Here it Comes

Finally. I think it might finally be spring here in the Heartland.  So many things to do suddenly.

Like mowing the lawn.  I need to find the charger for my mower and make sure the batteries still work.

The really good news is I can finally start planting the gardens for the year.  We're scaling back a bit this year in an effort to maintain sanity whilst the changes keep rolling in.  Gearing up for a move and the demolition of the old homestead this summer along with planning for festivals and farmers markets has left me with little time for anything else.  So we scale back a bit.

Next year we hit it hard, I hope.

Anyway...here's a gratuitous pic of my onions-to-be.  Every year I try to start seeds. They sprout then die.  So, I go out and buy sets because I can't find plants anywhere.  Then I find plants and buy those, too.  I'm hopeless.  But I will have tons of green onions for the farmer's market, so there is that.

The onion plants in the front are a mere fraction of the whole bunch of onions I got.  I pick out the biggest and the best for nurturing into larger bulbs.  The tiny ones go in the ground for spring salad onions.  I have Red Candy, Candy Hybrid, and Walla Walla this year.  The bulbs are the standard big box store variety.

My seedlings are getting way too big to be in the house.  I will remedy that over the next week or so:

These peppers want to flower!

The tomatoes are way too big.

Some of the plants will probably not make it outside.  For example, this basil is getting big enough to harvest fresh for a meal.  At this stage, it probably won't harden off well and will sun scald or be stunted by the transplant so I'll direct seed some more outside. I might try potting them up to a bigger container and see how long I can keep them going in the house.

 That's it from The Slice for this week!

Working the Night Shift

I have a night off from work unexpectedly.  Things change in the production world and I have to change with them.  So I'm off tonight and working Saturday night instead.  I guess it's okay.  I slept roughly 10 hours straight so I must have needed it, right?

Right!

So I'm up and at 'em and wide awake tonight.  It is just after 4:30 am.  I have managed to get caught up on most of the things I have been wanting to get done for the last week. 

• I up-potted my garden seedlings.
• I did some research on a couple of new things I want to add to my bath & body line-up.
• I made two more batches of soap.

Joyful Squid up top and Extra Stout below.

So far I've made a fresh batch of Ahimsa, Kismet, Swedeberry, Sowing the Wild, Lumberjack, Joyful Squid, Extra Stout, and a new offering--Grungy Gardener.  Grungy Gardener is an old/new soap flavor with added ground cardamom for a little bit of scrub power.  It works great to get the grime off your hands after a hard day's work in the garden.

Grungy Gardener.  Smells wonderful and gets your hands clean.

On top of everything else, it's officially spring! At least according to the calendar, anyway.  We got a dusting of snow for our first day of spring here in the Heartland.  It's okay though.  Just knowing that sunshine and warm temps are around the corner makes me pretty happy.

Okay...so this is an old picture.  The daffodils are not quite ready yet.

With the coming sunshine and warm temps comes a barrage of extra work.  Along with the soap gearing up there's the garden gearing up.

Pepper and eggplant seedlings.

Tomato seedlings.

We're moving to new digs at the end of the summer so there's that to work on.  It's a short move down the road to the next town over...just us adding to the Picofarm empire.  Along with that move comes more room for soaping and gardening and seed starting and what-have-you.  So we have plenty to do to keep us out of trouble so-to-speak.

Sheesh.  I'd better go put the camera away so Lucky will come in from the kennel.  I swear that dog is the most suspicious creature I've ever known!  He doesn't like his picture taken so he hides whenever I get the camera out and won't come back in until he's sure it's gone.  Nutty dog!  I can't even entice him back in with ham!

This is the last picture I took of Lucky that isn't blurry because he's running away. It was taken at least 5 years ago.  He is a Catahoula Cur and true to type is very suspicious of EVERYTHING.  Two seconds after I snapped this picture, he was gone.  He looks angry, doesn't he?

This is Dotti-Dog about 3 seconds after Lucky bailed for the kennel.  This dog is an English Pointer and wants to be a pony when she grows up.  She's actually posing here.  Not the slightest bit shy.

