another garden to tour

We cheated a bit on this garden.  The owner was away and I helped water one day and took these photos.  I'm sure Amy won't mind you getting to see her garden.  It will remind you of summer which we all long for!

 Now here is the other Amy's garden....Once again a memory of last summer....

Last week for seed orders!

Soon we will plant early peas and lettuce and broccoli and choys oh and on and on.  I'd like to get our seed order off so make it your goal to place an order by January 30th.

Any questions?  Give me a call or put a comment on the blog

Happy seed ordering

Here is a list of  ideas.  We will order varieties by what grows best however if you have a desire please put the variety name down.   We live in a lot of micro-climates and not a true maritime climate so what you can grow I may not be able to.  Below is a list of ideas with the easiest for me to grow to the hardest.

  Please note we don't get any savings by making a large order.  We are trying to help those of you who have smaller gardens.  It will save you money to share a package of seed with others and only pay for the seed you use and not the whole package. 

Grows well for me. I am on the east side of a hill and colder 

Lettuce what do you like?
Chard
Kale what kind do you like?
Choys ( pac choi, Asian cabbage, mustard etc)
Garlic
Shallot
Beets
Broccoli
green beans  pole/bush
peas  what types?
onion  what types?
leek

cabbage
cauliflower
celery
asparagus


Harder to grow for me (might want to start with plants

potato do you have favorite or would you like a mix
winter squash (pumpkin, Hubbard etc)
Summer squash  ( zucchini, patty pan etc)
Herbs
Cherry tomato
cucumber is this for salad or pickles?
carrots


Can not seem to get ripe produce (might have to really pull every trick out of the bag!)

Tomato
corn
okra
egg plant
peppers
Melon

I have never grown artichokes but it sounds fun if you have the space!

When you order just tell me

I need one square of carrots
I need 1/2 square of leeks
I need three squares of beets two kinds
I need one potato can mixed variety

If you will plant lettuce in the spring and late summer order that square twice-I need two squares of lettuce one for fall....If you tell me you plan to use one square for fall I will order the cold hearty seed.

The seed will be a mix of heirloom and hybrid.  We really do need some hybrid for our weather concerns.  If you want to learn seed saving you need to use heirloom or open pollinated seed for saving. 


If you are new to square foot gardening please read some of our old postings and look at our garden photos.

What to do if you have when you only have 9 degrees F. outside

You may not be thinking at all about your gardens.

I winter garden and I have some hints for any of you with plants still in your garden.

We had a very unusual weather week last week. I've lived here for over 25 years and this is only the 2nd time I've seen something like this where we go from 70 degrees to 9 degrees. Not much can endure that kind of drop for that long. But here is what I do. I take a daily walk in the garden and cut away any branches that froze and are now turing soft and icky. You must do this each day until a healthy plant remains.

By doing a little at a time you give the plant every chance to survive on it's own. Here is what survives after a normal freeze, chard our all time top performer, the smaller chois, kale, beets if they are a winter variety and carrots if the ground didn't freeze too deeply (which I don't believe it did. Things I hope survived, garlic, shallots, beets that weren't winter types,and some of my herbs.

Be sure and clean out all that is dead as soon as possible. I had a nice looking pumpkin on my front porch turn to mush in a flash!

When it's all tidy in your garden put your feet up and look at those seed catalogs and dream of what we will grow in the spring!

Yes my salad table is still growing nicely. It had a double layer of plastic and a 60 watt bulb. We ate lettuce and choi's from it last night and they were perfect. Remember I put it against the house wall to further warm it, even so it was covered in ice each day!  The chives will have to be cut way down and see if they can return, but the winter lettuce is doing nicely.  A slug found his way in but he is gone and his holes remain!

I haven't given up on my garden have you?

I couldn't find homes for all the garlic.

I had so I went out in the sprinkles and planted what was left. What I wish is that the seed company would make a nice mixed package. I end up with more than I need and hate that I paid for it but long that I have a choice of garlic. I have three nice big bags I'm really enjoying eating. Next year I'll plant my own from the cloves I get this year. I have enough variety to do so.

This brings me to the thought that we could all save money
by sharing our seed buying.
I'd like to start a nice seed group.

Several of us are thinking about how to work this. The basic idea would be everyone decides what they will grow and how much seed/plant they need.
We hope you will trust us to help choose the best varieties to plant.
After we get the master list we would have each person buy a portion of the list and there would be a time to divide it all up.

