Tag Archives: gardening

Jun25

Today in our garden…

Posted on June 25, 2012 by jaspenelle

Cherries and snap peas!

So climbing on one’s aluminium shed to pick a couple handfuls of cherries was probably not the wisest choice (when you step on the wrong part and it sounds exactly like a beer can sloooowly crushing eeeep) but it was still totally worth it for the first ripe cherries of the season.

Also, I have potentially identified our other fruit trees. I am certain three are apples (the little apples give it away) and the other two seem to have as-of-yet-unripened apricots on them. Ohpleaseohpleaseohplease be apricots!

May24

Recycled Seed Starting Trays

Posted on May 24, 2012 by Andrea

Recycled Seed Starting Trays

Here is another guest post by the lovely Andrea Parrish. She writes here on occasion to scratch a blogging itch she has, but otherwise lacks the time to dedicate to a full time blog (probably because she has a day job and several personal businesses.) She is a fellow bicycle commuter, whole/slow/natural food advocate, entrepreneur and all together brilliantly creative woman, not to mention one of my very best friends.

Lately, my husband and I have found ourselves going through apples (and other fruit) at a prodigious rate. This could be due to the fact it’s Spring again, or it could be my rediscovered love of green smoothies. Either way, we’ve ended up with several of these apple cases from our local CostCo. When putting them out for recycling, I realized that their size and shape would likely make them perfect little greenhouses to start our seeds in. So, in early April, that’s exactly what we decided to give a try.

First, we used an icepick to poke a single hole in the bottom of each depression for drainage. Then we filled that half with soil, buried the seeds, and misted heavily with a spray bottle. Then we closed the top to create a little mini-greenhouse, and stored away the trays in our seed starting room (yay for artificial sun!). The spot where the apple trays had been labeled made for a very convenient spot to label the trays to keep everything organized. We misted the seeds once a day, and generally waited. It only took a few days, and soon we had seedlings.

As soon as the seedlings started to get too tall, we used twigs to prop the tops open a bit, so there was still a greenhouse effect, but to give them some room to breathe. Propping the tops open also allowed us to put a very gentle fan on the seedlings, so they would develop stronger stalks. The design of the trays meant the pressure from the fan wasn’t evenly spaced, but it did still help.

By transplant day, most of the seedlings appeared to be doing very well. Almost everything germinated, and we discovered that the shallow, scooped design of the trays made pulling the seedlings out for transplanting very easy. These transplants also seem to be doing slightly better than the “traditionally” grown transplants in deeper pots. Our best guess is this is because the roots are so much closer to the soil, and it is naturally loosened up, that it’s growing into the surrounding ground more easily. Or it could be a fluke, since not everything was done in a perfectly controlled environment. Either way, however, we are definitely going to pack up these trays and continue to use them. Recycled, sturdier than the flimsy “seed starting” trays you can buy, and easier to handle. I call this experiment a success.

Now if only the birds didn’t pick out half the seedlings their first day out in the garden. Sigh.

Apr26

Oh. My. Goodness.

Posted on April 26, 2012 by jaspenelle

Oh. My. Goodness.

In the closet of the craft room downstairs, we have our tomato starts. My son is the self appointed waterer of said starts and does so every night before bedtime. Sometimes he even blows kisses them goodnight and wishes them sweet dreams.

As if that was not heart meltingly sweet enough, two nights ago he noticed the old guitar (missing string and all) in the corner of the craft room and asked if he could play the tomatoes a song. I let him. Soooo heart melting. He did it again this evening and I couldn’t resist snagging a photo.

I think he sings to the tomatoes in the most adorable random way only a four year old boy can summon.

“Goooodniiight Matoesss. Sweeet dreamsss. I luuuvs yoou!” some random guitar playing “I luvs the suns, you luvs it alsos… and waters ‘n stuffs. Goooodnight Matoesss, luuuvs yooous.”

Oh. My. Goodness.

Be still my Mommy heart.

We have quite possibly the most loved tomato plants in the entire world.

Apr22

Spring Flowers

Posted on April 22, 2012 by jaspenelle

Spring Flowers

I have two flowering trees of unspecified type on our property. I assume they are of the fruiting variety since “fruit trees” were on the house listing when we purchased this place, but I really don’t know. I have a fair degree of certainty that the ones in the top left photo are apple blossoms, but really no clue about the other two. (They might not even be fruit trees for all I know.)

Even if they don’t bare fruit, I think all three trees are utterly gorgeous, and if they do, bonus!

