Will I be sorry?

Meet my comfrey plant.  I am not sure what kind it is.  I do not think it is a bocking 14, which they say is a sterile comfrey.

 

 

I only purchased the one because I felt that I could propagate it if it doesn't self seed this year.

 

 

It is a rather lovely plant, isn't it?  I bought it from a small, local nursery.  He had lots of people as for it last year, so he got some, but wasn't sure why they wanted it.  I told him that I was looking for a local source for it to use in my compost pile.  He said he was going to look into that.

 

 

Then, I asked at another nursery and when I did, the owner said, "why do you want a weed?  I have plenty of those by my compost pile, if you want some, I'll dig them up for you,"

 



 



I planted this one at the top of the yard near the new compost pile.  In that part of the yard, there really isn't much but weeds that grow there already.  What's another "weed"?  Only with this one, I will use the leaves in my compost pile and around my garden beds as mulch.

 



Comfrey has many uses in the garden.  I have clipped a few from WIKIpedia that explain why I wanted the plant in my garden and the uses for it.

Comfrey is a particularly valuable source of fertility to the organic gardener. It is very deep rooted and acts as a dynamic accumulator,^[7] mining a host of nutrients from the soil. These are then made available through its fast-growing leaves (up to 4-5 pounds per plant per cut) which, lacking fibres, quickly break down to a thick black liquid. There is also no risk of nitrogen robbery when comfrey is dug into the soil as the C:N ratio of the leaves is lower than that of well-rotted compost. Comfrey is an excellent source of potassium, an essential plant nutrient needed for flower, seed and fruit production. Its leaves contain 2-3 times more potassium than farmyard manure, mined from deep in the subsoil, tapping into reserves that would not normally be available to plants.^[8]
There are various ways in which comfrey can be used as a fertilizer. These include:^{[9] [10]}

• Comfrey as a compost activator - include comfrey in the compost heap to add nitrogen and help to heat the heap. Comfrey should not be added in quantity as it will quickly break down into a dark sludgy liquid that needs to be balanced with more fibrous, carbon-rich material.
• Comfrey liquid fertilizer - can be produced by either rotting leaves down in rainwater for 4–5 weeks to produce a ready-to-use 'comfrey tea', or by stacking dry leaves under a weight in a container with a hole in the base. When the leaves decompose a thick black comfrey concentrate is collected. This must be diluted at 15:1 before use.
• Comfrey as a mulch or side dressing - a two-inch layer of comfrey leaves placed around a crop will slowly break down and release plant nutrients; it is especially useful for crops that need extra potassium, such as fruit bearers but also reported to do well for potatoes. Comfrey can be slightly wilted before application optionally but either way, avoid using flowering stems as these can root.
• Comfrey as a companion plant for trees and other perennials. Soil tests confirm^[11] that soil nutrients increase in the presence of comfrey even when it is not used as mulch, side dressing, or liquid fertilizer, but just allowed to grow.
• Comfrey potting mixture - originally devised to utilize peat, now environmental awareness has led to a leaf mold-based alternative being adopted instead; two year old, well decayed leaf mold should be used, this will absorb the nutrient-rich liquid released by the decaying comfrey. In a black plastic sack alternate 7–10 cm (3-4 inch) layers of leaf mold and chopped comfrey leaves. Add a little dolomitic limestone to slightly raise pH. Leave for between 2–5 months depending on the season, checking that it does not dry out or become too wet. The mixture is ready when the comfrey leaves have rotted and are no longer visible. Use as a general potting compost, although it is too strong for seedlings

I am not really sure how well this will do where I have planted it as the area is on top of a large boulder and only has a 2 inch layer of dirt on top.  I say dirt because it is an area that I have not gotten to yet, however, I did mange to put some newly made compost from the yard and the free compost I get from the county on to it and around it and it has since flowered and seems to be doing better.

I would love to know what your thoughts are, won't you leave a comment?  Thank you.

What is it?

I was recently at my dad's, where I have a garden as well. (I'll write more about that adventure in the coming months.)

DH and I decided to make a few raised beds there and we were working at putting in another one, so I had to do some weed removal before we could put the bed in.

