictures of the harvest this week! I suppose it's a bit boring to look at baby lettuce week after week any way. But I did get a whole pound of baby lettuce this week and amazingly enough, a few of the little Yellow Marble tomatoes! (about one ounce). Yesterday and today have been very grey, drizzly and cold. Which made perfect weather for my experiment which follows.

But I'll tell you what else I did this week; I bought a ham on sale (I love ham with sweet potatoes and applesauce on the side) and when I got home realized that no way was it going to fit in the crock pot. See my oven has been out for awhile so I've just been cooking on the stove top or the crockpot. So I decided to try baking my ham on top of my air tight wood stove in the living room.

The top of the stove runs 150-200 degrees F. so I figured it would work just like those big electric roasters and it did! It was delicious! I think I will experiment with this some more.

My ham cooked on my airtight wood stove.

And now I know everyone is waiting for the winner! The winner of this weeks Seedy Saturday is Katie Hertfelder Congrats Katie! Send me an email to hysong AT cableone DOT net with your snail mail.

To the last couple of winners, I haven't forgotten you, I just haven't made it to the post office yet, hopefully by Wednesday for all of you!

In the meantime, for those of you stopping by for the first time, I write articles on Squidoo. I have made a list of my Organic Gardening articles to make them easy to find, if you want to check them out.

Seedy Saturday Free Seed Giveaway!

2011-12-17T10:05:00.002-07:00

Dwarf Grey Sugar Peas

Welcome to Seedy Saturday! This weeks free seeds are for Dwarf Grey Sugar Peas. These are the little flat snow peas that you get in Chinese food. They are great raw in your salad or on a veggie party platter, as well as stir-fried. They easily fit into the edible landscape with their beautiful pink and maroon blossoms, resembling Sweet Pea flowers!

These seeds were homegrown in 2009 and still have good germination, at least 80% should sprout. I'll send you about 25-30 seeds, enough to have a some to eat this year and to save your own seed for next year.

If you don't know how to grow peas, or you've had trouble in the past, I've written an article to help you grow the best pea crop ever, How to Grow Peas.

To learn more about saving your own seed check out Garden Seeds, Grow Your Own.

Seedy Saturday Rules: Basic rule, just comment on this post and you are in the running to be drawn for the free seed. There's a couple of other things which you can read on this post.

I will announce this weeks winners on my Harvest Monday post, so be sure and check back on Monday to see if you are a winner!

Rain Water Catchment

2011-12-16T17:01:00.000-07:00

My Water tanks

I live in a pretty small house by modern standards, only about 900 square feet, give or take a few. At the moment I only have about one third of my roof guttered to catch rain water. Even though the joints on the gutter leak and one of my tanks has sprung a leak, I still managed to catch 300 gallons of water from about 3 inches of rain.

When I have my whole house guttered and all the leaks plugged, I should be able to harvest about 450 gallons of water for every inch of rain that falls. In that case the three inches of rain that has fallen this month would have garnered me 1350 gallons of water! The next problem of course is enough tank capacity to hold that water until I really need it in May, June and July. Right now I'm using whatever I can get but when I plan my future home I'm thinking of building a cistern big enough to hold several thousand gallons of water and maybe even create extra roof space like covered porches to collect extra water. (Around here, as long as they are not closed in, covered porches aren't counted for property tax value, we are calculated strictly on square footage of enclosed living space).

I've just finished an article with some great resources about rainwater harvesting, called Rainwater Catchment.

Seedy Saturday Winner & Harvest Monday

2011-12-12T08:10:00.002-07:00

Red & Yellow beets, parsnips, carrots

Welcome to Harvest Monday, a great blog hop sponsored by Daphne at Daphne's Dandelions Stop by her place for links to more wonderful harvests around the world!

This week I didn't get to harvest anything until Saturday because there is still snow and ice around the yard. Before Sat. I couldn't harvest because of the freezing temperatures. But on Sat. I pulled a decent amount of root crops. The tops looked sad and went to the rabbits this time, but the roots, of course were fine. Don't laugh at my pathetic parsnips. I know they are too small, but they tasted fine. I don't think I got them planted early enough. Better luck next year.

Lettuce is frost damaged under row covers

I have some Agrobon row covers over some of the lettuce bed. This is just layed over the plants and where the snow sat and froze on the cover caused some damage, like freezer burn on meat. But I did pick lettuce and just fed the damaged leaves to the bunnies or the compost depending on how bad they were.

This is where I can see how having the frost blanket over beds inside a hoop house would be great. Funny thing is the lettuce that still has a little snow on it and no frost blanket looks fine and dandy.

This weeks harvest:
Baby lettuce                         17oz
baby carrots                           6 oz
parsnips                                 3 oz
yellow beets, roots only    7oz
Cylindra beets, roots only       4 oz

Total: 2.3 pounds

I have been busy writing more articles for you over on Squidoo, I've added a page here with links to all my organic gardening type articles. I'm currently working on another one about rainwater harvesting; I should have it live in a few days. In the meantime there are some on growing peas, improving soil fertility, using earthworms and several more.

AND THE SEEDY SATURDAY WINNER IS: cathy@home So Cathy if you don't hear from me, shoot my an email hysong AT cableone DOT net and give me your snail mail. Cathy is going to receive a nice big bunch of old fashioned hollyhock seeds. Don't forget to stop by next Saturday for another Seedy Saturday free seed giveaway!

Around the Garden & in the Greenhouse

2011-12-11T14:57:00.001-07:00

pea plants broken down by snow

Today was nice and sunny so I did a bit of work around the garden and in the greenhouse. I surveyed the damage from the snow storm last week.

The Bleushokker peas (in this photo) as well as the Sugar Snaps had some stems broken over by the snow and ice but peas are hardy plants and don't die from freezing. I'll probably just trim off the broken bits and feed them to the rabbits. Rabbits happen to love pea plants.

freeze damage on lettuce

A lettuce bed covered with Agrobon frost blanket suffered freeze damage where snow sat for days on top of it and the leaves froze to the material.

Lettuce in the Snow

Another bed of lettuce which had been picked to ground level a couple of weeks ago had no frost blanket and so far shows no signs of damage. I think the thick layer of snow that was over it the first few days insulated it from the 22 degree nights.

Beets & carrots after the snow

The beets and carrots looked a little sad after the snow melted off of them, but they tasted just fine when I pulled them up. You can see there is still a little snow at one end of the bed (upper left corner of photo) and the soil is still frozen in some parts.

Dwarf Grey Sugar Peas in a tub in the greenhouse.

The greenhouse did get down below freezing some nights last week with the storm. Some little nasturtium seedlings froze to death. But almost every else is doing well.

Many things are sprouting up and growing. It gets in the 70's when it's sunny, though it can freeze at night, lately it's been just above freezing while outdoor temps have been just below freezing. One thing that seems to help is that the soil picks up a fair amount of heat during the day the surface is warm to the touch. I think this has helped the seeds sprout and the plants to grow. At this time I don't have any heat sink in the green house mostly due to lack of space, tho I'm thinking about at least using plastic milk jugs full of water.

Little Marvel Pea seedlings in the greenhouse bed

The Little Marvel Peas are sprouting up as well as a few other things.


onion seedlings in soil blocks

An onion plant left from last year and some radish seedlings.


Sweet Alyssum started in soil blocks and moved to plastic pots

Purple Pansies in the greenhouse

Old fashioned violet

Yellow Marble Tomato survives

A big surprise was to find that one of the Yellow Marble Tomato plants did not seem to have been frozen. It does lay over a couple of big rocks and perhaps they helped keep it warm enough, I'm not sure, but tomato season may not be totally over yet.

Don't forget to stop by and comment for Seedy Saturday's free seed giveaway. This week I'm giving away old fashioned hollyhocks, so if you have been wanting some for your cottage garden or to hide the compost pile, go on over and comment on this post to be put in for the free seed drawing.

Seedy Saturday

2011-12-10T12:08:00.001-07:00

Red Hollyhock

Welcome to Seedy Saturday! I'm still having some difficulty getting a Mr Linky widget so if anybody knows how to contact those folks I'd appreciate it; if they have a contact button on their website I have not been able to see it. In the meantime, if you have seeds that you would like to give away, you may drop a link to your blog post about it in your comments.

