I wanted to let all of my readers know that I started a new blog for the 2011 planting seasons. Come read the new adventures at Sherry's Upper and Lower Forty.
Yall come, you hear.
Sunday, June 5, 2011
Thursday, February 10, 2011
Seed Catalogs
It is time to spend quality time with the new year's seed catalogs. Every serious gardener eagerly awaits the procession of seed catalogs that come to us in the mail and online.
This year the organic push keeps marching on. Everybody wants their share of organic foods and I always wonder where they have been for the last thirty plus years. We are pushing forty years with organic seeds and it gets easier every day to find the sources.
On my coffee table are some of the better seed houses that serve the organic grower. Johnny's, Territorial, Parks, Burpee, Garden's Alive and a few I do not remember requesting the catalogs.
There are some really intriguing newbies this year. A white pickling cucumber, more heirloom tomatoes, and others will find their way into my garden. We also plan to fight the bugs naturally with praying mantis egg case, lace wings, lady bugs and nematode injections. This crew of bugs can do more than a spray can any day.
As I have said, my garden is always in a constant state of experimentation. We will try a different design of caging this year because we actually had a problem with some of the plants being too heavy for their supports. The garden will also be on the move this year because of the problem with the fall rotation of the earth.
The best gardens are well planned with a little common sense sifted in for problems. All gardens will suffer bugs, too much heat, too little water or too much water. The thing to remember is that you have to go with the flow.
Our hope is that we will not have as much problem with the help of our little beneficial bugs. Twenty years ago my youngest daughter had to make up something to help the world. Erika and I put our heads together and came up with a combination of a ladybug and a praying mantis, and Erika named him Petey. This little fellow had the bright red wings with black spots like a lady bug and the body of a praying mantis. Erika had to make a model of this little guy and she won the contest in her elementary school. Petey then found his way to a Smithsonian exhibition before being returned to our home.
I wonder if we could actually cross a ladybug and a praying mantis. What a lively garden that would be with all of them hunting bugs down. A dream yes, but remember all hybrids are a cross between two somethings.
This year the organic push keeps marching on. Everybody wants their share of organic foods and I always wonder where they have been for the last thirty plus years. We are pushing forty years with organic seeds and it gets easier every day to find the sources.
On my coffee table are some of the better seed houses that serve the organic grower. Johnny's, Territorial, Parks, Burpee, Garden's Alive and a few I do not remember requesting the catalogs.
There are some really intriguing newbies this year. A white pickling cucumber, more heirloom tomatoes, and others will find their way into my garden. We also plan to fight the bugs naturally with praying mantis egg case, lace wings, lady bugs and nematode injections. This crew of bugs can do more than a spray can any day.
As I have said, my garden is always in a constant state of experimentation. We will try a different design of caging this year because we actually had a problem with some of the plants being too heavy for their supports. The garden will also be on the move this year because of the problem with the fall rotation of the earth.
The best gardens are well planned with a little common sense sifted in for problems. All gardens will suffer bugs, too much heat, too little water or too much water. The thing to remember is that you have to go with the flow.
Our hope is that we will not have as much problem with the help of our little beneficial bugs. Twenty years ago my youngest daughter had to make up something to help the world. Erika and I put our heads together and came up with a combination of a ladybug and a praying mantis, and Erika named him Petey. This little fellow had the bright red wings with black spots like a lady bug and the body of a praying mantis. Erika had to make a model of this little guy and she won the contest in her elementary school. Petey then found his way to a Smithsonian exhibition before being returned to our home.
I wonder if we could actually cross a ladybug and a praying mantis. What a lively garden that would be with all of them hunting bugs down. A dream yes, but remember all hybrids are a cross between two somethings.
Saturday, January 15, 2011
So Much To Digest
The garden plans for this year involve so many different items. What to grow, who to buy the seeds from, how we are going to get the proper germination, what we plan to change in our potting mix and on and on.
As I so often say, my garden is my giant science experimentation. I am a scientist at heart and wanted to be a doctor. You ask why am I a certified public accountant. It is because I worked and went to school and could not afford to do all of the science an undergraduate degree in microbiology would have required.
Back in the days of the dinosaurs, when I was a little girl, we did not know from student loans and the information was not so readily accessible. It is unfortunate because I love science. I obviously passed this gene along to my youngest son because he loves science and math and is going to be a nuclear engineer.
As an avid reader of both pleasure books and non-fiction books, I devour what knowledge I can get and love to pass it along to others. I love to try new things and I am the mad scientist in my garden and my kitchen.
Baking and cooking are kind of science projects on their own. It requires measurement and chemical reactions in order to bake.
We know some of the changes we are going to make. One is we are going to make a rack for the squash to lean on and make the racks during the winter. They are designed out of wood and metal concrete reinforcing wire or the pvc garden trellis. When the squash plant grows through the 2 or 3 inch hole, their tender body can lie on the wire. This will allow the fruit to drop down and harvesting will be a matter of clipping the squash free from the vine.