I never use up a whole package of seed.
Do any of you? Maybe carrots and beets , but never broccoli, or Garlic! etc.
I welcome suggestions for how to organize this.

Now for the photos of what I picked while I was out planting garlic.
I will make soba soup with the chard and kale and herbs that remain.
Might be beans left.

I covered everything very tightly from the winds the last week and it's time to open things up so we don't get bugs hatching.
I want any bug life at rest when the freezes hit.
Crazy how you have to think a head but I do and it helps me have nice food to eat each year.

The funnest veggie I was able to grow this year was the rommanesco Broccoli. Sorry I didn't take a photo but it looks like a multi-pointed chartreuse alien!
Yummy and fun to grow.
Also the radicchio grew really well and I'm going to roast some with a recipe
I found online

This is my first year to grow Kohlrabi. I'm wondering how it will taste

This and two pumpkins are the only squash I got this year. These are giant size so they will make several meals. I miss the butternuts. We ate 4 Delicata and a fair bit of zucchini but it was not a good squash year.

The big gray ones are almost blue, the photo doesn't do it justice.

See my squashes heavy stems, this is what they do when I grow vertically, if you grow them on the ground they don't get such thick stems.  Amazing isn't it!

If you want to know what these squash or your own squash is look here.


http://whatscookingamerica.net/squash.htm

plant Garlic and shallots

Did you get your garlic and Shallots? It's time to get them in the ground. With this warm and cold thing going on in the Northwest you might be wondering what to do......PLANT.....yes plant them so they get a nice foot hold on the ground before any bad weather. Then after they are up put a dressing around them of straw, leaves or what ever you have that will give them a bit of protection. Don't cover up the garlic just dress around it closely. It we get BIG snow like a couple of years ago I will add 6 or more inches around them again. Roses like this kind of protection also.

If you need to know how to plant garlic see the video on the side bar.

Happy cool weather gardening, Sat looks to be beautiful!

fine eating

This is a close up photo these really are tiny

That's a cherry tomato and that squash was only about 6 inches long.
Picked by sunset last night

This is the end of the summer growing season and I have a manta I say over and over....."Harvest each day"

Why? First off you get to eat really gourmet food, it's tiny, it's fresh, tender and yummy.

Second nature is going to take it all back very soon, with all our rain and the cold soon to be upon us the plants will slow down to barely grow.

So every day I'm picking those small green, yellow and purple beans, I'm watching the tomatoes and picking them when pink (they are splitting from too much water if left until ripe) I'm taking those zucchini at 6 inches etc.
I'm harvesting the top basil leaves that aren't spotted from all the rain,
and collecting the newest sprouts on my herbs
which will have to be tucked away soon.

If you don't know what size those veggies should have been for harvest check out this web site. If you were apart of our gardening group you have this handout. Once you know the harvest size reduce that and collect things at a gourmet size and cook gently and enjoy!

http://snohomish.wsu.edu/garfact.htm

look at FS#26



You will do this kind of harvesting once again with the early spring foods.
It really does take a couple of years to see the circle of life and hop onto the Merry go round.

roasted potato recipe

I don't think I can ever match Amy's red tomato that was served to us at our last meeting but here is the recipe for the roasted potato salad I brought.

It's good.

Roasted Potato & Green bean salad

From the book Grocery Gardening

4 med Yukon gold potatoes cleaned and cubed (I used some of each kind of potato I grew)
1/2 cup olive oil plus some for coating baking sheets
1/4 pound fresh green beans, cleaned and trimmed (I used yellow wax beans)
1 shallot, minced
1 tablespoon Dijon Mustard
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
1 tsp fresh Thyme leaves, minced

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Place the potatoes on a large foil (oiled) lined baking sheet, use two if needed to keep all potatoes flat on sheet. Drizzle (this is not the 1/2 cup of oil) with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper (I use sea salt and not a lot) Bake 45 min. or until potatoes are brown and well caramelized.

Blanch the beans by immersing them in a large saucepan of boiling water for 3 minutes. Remove beans from the saucepan and dunk them in a bowl of ice water to stop the cooking process. Drain and dry the beans.

In a large bowl, combine the shallots, mustard, vinegar and thyme. Salt and pepper to taste and whisk to combine the ingredients. While whisking add the 1/2 cup of olive oil in a stream. This should become creamy as you whisk it. Continue to blend oil thoroughly into the dressing. Add the roasted potatoes and beans, stir and serve.

Note: All fresh ingredients did come out of my garden. I am so loving these shallots!