~Teresa's Garden~

Seed Calendar

2009-03-03T01:41:00.000-08:00

FEBRUARY 24
Seeds indoors:
Orange bell pepper - 3/1
Mini yellow bell pepper - ???
Cubanelle pepper - 3/4
Ornamental pepper - 3/2
Winter sowed:
Basil
Cinnamon Basil
Old sugar snap peas (SASBE-2007)

MARCH 3

Sowed indoors:
Yum Yum Gold Pepper
Napa Cabbage - 3/4
Winter sowed:
Sugar snap peas (territorial seeds)
Red Noodle bean
Canoe peas

End of July Records

2008-07-27T23:53:00.000-07:00

Last week in July
-Transplanted six broccoli sprouts into garden... probably too early, but have 6 more as back ups
-Sowed into pots: beets, kale, carrots, garlic SEED, radish
-Moved prior planted garlic seed into garden - single cloves growing are roughtly the size of my thumbnail. Since these are from seed rather than clove, I expect to leave them in at least until spring... actually I have no idea what to expect... all the information on the net is for planting cloves, not true garlic seeds.
-The purplette onions on the deck are ok. I have let a few shrivel, but there are still about ten that look healthy.

Salad Experiments

2008-07-27T23:24:00.000-07:00

My amaranth is finally taking off with beautiful green and purple leaf production. I tasted my very first nibble just a week or so ago. I definitely had mixed feelings. I keep reading that it is sweet and spinach-like... not so (maybe I didn't water frequently enough?). The initial taste is good, however quite strong. Then there is a sneaky little subtle aftertaste that is quite bitter. This sent me into a sour mood as all I can grow mid summer is bitter greens. Yet I did not let my grumpy disposition last. Instead, I decided to take on the challenge of finding ways to enjoy eating everything that I was growing, including my amaranth. So far I have come up with two salads that I quite enjoy, with hopes of finding more. The greens mostly don't matter... I have been using the last of my cabbage, a little store bought lettuce, lots of swiss chard, and a modest dose of amaranth. Top that with whatever beans are ready to be picked. Then for the salad dressing, what makes or breaks it for the bitter afterbite. I tried Farmgirl Fare's cabbage and swiss chard salad dressing... incredibly good despite my dislike for cottage cheese. In this recipe it was subtle enough to allow the greens to come through. Yet with the amaranth it didn't quite cover the aftertaste. Last night my husband and I made a sweet egg yolk based dressing. It was wonderful! You could still taste the distinct differences between the greens, yet there wasn't a hint of bitterness. I am overjoyed... I can now harvest greens to my heart's content without worry of fearing the eating process.

Giant Swiss Chard Photo

2008-07-23T00:55:00.000-07:00

Taming the Tomato Jungle

2008-07-23T00:40:00.000-07:00

Earlier this month I finally got around to staking all the tomatoes (except the caged one). I am definitely learning that certain varieties, primarily the determinant ones, would be better caged. Oregon Spring variety loves to flop all over the ground, but is hardly two feet tall (but producing very well). On the other hand, my sungold is already past the top of the stake with no intentions of stopping. There are lots of green tomatoes now and I am starting to get impatient. I am more than ready to eat my first ever own-grown tomato!

The jungle pre-staking

After staking and a slight trimming

Baby green tomatoes

Color has arrived

2008-07-04T01:33:00.001-07:00

My small area for sun loving perennials is finally in full bloom. Last fall I scrounged the dead and dying (discount) rack for any and all salvageable flowers. Those finds, along with hand-me-down plants from friends have filled up my full sun areas to the brim. There are shady areas-a-plenty still to be filled, but I am sure enjoying the color that I've got!

Early July Record of Events

2008-07-03T19:22:00.001-07:00

July 1
Purplette Bunching Onion - sowed in planter on deck. All of the previously sown ones either didn't germinate or quickly passed away.
Purple Carrots - Sowed in largest planter pot on the deck. One sole survivor remains in the garden. The rest shrivled.
Beans - direct sowed more bush and pole beans. Current ones look great, but I want more!

