Garlic & Onions Sprouting

I've been watering my garden every morning and watching its progress.

onions (left) garlic (right)

I planted carrots, onions and garlic a couple weeks ago and their sprouting finally. The garlic was pretty immediate, I'd say about three days after I planted I started to see the sprouts emerge. The onions finally starting the other day, but I have yet to see any carrots make their debut. I'm sure they'll come along eventually. I see where some gardeners in the area have leaves already, but I bet they planted earlier than I did.

The greens are coming along nicely. The seeds scattered a little more than I would have liked, but I think most of the seeds took. There may be a few that aren't doing so well, like the spicy mesclun mix. There are a couple of those, but not so many as the other mesclun mix had, and it was the same size packet.

The butter lettuce looks pretty good and so does the romaine. In the past I haven't had much luck with head lettuces. They always wither away. I think maybe I wasn't spacing and thinning like I should. This year, I've thinned quite a bit. Which, to me is hard. They all look so wonderful and to pull it out and toss it seems wrong, but in order for one to live, the other has to go.

Mesclun mix

So, it's for the best, but not my favorite part of planting.

Upstairs, with my seedling sprouts, I have tried to transplant the extra seedlings, instead of throw them out. It's been working pretty great and I haven't lost one yet. I noticed in most of my pepper seedlings there were two, healthy sprouts growing side by side. So, I pulled one out ever so gently, and place it in a small hole in another cup that didn't sprout. I'd water it and make sure it was snug in the soil, then leave. When I came back the next day, it was perky and seemed to have taken hold. So, I'm glad I tried that because I wasn't sure if it would work.

Here in a couple weeks, I'll update you on the progress of the garden. Soon, it will be time to plant the summer garden and this year we are changing things up a bit.  Instead of using and entire garden bed for tomatoes and peppers, we've decided to build individual beds for each tomato plant, that way we can space them out around the yard and they will get plenty of airflow and 360 degree sunlight. Last year, because we had such a problem with blight, we almost lost all of our tomato plants. One major reason it affected our plants so much was because they were crammed so closely together. We didn't want to build an entire garden bed because we don't have the space for one plot of land to be dedicated solely to tomatoes. So we had the idea to separate them out. It's going to be some extra work, but hopefully will pay off in the end.

Around the garden I'm noticing some volunteers popping up. Cilantro is all over the place. I have been pulling it, just because I plan to plant some this fall. Last year, I planted cilantro in the spring but then it took up too much space because I was trying to collect the seeds. It worked, it just took a lot longer and more room than I expected. If you want cilantro to come back every year, just find a nice plot of land, maybe 5 feet by 5 feet and plant a packet of cilantro. Harvest it as needed but leave the plants in the ground. Let it do its thing. It will continue to bolt, drop seeds and grow new plants. Then, even the next year, it will start to pop back up. Pretty much all herbs are this way. I just need a permanent spot to put them all so I can just let them go. This is when I miss living in the country on a couple acres.  My rosemary and thyme both came back this year, so I won't have to plant them again. Just more if I want more, which I think I do.

I've been finding a lot of arugula, too. I planted that last fall and didn't do anything with it really. I don't really like arugula, I planted it because Ryan likes it. But, I'm not sure this variety was what he was hoping for. I've let it continue to grow because it looks healthy and like it should taste good, but it's always been too peppery for me. Around it, you can see the butter lettuces have been doing well. and the rosemary is back in the corner, still here from last year.

A Month Later...

It's been about a month since I last posted. So that means, it's also been a month since I planted fall crops.

Lots of tomatoes, but also a dead squash plant

The good news is that the tomato plants we have left are producing a second round of beautiful fruit. I'm thinking that because it's fall and there are tons of nuts and other things for the squirrels to put away, they aren't as focused on the garden. I did see one out there nibbling on a few green tomatoes so I grabbed my Halloween dummy and threw him out in the garden. I think he's making a sufficient "scarecrow" and haven't seen any more furry friends out there pilfering my goodies.

The various greens we planted are sprouting and beginning to grow. The cilantro is the most surprising crop yet. We harvested our own coriander from our spring cilantro crop, so I didn't have to buy seeds and used my own. I have to admit, I was pretty skeptical they were going to do anything. But, a couple days after everything else started sprouting, up came little cilantro sprouts.

