Seed Hoarder

I had actually meant to start a few seeds inside in March but it seemed that time kept getting away from me. Today, with only a few weeks to go before when I should be transplanting I took some time, pulled out my seeds, and began to plant.

I love the smell and feel of the potting soil. The colors on the seed packets are always vibrant and make me long for the sweet smell of wet earth and fresh carrots.

I realized though when I pulled out my seed packets that I perhaps have a problem.


Hi. My name is Lacy and I'm a seed hoarder.

Every year I buy my seeds and instead of throwing out what I don't need or better yet, passing them on to others, I put them in Zip Lock baggies, label them and put them in the garden shed.

I was admittedly surprised packets of the same kinds of seeds purchased year after year for now three years in a row. (I'm looking at your Green Beans) Frankly, it was a little embarrassing.

I also noticed that my gardening know how and ability seem to have increased.

When I first started I just grabbed whatever seeds in the garden store looked interesting. Not sure what I was thinking when I bought jalapeno seeds. I don't even LIKE jalapenos!

Now I only purchase heirloom seeds and I think long and hard about how I want to eat what I grow. I wont plant lettuce again since my family are not big salad eaters. We love cucumbers though and I think we need a few more plants around here of those.

This year I'm trying a couple of new things. I'm going to try and grow watermelon and another kind of melon. I've added garlic.

And I threw out the old seeds. Anything from 2010 just had to go. A couple of the 2011's went too.

And I planted tomatoes. Amish Paste and Fox Cherry. I also planted mini yellow peppers. Just for fun. (And because Kylie and Lizzie will eat them.)

Veggiepalooza 2012! Viva la Tomato!

That groundhog is a liar

We had had a very mild winter, despite the pictures in my previous post with all the snow pictures. This weekend while Micah and I were cleaning the backyard of the dog "presents" and old leaves it dawned on my to check my garlic.

There's something I never thought I'd say. Check my garlic. Almost sounds like code for something else coming from me doesn't it?

Anyways, last fall, probably in October, I decided to expand my gardening horizons and picked up three varieties of garlic and then promptly forgot which kinds I had picked up.

In any case I planted them in my half whiskey barrels and walked away. Leaves collected in the barrel and I thought nothing of it really until Sunday.

Sunday I looked in the barrel and initially saw nothing. Which good because it's early March and the chance for snow here is pretty high. I learned that at the end of April 2 years ago when a large snow storm hit after I had transplanted all my peas and tomatoes.

Then, upon closer examination I started to notice a little green.





I've tried to cover them with some leaves but they refuse to be denied sunlight. I truly feel sick to my stomach that they are growing in so early but can hardly blame them. Today we hit 70 degrees at a time when the average temperature is around 54 degrees. So it makes sense that the garlic bulbs think they have hit the jackpot and are sprouting early.

After all, they aren't alone. I found this stowaway in my larger raised beds. This must have been a pea that dropped and hid at some point and has now decided to sprout WAY ahead of schedule.


My yard work assistants were pretty intrigued with all the green. Wilbur offered to help "pick" while Lizzie Lou just wanted to hear what all could be eaten with garlic.



I hope our lovely weather continues because I'd really like for all my plants to live. I really hope that groundhog was a liar and there is no more winter.

Just in case I think I'll pick this weed...

Raised Garden Beds

My lack of ability to garden is sadly embarrassing considering my mother was a master when it came to getting plants to grow. Frankly I'm surprised my children have lasted as long as they have with the way I manage to turn growing things to brown things so quickly.

So of course it made sense last year for me to decide to begin trying to grow food.

Last year it was a few containers. I was very successful at cucumbers and mostly cherry tomatoes but I managed a few other items as well.

This year I decided to step it up and join the big leagues. Rex and Leslie were kind enough to design and build me (with some minor help from me and Micah) 2 sets of raised beds for my food garden.

Why raised beds? Well my yard is possibly the 5 circle of Hell for plant life with the dogs constantly digging and pooping etc. and so I struggle to grow weeds in the lawn area of my back yard. Vegetables just didn't stand a chance unless we raised them and fences them in for their own safety.

This is the beginning:


That's Micah showing a stubborn stump who owns this yard. You see that patch of green in front of him? That's the only spot where grass grows in that yard. Wanna guess where the dogs pee?

This is a rare moment of Leslie sitting down. Will assists with general supervision duties.



And this is the end product.


You see that roof between the two of them? That's a mini Pergola. My plan is to have my vining plants (I'm torn between cucumbers, green beans or sweet peas) climb up each side and hopefully over the top.

Each bed measures 12 feet long by 3 feet wide by 18 inches high (roughly).

