Garden Quote of the Day

Gardening is civil and social, but it wants the vigor and freedom of the forest and the outlaw.

-Henry David Thoreau

Trellising Squash and other Vine Plants

If you're short on space then growing vine plants can become challenging. Here is a simple option. Usea trellis and an old cotton t-shirt to train the vines up and on the trellis. Once there attached you'll be gardening vertical vs. horizontal. You'll be amazed at the space savings and the many options you'll have when you grow plants up. I'll continue to post pictures of our trellis' plants. This photo is of an amber cup squash and it already has 6 squash on there way. Once the vegetable or fruit begins to mature you have to support their weight on the trellis.

How to Compost

You can find directions on how to build the compost bin featured in this video here.

Garden Quote of the Day

"All my hurts my garden spade can heal."-- Ralph Waldo Emerson

The Natural Way to Control Insects in Your Garden

By now you may feel like you are one with your garden. You put time and effort into your little piece of heaven so why should you allow insects to enjoy a free meal? Aphids, earwigs, mealy-bugs, thrips, whiteflies, sawfly larva and mites are just a few that could be causing problems in your garden. So how do you control these pests without using harmful chemicals?

The key is to be perceptive and see the warning signs of early infestation. Check around roses, soft vegetables, ripening fruits, young seedlings as well as houseplants for problems. Curled leaves, flowers that won’t open, yellowing leaves, or leaves with dark, dirty patches can all be signs infestation. If you’re not sure if you have a problem, talk with your local garden center.

Insecticidal sprays are very popular and widely available at most garden centers. Most of the sprays are very effective at controlling problems with adult insects. However what these sprays usually don’t do is control the eggs and larva that are hidden underneath leaves. This is the source of a future infestation and needs to be treated too. Well there is a unique spray formula in town that might be just what you need to battle those freeloading pests. The highly effective patented natural formula, known as Espoma Earth-tone® Insect Control, combines the activity of natural pyrethrins (extracted from chrysanthemum flowers) and canola oil. This alternative, botanical insecticide kills all stages of insects on contact and is as effective as other traditional insect sprays. What sets it apart from the rest is that it kills all stages of insects, including the eggs and larva. That means insects can be controlled before they can mature and reproduce. This helps against repeat infestation. This novel formula is effective and ideal for roses, flowers, vegetables, and even houseplants.

This insecticidal formula from plants for plants is ideal if you are already having insect problems in your garden. Earth-tone® Insect Control quickly and effectively kills adult insects on contact by affecting the insects’ nervous system. However it is safe enough to use on edible plants up to the day of harvest. It will also help protect your garden from future infestation because it acts as a repellent in addition to killing the eggs and larva. To use, thoroughly spray all parts of the pests and plants. It effectively controls all stages of insects in gardens, greenhouses, outdoor ornamentals, vegetable gardens, fruits, berries, citrus and crop plants.

Its time to take back control over your garden by removing harmful insects and their eggs with a spray that will help stop them from coming back!

Article provided by Espoma.

Garden Quote of the Day

"No occupation is so delightful to me as the culture of the earth, and no culture comparable to that of the garden."-- Thomas Jefferson

Seven inches of Rain in 24 hours

It rained here this past Friday a total of seven inches in a twenty four hour period. The garden is slowly recovering despite having standing water in the paths of about 6 inches of water until Sunday. It'll take some time before we know what kind of damages occurred. Many of the container plants are not looking good as well as the potatoes, broccoli, and peppers. Despite the fact that after the flooding rains we've had extreme temperatures in the mid 80's since Saturday things are still not drying out. Since our soil is clay it takes a long time for things to either absorb or evaporate. The only concern that we have now is root rot. The the plant roots are just too moist. Not much we can do to keep that from occurring. So for now things are growing. Many new tomatoes and flowers and the strawberries continue strong. The raspberries are going to really turn out much better than we expected for our first year of having them. Our lettuce table has been stripped and replanted. Our lettuce harvest from the May planting far outweighed our expectations and the lettuce table has worked out great. I've replanted, but will need to build a shade for the table planter so the lettuce won't be damaged by the strong July and August sun.

