a time to dig

After a couple of seasons of trying to grow garlic from spring until summer with failed attempts I came across a message that I know was meant just for me.  After I read it it made total sense.  "Plant garlic bulbs on the shortest day of the year and harvest on the longest day of the year."  Shortest day being December 20th and the longest day being June 20th.  Maybe this isn't the case in all parts of the world.  Our local Wal-Mart sells garlic bulbs in the spring, which is why I thought they should be planted in the spring.  But fall planting or planting later in the year makes more sense.  Just like tulips, crocus or buttercups are planted in the fall to spend the winter sleeping underground only to emerge when the weather warms up in spring.  How lovely!  The first year that I tried flip-flopping my garlic planting schedule it turned out to be a great success!

This past year, we had horrible luck with our main garden all summer and decided to move it over for better drainage purposes.  This meant for me that the garlic couldn't be planted in it's normal spot.  So, I hem hawed around until it was almost too late to plant.  I had ordered and received my garlic a couple of months before December 20th and had hung on to it just wondering where to plant it.  I wound up planting the garlic bulbs in the garden spot at the day care.  It was a very rainy time, I planted them in the mud pretty much and expected them to all rot to pieces.  I frowned every time I glanced towards the small garden behind the fence and just sort of shrugged at my lack of our big garden to house them.  All that dread turned into glee when the foliage popped up this spring.  I had two neat little rows of garlic. . . thank goodness.

So today, being June 19th. . . the longest day of the year eve, I went ahead and dug my garlic out of the ground.  I was so proud that I didn't nick even one of the heads.  I am pretty sure I have decided to plant next year's crop in the garden at the day care.  If your garlic growing time is similar to mine then it's time to dig them up!  Knock a little of the dirt off the roots, let them rest in a shaded area (mine is under our front porch on the dirt) for a few days or until the leaves are browned and can be braided if that's the kind of garlic you have.  Hope you are as happy with your crop as I am with mine!

I will save a couple of the biggest head of garlic to take apart and replant in six months.  Other than that I take the easy road and order my garlic through Burpee.com.  They always have a good selection IF you get to them quickly in the fall.  They tend to start running out of the good stuff pretty early.  We live in Tennessee and prefer the soft neck varieties because they supposedly do well in our zone.  Plus I like to braid them and hang them up in the pantry and you can't braid the hard neck kind.

Here's a good video on braiding garlic.

Planting Seeds

I have found that I house quite the plethora of seeds, from veggies to flowers.  I decided instead of over-planting the garden with flowers, I would plant seeds in pots outside.  I really eased up on flower purchases this year and can't stand it I guess.  And it is not too late in the season to do this.  Some of these will flower on up until frost unless I move them onto the covered porch and then they may flower longer.  So I have orange cosmos and assorted dahlias coming up and have other seeds that I just planted over the weekend that will hopefully pop their heads above dirt line soon.

 

It seems too easy to be true.  I simply took several of my enamelware pots and buckets that have holes in the bottom, put in rocks and dirt, then laid the seeds scattered on the surface and dusted them with soil.  I just have to make sure they get a sprinkling of water until they come up and care for them normally after they are here.  Color is what I am after and hopefully is what I will get in a rustic enamel sort of way... like I like.  Plus if we went camping or something I reckon I could take along a pot or two for color.

 



Planning a Garden with Kids

I consider myself lucky that I have two gardens to plan.  We have a rather large garden at home and a smaller one at the day care.  I have showed you plans for our garden at home, so here's what we are doing at the DC.

Several months ago, I purchased chalk board contact paper from Amazon.com.  For some reason I didn't think I would like it and didn't do anything with it right away.  I was lucky to have it when this project came to mind.  I found a spot of wall space in the kitchen, measured it and cut out the appropriate size of the contact paper.  I then stuck it right on the wall.  It is utterly fantastic!  It takes chalk writing really well and once more when I am finished I can peel it off and no harm done to my wall! 

So, after the back drop for our plans was in place, the kids and I got out the Burpee seed catalogue.  This is the one I get in the mail, mostly because it is where I have wound up ordering garlic seed for the last two years.  I have been asking the kids what they wanted to grow in our garden this year for weeks.  So it wasn't to tough to look through and find pictures to cut out.  We taped them on to the contact paper and I wrote what each of them were next to the picture. 

Next, all we have to do is the layout of our garden and then on to actual planting! 

 

 

 

 

Now this puts me in the market for kid sized tools for the garden!

Weekend Fun

Scenes from this weekend in my world.

1. collecting dill that the frost missed  2. making pumpkin puree  3. foofee cat napping  4. dottie girl headed to the garden  5. planting garlic - 72 cloves  6. while miss kitty watched  7. also planted green onions - 24 bulbs  8. my happy Mr. and pepper the hen

Pretty Pots to Plant In

I just cannot be normal.  I refuse to purchase normal pots from WalMart to put my summer beauties in.  Well, unless they are on serious clearance and big enough to repot an inside plant in.  Instead I am like a scavenger when thrifting and at yard sales trying to find items large enough to put plants in. 

