Summer's Conclusion......

Wow, it has been a long time for me in posting....I guess the purpose to blogging to to actually write something. With so much happening this summer and Jen feeling better from her last summer illness, time has disappeared and I put this blog in the background. I missed writing in it so here I start...again...

Things outside have been going relatively well. Although the summer is coming to a close, I still have plans of which is a huge patio project. We had a deer problem this year but it seems to have subsided; why I am not sure but at least some of my plants can survive now...I suspect, due to my ADHD, it will take some time for me to re-find my groove here and keep things up to date.

Tomatoes oh glorious tomatoes.....holy crap do I have a lot. Last year the kids ate them right off the vine and I barely had any left over every day from 12 plants. This year, in delirium, I convinced myself I needed 38 plants, some of which reached 12 foot tall!! Even with record spring cool temperatures and rainfall, I am hauling in 5-7 lbs of tomatoes a day; that is after Jack and Charlotte eat their fill from the garden. I managed 13 different varieties and again, Jen's favorite is Marglobe. There are some good ones this year that are new to me but I think the only one I would replant is the Italian Heirloom. It produced huge fruit (+1lb), a lot of it and it was the earliest to ripen. Next year, I think I will go with either 24 or 30 plants....

We have made some great things with all of the tomatoes...fried eggs, cheese and tomatoes on fresh spinach...tomato and mayo on toast.... homemade tomato soup.....even oven roasted tomatoes over fresh salmon in a balsamic reduction.

As for what my spring plans were, I did manage to put in 10 thornless blackberry plants. I chose Chester and Triple Crown varieties for the overlapping seasons. Although they are small this year with no fruit, I expect that next year there will be a decent yield as long as the deer keep away. I purchased both a 3.5' peach tree (Redhaven) and 4' cherry tree (Danube). Within 24 hours, both got mauled by deer which was the first sign of trouble. I managed to fence the peach in time but the cherry is really suffering. I will see if I can prune it back to health but I am not optimistic on that one. As a last second addition, I also put in 10 rhizomes of asparagus. They look rather weak but I guess that is to be expected as I have to wait 3 seasons before I can harvest anything.

Losses are not a great but still a disappointment. Deer managed to destroy 90% of my string beans and all of my beets. Funny that they did not touch my carrots. They got the first crop of Swiss Chard and managed to kill off the last of the snap peas. They took the Blackberries to the ground twice; thank someone that they are resilient plants. Overall, this is small in terms of the damage they can do.

Lastly for this post (kids are getting restless) is the pick-you-own apple farm. As we did last year, Jen and I took the kids for some picking. It started with over 30lbs of blueberries (of which I made 12 1/2 pints of jam) and 32 lbs of Honeycrisp apples.

The apples have made 4 apples pies thus far and as I am typing, I am taking 20lbs to make and can some apple sauce :) Will let you know how this turns out.....

Food Harvested:
Tomatoes, tomatoes, tomatoes

Things Planted:
Sunflower Seeds
Peach Tree
Cherry Tree (may not make it)
Blackberries (10 of them)

Seeds Saved:
White Coneflower (Echinacea)

Preserved/Cooked:
Apple Pie
Apple Sauce

Things to Remember:
1. 30 tomato plants, not 38
2. Less number of grape tomatoes

Purely Garden

Too much rain!! We have had almost 2 weeks of solid rain without a break. Friday it finally stopped and I assessed the damage to my seedlings and garden. All sustained the weather rather well with the exception of the tomatoes!! Seems that they have all yellowed quite a bit and some have developed some fungal spots (Septoria I believe). I immediately isolated the spotted ones and have been monitoring the rest. I am hoping to see if the yellowing will subside with some organic fertilizer and a good drying out. As for the fertilizer, I will use some organic worm castings or possibly fish emulsion.

I did however manage to plant out 30 tomatoes. I chose the best looking plants and set them in my garden (extra defence to help isolate from the spotting plants). I am going to play with spacing to see what works best in a tight space. I have 7 rows 36" apart and 4 plants per row 18" apart. I also potted up two early tomatoes. Today I plan to pot up about 8 more plants.

