Heat

Evidently heat is required for most of the crops that are not blooming like I would like them to.  Mainly the popcorn.  Something is sorely wrong with the bunching onions also.  I have been doing more research and reading stuff online.  I read that raised beds keeps the heat in the ground.  I am going to consider raised beds for some of the crops next year.  Of course I am considering.....I will need to enlist the help of my glorious, handy partner to build the boxes for the raised beds.  That may be asking a bit much.  He worked so hard building the fence for Fort Knox this year, and so I am reluctant to ask him to do more work for next year.  I may just try some different food to grow.

 At the end of August I am going to begin the winter experiment.  I will begin to plant lettuce and herbs and maybe some garlic ...see what happens. I am wondering if I can grow some of the cool weather crops thru the winter in the greenhouse.  I would like to make the greenhouse into a big giant salad bowl.  I would like to grow lettuce, garlic, cucumbers, radishes, green onions, and maybe some herbs like rosemary, more basil, tarragon, oregano, mint, parsley, blah, blah, blah.  I would love to have fresh produce all year.  Of course I am not quite sure why I think I should be able to do this, given I don't know people who have done this, and I know I am not the first one to think of it.  I guess I am a lot like a kid in that regard.  I just need to figure it out for myself.

The composting is not going very well.  There is a huge operator malfunction occurring.  Composting requires some leftover green material.  Well, to get that, it has to be saved, and then transported to the composting bin.  This is where the malfunction occurs.  I have a limited amount of time during the day between my work and play.  I am terrible at actually stopping what I may be doing and hauling that green material out to the bin.  If I do manage to get it there, then I have to walk out to the empty woodshed area, and get some straw to put on top of it.  Then, I have to go get some dirt from somewhere to put on top of that.  It just seems like a huge interruption for such a tiny amount of worm poo.  I have a hard time forcing myself to make the treks.  It is the same to me as stopping to gas up the car, or taking a potty break.  Seems like such a blasted unnecessary interruption of my stream of activities.  As we speak, I have a bowl of slimy, green, bubbling,  "stuff" in a bowl in my kitchen.  When I am not home, I tell myself as soon as I get home, I will empty it.  Well, I get home, and get to talking and doing vitally important stuff like petting the cat, drinking coffee, catching up on my reading...and I just never think of it again.  Sad sad sad state of affairs.  So, I just accept I may not get much worm poo any time soon.

I am very excited about the yellow crook neck squash.  It is doing beautifully and I may make a lot of enemies this year by passing out my extra squash.  I can only eat so much squash each meal.  I hear it is prolific, so I am making plans for saving and sharing.  So all my friends...look out. 

I have a couple of good recipes for cooking squash that I plan to share with you.  So, when fall gets here, get out your cook pots.  I have some good stuff in store.

I have picked tons of peas so far.  They are doing fantastic.  Some of the vines got pulled up out of the ground during weeding.  I just left them hanging off the strings and those blasted vines are turning yellow, but they are still full of snow peas.  I had no idea those little suckers were so hardy.  I haven't had to store any yet, because I eat them and share them, almost as fast as they can grown.  I am going to blanch a batch this weekend and see how they freeze.  My boyscout boyfriend is always prepared for anything.  He does all the shopping so we never run out of anything, and he has more handy dandy kitchen gadgets than the local kitchen store.  He of course had food dryers, food processors, and the tried and true ...wait for it.......SEAL A MEAL!!!!!!!  Wooo Hoooo..we are set.  So I can blanch the peas and put them in that dandy seal a meal...and put them in the fridge...easy peasy.

Next week, I am going to sneak a book review in between garden talk.  I am a voracious reader, and I have a lot to say about some of the books I read, so for anyone who may not be too crazy about reading about gardening, I am going to provide some literary fodder.

I have been throwing rocks at the raccoons so they won't eat my geraniums.  I throw small rocks because I don't want to hurt them.  I think it has done the trick.  I have a front deck full of beautiful big stinky geraniums.  It is a good thing they are so gorgeous, because they stink to high heaven.

I also have some blooming "sweat peas".  Now they smell divine.  They are blooming in a variety of colors.  They have climbed the trellis and are taller than I am, and are releasing a heavenly scent.  I think next year I am covering the deck with sweat peas.

Until next time,
Karen

Peas, Glorious Peas

Yesterday I picked another huge bowl of peas.  I wanted to take them with me to work to share.  I found a way to store them that keeps them crisp and delicious.  Straight out of the garden they go into a huge bowl of ice water.  Water first, then peas then ice all over the top of the peas.  It cools them down quickly if you don't have much time.  Then I got a gallon size zip lock baggie and lined it with two dry paper towels, put in the wet peas, and zipped it shut.  When I got to work, I put it in the fridge and ate out of it all night long.  They were fantastic.  This also works with lettuce.  I can keep lettuce out of the garden for  a week or more, and it stays crisp.  As long as the paper towel stays damp, the lettuce will stay crisp.

I have to say, I have never tasted peas quite as good as these.  Fresh from the garden they are indescribable.  I admit that I have had some darn good peas from the farmer's markets, but it must lose a bit of flavor after a day or so because these are just like eating dessert.  The minute you bite into them there is this explosion of flavor from the pod, and then when you bite into a pea, another burst of sweet freshness.  I cannot believe that I can get so excited about a pea pod.  Maybe I need a hobby or a life? 

 One thing that is puzzling to me is that the popcorn grew about 4-5 inches immediately after we planted it.  It has not grown another centimeter since.  Doesn't look like we will get popcorn.  The chili's are starting to ripen also....woo hoo.  There are quite a few tomatoes also, and they will hopefully be ripe soon.  I know nothing about potatoes because I can't see them, but the greenery is blossoming, and the bushes are getting quite large.  I read somewhere that the potatoes can be harvested as the bush starts to wilt and die.  I will watch and hope I get it right.

We have plenty of lettuce, and it also looks like we will have yellow onions.  I have no idea what happened to the green bunching onions, but they are not doing well.  I wonder if it is our soil.  It is really clay-like and heavy.  I maybe should have grown them in the green house.  I have big plans for that greenhouse this fall.  I am planning on planting more lettuce, and more bunching onions and some herbs.  I will be experimenting through the winter.

The sweat peas (flower) are blooming on the front porch.  We started those from seeds and they climbed up the trellis and are now sprouting a variety of colors.  They smell so good and beautify the front deck.  The geraniums are also in full bloom and since I have stopped feeding the raccoons and have been throwing rocks at them every time they come around, they have not eaten any of my geraniums.  I imagine this admission will bring down the wrath of animal lovers everywhere.  Be assured that the rocks don't hit their mark, (well maybe once in a while), and they are small and are accompanied by a lot of screaming and yelling.  I haven't hurt a raccoon yet, hopefully just scared the s*** out of them so they don't come back.

I don't know where the summer has gone.  Oh wait, we haven't had summer yet.  I just can't believe it is already August.  Soon the harvesting will be over.  Then I am going to be figuring out ways to store the food.  Then I plan to move on to my passion and talk about books.  There is no subject I love more than books.  I read voraciously and am always happy to discuss my latest find.

Until next time.

Karen

Fine Line

Yesterday afternoon, after much ruminating, I decided to go out and pick the peas.  It had been 2 days since I had checked them.  The last time I checked, there were a few peas ready for picking.  Yesterday, there was a giant mixing bowl full of peas.  I picked all the ones I thought were ready, and some that I thought were not plump enough, because I have noticed that in stir-fry dishes in restaurants, the sugar snap peas are more flat than plump, so I picked some flat ones to taste them.

I discovered 2 things.  First, there is a fine line between ripe and too ripe.  Second, peas ripen in a half a second.  Once that pod is on the vine...don't blink or they will be ripe.

As it turns out, the plump peas are overripe.  The pod is very sweet, but a bit chewy, and the peas have begun to turn bitter.  Not bad, but a bit tart.  There were 2 really big fat ones that I missed picking earlier this week.  The peas were pulpy and sour, and the pod was leathery.  The flatter peas are sweet and moist, and the pod is delicately sweet.  They are perfect for eating raw and for stir-fry or steaming.  If you plan to remove the peas and not eat the pod, then the slightly plumper pods are best.  Picking and tasting is the only way to decide how you like to eat them. 

