I'm so sorry!

Wow...three years almost since I've been in here. So much has happened. The garden remodel has been amazing but...as everything eventually does, the ground cover we put under the rock has begun to degrade and that horrible grass is once more taking over. So, this spring we're doing a small garden just in the big tractor tires while we tear up the fenced in garden once more and remodel again. We've got some new ideas so I'll be sure to post some pictures of the before and after. I can't wait until it's done and I can plant in it once more.

We'll be growing a couple of new things this year- ground cherries, for one, as my fruit trees aren't doing great and I'm not getting enough fruit for things like jams and jellies so I have to do something different for fruit. I've heard good things about ground cherries so that's what we're going to try. I'm also going to try cabbage again- I posted about it in one of my earlier posts from 2017 and those darned cabbage moths devoured them! This year we're going to build some tents out of mesh to keep the moths off and hopefully we'll be fermenting our own sauerkraut in no time :D

Anyway, I'll post pictures and let you all know how things are progressing once we get started, probably later this month or into the first of April, depending on the weather.

Spring is in the air!!

Ahhh Spring...that magical time of year when gardeners roll up their sleeves and joyfully skip out to their dirt patches and sink elbows deep in the rich loam we so love. And that's what I've been doing. The peas are in and up as are the kohlrabi and cabbage. I've never even tried to grow cabbage before because I've never really been a fan but I've found a few recipes lately that have really tuned my tastebuds toward cabbage.

Eggroll in a bowl

and

Unstuffed Cabbage Rolls  (I used sausage in this one instead of ground beef and it was delish)

These are just a couple- Corned beef and cabbage is another.

So anyway, I planted 12 cabbage plants to see how it goes. Hopefully they'll flourish and we won't have to fight off too many cabbage moths. I worry about the kohlrabi for that too. Those pretty little white butterflies are sure a nuisance when it comes to any plant in the cabbage family. But I have my spray bottle of dawn dishwashing soap mixed with water to spray on the plants and hopefully keep the little caterpillars from chewing them to bits.

The peas are doing well so far. I'm hoping I got them planted early enough that they'll be established before the aphids come out. It's still pretty cool in the evenings so they shouldn't be a bother for a little while yet. I usually don't plant anything until around the first week or so of April but it's been so nice and warm so early this year I wanted to get a jump for the cooler weather plants.

Our compost turner that sat all winter was loaded with a beautiful batch of wonderful compost that I mixed into the soil before I planted the cabbage. What a treat that was! Compost is like treasure and making my own is wonderful because I know where all that stuff came from, what's in it and how it's been treated. I know I'm not dumping anything toxic on my plants...just good nutritious soil bursting with life.

Are you planting yet? Are you growing anything for the first time this year? Talk to me and I'll send one lucky commenter a packet of seeds from my stash!

Gearing up!

Hello!!

I keep waiting for winter to appear here in Western Kentucky but so far it's managed to land everywhere but here. Not that I'm disappointed- not a fan of winter personally- but after last year where we got feet of snow, I keep waiting expectantly. We've had many days of 60's and even a few in the 70's. We've had a few down in the single digits but mostly we're in the 40's and 50's. Kind of crazy for this time of year. We got one little dusting of snow, less than an inch and that's been it for the wintery weather.

So, while hubby and I were out shopping the other day we stopped in at our favorite farm store- Rural King. I call it Hillbilly WalMart. 😁 We love to just browse around and see what's new and much to my delight, I saw GARDEN SEEDS!! Oh what joy! And they have a very good selection of heirloom seeds which made me even happier. So I scooped up 4 packets of peas- early frost variety- and I fully plan to get them into the ground the middle of February. I've not had a lot of luck growing peas, I think, in part, because I plant them too late and the heat gets them before they can really produce well. The aphids also do a real number on them so maybe if I plant them earlier, they'll get established well before the aphids are out and about and we'll actually get some peas.