This weeks Seedy Saturday giveaway is for old fashioned hollyhocks. Many different colors of them bloom in my garden, from white and pale pink to a dark burgundy. Hollyhocks are of course out breeders, with many bees and butterflies visiting the flowers and spreading the pollen far and wide, so no telling what colors will show up in any given batch of seeds.

Mom's Hollyhocks

While classed as a biannual, that is growing a plant the first year, blooming and setting seed the second year, then dieing off, many of mine live from year to year, producing a bigger clump each spring. This partly depends on the weather, if they don't get enough water at the end of blooming they will often die back. So far I have never noticed any of them dieing of cold or snow in winter. But our winters are not nearly as severe as in some places.

I got my first seeds from my mom's hollyhocks and I'm pretty sure she got them from my granny who probably got them from her friends and relatives. They really are just an easy pass along flower!

Seedy Saturday Rules: Everyone that comments on this blog post before 6AM Monday morning is entered to win free hollyhock seeds and the winner will be announced when I make my Harvest Monday post. I will mail seeds to other countries, (I am in the United States) but you are responsible for knowing your own country's rules and if they will be allowed in or not. I don't have time to keep up with stuff like that.

Seed Saver's Jar, Pink Hollyhocks by maryhysong
See more Seed Candy Jars

I am sooo totally pumped! These cute little 'candy' jars from Zazzle look like a great thing to put seeds in and would make a fab gift for your gardening friends! I'm off to go make as many as I have photos for! But you can make your own, just upload the photo of your choice from your computer and change the text as you wish. If you can't figure out something on the Zazzle template, just give me a hollar [hysong AT cableone DOT net] and I'll help you out, if nothing else I can help you find the instructions on Zazzle itself.

Dreaming of Spring & Edible Flowers!

2011-12-08T12:26:00.001-07:00

Violas are yummy edible flowers.

Yes, I know, it's not even Christmas and I'm drooling over seed catalogs and dreaming of spring! I just can't wait to really get my garden going full steam again.

One of the things I'm thinking of are all the yummy sorts of edible flowers I can plant. Violas are very nice, a sweet flowery taste to them.

Pea shoots and blossoms are edible and taste like peas. This one is Dwarf Grey Sugar.

Another thing I'm looking forward to are all the sorts of peas I've planted. I haven't ever tried the pea shoots but I have tried the blossom and they taste very much like peas.

Tulips are also edible.

Tulips are also edible as well as beautiful in the spring landscape.

Nasturtium leaves, flowers and seeds are all edible.

Nasturtium leaves and blossoms are edible, but have a hot spicy flavor not enjoyed by everyone. The green seeds are sometimes pickled for use as a substitute for capers, but that sounds like more work than I want to do.

Roses are another edible flower that is often used in the landscape, but so far I haven't really found any with a flavor that really stands out. Some are a little bitter even if you trim off the white part at the bottom of the petal, while others are just sort of bland. So I'm still looking for one that actually tastes like roses!

There are dozens of other edible flowers that you can use to add color to your edible landscape. Most herb flowers are edible and some are colorful. Some vegetable flowers are edible, like zucchini.

If you'd like to read up on more edible flowers I'd suggest Rosalind Creasy's book to get you started.

More Snow & the Water Tanks

2011-12-05T20:28:00.001-07:00

snowy footprints

I had to be to work at 6 this morning and it began snowing on my way in. In a couple of hours it was coming down fast and hard, in huge flakes. By noon there was about 3-4 inches of snow on the top of my car. About 1:00 the sun came out and where ever it was shining the snow melted, but not anywhere else.

The garden is hiding under the snow

The garden still has a fair amount of unmelted snow on the beds. This time of year it doesn't get much sun after 2:00 and none at all after 3:00.

Rain water catchement

On another note, on Sunday I went out to discover that the smaller of my water tanks was full and also leaking underneath. It got blown off it's support during the July 4th storm (I know it's Dec and I'm still talking about that !@#@ storm!) so I suppose that is when it got a crack in it's bottom. That explains why it was empty the rest of the monsoon season. I thought it was because the gutters were messed up and leaking.

Well, I went and hauled the big square tank down into the yard and then I went through the junk and found an old fountain pump. mmmm need a piece of tubing for the pump, nothing handy on the porch or in the yard. Check the falling down shed. Sure enough found a piece of tubing that fits the outlet on the pump and oh goody, it is long enough to go from one tank to the other! YAY! So I pumped all the water out of the fiberglass tank into the bigger one. Got some more this afternoon. When the weather warms up I'll have to get a fiberglass patch kit and patch up the crack. In the meantime as long as it rains faster than the tank leaks and I'm home to turn on the pump I can at least get some of the rain water. The big square tank holds about 250 gallons and the fiberglass one about 150. Now I just need to buy some more tanks and finish getting gutters on the house!

Harvest Monday & Seedy Saturday Winner!

2011-12-05T06:30:00.000-07:00

baby lettuce, violas, society garlic blossoms, chives, lemon thyme

Welcome to Harvest Monday! This weekly bloghop is hosted by Daphne, over at Daphne's Dandelions. This week of course saw more baby lettuces, along with some herbs and edible flowers.

yellow beets, baby carrots, tiny potatoes

One day I pulled a couple of big yellow beets, some baby carrots and emptied a tub that grew potatoes. The potato plants have looked quite pathetic all fall and all I got were these 3 tiny potatoes. I think the problem was the soil was just not fertile enough. Looking at the plants I'm sure they didn't have enough nitrogen and looking at the potatoes I'm equally sure they didn't get enough potash. Ah well, there is always next year!

Pineapple Sage flowers are great in salad

The small Pineapple Sage plants that I bought recently have begun to bloom. I sprinkle the flowers in my salad. They have a lovely sweet, floral flavor with hints of pineapple. Their bright lipstick red color adds another dimension of color along with flavor.

Many people look askance at me eating my salad without dressing. While I do like Ranch dressing, it is way too heavy and overpowering to put it on baby lettuce. It is better as a dip for things with more robust flavors, like hot wings.

I don't even usually use vinaigrette these days, preferring to actually taste the different flavors of the lettuces, other baby greens, flowers and herbs.

yellow marble & Princepe Borghese tomatoes

Since we were expecting snow and freezing temps I picked all the little tomatoes that were at least beginning to turn color. Since it is predicted to be in the high 20's overnight all week I suspect these will be the last.

This weeks harvests:
lettuce, herbs, edible flowers           1 pound 5 oz

potatoes                                                        3 oz
beets & greens                             2 pounds 14 oz
baby carrots                                                  5 oz
tomatoes 1 oz

total                                              4 pounds, 12 oz

This week's Seedy Saturday giveaway is for Sweet Magnolia, a purple podded snow pea. The seeds were saved in 2009 and should have good germination. The plants will go to 6 ft+ on good soil. I wrote everyone's name on a slip of paper and folded it up. Then I tossed them in the air and picked up the slip of paper that landed closest to me. And the winner is......... Shannon B.! For the rest of you, stop in and try again next week.

PS. I have one more space that I might plant Sweet Magnolias in and after that I might give away the seeds that are left in the jar, so be sure and check in every Seedy Saturday!

Yes, it does Snow in the Desert!

2011-12-04T09:03:00.001-07:00

Snow in the desert.

It rained all yesterday morning, then late in the afternoon the rain turned to big fat flakes of snow. This is looking out my front door towards the north early this morning.

Snow in the garden

Ooops. I forgot to put the crossbar on the top of this trellis and the snow freezing to the chicken wire has made it sag. So glad the peas are just sprouting, I have time to fix it when things warm up!

Don't forget to comment on Seedy Saturday for your chance to win some Sweet Magnolia purple snow peas!

Seedy Saturday; Purple Peas!

2011-12-03T00:30:00.000-07:00

Purple Peas

Happy Seedy Saturday! This week I have decided to part with some of my stash of Sweet Magnolia, a purple snow pea. I am going to give away about 25-30 seeds. Sweet Magnolia was developed by Alan Kapular of Peace Seeds and is the product of trying to breed for a purple version of the Sugar Snap pea. I bought some seeds from him a few yeas ago and have been saving my own seed since. Occasionally a vine will put out green pods instead of purple ones. Just make sure you don't save any seeds from those.

