Kale.

Kale is a leafy cool season crop (meaning you can plant it spring or fall. I planted some transplants back in November and the plants survived the winter well. They have been ready to harvest for a while, but i just got around to it. With Kale I made my favorite Olive Garden soup Zuppa Tuscana, or Italian Wedding soup. Recipe here.

 

Strawberries: training runners

Strawberries are the easiest fruit to plant in your home garden.
You can plant plugs (small transplants) in November from your regional fruit supplier- i recommend Ison's nursery, or you can buy larger transplants from your local garden center in march.  

Baby strawberry

 One strawberry plant only produces berries it's first year. Then they are unique in that they send out runners to make baby plants. Their babies will produce the next year and so the cycle of life continues on. For the gardener, this means that you only have to buy a plant once!

Because of this, it is up to the Gardener to dug up their old vines and 'train' the baby plants. Here is a video about training you strawberry runners the second year.

After I dug up parrent plant

Overgrown Bed

Plant baby plants and rebury drip tape

Baby Strawberries replanted and mulched

My First Asparagus

Asparagus take patience, and in the word of Inigo Montoya “i hate waiting”.

I planted asparagus because its a perennial ( comes back every year) that lives and produces for 16 years! The catch is the asparagus plant isn't ready to eat until it's three years old. Last year I planted a 2 year squid looking bulb like root. They make like a tall spindly bamboo like bush the first two years. This February I got my surprise! 2 thick shoots sticking out of the ground!

If you want to plant a veggie that will produce for 16 years. You can get an asparagus root at most garden stores. The variety jersey knight is recommended for Georgia. The root is places tentacles down. Then 1 year later, you will have your First Asparagus. 

SWEET! Potatoes

 Sweet Potatoes are known for being a apart of the fall season harvest, but like pumpkins, they need a long growing season. I planted Beauregard Sweet potato transplants in May. I didn't plant them in a raise bed, just in dirt, covered with plastic mulch, with drip tape. I waited, and waited, I would have forgot about them except the vine were taking over more than half of the back row. When I pulled up a few vines, some of the potatoes were really huge. One would feed me, jesse, and make like 4 meals for Soren.

I cannot tell you how joyfull anticipation of digging up something in the ground that you planted, thats been growing for 3 months, that you can take to the kitchen immediatly and eat. I think the anticipation of harvesting new crops used to coincide with seasonal holiday excitment. It's fun to feel what people for the last 2,000 years have felt, that many americans don't have the privlege of exsperiencing.

Sweet Potatoes are fast becoming a favorite of mine, you really don't have to 'preserve them' you just dig them up, and let the sun 'cure' or dry in the sun a few days, then just stick them in a cool place.

Sweet Potatoes are amazingly simple. You can make fries our of them, boil and mash them, make muffins or bead, and of course Sweet Potato Soufflé. Fries are the easiest, cut them, fry them, delicious...

Fall Gardening

After a sweltering summer of humidity, the fall is a welcomed seasonal change! Fall is my favorite time of year, a time of warm hardy food and crisp air.  For those new to my blog, this is my attemp to live off the land, even through my land is only a half acre.I just wanted to post a 10 step guide to Fall planting. It is too late now to plant anything besides onions. But maybe this will help you guys out for next year.

