Playing in the Dirt: Part 7 Winter Farming

So no, I haven't given up on the gardens!  They took a beating in the wind, but nature finds a way.  These are from the Boy's garden, the veggies at Mom's are doing well, we have some starter plants too so I will do that update all at once.  So here's the progress on the boy's garden.  The Tomatoes (not pictured) are still going crazy, I seemed to have solved the grasshopper issue, I think, with some insect soap.  I'm still having trouble getting any Artichoke seeds to last, they sprout but don't make it beyond 3 inches tall.  I may have to get a plant in the spring.

Of the 6 sugar snap peas, 3 are really doing well, and one in particular (pictured left) more than the rest.  To the right of it is a pole bean that planted itself from my previous pole bean plant!

 It's been a long road for this eggplant, but it's survivied and now seems really happy, and looks like we might get a few eggplants!

 Of the 12 or so swiss chard seeds I planted this one is the only one that made it, I want to plant more because it's so pretty and delicious.  More of the seeds I planted at home took, but they are 1/4 the size of this one.

 I planted at couple rows of mixed lettuce at both houses and all of them are doing great!

 I planted more Garlic at the boy's, he loves his garlic, as do I and it's coming along well, an exercise in patience garlic is.

Not the most exciting post ever, but I was overdue for an update and I have to say, I had read that the beauty of gardening in California is that we don't have to stop in winter, and it's true!  Looking forward to some weekend rain for my little green friends!

Merci!

~Chelsea

Playing in the Dirt: Part 6 End of Summer Goodness

So after everything got fried this summer, at Mom's we put out an umbrella and started watering more often, then the weather did us a favor and got nice and overcast here and there and even had some good days of rain!  Just before the rain I got out there and planted some carrots and beets, and a few weeks ago I planted some swiss chard, and artichokes, as well as a scatter garden and some nasturtiums in the front garden.  So here's a look at what is sprouting.  Since I took these I also got some swiss chard sprouting and carrots.

Some beets sprouting up as well as some birdseed plants (I planted the beets under the birdfeeder, so this should be interesting)

 Here's the first eggplant, already picked and the second one is almost the same size now.

 It's hard to see in this one, but this is my lone cucumber, slowly but surely.

 My 2 butternut squash are coming along great!

 Lovely kale, and new sprouts coming up next to it.

 Onions, green onions and Garlic in the foreground.

Very excited to see how these do, so far so good, excited about the fall crop.  The tomatoes also keep coming, but are winding down and the orange tree is gearing up.  Planted more at the boy's garden, but that's a whole other post.

Playing in the Dirt: Part 5 Resurrection

It's been so long since I updated you on the gardens, I had to go back to see what the last post even said!  Such a slacker.  In all sincerity,with summer vacays and house sitting and all kinds of shenanigans this summer, the poor gardens were left to fend for themselves in the midst of summer heat!  I watered what I could when I could, or mom did, or I texted the boy to water his, they had no stable, consistent person to look after them.  So, by the time the big heat wave hit a few weeks ago, they were in dire straits!  I had decided that was it for the summer crops, cucumbers had gone yellow before I was able to harvest, onions fried in the sun, everything was dried out and brown.
While puppy sitting I was minding a similar garden that was well shaded, in a cooler part of town, and was thriving.  So when I got home I decided this "full sun" indication on the seeds and plant labels was a load of BS!  I grabbed a dilapidated garden umbrella we'd planned to throw out and rolled it over to the veggies in the middle of the yard, they seemed to have the most trouble.  After doing this, off I went to kitty sit for the boy...  Mom was back in town so the watering was not going to be a problem.  I went to work and yoinked out the dry dead stuff in the Boy's garden, the Artichoke kicked the bucket, the second round of onions I planted never emerged (it's a long story) and the pole bean had one more fruitful crop before it croaked. (cooking them was another failed endeavor)  So I was left with ample, happy but kinda crowded tomatoes, garlic, a happy herb garden, and a very sad looking Eggplant, oh and a desperate jalapeno- I suspect the jalapeno knew nobody was that excited about it, and just didn't have the will to make it.
So I watered those, and they seemed grateful, especially the sad sad eggplant, it's doing great now, and whenever it looks droopy I give it a glass of water, it has buds and everything!  By the time I got to Mom's everything was green again!  I couldn't believe it, the weather had bursts of scorching temps and just with some shade and extra evening waterings they really perked up!
So here's some pics of the progress at Mom's.  I wish I had taken photos of what they looked like in the heat wave, but I thought they were done for, and was deciding what to plant next.

