Update on Marigold Tomatoes

 Well I thought it was time to give everyone a quick update on my Marigold Tomatoes.  You remember the tomatoes I thought were Marigolds and planted as a border in my raised beds.  Well, I had to thin them to just four plants instead of ten.  I probably should have thin them to three but they look to be doing well.  I staked twine down into the soil then spiraled the twine up the tomato plant attaching it to the top of the Squash Arch to act as support.  Then as it grows I just twirl it around the twine.  Because they are on the inside of the Squash Arch they really don't get much wind which is good because this isn't what I'd call a real sturdy support system for the tomatoes.  However, it is working pretty good!



I was pleasantly surprised that the Marigolds Tomatoes are Roma's of some sort.  One can only have so many cherry tomato plants.  I've been pretty impressed with how well these Marigold Tomatoes are turning out.  

Livin' on the edge

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7nqcL0mjMjw - Livin' On the Edge


I am pretty fortunate, I live on the edge.  The edge of the city that is.  Less than a ½ mile from my house is  Bauer Berry Farm, only Bauers do more than just berries.  They do corn too!  So what that means is that I don’t do strawberries in my backyard, I go pick them down the road.  I don’t do Blueberries; I go pick them down the road.  I don’t grow corn in my backyard, I go down the road.  They start picking corn at 6 am and start selling it at 9:30 am, and us locals all know it and they are often sold out by 11 am. 


Now a couple of days ago made my pot of coffee and instead of going out to weed, I went down the road. 

I was in line by 7 am and the first car in line.  By the time the gates opened at 8 am there was a line of 40-50 cars.  In a half hour I picked 23 pound for $48.  Traveled the half mile back home and started cleaning a prepping to make Strawberry Jam, Jalapeño Strawberry Jam and Balsamic Strawberry Jam.  Next week I will be back at Bauer's Berry Farm to pick blueberries.  By the end of July, I’ll be all over their sweet corn. 

Here is the recipe for Balsamic Strawberry Jam (my favorite)
5 c crushed strawberries
3 ½ cups of sugar

6 tbls of Balsamic Vinegar

1 tbls of butter

1 packet unsweetened fruit pectin

 Instruction

• Stem an crush strawberries
• Heat strawberries, sugar and pectin in a large pot to boiling.  Boil 30 seconds, stirring constantly
• Remove from heat and skim off foam.
• Stir in butter and balsamic vinegar 
• Ladle quickly in to prepared jars.  Wipe off lids and seal tightly.   
• Put in boiling water bath for 5 minutes  
• Remove jars and cool.  

Ps here Bauer Berry Farm web site - http://bauerberry.pointsoftouch.com/

Eat local!  

Zucchini in the front yard!

Zucchini is one of those plants that just keeps giving and giving.  In recent years I've had problems with cucumber beetles and spent hours on beetle hunts without much success.  This year I decided to use a different tactic.  While reading this winter about edible landscaping a benefit that really caught my attention was Biodiversity.  Huh?  I know kind of a fancy word for saying confusing garden pest, in this case the cucumber beetle, by inter planting with the things they love with the things they won't touch.  In other words no more rows, which when you think about it is providing the cucumber beetle a fast food freeway.

I have my cucumber plants in two different beds.  One hill is surrounded by Broccoli, Nasturiums, Calendula and French Marigolds.  The other hill is surrounded by Dill, Calendula and French Marigolds.  The one surrounded by the Broccoli is doing better but it could be a sunlight issues as well as that bed gets about hour more of sun.

My Zucchini I put in the front yard.  In mixed in with a Red Weigela, Snowball Viburnum up closer to the house and between Stella de Oro Daylillies.  Now I do have Rainbow Swiss Chard,  and Asiatic Lillies in that same bed.  Everything growing like rock stars.  My mother (the lady who taught me how to garden) was over the other day and as she came in the house wanted to know what my new bush was with all the yellow flowers on it.  When I told her it was a Zucchini plant, she had to go back outside to take another look.

One of the best things about having the Zucchini right next to the front door and garage is you walk by it all the time.  So you are constantly checking for more squash.  It is coming in now in abundance!  The nice thing is I haven't let any of them get to the size of a tree branch, so it just keeps on producing and producing!

Are you a Garden Putz?

I consider myself a Garden Putz. Some think that putz’s are idiots or is a worthless person. I am neither. I rather believe that a Garden Putz is someone who is bit like Puck, a mythological mischievous nature sprite. We laugh loudly in our gardens. We putter around moving at pace that lets us enjoy the song of the birds. We notice the hum of the dragon flies and the buzz of the bees. A dewy spider’s web is always left undisturbed as we know its value. We shrug our shoulders at our mistakes and reveille in a blossom blooming. We get quite a bit done at a putter or rather nature’s pace.

