Seedlings Looking Good

It's time to start thinking about a spring garden! If you haven't started thinking about what varieties you will plant this year, you'd better get busy. Even if you aren't lucky enough to enjoy Arizona's year round gardening weather, Jan/Feb is the perfect time to order seed catalogs and begin making garden plans. 

I like to order my seeds from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds, located in Mansfield, MO, and have been doing so for years, simply because of the varieties of non-GMO seeds that they offer. On a side note, they actually have a Spring Planting Festival in May every year. I would LOVE to go, and one of these years I will make the effort. 

A few weeks ago, I spent a lovely afternoon getting my little seedlings planted in their cute little pots. (I love that color! It's my fave...) The tomato varieties that I started on 1-16-2015 are all starting to get their 2nd leaves. That means that I can start giving them liquid food once a week or so, until they are ready to go out in the garden at the end of the month. They are happy in their little greenhouse and our weather here in Arizona is going to be 80 degrees by Saturday, so if that holds through the month, it will be perfect for these little guys to get transplanted out into their permanent home in the garden.

As you can see in the picture above, the sugar snap peas really are going for it. I probably should have just put them right into the garden, except last year I fought with the birds over them, & I wasn't into that this year. (The birds thought they should be eaten & I didn't!) I actually had to replant those little guys 3 times until I got smart and put covers over them. This year, I've been working to redo some of the beds in the garden, so I decided to just start them indoors, which would actually save me the effort of having to replant them or cover them. They've been fine, but today, with the weather so nice, I decided to start the hardening off process so they can be transplanted. If you don't know what that means, hardening off is when you put your seedlings out into the weather they will be in, for a few hours a day, just to give them a gradual adjustment to the wind & sun, and being out of their protected little environment they've been in. If you don't do this, they actually take offense, and go into a much longer shock period. Well, that's all for today.

Happy gardening!

Summer Projects

Our youngest son really wanted his room updated to an older style. Since we moved in and decorated it when he was 4, the decor didn't really reflect an almost 13 year old boy's look. So, in the middle of June, which wasn't probably very smart, considering the hot temperatures, we began to take his room apart. This consisted of removing the old sports border (FUN), and repainting. We liked the look of old boards, so we purchased some pickets at our local hardware store, and began the long process of sanding and staining them. I calculated out that we would need about 40 boards for the one wall, and so we began with 10 to make it seem doable for Rylan (& for me, in the heat). I didn't realize how a 12 year old probably doesn't even know how to turn the sander on, so after we did some basic shop instruction, the boy did a great job sanding all the boards and then staining them. (His older brother also got some instruction and ended up helping as well, but he is not pictured here.)

We chose about 5 colors of stain, and below is how it started to look after the first day. The smell of stain was strong, but we loved it!!

Rylan wanted a more modern looking bed, and as he had a queen size, it did take up a lot of the room. We listed his bed on Craig's list to see what would happen. Sure enough, it sold. We kept his nightstand and I took one day to refinish that, although I don't have a picture of it on hand. We also refinished the desk, and that was done in a hurry, so I can't say it looks fabulous, but I can say it's done. Sometimes that is all that matters!! 

We purchased a new bed that was a full in a platform style, and then I had the boys help me put it together. 

From beginning to end, from removing the border and purchasing a new bed, the entire project took us about 3 weeks. I have to say, it was definitely worth it! Rylan loves it, and so do I. 

In a few days we will be visiting my sister, who has a little munchkin boy & a busy girlie. We are taking a little something for each of them, and so today my helpful hubby assisted me in making this little stacker. I love how it turned out! It is made from (bottom to top), ash, cherry, walnut, & teak woods, all hand finished with organic jojoba oil. It was a very easy project, taking about an hour from start to finish, & I know my sister will love it, too.

The garden is growing away, without much attention from me, since it is hot as you know what out there. However, this is a picture of the biggest tomato we have gotten off, yet! A whopper of a tomato, if you ask me, at 1 pound, 23 ounces! These yellow tomatoes are very tasty, and I find them a little less acidic that some of the other varieties. 

Happy gardening, & keep cool!

Spring Garden Happenings

The days have been so incredibly full, that there simply hasn't been time enough to blog about how full the day is! 