1. Look at planting Dates. Planting dates vary from region to region and what crop you want to plant. This is my favorite publication on planting dates. It is from the University of Georgia so is has what seed varieties that work best here in Georgia specifically
   http://www.caes.uga.edu/applications/publications/files/html/C963/C963VegeChart.pdf
2. Decide what you want to plant- This year I devised on root veggies- Carrots, Radishes, greens: Kale, Lettuce, Cabbage, Spinach. Country Plants: Collards, Turnips. Tree veggies: Cauliflower and broccoli
3. Prepare Soil- If you are just starting out, you can check out my post on soil prep (march). There are no crops in fall gardens that are heavy feeders, you can fertilization again but I did not.
4. Decide what you will plant form seed vs. Transplant-Some plants do better from transplant and some don't. Carrots and Radishes must be planted from seed, but broccoli want to be from a transplant. Everything else is just your choice. I recommend you TRY all (besides broccoli) from seed! Its cheaper and more rewarding.
5. Mulch- Mulch cuts down on watering, weeds, pest and keeps the roots warm - Since I use plastic mulch, this is laid down before I plant. In my case I just used what was already there from my summer garden. You can practically any substance from wood chips, start. Hay, or newspaper- whatever is cheap.
 6. Plant- SEEDS-Depending on the spacing guideline there are two different ways I do it. Carrots and Radishes: these only have 1-4 inch spacing because of this is sprinkle the seeds in a line. Make a furrow in the soil (I had to cut lines in my plastic). Sprinkle the seed along the line. Cover with soil and water soon. Everything Else- all the other fall crops fall in 6-18 inch spacing category for these a poke holes in the plastic where I want the plants, dig a small whole with my fingers, drop in 3-6 seeds, cover with soil and water. TRANSPLANTS: When buying transplants, get packs that have more seedlings in each space. This saves money! Make sure you are gentle when pulling apart the roots systems. water!
7.Water- You must keep you seeds moist: water every day for at least 1 week. 


 (below: example of multiple plants)

8. (3 weeks later) Thin Seeds- Once your seeds have sprouted andd have 2 true leaves (not the first 2) you need to thin them out. Carrots and Radishes: Just pull up the seedlings fr the proper placing. For all the others- just leave one healthy seedling in the whole. I hate this part it feels like seedling abortion.
9. Plant transplants for seeds that did not make it. Now you can see what seeds made it. None of my spinach, Lettuce, and cabbage made it from seed, so I just panted them from transplants three weeks later.
10. watch and eat- yum          

Baby Carrots

Pictures: Garden Plots

  





Cantaloupe & Watermelon & Strawberry

They are easy and are a sweet bounty. These are the easiest fruits you can grow.

Strawberry. In Georgia, they suggest you either plant these in two rows,with a ditch between to rip up their runners, or plant them with space around them and let their runners develop into new plants, I really don't get why it is one way or another, I guess they just want you to stay organized?
The only issue I had was that in early spring, they are the only food out so the birds nest I made around my garden (although they did eat bugs) had a strawberry dessert! In late spring they found other things to eat, and I could beat them to it! Me and jesse joked that they just sat their in their littl house all day, and as soon as a berry turned red, they pounced. Next year I am going to get a fake snake ( you can also net them) and see if that helps.


Cantaloupe & Watermelons
I planted these on the edge of my garden because they are vines and they get messy. They are placed in what's called a hill. I used a mound of dirt (with a drip line trough it) and covered in in black plastic. Plastic is essential to melons because it wants a long growing season, but also warm soil. Also, when that watermelon develop, they need to not be touching the dirt, so the plastic protects then from rotting, Hills are about 6 feet apart.



I planted a few from seed, and a few from transplants (at least 3 each hill). We had two waves of crops, so trying to eat 11 cantaloupe at a time was funny, good thing Soren liked them!
When to harvest: Cantaloupe come of the vine really easy when they are done, get them or they'll split. Watermelon was a bit of a guess, sometimes they were just small, one of the babies, we gave to soren and he plays with it like a ball.

UGA recommended varieties:
Watermelon: baby doll crimson sweet, icebox, imagination, jade star
Cantaloupe: Athena, Ambrosia Saticoy Early

They are on the edge closest to patio, and the opposite edge. I did not used raiesd bed, the hill system works great.

Pumpkin disclaimer: pumpkins are similar to melons, my pumpkins died out this year, vine borers and the shade caused by the tree above did them in, i got two baby pumpkins, both rotted on the vine, Next year i will be victorious!

Successful Tomatoes

sorry for the delay! I have had some computer issues and been working full time for the last 2 months, it will be over soon! The garden has been great, so i have alot of crops to catch up on, so we will start with tomatoes.

Tomatoes are a crowd pleaser, and no one can deny how wonderful homegrown tomatoes taste. I had great production in tomatoes this year. People say their easy to grow, but if okra was a 1 (easy) and peach trees a 10 (hard). I would give tomatoes a 5. They are reasonably drout tolerant, but if they get dried out. They will succumb to blossom end rot, once thats set in, the plant will not give many if any good tomatoes. So constant moisture to the roots is your best way to care for tomatoes (used plasticulture-see march blog). This is difficult to do with container gardening. They need at lest 8 hours of full sun. I did not fertalize past my initial soil enrichments.They are one of the most diseased edibles in Georgia, they have an early and a late blight, and they can have pollination issues.

