2012

It is February and garden plans are swirling in my head.  We have had an extremely mild winter.  Last year I planted my first crops in the middle of March under a small tunnel.  This year I want to push it up to the beginning of March. 

The lettuce that I left under a tunnel has survived and will be ready to harvest after only a few weeks of warm weather.  I expect to cut lettuce by the end of March.

I have been reading Eliot Coleman's books regarding winter harvests.  He has developed amazing techniques for extending the garden season.  If he can grow in unheated tunnels in Maine, I should certainly be able to do it in Pennsylvania.

We will start to market our vermicompost on a more serious scale this year.  Decisions about packaging size are being made.  We hope to be in a local store by March or April.

Winterizing the garden

We are still trying to finish putting our garden to bed for the winter.  We layered two more rows with a thin layer of vermicompost and a thick layer of our compost.  We have a nice pile of compost that was too wet to use as a feedstock for the worms, so we are using it as a top dressing in the garden.  It was nice to see an abundance of worms in the compost as we transferred it to the rows.  I never thought that I would be excited to see multitudes of worms, but it confirms that the life in the soil is thriving. 

I still have some immature lettuce under a row cover.  I am going to wait to see what happens over the next week.  The ground is still able to maintain some heat but the lettuce hasn't grown in the last two weeks.  It looks healthy and I might steal some outside leaves this week.

I planted snap peas this past summer for a fall crop.  It was a real treat to be able to eat fresh garden snap peas in October.  That is something that I will definately do again.  I still have some leeks in the garden that need to be pulled.  Even in December, I like to harvest something fresh from the garden.

Make the choice to know where your food comes from.

Holmes on Homes

I am not sure if anyone has ever watched the show called "Holmes on Homes".  The show is about people who have a problem with the house (leaks, cracked drywall, etc.) and the expert, Mike Holmes, is brought in to diagnose the problem.  Many times the house looks great cosmetically but the underlying structure is bad.

What does this have to do with my garden?  If the underlying structure (soil) in your house (garden) is not right, all the paint, furniture and decorations (fertilizers and pesticides) will only mask what really matters for long term sustainability of your house (garden).  If the foundation is rotten the house will eventually collapse.

I was reading a press release today from Monsanto regarding the extension of rights to corn seed technology.  They were talking about how the corn rootworm has become a real problem for farmers.  Their answer is genetically modified seed that will tolerate pesticides and roundup.  The foundation is crumbling (soil) and they are told by Monsanto to throw on another coat of paint (pesticides and weed killers).  Really?

The soil is the foundation that needs to be strong to support a truly beautiful house.

Eating from the garden

It is always fun when you have all the ingredients fresh from your garden for a favorite summer salad.  Here is one for cabbage.  This is great for hot weather because there is no mayonnaise in it.

Stay Crisp Slaw

8 c. shredded cabbage (cut with a knife)
2 c. shredded carrots
1 green or red pepper cut in thin strips
1/2 c. chopped onion
Mix and sprinkle with 1/2 c. cold water

Dressing-
Soften 1 envelope unflavored gelatin in 1/4 c. cold water
2/3 c. sugar
2/3 c. vinegar
2 t. celery seed
1/4 t. pepper
1  1/2 t. salt
Mix all ingredients together except gelatin and bring to a boil. Stir in softened gelatin.  Cool until slightly thickened.  Beat well and gradually add 2/3 c. salad oil. 

Drain vegetables then add dressing tossingly lightly until all vegetables are coated.

Flowers

Fresh flowers are one of the best parts of summer.

Living Wreath of impatiens

Part of my cutting garden -

Summer Pictures

I apologize for not posting sooner.  Life gets busy.  I have been dealing with a major case of bacterial leaf spot.  I think that it came in on a pepper plant that I purchased.  I have been spraying with copper fungicide and it appears that I won't loose my pepper plants.  We also had a ground hog that got into the garden one night and dug three holes and ate the top leaves off the bean plants.  They will survive, he didn't. 

Corn

Lima Beans

Black Krim Tomato

Carrots

First Red Pepper

Potatoes

Too busy to post

Spring has hit with full force and I am trying to stay ahead of all the things that need to be done.  Here are a few pictures.  I will try to post more this week.

Viola wreath

April 30

May 10

new deer fence

I had to wait until we installed the deer fence to trellis the peas.  I continued covering the row every night because the deer would have enjoyed the fresh greens without saving any for us!  I was finally able to put up the trellis for the peas, now they need to start growing vertically.  They haven't bloomed yet so they still have time to climb.