Garden Journal 8/18/10: Tomato Season Has Arrived and the First Harvest is In!

Yep, that's it. Pretty though, isn't it?

Realization of the Day:

One of the nicest things about gardening is that the littlest surprises can often mean so very much.

A month or so ago, I changed my blog header to a photo that more accurately reflects the season: tomatoes! But ever since then I've felt like a guilty impostor. Oh, those are my tomatoes up there alright—I just picked them back in 2008 (at the end of October!). And while pretty much everyone equates the summer vegetable garden with ripe tomatoes, I don't actually have any growing in my garden this year. Or so I thought.

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Garden Journal 8/15/10: How To and, More Importantly, Hot Not To Store Fresh Basil

Realization of the Day:

It's a lot easier to write off a garden disaster as a learning experience when it doesn't involve your entire crop.

The photo above illustrates one of the best ways to store fresh basil: in a fragrant little kitchen tabletop bouquet. Sweet looking, nice smelling, and obviously some very happy fresh cut herbs.

That's how I did things last year, when I had so much green and purple basil growing in the garden it kept bursting into bloom faster than I could use it up. This year I had a learning experience—with my one measly plant, which is why this post isn't called something chirpy like Hip Hip Hooray! It's Pesto Time Again! as was originally intended before the harvest.

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Garden Journal 7/27/10: Harvesting Really Late Planted Garlic

Growing Garlic: Not Bad, Not Bad

Realization of the Day:

I'm a lot more excited about growing garlic after digging up this year's crop.

I'm doing a little back dating here, so that the garden journal date above accurately reflects the day I actually harvested my garlic, as opposed to the day—two weeks later—I'm finally getting around to writing about it. It would only be cheating if it were the other way around, right?

Last year I promised myself I would never again plant my garlic in February, which is about four or five months later than it should go into the ground here in southern Missouri. And this year I kept that promise—I planted my garlic in March instead.

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Garden Journal 7/23/10: Why I Haven't Set Foot in My Garden in Over Two Weeks

Harmless little snake in the greenhouse, September 2007

Realization of the Day:

It's time for a new game plan. Actually more like an extended half-time period but without all the outrageous festivities.

Back in early spring, I was doing an energy work session over the phone with a friend of mine, and as I started listing all the things I was so behind with—including my totally neglected garden—she said, "What would happen if you didn't have a garden this year?"

The thought was so inconceivable I literally had no response.

But now I know. Life goes on—just with fewer vegetables.

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Garden Journal 6/20/10: How To Transplant Sweet Pepper Seedlings, the Extended Version

Off to Browner Pastures!

Realization of the Day:

The most important thing you need to do in the garden is get your seeds and plants in the ground. Otherwise nothing else matters.

As obvious as it sounds, it's amazing how often I forget this simple fact, missing out on growing so many things each year because I'm focusing too much on all the prep work I need/want to do and not enough on the actual planting. Lettuce season in southern Missouri has come and gone, yet despite always telling people how easy it is to grow lettuce from seed, I don't have a single leaf to show for it this spring—and you know how much I love lettuce.

Your seedlings don't care if the soil isn't perfectly amended, or the pathways around your raised beds are full of weeds, or it's not the absolute ideal day for transplanting according to the lunar calendar. They just want to be put in the ground. And yesterday morning—after worming 30 lambs and before it got quite all the way up to the 103 degree heat index predicted for the day—some of the poor suffering seedlings I bought over a month ago finally were.

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Garden Journal 6/17/10: How To Easily Attract Pollinators to Your Kitchen Garden

Just plant some echinacea!

Realization of the Day:

There's a winged frenzy going on out in my flowerbed.

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Kitchen Garden How To: The Best Way to Store Fresh Parsley (and Other Herbs like Basil)

In a Kitchen Counter Bouquet!

Realization of the Day:

I often take parsley for granted, but if there isn't any growing in the garden I really miss it. It's just so versatile—and tasty. I love it in this Confetti Egg Salad Recipe I recently wrote about on Farmgirl Fare.

Like so many things, the very best place to store your parsley is out in the garden, still attached to the plant. But it won't stay out there indefinitely, maintaining its ready-to-pick state until you're actually ready to pick it. (Why do I always forget this basic rule of growing things?)

