Minnesota Grown

Catch Up- What Happened To Spring?

2010-04-07T09:43:00.003-05:00

Sorry an update has been way past due. I feel like this spring is just flying past me and I'm way behind. Perhaps I'm not, it may just be a perception. Anyhow, here is what has been happening here in the garden.

Spring is officially here, in fact this even feels a bit like summer- the ground is thawed, trees are budding, grass is green, and the garden has been tilled.

Inside, the green house is home to many snapdragons and viloas/pansies growing at various rates- some just tiny seedlings, some full blown plants. They all just grow at different rates it seems.

Under the grow light, I have started tomatoes, peppers, artichokes, and broccoli. I started these all a few weeks ago, but some of the tomatoes became very leggy, so I pulled them and planted a fresh batch of seeds last week. So, some of the cells are baren right now, waiting for germination to occur. Other than that, everything is growing nicely.

Outside, carrots and lettuce have been planted. When I tilled up the beds, I removed 4 giant parsnips- their crowns measuring 4-5 inches in diameter. Wow! They seem to have kept alright in the cooler weather underground.

Finally, a nice little suprise has sprung up in the landscaping rocks around the deck- it appears as though the pansies I had growing in pots toward the end of their life cycles last summer went to seed and spread their seed throughout the landscaping rock. Now we've got several cute little pansies blooming right up through the rocks. I haven't decided if I should pull them (as they're not where they're supposed to be) or leave them grow. They're very cute!

2010's First Plantings

2010-02-08T15:07:00.001-06:00

The first seeds of 2010 have been sewn in my Minnesota garden (well, in my basement greenhouse in seed cells).

This year I am going to be using both the greenhouse and the grow light for various plants, as I learned last year that some of my flower varieties thrived much more in the greenhouse than under the grow light.

Thge first seeds that I have planted in the greenhouse include:

6 rows of Snapdragons (to make up for last year's painful drought)
2 rows of Cornuta mixed color Violas
1 row of Amber Kiss Violas
1 row of Swiss Giant Mix Pansies

I plan to use the snaps to brighten up the raised bed garden and maybe add a few in pots on the back deck. The violas and pansies will mostly be used in decorative flower pots on the front porch.

More to come as we anxiously await the arrival of the first signs of spring! Cheers!

Planning the 2010 Season

2010-02-01T12:11:00.003-06:00

Now that February is upon us, it is time that we Minnesota gardeners start to dream of things to come, and though it may be hard to imagine, garding is just a few months from now. It is hard to believe that one would really consider starting his or her garden when looking out the window to 10 degree temperatures, over a foot of snow and ice, and more snow falling as the day goes on. But, as I said last year, gardening is all about planning. And planning, this time of year, is a must for any gardener. Whether it is reviewing last year's successes and failures, browsing the seed catalogs that bring back that longing for hot summer sun, or planning how many plants per square foot one's garden can sustain, many of us at least have our 2010 gardens in the backs of our minds.

Looking back on last year, I started my first seeds on February 8th, just 1 week from today. As I recall, those violas could have been started a little earlier as they did not thrive under the grow light as I would have liked. So, I plan to get these started soon and set them up in the greenhouse which I used 2 years ago, as they and the snapdragons really thrived in the greenhouse.

We're a long way from starting tomatoes, yet I believe I have my 2010 varieities picked out. Big Beef, Brandywine, Lemon Boy, Cherokee Purple, Earl's Faux, and Roma were my staples from last year. This year, the only new addition I plan to grow is the freebee sample I got from Tomato Grower's Supply with my 2009 order- Giant Belgium. That makes space for 6 plants in the garden and 1 in a barrel.

Along with that, I plan to grow the usuals, green beans/haricot verts, eggplant, peppers (hopefully this year I will get to keep a serrano for myself!), carrots, cukes, and a variety of flowers. I do need to buy different cucumbers this year, however, if I plan to make pickles, as the cukes I have grown in the past are intended for fresh eating rather than for canning, thus they are not ideal.

Well, off to gather some supplies- seedling trays, seed starting mix, and set up the greenhouse in anticipation of a wonderful 2010 garden! Cheers!

Un-gardening

2009-10-11T21:18:00.002-05:00

Today was a depressing, yet almost inspiring day for a gardener. It was the day when all of the plants get uprooted and removed from the garden. Many of my plants had frozen/wilted after the bitter temperatures and snow we had on Saturday. So, I removed everything but the carrots, parsnips, and chives, which are all still thriving.

My Roma tomato plant had about 100 green tomatoes on it- incredible! I picked about half of them, selecting the ones that looked the least damaged from the cold, and brought them inside to hopefully use them for something- not sure how much flavor they'll have being that they froze while green, but we'll see what time brings.

I also managed to recover 2 bell peppers and 2 cucumbers from the garden before disposing of the rest of the wilted greenery and vines.

Now is the time when we start thinking about our successes and failures of the current garden season and start looking towards the future. So here are some of the verdicts on the 2009 garden season.

Stars of the 2009 garden: Roma, Lemon Boy, Brandywine, and Earl's Faux Tomatoes. Leaf lettuce, carrots, green beans, and fresh cucumbers. Zinnias, Jaguar Marigolds.

Dislikes from 2009: fewer cucumbers and use a burpless/seedless variety. Todd County Amish, Kellogg's Breakfast, and Giant Syrian tomatoes were not as tasty/useable as the other varieties- for whatever reason, disease susceptibility, fruit shape/size, flavor or texture. Dahlias were a waste of space as they did not bloom until mid-September, Chameleon Marigolds were ugly. Pansies were overshadowed by the larger flowers- probably best served for pots. No artichokes this year- you win some, you lose some. Snapdragons were better when grown from seed than the garden store's varieties. My leeks were completely shaded by the cucumbers, so I didn't get any of decent size -thumb width at the maxiumum. I also didn't get any Serrano chilies this year due to my mis-labeling. Must be more careful with that next year.

The verdict on the 2009 tomatoes:
Big Beef- a staple. Tasty and beautiful tomatoes.
Lemon Boy- the winner of the garden this year. Consistently produced the best tasting, flaw- and disease-free tomatoes.
Brandywine- best tasting tomato. A perennial variety in my garden.
Earl's Faux- very good flavor and texture. Worth re-growing.
Cherokee Purple- great flavor and texture, unfortunately a disease of some sort killed the plant before the fruit could be thoroughly enjoyed. Worth a re-try.
Kellogg's Breakfast- tasted like dirt, very slow to mature. Good looking tomatoes otherwise.
Roma- Awesome producer, great flavor, a kitchen essential.
Todd County Amish- questionable. Rather bland flavor, grainy/mushy texture, un-even ripening and a lot of blemishes.
Giant Syrian- hit or miss, inconsistent producer. Lots of irregularities/some blemishes.