So, I'm on my knees pulling away the weeds and all of a sudden a tuft of fur is revealed.  I couldn't really see anything, but all I could think was, "oh no, who have I disturbed?"

 

I didn't want to reveal too much, but I had to know, what was there.

 

 

 

It turned out to be a rabbit's nest with 7 babies in it!  What on earth are baby rabbits doing being born in mid September?!!  DH said, They're rabbits!  They're always having babies!"

 

 

I was afraid to move them, but DH insisted since they were in our way.  So, very carefully, with a shovel, I dug all around the nest and move them down about five feet from where they were.  That was when I was able to see that there were seven of them in this tiny nest and that their eyes were still closed.

 

 

I looked up on the internet and it said that if their eyes were closed that they were under 10 days old.  I stayed for four days and on that fourth day, one had it's eyes open just a tiny bit and they had grown to the size you see.

 

 

 

I was afraid that the mother would not come back, but by the second day after my moving the nest the mother had done a great job of hiding her little babies again and I knew that she was coming back to care for them.

 

My DH said we should have gotten rid of them, which I could never have done, because he felt they would eat the garden and leave nothing for us.  As far as I could tell, momma bunny had only eaten one of the cabbage plants that we had let go, so it really was not a garden loss in my book.

 

I'm glad she felt it was some place safe to have her family.  Please, remind me of that next spring and summer if my garden is eaten continually by rabbits!

Do you watch gardening youtube videos?

During my down time, I try not to watch too much television. Just like I try to read for knowledge, more than for pleasure anymore.  I like to spend my time learning as much as I can.
 
So, I found that there is a whole gardening world out there by way of youtube videos.

Do you watch any?

The first one I  found and tried to find every episode, was "Gardeners World".  The show airs on the BBC, from the UK, which we do get here, just selected shows though.  And the gardening there, climate wise, is somewhat similar to where I am, so thanks to all the gardeners, Monty Don, Alan Titchmarsh, Alyce Fowler, Carol Klein and so many more, I have learned more from these people than I think I could have without the shows.  Plus, seeing the gardens just makes you want to try it all.  They explain things to you as if you are in the room with them and they make the learning enjoyable and easy.

If you google the show, "Gardner's World" or any of the above names, you will find wonderful resources to spend hours of time learning about flower gardening, as well as vegetable gardening.

I would love to know if you watch any youtube videos to help you gaining gardening knowledge.

Heritage Tomato

 

At the time of year when everyone is inundated with tomatoes, I just have to show you ours.

 

 

Yes, these were grown from seed.  These are the tomatoes that DS received from his friend, that he saved the seed from last year.  They are just lovely.

 

 



The size of each is perfect for sandwiches.  They are so large that they take up the slice if that is how you choose to eat them.

 

 

 

Please excuse the use of the lighter.  I needed something which I had hoped would show good scale of the size of the tomato.

 

 

On the right side of the plate, I actually cut from top to bottom one side of the tomato because I wanted to see how that would look.

 

 

 

The picture below shows a bit better.  The left side are slices from side to side.  They are so meaty and the flavor is just lovely.

 

 

I served the slices with fresh mozzarella and fresh basil from the garden.  Forgot to take a picture of it though.  I also had Italian dressing on the table, but everything was so fresh and the flavors worked so well together no dressing was needed.

 

Peppers and Green Beans, Oh MY!!

 

Yes, I guess you could say, with these last few posts I have been tooting my own horn with the pictures.  But, I know if you are here looking, you are interested, and happy for me.  SO thank you for stopping by and leave a comment for me of how your garden is doing.

 

 

 

I know that the seeds I got this year were, Sweet Cherry Peppers, from two different places and California Wonder, which was to be an orange bell pepper.

 

I have no idea where the yellow ones came from.  They are small, like the cherry peppers, but they have more of a bell shape.

 



 

 

 

Here are some of the beans that actually made it into the basket.  I have a four-legged who will bark continuously until I feed him some.  Well, more than some.  It seems like one for me and one for him some days, he loves them that much!

 

 

 

 

I know the green ones are just not ripe California Wonder Orange tomatoes, but I picked them because I noticed some damage on one, that I think was done by earwigs and I didn't want to risk leaving more to be their dinner instead of mine.

