Leap Day

Hello! Today is the 29th, Leap Day. To celebrate the day we are having horrible weather, really windy and cold, rainy and snowy combined. Some celebration...

I have been getting both blue jays and cardinals at my feeder, filled with finch food, sunflower seeds and shelled whole corn. Of course I get gold finches, sparrows of several kinds, and slate colored juncos. Occasionally I get a dove beneath the feeder, on the ground eating the scattered millet. I love birds, and so does Felix, my boycat. He likes to eat them, tho, not watch them.

I am going to visit my daughter and son a few hours from home on the 7th, and will get some plants potted up before I go, plus fill some of my seedling trays before I go, so they are ready to go the day I get home.

I am planting by moon sign and phase, and March 12th is the day I start planting seeds.

Last night I chose my tomato varieties for this year, 40 of them, a few are experimental, but most are dependable producers so I can get a huge harvest and make and can all the tomato soup I need for a few years. I need at least 100 pounds of tomatoes. I like an Amish recipe for the soup, even tho it has flour and butter in it, which is supposed to be a modern day canning no-no. I don't care, it tastes really good, and it kept just fine for us.

My kitchen garden for herbs

Here is my herb garden, on the South side of the kitchen/house. The rosemary bush in the pot is really very large, that is a 5 gallon pot it's in. My garlic and herbs grow beautifully here.

My hydroponic units in Summer 2011

Here are pics of my hydroponics units on the west /back side of the house. Loren built me the platform with wood chips as the surface, and he and I set it all up.

Several kinds of basil can be seen on the right front double tray in the photo above. Behind it is a simple lettuce blend that I harvest leaves from. The double tray on the left has salad niche (Thompson & Morgan Seeds) in the front tray, and heirloom lettuce in the rear part. In the EuroBucket system on the far left, I have cutting celery growing in the right 4 buckets, and regular celery, Tango, growing in the left 4 buckets. I can also grow watercress very well in these units, but did not do so in the year this photo was taken. This is a West exposure and gets hot in August. Watercress would be happier on the North side of the house, in the deep shade.

 This is several kinds of basil growing, including some lettuce-leaved kinds for pesto, and blue basil in the right tray.

 You can see a volunteer lettuce plant underneath the tray on the right side, above. And another one on the left side, poking up.

Here is a close-up of the celery. You mostly are seeing the cutting variety here. The celery is growing in a mix of perlite and Hydroton clay balls. Each bucket has a waterline going to it, and drains back into the Panda reservoir via a drain line.

We had a fox make her den in back of the Morton Bldg in Spring 2010, and she had 4 kits back there in the tall grass. So cute! The cats were fascinated with them. The cats are bigger than the Mama fox.

Red and Yellow Dutch Shallots from my 2011 garden.

 

 

 

Getting Ready to Garden in 2012

Last week I went to Madison, WI to get seed starting supplies. I go to the hydroponics stores there because they have the best stuff, like I used to get in CA so easily.

Got flats, cells, germination trays, and special potting dirt and special compost.

Now I'm all set and ready to plant.

Yesterday I cleaned out my cellar seedling table space, and organized everything there. I brought the stacks of flats and cells and trays from the storage area in the Morton Bldg into the cellar on the green cart.

I have my seeds at the ready.

Still have to buy onion plants, and trellis netting. Want to have planting mulching paper to help keep back the weeds.

I am going to use my electric Mantis tiller this year, to cultivate, and to hill the potatoes.  I bought 5 pounds of seed potatoes from Potato Garden (Ronniger's) but will also plant the varieties we already have and like. I like to have different varieties of potatoes for all the different uses.

2010 Season has begun!

Hi Folks,

Last season we had a huge harvest from the garden, but the weeds got away from us and made the garden look ugly. We also ran out of time and energy getting things planted on time while doing other homesteading things, as well.

We are beginning the season earlier this year, and we have corrected the things that caused problems with seed germination in our first season here, last Spring. We won't be late planting some things out this year! We also have adult son and daughter working along side us this year.

We planted 4 flats yesterday of cabbages, broccoli and cauliflower, along with the tomatoes and some of the peppers. We will finish planting today with a few more flats.