Spring is Here!

Although, it doesn't really look like it today, spring is here.  I woke up this morning to snow falling with the kind of intensity usually reserved for frigid January nights.  When it finally stopped, we had been blessed with about two inches of the wet stuff.

I've had about enough of that.

So instead of spending my day clearing the garage and puttering in the garden, I spent my day potting up some of this year's crop of bedding plants.  Seedlings, that is.  Green gold...

I've been in the house for TOO LONG.

Anyway, here are the highlights:

I went a little crazy with the cole crops this year.  I have two kind of brussels sprouts (Brawny and Purple), a Romanesco broccoli, broccoli raab, and baby choy.  I can't get a good pic of the choy, though.  Try as I might.

Romanesco broccoli

Brawny Sprouts

Another broccoli

Purple brussles sprouts

Then there are the peppers.  Thirteen kinds of peppers.  Here are a couple pepperocini types. 

Next come the tomatoes.  Only seven kinds, I think.  They're pretty small yet, but soon I'll be potting them up like the rest.

I haven't forgotten the herbs.  I planted two types of chives, some sage, thyme, basil, and corn mache.  It's my first try at corn mache. I don't even know what corn mache is, really.  But it was recommended to me by a very knowledgeable gardener.  So what the heck?

That's the basil with some leggy corn mache draped over it.  Swiss chard in the background.

So far, I think I'm off to a good start.  But none of this would be possible without the assistance of my able-bodied husband, his drill, and a seemingly inexhaustible supply of zip ties.  Yesterday, he built the annex to the original seedling station.

It's just plastic, snap-together shelving, clip lights, and roughly a metric ton of zip ties.  A little bit of heaven in the living room.  Yep.  You read that right.

Yes, it seems like a lot of plants to me, too.  Perhaps come May 7 I'll see you down at the farmer's market and you can take a couple of peppers and tomatoes off my hands for a reasonable fee.

Now if the snow will just melt and let spring get underway, I'd be much obliged.

May Update--In Pictures

It's hard for me to comprehend that it is May already.  The winter seems to move so slowly for me.  Once spring has sprung, it's like Mother Nature puts her foot to the floor and time starts to speed by quickly.  Fortunately, spring makes me want to take pictures of the gardens.

So here's what's going on at The Slice:

Cayuga viburnum--I wish you could smell this!

Volunteer cilantro coming up around my onion set...and what looks to be a small grass seedling of some kind.

Some lovely daffodils

The Korean Lilac is in full bloom!

My favorite tulip came back yet again.

Wild violets in my perennial bed coming up through the rug juniper.

My hubby's fancy schmancy tree propping rig that helps my State Fair apple tree stand straight and tall.

The rig also comes in galvanized steel.  This one is holding the Kieffer pear up and allowing it to straighten up and flower right.

Jalapeno peppers peeking out of their white plastic cloche.

The peppers inside their cozy cloche. This protects my plants down to 30 degrees F.  It also works really well for tomato plants.

Growing the potatoes and onions together worked really well last year so I'm doing it again.  With fewer potatoes.

Radish crop circles.

Sugar snap peas coming up with a few extra radishes.

Volunteer fern leaf dill.  This stuff is everywhere but I'm not complaining.

That's it for now!  A lot of new things are happening at The Slice this year.  More to come.

April Garden Update

I know, I know.  It's April.  In Nebraska.  What sort of update can I possibly have?  Well, let me tell you that I managed to do some things outside today and I'm pretty happy about it.  It wasn't what I'd call a gorgeous spring day. But, it was rather pleasant for most of the afternoon.

I planted some stuff today: 

• Peas (Sugar Snap).  
• Carrots (Nantes...something).  
• Beets (Detroit Dark Red...I wanted Bull's Blood but I couldn't find any seed) 
• Swiss chard (Bright Lights) 
• Leaf lettuce (Black Seeded Simpson) 
• Radishes (Giant Globe...mostly because they grow quickly and give some speedy gardening gratification) 

If I hadn't left my camera in the city when I came home yesterday, I'd have some pictures of the seeds being planted or something.