Mar14

Planting Peas

Posted on March 14, 2012 by jaspenelle

Planting Peas

We built a prepped the soil, built a trellis and planted our first crop of the year (and of this new home) the other day, Amish Snap Peas! We have planted them for the past two years and love them. The climbing vines easily top seven feet and are really prolific if kept picked. I have us down for harvesting six pounds off our vines last year but I am fairly certain it is double that as the children eat so many when we pick them. In another couple weeks we will be planting another trellis with more of them. I like staggering their planting so we don’t get too many to use or preserve at once (And Spring’s unpredictability does not wipes them all out.)

We also planted calendula seeds and Tom Thumb dwarf peas along the garden fence line. SpaceFox loves Tom Thumb. though they are not overly productive he likes their small size and he thinks shelling peas is fun (enjoy it while it lasts, I know.) We planted some in a big pot again this year for the kitchen table (we did this last year too.) I hope they sprout by Ostara.

Have you started planting yet?

Jul24

All Blue Potatoes

Posted on July 24, 2011 by jaspenelle

All Blue Potatoes

This Spring I ordered All Blue seed potatoes from Seed Savers Exchange. They have been growing vigorously and just finished flowering a couple weeks ago. That means we can start to dig up a few baby potatoes. So of course we did. I am surprised on how nice and large some of them are already! Some of them have an odd pitting on them; I am not sure if they just have a lot of eyes or if it is something else. (I’ve never grown potatoes before.) But most are smooth and lovely.

They were so purple when I sliced them that they even stained my hands. Once they started cooking though they turned darker and darker blue, until when done they were almost navy blue. I cooked them simply: olive oil, garlic, salt and pepper. Tasty tatters they were! Assuming the rest of the crop yields well, I see can see us growing these again. SpaceFox is completely in love with them, and he is not even a fan of potatoes. Granted him planting, watching them grow and now harvesting and helping me cook them has a way of making him love a vegetable no other persuasion has.

We also harvested garlic and carrots this weekend, but I’ll talk about that in another post. How does your garden grow?

Nov5

Planting Garlic

Posted on November 5, 2010 by jaspenelle

Planting Garlic

One of the large raised bed to the left, Damian's raised bed to the right.

A couple weeks ago Damian and I planted garlic. This is my first time trying to grow it though it is a favorite of mine in the kitchen. I ordered my garlic a couple months ago from Green Wave Gardens in Northport, WA. I had met one of the owners at the Spokane Farmers Market and, proving that customer service is of utmost importance, loved how kind and helpful he was. Helps that their organic heirloom vegetables are delicious too.

Music.

I spent a lot of time settling on the varieties I wanted to grow in my limited space. I really wanted to try both a hardneck and softneck variety that I had tried. Green Wave Gardens grows over 40 heirloom varieties of garlic, so I had lots to chose from. I finally settled on Music and Inchelium.

Now for the ordering drama, cuz every tale needs a plot twist apparently. I misread my order form, which had a one pound minimum amount, and only ordered half a pound of Inchelium as they were sold out of Music. A lovely lady at Green Wave Gardens called me to let me know my error but told me she would take my shipping money and put it towards another half pound of garlic, if I would just pick it up at the farmers market the following week. I jumped at this but asked if there were reaaally out of Music. Low and behold, they were not! Turns out they had some extra and she happily packed up half a pound for me.

Inchelium.

Woot! It never hurts to ask.

A little about the varieties I chose. Music is a porcelain hardneck garlic, which have large, single layered symmetrical cloves. Of some importance to me, porcelain garlic also produces large scapes (flower stalks) which are one of my favorite lesser known foods (mmmm stirfry.) Music is supposedly one of the best producing porcelains, especially with our colder winters. It also stores exceptionally well when properly cured. Flavor wise it is fairly hot when raw and quite sweet when roasted. It is my favorite garlic for raw eating, especially in pesto. (Note To Self: grow more basil next year.)

My other chosen variety was Inchelium, an artichoke softneck garlic, which have very large outer cloves as well as a row of smaller inner cloves. Artichoke varieties produce no scapes (bummer) but more then make up for it in flavor. They are apparently quite easy to grow too. Inchelium is a variety developed in our area on the Colville Reservation and also stores exceptionally well. It is much milder then Music raw, but that is not why I am growing it, it is my very favorite garlic for roasting.

I followed the planting instructions given to me by Green Wave Gardens, and now it is just a waiting game. I really hope they do well, not just because it is taking up a full forth of my raised bed space (and a corner of Damian’s bed) but also because I just really love garlic. Vampires beware.

Have you grown garlic before?