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.

Spring Planting 2016

It's finally Spring, which means it's time to plant my early garden. This year, I kind of know what to expect, so I am planting a little earlier than last year, and I'm planting more. I know last year I didn't know what I was doing, so I only did one packet of mesclun mix, but we loved it so much I did two this time. I have half a packet of spinach and half a package of butter lettuce, as well as some micro greens.

I planted around nine rows, with a couple of them only half planted because I ran out of seeds. That's OK though, I would rather not have too much.

I also only planted the north bed, leaving the south bed empty until next month when I plant carrots, garlic and a few other things. I'm switching it up this year because last Fall I realized the types of things I wanted to can and decided to try to grow those things. For example, I pickled a bunch of cucumbers, which needed garlic and dill. So, I am planning to plant garlic and dill, as well as a few cucumber plants.

I need to get some garlic and onion bulbs because I decided not to start my own seeds. I think I would have needed to start them already and I am starting some seeds this year, but I don't have much confidence in them as this is just a trial run.

The seeds I started I got at a seed exchange in Lawrence a couple weeks ago. It was great. I took some of my coriander from last year's cilantro crop and left them on the "Herbs" table. I brought my own small ziploc baggies and went around to all the different tables and got the seeds I thought I'd use. It was a pretty cool event because I got most of the seeds I need for my garden this year. If I was going to start my own tomato seeds I could have gotten those, too, but I didn't have the confidence. I will probably get those at the Topeka Farmers Market

like I did last year.

Ryan went to one of our neighbors for compost. He lives a few blocks away, and we met him at the farmers market last spring. We bought a couple gallons of compost from him last year and he told us where he lives and invited us to come by there whenever we should need compost. So, we do, and it's pretty cheap. We pay like $5 for a five-gallon bucket of charcoal-infused compost that is so rich and soft, it's so worth it. I started my seeds in it, and I mounded it up in my garden beds in rows and planted my seeds in it, too.

Whenever I use his compost, everything always grows so fast and strong, so I have confidence in that. I just hope my seeds get enough direct sunlight and warmth so they have enough energy to grow. I've been setting the container out on my porch the past couple days and that seems to help them sprout.

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.

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.

Greens, Tomatoes and Herbs

Today, Ryan and I harvested our first collard greens and kale.

We only have one plant of each item, but I feel like we can still get a good amount off each plant. I read where you can harvest the outer leaves and they will grow back three leaves every five days. Ryan was skeptical, but I reminded him of how fresh garden produce is and not to compare to grocery store produce. The stuff in the store is already a few days, if not a few weeks, old by the time

Top layer is kale, bottom layer is collard greens

it makes it to the consumer's kitchen. We can store the greens up until we have enough to make something. It should only take two, maybe three harvests.

The garden is coming along nicely. I am seeing small, green tomatoes on most of the plants. I haven't seen any on the Lemon Boys, but those are a late harvest anyway. I've seen tons of blossoms on the Black From Tula, but haven't seen any tomatoes, yet. The Early Girls are getting bigger and any day now we will have multiple fruits off that plant.

Yesterday, I ate my first tomato sandwich of the season with some Early Girls I'd let ripen by the window. I've been picking the tomatoes when they are a light orangey-red color, then I set them by a sunny window and let them redden up. It frees up the plant to put energy into other fruit this way, plus, I've heard from gardeners that tomatoes don't get anything from the plant after the white to orange stage. Either way, it's worked for me so far. They don't seem to get any bigger so, why not?

I also picked a bunch of basil yesterday, and thyme. It helps the plants to bush out and produce more this blog and enjoyed reading the writer's experiences with failing at basil. I would rather read and learn from someone else's mistakes, so I figured you would, too, since you're reading this blog. In regards to the flowers, I've been picking mine off of my basil plants, so that I can keep harvesting. I didn't realize that's what I was supposed to do, and think maybe that's why it's dying off a bit. I'll try to get rid of all the flowers and see what happens. I need to harvest much more of it so maybe it will bush out.

stems with more herbs if you cut the plants regularly. I cut the basil from the top, down, about 1&1/2 inches.  I found

I noticed that with the pineapple sage it's bushed out a bunch. I did cut a substantial amount from it a few times now, so that proves cutting down herbs encourages growth.

I've only cut some thyme, but it's grown a lot, too. The rosemary is growing tall and has a couple extra branches that weren't there before -- I started with one, single stalk.