Garden Quote of the Day

Gardening requires lots of water - most of it in the form of perspiration. ~Lou Erickson

Free Garden Craft e-book

Looking for some great ideas for your garden. This free e-book from favecrafts.com has some great ideas for flower pots, garden stakes, watering cans, garden ornaments and much more. You can find it here for free.

Garden Quote of the Day

Show me your Garden, and I shall tell you who you are. Alfred Austin G. 1835

How to Freeze Strawberries

Freezing strawberries is an easy way to preserve your excess for a later time. They won't be exactly as they are when they are freshly picked. They'll be a bit soft and maybe darker after you thaw them. They're great to use in smoothies and other recipes calling for frozen strawberries.

Here are the simple steps:

Step 1. Wash your strawberries thoroughly and trim any stems. If you rinse the berries in a bowl remember not to let them soak too long. Soaking strawberries for an extended time will rob them of the great nutrients.





Step 2. Line the strawberries on a parchment lined baking pan or just the baking pan as pictured above. Be sure that they are not touching. Put them in the refrigerator for one hour.





Step 3. Remove your strawberries from the refrigerator and place them directly into the freezer. Leave them in over night.







Step 4. Once the strawberries have been in over night remove them and promptly divide them into freezer bags and place them back into the freezer. You'll be able to enjoy them for up to one year.




We've frozen four bags so far and are excited to be putting some great organic strawberries away for this winter.

Garden Quote of the Day

The strawberry "is the wonder of all the Fruits growing naturally in those parts...In some parts where the Natives have planted, I have many times seen as many as would fill a good ship, within a few miles compasse." Roger Williams, founder of Providence in 1636

Strawberry, Strawberries, and more Strawberries

The Strawberries just keep on coming. We are already up to nine quarts. We haven't done anything different this year so I think it's either just the right weather, or I used more of the Espoma organic fertilizer this year than in past years. We've been averaging two quarts per day which is double what we used to get, but today we kept picking and picking and picking. We ended up with at least four quarts for the day. Tomorrow we'll post a how-to on freezing whole strawberries. We ate one bowl today and we're freezing the others for this winter.

Santa Cruz Organic Coupons

If you are looking for some great organic juice, tea, or peanut butter you'll find some great coupons for these products here, and here. Enjoy and Save!

Garden Quote of the Day

My green thumb came only as a result of the mistakes I made while learning to see things from the plant's point of view. ~H. Fred Ale

Garden Photos June 12

After a few days of off and on rain, the garden has taken on a noticeable difference. Most apparent is the growth in the plants. Our raspberries are actually going to produce this year. We were hesitant as from what we read we didn't think we would see any production this year. Our brambles are from three sources; some planted late last fall, some early spring and one large plant late spring. We also harvested our first radishes and put them on the lunch salad. They were good! Not too big and spicy, just right. Be sure to keep watching our "Watch us Grow" updates in the right column. We update it each day we bring something in from the garden. Also, you can click on the photos I'm posting up here today to get an up close view. Thanks and have a great gardening day!

Garden Quote of the Day

The best fertilizer is the gardener's shadow. ~Author Unknown

Mambo Sprouts Click & Print Coupons

Great new click and print coupons at Mambo Sprouts on natural and organic products. Match them with sales at your favorite grocer to save even more.

Garden Quote of the Day

When weeding, the best way to make sure you are removing a weed and not a valuable plant is to pull on it. If it comes out of the ground easily, it is a valuable plant. ~Author Unknown

Newest Member of our Family Eating all of our Organic Lettuce

Meet Kamella. The newest member of our family. She (at least we think it's a she) is a Russian Tortoise. She is our daughter's newest addition to our family which includes myself, my wife, our daughter and our three cats.

