Fall plantings of Green Manure (it’s just Rye!) & Organic Vallelado Garlic

Posted on November 8, 2013 by Mominthegarden

Rye

Green manure? “What’s that?” was my thought just a few months ago. A very simple explanation is that green manure is a crop which is planted to protect the soil from eroding and losing nutrients, while adding to the goodness of the soil. 🙂

A whole bag of Rye (green manure)

I am learning this as I go along! I spoke with a very helpful gentleman at Fruit Hill Farm in Cork http://www.fruithillfarm.com/ . I loved how patient he was with me, and how he seemed to really enjoy sharing his knowledge. He suggested planting rye given the time of year and when I want to plant again. Planting it in the fall after my summer harvest, I can leave it for a few months. When it reaches about 18 inches high I should cut it back (so it doesn’t go to seed). Then in February/March it should be dug deep into the soil. The bed will then be “good to go” in April.

One of the beds after digging up the soil and planting rye.

“The Complete Gardener” by Monty Don gives a great description of the scientific process of what is actually going on in the soil. (note to self: return Susan’s book to her!) Yeah, what I understand is that nitrogen is added to the soil, which is good, and the organic material of the rye plant is broken down by the healthy organisms in the soil, which is good for the soil structure. So there is no need to add compost to the soil after this process. The plan is that the rye will grow in place of weeds which would inevitably grow. Win. Win. Win.

A new bed planted with rye.

Fall look at the veggie beds.

Well, let’s just wait and see (with fingers crossed)! The beds looked nice after I dug up the soil and planted. That is rather funny to re-read. Nice lookin’ soil there!

Rye planted in the former garlic bed.

I was also planting garlic. It is more common here to plant garlic in the fall than in the summer. So this is the year I’m going to give it a try. What also helped to spur me on is that I told another blogger that I’d do it! Thanks Claire from Promenade Plantings!

Organic Autumn Planting Garlic – Vallelado in front bed. Swede (turnip) are in the back bed.

I didn’t actually take any pictures of the garlic itself. Hmm, that was silly. But the above photo is where I planted it – a lot of it! 🙂 With every planting I always have that teeny tiny bit of doubt! But I try to overpower it with lots of hope!

Organic Autumn Planting Garlic – Vallelado planted next to the Brussels Sprouts.

Rowan tree

I have a Mom in the Garden facebook page (of course!) and posted a couple of pics of our Rowan tree.

Rowan tree.

It has orange berries that really stand out at this time of year!

Rowan berries from October.

Rowan berries from November.

A quick on-line search reveals all sorts of recipes for making Rowan berry jellies & jams & wine! We’ll have to see about that … another day.

November look at the garden.

We’ve had some beautiful weather lately. I hope you have too!

Happy fall!
Dana

The vegetable garden’s summertime review

Posted on October 9, 2013 by Mominthegarden

Organic Pea Karina with a sweet pea flower

Life has seriously gotten busy recently, so I do apologize for having neglected my blogging, and for not having visited your blogs as well. I am very much looking forward to sitting down and reading what all of my gardening and cooking blogger friends have been up to! When exactly that is going to happen is another story…

My last post was about my summertime flowers. I feel I have split loyalties, between my flowers and my vegetables. I do love having both of them, but when it comes to taking pictures the flowers are just a wee bit more glamorous. And I love taking pictures! I’ll do my best to show off my vegetables looking fab (which might just be covered in muck!).

Red Robejla organic onions

My red onions did very well this season. That picture above is of them before I dug them out. They were very nearly out of the soil already.

Red Robelja organic onions

I think I will try and grow more next year. There doesn’t seem to be a lot there!

A nice size Robelja onion

Red Robejla organic onion

After the stems started to dye down, I dug them out and placed them atop of my garlic bed which had already been cleared. We were lucky enough to have some dry weather so I left them there for a week or so. They are now finishing their drying in my back room.

My onions drying out

I’ll throw in a picture of my potatoes for good measure. They are not glamorous, but they did taste good! Sarpo Mira is the variety, which is blight resistant. I’ve grown them for 2 years now. I think next year I will be adventurous and try a different variety.