The Winter Sowing Method

While this is a method I have used and highly recomend I cannot take credit for the logistics of how it works or creating the method. A kindred spirit named Trudi and her web site are how I discovered how to do this. It seems crazzy at times but it WORKS. I encourage you to try it. You can use the method for fall crops as well.Winter Sowing

Self watering container tomato update

This growth is 20 days from planting, May 27th to June 16th. We added a stake to support the vine. 
The tomato grew faster after I suckered the branches. The bottom frame is when it was planted. The two pepper plants are not growing as fast and I blame that on the cool temperatures we have been having.

Marigold? Nope more Tomatoes!

Gardening is always a learning experience.  Gardeners are adventurous and always looking for something better while hedging their bets on the stuff they know will work.  Well this winter I decided to try Winter Sowing with a lot of encouragement from Meredith Sow Digging it.  However, if my tomatoes don't produce and everything else was a bumper crop, I consider the year a failure.  So I hedged my bets and started some inside as well.  Just to be clear I planted 15 different varieties, and I used ALL my seeds.  

Well, once Jim had my raised beds done he started gripping about the number of milk jugs.  He's most common a comment was "Are you growing a garden or milk jugs?"  So I started thinning jugs.  As most gardeners know thinning is when you go through and pull the little stuff to give room for the healthier plants.  Several of the tomato jugs did not sprout.  So I dumped them in the beds.  I'm not going to waste that good dirt either.  :) 

Fast forward to about a week ago, everything is planted, and the sun came out....Well, it did twice for a couple of minutes.  I'm out putzing in the garden and notice a clump of Marigolds.  Now, I have a gallon bag of Marigold seeds and thought, "Oh, the bag must have spilled."  Now Marigolds are golden flowers that keep bugs away and grow like weeds.  So, I just plucked them out the middle of the garden.  Then I used my handy dandy planting tool, my index finger and made a hole for the seedlings along a border and to fill in a blank spot.  In my opinion the black dirt is a background color for different shades of green that are in your garden.

Now, fast forward a week later and the sun isn't actually shining but it the best we had the last couple of days so I'm out in the garden putzing again.  I was fussing around the Marigolds and am thinking... "Wow, they really took off.  They must have been a tall variety."  I pull up the leaves and look down at the stem and immediately realize....Those are not Marigolds they are more Tomatoes!" Now I still have 48 potted tomatoes on a table that I've been kind of trying to selling.  Ok, that's what I'm telling Jim at least.  Let's be honest, I'm giving those babies away.  I was so proud of myself that I had gotten down to just 48 left.  Well, I couldn't just pull those Marigold Tomatoes and put them in the compost heap.  Nope, I potted them up too.  Not all of them.  But I'm back up to about 60 Tomatoes.  I have Surprise Tomatoes (I haven't a clue as to what type they are) and now Marigold Tomatoes.  If you need tomatoes come see me!  In the meantime after I laugh at myself about the Tomatoes I thought were Marigolds, I'm thinking I shouldn't start so many next year.  And I need to label better!  

Finders Keepers or Another Man's Trash....

Finders Keepers

It started with a need to be frugal and hasn't yet ended. I have found that not only is using things you find or reclaim cost efficient it is creative and usually gives a unique or unpredictable look to your garden and yard. Because you don't know when you will find something you can use your garden becomes a never ending canvas mural. Below you will see some of the things I found and converted to useful and sometimes very attractive features in our yard and garden. I have a favorite motto "Free is cheap" and "I'll buy that for a dollar." My partner Serial tiller Pat shares my love of a good find and will be constructing a greenhouse from free windows she found on "Craig's List". I too found free windows today and I am hoping Pat and my husband will collaborate on designs and create wonderful greenhouses for both of us. Of course I haven't told them this yet. I digress. Lets get to the meat of the subject. The items above were free for the taking so I did. The pond is in progress and all the big and medium sized rocks have sentimental value. They represent camping and hiking trips where we waded or hiked our way back to center so to speak. Some we acquired on the way to events like fairs and some are special because of how we got them. Not one was purchased. Even the river rock was donated to us by our neighbors. When we look at them it reminds us of our journey and the people in it who made it or are making it special. Yup if you haven't figured it out by now...I'm the corny sappy one. I hope I have inspired you to collect and use items you find in your garden.

