Posts tagged ‘gardening’

I’ve written about this before. Has anyone one out there given it a try yet? These are my first new potatoes of the year, along with some other crops from the ol’ garden, which I used to make fried potatoes and green tomatoes for breakfast Saturday morning.

Here’s a quick review of the process. Bury your seed potatoes in clump-free and rock-free soil about 5 inches apart. Or if you’re me, bury some sprouted potatoes from the pantry! After the green stalks ( like the ones seen in my guess the veggies post) have flowered you know that there are some potatoes under your soil. If you see tops of potatoes sticking out of the ground they will begin to turn green and slightly poisonous, so mulch them to keep the potatoes covered. Now all you have to do is dig around and find them. They will just keep getting bigger and bigger as long as you leave them underground, so keep them in the garden instead of the pantry until fall. Then you can dig up the rest and store them in a cool dry place.

I’m really disappointed when I’m at the grocery store hoping to buy something that’s in season in Ohio, only to find it’s been shipped in from Chili or California.  I want to work my cooking around local produce because it costs less in transportation, it’s fresher, and so I can support the area farmers. So I’ve been looking into farmer’s markets & CSA’s (community supported agriculture) in the area.

Recently I wrote about a CSA I visited.  The waiting list to join was long, so I asked if anyone knew of others in the NE Ohio area.  A reader named Emily suggested City Fresh, a non-profit that collects fresh produce from NE Ohio farmers & delivers it to selected urban drop-off points for pick-up.  I discovered that a drop-off point is a couple miles from my house, so I decided try out their program.

Today I picked up my first share of produce.  This is the family share (for 3-4 people), and it cost $28.  There are two bags of green beans, red potatoes, herbs, zucchini, beats, broccoli, a jar of raspberry jam, red onion, cucumber, lettuce, and pickling cucumbers.

I received a rain barrel for my birthday in March and finally got it installed today…just in time for the forecasted storms the next few days.

It’s a Fiskars rain barrel.  It wasn’t difficult to install.  We had to cut the gutter & drill a hole in the barrel (while entertaining 2 kids at the same time).

So, why did it take three months to get it up and going?  Well, mostly we weren’t sure if we should keep it.  We have a small yard and wondered if it’d be an eyesore.  Now I need to figure out how to camouflage it into the landscaping.  We also weren’t sure if we could use the water safely in our vegetable garden.  I read lots of websites to try & get a straight answer.  The most educated answers I found from the Texas Water Development Board.  They make suggestions for the types of roofs to use, how to keep out debris & other contaminants, and treatment methods for potable water.  They said composite & asphalt shingle roofs leech toxins.  Plus, my system doesn’t have fancy roof cleansing abilities or first-flush system, so rain will collect bacteria, mold, fecal material, etc from the roof.  I’m not comfortable putting these things on my plants, so I’m pretty sure my barrel will just be for landscape plants.  But either way, I’m thankful for my gift & I’m happy to conserve a little water.

Rachel! How did I get this winner? For every correct answer you gave, I put your name in a list, in order of the way you left your comments. Then I asked our dear friends at random.org  who should get the prize, and Rachel was the winner. Great job, everyone on your guesses!

So, what were the veggies anyway? Number one is a red onion, and I took any variation on the word “onion” as a correct answer. Number two is broccoli, my favorite thing to grow. And number 3 is potatoes, which some people are surprised even has a green part to it.

The secret prize was a secret because I wasn’t sure I’d have the chance to make them. But now I know that I will have the time, so Rachel will be getting 3 stamped silverware garden tags. You can tell me what plant name you want me to stamp on there. Hope you love them!

Last night I watched The Botany of Desire, a documentary based on the book by Michael Pollan (In Defense of Food & The Omnivore’s Dilemma).  The video travels through the histories of apples, tulips, marijuana, and potatoes, considering how they metaphorically “manipulate” human desires for sweetness, beauty, intoxication and control.  The basic idea shows how humans are interwoven into nature, not standing outside it.

Based on the book’s title, I wrongly suspected the documentary might be heavy on the philosophical side.  Instead it’s mostly story–interesting historical story–plus science.  They tell the origin locations of each plant and how the plants have evolved over the years due to human desires.  (For example, we like sweet apples & choose to graft more of them.)  They also show the effects of our interaction with these plants.  (For example, not diversifying lessens the plants’ ability to defend against pests, increasing the need for pesticides or perhaps genetic modification).

Anyways, the video is very interesting and I recommend it for anyone fascinated with interactions of plants & people, gardening, and even cooking.  I give it 5 out of 5 stars.  If you have Netflix, it’s one you can watch instantly.

It’s garden season here in Ohio, and we are off to a grand start. Using my shower curtain green house gave me a huge head start, and where a good many of my neighbors are just getting their seedlings to pop out of the soil, we are already on our second crop of lettuces and have three foot tall tomatoes.

Just for fun, I thought I’d post some photos from the garden of some of my less-known vegetables’ leaves and see if our readers can guess them. Go ahead and leave your guesses in the comments box, but don’t cheat by reading the other guesses! All the correct answers will be entered into a drawing on Friday at 10pm to win a secret something garden related.