July 2
Staked and pruned tomatoes (FINALLY)

July 3
Broccoli - direct sowed for fall harvest
Amaranth - transplanted from pots to garden
Eggplant - transplanted the one seed started plant

Pulled off the last of the sugar snap peas and removed plants.
Pulled out bolting spinach, lettuce, and pak choi (left a couple of each for seeds).
Harvested second (and sadly last) cauliflower.

What are these things?

2008-06-29T22:39:00.000-07:00

Just today I noticed these small green egg clumps(?) at the base of my cabbage leaves. My cabbage just started forming heads about a week ago. There isn't any harm to them at this time (just a few little holes munched in some of the open leaves), but I don't want to just let these things sit there if they are going to hatch into an army of pests. Searched the web... didn't find anything. I don't know if it is related or not, but some wasps have been hanging out in the same area of the cabbage... maybe eating these things?

Bolting and Harvest

2008-06-28T20:19:00.001-07:00

Over the last two weeks a great deal of bolting has occured in the garden. Almost two weeks ago the spinach started to go. By the end of that week, even the newly sprouted baby spinach was trying to set seed. The buttercrunch lettuce bolted last week and the bibb lettuce 2 days ago. The Bok Choi was on a similar schedule to the spinach. The heat has definitely picked up. I don't know if it was that, or if I missed watering too many days while at work. Either way, yesterday would have done them in with our 100 degree heat. I pulled up quite a few heads of each. It is so sad to see it go to waste. I left a few in place for seed collection.

On the up side, I harvested the larger of my two cauliflower yesterday. We ate it with steak dinner. Yum!

Amaranth is finally growing... apparently it likes the heat. I now have 4" tall plants with 3-4 true sets of leaves each. The final attempt at direct sowing also seemed to work... they are starting to show a set of true leaves. Next year I will winter sow and keep in cointainers, then can put in the place of other salad greens as those bolt. They definitely don't need to take up space in the garden before then.

I have one lone purple carrot sprout. I will try more soon in containers.

The bush beans are showing flowers. Now that the bak choi is out of that area, I wish I had planted twice as many beans... is it too late?

June Photos

2008-06-17T16:18:00.001-07:00

The salad bed just keeps on growing. I've been taking the outer leaves of the lettuce heads several times now and they just keep looking great. The swiss chard has finally gotten a break from whatever pest was mining through its leaves. Now they are looking like really healthy plants. I don't even know what to do with all the spinach. A couple of them have gotten to be over a foot tall with huge leaves. Will they still be good eating or should I chop them down to make room for the babies? Who knows.
One of the Cauliflowers has become a mammoth of greens, but the small white head has just started forming. The other one is even smaller in both aspects.

This Red Sunflower has a cute little curl in it.

Peppers, Tomatoes and Tomatillos are showing their first signs of flowering!

Overall, things are looking pretty good. I still need to finish staking or caging the tomatoes. I am pushing it later than I should, but hopefully won't cause too much damage because of it.

Partaking from the garden, finally!

2008-06-17T02:30:00.000-07:00

This week we have had multiple salads from the garden: spinach, bibb lettuce, and buttercrunch lettuce. Buttercrunch is a definite favorite. Spinach isn't bad, but I think I need to keep looking for the perfect variety.

Stir fried bak choi with ginger and garlic was pretty good, but a little bitter. Jared loved it because it brought back memories of Indonesian meals (bitterness and all). Tonight I steamed swiss chard and poured peanut sauce over it. The peanut sauce definitely helped since I am still getting used to steamed (aka wilted) leaves. Growing up that was never something I ate. While I was cooking I tried a few nibbles of the swiss chard fresh... I was shocked at how salty it was. Who would've guessed?

The most exciting eating thus far has been the few sugar snap peas that we have munched on. Yum! Next year I will plant at least twice as many of those for sure!

The Deck Planters

2008-05-27T02:50:00.000-07:00

I finally planted all three of the main pots for the deck. I want to keep the deck mostly herbs, but there are a few veggies and flowers thrown in for color or due to lack of space in the garden.

Leftmost Pot: Mini Yellow Bell Pepper, Gypsy Marigold, Sweet Marjoram
Middle Pot: Purple Sage, Lavendar, Lemon Verbena
Rightmost Pot: Several Large Leaf Basil, Dianthus

Clockwise starting with the largest:
Catmint/Spearmint, Sweatleaf, Chives, Oregano from seed, Sage from seed, Oregano from last year

Vegetable Explosions

2008-05-27T01:55:00.000-07:00

I had no idea vegetables could grow so quickly! Every time I go outside I am astounded by another growth spurt. The last two weeks I sowed many a seed and transplanted the rest of my indoor grown starts.