That's a LOT of vegetables. I can't wait.

Do you know where your 'maters are?

What's that? Snow on the ground? Temperature is below freezing? Bah! It's spring if I ever felt it! So you know what that means right?

It's time for your FAVORITE annual series, Lacy's Vegetablepalooza!

This year I've toned down my excitement and am eagerly awaiting my raised beds, hopefully going in at the end of the month. *fingers crossed* That means that this year I have honed my focus and know what I want to grow instead of just haphazardly planting whatever I felt like.

Since a lot of my later season plans for canning involve tomatoes it only made sense to try and grow them. To that end today I planted 6 Amish Paste tomatoes, 1 cherry tomato, 1 plain old eating tomato and a pea plant. Just for funzies.


Hopefully in the next 2 weeks I'll have some sprouts. Then I'll be on my way to tomato sauce BABY!

So about those Christmas Gifts.....

Remember this summer when I was canning and I was trying to be all secretive due to people who would receive said canned items reading my blog.

Yeah.

That totally rocked.

I am a gift giving GENIUS. Tell your friends.

So for Christmas to close friends and family we gave what we referred to as our Canned Family. It was a basket of 6 items that represented each of us.

Mine was White Chocolate Raspberry Sauce


Micah's was Caramel Apple Butter. I don't have a picture of that lid because I bought the image online and so we don't have it anywhere I can display it. Sorry.

Ky's was Cinnamon Apple Sauce


Notice the ingredient "teen angst". So appropriate.

Lizzie's was Vanilla Strawberry Jam



Will's was Peach Butter


And Tasha and Molly had Peach Salsa


Really the only family member left out was Jason so hopefully next year I'll be creative enough to come up with something for him as well.

The baskets with the Canned Family were a big hit and it felt really good to give something local that I also knew would be used. To date I've received a couple of jars back and feel like this might be something I'd like to do next year.

Front Yard upgrade

Alternative title: My mother in law is Super Woman.

Micah had oral surgery on Tuesday to remove his tonsils and uvula and so weird stuff to his tongue and is home recovering. Because I have no more time off my mother in law has either stayed the night or come over every day to help him and me with the kids.

Yesterday he was napping, I was at work and the kids were all doing daycare like activities so she had a little extra time on her hands.

We had been talking about what I wanted for the front yard and she encouraged me to get some supplies (meaning she bought them for me) and if she had time she would work on it for me. I told her I wanted something visually appealing but that also was functional. Specifically I was wanting a kitchen herb/butterfly garden.

I say functional but really that's theoretical. I don't like kale, I don't know how to make echinacea with the cone flowers or do anything with the chamomile or calendula I plant to plant this spring.

We bought some shrubs for the rear of the area that were 40% off and then bought some cone flowers. Those are in the middle area. In the front we bought some mums (for color this year for fall) and some lovely kale.

I came home to find my front yard transformed from this (plus some overgrowth that had happened since this picture was taken):

to

I know it's hard to see (other than being able to tell it looks AMAZING) but my wonderful mother in law trimmed the massive stump in the front that was threatening to regrow multiple trees, dug up the edging bricks we had (in the decorative scallop shape), amended soil and filled in the baby pool sized hole we had in the middle, laid fabric, reapplied the bricks, dug at LEAST 9 holes with a PICK AXE because the soil up there is so crummy, planted my plants, laid mulch and moved heavy rocks and a planter as well as some decorative frogs.

While Micah was napping.

I feel awful because some days it's a miracle for me to fold a basket of laundry. Okay, most days laundry folding is a miracle and my mother in law accomplished all of that in the span of 8 hours or less and in 50 degree weather.

If you recall at the beginning of spring it looked like this:

So really, that is QUITE a transformation.

I feel like I keep telling her thank you and thank you but it isn't enough.

Garden Goodies

So it looks like my first foray into gardening has been a success.

I had cucumbers, although not many. Those are done now though.

My onions continue to grow although they are not going to be massive. I think that's the result of growing in a container with other items. Next year I'll put them in the ground in their own row.

My jalepeno peppers have FINALLY decided to come out and I've picked and used one so far in my peach salasa and have at least 4 or 5 on the plant still maturing.

My cherry tomato plant is ridiculus. I'm pulling ziplock baggies of red tomatoes off that thing twice a week. Sadly, I dont like cherry tomatoes so I've been giving them away after my children eat their fill.

My roma tomatoes have produced 1-2 smallish red fruits per week. Not enough to make sauce which makes me sad.

Mater's and Peno's.

This weekend we finally pulled a carrot from the garden. My helper ate it after we rinsed it off and its' short and stubby. Again, the result of it's container home I think.

