Spring tilling and tender mercies

Because we took an amazing vacation to Florence, Oregon and Crescent City,  California for spring break I really got behind on my garden. I kept thinking I would just ask my neighbor to till it while I was gone. Totally forgot. Ugh

So my son is getting baptized this week. We are celebrating his birthday party afterward. My huge lifetime brand table is currently covered with plants that I started indoors. I need that table for the party. 

So as I was driving home today after volunteering at the school I saw a tractor with a sign on it that said "garden tilling" and phone number. I called and he drove right over and tilled up my garden in 10 minutes. His prices are half of what I've heard from other tractor owners. I paid him a tip in addition for being so prompt.

Call it a coincidence if you want but I know it is a tender mercy from a loving Savior who knew I was busy in the service of others and doing the best I could. I was even able to get the organic fertilizer on the garden before he started tilling. (Save time and put it in a fertilizer spreader and run it backwards around the garden). This whole thing couldn't have worked out better.

Now to get some plants in the ground...

You harvest what you plant whether it's in your garden or in life

If you haven't planted garlic before, please don't be afraid of it. It is wonderful and easy to grow.

In the Fall (after your garden had been tilled)

#1 separate the pieces of the bulb
#2 plant the larger pieces (there's no decision making with hard neck garlic because all the cloves are large)
#3 dig a trench about 3 or 4 inches deep
#4 space the cloves 3 inches apart
#5 cover the cloves with soil
#6 water regularly all summer (I use a drip line and timer) and when the soft neck garlic starts to fall over around the middle or end of July, pull it out of the ground.
#7 dry in a place out of the reach of birds (they'll peck holes in them - um just trust me on this)
#8 store in a cool dry place, saving a few cloves to plant next year.

Just a note: unless you have amazing soil make sure to fertilize with a great organic bone meal. (Always test your soil before adding anything to it)

So how does this compare to my regular every day life. In the fall, we think about putting our gardens to bed for the winter. But there is something about knowing I've got garlic growing. Knowing is going to pop up in the spring. Usually when it shows up I know it's time to plant peas. It's a motivator to start gardening again. 

The Daily, weekly, yearly stuff can become mundane. Sometimes we just need a little something to get us going again. By planting something good in my garden in the fall, I'm more likely to plant other good things in the spring. 

A few months ago, I held a baby during church so a young mom could get a little more out of the lesson. Today that mom put her arm around me and gave me a hug when I cried during the closing hymn. It's those moments of kindness that keep us going. 

You harvest what you plant whether it's in your garden or in life. Let's be more kind, thoughtful, and willing to help others, myself included. 

Today's Harvest

We've been shelling peas like mad today. I put these in the freezer on a piece of parchment. Did you knowI Love to Cook at Kitchen Kneads has parchment precut for cookie sheets? My husband went and bought us pizza. Maybe that defies the purpose of gardening which is healthy eating. But it made it possible to get more done. We found out Pizza Plus has a gluten free crust so that was nice. The cheese might do me in. It seems like my milk allergy is getting worse. 

I picked a head of broccoli and some green onions today. I can't wait to eat them! And I pruned the tomato plants too. I got rid of all the leaves and branches touching the ground. They are just reaching the tops of the cages and just starting to bloom. 

Egg Shells

How is your egg shell stash coming along? I don't have quite as many shells as I did last year.  For those of you new to my blog, I save my egg shells and place them in the ground when I transplant my tomatoes.  If there are shells left over, I add them to the ground with the pepper transplants.  

Maybe you are wondering why I put them in the ground with my tomatoes and peppers.  Well I've found out that it's sometimes difficult to regulate the water throughout the garden without having to build several separate drip line systems.  Some plants need more water than others. And if you live in an area where you rely on rain to water your plants, you know just how unpredictable it can be. Blossom end rot is the result of too much water - it washes away the calcium in the soil.  Because egg shells are high in calcium it takes about a handful per plant to prevent blossom end rot.

It's really simple and it's free! Dig a hole in your garden where you want to add your transplants, after sufficient hardening off, and throw in a handful of egg shells.  Mix the shells in with the loose dirt on the bottom and sides of the hole.  Place your transplant in there and fill in with soil.  