So the varieties I will grow again next year: Big Beef, Lemon Boy, Brandywine, Earl's Faux, Cherokee Purple, and Roma. This will leave room for perhaps one or two more new varieties although my husband would like to stick to 6 or fewer plants, so perhaps we are stable at this number.

Even though many of my tomatoes were plagued by some sort of disease, it was a good year for gardening. I froze lots of haricot verts, made 20+ quarts of pickles (questionable as to how they all turned out however since my recipe fluctuated from one batch to the next), made about 2 gallons of tomato basil soup, and enjoyed Caprese salad 1-2 times per day for about 2 months! Planning to make my parsnip soup tomorrow- the hubby will just have to eat something else if he doesn't like it. haha.

Well it is nice to know that the garden has been taken down for the year, all of the tools and supplies neatly stowed in the garage until next season, and a few treasures still waiting in the ground to be picked! Cheers!

Late in the Season

2009-09-22T14:58:00.002-05:00

It's a sad thing for a gardener to admit, but we're reaching the end of our growing season here in Minnesota. The tomato leaves have been stripped, the cucumers are growing without restraint, and the green beans are pretty much done producing. The edemame is past its prime, but I did get to enjoy a small amount of it. Not worth the effort for the amount I actually wanted to eat.

We tried a new variety of tomato last week- Kellogg's Breakfast. It was a large beautiful tomato, but we weren't thrilled with the flavor, tasted a little bit like dirt to me, haha. So I've got several of those ripe on the vine that I don't really want to eat when I've got good alternatives like Brandywines or Lemon Boys.

The Giant Syrian has not produce as good a tomato as that first one, and the Todd County Amish is an okay tomato, but doesn't match up to some of the others in the flavor department. Big Beef is a classic old standby, and the Lemon Boy is emerging as one of our stars this year- consistently beautiful fruit and awesome flavor- definately a must grow for next year. The Cherokee Purple was really good, but it appears as though some of my plants (that one included) were stricken with some sort of illness and many of the fruit are not looking worthy of eating. The Earl's Faux is also one of our favorites this year- consistently producing useable, tasty fruit. And of course the Brandywine- one of my favorites. The Romas have also been great- separated from the rest of the garden and growing in a barrel, they have been bountiful and very good as usual.

I've got lots of tomatoes to use up, so it's time to look for tomato soup and sauce recipes.

The cukes are still producing faster than we can eat them, but I've stopped making pickles as we're beyond the amount of pickles I can eat and give away in a year, lol. Still working on finding that perfect recipe.

The Zinnias are blooming and are just beautiful, even though I think they have some powdery mildew or the like. The leeks are burried under the giant cucumber mass and I doubt they'll be much to write home about having not had a fighting chance at sunlight this year.

The peppers are doing great, although I mislabeled a few of my seedlings and instead of ending up with 1 serrano and 1 bell pepper, I got 2 bell peppers. Of course the horses are happy with their continuous supply of carrots- Louie loves the greens but doesn't eat the carrots, so there's left overs to share. :)

Some clean up is needed in the garden to remove dead plants and fruit and prepare for fall. I plan to harvest the parsnips this fall before the ground freezes solid. For now, we're relaxing and enjoying the hassle-free endless supply of fresh garden veggies! Cheers!

Giant Syrian- A GREAT BIG Tomato!

2009-08-21T22:19:00.004-05:00

For all of you tomato lovers out there, I'd highly recommend this variety. This was recommended to me by one of my colleagues at the ER, and it is a fabulous tomato! We ate our first one last night (and today) and it was huge. I am quite certain this is the largest tomato I've ever grown- we estimate that it weighed between 3 and 4 pounds (we don't have a kitchen scale, so we compared it to dumbells weighing 3 and 5 pounds). We ate half of it last night for dinner, and I ate the other half today as my entire lunch- and I was stuffed. This is one LARGE tomato! And the taste, well that is just fabulous- great texture, fresh tomato flavor, the right amount of acidity- excellent flavor. My husband actually liked it better than the Cherokee Purple (the tomato of tomatoes according to many people in the tomato community) we ate the night before. And at that size, I was really pleased at its flavor, as well as its disease and crack resistance, and the plant's overall production. We've probably got another 20 pounds of tomatoes on that vine! Wow! Can't wait!

Here it is, the star of the week, the Giant Syrian Tomato (and you can see why it gets its name):

Another photo of the tomatoes we harvested yesterday (some only because they fell off the vine while picking others)- it is not as impressive here because you don't have the perecption of just how tall this tomato also was, but you can see its size compared to some fairly sizeable brandywines and other beefsteaks (incase you can't tell, the tomato in question is on the bottom left, heart shaped one- top left was also the same variety that fell off the vine prematurely when picking this monster).

Here's to many more Giant Tomatoes!! Cheers!

Cherokee Purple- the Envy of Tomato Culture

2009-08-19T21:30:00.000-05:00

We ate our first Cherokee Purple, the long awaited tomato- topping growers' lists for quality and flavor everywhere. It was excellent, had a very fresh zippy taste to it. Very large, nice texture and flavor, and pretty color. I do hear that its production is sub par, but I'm all for quality over quantity. Overall an excellent tomato- I highly recommend it.

Todd County Amish

2009-08-17T21:14:00.001-05:00

We tried our first Todd County Amish tomato tonight. It was huge- probably almost 2 pounds! Very meaty, few seeds. The flavor was just average, I'd have to say, but not bad as a fresh sliced tomato. This may be a decent one for canning with how meaty it is. Here it is next to the Prosperosa Eggplant we also ate for dinner. We are sure getting our share of fresh veggies here in our Minnesota garden! Cheers!

First Tomato!

2009-08-15T15:58:00.003-05:00

I have made 15 quarts of pickles already. . . plus given away and eaten a bunch of cucumbers already! And they're still going like gangbusters!

The really good news is that we finally had our first tomato! August 15th, nothing like having early tomatoes ;) (just kidding). We have had a really cool, dry summer so far, so I can't blame them too much for being late, but I did start them a couple of weeks early. Then again, most of the varieties I'm growing are late season varieties, and they did have a hard time getting the growth they needed earlier this spring.

Anyhow, I picked a small, ripe Earl's Faux tomato from the garden this afternoon and we consumed it within about 5 minutes of leaving its vine. We had never tried this variety, so I was anxious to see how it was. The Earl's Faux tomato is a pink tomato with some variation in shape and striations (not perfectly round). When we cut it open we discovered a very meaty, fleshy tomato- hardly any seeds or juice at all- would be a great sandwich tomato. Its taste is quite sweet, and pretty mild as far as acidity. We liked it! Yum!