I love this time of year...everything about it is my favorite! The citrus blossoms are just beginning to fade, but walking outside is amazing (as long as you don't have allergies, which I thankfully don't). The asparagus seems to grow 6 in. a day, and the bunch you see just above were picked in 2 days. Sometimes, I go out in the am and pick some, and then in the evening end up picking more. Asparagus never gets tiresome for anyone in my family. We always enjoy the weeks filled with asparagus for dinner. 

The other day, I was working in the herb bed and I looked over and went to pull a weed, but then thought, "That looks like asparagus!" And sure enough, it must have been a seedling, flown over on the wind from the asparagus bed. I called my boys over and asked them what they thought it looked like, and both of them said, "Asparagus." And those are my boys! They know their veggies! 

We have peas galore coming off the vines. I do really like them, steamed fresh with butter, but I am getting a tad tired of them, I have to admit. Derek tells me he likes them just fine, and then I catch him texting the neighbor that they are not his favorite and does the neighbor need any. Nice, Derek.

Can you see it! I just cannot believe what I found today on the banana tree. SLUGS! Not good! And I have to admit, I find them incredibly disgusting. I am going to have to get on this problem!

This is a pic of the snapdragons. I love them so much. They remind me of my grandma. Today I picked some to bring in the house, and my nephew disappeared. I went back out to find him and caught him picking all the flowers off the stalks and throwing them at the chickens. Lovely. And then, in his grubby little hands, he carried some of the blossoms around and sniffed them and sniffed them. Silly boy! He knows what he likes!

So, I am trying this new type of trellis to stake the tomatoes. Not sure it will work for them, but it's worth a shot! Number one son, Casey, put these together for me in a couple of minutes, and then they simply were pushed into the garden bed in between a couple rows of tomatoes. The tomatoes are just beginning to set blossoms on and I can hardly wait for those little babies to be ready.

This picture right here exhibits why you should never ever buy a single zucchini plant from the store. I planted this little guy from seed 2 1/2 weeks ago. They really are the size of a plant I would buy at the garden center. And so much cheaper. 

Happy Gardening!

Starting to get ready...(this post should have been posted on July 18)

[caption id="attachment_166" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Tomato Hornworm"][/caption]

So, I remember myself saying that,thank heavens I haven't had any tomato hornworms, and lo and behold, what do I see staring right back into my face? You guessed it! The dreaded hornworm! I really could only find one, but it had made a great meal of the tomato plants so out the tomato plants have come. Unfortunatly, most of the heat had done them in.

So, out with the old, in with the new! It's time to get ready for fall. YAY! My little tomato starts had to be restarted so they are about 10 days old right now, and looking good. All but 2 have sprouted. Which is a pretty great percentage, all in all. I hope to have some nice plants for next month. We shall see. I keep rotating them in the south facing window and in the mornings I put them out on the back patio. So they seem to be doing fine,with that.

Last year, in the winter, I decided to start some plants early, because I really had the spring planting bug, and all the plants sprouted, did fine, and looked wonderful. For about a month. Then, they all started wilting and dying. I discovered that they actually need some air blowing over them, like they would if they were outside, because otherwise they get wilt. Interesting.

[caption id="attachment_167" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Melon growing up a trellis."][/caption]

The melons (canteloupe and watermelon) are really going to town right now! Love it! I discovered last year if I could just hold them through the squash bugs and the heat, that in late July early August, they would really take off. And that has held true this year again. So, my advice, when they look like they can't hack it anymore, baby them along, and they will reward your efforts with more melons! Awesome little plants. I have a variety of melons out there right now. And the melon in the picture above just got picked yesterday. Tasted wonderful, too.

[caption id="attachment_168" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Zucchini"][/caption]

These new little zucchini plants are doing fine. And just when I was congratulating myself on gettng all those dreaded squash bugs, what do I find infesting one of my little plants? More of them. I am telling you, these things are everywhere. I just keep picking them off and putting them in my little jar and this does seem to be a good way of killing them, but not preventing them. How about a magic wand?

I used my first compost the other day in the old tomato bed. I pulled out some new compost from the bottom and integrated it into the bed. I think that bed needs some calcium. A few of the tomatoes had blossom end rot, which I think means the soil needs some calcium. That compost had some egg shells in it, so hopefully that will help.