Next weekend we hope to get our greenhouse built so I can get some tomatoes and peppers going. We inherited some old wood frame windows so we're going to use those to build a little greenhouse right up against the brick of the house to help keep it warm inside. I've got a small heater to help at night but I think we'll be okay for the most part and we'll have plenty of light. I've not had a lot of luck growing tomatoes and peppers from seed so hopefully this will help. I'd like to get to the point where I don't have to buy plants anymore and tomatoes and peppers are the last ones I need to master to make that happen. Any tips or tricks would be very welcomed so please feel free to comment and share your secrets with me!

When do you usually plant your gardens? Do you do a fall garden? If so, what do you plant for fall harvest?

Talk to me!

Getting Dirty!

My favorite part of spring is when I get to go out to the garden and start working the soil. I don't wear gloves unless I'm pulling weeds, but for just mixing soil and getting it ready to plant, I enjoy feeling the dirt. I notice one benefit of this is that my fingernails seem to really thrive on soil. It's true. After a few days of glove free digging in the dirt, my nails look amazing! They grow quickly and they're healthier than they are in the winter when I'm stuck inside so much with no dirt to play in.

Gardening in raised beds requires some attention to soil health and composition. Here in Kentucky we have very thick heavy clay soil that gets very hard when it's dry or very slick when it's wet. I don't like either of those and most garden plants don't either. So, over the last few years we've been amending the soil with top soil and compost. We purchased a compost tumbler a couple years ago and it works great as long as we pay attention to it and keep it tumbled regularly. Production slows down in the winter because it gets so cold but we still turn out a couple of loads even at that.

The top soil we used has a lot of sand in it and that has helped break up the clay a bit to make it more workable. I like to leave some clay in because it retains a lot of moisture but it still needs to be workable. We also get tons of earth worms up in the tires and they do a great job of keeping things 'tilled' up.

So, the way we do it is to dig out  a couple shovels full of soil in each tire and dump in a couple shovels full of compost and mix it all together with the remaining soil in the tires. The plants seem to do very well when we make sure to keep the soil fresh for them. If they ever look like they need an extra boost or for the heavy feeders, I apply liquid fish emulsion a couple of times over the season and they really love that stuff.

What is your spring time routine to get your garden ready to plant? What kind of fertilizer do you use? What benefits do you see in yourself that come as a result of gardening? What's your favorite part about having a garden?

That which you sow, you shall also reap...

When you sow corn seeds, you harvest corn. When you plant green bean seeds, you get to harvest green beans...lots of them! (that is, as long as the Japanese beetles don't destroy the plants before they can produce.)

There has only been one time when I planted something- pattypan squash- and harvested something else- not sure what it was but it was NOT pattypan squash. I think I got some contaminated seeds or mislabeled at the very least.

There have also been times when I planted something and nothing grew- okra last year- and times when I planted and the seeds germinated but the result produced nothing- kajari melons two years ago.

But the point of this post is planting, growing, and harvesting things that are unfamiliar to you, new, completely different than you've ever grown before. Did you like what you grew? Was it as hard/easy as you thought it would be? Did it end up being something you'd grow again?

For me it was Jelly Melons and purple tomatillos. I'd never grown either and I learned a great deal by growing both. For those of you who are unfamiliar with these plants, let me explain a little.

Jelly melons are an African cucumber breed. They grow about the size of a baking potato and have vicious thorns covering them. You must be very careful when handling them because they will make you bleed. The inside is the consistency of jello and looks very much like lime jello with white seeds in it. The flavor is cucumber in nature but sweeter and a little bit tangy.

My youngest daughter loved them and ate several. She wanted to grow them again but she's off at college now and the way those things grew- took over about a quarter of my garden area and I only planted 3 seeds. They were crazy invasive and I was pulling up volunteers the next spring that tried coming back on their own. That was one thing I learned- be careful what you plant and do your best to pick up any dead fall so it doesn't come back the next year.

The tomatillos were slow to take off but once they did, they produced like crazy! We had buckets of them off of 3 plants and the sad thing is, none of us liked them. We gave some away to a neighbor who asked for them but no one else wanted them and they ended up in the compost pile. I still find volunteers of those growing around here. My guess is birds dropped some of the seeds they picked out of the compost.