The best advice is ...
1. use good varieties
2. Mulch and water propperly (use drip irrigation and plasticulture)- dont overwater either, give them a good soak every 5 days.(with the use of plastic mulch this should be enough.
3. Use fungicide - i use daconill dilluted with water- see instructions. You just gotta with tomatoes

I planted 18 transplants (6 Beefmaster 6 Better Boy, 6 Celebrities). Tomatoes come in determinate and indeterminate varieties. Determinate varieties like Better Boy and Celebrity tomatoes stop growing at a determined point, although they can still be pruned, they don't need it as much as indeterminate varieties like Goliath that just keep growing.

Pruning- some people prune their plants, I did a little, it is supposed to insure that you get larger fruits rather than tiny ones. When the plant is around 3-4 feet you will see that a branch has to stems coming out together, the bottom fork called a sucker can be pulled off at the node.

Harvesting- although vine ripened tomatoes sounds great, it is actually better for my garden to pull them a few days early. The redness attracts the bugs, and if it rains your tomatoes will split and may begin to rot within a day. I pull them off in their orange/red phase. Just put them on the counter (a sunny window is unnecessary-its better if their in a cool location) This diminishes none of the flavor loss you experience with store bought tomatoes.

Using the little red boogers- Tomatoes have unlimited uses- spaghetti, pizza, pesto, salsa, tacos, burritos, omelette's, sandwiches, and I just eat them raw. Since I had so many, I started processing sauces and freezing and canning. You can also refrigerate them one ripe so they will last longer. More on preserving and freezing later.

Silly Named Squash:Crookneck-Zucchini-Patty Pan

There are two types of squash: Summer and Winter. I am only growing summer squash this year and there are like a hundred different kinds. I'm just doing straightneck, Zucchini, and Patty Pan (all bush so they will fit neatly in my raised beds). I did half my squash from seed, and half from transplants set out after the last April 20th.
Zucchini is called the scourge of the summer! It is so easy to grow it make everyone feel like an seasoned farmer.

A small green tube can grow into a 2lb Zucchini in2 days. As you guys know I only consider my garden sucessful, if the food actually gets on my table for dinner, and tastes good! Zucchini is as easy to use as the other types of squash (crookneck and patty-pan), It is a filler for any pasta dish, it can also be used in fried rice. Squash casserole is easy and yummy (basically add onions, butter and egg, and cheese and top with Ritz crackers). If all else fails, I just stew a huge pot and make into Soren's baby food.


My favorite new discovery is using zucchini in bread. I love it!
Today I made Zucchini Bites: a savory appetizer made with onion and breadcrumbs, I also got to try using parsley on the top of the bites to make a pretty leaf silhouette. http://www.thenaptimechef.com/2010/07/summer-zucchini-bites-webisode-22/


I also love spiced Zucchini muffins, you can put vanilla chi (substituted for a portion of sugar) powder in it, and it rocks! Here is the basic recipe, I didn't use cranberries and the other frilly stuff, but I did add chocolate chips. http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/zucchini_muffins/

Dre- How I've Grown.

people are by far the hardest crop. Did you know that it is estimated that 80% of people do not emotionally mature after the age of 20. That means most of us are college sophomores walking around, raising kids, and doing who knows what else.

Along with that, I bet most Christians do not Spiritually grow after an age of a year. Everyone know the excitement of a new believer. But if we are infinity unlike God, why aren't we infinity excited to grow and change to be more like Him?

What crappy plants we are. Since Gardening, all the 'plant parables' are making much more sense.