MAY 20

Transplanted into garden:
Tomatoes - Still need to decide on staking or caging... maybe some of both.
Peppers - Cubanelle, Hungarian hot wax, Hot Thai, and Mini Yellow bell. One of each into garden, still have a back-up of each inside in 4" pots.
Japanese Eggplant - May have started indoors too late, but planted into corner of the garden anyway, will try growing on trellis. Who knows.
Lemon Cucumber - from winter sown container. None of the babylon sprouted, so I sowed some seeds around the lemon cucumber. They are all probably too close together, so I may cut out a few once they are stronger. Again, will try to train to a trellis.
Pole Beans, Blue Lake - from winter sown and added more seeds as only had three sprouts.

MAY 21

Direct sowed more seeds:
Carrots - Cool purple ones. Garden soil is pretty rocky, so they may be small and deformed. I hope to plant a shorter variety into a container with better soil.
Spinach
Pak Choi
Buttercrunch lettuce
Cabbage
Amaranth - One last ditch attempt at direct sowing these guys. The winter sown and indoor sown that have survived are finally putting out decent sized true leaves. There may still be hope.

The Salad Area - Marigolds just added to hopefully deter pests

Bibb Lettuce

Buttercrunch Lettuce

Pak Choi - Harvested the first batch of leaves this week! Used raw as salad and it was okay, but not great. The leaves were a bit old as the plants were slow to grow indoors and then outside in the cold. I am hoping the next batch will be a little sweeter now that the weather is warming up. I plan on trying lightly steamed or stir fried.

Oregon Spring tomato

The first tomatillo bud!

Lemon Cucumber

Borage Blooming

Exotic Additions

2008-05-27T01:45:00.000-07:00

About a week ago Jared and I took a trip about an hour south to One Green World, a nursery specializing in exotic and rare plants. We went for the kaffir lime tree, the leaves of which are used in our favorite thai soup. The tree is more than two feet tall and already has lime buds! I definitely didn't expect it to fruit this year.

We also came home with a male and female arctic beauty hardy kiwi. The fruit are the size of grapes and fuzz free, but definitely still taste like kiwi. Someone brought a bunch in to work last fall and I ate more than my share... yum. These are great because they live outside in the shade... which we have plenty of. We don't have to worry about bringing them inside in the winter (the kaffir lime tree is a little higher maintenance in that regard).

Continued Growth

2008-05-17T01:16:00.000-07:00

Rapidly growing veggies
Plants mom kindly dug up to share last fall

The indoor only cats took a tour of the overgrown grass

May - Week One

2008-05-05T15:32:00.000-07:00

Once again, I have neglected to keep track of exact dates for transplanting and sowing seeds. When will I learn? However, this month I did take lots of pictures, so here is my best guess at the garden calendar based on the photos and my memory.

May 5

Transplanted winter sown veggies and plants:
Sunflower
Pak Choi
Bush Bean, Burgundy
Bush Bean, Roma II
Bibb Lettuce
Amaranth into pot on deck
Basil into pots on deck

Transplanted indoor sown:
Red sunflower
Oregon spring tomato x 1
Sage into small pots
Oregano into small pot

Transplanted store bought:
Dill
Cilantro
Basil, siam queen and large leaf italian
Marjoram
Rest of swiss chard into pots and replaced few in garden that wilted

Space hybrid spinach

Burgundy bush bean after transplant

Tomatillo hardening off

Potted swiss chard bright lights

The garden bed starting to show some growth

April Showers...

2008-04-30T23:31:00.000-07:00

March had given me a glimmer of hope... maybe the last frost will be a month early this year! Then came April. Not just rain showers, but plenty of hail showers and a snow shower too! There was an almost two week stretch where nighttime temps would reach freezing every night. This led to a bit of a gardening slump. At the beginning of the month I finished up all of the winter sowing that I could do. Then came the bad weather, so I couldn't get out in the garden much. It was mostly a time of waiting.