We have decided we want more substantial plant supports and will have bases made so that we can incorporate some of the Grow Box support on our bases. We just need to help support our healthy plants better.
I love the ability to have a garden anywhere and one of my clients madee some Garden Boxes a present to her gardener husband. I then made three of the Grow Boxes a gift to one of my daughters and son-in-laws. When you love having dirt under your nails and being outside in the fresh air, it is hard not to be outside.
If you can not
As I so often say, my garden is my giant science experimentation. I am a scientist at heart and wanted to be a doctor. You ask why am I a certified public accountant. It is because I worked and went to school and could not afford to do all of the science an undergraduate degree in microbiology would have required.
Back in the days of the dinosaurs, when I was a little girl, we did not know from student loans and the information was not so readily accessible. It is unfortunate because I love science. I obviously passed this gene along to my youngest son because he loves science and math and is going to be a nuclear engineer.
As an avid reader of both pleasure books and non-fiction books, I devour what knowledge I can get and love to pass it along to others. I love to try new things and I am the mad scientist in my garden and my kitchen.
Baking and cooking are kind of science projects on their own. It requires measurement and chemical reactions in order to bake.
We know some of the changes we are going to make. One is we are going to make a rack for the squash to lean on and make the racks during the winter. They are designed out of wood and metal concrete reinforcing wire or the pvc garden trellis. When the squash plant grows through the 2 or 3 inch hole, their tender body can lie on the wire. This will allow the fruit to drop down and harvesting will be a matter of clipping the squash free from the vine.
We have decided we want more substantial plant supports and will have bases made so that we can incorporate some of the Grow Box support on our bases. We just need to help support our healthy plants better.
I love the ability to have a garden anywhere and one of my clients madee some Garden Boxes a present to her gardener husband. I then made three of the Grow Boxes a gift to one of my daughters and son-in-laws. When you love having dirt under your nails and being outside in the fresh air, it is hard not to be outside.
If you can not
Sunday, January 2, 2011
To Everything There Is a Season
There is a general philosophy among people about a "saving remnant" of people, religious views, and other things. I am beginning to believe that is true of gardens.
Many things winter over like onions, garlic, shallots and the like. In my case, my late planted sugar snap pea seeds are poking their little stems up in the seven grow boxes that were planted in late October or early November. They just seem to be thumbing their little stem noses at the cold and are trying to tell us that spring is around the corner.
We all know that spring is not until late March and for some of the United States it can be as late as May or June. What the sugar snaps are showing is hope and faith that the seasons will change and we will be back on the production mode.
Now,everything is not like that. I learned that cauliflower is cold sensitive and did not fair well in our very cold, Atlanta area winter. Many people keep saying that it shouldn't be this cold here, but my husband and I grew up in this area and we remember many frigid winters.
I believe that the weather is more cyclical then we want to believe and I think some of the global warming is a cycle. That is not to say that we do not all need to contribute to a more green society over our great planet.
My oldest daughter and I were discussing growing heirloom tomatoes and an anti-inflammatory diet today. I was amazed by her in depth knowledge on the subject of the diet and definitely think she is on to something. She loves heirloom tomatoes much like her mother does and we talked about the grafting project I plan to start soon. Heirlooms require a little more tending and give us back the most flavorful fruits, but their flaws are they are less disease and fungi resistant and do not have the stamina of hybrids.
I am so glad that my daughters and sons share my love of the garden. They have been fun to watch grow into wonderful adults with varied interests, just as I watch my vegetables grow in the garden.
Isn't life a wonderful thing?
Many things winter over like onions, garlic, shallots and the like. In my case, my late planted sugar snap pea seeds are poking their little stems up in the seven grow boxes that were planted in late October or early November. They just seem to be thumbing their little stem noses at the cold and are trying to tell us that spring is around the corner.
We all know that spring is not until late March and for some of the United States it can be as late as May or June. What the sugar snaps are showing is hope and faith that the seasons will change and we will be back on the production mode.
Now,everything is not like that. I learned that cauliflower is cold sensitive and did not fair well in our very cold, Atlanta area winter. Many people keep saying that it shouldn't be this cold here, but my husband and I grew up in this area and we remember many frigid winters.
I believe that the weather is more cyclical then we want to believe and I think some of the global warming is a cycle. That is not to say that we do not all need to contribute to a more green society over our great planet.
My oldest daughter and I were discussing growing heirloom tomatoes and an anti-inflammatory diet today. I was amazed by her in depth knowledge on the subject of the diet and definitely think she is on to something. She loves heirloom tomatoes much like her mother does and we talked about the grafting project I plan to start soon. Heirlooms require a little more tending and give us back the most flavorful fruits, but their flaws are they are less disease and fungi resistant and do not have the stamina of hybrids.
I am so glad that my daughters and sons share my love of the garden. They have been fun to watch grow into wonderful adults with varied interests, just as I watch my vegetables grow in the garden.
Isn't life a wonderful thing?
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