Peeled spuds (Sarpo Mira)

I have only one picture of my carrots and it is not pretty! They are good large, sturdy carrots ( organic yellowstone), not like the orange ones you typically see. But they taste good!

Organic Yellowstone carrots.

Organic Brussels Sprouts Rubine Red

Talk about winning the prize for the least glamorous vegetable! My Brussels Sprouts were completely covered with caterpillars on a regular basis. What I’m sure would be beautiful leaves if left uneaten by those critters, is simply ugly after all of that destruction.

Organic Brussels Sprouts Rubine Red

We do have sprouts! I’m really not sure if they will be worth it though. That process of picking off caterpillars is really for the birds.

Organic Brussels Sprouts Rubine Red

Did the critters leave anything for us?

Organic Brussels Sprouts Rubine Red

Another view of the least glamorous vegetable in the garden.

Let’s talk pumpkins! We planted pumpkins in a few different spots, but they thrived in one bed in particular. Guess I know which bed had the best soil! Pumpkins like a lot of food. Also, to get bigger pumpkins, you can cut the vine after the pumpkins are formed which will force all of the energy to go into growing the pumpkin and not on growing the vine and further pumpkins on the vine. The problem is, I really like the flowers! 🙂

Not to worry, I did get some pumpkins and their size will do just fine for me. They are baking pumpkins, actually, so would be on the smaller size anyway. I have quite a few photos because I thought it was neat to see how the color changes. I only have a couple that are orange, but the rest are on their way.

In the beginning…

A long, long time ago…

My favorite pumpkin with a perfect shape!

Phew! Finally a size that is respectable! My favorite pumpkin with a nice round shape.

Two hangin’ together.

The two hangin’ and changing color!

Love the speckled look.

One orange pumpkin!

This is the same orange pumpkin, but with my foot in the picture which shows you how small it is! (the pumpkin, not my foot)

Can you believe how many photos of pumpkins I’ve taken?

I’m moving on from pumpkins. I have a feeling you’ll be seeing more of them in my blog throughout the fall. I bought a globe artichoke plant in May and I am so glad I did. I didn’t manage to eat any of the artichokes, but the benefit of that is that they form really interesting flowers!

Globe artichoke Cynara Scolymus before blooming.

Oh but wait, it gets much better!

Globe artichoke Cynara Scolymus in bloom.

Globe artichoke Synara Scolymus

The entire plant is coming into bloom!

Globe artichoke Cynara Scolymus. Something interesting to look at!

The globe artichoke plant is so different from anything else in the garden, and I love that. I must show you how that particular garden has really shaped up this past year. That will be for my next post!

But before I go, I’ll leave you with some more flower pictures.

I hope your schedule is less hectic than mine has been!

Dana

Fall roses in my silver sugar bowl. Just because.

Fall roses tumbling down!

Fall flowers from the garden in my Polish Pottery vase.

Fall flowers in the evening sunlight.

Oh yes, I definitely favor flowers to veggies for pictures! 😉

Harvesting Garlic & a Clematis’ improved health

Posted on August 24, 2013 by Mominthegarden

Freshly dug garlic (Cristo).

Some things in the garden seem to grow fairly easily. Garlic is one of those things! We’ve grown garlic the past two years and have been very happy to have done so.

Garlic (Cristo) in June.

They don’t require special attention, really, and like well drained, fertile soil. I watered them when we had quite dry weather so the soil wouldn’t dry out, but that was it. They are ready for harvest when the greens die back. Then I hang them in our back room to dry out completely. This year I am planning on planting some in the winter, too. I think it is more typical to grow it then. That will be my first attempt at winter gardening!

Freshly dug garlic.

I was pretty happy with the quality of the soil as I was digging up the garlic. We’ll be adding our compost to the beds as we continue to harvest the different vegetables, and fruit. It really does help the soil! As for quality of soil, I have another story to tell.

Garlic & Geraniums

Cristo garlic.

My clematis starting to climb the obelisk a few months ago.