She has been wanting Kamella for a very long time and has saved her money and along with an upcoming birthday was able to finally get her on Friday. The red dots you see on her shell were put there by the pet store so that we would know which one Kamella was when we returned to get her.

As you can see in the photos Kamella loves the garden lettuces. And she is going to eat her way through more lettuce than I planted. I'm now going to have to double the size of our lettuce garden in order to keep her happy. All is well, just another fan of the Backyard Organic Garden.

Corn, Beets Emerge

We were quite busy this weekend with a small renovation project at our house. It required ripping out old carpet, painting walls, repairing drywall, and staining and finishing a window. That kept me quite busy and pretty much out of the garden all weekend. I stepped out this evening to peek around and found the final seeds, corn and beets, had emerged. Corn is a big experiment. I've never planted corn before because I was always under the impression that you need lots and lots of room and plenty of stalks to grow enough corn to make it worth the effort. As you'll hear me say many more times according to the Square Foot Gardening technique it's very doable. We'll see this year. I'll post photos of the corn later in the week when they are bit larger. As for the beets I've not had much luck with them. Only time will tell again this year.

Garden Quote of the Day

I used to visit and revisit it a dozen times a day, and stand in deep contemplation over my vegetable progeny with a love that nobody could share or conceive of who had never taken part in the process of creation. It was one of the most bewitching sights in the world to observe a hill of beans thrusting aside the soil, or a rose of early peas just peeping forth sufficiently to trace a line of delicate green. ~Nathaniel Hawthorne, Mosses from and Old Manse

The next big garden project

It's time to think about watering and doing it efficiently. Recently I've been taking the time to go around to every plant and blueberry bush and water them all by hand using the hose and sprayer. It takes me a good hour to hit everything and get a good soaking into the soil. Of course I can use a sprinkler and let it run for about an hour and a half. The problem I have is that I end up wasting a lot of water by watering things like pathways between the beds and areas beyond the garden fence that don't necessarily need the water. I looked at some pretty good looking drip irrigation systems. In fact I stopped by Lowes this past Thursday and they have a great drip product. The issue is the cost. I'd like to keep it economical in that whatever I end up spending I'll save in water bills. So the goal is to build a system that will be cheap and effective. The plan that I have come up with which will be completely experimental and is detailed as follows. I am going to take and purchase one sprinkler hose, several splicing connectors, and some clamps. The estimated cost for this will be under $20.00. I've been given several old regular hoses to use for the project. So free is good. The plan is to cut lengths of the sprinkler hose to fit each raised bed. Then between each raised bed via the paths I will use the regular hose that will get spliced to the sprinkler hose. I will zig zag this completely through the garden area until all of the areas are covered. The hoses will be held down to the end of each raised bed using a bracket that will screw into the frame of the bed. That is the plan. I'm thinking I will probably get to this next week Thursday. I'll add photos beginning, end and sprinklers in action when it's all done.

Select Natural Organic Fertilizers When Planting

What follows is an article from Espoma a true leader in providing organic fertilizing products. I personally use several of their products.


Spring is here and gardeners everywhere are beginning to prepare their soil for new plantings. This is the best time to give young plants the nutrients they will need to bloom all season long because gardeners can place nutrients where they are needed most - at the root zone. Therefore, gardeners should make sure that they choose a fertilizer that is safe to use at that time.

Garden experts recommend using natural organic fertilizers when planting because they provide the healthiest combination of benefits.

* Slow, Continuous Release of Nutrients. Unlike water soluble fertilizers that release all of their
nutrients immediately upon contact with water, natural organic plant foods rely on a combination of conditions which ensures that plants are fed the nutrients they need over time.

* Low in Salts. Fertilizers that have high concentrations of salts can dehydrate, injure, or even kill plants. Natural organic fertilizers are much lower in salt content than chemical fertilizers and,
therefore, less likely to burn plants and cause damage.