Straw Bales are planted....Everything is in!

Pepper, Leeks, Onions and Tomatillo's with a top dressing of trailing flowers! 

The bales are done with their twelve day process of conditioning.  I mostly followed Joel Karsten directions (screwed up days 3, 4, 5 and added more fertilizer than I should have) however this is a pretty forgiving process and the bales where cooking away come day 12.  

Now this whole garden is new, the raised beds, the squash arch, and even the placement of the bales.  Strangely enough winter sunlight seems to be different than summer sunlight, in other words those darn leaves on the trees changed a lot of my sunlight to shade.  Now, it also preferable to run your bales north to south, but Jim, my husband, wasn't having any of it.  So our compromise was putting the bales on the end of the raised beds running east to west.  The problem with this configuration is if I put my larger tomatoes in the bale's (which was the plan) it will shade two of my beds.  So where in the past I've done all my tomatoes in the bales and eliminated blight issue's, that was not options for these bales.  So the bales on the south side of my raised beds, which get about 8-10 hours of sun have in them; eight pepper plants, one California Wonder, two Habanero’s, two Picante, three Jalapeno’s.  There are twenty six leeks and ten red onions as well as three Verde Tomatillo plants.  The leeks and onions I purchased as sets, the Pepper's I grew indoor under my lights and the Tomatillo's are Winter Sowed.  After reading Joel Karsten book on Straw Bale Gardening I took the challenge of trying to make my bales "pretty".  So right on the edges are Red Wave Petunia's and Blue Lobelia.  I have some trailing Nasturtium that I've started by seed as well.  As stuff fill in I keep everyone updated with pictures.  The four bales on the other side get 6-10 hours of sunlight so I planted them a bit differently.  The back two bales have Johnny Seeds Gonzales Cabbage I grew from Winters Sowing.  These are mini cabbage that are about 4-6" in diameter.  So I planted them a bit closer than what Joel Karsten recommended.  Ok so instead of 4-5 I put in 10 and then mixed a dill and Calendula to act as a buffer to the four peppers and 10 onions I put in.  I finished that last bale with three Purple Tomatillo plants.  Now I didn't plant any flowers over there as there is still a lot of garden construction going on (removal of a stupid ornamental tree).

With a bad back and arthritis in my knees raised beds were essential for me.  The six 12" deep beds with the squash arch and the soil (compost) ran a total of $350.  The eight straw bales ran $4 a piece for a total of $16.  It hard to compare the two as my raised beds are 3'X8' and a straw bale is 2'X3', but I suppose if you do it by square foot, the straw bale method for a 24 square feet is $16 and for the 3'X8' raised bed without the squash arch was $50.  However you will need to buy new bales so in four years’ time it's a bit of a wash in factoring the cost.  Now which is more productive we will see.  That is if the temperature every gets above 50 degree here! 

Container planting follow up

It's June 2nd and finally the weather is cooperating long enough for us to get all of our plants in. with the seasons clock ticking I ended up with what I can only refer to as Gardeners block. It's like writers block you can't decide where to plant anything or when to plant anything or what to plant. So you stand in the center of your garden scratching your head  turning circles and getting absolutely nothing accomplished. The Garden map app I used to map out my garden, in the dead of winter is worthless now because you see I have way more plants than I actually drew  on those maps. To make matters worse my companion planting guides are making me wonder how anybody ever decides what to plant next to what. So what's the cure? Container planting. it's a lot less intimidating to plant a pot with a couple of plants and if you change your mind about what plants to plant its not a big deal to remove them and start over. the real benefit comes in that you did actually begin. You will notice that the self watering containers have an additional benefit. they are on a platform that has wheels. my husband constructed these for me and used much better wheels than you find on the other plant stands. They came in handy since after planting, we've had at least 3 storms and high winds that would have destroyed my plants had I not been able to roll them to safety. He used heavy duty salvaged wood free and purchased  the wheels at Harbor Freight. the wheels were about $4 for a set of 4.

Planted May 27th

Once I got started I was on a roll. Speaking of rolls how easy is it to plant potatoes? So easy I got carried away and planted the extra into these very chic and very cheap coffee bean sacks. Purchased at Dunns Bros. Coffee in Apple Valley for the over the top price of $1.00. No really only $1 each when one of the local feed and garden stores in my area was asking $3.75 a sack. Granted they were about twice the size but not nearly as attractive. Remember I'm the one who believes container gardening for veggies can and should be attractive when possible. My sacks have colorful prints on them of where the beans came from. Some have flowers or lizards painted on them with a silhouette of the country. When the potatoes have been harvested the sacks can be used to store them.

