Forgotten Carrot

As we were pulling the few weeds that were pushing their way through our back garden bed, we noticed there were a few carrots left over. We ended up taking one out just to see how it was looking and if it was still good. We figured that with the polar votex it wouldn't be any good. Boy, were we wrong. Perhaps it stayed alive since it was in the ground and covered by our lasagna gardening stuff.

Here it is in the ground:

Here is what it looked like on the table- pretty good size:

Here are pics of E looking at it and showing it off- he really thought it was neat:

We did eat it-Mom hoped it would be sweet, but it must've been in there too long. It wasn't bad- very rooty tasting (more like the beet and turnip root taste), but since we like that we enjoyed it. PB and Uncle Micheal were not fans though. There is one or two more, but the tops were tore off and it's hard to find them under the leaves and such so we are going to wait and see if the tops comes back and then we can pick them.

Wisdome Wednesday

To one who does not know a small garden is a forest- Proverb

Indoor Herb Garden Update-

February:

We are going to show how the indoor herb garden has grown over time:

Feb. 1st- Some sprouts have came up. Not sure what they are yet, since we neglected to mark where we put each part and the pot has moved around a little. Probably the lettuce though.

In the end the lettuce and cilantro came up, but no parsley :(. E didn't like the sort of blank look it ended up with on half of it so we put in some radish seed (three different types).


Here is what it looks like today:

The cilantro is on the right, towards the back is the lettuce and everywhere else is the various types of radish.

Zucchini

We've started some zucchini indoors, and so far are enjoying the results. We just hope we didn't start too early since we don't plan on putting them out until April... though if we up pot them maybe we'll be ok.

They began in the seedling tray:

Then we up potted or should we say up canned them (they are shown here with cucumbers):

Here is how they look now- definitely growing well:

Garden for Granny

     This Thursday we are deviating slightly from our usual E's recipes, but we think it is for a good cause. We enjoy reading both Two Men and a Little Farm and Annie's Kitchen Garden blogs. Both have been inspirational to us, and in our opinion are kind and wonderful people and fantastic bloggers.

     Granny from Annie's Kitchen Garden has always had an amazing garden with huge yields. Her posts are funny and down to earth. She honestly reminds us of our Grandma Shirley Squirrely. Sadly, Granny has had some health problems lately. It started with her not being able to use her arm. She went to the doctor thinking it was a nerve problem, only to find out it was a recurrence of cancer.

     Well, Two Men and a Little Farm are big fans of Granny's as well (and were well before we dipped our toes into the blogging world). They posted the sweetest post about Granny Gardening for Granny, which we think you should read to fully understand how wonderful she is (and you should check out her site which is linked above). In their post, they suggested we all Garden for Granny. Since she can't get out in her own garden, we should share our harvests and dedicate our gardens to her. We are all in for it and would like to encourage more bloggers to do so and link back to her to give encouragement.

     This really spoke to us as we lost our Grandpa last year to cancer. We know what a fight it is and how much courage it takes to fight it. We also know how much of a toll treatments can take on one's body and frankly their spirit. We wanted to give some encouragement, positive thoughts and love to send her (and her family's way). Just so you know, Mr. Granny we are sending lots of that to you as we know it isn't easy watching someone you love go through such a difficult thing or deal with your own fears and emotions while trying your best to be strong and brave for them.

     We do have some good news to share straight from Granny (and it was so great to see her post again!). Her family is pitching right in (we imagine that they have a spirit and determination similar to hers). The kids and gran kids are going to pitch right in with the garden, keeping the house clean, and with meals. 

     So please join us and grow a little something for her as well!!! Granny, to put you up to date with our garden, we have already planted a few things. We have put out some onions, lettuce, carrots, kale and Chinese cabbage. We shall also be putting out a few other things in the days to come. We have several things started and will be sure to keep you updated!!

Wisdom Wednesday- Proverb

Scottish Proverb

A man o' words, and no o' deeds, is like a garden fu' o' weeds

Happy St. Patty's Day!

E wanted to say:

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Don't forget to wear green!

Tips to keep your garden green:

• Start with nice rich soil- if it isn't then add some compost
• Water smart- not too much or too little
• Make sure plants get the right amount of light
• Fertilize when needed (use your method of preference)
• Harvest regularly and dead head flowers to keep plant growing and blooming
• Keep the weeds under control- we don't need them stealing nutrients
• Practice companion planting to get the good insects coming and the bad ones far away
• Check for garden pests and diseases regularly and get rid of them ASAP
• Plant a bee friendly area so they can pollinate your plants

 

Also- today is the day to plant cilantro!!!

Stay green and stay healthy! Get out and plant something... anything and we promise not only will it start you on a path of eating fresh, but also make you feel great when you are able to go out and harvest it!

-Mom and E

Pea Tower Fun Land

     I bought this planter dirt cheap at the dollar store at the end of the gardening season last year. We had yet to come up with a plan to use it that we both agreed on. Our pea seedlings needed replanted and Viola! a fantastic idea was born!

     We thought this would be a great place to put them and give them some room to spread their roots and a little support to grow upwards. If they start to outgrow it we can always place it outside and surround it with a teepee of sticks (and plant a succession crop). Here is what we did in photos.

1. Put dirt in:

2. Remove seedlings from tray (we cut ours out since our roots were so tangled up, but you can just remove them)

3. Plant leaving space between:

     E wanted to make it even cooler and made "levels" of scenes that would be hidden.

The top has Indians, the middle has ninjas and the bottom has Pokemon.


It was fun and is too cute for words.

What fun gardening projects have you done with kids?

