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.

Gardening in the spring

I'm going to be teaching gardening to the Relief Society ladies at church on the 10th.  Any of your best gardening tips would be great - especially cutting costs when gardening. Link me to your posts in a comment or leave a comment here.

I've tried to kill off my basil a number of times already.  There was the time it was on the deck and it reached 80 degrees and well, imagine what the dark brown deck must have been.  They started to will and dry out.  I ran them inside to the air conditioning and gave them a cool drink of water.  

Then I left them out overnight when it got down to 34 degrees.  So I brought them in to warm up and gave them a warm drink of water.  My mom taught me that if I left them out and it got too cold you must bring them in before the sun hits them.  You might be able to save a few by letting them warm slowly.  

If the sun hits them they are goners.

Isn't it interesting the difference a few items in your garden can make?

For example, the row cover.  I purchased it and cut it and sewed it and added string through the ends so I could tighten it and tie it off on the ends.  I put it on my square foot garden nearest my master bedroom.  I have great spinach this year.  The large one I started indoors.  The smaller by seed.  Much easier to start off outside!

And all of my romaine is alive and most look really good after transplanting.  Some are smaller but they are all outside looking beautiful and I'm happy about that. 

And the dutch cabbages are all doing really well. 

And this Michihili chinese cabbage is doing great.  I had to pull 2 that went to seed.  I'm going to plant the seeds directly in the square foot garden with the cover and see how they do. 

My carrots are looking good. I thinned them after this photo. It's easier for me to thin them when they are tiny and don't quite look like a carrot.

And my big daddy onions are doing well.  I made a Tri-Tip roast this week and added in a bunch I had sliced and frozen from last year.  I will be making french onion soup with the beef stock and onions along with my Udi's gluten free bread as the crouton.

This is my Summertime lettuce.  It's starting to form a head.  My son informed me he thought it was a weed and was going to pull it out.  I'm so glad he didn't.

And my baby bok choy is looking nice as well. 

And out and away from the square foot garden I have my peas in my row garden.  

The nice thing about having the ball valves on each line of the drip line is that I can just water my onions and peas and garlic right now without watering the rest which means fewer weeds and less compacting of the soil before planting the rest of my garden.  It's a cold wet day today or I would be outside killing Bind Weed for sure. (It looks like morning glory) You can see a few sprouts next to the peas. It's also about time to thin the peas.

Our last frost date in May 16th but we usually get a good hail storm the first or second week in June.  I plant my pumpkin seeds on May 16th and have always had great success.  Corn can go in the same time. But things like pepper plants don't go out until the 3rd week in June.  Tomatoes go out but are covered.  Most are doing well.  Only one looks a little stressed out.  Squash, Zucchini and green beans get planted June 1st.

Harvest Monday - February 20, 2012 - vegetable gardening in Utah

Outside my garden looks like this:

Inside my garden looks like this:

I love that my children keep referring to the lights as stairs.

And since I can't spend anytime outside I am slowly but surely getting everything ready inside.  These are the domes I purchased at Anderson's Seed and Garden a few years ago.  They are still in fantastic shape. 

If you happen to Like their facebook page just let them know that I sent you in a comment.  They are giving away a something free on Fridays (to anywhere in the USA).

The peat pots are actually Jiffy Brand but the seed trays are from Andersons

I labelled all of the popsicle sticks and placed the corresponding seed packets with them.

Next year I think I will move them into the spare bedroom. This year they are out where I can see even if it is the basement. How many of you have basements?

This is the Michihili Cabbage - a type of chinese cabbage.  I purchased the seeds at Andersons but not in the bulk seed section.  I love stir fry and kimchee.  We ate a lot of it as kids because my Dad was stationed in Korea right before I was born.

This is the Dutch Ball Head cabbage.  I need to thin soon.

All of my Pink Brandywine and Red Beefsteak tomatoes are doing well.  I thinned them a lot.  I'm just glad to see the seeds I gathered actually sprouted. Lovely heirlooms.  I love them!

And my Utah Celery:  

This will be interesting but I think that because I have a drip irrigation system on a timer that they will do well. You can't ever let it dry out and you can't overwater (black heart).

 I'm not sure how the blanching part will go. But I love trying new things in the garden.

And I finally got a few sprouts from my Correnta Spinach.

I love this Big Daddy Onions.  They are doing well - including those in storage.

And the green onions from seed I collected are in serious need of being thinned.  I just dumped the bag in the pot.  Next time I will put a 1/3 of the seeds in a pot this size. 

Here is the link to my gardening board at Pinterest.

And here is the link to the Pinterest Gardening Board.

Harvest Monday - February 6, 2012

I have been using grow lights for the first time and I really like them! It's nice that they are on an automatic timer otherwise I probably would not like them so much. 

So far my onions are doing really well.  They are in the window sill behind my couch because I'm trying to get another light that I can raise up high.  The only problem is that no one has them in stock. I went to the bulk seed store and purchased all of the seeds I'll need for the year. Potatoes come in the end of March so I'll have to wait for those. 

So here is my Romaine Lettuce:

 They are shorter and greener under these lights. I'm thinking that's a big plus!

I have another type of lettuce to grow as well but I want to plant it a month after these so that I have a little rotation going.  It's a type that grows well even in the early summer months.

One the left is a Michihili Cabbage sprout.  It's an heirloom Chinese cabbage. I've never grown it before but I love Moo Goo Gai Pan and I think this would be a much better idea that dutch round ball head cabbage.  Although that little dark green sprout right above the OT in blogspot is a dutch round ball head cabbage.  I wanted to grow what was left of those seeds and it looks like we'll get at least one cabbage out of it.  

A little better view of the michihili chinese cabbage sprout. If you look closely you can see two little white specs in two other starter pots. It seems to start easier than the other cabbages I've tried. It always keeps gardening interesting when growing something new.  You have to watch it more closely and learn more about its habits the first year or two. 

Anyone else grown chinese cabbage before? Any tips?

This weekend I planted:

Green Onions

Michihili Cabbage

and

Celery

Go check out Harvest Monday at Daphne's Dandelions.  So many gardeners from all over the world growing veggies! It's fun to watch.