Back in March I posted about an obelisk which I set up for my clematis. (You can read about it here: https://mominthegarden.wordpress.com/2013/03/06/my-showy-hellebores-an-obelisk-and-a-chocolate-pudding-recipe/ ) My clematis, ‘Bagatelle’ (Dorothy Walton), had one single flower last year! We had moved it the year before as it was in a terrible position. Fearing wilt after all of the rain we had last year, we needed to do something. The soil in which it was planted really needed some extra attention. We dug it up and added compost, aerated the soil, fed it, and hoped for the best. The difference in the plant this year is amazing.

Late blooming clematis early in the season.

My clematis early in the season.

This was the first flower this season. It has really thin petals (they get bigger as it develops).

Clematis (‘Bagatelle’ Dorothy Walton) after some rain.

Clematis in full glory!

There are a few different types of clematis. Mine is a late season variety. So in February I will be pruning it back to about 12 inches from the ground, just above an old leaf joint. That way I will continue to have flowers all along the plant, and not just at the top.

The obelisk is getting covered!

The plant climbed up the obelisk, and then right back down again! I’ve seen plenty of clematis that would have taken over this little obelisk! But for now, this one will work for us.

The flowers of the ‘Bagatelle’ Dorothy Walton Clematis face the morning sun.

I took this picture yesterday. There are still new blooms!

Now that the clematis is doing so well, I’m thinking of getting another one. 🙂

Which is your favorite variety of clematis?
Dana

Strawberry Bed Clean-up

Posted on August 9, 2013 by Mominthegarden

Strawberry bed at the end of the season (with a hanging cow windsock/scarecrow).

The strawberries were my favorite item in the garden this summer. They were so sweet, and there were so many of them. Everything went really well; No mold, no birds eating them before us, no problems! But strawberries spread like crazy and get really messy rather quickly (that was our problem last year). They have a rather short life, too. Three years. That’s it. Then it’s time for new ones. Given that they produce tons of “runners” every season, it is cost free to replace them. My blogging friend Claire of Promenade Plantings http://promenadeplantings.com/ mentioned that the first plant on a runner is the best to use. I like getting tips like that!

Super fresh from the garden!

My husband took full ownership of strawberry care this season. Well, except for the weeding, that is always my job! This week he and my daughter did a lot of work preparing them for next year. They dug up the entire bed, removed the oldest plants, potted up the healthy runner plants, and replanted the one year old plants. It is so cool having their help!

After digging up the old plants, the newer ones are replanted.

Potting up the runner plants.

I'll admit it was a bit of work (for my husband!) tidying up this bed!

I’ll admit it was a bit of work (for my husband and daughter!) tidying up this bed!

A neat and tidy new strawberry bed.

You can see the difference in the two beds in the photo above! The second bed in the back still needs to be done. This month is really the ideal time to do it. Thankfully, there are still a few weeks left to get that finished!

‘Cause we want to be able to make more strawberry ice cream like we did this year!

Homemade strawberry ice cream!

In case you missed it, here’s a link to my post from earlier this summer on strawberries: https://mominthegarden.wordpress.com/2013/07/15/bumper-crop-of-strawberries-an-angel-food-cake-recipe-with-strawberries/

View of the garden in August (after clearing up one strawberry bed).

A geranium plant grown from seed.

I had to have a flower photo to finish this post! My father-in-law grew a bunch of geranium plants from seed for me. I was rather late in asking him to grow them, so they are only now blooming! But I’m enjoying them very much. 🙂

I hope I’ve maybe inspired you to try growing strawberries! Feel free to ask a friend if they have extra plants as they really do grow like crazy.

Happy Planting!
Dana

Bumper crop of Strawberries & an Angel food Cake recipe (with Strawberries)!

Posted on July 15, 2013 by Mominthegarden

Bumper crop of Strawberries!

What a glorious summer we have had! Sunny, warm days (maybe even described as hot?!), with just a hint of a breeze. We love it! In the five years we’ve lived in Ireland, this is definitely the best stretch of weather we’ve experienced. Our strawberries seem to be quite happy in the heat. W.O.W.! We have had tons of them! (only slight exaggeration)

Our two strawberry beds.