APRIL 1
- Tried transplanting one Oregon Spring Tomato with frost protection... still died a few days later.
- Started hardening off all of the tomatoes, broccoli, cabbage, dill, and cilantro. This was also done too early since the weather turned ugly for the rest of the month.
- Winter sowed more amaranth (the direct sown have not yet germinated and the indoor sown have no true leaves yet).

APRIL 4
Amaranth outside finally sprouting! Later each and every one of these dies. =(

APRIL 6
Indoor sowed in peet pots:
Japenese egglpant - apparently it is too late, but I am going to try anyway.
Tomato, Double Rich and Sweet 100 - Timing looks pretty good, decent size by time I transplanted, but not leggy like the earlier ones. Was given free seeds for the hybrid, so don't really know what is going to grow.
Pepper, Cubanelle, hot thai, and hungarian hotwax - Good healthy looking plants, but small. In the future will start same time as the mini yellow bell.

Winter sowed lots of free seeds received from SASBE... only a few of them actually came up. The successes were:
Sweet William
Blue Sage
Lemon Mint
Garlic (from seed... don't know if it will make cloves or not)
Goatsbeard

APRIL 7
Direct sowed:
Space Hybrid Spinach - spinach performing well
Mangold WIterbi Chard - lots sprouted, then my dog walked on them and there are only two left. something keeps eating the leaf tips, so they are very slow to grow... still less than 1" tall.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I stopped journaling at this point, so don't have the germination date or even direct sowing dates for a lot of the plants. Here are some pictures from the rest of the month.

Winter Sowing... can see sprouting Pak Choi, Broccoli, and Sunflowers
Shallots were brought inside when it started hailing
Perennial bed doesn't seem to be quite as upset by the freezing temperatures as the vegetables

A few veggies are standing their ground

Amaranth Doomed to Failure?

2008-04-22T16:19:00.000-07:00

I don't know what it is about this plant, but I am starting to wonder if I will see any of my starts mature into a plant this summer! I have sown it every way: indoors, winter sown, and direct sown.

Direct sowing is out the window for next year. It took close to a month for the amaranth to germinate (the first two weeks of which were great weather), then when it did come up, the germination rate was very low. About a week and a half later all but two shrivled up in some hot weather (even with a healthy watering that morning).

Winter sowing went okay, again they were slow to germinate, popping up a few weeks after the direct sown ones. Now they are staying small. We will have to see how they compare to the indoor sown ones later in the season.

So far my indoor sown ones look the best. They are by far the largest with one set of true leaves fully open and a second set peaking out. Both other methods of sowing are yet to show even a hint of true leaves. I just planted out one of my indoor sown seedlings after hardening it off for several days. So far it looks pretty good, other than being a little leggy.

As of yesterday there were two direct sown (the smallest), two winter sown (sturdy but small), and one indoor sown (much further along growth wise) in a row in the garden. This morning I went out to check on all the plants and water where needed. When I arrived at the amaranth I only saw two seedlings left. Both of the direct sown and one of the winter sown had been hewn off at the stem base! Thankfully I have a few more winter sown still sitting in their plastic conatiner and I have one more indoor still in its peet pot. I have not had any cutworms and did not find one when I dug down underneath the plants. Who knows what did it, but if it keeps up I will soon be calling it quits for the amaranth.

March Garden Happenings

2008-03-31T15:06:00.000-07:00

MARCH 3

In individual peet pots:
Basil x2 - slow to germinate, but did well. Winter sown ones were even better.
Broccoli x3 - germinated in 1-2 days, already leggy after 3-4 days. None of them hardened off well. Ended up direct sowing. Will not start indoors again.
Cabbage x2 - Similar to broccoli. Much easier to direct or winter sow.
Celeriac x5 - slow germinating and growing. Looks good now, but not sure if I want to invest in all the watering and fertilizer... sounds like a high maintenance plant.
Celery x2 - same as celeriac
Pepper, Miniature Yellow Bell x5 - Approx 2 weeks to germinate. Best looking plant started indoors. Could maybe even start sooner. Did not become leggy at all.
Tomatillo x5 - Started too soon, 1.5-2ft tall by time able to transplant outside, very lanky.
Tomato, Oregon Spring x5 - same as tomatillo.
Tomato, Taxi x5 - Same as tomatillo
Sage x2 - did not show up till 3/20! Still tiny, but healthy.

