June 2, 2012 Garden Harvest

First of all I transplanted all of the Genovese Basil to the garden.  There are 14 in the row garden. I placed them between the tomatoes.  It's supposed to help ward off tomato horn worms.  It worked last year in the square foot garden. We'll see how it goes this year.  I started the basil from seed. 

I also brought the pepper plants outside to sit on the porch and start to harden them off before transplanting.  Serrano, Jalapeno, and Bell. I started them from seed as well (except for 4 of the Serrano).  The Jalapenos did the best.  They sure are pretty and dark green.  Grow lights are wonderful! They are in the shade today but they'll get a little sun in the morning an then back to shade.  

I harvested a few strawberries.  We have a tiny patch and it looks like the voles are back.  I bated around the big square foot garden and need to get more.  It's an organic variety but it works amazingly well.  

And my husband, daughter, and son all loved them.  My husband even encouraged me to buy more and grow a bigger patch.  I wish I remembered which type they were but my mom gave them to me and I have no idea. 

This is Summer Time lettuce that I spread on my plate and added a little LiteHouse Ranch (soy free). And this is the first time growing Summer Time.  It's a head lettuce and it handles the summer heat very well.  It is delicious and pretty.  I can't have wheat (hives) so I use a bed of lettuce instead of a bun with my burgers.

And the Correnta Spinach looks yummy.  Can't wait to eat some of that tonight.

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!

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 - September 5th - Labor Day

So this has been an interesting week with its twists and turn.  Thankfully the grasshoppers are no more.  I got sick just looking outside my windows but not any longer.  I even walked outside once today without shoes on.  Life is so much better now that the hoppers are mostly gone. However they are still in my garden.  In fact they've eaten most of the ripe tomatoes on 3 plants.  Good thing there are 22.

About every 4 days I end up with a harvest like this:

On Thursday I decided I had better get to work on some more pico de gallo before they went bad.  I quarter them and then scoop the seeds out.  In the other three bowls are tomatoes that I ran through my Roma Strainer. 

I ended up with 5 quarts of tomato sauce after it boiled down for a while. 

And 32 cups pico de gallo.

See - 32 cups right here.  Now it's in the freezer.  Wish I could find more of those Ball canning jars locally.  I love them for freezing salsa.  

Two of the quarts of tomato sauce before going into the water bath canner.

Genovese Basil - next year I am going to plant it around every tomato plant.  

And jalapenos - just enough for all my pico and even some incase I get to put away more this week.

Today's tomato harvest.  Weird heirloom tomatoes - half green, half red.  Oh and today I ripped most of the leaves off the top part of the heirloom plants to get some more airflow and sunlight on them. It's apparently going to frost soon. We get about 3 to 4 months frost free and then it's over.

Here is my big harvest.  I pulled these this morning - all 108 of them.  Considering that a medium size onion sells for $1 each during the winter here I am pretty happy with this.  Thankfully we only have 1 car in a 3 car garage although car #2 will be here soon. And Daphne, thank you for sharing how to braid them.  As you can see I will be very busy soon.

This is my largest heirloom so far.  It's a Red Beefsteak. 

And this is me being cheesy.  My husband took the photos for me and I was being silly and did this just as he took a photo to make sure the camera settings were the way he liked them.  BUT I always say the gardener is missing in most garden photos so I included it even though I was covered with dirt and looking like I just woke up and I was being cheesy. Nice.  Forgive me. I think I even stuck my tongue out and rolled my eyes a second after this.  Aren't you so glad he caught this photo instead?

This is a Big Daddy onion.  What's cool about all of these onions is that I started them from seed.  All 108 onions cost me 99 cents total.  Of course I have no idea what it costs me to power the pump for the well to water everything in the high desert but we'll ignore that part ok.

And today with the help of both of my children and my wonderful husband I have 26 more cups of pico made.  So that's 32 on Thursday and 26 today.  Nice - freezer is STOCKED!

And Bell Peppers - I washed them and saved 2 for chicken fajitas this week.  The rest I put in the dehydrator that I received when I graduated from high school.  Nice graduation present huh?  It sat forever.  But I use it more often now. I've had it for a long time. A very long time.  I am way older than I look.  I got a kids menu when I was 6 month pregnant with my oldest - I was 26.

And here is that ancient dehydrator with the bell peppers I picked today.  

It does the job so I'm good with it.  

Hope you had a great Labor Day!