Been A While

Over the last month and a half, I have been documenting my garden's progress through photos, however I have not been very good about organizing them or posting them!  I've been having way too much fun outside, and by the time I come in from time in the heat and sun, I'm beat!

I will be playing "catch up" with this post so that I can get back on track.....

 My birthday was in early June, and one of my favorite presents is my blue-topped gnome.  I think he has brought some serious good luck to my garden.  I have only fought one huge battle against aphids this year.  Heirloom varieties, which I have planted many of, are more susceptible to diseases and pests.  In late May, I discovered that aphids were making themselves at home on my tomatoes.  After consulting the internet and a local organic farmer, I decided to make some insecticidal soap.  I costs a fortune in garden shops, but there are plenty of recipes online.  Here is the recipe I used:


1 tablespoon Murphy's soap
3 tablespoons of Tabasco (with family from Louisiana, we have plenty of this around)
1 quart of water

I sprayed the heck of out my tomato plants, and found that it was much better to spray in the evenings.  With the Tabasco lingering on the leaves when the sun was out, the leaves started to wilt a bit.  After about two weeks of spraying, I saw very few live aphids.  I feel a little guilty to admit that I relished in the sight of shriveled little aphid bodies after spraying.  Alright, not THAT guilty.  In the end, I won.  Here are the tomatoes in early June.....

 Lots of little yellow blossoms = lots of tomatoes!

 

 Here's a beauty in the making.  This one's a Beefsteak; not an heirloom variety, but a delicious old standby!

Here's a look at some of the other things "growing on" in the garden......

Sweet bell peppers

I finally trained this cucumber vine to grow on a trellis so the cucumbers wouldn't grow on the ground.  I had trouble with cucumber beetles chomping on the cukes.  One morning, I had the crazy notion of putting the low-growing cuke in an empty spaghetti sauce jar to keep the bugs off.  When I went to check on it after a few days, I practically had to cut the cucumber out of the jar - it had grown to the point that I had to wiggle it out of the jar!

Not the best shot, but these are my squash and pumpkin (I think) plants.  A cousin of mine gave the the mystery plants, and judging from the size and shape of the leaves, I think they are pumpkins.  Something I never would have planted, but it will be a fun experiment!

Carrots!!

Our Minicor carrots ended up a little gnarled.  After we started seeds in peat pots, I read that carrot seed shouldn't be started in pots and then transplanted because they tend to grow crookedly.  Plus, I didn't thin them out and they grew a little too close together. 

Well, these carrots sure were not straight and pretty, but they were pretty cute.

Here is our first late spring harvest: cukes, carrots and red leaf lettuce!

Spring Blossoms

One of my favorite things to do in the spring is to wander around the yard to look at all of the little changes that occur each day.  I'm almost obsessive about it.  Recently, I have been researching a good DSLR camera to take action shots of Olivia playing field hockey or at her piano recitals and such.  My mom kindly allowed me to borrow hers to see if I like it.  I have absolutely loved having a camera that can capture the life in the garden with such detail.  Looking through the photos I realize that I have taken way more photos of the plants in my life than the people in my life.......

Mr. Hunter, the original owner of our house, loved roses.  The neighbor across the street who lived in our neighborhood for 25+ years said that Mr. Hunter used to have the most beautiful roses around.  The bushes and shrubs went uncared for for many years, but I am trying to restore our house's rosy reputation.

Mr. Hunter also loved hydrangeas.  I have been documenting the budding and blooming of our blue bushes in the backyard.  The tiny clusters of flowers remind me of sweet butterflies ready to take flight.

All of the other flowers in the yard have been planted by me or by my mom's secret plantings.  Not having a much of a yard at her house, occasionally my mom will come over while I'm at work to dig, weed, or plant.  It's a terrific surprise to come home to a weeded flower bed and a few new plants!

A new clematis that will soon be winding around the newly placed mailbox (courtesy of Will).

Beautiful columbine blooms in my not-so-shady shade bed.

Lacy foxglove - I recently discovered (through the curriculum I teach) that foxglove is a biennial.  It only blooms in its second year of life, and then it dies.  Seeing that it has beautiful flowers now, I think I'm looking at a dead plant blooming.

Nasturtiums are planted in between my camellias (another Mr. Hunter favorite).  The bright orange blossom echoes the silhouette of its satellite dish-shaped leaves.  It is the most fun to water the nasturtiums and to watch the water bead up on the leaves as if they were made of glass.  Only a person obsessed with their garden would say that is the "most fun."

I have to say that Maggie is almost as obsessive about being out in the yard as I am.  Here she is taking a whiff of the dianthus planted in the front yard.  Being that dianthus really doesn't have a scent, I have a feeling the neighborhood tease (aka: cat) has continued with her evil taunts.

Progress

It may not seem like much to some, but I truly love to watch the tiny changes that happen each day in the garden.  It is those tiny changes that, one day, amount to progress!  My one shady bed that has radishes, lettuce mixes, and shallots was partly hand seeded and partly filled with transplants that we grew from seed.
 

