In The Garden :: Paper Pot Maker

I am loving THIS Paper Pot Maker. I just hope we have newspapers for a long time to come. 

In The Garden :: Early Spring Green Fix Seed Collection

HAPPY SPRING!!!

We are WAY BEHIND in the garden these days. As in we have not done a single thing. Wow, does another baby change everything. This time last year we had a full garden, we were harvesting, jumping in puddles and already had home-sown tomato and pepper seedlings. We will be buying more seedlings this year but this spring seed collection caught my eye. 

Click HERE to get this fun seed collection and you will be harvesting in as little as 21 days!

Includes:

Parsley Italian Dark Green Flat
Broccoli Raab Organic
Kale Dwarf Blue Curled
Mache Corn Salad Big Seeded Organic
Mustard Greens Mizuna
Pea Snap Super Sugar Snap
Radish French Breakfast Organic
Spinach Bordeaux

What we're growing right now

We planted these Trombetta seeds yesterday in the garden. It is an Italian heirloom squash that has a mild artichoke flavor. It is a climber so we are growing it up a trellis as well as along a fence. 

Two of our other favorite squash/zucchini have sprouted in the three sisters garden and are growing nicely--Romanesco and Ronde de Nice.

We are going to plant two Zapotec tomatoes today as well at three Matt's Wild Cherries. Then our tomato beds may be full. On to eggplant and peppers! 

We had a great day with Ryan yesterday for his birthday. It was pretty much a perfect day. He rode his long board the two miles down our road on our way into town. Then we had brunch at our favorite cafe. We planted some seeds at the garden while he rested in his adirondack and then we had dinner with our favorite neighbors. Unfortunately he had to go back to work at 9 pm until 4 am so he is resting now but we had two sweet days to celebrate his past 34 years and the many more to come. 

What we're growing right now

 

We started these seeds today. It would be fun to grow our own sponges!

Our last batch of Scarlet Runner beans didn't sprout so we started some in flats to make sure they germinate. I also planted some by the fence to see if the second round will do better. Gracie calls them magic beanstalks.

Chocolate Sunflowers and Dazzler Cosmos

 

We are trying this flower combination at the garden this year. I just have to decide where to plant them. We started seeds in flats and they have sprouted so when they get a bit bigger I will transplant them either by the irises or in front of our plot. I love the brown and pink combo. We'll see how they look in person. I also want to try making a sunflower playhouse. Maybe next year....

What we're growing right now

We started some new seeds yesterday and found a new seed company that we really like: Botanical Interests. It is a family run business in Colorado. My only complaint is that I can't copy the beautiful seed package drawings to paste here.

 See what I mean?

We started:

Blue Kale
Collards
Chinese Kale

Moon and stars watermelon
Chanterais melon
Hall's Best cantelope

Gracie also picked out:
Carnival Blend Carrots (orange, purple, pink, yellow, white)
Jarrahdale Pumpkins: which we planted in the three sisters garden
Acorn Squash: planted
Broccoli sprouting seeds: currently sprouting

We also picked up and planted more tomato seedlings after all of the seedlings that I transplanted from home were eaten this week.

4 Green Zebra
2 Black Krim (which I hear is the best)
3 Sungold (best cherry)

and 4 red million bells for the front hanging baskets.

A Pumpkin Patch

We designated a portion of our three sisters garden for a pumpkin patch. There are four different kinds of pumpkins including some small sugar pumpkins, carving jack-0-lantern pumpkins and giant pumpkins which Gracie is really excited about. I, on the other hand, am looking forward to these beauties, a french heirloom similar to the green lovelies we bought last year. This year I just need to make sure we cook as many as we use for decoration. We have planted pumpkins before and lost them all to animals or drought so I hope incorporating them into the garden this year will yield at least one or two.

What we're growing right now

Let me start by saying it is going to be 77 degrees today. Are we in heaven?

We were busy planting more seeds (in flats) this week before rain arrives Tuesday and Wednesday, hopefully giving the garden a good soak. I made a list of the vegetables we have to date and counted 63. I intend to make a harvest list as well for comparison.

Cucumbers:
Lemon heirloom
Armenian heirloom
Pickling Endeavor
Persian Green Fingers (Gracie's favorite at TJ's)
Satsuki Madori

Fennel
French Baby Leeks
Seasoning Celery
Butterfly Bush (the smallest seeds I have ever seen)
Bok Choy
Bull's Blood Beets

We also added some Collards seedlings from our neighbor gardener Jeff. Collards are one of my favorite greens, being from the south, so I need to order seeds for our collection as well.

Three Sisters

I would love to have three sisters pitter-pattering around the house one day but this garden will have to do for now. The three sisters are corn, beans and squash and were traditionally planted together by Native Americans for healthy nutrition and healthy soil. We planted this for the first time last year with great success (yucky corn but great as bean poles) and we have expanded this year to plant a larger garden. Hopefully it won't be shaded too much with the cherry tree. We are planting more corn this year and closer together so that we have better pollination and better ears of corn. Cross your fingers!

As of today we have planted:

Corn: 

Bon Jour Early 

Squash:

Raven Zucchini

Clarimore Zucchini

Golden Dawn Zucchini

Romanesco Zucchini (Italian heirloom)

Ronde de Nice Zucchini (French heirloom)

Supersett Crookneck 

Sunburst Pattypan

Peter Pan Pattypan

Starship Pattypan

Butternut

Delicata
Antique French Cinderella's Carriage Pumpkins
Spookie Sugar Pumpkins
Autumn Gold Jack-O-Lantern Pumpkins
(am I forgetting something)

Beans:
Rattlesnake
Purple Pole
Emerite Pole
Musica
Edamame
(we may sneak in Gracie's favorite Sugar Snap Peas)

Here is a good link with more background info and planting diagrams (we planted much closer together)

57 Pepper Seedlings!

Do you think that is enough?

I am really excited about the Pimientos de Padron peppers. We have spent a lot of money buying them at the market ($7 a bag) so I plan to plant all 14 plants to have our own harvest. An amazing tapas! Simply saute the whole peppers in a bit of olive oil over medium heat and then sprinkle with sea salt and eat whole. Most are mild but once in a while you get one with a kick. AMAZING!

This little piggy....

LOVES mud!

Today we planted our three sisters garden.
Corn (seedlings and kernels)
Squash (raven zucchini, ronde de nice, etc)
and beans to come.
The girls all planted magic beanstalks by the fence (giant scarlet runner)