But I don't.  I might even have uploaded a nice picture of my rhododendron that looks fantastic already this year. 

Rats.

I also raked and raked and raked leaves.  I raked until my shoulder and the wind decided I shouldn't rake anymore and then I called for a cease-rake and put it all away.  Three huge bags went into the big pile o' bags in the back garden.

Mulch and compost in potentia.

Actually, it was no mean feat this leaf gathering.  After the spate of wet snow we had earlier this week, all those leaves were wet enough to clog up the mower chute and some of the piles were still frozen in places.  But that's okay.  They'll rot a little faster with some moisture in those bags.

I also started some marigold seeds and some more hot peppers (okay, admittedly that was last week, but it's too late to do a March garden update).  The first batch of pepper seeds I planted didn't germinate.  Every year it seems there is one thing or another that just won't grow for me.  Last year it was beans.  This year it seems it could be peppers.  At least I could go buy pepper seedlings if I wanted to.

The tomatoes I started a couple weeks ago haven't sprouted yet either.  The sad thing is I will have roughly 5,000,000 volunteer tomatoes in the garden once spring is well and truly underway.  I'll be uprooting and discarding them all summer long.

I also uprooted and transplanted, to pots this time, a fair whack of yarrow plants.  They didn't really seem to actually be rooted to anything.  They were more or less just sitting on top of the soil like they knew I was coming to take them away and they wanted to be ready.  I can't begin to fool myself into thinking that I got all of them and that bed will be yarrow-free anytime soon. 

Some people have complained to me that mint is the most invasive and difficult to eradicate plant they've ever grown.  Clearly they've never grown yarrow.  Or comfrey.  I thought I'd never get it out!  I do wish comfrey was more attractive.  I hear it has some interesting qualities in the garden and that some gardeners grow it to make comfrey tea to put on their plants and beds.  Here's a link to an article about comfrey in the garden.  After reading that again, I may have to find an out-of-the-way spot for more comfrey.

We've been monitoring the temperature in the greenhouse with a remote thermometer for several weeks now.  A few weeks ago, we put a small, oil-filled heater in the greenhouse and I've determined that it seems to keep things above freezing at least.  So, I moved my seedlings from the kitchen window where they were starting to get leggy and light-starved to the table in the greenhouse where they will receive ample sunlight.  Keeping fingers crossed that all goes well there.  The tomatoes I started are out in the greenhouse and I'm wondering if maybe the temperature just isn't consistent enough for germination.  They may have to come inside for a few days to get going.

I just don't know.

I do know that I'm fixing to run out of planting room in a hurry.  So much growing, so little space...

Do You Know What Time It Is?

I got a little email from myself this morning that said, "Seven weeks until average last frost date!"  That means it's time.

Tomato time.

This year's seed selection is large.  Almost vast, actually.  Some of these I bought, some I was given by a friend.  No, her name is not 'Burpee.'

• Super Sweet 100 hybrid cherry tomatoes.  I've grown these for the last 3 years out of the same seed packet.  I finally planted the last of them today.  These things grow cherry tomatoes by the gross.  70 days.
• Yellow Pear heirloom.  This is my first time growing yellow tomatoes.  I've eaten yellows grown by others and they were okay although I don't believe they're any less acidic than their red brethren.  These seeds were handed to me by a gardening friend, so I'm planting them.  We'll see.  76 days.
• Mortgage Lifter heirloom.  The tomato of myth and legend that, allegedly, helped a man who was down on his luck save his home.  That's good enough for me to try them.  80 days.
• Bloody Butcher.  The name says it all.  55 days.
• Independence Day hybrid.  These are almost the earliest of the lot at 56 days to maturity.  Hence the name.  I want to see if they really will be ready by the 4th of July.
• Big Pink hybrid.  Pink tomatoes just seem wrong.  I want to see if they are any good.  75 days.
• Roma hybrid.  Your basic paste tomato.  76 days.

