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Entry bubble Vegetable Garden Dreams

By: Joanne | January 19, 2010 | Category: Home and Family

three open pea podsI’ve got a serious case of cabin fever. I’m exhibiting all the classic signs – flannel PJ’s, making soup, organizing, re-arranging furniture and seed shopping. There’s something comforting about looking through garden catalogs with their beautiful photos of people working in the garden, bountiful harvests, and flowers in bloom. I want my garden to be green and bountiful too!

I love to play in the dirt, I love fresh vegetables, and I can’t wait to start planting. Last night I had a hard time putting the seed catalog down. I couldn’t decide what variety of butternut squash to plant. My husband would prefer no squash, but it won’t kill him to eat a few – in fact, it’ll be good for him.

I have two catalogs that I order from every year where I can find heirloom and organic seeds. There are so many sources for seeds, and I’m always on the lookout for new sources of seeds and plants, so if you’ve got any great suggestions let me know. There’s still time for me to get my hands on a catalog.

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Entry bubble Protecting Your Garden from Pests

By: Joanne | June 02, 2009 | Category: Home and Family

flowers, potatoes, carrots

Back in March I was so excited to get my garden started. I had the highest of ambitions. But let’s just say that my garden got a little later start than I had hoped, ok? Over the last few weeks I’ve been working like crazy in the garden. I planted tomatoes, beets, kale, peas, cucumbers, spinach, chard, lettuce, and 3 different kinds of happy sunflowers. I have yet to plant the pumpkins and decorative gourds, but I’ll get there.

I always have some plants, like marigolds, in the garden just because they’re beneficial companions to my veggies and help keep the insects away. I don’t use chemical fertilizers, herbicides or insecticides in my garden, and it’s been my experience that everything grows very well without all that stuff. Even the time I found that very large, very hungry caterpillar lunching on my tomato plants was no big deal. I just picked him up with a stick and took him for a little walk to the woods where there are plenty of delicious leaves for him to enjoy.

The Department of Agriculture has some tips on plants that deter harmful insects, and there are a number of excellent books on the topic – many of which I’m sure are available at your local library. The National Arboretum has advice on chemical and non-chemical garden pest management tips and let’s not forget that the National Agricultural Library isn’t just for big farms, but they have information and advice for backyard gardeners, like us.

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Entry bubble Ready? Set? Garden!

By: Joanne | March 24, 2009 | Category: Home and Family

three open pea podsThere’s something special about March, and I’m not talking about college basketball. March is when I start gardening. I ordered seeds before I left for South by Southwest Interactive and they arrived while I was gone. Now I’m home and eager to get dirty.

It’s still too cold to plant most things, but I can start seeds indoors, go out and turn some manure into the soil, and I can also plant that half pound of snap peas. Can you believe I plant a half pound of peas and never have any to freeze? My kids devour them.

You should think about planting some veggies this spring. If you don’t have much space, or if digging is a problem, you can do amazing things with container gardens. My mother has great luck with tomato plants in big flower pots on the side of her house.

We all know that growing your own vegetables is a tasty and nutritious hobby, but it also saves energy because your food doesn’t have to travel hundreds of miles in a truck to reach your table, it saves money, and you get some fresh air and exercise. Another benefit is that when you grow your own food, you know where it came from. In these days of industrial food factories, and processing, and salmonella, and E. coli, I like to control the safety of my food.

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Entry bubble Grow Your Own Food

By: Joanne | July 22, 2008 | Category: Home and Family

wet, red tomatoLast week I stared in disbelief at the grocery store cash register. With the way prices are rising, I feel like all my disposable income goes to gas and groceries. I’m sick of the price of food going up, up, up and all the while it seems like there is constantly some sort of warning or recall about certain foods in the grocery stores. I know that the USDA and FDA are doing their best to keep things safe for us, but I think that this is the nature of industrialized food production in our country.

That’s why I’ve been making an effort lately to grow my own food and buy locally produced foods when I can. Even if you don’t have a big garden, there’s still a lot that you can do. We’re entering the height of summer produce season, when our farmers markets are full of beautiful, fresh fruits and veggies.

Preserving your own food gives you control over safety, quality and overall tastiness of your food.

I canned pickled beets from the garden this weekend, and we’ve got 30 jars of wild black raspberry jelly and 10-15 raspberry pies and cobblers in the freezer. Do you know how wonderful it is to have a fresh-baked berry cobbler in January? I do : ) Sweet corn’s just coming into season and soon I’ll have a giant pot of corn chowder on the stove that I’ll freeze and we’ll enjoy all winter long. When my garden is overflowing with tomatoes I’ll make tomato sauce and can whole tomatoes.

See? There’s really not much to it, but giving it a little effort pays a delicious return later. Give it a try. In the long run, you’ll save money on groceries and have wholesome, convenient food at hand, too.

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Entry bubble Tomato Planting Time!

By: Joanne | June 03, 2008 | Category: Home and Family

tomato tepees in the gardenHow’s your garden coming along? I’m going to be really devoted to my garden this year and hopefully it will help me save some money. I almost went into shock in the checkout aisle of the grocery store this weekend. The price of food is so crazy that I feel like it’s worth my while more than ever to grow my own food and become a thrifty meal planner. One of my favorite foods to grow is tomatoes. They’re not only one of my fresh summer favorites, but they’re pretty easy to can and use all year long.

This weekend I planted two varieties of heirloom tomato plants. There’s nothing like a home-grown tomato still warm from the sun, and this year I’ll grow my tomatoes on tepees. Yes, tomato tepees. In the past I’ve tried to support my tomatoes with stakes, cages, cages and stakes and every year it’s the same thing—the plants get big and heavy and fall over. I hope the tepees will help keep the plants under control, and I think they’ll also be a great use of vertical growing space.

In concept, it seems quite simple: take three 1 inch stakes that are 10 feet long, lash them together with some twine and form a triangle with the posts, so each post is about 3 feet apart. Instead of buying posts, I saved a few bucks and cut some bamboo from a friend’s yard.

What’s the worst that could happen? If the plants fall over, I’ll be no worse off than if I used the cages. I think of this as an experiment and if it doesn’t work I’ll try something different next year. What works for you?

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