The only thing about our garden this fall is that we planted on a day that was followed by a stormy night. It was a pretty powerful storm, too and had high winds and hail. We planted some crops in rows and others broadcast method, but because of the storm the seeds just kind of ended up all over the place.  So I'm just kind of watering the entire bed and watching sprouts pop up randomly.

Sprouts

The squash bugs ended up killing our butternut squash plant, but not before we could harvest at least eight big, beautiful squash. There were about four more on the vine that could have used another month to season on the vine, but the bugs got the plant first. I started noticing them about six weeks ago. I guess Ryan started noticing the eggs on the bottom of the leaf much sooner, but wasn't sure what he was seeing. The bugs took over quickly and started killing off the plant one leaf at a time. Pretty soon it was every leaf. It was kind of sad to witness. But we weren't too unhappy since we were able to get quite a few squash from it.

The cantaloupe plant was killed by the squash bugs, too I think. The same kind of thing happened with it, although I never really saw squash bugs on that plant. Something happened because the last cantaloupe was small and the vine died before I picked it.

The tomatoes are hanging on, though. The blight is still there, but, because it's not so hot and humid any more the fungus isn't spreading. I think we'll actually get some if we can keep the squirrels at bay.

Squash bugs taking over my plant!

I also think I could get one more harvest from my herbs, maybe two. The basil is starting to flower, (I picked off the first round of flowering so the plants wouldn't die yet), and the sage is, too but it's also starting to get yellow. The thyme still looks great, same with the rosemary. I'll cut a bunch today or tomorrow and dry it all for sauces and cooking through the winter. I love fresh herbs, but dry ones last longer. And that way I can use my dehydrator again.

Garden Update

The north bed. This is the Sunpeach plant.

It's been about a month since I last posted and that's because our tomatoes aren't doing the best. This morning I ripped up the north bed, even though there was new growth and possible tomatoes to come because the blight wasn't too far behind. My logic was why wait for a few small tomatoes to hopefully ripen when I could go ahead and get started on some greens and lettuces for the fall.

Over the past month I've been trying to save these tomato plants but nothing seems to work. It's been a rainy and humid year, so the blight just spreads no matter what. I did slow it down, but then the squirrels arrived. In less than a day all of our green, almost ready to ripen tomatoes were stolen from their vines and eaten by rude, thieves. So now, there are new tomatoes beginning but their branches are full of blight and by the time they ripen they will be half rotten anyway. So I pulled the plants. It was hard to do, but something that needed to be done.

The south bed is doing a little bit better in regards to blight.

Squash bugs!

There are small amounts of it on the bottoms of the plants, but I've given up pulling those leaves. Now I've been using that Fertilome spray, which seems to affect the insects and other wildlife very minimally. I tried spraying it on some squash bugs and they seemed unbothered by it, even a few hours later. So that's a good sign, except those bugs are still there, I guess.

The butternut squash is still growing baby squash and right now we have at least eight fully grown squash we are letting age a bit on the vine so we can store them overwinter. We

South bed. 

have a minor problem with some squash bugs, but now that Ryan knows what they are and what their eggs look like (little black dots on the underside of squash leaves, usually in perfect little rows) we can combat them. But right now, our squash plant is going crazy so a few bugs won't hurt. We just can't let them get out of control.

Good sized muskmelon

I picked our first cantaloupe last week. The excess rain this year helped that one right along. Our muskmelon was sweet, juicy and the texture was just perfect, not like store bought. It was a pretty good size, too. There are three or four more out on the vine, but that last one is gonna be small. That's okay though, I'm still excited for it. Sometimes smaller fruit is better.

Over the past couple weeks Ryan and I have been trying to preserve as much food as we can. My mother's friend Annie has an apple tree that her family can't pick because they have disabilities and can't go climb a ladder and pick the apples, so we do it. This year we got nine crates of apples. I am not sure what kind of apples they are, but I do know they make great apple sauce and apple butter.

I've also taken up pickling. A lady Ryan works with brought a bunch (like a LOT) of cucumbers to
work for whoever so Ryan brought them home and I pickled them. I did whole dill, spears and chips as well as some bread and butter pickles. I added some red pepper and chilis to a few of the jars in hopes those will be spicy. After the brine cooled it smelled spicy, so there is hope.

