Small Success

Clem and I went to Home Depot yesterday to see what plants they still have on sale.  Many of their plants were on sale for 5 for $10!  We picked up a Roma tomato plant.  We also wanted to purchase a cherry or grape tomato plant, but all that remained in stock were hybrids.  The eggplant plant we had in our buggy turned out not to be on sale, so we're saving that money for something else.  We may check out Lowe's to see if they've marked down any of their plants yet.  When we went last week, they were still about $3.50 but still had non-hybrid cherry tomatoes and eggplants stocked.

Otherwise. finally found our grow light.  We scoped out the basement for the best spot.  Clem and I are going to be nailing up the florescent light this week and starting our seeds for cherry tomatoes, eggplant, peppers, zucchini squash, cucumbers, and sugar snap peas.  Yes, I know it seems a bit late.  We're still getting thick frost some nights, however, so it felt best to wait a bit before starting the seeds. (That, and I can't do anything correctly without a bit of thoughtful procrastination first!)

As far as our herbs are concerned, they all appear to be doing well. The basil plant is about 8-10 inches tall now, so we decided to use some of the top leaves in the veggie packet we're cooking on the grill tonight as a side for our pork chops.  The catnip I planted last week has germinated ahead of schedule, and we have 3 itty-bitty sprouts so far.  It's surprising how encouraging these small victories are!

While assessing what plants we're actually going to have in our garden this summer, we decided we may not need to build a bed after all.  We found a large, sturdy kiddie pool curbside at the end of last summer that we kept around with the idea of using it for a container garden.  I have to measure out it's area, yet it may be all we need.  We're going to use some used for the potatoes.  According to an article I found online, the old tires are safe to use as long as they are not cut or damaged.  We may also utilize an old stainless steel garbage can for growing potatoes.

And, we're off!

It's happening, it's finally happening; we're finally getting the garden started! Despite being two years behind, Clemmie and I are really pumped that the garden will be started in the next weekend or two.

I really have to give credit to my mom since she loves to give me gifts. As I've grown older, I become increasingly upset if she purchases items that I don't need.  For Easter, she purchased us some seeds, a couple of herb plants (basil, dill, rosemary, and sage), potting soil, and garden gloves.  I think she knew if I didn't have real plants, I probably wouldn't get enough inspiration to get the garden started.  The plants were alive originally, but she left them in her car for a couple of hot days before giving them to me.  I tried for a week to revive them, to no avail; the sage plant is the only one that survived.  We had to take all of the others back.  There are now sage, rosemary, and basil plants in the kitchen window...and they're doing well!

I've also planted some catnip.  It's been two days since I planted some seeds in an old Helluva Good dip container filled with some potting soil.  I put it in the window with the lid on to help it preserve moisture and heat.  I'm going to check on it Friday to see if anything has sprouted.  I think our cat Sheila will be pretty pleased if it does.

Another project I'm trying is using an old celery stump to grow a new one.  It's been a day and it looks like the celery is just starting to rot.  I'm going to give it a couple more days.  If I don't start seeing some roots growing, it's going in the compost!

Clemmie and I have been brainstorming what we want to do for our garden bed.  We've decided we're going to get started with one small raised bed that will be 6' x 2' x 1', with a trellis along the north side of the bed.  We did want to do a bit bigger, but we found a 16' x 1' x 2" that is $25 at Lowe's.  That's almost half the cost of getting the two boards we would've need to make a 6' x 3' x 1' that we wanted originally.  We figure that if it goes well, we'll build one or two more next year.

Clemmie is planning to prepare the bed doing a combination of double digging and huglekulture.  "Uh-what?" I hear you saying.  Basically, huglekulture is the utilization of fallen timber to maintain the hydration and nourishment soil. Check out the video as it provides a good explanation:

I'm going to take some photos as we go and try to post them up here in the next week or two!

Still Planning to Grow

Well, we did it: we made it through the hectic summer of wedding planning and got hitched on September 9, 2011!  Woot!

