How does your garden grow: July 2009

I have finally gotten around to taking some pictures of the garden and posting an update. It's really taking off. Time to start eating!

We put up a cheap, plastic mesh fencing around the garden in an attempt to keep out the chickens. It is more of a deterrent I'm afraid.

They have their little doorways.

I see them stroll into the garden, brushing aside the mesh like you would a beaded doorway. I think they are mostly scratching in the straw after bugs and such. But we still try to scare them. You can often hear "Chicken in the garden!!" being yelled through the house as someone runs outside to turn on the tripod sprinkler and drive them out. We hope to scare the tar out of them so that they never want to enter again, but I think they know it's not that bad to get wet.

Once the tomatoes come, we'll have to fortify because they LOVE tomatoes.

As a recap, here it was May 26th. Tomatoes on the left.

As you can see I'm big on mulching to keep the weeds down. We put down cardboard boxes, newspaper, feed bags (whatever you have on hand) under the straw. I've heard to use straw and not hay because you will get more weed seeds in hay. I'm not sure if that is true though. We happened to have straw and so we used it.

I have also been trying to water less frequently this year. I have watered every day or every other day, but have been watering deeply every 3-5 days. It seems to be doing okay.

Here is the same basic left hand row a month later (June 25th). Green beans in front.

Here are the tomatoes and green beans now. I ended up planting 15 tomato plants. Also a bale of straw that I *still* haven't gotten around to spreading over the weeds and now it's rotting. Yay!

July: Green onions look 'beautiful' says my 4 year old. Another row of green beans right behind them. I am planning on canning lots of green beans this year.

July: Scarlet runner beans have topped the teepee. I also planted snap green beans on this teepee. These scarlet runner beans were from the beans we grew and saved last year. They aren't great to eat, I just like the color they bring. If you eat them early they are better.

June 25th: Lettuce, snow peas and zucchini in immediate front row. Corn in back two rows. Also, never got around to weeding back there very well.

July: The purple lettuce shot up. We ate some and fed the rest to the steer. Peas are on their way out. Cucumbers on far left still coming slowly. They will grow up the fence trellis.

July: Corn is getting tall.

We tried this trellis for the tomatoes this year. With twine hanging down from the support and wrapping the main stem of the plant onto the twine as it grows. I think this might work but only with the indeterminate tomato plants. I have a mixture of indeterminate and determinate. The determinate plants don't require pruning and don't seem to grow UP as much as OUT.

We also used some twine to help support them, we did it a little late. You can see how we did it from this video here.

I planted Swiss Chard this year because I read it is the hot weather spinach. It really does grow like crazy. I have no idea how to even begin to eat it all? I do use the leaves in my green salads, but a little goes a long way. The bugs really love this too, it's covered in little black bugs.

My daughter doesn't mind. She latched onto this little guy and carried him around the house calling him "my best bug" until she dropped him down the heating vent on the floor.
Oh well, there's plenty more where he came from!

How does your garden grow: May 2009

Well, it's that time of year isn't it? Have you planted your garden yet?

Here is a little shot of the garden so far. Not much has popped up yet.

I planted a lot of tomato plants this year. I don't know what happened, I kept buying them! I also planted a lot of basil because I am looking forward to freezing more pesto.

We are stringing our tomatoes up this year for a change. We'll see how it goes.

How does your garden grow: November

Time to cut down the sunflowers!

I went out and checked them. We were supposed to wait for the back of their heads to turn brown (if no rain) and then cut them off and put them someplace to dry.

You can read more about it here.

T2 takes ownership over these babies. He loves how tall they grow and mostly he loves to chop them down!

He yells "TIMMMMMBER!!!"

The chickies were happy with our offering.

Blossom looked on in hopes of some sort of a handout.

These are the ones we saved.

I brushed off the yellow blossoms. Aren't they amazing to look at? It can make you a little dizzy.

This is what the garden looks like now. All that is left are two tomato plants. Those tomato cages my husband built are so nice. I had another tomato plant that didn't have a cage and it's been long since mushy and demolished without having the support. With the cages I've noticed I am getting alot more tomatoes and stretching out the season.

I let my son chop them all down and then cut or rip off the leaves and left them in the garden as a winter mulch. He collected the stalks and took most of them to the burn pile (or that was the plan anyway).

He showed me a long, straight stalk and said, "Mama, this is my stout cudgel!"

I guess that's from a Henty book? I don't know?

We put the sunflower heads in the shop on the straw bales to dry. I'll let you know what happens next. I've never done this before. If it doesn't work out, the chickens will be happy to clean them up for us.