I set up the bean trellis yesterday right behind where I seeded the carrots and beets. I put in a 5 foot x 15 foot trellis and set close to 50 bean seeds. My pea trellis is doing well and those plants are close to 8" tall now. The carrot and beets look as if they just germinated so there will be more to come on that front. The interesting thing will be the squash plants. I started 2 types of acorn, 1 butternut and 1 yellow squash along with 3 types of watermelon. I have no idea as of yet where these will go but I guess that is have of the fun.

In response to a comment on the PotMaker - This is a really cool tool that certainly has its place in my seed starting endeavours. It also certainly does not work in other areas. First, the pots are great and stable as long as you use two sheets of newspaper instead of just one. This makes them a little more rigid and they don't collapse as you water the seedlings. It worked great for my basil, peppers and salad plugs. It however did not do so well for my tomatoes and Swiss Chard. These plants grow too quickly and needed to be transplanted quicker. You can find the potmaker for sale in many catalogs now and I am starting to see it in some stores. I got mine from Seeds of Change for ~$15.00. I have also seen it in Jung's and Gardener's Suppply's catalog. Here is a simple visual on how to use it.

1. Cut paper strips about 10" x 3.5" (I prefer newspaper as I can plant them directly into the ground and they breakdown very, very quickly. The ink is also soy based so it is not adding anything bad to the soil
2. Wrap around the PotMaker, fold the edges down cupping the bottom
3. Press into the base
4. Done!

Food Harvested:
Salad - YEAH!!
My first French Breakfast Radish

Things Planted:
2 Types of Carrots
2 Types of Beets
Spinach
French Climbing String Beans
Dwarf Grey Sugar Peas
29 Tomato Plants (10 Varieties so far)
Lemon Basil
Peppers

Seeds Saved:
None yet this season

Preserved/Cooked:
Chocolate Cake

Things to Remember:

Drowning in Tomato Plants

Been some time since I have posted, seems that life has become a little more crazy than normal. The garden has a good start but the spring weather is a little late in coming. This year it seems that every night goes to near freezing and the days don't make it much past 50. Although this seems like good conditions for spring plantings, it is making it difficult to get my summer seedlings outside to harden off. Outside already are close to 100 loose leaf salad seedlings and about 20 Swiss chard plants. I also seeded 3 types of radishes and dwarf sugar peas which all just showed signs of germination yesterday. This weekend I am planning on seeding 2 type of beets, 2 types of carrots and 1 type of spinach. With limited space, I am going to have to plant much less than would really like to go with.

As for the summer plant, I guess I went a little overboard - I started close to 75 pepper plants, 10 basil plants and over 125 tomato plants. Although this sounds a little crazy, I am expecting to give more than 75% of this to friends and family; I already gave out about 20 tomatoes to some master gardeners. Some of the 20 varieties of tomatoes are White Currant, Ernie's Plump, Opalka, Green Sausage, Hartman's Gooseberry to only name a few. Some of the ones I am really excited for are Riesentaube and Ildi, both grape tomato varieties and the only repeat variety from last year are Jen's favorite - Marglobe. I am going to try for close to 30 plants on my property this year.


Still to start indoors are the watermelon (have to choose between 3 types), yellow squash, acorn squash (2 types), and butternut squash. These should be started in the next 2-3 weeks for an outdoor plant date of sometime between May 15th and June 1st. By this time, I will also direct seed some string beans, cucumbers and corn; yes corn.....I am going to try 2 heirloom varieties of corn - 1 for popcorn and one for blue eating corn. The blue corn is called Blue Jade and can be kept in a container. It is suppose to be really tasty and wild to look at. I am still trying to figure out where everything is going but as I am now seeing, I will figure it out when it needs to be planted.