Sweet Magnolias are not quite as strong a grower as my Bleushokkers but they do well in fertile soil and can easily go to 6 feet or higher.

And it's possible that this picture is actually of Bleushokkers before they fill out. However the Sweet Magnolia's look like this too. The flavor is much the same as any snow pea. I have forgotten now, (it's been about 2-3 years since I've grown a batch of these) but I'm thinking they turn green when cooked, much like purple snap beans. But I usually eat most of my snow and snap peas raw, either as snacks while gardening or in my salads.

How does the Seedy Saturday Free Seed Giveaway work? Well, first you comment on this post any time before 6AM Monday morning (my time, I'm in Arizona). From all the comments I draw one name and announce the winner in my Harvest Monday post. If I can contact you through your blogger profile I will. Otherwise the winner should email me with your snail mail address at hysong AT cableone DOT net,(replacing the capitalized words with the appropriate symbols, of course.) I am willing to send seeds to other countries but I am not responsible for any duties, fees, etc. or if they can or can't be imported. If you live outside the US please check with your government agencies about small lots of seed coming into your country. (you might tell them you are involved in a seed exchange, not a commercial venture)

Blooming!

2011-12-01T14:05:00.001-07:00

Pineapple Sage, edible blossoms

When I was buying some plants last month I picked up a couple of Pineapple Sage and a Lemon Verbena plant. Our winters are too cold for them so they are living in my bedroom, in front of the big window that looks into the greenhouse. The Pineapple Sage is blooming. I love the bright lipstick red flowers; they are edible and taste delicious. A fruity, flower, pineapple flavor. I picked a stem of them today and tossed them on my salad, yum!

Pineapple Sage blooming

Here's a shot of the herb plants in my bedroom. You can see into the greenhouse and the window box planted with purple pansies out there. The other herb plant in the bedroom is a basil. There are actually several plants in the pot, the original one that grew all summer and a couple of babies that sprouted up last month. While I was gone on vacation the basil had bloomed and made some seed before I got home and pruned it back. I doubt they will manage to live all winter, but it's fun to have them for a bit longer than just outdoors.

Sugar Snap Pea blooms

Outdoors the Sugar Snap Peas have put out their first blossoms. I don't know how well they are going to do, our first winter storm is trying to roll in and we could get a little snow.

Don't forget to check back for Seedy Saturday! I've got a really great free seed giveaway for you!

Harvest Monday & Seed Giveaway Winner

2011-11-28T00:30:00.000-07:00

Baby lettuce and edible viola blossoms

Welcome to Harvest Monday! This blog hop is sponsored by Daphne's Dandelions. I do hope you will stop over there and see everyone else's harvests; it is a lot of fun to see fresh homegrown food from around the world!

So a recap of the weeks harvesting, mostly a lot of baby lettuce, which is good considering that Organic Spring Mix is over $5 a pound at the store and I can eat at least two pounds a week. I've been tossing viola blossoms into the salad mix too. I tried my big purple pansies and they were OK but nothing to brag about. The violas have a slightly sweet taste with a lingering floral essence. They are more bite sized, too.

Baby lettuce and Easter Egg Radishes

Another day there were several Easter Egg Radishes to pull along with the baby lettuces.

Radish, mizuna, spinach, lettuce

On Sunday there was another radish, some mizuna and some baby spinach in addition to the lettuce. There was also 2 ounces of little tomatoes. I've moved the tomato pot into the greenhouse for more protection. We haven't had a hard freeze yet but when we do I expect the tomatoes will be done for, even in the greenhouse.

Yellow Marble and Princepe Borghese Tomatoes

Harvest Totals Week of November 21-27
Lettuce and other salad greens   2 pounds, 2 oz.
Easter Egg Radish                                     1.5 oz
Tomatoes                                                   2 oz
TOTAL            2 pounds, 4.5 ounces

Now I know everyone wants to know about the seed giveaway! To read more about how I'm doing this you can read this blog post. To read more about this weeks giveaway go to my very first Seedy Saturday post. If you want to get in on the action stop in next week for Seedy Saturday. I am trying to get the Mr. Linky thingy so that others with seeds to give away can join in but have been having technical difficulties. I will keep trying but if not I might allow links in the comments for that day.

So now, the Winner is......drumroll please...... BeeGirl! I'll be sending you an email through your profile, but if you don't get it be sure to contact me with your snail mail address so I can send your beet seeds to you! Congratulations!

Seedy Saturday: Free Garden Seeds

2011-11-26T11:10:00.001-07:00

Yellow/white Heritage Beet

This is the first of my Seedy Saturday, free garden seed giveaway. You must comment directly on this post to be eligible for the drawing for free seeds. Read all of the rules here.

This weeks give away is for seeds for the yellow/white beet shown here. Back around 2003 or 2004 I ordered a packet of mixed Heritage beets from Bountiful Gardens. When I grew them out there were a couple of really huge white beets and a large slightly pale yellow one (as near as I remember now; of course I didn't write anything down at the time....). I saved seeds from these beets in 2005.

Beet Seeds

So the seeds are on the old side, but they had good germination this fall. I would like to get these out into the world so others can enjoy them. I would plant them a little thicker than you would fresh seed. Most of the seeds will sprout, but they will only sprout one plant, not multiples like when they are really fresh, at least that is what happened with my planting this year. There is some variation in the color of the beets, some are more of a pale pink. But they usually grow pretty large and are very sweet, not nearly as 'earthy' as some varieties. Also, even when large the tops are sweet and yummy also.

Hopefully whoever receives these seeds will also save some seed and send them out into the world. I am sending out a good size handful of seed, about half of the seed I have left from 2005. I'll be planting more myself and collecting some fresh seed next year.

I am thinking about getting one of those linky widgets to add to the Seedy Saturday posts so that if you also have some seeds to give away you could join in with me. If there is any interest in doing this then please let me know. I envision lots of us with extra seed sending them out into the world and spreading and saving valuable varieties of vegetables, flowers and fruits from extinction.

Building Soil

2011-11-24T19:51:00.001-07:00


mmm there's supposed to be steps in there someplace!

First off, Happy Turkey Day. Today I am remembering Thanksgivings past when I lived 1,000 miles away from any family. But we always had a good holiday. Some of those years everything on the table came from our own place except the flour for the pie crust and any sugar used. The meat, milk, eggs, vegetables, pickles and relishes were all homegrown. There were always some bachelors that didn't have any where to go and we would feed them, along with a young couple who were also far from their family. We traded and bartered with these folks all the time and many of them lent a hand when we built our house. Good times indeed.

Today was a very nice day outside so I did some more clean up work out back. There really is a set of steps in that mess someplace! It's buried in silt and leaves that washed down during the July 4th storm.

Shredded tree prunings with fertilizer sprinkled over.

A big part of what I actually worked on today was to continue shredding up weed trees. I also worked on soil building in a new garden bed right next to the sidewalk. I plan to do an informal espaliered apple tree on the fence with perhaps strawberries or flowers and herbs as an under planting. So I loosened the dirt up and piled tree chips over the area. Then I put on some blood meal for nitrogen to help decompose the wood faster, some potash because the soil has none, and some seaweed meal for trace minerals. I watered all that in.

Silt and oak leaf compost spread over the top

Then I began mucking out that set of steps. They are buried in fine silt mixed with decomposed desert oak leaves. I tossed it on the growing bed, right over the wood chips.

and mulched with fall leaves.

Then I topped off the bed with a bag of free leaves from a friend. I'll probably pick up a new apple tree around January when they come into the garden centers. By then most of the raw organics I've added should be pretty well decomposed. The next time I'm working over the worm box I'll grab a few and drop them in the bed to help things along.

Since the garden is a bit higher these days than the sidewalk I set some old boards right along it to keep the soil and leaves from washing off onto the sidewalk. I also managed to set the posts and string most of the fence (only about 8 feet). There is one small gap next to the green house that I have to cover and I have to make and hang a gate. I haven't decided what I'm going to make a gate out of. I have several options; a couple of different sorts of wood or a wood frame with wire fence or perhaps a piece of junk art.