Last year was our first year growing strawberries and it didn’t go well. We had too many plants, too close together, and the netting was impossible to get on and off easily. It didn’t help that it was a horrible year for slugs, and a very wet season! So we made some changes this year, and we even got lucky with the weather. We have less plants and more space to get in and around to pick berries and to weed. The netting is easier to manage this year too, so even the kids can take it off and cover it up again without hassle. It is just so lovely to have fresh berries! For us, this is definitely becoming one of our “tastes of summer”!

A ceramic bunny helping to keep the birds away 😉

Seeing red.

It really is great to be able to go into the garden and pick your own strawberries. In America, we used to enjoy going to farms to pick strawberries. But I have to say that this is something else. What I’ve learned this year is that the older plants should be replaced with the newer ones. So later in the season we’ll be planting and replacing and hoping for the best for next year!

My two girls with their haul of strawberries one sunny morning.

Super fresh!

Given the nice weather, and the abundance of strawberries, I decided to make some Angel food cake. I have a recipe that I love that calls for raspberries, so it was an easy switch for the strawberries. We actually made the cake twice in the last week; once using the Amaretto, which is an Italian almond liqueur for the sauce, and once without. Either way is delicious!

10 egg whites…

Given the warm days, I was glad for a rather quick and simple recipe. It gets even easier for me since my daughter is a super help in the kitchen. We’re about at the stage where I’m just the “helper”!

Cut up strawberries for inside the angel food cake.

Pure fluffiness!

The strawberry sauce was so easy to make!

This isn’t a proper tall angel food cake pan, but it did the trick.

Yum! I have a couple of recipes that I use this with. I just realized that the bottle doesn’t actually say “Amaretto” on it! But the box does…

Yeah, I snuck some flowers into the pic! (I had to look up "snuck"! It is actually used in the US & Canada, but not here.

Yeah, I snuck some flowers into the pic! (I had to look up the term “snuck”! It is actually used in the US & Canada, but not here.)

We were quite happy with the results!

I hope you are enjoying some lovely weather where ever you are, and with something tasty to eat too!

Dana

Angel food cake with raspberry Amaretto sauce

The New Basics Cookbook
Julee Rosso & Sheila Lukins

10 egg whites at room temp
1 ¼ tsp cream of tartar
¼ tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla extract
½ tsp almond extract
1 ¼ cups sugar
1 cup cake flour (2 tblsp corn starch in 1 cup plain flour measure)
1 cup fresh raspberries
Raspberry Amaretto Sauce (recipe below)

Preheat oven 350 degrees. (176 C)

Beat the egg whites, cream of tartar, and salt in a large glass bowl (not metal) with an electric mixer until they form soft peaks. Add the vanilla and almond extracts. Then gradually add the sugar, beating until the whites are stiff, but not dry, and shiny.
Sift the flour onto the egg whites and sprinkle the raspberries over the top. Using a rubber spatula, gently fold in the flour and raspberries.
Spoon the mixture into an ungreased 10 inch nonstick tube pan, and bake until a toothpick inserted in the cake comes out clean, 40 minutes.
Invert the pan onto a cake rack and let it cool completely without removing the cake from the pan.
When the cake is cool, invert the pan onto a serving platter. Remove the pan carefully, loosening the cake slightly around the edges if necessary, and serve with raspberry sauce.

Raspberry Amaretto Sauce

2 cups fresh or frozen raspberries, thawed if frozen
½ cup confectioners’ sugar
1 tblsp fresh lemon juice
¼ cup amaretto liqueur

Puree the raspberries in a blender or food processor. Add the confectioners’ sugar, lemon juice, and amaretto, and continue to process until smooth.
Strain the sauce to remove the seeds, and serve.

End of June Roses & Poppies, but wait! Asparagus & Brussels Sprouts too!

Posted on June 27, 2013 by Mominthegarden

Rosa Jacques Cartier (1868).

Now that is a picture to get me started! I love roses. Especially pink ones, but really any color makes me smile. These just fill the little rose garden with color!

The rose garden.