The garlic planted in the spring is now about 10" tall. I miscalculated the amount because I have what appears to be 50 head that has come up. In June-July I will dig it all up and get the bed ready for the fall planting of more. I just found some Garlic braiding websites so that should be fun to try. I also ordered 8 blackberry plants for fence. They are coming in 4" pots and will take some time to grow but we should have a small picking season next year. The blueberries will have to wait for more money and time but at least I have something started. The figs are a different story, different problem and deserving of its own post next time....

Food Harvested:
None

Things Planted:
Salad - 6 types of SSE Heirloom
Radish Seeds (3 types)
Dwarf Sugar Pea Seeds

Seeds Saved:
White Texas Cone Flower

Preserved/Cooked:
Homemade Chocolate and Butterscotch Pudding

Things to Remember:
1. Get vines from Taylor Park for the Arbor into the garden
2. Cukes against Barbara's fence
3. String beans against Woody's fence

Salads and Whales

I cannot believe it is March again....in just a matter of weeks, flowers, trees and most importantly, my garden will be moving along. I have been quite busy mostly with seed starting in my basement. Last years success with the small patch of salad greens is being expanded this year. Rather than direct sowing the seeds outdoors, I decided to give them a good head start indoors and at this point, it looks like that will pay off. I had 100% germination of over 128 seeds for 7 varieties of lettuce and Swiss Chard. Although we just had a few inches of snow last weekend, I hope to have the garden ready in the next 2-3 weeks and the lettuces transplanted

The figs scionwood is sitting in my furnace room in moist plastic bags. I am hoping that over the next 2-3 months, I can force some root and leaf growth. As I mentioned in my last post, I have over 15 different scionwood pieces from 5 different varieties of figs. If they all take, I will have to find homes for many of them....I already have a home for one....I also ordered 3 more varieties from University of California-Davis which I am still waiting for as well. Those should be here by end of march.

Trying to figure out where everything is going has not been fully worked out yet. I guess I will take it one planting cycle at a time. The first cycle (lettuce, peas, radishes and possibly beets) have been decided. I am germinating more peppers and tomatoes this week although I don't know where they are all going to go. Carrots and possibly the beets are still up in the air and due to lack of funds, I have no idea if I can afford to get the blueberries and blackberries for this year.

I have purchased the 4x6 lumber for the border of the lower bed. With other plans on financial hold like the deck, basement and various other things, I think I will have enough time to set the lower bed and finally rebuild the arbor-entry into the garden. I keep trying to tell myself a little at a time but it is going against the grain for me. This will stack up to building a new garden bed for carrots and beets, finishing the garlic bed his spring, framing the lower bed with the lumber, building 2 or 3 new trellis', finding a new place to plant the corn/squash and planting the blueberries and blackberries.

On a personal note - this drives Jen crazy because there are at least a dozen project in the house that are 90% complete that I have yet to devote my time to finishing and I am dreaming of diving into yet another garden project. I guess my past actions would support a definite lack of follow-through on my part.....or I just done care on finishing the second coat of paint, final sanding the Spackle and complete the basement demo....personally, I do care...it doesn't always show up in normal ways....

On a completely different note, Jackson and I went to Mystic Connecticut overnight and ended up at the aquarium up there. Jack could not contain himself with the sharks and stingrays but my personal favorite was the 6 Beluga Whales they have. They are incredible graceful, gentle and HUGE!! Although the picture is not that great, they are so white it is almost breathtaking

Food Harvested:
None

Things Planted:
Started Salads, Peppers and now the first of the tomatoes indoors
Seeds Saved:
None

Preserved/Cooked:
Sauteed Butternut Squash and Onions

Things to Remember:

None

Seeds and Figs and Seeds.....