My own personal preference with the sugar snap peas is to eat the whole thing.  Why grow sugar snaps if you aren't going to eat the pod?  It is just crunchy enough for good texture and deliciously, delicately sweet.  Just grow plain old pole peas if you just want the pea inside.

Every tomato plant in the garden has tomatoes.  They are still very green but they are there.  Since we have a super duper fence around the garden, I am sure they will make it fine until they ripen.  I have googled several recipes for fried green tomatoes.  I need to try that before they ripen.  I have never had one, but I have heard stories about the deliciousness of fried green tomatoes.  So that is my next experiment.  We are going to get lots of tomatoes, so I am going to try several recipes, and maybe try my own version.  I will report the results when I am done.  If anyone has any recipes or ideas, please leave a post and let me know.

Until next time...

Karen

Sweet Sweet Peas

I got my first sugar snap pea yesterday.  It was the most delicious, crunchy, sweet mouthful of goodness I have tasted in a long time.  Of course I am not biased, but I do believe that the one special package of seeds with extra flavor found their way into my garden.  MMMMMMMMMM....so fantastic.  I am sure that all the LUV and effort that went into those peas has found its way into the pods.  Never mind that the peas are leaning at a 45 degree angle to the ground.  Never mind that I have to turn upside down to pick them.  When that pea pod bursts open in my mouth...I forget all about the toil and sweat.

For all you guys out there, this won't make any sense, but right now, this whole gardening and harvesting thing is feeling a lot like giving birth (god, I am so sappy).  We just forget about the hard work, and the pain the minute that little bundle of pulchritude pops into our lives.  I might be exaggerating a little bit, but the harvesting of that pea was something else.

I am still waiting to feel at one with the earth.  Not happening yet.  I still don't like the bugs and the weeds, but maybe........when the food is done growing, and I have a full pantry, I will begin to feel a kinship with nature.  Maybe when I have more experience, and the process of planting and sowing is more natural to me, I will have time to actually focus on what is happening in the moment and not worry about the outcome.  Hmmmmmm...this sounds suspiciously like some life lesson.  OH NO!!!!!  Not another growth opportunity!!!  I don't know if I can take it.

The hanging basket of tomatoes on the front deck is not doing well since the raccoons have eaten the fruit and are now starting on the flowers.  Next year I will decorate the deck with all the flowers that the deer and raccoons don't touch. 

 The potatoes are doing fantastic.  The plants are flowering..  I hope that is good.    The straw is still in place and hopefully there will be lots of taters.  I have ONE pumpkin plant.  It looks big and beautiful and bushy, but only one of the 5 seeds I put in the mound germinated.  I hope that I get more than one pumpkin.  

The yellow crook neck squash is prolific.  I am excited about that because it is my favorite kind of squash.  I planted the pumpkin and the crook neck squash in the same size mound and treated them both the same.  I have written down what I did...so I can repeat it next year.

The popcorn and bunching onions aren't doing a thing.  The yellow onions are thriving.  I am wondering if I got a batch of bad bunching onion seeds because of course it wouldn't be because of a mistake I made if it didn't grow. 

I have a plan for the fall when it gets too cold to garden.  I am going to create a salad garden in the green house.  That blanket over the top of the greenhouse seems to keep it warm in the cold, and somewhat cool in the heat, at least the kind of heat we get in the northwest.  I am going to plant a variety of lettuce in a huge, round, planter pot.  I also plan to try to grow some more green onions, and some radishes and cucumbers.  I would love to have fresh lettuce all year.  I am a little reluctant to do that because when I taste the produce that is grown in a "hot house"  that is in the supermarket, it has no flavor and does not taste good at all.  So I don't know how it is grown, and if the hot house is a green house, but I intend to bite the bullet and find out.

Until next time,

Karen

Design Flaw

For those of you who don't know what "Galloping Girdy" was, there used to be a bridge across the Tacoma Narrows, which is a narrow area of water that flows between the city of Tacoma, and the Key/Longbranch Peninsula.  The water flows fast and hard, and the wind whips through the narrows at breakneck speed during a storm.  Well, my uncle was one of the engineers who designed the original bridge that was called Galloping Girdy.  All the engineers on the project did not take into account the uplift of the wind whipping under the bridge.  One stormy day the wind was blowing hard, and the cement roadway running across the bridge couldn't take the stress and the whole bridge collapsed.  The new bridge had vents between the lanes so that would never happen again.  How is this related to me you ask?  I think I must have inherited some of those engineering genes.

I have been anxiously awaiting for my sugar snap peas to ripen.  There are lots of small peas out there on the vine, and I have been checking them every day.  Well when I went out there, there they were.....the stakes and string toppled over and the peas lying on the ground.  We had a galloping girdy force wind here yesterday, and I guess I didn't calculate the weight of the peas and the potential force of the wind properly.  We are going to go out today and put up bigger stakes and wire instead of twine.  Live and learn.  And by the way...I am going to pick the peas today after the support is fixed.  A lot of them are ready..but I can't get to them when they are all tangled up on the ground.

The green tops of the potatoes look great!  I just can't see underground to know if we will get potatoes or not.  The lettuce of the salad bowl variety is fabulous, and the head lettuce...not so much.  The popcorn has not grown a stitch since it shot up about 4 inches in the first couple of weeks after I planted the seeds.  The peppers are thriving-it just figures since I don't like peppers.  I have no more tomatoes on the hanging tomato plant that the raccoons ravaged.  There are lots of flowers so I am holding out hope.  There are some tomatoes on the cherry tomato plants out back in the garden.  WOO HOO!!!!!

It has been so cold here the last couple of months.  We have had a couple of days of good weather, but things are slow growing because it has been so cold and rainy.  I am not complaining, mind you.  I feel incredibly fortunate to be here when I look at the heat wave the rest of the country is experiencing.  I only wish we could share some of the moisture with everyone.  I would happily give away some of this water that is pooling everywhere if we could figure out how to do it.

I have learned 2 things my first year of planting.  First, I am NEVER EVER  going to start anything from seed again.  All the thriving plants are the ones that I began in the greenhouse, and planted the starts outside.  Second, the books are only a vague, general guideline.  When I first started researching this whole gardening thing, I took copious notes, read about each crop I wanted to plant, and became more and more confused about how to garden.  There are as many opinions as there are books.  The best way to do it is to just do it, and see what happens.  The books were invaluable in helping me decide what would grow well in this area, but that's it.  The rest of it I learned from hit and miss.

I will plant the cold crops earlier next year, because I have figured out that "warm" soil means it isn't frozen and isn't likely to freeze again.  Geez.  I will start everything in the greenhouse, even the lettuce.  I will start the popcorn in February so it is "knee high by the 4th of July"...a cute little saying I heard from someone recently.  I will not grow as many peppers.  I will put at least 3 seeds in each peat pot so that each pot will have a sprout.  All of these things I learned this year.  I didn't read it in any book.  So books are good guidance, but there ain't nothin like good ole experience.

This next tidbit I am going to share may make me look like a real dummy, but I planted basil and corriander in the greenhouse about a month ago.  It is doing fabulously well.  Both of the crops are growing nicely and I have lots of it.  Guess what I discovered after my partner asked me about corriander and cilantro?  Cilantro is the leaf part of the corriander seed.  Who knew???  Probably almost everyone out there except me.  I went out to examine the corriander, and there are cilantro leaves sticking out of the pot.  This is going to work very well because now I can make fresh salsa when all the tomatoes and onions come on.....and I love cilantro in my salsa.  It is going to be a good year!!!