How does your garden grow: October

In September I started harvesting and then pulling out plants that were finished producing and putting them in a compost pile or feeding to the cows. In the past I have let the garden keep growing until the weather put an end to it. But that has always left the gardening work for winter time and I never wanted to go out in the rain to work so I just left it.

I like this system better. It's enjoyable to be out right now, so I just do a little here and there.

I moved the compost bin into the garden area. It made more sense to have it in the garden.

Last weekend I pulled out the rest of the nasturtiums and fed them to Blossom, Duke and Blank (the cows). Then my son got to work with his pitchfork.

Didn't he do a great job? He covered most of the garden with a fresh layer of straw. It doesn't have to be fresh straw, if we had leaves that would work great, but we don't. It was easier to use straw. Just some sort of mulch to prevent grass and weeds from growning in the winter/spring time. Come spring you can just rake off the beds and you have beautiful dirt to plant in.

If you have any sort of manure (horse, cow, goat, sheep, rabbit, chicken) now is a perfect time to put it on the beds before covering with mulch. Remember this post? Well, that is now on my garden!

Or last spring when the boys were going to start a business selling manure? It lasted about 1 hour. Well, I collected their piles and a few of my own and hauled them to a designated pile. It sat all summer. Now that pile is on my garden too.

So you get the idea.

The more the merrier.

All that is left are my tomato plants and the sunflowers. After they are finished we will pull them out and cover their area with straw.

The gals are hanging their head pretty low these days. I think it's getting close to harvest time for sunflower seeds.

So when do you harvest sunflowers? The seeds are getting ripe when the shaggy heads hang low and their backs turn brown. In warm, dry weather, seeds ripen just fine in the garden. If mice or birds are raiding your crop, staple a mesh or paper bag over each head that you don't want to share.

In rainy years, cut off each head with 2 feet of stalk and place in a cool, dry place to ripen. That can be surprisingly heavy work, and stalks that are tough and thick may need to be sawed through.

Sunflower seeds are ready when they develop cream and black stripes and they wiggle like a kid's loose tooth. To set them free, bake the whole heads in a very slow oven (100 to 125 degrees) for several hours. Leave the door open a crack and check every hour or so. When you can easily brush out the seeds, they're done.

Spread newspaper on a work space, then rub the seedheads to release the seeds. If your fingers get sore, tap the back of each head lightly with a mallet or hammer and the seeds will pour out.
Save a few sunflower heads to share with the birds this winter. Hang one near your feeder and watch the birds enjoy the treat.

Soak snack seeds in salted water overnight. Drain well and place in a single layer on rimmed baking sheets. Bake at 200 degrees until crisp (usually two to three hours). To keep them fresh, store seeds in sealed glass jars for up to three months.

To save seed for growing next year, place uncooked seeds in a glass jar. Add a scrap of paper towel to absorb any remaining moisture and seal the jar tightly. Store in a cool, dark, dry place, and sow next summer when the ground is warm (usually the end of May).

I found all this info here.

Busy hens

It's funny to watch the chickens scratching in the garden. Check it out.



This is more of a front row seat to the scratching action. I wonder what they are eating? They scratch up the straw really well don't they? There are lots of spiders and bugs hiding in the shade I suppose.

Show and tell

We are getting some big tomatos from our garden. Most of them green, but HUGE. Here is one of the first big red ones.

Hmmm...I see canning tomatoes in my future.

How does your garden grow: August

It's time for an August garden update and let me warn you, it's exceptionally long but interesting.

Here was the garden just one month ago on July 19th.

I cleaned out the chicken brooder in July and put the poopy sawdust on the garden to deter weeds and fertilize. I knew if was an iffy proposition as you're not supposed to put manure on the garden until it has aged some. It is often too hot and will burn the plants. But it seemed to work out okay for me. Probably because it wasn't straight manure.

I also gather up the grass clippings and spread them around the plants to deter weed growth. If you have straw or some other type of mulch covering your beds, I have noticed that the weeds that do come up through the mulch are pretty easy to pull. And it's just extra chicken food.

Spinach, corn and lettuce in July. Now onto the current state of the garden...

Here they are now. I love the different types of lettuce I have right now. There is this pretty purple, a red leaf, buttercrunch, romaine and spinach. They make a gorgeous and delicious organic salad, especially when topped with pesto and olive oil.

My spinach bolted right away for some reason. I have been pulling the entire plant when I gather greens for a salad and pull the leaves off then give the rest of the stalk to the chickens.

Pumpkin plant has gone crazy! I think it's pumpkin, I thought I planted a Delicata Squash there too. Whatever it is, it sure is a beautiful plant.