We took great pride in digging the rows and placing the seeds one by one (and, sometimes, handful by handful).  Olivia had the great idea of using old tent stakes as labels. 

The radishes were the first to really take off.  Radishes could grow on the surface of the moon.  To me, they're like the Sylvester Stallone of veggies - they never give up.  I harvested about 10 of them last night; it was the first time I had ever eaten one.  I had no idea how bitter they were.  Guess it goes to show how tough radishes really are.

As the weeks passed,  I was a little more worried about the lettuce.  The seeds germinated pretty sparsely, so most of the lettuce was transplanted from the greenhouse (aka glassed in mudroom).   The seedlings were pretty leggy so I had a hard time keeping the leaves off of the ground.  This proved to be a problem especially when I was watering them.  The leaves would stick to the soil and begin to rot over time. So when I watered the lettuce, I had to go back and pick up each individual leaf off of the ground.

Things were still looking at little weak after a couple of weeks.  We had some cold nights and lots of rain.  On one of our dry days I decided to side-dress the bed.  I took some of the horse poo and spread it between the rows of veggies.  I then turned it into the soil.

Maybe it was luck, maybe it was the poo, but we now have some beautiful lettuce coming in!

Making My Bed(s)

I happened to inherit two raised beds when we moved into our house a year and a half ago.  The previous owner was quite a gardener, but after his passing, his children let the garden "grow."  A large tree now towers over of one the beds and shades all of it, rendering it useless for growing veggies.  The second bed gets partial shade, and I have been moderately successful with radishes and lettuce mixes.  My inner farmer screams, "Cut the damn tree down - it's really just an overgrown weed!"  But, the mother in me delights in watching my daughter climb to its top branches too much, and the tree stays.  Sunshine hog.

So, I decided to build my own beds.  I started with one and began digging the sod up and putting in a pile.  My original thought was to remove all of the sod and fill the inevitable hole with store-bought garden soil.  After about four feet into the bed, I realized what a waste all of the sod was.  Sure, I could throw it in the compost bin, but why not use it in the beds?  So, I replaced the sod I had dug up, but I turned it upside down so the grass was facing down and the dirt was facing up.  Being a worm-lover, this method also ensured I wasn't tossing out any of the critters.

Next, I covered the upside down sod with newspaper.  It will serve as an organic weed barrier.  I've done some research, and I feel confident that the inks used in our local paper are soy-based and of no threat to the soil.  I used a watering can to wet the newspaper for two reasons: to attract worms and to keep it from blowing away. 

Once the newspaper was down, I covered it with a layer of garden soil.  The bed was becoming a bare-bones lasagna garden.

Then I carted in a wagon full of composted horse poo to fold into the garden soil.  It's amazing how rich and soil-like the poo is.  To quote a cousin of mine who once owned a horse, "It's only hay!"

The bed was made and it was time to plant.  Two beds are now filled with 7 heirloom varieties of tomatoes, including Yellow Rainbows which are supposed to be absolutely beautiful.. Can't wait to see them.  Olivia loves peppers, so we bought 6 varieties of heirloom peppers including Sweet Chocolates.  I hope she isn't too disappointed when she tries one, and it doesn't taste like a Hershey's bar.  Olivia did the honors of planting the peppers and "tucking them in" to the bed.

We ordered our tomato and pepper seedlings from Seed Savers Exchange, a non-profit organization that saves heirloom seeds that can be passed down through the generations.  Why heirloom seeds?  I'll have to save that discussion for another time.

Once I had all three beds planted, several of the neighbors came to see what we were doing.  The woman next door, who's about 70 or so asked, "Why on earth are you digging up perfectly good grass?"  My reply: "I can't eat the grass."  And so we continue to dig......

Urban Farmer?

 
Close your eyes and imagine.....the rooster crows as the sun peeks over the horizon.  Acres of wheat and other grains in perfect rows glisten with the morning dew.  The brick red barn houses the cows, pigs, and horses who are beginning to stir.  The farmer straps on his overalls, dons his straw hat, and laces his boots.  He mounts the gigantic green John Deere tractor, cranks the engine, and begins his daily work.  The white picket fence keeps all of this farming ideal in check. 

I am not a part of this ideal.  This farmer wears flip flops.  I wake up to the blaring of an alarm clock, and walk out to the yard to tend my farm.  With my daughter's red Radio Flyer wagon in tow, I weed the beds and use my state-of-the-art irrigation system to give everyone a drink.  Three backyard 2' x 12' plots of lettuce, radishes, shallots, and tomatoes all wait to greet me.  The strawberries in the front of the house are beginning to flower, assuring me that there will be beautiful red berries to enjoy.  Herbs grow in between hydrangeas, and will soon be delicious compliments to the tasty veggies on the way.

My desire is to become more self-sufficient and to reduce the number of miles my family's food travels before we consume it.  Though I have much to learn about the food growing process, I am an urban farmer.