FREE SEED GIVEAWAY

2011-11-24T12:25:00.001-07:00

bean seeds

I have been looking through my seed boxes and realizing I have a lot of seeds that I will probably not get planted before they are too old to sprout. So I'm going to give some away. A couple of times a month, probably on a Saturday morning I'll make a post about what I'm giving away. If you'd like some of the seeds, then all you have to do is make a comment on that post (commenting on FB or G+ doesn't count, you have to come to the blog and comment directly on the blog post). Then I will put all the names of the commentors in the hat and draw one out and on my Harvest Monday post I'll announce the winner. I will try and contact you through your blog or your profile, but I'm not responsible if your contact info is hidden. In that case you should contact me and send me your snail mail address so I can mail your seeds to you.

I will also say that I will send the seeds to other countries, but it is up to you to know if you can import them or not. I don't have the time to research the rules and regulations for such. Also, like I said, some of these are older seeds and the germination rate may not be the best. If I recorded the year the seeds were saved then I'll tell you that and maybe make a guess at how thick you should plant them to get a reasonable stand of plants.

And today, since I'm not cooking (my Mom is, I'll go over and help her in a bit) I've been working in the yard some more. I'm actually making a lot of progress out there and things are looking much better.

Cleaning Up with my Electric Shredder

2011-11-23T20:41:00.001-07:00

beginning to clean up with my shredder

I have a small electric shredder that I dearly love. Today I worked in the garden cleaning up all that stuff on the last garden bed.

This first picture is a little after I got started.

My electric shredder; nearly done!

This picture I am almost done with all the weeds and trees that were laying around in the area.

Back garden, looking better!

Here I've finished up what was laying around and have even cut down some of the weed trees in the area behind it.

The back sidewalk, still with remains of the July 4th flood

Here is the back sidewalk, still with remains of mud and leaves from the July 4th flooding. It was a nice day out, so I cleaned up some of this area too. I scooped up the leaves and silt and dumped them on top of the shreddings on that last garden bed. I'll probably add some of the leaves a friend gave me too, along with some blood meal to boost decomposition.

Back sidewalk, after

You can see I still need to do some work, but it's looking a lot better around here!

Inside the greenhouse

And here's a peek inside the green house. I know it's not much yet, but give it some time, it'll be pretty crowded before spring!

The Greenhouse

2011-11-23T11:28:00.001-07:00

Just a little more greenhouse construction. It's actually all finished but here are some pics. Here in the first pic I'm putting the top layer of plastic on. This is seperate from the rest of the wall so that I can push it back and vent the whole top when things are warming up in spring. In this pic I haven't gotten the door fixed and re-hung yet.

Here's a shot from the outside. I've got the plastic stapled on but I haven't got the tie downs on the top plastic yet.

HARVEST MONDAY

2011-11-21T08:51:00.001-07:00

bowl gourds

Every Monday, Daphne of Daphne's Dandelions hosts Harvest Monday; a nice little blog hop where gardeners show off what they have harvested during the previous week. I don't always remember to take pictures of everything, besides some of it would be boring. After all, one batch of baby lettuce looks a lot like all the others.

So this week there are these three bowl gourds. I was surprised the seeds sprouted at all, they were about 5 years old, one sprouted and grew quite large. The top gourd in the photo was the first to form, before I went on vacation. While I was gone another one came along and then the last one after I got home. I'm pretty sure the first one will be ok, but the other two are still pretty green, so I'm not sure they are going to dry out well enough, since I planted these fairly late in the season.

Drying Nepeta and baby lettuce

Early on in the week I harvested 5 ounces (wet weight) of catmint, aka catnip and Nepeta. This herb is a nice tea mint and of course if you have cats it will make them crazy ;-) And of course some baby lettuces.

baby lettuce with Easter Egg radishes

Yesterday I was harvesting lettuce and realized I had also planted some Easter Egg radishes in that bed. The plants didn't really look that big, but when I poked in the dirt around them, there were some radishes.

Harvest totals this week:

Catmint 5 ounces
Lettuce 30 ounces (1.875 pounds)
Radish 1/2 ounce

BOUNTIFUL BASKETS

2011-11-20T18:07:00.001-07:00

On Saturday I participated in a new program starting up in my community called Bountiful Baskets. This is an all volunteer group that is bringing fresh, low cost produce to families. This co-op is all over the US so go check them out and see if there is one in your community and if not, volunteer to start one!

This is the best deal, this is a co-op, everyone pools their money and then volunteers buy and deliver the produce. A regular basket is $15 or you can get organic for $25. They also have additional products like rolls and breads that you can buy extra. The very first time you participate there is a one time fee of $3. This is so your volunteer can buy a laundry basket to sort your produce into. You take your own bags or boxes to take your produce home in.

This is what I got for my $15 this time, some red potatoes and two really huge onions, 2 pounds of carrots, 2 bunches of celery, 2 bunches of spinach a box of cherry tomatoes, a bunch of bananas, some pears, apples, tangerines and fresh pineapple, which I gave away because I can't eat them.

I'd like to encourage everyone to look into this program and join up, it's a great way to save money and eat better too!

Garden Tour

2011-11-20T08:11:00.000-07:00

south side of the house, green house under construction

Here are some pics of the small back garden along with some progress on the green house. The greenhouse is a pretty simple structure, lengths of PVC are attached to a baseboard with the other end stuck in a hole in a 2x4 that is attached to the side of the house right under eave. About 3 feet down from the top a small board is bolted to the pipe for rigidity and the bottom 5 feet is covered with concrete reinforcing mesh. The helps support the plastic and becomes a trellis in the summer. In this first pictured you can see the nearly dead morning glories and the still trying to grow gourd vine. In this picture you can see the first part of the greenhouse which I got done a few years ago. Right now I'm working on carrying it completely along the south side of the house. Because the garden area is about 3 feet higher than the house and the house eaves are just over 6 feet tall the greenhouse is not very wide. But at least it's something.

Backyard Garden

This is an over view of part of the back garden looking towards the east. The junk pile at the front is the last bed that needs to be dug and put into production, the edge of it is where there was a giant tree stump that took forever to dig out of the way.

yellow beets plant Aug.

Broccoli and Cauliflower seedlings

carrots and clover

baby lettuce and clover

lettuce bed after cutting; Bleushokker peas on left

another bed of lettuce

Today's Harvest: lettuce, beet, tomatoes

2011-11-11T18:24:00.001-07:00

Harvest 11-11-11, baby lettuce, yellow marble tomatoes, a yellow beet

Today's harvest is small compared to how much food I actually eat, but things will get bigger and better as I go along. I picked 8 ounces of mixed baby lettuce, 4 ounces of Yellow Marble tomatoes and the biggest beet in the patch. The beet & greens together weighed in at 1 pound, 3 ounces. The root alone weighed 5 ounces.

The root really is that bright of a golden yellow. When cooked it loses most of the color and is a very pale yellow, almost white. The ratty outer leaves and the tough stalks went to the rabbits; the tender leaves were part of tonight's dinner along with the root which is super sweet and not quite as earthy as red beets I grow.

I don't know the name of this beet and I'm not sure but it might even be a cross between a couple of kinds.You see I bought a mixed package of Heritage beets from Bountiful Gardens probably about 8 years ago. There were several really huge white beets in the mix, which I let go to seed. There might have been a yellow one in there too, I really don't remember now. That would have been about 2005. I still have more than half a pint of seeds left, but germination is beginning to drop off a tad. Most of the seeds sprout, but instead of several plants from one seed ball, they are tending more to just one. Which is OK, it means a lot less thinning for me. I will probably let some of them go to seed next year, just to replenish the supply.

Also I'd like to draw your attention to the tabs across the top of the page. These are extra pages I've added to the blog which I'll be updating from time to time, especially the amounts harvested and worth of produce but also the varieties I'm growing. That page will eventually be in alpha order, but for now it's a little random. The worth of produce is the price I'd have to pay for a comparable product at the local market.

And since I didn't harvest anything else since Friday, I'll list this post for Harvest Monday over at Daphne's Dandelions, a great place to connect with other gardening bloggers and what they are harvesting from their gardens.

HOW MUCH LAND DOES IT TAKE TO GROW YOUR OWN FOOD?