 

 

Carrots!

 

We've got carrots!  Four different kinds of carrots!  I am so pleased.

 

 

 

 

 

If you've been following my blog at all, you know that DH made, what we call, "the trough" last year for me to plant in this year.  The depth is perfect for carrots and it would keep them above the ground so I wouldn't have to worry about carrot root fly getting them.  Plus, since the trough is on our deck, I don't have to worry about the garden rabbit getting them either.

 

 

 

 

These carrots are from the second thinning that I have done.  They are small still.  Most of them just one to three inches long.  But very nice shape and the colors are great.  I just wish my picture taking skills were better!

 

The white ones are the most fun.  People don't realize that carrots come in colors, let alone that they can look so lovely.  But the taste!  You have never tasted a carrot until you've grown them yourself.

Weighing garden produce

 

I've decided that next year I need to look into getting a scale.  I do have a food scale, but I believe it only goes up to 5 pounds.  I would like to weigh my produce and try to see how much I am actually growing, and not only using, but sharing with friends and family.  I have sent off countless containers of tomatoes with DH for work snacks, brought them to knitting group and have had them at home, plus I also dehydrated some as well.  OH, and our four-legged, Sylvester, has had more than his fair share as well.

 



 

These are Martino Plum tomatoes and Matt's Sweet Cherry tomatoes that I grew from seed this year under grow lights.  It was relatively easy and enjoyable knowing that I could take this small seed and actually grow it INSIDE (I'm not a good inside plant person) and that I could get produce from it.

 

 

I would recommend to everyone, look at those catalogs and choose some seed to grow on your own.  You not only save money, but you get such joy from knowing that it came to your table purely from your efforts.

 

If you look very closely at the lower right of the basket, you will also see a Sweet Cherry Pepper, also grown under lights from seed and planted out into the garden.

My lonely sweet meat

 

This is my lonely Sweet Meat Pumpkin.

 



 

Why is he lonely?  Well, out of the six seeds I planted, three came up, and then all three died.

 

So, I planted another set of six, and once again three came up.  I transplanted all three in a separate hill a piece, up by the hugel in lovely rich compost.

 

Two of the plants died.

 

The last plant has grown and flowered unbelievably.  There have been TONS of blossoms.  All but two of them were males.  I almost missed this one, it was near the end of the vine.  And, there was another one, even further along the vine, but a few days later I went back to look and that one was gone.  Or so I thought.  Upon closer inspection, it was a black ball about the size of a tennis ball.

I have never grown these before.  The reason I wanted to was because I heard they store well and taste good.

Here's to hoping.  I'll be sure to keep you posted on this one.

Pictures from around the garden

 

Below is, a not so very good picture, of one of the tomatoes from the plant that DS gave me the seed.  I may have mentioned that last year, when he bought his house, a friend of his, gave him two heritage plants as a gift.  He has been growing these for many years, and apparently, he sells them for $5.00 a plant.

 

 

 

DS shared 6 seeds with me this spring, and all six seeds grew.  We/he had no idea how to collect seed last year, so I was very surprised that it worked.  All he did was open a tomato, put the seed on a paper towel, let them dry, and hid them away.

 

I shared one plant with my father and one plant with a cousin.

 

 

 

Above is Purple Petra Basil.  I am trying my hand at getting better with taking pictures.  These are the seeds of this plant and I just thought they were so beautiful.  No wonder the bees love them.

 

And here we have Fern Leaf Dill seeds.  Which, I have been successful at saving.  Pick them on a dry day and put them in an envelope for next season.  I plan to plant more dill next year to use for my refrigerator pickles.

 

Well, that's all from the garden today. 

Gutter garden - success or monster?

 

When we came home from vacation, this is the sight that greeted us!

 

The beans had taken over the trellis on the other side of the gutter garden and came over the top.  Now the beans are becoming really easy to pick, as they hang down and I just need to reach up to get them instead of pulling out the step stool.

 



 

We began to pick beans on July 9th and have been able to pick rather regularly since.  The one downside of this is that Sylvester has too be given his share while I'm picking or he picks them himself!