Here's the resurrected Veggie Garden, you can see the Butternut Squash is quite pleased with itself, the Strawberries are hanging in there and the Kale finally got bigger

The cucumbers and the eggplants have lots of flowers too, so bring on the bees, lets make some veggies guys!

This is my goofy umbrella but it gives it nice shade in the middle hours of the day, and you can see my critter fence, hope it works.

One of the Yesterday Today and Tomorrow bushes even started getting more flowers this week.

I just think this crazy tangle of Bugambilia, Fig Tree and Grape Vine (from another yard) is so cool!

Compost is going great!  Been throwing peelings, eggshells, coffee grounds, and tons of leaves and clippings in, the bugs and spiders love it, eek!

I've got some beets and red carrot seeds in the ground, and more to plant, I also want to do some swiss chard and sugar snap peas for the boy.  So I'll let ya know how it goes.

Playing in the Dirt: Part 3- Patience is a Virtue

I haven't updated you all on the gardens, mostly because the changes have been subtle, over the weeks.  But I went to New York, and when I got back the difference was dramatic.  I suppose a watched pot really doesn't boil.  So I will start with the progress from before I left town, and end with what I found when I came home!

Garlic Chives and Rosemary

 The Garden at the Boy's house is slower going than the one at Mom's.  It has a little more shade.  Things are going along well, but slower than the other gardens seems to that gets full sun all day, and slower that the Boy would like.  That being said, we've used the herbs in cooking, we've steamed snap peas with Garlic Chives (using these makes us more patient with the garlic itself) and Rosemary.  We've also harvested the Bibb Lettuce and made a fantastic salad.  I found the location of the onions was too shady, so I have transplanted them and hope they have survived and thrived in my absence.  I will update more when I check on that garden this week.

On to Mom's Garden.  Before I left town here is what had progressed:
I had to cover all the seedlings with mesh to keep critters from eating the strawberries and destroying the kale.  Once that was done, all the plants seemed happy.  The pole bean is really working on reaching the Giant's house in the clouds.  Mom also planted more bean plants and some Corn, which I am very excited about.

Vegetable Garden

Corn and Green Beans

Artichoke Seedlings

 The artichokes sprouted, all 6 of them.  Only one has sprouted at the Boy's but that's good, we have limited space there.  Now we're thinking about where to transplant them when they get big, because they won't fit there eventually.

Tomatillo, Zebra Tomatoes

The Tomatillo plant is gorgeous and thriving, as is the Green Zebra, next to it.  The Early Girl is living up to her name and starting to bear some green tomatoes, and the newer Heirloom looks very happy with it's Marigold and Basil Pot-mates.

 The herbs look quite happy, one of the Cilantros didn't survive transplanting but the other did.  the Dill is reaching for the sky and starting to flower, which we decided to just let it do.  We've started using them for cooking, it's so nice to have fresh grown herbs, I love it!  I say if you can grow nothing else make an attempt at growing your own herbs.  It may be a challenge but you definitely enjoy reaping the rewards.

Herb Garden

Then we got the Composter!!  You read that right.  After reading The Year I Ate My Yard, and getting Mom reading it.  We warmed to the idea.  Mom has a few friends who do it and they gave us great tips and support, one even gave us worms.  So Mom got a bin, and we filled it with grass clippings, newspaper strips, banana peels, cucumber peels, (organic) coffee grounds and filters, more dirt and grass trimmings, etc.  Added water and wormies and now the patience really begins!

Composter

Hard working Worms

Then I left.  When I got back all kinds of things had changed.  The Early Girl has one tomato turning red, and 12 more gearing up, the Zebra has 11 little ones starting to grow.  The Market Cucumber has 2 tiny cucumbers and boy are they spiney.  The lettuce is exploding, the Pole Bean has 2 tiny beans starting, and the Kale has almost doubled in size.  Everything looks pretty happy, as you can see.  So wait until they get to munch on some home made compost! 

Early Girl Tomatoes

Market Cucumber

Post trip Veggie Garden!

I guess now I better start looking at recipes, I am already excited to make my beloved Gazpacho recipe with home grown tomatoes, cucumbers, garlic and cilantro!  Oh boy oh boy!

~Chelsea

Fairy Favorite Garden Award

Since I am making my first attempt at Gardening right now, I have gardens on the brain.  So I decided this week my project would be a whimsical Garden Award, to be given by the fairies for their favorite garden of the day, week, moment what have you... you know how fairies are.

