OH NO!

The seedlings are starting to drop like flies.  I gave them a bit of water last night, and they were all fine.  I woke up this morning, and about 1/3 are yellowed, withered and dying.  Is it the dreaded DampingOff Disease???  Please say it ain't so!  I just hope they won't all be lost.  We need some sunshine soon!  Please!  There is a fungus among us.  No cure for Damping Off, but it means 4-6 weeks will have been lost and I'll have to sterilize and replant everything.  Victims so far include cabbage, brussel sprouts, spinach and cauliflower.  I'm hoping it doesn't spread to the strawberries, tomatoes and peppers.  The grow light is currently occupied, so I can't move the sick seedlings to the light.  We need sunshine!   Hurry!

Freecyclin'!

I love Freecycle.  If you're not familiar with it, it's like Craigslist --- except everything is FREE! I put a post out begging for raspberry canes and a lovely gal responded that I may come and dig up a few of hers at the end of April.  Woohoo!  Another lady had posted asking for rhubarb plants.  I don't have plants to share, but I do have seeds.  Turns out she owns a horse stable, and is so grateful for the seeds she's going to bring me a few trash bags of horse poo when she comes to get them.  Yay for organic fertilizer!  I am a co-op person by nature, so Freecycle makes perfect sense to me.  No luck getting getting a dog house for chicken coop Freecycled yet though.  I'll keep trying!

Whew!

What a crazy last few days!  I could tell all my hard work in the garden was taking a toll on the kiddos as the toddler was more clingy than usual and starting to act out a bit -- her way of telling me she needed more attention than what she was getting -- and the baby decided she requires zero sleep to function.  Wish I could say the same for me.  While changing the baby, Calla helped herself to my coffee.  Just what I needed, a caffeinated toddler on my hands!  On top of no sleep, Adam's crazy work schedule and everything else that seemed to buckle under the pressure, Calla deliberately disobeyed me and nearly knocked herself silly.  After a stern "No jumping on the couch" from me, I went back into the laundry to switch loads when I promptly heard the sound of a hard toddler head hit the coffee table full force.  Calla dazed herself with a nice blow to the left temple.  Thank God no stitches or CT scan required! Needless to say, the garden and everything else but the kiddos has taken the back burner while we regroup :)  In all the mayhem, I forgot to watch the weather forcast (I fell asleep on the couch).  Most of the seedlings were on the deck beginning their "hardening off" process and I forgot to being them back inside -----  then the temp dropped.  When I finally got out there in the morning to bring them in, the gusty winds had gotten the best of them.  Nearly every plant had stem damage or had started to wilt.  The eggplant (a warm weather plant which requires a very early start in our short growing season) suffered from the cold the most.  All 30 seedlings were bent over in agony and shriveled.  I wanted to cry.  Later when Adam and I were talking about it, I wondered how real farmers must feel when the hail takes out their crops.  Ug.  Fortunately, the little eggplant seedlings seem to be more resilient than I gave them credit for.  After a drink of warm water and a sun bath in the window, they have all perked up and are standing straight and tall once more.  Hooray! 

Coming Soon!!!!

Chickens!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Where are all the ugly vegetables?

My seed catalogs describe the Great White Tomato as a "Giant 1lb tropical tasting tomato, with hints of melon, guava and pineapple".  Sounds lovely, right?  I can almost feel the juice dripping down my chin from biting into a fully ripe ghostly pale white tomato...  You know what all my tomatoes at home right now taste like?  Crap.  Yup, crap. Doo doo.  Granted, I know tomatoes are not in season right now.  That being said, all the tomatoes you buy at the grocery store LOOK gorgeous, but, they taste like crap.

"The federal government has sponsored research that has produced a tomato that is perfect in every respect, except that you can't eat it. We should make every effort to make sure this disease, often referred to as 'progress', doesn't spread." --- Andy Rooney 

 

Did you know commercial growers pick tomatoes when they are green?  Then they spray them with a gas that turns them red.  Yup. This is AFTER the tomatoes have been sprayed with herbicides to keep the weeds down. Then they spray fertilizers to grow them big.  Then they spray them with pesticides to kill insects.  Then they spray them with fungicide to keep them from rotting and molding during their long truck ride to the local grocery store.  Then they gas 'em to make 'em pretty!  Then they spray them with food grade wax so they are shiny, glowing red orbs.  They look appetizing.  Then you get it home and slice it open (after washing it thoroughly to get a little of those sprays off I hope) and then it hits you: it tastes like crap! 