This has been a very good season for black spot, unfortunately. I was away this spring, when I think I should have been tending the roses to prevent black spot. I still have not found an organic method, which annoys me. This is my garden story as I grow and learn, black spots and all. I think it would be quite misleading to leave out the rough patches that might be involved in gardening. While I’m at my confession, I’ll add that I didn’t prune my roses this year (yikes!). I just was completely unsure of how to go about it and procrastinated too long. Then it was too late!

Burgundy Ice Floribunda Rose.

Burgundy Ice Floribunda rose.

I think pruning them is helpful to prevent black spot (gives better air circulation). I have been cutting away as much of the black spot as I can manage. I was really surprised this week when a bunch of roses bloomed – I thought they were too far gone! The worst affected were the Rosa Jacques Cartier (1868), but they weren’t the only ones.

Rosa Jacques Cartier (1868).

Rosa Jacques Cartier (1868). This rose is incredibly fragrant. The walkway to the front door smells beautiful! How lucky to be able to plant them there!

Zephirine Drouhin (1868). In this picture you can see the black spots on some of the leaves. (I must get out there and cut those off!) These roses are at my front gate.

Zephirine Drouhin (1868).

I need some more color in my rose garden. 🙂 There must be some more varied shades of pink out there!

Silver Anniversary Hybrid Tea rose.

Iceberg Floribunda rose.

I do like the white roses, too, though. I would really like to get a better handle on this black spot situation…

Poppies on the other hand, have no problems like black spot. My only problem with them is their falling over!

Poppies.

The center of that big mess of greens holds a very large bunch of fallen-over poppies! I’ve tried to pull them up. I’m not sure yet if it is going to work. I will (humbly?) point out that the fence has been painted again this year. My daughter was a big help with this job. I have to say that I enjoyed doing it. I really like how it brightens things up!

A “relaxed look” garden.

I like seeing the bright red flowers when I’m in the yard. The red really jumps out, even from a distance. It is a very relaxed looking garden, nothing formal here! The daisies are just about ready to bloom next to the never ending poppies.

Poppies.

A very wrinkled looking poppy!

As for some of the vegetables in the garden, things are growing! We started planting asparagus two years ago. That means that next year we’ll be able to actually eat some! There really weren’t too many stalks, so this year we planted a full bed of different varieties. Through some research we learned that asparagus like mushroom compost. If our experience is anything to go by, this is certainly the case! What an amazing amount of growth we’ve seen this year.

A look at the growing asparagus.

Just about every crown we planted has grown. These are one year old crowns. This is much, much nicer looking than the few crowns that had been limping along the past two seasons. I’m giving full credit to the mushroom compost we used this year. We are really hopeful for a good crop next year!

Asparagus (the first year planting 1 year old crowns).

Asparagus planted 2 years ago, peeking through.

That purple guy was planted two years ago. I cut the stalk down last week because it was too tall and was falling over. I think this would actually be ready for eating – if it was a one year old crown when planted. It’s a bit funny just having one spear though!

Baby asparagus!

You can really see the difference in thickness of these and the purple guy. My soil looks really dry. It isn’t actually, but we get a lot of wind which dries the top layer (quickly!).

Brussels Sprouts.

This year we are trying Brussels Sprouts! My blogging friend Claire over at Promenade Plantings http://promenadeplantings.com/2013/04/03/all-about-brussels/ gave some really helpful hints on getting started with sprouts. I’m not sure if we started early enough, but my fingers are crossed! The main thing was to really pack down the earth before planting. I wish I had a photograph, because my husband and daughter really had fun dancing on the bed to prepare it! It was well packed down to say the least! 🙂

Brussels Sprouts.

The next big job we had was to take off any critters (worms). We, actually my girls did this job, took off a bunch of worms this week. So now I’m keeping a close eye on the plants. Funny enough, the pigeons haven’t eaten the leaves, which they apparently like to do. I’m counting my lucky stars, because there are so many pigeons around here!

Brussels Sprouts.

We’ll see how it goes. Nothing ventured, nothing gained! Have you tried anything new in the garden this year?

Dana

Too pretty to leave behind!

June is for Allium, Peony, Iris and Hawthorn! And the last Cherry bloom.

Posted on June 18, 2013 by Mominthegarden

Cherry Tree the beginning of June.