* Balanced Nutrition. For optimum growth and health, plants require a combination of 15
nutrients. In addition to the three primary nutrients - nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium - there are a variety of secondary and trace nutrients, including iron, sulfur and magnesium, that contribute to the overall nourishment of plants. While simple chemical fertilizers often contain the three primary nutrients, natural organic plant foods provide a complete feeding of all 15 nutrients necessary for plant health.

* Improve Soil Structure. Only natural organic fertilizers contain organic matter that stimulates
microbial activity and allow for better soil aeration and moisture retention. Since plants are most
susceptible to damage at planting time, gardeners should be sure to use natural organic fertilizers to optimize soil structure at the time of planting.

Natural organic fertilizers, like Espoma Holly-tone and Plant-tone, offer all of the above benefits, with the lowest risk of plant injury. Applied at the time of planting, the Espoma Tones provide young plants the best chance for vibrant foliage and beautiful blooms.

As always, gardeners should be careful to follow the label directions because even the best plant
food can cause damage if used improperly. For more gardening tips, visit www.espoma.com.

Garden Quote of the Day

What a man needs in gardening is a cast-iron back, with a hinge in it. ~Charles Dudley Warner, My Summer in a Garden, 1871

First Tomatoes on the Vines

I was checking over our plants this morning while I was watering (by hand) and noticed we have a number of grape tomatoes starting. If we get some hot weather this week we may have grape tomatoes in about two weeks. Mid-late June tomatoes, I will take them! The plant with the tomatoes was purchased from our local Farmer's Market from a trusted source. The plant was started in a greenhouse back in January. It's about three foot tall right now. The weekend I purchased it their were just a few flowers. This one looks like a high producer.

Garden Quote of the Day

Shall I not have intelligence with the earth?
Am I not partly leaves and vegetable mould myself.
- Henry David Thoreau

Early June Photos of the Garden

I will post updated pictures every week to two weeks to see the changes in the garden. Here are photos from early June 2009.

Daily Garden Quote

"What is a weed? A weed is a plant whose virtues have not yet been discovered." -- Emerson

Come back every day for a new garden quote... If you have any good ones send them my way or post them in the comments section. Have a great day!

First Strawberries To Be Picked Today

Here is a glimpse at what looks like a good summer of strawberries. We did really well with these the last couple of years averaging nearly a quart a day. This year the plants look even better and the initial berries are bigger. It might be my imagination, but it sure seems like there are more berries so far this year. These are an ever bearing variety so we continuously get fresh berries all the way through the first frost in the fall. Since they have been doing so well for us we added another five feet this spring using runners that jump off the parent plant. Usually we snip them off. We also gave away about 40 strawberry plants from runners away. This year we'll snip the runners as we see them growing so they don't take away from the plant bearing additional fruit. Strawberries are easy to grow if your soil is well drained and you keep them watered, but not too wet. We'll pick about a half quart today.

Stumbled On Some Great Organically Grown Vegetables & Herbs Today

The final plants went into the garden today. I hadn't planned to plant these. I had stopped by a local nursery this morning and they were practically giving away what was left of their vegetable plants and a few herbs. Here is what I got for just a few dollars; 6 red cabbage plants, 2 radicchio, 2 redbor kale, 1 rosemary, and 1 red rubin basil. All of the plants were really healthy as you can see from the photos. The rosemary and basil smell great! So into the garden they went and we have no space left for anything else. I used the space that was set aside for 8 more square feet of green beans. We decided we'll plant the green beans where the spinach is after it we've exhausted it. It's harder to regrow spinach than beans in July. Green beans are one of the most foolproof of all the veggies. Thanks for looking and reading. Be sure to leave your comments and if you have a question please feel free to ask. Thanks!

Organic Savings Coupons from Mambo Sprouts!

Mambo Sprouts is sending out organic savings in the form of manufacturer coupons. We're all aware that the organic and natural products tend to be a little more, okay, sometimes a lot more expensive. So here is a way to get high quality nutritious organic products and save. Wait for your grocer to put them on sale and then use your coupons to save even more. Just fill out the online form and you should see your coupons in a matter of weeks. In the mean time they also have a few online printable coupons that change frequently. Click the banner to the left to start your organic savings!