***Next time will use 3" and 4" plastic pots... peet seemed to stunt the growth of many seedlings***

Onions, purplette - started in 6" pot. Germinated well, but then week and unable to harden off - onions best direct sown.

Outside this week I cut an edge to the garden (it had no defined edge and lawn was creeping in), weeded, tilled, and ammended soil.

MARCH 8
Peas, sugar sprint snap - direct sowed outside with small amount sterile seed mix, sprouted 13 days later

MARCH 9
Sunflower, red - indoor in peet, winter sown worked great. Indoor very leggy.
Pok Choi - another leggy plant, winter sown much better.

MARCH 12
Direct sowed outside:
Amaranth - VERY slow to germinate (April 4), then withered with heat or cold. Winter sown are the best option so far. Second attempt at direct sowing done in May.
Broccoli - sprouted 8 days later
Sinach - sprouted 10 days later

MARCH 13
Direct sowed outside:
Cabbage - sprouted 9 days later
Lettuce, butterhead - sprouted 9 days later
Onions, sweet yellow - direct sown seems best

Bought 4" starts of:
Cilantro - will not grow again, too short of life cycle
Dill - will get again, but later in spring (or plant from seed)
Marjoram - love it, but bought it too soon... needed lots of TLC while indoors, great once planted in outdoor pot
Spearmint - Planted out right away and withstood unexpected snow and frost without problems

Winter sowed:
Broccoli - Better off direct sown
Peas, sugar snap - performed equal to direct sown peas

MARCH 20
Planted up tomatoes and tomatillos into 4" pots

MARCH 21
Major frost this am
Borage - bought 4" pot. Now in May is approaching 3ft tall. Great plant
Swiss Chard Bought starter pack too soon. Planted some out this week, they were hit really hard several times, but finally pulled through and started looking good by the end of may
Cauliflower - planted out 3 days later. 2 of the 4 didn't make it through major heat spell in May. Other two look great.

MARCH 24
Winter sowed:
Basil - lots came up, but I didn't keep track of dates
Beans, pole - only few came up... maybe the container it was in?
Beans, bush - came up in droves way earlier than I would have planted seeds directly. WS worked great.
Cucumber, lemon - 50% sprouted. Again, earlier than I would have direct sown.
Cucumber, Babylon - Zero out of 8 sprouted. Direct sowed in May.

Up planted tomatoes into gallon pots.

MARCH 26
Bought small sprouting shallots at the asian market, planted in 6" deep plastic "window box" planters.

MARCH 27
Pok Choi, winter sowed. Turned out much better than indoor. Harvested first batch a little later than should have... May 18th.

MACH 28
It snowed today!!!

MARCH 31
Lettuce, Bibb - winter sowed. Appears to be hardiest leafy green thus far, no bugs yet! (in May)

Welcome to My Garden

2008-03-30T04:07:00.000-07:00

Welcome to my first garden. I am focusing most of my efforts on growing vegetables and herbs this year. I do have a small strip of planting space for perennials, but that is mostly filled from plants that I bought right after moving into this house last summer.

This is the vegetable plot. It is approximately 6 feet by 24 feet. At the far end are some leafy greens that are just starting to put out true leaves: Spinach, Cabbage, Lettuce, Pak Choi, Cauliflower, Broccoli, Chard, and Sugar Snap Peas. Up close is Borage.

On the deck I have the containers, mostly for my herb garden. It is still pretty bare bones right now. On the far right are two pots of oregano, one "hot & spicy" and another ornamental "Kent Beauty". The latter almost died inside over winter, but show signs of a slow recovery. Next to the oreganos, there is a container of catmint and spearmint. The catmint is from the garden last fall and is quite healthy. I am a little concerned it is going to swallow up the spearmint. There are also some chives that just won't take off. I may put them in a bigger pot soon to see if that helps. In the far pots I just recently planted several types of basil, some from the nursery and some I started from seed, as well as cilantro, sweet marjoram, and a couple planter flowers for color accent. I am yet to decide what will go in the main large planter pot. Maybe an ornamental pepper? It is still too daunting of a decision, so I am putting it off.