Karen

The War is On

This is war.  The raccoons have declared war on me.  I accept the challenge.  Yesterday when I got home, all that was left of my 7 beautiful, lush, bright red geraniums, were 7 pots full of green leaves and stems.  They were up on the picnic table, that is pushed back from the end of the deck, so the deer could not reach it.  We have a deck spanning the width of the house.  It runs across the front of the house, and we have a view of Puget Sound, and we spend lots of evenings out on the deck watching the birds and the water.  It is beautiful.  Its beauty was enhanced by the pots of flowers, including the bright red geraniums.  My ONE AND ONLY  tomato is now gone too.  Those dastardly bandits came up on MY FRONT PORCH and stole my lone tomato.  I am out for blood now.  We feed our leftover popcorn, and bread heels to those damn raccoons, plus they have 2 acres of forest to forage.  And they have the nerve to come up on my front porch and eat MY food and plants.  We don't ever feed them in the front of the house either.  Any food we give them, we take out back.  Our back yard is not very deep, and it borders on the edge of the woods, so we throw the food into the woods.  I am wondering how painful a death I can inflict on them.  I could torture them first.  Pour tons of popcorn and rice down their throats, followed by lots of water so their stomachs would explode.   Of course I will do nothing, but sit and stew and dream about the torture until I am done being mad. 

I do realize that I am on their territory.  It really is I who am infringing on their habitat, but dang it, my mouth was watering, waiting for that tomato.  I am really mad about this.

 I am now ruminating over some type of barrier that I can put across the front of the deck.  It has to be low, so it won't block the view.  It also has to be tough enough to discourage the raccoons from coming up on the deck.  I am thinking a short electric fence.  I will teach those little bandits.  I think that the practical answer will be to grow flowers they don't find tasty.  They didn't touch the petunias or the impatiens.  They too are beautiful flowers and I could live with a deck full of their bright colors and wandering vines, but right now I am busy plotting my revenge.

I went and stood next to my peas this morning.  It was one of those cool, clean crisp mornings we have in the northwest.  It rained a bit during the night and everything was alive and fresh and clean smelling.  For those of you who have never experienced it, the air and the ground have a distinct fragrance after rain.  It smells clean and crisp with the promise of a beautiful, fresh day to come.  Anyway....blah blah blah.....I was standing next to the peas and they are now as tall as I am!!!   When did that happen????   It made me feel a lot like I used to as my kids got taller...when did that happen?  What was I doing when these peas sprouted up and started developing flowers and pods.  I have been so distracted with all the company, that I saw them, but it didn't hit me how tall they are and that we will really have peas soon!!!  We really will have peas soon.  Imagine.

I have had two salads using some of the salad bowl lettuce from the garden.  I have never had lettuce straight from a garden.  I used to think lettuce didn't have any flavor.  Wrong again!  It has a sweet delicious flavor.  I have heard that arugula has a peppery flavor.  I think I may have to plant some.  This is going to be fun...getting familiar with the way food tastes straight out of the ground.  There is something very comforting and primal about growing your own food.  Not to mention the unbelievable taste that you can't get in the grocery store produce.  Enough musings...back to the day, and my revenge.

Until next time...good eating.

karen

Neglect

I had a throw down with the potatoes this week and I think I won, but I won't actually know until I can figure out when to harvest them.  I have been neglecting the garden for a couple of weeks, because we have had lots of company.  I decided this week it was time to weed and finish up with covering the potatoes, and letting them grow until they are ready to harvest.  Now, I read lots of info on potatoes.  I discovered there are as many ways to grow potatoes as there are instructions.  I think, although it is hard to tell, because most of the instructions are not real detailed, but I think I have adopted a combination of strategies.  I did not actually dig a trench like some suggested, but I planted the seed potatoes, and then as the green plants were coming up, I mounded dirt around them.  I am quite possibly incorrectly assuming that this mound is where the actual potatoes will grow.  So when the mound of dirt was about 6 inches high, I decided to go to the next step, and cover it all up with straw.  Clever me.  I already had the straw, and so I took it out to the garden and covered the whole damn works with straw.  Then I actually started "thinking" about what I was doing and decided that just wasn't right.  So I came back in the house and searched the Internet for potato instructions.  Come to find out, leave the green part sticking out so it can get sunlight.  I finally found a picture of what it looks like when the potatoes are covered in straw.  The straw is nestled up tightly against the stems, but not covering the leaves.  So I have to go back out and rescue the smothered leaves.   I now have little mini haystacks out in my garden and these huge beautiful green plants getting bigger and bigger.  Like I said, I think I won, but I won't know until I actually start to harvest the potatoes.

Everything I read about the potatoes said that they take 2-4 months to grow, and I can muck around in the dirt trying to locate these tubers when they are ready to harvest.  I still can't figure out when they are ready.  I guess I will wait a while, and dig one up and see what it looks like.

The slugs had a hay day with my lettuce when I wasn't looking.  I put slug bait down, and then more slug bait.  It looks like I got em!!

I am losing the battle with the grass.  I think I am just too damn lazy.  There are so many other more urgent things to be done, like writing this blog, and playing Nintendo, and reading my newest  book.  I have vowed to go out every day and spend an hour harvesting the grass that has taken over my garden.  I can get about 1/2 inch of the garden area done in an hour.  This grass out there is wicked stuff.  Like I have mentioned before, it will outlive the cockroaches in a nuclear holocaust.  So I will keep plugging away, and hope that the grass doesn't choke out my food. 

Shockingly, the peppers and the popcorn are doing amazingly well.  I am just so surprised.  I did not think it was warm enough here.

Another thing....Consumer Reports rated the hanging, upside-down tomato plants as not very good.  Well, guess what, Consumer Report guys...my hanging tomato plant is the only one of 7 plants that has any fruit on it.  The tomato plant that I put it the basket was the same as the plants I planted in the garden.  It was one of the starts we purchased...same size and same variety.I got a tomato hanging out on my front porch.  It is still green, but it is there.  Pretty exciting stuff.

I have decided to compost, even if I don't get much material.  It is a good way to dispose of the end of the celery, and the organic stuff that I would normally put in the garbage.  It just seems like the right thing to do.  I have also solved the problem of the brown material on top of the composted stuff.  I let the grass and weeds that I pull out of the garden sit in the weed bucket for a week or so, and it all dries out and becomes brown material.  WOO HOO!!! So a little garbage, a few dried up weeds, some soil, and voila!!! Compost!!!  I am pretty excited about that too.  I don't actually have any compost yet, but the worms need a little time.  I mean, since that compost material is basically worm poop, and seriously, how much could one worm poop, I realize it will take a lot of time.  I can be patient.

Things are slowing down around here as far as company goes, so I should have more time for musings.  Until next time...all of you out there enjoy!!!

Karen

Hello Again!!!!

I have had out of town guests for the last 2 weeks, and have barely managed to get out to weed the garden.  Of course I am so damn grateful for an excuse not to weed.  I have learned that I absolutely, positively, do not want to weed.  I take every opportunity and excuse that comes along to get out of weeding.  It is particularly wicked in my garden because it had not been planted for several years before I moved in with my partner, and the garden plot, although still visible around the perimeter, was overgrown with wild grasses.  I don't know how many of you have any experience with wild grass, but it takes hold and is almost impossible to get rid of.  The roots are miles long, and the grass grows fast and tall.  So, when I go out to weed, I am not merely picking little weeds around the peas and beans, I am taking a hoe, and digging 2 ft deep trenches, chasing the grass roots around the garden.  I disagree that cockroaches will be the only thing to survive an apocalypse.  The planet will be covered in wild grasses, second only to the cockroaches.

My partner tilled the garden twice before we planted.  Evidently all that did was chop the grass off at ground level.  There is a veritable highway of tangled roots beneath the surface.  When I am out there sweating and hoeing and trying to pull up the blasted grass, he lovingly assures me that next year will be better.  He says he will till it several more times.  My guess is that it will take a hundred years or so to get rid of the grass.  So I have fabricated a new plan in my mind.  I am going to do 15 minutes of grass hunting each day.  Before I die, the garden should be in good shape for the next generation.

My peas are thriving.  We will have some food in about 2 weeks I think.  I have noticed the local farmer's markets have peas already.  I got started late, but I am going to get peas.  The beans got attacked by slugs, so they were not doing well.  I put down some slug pellets around the rows of beans, and I fertilized everything, so now the beans are also doing well.  Here's a shocker...the popcorn is coming up and growing quite quickly.  I am a popcorn addict, so I cannot wait to see if it actually pops.  

