Pictures of the garden

Everything is progressing nicely. Too much to blog about so I will show you in pictures :) Be prepare for lots of green foliage!

Spinach

 Lettuce volunteers

Strawberries

Cilantro

Carrots

Peas

Spinach seedlings

Swiss Chard

Bibb lettuce

Garden Update and Happy Easter!

My garden last summer :)

There is so much going on in the garden, I don't know if I can remember everything. I'll try though. Yesterday, I planted out my bell peppers that I got at Rite Aid. The variety is called California Wonder, which is a popular open pollinated variety. There were 8 to 10 plants so I planted them in my second raised bed. I also have marigolds planted in between the plants to bring some color and I have heard they are a good pest deterrent as well. I also planted my bok choi transplants in the ground. I watered them with a fish emulsion mixture.

Everything I planted in the ground, except for some carrots, arrugula, cilantro, and pumpkins (I planted these on Sunday) are sprouting. I also found that I have bean seedlings from last fall. I let some plants go to seed and they are already coming up. :) Oh how I love mother nature!

My heating mat experiment update:

This is going so well. I was pleasantly surprised at how well this thing works. Within a couple of days, I had sprouting. I already have a banana pepper seedling, another ca wonder pepper, supersweet tomato, little prince eggplant, and more! I've also began pre-germinating my bean, pumpkin, sunflower, cucumber, and squash seeds. To see how I pregerminate my beans, check out this link. It is super easy. I found that if I do that and place them on my heating pad, I'll get sproutage in 2-3 days! Yeah for the heating mat. I'll do a more in depth review once the season has started.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter. We did. It was a great day of catching up and of course the adult Easter Egg hunt (my shoes were muddy) :) Can't wait until next year!

Seed Sowing List 03-30-10

Calendula Pacific Beauty (American Seed)
Coleus, rainbow mix (Ferry Morse)
Peruvian Pepper (Seeds of Change)
Sweet Pea, royal mix colors (unknown)
Nasturtium, jewel mixed colors (Bentley Seeds)
Marigold, crackerjack (American Seed)
Lettuce, garden babies butterhead (Renee's Garden)
Onion, white bunching (Bentley Seeds)
Sweet corn, early golden banthan (American Seeds)
Tomato, micro tom (Seedman)
Poached egg plant (Thompson and Morgan)
Lamb's ears (Groco  Seeds)
Eggplant, white bianca (Seedman)

Seed Sowing List 03-29-10

 Picture of lettuce, tomato, and garlic in Spring 2009

Today's seed sowing list is full of herbs,corn, lettuce and flowers:

Herbs:

• Lemon balm (Groco Seeds) 
• Cilantro (American Seed) 
• Sage (Burpee) 
• Oregano (Groco Seeds) 
• Fennel, Florence (Burpee) 
• Dill (trade) 
• Asparagus (trade) 

Lettuce:

• Baby romaine (trade) 

 Flowers:

• Snapdragon first ladies mixed (Sow n Grow)
• Morning Glory giant mixed colors (Sow n Grow) 
• Four o Clocks mix (Burpee) 

Corn:

• Popcorn (my own kitchen) 
• Corn Chinese baby (trade)

Hydrofarm Seedling Heat Mat Mini Review

Tonight I broke down and bought a Hydrofarm Seedling Heat Mat at my local garden store.

It was $24.95 and I had a 15% coupon making it around $21.00. On Amazon, they are around $25.00 dollars as well. I think it's a good deal if it works. I read great reviews on this product and am excited to try it out and provide my own review.

Most of the reviews on Amazon, people said to place a towel underneath the mat to draw heat upwards to your seed trays. I placed the mat on a cookie sheet on the floor, followed with a towel, then the heat mat, and my trays. After a couple of minutes of it plugged in, I could tell it was warm but I expected it to be much hotter than just warm. I placed my eggplant, tomato, and pepper seed trays on top and now we wait and see. The company claims it will raise the rooting area 10-20 degrees over the ambient temperature in the room. Regardless of what it says, I just want to get my tomato, pepper, and eggplant seeds to germinate faster.

This will be my little experiment over the next couple of weeks to see if this product really does work. Wish my luck everyone!

Seed Sowing Update

The seeds I planted approximately 2 weeks ago have begun to sprout. I planted bok choi, 4 o clocks, broccoli, carrots (a round variety), spinach, mesclun mix, peas, beets, and more. I cannot remember everything I planted though. I always do this every year. I plant all these things and find out later I cannot recall what I planted. I’ll just wait until they’ve grown enough to distinguish what it is! I hope it’s not weed seeds though. For a great seed starting book, check out All New Square Foot Gardening: Grow More in Less Space!. I love the details and the precise information it provides.

What Vegetables are Good for Freezing? Handling and Storage Ideas

The plan this growing season for me is to can, freeze, preserve, and dehydrate fruits and vegetables we do not consume and have an abundance of (i.e. peak of tomato season where we have lots of tomatoes). This is a big endeavor for me since it will be my first time preserving what I grow. I have gotten a lot of books detailing how to preserve vegetables from your garden. I have been busily reading and noting what techniques to use. A great reference book I would recommend is Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving. It details every vegetable you can grow and how to preserve them. It’s an invaluable resource to any gardener who wants to pursue this adventure.
I have read a lot about preserving vegetables by blanching and freezing. Freezing is a great way to lock in nutrients. Blanching is the process of dropping your desired vegetable in boiling water for a set time (typically for 30 seconds to 3 minutes). After blanching, you will take the veggies out and place them in an ice bath consisting of water and ice cubes. After they have cooled, you can freeze them flat on a tray in the freezer before packaging. Since, you’re not completely cooking the vegetables you keep the nutrients and texture of the vegetables. Happy gardening everyone!
What you’ll need to freeze vegetables is simple:

-desired vegetable you want to preserve

-pot

-water

-bowl

-ice water

-bags (sandwhich or freezer) and/or small containers (1 quart)

-freezer

Here’s a chart of vegetables that will do well freezing, when to freeze, and how to handle and store them:

What to Freeze	Time to Freeze	How to Freeze
Berries	Spring to Fall	Wash your produce, air dry and freeze
Broccoli	Spring and Fall	Cut into bite-size pieces, blanch in boiling water for 30 seconds to 1 minute, cool in ice bath for 2 minutes, drain and freeze
Chard	Spring, Summer, and Fall	Blanch until wilted (several minutes) It will look like wilted spinach. Cool in ice bath, drain, and freeze in small batches
Edamame (soybeans)	Summer to Fall	Simmer pods in salted water for approximately 5 minutes. Cool in ice bath for 2 minutes, drain, and freeze
Peas	Spring to Fall	Blanch in boiling water for a minute. Cool in ice bath for 2 minutes, drain and freeze
Peppers	Summer to Fall	Slice, blanch in boiling water for 1 minute, cool in ice bath for 2 minutes, drain and freeze
Snap beans	Summer to Fall	Blanch in boiling water for a minute. Cool in ice bath for 2 minutes, drain and freeze
Spinach	Spring to Fall	Blanch until wilted (several minutes) Cool in ice bath, drain, and freeze in small batches
Sweet corn	Summer	Cut kernels from cobs, simmer in hot water for 2-3 minutes. Cool in ice bath, drain, and freeze in small batches