2011-11-11T06:56:00.001-07:00

Home Grown Goodness

How much land does it take to grow your own food? Well that covers a lot of territory and there are a lot of variables. Are you talking about ALL of your own food? Are you talking about a typical American diet or a strict vegan diet? Are you talking about a 6 month growing season or do you only have 4 months or maybe you are luck and have 9 months.

I give you some general ideas and some resources to check out in my new article: HOW MUCH LAND DOES IT TAKE TO GROW YOUR OWN FOOD?

In the meantime I will be working on this question myself, here in my edible garden. It will probably take me a couple of more years to get my soil into the best shape for doing it, but I'm hoping I'll be totally sufficient in vegetables by the end of 2012, at least 50% sufficient in fruit by 2014 and totally and completely sufficient in veggies, fruit, meat, milk and eggs by 2020. So what are your goals for the next few years?

Planting Peas

2011-11-07T17:35:00.002-07:00

Of course I love peas of all kinds; I've probably told you that a few times already. This years roster so far is Sugar Snap, Sweet Magnolia, Bleushokker, Early Perfection and Mammoth Melting Sugar. Yesterday afternoon I planted the Melting Sugars in the bed where the beans were. I took out the shorter trellis of weld wire and replaced it with a chicken wire trellis down the center of the bed.

Soil prep for pea planting

After I put in the brackets to hold the trellis poles I ran a string between them and dug a trench down the center of the bed. Here you can see I've dumped in about 6 inches of rabbit manure. If you don't have manure compost will also work. Then I leveled the bed, covering the manure with about 2-3 inches of soil. Then I covered the whole bed with several inches of sifted compost.

Planting Peas

Next I used my triangular hoe to make a small trench on each side of the trellis after I put it up. I set the pea seeds every couple of inches in the furrow then covered them with about 1/2 - 1 inche of soil and watered the bed well. It's also been raining off and on since I planted them so they should be coming up pretty quickly, usually about a week this time of the year.

I've written an article about peas, How to Grow Peas and a few years ago I grew six varieties of peas and wrote 6 Pea Varieties on Trial.

STONE WALLS

2011-11-07T09:40:00.000-07:00

Stone walls, Nov 2, 2011

Well here is where I left off on the walls last week. It has been rainy and grey since then. The corner on the left is the height the left hand side will be going to. As you can see the right hand side above the culverts needs to come up higher. I have enough cement to make one more batch but I don't know if the weather is going to cooperate.

Stone Wall above the culverts

Here is the wall from above the culverts. As you can see I still have to haul some dirt and fill in behind the wall where the July 4th storm washed so much away.

In the meantime I did harvest some lettuce and baby beets yesterday and I *thought* I took pictures of them but I guess I didn't.

Saving Seeds: Onions

2011-11-06T18:20:00.000-07:00

With everything that went on July 4th and after (see my posts here) I forgot all about these guys. I save a lot of my own seeds for my garden. This picture is the seed head of an heirloom onion called Italian Red Bottleneck, which I obtained from the Seed Savers in Iowa. Each of the little bud like things was a small flower and now have several small black seeds in them.

You can see where one of the pods has split open, exposing the small black seeds. When a couple of pods have opened I go ahead and cut the whole stem and bring it into the house to finish drying out.

[edit]Which I did and now they are very dry and ready to clean, which hopefully I'll get to in the next day or so. In the meantime I will publish this post which should have been done back in July; don't know how it ended up still being a draft all this time....
I learned a lot about saving my own garden seeds from Carol Deppe's book, I think it should be on every gardeners reading list! She is a geneticist by training and a serious gardener. Her instructions are very easy to understand and implement in the garden.

THE LOSS OF OUR FOOD CROPS

2011-11-06T08:31:00.000-07:00

National Geographic Magazine - NGM.com This chart shows up the dangerous loss of genetic diversity to our food crops. In 80 years of corporate farming we have lost about 93% of the varieties grown in 1903. Just imagine the colors and flavors of the vegetables that were available to our grandmothers that we no longer have access to. Before the advent of industrialized farming where everything must be exactly the same size shape and color, people ate in a much more diverse way. Before the widespread use of electric refrigeration our ancestors had special varieties of food crops that were best for certain uses, for fresh eating, for storing away in a root cellar, for keeping well in the field overwinter, for canning, for pickling. That is why I try to buy and grow heirloom varieties whenever possible, to keep our diverse agricultural heritage alive. Adopt some heirloom fruits or veggies this next growing season, save some seeds and pass them along to your friends and neighbors, buy local and organic whenever you can, keep your small farmer or market gardener in business. Good for your health, good for the economy, good for the Earth!

Today's Harvest

2011-11-02T12:55:00.000-07:00

Yellow Marble & Princepe Borghese tomatoes

Several tomato plants volunteered in this pot, mostly Yellow Marbles, but surprise, also a Princepe Borghese, an Italian drying tomato. I picked about two ounces of them today.

Lettuce mix, baby carrots, Hopi Purple Pod Beans

Since the days are getting shorter and the nights cooler I know it's just a matter of time until ol' Jack Frost runs by and wipes out the bean plants. So today I picked all the beans and pulled the vines out. I need to get more peas planted. Besides tomatoes today's harvest was 6 ounces of baby lettuce, 2 ounces of baby carrots (roots only) and 5 pounds, 14 ounces of beans in their pods. I don't have time to shell them before I go to work but suspect the shelled weight will be somewhere around 2 1/2 pounds.

Each Monday Daphne's Dandelions has a Harvest Monday post, so I'll add my link over there. Happy Growing!

HOW TO PLANT A ROSE BUSH

2011-10-30T08:04:00.000-07:00

Granada, a hybrid tea rose

With the more moderate weather and a nice rain the other evening the garden is coming along nicely. I had to go to the valley the other day and stopped at my favorite nursery, Shady Way in Apache Junction. They always have a nice selection of herbs so I picked up a couple of mint plants and some lavender. I had also stopped at K-Mart and picked up a Granada rose from the clearance table for only $2. It wasn't in bad shape and was described as having a 'strong spicy scent'. I love rose that have a strong scent and won't buy any that don't have one. I mean after all what's the point of planting a rose if it doesn't smell heavenly? I also picked up a couple of plants at the Boyce Thompson Arboretum near Superior at the members plant sale. I'll show you some of these as I get them planted out.

In the meantime here's how to plant a potted rose bush. The day before planting, water the soil in the pot well, so that it will hold together when you knock the plant out of the pot.

When choosing a site for roses, remember that in general they like to have full sun. However, if you live in the desert they will appreciate some late afternoon shade so that they aren't fried by the full strength of desert sunlight. I chose to plant the Granada in a bed in the front yard. It will get full sun in the morning and through mid-day and light shade in the afternoon during the summer.

Now dig a nice big hole, several inches deeper and wider than the pot. I know it's hard to tell in this picture, but the top of that shovel is about 3 inches deeper than the soil surface.

Add some compost to the hole, enough so the when you set the pot in the hole the base of the rosebush will be at ground level.

Take the bush out of it's pot and set it in the hole. Fill around it with more compost and then back fill with soil. If the soil is very dry, fill the hole with water and let it drain before back filling. Then water it again.

The soil in this particular spot is not in too bad a shape. If I were planting in an area where I hadn't been working the soil in the past I would have dug a much bigger hole and used a lot more compost. I think it is better to plant things in ground that you have previously worked and added compost and manure to in the past than to dig a hole in virgin territory. It makes it a lot easier for the plant roots to get out into the soil.

I know this is not the way a lot of 'experts' tell you how to do it, but this way works for me; After planting I pruned off a few broken and weak branches. I'll keep you updated on the rose's progress when it starts growing and putting out new growth. I'll also be adding some more compost or some rabbit manure over the top of the soil as a mulch. If, when it starts putting out new growth it seems to have problems I'll add a little organic fertilizer mix to the top of the soil and water it in.

Grow Peas!

2011-10-29T21:49:00.000-07:00

Sweet Magnolia, a purple snow pea

I love peas, I could eat green peas every day of the year. However, here in the desert they only grow from fall through spring as they don't do well once the temperatures start getting over about 80 degrees. So I plant peas everywhere I can and gorge on them during the season. I don't like canned peas so don't bother growing a lot of shelling peas.

