2012 Garden - The Stars of Project 24

My Garden stars the following attractions this year:

CARROTS

(I planted carrots last year but absolutely none grew, this was a pleasant suprise!)

TOMATOES

(I was given a box of tomatoes last fall and saved the seeds. I planted 4 greenhouse plants just in case but now have an overabundance of tomatoes! Looking forward to making spaghetti sauce of some sort.)

Habanero Peppers

(I started these inside and transplanted in mid-July. They have flowers but I'm unsure if they will produce in time for the fall. We've still got time. First time trying peppers in the garden.)

TOMATILLOS

(First time with tomatillos, hoping to make a few jars of salsa.)

MARIGOLDS

(I have read over the years that Marigolds help with certain pests. I normally don't like the flower itself, but enjoy it in my garden.)

HERBS

(Spearmint, Thyme, Basil in the garden. I also have Parsley in a container on the deck.)

ACORN SQUASH

(I love acorn squash, but my husband and son do not. I'll be eating some and making the rest into baby food.)

ZUCCHINI

(We love zucchini so much that when I ran out of room I planted the 2 extra seeds away from the rest near my acorn squash. Didn't want to waste a seed!)

SWEET POTATOES

(Again, my boys do not eat these. I will eat a few, give a few away, but mostly make these into baby food for next spring.)

PUMPKINS

(I saved seeds from last year's 'cooking pumpkin' we bought while at a local pumpkin patch. This was, again, a let's-see-how-it-works-out type situation. Turned out well!)

GREEN BEANS

(Last year I planted 2 packets of seeds, and we got no green beans. So this year I tried again. Seems everything I put in the ground grew! We've harvested 2 gallons so far just off the bush beans. We'll pick the pole beans tomorrow and will have at least the same. Bush beans will have to be harvested again soon too! I'm freezing the beans to use over the winter. Will possibly make some baby food with these when thawed.)

ASPARAGUS

(I was hoping to plant up to 15 asparagus plants. I restrained and bought 2. They were supposed to be ready to produce this year but I only got 2 stalks. I let them grow and will cut them down in the fall in hopes of asparagus next year. Gotta keep trying!)

GARLIC and ONIONS

(I planted fall garlic and onions that have been growing nicely. Haven't been able to harvest as soon as I thought we would but they are going to be a better size than the garlic and onions I planted this spring. Nice to have a little bit of each.)



TURNIPS

(Opps! I planted turnips and had no idea what I was going to do with them... so I'm going to blanch and freeze them with my potatoes and some with carrots for baby food. I will only add a small amount fo the baby food carrots, turnips could make baby gassy!)

POTATOES

(Planted Kenebec and Yukon Gold. Grew well last year, growing well again now that they don't have weeds to compete with!)

2012 Vegetable Garden - Project 24

Today I got to do my first 2012 gardening log in my book. My Aunt Joanne reminded me to keep track of the dates I plant, and what I plant. An idea instilled and practiced by my Grandma (her mama).  My Grandma was a diligent record keeper and logged the weather every day for as far back as we can track. She had gardening journals detailing everything. And while I have this blog, I love nothing more than a good handwritten record to look back on.  So, I've already logged everything (which I'm sure is making Grandma proud) and now its time to blog it!

I've changed my 'garden spreadsheet' a dozen times already and even 'finalized' it five times... opps! I really should know better.  I use growveg.com for my garden template and I love it!


Jeremy tilling the garden.

 The first things to go in the garden were my hanging tomato plants. I'm trying Romas in two hanging baskets to see how they work. I accidentally bought these instead of cherry tomatoes so I figure I might as well try them and see how they work. I'm all about maximizing my space this year.

Second veggie to go in the garden were carrots. I planted carrots in two large terra cotta pots. Our soil is extremely heavy and last year we only had one pop up, and then proceeded to die within days. I read that they would grow well in pots so I'm keeping my fingers crossed this year! The best carrots are fresh from the garden.

Third, I transplanted my tomatoes that had been growing inside for the past month. They are small but have been wilting and crowding each other out this week. The pots I planted them in were too small to begin with, I should have known better. But we planted them anyway and covered each with a 1/2 piece of a 2 liter bottle. This will hopefully keep the fragile little things warm over night and give them a nice little greenhouse during the day. I'll take the covers off in two weeks, when we shouldn't have freezing temps over night any more. I have more to plant when it gets warmer but I wanted a few ready to go asap!

Fourth, I planted potatoes, Yukon Gold. Three rows so far, with room for two more. I didn't plan ahead enough with the one bag I purchased from the greenhouse. Oh darn, will have to make another trip to Nature's Edge next weekend ;)



Rows are east-west.

 Fifth, my mom gave me her extra yellow and purple onions, planted two rows of each. The fall onions are coming up nicely too!



Onions and Garlic are north-south

 Sixth, brought out the small garlic from last year's garden and planted it in two rows. I should have spaced these out a little more but I think they will be fine. The fall garlic are coming up great!



Fall Onion and Garlic

Seventh, turnips. This is my first year growing these so we'll see how it goes! I don't love-love turnips but I do like them in a few different dishes so thought I might as well get them in the garden. 



Turnips and Marigolds are east-west

Eighth, I planted marigolds and alyssum. The alyssum went along the two 'missing' rows of potatoes and along the first row of new onions. These are supposed to be great companion plants for potatoes and garlic/onions. I put a small row of marigolds on both sides of the turnips. I have a lot of each of the flowers left to spread between rows in the garden. I'm hoping it not only helps the soil but boosts the productivity of my veggies.