The dill recipe I found is simple and it's actually made for dilling green tomatoes but I figured it Sean Brock's Heritage, and the recipe is Dilled Green Tomatoes on page 230. If anyone is interested in this recipe, please ask. I'll send it to you.

could work on pickles, too. And it did. I pulled out a jar at a party a couple weeks ago and everyone said they were good on their pulled pork sandwiches. I plan to use them for catering in the upcoming months when we do pulled pork buffets. I think that will be a nice touch to our catering, don't you? Here's the book I got the recipe from:

So, although I've been a canning fool, none of that stuff has actually come from my own garden. Our tomatoes were stolen, the ones that weren't were killed by a nasty fungus and we haven't gotten enough of anything else to can. It's a little depressing but I feel like we will be prepared for next year. At least, as prepared as we can be!

In other news, I was on Facebook last night and saw a friend who posted a picture of a pressure cooker, never used for $50. Originally $100. I jumped on that! Brought it home last night and figured out it can be used as a cooker or a pressure canner! Steal! I can now plan a garden next year and not worry about if I have the equipment to can it all. Now I do! I think Ryan and I are going to mess around with canning beans, soup and other stuff like that. Stay tuned!

Sad News

The blight has taken another plant. I had to get rid of the 'Sweeties' plant the other day when I noticed it wasn't producing new growth, and most of the tomatoes that were previously growing had stopped. The stems were turning brown and I decided it was time to let it go.

I sprayed the Fertilome again last Thursday. There were new blight spots but it wasn't spreading like before. It's been rainy, so I haven't been able to spray it again, but I plan to maybe do it this afternoon. The fungus has slowed down but it hasn't stopped. I think it's just a humid, rainy year and we planted our tomatoes too close together. Next year we will hopefully have better luck.

Our peach tree has exploded, on the other hand. It's giving us tender, sweet fruit that I can't get enough of. Some of them have been eaten by worms but not so bad they can't be salvaged. I'll just have to be careful and cut out the parts that are worm-eaten. Some of the ones that have fallen on the

ground had somewhat moldy pits, but I've only found a couple like that. I've read where that could be the result of too much rain, but who knows? If you do, please comment below.

I plan to can a bunch of peaches, freeze some and eat even more fresh. I may even make a peach pie or cobbler.

The tomatoes are still coming, I'm just not getting as many as I had hoped. I think that is because the plants are too close and they weren't allowed to spread out. Also, I read where pruning the plants of the suckers helps the plants focus on fruiting instead of producing leaves and stems. I didn't start doing that until later on. Also, the blight seems to be slowing down the process and I only get one good harvest from a plant before the blight takes over completely and I lose the plant.

I've lost two plants completely but two others that were affected are producing new growth. That's a good sign, I think, but I'm not sure either will give me any more tomatoes. One of those plants was the 'Black From Tula' and it had  some big, beautiful, red and blackish tomatoes but squirrels got to them. I went out to pick them and they had already been torn apart from those furry little robbers. I hope they enjoyed them! Next time I won't try to let big tomatoes like that vine-ripen.

Although we've had some problems, it's all a learning experience. I'm having a lot of fun figuring things out, researching and getting my hands dirty. I feel like I can only get better and that makes me excited for next year. I think I'm going to try to get some seeds going inside on my own this year. Ryan and I also have plans to expand our garden and spread it out a bunch. I think I'm going to move my herb garden and plant more of a variety. I love drying them and cooking with them because the flavors are much fresher that way.

I'm excited to get canning this year. Peaches will be first and I'm hoping I'll have enough tomatoes for canning. If not, I plan to get some from the farmers market or maybe friends who have too many. The families I've gotten produce from in the past had way too much rain this year and not enough luck. My mom's friend has an apple tree that will be ready in the upcoming weeks, so I'll have some apples, too. Can't wait!

Using Fertilome For Blight

I decided to use an organic fungicide to help with the blight. It was taking over every plant it touched and Ryan and I didn't want it to go any further. We decided we would rather use a fungicide than lose all of our hard work to a stupid spore. I went to Jackson's Greenhouse and asked for help.

New growth on my 'Chef's Choice' orange
tomato plants that had lots of blight

You can see where the leaves died where
they were affected with blight

The lady there directed me to a product called Fertilome. She said it wasn't organic, but I did some research and the chemicals used in the product are considered organic. She kept telling me I had a bug problem from what she could see in my photos. But, I tried telling her I had talked to a few different people about it and I'd done a lot of research and she wouldn't listen. I finally showed her my original photo of the blight and she changed her tune and said maybe she was wrong. Duh.