The nice thing about going away … is coming home. Missing two weeks of garden growth at the end of May and beginning of June is like missing a marathon! So much is happening.

Cherry tree in early June.

I quickly snapped away with my camera to capture the very last blooms from our cherry trees. I was lucky to have a pretty sky too!

Cherry tree in early June.

Pink is my favorite color, and I love to see it in the garden. Our Hawthorn trees had a bit of pink in them this year. They were lovely all in white bloom, with sprays of pink.

Hawthorn in full bloom.

Sprays of pink in the Hawthorn blooms.

It’s funny how everything looks better in sunshine, but with too much sunshine everything looks bleached! I won’t be complaining (ever!) about the sun, but I’ll have to work a bit harder trying to get the pictures right.

Allium posing in front of the Hawthorn trees.

We were quite lucky with our Allium this year. The wind has held off for the most part, and I’ve enjoyed their long showy splendor for a few weeks now. Last year they were knocked completely over in their first week of blooming. This one garden is transforming into a purple garden! I think the Allium and Erysimum go really well together.

Erysimum Bowles’ Mauve

My Erysimum (Bowles’ Mauve) plant is really showing off now. It has a great spread, and is simply beautiful. It seems quite happy.

Another view of the purple garden.

On the right of the purple garden I have a globe artichoke plant (Cynara Scolymus). You can just see the wire support. I’m not sure how this is going to go, but I’m always hopeful!

Blue Geranium. This plant is in my “wait until I have a space” garden. I will be moving it to my new purple garden as I love the color. I might just switch it with the pink Geranium I currently have there. Or I might put both there!

Tree Paeonia Renkaku.

My tree peony had one flower this year. It was truly a lovely flower, though! It arrived last year as an eight inch tall stem. As in one stem! It must be quite hardy, as it survived the winter, grew, and produced such a lovely flower. It was worth the wait.

Tree Paeonia Renkaku.

It is rather delicate looking, but I think it is quite hardy!

Tree Paeonia Renkaku.

My regular peony plants didn’t do too badly either!

Peony.

Dutch Iris Blue Magic. I was trying to capture the Iris without having to go over the fence. So I tried looking down on it. I like the different look it gave!

Dutch Iris Blue Magic.

As for fruits and vegetables, I’m pleased with the progress so far. I know for some people growing vegetables and fruit comes so easily. But it has been quite a learning process for me! We planted too many strawberry plants last year, and they were too close to one another. The netting was cumbersome to remove, which was problematic. This year, I am hopeful (always!) that we’ll get to enjoy the fruit. It looks beautiful now!

Strawberry plants.

We added in some stepping stones into the strawberry beds, and a wee bunny. I’m sure he’ll definitely scare any birds away…

The fruit orchard view in June.

Vegetable beds in June.

Our vegetable beds are filling in! We have newly planted main crop potatoes on the right. On the left we have fencing for our pea plants. In between the pea plants, some potatoes have decided to grow from last year’s crop. I’m really not sure what to do with them! I’ll probably earth them up when we do the main crop of potatoes, and see how they turn out.

Sarpo Mira Main Crop potatoes.

We love beets! But this is the second year now that only a few beet plants have come up. I’ve tried a second planting, so maybe we’ll still get some more. (will I mention that hopeful word again???)

Organic Golden Detroit Beetroot (beets).

My family thought we had too much chard last year, so I’ve scaled back on it this year. I’m hoping to still keep it in our summer menu, but not too much that the family go running when they see it!

Rainbow chard.

Swede (turnips).

Now here is a vegetable that loves to grow in my garden – Swede! Every single seed that I have planted has germinated. I’ve thinned them out and passed the extras on to my neighbor James. Thankfully, my family like swede. Good thing, too, as we’ll be having it a lot this winter!

Organic Yellowstone carrots.

My carrots are making themselves seen.

Cristo garlic.

It turns out that most gardeners plant their garlic in the fall/winter and harvest in the summer. I seem to have it a bit off. This fall I’ll see if I can manage to get some in the ground. It might be nice to have something growing in the winter.

A view of the back field.

This last picture was taken just a couple of weeks before the veggie pictures above. So much growth in so little time! You can just see the white from the Hawthorn trees lining the field. It’s such a lovely sight (and site!).

