Indoor Garden Upgrades

So this year I decided to ditch the old plastic trays you can buy at the garden center. You know? The kind that flats of flowers come in.  Holding eighteen 3" pots filled with soil and water was fine on the tables but move them an inch and they break.  

So as you can see I upgraded to something a little more indestructible.  They have a 10 year warranty but I don't really care.  What mattered was they were about the right depth and heights and width and all 3 of those containers fit between the ladder game. And I like the clear look.  

A look in the first one shows a little container of green onions.  1 pot of bok choy, a whole bunch of celery in peat pots, 2 bell peppers, many jalapenos, and Serranos too. I'm leaning towards Salsa this year. Last year it was all about the tomato sauce (I made homemade spaghetti with 2 quarts of tomato sauce tonight and it was delicious - lasagna will be made from the left over sauce later this week).

This tray is full of cold weather veggies and items for the covered square foot garden. Summertime Lettuce, Romaine Lettuce, cabbage, broccoli, kale, and swiss chard. 

I must admit that I've NEVER eaten chard or kale - I'm only growing them for my parrots.  Oh ya, PARROTS, with an S.  Yes.  And they are super fun! We've had Kiwi, a yellow sided green cheek, since last April.  Today we purchased Mambo, a green cheek. She is not quite a year old and was living with the cutest family but her owner is moving. Today we got Mambo to jump on command, step up when asked and without biting, and target train to learn the clicker and get a treat.  Someone held her all afternoon and Kiwi even showed off his basketball skills while she watched intently. The best part was the end of the day when she let me scratch her head and neck and fell asleep in my hands. 

And last of all I have the 5" peat pots with the heirloom tomatoes.  2 are early girls but the rest are either cherokee purple or pink brandywine. I saved the seeds from the pink brandywine and they grew well last year so I'm using them again.  Best flavor ever!

Garden Harvest and getting there...

These are some of the Cherokee Purple I've harvested.  They are delicious and are my second favorite for flavor and the plant produces a lot of tomatoes that are especially large.  This one weighed 1.2 lbs and the one to the right that you can sort of see was 1 lb.

I took photos tonight because it's Sunday and I don't work in my garden on Sunday.  I did walk around and look at it. 

Bell Peppers starting to get big.

 Cayenne Peppers

Cherokee Purple on the vine - splitting because I changed the water schedule again.

 Early Elberta peach tree

Small Early Girls

 Jalapeno

Melon

Big Daddy onions drying

Red Beef Steak

 My garden tonight

 Spirit Bush Pumpkin

Weekend Harvest

I harvested the tomatoes today.  I was craving something at about dinner time so I went to see if there were any tomatoes ready.  The early girls were looking good but as many were eaten by birds as I harvested.  I think I need netting.  And the Cherokee Purple were ready.  I ate 5 at dinner.  Don't worry, I offered to share but no one likes them.

These two bright red bumpy lumpy tomatoes are red beef steak tomatoes.  They are the smallest tomatoes on the vine. The rest are really big.

The cherokee purple really have a different color but are really tasty.  I loved them.

Some of the early girls are not quite ready but I brought them inside to get to them before the birds do. 

I picked a few carrots for snacks.  

And I roasted some crook neck squash seeds for Kiwi.  275 degrees for 15 minutes. Not what I expect but I added a little Emeril's seasoning and scarfed them down myself. I can't wait to roast some squash for dinner tomorrow.

Kiwi ate the squash guts for a little while.  Then I placed it outside for the wild birds.

Harvest Monday- Tilling up the Garden

It looks like the warmer temperatures this year mean that my drip line timer can go outside already.  It will crack if it freezes. I have it on every other day.  Best product I even purchased for my garden! I could attach another hose to it but that side is manual only and I mostly only use it to mix the fertilizer with water in a pail.

So as you can see I spent the morning tilling up my row garden.  I love my Honda mini-tiller.  A friend said she has a Mantis and can only use it part of the season and then it's too hard too use.  While I admit even my Honda has a hard time with rock hard soil baked by the sun, it has no problem with weeds or grass and when there is a little moisture in the soil.  The tines are bent inward in an L shape and this allows them to cut off the roots and dig down deeper.  Love that little tool.  

So last year I started doing these trenches around the drip line. The emitters are 12" apart.  And some plants don't have to be spaced that far apart.  This allows the water to get where it needs to be without watering everything.  And that helps control weeds.  The last thing I want is more to do than I have the strength for.  With the ground all tilled up it was super easy to rake in place.  Only a few drip lines are on right now thanks to the new ball valves.  Even more weed control! I'll be adding the rest of the seeds soon. It looks like tomorrow is the last cool day.  It's 87 today and tomorrow it will be 60 and windy.  After that I'll be able to plant anything I want.

