Vegetable Gardens

Posted by WesternGardener This year’s gardening trials for Harris Seeds includes a side-by-side comparison of three varieties of grafted heirloom tomatoes versus non-grafted varieties.

I've never done this before, but the books all say to thin your apples when they are 1/2"-3/4" in size. Most of mine had reached that size. Each spur had set about 3-5 apples and there are a lot of spurs on that tree. Some just a few inches away from another. The tree was just covered in little tiny apples. I picked the largest apple from each bunch and kept that one. Then trimmed off any that were closer than 6" apart. The books say 6"-8" apart. I tried for that. Then I put on protection for the apple. I swear they look like condoms hanging off my tree though they are really footies. Not the nicest look, but I suppose they would be a conversation piece at a bbq. The little nylon footies expand well and breath. They also keep those nasty insects out. I used a twist tie to keep them on. I'm not going to spray poison on my apples if I can help it. I've also read that ziploc baggies work well if you cut the corners off of them. I don't like the look of them, but I did cover three of the apples with ziplocks. I'll see which makes the better fruit, but it would take a lot of difference for me to resort to the ziplocks on all those apples. Now it is a waiting game. Will I get good insect free apples this year? I've got my fingers crossed. The apple that got protection is the Ginger Gold. The other apple tree in its third year is the Honeycrisp, but it has barely grown. It really struggles compared to the other. It had set two bunches of apples. I just took them off the tree. The tree really needs to get bigger. It is still only about three feet high. Then I went on to my three year old peach trees. One peach tree had set peaches already. I thinned the fruit, but the fruit is still a bit small to bag. I'll wait a few days. Like the Ginger Gold apple, the tree is covered in peaches. I had to take a lot of little peaches off. The other peach tree is still blooming. It was very late this year. It is right by the driveway and after the 2' snow storm we shoveled all the snow on around it. So the ground defrosted much later even though they are only a few yard apart. That one will need a lot more time before they get bagged. I did get a couple of other chores done today. I got my Tigers Eye beans planted. I planted a whole 4'x8' bed up with them. I planted in rows 6" apart. But one side had the beans 6" apart in the row, and one had them 4" apart in the row. I want to see if there is a difference in production with them closer together. If not it uses a heck of a lot less seed which otherwise I could be eating. The last chore was to cut back the French thyme and dehydrate it. I got a cup of dried thyme. Tomorrow I ought to do the English thyme.

There are infinite possible reasons for starting your own garden. For many, it's their love of the Earth and nature. For some, it is a resource to save money so that college tuition planning comes with less stress. For me, it's a lifestyle change. Better produce mixed with a little exercise and vitamin D makes for a healthier life and possibly a newly found green thumb. If you fall in any of

I didn't add strings to my trellis before because my hands were too sore from tying all the jute when I made the thing. But yesterday I finally got it done. I also did the typical soil preparation for planting. Fertilizing (with a low nitrogen fertilizer), loosening the soil, and adding compost to the top. I must say that I did it totally wrong. Do you know how hard it is to get your garden fork in to loosen the soil once you have a big honking trellis in the way? Well it is pretty hard. It makes all the spreading of things hard too. Live and learn. In the morning I had started to soak my beans. I don't always do this. And sometimes I don't just soak them, I let them sprout a bit first. But they soaked for a good 4-5 hours before they were planted. As always for beans I sprinkled them with an innoculant to help them grow. Today's planting was some Cherokee Trail of Tears beans. I decided that I never grow enough. I'm not sure why I think that. I still have some left from last year's planting. But regardless, I'm planting a whole 4'x 8' bed of them. I've also never done a trellis with two sides before. I've always put the bean trellis on the northwest side of the bed. This time I have twice the trellis and they are on both sides of the bed. I guess I'm still experimenting with the best way to grow my beans. I hope both sides can get enough sun. Someone asked me how I make my trellises. I have one more still to put up this week, so I'll try to do a post then. My other big chore was to get my spring spinach picked. I picked off all the good looking leaves. I tend to leave the oldest leaves on and let the younger ones grow. But those middle leaves are perfect. This patch will have one more big picking next week before I have to pull it. I want to get the melons in this bed by June 1st. So far the spring spinach hasn't started to bolt. We have had really wonderful spring weather in the 60Fs and 70Fs. It is just recently that some 80Fs have started to show up. So I'm sure by next week they will be starting their bolt. Though I'm still surprised to not see them bolting now. Spinach bolts not just by heat but by day length. I figured out ages ago that that was May 15th at my latitude. Since I got not quite four pounds of spinach and I didn't want to freeze this batch, I sent out an email to my extras list. I got two responses. So they got a quarter of the harvest each. I think I'm left with enough for this week. Maybe still too much, I'm just one person. But I think I can eat all that is left before my next picking. Then of course I made myself a salad for lunch and forgot to add spinach. I swear I'll remember today to have it for lunch. And I think I'll have some for dinner too. Maybe a spinach pizza. And my husband will be on a business trip starting on Thursday. That would be a good day for some spinach and mushroom quiche. Yeah I think I can use it up if I work on it.