The cilantro has begun to produce small, green seeds where the white flowers used to be. Only a few flowers have begun to turn, but I bet the rest are quick behind them. I read where you can harvest them green for one flavor, and dry them out for a completely different flavor. The plan is to try both ways and compare, then let you know the findings.

More tomatoes and other things to plant

I went to the Topeka Farmers Market this weekend and bought six more tomato plants. Now that we've harvested the spinach and greens three times, and it's getting hotter, we decided to replace those crops with more tomatoes, squash and greens.

In addition to six more tomato plants, we got kale, collard greens, Lakota squash, zucchini,

New additions

muskmelon, acorn squash and butternut squash. One of our neighbors has a booth at the market and he gave us a great deal on the plants and threw in a couple for free so we picked the Lakota and the muskmelon. We weren't necessarily planning to plant these things but because of our recent success, we have become slightly addicted to growing our own food. We thought, if we could grow that other stuff, why not this stuff?

Back to the tomatoes. We got six different types, because we just couldn't get the same kinds we already have. We want to try many different varieties, and we were able to find some so that worked out for us well. I tried searching all the varieties on the Tomato Chooser app, but they weren't all on there. I'm not sure what that means, but I still bought varieties that weren't on the app because the lady selling them did a good job. Below is a list and a description of each variety of tomato we picked.

Cherokee Purple -- a medium-sized slicer that turns a dark purple but lighter-colored at the stem.

Sunrise Bumblebee -- a yellow to red cherry tomato. These vary in color on the inside and the outside and are sweet.

Lemon Boy -- a medium-sized yellow tomato. I believe we got some of these from some friends last year and they a late maturing, and will be ready after most other tomato plants are done for the season. We canned a lot of them and that seemed to be a great storage method for this type of tomato.

Pink Tiger -- an elongated cherry tomato, these look like their namesake, with tiger-like stripes on the little fruits. I really want to get a dehydrator and do sun-dried tomatoes, the Tomato Chooser app says this variety is best dried.

Sunpeach -- This kind is another cherry tomato. The descriptions say it's a sweeter, less acidic cherry tomato.

Brandywine Burgundy -- this tomato is a sister of the brandywine tomato. It's going to be a dark purple slicer that could grow as large as 1 lb.

Tumbling toms

We also bought a hanging basket of Tumbling Tom tomatoes. They looked pretty healthy and like the plant would yield a lot, and this plant already had a bunch of red fruit on it. We picked some for dinner tonight on our fresh garden greens. I ate a couple and they are sweet, juicy and a little meaty.

I look forward to planting these new plants in our garden and even more to them growing. Gardening has proven to be exciting and fruitful -- literally!

The tomatoes we planted a couple weeks ago are coming along nicely. The Early Girls are producing new fruit daily, and there is one tomato starting to turn orange/red. The other plants are flowering, which means fruit is coming soon.

The basil I planted by seed is coming up and thriving. The pineapple sage has doubled in size and the

My herb container with a variety of basil, pineapple
sage and thyme.

Siam Queen basil is coming along nicely, too. I started pulling off the purple flowers to promote new, bushy growth at the base of the plant and it worked. I have a few new shoots coming off with new leaves that will probably end up in dinner one night.

A couple days ago, I added some plant food to my soil around the tomato plants. It's been a few weeks and I felt like they needed some food. The leaves were turning yellow on our pepper plants, but ever since I fed them, they've greened back up again. So, I must have done something right!

Farmers Market: Rosemary and Lavender

Today, Ryan and I got up early and headed to the Topeka Farmers Market for breakfast and herbs. I also bought a few flowers for my hanging pots on my front porch. I figured it was better to buy from local farmers than from Wal-Mart. The people I bought my plants from told me they don't use pesticides and they also grow all their own grasses for their chickens and ducks. So, I know I can trust the plants I buy for my organic, pesticide-free garden.

Rosemary

I remember a lady I bought thyme from a couple weeks ago and went to find her because I knew she had more herbs and I remembered they all looked healthy. She had anything you could think of -- sage, rosemary, thyme, basil and much more. I was there for lavender and rosemary, specifically, but I learned much more about her business.

