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!

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!

Check out Daphne's Dandelions 

Harvest Monday - March 5, 2012

This is my garden on Friday - looking west. Most of the snow fell in one night.

This is my garden last week:

And here is a pretty photo of the long shadows in the winter Friday morning.

March 1st I spent the day planting seeds for peppers and heirloom tomatoes because Hot Peppers take 12-14 weeks before they can be transplanted outside.  Sweet Peppers take 10 weeks around here. And once I take all of the cold weather veggies outside and away from the sprouting station I will transplant the sweet peppers into 9" pots.

I brought the seed starting mix in from the garage in the 5 gallon bucket.  Then I added water and used my spade to add it into the pots.

 I planted 12 jalapenos, 12 bell peppers, 4 serrano peppers, and 2 cayenne peppers. 

I'm also going to try growing Baby Bok Choy this year.

And in these 6 inch pots I planted heirloom tomatoes which also take a lot longer to sprout and they are pretty slow growing.  I collected the seeds from last year.  This year I purchased seeds for Cherokee Purple which I've never grown before but I've seen that it's quite popular among gardeners.  While I absolutely adore eating Pink Brandywine tomatoes, I do love bottling tomato juice and making my own crush tomato sauce with roasted garlic (my mouth is watering).

Not quite sure why I started my romas.  huh. Early Girls will get planted the first of April.

I purchased the 3 inch peat pots in a pack of 22 for $1.50

Check out Daphne's Dandelions for more great garden ideas!

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.