I planted all but the roma tomato seeds today.  All except the romas are indeterminate types.  They look a little bit exactly like this right now:

Yep, that's three of each.  I'm not taking any chances on misfires.  I'd much rather have extra plants to try to get rid of gift to my gardening friends than not enough of something for my own purposes. I'll get to the romas tomorrow, maybe.  I need to make some more paper pots and I'm too tired to hunt for the pot maker right now. 

Now there's a spiffy little gadget!  It makes biodegradable seed starting pots out of newspaper.  Mine is made of maple, I think, and I got it on Etsy.  This isn't the one I got, but that shop is no longer on Etsy.  I sorta wish I had the one in the link.  Looks kinda like the Cadillac of paper pot makers.

Oh, and for the record, this is what some of the peppers look like.  Come to think of it, the eggplants look rather the same:

Lots of the peppers still look more or less like the tomatoes do right now.  I think my seed starting shelf has been too cold.  Time to dig out the heat mats.

Tomorrow is the farmer's market sellers meeting.  I. Can't. Wait!

Daydreamin'

After having the last couple of weeks off my paying job (staycations are AWESOME), I spent a little time today looking ahead at next week and the next couple months.

Looks cold.  Really cold.

But I know that on the heels of that cold is spring.  The mere notion of the warm sun heating the soil inspires outrageous daydreams of idyllic garden scenes and the profusion of produce that will come from my efforts.  It rarely ever goes as well as I hope but it is almost always better than I expect.

No, I'll save reality for another day when the sun is shining, the breezes are balmy, and my favorite trowel is digging deeply into the ground.  For now, my time will be spent daydreaming about in quiet contemplation of what is possible rather than what is probable. Just like gardeners across the world, I peruse the annual allotment of seed and plant catalogs while the cold winds of winter are blowing.  After leafing repeatedly through the dozen or so that have arrived already for next season,  I've nearly settled on my seed list for this year:

Basil--I saved seeds from last summer.  It's a Genovese type for pesto and sauce.

Snap peas--I like Sugar Ann.

Onions--any color or type.  They all wind up about 2 inches across anyway.  I'm trying to grow from seed this year.  I'll buy sets anyway.

Brussels sprouts--After my less than stellar results last year, I am inspired to try again.  The tiny sprouts were AMAZING.  I will never look at brussels sprouts the same way again.

Tomatoes--Duh.

Peppers both sweet and firey--Serranos are high on the list this year.  I also want to try ghost peppers although it will be just for fun.  Not sure I can handle the heat on those.  I have a friend who will LOVE them.

Potatoes--Yes.  Potatoes. Even though last year's rotted in the soil, I'm going to try again.  I've grown them before and they are definitely worth the effort.

Tomatillos--I know, I know.  I grew a crazy a bumper crop last year.  But one thing I noticed is no one at the farmer's market had them.  I think I might be able to sell them and make back some of the money spent on the garden this year.  Or maybe even trade for other goodies.

Mint--I may not have a choice in the matter.  I grew four kinds last year.  It may be back on its own. I hear it's famous for that.

Garlic--Already in the ground!  I've never fall planted garlic before.  We shall see how that goes.  I've noticed as I poke through the garden on warmer days that the garlic sprouts are green and lovely in spite of the cold.

Additionally, I want a small stand of corn, assorted squashes (zucchini will be required because I found the best muffin recipe),  melons (Moon & Stars hopefully), eggplant, pole beans, and some others that have slipped my mind but are written down.  In a notebook.  In the other room.  Clear over there.

So lazy.

Much of this plan is contingent upon getting a couple more raised beds ready to go by late spring for the last of the planting.  I am hopeful. 

Oh, and there's the greenhouse to get going.  I can't wait to see how that works out.

Meanwhile, I have seed catalogs to wear out.  Life is good.

360 Degree July Garden Tour--2013 Edition

Phew!  Still hot! Not 360 degrees, but 97 is pretty warm. Yesterday was a scorcher!  So I spent my day indoors looking at and editing a whole slew of pictures I took of the garden inhabitants over the last week or so.  Let's start in the back garden where I have the vegetables growing.