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Do It Yourself Kitchen Garden Inspiration: Build an Amish Cold Frame

Attention Feedblitz e-mail subscribers: Hi! Sorry about the scrunched up spacing on posts lately. It's driving me nuts, and I'm hoping to have it fixed soon. In the meantime, clicking on the article title will take you to an easier to read version on the In My Kitchen Garden site. Thanks for your patience and understanding.

Realization of the Day:

In all my years of gardening, I've never used a cold frame—and I love cold frames.

Several Amish families moved to this area two years ago, and in my opinion we're all the luckier for it. The Amish neighbors I've met so far have all been very friendly, and they've already brought much to our rural community. There are three basket makers and a furniture maker. The rough cut siding on our new sheep barn came from the Amish sawmill down the road. (Step-by-step construction photos of our beautiful sheep barn will be up on Farmgirl Fare one of these days, but in the meantime, you can see part of the interior—including some of that wood siding—here.)

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My Favorite Heirloom Carrots (so far) to Grow from Seed: Parisienne

A Handful of Harvested Carrots on July 11th, 2009

Realization of the Day:

I never shared the final results of last year's carrot growing adventures (which I wrote about here and here)—mostly because they were so disappointing.

The short version (because I'll probably never get around to posting the long version) is I've decided that, for me, growing carrots from seed isn't worth the effort—at least right now. I did learn a lot about growing them, though.

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Garden Journal 4/13/10: Perennial Herbs in Pots and Another Reason to Grow Your Own Greek Oregano

Newly sprouted Greek oregano is always a welcome spring sight.

Realization of the Day:

It's time to move this sun loving herb out of the greenhouse and back onto its cement pedestal in the garden where it lives most of the year.

Even before I was much of an herb eater, I grew my own—and dreamed of planting a gorgeous, formal herb garden (a dream that still sort of lives but will probably never see the sun). I don't know why, but there's just something about the words herb garden. Romantic, maybe? I do know that the first thing many beginning gardeners grow is herbs.

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Using Sheep Manure as an Organic Fertilizer in the Garden (and What's Keeping Me from Working in Mine)

Technical note: In order to make the homepage load faster and also allow readers to more easily scroll past posts that aren't of interest, I've implemented an 'expandable post option.' After the first photo and paragraph, look for the 'read more' link. Just click on that link, and the post will expand so you can see the entire thing. And my apologies for the wonky spacing between paragraphs. That annoying problem will hopefully be fixed soon.

Audrey's Twins, Ten Days Old

This is what's keeping me from the garden—all the cuteness down at the sheep barn!

Realization of the Day:

I haven't put anything into the ground yet, including the $39 worth of mail-ordered onion and leek plants that arrived a week and a half ago.

Lambing season is in full swing here on the farm, with two sets of twins and a big spotted girl arriving in just the past two days. All planting woes aside, the good news is that, besides being surrounded by adorable bouncing babies, I'm building up my organic fertilizer empire!

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Garden Journal 3/11/10: Growing Onions from Purchased Plants - Ordering and Planning

1015Y Texas SuperSweet Onions Harvested Last June

Realization of the Day:
Despite numerous failures and disappointments in the garden over the years, when it comes to buying seeds and plants I'm still a consummate optimist. I also have no self control. This can be a dangerous combination—and pricey, too.

Last spring was the first time I grew onions from purchased plants rather than onion sets, and despite the fact that many of them bloomed way too early (which means I ended up with some fairly small onions) I enjoyed some delicious success—and still ended up with bigger onions than I've ever grown from sets. (The flowering was most likely due to some wet and wacky spring weather, and I'm hoping to cover this problem in a future post). I wrote a little about last year's onion growing here and here.

For experiment's sake, in late February of 2009 I ordered a total of 10 bunches (approximately 60 plants per bunch) of 9 different varieties of onions (along with hundreds of leek plants—which was a whole other growing adventure I've been meaning to write about) from Dixondale Farms in Texas, the oldest and largest onion farm in the U.S.

I'm running a little later with my ordering and planting this year, but according to Dixondale's shipping schedule, March 9th was their suggested ship date for my area. I also ordered fewer plants and fewer varieties, sticking to the ones that did the best for me last year.