Harvest Monday - 18 June 2012

We arrived home after a last minute trip for Father's Day weekend.  A friend let us borrow their raft and so we took our children for a 7 mile float trip down the Green River on Saturday. And we also ran up to Dinosaur National Monument on Friday since we were already there. 

When we got home Sunday afternoon I had no idea what I was going to make for dinner.

One of the things we don't do is go shopping on Sunday.  We also don't do big chores on Sunday.  We do make beds and wash dishes but no scrubbing or washing clothes, etc. 

So I ran up to the garden and grabbed some snow peas which took 3 minutes.  

Then I peaked in the square foot garden and some of the Little Finger carrots were ready and they were delicious. No more trying to grow carrots in the clay.  These were ready faster and less bitter.  I will be planting more of those now.

I love the taste of fresh snow peas.  I pounded out 2 chicken breasts and cut them and made stir fry with all these veggies over glass noodles.  

And some tiny green bunching onions. I just never transplanted them.

And the last baby bok choy. I think next time I will grow the real stuff. Probably starting August 1st for a fall crop. 

Harvest Monday

Kiwi helped my in the garden tonight. We took off the walls of water and placed them under the drip line for quick access if needed.

And he kept me going.  Not a great photo of me but the scenery and Kiwi are great.  We spent Memorial Day hiking up to White Pine Lake in 6 inches of new snow with both kids in tow.  No makeup, man t-shirt on, ponytail, and then covered in dirt from working in the yard.  Well, you understand.  I feel it's okay to be very real when I blog about my garden. And this was just what I looked like tonight - I didn't even retouch the photo or enhance the colors.

We finally got the mix for the square foot garden.  It's call the Garden Box Mix from Millers in Hyrum. Buy it in bulk not the bags. On Saturday's in the spring it's on sale for $80 a yard otherwise it's about $105 which is still a bargain because you don't have to mix anything - it's already done for you.  The pH is checked and all the nutrients and micronutrients. This was half full and it took a yard to fill it the rest of the way.  It is 4 feet by 16 feet by 10 inches.  

It has coconut husk instead of peat moss (Utah peat moss is full of salt because of old Lake Bonneville). And it has pearlite to increase the water holding capacity since we live in the desert instead of vermiculite which helps with drainage. It rained yesterday which brought the perlite to the top and I smoothed out part of it today which is the darker part.

You can see my other square foot garden here:

I love the rock around it and plan to add it to all of my flower beds. It's $59 a yard and so that is probably going to be a fall thing and only part of the flower beds at that. Slowly but surely things are taking shape. Need to edge again. 

My Summertime lettuce which is a head lettuce is taking shape.  I can't wait to try it.  And my romaine lettuce is starting to look good too.  

And my spinach is starting to grow.  I need to harvest some of it soon. Maybe I'll put some on my homemade gluten free pizza with alfredo sauce, chicken,  and chopped tomatoes.

See that weed at the very bottom of the photo below.  It's called Morning Glory by most people in Utah except this is really Bind Weed.  Terrible stuff and it will kill anything it gets its tendrils on. It's gone now, sort of, stinkin' rhizomes. 

My Big Daddy onions are doing well, and those in the back are from last year and are going to seed - which is what I want. It is pretty and it will give me plenty of seeds to share.

This is my hard neck and soft neck garlic row.  

I planted a row of Jade Bush green beans.  Hands down my favorite green bean ever.  I will be planting some in the big square foot garden along with yellow wax beans.

My tomato plants are starting to get a little bigger.  I have 2 Cherokee Purple, a few pink brandywine and red beefsteak, and 6 early girls, oh and not pictured are the 3 romas next to the house -they do much better on the hot side of the house. I need 4 more cages - still ...

And my snow peas.  I can hardly wait.

Another view of the Early Girls.  I did buy the plants. I just had a terrible time trying to grow them from seed this year.  I am going to throw out the seeds and start over with something new next year. I put collars on a few.  They help keep out the tomato horn worms.  I just cut two toilet paper rolls and put them around the base of the plant and put a little dirt around them.

You can see here that last year I planting the garlic and the onions before I knew where the NEW drip line would go.  These are the only two rows that are off.  I am going to have to move the onions next to the line - just the small ones.

My Spirit Bush pumpkins have all sprouted.  

Here is a view of the garden from the back south east corner of our 1/2 acre lot.

As you can see we are surrounded by alfalfa.