The biggest surprise for me is the chili peppers.  They are all healthy and big, and staked up and growing like crazy.  There are even a couple of peppers on some of the plants.  For the life of me, I never knew it was warm enough here to grow chili peppers.  I have this image in my mind of the red and green chili peppers grown in the southwest.  I am excited and very surprised that we can grow them.  I am excited because they look so pretty in the garden.  I do not eat peppers of any kind.  I don't like the taste of bell peppers, and I definitely don't like spicy heat.  My partner is growing them and he loves them.  I am happy to have the color in the garden.

The potatoes are also doing great.  I have no idea when to cover them and let them continue growing below the ground.  I look at the pictures, and read all the stuff but I cannot tell if it is time to cover them up.  I have about 5 inches of dirt around them.  I am thinking that today is the day to cover them up.  We'll see.  I will have a better idea next year.  I am going to use the straw to cover them and let them grow.  Some of the books say I can cover them with a tarp.  I think that the straw will provide insulation and some aeration.  I don't know if that is necessary, but it sounds good to me.  Plus, it is prettier than blue plastic covering my  food.

I have noticed something pretty amazing when I am out there hovered over the plants, pulling the weeds.  Each type of food has it's very own look-alike weed.  It is incredible...down the row of peas are some weeds that grow and appear very similar to the peas.  Same thing with the beans...and the onions and corn.  It is truly inspiring to see.  But alas...the poor weeds have no hope of survival because of my discerning eye.  I am quite proud of myself that I am able to tell the difference between a weed and food.  6 months ago that would not have been the case.  This reassures me that I am learning and am not totally garden-impaired.  I may get the hang of this in a couple of years. 

I am still waiting for the feeling of "one with the earth".  I am not there yet.  I am still struggling to understand it all.  I don't like bugs.  I am terrified of snakes, and worms still make my stomach queasy.  There are these black small jumping spiders all over the garden that I have to fight not to squish.  I don't know if I can ever get to the point that I will revere all the creatures, but I am definitely grateful for the food I am growing, and I appreciate the value of composting and recycling.  That may be as good as it gets, so to all of you naturalists...I apologize for my irreverence.  It's a curse.  I am working on it though.

Until next time...
Karen

Worm Poop

I have been doing some studying about composting.  We have a box behind the greenhouse that is a composting box.  Evidently (I don't know because I didn't put it together) it has a screen on the bottom.  There is no bottom because the compost material is supposed to attract worms to come help compost.  I had no idea.  So the composting is complete when the material in the box is dark,  "moist yet crumbly to touch" and has an "earthy smell".  It took me a while, but after doing a lot of reading,  I think I understand that the finished product is worm poop.   I read that I can buy worms to add to the compost pile.  They help aerate it, and they eat the garbage...the end result is what they poop out.  I guess that is cheaper than the zoo doo, but it takes a lot of freaking worms to produce a pile the size of elephant poo.  So maybe zoo doo is a better, quicker deal.  I am contemplating all this.

I think that with zoo doo...I miss the opportunity to recycle my unused garbage and put everything back to earth, rather than in a land fill.  Philosophically this makes a lot of sense and feels right.  But practically, I am OK with sprinkling zoo doo for quick results.  I am going to ruminate on this.

Some of the issues I have with the whole composting thing is that  I cannot compost any meat, dairy, or greasy foods that attract pests.  This is a nice, clean word for rats.  At least that's my guess.  Pet poop should also not be used in the pile.  I can put "green material" in the pile.  That consists of veggies, and grass clippings and yard waste.  For every amount of green material, an equal amount of brown material needs to be added.  Brown material can be wood chips, hay, twigs, wood ashes, dried out leaves, or dried out lawn clippings.   Organic brown material can include:  clean cotton or wool rags, DRYER LINT, string, rope, untreated hair...where will THAT come from?  and paper towels with no grease on them.  I have two bails of straw that were supposed to be for the garden over the winter.  I could use that.  Or, I could become obsessive and start collecting dryer lint and scooping hair out of the sinks, and the vacuum cleaner bag...(not a chance of that happening). 

After I add the brown material on top of the green material, I can mix it up.  Then on top of that I add some soil.  It introduces microorganisms to speed up the decomposing process. 

Before I even begin, 3-4 inches of twigs needs to be added to the bottom of the pile to promote air circulation and avoid odors.   Avoid odors?  We have rotting food and worm poop.  My guess is if I don't want odors, don't compost.

Once again, I have questions.  The book says the material cannot be too hot or too cold.   OK...in Arizona, 90 degrees is a warm day.  Here, 55 is a warm day.  So I am guessing if I see icicles or steam, I have missed the mark.

  Too moist is also a problem.  It should be "moist".  Alrighty then, moist it is.  Not wet, not dry, moist. 

This composting could be waaaaayyyyyyy more trouble than it is worth.  It sounds as though I could conceivably spend my days running around collecting green and brown material, and mixing garbage inside a bin.  The bottom of the bin has an opening for removal of the composing material.  I am envisioning a huge pile of moist, dark rich composted stuff when it is all done.  Wrong again!  It looks from the pictures that this 50 gallon bin will produce about 3 tablespoons of composted material.  Enough for a small petunia.  This is why I am having serious doubts about cost effectiveness and time spent with this whole composting thing.

Zoo doo is looking better and better.  I know myself well enough to know that I am going to have to try this, and see what comes up.  If it doesn't work out, or turns out that I suck at composting, I will entertain the thought next year of having a load of zoo doo delivered.  The only thing stopping me right now is that I will have to get out there in my hip boots and spread poo all by myself.  As fabulous as he is, I don't think I could talk my partner into shoveling s*** for me.

I will keep you "posted". 

Karen

P.S.  I don't know if I am spelling Zoo Doo correctly, so if anyone knows...please enlighten me.

The Gate

I would like to announce that my gate is finished, hung, and keeping the critters at bay.  It is beautiful.  It is a double-sided gate, meeting in the middle of the opening.  It comes together correctly, and has a slide bolt latch.  I carefully slide open the latch, and push on the gates...it opens inward, and voila!!!!!!   There are my two tiny rows of greenery.  It is a gate that could keep out an armoured tank.  I love the gate.  The gate posts on each side have a pointy topper to cover the top of the post.  It looks like a little castle gate out there.  Very cool....best in the neighborhood.  Too bad it's out back and no one can see it.  I knew it would be fabulous.

I was outside trying to pull weeds on Saturday, and I had to stop after a short while because I couldn't tell the weeds from the food.  I can find the bean sprouts, so that's no problem, but there is a row of tiny green stuff coming up in one of the popcorn rows.  It is surrounded by grass and weeds, so I cannot determine what's what.  That worked out just fine for me, because I still have not become one with the earth, and I really hate pulling weeds.  I hate that sweaty sticky feeling...the one where you are so hot and miserable and tired that it feels as though bugs are crawling all over your scalp?  You know the one...well, I am ecstatic to have a reason to quit.  I will need some new excuses for next year when I have learned to tell the difference between food and weeds.

I transplanted the tomato plants that were in the greenhouse out into the garden.  I put the tomato fences around each plant, and now it is starting to look like a real garden. 

I noticed in my mounds of squash and pumpkin...lots of green sprouts coming up.  This dark, rich, moist mound of dirt that I planted the seeds in, came out of a large planter that was not in use in the back yard.  It sat under the bird feeder, and I am pretty sure after looking in the books, that I am sprouting sunflowers in the squash mound.  The seeds fell out of the feeder, into that pot, and now I have transplanted them into the garden.  Sadly, there are so many of them I am going to have to take them out.  I am going to try to replant them around the edge of the garden so it will look like all those perfect gardens in the magazines.

I am not sure how wet to keep the ground, but on the days that it doesn't rain, I have been watering the garden.  The salad bowl lettuce is the same size as it was 2 weeks ago.  I don't know how big it gets, but maybe I should pull some up and eat it, and see how it tastes.  I can always plant more...right?  All of the peppers in the greenhouse are sprouting flowers, so I think the peppers will be fine finishing their life out in the greenhouse.  I have some new information on composting, but that is for tomorrow.