Blueberries did not do anything this year (I didn't think they would) and my strawberries are now going crazy with runners but they aren't blooming. That's okay,we had a couple this spring.

Sure, we wont be living off the land this winter with massive food stores but overall it was pretty great watching things grow.

Colorado friends and family - look away

Okay you can read the first 6 paragraphs but then really, you have to stop reading. The safety of the world depends on it.

This Saturday my husband gave me the morning "off" and I went strawberry picking. I figured it would be like when I went in June which means they would be small and hard to find. I was SO wrong.

The berries were EVERYWHERE and they looked like this:

They were so plentiful that I hoped off the tractor that pulled myself and the other pickers our there that within 35 minutes or so I had an entire flat FULL of them. It looked like this:



I will say that it is considerably easier to pick berries that are large and everywhere without children than with. I was in the field a considerably small length of time than the groups with kids and had far more to show for it. Of course I didn't eat the product either and by the looks of some of the kids that's ALL they did.

I went back out into the field and picked another flat because I was certain one wouldn't be enough. In June when I made Jam I didn't have enough and had to buy strawberries at the farmers market for far too much money. I was determined to get enough. I got MORE than enough.

I also got a really bad sunburn. Turns out when I don't bring my children with me I get so excited that I forget to bring ANYTHING for myself and so didn't have any sunscreen with me. It's now Thursday (I picked on Saturday) and the back of my arms STILL are sore to the touch from the sunburn. Owwie.

Okay Colorado family and friends. Time to stop reading. Look away now.

Are you looking away? NO! You just read this line. For real now, I'm serious, look away.

Okay, are they gone?

So I'm making Strawberry Vanilla jam for Christmas gifts this year. From one FLAT of berries I produced 2 batches of jam. Really it's just a strawberry jam recipe with a vanilla bean cut in half, scraped and all stuff dumped into the pot to simmer. It tastes divine.

I made it in two sizes. 4 oz and 8 oz and Micah will be hopefully designing the labels for me soon.


Tell me that doesn't look yummy!

Two sizes. Also, if you look at the environment AROUND my jars you'll see a real microcosm of my life. Teething tables, dental checkup reminder and unopened mail on my counter.

This is the AMOUNT of jam I have so far. I still have the berries from another flat to process too.

I better hurry, raspberries are ready to be picked in 2 weeks at the farm and I'm looking forward to some raspberry jam as well!

Bounty

So last night I could no longer put off harvesting two of my tomatoes as they were a beautiful, bright red which meant they were calling to me "PICK ME NOW! TURN ME INTO GUACAMOLE WITH A NICE AVOCADO!"

They are loud tomatoes. It's the red.

So I picked two of them and a large cucumber. I was hoping to extend my cucumber picking a little longer but this one was good sized and it looked like my cucumber plant was struggling to grow others while providing for this monster.



That is TOTALLY not an upside down happy face that I can't figure out how to fix.

Okay maybe it is. I put the quarter there in the middle for the "nose" to give you an idea of size. I think I did pretty good overall.

Something about sun ripened, on the vine tomatoes smells so earthy and wonderful.

And now I need an avocado.

PS - those are Roma tomatoes which are better for making sauces. In case you thought they looked weird because they aren't so roundish.

Harvest

So my little container garden has started producing some kinds of food which is exciting for me. Exciting but not exactly filling.

You've already seen the first strawberries that we had.

Now behold, my first sugar snap pea.

For some idea of the actual size of this pea:

I ate it. I didn't even wash it. And it was sweet and tasty and I savored all 3 bites of that thing.

Luckily it appears my sugar snap peas have more pods growing on them so hopefully that's not the only pea I'll get for the year.

Also, this weekend Lizzie and I harvested these beauties:

Lizzie ate them all with no regard to me or my feelings.* She said they were breakfast. Meanie.

The onions continue to appear to do well, the radishes are poking up and I recently planted some tomato plants. The one I put in the Topsy Turvy is not doing well but the others seem to be doing great. I'll have to fix that Topsy Turvy thing this weekend, I think it's lacking enough sunlight.

The next several months promise to be full of warm days and not so chilly nights so hopefully my plants will continue to thrive and I might actually see a carrot or cucumber some day.

* Totally not true, she offered me one. The smallest, most deformed looking one, but she did offer it. When I declined there was no looking back though, she shoved that thing in her mouth faster than I've ever seen her eat anything.

We have Berries!

I haven't picked them yet since the very tips are still green but look at THOSE berries!

It's not looking promising for jam at this point however.

Also, it snowed last night and more is predicted for today. I hope my strawberries are fighters!