Meijer Organic Santa Sweets Tomatoes 1/2 Price

If you live in the Midwest and have a local Meijer near you then you'll find some great sales on organic produce. This week you can purchase Santa Sweet grape organic tomatoes for $1.50 for a savings of $1.50. These are regularly priced at $3.00. Also this week they have organic strawberries on sale for $2.50. The great thing about these two items are that they are grown in the USA.

Asparagus! stalking the American life

I recommend you check out the website of the award winning Michigan made movie titled Asparagus! stalking the American life. It tells the story of the Asparagus capital of the world, Oceana County. You won't believe the political decisions that are ruining this Michigan farming community. Watch your local PBS channels it just ran in April and may again soon. You can see the trailer here.

50% off Organic Coffee from Amazon.com

Amazon has some great June specials on several organic products. Here is a link to the full line of products from The Organic Coffee Company that are 50% off this month.

Hay Bail Mulch

To protect our growing berries and to add more growing area for our potatoes I added hay today. Hay can add a biodegradable layer of mulch that protects the plants from drying out in harsh summer temperatures. I've read that the blueberries need to stay well watered so the hay will assist in keeping the moisture in the soil. As for the potatoes they add a layer of additional growing mass. Potatoes will shoot out new tubers into the loosely stacked hay. Most of the hay was stacked up around the potatoes adding about an additional six to eight inches of depth. The strawberries we added a thin layer just to keep the berries off the soil. Since we've had quite a bit of rain recently I wanted to keep them dryer. It seems like when some of the berries sit on the wet soil they tend to rot quickly. As with the blueberries it will keep the soil moist longer during the higher temperatures we'll get in July and August. Happy Gardening!

Blueberry Pie?

Well... I don't know if we'll have enough blueberries this year to do much with them, but they are doing well so far. We were told from the nursery that we purchased them from that within 2-3 years we should be able to pick about 5-7 pounds per bush. We have eight so if we do the math on the low end we should end up with 40 pounds of berries. They also said this year we should get close to two pounds per bush. These are North Blue variety developed by the University of Minnesota about ten years ago. They specifically were developed for colder climates with the idea of a larger berry in mind. When we planted them we had to amend the soil in order to get the PH proper. I purchased an organic blueberry additive to make the soil more acidic. Blueberries as we've read are not easy to grow so we hope all goes well. So far lots of new branch and leaf growth and plenty of healthy looking blueberries. If you click on the photos you'll get a better up close look. Good Day!

Green Beans - Seed to plant in 7 days

These beans were planted one week ago today. On the left is an Italian green bean and on the right are bush variety green beans. The grid you see in the photo is the square foot method I mentioned in previous posts. It has been determined that in one square foot four bean plants can grow properly. I planted two seeds per spot or eight seeds total and then reduced them to four plants per square foot. I probably could have just planted four seeds per square, but opted to be safe.

Beans are one of the easiest garden vegetables to grow. They are hardy and incredibly hard to foul up. They also offer a huge yield. I stagger my bean plantings by about two weeks apart so that we have a constant supply for about a month and some to freeze too. Currently we have eight squares of beans totaling 32 plants and will finish with 16 square or 64 plants.

Earthbound Farms Organic Shopping Bag

I mentioned the other day about Earthbound Farm and what great services they provide and their marketing is excellent. We've received tons of coupons for their products as well as free heirloom lettuce seeds this spring. They are celebrating 25 years. And look what showed up in the mail yesterday. A free reusable recycled shopping bag. If you can't read the print on the bag from the photo here it is: "We estimate that if everyone in the US used one reusable bag instead of a plastic or paper shopping bag just once a week for a year, we would keep more than 16 billion disposable bags out of our landfills." It also states that the bag is made from four 20oz recycled plastic bottles. Go here to sign up for the Earthbound Farm newsletter.