 

Why is it that every tomato at Wal-Mart and HyVee and SuperSaver are spotless, perfect, and beautiful ---- and they taste HORRID? 

 

Have you ever grown tomatoes in your garden?  I don't know about you, but my tomatoes are ugly.  They are mutant looking, with worm holes and odd shapes.They are misshapen and homely. They are not winning any beauty contests!   But the taste? Amazing...  NOTHING compares to a fresh picked garden tomato, no matter how alien it looks.  And since when did society come to think that all tomatoes must be red?  I am growing heirloom varieties, which means I have my choice of fun colored tomatoes with different characteristics (minus the toxic gas sprays!)! The tropical tasting Great White slicing tomato, the low-acid orange Amish Paste tomato, the spicy, robust dark purple Cherokee tomato -- these use to be common fair before industrialized agriculture and a perception that tomatoes must be "perfect" and "red" (and tasteless?) to equal "good".  I don't know about you, but I get sad when I start to think about what must have happened to all the ugly veggies that didn't make the grade...  Even if you can't grow your own tomatoes, you can vote with your dollars -- call your local produce manager and tell him that you want delicious tasting UGLY veggies.  Or, just come over to my place around July and you can taste the rainbow!

Sweet dreams are made of these...

I might be pipe dreaming, but hey, you gotta start somewhere...  This year I will be attempting to grow some of the following: (go to http://www.rareseeds.com/ for pictures of these beauties)

Caribbean Red Habanero Peppers
Red Mini Bell Peppers
Black Knight Hot Peppers
Thai Yellow Chilli Peppers
California Wonder Red Bell Peppers
Tam Jalapeno Pepper

Violetta Italia (purple) Cauliflower
Snowball (white) Cauliflower

Red Wonder Wild Strawberry
Yellow Wonder Wild Strawberry

Paragon Rhubarb

Golden Beets
Bull's Blood Beets
Albino Sugar Beets

Chantenay Red Core Carrots
Jaune Obtuse du Doubs (yellow) Carrots
Tonda Di Parigi Carrots
Parisienne (golfball shaped) Carrots

White Egg Turnips

Sleeping Beauty Melon
Japanese Cream Fleshed Watermelon
Ali Baba Watermelon
Sakata's Sweet Melon
Banana Melon
Tigger (ornamental) Melon
White Wonder Watermelon
Golden Sweet Melon
Kiwano (African Horned Cucumber) Jelly Melon

Purple Podded Pole Beans
Golden Wax Beans
Snow Peas
Kentucky Wonder Pole Beans
Holstein Cowpea
Dragon Tongue Beans

Crystal Apple Cucumber
Lemon Cucumbers
West India Gherkin Cucumber


Mammoth Grey Striped Sunflower
Titan Giant Sunflower

Lime Green Salad green Tomatoes
Pink Accordion Tomatoes
Pink Grapefruit Tomatoes
Great White Tomatoes
Orange Banana Tomatoes
Marglobe Supreme Tomatoes
Malakhiovaya Shkatulka (green) Tomatoes
Cherokee Purple Tomatoes
Reisentraube grape Tomatoes
Ananas Nior Tomatoes

Golden Zucchini
Gray Zucchini

Bush Buttercup Squash
Waltham Butternut Squash
Blue Of Hungaria Squash
Turks Cap Squash
White Bush Scallop Squash

Atlantic Giant Pumpkins
Jack Be Little Pumpkin

Red Orach Salad Greens
Tom Thumb Lettuce
Mesclun Salad Mix
Bloomsdale Spinach

Little Fingers Eggplant

Early Jersey Cabbage
Extra Dwarf Pak Choy

Strawberry popcorn

Gigantea Chinese Lantern
Wonderberry
Strawberry Spinach
Ground Cherry

Chives
Hungarian Blue Poppy
Lovage
Genovese Basil
Hamburg Rooted Parsley
Bouquet Dill