I dumped the water out of the walls of water so they don't burn up my tomatoes.  After the wind tomorrow I will remove them all together.

I need 4 more tomato cages. 

I love how pretty and full they are starting to look.

This is the Cherokee Purple that I started from seed.

And I really must start my Early Girls earlier next year.  I don't know why I had such a hard time with them this year.  

The ball valve on OFF.

My garlic is looking good.  It will be ready the end of July. 

The green bunching onions on the side of the house are going to seed.  And there is a little ant visitor on it.  If you want some seeds in a few months, please let me know.  There will be plenty to share. 

My basil had a rough start but most of it survived and it will eventually be planted between the tomatoes.  I hear that it wards off tomato horn worms.  Last year I only had 1 surviving basil plant and it was right next to my heirloom tomatoes which had no pest problems while my romas on the other side of the yard with no basil plants had the biggest horn worm ever.  Yuck.

I need to get this square foot garden filled up.  My mom and dad gave it to me last year and it's 4x16 feet.  The voles have already been underneath the weed mat.  I may still put wire mesh down. Chicken wire isn't strong enough for voles. Hopefully this coming weekend will be a chance to get all that done.

The snow peas are looking okay.  I need to get the other trellis back over here but right now it's protecting my new Gala apple tree from the deer. I need about 8 feet of fence to finish it all off around that tree.

And this cattle panel piece is for my lemon cucumbers.  I'll be planting those seeds today and taking my kids to the lake.

My spirit bush pumpkins have all sprouted now.  I really need to get the rest of my pumpkin seeds planted out front.

And the strawberries are looking good.  We have a tiny patch.  And something has already eaten a few and left parts of them in the grass.  

And finally my grape vines are starting to grow.  I was seriously starting to wonder. I have 3 seedless red grapes next to my propane tank.  It looks like maybe this year we'll be able to trellis them. Which means I need to get two 8 foot 4x4s and watch this video again. They've been in the ground 3 years - this will be their 4th summer here.  They were bare root as well.  

Check out all the other garden links at Daphne's Dandelions!

My garden

Well my tomatoes were safe and sound in their little walls of water.  It was 80 last week and 40 this week.  Can you see all the new snow on the mountains. We even got snow grains here in the valley.  You can even see my new drip line set up with just the right amount of space.  

Just before the temperatures dropped I planted 6 more heirlooms outside.  2 are Cherokee Purple which I've never grown before but many of the gardening blogs I watch rave about them.  

In fact, here is the smallest one:

Harvest Monday - March 19, 2012

On Tuesday we went to the grocery store, not the one we typically go to. And there was fresh chicken breast for sale at 1.47/lb in 40 lb cases.  We purchased two cases. 

So far I've canned 

21 quarts of chicken breast 

AND

6 jars of chicken stock

 from the trimmings.  I also have a stock pot in the fridge just waiting to be skimmed and canned. I put 7 lbs of chicken in freezer bags and put them in the deep freeze.  And I have about a dozen pints of chicken breast I need to finish up.  I love having a pressure canner and I love canning my own chicken at a fraction of the cost.  What will we use all this chicken for over the next year - chicken salad sandwiches, chicken enchiladas, hawaiian haystacks, and I could go on and on. And the chicken stock is great for chicken noodle soup, and a million other things like making a low fat gluten free condensed creamy chicken soup (I'm allergic to wheat).

Here's our landscape plan.  I asked for plants that they'd find around homes in Park City Utah.  Uhm, they really didn't know what they were doing.  But the bones are good.  So I have been busy making changes and having fun.

Can you see the green line?  Just click on it to see it larger if you need. I am going to add a low wall by stacking flat rock.  That corner set up isn't going to work.  I'm just starting the leg work - measuring, finding how much sand I'll need.  How much the rock with cost. ETC

 I've started some Summertime Lettuce.

 My red beef steak tomato plant is doing well.

 I started some spinach in 3" pots.  It like the extra space for the roots.  NOTE TO SELF: Plant spinach in 3" peat pots if you want success.

 Because they don't seem to be doing very well in the small jump start containers.

 The baby bok choy is looking good. I think I should have started it a few weeks earlier.  Live and learn. The ice on the lake is already gone - the earliest in 5 years by weeks. I can always put it in the shade.

And here are the other heirloom tomato starts in 6" pots -

Cherokee Purple

Pink Brandywine

Red Beefsteak

The celery is looking great.

Red beef steak I need to separate the one and put it in another pot.

And the pink brandywine with it's potato like leaves. I can hardly wait to munch on these most delicious tomatoes.

It snowed 3" last night.  But it will be 67 degrees Friday. Nice! And I've taken up walking.  I go between 2 miles and 3 miles a day except not on Sunday. But today I choose the elliptical because the road is so icy.  See ya!

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