Growing like this truly adds another dimension to how you can see things grow.  The vines just intertwine themselves on each other and to whatever they can to keep reaching for the sun.  The flowers on all of the plants are just lovely.  Some are a nice yellow/cream colors, some have been purple.

Here is how the gutter garden looks.  The plants seem a bit tall at the moment reaching for the sun because of the beans hanging over top.  I am going to try planting some of the lettuces out in the deck side garden so they will get more light.

Carrot trough continued

This is a picture of how the carrots look today.

I have thinned them twice and plan to do one more thinning this weekend to see how the carrots are growing.

This "trough" system was ideal.  I knew exactly where the carrots were planted and I was able to tweek it's location to get the best amount of sun.

The plan is to empty the trough once the carrots are harvested and to put fresh soil in next spring and do the carrots in here again.

Carrot troughs

 

In the fall, DH, made this "trough" planter for me our of things that were being thrown away at his work.  Since it is nearly 12 inches deep, I decided I would try growing carrots in it.

 

I planted one row of each type of carrot on May 7th.

 

Berlicum 2

Lunar White

Amarillo

Chantenay Red core

 

All the seeds were purchased from Baker Seed, rareseeds.com, and had a good germination rate.  They were up on May 15th and have been growing ever since.

 

 

New deckside garden

 

If you remember seeing this potato vine last year that took over this area of the deck side garden, you can see why I thought this would be a great place to add vegetable gardening here.  This was one plant that took over the entire area.

 

 

 

DH and I worked on removing the rock border we had and then he put in oak ties (or is it tides?) to the back nearest the deck and along the front.  Along the side opposite the deck, we replaced the rock border there. 

 

Then it was a matter of going to the free composting site to get bucket full after bucket full of compost to help amend the soil at low/no cost.  I also added in some of our nearly completed yard compost and a few bags of humus.

 

I direct planted on May 9th, Gold Marie Vining Beans, Beurre De Rocquencourt, and a Gourmet mix of beans. They all began to show on the 15th of May and have been growing ever since.

 

To the front, or right side of the picture, I direct seeded spinach, then under cover I have lettuce plants from inside.  I did many seeds under grow lights inside this year.

 

And to the back are the three tomato plants that I grew from seed that our son gave us.

 

 

 

 

Our fall project for this area, is that DH will build a cold frame that will be placed where the tomato plants currently are and it will be used to grow some veg during the winter months to help extend our season in the fall and spring of the year.

 

With a little thought and planning, I am sure you too can find new places to plant vegetables or flowers in your yard.  I'd love to hear what you've come up with.





The summer is coming to an end

Wow, I haven't been on here since spring. Can't believe how time goes by so quickly.

A lot has happened in the gardening department.

The gutter garden that DH built last fall has worked out splendidly.  I would recommend to anyone who has limited space to check into making one to grow salad greens.  I can not get over how much we harvested and replanted twice already this season.

 

 

I wish the pictures were a bit better, so you could really see how well the lettuces grew in the gutters.

In this next picture, you get just a small glimpse of how well the beans did growing up the netting on the other side of the gutter garden.  We are still harvesting beans from the original planting.  Sylvester has eaten most of the right off the vine/bush.  But I have managed to put away quite a few quart bags into the freezer.

 

 

Along the house, in the shade, you can see the tomato plants that I grew from the seeds our son gave us from the plant he was given last year from a friend who grows a heritage tomato, for which we have no name.  Pictures to follow of how and what the tomatoes look like.  They are super meaty.

 

Here is an early season picture of the hugel bed we made in the fall.  The five different kinds of blueberry bushes have been planted.  All the rest of the plants have been grown by me from seed.  The marigolds grew huge, too big really and I've cut them back a few times.  The picklers did wonderfully.  I am not entirely sure how many pint jars and spaghetti jars of refrigerator pickles I made and gave away.  Enjoyed by all.  I felt badly about having to pull out the plants just before vacation, but I knew too many would go to waste while we were gone.

 



 

 

These are just a few of the Daikon radishes I had planted from seed up in the hugel.  The leaves on them were a great addition to the compost pile and two friends really enjoyed the

 radishes.

 



 

 

I hope to post some more about my garden adventures in the coming weeks.

