Our Garden

We love the garden this time of year. It looks healthy and we are getting a lot of my favorite vegetable--Kale! The cabbage harvest has been very nice also. Daniel is the gardener of the family. I simply do a little harvesting here and there whenever I need something for the kitchen. He actually does most of the harvesting as well.

I'm proud to say that everything you see in the these pictures was started from seed (except some onions were started from sets). The indoor grow light station (go here for a post that we wrote last year on our indoor seed starting) that Daniel created was a big success for all the tomatoes, cabbage, kale, collards, chard, eggplant, peppers, and flowers.

lacinato kale (garlic in the bed to left of kale)

We are using the pvc pipe drip irrigation system again this year. Go to this post to read more about how we made and installed it. This is hopefully allowing for deep watering and saves us lots of time and water. There are shut off valves at the top of all the rows. Daniel has even recruited the girls help in turning them on and off during the week while he is at work. (We water 2 rows at a time.)

potatoes

tomatoes

mix of onion, flowers, chard, kale, collards

Daniel getting the stakes ready for the tomatoes

July Garden

We started our summer plants a little later than normal since our spring veggies were so productive. Here's a picture of our garden this morning. We installed a pvc pipe irrigation system in the late spring. The pipes go down every row with 1/16 inch holes drilled every 12 inches. They are separated by shut off valves at the top of each row.

You can see the red knob under the zinnia plant. We usually run water on 2 sections at a time. This has been a huge time and water saver. It was very easy to install and cost around $100 for supplies.

Zinnia and tomato plants

lettuce leaf basil

Japanese eggplant

Started green beans, several squash, okra on June 6

Green Beans from the trays above.

trombone squash from trays above

green beans from trays

more squash--yellow, zucchini, butternut

I admit, I was wrong

We can't eat all the greens that we are growing--at least not fresh. So, while still eating about a pound a day (and giving away several pounds) we were able to blanch and freeze 6 pounds (3 lbs collard, 3 lbs kale). Daniel and I spent the evening in an assembly line of washing, chopping, weighing, boiling and freezing all this.

 From the picture below you can get an idea of how tall and big our onions have gotten.  I was standing up while taking the picture. Some of them are as tall as I am! (I took this picture the same day we harvested a ton of greens) The biggest are multiplier onions that we planted last year, but instead of harvesting them all we left some in the ground. Daniel also planted some other onion sets and slips that I purchased at a local shop.

These beautiful blanket flowers came back from last year. We started them from seed a few years ago and they have really taken off. From now on I should be able to have fresh flowers inside for the rest of the summer.

New pet, planting tomatoes, imovie, Alegria

I found this guy walking across the driveway on Friday and so we brought it in to study. While Daniel was holding it, a small egg came from the tiny white dot on the side of its neck. We found it a mate and made it a habitat so we can keep it inside for a little while. The girls have named them slowmo and slumzo.

Daniel and I planted all the tomatoes that we started from seed. We are growing several different kinds this year--Matt's wild (cherry), Golden, Abraham Lincoln (reg. sandwich variety) and one black cherry. I got a few other varieties from the store in case our heirlooms don't do well. We also planted our baby basil, peppers and eggplant that we started from seed.

Our homeschool coop has been doing a drama class all year. The students were asked to write skits. Then they each got to cast and direct them also. I made a movie out of the first one we filmed. I was using my little flip video camera and imovie. It's the first time I've used imovie and I had a lot of fun with it. You might be seeing more of these:)

To finish a wonderful weekend we got to see Cirque du Soleil Alegria. The girls have been waiting for weeks for the show. We were so amazed at every moment. Loved it! If it comes to your town you should definitely try to get tickets. If you look around you can get discounts. I got a great deal on ours through Groupon!

First Spring Harvest

This is not exactly the first harvest. We've brought in a few other greens and things that grew over the winter. I've also used small batches of greens and lettuces from the garden for dinners all last week. This is the first big harvest of lacinato kale--1 pound 12 oz.

Here is how the garden is coming along. Remember those little seedlings we started inside back in January? (Here's the link to the post and pictures about how we got everything started.) The row to the far right of the picture is cabbage and Brussels Sprouts, the second from right is collards, the third is onions.

Here the far right row is red Russian kale and garlic, then lacinato kale, then peas, then broccoli, lettuce and garlic, the far left row is potatoes.

Daniel and the girls outside all weekend.

Still coming up with new ways to ride the zip line.

Spring Seed Starting Week by Week

On January 23 we started 3 trays of seeds --36 collards, 36 kale, 24 cabbage, 24 spinach, 24 brussels sprouts, 18 lettuce mix, 18 broccoli, 18 onions, 18 chard. 

We are using a new indoor lighting set up that will make starting seeds a lot easier. This powerful light stays on for 18 hours a day which has been enough to keep the seedlings healthy and strong so far. (We put paper bags on top of the trays in the beginning to help keep the seeds moist while germinating.)

The new tray allows for easy watering. Daniel fills it once a week with water, fish emulsion, and compost tea. He uses 5 gallon buckets to fill and drain.

Week 1

Week 2

Week 3 

Started another tray of 6 broccoli, 18 cabbage, 18 red Russian kale, 12 red lettuce, 18 buttercrunch lettuce

Week 4

Week 5

We plan to put these out and get summer seeds started within the next few weeks.