Until tomorrow,
Karen

Beans Beans......etc. etc.

The grass is starting to take over the garden.  I was muttering to my future husband about the grass and saying that I think it is good for the garden.  I launched into my thoughts about it protecting my food, and he said in his gentle quiet way:  "I think that actually it sucks the nutrients away from the food that is trying to grow".  Damn.  So I have a new plan....Saturday I will be pulling grass and weeds out of the garden. 

I went outside to look at ground and see if I could tell the difference between weeds and whatever may be growing.  I'll be darned if there aren't rows of green bean starts emerging from the soil!!!!!  How fabulous is that!!!  Food!!!! It's growing!!!  WOO HOO!!!   I can hardly believe it.  I am so excited I might dance around a little where no one can see me. 

I noticed something interesting when I was looking at the bean starts.  I know they are bean starts because as they pop up out of the soil, they have little teeny white hangy down things that look like they might be something important eventually.  That's not the interesting part.  The interesting part is that I planted all the seeds in a straight row.  Those  sprouts are coming up not in a straight row.  Some are a couple inches to the right, a couple inches to the left, and some have 2 little sprouts coming up in one spot.  No wonder it has taken so long to see them.  Most of them are not growing straight up...they are taking a detour underground.  I wonder what causes that?   I know they are from the seeds  I planted because in the dirt close to where each of these sprouts is popping up is the white skin of the seed, laying on the ground open.  Very weird.  Not at all what I expected to see.

 So gardening is not the neat little rows of food that I expected.  Not that I care.  I am a slob by profession, and so I don't care if it is neat or not, I am just surprised.  I have taken occasional hits about my messiness, and lack of "organization".  I always argue that I can find what I need.  I know where my stuff is.  In my world, if you can find it, you are organized.  So it is quite affirming to discover that this beautiful garden of mine works under the same universal principal.  Neatness plays no part in nature.  The beauty of what we see, and the miracle of growth is not neat and tidy.  But it is miraculous nevertheless. 

We are supposed to have another 70 degree day today.  I am sitting at my dining table looking out at the water, and the trees and all the lavender that is blooming, and I am getting ready for the day.  It is a shorts and sandals outdoor day today.

Until tomorrow...when I am almost sure I will have more to say,

Karen

The Greenhouse Proper

That greenhouse is a whole city unto itself.  It is totally self-contained and it is like walking into another universe to go in there.  It smells good, it is warm and sunny.  I can feel the plants growing and the quiet is amazing.  I could make this my version of  a man cave.  I just need a bit more room for my computer, a mirror, some music, a place for my books and I am set.  There is always one vent open so it doesn't get too humid.  Now with the shade blanket on...I have to admit, the temperature stays very warm and steady.

I still have the peppers and the tomato starts in there.  It is still so cold around here (50's and 60's most days) that I don't dare put them outside.  The peppers are in big enough pots that they may be able to stay in there.  The tomatoes, however, I don't think will grow anymore until they have more space.  I am just waiting (patiently) for the sun to come out on a regular basis.

I went out to the garden last evening to look around again.  The peas are doing well.  The bunching onions are still little threads of green.  The salad bowl lettuce looks like it hasn't done anything since I put the starts in the ground.  All the seeds I planted a little over a week ago are still seeds.  My guess is that I am a bit impatient (shocker), and it is still a little cool for much activity.  I am hoping the seeds are lying in wait for summer and will begin to sprout as soon as the sun comes up.

I read about a woman who raises everything in her greenhouse.  She gets lots of good food, and it survives and thrives in the greenhouse.  I have decided that I am going to get a huge 30 gallon pot, fill it with soil and plant three or four different kinds of lettuce, and leave it in the greenhouse.  I am going to get another big pot and take a crack at growing some cucumbers.  I am going to just leave them in the greenhouse and see what happens.  I have planted the pumpkin and summer squash and am anxiously waiting for the summer squash.  The book says it is a cool weather crop...so I am waiting for the green to appear.

I have begun looking at some composting information.  There is a composting box thingy out behind our greenhouse.  I don't remember the details, but evidently there is stuff I can dump in the decaying garbage to help it break down into something really stinky that I can put on the soil after the garden is done growing.  I have to read some more to see if it would be like fertilizer to put it around the plants.  Someone also told me that I could add some sort of worms in the whole mess and they eat all the garbage and then what I have left is some very nutritious worm poop for on the garden.  Yummmmmmm  sounds delicious. 

I think that the Woodland Park Zoo still sells Zoo Doo.  Is that just hysterical or what?  What a fabulous recycle idea, and I bet it is great for the dirt.  I am thinking if we get some giant animal poo like lion or elephant poo, it will keep the small herbivores out of the garden.  I mean what raccoon or deer is going to want to risk being eaten by a lion or smashed by an elephant foot?  I am liking this concept. I wonder if they deliver?????

Until next time...
Karen

The Shade Blanket

We had our second sunny day!  In the aftermath of almost killing the tomatoes, my partner decides he is going to put the SHADE BLANKET on the top of the greenhouse.  Shade blanket?????  Shade blanket??? On top of a structure whose sole purpose is to collect sunlight, radiate heat, and provide a warm tropical environment for my food that hates the cold?  I cannot wrap my brain around this one.  I think at first that he is joking.   He has a wicked sense of humor that mocks stupid things, so I am thinking he is joking... that he is asking me to come help him, and when I get up to do it, he is going to be laughing hysterically, catching me in yet another joke.  Wrong...yet again.  He is terribly, soberingly serious.  My turn to laugh hysterically.

This is a silver colored square thing, made of some flexible metallic stuff that is a blanket.  It catches on every corner, or every sharp edge.  We wrestle it onto the greenhouse, and that is that.  I must admit that it does keep the temperature at a tolerable level.  Who knew?

The next project is a gate.  We have been using a piece of fence netting across the gate opening until my partner can get the gate built.  He is very meticulous, linear in his thought processes, and works at glacial speed.  He contemplates everything he does for quite some time.  We have had the lumber for 2 months, and he had to contemplate the wood, and how it would go together to make a beautiful gate. One day, he said he was going to go outside and work on the gate.  He was outside for about an hour before I went out because I didn't hear anything.  He was standing in front of the gate opening, staring.  The wood in the garage had not been touched.  He had a tape measure in his hand.  I stood there for a couple minutes and he finally looked over at me and said "I am brainstorming the best way to build the gate".  I had to stifle a scream. 

The really fabulous news is that the gate, when it gets done, will be beautiful, perfect, and exactly the right size.  There will have been no wood wasted trying to get it right, and no last minute trips to the hardware store because he will have everything he needs and then some.  Once he begins working, it will go quickly and work perfectly.  It is the planning and contemplating, the measuring and re-measuring 45 times that I cannot watch.  But I certainly feel very grateful to have him building my gate.

I will be sure and let you all know how it turns out.

Until tomorrow.....and hopefully more sun,

Karen

Weeds

Another beautiful day in the northwest.  Today I was going to go out and pull up the grass and weeds in the garden.  I have noticed small spikes of green stuff coming up all over the place.  So I get on my gardening clothes, and out I go.  I get out there and realize that my lack of interest in yard work in the past has now got me handicapped. I have no idea what is a weed and what may be a tiny sprout of food.  I know where I planted seeds, so I know where not to pull up grass and weeds....I just have to wait until something I can be sure is food surfaces, then I can get rid of the stuff that is not.

So I begin pulling up the grass that is springing up all over.  Well....I pull on a grass blade and it snaps off.  I know enough to know that those pesky roots are down there somewhere and I better get those if I don't want to be back out here next week pulling up the same grass.  Have you ever SEEN the roots to those tiny pieces of grass that are no wider than a piece of string and maybe an inch high?  They have 10 foot long roots!!!  I am winding my way around the garden area, digging 2 in deep burrows, following one root.  Geez.   I rethink this plan really quickly, and here is what I come up with:

From my science classes in high school, I remember the word symbiosis.  The definition is "close and often long-term interactions between different biological species".  OK, this is it.  This is how it is meant to be in the world of nature.  Then I read further:  "this relationship can be mutualist,  commensal or parasitic in nature".  So here's what I'm thinking.  I have a one in three chance that this relationship is mutualistic.  Those grasses and weeds serve some purpose of protection for this food.  They provide a distraction for the enemies of my food.  I think I will be done with this futile exercise in weeding.  That is my story and I am sticking to it.  (However, I am reserving the right to change my mind if necessary).  I could be totally wrong about this whole symbiotic thing.

