Early April 2015 Garden Update

SeedlingsGod has answered my prayers today for rain. Although looking outside, I am debating if it is rain or really slushy snow. It is so wonderful to not have to water today. That is the biggest downfall of living in the desert, there is never enough water it seems. This year is even more nerve wracking, since we only got snow for Christmas, and maybe a few other times, but certainly not enough to pull us out of the drought we were in last year, despite all the wonderful autumn rain. One thing is for sure, though, you become an expert at the weather when you are a gardener.

So, while we are blessed with rain on this beautifully, cloudy day, I am focused on my indoor gardening. I have started my summer seeds, to be planted outside in roughly one month from today. Planted six days ago, my seedling tray now contains 10 Marketmore cucumbers, 7 Noir De Carmes cantaloupe, 1 Crimson Sweet watermelon, some German Queen tomatoes (I couldn’t tell how many were pushing up through the dirt), 1 Stupice tomato, 3 Sun Sugar tomatoes, 3 Paul Robeson tomatoes, 4 Sungold Select II tomatoes, 1 Tondo Scuro Di Piacenza zucchini (an heirloom eight ball zucchini), 1 Connecticut Field pumpkin, 1 cilantro, and 41 Green Mountain Multiplier onions. I am just imagining all the food I can get with that alone, but there is more I am still waiting on: Dark Green zucchini, Spaghetti squash, Jack Be Little pumpkins, and I am hoping for more watermelon.

Outside, my Tom Thumb peas are doing well, and my Swiss chard has sprouted. The strawberries are in bloom, and produced many new starts, which I moved to an empty area. I still need to finish weeding them. It’s slow going, since the majority of the weeds are mint and grass, two of the most difficult weeds you could ever have in an area. I bought seed potatoes at my favorite nursery yesterday, Yukon gold, a red variety, and a blue variety. The box for them is cleared, and simply needs to be loosened and compost added to it. And, finally, all of the carrots have been harvested from last year. They are so tasty, and digging them out of Mel’s mix has got to be the most fun thing you can do with your children in the garden. Imagine playing in a sandbox filled with dirt and carrots, instead of sand, and then being able to feed the carrot tops to the chickens, because they love them.

President’s Day Gardening

On President’s Day, as I was finishing lunch, I looked out the window and saw snow! We’ve had practically nothing since Christmas, and now on the day I was finally ready to work in my garden, it decided to snow? I ran outside as fast as I could, determined to get some work done before it got too cold. Half way through, the flurries stopped, and it was just cold. The first step to getting a garden ready is cleaning up from last year. My chickens did most of that for me, when we let them loose on the garden during the winter, but there was a pumpkin vine they didn’t touch and a bunch of those giant prickle weeds, so I grabbed a huge garbage bag and started filling it up. Then I made my way to my smaller boxes and started cleaning those up. They were mostly full of some sort of grassy weed, as I had harvested everything from all but one box last year.

Chickens digging through the grassy weed.

Chickens digging through the grassy weed.

Delicious winter carrots.

Delicious winter carrots.

The box that still has food in it is full of carrots, because they over winter beautifully, and since this winter was so mild, I didn’t even have to cover them. I cleared out the grassy weed from this box as well, and fed all of the weed to my chickens. I figure it’s some sort of annoying grain, which chicken’s love, and they’ve been enjoying digging through it. I, also, suspect that this weed helped to insulate my carrots when the temperatures did get cold. So, this weed and I don’t have too bad of relationship, especially considering how easy grass is to pull out of Mel’s Mix.

Thistle. These are all over my yard, even in my grass.

Thistle. These are all over my yard, even in my grass.

This weed and I, however, have a very complex relationship. Thistles are considered a noxious weed, which means it’s attempting to take over the planet. No, really it means harmful, poisonous, or very unpleasant. In this case, all three, though it is only mildly poisonous. When they bloom, they’re deathly beautiful, but they kill to even lightly brush up against. Don’t wear flip flops around these things. I’ve been collecting any of the dead flowers I can find, in a probably futile attempt to prevent them from growing in my garden. They’re so hard to get rid of that even digging them out doesn’t stop them from coming back. Once I had a thistle so big that a colony of ants made it their home. That was gross.