At my Thrift Store, I call it mine because it's the one I frequent, two weeks ago I looked up to the top of a long clothing rack where they display kitchen glassware at one and and pots and pans at the other, and spotted a big pot.  I darted, and I mean darted, towards it, picked it up and immediately admired it's size, age, nice wooden handle and it's price wasn't bad either at six dollars.  Six dollars is a tad high but it is a good sized pot that a lovely summer geranium would soon call home.

This spring and summer I ask you to venture out.  To break out and find something unusual to plant something wonderful in.  Take the kitchen outside, take the laundry room outside, take the bathroom outside (ok not like that!)  I am going to show you how to take an old stock pot and turn it in to a planter and also give you more ideas of things you can look for to plant in from the last couple of years. 

First select the pot to plant in. 

If it has no possible way to drain water you're going to have to make this happen.

If the pot is thin enough, or has rust holes already, simply use a hammer and nail to make the hole.  Sometimes you have to use a drill and drill bit. 

Line the bottom of your pot with gravel or rocks then top it with potting soil.

It helps to insert the pot your plant comes in into the dirt to get the correct size hole.  Then easily remove the plant, dirt and all, from the pot and insert it into the hole that you made. 

Fill all around the plant with potting soil and top with mini chunk mulch to help keep the soil moist. 

Give your new plant in it's new pot a good drink of water and a smooch of good luck!

Here are some other items I have found are fun to plant in.

Old chip can.  Used the lid on a bird feeder.

Large, enamel bowl.  It already had thin rusty spots so it was easy to knock holes in.  The chair... came with no seat.  I did spray it pink.  When you're single you can paint anything island pink.  Shaun doesn't go for pink so much :)

Yes, it's a hospital pee pot.  And I did clean it first :) (enamel pot planted in in the background)

This lovely Pyrex nesting bowl I bought at a yard sale and luckily it already had a hole in the bottom.  Who the heck would get rid of this?

This, I thought, was a good idea.  I did have a bit of trouble cutting the matting  to line it with but it finally worked and did great all summer.  Not bad for a twenty five cent old kitchen basket at a garage sale!

Good luck and send me picks of things that you find to plant in!  I'd love to see the great ideas! 

A Helpful Potato Trick

A wise old dude up at the feed mill (as my husband described him)told Shaun's Dad about this little trick.

Two years ago, as we did not grow potatoes last year, we grew potatoes on our farm and Shaun's Dad grew potatoes on the farm next to ours. While the potatoes did turn out fantastic, both stored and canned, we had a time fighting potato bugs. I have a book, Rodale's, Successful Organic Gardening, Controlling Pests and Diseases, which is handy to have as it has pictures and describes just about any problematic insect one might find in their garden. This book calls our potato bug Colorado Potato Beetle. These little reddish orange bugs with black spots (in their larvae stage) nearly devastated our crop eating leaves and stems which wound up killing several of our plants.

On the next farm over, no bugs were found. Potatoes were put out at the same time only about a quarter of a mile in distance from each other yet Gary's potato plants had no bugs. We found out what he had done and are well on our way to giving it a try for ourselves this year and I am going to share the tip with you. How it works I'm not sure. If it will work... I intend on finding out. The canned potatoes were like gold to me, all the way to the last jar. I aim on canning more this year.

Buy a regular pack of potatoes which you can find at the hardware store or feed mill this time of year in whatever variety you wish. Take each starter potato and cut the ends off. Not a huge chunk just chop off a sliver. Next, in order to make more plants, cut each potato in to fours. If it is a large starter you can make six. Slice across and the across each piece again. Lay the wedges on a tray and store in a safe place, away from bugs or mice, or dogs, or cats. In about a week the potato starters will heal, as Shaun calls it, and will be ready for planting. Once in the ground each one will sprout, a plant will form on top of the ground and little to big potatoes underneath amongst the roots and hopefully this little trick has worked and the bugs for the most part will stay away from the leaves and stalks. Happy Gardening!

Starting Seeds

Gardening is one of those things that can yield fantastic rewards. From beginning to end, delight to worry, raw ground to water, the whole experience begins with a single plant. Have you ever thought of starting your garden from seed? I'm going to help you learn how. I have yet to build our entire garden from seed because during spring and early summer I turn into some sort of plant buying nut! I can't resist the beauty in greenhouses and possibilities of what the plants may produce for me someday. Starting plants from seed, purchased seed or seed that was saved from you garden last year, has a different kind of reward. To walk down the rows of veggies and think " knew you when you were just a seedling" feels great. Today let's go over starting tomato seeds.