I hope your garden is full of growth and beauty!

Dana

Planting Sarpo Mira Spuds (and extending the stone path).

Posted on April 23, 2013 by Mominthegarden

First half of the stone pathway project.

My heading starts with “Planting Sarpo Mira Spuds”, but I really want to show you the hard work I’ve been doing! I have some pictures of stones. Lots and lots of stones!

A “before” picture showing the black sheeting between two beds.

Last year we added two potato beds rather quickly. At the time, I was more interested in eating potatoes than making sure the garden looked presentable. This year, I was more interested in prettying up the garden!

Small stones to fill the pathway.

Now doesn’t that look nicer? 🙂 Those stones mostly came from different flower and vegetable beds in the yard, and along the fence line. When we first started the stone pathway last year, my kids helped out a bit. No moss will grow on those kiddos: they discovered quite quickly that the bigger the stones, the faster they’d be finished with their “chore”. That was fine last year, when I didn’t realize bigger stones were more awkward to walk on! This year I was on my own with stone collection, so I stuck with small stones. I have to say that I was really pleased with the result.

Finished stone pathway.

I prepped the soil a bit, too. The darker soil looks nicer in pictures! I used my new favorite tool in the whole wide world.

My new garden fork.

This baby is with me everywhere in the garden now. I had been looking around for a really good garden fork. The fork is somewhat narrow, and sturdy. I was surprised how prevalent plastic handles were. I prefer a good wooden one. With all of my new beds, the soil really needs to be turned and compost worked in. The fork makes this job completely manageable for me. Yay for me!

Now I was able to see that the two potato beds were quite slanted. Better still, my husband also saw this. He and my 13 year old daughter set to work to build a frame for our Sarpo Mira main crop potatoes.

Adding a frame to the spud bed.

Stone pathway in the vegetable garden.

Yeah, I’m not even going to complain about having to shift most of those tiny stones after the bed was completed, since my original path was crooked… 😉

You can see what the beds and pathway looked like in my post from last year: https://mominthegarden.wordpress.com/2012/04/10/planting-maincrop-potatoes-on-easter-weekend/

On to spuds! I was a week later than when we planted last year, but I don’t think that should matter too much. We only have one crop this year, as we decided not to have early potatoes. I want to rest one of the beds, or use it for something other than potatoes. The new bed is bigger than last year’s. This will give us more room to “earth up” (cover up with soil) the shoots as they appear. This is so the potatoes don’t turn green, rendering them useless. The earthing up is to protect the potatoes from the sun.

We (I mean my husband!) dug holes about 6 inches deep, and 18 inches apart.

6 inches deep.

I had the potatoes in open egg cartons in my utility room (laundry room) for the past month or so. That process, called chitting, is to get sprouts started before they go into the ground. It should speed up the growing time.

Covering over the potatoes.

Now we wait. And take lots of pictures of the spring flowers!

Daffodils.

I had to bring some daffodils inside to enjoy!

A variety of daffodils.

These daffodils are at my front gate, and I love seeing them as I come and go. They have a pretty high cheer factor!

The pulmonaria is lovely with the daffodils!

Mr. Fokker Anemone.

We had some terrible wind last week. A few of my hyacinth were knocked down so I put them in a vase. They look rather comical in that “arrangement”, but it was a quick fix. The smell of hyacinth is a Love it or Hate it kind of smell. I love it, and it’s a good thing as my kitchen was filled with the smell!

Hyacinth (after too much wind!).

Hyacinth after being knocked down by harsh winds.

I love this color!

Mr. Fokker Anemone.

Yes I am so happy to finally feel spring is here. It was wonderful to be out and working in the garden, especially planting potatoes! I can’t wait to eat our own spuds! What is your favorite vegetable you are looking forward to harvesting?

Happy planting!
Dana

Winter harvest of Organic Parsnips (And New Neighbors … of the mooing variety!)

Posted on January 16, 2013 by Mominthegarden

Freshly dug Halblange White organic Parsnips.