Clean garden box and large garden pot, ready to be planted

Clean garden box and large garden pot, ready to be planted

After a quick, though not thorough, clean up, I devoted my energy to one box. My chickens used it as a place to dust bathe in, so there was lots of chicken manure and feathers strewn about it. I left them there and hoed them in, while breaking up the Mel’s Mix to make it nice and soft for this year. The dirt was thawed completely, and I wonder if it even froze this year. After about fifteen minutes, the box was ready, except for needing a little compost for added nutrients. I don’t know if my compost pile even did anything this winter, because there wasn’t any snow to insulate it while it rotted. I’ll be checking the bottom of the pile later this week to see if I need to buy some compost or not, and then, I’ll be planting Tom Thumb Peas. I’m very excited to eat them. Combined in a stir fry with the carrots planted last year, it’ll be delicious.

Complimentary Breakfast

Breakfast this morning was courtesy of our chickens and our garden.
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Our Buff Orpington started laying this last week.
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We gathered six tiny eggs from her, and decided that might be enough to feed all of us, so we cooked them up this morning.
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Then we got our first Hamson tomato, and diced it to add to the eggs. I scrambled the eggs, added a little salt and pepper, and then added the tomatoes. The juice from the tomatoes made the eggs cook for longer, but, also, kept them moist.
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The scrambled eggs with tomatoes were delicious. We ate every bit of it.

Sweet Pea Tomato Plant

Sweet Pea TomatoesIf you recall, back in May, I wrote a post about the ten different kinds of tomatoes plants that we planted this year. I was very worried that I would get overwhelmed by so many plants, but so far by pruning and trailing them, they haven’t gotten out of hand, and I have a lot of green tomatoes waiting to ripen up.

The first tomatoes to ripen come from my Sweet Pea. So many people get confused when I talk about this plant. It is not a pea plant; it is a tomato plant that produces tomatoes the size of a pea. The plant is very bushy, having seven main stems, even with excessive pruning. I prune this plant the most out of all my tomato plants. The plant is only about two feet tall. I have not pinched off the top yet, so I am curious to see if it will get any taller, but to already be focusing its energy on ripening tomatoes, I don’t think it will grow much taller.IMAG0700

I planted this in a pot, which might contribute to its small size, but it has thrived in the confined space, and remained movable if needed. As more and more fruit has grown, it has become necessary to support some of the main stems with bamboo rods. The tomatoes are fun to snack on and the go very well in a salad.

My Mini Rose Bush

IMAG0694I have loved mini rose bushes since I was a little girl. My mom has two of them in her yard. Last year I bought two of them, and never managed to put them in the ground. They died over the winter. So, this year, I saw a mini rose bush on Pro Flowers.com, and strongly hinted to Michael that I would love to have one. It was delivered just in time for Mother’s Day, and I actually kept it alive this time. I planted it in my front yard, too late to see all the beautiful blooms, I thought. Today, while inspecting my garden, I discovered a beautiful tiny rose on it! I am so happy that it is thriving, and I can’t wait to see it grow over the years, and watch the tiny roses every year.

Why is Red Cabbage Called Red Cabbage?

IMAG0697This is a totally awesome answer. Red cabbage is known for its ability to indicate different pH levels. My sister-in-law and I discovered this while naturally dying Easter eggs, and my sister did an elementary school science fair project about it, and won! Basically it comes down to this, red cabbage, when in an alkaline (basic) solution turns blue, but when it is in an acidic solution, it turns purple and can even go as far as red.

Different soils have different pH levels. It’s why we planted our blue berries in a pot with only Mel’s Mix, which is more acidic than alkaline, while our native soil is very alkaline and would have produced terrible blue berries. The different soils around the world, and their pH levels, effect the color a red cabbage grows. In very acidic soil, a red cabbage is actually red; in neutral soil, a red cabbage is purple, and in alkaline soil, a red cabbage can go as far as turning green.