Well, I bought the fungicide and a pH tool. I am going to take in a cup of soil for Jackson's to test for me since they do it for free. I thought free was better than spending $20 on the kit myself, but I haven't made it back because I've been busy. I have plans to take the soil in tomorrow and I will let you know what I find out.

The butternut squash is growing along the fence quickly

When I got home, I mixed up some of the fungicide with water as the bottle directed, then put it in a spray bottle. The directions say to lightly spray the affected leaves, but not so much that the leaves drip. I lightly misted all the affected plants, and tried not to breathe in the chemicals. Although they are organic chemicals, they are still chemicals and should be treated as such.

I sprayed three days ago. The photos here are taken today, three days after the application of the fungicide. I feel like it worked. The leaves that had blight on them are now brown and shriveled, as if the fungicide killed the blight, but also killed the leaf in the process. But, the stems don't seem to look any different and there is new growth on the top of the plants. Also, the blight hasn't spread like it had been before. Last week, before the Fertilome, I noticed entire branches overcome in only a day or two. Now, it's a spot here and there and mostly on the tips of the leaves. I feel like it's been a success so far, but still have to wait and see what happens.

Coriander hanging in the basement

I was scared of using the fungicide because I read online that some bugs would die as a result. Ugh, that was my biggest hesitation in using the fungicide, but I also read that it was only in the first 24 hours that it would kill bugs, so I tried to make it so when bees were out and around, it would be the last 12 hours of the 24. So, I sprayed it on around 6 p.m. when I hardly see any bees or other bugs around. Also, I've been out to the garden and there are still tons of insects buzzing around, so it must not have done too much damage. I'm not sure, and it's hard to tell. But it is something I think about and try to affect as little as possible. I read where you can cover your plants with a sheet or some other cover for 24 hours, then remove them.

The butternut squash and the musk melon plants are doing well. The butternut has vined out and we have 2-3 small squash and one big one so far. There are a bunch of flowers, too, so it must be doing well. The muskmelon is producing, too. We have at least two melons, one of them is a bit bigger than the other. That plant is growing up the fence, too, and there are many possibilities for fruit to appear. The lakota squash isn't doing much and neither is the zucchini. Hopefully, after we get the soil tested at Jackson's, we can get those turned around.

I went ahead and harvested the coriander. Some of it was still green and seems to be taking forever to turn brown. But, some of it is brown, so I decided to cut it all and hang it downstairs and see what happens. There is so much of it, I'm sure it will be ok if it all doesn't turn brown, but from the plants I hung last week, it seems like they will all eventually turn brown. 

Now that we have a blank spot in the garden, Ryan and I are going to save the spot for fall planting. We want to do more greens and lettuces. So for the time being, we are going to leave it alone. 

Once a week I've been feeding all of the plants in the garden the seaweed fertilizer Ryan bought at Jackson's. For some reason it was hard for us to find this stuff anywhere. It's available online, but hard to find in the stores and nonexistent at stores like Lowe's or Home Depot. All they have is Miracle Grow. There are all kinds of brands, but the one we are using is called Maxicrop Liquid Seaweed. I hear that fish emulsions work just as well. Our 'Tumbling Toms' plant on our front porch was looking pretty sad and had stopped producing any fruit. I poured this on it and by the next week there were three new branches with blooms on them. It's been almost three weeks since the first time I put any on it and I've gotten 3-4 tomatoes off of it and there are even more to come. I definitely recommend getting some of this if your garden seems a little puny. This is much better than Miracle Grow, and the results are immediate. It's a little pricey, but worth the price, I think. You add one ounce to a gallon of water and I did about an ounce between the two garden beds and a quart on the 'Tumbling Toms' and the rest of my flowers on the front porch. It works on those, too, in case you're wondering.

I plan to keep using the seaweed once a week and I may spray one more time for blight. I think after that, if I continue to water carefully, I won't have to worry about the blight. At least I hope.

Our Struggles With Blight

So the blight did not go away.

We had to sacrifice our 'Early Girl' plant and may have to get rid of the 'Chef's Choice' orange ones. It's very sad and depressing, really. I'm scared the rest of my plants are going to get infected so we started to make some hard decisions.