All of seeds I ordered from SSE came this past week which was perfect timing. At the same time, the SSE yearbook and finally the scionwood for the 5 varieties of fig trees came. It is a bit overwhelming when you long for something garden-like in the middle of January and all of a sudden, in February, all preperation and planning hits the ground at a hundred miles an hour; seed germination, plot planning, new creations, longer to do lists, fixing things that broke last year, etc....
This year, I am going to try to bud 5 types of fig trees which is a relatively straight forward process. Damp paper towel, a zip lock bag and a warm place for about 3-4 weeks. The idea is to force root growth, with or without leaf growth. Once roots form, transplanting into a small pot for a few months and then outside by middle to late summer. I will post some picture on progress later in the month.

With March 17th being my start date for frost tolerant stuff, I needed to start seeds this week. I got all the components finally for the seed starting shelves. The last pieces were the chain to hang the lights and the shelving itself. I opted for a 6-shelf 72" x 48" x 18" chrome wire unit from Home Depot. Although I thought the 18" would be too narrow, once set up with 2 shop lights per shelf, it ended being the perfect size.

With so much emphasis on being eco-friendly in all of this, I seemed to have mis-lead myself in seeds starting. Working in the Sharing Garden with the Master Gardeners last weekend, we set cool crop seeds in plastic trays. When I asked Larry about being more earth conscious, his response surprised me, the plastic trays were over 7 years old because he re-uses them from year to year. I don't know why I never considered re-use but for seed plugs prior to transplanting into the potmaker pots, it give you great flexibility and control on planting patterns once they go in the garden. This was a problem for me last year....the throw-and-pray direct sowing method I used last year didn't do so well, things were overcrowded.

I ended buying (2) 72-cell seed starting trays for my cool crops. I am still trying to perfect things but I set the seeds on Wed. To keep them warn, I had to put them on top of my fish tank light By Thurs, I had 80% germination, Friday 90% germination and this morning, I would say 98% germination. Tomorrow AM, these seedlings go under the lights for 12-18 hours a day for about 2 weeks at which time I will transplant to potmaker pots.

Food Harvested:
None

Things Planted:
Oh Boy....7 type of lettuce being sprouted
Budding fig trees

Seeds Saved:
None

Preserved/Cooked:
Chocolate Cake

Things to Remember:
1. More narrow walkway in the garden this year
2. Remove the roses and put more garden there :)

Too Many Seeds

Well....I place my seed order yesterday.....seems that I think I live on 20 acres. I am not sure where it is all going to go so I guess Jen and I will have to be creative. These all should arrive in the next 4-6 days so I should be right on time to start the tomatoes and peppers the 2nd week of Feb in the basement...

Not much in the blogging mood so I will keep this short for now.

Radish, Early Scarlet Globe , Packet 250 seeds
Radish, French Breakfast , Packet 250 seeds
Chard, Five Color Silverbeet OG, 1,000 seeds
Pepper, Nepalese Bell , Packet 25 seeds
Pea, Dwarf Gray Sugar , Packet 100 seeds
Huckleberry, Garden OG, Packet 50 seeds
Beet, Bull's Blood , Packet 100 seeds
Beet, Detroit Dark Red , Packet 100 seeds
Carrot, Dragon , Packet 250 seeds
Carrot, Scarlet Nantes , Packet 250 seeds
Collection, Heirloom Lettuce
Bean, Climbing French , Packet 50 seeds
Corn, Blue Jade/Blue Baby , Packet 25 seeds
Prairie, Butterflyweed , Packet 50 seeds
Flower, Bee's Friend , Packet 1,000 seeds
Flower, Bunny Tails , Packet 250 seeds
Flower, Job's Tears OG, Packet 25 seeds
Flower, Great Quaking Grass , Packet 250 seeds
Sunberry OG, Packet 50 seeds
Tomato, Riesentraube , Packet 50 seeds
Tomato, Red Fig OG, Packet 25 seeds
Tomato, Opalka , Packet 50 seeds
Tomato, Purple Russian , Packet 50 seeds
Tomato, Hartman's Yellow Gooseberry OG, Packet 25 seeds
Tomato, Green Sausage , Packet 50 seeds
Tomato, Giant Syrian , Packet 50 seeds
Tomato, Dr. Wyche's Yellow , Packet 50 seeds
Tomato, Crnkovic Yugoslavian , Packet 25 seeds
Squash, Thelma Sanders OG, Packet 25 seeds
Flower, Platinum Blue , Packet 25 seeds
Tomato, Italian Heirloom , Packet 50 seeds
Tomato, Silvery Fir Tree OG, Packet 25 seeds

Food Harvested:
None

Things Planted:
None

Seeds Saved:
None

Preserved/Cooked:
Mustard Encrusted Leg of Lamb

Things to Remember:
To Keep Warm

Origami and Seed Starting and a Cold Winter....