-Mom and E

Wisdom Wednesday - Giving Seeds as Gifts

For our Wisdom Wednesday this week we are going to post E's gift to his Mamma Bear (PB's mom).

Some background:

We were out planting our onion sets and realized I had purchased far more than we could plant in the little area we had set aside. "Hmmm, Ethan what could we do?". He said "I know! Mama Bear has a birthday coming up- let's give her some!". Well, that quickly morphed into more seeds as a gift since we figured she would want more than just onions.

Then we decided to make origami envelops (one of E's favorite things is origami) to put them in. We consulted our companion planting guide to see what grew well with it and Voila! found that broccoli, lettuce, parsley, tomatoes and cucumbers do well. We have cucumbers already started, but as we wintersowed our tomato seeds and they haven't sprouted yet (which is good b/c there is some snow still forecast in the next week or two) we thought we'd make a lil gift up for her. E also included basil, cilantro in the mix. I'm not sure she will have enough room to stick it all in her flower beds, but she just may.

We used regular (very cute by the way) stationary to make the envelopes. E wanted to provide you with a picture step by step guide so here it is:

If you have origami paper you can skip the first couple of steps:

Step One: Make the paper the right size....

 Step Two: Fold, crease and open

 Step Three: Fold corner and fold again

Step 4 fold the left then the right corners (it looks opposite since I was taking pics):

Step Five: Make Diamond Shape

Step Six: Glue

Step Seven: Fold down Flap

After E made the envelopes we added the names of what seeds he was giving:

We made the onion set bag by using a small paper bag and name tag:

We decorated our cucumber start:

We made planting instructions- which should be planted now as they are cool weather crops and which should be planted when it gets warm and put them in an envelope. We also got an envelope together to put our seed envelopes in (we may or may not do this in the end- depends if we find a basket to put them in or not). Once the glue dries we will put the seeds in and assemble, but it already looks super cute!

Hopefully this gave you some inspiration for future gift giving. We are thinking of making these into Mother's Day gifts (with a few more starts). :)

-Mom -N- E

What to do when seedlings out grow their tray!!

If you missed the earlier post about it, our seedlings have outgrown their little tray- some quite badly. Thus, we have rounded up some recycled materials and up potted them. If you are like us and too eager too quick to start those seeds or would like to have more established planting seedlings then A) start them in something bigger than a tray (like pop bottles, tupperware, pots etc.) or B) do like us and up pot once they start to outgrow their trays. I like this option as I keep better track of how much has sprouted.

Here is what they looked like in their trays all out grown:

Here is what they look like now that we have up potted them (though at the rate they are growing we may need to do it one more time before we can plant!)


Our cucumbers and zucchini's are doing quite well:

Our pansies are still growing slowly, so we didn't up pot them yet, and most of our sunflowers are still ok, but will need up potted in a few weeks. The peas grew the most, but we'll cover those in another post!



How is your seed starting going?

-Mom and E

Seedling Tray Update

     As promised here is an update on the progress of our seedlings in the tray. Here is a few photos from about a week or so ago:




They were starting to grow and Ethan was pretty excited.

Flash forward to how they look now:

In fact, it is already time to up pot some of them- which makes me nervous about when to start setting them out. I thought they would grow slower than they have... no worries, I guess. We shall just up pot and then they will be ready to run when planting time comes. In fact perhaps we can do a few trays at the time so we can space out when things come in.





Be ready for an up pot update in the future and a pretty fun project with the peas.

Wisdom Wednesday

German Proverb:

He who plants a garden plants happiness. 

Gardening blogs we love

Here is a list of gardening blogs we love to read. Mostly Mom, but E reads some from time to time.


Of course the list must start with  Two Men and a Little Farm  as they inspired us to even begin blogging in the first place.


Then of course is sweet Granny Annie's Kitchen Garden.  It was a fantastic read before, but now with Annie being sick is an inspiring read.



We like Life on the Balcony and think it is perfect for those gardening in containers or such. There are also some fun and crafy gardening things to do.


Backyard Gardening Blog is a good read as the author is down to earth and doesn't pull any punches.


This Garden is Illegal has a lot of information and is enjoyable to read.

500 Dollar Tomato is one we visit regularly and love to read.

Small Kitchen Garden has a lot to keep you entertained as well as some giveaways.


What are some of your favorite blogs that you think we should check out?

-Mom and E

Asparagus Update

     Last year we started an asparagus patch. We know that it is easier to start from crowns, but really wanted to see if we could do it from seeds. It really didn't turn out to well, with only a few making it. We are not sure if it was due to low germination, or if we accidentally pulled them up thinking they were weeds.... ooopppsss! To our defense we didn't know what asparagus looked like when it grew, only were aware of what full grown and ready to eat asparagus looked like.

     Did we give up though? No way! We are going to try again this year, but we did decide to do things a little differently. We still wanted to do it from seeds- just to see the whole process. Asparagus is a rather long process, which takes a few year from crowns to eat and we didn't think a couple of more added on to grow from seed would be a big deal.

     We decided to grow some indoors this year- just to get a look at how they do grow and what they look like. We figure we'll do a really good weeding before moving them outdoors and putting down some more seeds. Hopefully, this year we will not pull up asparagus when we do. Hey, you live and learn.
 
  We were excited to see some growing in our pop bottle green house. So far so good....hopefully we shall be more successful than last year. Wish us luck!

So, if you do not know what asparagus looks like when it is growing feast your eyes on this:

E thinks they are funny looking, but thinks it is cool we got them started.


Does anyone have experience starting asparagus from seeds?