The stems on my pepper plants were turning black

Blight on my pepper plants' leaves

Ryan and I decided to also get rid of our bell pepper plants and jalapeno plants because they were overcome with blight, also. The stems were even starting to turn black, which I read HERE is sign of late blight, which is even harder to get rid of and can even kill your entire crop in a matter of days. That scared me, so I wanted to rip those out as soon as I could. It was a hard decision, but we felt like it was the best one.

I've been able to prune off the small bits of blight from all my other tomato plants, but I'm scared the 'Black From Tula' may be on its way out, but it has tons of fruit on it right now. I think tomorrow I'm going to check out Jackson's Greenhouse and talk to the people who work there and see if there is something I can do. I really want to keep the garden organic, but I've read about how there are organic solutions. I was not wanting to use any chemicals, but I guess I'm gonna have to if I want to save these plants.

One of my many harvests.

In order to keep the plants from touching so much, we've started to direct each plant's growth out, away from the other plants. Now that the pepper plants are gone, we have room to walk back into the garden and mess around with the plants. Next year, we definitely need to space things out a bit more so we can do that on a regular basis. Being able to view your plants from all angles is important. One I wish I would have been told before starting this endeavor.

Overall, I'm happy with the garden. If we can get this blight under control we should have plenty of tomatoes for canning, BLTs, salads and even some to share with family and friends. Every tomato I've tasted has been amazing, and I can't wait for more. Tonight, we just cut our first 'Black From Tula' and it was juicy, meaty and robust. The 'Early Girl' tomatoes have been sweet, but smaller than I'd hoped and packed full of flavor. The 'Sunpeach' has been one of my favorites. It's peach colored and sweet, meaty and bursting with juice.

A variety of tomatoes from the garden.

The couple zucchini we've picked are flavorful and the texture has been good. But, as you can see from the photo above, the ends are kind of withered and I found where it may be blossom end rot, which occurs because of calcium deficiency. There have been a couple other zucchini where the end was more mushy and looked like it was rotting off.

I have a bunch of eggshells so I'll probably go throw those on there to start off. But first I'm going to test my soil. While I'm at Jackson's I'll ask about a soil testing kit or meter. I found that Ace Hardware has one for $15.

I ordered a food dehydrator on Amazon last week and it should be here tomorrow. We plan to dry many of our cherry and grape tomatoes with it. We have plenty for a first batch this weekend. I'll post my experience here.

Taking Care of Blight

I chose the perfect day to prune my tomato plants. It's been 70 degrees and cloudy. I got lucky.

Next year I really need to remember to plant my crops further apart. I definitely didn't give any of them enough room to spread out and really grow. I have a squash plant wrapping itself around a tomato plant, and tomato plants intertwining so much I can't tell which plant is which. Not to mention, you can see the path of the blight.

Before

After reading up about blight, I've found that it takes touching leaves and lots of water to spread the spores quickly, and you could definitely tell by looking at my plants, the path the blight traveled.

I lost most of my "Early Girl" plant because it's in the back, I couldn't see it very well, and by the time I noticed the blight for what it was, it had spread through most of the plant. Luckily, the branches that held most of the ripening fruit weren't affected, but pretty much all of the other branches were sacrificed. Our "Early Girl" is now a Naked Girl. I think we should still be able to get the remaining fruit from the plant, but I'm not sure how much more it will produce. Hopefully I was able to save it and it will continue to produce a bunch of tomatoes.

Because the "Early Girl" is next to the "Black From Tula's" and the "Orange Chef's" Choice, those

After

two plants lost the second-most of all my plants. Also, the "Sweeties" needed some minor pruning at the base of the plant, and when I did that I found a bunch of fruit I didn't know was even there. As you can see from the photos, I took off a lot of leaves, but I didn't lose much fruit. There is still some low-hanging fruit on the "Sweeties" so I left them there. Also, this plant only had minor blight, and I mulched heavily in hopes to prevent future blight outbreaks. If that fruit wasn't there, I would have cut all of that off at the base and probably still will once those tomatoes are ready to pick.

I went ahead and pruned my other tomato plants in the other garden bed to the south. There were minor signs of blight, but nothing like the north bed, but I still wanted to prune to prevent any blight from happening in the future. I went up about a foot of the plant, trying to think about how water splashes when I water. I also mulched that bed heavily, making sure to spread the straw away from the base of the plant a bit to prevent rot or pest from showing up.

The future plan is to get some soaker hoses set up and get them connected to our rain barrels. That's going to take some work, though, so it probably won't happen tomorrow. Soon, though.