Posted by yourownvictorygarden Joel Karsten's book on this breakthrough method of gardening is well written, informative, and beautifully illustrated.

Before I pack up the laptop for tomorrow's trip, I must show you the new guardian of the garden. The sparrows were taking their toll on the greens this morning, so something had to be done! One broomstick, a nail and a piece of 1"x2", an old shirt, my sweat pants, a panty hose head with Mr. Granny's cap...................Granny Junior!Can you see her standing out there?Otto and Annie went crazy when they saw her! Otto was pretty brave, but Annie did her barking from the protection of the patio. Otto wouldn't stop barking at her, but see how fast that tail is wagging, LOL! I can only hope the birds are as scared of her as Annie is.The new car (it has 14 miles on the odometer already) is packed and ready to go. The alarm is set for 5:00 a.m. Granddaughter Alicia is coming over to dog sit with "the kids". I'm taking the laptop, so if I get bored with all the down time I can always blog, or at least keep up with reading your blogs. I'm ready for some fun!

5/19 - Fallen Flowers:We got hit with yet another windstorm yesterday, and it knocked down some of my lilies. Just as they were in full bloom. I went out and put a couple of screw eyes in the fence, then tied them up as much as I could. Not an easy job with all the flowers and plants around them, plus I could have used a few more hands. Luckily the entire clump was already tied up, or they would have all fallen flat.Fallen lilies, before & after tying.This morning I was giving myself a permanent when I noticed the fallen lilies, so I grabbed the camera and went out to get a photo while the sun was hitting them. As I came back in, Mr. Granny said "You didn't go out looking like that, did you?" "Of course", I replied. "OMG!" says he. Big deal. So I had my hair up in perm curlers, with a plastic grocery bag over the top of my head. And I was wearing tennis shoes, socks and a shortie bathrobe. What's wrong with that?5/20 - Harvest Monday: Visit Daphne's Dandelions to see what others have harvested!I've finally been picking something besides lettuce and spinach....strawberries! They're awfully small, but plentiful, and a whole month earlier than usual. Mr. Granny and I have enjoyed fresh strawberries with whipped cream (for him), and yogurt (for me), as well as our first strawberry shortcake of the season.Salads have been plentiful. I've been eating two large salads a day, a total of 8-9 ounces of lettuce. I barely get caught up with what's in the refrigerator, then it's time to pick again. so what did I do? I planted more lettuce, of course! I'm really going to work at keeping it coming through the summer months. Keeping up with the spinach is no problem at all, since we like it cooked as well as in the salads. If I find myself with a glut, I just steam it, and it cooks down to nearly nothing. 5/16 - 9.1 ounces (Not shown, a first picking of 2.8 ounces)5/18 - 1 pound 4 ouncesThe spinach and secondary lettuce bed needs to be harvested.19.4 ounces of spinach...........into the pot.Reduces to just enough for two meals. Some of the lettuces are almost too pretty to pick, but pick I must.Into the basket with the green lettuces. All together there were 27.4 ounces, way too much for us to eat right away, so I gave it the "big batch lettuce" treatment! I washed it well, then put the wet leaves into a clean pillowcase. I handed Mr. Granny the camera, and I headed for the back yard. Swing that lettuce, round and round, up and down!!!Then wrap it up in the now damp pillowcase, and store it in the fridge. It should be nice and crisp when I'm ready to use it at the end of the week.This week's harvest:Lettuce: 27.4 ouncesRadishes: so few, I didn't even weigh themSpinach: 19.4 ouncesStrawberries: 31.9 ouncesTotal this week: 78.7 ounces ( 4.9 pounds)Total to date: 12.09 pounds5/20 - Goodbye (but I'll be baaaaack):Tomorrow morning, before sunrise, I'm going to jump into my new car and head for this....Once I arrive, I'm going to spend a lot of time relaxing here....And when I'm not relaxing, I'll be eating here....One of the best hotel buffets ever, dieting not allowed :-)See ya next weekend.