Red Cabbage

IMAG0698My red cabbage is finally ready to pick. I planted it as a start all the way back at the beginning of April. It survived frost after frost and heat wave after heat wave (yeah, that’s Utah for you), and now I finally get to devour it. This was probably the easiest thing I’ve ever grown. It’s taken such a long time to grow that I’ve never had to worry about it going to seed, and I just watered it everyday to get it to grow. I’m not sure yet what I’m going to cook with it, possibly a coleslaw, but I’ll be scouring Pinterest to find exactly what I want.

Eggplant Blossoms

IMAG0707I am not a fan of eggplant. I have tried many times to find a recipe that I like it in, and every time I receive the confirmation that I do not like eggplant. Even still, I planted it in my garden this year. I have heard and read many times that it is a beautiful plant, so when given two for free, I decided that at the very least, I would get the joy of seeing what an eggplant plant looks like. Today, while inspecting my garden, I was graced with the beauty of the eggplant blossoms. They are the most beautiful purple color I have ever seen, and it’s almost a shame that they will eventually turn into eggplants, but hopefully I will be able to find a recipe that I like or someone that will take them all off my hands.

Pruning Tomatoes

I wanted to post this yesterday, but then I realized that I hadn’t introduced my tomatoes, and I definitely wanted to do that, so I saved this until today. Our tomatoes are about 1-1 1/2 feet tall right now, so I decided to prune them a little. It’s really easy to do, and I’m glad that I’m starting them this young, because the “wound” that is created is small enough to not cause problems, and the suckers are really easy to pick.

SuckersPruning is definitely scary the first year around, but if you educate yourself and then trust that you won’t pick off good, strong, fruit bearing stems, it’s not so bad. Some people like to prune their tomatoes to only one main stem, and others like to have a few main stems. It really is up to you. Just know that pruning creates bigger, stronger, tastier tomatoes, so even just a little to start with will be beneficial.

I’m not going to go into the details of how to prune, because this You Tube video does way better than I ever could. Plus, the accent is fun to listen to. I just wanted to get fellow gardeners thinking about it.

Tomato Plants!

Our tomato plants have been in the ground for almost two weeks now, because the weather was unusually warm for this time of year. Even with the recent cold spell just last week, it was still warm enough that none of our plants needed covering, particularly our tender tomato plants. While I was only planning on eight tomato plants this year, which is way more than enough for our little family, my supplier, who just lives down the street, was very generous and provided us with two extras for free. Since I don’t have room for them in my yard yet, they are in the biggest pots I can spare until we find space for them.

Sweet Pea Opalka

To make space for the eight that are actually in the ground, my amazing husband pulled up all the grass three feet out from the house along the West wall. It was no small task to be sure, but I am so grateful he did it, because it looks amazing, and is a perfect spot for growing tomatoes. We choose the West wall, because it gets tons of sun in the afternoon and evening. Tomatoes need warm roots and plenty of sun for photosynthesis.

West Wall

So, let me introduce you to our tomato plants. First, we have a Sun Sugar and a Golden Rave. The Sun Sugar is a cherry tomato that tastes like candy in tomato form. The Golden Rave is a paste tomato, which means it as more flesh than juice. Like the name says, it’s going to be a golden color, and it will be the shape of a Roma.

Sun Sugar and Golden Rave

Next in line, we have a Paul Robison, which is a black tomato, and a Monica, which is another paste tomato and essentially a Roma.

Paul Robison and Monica

Then we have a Hamson. I am super excited about this one, because it was designed specifically to do well in Utah. It can be whole packed, which means canned as a whole tomato, instead of sliced or diced. The Caspian Pink is a large Russian tomato that is pink!

Hamson and Caspian Pink

And, finally, we have a Black Krim, another black tomato, and another Sun Sugar. We have been called crazy for having two Sun Sugars, because one plant produces a lot, but I now they will all be eaten.

Black Krim and Sun Sugar

The tomatoes in pots are a Sweet Pea, a tiny cherry tomato, and an Opalka, a large paste tomato.