Lavender

The business is David's Herbs, and it's family owned and operated. The woman and her husband and son-in-law run the business, and they all work together out of Perry, Kansas. The guy I was talking to said they are willing to answer questions about growing herbs, and if I had any problem with bugs I could send them photos and they would help me diagnose/fix the problem. That's awesome, especially for people who are new to this like me. The farmers market always has such great resources, and that's why I always return, and I always talk to the people I'm buying plants from. Most of the time, they're willing to help you out. They want their products to grow well for you so you'll come back next year, so usually, they'll answer your questions.

My aunt told me rosemary is great for repelling mosquitoes, so I thought that was a great idea because I have noticed a lot of mosquitoes around the garden. I bought two plants and put them in the far north and far south corners. That soil is well-drained and can be watered less than the other plants in the beds. I've read where rosemary is a great potted plant, and that also makes it easier to move indoors when the temperature gets below freezing.

Pineapple sage

I got lavender because I read the flowers attract honey bees, but also because I enjoy lavender and thought I'd try to grow my own. Plus, there seem to be tons of benefits from the plant and the oil you can get from it. I bought two different kinds, one is a taller variety and the other is more like a bush. I don't know which is which because I got to talking to the guy about duck eggs and other things he has to sell and forgot to make sure which was which. I planted the lavender in the middle of the beds on the far south and the far north sides of my beds. Just like the rosemary, I put them by the outer edge, so the soil is better drained than other other plants. Plus, it's out of the way so it can be watered less.

Basil sprouts

I also planted some pineapple sage, which is some amazing smelling stuff. I can't wait for it to grow and produce so I can use it on some pork or something. If you rub the leaves, it produces such a sweet pineapple smell, I couldn't believe it. I had to get some, so I did, even though it wasn't in the plan. I put it in the bed where I already have basil and thyme growing. It's a big pot and I can always transplant, which I'll probably have to do this fall.

I noticed that I have some basil sprouting, but only the custom version. The Dolce vita blend is not sprouting, yet. I'm thinking that squirrel might have gotten some of the seeds. He didn't get them all, though, for which I'm thankful. I can't wait to see it get bigger, then use it with some fresh tomatoes. I'm pretty excited about the food we are going to be eating this summer thanks to our organic garden. It's exciting watching everything grow, but even more so harvesting and eating everything. I know next year we will be having a bigger garden.

Lots of Rain Makes Big, Leafy Spinach

I didn't think we would be harvesting our spinach quite yet, but, it was definitely time. We could have let it go for a few more days, but we can already tell there have been a few bugs in our garden and we decided the longer we left the spinach there, the more they could eat instead of us. I don't know much about growing spinach, but I do know that it tastes amazing! It's better than the stuff I usually buy at the supermarket, too.

I read in a couple places that you can cut your spinach, feed it, water it and it will grow back. Here's one article I used, http://goo.gl/8OXJo2. Only, they say, it won't be as sweet the second time. That's OK. I intend to try it out and see what happens. This is an experiment so, what the hay? I'll try it. So we cut the entire plant off, but I think we may have cut them a little close to the ground. When I went back and re-read some of the articles I was using, I noticed it said 2-3 inches above the soil... oops. This article, http://goo.gl/8cKYot, says to only cut the outer leaves so it will grow back. We cut them pretty close and we cut the entire thing. I guess we shall just wait and see what happens. I put a bunch of compost over the spots where we cut, (which was pretty much all of it), and watered it well. I also used this article from Mother Earth News, http://goo.gl/RNLySC.

Cut spinach plants

We cut some cilantro, too, but not all of it. Ryan and I decided we want to let it continue to grow until it bolts, so we can harvest the coriander seeds. I've never done any of that, either, but I'll make sure to document it all for next time, and for you, of course! Please feel free to comment below with any tips or helpful advice about harvesting coriander seeds. I'll take all the help I can get.

One of the holes form the squirrel

With the harvested cilantro, I made some pico de gallo and wow, it was fresh. Really, the entire garden smells like the cilantro, so I was already overpowered by it. But, when I cut into it, it was even stronger, I loved it! Our garden is organic and we haven't used any pesticides of any kind and I feel like that is contributing to the way our produce feels. I feels clean, like I wouldn't even need to rinse it if it weren't for the dirt all over the leaves. This is the truth. Part of what I'm enjoying the most about this gardening experience is knowing what has been put on my food and knowing I'm not eating chemicals. The cilantro almost felt squeaky to me, it's weird, but I like it. It's so shiny, too. I think I'm addicted to this experience.