 

I hope that you will come back to visit and see how well I've done and what I've learned.

 

Leave a comment to let me know you were here.



Sowing Seeds indoors

I planted a flat of seeds this morning.

Each flat has 72 cells in it, or 6 sets of 12.  So to make things easiest, I planted 6 of each kind of 12 seeds today.

6 National Pickling Cucumber
6 Homemade Pickles Cucumber

6 Dwarf Blue Curled Kale (heirloom)
6 Dwarf Green Curled Kale

6 Copenhagen Market Cabbage (heirloom)
6 Tronchuda Cabbage (heirloom variety)

6 Matt's Wild Cherry Tomato
6 Martinos Roma Tomato (heirloom)

6 Sweet Cherry Blend Pepper (heirloom)
6 California Wonder Orange Pepper (heirloom)
6 Sweet Pepper Red Cherry

6 Cardoon Greens (compost pile)

I know, I said I was only going to do 4 of each kind of tomato, but I figure just in case all six seeds don't grow, or I can share the extra's.

The amount of pepper plants is such because we both like peppers and I would love to can some pickled roasted red cherry peppers.

The cucumbers I wasn't too sure about planting so soon, but I figured they would be larger at plant out time.  If they don't survive, I know not to plant time indoors so soon next year.  We like them for fresh eating, salads and canning.

The cabbage, I will plant a few here and then share the rest or plant them in the garden up at my fathers house.

The cardoon will go near the compost pile and I will use that as "green" to keep the pile going during the summer months.

Seed Starting thoughts

I am so excited this year.  I am going to try to plant some of the seeds for our garden.

Our Darling Boy gave me a gift card for Lowes (which I had asked for) and we purchased a shelf unit, two shop lights and bulbs with that, plus some of my Christmas money.  I have been itching to get it all together and get started, but I know that it is a bit too early yet.

So I continue to read and to plan.

Sometimes I think I plan too much though.  I become compulsive about knowing everything I can know and then I overwhelm myself and sometimes do nothing with what I have learned.  I don't want to do that this time.  I want this to remain fun, but I also want to be able to provide more food for us to help us keep expenses down and to become more self sufficient.

I bought three trays of 72 cells each and some starter mix for them.  And of course, I have ordered seed, and more seed, and, more seed.  Can you ever have too much?  Perhaps.

Part of my plan is to have the green beans in the ground along the deck and the lettuce and spinach planted into the rain gutters as early as possible. The beans will trail up the trellis, yet to be decided upon, and will help to shade the lettuce as the weather gets warmer and the sun gets stronger in the afternoons.  I am hoping that this will work in our favor.

I was not going to start tomatoes or peppers from seed.  I was going to buy them from the local nursery, but, I ended up buying seed.  I am planning to start four of each.  I know that doesn't sound like a lot, but, first, I want to see if I can grow them, and second, I plan to plant the tomatoes in the pots along the driveway and have not done that before.  I figure if all four seeds grow, I will give away the other three.  The peppers I purchased that I am really interested in are "sweet cherry peppers".  I recently bought some pickled peppers of this kind and liked them, so it is my hope that I can grow them and pickle them myself.  I am thinking that these will also go in pots on the deck so that I am sure they get lots of sun.  I will probably keep all four plants, if they grow.  We like peppers.

The carrots I will plant in the planter that Dear Darling made for me in the fall.  They are nice and deep and I don't have to disturb them at all, just water them.

I am also itching to get in to the actual garden, which will probably be a while with all the snow we've had this year.  I want to get the peas in as early as I can.  Partly for eating something fresh and green and partly to get the nitrogen into the soil.

The Frost is still there....

sigh.

I went out into the garden today, hoping that I could budge the ground some and plant some pea seeds.

The ground is still as hard as a rock!!  There were no peas planted for St. Patrick's Day or will there be for the first day of spring.

I envy those who have been able to plant already and I hope to be able to real soon.

How far do you want your food to travel?

Spring 2013

This is as far as I would like my food to travel.  As far as my own back yard.

Now I know that I won't be able to raise ALL of my food.  I'm not able to. I don't know I am going to try to make our yard as much of a garden, a food garden, as possible. We live on a small piece of land, that is on a definite slope.  So there are many challenges, but I've thought of some things to do to work around those challenges.