I feel much better now that I can go sit down and have a cup of coffee, and rest easy that those weeds are out there protecting my food.  I am going to relax and enjoy the sun.

The garbage bowl on the kitchen counter is near full.  I can no longer postpone my research on composting.  Until next time...

Karen

Sun at Last

I woke up to bright sun, birds chirping, and a warm feeling in the air.  For those of you who live in sunny climes, you may think we are all nuts, but this is the firsts 70 degree day in months.  We have had a long, cold spring.  It is June 4th and this is the first sun. 

Here is the nuts part.  In the northwest we go about our lives dodging raindrops.  Most of us don't even notice when it is raining.  We have learned to do everything we need to do, both inside and out, in the rain.  We are seriously light impaired.  So when the sun comes out, if it hits 50 degrees, we all drop what we are doing, get our shorts on, and go outside.  We can not afford to waste the sunlight doing stuff inside.  So everything gets left as it is...and out we go.  This is the only area in the country where you will see people wearing socks with sandals.  We love shorts and sandals in the sun, but we don't want our feet cold.  We are really a bunch of geeks. 

I jumped up and made coffee and ran out to the garden to see how everything was.  It was 92 degrees in the green house.  How the hell did that happen?  I opened the door, and checked all the hot crop plants.  All the soil was moist and they looked great.  So I guess these plants really do like that heat.  Wrong again!!!

This evening my partner went out to close up the door to the greenhouse and check everything, and two of the tomato plants were almost dead and drooping over the sides of the pots.  OK...so it has been too cold, now one day of sunshine and they look like they have been run over by a truck..what gives?  How does anyone ever grow anything?  They got a good dousing of water and we will see if they survive my abuse.  I also put the hanging tomato out on the front deck to hang about a week ago?    It seems to be doing fine, but these other six plants I am going to put in the ground.  I am not sure how to know when that is going to happen.  The books say when the "ground is warm".  Is there a such thing as a dirt thermometer?  Because when the "ground is warm" tells me absolutely nothing.

So we had a fabulous day in the northwest.  Sunny, breezy, warm and beautiful.  Hopefully it will dry out and the green we will now be seeing will be from flowers, trees and grass, and not from the traditional green moss and mold hanging off everything.

I am looking forward to another fantastic day tomorrow.  It should be up into the high 70's again.  Yipee!!!!

Could someone let me know what "warm soil" is? 

Karen

Control

I went out to the garden this morning to see how everything is coming up.  It is slow going, but the things that are showing are growing.  Peas are getting bigger, and the lettuce has perked up.  The green onions which used to look like little threads are now taller and fatter and looking like they may survive.  There is no sign of the beans, and it has been a week.  Crossing my fingers.  I begged them this morning to pop through the dirt, but I don't have much faith in that approach.

The last couple of days I have been making notes, drawing diagrams of the garden and pondering  what I will do next year.  I have also been pretty vocal about not planting in a timely manner this year, and by god, next year I am going to be on time and get everything in on time and do it right.  Then my soon-to-be husband said:  "Honey, you could not have planted earlier.  It was too wet and cold, and we couldn't till the garden until we did."  SMACK!   Brick to the head.

I am from the city.  I have lived my life in control of my environment.  I control the temp of my house, where I go, what I do, who I do it with blah blah blah.  I have also had some control over who comes in my house.  Living out in the country all kinds of critters feel free to march right into my house and help themselves to whatever is in the house.  I was eating lunch the other day and a mouse came out from under the refridgerator and looked around, helped himself to some crumbs and went back under.  He probably came in when the door was open, or found a sliver of space somewhere to come in.  I got spiders, bugs, and flying things that help themselves to my space also. 

It hit me that in all my research, planning, ruminating, and intentions, that I was at the mercy of the weather in regards to this whole gardening thing.  So I have been missing that whole Zen thing when it comes to the garden.  Patience, and adaptability.  I just have to wait until the time is right.  It is going to do what it is going to do.  I had to learn that lesson when I had children.  I realized how much I DID NOT have control over someone else.  Here it is again:  I got no control over the weather.  It is amazing how my false sense of control permeates all that I do.

So...I am going to wait and watch, and learn the technique of gardening, and apply the philosophy of patience...we'll see how I do at that.  I will try to approach this next phase of maintaining the garden, and composting with patience.  Wish me luck...I certainly need it.

Karen

My Promise

I remember in the past, when I was happily entrenched in city life, I used to visit friends who were gardeners.  I would dutifully trudge out to their gardens while they showed me all the rows of stuff they had planted, carefully explaining what each row was, and when they were expecting to harvest etc. etc.  It was as exciting to me as watching paint dry.  I could not understand how any of this could be so exciting. 

Yesterday, after I finished planting, I turned on the sprinkler and just sat out there on my bench and watched the sprinkler go back and forth.  I was trying to think of who I could invite over to feed, and show off my garden to.  EEEEE GADS!  Were these thoughts really inside my head?  I could not believe that I had come to this.  So...I am making a promise to all my friends and family:

If I invite you over for dinner, I will not drag you out to the garden.  I will not talk about the garden.  I will engage in enlightened, meaningful conversation about world events and the state of our economy.  I promise I will be the same person you know and love.  I will feed you fresh, organic food from my garden, and I promise I will never gloat about how healthy I am eating and how fabulously fresh all my food tastes.  I will just feed you, and entertain you and enjoy your company.

I love you all!
Karen

Lessons

Hello everyone...what a great learning day today.  I learned 3 very valuable lessons today:
   1)  My eyes are bigger than my garden space-I have taken up every inch of space available and I did not plant enough garden peas (the kind you have to shell), or potatoes.  I will see what works and make adjustments next year.
   2)  Keep all the seeds together.  I found some garlic seeds and some sunflower seeds hiding under some gardening books and papers that I have neatly scattered around my storage area (the flat counter in the dining room).
   3)  Those wonderful knee high rubber boots that are so good for wet weather and mud gardening are very practical if you are are a workout fanatic and have telephone pole size muscular legs.  I couldn't figure out why I walked out to the greenhouse to get plants, then to the shed to get a hoe, and then back to garden and was huffing and puffing and out of breath.  I was planning my heart transplant and my recovery.  I wore my old comfortable favorite tennies out this morning and holy smokes....I made several trips out to the greenhouse, the shed and back again and didn't even work up a sweat.  I could have recited the Declaration of Independence while I was walking, except I don't remember it all. So...the boots are retired unless I am harvesting veggies this fall in the mud.

I woke up this morning early...about 7:30 because I have the day to sleep in and do nothing.  I only sleep late when I really need to get up and get busy.  So I decided to get the garden work done early.  I planted the popcorn, the garden pea starts, the potatoes, and some yellow onions.

I dug the required 4 short rows for the popcorn.  The books say four short rows side by side so the wind can pollinate the plants.  I am a bit skeptical about that popcorn coming up.  The seeds I ordered looked exactly like the popcorn I get in a jar to dump in the popper.  Suspicious.  I may have been able to get my popcorn seeds out of the pantry.

The books said the garden peas do best when staked.  I have no more space to stake, so I put up tomato fences (those wire, cone shaped doohickeys that you push into the ground), and planted the peas around the bottom of those.  It is going to look decorative anyway, even if the peas don't actually produce.  I also took some bamboo stakes that were sitting around and made a tee pee and planted some peas around the bottom of that.  So we will see how that goes.  Kind of a high rise style of gardening.  I just don't see why I have to spread out.  Maybe I am about to find out.

The potatoes and the onions went in quickly, but there are special things to do to both of them.  I had onion bulbs...don't know if that is what they are called.  But the directions said to peel the top back...the skin stuff I assume, and plant them close to the surface with the top exposed to the light.  These bulbs are small, so I was sitting down, carefully and delicately peeling, and covering them so just a small part of the tip was exposed.  I hope I didn't put them in upside down..I have no idea. 