And here is our lonely little trex deck that is not shoveled in the winter and in the dead of summer it is just too hot to step on.  One day it will have a pergola that will be beautiful and shade the south side of my house.  In the meantime I am pinning every cool pergola on Pinterest that I can possibly find. It's under my Landscape Architecture board if you want to see what I've pinned so far.

And let me tell you I love Natural Guard.  Anderson's Seed and Garden recommended it because this upper tier was so dry all of the time and looked awful.  One treatment along with a serious dose of fertilizer made all the difference. 

See, gorgeous green - oh and that lonely ash tree will get some friends eventually.  We need to put in about 6 more trees along the upper side of the rocks. Which will also help shade the south side of the house.

Can you see why we finally got trees on the west side of our house? Shade.  And that got the ball rolling for us.  Thankfully.  The bushes you see here are Honey Suckle compact bush and Dwarf Burning Bush which will turn bright red in the fall. They are growing quickly and it's already helping a little. The trees on the west side of the yard are Improved Canadian Choke Cherry and the branches are already starting to grow after 1 year. 

So thankful.  Do you see that massive air conditioner? 4200 square feet of house is expensive to cool.  Although I must say that it's a good thing that 2600 of it is in the basement. 

I remember my landscape architect teacher telling me that one well placed tree can take reduce the need for air conditioning by 1 hour a day. So I hope that 3 well placed trees will make a big dent in the air conditioning bill in a few years when they get big enough.

I purchased some Slogger brand garden boots with a gift certificate I got for Easter.  I am allergic to soy, palm kernal oil, nuts, wheat, melons, and berries so most candy is out including 99% of chocolate.  So I got a gift certificate to the garden store.  Of course I had to spend a little more than I received to get these but I love them.

I can wear them without socks once in a while because they are thinly lined- like when the wind is blowing the cover of my square foot garden - or I can wear a thin sock and still stay cool enough (I have super duper hot feet - like it makes me sick to my stomach sometimes).  I am super excited about these.  They are even comfy with my big calves.  For someone 5"1' I have really big calves and tiny ankles. Go figure!  

Anyway, my son loved them so much he took his birthday money and bought the little boy's pair in blue with red stars.  Now he's as "cool" as his mom.  I love that he still thinks I'm cool and I'll hold onto that as long as I can.

And I don't know if you can see my blank walls about my kitchen cabinets in the background but I am finally making plans on how to decorate those.  We've only been here 5 years.

Make your own drip line - Conserve Water in the garden

I decided to change my drip line this summer.  Because I have a nice new mini roto-tiller I wanted to change the spacing in my drip line. I made a quick video to show you how I made it. I'm sorry it's out of focus. It's really hard to tell with this camera. And I had it on wide angle - add like 30 lbs.  Yikes!

I live in Utah and the summers here are dry.  They call it the High Desert where I live. We are in the tops of the mountains but it's still sage brush.  So here are the three pieces I put together first.

Here it is put together.

 And here is the nasty hose I will replace this year.  I will add the timer after all fear of cold is gone.  They will freeze and crack.  The one I love is from orbit.  

Here is the piece the hose connects to.

The ball valves are a new feature this year.  I'm super excited about them.  This way I can control the amount of water for each line, especially in the fall when my green beans still need water and my tomatoes don't. Got green tomatoes late in the season? Cut off the water supply. 

I put together 14 pieces in all. These first 4 are 1 foot apart so that each foot in my square foot garden with have its own supply.  Then after that they are 3 feet apart. 

This is my cattle panel trellis for my sugar peas that grow up and over the top.

I didn't bother to buy the expensive ends.  I just folded them over and used a zip tie.

And now I know where to plant things!!!

Still need to fill this up. This drip line has its own emitters which control the amount of water that drips out.  Perfect for even watering.

The mountains are gorgeous.  I would have put my tomatoes out today in their walls of water but a big snow storm is on its way.  Maybe next week.

My other goal is to get rid of this gravel path.  Too messy.  The other goal but not this year is to have a pro put a cement wall and cover it with a rock similar to what is on my house and put caps on it so I can sit on the outside edge if I want. This also means having them raise the well cap.  I like things neat and orderly and pretty.

Now that this is done I will be laying out weed barrier (once the plants all sprout) and then putting river rock down.  Yes, even before I beg for a few more new trees.