The advantage of using these sacks is that they drain easily and you don't have to dig to harvest the potatoes.

What medium you use is a matter of preference. Fickle person that I can be I choose to combine schools of thought. Sort of hedging my bets. Most people use compost. Some people use straw. As you can see I used both in combination. I begin by putting compost then I plant the potatoes eyes up and cover with a blend of straw and compost add a sprinkle of organic fertelizer 4-4-4 and I sprinkle 1/4 cup of bone meal. You have to water thoroughly and maintain a moist but not water logged sack. So check often. After the potatoes grow apx 5 inches above the layer of straw add more straw compost (I mix equal amounts) until only an inch of plant is showing, Let it grow above again and repeat the grow and cover process until there is no more room to add compost or straw. The potatoes are ready to harvest after the plant dies back. I will repost later at harvest time. Some of the potatoes should be ready in Sept some in late October.

Below is a planter box bench my husband built for me out of salvage heat treated wood last year. I made it my own by adding branches from one of the many storms we have had this spring and a string of solar lights. I have planted moon flower vines, nasturtium, fish pepper and alyssum in each side. I will post the results. So dig it! 

 

Garland Bullivant 86 year old Champlin's Tomato Guy!

I live on a Cul de sac in Champlin, MN.  Off the Cul de sac and about a half block away from me is a Champlin staple.  A picnic table cover by a cheap blue tarp with Tomatoes, cucumbers, beans, beets, Gladiolus and a cash box.  Garland Bullivant is 86 years old and owns a 100X400 foot lot.  He plants over 400 tomato plants to sell in his front yard every year.  He uses a Florida Weave method of trellising the plants which grow to over 10 ft tall.  Later in the season, I will go back take more pictures and post a in depth story about Garland Garden.   

Straw bales are here!

Yesterday my hubby (a wonderful man) went out and picked up my 8 straw bales.  I've done my tomato plants for the past 2 years in straw bales with great success!  In the community garden they served a dual purpose of being a fence as well as a growing medium.  This year Joel Karsten wrote a book on Straw Bale Gardening (here is his web site http://strawbalegardens.com/).  Now, when the book initially came out I thought the book was $20.  For me it was a bit steep given that I've already had been using method for the past 2 years.  Yet, I want to support innovation, so there was my dilemma.  Well two days ago I got on my trusty Kindle (not the Kindle Fire) the black and white old as dirt but has over 500 books on it, Kindle.  Straw Bale Gardening on Amazon was on sale there for $10.00, which I then promptly purchased!  Strange how a few dollars makes the difference?  On the same hand this book has a TON of information in it!  Something’s I didn't know, some I did, some ideas I'm going to try.  Now, I feel kind of bad, this book is well worth the $20!    

Now here is what I've learned.  It looks like Joel Karsten has a way better method of trellising than I have used over the years so I will trying that out this year.  I've already rope my hubby into construction.  In the past I've done a Florida Weave technique and have struggled with the height issues of some of my tomato plants.  Remember the bale is already 2 ft. off the ground, so a 6 foot stake only becomes a 4 ft. stake, which for some of the crazy tomatoes is about 2 ft. short.  In the past I had to put a fence around my bales (the cheep 3 ft. kind) to keep my bales from tipping over because of the size of the tomato plants.  I think I'm still going to do this just because if I grow a 6ft tomato plant it will be 8ft in the air.  Not a good situation.  Because I had to orientate my bales in an east to west direction instead of a north to south, I'll be planting low growing tomatoes cabbage, onions, basil on the south side of the garden.  On the north side I'll plant my taller tomato plants.  

  
I'll also be starting my bales earlier next year, this year this was about as soon as it could have started because of other construction issues.  But in the future I may try and get my bales out by mid-April and with a little help have them ready to plant the first of May.  This year given the weather here in Minnesnowta I'm not sure that would have been feasible, but it is worth the try next year!

 
Other ideas I got from the book;  I'm going to be planting Trailing Petunia, Trailing Nasturtium, in the bales and 4 o'clock and tall Marigold next to the bales.  All for the beautician process!   I have a garden club member who was thinking about doing the Straw Bale Gardening but her husband talked her out of it for fear of adding some weeds to their yard.  Well as you guys can plainly see, I got weeds in my grass already (remember that's hubby's job).  My goal is to show her and everyone else that this method does not add weed to your lawn.  As I also live along one of the many paths in Champlin, this is a perfect opportunity for me to show people that this is not an ugly thing in your backyard.  