Some of My 2009 Harvest: Red Candy Apple, 1015Y Texas Super Sweet, and others

Here's what I ordered yesterday:
2 bunches 1015Y Texas Super Sweet
2 bunches Red Candy Apple
1 bunch Candy
1 bunch Super Star

The 1015Y Texas Super Sweets (so named because October 15th is the Texas planting date) are a Short-Day open pollinated variety. Red Candy Apple, Candy, and Super Star are Intermediate-Day hybrids. I don't usually allow hybrids in my kitchen garden, preferring to grow open pollinated heirlooms instead, but I make an exception when it comes to onions and leeks, rationalizing that homegrown hybrids are definitely better than none.

According to Dixondale's 'Which Varieties are Right for You' map, Intermediate-Day are the best type of onions to grow here in southern Missouri. I didn't learn until last year that the size of an onion bulb is dependent upon daylength and temperature, not the size of the plants.

I really liked the flavor of the Red Candy Apples—so sweet, and the size was good. I couldn't get enough of them in this Garbanzo Bean Salad with Red Onion, Scallions, Cilantro, Parsley, and Feta Cheese.

I'm embarrassed to admit that none of the yellow Candys ever made it into the ground (I ordered too many onion plants last year!), but since it's Dixondale's most popular variety (they sold over 85 million in 2009), I have high hopes. They say this variety will work almost everywhere in the country and is great for beginner gardeners.


6/5/09: Just Harvested Super Star Onions Laid out to Cure before Storing

The Super Star onions started blooming early, so I ended up picking them on the small side, but the flavor of this white globe-shaped variety was very nice, and the plants were vigorous. And as you can see in the top photo, the 1015Y Texas Super Sweets—which are indeed sweet—did quite well.

If you're gardening by the moonsigns, the best time to plant onions—even though they grow below ground like potatoes and garlic—is on a fertile day in the first quarter, so if all goes according to plan (new bouncing baby lambs and other unexpected farm stuff notwithstanding), I'll be putting mine in the ground on the 18th, 19th, and/or 20th when the moon is in Taurus. You can read more about minding the moonsigns here and here.

In an effort to post more often on this poor neglected garden blog (and keep better track of what's going on in my garden!), my new goal is to write shorter posts (okay, I'm failing miserably so far) that focus on just one or two points. I plan to hopefully write more about growing onions, including soil prep, onion planting, an amazing way I discovered to organically control weeds, troubleshooting, and growing tips in the near future.

In the meantime, you'll find lots of helpful information about growing onions, including online and downloadable guides, on the newly redesigned Dixondale Farms website.

Are you growing onions this year? Any favorite varieties, stories, tips, or other oniony info you'd like to share?

Previous onion posts:
6/2/09: Harvesting Spring Onions Grown from Purchased Plants
10/8/09: Growing Short Day Onion Varieties in Spring and Free Green Onions in Fall
6/7/08: What To Do with 125 Green Onions (Scallions)
6/7/08: Wanted: Your Recipes and Favorite Ways to Use Green Onions
6/12/05: Growing Onions In The Garden
3/16/06: It's Time to Plant Onions!
4/4/06: Operation Onion Complete!
4/26/06: Companion Planting Beets & Lettuce with Onions

Scallions and spring onions should be here soon!
Sour Cream & Onion Dip
Savory Cheese & Scallion Scones
Fiesta Cottage Cheese Veggie Dip
Mexican Jumping Bean Slaw
Summer in a Bowl
Colors of Summer Salad
Healthy Swiss Chard Tuna Salad with Kalamata Olives
Swiss Chard Cabbage Salad with Garbanzo Beans and Cottage Cheese
Garbanzo Bean Salad with Red Onion, Scallions, Cilantro, Parsley, and Feta Cheese
Sprinkled on top of Hot Swiss Chard Artichoke Dip
Three Onion & Three Cheese Pizza

© Copyright 2010 FarmgirlFare.com, the happy to have onion breath foodie farm blog where buying too much and planting too much are half the fun of gardening, right?

Easy to Grow from Seed Favorites: Miniature White Cucumbers

I Love these Crunchy Little Things

Realization of the Day:
I can't let another year go by without telling you about my new favorite cucumbers—and for once I'm actually telling you about something in plenty of time to plant!

If I had to choose between growing lemon cucumbers (which I wrote about here) and these mini white cucumbers, it wouldn't be an easy decision.