 According to Mary Irish, in her book, "Gardeing in the Desert Southwest, you can plant fast maturing corn right now. So, that is what went into the old tomato bed. I haven't really had much luck with corn fertilizing very well, eve though they are planted 4 across, 12 long. That should be sufficient according to all the literature I have read. I will let you know how it turns out. They are all just sprouting right now. I love to see those little plants poking themself up out of the dirt. I love to go out and count how many have come up since yesterday.

Last week I FINALLY got my automatic watering system put in. It works fabulous, except I need to adjust the length of time, I think. It's only watering about 1 inch depth, instead of 2-3. But it does save me about an hour a day. Which is great, if you ask me.

With the kids back in school, and the weather not quite as hot, I am finding myelf thinking about what I will plant in October. Time to plan...

Seed Starting Time

Believe it or not, fall is just around the corner (I say that sort of tongue-in-cheek as we are definately in the throes of the summer heatwave). At least, I am dreaming it is. And with the fall, I will be starting some new tomato plants. Some people just cut theirs back and keep them, as they really aren't annuals, although we treat them as if they were. But I always seem to do better with new plants, so that is what I am doing. I definately still have lots of new green fruit on the ones I have, so I won't be pulling them out any time soon. However, I am thinking I would like these new plants to be plenty big by September, so I am starting seeds now. I am starting seeds instead of buying plants at the nursery, because I have decided that I really do prefer the flavor of heirloom tomatoes. It is so hard to describe the difference, but take my word for it, they are so much better. And because it is hard to find heirloom tomato plants, although it can be done, I am starting mine from seed. I have purchased some of my seed from local stores and some I have ordered from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds at this link: http://rareseeds.com/ And I recently came across this wonderful pdf file at http://www.maryjanesfarm.org/farmgirl-connection/. If you haven't seen Mary Jane's Farm magazine, it is definately one to check out. Love it! And they have an awesome forum. You do have to become a "farmgirl" but since I consider myself one that is living in the city, that was easy! The pdf file link is: http://www.feldoncentral.com/garden/CaseysHeirloomTomatoesofAirdrie.pdf. It is full of really great pics of heirloom tomatoes. Love it too!

Listing of tomato plants started today in peat pots inside:

German Red Strawberry

Rutgers

Brandywine

Green Zebra

Sweetie

Big Beef

Sioux

Looking forward to watching them sprout!

Let's talk tomatoes!

[caption id="attachment_132" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Oodles of Tomatoes!"][/caption]

It has been such a long time since my last post, but I have been so busy in the garden and canning, with everything else, that there hasn't been a lot of time left for blogging! I have canned a total of 28 quarts of tomatoes so far. My family swears they hate tomatoes, and I have to constantly remind them that they LOVE salsa and spaghetti sauce and homemade soup, all of which require tomatoes. They sure have been wonderful to eat as a salad on their own and on a sandwich. Just thinking about it makes my mouth water...

June in the garden in Arizona is HOT, but today was a wonderfully overcast day and only in the 90's. YAY! So, I did a little cleaning up and found a HUGE armenian cucumber! It was so huge I had to cut it in half to get it out from under the topiary I had them growing on. Of course, since it was about 6 inches in diameter, it was just big and pretty much hollow. So, I gave it to the chickens and they have been pecking at it all day!

Apricots are coming off like crazy right now. My in-laws have one tree that is covered. I received a bag of apricots from my sister-in-law and turned them into jam. That will be pretty tasty mixed with some honey and soy sauce and put over some pork to slow cook. Maybe I will cook that on Sunday for dinner.

Clean up in the garden today:

-pulled out the spent zucchini plants

-cleaned all the leaves out from under the eggplant

-fertilized the bell pepper plants (they needed it terribly)

-replanted cucumber (for pickles), melon & pumpkin

-harvested bush bean seeds for next year

-picked all the tomatoes off that were ripe

-harvested all the onions & few carrots that were left

-gave everything a good soak

-turned the compost pile

I can hardly wait for my new planters to arrive next week so I can put some zinnia seeds in them. It doesn't feel like summer to me without zinnias.

I am on the hunt for some comfrey seeds because my daughter wants to grow some for her horse.  I've never grown it before, but if she is interested in it, we will try it...The things we do for our kids.

Until next time, happy growing.