Took the cell phone out to the garden this afternoon…
The peas are finally taking off – I just hope it’s not too late in the season. They got such a slow start.
The lettuce in front of the peas were supposed to be reserved for microgreens, but they were doing so well, I decided to let them keep on growing. They taste great. We’ve already been harvesting this for salads. Continue reading
Winter has been a bit underwhelming this year in our region. All the things my family loves about this season have been sorely lacking. Namely, snow. The kids actually resorted to trying to sled on sleet a few weeks back. Instead of lots of fun, fluffy white stuff (remember, we homeschool and hubberman works from home so getting snowed in is fun for us) we have instead been getting an abundance of grey skies and wind. Lots and lots of wind.
Add to that the Seasonal Affective Disorder that seems to be scooping up people by the armful, and then sending them all out twitchy and grumpy on the roads to honk their dissatisfaction at anything that moves.
I think we all need a little sunshine about now!
While keeping the plates of homeschool spinning over the past two months, I’ve been staring longingly at my seed and garden catalogs. I’ve decided, it’s time. Tomorrow I sit down with my seed catalog and plan out and order this spring’s garden.
Last year, I made a point of journaling my lessons learned my first year of gardening. Now that I have two years under my belt, I’m adding to my list of lessons and goals. Here’s what I have so far:
What are your garden plans this year?
A Grow Camp update is long overdue. The only remnant from the summer vegetables are the bell peppers and they are still going strong, despite the cold evenings we have had lately. So far, my autumn plantings are doing great – red and green leaf lettuce, onions and arugula are all sprouted and growing. I just hope my onions get big and strong enough to last through the winter. Enjoy the gallery…mouse over for captions. I threw in a photo of one of our pretty yellow mums for good measure. Happy Monday!
Remember the squash that were suffering from blossom end rot in the Grow Camp? Well, I ended up pulling out the squash a few weeks ago. It pained me to do it, but it had to be done. They were taking up way to much space to just sit and rot on the vine.
Here they are after I pulled them out of the enclosure. A sad sight to be sure, but it did provide some much needed breathing room for my peppers.
I could almost hear my pepper plants thanking me for the much needed sunlight.
The squash at the bottom of the basket were all I was able to salvage from all those plants. Hubberman was able to make a delicious side dish from them, though. He stir-fried them with the eggplant from this picture in a light sauce of sesame oil and soy sauce.
Better luck with squash next time, I suppose! Adding that to the “lessons learned.”
As I was watering my Grow Camp this morning, I noticed some trouble brewing in Squashville.
If I’m not mistaken, this is blossom end rot. It’s quite a bummer, because these squash were looking really good so far. I have a feeling this has to do with soil depletion (specifically calcium) where I planted them. I’ve been a bit cavalier about where I’ve planted things, not really heeding any soil prep guidelines. Seems I’m paying the price for placing my squash in already depleted soil.
With limited space comes limited patience. I’m afraid I might just have to yank these guys out of the Grow Camp if they are just going to rot on the vine. They are taking up A LOT of space.
Gardening gurus…is there hope for recovery, or should I yank these puppies out of my square foot garden? Any advice would be much appreciated!