What are the advantages to growing this open pollinated variety (which is really more very pale green than white)? First of all, just like with cherry tomatoes, smaller cucumbers mature more quickly than their larger counterparts—49 days versus an average of 55 to 70 days. They can be picked and eaten when they're even smaller than the ones in this photo (and I don't have especially big hands).

This can be helpful if you have a short growing season, are usually plagued by cucumber loving insects and/or disease (the less time they're growing means the less time there is to attack), if you want to squeeze in two crops during one growing season, or if, like me, you always seem to be planting everything late and are racing your first frost date.

Other advantages? I've found them to be very easy to grow when direct seeded in the garden once the soil has completely warmed up (cucumber plants are not cold tolerant). In fact, these cucumbers are so easy to grow, last summer I harvested quite a few from healthy volunteer plants that sprouted up in our kitchen grey water runoff ditch—from seeds that had gone down the drain and weren't even fully mature.

For the 'real' plantings in the garden, I put four or five seeds about an inch deep in little hills a few feet apart and simply let the plants sprawl. Since this is a long vined variety, you could save space by planting your hills next to a trellis or fence and the vines should climb right up it.

I used to start all my cucumber seeds in containers in early spring, keep them indoors, and then transplant the little seedlings into the garden once the weather warmed up. But delicate cucumber plants can be temperamental, and I've found that the direct seeded plants grew so much faster out in the garden that I didn't end up gaining anything except extra work by starting them indoors.

All ease of cultivating aside, what's really important when growing anything of course is flavor, and miniature white cucumbers have a very nice one. They're mild and sweet, with a pleasant thin skin that never needs peeling. I bought some larger green cucumbers from our Amish neighbors last summer to supplement my garden bounty, and I remember being surprised at how thick and slightly bitter the skins seemed compared to these minis.

And, last but not least, they're adorable.

I ordered my miniature white cucumber seeds from Pinetree Garden Seeds in Maine, and their catalog says this small white, black spined pickling cucumber is a very heavy yielder (which always wins points with me) and is never bitter.

I've also grown Boothby's Blonde cucumbers, a long vined Maine heirloom which Pinetree describes as 'a crisp, medium sized slicer, 6—8" long, with a very pleasant flavor and texture,' and while I liked them, I like these minis better. I often found myself simply slicing them up and munching on them plain as a snack, or on a plate with cheese and crackers.

One of my kitchen garden goals this year is to keep a jar or two of refrigerator pickles (you can pickle almost anything!) on hand during the summer, and I think these little cucumbers would make nice ones.

At $1.30 for a packet of 10 seeds, the were a little more expensive than the other varieties Pinetree sells, but still a great deal. And once you've grown them in your garden, you can simply save some seeds from your best specimens to plant the following year.

If you don't have a magical kitchen grey water runoff, be sure to let the cucumbers fully mature on the vine before you harvest the seeds you want to save, which for this variety means the cucs will get much bigger and much darker in color. I know I have some pictures of what they should look like, but unfortunately I have no idea where they are. If I come across them, I'll post them.

In the meantime, what are your favorite kinds of cucumbers to grow?

More posts about some of my favorite things to grow:
Favorite Heirloom Tomatoes to Grow—Mine and Yours
Growing Onions in the Garden
Growing Short Day Onion Varieties from Purchased Plants
Harvesting Spring Onions Grown from Purchased Plants
Endive and Escarole in the Kitchen and Garden
Growing Lemon Cucumbers from Seed

How to Grow Beets from Seed (and here's my favorite beet recipe)
How To Grow Swiss Chard from Seed and Why You Should (and recipes)
How To Grow Your Own Gourmet Lettuce from Seed (It's easy!)
How To Grow Arugula from Seed in Less than a Month
Tips for Growing & Using Rosemary Year Round

© Copyright 2010 FarmgirlFare.com, the snow is finally gone (for the time being) foodie farm blog where now I'm suffering some serious cucumber withdrawals. I knew I should have put up a few jars of pickles last year.

Garden Journal 1/31/10: Snow Days and the Dream Garden

And She Sleeps (the garden, not me)

Realization of the day:
It's a weekend for dreaming and scheming.

Friday's six-inch snowfall has us happily cozying up indoors—except for the three to four hours a day tending to the donkeys, sheep, chickens, dogs, and outside cats. But I don't mind doing chores even in the snow, especially when it's sunny and warm like today. (Does thinking 30 degrees is warm mean that I've officially crossed over?) It really is beautiful out there.

