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.

Silhouette Cameo Valentine Pillow Boxes

Happy Heart Day!

These turned out super cute.  I downloaded the pillow box shape with the $10 gift card that came with my Silhouette Cameo. I cut them from the cutest polka dot embossed scrapbook paper.  

Then I created the shape and added the text all in the Silhouette Designer Software. In that software I was able to send it to the printer and then put it on the cutting mat and it cut all of the shapes out in the Silhouette Cameo.

Uhm seriously so cute! My daughter tied them to the little purse handle with fine crochet thread.

We cut the pieces ahead of time and then my daughter easily tied them all together.

All 34 right here!

Girl Valentine Box - American Girl that is...

The children in my daughter's class at school decided they wanted to have a contest for Valentine Boxes.  My daughter asked for an American Girl Shaved Ice Stand.  

We used the most outside boxes from the bulk Ziploc brand sandwich bags that we purchased at Sam's Club.  

We purchased Berry Spray Paint from Home Depot. 

We used some self stick hearts we got off the clearance rack at Michael's craft store plus some American Girl 3D flowers purchased there months ago.

And I used Adobe Illustrator to create the SVG file for the word ALOHA because I wanted to make a swoop that went all the way under the word. Please don't ask me which font I used - I think it's by Autumn Leaves.

I used my 40% off coupon on my iphone Michael's app and purchased the rafia.  I sewed it on my White sewing machine.  I thought I'd have plenty to cover up the stitching, maybe if I'd purchased the large bag. It was fun sewing it all together while my daughter talked with me.  She was busy finishing up her 33 Valentines.

With my Silhouette Cameo I cut out the hibiscus flowers in white vinyl.

And I cut a small version of Aloha for her box.

On the back I added the sign "Flavor of the Day".  I wish I had orange vinyl on hand.  I need to make another order soon.

I had to hot glue these on here.

Pink Pink Pink and Aloha Valentine! 

Fresh and clean and ready to pose with her American Girl doll Lanie, girl of the year 2010. I'll share more about her valentines in the next post.

Valentine 's for boys

My son is bringing Valentine's to school to share with his classmates tomorrow.  He wanted a race car box.  So I made a race car graphic and cut that and his name out of vinyl using my handy dandy little Silhouette Cameo.  Love that thing. 

My son painted the box, can you tell? I love it. It will remind me of a little boy who spent the afternoon having fun with paint while putting off homework as long as possible.  His smile made it all worth it.  And yes, he got all of his homework done.

Here are the pillow box dinosaur Valentines.

We just cut the dinosaurs out of scrapbook paper from the Babysaurus line from Little Yellow Bicycle.

We made the labels and cut them out using the Silhouette Cameo.  I love the print and cut feature.

You can see these are actually quite big.  Next year I will cut them down by 30% - between his and hers we used a lot of candy.

Valentine Tulips from Tyler

My sweet husband surprised me with tulips for Valentine's day a day early.

I love tulips and I love that he thought of me.  It really is the simple things in life that add to our joy. 

Harvest Monday - February 13, 2012

This weekend I finished putting together the other two shop lights.  The full spectrum sunshine bulbs are working great.  I love the color.  It's a very soothing light verses the regular florescent bulbs. 

I also have stacks of new seeds for this year.  I think I am going to try and start my baby bok choy March 1st.

The romaine lettuce is doing well.

The chinese cabbage is almost all sprouted at this point.  The few you can't see in this photo I can see when I look directly at it - those sprouts are just tiny.

Green onions.  Just about time to thin them a little.

And good news.  My Pink Brandwine (Left) and Reb Beef Steak (right) have sprouted.  Unfortunately it's a little early so these are going bye-bye and I'll plant mid-March and see how it goes from there.

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.

Getting this garden started

It's February 1st - again.  How about that?  I know that last year I planted a bunch of cold weather vegetables on the same day and was going out of my mind because the ground was so soggy that I didn't get my garden tilled until the end of April. 

That's a long time to have lettuce, cabbage, and kohlrabi sitting around the house - in my window sills to be exact.  In my dining, living room, and bedroom window sills.  My husband doesn't have very many pet peeves but that is one of them. And they really do block the view. 

Three things have changed this year: 

#1 - I have two square foot gardens that don't require a tractor to till and with better drainage I will be able to plant even if the spring is extra soggy thanks to my awesome dad and my husband too. (I still have lots of space to be tilled - there are some things that grow just fine in regular old soil)

#2 - I finally figured out how to hang my full spectrum light over my plants so they are on a table in the basement and not in my dining room window.

#3 - I'm not planting Kohlrabi

These little jiffy pots fit in my Jump Start 12 inch window sill trays.  I refilled them today. I don't like these for peppers or tomatoes.  Last year I had a hard time getting the tomatoes and peppers to sprout in them.  They are great for all of my cold weather veggies.  

You might notice that is actually the plastic piping from a ladder toss game. I purchased the light at Lowes last year and it just sat in the storage room until today. I stood out in my garage trying to figure out what I could use. 

And then I saw it.  I practically skipped into the house with it.

 It's all just kind of shoved in the corner. It doesn't look great but it's better than sitting in the windows on the main floor of the house. The heating pad is on  low on a timer.  The light is on a heavy duty timer with 4 outlets in it, perfect for when I get another light or two. (I bought it years ago for the Christmas lights on the front porch) It'll be on from 7:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m.  

I've never used grow lights before. This will be interesting.

 I put the lights nice and low.  They are just a few inches from the Jump Start boxes.

 On the left is the Pink Brandywine.  I purchased the plant at Walmart last year.  It's an heirloom so I collected some of the seeds and I decided to try and start some now.  If they grow -  good.  If they don't I will know by March 15th - in time to purchase seeds somewhere.  It was a delicious slicing tomato.  It just takes forever to grow. End of season sort of tomato but so worth it.

The middle pot hold green bunching onions with seeds I collected myself.  I've done it before.  They grow like crazy with no problems.

The pot on the right is the Red Beefsteak. Again - just trying to see if the seeds I collected with sprout. It's a late season variety.

Romaine Lettuce, and 2 boxes of spinach. I might plant more but I need another light before I do.  I have always started Spinach outdoors but the last 2 years were a total flop.  So I'm experimenting and starting it indoors just for kicks. And I'm going to plant them in my west square foot garden.

Just a few bits of stuff started.  The boxes on the right are not filled with anything.  They are just sitting there so everything is in one place. The Jump Start tray not on the box is on a heating pad.  I find that the cabbage starts better when the trays are kept warmer.

It's about time I made my seed list.  This year I want to keep my expenses down in the veggie garden because I want to plant a few more trees (the 4 last year were $450) and bushes. I better get my plant written down or else...

The best part - this cost me $0 this year. I haven't purchased anything for my garden since September of 2011.  I do need some seeds.  But I'm going to try to not get all crazy eyed when I go into Anderson's in a few weeks.

And to keep my tomato cravings in check I've been making tomato soup with the canned tomato puree you see in those jars.  It's spicy with home grown garlic and onions too.