Saturday Harvest with Beets and Onions

• 3 pounds collards
• 3.5 pounds kale
• 11 pounds potatoes
• 4 pounds bok choi
• 14 ounces chard
• 1.5 pounds beets

We ordered all of our seeds including the multiplier onions pictured below from Southern Exposure Seed Exchange. We are very excited about the success of these onions. We have harvested a portion of the bed and now they are curing (drying) in the shed for a few weeks. Most of the bulbs are a nice size and much bigger than anything we've ever grown. We also harvested garlic this week but did not weigh them (or the onions) yet. We've decided to wait until they dry. We noticed that the local organic garlic was selling for $2 a bulb at the farmer's market! I look forward to doing a cost analysis to see how much money we are saving with growing the food in our garden.

Beets! This is another crop that we are successfully growing for the first time this year. We don't have very many but the ones we have are beautiful! I love the deep red color. I'd love for a suggestion on how to cook these. I'm going to try roasting them tomorrow. I don't usually buy beets so I'm going to have to experiment with some new recipes:)

Two new blogs

I started this blog almost 4 years ago. I created it after hearing from my friend Shael that blogging was a great way to keep in touch with friends and family all over the country. Since we had moved to 3 states in 3 years and all our family was out of town I figured I'd go ahead and give it a try. I was surprised at how easy blogger was to use. I also found that it was a great way to record our pictures and stories without getting all my scrapbooking stuff out!

Blogging keeps getting more popular and there are blogs for everything! Blogger now lets you monetize (place ads on) your pages but I want my personal blog to be a space were people are not bombarded with more advertisements.

I've started 2 new blogs. The first one is a gardening blog. It has the same gardening posts that I create for this blog but I modify them just a little so they are not quite so personal. Click on Southern Organic Gardening to check out the page. One reason I chose to name it Southern Organic Gardening is that we've found that a lot of the information on the web and in books about organic gardening is focused on gardening in the Northeast or West (California). Not much is out there on organic solutions for the South and as you know our climate is very different. Especially here in Columbia and in our sand for a back yard. I hope to expand the Southerrn Organic Gardening blog to include pages on our favorite products, local and national links, and answers to frequently asked questions about gardening in the South. I've also put ads and linked it to other gardening blogs hoping to cash in on all this information we are sharing :) I'm still adding lots of new stuff and since it is a blog I'll keep updating it on a regular basis so bookmark it or become a follower to help me spread the blog and the ads!

The second blog is for the new dance classes that I'm starting--Mommy and Me Ballet The class is held at the same studio where I teach other dance classes, but it is separate in that I'm doing all the marketing, class design, and billing. I started the Mommy and Me Ballet blog because I wanted a place for parents to go to get information since I was doing a lot of emailing and answering the same questions over and over again. I'm working on a website but that is taking me a while to create since I've never done one before. So the blog is the place to go for now. I've had one class so far and it has gotten great feedback. I taught this same class in Indianapolis and it was very popular and I'm hoping the moms here will spread the word and I'll be able to open up another class.

Don't worry my faithful readers, I'm not changing or deleting this blog! I'll be updating it again very soon with a week's meal plan based on greens, dance recital pictures, more recipes, etc.


 

Mother's Day Harvest

This was a wonderful and relaxing Mother's Day. I slept in and rested on the porch with a good book (Middlemarch by George Eliot) while Daniel made all the meals, cleaned inside and worked outside. I also wandered through the garden picking these beautiful spring veggies and taking pictures of flowers and bugs. We also planted most of the summer veggies that we started from seed including zuchinni, yellow squash, trombone squash, cucumber, pole beans,  cantelope, eggplant, basil, more swiss chard and bok choi. I re-potted the tomatoes since we have to wait for garden space to come available. Okra, bush beans, sweet potatoes, and watermelon are still waiting to be planted.

As I mentioned in an earlier post we are keeping track of all the produce we harvest by weighing it and charting it on a clip board in the kitchen. Here is the harvest amounts from Sunday.

• 1.5 lbs collards
• 1 lb 4 oz kale (lacinato)
• 2.5 lbs lettuce (butter crunch and green leaf)
• 10 oz spinach
• 4 oz peas
• 1 lb 4 oz radish (or about 10) 

Now you might be wondering what we do with all these greens! Stay tuned for recipes and ideas. Believe it or not by Wednesday night we have already gone through everything but a few ounces of lettuce and collards.

Greens and daisies

It's that time of year again. We are bringing in tons of greens. For example, today I went out at about 11:00 am and picked a handful of lettuce, baby bok choi, sweet peas, radishes, and green onions and mixed it all together for a salad.

We ordered a scale to keep track of the amount of veggies we bring in. We are keeping record of it all on a clip board for now but I plan on charting it as we get in more food. For the first week we brought in 11.5 oz of spinach, 26 oz of sweet peas, 9 radishes, 22 oz lettuce, 15 oz baby bok choi, 1.5 lbs of bigger bak choi, 1 lb young turnip greens. And our spinach is huge.

We loved looking at it so much we just had to take a picture! Is it because of the compost tea?

This is the bak choi bed. This is an asian green that we use just like the other greens--in stir fries, steamed or chopped really thin in salads. We like it because it is a more heat tolerant than salad greens and more tender than traditional southern greens.

Here's the lettuce bed.

So I also had a birthday last weekend--yes I am 32 years old now. Thanks to all my friends and family who contributed to a wonderful weekend. I took a road trip to Nashville to meet up with my best friends from Indy. We all have soar jaws from talking and laughing so much! I got home in perfect time to receive hugs and kisses from my wonderful family, lots of birthday cards and a package with a new zoom lens! I tested it out on the daisies that are blooming in the back garden. What do you think? The pictures really don't do justice to the beautiful flowers. I really do love having flowers all over the yard.