I want to keep a chart on each tomato so I can compare for future years and decide which varieties to grow. There are several ripening tomatoes out there of almost every variety, but I must say, the Todd County Amish tomato that is ripening (pink currently) looks amazing. I hope it tastes as good as it looks! So happy it's finally tomato season in Minnesota- Cheers!

Giant Cucumbers

2009-08-09T18:00:00.003-05:00

I had been waiting to harvest some of these next cucumbers until I tried the pickles I made 2 weeks ago so I could make changes to the recipe or decide the fate of the next harvest. Well, the pickles were delicious! So I left the cukes on the vine just a bit longer so that I would have a bit bigger, plumper cukes to use for pickles. Well there's a fine balance in cuke size as they do grow rapidly, and sometimes cucumbers are too big to make pickles from. Today I picked 13 cucumbers, 1 posperosa eggplant (which we had for dinner, pictured below sweating before grilling- yum!), and about a pound of haricot verts.

I'm planning to make more pickles with these cukes, I've got 6 quart-sized jars sterilizing as I type. I'm going to start with the smaller cukes, and as I get to cutting up the larger ones, monitor the seed size/texture as I am suspicious that these giant cukes will have more developed seeds, which isn't desirable for pickles. So, here come a few more quarts of kosher dills! Cheers!

The Garden is Growing! A Photo Update

2009-08-05T17:49:00.006-05:00

My garden has been growing like crazy lately. We got a lot of rain a week or two ago, and now everything has just been growing beyond control. So, I thought it was time for a photo update, since it's been a while. Things have really grown since the last update. . . So here goes!

The garden:

Bed E (eggplant, haricot verts, snaps, marigolds, one rogue onion, and Giant Cactus Zinnias in the back):

Bed T (parsnips, snaps, chilly chili peppers, edamame, and State Fair Zinnias in front. Tomatoes left to right: Cherokee Purple, Earl's Faux, Brandywine, Kellogg's Breakfast in front):

Bed C (big early bell peppers, chives, chilly chili peppers, carrots, marigolds, snaps. Tomatoes left to right: Giant Syrian, Todd County Amish, Big Beef, and Lemon Boy in front. Note the curly leaves on some of the plants- I'm not sure what this is, but I'm going to do some investigating):

And some of the individual crops- cukes!

Edamame- these have been basically taken over by the aphids, so I'm not sure if this will actually produce anything for us humans to eat, but we'll see.

Prosperosa Eggplant- SOOOO beautiful and just about ready to eat!

I thought I had planted Serrano Chilies here but maybe I got my crops mixed up? I'm not sure, but they look pretty similar to the bell peppers I'm growing:

Zinnias- Giant Cactus variety- love them!

And finally, the stars of the garden, the tomatoes:

Big Beef (always a staple- great producer and nice size fruits! too bad we're getting a lot of blossom end scarring this year, but I think they'll be good nonetheless):

Brandywine (mmm, my mouth is watering just looking at them):

Todd County Amish (big hearty tomatoes here!):

And Giant Syrian (I'm hoping these taste as good as they look- I can see why they're a favorite!):

I think it will just be another week or two before we get fresh home grown tomatoes, as the Big Beefs look like they're getting ready to turn on us. Of course I don't have anything written down about when we had our first ripe tomatoes last year, but in 2007, we had ripe tomatoes before July was out, granted they were store-bought plants, but we can't be too far behind! Cheers!

Pickles!

2009-08-03T19:44:00.000-05:00

We've had enough cucumbers now that we have male flowers, that I've been making pickles! I made 5 quarts last week, and I still had 7 cukes left over. Now I've got 3 more cukes in the fridge, and about 10 sitting on the vine waiting for a job.

So here are a few pictures illustrating the process- cutting the cukes and gathering the ingredients (nevermind the mess on the counter):

And the finished product. I followed a recipe for Kosher Dill Pickles, so we'll see how it turns out. The recipe was a bit confusing as I couldn't tell which quantities were "per jar" and which were for the whole recipe. Also, I'm using sweeter yet hybrid cukes, I think, which really are meant for fresh eating rather than pickling. They are supposed to be best at about 2 weeks, but ready to eat after 24 hours. I bet they're probably fine by now, can't wait to give them a try- I love pickles! Cheers!

Male vs. Female

2009-07-27T18:57:00.003-05:00

I finally have some male flowers on my cucumbers- yippee! So you know what that means- cucumbers! For those who don't know much about cucumbers, they require pollination (at least this type does). Therefore, you must have both male and female flowers. I have mostly female, but I have recently seen 2-3 male flowers show up. So as long as you've got both genders and insects or bees to do the pollinating, you're in business. Of course you want to have mostly females, since males can pollinate more than one female, and the more female flowers you have, the more potential cucumbers you have! Now I've got cukes almost big enough to eat on the vines! Yay! Soon I'll be trying to give them away as I've done with my sugar snap peas and am now starting to approach with my haricot verts.

Here is a drawing of what male vs. female cucumber flowers look like. Note the teeny tiny undeveloped cucumber-shaped stem that the female flower has. This is what eventually turns into the part you eat. So now you know a little more about cucumbers. Cheers!

The Newest Addition

2009-07-20T18:37:00.000-05:00

We added a new plant to the garden last weekend- a St. Croix Grape. This vine is planted on the trellace where one of the Japanese Honeysuckle did not come back from last year.

St. Croix Grape is a blue-fruited, hardy variety that was developed here in Minnesota. It produces clusters of medium sized grapes that ripen in early to mid-september. This variety is good for wine, as a fresh-eating table grape, as well as for making preserves.

I am excited to give them a try! Who knows, maybe I'll be doing this next year! ;) Cheers!

Aphid Wars

2009-07-09T17:06:00.002-05:00

I discovered some aphids hanging out on the undersides of my soybean leaves a few days ago. . . and while they're not causing any major problems right now, I want them gone before they do. So, I've been chasing after them with soapy water in a spray bottle- but that hasn't been working very well. So today I got them good with my garden hose- I put it on one of the higher pressure spray settings and blasted those buggers. I think I got most of them off, but it's hard to tell- those things lurk around every corner! After the water blast, I applied another layer of soapy water. We shall see. . . . as long as they don't touch my tomatoes. ;)

The rest of the garden is doing great- I've got about 15 female cucumber flowers, but not a single male. . . I just need one. . . I think I remember having this problem 2 years ago with these cukes too.