I guess it has to do with the weather, thinking about smoking (or not smoking in my case) and the fact that I do like it but I have become a little obsessed with folding paper as of lately. I picked up a book on Polyhedron Origami which outlined how to make over 70 different shapes. Although these shapes seem complicated and are borderline overwhelming, they are actually made up of a single folded flat shape.....50, 60 or 70 of them, but one flat shape none the less. This one was 60 shapes which took about 4 nights to fold and then almost 4 hours to put it all together. The putting together part was not easy but was fun and satisfying once together. If this is a sign of getting bored, I don't mind it, it is very focusing and relaxing....time seems to move quickly.

Trying to get ready for the spring has started to become a bit overwhelming. Not that any of the tasks with the garden are particularly large or hard to manage, it is the time and money that is making me a little crazed. Seeds need to be bought in the next 2 weeks, the sowing set-up built and running in 3 weeks, tomatoes, peppers and everything else germinating in 4 weeks, etc.... This combined with the 30 projects we have planned for outside it is easy to either become frozen with the overwhelmingness of everything or so disjointed that nothing gets started. I do know that the removal of the deck is the #1 thing for the spring closely followed by lots of fruit trees/shrubs and the garden. At this point, I cannot be any more specific or I will be frozen.

Trying to create a seed sowing station as sustainably as possible is hard in terms of thinking out of the box. Jen is much better with ideas like this which much of the time I quickly (and wrongly) dismiss. Trying to build something that is either re-usable from year to year or prevents something from going to a landfill is easier to talk about than to implement. The set-up is a 4' storage shelf (still have to find this), eight 4' 2-bulb T12 fluorescent lights (this was from Craigslist, $70 used instead of $500 new) and seed starting pots (picture to right, $12). The Potmaker is a cool tool that uses recycled newspaper to make the pots that you can sow seeds or put transplants in. The 3 pots pictured took me all of 1 minute to make in total...I picked this up from Seeds of Change for about $12. The trays to hold the pots will probably be the same nursery trays that you get with flats of flowers. These all usually go into the garbage when you plant your annuals and I will be able to reuse these from year to year. I figure the whole set-up will come together in the next two weeks (I hope).

It is cold here.....as predicted, we are in an extreme cold spell for New Jersey. For the last few days, it has been in the high teens and much lower with the wind-chill. This morning my thermometer read below zero. Everywhere I read about Garlic, it tells you not to worry, cold or no-cold, the garlic will be fine - I am not so calmed by this. Jack and Charlotte don't seem to mind the cold, I guess I didn't either as a kid. They have a whole routine in bundling up and play just as hard, I think it is Jen and I whom are getting old as we keep asking them "are you sure you want to go out....its REALLY cold out".

Food Harvested:
None

Things Planted:
None

Seeds Saved:
Red Crepe Myrtle (Jen actually saved these)

Marigold (Orange)

Preserved/Cooked:
Lentil Soup (which Jen did not like)

Things to Remember:
1. Order the seeds in Feb to start sowing by Valentine's Day
2. Have to get 3 sturdy logs for Trellis into Garden.
3. Need 3 4x6's to finish lower bed border
4. Have to move Apple Tree to pot until Deck is done.