Updated Garden photos

Here is a little better representation of what I have going on with my container garden.

You see the three larger containers to the left, three in the middle of those are 3 smaller terra cotta containers and to the left are two more terra cotta containers.

The terra cottas in the front of the larger containers, 2 contain more strawberry plants and the third contains Catmint. It helps keep ants at bay.

Over to the left, those two terra cotta containers contain spearmint and peppermint. Those also keep ants away which is why they are placed so close to the door.

Here is our gazebo. Micah made the door to it and on either side are blueberry blushes, in containers.

All large containers have huge tomato cages to protect them from the dogs.

And despite it being only May 2nd AND Colorado experiencing some cold temperatures and even snow in the last month I present some encouraging items:

Green strawberries


My first pea pod on my tallest sugar snap pea plant.

Radishes whose seeds apparently survived Molly's vicious digging a few weeks ago.

One of my yellow onions that I planted from set and had to save from Molly's digging twice.


Make no mistake, I know this garden wouldn't say, feed us for a winter (or even a summer), I'm just getting a feel for how to grow things and what items work where etc.

My next planting will be my tomatoes which I plant to try in a variety of ways including using a Topsy Turvy and more traditional caged methods. I'll let you know how that works out.

Our little garden

Okay so I know a secret that no one ever told me. I figured it out on my own. But it explains a LOT about my Grandma and my Aunts.

Gardening is addicting.

Sure, you start in Feb. one morning saying to yourself, "Maybe I'll grow a cucumber plant. And some jalapenos. And a sugar snap pea plant. Just for fun. To see if I can do it. In my kitchen window."

And the next thing you know you're 5 containers deep, plus 6 smaller terra cotta pots plotting circles of vegetables and delighting over buds on strawberry plants.

It started innocently.....

Oh look, strawberries!

This container contains a tripod of Sugar Snap Peas. In a circle outside of those is carrots followed by a circle of rosemary, chives and sage.


Not pictured are 2 blueberry containers next to the gazebo:


6 Terra cotta containers and an additional former whiskey barrel containing cucumber, yellow onions and hopefully some radishes.

I'm sure Micah is thinking "What happened to just a couple containers of jalapenos?"

Also not pictured:
The 4 tomato plants, 3 additional cucumber plants, 5 carrot seedlings, terra cotta full of radishes and prep pots for bell peppers I plan to start this weekend.

Oh and the raspberry bushes I plan to buy as well as the two apple trees.

Someone stop me......

Well those two are no help...

Kylie asks "What about potatoes mom?"

Oh, and I told you she wasn't a vampire! Look, shes in the sun, helping me garden, in a velvet and sheer shirt....

Whatever. Take what I can get I always say.

It's a Vegetablepalooza

I have been awful about updating on my garden. My indoor vegetable garden that is since it's still not warm enough to plant outside. As you may remember, last time I updated my garden was small. Things have happily changed since then.

This is my radish. Or radish's. This was actually an accident. I had an extra 12 in terra cotta pot lying around and thought I would throw some flower seeds that I got in a seed exchange in and see what happened. I was not paying close enough attention and suddenly, I realize I had thrown in a handful or radish seeds.

If you ever want to plant something that will sprout quickly, radish seeds are the way to go. These literally sprouted within 2 days. I don't even like radishes.

Remember Pretty Pea? She's a little larger now.
I put a plastic fork and half a chop stick in last week to help stabilize her but she seems to have figured out something better and is actually hanging on to the top shelf of my window.

Her sisters, Sweet Pea and Mylie P (After my niece Paloma and her brother Myles) have also sprouted and seem to be doing well.
You may see a cuke behind those two, it's doing well as well but it's stem is fatter and it isn't as tall. Thank goodness.

Finally, I would like to introduce you to my pepper pots. As you may recall, they were quite barren before. Well look at them now!


We started naming them but ran out of name ideas as more and more of them sprouted. Apparently I was a little heavy handed with the seeds for the jalapeno plants.

Also, after the last time I updated, I also planted white onions, cherry tomatoes and regular tomatoes. Those are growing on the top shelf right now and are doing well.


Here is the image that greets me every time I walk into my kitchen. I honestly, can not wait to get home each night and water my little garden while Will watches and supports me from his Bumbo seat.

More plans include carrots, chives, oregano, assorted other herbs and possibly some lettuce. Oh and green peppers. All in containers since the dogs will probably destroy anything I plant in the yard. We have begun gathering containers and so far I have 2 whiskey barrels and 2 huge planters. I buy them when I find them cheap so I have time to hunt since we have another month until I can safely move them outside.