Golf ball sized tomatoes on most of my plants, and so far no bacterial speck.

The leaf lettuce is still kicking.

Sugar snap peas are going gangbusters. I need to find some recipes to use them up.

Haricot verts- oooh, they're coming along. . . we will have tasty green beans on the table in a few days. yum!

Peppers and eggplant are starting to flower, and the Chilly Chili's have a few peppers even.

Carrots- wonderful greens, but nothing under the earth yet.

Marigolds- I love the jaguars, they look awesome.

Amber kiss and other violas are blooming too.

Giant Cactus zinnias are blooming and lots more buds coming! State Fair zinnias have buds

It's coming along! Can't wait 'til tomato season!

Garden Progress

2009-07-01T20:05:00.006-05:00

Well, it has been 2 weeks since the last update, thus it is time for a new set of photos from the garden. Things have been growing nicely with the heat wave we just had, and now with the milder temps back in the area, the lettuce and peas are loving it. A few pictures are worth a few thousand words. . .

Here is Bed C- Giant Syrian, Todd County Amish, Big Beef, and Lemon Boy tomatoes in the back. Carrots, chives, snaps, marigolds, and chilly chili peppers in the front. The bell pepper is hiding behind the chives- see if you can find it.

Bed E- mostly haricot verts. Eggplant in the middle, one renegade blooming onion from last year, along with a zinnia, a few snaps, some marigolds, and a dahlia in the front.Bed L- lettuce in front (note one variety is missing- went to seed). Cukes on the trellace, peas going like gangbusters in the background. Zinnia in the back, leeks on the left, marigolds, snaps, and peppers on the right. Bed T- Cherokee Purple, Earl's Faux, Brandywine, and Kellogg's Breakfast tomato varieties in the back. Parsnips on the left, zinnias on the right, Edamame scattered throughout. Chilly chili peppers and snaps in the front. Next, on to the individual photos:

Peas- going crazy right now. Finally.

Haricot verts- flowering means french beans on the dinner table will be right around the corner!

Cukes climbing their teepee trellace I made them.

My first tomato of the year, about the size of a small marble on my Big Beef plant:

Carrots. . . I love how delicate their greenery is.

And last but not least, Z is for zinnia. One of my favorite flowers in the garden budding. . .

We're Tiny but We're Mighty

2009-06-15T15:17:00.006-05:00

That's Haelei's slogan as a big running pointing dog half the size of the rest of the breed. Haelei is also our little 4-legged garden helper. She is always so excited when I ask her if she wants to go outside to garden with me. For the most part, she stays out of trouble, but when the plants are small, she has occasionally tried to walk through the beds. And when the tomatoes are ripening, she thinks, "ooh thanks Mom for growing these tennis balls for me!" She has grabbed a few right off the vine, and she LOVES to munch on the cherry varieties. Haelei loves her tomatoes so much that she even went as far as to dig under the garden fence last fall to get one of the sweet million tomatoes that had fallen just inside the fence. She can be naughty at times, but she is a complete pocket puppy (well at least a wannabe), and always a fun garden companion! She starts by checking out the new cucumber trellace I built today. . .
then making sure I've pruned my tomatoes properly,and checking on the new edamame seedlings.

She makes sure each and every plant is just right. . .

. . . then moves on to the next.

Her artistic flare is better than mine as she points out what a beautiful sight the lettuce is today.And informs me that my marigolds are blooming.Thanks Haelei for all your help!

I think I know why they call it "Sweet Million"

2009-06-03T14:57:00.004-05:00

I have about a million volunteer tomatoes coming up in the be where my Sweet Million tomato plant was last year. They are coming up in bunches from where a few fruits had dropped. It is a pretty incredible sight.

The rest of the garden is coming along nicely. The greenhouse is put away, all my plants have been transplanted, and the extras given away. I have already pruned my tomatoes a bit, and have been enjoying lettuce and spinach for dinners. My chives are beautiful as well, blooming and very tasty. It shouldn't be long before I have sugar snap peas ready to eat. And not too long before I'll be ready to plant another round of seeds! Here is a tour of the garden and what is growing.

This is bed "E" for eggplant, right in the center. Haricot Verts all around it, spinach in the front, a few renegade onions in the back (must have come up from last year), and of course my snapdragons along the front left and other flowers throughout that are too small to notice right now.

This is Bed "L" for lettuce. Sugar snap peas in the background, leeks in the trench on the left, a few peppers on the right, cucumbers in the middle forming a circle amongst the grass weeds that need to be removed yet. Flowers scattered throughout, again too small to be seen right now.Next is Bed "T" for Tomatoes. You can see the millions of Sweet Million volunteers here, wow, taking over the Edamame beds. Also in need of some serious weeding! There are 4 tomatoes (intentional) in this bed, the Brandywine, Earl's Faux, Cherokee Purple, and Kellogg's Breakfast. Also in the front are parsnips, and the usual scattered small flowers.Finally, this bed had to be renamed this year. Last year it was bed "Z" for Zucchini, but I'm not growing that beast of a plant, so I'm sticking with the rhyme and calling it bed "C" for carrots. You can see the carrots with their very fine seedling leaves in the front, along with chives in the back, peppers, and 4 more tomatoes- Giant Syrian, Todd County Amish, Big Beef, and Lemon Boy. In this one you can actually see one of the marigolds in the front left corner. I'm pretty proud of these guys, I grew them from seed and I didn't even kill them in transplanting this year! (they snap easily). These ones have buds on them- I'm very excited to see them! And last but not least, the front perennial garden we planted last fall. This came out beautifully, with the help of the landscape designer at the garden center! The salvia is in full bloom and is so vibrant! The Peegee Hydrangea tree has a few missing branches from some strong winds we had this spring, but I think it should recover. I can't wait until it gets its blossoms!

Tomatoes are in!

2009-05-25T23:00:00.004-05:00

Well I got the tomatoes, peppers, and eggplant in the ground this weekend. And much to my suprise- no hail storm so far! Yay! Well I guess we are supposed to get storms all week, but every time they say rain, we see none. It has been a very dry spring. So we shall see- no turning back now.

I also got some of the plants divvied up between my friend Sarah and my mom. Mother in law's plants are waiting until hopefully this weekend when she will be able to come get them. We've had a few casualties along the way (this week lost 1 celebrity and 1 bell pepper), but it's not the end of the world, that's why I always grow more than I need.

We have one cuke and 1 haricot verts that have germinated too. I still have to stake and cage the tomatoes before their roots get too big. Not a whole lot of excitement yet, but the hard part of gardening is done, and now it's just smooth sailing, watching everything grow and reaping the benefits. Cheers!