A couple weeks ago I planted two groupings of asparagus with the hopes of 6-8 more. These were only watered today, nothing exciting.

After planting, everything was watered twice. Then I was done, woohoo! In 2 weeks I will plant the peas, beans, zucchini, transplant my butternut squash and eggplant, and plant extra tomatoes and anything else I find at Nature's Edge next weekend.

Mostly Completed!

We haven't had an accumulation of snow... yet. There have been snow sightings around the are just not at 'our house', so in my mind it doesn't count! So here's what I've gotten accomplished the past few weeks.

Project 17: Take down fence and store materials.

* Mostly completed by Jeremy. We took down fencing and all posts. We used sections of the fence to go around the 2 new apple trees to keep the deer out. The posts and remaining fencing were put in the garage. Yay!

Project 18: Till!
* Waiting until next year, for a couple reasons. We decided we needed a chest freezer more than a tiller this year. We thought about using my mom's tiller, until she had her garage broken into and had it stolen! Yup, sad world when someone steals a tiller...

*Instead of tilling I decided to do the work by hand. Seemed like a good idea, but I am sore.  Yesterday I hard raked (with a metal rake) the entire garden area, twice. The ground is not level so that was part of the 'hard work'.  It looked pretty good though I must say!  Today I had the little boy help too. I raked again, he dug up weeds and rock, and Jeremy helped with a large rock and monster-root. I expanded the garden in all directions.

We had an extra find too! There must have been a building of some sort in or around the garden area .We found 6 large pieces of really old cement (cement with marble to golf ball size rocks) buried along the wood line, flat on one side in a short row. This area was used for sheep a long time ago, so we are thinking there was some sort of a shed or barn type building. Little boy threw the cement pieces in the pond.... kersploosh!

Project 19: Trees
* Jeremy cut down two trees for me with the chainsaw that were leaning over the garden. Then a few trees around the garden were pruned and I decided to cut down a lot of small seedlings that sprouted over the summer. I will be expanding the garden each year, but I really have a limited space. If I am able to keep a few trees a year from taking over it will be that much easier for expansion.

Garlic and Onions:
* The fall planting is officially done! The garlic and onions took up a larger space than what I expected but that's okay. I planted a total of 8 garlic bulbs and  30+ onions. I used small decorative metal fencing to box in the planting area. The fencing worked perfect for holding in the 5+ inches of leaves I added instead of mulch. The fence will keep the leaves in place and will be a perfect reminder of where I planted the rows. It is a long time between now and next year planting and believe me if anyone could forget something in that time it would be me!  I don't have much completed mulch yet and am really hoping the dry whole leaves work as well as the mulch would. I have more raking to do and want another layer (2-3 inches) of leaves and forest grasses on top of my little garlic and onions.
(I'll add a picture later, it looks good but it has been dark for an hour so definitely wouldn't be a good pic!)

*Garden 2012 was addressed with the hubs. I showed him the ideal size of my 'dream garden' for the gardening space. He is all on board! However, what we have is all we have for gardening space. Remember, we really do live in the woods... Last year we couldn't get the whole space useable because of the time, or lack of time, we had to get the area ready in the spring. Digging roots, rocks, dead trees, cutting down small trees, and plowing new ground was a lot of work. With most of the prep work out of the way this fall it means for Garden 2012 I'll have almost three times the gardening space. Only to be expanded slightly in the next few years after. Exciting!

Non-Gardening related photos of the weekend:

We took off Friday and went to the Pumpkin Patch in Grand Forks.



Jeremy and Cole went to the Haunted House... I did not...

Finally, Planting the Fall Garlic!

Wow, have I have a busy 2 weeks. Not much gardening or blogging. Mostly work, family, football, appointments, meetings, signing up for winter activities,  school-activities, trying to find time to work out/run, oh and did I mention work?!  And to top it off it is getting dark now between 7:30-8:00 p.m.  I absolutely love fall but do not appreciate the shorter days.

More excitingly though, Thursday I had a box show up at my door, garlic! Yay! I completely forgot it had been ordered and was on its way. I am going to get it planted on Sunday (tomorrow) and rake enough leaves for my 6 inches of mulch to go on top. Gotta protect the little guys, it's going to be a long winter.

(Will post pictures of my little garlic tomorrow night!)

This proves my garden loves me!

Fall Garlic

Being a newbie to having my own vegetable garden has meant a lot of research, reading, digging, and planning.  I have checked out over 20 books on gardening, herbs, and trees from the library over the past year, looked up tips online, and talked to friends and family to get ideas on the basics. It's so hard to sort everything out!

The latest thing I heard that I just have to try is planting fall garlic. My family loves garlic and I would love to have an endless supply right at my fingertips.

I planted 2 rows of garlic in the spring with the rest of the garden that will be ready by the time frost starts and we have to start the fall tilling.  I'm really excited to find a small patch near my herb garden that will work for planting the garlic. The tips I have found consistent are: planting should take place 3 weeks before frost and layer mulch over top soil. Sound easy enough right?!

Originally, I was extremely skeptical that any type of fall/over the winter gardening would not be possible in Zone 3 but was pleasantly surprised! I found a ton of helpful info the the website: Boundary Garlic Farm. I saved the info and will be ordering garlic this weekend!