Pole and scarlet runner beans climbing nicely up the teepee.

Evidence that my nemesis has been here. Did you ever see Caddy Shack? Not the best movie but I can relate to the way Bill Murray felt. See the hole next to the carrot tops that have mysteriously been nibbled off? We have gopher holes galore around here. They might be taking over.

Who's that in my garden? No, not gophers, my sister and some darling gal in yellow boots.

Here are some pole beans planted by each corn stalk. They climb up quite nicely. I learned this trick from my favorite gardening book called The Vegetable Gardener's Bible by Ed Smith.

My Love made me these nice tomato cages this spring. Aren't they pretty? These look interesting too.

The sunflowers have grown quite tall lately as are the weeds. I go out every night (or so) and fill a 5 gallon bucket of weeds a few times for the chickens. The chickens have helped me keep the garden weeded this year just because I feel so productive when weeding. I like to gather good greens for them. This is a great treat for them.

And you know how I feel about the chickens.

I had to grab my camera and take a 'behind-the-scenes' shot. This is what my daughter was doing as I was writing this post. She brought the chairs in and all her babies with blankets all around. She said she was a Mommy.




Caterpillar, Baby Jesus and Pooh.



Laura the bunny baby and Ruby (the beloved baby who gets to sleep with 'Mommy' everynight). Notice Ruby is the only baby sitting in Mommy's lap.



And the newest gal, whose name still remains a mystery.



And of course you can always be sure that wherever we are, Jack is within a paw's reach.

Kitchen Tip Tuesday: Washing produce healthfully

This morning I went shopping...in my backyard.

I took two bowls outside and found that I have missed most of the blackberries, many are dried on the vine, but many were pick-able, so I did.

I found a few strawberries too.


I picked peas, snow peas and lettuce. Is there anything better than a fresh, crisp snow pea? If you don't know the answer to that, you've got to plant some next year.

As I was doing this, I started a little pile of weeds and grass to take to the chickens.

I just love the chickens. When I went over to their pen, they all came over and started their friendly peeping sound. They turn their head sideways and look at me, wondering what treat I have brought them.

I spotted two little adorable eggs that they had layed. A gift in return for the weeds and berry stems perhaps?



Just look at those eggs. Aren't they beautiful?

You can't get those at Safeway!





And just so you know, here's a behind the scenes shot. Wherever I am, Jack is usually right behind me watching. Remember when I made the soft butter spread? He was there.

He's learned a lot by watching me ;o)

FINALLY, to the kitchen tip. You thought I'd forgotten didn't you?

I didn't.

When I brought the berries in they had many hitchhikers, mainly small ants.

I always squirt a liberal amount of drops of Grapefruit Seed Extract (GSE) on my berries and then cover with water and let them sit. This kills the tiny bugs that don't escape up the side of the bowl.

GSE can be purchased at most health food stores.

1. GSE is a broad spectrum antimicrobial. This means that it has the ability to fight a number of different types of bacteria, viruses, fungi and other microbes.
2. GSE is nontoxic to animals and humans, even pregnant women and children.
3. GSE poses very little threat to the beneficial bacteria (lactobacillus and bifidobacterium) in the intestines and urogenital tract.
4. GSE has antifungal applications for athlete's foot, dandruff and nail fungus. For nail fungus mix one-half ounce GSE to five ounces of alcohol or vodka, apply on or under nails with eyedropper two or three times a day.
5. GSE has antiviral properties. You can fight a the flu, a cold, cold sores and warts with it.

If you want to know more, you can read about many other benefits of GSE here.

Rinse well and enjoy!

For more Kitchen tips, visit Tammy's Recipes.

Fighting the weeds

We have morning glory in our garden area. If you aren't familiar with morning glory it is awfully invasive.

It has taken over a big portion of our garden. No surprise as it gets watered regularly with the tripod sprinkler, just because it's in the right place. I finally decided to cover it. I realize this isn't a long term solution but I just wanted to slow them down until I figure out a better plan.

Earlier in the season I was working on putting down some sort of weed block, I tried newspapers but it really takes ALOT of newspapers. I finally bought some weed paper and it doesn't go very far either and adds up financially at $10-20 a roll.

We had a bunch of cardboard boxes available since we broke down the chicken brooders and I thought they would make great weed paper and free too! I also used the empty feed bags.

I covered it all with straw to hold everything in place from the wind and to make it look a little prettier.

Jack was pretty excited about the money we saved.

For more Works for me Wednesday tips, go check out Rocks in my dryer.