It's Almost Too Easy

2009-05-22T14:55:00.003-05:00

Last fall when we had our in-ground sprinkler system installed, we had them run a line with a spicket out to the garden. Today I set it up for performance- this is almost too easy, having a hose right in the garden. hehehe :D

I finished planting the garden on Tuesday, making my planting dates Monday, May 18th and Tuesday, May 19th, the two hottest days of the year. 97 degrees on Monday, somewhere in the 90's again on Tuesday. Now we're back to 60's and 70's and I'm happy. Here is a photo of one of the beds, the most interesting one at the moment (I could have posted a bunch of photos of dirt, but being that nothing has really germinated yet, I thought that would be boring haha). Note the leek trench on the left side. I piled up the soil that I removed from the trench right around it, so there is also a hill there, but this will be to gradually fill in the trench as the leeks grow, encouraging more and more growth of the white part of the stem. In this bed are 3 rows of lettuce, leeks, sugar snap peas, a dahlia in the front left, a zinnia in the back left, and a few snapdragsons (from the garden store), a marigold and 2 violas/pansies in the front right.

The tomatoes, eggplants, and peppers have been living outside full time now, and I'm considering taking down the grow light now as I don't expect them to come back inside. Here they are, lounging in the garden, only slightly sunburned in their semi-protected/filtered light spot. The weather is pretty nice and the forecast looks good so perhaps this weekend they will go in the earth!

Last but not least, here is some color for your day- the pansies I picked up at the garden store that will grace our front porch whenever I get around to potting them. Here's to happy gardening! Cheers! :D

Planting the Garden

2009-05-18T17:17:00.005-05:00

Well the time has finally arrived. Today I spent several hours preparing the raised beds (hand tilling, fertilizing) and planting seeds and plants. Since there is a lot to do, I decided to split up the fun between two + days. So here's what I planted today for seeds:

Carrots (no signs of life from earlier planted ones)

Edamame (Envy and Shirofumi varieities)

Haricot Verts (Fin de Bagnol)

Cucumbers (Sweeter Yet)

I also transplanted a few of the flowers, including the Dahlias, Zinnias, Marigolds, and some of the violas and historic pansies. Here is my garden map for what I have planted and what I plan to plant (click to enlarge).

Tomorrow I will plant the leeks, snapdragons (that I picked up at the garden store yesterday haha), and I will have time to do some potting of some herbs, artichokes, and some left over (and some garden store bought) pansies. I also have a rose that needs pruning, and a lot of weeds to pull around the house- oh busy day. . .

The tomatoes, eggplant, and peppers slept in the garage last night and did just great, the low was 49, but I'm sure it was warmer in the garage. The flat with the flowers, artichokes and leeks slept under the stars (in preparation for the big move). The tomatoes, eggplant, and peppers are transitioning to the outdoor life very well, and have stayed out all day long both yesterday and today. They will have a few more nights of coming in during the cold temps, then will be planted in the garden and the leftovers potted in preparation for their new homes with family and friends. Let's hope we don't have another hail storm this year (knock on wood!)! Here's to happy outdoor gardening in Minnesota (finally)- Cheers!

Hardening Off

2009-05-17T14:13:00.002-05:00

It's that time of year- we've reached out last frost date, and in fact we had a light frost last night. The forecast is looking good for the next week, so it's time to start digging! In preparation for this, of course, we have to transition the indoor plants to the harsh outdoor life. So we start stepwise, hardening off gradually to build their tollerance to the outdoor climate.

Well to catch up first, I went out of town last week, and when I came home, I discovered that my tomatoes had all grown about 2 inches in 5 days as their leaves became larger and they crowded each other and competed for light. They were so leggy, and viney, and had lost their crucial support system. Thus transplantation was necessary to salvage the vines. If I had been smart, I would have transplanted them 2-3 weeks ago before they started getting big. So we start with the tangled mess:
And the containers to which they were to be transplanted:
Add a little dirt, and voila- they look a little better. . .
Then the hardening off. First, for just an hour or two on a calm day with temperatures similar to those indoors. I placed them in the shade under the big tree in the back yard so as not to sunburn them:Their first day of hardening off went very well. I think the grow light set up with the fan (and not being babied in the greenhouse up until now) really helped, as they stood up to the slight temperature change, wind, and sun a lot better. Then I slowly progress them to harsher and harsher climates- here is a day or two later, temperature outside about 60 degrees, but warm and filtered sun on the deck (they stayed out for 8 hours by the end of the week):
Today I have them out in full sun in the garden beds, light breeze, 70, and sunny. They will stay out for most of the day, unless they start to wilt or get sunburned.

I plan to go to the garden store today and buy some snapdragons to replace my two failed attempts. Then tomorrow is the big day for planting seeds and transplanting some of the plants (tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants will probably wait a few days longer as they like warmer weather and require a little more babying with the hardening off). So far so good! Cheers!

May Day!

2009-05-01T13:09:00.007-05:00

I finally had time to take some photos of the garden and the seedlings to share today. Things are really growing and it is definately spring time here in Minnesota (well it's about time). We'll start indoors, with the seedlings. Here is the grow light set up as of today:

I have done some rearranging of the seed flats to accomadate the height of certain plants (ahem, tomatoes- that's you). The tomatoes are about 5 inches tall now and have quite a few leaves. They seem to have bounced back from their setback, and once again Miracle Grow is my friend. :) hehe Just look at how much they grew in the month of April! (compare to last month's photos)

a different view:

Here are their cousins, the eggplant and peppers, along with a few flowers (left to right: rosemary, marigolds, zinnias, serrano and big early bell peppers, chilly chili peppers, um, one cell of thyme, and the prosperosa eggplants):

Here is the other half of that flat (with some overlap), the amber kiss violas (2 rows), historical mix pansies, rosemary, marigolds, and zinnias):

Moving outside into the garden now, here is the raised bed garden from today:

The (I think) tulips and daphodils that never made it last year (hail storm), looks like they're doing alright this year. We'll see what they are once they bloom, haha:

My lettuce is coming along pretty nicely. There are 3 varieties- mix, green and red leaf lettuce, only two of which are shown here:

And the garden superstars (at least right now), the chives- these are huge, over a foot tall:

Now leaving the raised bed garden, here is my hybrid tea rose that is starting to green up- suprisingly hardy for its kind. It has handled 2 really long, cold winters, a hail storm, 2 transplantations, and tons of abuse in the past 3 years and it keeps coming back for more!