Here the final issue, my back and knees.  Two years ago when I started Straw Bale Gardening, I had no issues with my back and knees.  I was looking for a cheap fence around a big garden (60'X60').  This year, I’m struggling with a herniated disc, arthritis of the knees and a weight gain from not doing anything.  This is part of the reason why my husband built me all those wonderful raised beds.  Happy wife, happy life.  Even so, I'm struggling!  My mother, who is my hero, is 79 years old and had a hip replacement last year.  She and my dad usually go up north (north of Brainerd, MN) and have always had a pretty big garden.  This year it sounds like they will be spending the majority of their time in town at their town house, to help other family members.  We've all looked at raised beds for her, and so far have not found a good option.  I'd love if she tried the Straw Bales method, but I think I'm going to have to prove it to her first.  Right now, the plan is she not going to do her own garden (a first for her) but she come over to my house about 5 miles away and sit in the back yard with me and watch me garden.  I'll enjoy have her there, but at the same time if I can figure out a way for her to have her own garden for a couple of tomato plants next year all the better!  Until then I'll be growing for the whole darn family with a smile on my face!  

So all in all, here is me eating crow!  Buy the book!  Straw Bale Gardening by Joel Karsten, here is the link http://strawbalegardens.com/.  It well worth the price even if you have done Straw Bale Gardening for the past few years.  

So What's New in the Garden?

Well here in Minnesota it has stopped snowing!  We have all been out in the garden trying to catch things up outside.  Today though it is a rainy day, time to catch things up on inside.  Which means taking a moment to blog about what going on in the garden.

Despite the name "Serial Tiller Pat" I've left behind my best friend for raised beds. Above is my little red machine, my super duper cool Troy-Bilt Super BroncoRear Tine Tiller!  This lady in red does some serious work!   It is kind sad because she hasn't been in the garden this year but is in the garage collect dust not dirt.  Doesn't it look like she is pouting there in the corner.  I'll be sad to see her go, but she off to my brother place with 10 acres of un-touched land just waiting to be tilled for vegetable and flower gardens.  I know going to a good home.

This year is the year of my raised beds.  I've spent most of the winter planing and changing plans enlarging plans and scaling back just a bit after my husband see them.  He has put in for me six raised beds using 3"X4'X8' Cherry Stained Landscape Timbers we got at Menards for $2.19 a piece.  Each bed is 3' Wide X 8' Long and 11 1/2 " tall.  First he laid the beds out, then he told me what would and wouldn't work.  As he is always telling me I'm the engineer he's the guy that makes it work.  First he laid it all out in the yard, then he started building each individual bed.  After some debate, I convinced him that yes the sod needed t be removed.   Now he wasn't happy about this hence you can't see his face, but up came the sod.  He also didn't think the bed needed to be level, after a lengthy debate, the beds are level too.

Once the base of the bed was level we put down hardware fabric to keep the moles out, and then cardboard

on top of that and then landscape fabric on top of the cardboard.  We then put 1/2 of the frame that we had nailed together in place.  Once that was he had added the next two layers of landscaping timbers I had him line it with that Professional Landscape Fabric.  This is the stuff they tell you to put under walkways and patios not gardens.  It doesn't really breath but here my goal was to prevent the Landscape Timbers from leaching into my soil.  I was told it was perfectly safe, I just wasn't entirely sold on what they were telling me.  So we put in this added protection.  To the right is the first finished bed.  Jim could knock out about 2 of these in four to six hours depending on the help he was getting and the engineering discussion we had.  We then went to Lynde Greenhouse and Nursery on 9293 Pineview Lane North in Maple Grove and purchased compost.   For $15 they will put two bobcat scoops in the back of your pick up or trailer.  We used a trailer an then backed the trailer into the back yard, less wheel barrel work that way.  Now we could have gone to the city compost and shoveled into the trailer for free, but I thought having them load the trailer for $15 was well worth the price.  It took us four loads to fill all the beds so $60.

We then went to Fleet Farm and bought Hog Panels, I had one way I wanted my squash arch to go up and Jim had different way.  We did it Jim's way, it looks nice but I'm thinking we may have a problem with it if we get a big storm and it's full of squash but we will see.  Right now, I have a side by side comparison of before the project started (It is the dreaming photo with snow falling) and to now other photos I took today as we are almost finished!  I have some more planting to do (let's hope it stops raining).  Jim is bring home 8 straw bales that I will use on the ends of the outside beds to do some more tomato plants.  Right now with the straw bales the whole project has cost $412 not including plants.  My budget was to do it all for less than $500.  That means Jim's got $88 to go fishing this weekend.  :)

Dreaming 

Looking good!   