So, have you planted anything odd or out of your experience? How'd it go? Share with me!

Seeds, Seeds Everywhere!

My very favorite seed supplier is Baker Creek. They sell mainly heirloom seeds which have always done very well for me here. They have a huge farm in Missouri where they grow out their crops, test new seeds they've found, and have fun events a couple times a year. They also have a Seed Bank in California and another on the east coast, Massachusetts I think, but don't quote me on that.

Their seed catalog is one of the most beautiful I've seen- full of gorgeous color pictures and wonderful descriptions of the fruits and vegetables. They describe taste, texture, ease of growth, etc. Some have little histories about where the seeds were first acquired, what country they came from and who they got them from. There are quotes from famous people about life in general. It's fun to search through and find those little morsels. Many of the pictures feature the owner's beautiful little girls as well as employees and their kids. They sell helpful resources, books, gardening tools, etc. The seeds are priced well and the best thing about them is that you can save seeds from what you grow and use them the next year and the next and the next! What a treat...it's the gift that keeps on giving for a lifetime!

Seed Saver Exchange also has a nice catalog. Tons of pictures and a HUGE selection of plant variety to choose from. They, too, are mainly heirloom seeds.

Both of these companies have made huge accomplishments in helping to save our seed diversity. Many of the seeds they now sell were, at one time, very near extinction. Some of the seeds were found in remote locations around the globe and nowhere else. But thanks to their efforts, endangered plants are now on the rebound and plants grown in tiny Amazon villages are now being grown around the world. It's a beautiful heritage they've created and are leaving for future generations.

You can order your own free catalogs from both places here:
Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds
Seed Savers Exchange



What companies put out your favorite seed/garden catalogs?

My Little Tire Garden

When my husband and our 4 kids and I moved into our little brick house 7 years ago, we opened up a mechanic's shop in the little shop that shared our 5 acres. After a year we built a new shop because we ran out of room in the old one. Our business was growing in leaps and bound and so was the tire pile out back from the old tires we were taking off people's cars. We never intended to get into the tire business- and still don't- it's a courtesy we offer our customers. We don't stock tires, but we can order them in and since we live out in the boonies, it's very convenient for people to come here for new tires on their trucks and cars.

So, back to the stack of tires. What on earth were we going to do with them all? The local recycler charges quite a bit to take them off our hands so we wanted to figure out some way of utilizing at least some of them. And then it came to me....Raised garden beds!!

We put up a fence- to keep the bigger critters out of the garden- and set the tires inside, cut the sidewalls out of them, filled them with amended native soil, and planted.

It worked pretty well except for the darned grass! I've never seen grass like this stuff before. It gets into everything! It sends out runners and just invades everywhere. After a few years of mowing inside the garden perimeter 2-3 times a week, we finally decided that a major garden renovation was in order. 

                                      

We emptied all the soil from the tires and pulled the tires up. After scraping up as much of the grass as we could, we laid down some commercial grade landscape fabric. We replaced the tires and cut an X in the fabric under each tires so the plants would be able to have enough room for root growth. We refilled the tires with the soil and compost, then spread clean drain rock on top of the fabric. We've had 2 years worth of gardening in it since the remodel and we love it! No grass!! Weeding in the tires is easy and quick, keeping things tidy is so much easier and I love being out in my garden without getting chiggers from the grass. 

Generally I plant one plant per tire- tomatoes, peppers, squash. However, cucumbers, okra, green beans, and onions, we plant several per tire and they do great. The big tractor tires outside the garden fence- you can see them in a couple of the pictures- are for the watermelon and cantaloupe plants as well as the asparagus bed. 

P.S. if you're concerned about chemicals leaching from the tires into the soil- we've had our soil tested every year since we started using the tires- 6 years now- and have had no evidence of breakdown or leaching. It's a great way to recycle tires and it's not too difficult to get them free if you don't have any of your own to use. 

Do you use anything unusual to plant in? One of my favorite flower planters is a 1932 Kenmore washing machine with the wringers still attached!