Okay, so these aren't technically growing anymore.  Lying here on the edges of my Top Hat Blueberry bushes drying in the sun is but a mere portion of the onions I planted this year.  I planted them in three waves about 2 weeks apart and guess what?  They're all coming on at the same time anyway.  That's the last time I try that.  In the background, you can see where the bush beans will be emerging any time now.

This is the boatload of shallots that I got from the 12 or so sets I bought in the spring.  Note the cutting edge, high tech drying tray.  Can you tell I made it myself from an old trash can lid and a brick to keep it from sailing away in the wind?  Nothing but the best.

If you look a little left-ish from the onion drying station, you'll find where some of the onions had been growing and some still are, a respectable stand of volunteer dill and my potato buckets that have been re-purposed for cucumbers and tiny pumpkins.  I have created a 'trellis' by drilling holes in the edge of the buckets and running twine from there up to the edge of the patio cover.  Since I took this picture, the cucumbers in the two right hand buckets have grown at least a foot.

Against all the odds of a crazy spring and summer, I have an actual tomato.  I have spent a little time wondering if I would get any.  Apparently, I will get at least one little Roma.

Here we find a close up shot of the coleus I started from seed.  It was called 'Rainbow Mix' but all the coleus are pretty much exactly the same.  What are the odds?  Not much of a mix, if you ask me.

On the back arbor, I have hung four little planters with begonias, white petunias and moss rose.  An odd combination, I know.  I just went to the garden center and picked out the plants I liked the best.  This is what I wound up with.

The white petunias.  You can't tell in this pic, but there is a slight pink cast around the edges.

 

 

 

A particularly nice moss rose blossom

Look behind you and you'll see what might be the silliest garden thing I've ever done.  Yes.  That's corn.  It's a special variety called Corn On Deck and I got it online from Burpee.  I can't say I can recommend it though.  I got a package of 30 seeds and planted them according to the instructions.  This is all I got.  Admittedly, they are starting to tassel but whether or not I get any corn at all remains to be seen. And no, Burpee didn't pay me to say those things or give me the seed.  As much as it pains me to admit it, I bought it myself.  Let's step over to the berry bed.

These are the first raspberries I've ever grown.  They are black raspberries.  The tiny handful that I got were delicious.  Continuing on around the corner we find my second tomato bed.

The plants are still small but they are sturdy and there are blossoms forming.  I am always impatient for tomato season to begin.  This year has been torture.  That gigantic plant on the left side is my tomatillo plant(s).  Lots of sweet little yellow flowers but no fruit yet.  The marigolds in the front are from seedlings I started in March.

In the foreground here, my much anticipated asparagus plants have sprouted!  All but one of the crowns I planted has come up.  I was expecting a 50% survival rate, so this is unprecedented.  Looks like we'll have a good bed if they all make it through the winter.

 Just look what the cabbage loopers have done to my brussels sprouts!  I am constantly on the lookout for these tiny green menaces and my response is swift and squishy.  Next year, the brussels sprouts get the row cover treatment instead of the squashes.

A wider shot of the fence in progress.  Yes, the white chairs are for sitting and admiring the work so far.  Come around to the front yard.  There are some really great flowers to see there.

RAWR!!!

This is what I've been waiting to get to!  My hen n' chicks have flowered!  I've seen many beds of these succulent lovlies, but never any in flower.  They look FIERCE!

The most beautiful orange lilies I've ever grown.  The picture honestly does do not do them justice.  Stunning is the word.

On the other side of the bed we find bee balm in lavender.  This is the 'natural' color of these flowers.  It is just starting to come out in bloom now.

This is a hybrid bee balm...I've forgotten the variety just now.  I should write these things down.  This blossom is past its prime, but the red is spectacular!

Due to the fence construction activity, I've had to relocate my potted peppers.  Here they are sitting on the end of the driveway.  Lots of leaves and not many flowers yet.  But their time is coming.

On the fence around the kennel area are these two hanging pots with impatiens and coleus.  I did not start these from seed.  Aren't they beautiful?

Well, I guess that's it.  Good thing too as it's getting hot again.  What does your garden look like in the middle of summer?