I found some proof that we have had a squirrel rootin' around in our beds. It must have happened this afternoon because it wasn't like that this morning before work. The only way I know is the soil is nice and soft and I could see his little footprints all over the place where he dug. He didn't dig up any of my stuff, but he dug little holes all over the place, including in my basil pot, so I hope he didn't disturb any of the seeds I just planted. He also kind up dug up the entire row that wasn't planted, so I'm not sure what exactly he was doing, unless he was hiding something there. I sure hope not.

After reading and doing some Googling, I found some information about squirrels. I bet he got some of my basil seeds, because he dug right where I had just planted some. I know he didn't get all of them, but still, it's kind of annoying. I couldn't really find any wonderful solutions, except maybe using my dog to keep them away. There are some sprays that could be made with peppermint or capsaicin, but you have to make sure you don't get it on what you intend to eat. I may ask around and see what has worked for people in my area before I decide what to do.

Our First Pests and How We Handled Them

Uh-oh. I went out to weed the garden again (there's a lot of that) and found a slimy little friend -- a slug. You can see him in the photo below.

Our first "visitor"

Luckily, I work at a restaurant that has hard boiled eggs on the menu, and the cook likes me enough that he saved me a batch of the shells for compost. Instead of throwing them in my composter, I rinsed them, dried them, then stored them in an open container in my garage. If they are rinsed out, they won't attract bugs or flies, and nothing will mess with them. But you must make sure and rinse them out well -- I rub my fingers around the insides to break the membrane and get rid of all the slime -- you can't just rinse them with water, rub your fingers around inside to get all the egg residue off, or you'll have flies and bugs all over them quick. They also smell, so store them outside in a garage or on your porch. I've read a few places where people recommend boiling the egg shells in water then drying them to sterilize them. I've never done all that, and I haven't had any problems, yet.

I was reading an article by Mother Earth News, http://goo.gl/XcT3PO Learn How to Grow Spinach,  and it recommends pulling back the mulch, which I haven't done, yet. I'm hoping the egg shells work.

Another article I was reading reinforced my usage of egg shells for slugs and snails:   http://goo.gl/welsJp.

The Farmers Market

Add crumbled egg shells to deter pests

Saturday, Ryan and I went to the farmers market to buy tomato and pepper plants for the garden. We wanted to go early in case the heirloom varieties are scarce in the coming weeks. We didn't want to miss out. We won't plant them until mid-May. I have a couple friends who swear by the Mother's Day rule, which is to obviously, plant on or around Mother's Day.

We bought four different tomato plants, three types of bell peppers (orange, red and green), two small jalapeño plants, a thyme plant and a Siam basil plant.

Our farmers market finds

The tomato varieties include Sweeties, a bright grape tomato with high sugar content and firm texture. Early Girl is a popular early slicing tomato, your typical medium-sized red tomato. The one I'm most excited about is the Black From Tula, a large purple/black heirloom tomato. The description says it's been said to have the best flavor of all the dark tomatoes, with "a rich, old-fashioned flavor that's sweet and spicy," according to the Tomato Chooser app. It also says the fruit can be as big as 8 to 14 ounces, so I'm especially excited for this one. And finally, the orange Chef's Choice tomato, which is a hybrid variety that reminds me of the Early Girl, only orange.

So, now we have a table full of plants, and I may need to transplant a couple of them, but this way I knew I could have a variety of locally grown produce to put in my garden.

Also, the lady who I bought the Black From Tula and Sweeties from was able to tell me where she bought her seeds and everything. That's what's great about buying local. I also found out that she and her husband live a couple blocks away from me and mine, and they sell beautifully rich compost by the gallon. If we bring our own container they will sell it to us for $1/gallon. We have our compost started, but it won't be good until next year, probably, so we definitely took him up on that offer. The plan is to add it to the soil when we plant the tomatoes and peppers here in a couple weeks. The woman said even just adding some to the tops of already planted plants will perk them up immediately, so I may add some to my spinach and see what happens.

I recommend heading to your local farmers market like we did, and talking to people. You can really learn a lot about your area that way, and maybe you will be lucky like us and find some cheap nutrients for your garden. I knew buying tomatoes from these guys would be a good idea since they obviously had plenty of rich compost to use.