Now that I've lived on a farm for 15 years, I start to go a little stir crazy if I don't get outside every couple of hours. What's nice is that no matter what the weather, there's always some good reason to leave the kitchen or computer and head out into the fresh air, even if it's only for five minutes to empty the kitchen compost container, feed some scraps to the chickens, or just hug a sheep.

I'll admit that a little laziness does kick in when everything is covered with snow, and I'm perfectly content to stay out of the the garden for a day or two. I certainly don't stop thinking about it, though.

This is the time of year when the garden in my mind and the garden in my reality have so much in common. With no blister beetles or other annoying bugs, no weeds taking over, no ravenous rabbits and deer, no crop failures, no dog damage, no seeds that never sprouted, no seedlings that should have been put in the ground weeks (or months!) ago, no work that can really be done (though I'm sure I could come up with something if I tried), and all those big plans to harvest the most glorious bounty ever, it's definitely one of my favorite times of year in the garden—until I get hungry of course.

Is there anything going on in your garden right now—or is it all still happening in your head?

More snowy garden photos:
2/4/09: Why I Love Growing Vegetables in Raised Garden Beds: Reason #1
Garden Journal 3/1/09: Early Spring Planting Plans & an Unexpected Delay
Garden Photo Journal 1/11/10: My All-Weather Gardening Companion
And lots of links to Snowy Farm Photos here and here

A little help if you're dreaming and scheming about what to grow:
Favorite Heirloom Tomatoes to Grow—Mine and Yours
Growing Onions in the Garden
Growing Short Day Onion Varieties from Purchased Plants
Harvesting Spring Onions Grown from Purchased Plants
Endive and Escarole in the Kitchen and Garden
Growing Lemon Cucumbers from Seed (I love lemon cucumbers)

How to Grow Beets from Seed (and here's my favorite beet recipe)
How To Grow Swiss Chard from Seed and Why You Should (and recipes)
How To Grow Your Own Gourmet Lettuce from Seed (It's Easy!)
How To Grow Arugula from Seed in Less than a Month
Tips for Growing & Using Rosemary Year Round

© Copyright 2010 FarmgirlFare.com, the snowbound foodie farm blog where one thing I do miss in the garden this time of year—besides all that fabulous food—is seeing all the butterflies fluttering about.

Garden Journal 1/26/10:Organizing Seed Packets (but not yet starting any seeds)

Time for all those empty envelopes and really outdated seeds to go!

Realization of the Day:
Gosh that felt good.

I actually took this photo back in January of 2007, but looking at it three years later still evokes a warm and fuzzy feeling of accomplishment. What a mess my seeds were! I'd been hoarding dozens of empty paper packets with the misguided idea that somedoay I would reuse them. I'd also been letting my stash of really outdated seeds just keep accumulating, telling myself each year that you never know, they might actually still be good—and what gardener can simply toss out good seeds? But did I ever bother to do some simple testing for germination? Of course not—all the fresh new seeds had always just arrived!

Anyway, in a rare fit of mid-winter organization and decluttering three years ago, I spent a couple of hours sorting through my entire garden seed collection—and got rid of nearly all of it, including everything you see in the photo above (except the cute little storage containers). It really did feel great.

Of course I still couldn't stand the thought of dozens of packets of seeds going to waste, so I stuffed them into a brown paper bag, wrote 'FREE GARDEN SEEDS' on the outside in big letters, and casually dropped it next to the magazine free pile in the entryway of the library the next time I stopped by to return some books. When I walked back through five minutes later, the bag was already gone. It was the highlight of my month.

According to Martha's Calendar in the front of the January issue of Martha Stewart Living magazine (which can sometimes be helpful but usually makes me feel like an underachieving slug), somebody in Marthaland will be sowing cool-season crops, 'such as cabbage and broccoli,' in the greenhouse today.

According to my handy dandy new Gardening by the Moon 2010 wall calendar (that I received as a review copy from the publisher, and which is already proving helpful—there's even a PDF downloadable version available), I have until tomorrow or Thursday, when the second quarter moon is in Cancer, before I need to be thinking about planting above ground annuals.