Now, after having a week or two to just breathe and unwind, we're looking forward: applying for better jobs, putting money in savings every paycheck, focusing on what we want for our future and how we'll get there... and what we want to plant in the garden next year.

We initially hoped that we would be spending most of our fall enjoying relaxing bicycle rides on the Youghiogheny River Trail and getting our garden bed ready for spring planting.  However, we didn't realize how much we'd have for the wedding that didn't get used that needs to be returned, how much we'd need to reorganize after getting back (yes, we're still finding wedding items and --ick-- food in random places from people "helping" us bring it all into the house!), nor how long it would take for us to clear out the basement in order to get the mold cleared out so we can use the furnace.

Yet, we're still planning on what we wish to plant for next year.  We received a burst of inspiration from two great happenings in the past couple of days.  The first was visiting Soergel's Orchard in Wexford on our way to Warren, Pennsylvania, for my Great-Uncle Dub's 90th birthday party.  They have amazing produce and fresh baked goods; we left drooling with a Trader Joe's reusable bag full of yummy produce (apples, pears, eggplant, butternut squash, and acorn squash) and fresh apple cider.  The second was a bag full of garden-fresh tomatoes, green peppers and banana peppers from our wonderful neighbor Jodi.  The smell of them immediately filled up the kitchen.  I had a salad for dinner last night, and nothing beats tomatoes and green peppers straight from the garden!

Looking back on what seeds we have, we'd definitely like to add some squashes (butternut, acorn and pattypan) and cabbage to the list.  We may also plant some turnips and rutabaga for fall stews.  We're really excited with the great opportunity afforded to us by the vast amount of usable space on our property, and we truly can't wait to get started!

Maybe Next Year

Well, it's been quite an interesting spring and summer.

C broke his foot and wasn't released for duty until the end of May.  I had pneumonia most of May, and developed prolonged muscle weakness as a result.  And then a personal obligation has kept us very busy.

Obviously, we didn't get the garden planted.  However, we agreed that we're going to use all of the top soil and compost we purchased to get the bed ready this fall for spring planting using the lasagna method.

Heck of a Day!

My and Clemmie's area (southwestern Pennsylvania) has been receiving a lot of rain recently.  Not too surprising since it's spring, yet the storms are more powerful than most of us remember.  In fact, our area has been hit by tremendously high winds; there was a tornado that made national news (and You Tube) about twenty miles from our house.

Today, there was a hail storm that came out of nowhere.

Until that point, the weather was warm, "muggy" (humid), and fairly nice. CM3 and I decided to go ahead: splurge on the tumbling compost barrel we found a couple weeks ago at Tractor Supply Company after we discovered the one we wanted from Sam's Club for $65 is sold out across our region.  We browsed the store a bit before making our purchase.  The last of the bigger bins--that holds 12 cubic feet of compost-- was on sale from $160 to $130; Clemmie talked me into the bigger one since it was only $10 and the last on clearance.

I had an inkling it wouldn't fit into my mom's 2000 Hyundai Elantra due to the barrel's size.  Clemmie and a clerk from TSC tried to make it fit through both the front and back doors of the cars.  Once the decision was made to tie the barrel to the boot of the car, it began to rain hard.  The dime- to nickel-sized hale pelted down from the sky seconds later.  I retreated into the car while the boys deliberated on how to tie up the bin.  We were on our way home within 5 minutes.

$138 and a hale storm later, we made it home.  Clemmie and I both agreed that the easiest place to locate the compost bin is next to the garbage cans.  Years ago, my grandfather made a brick patio to keep them on.  It wasn't quite big enough, so Clemmie grabbed some extra pavers and extended it.  It's a little wobbly for the moment but should be nice and steady one we begin to fill it up.  I'm positively excited!

Getting Started

As I mentioned in the previous post, we're behind on the game; our seeds should have already been started at least half-a-month ago.  I tried to get as much done as possible while the weather was nice and Clemmie had not yet started his new job.  Sometimes, life has other plans.