If there are any extras I do freeze some of the snap and snow peas to use during the off season. I've just written an article about growing peas of all kinds, including sweet pea flowers, which you can read at How To Grow Peas.

A few years ago I grew six different kinds of peas and wrote a review of them which you can read at 6 Pea Varieties on Trial.

So what else is new around here, not too much, mostly I've been working the day job and with the days getting shorter there is less time to be working outside. I'm still hauling rocks and building walls as fast as I can and of course, planting peas!

Harvesting Has Begun ;-)

2011-10-24T07:09:00.000-07:00

Shelly beans, lettuce, beets, Oct 21, 2011

Very strange. I know that I wrote this post yesterday, and that I published it, yet it is not showing up on the blog nor is it in my list of posts or showing up as a draft. Just strangely disappeared. So if in the future you see this twice, you will know it is because the original post magically re-appeared somehow! (edit: I have discovered that somehow the missing post has appeared on my art blog. Have no idea at all how I managed to do that!)

Anyway this was my harvest Friday, 2 pounds, 6 ounces of Hopi Purple Pod beans that shelled out to 8 ounces of beans, 3 ounces of mixed baby lettuces and 1 pound 12 ounces of beets & greens, the roots alone were 10 ounces. All of it quite yummy! Oh I love my garden!

Fresh raw Hopi Purple Pod Beans

Some folks are puzzled by the term 'shelly beans'. This refers to eating fresh those beans that otherwise you would eat as dry beans, like pintos, kidneys, black beans, etc. As you can see I picked some pods that weren't as mature as they should have been and the beans are a little small. The pink ones are about right. The ideal time to pick shelly beans is when they have completely filled the pod and the pod walls have thinned out but are not yet beginning to dry up.

Lettuce, peas, Rock Walls

2011-10-19T10:53:00.000-07:00

lettuce mix planted Sept 2011

This is the lettuce that I planted right after I got home from vacation. When it germinated it was much thicker, but something was eating it. I don't have any idea what; grasshoppers, mice, squirrels, chipmunks, rats, little birds, who knows? The area next to this patch (on the left) I am prepping to plant some more lettuce.

Bleushokker peas and misticanza (mixed lettuce)

In this photo you can see that the Bleushokker peas are really taking off. These were planted Sep 25th. In front of them is a patch of mixed lettuce. This bed stays a little cooler than the first one so the lettuce has grown better. Also whatever was eating the lettuce in the first bed has not discovered this bed. So far I have harvested 4 ounces of lettuce from this one and will probably be able to harvest about 2 ounces today.

mixed lettuce planted Oct 3, 2011

In this photo is the lettuce I planted Oct 3, with an spun polyester row cover over it.

Hopi Purple Pod beans

These are the Hopi Purple Pod beans. The vines are doing pretty well, tho I lost of few while I was on vacation. The survivors are loaded with bean pods and they are beginning to color up. These are not really green bean type beans, they are more a dried bean type. When more of the pods are ready I'll pick them and make a batch of soup or garden chili.

Rock Wall downstream side from above

But most projects around here have ground to a halt while I concentrate on getting as much wall building done as possible before it starts freezing up at night.

Rock Walls and Culverts down stream side

Rock Walls, down stream, right side

FIRST HARVEST!

2011-10-18T07:21:00.000-07:00

Misticanza; baby lettuces, first harvest

Woot, a few days ago I made my first harvest of baby lettuces, yummy! I was able to pick about 2 ounces, enough for a salad and a few days later picked about another 2 ounces.

violas

The violas in the tub by the front gate are really doing well. They are edible and I will be adding them to my salads, just because it is fun to eat flowers ;-)

Around the Place

2011-10-07T08:03:00.000-07:00

baby lettuce mix

I thought today I'd just give you a few pictures of things happening around here. The baby lettuces are taking off. Botanical Interests has many varieties of organic lettuce seed for you to try; I love all the colors, flavors and textures available!

Bleushokker Soup Peas

The Bleushokkers were the first peas to go in this year and are doing well. I grew them for the first time a few years ago. You can read a review of them and 5 other peas varieties that I wrote over on Associated Content. I'm really looking forward to pea season this year with the Bleushokkers, snow peas and green and purple snap peas.

Along the south side of the house

I whacked down some of the weed trees along the south side of the house. I would like to get the greenhouse finished along there but I don't know if that is going to happen before it gets cold this year. Still so many things to do!

Heavenly Blue Morning Glories

The morning glories are still going strong; can you see the white gourd blossoms mingled in with them?

Gourd blossom peeks out from under the morning glories

potatoes growing in a pot

My potatoes growing in pots are doing ok but not the best. The ones I planted in the garden beds basically croaked while I was on vacation, there was a 100+ heat wave while I was gone and they just didn't get enough water. Better luck next year!

planting bed

I divided this bed up into sections for planting. In it I planted Bloomsdale longstanding spinach, Golden Globe yellow turnips, Easter Egg radishes, Western Front kale, mixed lettuces, mache, mizuna and chard. The turnips and radishes are planted in the dividing lines. After watering I covered it with a row cover to keep out the birds.

stone steps in the creek

Last weekend I also worked down in the creek. I'm on the down stream side of the culverts. The July 4th storm washed a lot of dirt out of this area. Since part of it was washed out anyway and a very steep drop to the bottom I decided to make some steps to make it easier to get up and down. I'm also working on the walls around the culverts.

stone walls in the creek

More planting!

2011-10-05T18:30:00.000-07:00

seedling in a soil block ready to transplant

Well I made lots of soil blocks and have been planting lots of seeds. The best gardening season of the year is fall to spring; summers are just too darn hot. I've planted the following,either in the ground or in soil blocks:

Amber violas from Botanical Interests.
pakchoy
tatsoy
Broccoli-purple, DiCicco and Romanesco
Early Snowball Cauliflower
Early Jersey Wakefield Cabbage
Red Giant Mustard
dwarf snap dragons
mixed lettuces
Golden Globe Turnips
Easter Egg Radishes
Western Front Kale
mache
mizuna
chard
spinach
Sweet Magnolia, a purple podded snap pea

If you don't know what soil blocks are, I wrote a three part article about them, complete with color photos of making and using them. You can read part one, at this link: Seed Starting in Soil Blocks. There are links to the other parts on that page.

mmmmm didn't I just cut down those stupid trees???

Planting Time!

2011-10-03T06:53:00.000-07:00

Heavenly Blue Morning Glories

I love Morning Glories, especially these Heavenly Blues. They remind me of my granny; she always grew them on trellises around the house. Right now they are blooming up a storm, which always signals to me that fall is really here.

We had a short sudden rain shower this afternoon, about .2" of rain with a little hail. I had done some more cement work down in the creek this morning. Just fortunate that the cement had set up pretty good before the rain started and a trickle of water ran through the culverts and onto the freshly laid bit of wall.

Spent most of the day working on an article about making and using soil block; Seed Starting in Soil Blocks

Something has been eating the strawberry plants and carrying off their leaves as well as some of the newly sprouting pea plants. It's not a bird, they wouldn't bother the strawberry leaves and they pull the pea plants out of the ground, not bite them off. So the usual four legged suspects; wood rats, pack rats, chipmunks, squirrels. Also one of them or maybe a small bird or mouse got under the screen and ate a lot of seedling lettuce.

So I worked on cutting down the weed trees along the side of the house, again. Need to plug up the holes under the house, as I think that is probably where the critters are nesting.

mini greenhouse

rose cuttings

jasmine cuttings

Just 15 Minutes

2011-09-30T09:48:00.000-07:00

July 4th storm blew down this Star Jasmine

Sometimes I get more done in a day when I have a short deadline than when I have the whole weekend to accomplish something. I think that deadline gives me a sense of urgency to get the job done without procrastinating.

Lately I've taken to using my timer for almost everything, especially my computer time, to try and keep myself on task. One of the things I'm working on is to work on certain aspects of my life 15 minutes every day.

So this is today's 15 minute session in the garden. We had a big storm on July 4th and I haven't yet cleaned up all the damage. So today I worked on this Star Jasmine. The big white post had rotted a bit at the base and fallen over. I got rid of the old wooden trellis bit and trimmed a lot of dead wood out of the Jasmine. Then I found part of what was an old greeting card rack (you just wouldn't believe some of the junk laying around here!) and put it around the vine. It really did only take about 15 minutes to accomplish this.