    

Transplanting seedlings grown in organic material pots

This is something I never realized. This information came from the University of Minnesota Agricultural Extension department.
" When transplanting seedlings grown in peat pots, newspaper pots, cow-dung pots, or any other containers made of organic matter, trim the pots down to soil level. The collars of these pots, exposed to drying air, will wick water away from the root zone. To encourage roots to spread out into garden soil, carefully cut or tear holes in the bottoms of these pots, because they usually don't break down completely in the soil, and may inhibit root growth."

Winter one more time?  

If you don’t like the weather here in Minnesota just wait a day or two it will change.  Today’s high of 69 with a chance of thunderstorms and winds at 25 mph, rain after 4pm.  Tomorrow, rain possible mixed with SNOW.  Temperatures falling to around 40 by 10am.  Wednesday night, rain and SNOW, becoming all SNOW after 1 am.  New SNOW ACCUMULATION of 1 to 2 inches possible. 

ARE YOU KIDDING ME!   Seriously this isn’t funny anymore.  Who can I talk to about this?  As much as old man winter doesn’t seem to want to leave the party, mother earth needs to explain the situation to him.  Do you think he’s gone senile? 

59 milk jugs & 22 misc container

So when winter refuses to leave the party when he should what do gardener’s in Minnesota do to keep themselves sane?  This year I Winter Sow.  Sow Digging it Meredith, turned me on to it this winter, and I have gone crazy!   My husband was complaining this winter when I was hanging around the street corners asking for milk jugs, but he’s starting to see the benefits.   With today's weather forecast an as it is April 30th, I am very glad I found winter sowing.  Sow Digging it Meredith knows a lot more about it than I do, and is really a good source of one on one information and wrote a bit about in earlier.  

One of the great things about Winter Sowing is once the snow is gone, the neighbors and the neighbor kids are over to see what going on.  I have had more than on little girl ask me if she can help me plant the flowers.  The boys well they just want to know if I'll need toads this year.  They have neighborhood toad hunts for my garden, you have not seen anything until you've seen a several ice cream pails full of toads.  Luckly, for them I live pretty close to the pond.  So even though it a week day, the kids saw me out moving my jugs off the grass (I’m starting to kill it) and onto my driveway.  They were walking to the bus, and lucky me I suddenly had lots of helping hands and questions.  “Will the snow hurt the plants?”  I don’t thinks so but I hope not.  “Did you drink all this milk?”  Nope, you guys did.  “Are you going to have tomatoes again this summer?”  Yes, I should have lots of tomatoes to share.  “Are you going to need the toads to help?”  Yes, I am. 

So don’t despair, Summer is on its way!  In the meantime as Rebel is telling me now, “Mom, get off the computer.  Let’s go outside” 

Indoor herbs

I experimented this year past by transplanting herbs from my summer garden into pots. I placed the following herbs in the same pot and found not only did they make it through the winter, but they grew and flowered. Sage, Rosemary, Mexican oregano.
The different growing habits complimented each herb. The culinary advantage of using just picked herbs all winter has spoiled my taste buds. I will put them back into the garden this summer. I wonder how long I can recycle these same herbs?

Winter Sowing Jugs 4/11/2013

So where is Serial Tiller Pat?  

So, did I fall off the end of the earth/garden?  No, I’ve actually have been a busy ole lady in the garden.  Well not the real garden, but getting my winter gardening issues ready to be put to bed for the summer.  Huh?  One of the things I do to get me through the long Minnesota Winters is belong to a Garden Club.  I actually belong to the Champlin Garden Club (which is my cities garden club); however there are more garden clubs to belong to then there are weeds in a first year garden plot.  There are community Garden Clubs, there are Garden Clubs for Ponds, Garden Clubs for Rose growers, there are County Garden Clubs and there are State Garden Clubs.  If you are interested in something specific they got it!

What do we do at the Champlin Garden Club?  Well, we met from August through April once a month.  At the monthly meeting we have guest speakers who talk about a variety of topics.  We have had speakers on “Planning, Planting & Tending a Rain Garden”, “YOU ARE WHAT YOU EAT EATS?”, “Orange Punch” and my favorite  “Top Ten Gardening Mistakes”, by speaker Don Englebretson.  All of them were informative; some had more useable information for me than others.  But learning is never a waste of time, and I learned a lot from all the speakers. 