What I used: 3D Crystal Lacquer, Color Glitter Lacquer, Gem Particles, Glass Tile, outline stickers, crepe paper, phone book paper die cut in scalloped circle, scissors, ribbon, fairy image from G45 "Once Upon a Springtime" paper stack, rubber stamps, Distress Ink, piece of chipboard or cardboard, chopstick, needle, and thread.

 I am impatient about drying, so I like to do the wet stuff first!  I cut out my fairy stamp image, and used some dots of the Glitter Color Lacquer to adhere the Glass Tile (make sure you get the right side up, there is a right side to the glass, the edges are rounder on the top)  I left the stamp edge on, I just like the kitchyness of that, and the way the glass makes the image and colors, and glitter pop!

On the Scallop circle I arranged some of the black outline stickers and colored them in with an array of Glitter Color Lacquer colors.  I do love to color.

I set those aside to dry

 
 I stamped my phrase for the Garden Award on a strip of white paper, using alphabet stamps, and distressed the edges with Pumice Stone Distress ink.  I put some dots of peach Glitter Color Lacquer on it, and then covered the whole thing with 3D Crystal Lacquer, then added that to the other drying stuff.  (as you can see I got a little messy, which made my craft mat feel useful) I sprinkled some Gem Particles for fun.


Next I made my rosette.  I took about a yard length and 1" ish wide strip, and layered one slightly narrower on top.  Using needle and thread, make a running stitch just inside one edge of the paper (this will be your center side) run it all the way through, gathering as you go.  Tie the 2 ends of thread together, about as tight as you can, and still have the paper lay flat in a circle on your worktable.
I distressed it with Broken China blue and Pumice Stone Distress Inks.  I also trimmed, folded and distressed a strip to be my ribbons hanging down.

I didn't get photos of the assembly (for some unknown reason) my apologies.  Toward the bottom of a piece of chipboard I adhered a chopstick with 3D Crystal Lacquer (adhere the flat square end, so the narrow end goes in the ground like a stake.  Then I attached the crepe ribbons and blue ribbons, to hang down, then I put a small and large circle of Lacquer on the back of the rosette and stuck that on top of everything.  I like to hold the rosette down gently with the palm of my hand to make sure everything sticks well, but don't smash it flat.


To adhere the Gem Particles, I just made little dots on the peaks of the rosette with Lacquer, and sprinkled the Gem Particles over.  Once everything is dried, you can assemble.  The scallop circle goes first, then the glass fairy image, and then finally, the title!  It's a lot of steps, but lots of fun!!  Voila!

All that's left it to hand it over to the fairies and hope they like your garden best!

For more fun ideas using Sakura Craft Products check out the Design Team blog (of which I am a member)  Enjoy this lovely weather by taking a walk in a garden, yours or someone else's!

Merci! ~Chelsea

Playing in the Dirt: Part 2

After some weird weather and scheduling hang ups, we finally got the second Vegetable garden going!
When I wasn't around Mom managed to enlist some help in the way of the neighbor kids and got a nice square dug up for our garden box to fit in.
The next day we got the box put together and level, then got the compost and planting soil in there and all the plants and seeds.

In this one we have:
Kale, Green and Yellow Onion Seeds and Garlic Bulbs
Pole Bean, Lettuce, Strawberries, Butternut Squash, Market Cucumbers, Painted Serpent Cucumbers, and Eggplant.
Some of them I did in the other garden, in this one I didn't do Jalapenos, or Tomato seeds (mom already has some cool tomato plants)  And we are doing the butternut squash, cucumbers and Kale (none of which interested the boy, but mom and I love!)

To make sure we have enough room, we planted lemongrass near the tomato and tomatillo she already had, and we planted the Artichoke seeds in the unoccupied flower bed... we're thinking those are going to get huge and need to be transplanted, but this is just the beginning of some possible landscaping we want to DIY!
Just to remind you we already planted out barrel of herbs, which seems to be doing great!
I am really excited and looking forward to just giving updates on progress now that everything is planted.

Speaking of progress...
both gardens have strawberry plants that we bought with some berries starting to grow on them.  On monday I checked the boy's garden and it looks great!  By tuesday all the berries seem to have gone missing.  So we have an uninvited dinner guest.  The rest of the veggie garden looked fine, not creatures or bugs or holes in leaves.  The other garden is yet undiscovered by the squirrels that frequent the yard, and rendered some nice red berries already!  They were still a little tangy so I was probably anxious in picking them, but can you blame me?  If the critters wanna eat they have to help plant!!


The cool thing is, between the weather and anticipation of the delicious plants, it's gotten wheels turning for more landscaping, so feel free to weigh in with suggestions and advice!

~Chelsea