Wordless Wednesday...

"Just living is not enough. One must have sunshine, freedom, and a little flower."

Hans Christian Anderson

Enjoy!

Just When You Thought It Was Safe...

...I'm having nightmares...they are everywhere...

They need to be repotted...but I'm out of pots...I ordered more...but they haven't come yet....I can hear the plants grumbling ....

And more of them...they have to share the space with the basil...and they don't like it...

And more yet...under the light...and they're not sharing...

And even more...the angry ones...the ones out on the deck...in the cold frame...I can hear them plotting...



OH NO!  It's the....






Sorry...I couldn't help myself...; )

I have a new look....

Spring in the Pacific Northwest...Shades of Gray

: (

Deb

Harvest Monday...

...and I actually have a harvest!

Basil and parsley from the greenhouse and  rosemary and thyme and some baby greens from The Garden.

I added the greens to some purchased spinach (can't wait until mine is ready...a couple more weeks) and made a nice little salad and used the herbs to make Nicoise Chicken with Tomatoes and Black Olives...

This is one of my favorite recipes from one of my favorite cookbooks; The Mediterranean Diet Cookbook.... Amazon has a good price on it but it's also available through most public library systems....( I have a rule; if I've checked it out of the library more than three times it goes on my Amazon wish list)...

 
 I use chicken thighs instead of breasts, they stay moister in the cooking process, add more herbs than called for and Kalamata olives instead of Nicoise (no pits)....served with some fettuccine and a sprinkle of good Parmesan ... yum!!


I'm joining other bloggers over at Daphne's Dandelions as we share our weekly harvests...it's fun to see what others are harvesting and what they are cooking up with it...check it out!

Enjoy!

A Rainy Sunday Afternoon....

I really wanted to get out and plant my main potato bed today, but it is just too wet!  So I spent some time updating my poor neglected web site....

I've added the first part of the felted vessel tutorial...

And updated the gallery...

And, while I still don't have any formal classes scheduled, you can contact me to arrange private or small group lessons  :)

Enjoy!

"The Berry Patch"...and A Sneak Peak at "The Garden"

First..." The Berry Patch"...

 

So far there are only five raspberry canes and a few strawberry plants, but more will be added soon.  The thing to notice here is the absence of raised beds and hoops...instead there is a path made of  hundreds of small shells, driftwood accents and a birdhouse  made out of driftwood (a find at the Belfair Farmer's Market last summer)...because this is the transition point from "The Farm" to "The Garden"....

Living on a lake is fun...and has it's own set of rules.  It has taken me six years to really "get it" that the "front yard" is the portion of the property that faces the lake (accessible only by boat or from the back yard) and the back yard is the portion of the property that is accessible from the road.  This is really backwards as far as I'm concerned...*sigh*

So for the last two years I've been building raised beds in what I thought was the "front yard". But when I started building beds in what I thought was the backyard which turned out to be the front yard (are you following this...confusing, huh?)...my husband rebelled!  He didn't want raised beds with hoops next to the lake (the front yard)...it would spoil the "ambiance"...sheesh!  I really needed more beds...Edible landscaping to the rescue!

We are creating terraced beds that will combine ornamental plantings with edible ones...the project is nearing completion and I wanted to show you a preview...and comment about how much I appreciate all I have learned from the the garden bloggers out there.  I wanted to get some of the vegetable plantings in the terraced beds started...but how to protect them from wind, rain and hail?  I tried teepees covered with plastic (that fell down) and wire supports (that fell over) and was thinking of turning all of my plastic food containers into cloches when I saw this post on Laura's  blog (The Modern Victory Garden).  The wire fence hoop she put over the bed planted with greens...YES!!  (Thanks, Laura!)

So...here is part of the new landscape (still under construction)...

And how well is it working?

That tomato plant looks  pretty happy...yes!...I've put some of my tomato plants out...seven to be precise.  If they don't make it I'll only have 87 tomato plants left...I think I'll risk it...

So...from this point on the backyard (which I thought was the front yard) with the raised beds will be known as "The Farm".  And the front yard (which I thought was the backyard) will be known as "The Garden"...and my husband is happy...and I'm happy...and planning new ways to sneak more edibles into the landscaping :)

Enjoy!

Wordless Wednesday....

"I love to think of nature as an unlimited broadcasting station, through which God speaks to us every hour, if we will only tune in."  ~George Washington Carver

Enjoy!

And the verdict is...potatoes!

As promised, I have the results of my experiment with one of my potato boxes...

Back on March 7th  I planted four seed potatoes in a potato box with a seed germination warming mat under the box.  I wasn't entirely sure I'd be able to pull the mat back out from under the box....

...no problem!

And then there was the issue of trying to keep the rain from turning the soil in the box into mud soup...

Here's the covered box...and here's how I did it...