It is such a good thing that we are isolated because I was wearing my sweats and as I would scoot backwards on my rear end down the row of onions, my sweats would pull down just a bit.  I couldn't really stick my dirty hands in my pants to pull them up or I would get dirt down my underwear.  So my sweats gradually rode down my butt and by the time I got to the end of the row, well...I looked like I could have fixed the plumbing.

The potatoes were easy to plant, but the directions said to fertilize the soil 2 1/2 inches away from the plant.  2 1/2 inches?  Is this precision work that I need a tape measure for?  Couldn't they just say "beside"?  I mean they are totally fine writing "when the soil is warm"  and  "when the last frost is over".  So I hope it doesn't require precision because I just sprinkled fertilizer next to the taters.  Now I guess I am supposed to watch for the plants to start growing and keep piling dirt around them leaving just the tops exposed until the mound of soil is about 4 inches high.  Then I can place straw over them until they are ready to harvest.  I have no idea when that is, because the directions stop there.  Anyone????

So now I am done planting what I am going to grow.  I am beginning my research on composting.  I thought I could just throw my leftovers into the dirt and wait for it to go back into the soil.  Au contraire.  So thank you for reading, and until tomorrow...when we begin a new phase of gardening.

Karen

Sunday

Today is my day to do nothing.  But I decided that part of the nothing that I wanted to do was to thank everyone who has read, commented and followed this blog.  It powers me on to share my goings on when I know that someone else may hear me, and quite possibly can offer some advice.  I get up each morning and the first thing I do is look to see if I have more comments or any advice.  Thank you all.

Does anyone know if the peppers (not bell) can grow in 1 gallon containers?  I transplanted all the starts to 1 gallon containers, and I am hoping they will thrive in the greenhouse until it gets hot enough to put them outside.  This will be a good experiment for next year.  I am hoping that these pots will be big enough and can go out on the the deck and soak up some radiated heat.  They are so colorful and decorative that I am hoping this will work.  Those pesky deer are my biggest concern.  I think if I put the pots back several feet from the edge of the deck, then the deer won't come up on the deck to eat them. 

Tomorrow the planting will be done.  Yipee!!!  The popcorn is going in tomorrow.  Then I will plant some herbs in pots.  I will "keep you posted".

Have a wonderful Sunday, until tomorrow!

Karen

Imbalance

I have noticed while gardening that there seems to be a great imbalance between what I perceive as usefulness of the crop, and ease of growth.  I don't need or have any use for one of those damn weeds out there, or any of the hearty, thick, hard to remove stems of grass that are popping up everywhere.  I would be jumping for joy and cartwheeling around the neighborhood if the bunching onions and the pathetic pepper starts would sprout up in half a second like those weeds and all that grass.  Why is it that our food sources are hard to grow and the weeds that are not edible are taking over the land?  It makes me wonder if we are being too picky about our food.  Maybe some of this stuff is edible, and I am just making a bunch of work for myself planting all this gourmet stuff like lettuce and peas.  I think this gardening is making me lose my mind.  I need to maintain my sanity to get this garden done.

We got up early today and went to the "city" ....population next to nothing....to look for some seed potatoes, (I am way too late) and some garlic and white onions to plant.  I did find some potatoes, which I have cut up and am drying for 24 hours before I plant them.  I am hoping it's not too late to plant them.  You see, that's the problem with gardening instructions.  They say things like:  "plant when the soil is warm", or "plant when the last frost has occurred".  How the heck do I know when the last frost will be?  I have to wait until August in this area if I want to be sure it won't frost again.   I also would really like to know what "warm soil" is.  My definition of warm is 75 degrees.  I am just beginning to dry out and get warm when the temp hits 75.  So I may have missed the time to plant the potatoes because I don't know what warm is.  But I will know for next year.

So today, I planted 2 rows of head lettuce seeds.  They are the tiniest little things I have seen.  I couldn't see them after they hit the ground.  I hoed 3 inch deep trenches about 10 ft long and then sprinkled the seeds down in the trench.  At least I think I did.  I couldn't see them.  I guess in a week or two I will know. 

I also planted a hill of summer squash and a hill of pumpkins.  I am not sure what the hill is for, but all the instructions say the same thing.  The directions say to put 4 or 5 seeds per 4 ft diameter hill.  I cheated and added a few extra...just in case.  I may regret that decision, but I am guessing I can always thin them.  I read that in all the books, about thinning.  So I am leaving my options open.  I also made the hills 4 ft. apart.  I did it just in time because as soon as I got everything planted it started to rain.  Yay for me!  Free water!!!!  I was very happy about that.  But here in the northwest it is pretty much like that most of the time.  Everything outside gets watered with regularity.

I mentioned yesterday or the day before that none of the pepper starts came up.  Well, I didn't open the greenhouse door or vents for 2 days, and it got to the 90's in there.  I went out there this afternoon to look at the plants we bought, and I'll be darned if 4 or 5 of the peat pots didn't have little green sprouts popping up out of them.  Call me crazy, but I think it hasn't been hot enough in there for them.  I may end up with LOTS of pepper plants.  I will run out of room if they all start coming up.  I may have to just start training the neighbors and take them some starts.  I want them to be used to getting little presents from me by the time I start to bring the squash around because it is taking over the garden.

I also made the decision to try to grow some popcorn.  I know this is totally nuts, but it will be fun to try.  So tomorrow I am going to soak the popcorn kernels and plant them on Monday.  I have absolutely no idea how this is going to work, because of the climate, but we will see.  The directions say that popcorn needs to be pollinated, and the wind does that.  So I am supposed to plant them in short rows and close together.  The suggestion is four short rows, and a foot apart.  So that is my next project. 

Now that I have all this stuff in the ground, I have to do some research about fertilizing, thinning, maintenance, and all kinds of other information.

You know, I was thinking, there may a possibility that at the end of all this, after all my research, and care and correctness and everything else that I am trying to do right, I may find out that this stuff will grow better if I just toss the seeds in the air and let it go.  I think sometimes we can fuss too much, and I may be approaching that point.  But I am going to keep on fussing and working, and after this growing season is over, I will look back and laugh at myself, and keep doing the same old thing.

Once again, open to suggestions, and until tomorrow...

Karen

Investment

When I originally began planning the garden, I was excited by the prospect of fresh food.  Unprocessed, no chemicals, fresh, home grown produce.  It felt right to be eating pure food.  I am a bit of a purist when it comes to food anyway.  I don't like lots of sauces and condiments cluttering up the flavor of the food.  Light enhancement is the best for my tastes.  So, the thought of eating this pure food motivated me. 

However, a strange attitude is evolving since I have planted the garden.  Something I have heard about but thought was a bit exaggerated and maybe a little melodramatic.  I actually am noticing a feeling of gratitude and respect I am having for the dirt and the bugs and everything else that goes into the growth of my food.  It's strange and interesting.  I am also noticing more things around me.  It rains 9 months out of the year here in the northwest.  I am used to going about my business without heed to the weather.   Now, suddenly, the temperature and what the weather is doing is of utmost importance to me. 

So, it rained all day yesterday.  The peas are growing so fast I can almost see them growing.  I have heard that the onions will do well and go crazy and maybe even create stray plants and grow next year, even if I don't plant any-but there is no sign of that now.  The rain smashed down the tiny lettuce leaves. They seem so delicate that I am wondering how they will survive the elements and get to the point where I can eat the lettuce.  The books all say to "thin" the lettuce once it starts to grow.  Thin the lettuce?  It is pretty thin already, and if I pull up any starts I may never get a salad from the garden.   No sign of the beans yet.  I am crossing my fingers.

Today I plan to put the zucchini and the summer squash into the ground.  I am planning (against the advice of almost everyone) to plant 6 plants.  I want extra for my freezer so I can enjoy it all year round.  I am going to try my hand at baking zucchini bread.  I will probably be the neighbor that everyone hides from when they see me coming with armloads of zucchini to leave on their porch.  I have great faith that the squash and pumpkins will do well...at least according to the stories.  So, onward and ahead.  I am hoping to have peas in 3 weeks!!!!  Woo Hoo!  I have a vision of myself standing in my garden in the bright sun, picking snow peas off the vine and eating them warm and fresh.  We'll see what reality brings. 