Star Jasmine after

I know it's kind of hard to see in the photo but now there is a bare trunk and on top of the card rack trellis is all the green branches that were laying on the ground.

I also trimmed up some of the green parts and put some of the cuttings to see if they will root as I would like to have more jasmine.

I love Star Jasmine, it is a pretty hardy plant, sort of shrubby and sort of viney all at once. It is not the sort of Jasmine used for tea, that is another type that is very frost sensitive so I can't grow it here. Star Jasmine is often seen in the southern US states, blooming in early summer, it fills the evening and early morning air with it's sweet perfume.

Daffodils, Tulips & Pansies

2011-09-29T18:34:00.000-07:00

Planting daffodil bulbs by the peach tree

I picked up a bag of 14 mixed daffodil bulbs and 14 mixed tulips. I planted the daffys on one side of the dwarf peach tree and the tulips on the other.

after planting the purple pansies

After I planted the bulbs I put in a drift of purple pansies along the edge. I'm planning this bed to be mostly flowers of different sorts to bloom through the year. In late winter I'll sprinkle some annual seeds over it like poppies and wild flowers to bloom in the late spring, then replace the pansies with marigolds for the summer.

Are you laughing at my bottle edging? A lot of my friends call this "The Drunkard's Path". :-)

A Little Bit At A Time

2011-09-27T21:18:00.000-07:00

east side after

east side before

Here is the east side of the house, before and after I worked over there. Lots left to do. I took some time out from cleaning up to do some seed starting. I took lots of pictures and soon I will be writing an article on making and using soil blocks.

In the meantime I'll keep working on things a little at a time. My regular job really puts a kink in my plans sometimes.

Here's a few other pictures from around the yard for you to enjoy.

Bowl Gourd Blossom

beets & carrots planted about Aug 1

Heavenly Blue Morning Glory

Asparagus going to seed

Clean up, Spruce up

2011-09-25T19:27:00.000-07:00

dawn through my bedroom window

I love fall, with the weather cooling off, the crispness of the early morning air. The fact that dawn is no longer right in my eyes because the sun has shifted a bit.

I also love that this is when the Heavenly Blue Morning Glories are at their most outrageous. I grow them because they remind me of my Granny, who loved them.

So sorry not to have been posting; came home from vacation and jumped right back into work along with trying to unpack and tidy up.

But the past few days I've been working out in the yard a bit. A lot of things didn't make it through my vacation, but the beans managed to survive and if you look closely at this pic you will see a nice little bowl gourd hiding among the Morning Glories. Most of the beets and carrots made it and I replanted some of the spots where they didn't.

I've been busy planting lettuce and peas. The peas are just practically jumping out of the ground. Bleushokers and Sugar Snaps so far, along with a few sweet peas in the front yard because I'm addicted to their scent. Can't wait for the lettuce to be big enough to eat, probably 2-3 more weeks yet. I'm slowly getting weeds, debris and trash cleared out and thinking about what else I want to plant.

The volunteer tomato plant turned out to be a Yellow Marble

Violas in the tub, planted sweet peas on the little tower

culverts, downstream side

This week I also began on the downstream side of the culverts. Yeah, the one in the middle is bent, my son straightened it out as good as he could this evening. Neither of us were here when the culverts were installed or we could have fixed it and had the bent part installed at the top. You can see that the culverts are uncovered by about 3 feet; that happened during the storm July 4th. This area will take a lot more work than the upstream side did. In the meantime I blew the motor on the mixer and had to mix the last two batches in the wheel barrow. My son replaced the motor with a used one that he had, so we'll see how long it lasts.

The front steps, with assorted herbs & flowers in pots

east side of the house

Yesterday I started working on cleaning up the east side of the house, so here's the before pic, tho I forgot to take an after pic, so you'll have to wait till tomorrow!

Flowers in Italy

2011-08-21T12:37:00.000-07:00

Early morning shadows

I'm having a lovely time in Italy. We spent 3 days around Perugia, staying just outside the town at a bed and breakfast called Agritourismo San Fellissimo. There are more photos on my art blog of other places, The Artist's Way.

The swimming pool on the terrace

San Fellissimo

Begonias near the stairs

blackberries

Elise meditates in the early morning light

The pergola near the swimming pool

potato vines in bloom

quince

Of Record Keeping and Stone Walls

2011-08-13T23:12:00.000-07:00

Vegetable Garden Journal

It is always a good thing to keep records of your garden from year to year. I haven't been so good the last couple of years, but in the past I have filled large binders full of plot plans, crop rotations, old seed packets, photographs, plant lists, planting times and harvest records. All of these bits of information really help me plan what, where, when and even how to plant next year.

I designed this binder to be completely customizable. You can change any of the text and pictures to personalize it to your garden. Add in your own page protectors, photo sheets and journal pages and you'll have a record of this year's garden for years to come.

I've finished up the last bag of cement that I had so I'm done with that until I come home from vacation in September. I still have quite a ways to go on this wall and when I finish this area I have to start on the other side of the crossing. That storm July 4th caused a lot of erosion on the other side. Perhaps I'll get a picture of it tomorrow.

Beets, Carrots, Rocks

2011-08-07T14:48:00.000-07:00

Beet Seedlings, Aug 7, 2011

Well the beets and the carrots are up, wow in only a week, that is probably a record breaker for carrots!

carrot seedlings Aug 7, 2011

More work on the rock walls around the culvert in the creek. I have about enough cement left to make one more batch and then I'm done until I come home from vacation in September.

I tried to do that last batch this morning but it just got too darn hot. Now there are thunder grumbles so I suppose I should just go ahead and clean up and do something else for the afternoon.

rock walls from above

Walls from above and to the side

walls and culverts in the creek

I did spend some time this morning after it got too hot to write an article about how you can build your own green home, with lots of links to introduce folks to all the different alternative building materials and techniques, including passive solar and underground houses.You can read it at Build Your Own Green Home

Getting The Most from Gardening on a Budget: Organic Gardening

2011-08-04T10:47:00.000-07:00

This is a really awesome article about gardening on the cheap. Loads of great ideas and how to for everyone. Getting The Most from Gardening on a Budget: Organic Gardening

Hard Rock Labor

2011-08-03T12:37:00.000-07:00

I've been working on getting the retaining walls built around the culverts the last couple of days. Here's where I left off this morning.

The warm weather and light showers have really been helping the garden grow. Here are the beans and the potatoes.

This gourd vine has been growing almost 2 inches a day! At the base of the trellis are Heavenly Blue Morning glories. I just love them. By the time I come home from vacation they may be in bloom.

If you haven't tried Botanical Interests seeds I've bought them off the rack at retail stores many times. Now I've discovered there is even more variety on their website. Great seeds and their packets are a wonder, full of information on the outside AND the inside!

Carrots, Parsnips, Beets & Fennel

2011-08-01T19:01:00.000-07:00

Last night we got a nice little rain, about .6" It's trying to rain again this evening but I don't think it's going to make it, the clouds are moving off in the other direction.

I decided I would plant just a little bit more before I leave for vacation. If I'm lucky things will survive and I'll be a month ahead than if I wait until I come home.

When I was cleaning up the silt and leaf mold that washed down onto the patio and sidewalk I dumped it onto one of my garden beds. I decided it might be good for my root crops. I added some potash and some seaweed meal and loosened everything up.

This evening I planted a few fennel seeds, some Danvers carrots, parsnips and three different kinds of beets. Cylindra is a carrot shaped beet that is easy to slice for canning. In 2004 I ordered a mix of Heritage beets from Bountiful Gardens. There was a large white beet in the mix from which I saved seeds, so I planted a row of them. I had some of the original Heritage mix left so I planted those too.

Here in the desert since water conservation is so important, I plant at the bottom of the furrow. That directs any rainfall straight to the plant roots. After I watered the seeds I covered the bed with my trusty old door and window screens to keep out the pesky quail and the neighbors cat.

When it looked like it wouldn't rain again today, I mixed up the rest of the open bag of cement and worked on the walls down in the creek bottom again. I worked on it a couple of hours early yesterday morning, too.