For me, my "food" will be what I can grow, basically vegetables and the beginnings of some fruits.

I've shared with you my journey so far with last years garden and how I am preparing for planting blueberry bushes this year so that in a year or two we will be able to harvest our own blueberries.

I don't want to say "I want to be able to grow 50% of my food" as I am not sure how much I can actually grow, but I do know, that I won't know if I don't try.  And so, I am going to try to grow more in my yard this year, than last.

I am also going to be growing things this year, that I am not sure that we are actually going to like and enjoy, but these are things we've never tried before.  Why?  Well, we are like most people, we tend to do what our mothers did.  So it's going to be about going outside of the "box" we've grown up in.  About going out of our comfort zone.  I look at it this way.  We may find some things that we really enjoy that we've been missing.  Maybe we've been missing them because our mothers never fixed them, OR they fixed them by cooking them to DEATH!

I wish I had decided all this 20 years ago so that I would have even more time to think about what we like and how to grow it.  If you are just beginning to garden, whether you are 10 or 50, try some new things as well as things you like.  Eat them raw, straight from the garden.  Try them steamed, blanched, roasted, or even boiled with no other seasonings.  Then, go from there.  Maybe you won't like them raw, or "plain", maybe they are good for stews or soups, or perhaps even breads or cakes.  Go outside of your "box" and comfort zone.

I'd love to hear any comments on what you are doing different in your garden this year.

Last Years Vegetable Garden

 

Last years vegetable garden was a true eye opener to me.

 

Carrots in October

 

 

I hadn't had a garden in many years, and I wasn't sure that with my ground and the slope, that I would be able to manage much of one.  But, with the help of my Dear Darling, and ALOT of work, we managed to have a nice yield for a first try.

 

 

Green tomatoes harvested before the first killer frost

 It makes me think about a lot of things, where growing your own food is concerned.  The past year has been not one for just my first garden in a while, but also of getting to be a "stay at home" wife.  To do that, I have had to simplify not only my "life" but our budget as well.  I had to learn to do new things and to stretch what I already know.

I learned how to use up the excess from our garden in ways I had never done before.  Such as the great tomato cake I made from all the green tomatoes that were there before the frost.

Brussel sprouts

 I learned that if I wanted to grow what we like, I had to try.  And the brussel sprouts grew just fine and we enjoyed a few harvests of them for our meals.  They were nice and fresh and they grew in our garden, they didn't travel a long distance to get here.

And more brussel sprouts

Tomatoes of several kinds that all grew well

 I love sauce, but tomatoes for me, are usually just a tomato or two on toast with Mayo and maybe some lettuce and I'm good for a year.  But, Dear Darling likes them on sandwiches, burgers and in his salads.  SO I grew a few different kinds, and we had them fresh, as well as dried and I even learned to can, on my own.  Something I am proud of and I look forward to doing next year.

Kale, never tried it before, shared it, loved it and will grow it again.

And, I learned to like Kale, as well as grow it.  I'm not really sure why I chose to grow it.  I guess it was because I had heard so much about it.  It is one of those things that takes a while to "like" it.  So at first, what I grew and harvested I gave to a friend.  She makes smoothies using Kale.  She is a cancer survivor and does what she can to eat healthy to stay healthy.  So I was so glad that I could give this to her and it would be used.  She was glad as well, as then she didn't have to buy and could use her budget towards another food item.

Then, I read about dehydrated Kale chips.  BINGO!  I was sold!  I made some, liked them and that was how the rest of the harvest was used.

Did it take a lot of time or effort to grow these things?  Well, last year, there was the time and expense of building the garden.  But as far as the actual time to grow them or the effort we put into growing them, no, there wasn't much done at all.

Now, all I can think of is this years garden and all the other "new" things I want to grow and try.  I am so excited by it all that I am having a hard time restraining myself from beginning to grow things from seed under my lights.

If you've never had a garden before, choose something you like, such as tomatoes or peppers, and grow a few in pots on your deck, patio or porch and enjoy knowing that you grew them, that they didn't travel far AND that you could.