I would love ideas from all of you.  I am willing to try new things and plant anything that might grow here in the wet northwest. Until next time....

Karen

The Planting

I have had snow pea, lettuce and onion starts in the greenhouse.  The garden is ready, the plants are ready, but I'm not.  What if I plant them and no food?  We have spent a good amount of money and lots of time and energy.  So the pressure is on to produce.

I went out to the garden yesterday with hoe and shovel in hand.  The stakes were all in for the snow peas.  The soil was tilled and ready.  I loaded all my starts onto the cart for the trek to the garden area.  I had carefully planned out where I was going to plant everything.  Now the moment was here.

There are three stakes placed about 8 feet apart, with string running from stake to stake .  There are 5 levels of string.  The idea is that the peas climb up the string and begin to produce.  So I dug a trench (instructions say 3 inches deep) along each side of the string.  The book says to plant plants on both sides....or maybe it says seeds, and I don't have to grow starts...don't remember.  The first row I plant too far away from the lowermost string.  I can only hope they attach to the string.  I think I am going to have to go out and as they get taller, just place them on the string.  The trench down the other side was almost directly under the string...that will go in my notes for next year.

Then I dug trenches for 2 rows of beans.  I soaked the beans overnight before dropping them in the soil 1-2 inches apart.  They are bush beans and they are huge.  I wonder if I could harvest some beans this year, and save some for seeds next year?   Are these things processed in some way before they are packaged, or am I paying for dried up beans from last year? 

Next the salad bowl lettuce goes in the ground.  I started plants from seed in the greenhouse, but someone told me 2 days ago that I don't need starts...just pour the seeds in the ground.  That sounds fabulous to me.  It is much easier to drop some seeds instead of planting peat pots.  I think I made a lot of extra work for myself. 

Bunching onions went in next...these are known commonly as green onions (who knew?).  I also had peat pots with starts in them.  Now that was something to see...these little teeny threadlike starts sticking up out of this pot.  I could barely see them, and after I got them planted, I could only see a couple of the tiny little threadlike green sprouts.  I hope I haven't killed them all.  I think those would have gone in better as seeds also...anyone ? anyone?  Help...what needs to be started in pots?  I get lots of conflicting information, but I am sure there is a best way to do things, I just don't know what it is.

I was waiting for the communing with nature to occur as I was out there sweating, dirty, with bugs crawling all over the place.  My back hurt from bending, and my boobs were falling out of my bra.  This was fun.  Not feeling at one with nature yet. 

After everything was in the ground, we hooked up the hose and sprinkler and started to water all the wilty looking greenery.  I went in the house, got a drink, washed up and walked back out to check the watering.  I have to say....it felt very good to see all those tiny green plants out there inside the fence, and imagining that soon...very soon...I could eat some lettuce and peas.  That felt like a major sense of accomplishment.  I may like this soon.

I went out this morning when I got up and looked at all the little plants.  They looked a little less wilty this morning.  Is wilty a word?  If these things actually grow, and we get some clean, healthy edible food, I may try this again.  That would be a success story for me. 

I ran out of steam yesterday,  but this weekend I plan to put in the potatoes,  squash, leeks, cucumbers and more lettuce.  If any of you have any advice, I will gratefully accept it.  You may save me time and energy, and lord knows I could use some good experienced advice.

Until next time,
Karen

I Met a Boy

Ok...when I was 15, I met a boy.  He was my first real attempt at a relationship, my first kiss, my first love.  Oh the bittersweet memories.  My mother forced me to breakup with him, saying I was too young to be so serious.  Last year, after several marriages and 4 kids later, we reconnected at a reunion.  As it turns out, he was as kind and wonderful as I remember him.  We still loved each other and we created a life together. 

I am a die hard city slicker.  I love being close to the modern conveniences.  He lives out in the country in the "middle of nowhere".  So I packed up all my books and what furniture I wanted, and trekked off to the country. 

Now, I have always hated " yard work", as I so disdainfully called it.  You know, the kind of grass mowing and weeding that you do in a neighborhood so that you don't devalue all the property in the area.  So how did I end up in the woods, with critters crawling around and deer eating the foliage in my back yard?  I decided to move in with this man...that's how. 

Over the last year I have come to appreciate the space, and the quiet.  I made a decision to do something I never thought I would do....plant a garden and grow some good food.  Easy right?  Nope.

I got out my western garden book, poured through the pages, trying to decide what to plant and when to do it.  This isn't an easy task.  My state is divided up into at least 7 regions based on temperature, rainfall, and who knows what else.  I am in region 5.  So this book tells me everything I can plant for my region.  I decided I wanted lettuce, snow peas, summer squash, tomatoes, 4 different varieties of bell peppers, yukon gold potatoes, pumpkins, bush beans, leeks, cucumbers, and some sunflowers around the edges to look like the pictures in the magazines. 

I made my way through the garden stores gathering seeds.  I ordered some online, and I frequented the local garden sales at the high schools, getting flowers and some tomato starts grown by the FFA classes.  Whew!  I had no idea this was so much work when I set out in Feb doing the research and the ordering. 

Then there is the whole land preparation.  There was an area that my fiance had prepared several years ago for a garden.  It was overgrown with grass and weeds.  There was also the matter of the deer.  I didn't not want my beautiful garden to be a buffet for the deer.  I don't mind sharing, but deer can ravage a garden pretty quickly, as I discovered when I put out some geraniums on the front deck only to find a potful of stems the next morning.  Those pesky deer have 2 1/2 acres of forest to forage and they come up on my porch and eat my geraniums!!  I now own a slingshot. 

So we tilled the garden much too early the first time.  It rained and turned into a mud farm out there.  I am in the pacific northwest where it rains 9 months out of the year.  We let it dry out and tilled it again about 2 weeks ago.  Then we got fence posts in...the metal kind with the little nubbies on them.  We strung wire around the top and this last weekend we hung netting all around the garden area.  I think I am late getting going.

 I have a small greenhouse and I started growing peppers, snow peas, lettuce and tomato starts in the greenhouse getting them ready for planting.  None of the peppers came up.  I have since learned that it was too cold and I watered them too much.  I have peat pots full of snow peas and lettuce that are flourishing.  I have also discovered that I could have planted the lettuce in the ground a month ago. So far...not so good.  LOL

So ....tomorrow, I am going to spend the day securing the bottom of the netting into the ground, planting the peas, beans (which you have to soak overnight), squash, cucumber, lettuce and potatoes.  Did you know that there are cold crops (those which grow in cold weather, and warm crops?  Go figure...I REALLY am an amateur.  So I am going to put all the cold crops in the ground tomorrow.  I have also discovered that these snow peas need some stakes and string so they can climb and grow upward.  The plant will yield more.  I also read that there is some powder that you coat the seed potatoes with to prevent them from rotting.

So as a hopelessly inexperienced amateur...I have some questions.  As my potatoes start to grow shoots that come above the ground I am supposed to pile dirt around the green planty looking part.  I am to continue to do this until the dirt is about 4-6 inches high...so I guess I am going to have gopher -looking mounds of dirt in the garden where the potatoes are growing.  Then I am to leave them in there and let them grow, and harvest them when they are ready.  They are growing underground for crying out loud...how do I know when they are ready?  I can't see them.  Also...with some of the warm crops it says to plant when the ground gets warm.  What the heck does that mean?  What is warm?  Sometimes it doesn't get warm here until July and then gets cold again in September.  Are there some vegetables that grow better than others?  I am guessing that oranges, melons and other fruits of that sort cannot be grown in the northwest, but does anyone out there know what kind of  "warm" crops we can grow here?

So I am off to my greenhouse.  We will see what tomorrow brings.  I can use all the advise I can get.  I am pretty sure that after my planting project tomorrow I will have many more questions.  Signing off until tomorrow....

Karen-the most amateurish of beginners.