I've actually moved quit a bit of sand and rock the past couple of days. My mortar joints aren't very pretty but I think they will do the job. This wall follows the creek bank and the cement is mostly in the front face, with loose rock for back fill. Every once in awhile I lay a bigger rock that goes back farther to help tie things together.

All my life I have wanted to build a stone house. I still do. In fact working on this wall reminds me of how much fun I have doing this sort of work. And I'll certainly get in some practice in making nice mortar joints with this project!

Of course you can always use slip forms. This is where you use shallow forms, fill them with stone and cement and when the cement sets up you move the forms up the wall and do it again. Once the wall is completed you go back over the face of it and 'point' it, that is using a fine mortar mix and a small trowel you smooth out the joints and fill in any holes or gaps.

Or what these folks did; they just built a frame house and built stone walls on the outside of the frame. They covered the interior walls with sheet rock and it gave them a space to run their plumbing and electric lines.

People have been building with stone for thousands of years. Here in the southwest the Native Americans used rocks and mud, many of their pueblos are still standing 200-500 years later.

The same in Italy. I saw farm houses there with walls 18-24 inches thick, built by the farmers themselves. Rocks with at least one flat side are set on each side of the wall and the space in between is filled with mud and rubble. This is also a common building technique in many other countries, from Irish cottages to great English Castles.

Pea Planting

2011-07-31T21:15:00.000-07:00

Dwarf Grey Sugar Pea

In 2009 I planted 6 varieties of peas. I am a fool for peas and between me and the grand kids we ate all the garden could give.

I wrote an article comparing them for Associated Content. I could probably plant peas now, but I'm not going to since I will be leaving soon on my vacation. The weather should be a lot cooler when I get home, so I will plant peas in mid-September instead.

Here are a few photos of the peas from 2009. Enjoy. (Unfortunately I didn't label the photos with the variety, and I don't remember now what some of them looked like!)

Bleushokker, a soup pea

I'm not sure which one this is, either Sweet Magnolia or Bleushokker

Maxi Golt, a shelling pea

Not Gardening OR Edible!

2011-07-24T13:34:00.000-07:00

culverts in the creek, before

So as the title of this post suggests today's work has nothing to do with the garden, nor is it in any way edible.

I have a creek, really a dry wash that fills with water during rainstorms, that runs through my property. Since my house sits in the bottom of the canyon, with steep hills on each side there is not much flat space for things like gardens, pasture, animal corrals or barns.

My son and some friends installed these culverts so we could drive across to the other side of the creek to a nice size flat area. We almost lost them in the storm July 4th, but they are hanging in there.

culverts in the creek, after

Yesterday my son brought me the cement mixer from my mom's place and this morning I went and bought some ready mix. I managed to haul and mix three 80 pound bags before I needed to quit. I dug a little trench in front of the culverts and pulled some of the rocks down that are on each side of them. Then poured a little concrete apron along in front of them, to prevent water from washing under them and taking the whole crossing out. I poured a little cement on the sides of the culverts and reset some of the rocks.

It's going to take a lot of cement and rocks to build up around this area to prevent wash outs. Hot, heavy and exhausting work. What I got done today took about 2 hours, what with having to deal with the cranky mixer. BTW dear son if you are reading this, can we rig a safety switch on that motor? I hate having to plug and unplug it to turn it off and on, especially when my gloves are wet.

Next I'll be working on building up the walls along the creek sides to prevent more soil washing out. I do love building walls and working with rocks. It is heavy tiring work, but it is also fun and satisfying, yeah I know, I'm weird.

John Vivian has written a very good manual about building stone walls, mostly about laying them up without mortar or cement and without using forms.

Mike Lawerence will show you how to use brick or stone to build walls, steps, patios and paths. A handy reference book for folks new to the craft, with lovely color photographs of different garden features.

Of course people have been building with stone for as long as they have been building their own shelter. Perhaps you'd like to have a go at building your own stone house. I intend to do so in the future.

2011-07-20T11:27:00.000-07:00

bean plants running July 20, 2011

Well the Hopi Purple Pod Beans are beginning to run up the trellis. It will soon be a wall of green. Then later it will have pretty flowers and purple beans. Can't wait, though I anticipate that the first beans will appear while I am gone on vacation.

Potato Plants July 20, 2011

The potato plants are doing well, even a few little flower buds are visible.

Rain water tank

This is my rain water tank. During the bad storm July 4th it filled half way full of water, rolled off the bricks it was sitting on. I've been climbing around it since then, since I can't budge it. I have to siphon the water out and get it empty so I can set it up again. It holds about 150 gallons and is still half full. Just one of those things I haven't gotten around to yet.

Another project I need to get on with is getting the whole house guttered and getting more water tanks. I was talking to someone about rain water catchment awhile back and they didn't think it would be worth their while to do it at their house. I pointed out that if it rains 1", then you will collect a little over half a gallon of water from every square foot of roof area. So if you have 1,000 square feet of roof area, then for every one inch of rainfall, you will collect over 500 gallons of water.

My rain tank is an old fertigator tank given to me by a friend when they were moving out of state. There are many types and styles of tanks available now. My advice is to buy as many and as big as possible.Of course you can start small like I am and then buy more tanks as money allows. I've collected a few links for you if you are interested in rain water harvesting.

Beans & Potatoes!

2011-07-11T19:36:00.000-07:00

Hopi Purple Pod Beans

Well, all of that rain the 4th of July and the little showers we've had since, have really got the plants shooting up! The Hopi Purple Pod Beans are outgrowing their screen protection and are nearly ready to run up the trellis.

The potatoes are doing great. The ones on the left are bakers and the ones on the right are the red and purple ones. I have used the silt and oak leaves that washed down onto the sidewalk and patio to mulch them with.

potatoes growing in mulch

The herbs in pots on the front steps are doing well, several pots of catmint, a variegated oregano, lemon basil, regular basil, lemon thyme and chives. The catmint is doing so well that my garden fairy is nearly hidden. Can you find her? Remember you can click on the pictures to see them larger.

Garden Fairy

Here's a close up of her hiding. Oh yes, some of the greenery in the large pot is a Four o' Clock or Marvel of Peru. I love these old fashioned flowers that open late in the afternoon or evening. They are very sweetly scented and change colors as they bloom and fade.

Here they act as herbaceous perennials, dieing down each fall and coming back from their roots in early summer.

Once they have grown a full season they are very difficult to transplant, since you can't seem to get all the root. So start some seedlings in pots and move them while they are small to their permanent home. If you don't have any neighbors to beg or trade seeds with, you can order some online.

Remember the little sunflower seedlings? Only a couple of them made it, between my crazy work schedule where I wasn't home to water in time before they wilted and what ever bugs & such were munching on the. But those two are growing steadily.

RAIN FINALLY!

2011-07-05T20:12:00.000-07:00

Well I was at work when it happened. A huge thunderstorm rolled in and in less than an hour dumped 1.4 inches of rain at my place. Which is wonderful. Except it came so hard and fast a lot of it just ran off the hillsides, down the back sidewalk and right into my back porch and kitchen. It is going to take a bit to get it all cleaned. up.

This is the kind of rain gauge I have. Inexpensive and does the job. It has a gauge that you can stick in the ground and check how much water your sprinkler system is actually putting out or put the big tube into the short one and see how many inches of rain you received.

When you are siting your rain gauge keep it away from buildings, trees, bushes, anything that would hang over it and drip extra water into it. You want it to be in a wide open area to get a true reading.

This is looking into my kitchen from my living room. I had just gotten home from work and was on my way to the kitchen to get a drink.... Mud and water; my floor is actually supposed to be blue.

And here's my back porch with a couple of inches of wet mud in it. I was saying things I cannot repeat here. I don't think anything that would be majorly ruined by the water was that close to the floor, unless it's deeper under the washing machine.

But I won't even bother starting to clean it up yet. Not only do I have to work a lot this week, the first thing I have to do is go up on the hill and clean out the drainage ditch. I don't think I've gone up there in a couple of years and most of the water and mud ran off the hill from up there.

But I can't find my shovel. I'm thinking I left it down in the creek when I was working down there a couple of weeks ago....which means if it isn't buried by now it's miles downstream.