However, I'm trying to make sure it all goes our way today and tomorrow.  I have garden soil but not the seed starting materials and soil.  Well, mostly: I've saved food containers I thought fit for starting seeds: yogurt containers, milk jugs, blueberry and strawberry containers, etc.  I'm torn on whether to spend the money on buying the biodegradable seed starting supplies.  We're definitely acquiring potting soil and scrubbing the containers we have a 1:9 bleach/water solution between today and tomorrow.

I've also scoured Craig's List for potential free gardening stuff: mulch, containers, etc.  Thought I scored a free lot of 33 gallon trash cans in which to grow our root veggies but someone else claimed them first, the emails were just in the person's spam box.  So, it appears we will purchase a couple of 20 gallon tubs from Walmart for about $5 each.  There is also an ad to free plastic seed starting containers. I saw it before work yesterday and didn't have time to reply.  I'll let you know how that pans out.

In case you’re wondering what we plan to grow, here's a list of seeds we picked up for $0.20 each packet from American Seed:

• Black Seeded Simpson lettuce
• Italian Mixture of loose leaf lettuce
• Early Golden Acre cabbage
• Chantenay carrot
• French Breakfast radish
• Grey Zucchini squash
• Muncher cucumber
• Large Red Cherry tomato
• Rutgers tomato
• California Wonder pepper
• Top Crop garden bean (green bush)
• Cherokee Wax garden bean (yellow bush)
• Dwarf Gray Sugar pea
• White Lisbon Bunching onion
• Cilantro

A customer at Walmart advised me stay away from the American Seed fruit seeds because they don't germinate well.  Clemmie doesn't eat much fruit so it doesn't make much sense to attempt growing any this year.

Of course, we also have the seeder spuds for the All-Blue potatoes coming in on Thursday.  I'm pleased to say, by the way, that we have sold all of the extra spuds in the bag to help recoup the enormous expense of ordering a 50 lb bag.

I'm undecided as to whether or not we’ll directly sow our root vegetables into the containers or to start them inside since our last frost is not expected until the end of May.  Perhaps we'll put them in the containers and get some clear plastic to cover the containers to keep them warm and protect seedlings/plants from frost.

All Blue Potatoes

I've wanted a garden since I started living on my own in 2006.  Clemmie started to have a desire to start a garden with me after I told him we can have rare vegetables, including Purple Peruvian potatoes, purple carrots, and purple podded pole beans (I'd prefer the Moonshadow Hyacinth Bean or Scarlet Runner Bean).  They're nutritious and make for some yummy, eye-catching cuisine!

From what we've read online, any type of root vegetable will grow well in appropriately-sized containers.  The most popular way to grow potatoes is with the tire method--put four to five seeding spuds inside a tire located on top of some good quality garden soil.  Cover over.  Let the plant grow 4" to 6" tall, then cover plant with soil only 2" to 3" are showing. Repeat, adding new tires as needed.  Radishes are great companions to both carrots and potatoes; they can actually promote growth by loosening the soil, allowing the shoots of carrot and potato plants to break through.

So we know how to grow what we want, now to get them, right? Almost.  Purple Peruvian potatoes are not only extremely expensive, they are difficult to find or sold out.  Clemmie, thankfully, found an alternative: All Blue potatoes.  We visited local nurseries looking for starter spuds.  Most didn't even know that purple or blue potatoes exist.  One shop in Charleroi, Bill's Feed and Seed, called their distributor to see if they had any; they do!  The All Blue potatoes are expensive but much less so than we could find online. The only downside: we had to buy a 50 pound bag!

Yikes, right?!? Maybe not.  We placed an ad on Craig's List here in Pittsburgh, offering the starter spuds as $8 per five pounds.  We've had one gentleman place an order with us for ten pounds.  We also plan to share five pounds with both our neighbor Cindy and our friend Lisa.  That leaves us with twenty-five pounds of potatoes for which we need to find a home.  The order arrives on Thursday...we'll see how it goes!