We also do Community Work.  I enjoy the community work but with my job I’m not always sure I can get certain dates off, so volunteering gets to be a bit of a challenge for me at times.  Never one not to carry my share of the load, I tend to volunteer for the organizing part of things and hope I can get time off to do the fun stuff.  Our Club has about 30-40 members and have several projects this year.  They have their 23^rd Annual Plant sale to raise funds for community projects, we are in charge of decorating the Cities Christmas Trees, we take care of Doris Kemp Park and this year we are doing our inaugural Champlin Garden Tour during Father Hennepin days. 

I’m a part of the Champlin Garden Tour Committee and I’ve seen the picture of the gardens on the tour, and all I can say is WOW!  These are truly inspirational gardens that make you want to step up your game and do more!  Now, I’m a vegetable gardener at heart amongst flower gardeners for the most part, and a weed is a weed is a weed.  But I think I could benefit from incorporating both ideologies into my backyard.  With the snowfall still on its way, I am continuing to look out my windows and plan, draw and envision my backyard piece of paradise and the front yard will be next year.  I would encourage everyone to look into joining a garden club; it has been a great educational experience as well as an inspirational experience.  Most Garden Clubs do not meet in the summer (because we all in the garden) but as you spend time in your garden this year.   There is so much more we can all learn and so much more we can teach each other!  

Container Gardening/ Make your own

I love all the different methods of growing vegetables in containers. I'm not a real fan of all the containers used. its okay to use buckets or Rubbermaid containers but why do they have to be so unattractive? I say they don't. see the examples of containers I made below. The buckets ,(2 for $5 Menard's) were covered with duck tape. I removed the vendor markings with nail polish remover (acetate) so I could stencil some sort of design on them but changed my mind. the point is you can be as creative as you want.
Pdf flyer used to create my self watering container pictured below.

Props to my husband for demonstrating once again that he really does get me. I was fretting over an opened package of cinnamon basil seeds that I had lost nearly all the seeds. (somebody check to see if that is a run on sentence ;) Moving right along. I had driven all over looking for it and didn't want to have to order it online. I tell my husband how frustrated I am and after dinner he comes in from outside with some stems with leaves that smell amazingliy like the basil I had last year in my garden. He says " Is this what your looking for". I kissed him and said "That is better than buying me a peice of jewelry". He then behaves as if he has just discovered the hidden key to marital bliss and says "Well let me see what other plants I can find out in the shed that you can use?" ROFL

We are all in this together.

The other day I observed a mother, father and two sons in Aldi grocery store. We were going through check out and they were ahead of me with a cart full of nearly all instant and processed food. The young men seemed fit though a bit overweight. My stomach tightened as I recoiled at the total of the cost of purchasing this type of food. I am speculating that the reason they were shopping at Aldi in the first place was to save money as I do. I wanted to scream out loud "Where are the veggies?" How are these beautiful young men going to stay healthy on instant mac and cheese and pizzas?" In my head I was on a passionate mission to show them that food is fuel and that you purchase a whole turkey you eat for a week. You purchase a pizza you eat for 10 minutes (5 if its my family).

This just reminded me of what I really wanted to do with my garden passion all along. Then my BFF sends me a link to a T.E.D. video and I ended up with tears streaming down my face because someone is actually doing what I want to do already. You eat what you know. The fact that you live in a cement jungle because that is where you can afford housing or the only reference to gardening you know is that rich people have those. Rich meaning people who have yards. Yea I'm saying if you have a yard you are rich. Because as you see in this video. Food is cash. Gardening soothes nerves, promotes respect for those things you cannot control as well as rewards hard work in a very tangible way. This ultimately is why I garden. That and my mother gardened. My grandmother gardened. My father gardened. It never occurred to me that everyone didn't. So I invite you to watch this  video and see how it affects you. I am making a pledge right here and now to be in this movement. I expect to be held accountable for this pledge and will keep you informed of my journey.
TED

Seed Starting Methods or attention deficit disorder for gardeners

Living in Minnesota zone 4b presents some additional challenges to gardening.  The first of which is the length of time for growing anything. Those of us who live in middle MN ( I include Minneapolis, St. Paul and surrounding suburbs in my classification of Middle MN) struggle with when to plant and what to plant every year. If you live in northern Minnesota you know you just have to wait, period. If you are in southern Minnesota (yes that is an oxymoron) You can play with our zone assignment based on your exact location and average ground temperature and if you are valley or not you consider yourself to be nearer to zone 5A than 4b.