The big spinach harvest was early last week (above is only half). Four pounds of winter spinach was picked, washed, blanched, and frozen. I still have the spring spinach to go. I'm contemplating giving lots of it away. I filled my harvest basket with greens for salads. I had the first radishes of the season. I also picked some kale blossoms. Kale blossoms have been a mainstay vegetable this last week. I seem not to be able to keep up with them. But their season is really short. I picked the first of the bok choy. I found the purple kind (on the left) not quite as good as the green kind. It is just slightly more bitter and also a bit tougher. Not much. They are pretty close. But enough so that I probably won't grow it again as it also grows more slowly. I forgot to take photos of the kale harvest. But I chopped the last of the kale down to make way for beans. I blanched and froze all two pounds of it. I actually find frozen kale as good as fresh. I never eat it raw so having it precooked saves time. I was going to a evening around the firepit with some friends. I gave our hostess some freshly picked spring spinach. So the giving away of the spinach has started. Last year I just preserved all the spring spinach too. And then I didn't need to preserve any chard. But I figure this year I ought to mix it up and freeze both. I have a whole bed of spinach. I'll work on eating it this week, but it won't last long as the weather warms up and there is just so much of it. A nice big basket of oregano. I put some in a quart jar to make flavored vinegar, but still got a cup of dried oregano from the rest. Alliums 0.13lbsGreens 7.73 lbsGreens Asian 2.69 lbsHerbs 0.44 lbsRadish 0.37 lbsWeekly Tally 11.37 lbsYearly Tally 18.15 lbs, -$317.43 Harvest Monday is a day to show off your harvests, how you are saving your harvest, or how you are using your harvest. If you have a harvest you want to show off, add your name and link to Mr Linky below.

PLANTING UP May is a crazy month in the garden, there is so much planting up to be done and regular garden maintenance needs to be kept up with as well.    I am running a little later with planting out a few items this year, but all-in-all I am managing to get things done and am closing in on the finish line of the spring planted crops.    I had a road trip to Spokane over the prior weekend to see my family and did not get back until Sunday night.    I took the following Monday (13th) off from work as well as the actual days I was traveling, so that I could have a day to decompress and catch up in the garden before returning to work.    It was a productive and truly relaxing day.    I started it off by getting the trellis netting hung on the vertical support structures for the snap peas.    This was on my “to do” list and it was good to get it done.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           As you can see from this picture, our many rhododendron trees around the property are in full bloom right now and are simply gorgeous to look at.    The snap peas are growing in this bed under the support structures, but the snap peas and the spinach (also in this bed) appear to be being eaten by birds this spring.    The peas behind the lettuce in this bed are growing without pest problems and are twice the size of the rest of the planting – apparently the lettuce is keeping the birds from finding them.    The rest of the peas are not so lucky.    The big shelling pea patch is growing really beautifully in another location and without any bird damage because the entire bed is covered with bird netting.    I just hope enough of the snap peas survive to provide us with sufficient peas for our regular fresh eating needs.    I am writing off the spring planting of spinach though because they are so stunted from the bird nibbling and it is so late in the season that they have no chance of rebounding and growing before they would bolt to seed anyways.    I need to come up with something else to plant in that bed area so the space does not go to waste.                                    

Friday morning I spent watering the garden. I didn't know really what to do with my rock wall garden. I didn't have time to hold the hose on them and my soaker hoses hadn't come. So I put on the oscillating sprinkler on its narrowest setting and moved it down the row. Then that afternoon, wouldn't you know it, the first of the soaker hoses came. I put it in and it wasn't quite long enough. I ordered one 75' hose(the one the came) and one 50' one. Since I knew it was too short I went back online and canceled the 50' one and ordered another 75' one. I think they may overlap just a touch, but otherwise I'd be watering a 10' section by hand when we don't get rain. I'll also bring the hose out to the end of the bed more which will use up a little bit more length. Then it was on to my supports. I got the fava beans supported. I only put the first layer of string up. When they get past that rung I'll do the top. Saturday I only did some picking in the morning. I picked what was still good in the kale patch as I needed to rip it out. It all got frozen. Then I went hiking instead of gardening for the rest of the day. It was a beautiful day. I was so exhausted when I got back I couldn't bring myself to go out to do anything. Well I did pick a bit of spinach to bring to a friend's house in the evening, but nothing else. Today was a morning work day. I had to rip out what was left of the kale plants. And put up the trellis for the beans (it still needs some twine lines for the beans to climb). It is the start of the warm weather planting season. I'm going to be planting some beans this week. Putting up a trellis is hard work. And it is very hard on the hands as the twine I use to tie the poles together really rips them up. But I got this double sided bean trellis up. I've got one more to build in the future. But that will be later. When I was coming in I noticed the lovely oregano. It really needed to be picked and dehydrated. So out came the scissors. The house smells wonderful now. I had so much that I decided to make some Italian seasonings vinegar. I'll put other herbs in the jar later, but for now it is just oregano covered by cider vinegar. Tomorrow I ought to pick the thyme.