So lately, I've been thinking...
Me and my husband are in process to going to the overseas to ministry in 1-2 years. So this adventure getting closer, has caused some self examination. I certainly don't 'feel' like a missionary. Who cares how I feel, do I act like a missionary? I don't mean this in a legalistic way, although I love me some missionary skirts, I mean when you are in another country and your soul occupation is yo show other Christ's love, what would you do?
Then I was like, well my soul occupation on this earth is to show others God's love. What do I do?
Hmmm.
The Reminder. Why we are here. To know God and to make him known. All the rest is scenery, my job, laundry, cooking, clothes, even my garden if not put towards that end is scenery.
So obviously the past couple weeks I have been thinking on this. What does it mean to love others like Christ? A few things came to mind, one of which is God made our problem his problem. He was in perfect heaven, but thirsted for a relationship with us. He made our problem his problem. Just because someones problem isn't directly effecting you, doesn't mean it's not your problem. As children of God, pretty much it's ours. The word 'problem' may discourage some, but being a very task driven problem solving person, this idea appeals so me.
The 'Garden' aspect of this is coming, keep reading.
So all that being said, I was thinking about this and driving in Atlanta, and I see a homeless guy. Thinking thinking, not my job to ponder if he is a good for nothing drunk or lying, it is my job to love him, to see his problem as my problem, to 'give to whoever asks'. I don't have any cash. Someone gives him a granola bar, and he thanks them and tears into it. I look at my passenger seat thinking, what can I give this guy? I do have a basket of fresh produce I was going to give to a friend. She'll live. So I roll down the window and ask “could you have any use for these” holding up a variety of okra, beans, tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchini, and squash. He answer “honey, I don't have anywhere to cook it or store it, it would just get stolen or rot”.Sad. The light turns red, I say I'm sorry I don't have cash, and the light turns green.

Sad. My eyes start to water. Food security. It's a crazy thing. Not only do I have LOADS of food given to me by God's earth, and this man has nothing. He doesn't even have the opportunity to eat fresh food. An alarming reality.

Plant a Row for the Hungry or P.A.R. Is a cool thing that our Master Gardener in Fayette County do. It's donating a row of crop to a food shelter. They took it a step furthure and have a community Garden and donate the whole lot to charity! Over 25,000 lb a year!
Video and Story
http://www.11alive.com/news/local/story.aspx?catid=40&storyid=150660
Newspaper
http://volunteerpublishing.net/harvest-of-hope-group-raises-28000-pounds-of-produce-for-needy
Fayette County 4-H and Master Gardener Website
http://www.ugaextension.com/fayette/mg/MGProjects.html

Mr. Bray at the P.A.R. Garden -

taught me everything i know about gardening

Herbs- heal.spice.soothe.

herbs are the bomb diggity, they have the power to heal, spice, or soothe. I am crazy about herbs.
If you want to start a small garden, I don't think you can go wrong with herbs. I am a little basil crazy so I probably use fresh herbs about 4 times a week. They are too simple. I got them at Home Dept for 2.50 a pint. (each pint had 3 or 4 plants (seeds are cheap, so why not put many in one to ensure the customer gets a live specimen) I only picked pints that had three or four healthy plants, when I transplanted them, I separated them out, and they have basically explode! Look at my before after. After that they will seed and re-propogate themselves for next year.

With Herbs the only bad thing you can do is water them too much, their basically weeds, so let them be. Also, dont be shy about harvesting them, the more you pick off, the more they produce, and if they flower, be sure to snap the flower heads of to ensure your plant will continue to grow fragrant leaves. Allow them to flower at the end of the season so they will seed for next year.

HEALI absolutely love picking fresh herbs while I have simmering pot on the stove, especially when it raining. Recently I got another sinus infection, and Herbs soup really helps. Chicken broth, thyme, chives, parsley, cilantro, mint, lemon, and garlic clear out my sinuses good, help me sleep and has gotten me better on many occasions. Some herbs you can eat straight up, but some like rosemary, I use an tea infuser because the leaves themselves are brittle and uncomfortable to eat.

SPICE. you can use basil, oregano, chives, cilantro, and thyme in a variety of foods, omletts, pizza, seafood. Lemon, ment, rosmary, catnip, and lavendar are a lttle less used but really hit the spot in some dishes. Once you go fresh, those little spinny shelves of pre-packaged herbs stored fresh in God only knows what year seem like a sick joke.

SOOTHE. I can get a sprig of rosmary and put in my tea, or put a some lavendar blooms in my bath, it's amazing how wonderfullly potent a fresh herb can be.