The choices for how to start your garden are the same as they are for gardeners everywhere with the exception of there is little to no time for "Do Overs".

I was always a little intimidated by seed starting. Just as I was a little intimidated about becoming a mother. I don't think it is a coincidence that starting a garden and starting a family have many similarities. When I noticed this I began to make choices about the preparation of my gardens that mirrored my family making choices. I also don't think it is a coincidence that gardening is one of the most common hobbies of retirees. Isn't it just another empty nest syndrome coping mechanism?

To begin with. You have to decide how much time you have to spend sowing seeds (Giggling is allowed) as well as how many plants you wish to have in your garden. If you are like me the choice of how many seeds you want to start is like asking me " If you could eat everything you want without gaining a pound what would you eat?" I collect seeds like the zombies are coming. Well aren't they? So my answer is to purchase or trade for as many seeds as you can acquire of the plants you think you may want to grow.

The  methods I have tried are indoor flats with heat mats and lighting and the winter sowing method.

• Indoor flats using special lighting require investing time in researching germination time required, temperature and light or no light requirements for each species you wish to start. Trying to determine the amount of time needed to do this depends on what you decide to grow and what medium you choose to use to start your seeds.
• The winter sowing method (WS) for short. This method is the closest to the "Set it and forget it" method of seed and plant starting that exists other than waiting for the nurseries to sell the plants you wish to grow. The equipment is bare bones, potting soil and any plastic container that light can pass through. Milk cartons, take out containers. They should hold a minimum of 2 inches of soil. See Winter Sowing Method

My blogging buddy serial tiller Pat and I will be using both methods and blogging about our experiences with both. My preference is the winter sowing method but Minnesota has a very short growing season that makes growing hot peppers and some tomatoes difficult to WS with predictable success since the ground temperature does not warm up quickly enough and days required to maturation exceed what we typically have available in a normal growing season. This means a few of my hot peppers and tomatoes will be started inside and all seeds will also  be winter sown (WS) because I prefer the heartiness of the resulting plants. It isn't really double work more like I have learned that some peppers will have time to produce more if started indoors. For example last year a new favorite the "Fish Pepper" sprouted and grew from the WS method but didn't have time to produce many peppers.

I am not the winter sowing method expert. That would be Trudi Greissle Davidoff  the creator of the Winter Sown.org page. I am very grateful to Trudi for introducing this method to me.

When we have successful seedlings, we will grow them using various methods. I will be using a container methods as well as in ground methods. I will feed using composting and other organic methods as well. Serial tiller Pat will be doing hay bales and raised beds.

I will be building my own containers that will mimic the "Earth box" and "Garden Patch" self watering systems with my own take on the design. I will purchase one of these to compare to my homemade container. How does it work? Well I found this video to explain it best. Using this wonderful instruction guide I will be constructing my own. I will blog about this project. I invite anyone reading this to do the same and let me know what worked for you.

We are all in this together, Peace!

Sow dig it Meredith

Starting Pepper & Tomato Seeds Inside

Well like any good gardener I'm always look for a better cheaper way!  I love homemade salsa.  Because I'm cheap that means I need to experiment a bit with growing my own peppers and tomatoes.  My goal will be not to buy plants this year.  So to that end I have homemade growing stations down in the basement.  My husband made this for me which with the PCV pipe, Light Fixture, Grow Light came to about $50.  Add to that an additional $25-100 for a grow matt, your talking some serious cha-ching.  So, will I be saving anything, I expect over the years I will, plus it will keep me out of trouble during the long Minnesota Winter.   

Now on the actual method I use for starting my Tomato and Pepper Plants.  I like to pre-germination my seeds, I've done it for years with the window sill Tomatoes, but this year I'll be doing it with my pepper plants as well, under the lights.    

Step One:  Gather materials, a plate, seeds, spray bottle, coffee filter, zip lock bags.  

Step two:  Lightly spritz coffee filter, you don't want the filter dripping as that will promote rot instead of germination.  

Step Three:  Put seeds on Coffee Filter......

                         
                     and fold filter

Step Four: Label Zip lock baggie and insert seeded coffee filter

Step Five:  Place under lights and on heat matt for 3- 7 days until seeds germinate

Check daily to make sure the seeds don’t dry out.  Again, only add enough water to moisten the coffee filters; you don’t want the seeds rotting.  Now peppers are notoriously slow to germinate with this method I'm hoping to get better germination rates as well as faster germination.  Germination with Peppers can be a bit temperamental.  

Here is a great web site that can step you through.