Now, you're going to need seeds which are available at any hardware store and even at the dollar store this time of year. To prepare the seeds, take one section of paper towel and fold it in half several times. Run the paper towel under water to soak. Place seeds on one end of the paper towel and make one last fold over to cover seeds. Allow seeds to germinate in the wet paper towel for at least 24 hours. Keep the paper towel moist at all times.

Next, you're going to need pots and dirt. You pots can be peat pots, egg shell cartons, re-used six packs and flats from last year. I prefer newspaper pots. They are cheap, a new use for old newspaper and you can plant them right in to the ground. It just makes more sense to me. To make a newspaper pot tear a folded sheet or newspaper down the middle then across the middle. That means that one big folded piece of newspaper would make four pots. Take one of the small sections and fold it long-ways twice. Using a juice glass, roll the newspaper around the glass, fold under the bottom of the glass and, sitting the glass upright, press on a table to make the bottom. Or you can buy a paper pot maker here.



Place dirt in pots leaving 1/2 inch at the top. Place one or two seeds in each pot and cover with 1/4 inch or potting soil. Stores have special "tomato dirt" available, I've not used this before. I find good ole potting soil does the trick just fine. Place the paper pots on a pan with a lip, something that will hold water. Pour water into the pan just enough to cover the bottom of the pan. Within 10 minutes or so the pots and dirt will absorb the water. Cover the pots on the pan with saran wrap and place your pan of pots in a warm location such as on top of the refrigerator until seedlings appear. Water the pots twice a day, morning and evening. Like anything else, if the soil is dry.. water is needed... if it is really moist don't water. You don't want to soak the poor things to death.

Once seedlings appear, and they probably won't all at the same time, place the tray in a sunny window. Keep watering as needed and just baby the heck out of them until they are big enough to go outdoors which would be after the danger of frost. In our area, Middle Tennessee, now is the prime time to begin your seeds. We usually plant our garden on May 15th. Mainly because Shaun's Granddaddy said so. We figure he's done it more times than we have so he probably knew best.


You can begin just about any seeds this way. Be careful to read directions on the packets that you buy. Some herbs need to be planted on top of the soil, some more shallow in dirt than others. Some are just too small to need the paper towel soaking and can be started right in the pots.


Isn't this tine parsley precious?

Small greenhouses can be used inside. Last year I used a bench in our spare bedroom with a heating vent underneath it and draped a thin quilt over the bench to hold in a little heat. It was definitely a make shift green house attempt. This year Santa brought me a small green house to start seeds in. I have it in the basement and have a heater rigged up on the bottom shelf that comes in intermittently keeping it at a tropical temperature between 85-95 degrees.

It has worked great so far and when the seedlings are ready to spend a little quality time in the sun, a little at a time at first, they can do so in this green house, tied down!, without fear of wind or rain abusing them before they are strong enough to handle it. I encourage you to give it a try.
I will offer up a packet of Black Cherry Tomato seeds for free if anyone is interested. Just leave a comment with you email and I'll get in touch with you.

Fall Gardening

HHEEYY YYOOUU GGUUUUYYYS!!! Anyone remember that from The Electric Company? That was a kid show on public television when I was a child. Did you know that youtube.com has some of the clips from the show? Well they do and for a real flashback you can check it out. I didn't realize until a bit ago that Morgan Freeman, the actor, was on The Electric Company! I have loved his work as an adult but had no idea I watched him as a kid. Neato.


Today I was going through "my favorites" on my flickr page to pick my daily wallpaper and got a little inspiration for keeping my summer plants, well at least some of them. I have had two six-packs of pansies sitting by my planter here at work for a week just waiting for me to plant them. I had petunias and a geranium planted there all summer. Sometimes I just hate to throw out my old plants especially when they still have a bloom or two. I decided that the petunias would go but I would re-pot the geranium and bring it in for the winter. So that's what I did.


There are several plants that will survive inside during the winter months and can be re-potted or put back outside in the spring. Geraniums are one of those. They may not bloom inside but rest assured they will next year when they go back outside. Also they need to be kept watered so they don't dry out with the central heat and dryness of the great indoors.


One other gardening tip. I have a bulb planter (or two) that I bought several years ago... why I have two I have not a clue. They are very handy to use when planting more than just bulbs. It is very easy to separate store bought plants from their six packs and dig a quick hole. I changed out the plants here at work in about 10 minutes. It is a very handy and inexpensive way to plant.

P.S. Don't forget to bring in any plants that you still have outside, inside tonight. I heard on the weather forecast this morning that they are to expect a freeze tonight in Nashville so you know what that means for us on the hill. Even if your plants are covered by a porch it's the temperature that will get them. Plants like aloe vera and tropical varieties won't be the same if left out. Just when my orchid was trying to bloom!