Even the man garden is doing well (this is Bjorn's garden- full of natural prairie type plants- grasses, fescue, sedum, salvia, and sage):

And moving on to the front of the house, here is our front garden which we just planted last fall. You can see the peegee hydrangea tree's trunk (not doing anything yet), coral bells, yew in the back, dwarf spireas, salvia, and some other pretty stuff that I don't know. I just hope it all comes back (there were also some hostas and astilbe there, but they're late in rising, so we'll see if they grow- this is more of a shaded garden being on the north side of the house):

And finally, last but not least, my favorite photo of the day. These beautiful hydrangea flowers are still on the branches from last fall. They are so gorgeous and intricate, you can't help but love them!

Well that's about it for the photo tour. The last of the seeds (for the pre-last frost round) have been started either indoors or out and everything seems to be doing pretty well, despite the scare we had with mold (which seems to be harmless) on the seedling cells. All of the trees have buds, the grass is lush and the bunny rabbits are out in full force. It it looking like a beautiful, but late, spring here in Minnesota, with last frost only 2 weeks away for these happy gardeners. Cheers!

Easter Means Planting Time

2009-04-13T17:04:00.002-05:00

And new garden accessories! Thanks Mom for this CUTE patina watering can pig! I think I'll call him "Wilbur." He is currently filled with Easter candy (yum!), but he will soon be an inspiration to my garden and will help me water the plants near the house.

Anyhow, today I got some planting done outside! I planted carrots, parsnips, spinach, lettuce (3 varieites), and sugar snap peas. Yay! I planted rather haphazardly, but that's why seed packets only cost $1- so that I can afford to thin the plants once they sprout!

On another happy note, my tomatoes have fully recovered from their slump! With a little fertilizer and an adjustment on the grow light, they've made huge improvements in just 1 week! I knew I loved fertilizer! :) Compare before (top 4/6) to after (bottom4/13):

Slow to Mature?

2009-04-06T16:48:00.004-05:00

Here's what's going on so far (for comparison to previous photos):

Things are growing, but not as fast as it seems they grew last year. I'm wondering if this has to do with the warmth/humidity factor? They're not super warm in the office here (usually when I turn on the space heater the temps are in the upper 60's), and no humidity domes either, but they have lots more light than in the past. The tomatoes are getting their first real leaves, most of the peppers have germinated, the artichokes and leeks are doing fabulously, and I finally got some rosemary to germinate and that looks good too. But my violas are a little pale, and seemed bigger at this time last year. My snapdragons are almost invisible- I'm planting a few more of those seeds in a seperate container and going to try a little warmer/more humid setting for them upstairs in the bathroom and see if they like that bigger because they pretty much germinated then died. I wonder if they don't like the potting soil I used this year as much as last year? Some of my tomatoes are getting their first real leaves, but many of them have yellow leaves, or leaves that are shriveled up- too much water or too little?

I've got great root development, most of the tomatoes have roots down into the watering tray. But I must admit I've been neglecting them a little bit this year with the convenience of the grow light, I don't have to turn them every day or anything, just water them every couple of days and they're good to go. But I can't figure out why they're not growing as well as they did last year?

Well I don't think Vincent has much to do with it, but here he is, my garden keeper, or should I say, my garden eater. Gotta love 'em!

Thawing. . .

2009-03-22T21:26:00.003-05:00

I dug these beasts out of the ground today! Tomorrow creamy parsnip and leek soup is on the menu!

The raised beds are starting to thaw (mostly on the top and around the sides where they are exposed to the nice warm air), and there was enough loose soil in some of them to do a little hand tilling. I picked up some horse manure from the pasture yesterday as well that I added to the beds. I will give them a little while to decompose on top, then once the rest of the bed thaws, it'll get mixed in. I was happy to get back into the garden today, though my hips are aching from digging those parsnips- I must be getting old!

Oh- and a nice little suprise I found in the garden today- see if you can find it, like Where's Waldo- I think this might be a tulip or a daphodil- spring is coming! Cheers!

Spring is Coming!

2009-03-16T15:56:00.003-05:00

It is absolutely beautiful outside- 65 degrees and sunny! Naturally this weather is making me quite anxious to get started in my garden, so I headed back through the mud and the remaining bits of snow (which should be melting quite soon) to check it out. The soil has settled out over the winter, with the dried leaves rising to the top. They are warm and soft, but the dirt below is still frozen. I took at look at my parsnips, which are still waiting for me in bed "T," and they are iced in yet. I will re-check them in a few days to see if my harvesting chances are improving. Should be soon! I do stand corrected, however, on my dates- the first day of spring is not until March 20th, this Friday.

The seedlings are coming along nicely. The violas and pansies are growing beautifully, most of them have at least 2 sets of leaves. The snapdragons are such teeny tiny little seedlings, but they are coming along wonderfully as well. My artichokes have been a little bit adventurous- my germination rate has only been at about 60-80%, and two of the more mature seedlings just came down with some sort of black slimy fungus, so I had to pluck those two and try two more. The leeks are shooting up very nicely, all about 3 inches tall and ready to have the humidity dome taken off. The only problem with that is my rosemary. I am having a heck of a time getting it to germinate. I've re-planted it twice now, after nothing had germinated after 3 weeks. I came to the conclusion that perhaps my packet of seeds was bad, so I bought another, and planted about 5 seeds per cell. Surely something has to germinate soon. . .

In the other flat, tomato seedlings are sprouting up by the day. Currently the seedling varieites that are up include the Grape, Roma, Brandywine, Big Beef, Earl's Faux, Lemon Boy, Kellogg's Breakfast, and Cherokee Purple. Still no sign of Celebrity, Giant Syrian, and Todd County Amish. It has been a little cold in the office due to brutally cold temperatures outside lately, so I will give them a little more time to think about germinating before re-planting. No peppers or eggplants yet.

So far the set up is going smoothly, and I've only locked the cat in the office once. ;) Soon the cold-weather outdoor planting will begin! Cheers!

Planting Day

2009-03-07T19:05:00.004-06:00

Today was the big day- I planted my tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants. I know it is still kinda early for the tomatoes, but I figure I have a good set up, they could grow to 2 feet and be pretty manageable indoors. So I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the grow light will help to keep everything short. So here's what I planted (by the number of plants today instead of rows):

2 Celebrity tomato
3 Grape tomato
5 Roma tomato
3 Brandywine tomato
2 Big Beef tomato
2 Giant Syrian tomato
1 Earl's Faux tomato
1 Lemon Boy tomato
1 Kellogg's Breakfast tomato
2 Todd County Amish tomato
3 Cherokee Purple tomato

3 Serrano chilies
2 Big Early Bell pepper (pictured)
5 Chilly Chili hibrid pepper (pictured)

5 Prosperosa eggplant

I decided to grow a few extra of the popular ones since last year my seedlings got pummeled by hail the day after I planted them and I want to have some back ups. I really only need one of each variety, but I like to start seeds for friends and family too, so my mom, mother in law, and friend will all get some plants as well (last year people didn't get too much as I needed the reserves).

