Garden Update

It’s been awhile since I gave an update on the garden.  But there really hasn’t been much to report.  Other than it will definitely take some planning, and contingency planning when not everything comes up as planned.  The good news is that the greenhouse growing is going fabulous.  Everything that froze literally came back with a vengeance with the exception of the herbs. Which means we actually over planted the tomatoes.  What we thought froze we replaced (our neighbors grandma bought them a bunch of plants and they didn’t need all of them so they gave us the left over).  So we will have an abundance of tomatoes, which is ok, we can use them to can salsa, spaghetti sauce, stewed tomatoes or freeze them.  We also somehow ended up with more green bean plants than I planted but those are freezable as well.  The cabbage didn’t really grow, and we only got one head of lettuce (but we just started a bunch more and we are trying cabbage again).  The bell peppers, habaneros, ghost peppers and jalapenos are very happy.  The one thing I am not certain on are the Hatch Green Chilies.  The plants grew, but they aren’t quite as happy as the other plants in the greenhouse, and I definitely think we will NOT get enough to get us the 2 to 2.5 bushels that we need to freeze for a year’s worth.   Which is ok, with everything I read, I knew that these would be trial and error.  But overall we are very excited that the greenhouse is working, now we just need to figure out how to sustain it for most of the winter.

The garden is going as well as expected.  We never know in years past what will grow and what won’t, it’s always been trial and error. The one thing I can say about the garden is it really put a damper on our planting plans with our rototiller being stolen.  We typically take a few weeks to prep the ground.  We had to borrow one (until we can save up for a new one), and so we literally only had one day to prepare the ground and plant before we moved into “the too late” season.  Not only did we have to get the ground prepped for the vegetables, we also had to get the ground ready for the 60 plus trees that arrived that needed planted all in the same time frame. We had a lot going on at one time that needed done, and on our busy schedule none the less.  So the carrots, broccoli, asparagus and rhubarb did not get planted, and I fear the onions got planted too late, but we will see.  Everything else got planted.  We will not have as much cucumber as we had hoped and the garlic seems to have given up, as did the radishes.  We have learned that we will need to plant the garlic in a different area that is NOT accessible to the dogs.  The dogs no matter what we did somehow found a way into the area we planted the garlic, and we think they trampled it too much.  We will have plenty of everything else (pumpkins, zucchini, corn, and potatoes, plus lots plums and grapes!  I will admit though that the potatoes make us both nervous.  We have never grown them before, and we have no clue when it’s time to harvest them.  But we will get it figured out.  We were also talking to our neighbors and it turns out that what we usually can’t grow, they can.  We have been getting tons of Summer Squash from them, and it’s delicious.  So we decided next year maybe we will go in with them and do a veggie share type thing. 

Now for the herbs…….the only herbs that we will really have is the wild basil that came out of nowhere.  The rest died when it froze.  I tried to replant more, but didn’t have good luck except for the basil. So we have LOTS of basil. But I am really ok with it.  I have wanted all sorts of herbs to be part of the urban homestead, for both cooking and medicinal purposes.  And a good friend of mine told me it would be a good idea to take classes on how to use them before I get too involved with growing them, and I couldn’t agree more.  So I searched and searched and finally found a local farm that does classes for pretty cheap.  So I signed up for a basic class and started my journey.  The first hour of the class was walking around the farm and identifying the different plants that grow wild.  The next few hours of class was spent learning how to make oils and salves for healing, and learning what parts of the herbs should be used for what. I wasn’t sure what to expect out of the class, but I feel I got much more than I had hoped.  I was so excited that I immediately told the hubby that I want a mini-kitchen/shed built in the backyard specifically to dry and make all the wonderful things you can with herbs.  So in the end, it will take a lot of work to think about and plan what kind of herb garden I want.  I would like herbs for medicinal uses, as well as for cooking, and for making my own teas. And I am totally excited to take the rest of the classes that I found.  I have even considered going back to school to become a certified herbalist. But one step at a time! First we need to learn how to harvest the potatoes! LOL………..