No matter what, I obviously need to get cracking, especially since I'm determined to successfully grow brussels sprouts from seed this year (to feed my Quick Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Lemon and Parmesan addiction), and they take forever to mature. Did I mention I haven't ordered any seeds yet either? Though I do have at least one 2009 packet of brussels sprouts seeds (along with dozens of other varieties) kicking around here someplace. I also want to direct seed some arugula, mache (a cold loving little green also known as corn salad), and lettuce in the unheated greenhouse to see if they'll sprout this early.

My excuse for not yet ordering seeds is that I need to take stock of what I already have first, and my seed collection isn't quite as organized as it was after the above-mentioned 2007 purging. Time to hurry up and take on the task, though, since before I know it, it'll be time to start all the warm weather seeds—and I can tell you from personal 2009 experience that if you live in southern Missouri, putting your tomato plants in the ground in mid-July is really not a good idea.

As far as storing and organizing my seeds, I have yet to come up with a surefire system that works best for me. I used to put seeds I save myself in plastic vitamin containers (there are a few in the photo above) rather than paper envelopes since they're airtight, but they take up a lot of space and don't stack well, so now I use itty bitty zipper bags that I buy for a couple of dollars per hundred from a vendor at a nearby antique/junk mall.

I like the little purple snapping lid containers pictured above for separating seeds by type, but lately I've found myself just using quart and gallon zipper freezer bags instead. One of the best places to store garden seeds is actually in an airtight container in the refrigerator (the freezer is good, too), so these bags take up much less space than the boxes. Now all I have to do is actually put the bags of seeds in the fridge.

So how do you organize and store your garden seeds? I'm sure some of you have figured out much better ways than I have!

Related posts:
8/6/05: New Cat on the Potting Bench
2/7/06: My Seed Starting Headquarters (with seed starting tips in the comments)
3/18/06: J2 on the Potting Bench
7/24/09: How to Beat the Heat
8/17/09: A Peek Inside My Potting Cabinet
9/4/09: Sacked Out Sylvester

4/28/06: Sublime Direct Seeded Salads for Those Who Are Short (on Time, Space, & Sunlight)
7/1/07: How to Grow Your Own Gourmet Lettuce from Seed—It's Easier than You Think!
5/31/06: Book Review: Astrological Gardening by Louise Riotte
From my early farm stories: Midnight Mothers & Minding the Moonsigns—A Busy Spring at Windridge

© 2010 FarmgirlFare.com, the can't bloom until you're planted foodie farm blog where starting containers of seeds is one of my favorite parts of gardening, but putting together the related links above, it quickly became clear that the farm cats get a lot more use out of my potting bench than I do. And I haven't forgotten about posting my list of new year's garden resolutions, although there's no big rush since I can't yet check anything off it.

Garden Photo Journal:My All-Weather Gardening Companion

Sylvester the Superfluff

Happy New Year! Between the bitter cold (it was minus six without the windchill yesterday morning) and this month-long flu I'm finally getting over, it's been a slow start to the new year, both in and out of the garden. But despite the snow, Sylvester, who spends much of his time in the garden and greenhouse, is ready and willing to get in the way lend a paw whenever I step outside.

I did make a New Year's Day list of hopes and resolutions for my 2010 garden, which I'll be sharing in my next post (and asking about yours!). In the meantime, are there any four-footers who keep you company in the garden? If you've shared photos of them on your own blog, you're welcome to include a link in your comment.

Want to see more of Sylvester?
1/8/09: Meet the Newest Member of Our Feline Family, Sylvester the Cat
8/5/09: The Pollinator and the Pussycat
9/4/09: Sacked out Sylvester on the Potting Bench
1/5/10: Cold Lover

Of course Sylvester isn't my only companion in the garden. Some days I'll have three or four supervisors out there with me, though of course supervisors never do any actual work. It's been a while since I've foolishly allowed any sheep in the garden, but there are days when I do miss having my sweet little Cary in there with me. It was almost as fun as letting a lamb in the living room! (Don't know who Cary is? Meet her in A Tiny Tail for Mother's Day.)