Marigold flowers
Forget-Me-Not flowers
Lamb's Ear

These next seeds are all from my sis in Colorado (she uses http://www.seedsavers.org/ )
Turkey Craw Bean
Clemson Spineless Okra
Double Yield Cucumber
Brussel Sprouts
Bountiful Beans
Golden Hubbard Squash
Amish Pie Pumpkin
Danvers Carrot
Chiogga Beet
Detroit Dark Red Beet



WHEW!!! It looks like it's gonna be a busy season! AND I still don't have the following plants that I am dying to try:

Hazelnuts (coming in the fall!)
Cherry Tree
Dwarf Peach Tree
Peppermint
Rosemary
Potatoes
Onion
Wormwood
Raspberry Canes (coming to me in April!)


WHEW! I CAN"T WAIT!!!!

Ghetto Fabulous

The seeds needed a bigger light, so I stole the shop light from the garage.  In usual fashion, I couldn't find the drill --- so I propped it up with soup cans until I can get a better home for them (I miss my countertop space!) There are many, many ways the seedlings can be rigged up to have better light and a more aesthetically pleasing home.  However, I have two things working against me: time and money.  "Make it do, or do without... and try not to trip over the toddler in the process" has been the status quo. 

The toddler so far enjoys all things gardening.  Especially modeling Mama's work gloves :

Adam hung my Squirrel-A-Whirl on the tree this past weekend!!! It spins.  I can't wait until the squirrels find this.  I'm very easily entertained, obviously.

The cabbage sprouts are already starting to outgrow their home, so I moved the strongest plants to yogurt cups.  I thought I had saved enough trash for the transplanting, but looks like I need more yogurt cups and cans!   Sorry husband, more trash picking!

DON'T TRY THIS AT HOME!

I thought the seedlings could use a little more warmth to assist in germination.  So I wrapped the lid of this giant storage tote in Christmas lights.  It seemed like such a good idea at the time...  Until I just about cooked them.  Christmas lights get warm.  Very warm. Bright idea, i know. You can stop laughing now.

They are back on the counter where they belong.  So far we have seedlings of:

Cabbage, brussel sprouts, purple cauliflower and spinach

And away we go...

After lusting away at the Baker Creek heirloom seed catalog for a few weeks, sending in a ridiculously large order and plotting the garden away on paper, I finally got some seeds started!  There is still snow on the ground here on the prairie, but somehow it just doesn't seem quite so cold when there are trays of tiny little seed babies basking in the glow of an old fluorescent light. And away we go!


The hardest part so far has been keeping Calla out of the seed trays. Here she is trying to "water" them with her morning juice.

We are edging the garden with wine bottles.  Our hope is that little ferns will eventually start to grow up into the bottles, and that little birdies will drink from the divots on the base of them.  I'm trying to re-use as many things as I can.  I had to buy the rabbit fencing and it is only about half-buried so far.  It's been a challenge to come up with enough lumbar (or re-bar?) for future trellesing.  I'm hoping freecycle will be my friend in this regard! Adam and Dad did not have fun tilling this...  Partially because it was virgin sod.  Partially because maybe wifey jumped the gun a little bit and the ground was still somewhat frozen.... maybe.   

 This is the initial countertop setup.  Counter space is valuable real estate at my house, so I don't see this lasting long.  My gears are going, so as soon as I come up with something else this will go away. 

We have 5 cabbage sprouts so far (those sprouted in less than 12 hours!) but that's all.  Once some seedlings have 3 or 4 true leaves, we'll transplant into yogurt cups I've been saving all winter.  My garage looks like a giant trash heap of wine bottles waiting to have the labels peeled off, yogurt cups, formula and tin cans and scraps of wood I've gleaned from here and there.  Dear Hubs has been such a good sport as I attempt to make this suburban split level into a formidable homestead.  The laundry room closet has been turned into a pantry and wine closet.  Fingers crossed that he'll let me take over the basement closet as a mini-root cellar!