The tom and pepper flats are upstairs on a heat mat where they will be quite warm, and the cole crops are in the basement on heat mats at about 7o degrees.

I am using Black Gold CoCo Blend and Fox farm Seedling Mix for planting this year, after using the awful bagged soil locally available. The cost of the better potting soil is well worth it in my book.

More to come! Come back to visit during the year!

Severe Storms

Yesterday we had bad storms here. I wanted the rain, but not destruction. We got pounded by heavy rain for a long time. Our garden survived okay, and it got the water it was desperate for. To our west, in West Union they got hit by 70+mph winds, plus hail that was baseball or tennis ball in size, about 4" diameter. We drove there for lunch today and took pics of the damage. Many trees were downed or damaged with limbs ripped off. And this house was badly damaged, too. We saw metal roofs ripped loose on outbuildings, and even the ditch weeds were laying flat, all pounded down.

Sunflowers and Walla Walla onions

Here are more photos! I planted several kinds of sunflowers around the garden perimeter, these are for the birds, the giant ones aren't blooming yet. And look at the peppers around the lettuce!

Here are the Walla Walla onions, which we are now harvesting. I'm freezing them and we're canning carmelized onions, and any way we can think of.

July Progress photos #1

Here are the latest photos from the garden. The weeds and space have been overwhelming. We had to hire help to weed since our boy isn't here to help. I gave up getting the squash and melons in. Too late. We just aren't young in body any more, our minds want to do more than we really can because we remember being young and able.

Here are my petunias, growing in pots around the kitchen garden and hydro units.

More pictures of Garden

First, left, we have the rows of peas, Maestro, Laxton's #9, and Serge. Next we have the onions, a portion of them. And below is the new addition, space behind the barn. We will have pumpkins back there, and the raspberries, rhubarb and asparagus.

Yes, we have some weed problems, but we are dealing with them. We are mulching with hay, and hand weeding.

First Pics of New Garden

Memorial Day we spent tilling the garden space that was waiting for late crops. Now we are planting it. Got over 200 pepper plants put in yesterday. Got the sweet corn planted. The onions and leeks are doing great, as are the mixed lettuces.

2009 Season Begins!

Well, so much has happened since last Spring!

First off, we decided to move to rural NE Iowa. We found an old farmhouse we liked and that was it. It took all summer to move all the farm stuff and household goods, so we had no garden in 2008, other than donating our seedlings to our former community garden.

We got to Iowa by late July. I had been diagnosed with a serious medical problem and so the Fall was taken up with that, and with getting ready for Winter.

In November 2008 we got a huge space plowed up.

In Spring 2009 we enlarged it to half an acre, and had it manured and disked by a farmer neighbor. Then we rented a tiller for our tractor and went over it 4 times. We had the soil tested and added sulphur and nitrogen. The soil is very good here, great corn land, top-rated.

So far I have planted onions, garlic, and potatoes. Am trying to get the peas and carrots and beets in now. Will take pics today once the light improves.

Tomato Shape Gene Research

WASHINGTON (AFP) - US scientists have discovered and cloned a gene that controls the shape of tomatoes, a find which could help unravel the morphological mysteries of the plant world, a study released Thursday said.

The gene known as SUN, the second ever found to play a key role in the formation of elongated tomato varieties, could provide vital new insight into how edible plants develop, said Esther van der Knaap, lead researcher of the study published in the journal Science.

Tomatoes, among the most varied crops in terms of size and shape, evolved from a small, round ancestral wild fruit to the many varieties grown today. But little is known about the genetic principles for such transformations in tomatoes or other fruits and vegetables.

“Tomatoes are the model in this emerging field of fruit morphology studies,” said van der Knaap, an assistant professor of horticulture and crop science at Ohio State University.

“We are trying to understand what kind of genes caused the enormous increase in fruit size and variation in fruit shape as tomatoes were domesticated,” she added.

“Once we know all the genes that were selected during that process, we will be able to piece together how domestication shaped the tomato fruit — and gain a better understanding of what controls the shape of other very diverse crops, such as peppers, cucumbers and gourds.”

She also said that SUN, which takes its name from the oval shaped and pointy “SUN 1642″ tomato variety in which the gene was found, does not show exactly how the fruit-shape phenotype gets changed.