Tomorrow daylight savings time begins- YAY! And next Sunday is the first day of spring- it has been in the high 30's and low 4o's this week- absolutely beautiful! I even trekked back to the garden today to check it out and there is still quite a bit of snow on 3 of the beds, but one is completely clear- well, not for long, expecting more snow and ice next week.

Anyhow, we're off and running here in Minnesota- here's to happy growing! Cheers!

The Countdown Continues

2009-02-22T15:51:00.006-06:00

Being that we are 12 weeks from last frost date according to my planting calendar, I started a few seeds today:

Snapdragons- 10 cells (I might need more. . .later)

Artichokes- 5 cells (thought I'd start early for their long growing season)

Leeks- 5 cells (needed more for Mom)

So I officially have 1 flat full. I keep worrying that I'm not going to have enough cells to start everything that I want to inside, but then I remind myself that I am using the small cells unlike last year, and instead of having 48 total cells as I did last year, I have 200 cells that I can plant! Whew, that makes it so much better. Plus, I have been collecting plastic containers that I can use if I want to for extras. And besides, most of the things (besides tomatoes and these few early crops) that I'm growing could probably be planted directly in the ground anyhow.

Looking through my garden spreadsheet, it became clear to me that I am in need of a few supplies that I will need yet this spring- I still need to pick up some parsley seeds, and I really should get one more flat (have the cells, just need the tray). For anyone trying to start seeds indoors, a spreadsheet such as this is essential to track the recommended planting dates, spacing, days to maturity, where you plan to plant them, and of course any extra notes on fertilizer or care). Well we're 12 weeks away, off and running- cheers!

Photos as Promised!

2009-02-21T13:00:00.004-06:00

I finally took some photos of the grow light set up and my one seed flat today. So without further ado, here is the set up- the grow light is 4 feet long and has 2 bulbs inside. There is enough space to fit 4 flats under it if i turn them the short way- I'm hoping that once I have that many flats going, that will be enough light. The light is on a timer and is on for 16 hours per day. I lined the carpet below the set up with painter's plastic, and set up 2 wooden platforms that my husband made last year (actually really cool- they are cedar decking put together with a little space between each board, and sitting atop 2 small perpendicular runners to keep them up off the ground- these are intended to put under the pots that I put on the deck or the porch- so that excess water can run down through the boards, but yet it keeps the pots up off the deck, preserving the wooden deck- genius!), one at each end, with a piece of plywood over the top- we just happened the have the PERFECT size to fit under the light stand. Then we clamped the plywood to the wooden platforms below and voila! a perfect set up for seed starting. I also have a space heater in this room, which I run in the evening to try to maintain the temperature between 65 and 75 degrees for ideal germination and growth. In a cold basement office, it can get a bit chilly down here. In the photo you can see my other flats and cells waiting for their turn, and of course a spray bottle full of water for misting the top of the soil as needed.

And now for the stars of the show- the seedlings! The leeks are getting pretty big- some of them are already 2 inches tall! And Of course when you try to plant one seed in each cell, inevitably, some cells grow 3 seedlings and some grow none. I will attempt to transplant some of these seedlings into their own cells later once they get a little bigger. Still no rosemary, but that will take 2-3 weeks to germinate.

It also looks that according to my planting calendar, we are at 12 weeks now, and therefore, more seeds will be ready to start! Particularly snapdragons, but I'll double check my list to see if anything else is ready to go. Update on that tomorrow.

Relief

2009-02-20T18:37:00.002-06:00

Tomato Grower's Supply Company came through! I got my seeds in the mail today, whew. I ordered Serrano Chili, along with the following tomatoes: Big Beef, Todd County Amish, and Earl's Faux. They threw in a packet of Giant Belgium for me too- holy moly the packet says they have been known to produce 5 pound tomatoes! Woah! Well now I just have to try that! Oh my garden is slowly being overcome by my fading willpower as I try to choose which variety of tomatoes to grow until I give in and grow all of them. Thank you TGSC! I'm looking forward to it!

Will get pictures this weekend of the one flat I have started. cheers!

Waiting

2009-02-18T20:44:00.003-06:00

The violas/pansies have germinated! I just love seeing those teeny tiny little green leaves. Still waiting for the pokey rosemary to come up, but that should be soon. The leeks are growing nice and straight under the grow light, and some are already an inch tall! Luckily I only filled their cells about half full so I can add to them as needed.

I have been a little nervous about my tomato grower's supply order and why it is taking so long, assuming that the post office must have lost it. Well, so I called today and found out that they are so busy right now that everything is about a week behind, so it didn't even get sent out until late last week. So I should be receiving it soon. Whew, that's a relief. Very interesting that their business is up so much, I guess people are trying to grow their own stuff this year to save $$ at the grocery store. Can't blame them, seeds are just a fraction of the cost of buying tomatoes at the store and you get way more. Plus they're tastier and you can try some great varieties. So I'm waiting patiently, relieved that my order is in route.

The Leeks are Up

2009-02-16T22:09:00.002-06:00

Well it's been a week since planting, and pretty much all of the leeks have germinated. No signs of any other seeds up yet, but the grow light is running beautifully. Oh how exciting to have things growing! :)

Still no sign of my Tomato Grower's Supply Co order. . . I'm going to have to call them. That may be the second USPS lost shipment in the past 3 months for me assuming they actually shipped it out. Grrr. >:-(

Signs of Life

2009-02-13T18:38:00.003-06:00

Well there is a sign of life in my seed flat. One teeny tiny leek seedling sprouted yesterday- it looks a little bit like a worm right now, mostly white with just a teeny bit of green at the end. It is the only thing up of 30 seeded cells. Of course I expect most of them to take a while to come up, hence why they need to be started so early. So, I turned on the grow light, 16 hours/day and my set up seems to be working wonderfully so far. All the animals (2 dogs and the cat) are gathered in the office now whenever they get the chance because the we have a space heater in there to keep the temps a little warmer than the rest of the house (we only run it in the evenings when we're home), and we are keeping it shut off from the rest of the house so the animals don't get into the plants- so they're curious as to what is going on in there! Anyhow, it still is not the most interesting sight in the world right now, so no photos yet, but I promise I will post some when more things start to pop up out of the soil! Waiting patiently- cheers!

Seed Mail!