Maggie's Garden

When Jen and I got our first pets, Maggie was a timid, scared Shepard/Collie mix who was scared of her own shadow and didn't know how to bark. Since we lived in an apartment, walks included cars backfiring, people hitting their horns, kids screaming, etc... everything to make Maggie shiver from first step to last. Over the next few years, Maggie worked her way into our hearts, heads and souls in such a way that when she became sick last month, we were devastated. We both just sit and cry thinking of how different, how hollow our house is without her. Although there are other dogs and people have different relationships with their animals, Maggie was our first girl...now and forever.... Jen and I, unconsciously, agreed that if we ever owned a homestead, it would be Maggie's Farm; what I realize now is that my garden always has been and will always be Maggie's Garden.
_________________________________________________________________

I am having a hard time switching topics....I hope the line above helps....

Seed Catalogs are in full swing as I now get about 10-15 different catalogs to look through. Some of my favorites are the organic catalogs. There are a few others but these seem to be where I concentrate my time. There is good diversity of varieties and each have unique offerings which at a minimum make it an interesting read. Some of the best catalogs so far are

• Seed Savers Exchange
• Southern Exposure
• Territorial Seed Company
• Baker's Creek Seeds

As we are making choices on different varieties, I am trying to figure out an inexpensive way to set up a seed starting "station" in our basement. With money a big factor, I am looking into simple fluorescent (T12 or T8 preferable) from Home Depot or Lowes. These would not provide optimal light but would suffice with time spent adjusting light heights as the seedlings grow. A solution like this would run about $100 for every 4 feet.

More preferable would be a horticulture specific light (T5) from Sunlight Supply for instance The spectrum and intensity can be varied so much so that I would load up more seedlings under the lights, not be as concerned with light heights and they run more cool/efficient. These would run about $350 for every 4 feet but I would almost double the width of plants that I could stack in the 4 feet.

As a tentative plan, I am going to have the light station set up my mid to late January to start Peppers and Tomatoes by the 1st week of Feb. I will add a few annuals in the beginning of march. I still plan on winter sow'ing probable 30 containers (10" homemade greenhouses) worth of perennials like I did last year.

Cream of Curried Chicken Soup

• 2 lbs of Chicken Breast (on the bone)
• 2 Cups cooked rice (preferable brown)
• 1/2 Gallon Chicken Stock
• 2 Medium Size Onions (chopped)
• 2 Cloves Garlic (minced)
• 2 Carrots (chopped)
• 2 Stalks of Celery (chopped)
• 3 Tbsp butter
• 1 Tbsp Curry
• 1 Tbsp Paprika
• 2 tsp Cumin Seeds
• 2 tsp Mustard Seeds
• 1 tsp Ginger Powder
• 1 dash Cayenne Pepper
• 2 Tbsp Flour

Start by cooking the chicken in the oven until done. Cool to room temperature and with your hands, pick the meat off the bone creating small pieces to be added to the soup later. While the chicken is cooking, cook the rice according to the directions on the package on the stove top. In a small bowl or cup, add all spices and mix together.

Once rice and chicken are done, melt the butter in a large soup pot. once hot, add all dry spices and stir for a few moments to allow the oils to be released. Add the garlic and onion and saute for 2 minutes. Add carrots and celery and saute for an additional 5-7 minutes or until everything starts to caramelize and the onions are translucent. Add the flour and stir for another 2 minutes. Add the stock, bring to a rapid boil and then reduce heat to simmer for approximately 20 minutes. With an emulsion blender, blend 80% of the stock, enough to leave little pieces of carrots, onions and celery but not enough to purify. Add chicken and rice and bring back to a slow boil for 2 minutes. Serve hot or is great the next day.

NOTE: The rice will absorb water the next time reheated so it will become chowder-like


Food Harvested:
None

Things Planted:
None

Seeds Saved:
Sweet Shrub
More Daylilies
More Chaste Tree

Preserved/Cooked:
Cream of Curried Chicken Soup
Healthy Mac and Cheese

Things to Remember:
1. Get as many containers as possible to pot up plants
2. Look into Wolf berries as well for the spring
3. If we do the arbor, put up to grape vines with it....