“But what we do know is that turning the gene on is very critical to result in elongated fruit,” she said.

The objective now, van ker Knaap said, is to determine whether the same gene, or one closely related, controls morphology in other fruit and vegetable crops.

The SUN gene affects fruit shape after pollination and fertilization, whereas the only other fruit-shape gene previously identified — known as OVATE — affects the shape of fruit before flowering, the report said.

First day of 2008 gardening season

Today, for me, is the first day of the gardening season for 2008. Today I plant seeds for tomatoes, peppers, and flowers, along with eggplant, indoors.

Our last Spring frost date is May 15th. We plant out about the 1st of May, depending on the weather and how stable it is, using frost blankets that are pretty thick, but don’t require hoops. So I count backwards from the 1st, and that gives me March 15th as the date to plant seeds indoors. If we start any earlier, the plants get too big for good transplanting and fast growth.

So today I put the seeds into 6 flats on heat mats. The mats will hold 8 flats, but I only need 6 today. The flats are filled with the very best potting soil money can buy, and have covers over them. Each flat has 60 large cells. I am planting 2 flats of tomatoes, 2 flats of 20 kinds of peppers, and two flats of flowers and celery and eggplants.

As soon as the seedlings come up we turn on the big 1,000 watt plant light. It rides on a rail across the ceiling, moving back and forth over the flats so they all get the same amount and quality of light. That stays on for 12 hours each night.

I will post again when the seedlings are up, in a few days.

End of Season Summary

The 2007 garden season was fabulous for us. They grew 3 feet high by May 30th, and were 5 feet tall by end of June. We had ripe tomatoes by July 4th. In August we harvested over 100 pounds in one morning for canning. We made 70 quarts of tomato soup with them. The beans did very well, and we have saved plenty of seed for next year from them. The squash did fabulous as well, we had too much summer squash, and lots of butternuts for winter storage. The Winter Luxury Pie pumpkins are beautiful and tasty.

From our yard and the rest of the farm we got walnuts, chestnuts, grapes, apples, peaches, apricots, eggs, and melons.

We are already planning the 2008 garden to be even better and more cooperative in labor and resources. I plan on raising all the transplants again, since last spring was so great for them. I got the timing and growing perfectly meshed now for our season.

End of Season Summary

The tomatoes grew 5 feet tall, and we had ripe toms by July 4th. The Tomcat Hybrids were the first ones to ripen.  The beans did well as long as they had water. The algae bloomed in the lake and clogged the drip irrigation so we had major problems delivering water to contend with. We used portable rainbirds to water with.  The squash grew very well, and we will grow less summer squash next time. And more winter squash.

In August we harvested 100 pounds of tomatoes in one morning and we canned 70 quarts of tomato soup from them over 2 following days.  We canned chutneys, sauces, pickles, and preserves. From around the garden and our from our back yard we harvested chestnuts, peaches, apricots, apples, grapes, and figs, and walnuts.

All in all it was a very successful season and we look forward to next year!

Garden progress is tremendous!

I wish I had the camera! Loren has it with him right now.

The tomatoes are over 5.5 feet tall now, and they have outgrown the cages due to my inattendance at times to cage training.  The plants are impressive and tremendous. They are loaded with fruit.

The rows are actually 45 feet long, so there are even more of them there than I thought. Especially the bush beans. I am harvesting the bush beans right now, and the pole beans that I’m not saving for seed. I am canning them today. So many shapes and colors!
And the summer squash! Wow! What a performance those plants are putting out. I’m baking lots of zuke bread and freezing it. Some bigger ones that escaped our notice until too late are going to the chooks.

We are having some irrigation problems with algae, even with filters in line. It clogs up the T-tape holes.  Have to flush the lines repeatedly to try and help it along.  I wish I had more, but I can’t keep up with weeding what I have.

Am going to start planning for next year while ideas and notes are fresh in my head from this year right now.

This is June of 2007. My garden is above. I no longer garden at home except hydroponically. Now I have garden space at Monty's farm down the road. Look at how good my plants are doing! If you want to know how to grow the best tomato transplants ever, email me and I'll tell you my secrets! These plants are only 5 weeks in the ground and loaded with fruit!