2009-02-09T20:37:00.003-06:00

I got my seeds from Seed Saver's Exchange in the mail today- a big packet of Fin de Bagnol (haricot verts), a pack of Giant Syrian tomato seeds (my co-worker's all time favorite tomato), Historical Pansies mix, and 2 varieites of Soybean for Edamame- Envy and Shirofumi.

To be relatively even with the other pansies, I planted 1 row (5 cells) of the Historical Pansies today.

Hopefully the office "greenhouse" will go well. So far so good- we're keeping the door shut so the cat can't get in here to eat stuff (he's a plant eater and a general destroyer- as are the dogs), and the running the space heater once in a while to make sure it stays warm enough (preferably above 65 degrees for germination- and this basement office can get a bit on the chilly side at times.

The First Seeds of 2009 Have Been Sewn!

2009-02-08T18:49:00.003-06:00

Gardening season is officially underway here in Minnesota! Today we prepared the growing area with my new grow light that I got for Christmas (Thanks Mom and Dad!). We lined the carpet in the corner of the office with plastic, and put down a few pieces of wood with plywood over the top to serve as a growing table under the light (the light is adjustable- the table is not). I got jiffy-strips at Home Depot last month to fit in the trays that I already have. They fit 50 cells to one tray, and I can fit 4 trays under my light pretty nicely. So I prepared 1 whole tray with seed starting soil, watered from the bottom, and spritzed the top with a spray bottle. Let that soak in on top of the dryer (while running for extra heat!), and then sewed the seeds, put the cover on, and tucked the tray away to await germination.

Here's what I planted today:
Amber Kiss Violas- 10 cells
Rosemary- 5 cells
Leek- 10 cells

The set-up isn't that spectacular right now, so no pictures yet, but once the plants start popping up, I'll get some photos. I still haven't completely nailed down a garden plan/layout, but I figure I can procrastinate that at least a couple more weeks while I'm waiting to start the other plants. I am just basing my current plantings off of what I grew last year, and the fact that I wanted more violas. Here's to happy growing- cheers!

Planting Math

2009-02-08T12:27:00.002-06:00

One of the hardest parts about gardening, in my mind, is the planning. I find the key to starting seeds is to have a chart of dates and number of weeks to the last frost date corresponding with actual dates. This takes some of the headache out of counting back every time you want to plant something. Here are some of the more common planting dates for zone 4a:

15 weeks: January 30
12 weeks: February 20
10 weeks: March 6
8 weeks: March 20
6 weeks: April 3
4 weeks: April 17
Last frost: May 15

That puts us just under 14 weeks right now. Of course these dates along with the seed starting date on the packages are just estimates, and you can alter these as much as you like as long as you are prepared to deal with the consequences- managing large plants indoors for longer, or shortening the season of outdoor growing and getting later maturity. From my experience last year, I know that violas are really easy to maintain indoors, as they don't get very tall. Snapdragons got a little tall last year with no grow light, but pruning is an easy fix to that. Rosemary has traditionally taken FOREVER to grow, and leeks also have a quite long growing season. Thus these will be the first varieties I will start, though I will likely hold off on the snaps just a tad longer so I don't have to fight 2 ft high plants at hardening off/transplant time.

2008 Year in Review

2009-02-07T20:43:00.005-06:00

When planning for the next year's garden, it is always important to look back on the past and the successes and failures that came before to decide on the perfect plan for next year. So, looking back on 2008, we will go over the good, the bad, and the changes that need to take place for a successful 2009 gardening season!

2008 Highlights (things that still stand out several months after leaving the garden):
- LOVE the new raised bed garden
- tomato varieties were awesome, with intensive pruning grew to 10 feet!
- haricot verts were fabulous
- warm colored flowers are very eye pleasing and great to mix in amongst the edibles
- great out-of-the ordinary varieties

2008 best:
Flowers/ornamentals- violas, snapdragons, zinnias, Chilly Chili peppers
Vegetables- haricot verts, Brandywine tomatoes, artichoke
Herbs- rosemary, basil and dill

2008 worst:
Flowers- cosmos (space-consuming for 2 week bloom)
Vegetables- Zucchini bush (took over a whole bed), onions were a little disappointing, romaine lettuce was too soft
Herbs- I don't know, I hardly used any!
Of course the hail storm the day after I transplanted didn't help

Changes for 2009:
- I miss my cukes (never got any last year due to REALLY SLOW germination outdoors)
- more green beans!
- plant green beans every 3 weeks instead of all at once- really!
- successive plantings of lettuce as well- can't eat it all at once!
- attempt to harvest leeks earlier than November! ;)
- more violas, snaps, and zinnias!
- lost a lot of tomatoes to bacterial speck last year, so start early with the Dragon Dust!
- No HUGE plants (that's you Zukes and Cosmos!)
- there's no point in growing so much of the crops that I can't give away
- one eggplant will suffice
- herbs will be planted in a pot in small quantities rather than scattered through the precious garden space

New varities for 2009:
Tomatoes- Cherokee Purple, Kellogg's Breakfast, Todd County Amish, Giant Syrian, Earl's Faux
Other veggies- Edamame (2 varities), Serrano chilies
Flowers- historical colors viola mix, and a few new zinnia varieties

2008 Photo Highlights:

The brand new garden, May 31st, 2008:

After a few weeks of growth, June 21st, 2008:

At the end of the season with a late frost this year, October 1st, 2008:

A few of the individual crops:

Artichoke:

Chilly Chili Hybrid peppers in front, Big Early Bell behind:

Snapdragons:

Ginormous tomatoes!:

A sample harvest from mid-September:

Well 2008 was really a great year with my new garden. It was only my second year growing anything, and the first time using raised beds. I grew an awesome variety of flowers, vegetables, and herbs, and had a lot of fun doing it! I don't have time to share photos and information on every variety from last year, but this year I plan to have a play-by-play on this blog with many more photos, in which I should be able to give each plant its due credit! Here's to a great start in 2009!

The 2009 Garden Kick-Off!

2009-02-05T21:38:00.003-06:00

The seeds have been ordered, the trays have been pulled out of storage, the light is set up and the potting soil is waiting in the garage. Everything is just about ready to go for my 2009 garden kick-off. But there is one minor detail- this is early February in Zone 4a, and is way to early to start most plants, unless you have a greenhouse, which I do not. So I will wait another couple of weeks to start most of my plants, but some will be off to an early start- hopefully this weekend- violas and rosemary, perhaps some others as well. It has been averaging about 10-15 degrees for highs over the past couple of weeks and currently there is about a foot of snow and ice covering my garden beds. It will be a long while before anything gets planted outside, but the lengthening days are starting to feed that spring time dirt-digging itch, and we are all getting anxious to get outside and start growing something!