.

..a piece of bent wire fencing, some plastic sheeting and a few spring clamps.

And then there was the question of whether it would be worth the effort...would my potatoes sprout sooner?  Last year I planted my potatoes on March 17...and on April 21 I announced that "My Potatoes Are Up!"  This year I planted my experimental potato box on March 7th...and on March 21...

Tah Dah!!  Potato sprouts!!  All four potatoes have sprouted!

That's more than two weeks cut off the time it took for them to sprout last year!  I will be using a germination mat under the rest of my boxes...and I ordered a soil heating cable for my maincrop potato bed...yes, another experiment...(did I mention that my degree...and 30 years of work experience...was in laboratory science?)  It's all about experiments...  :)

Enjoy!

Harvest Monday...and a tale of two hundred onions....

I don't have a harvest this week, but I did use some of my pickled vegetables from last summer as a side dish for last night's Chilaquiles with Chicken and Black Beans.....

I'm joining other bloggers over at Daphne's Dandelions as we share our weekly harvests...it's fun to see what others are harvesting and what they are cooking up with it...check it out!

We had a break from the rain over the weekend and I accomplished a lot in the garden.  My order for leek (Lancelot) and onion (Candy) starts from Territorial Seed arrived on Friday...and then Tammy, my "garden fairy" surprised me with 100 Walla Walla onion starts...ack!  Now I had 200 onions and 100 leeks!!

I had decided to do some companion planting in my allium bed this year so I planted some of the leeks...

...and some of the Candy onions on Saturday...

I got sidetracked working on the "secret project" out by the lake on Sunday, so I finished planting the allium bed this morning.  I wanted to try planteing carrots and beets next to the leeks and onions using Carol's (Annie's Kitchen Garden) seed mat technique.  I glued carrot seeds to the napkins with 2" spacing and set the mats next to the leeks.

I covered the carrot seed mats with a quarter inch of a light potting soil mix and then set the beet seed mats next to the Candy onions...

...and covered them with soil.  I placed sticks to mark the edges of the beet and carrot rows and the used my "dibble" (it's a mop handle) to make depressions in the soil for the Walla Walla onions...

 

...I set the onions into their holes, firmed the soil up around them and gently watered the entire bed. There are about 100 onions and 40 leeks planted...so I still have a lot more to find homes for...

Annie's Granny said that she set a board on top of the carrots until they had germinated...but I had an idea...

I'm sold on using these germination heat mats in my beds after seeing the results of my potato box experiment...but wait...that's tomorrow's post... :)

Enjoy!

The Difference a Day Makes.....

Apparently these ladies were determined to make their debut right on time....

Happy First Day of Spring!

Enjoy!

Soon...very soon...

I have my nose pressed up against the glass door that is Spring...

"Open, open,open..."

Enjoy!

Deb

The Great Carrot Caper Continued.....

The last time I posted about my carrot experiment was on February 14. I thought it was time for an update. My idea was to go against conventional garden wisdom, which says that carrots should be direct sown into the garden, and try starting the seed in the greenhouse with the aid of a warm soil germination mat.  I planted seeds into 120 mini soil blocks....

 

By the middle of March the carrots had sprouted and the soil blocks looked like this...

My thought was to get the seedlings into the ground as soon as they germinated so there would be very little root development to be affected by transplanting...in this photo you can see that there are no roots showing on the sides or bottoms of the blocks...

 

I made small depressions in the soil in the garden bed in front of the previously planted peas and placed a soil block in each one...

...and gently moved soil to cover the exposed sides of the blocks...

 

I made a change to the raised bed later after reading  posts By Robin (The Gardener of Eden) and Carol (Annie's Kitchen Garden) about using rope lights....

The temperature of the soil in one of my raised beds without the rope light is 46 degrees... the soil under the carrots is a toasty 54 degrees....from the amount that they have grown I'm guessing they are pretty happy about our little experiment...I know I am!!

Enjoy!

On the lighter side...too much of a good thing?

First I want to state categorically that this is NOT MY FAULT!  Blame Johnny's...blame Territorial...blame Irish Eyes.  I really don't think I'm a compulsive seed starter...  Last year I bought my seeds according to what was on sale...and my results were pretty dismal.  This year I bought from seed companies with good reputations, but still started at least three times as many as I thought I would need (just in case).  And had almost 100% germination!

These would be some of my ninety-four ( yes, that would be 94!!) tomato seedlings.....

 

Asian Greens...Joi Choi, Mizuna, Orange Mini Cabbage....

More Asian Greens in the overflow starter houses on the deck...

And more Asian Greens in the mini hoop house....I think you get the picture...I figure sometime in early
April I'll be looking for homes for a lot of seedlings...any adoptive parents out there in the
South Puget Sound area??   :)

Enjoy!