Cold Weather Crops

Monday of this week we had such beautiful weather that I busted out my gardening shoes and went to work in my overgrown patch of land. The last few years I've grown tomatoes, herbs, peppers and a few other things in this specific patch. This year it seems, it has become my cold weather crop patch.

In the fall of 2009, I planted two different types of garlic in this patch. Using the square foot method, I believe I currently have about 5 or 6 squares dedicated to Garlic. Given my husband eats tons of it and I use it to help cure colds, I feel like we should be growing more. I guess we'll see what happens.

As I mentioned before, monday was BEAUTIFUL! So I went out, pulled weeds and planted some bush beans and some spinach. I'd like to get some lettuce in the ground as well but need to take stock of what kind of seeds I have on hand. Since I am relatively new..... OK brand spankin' new with this whole "spring crop" thing, I need to do some research to see what grows here in the spring. I thought beets did, but saw the label for my beets that said "after the last frost"..... I am confused. As soon as I sort thru this, I'll post what can be grown in zone 5/6 in the spring. Till then.....

Happy Gardening!

Farm to Table Website

While searching the web about a trade show I heard about on the radio, I came across an AWESOME website. It is a site that shows all kinds of local farm events, gives names of local farms to buy from, gives canning advice, cooking advice, growing advice, etc. Basically EVERYTHING to do with eating fresh and local foods. The most awesome part is that the articles are written by us, the subscribers. The content at this point is a bit thin, but I hope there will be many more people adding this website to their daily read and I hope people will begin to contribute. I plan on submitting articles soon :)

http://www.farmtotablepa.com/

I hope you enjoy!

SCRAM!

I went to the garden center the other day and purchased some Deer Scram. It worked a few years back to keep Bambi from topping my tomatoes so I figured, what the hell I'll give it another try. Plus when I asked the man working at the garden center what will keep the deer from eating my spring bulbs, he said, "Deer Scram" with out hesitation. Two of us can't be wrong, right?

So, I spread it around all the bulbs the same day I bought it and haven't looked at them since... it's been a few days. Today I went out to have a look and I am perplexed. I can't tell if the deer ate more or if the eaten plants are remnants of the feedings that took place before Deer Scram. I took some pictures today and hope that I can maybe piece together if it is working or not. If it is not working, I'm going to have to figure something else out. The deer around here, are not shy!

The Four Letter Word--- DEER!

Today, my daughter and I took a small walk around the yard to see what is popping up. The weather here has been bouncing between warm (low 60's) to cool (low 40's) in the past few weeks. All the snow has finally melted and we actually had several days of rain causing the fear of flooding in lowland areas like Millvale, Etna, Sharpsburg, etc. Even Downtown Pittsburgh had posted warnings. In the end, we weathered fine and aside from small areas of flooding, we escaped pretty much unscathed.

The weather we've been having is prime for spring bulbs. As mentioned in my last blog post, I didn't think I'd have much to admire this year due to my lack of motivation in the fall. I was SO wrong! If I had planted all the bulbs in my garage, I'd have had an astronomical amount of flowers. At this point, I'm dabbling on an insane amount. This is wonderful for me and also for the four letter, four legged friends, DEER.

Upon my inspection this morning with my daughter, I found almost all of my crocus are gone, the few tulips I have in are gone and my hyacinth are gone. I want to cry. Being the semi rational person I am, I know crying won't solve anything, so next is to take action. I am going to the garden center today to find something to chase them away. I'd like to find something earth friendly, unstinky, and effective. I've heard of the egg and milk in water, but that takes too long to make, at this point. I've read about soap- I think these deer are too smart for that. UGH. So it looks like a call to "country mouse" for some advice. After all, she chases black bear from her yard--- she has to have a solution for deer.

SPRING BULBS!!!

I know it is not proper grammar to use more than one exclamation point. However, after the winter we've weathered (no pun intended), there aren't enough exclamation points in the universe to show my excitement for the spring bulbs popping up!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Seeing these brave little soldiers, popping their heads above ground, while the snow is still lying around makes my world. It feels like Mother Nature is calling from below ground, saying, "Don't worry. I have not forgotten you." A bundle of love in the form of flowers. I heart Mother Nature!

Last fall I was in a funk..... a BIG funk and so I did not plant my usual 200+ bulbs. I did dig them out at the end of last spring and put them away for fall, but just didn't have the ambition to do it. And I kick myself every time I think of it. Seeing crocus, daffodils, hyacinth, tulips, etc helps me to realize that winter is almost over and that I can hang in there a few more weeks. So the only bulbs popping up this spring are the ones I missed last year. This is bad news for the deer who LOVED my red tulips last year. My neighbor would try to shoo them every morning as she pulled out of her driveway, to no avail. Sorry deer, maybe next year.

New to my spring line is garlic. In the fall, a trip to the garden center yielded a cool talk with a few of the garden gals. They talked me into planting two different types of garlic. So I have those in and I believe I need to cut them back twice in order to produce bulbs. I'll be googling that later. For now, I have pictures of the spring bulbs I missed last year (YEAH!) and soon I will be taking pictures of the garlic.

Back On Track!

I can't believe the last time I posted was almost an entire year ago. However, my gardening efforts started out galliant last year and ended, well, BAD! So this year, I am once again committing myself to the task of vegetables and gorgeous flowers. One thing has changed..... we've changed our eating habits to about 80% vegetarian..... AND we saw Food Inc, the movie.

My husband has been cooking curry dishes with a LOT of cauliflower and I told him last night how nice it would be to be able to harvest and freeze those cauliflower for all next winter. We've been using tomatoes like they are going out of style (big surprise! Who doesn't!). We visited New Mexico last year and bought one of their dried hot pepper hanging decoration that you also pick off of and use to cook.... so this year, we are hoping to grow enough to make one of those. I am also wanting to grow beans and peas to freeze. I'd LOVE to make cabbage, but not sure if I can get it going so the cabbage worms don't get at them again. Eggplant is a must in this house as well as squash. We've never attempted squash, so that should be interesting. Our newest loves are swiss chard, beet greens, and kale..... all things we hope to get going. This year I'd also like to have a small medicinal herb garden.

Stay tuned. We've got lots of plans for this garden this year...... and thanks to the over 30 inches of snow, I am more ready than EVER!