5/23/06: Cary on the Cucumbers
5/27/06: Turtles Attack!
5/28/06: Thinning Beets with Cary for Company
6/19/06: Lunching in the Greenhouse
6/28/06: Eating Weeds and Inhaling Asparagus Ferns
6/30/06: My Scuffle Hoe and a Weed Eater
7/12/06: The Weed Eater Was Working Perfectly
7/27/06: Falsely Accused (and Let Back in the Garden)
7/31/06: Sucking Down Surprise Lilies
8/17/06: The Destructive Duo Has Been Kicked out of the Kitchen Garden
1/7/07: What I Learned from Cary Last Year
4/18/08: A Little Look Back at Cary and the Nanny Bear in the Greenhouse

© Copyright 2010 FarmgirlFare.com, the never alone foodie farm blog where I may rant and rave about the destruction caused by various critters in the garden, but I really wouldn't trade their companionship for anything—well, except a beautiful 8-foot high stone wall around the entire garden, which would also keep me from having to deal with the dreaded deer.

Merry Christmas! (and a Holiday Surprise in the Greenhouse)

Um, Yeah

Realization of the Day:
There are days when nothing can faze me—not even this.

I hope you got everything you wished for—along with a few surprises—for Christmas!

© Copyright 2009 FarmgirlFare.com, the wide-eyed foodie farm blog where I definitely don't remember asking Santa to please bring me a possum for Christmas.

Quick Winter Tip from My Favorite Vegetable Gardening Book: How To Help Protect Plants in Below Freezing Weather

Greek Oregano in the Greenhouse Ready for this Greek Slow Roasted Lamb Recipe

I love books. I love them so much that when I moved from northern California to Missouri 15 years ago, I chose to sell most of my beautiful Art Deco furniture in order to have more space in the moving truck for vintage collectibles (like some of the treasured contents of my potting cabinet) and books.

I especially love cookbooks, and while I admit to hardly ever (or never) using many of the ones I own, I rationalize their purchase like this: if I discover just one fantastic recipe in a cookbook, that to me is worth the entire cost of the book. The rest of the pages are simply a bonus.

I don't have nearly as many gardening books as I do cookbooks, but if I applied that same rule to them, The Vegetable Gardener's Bible by Edward C. Smith would probably be worth about two thousand dollars. This book, which is all about Ed's high-yield W-O-R-D system: Wide rows, Organic methods, Raised beds, Deep soil, is packed with smart and helpful tips, and after 9 years of owning it, I still learn something new (or relearn something I've forgotten) pretty much every time I pick it up—which is a lot.

Having the Internet at your fingertips when searching for gardening help is great, but having one really reliable book you can turn to first is often even better, and for me it's The Vegetable Gardener's Bible. If what I'm looking for isn't in it, something else always is—like this little sidebar tidbit titled But They'll Freeze! about keeping plants in a greenhouse alive during even the coldest winter nights:

In December, January, and February, night temperatures in our greenhouse dip well below 0°F (-17°C), and all the plants therein freeze solid. If we pick them while they're frozen, the result more closely resembles mush than salad. But if we wait until the sun has warmed the soil and thawed the leaves, we have a salad that has even more depth of taste than any the summer can produce. The secret to this success is that you not water the plants during the coldest times of the winter. If there's too much moisture in the cells, they burst, and the plant will not recover. We stop watering in mid-December and don't start again until mid-March.

He's right about the frozen solid plants. More than once I've gone out to the garden on a really cold morning, sure that everything was history. Now I realize it's better not to look. I simply wait until the sun warms up the plants and brings them back to life before I check on anything—and it's amazing how well they can recover.

I'd actually forgotten the part about not watering at all during winter until rereading But It'll Freeze! just now. I do water my plants in the greenhouse sparingly this time of year—especially the ones in pots—but if I know we're in for a real cold snap, I make sure the soil is dry. And it really does work.

You can apply this theory to some extent with plants growing out in the open, although rain or snow can put a damper (ha) on things. Heavy clear plastic sheeting, either draped directly over beds or on top of some sort of simple structure such as these mini greenhouses, can help protect plants as well as keep them dry.

I've raved about The Vegetable Gardener's Bible before (you can read my full review here), and over the years I've heard from many of you who purchased it on my suggestion and like it as much as I do. I still highly recommend this book for both beginning and seasoned gardeners.

Do you have a favorite gardening book or winter gardening tip?

© Copyright 2009 FarmgirlFare.com, the defrosted and still edible foodie farm blog where the early bird may get the worm, but the late gardener saves herself a lot of despair on icy mornings.