Winter harvest: One box of parsnips. Woo hoo! O.K., it is a full box, and I didn’t have any last year, so I call that progress. Eventually, I’d like to have different vegetables and fruit growing in the garden throughout the year. But I’m going to give myself a little more time on that one! I planted lots of carrots to have with the parsnips, but only a few of the seeds germinated this year. Last year we had a bumper crop of carrots, this year not so much. That’s how it goes in the garden!

Yellowstone organic carrots (and some garlic).

That is me holding the carrots with my pink gloves. I was a bit camera shy after working in the garden. 😉 The carrots were delicious and sweet and I was happy with their size. Want to see where I hung my garlic to dry?

Garlic being left out to dry.

Another one of those not so pretty pictures, if you ask me! These are hanging at my back door. Well, they were hanging there while it was dry. I moved them inside to my utility room (laundry room) after a while. They are still braided and hanging in there – minus the clumps of dirt hanging from them. I cut those clumps off as soon as I could manage it! I just pull off a head as I need it. 🙂 The parsnips have now joined the garlic in our back room as it is rather like a cold storage room. I suppose it is a good thing that I don’t have a dryer, so there’s no variation in room temperature. It’s just plain cold, all of the time!

A little less muddy after a good rinsing, the parsnips were a nice size.

We’ve used the parsnips a few times already. I find them to be a sweet vegetable. We like to pair them with carrots. This year we also tried making parsnip chips (like potato chips/crisps). When I say “we”, I mean my husband! They were quite tasty. One thing we learned was to not overlap them on the tray when baking as that prevents them from getting crispy. Here is the link he used: http://www.inspirededibles.ca/2012/02/oven-baked-sweet-potato-parsnip-chips.html

Parsnip chips made by my husband.

We harvested the parsnips, although we could have kept them in the ground. My son and husband were tidying up our raised beds and decided it was best to move them. I’m now in the planning stage for deciding what we want to plant this growing season! The time goes so fast! It’s already time to plan out the beds, and order seeds.

My teenage son helping out with the beds.

Neat and tidy! Ready for the next planting season!

They worked some of the more aged compost into the soil. That will give it plenty of time to break down before the growing season starts. (You can see some parsnips in the bottom right corner of the picture above.)

Now, about those new neighbors! The field behind us was harvested of it’s sugar beet a while ago. The cows were brought in to finish off the plants. And they are doing quite a job of that! The kids and I enjoy watching them, especially the two calves. Really, we do! The farmer surely thinks we’re a bit nuts…

Hi there.

The black calf was born in the field.

How many pictures of cows did I take???

Yeah, I know, they are just cows. But I like them, and they seem to be posing for me!

These two are eating my thorny weed pile!

This one came right up to my fence.

I like that I have some items from the garden that I’m still using. The garlic should last me through the spring. The parsnips are also going to keep us busy for quite a while. Want to hear a confession? My pumpkins are hiding in my utility room too…

Pumpkins. And they’re even orange!

Yep. Pumpkins. In perfect condition. They aren’t the baking variety though, so I’m at a loss for what to do with them. I think that eventually I’ll get the seeds from them, and try to grow some more! 🙂

A frosty Iceberg Floribunda Rose.

There’s the “end of post” flower! So much going on, even in the winter! I love having something so enjoyable to keep me busy. Have you picked out what you are planting this year?

Dana

The race is on: Green or Orange Pumpkins for Halloween?

Posted on October 9, 2012 by Mominthegarden

(still very green) Pumpkin.

It’s October 9th and our pumpkins are green. I think they are quite pretty, in their different shades of green. But maybe I’m just trying to make the best of the situation; the situation being that pumpkins are supposed to be orange! Starting to panic a bit, I checked on-line to see if I could help things along. I’m glad I did! Since their vines are fine, I’ve left them outside. I could have cut them and brought them in, though. What they really want now is sun. Some of the leaves were in the process of dying back, letting in some sun, but there were still too many for this late in the season. So I cut back all of their leaves. Perfect timing too, as it is a beautiful sunny morning. I also have to keep in mind that they should be covered at night if there is frost.

So the race is on … Will we have orange pumpkins for Halloween? I’ll be sure to let you know!

Dana