Great Deal on Organic Agave!

Wholesome Sweeteners Organic Blue Agave is on a great sale at Amazon.com. 44-oz. 2-Pack for $12 + free shipping. The Wholesome Sweeteners Organic Blue Agave 44-oz. 2-Pack for $16.89. Add it to your cart via "Subscribe & Save" and apply coupon code "AGAVE333" to cut it to $11.83 along with free shipping. (Of note, cancel "Subscribe & Save" at any time or you'll be billed for subsequent shipments. You can always subscribe for once every six months if you don't go through much.)

Organic Yogi Tea

Once in a while we'll offer something of interest that isn't necessarily garden related. If you click through on the Yogi Tea and fill in your address they'll send you several of their teas for free. We've tried them and really enjoyed the Egyptian Licorice. Most of the ingredients are organic. I think you'll find them to be 80-100% organic. Enjoy!

This past weekend, Memorial Day weekend, we wrapped up about 97% of our planting in the garden. Here is a basic estimation of what we planted this year. The photo shows an aerial view of our garden. You'll see that we've run out of space again and have used twelve containers to supplement our existing raised beds.

1. 24 Tomato plants- early girl, grape, roma, cherry, sweet
   
2. 20 Various pepper plants - green bell, jalapeno, sweet red, mixed variety, orange, etc.
   
3. 4 plants of zucchini
   
4. 4 plants yellow summer squash
5. 1 plant amber cup winter squash
6. 2 plants sweet potato squash
7. 30 red skin potato plants
8. 6 blue potato plants
9. 14 cilantro
10. 16 oregano
    
11. 24 sweet basil
12. 16 broccoli
13. 16 bush green beans (16 more to plant in 2 weeks)
    
14. 16 Italian green beans (16 more to plant in 2 weeks)
15. 24 red beets
16. 40 spinach plants
17. 60-80 radish
18. 3' x 15' - ever bearing strawberry plants
19. raspberries - currently resides in about a 3' x 6' section
20. 8 blueberry bushes
21. wide assortment of lettuce greens
22. 60-80 carrots
23. 40 early sweet corn
    

I cut the greens you see in the photo this morning for a salad with lunch today and tonight we'll be using the greens on our sandwiches at dinner. We have now harvested three of these plastic shells of lettuce greens. See the update on the right.

As your garden grows and even in the off times of late fall, winter and early spring where do you purchase your fruits and vegetables? There have been 12 fruits and vegetables tagged as the dirty dozen. They have consistently been tested with high levels of toxins from pesticides, fertilizers, and herbicides. They should be avoided unless you find an organic option. In the off times that we're not able to eat from our garden we choose many Earthbound Farms products. They are reliably stocked in our grocer and consistently are fresh and taste great. They have a great website that changes regularly and the content is extremely informative. Here is a link to their organic pocket guide, a great tool to carry with you as shop for produce.

This year we built what we are calling our salad table garden. The hopes is that we will bring this garden inside to the basement this fall and hopefully under two basic shop lights with 40 fluorescent bulbs we will be able to continue to grow fresh greens. Usually we purchase the clam shells of organic greens at around $3.29 from our local grocery store. So far we've been able to cut two full clam shells of salad greens. We've a rotating system in this small garden. You'll see carrots which will take a couple of months and then the other three sections will be rotated. Once once section has been completely harvested then we'll replant it and with some luck the other section will be ready to begin cutting. When we cut the greens we just take what we need for a day or two. I just take a pair of scissors randomly cutting the larger pieces. We also have spinach coming up in another part of the garden which was planted a little late. Our raised bed garden has been in for several years and I've just come across Mel Barthol0mews, Square Foot Gardening book and have just begun to incorporate his ideas and techniques into our existing garden. You can see here I've used a nylon string to separate the sections into nearly one foot square areas. More on using the square foot approach later.