This is the flower of a veggie plant, you don't eat this part.

Four different types of leaves here. Which plant has the blueish-green leaf?

What veggie do these inedible leaves belong to?

Here’s a seed packet idea I made last year for spring gardening gifts.  It’s worth reposting while we’re still in prime seed season.

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I’ve been thinking about interesting ways to create seed packets.  I collect & save seeds from my garden each year, plus I rarely use all the seeds from the store-bought seed packets, so I give away lots of seeds.

I’ve also wondered what to do with the pretty pyramid tea bags after using them…thus I combined the two ideas and made seed packets out of pyramid tea bags!

Read more »

This is the second year I’ve gone to the organic plant sale at Crown Point Ecology Center (in Bath, Ohio)  I love their unique varieties of plants, which some are heirloom and others hybrids.  Plus they have plant-related demonstrations, food, and a kids play area.  Sorry I didn’t mention it last week, but you can mark the calendar for May of next year.

I was really interested in their CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) program, but there’s a minimum one-year waiting list.  I like the idea of being a part of the farm I get my food from.  Members help anywhere from 1-10 mornings per year with farm work, and they can pick up food weekly or bi-weekly.  They invest in the farm & experience the risk of a good or poor growing season.  Plus a portion of the produce is donated to the local food bank.

Since this CSA has a waiting list, does anyone recommend other ones in the area?  Or are there interesting aspects of your local CSA?  I want to join one mainly to experience the community aspect of it, but also to get more gardening experience.

I originally bought & planted asparagus on a whim.  I didn’t research it a bit besides reading instructions on the package.  I wish I’d considered how little food it produces for the space it requires.  But now, my little asparagus patch is in its third season, and we’ve savored 12 spears this year.  And I’ve become attached.  I couldn’t possibly part with them for the sake of better using my space.  I figure I’m learning how to grow them better, plus my family has a greater appreciation for how food grows.  And that’s worth it.

By the way, here’s my favorite asparagus recipe:  Citrus Asparagus Salad (I prefer to saute the asparagus instead of boiling it.)

I love gardening. I often say to friends and family that if the lottery ever found it’s way over to my bank account I’d pack up my life and move out to the country to devote myself to puttering around in the garden all day.

Alas, until that day, I continue to look for things that are easy to grow. Cool climates, short growing seasons and all the demands of a busy life makes it a waste to spend time growing slow, finicky plants. In terms of finding success in the garden I can’t think of anything more satisfying and foolproof that growing your own salad greens. Salad mix is so easy to grow and so fast to grow! Plant seeds now and you’ll be eating tender, delicious homegrown greens in only a few weeks. Spring is the perfect time to sow a single variety of lettuce or to be more creative and plant a mixture of your favorite greens. On my list for planting this year are:

• Butter lettuce: This is your regular lettuce – leafy, green, tender and tasty.
• Red leaf lettuce: I love red leaf lettuce for the colour and contrast it adds to your garden plot and to the salad plate. It’s just as easy to grow as regular lettuce and has a bit more punch taste-wise.
• Beet greens: Beets themselves are wonderful to grow, but I enjoy baby beet greens just as much. Plant beet seeds in containers or the salad section of your garden the same as you would any leafy green and harvest the tender leaves in the first month or two of the plant’s life. After that you may want to thin them out a bit or just have the odd beet growing among your salad plants.
• Spinach: so healthy, so tasty, so versatile. In addition to clipping baby greens for salads, I also harvest spinach from the garden and freeze it in baggies for use during the winter (much better for you and your grocery bill than store bought!).
• Nasturtium: along with violets these are my favorite plants to grow if you want to add colorful edible flowers to your salad. They have a lovely peppery taste and the flowers are bright yellow, orange and red.

The planting method is very easy. Start with a clear patch of dirt in the garden or a container filled with potting soil. The size of the plot or vessel is up to you – even a small pot will work, so don’t let the lack of garden stop you. Sprinkle seeds over the dirt and then place a thin layer of dirt on top. The general rule of thumb is that the layer of dirt on top of seeds should be about the same height as the seeds themselves. If you do plant nasturtiums their seeds are bigger than the others so poke them in about an inch.

I mix all my seeds together and wait for the beautiful mishmash of color that comes up; you might also prefer a more orderly planting style like rows or patches of specific varieties. Another thing I don’t worry about is spacing. While you don’t want to be wasteful and use too many seeds, it is also really easy to thin out your salad patch if it’s getting too dense by just eating more salad!

The best way to ensure a steady supply of fresh greens all summer long is to keep harvesting the leaves as they’re ready. It’s easy for salad greens to get parched and dry in the hot sun, so definitely don’t wait for a grocery-store style head of lettuce to emerge. Baby greens and micro-greens are all the rage in fancy restaurants and for good reason: they’re delicious! Eat and enjoy!

Read more about guest blogger Erica of Nest and Sparkle.