What's planted now....

Never know what you're gonna find....

While I was turning up the soil to plant some peas this afternoon, I discovered that Meghan's carrots had actually grown. We've tried to grow carrots before, with great success in growing the green part, but not much success in producing edible roots worth mentioning. Maybe it's the depth at which we plant the seeds. Maybe it's what we plant them with. Maybe it's the seeds we plant. Regardless, the carrot seeds Meghan planted near our tomatoes last summer have produced a crop--of three carrots. Thankfully, just enough for each kid to have one, and for Mom and Dad to steal a bite. I'm sure that bite will be worth the 2 seconds I spent handing the seeds to Meghan to plant.

Speaking of carrots, I planted some more, in the exact same spot in bed #4 today. I also planted peas on our old tomato trellises, turnips, onions and rutabagas. These were all planted in the same bed, and are companion plants. Peas and carrots are mutually beneficial, and are the perfect planting partners. Turnips like to grow near peas, and rutabagas like to grow near turnips. Please notice, I did NOT plant any onions in this bed--peas and onions do not mix.

To finish out bed #5, Craig cut down our fall broccoli plants to see if we can get some more broccoli out of them--after the first cutting, broccoli plants no longer produce heads, but they will produce more florets. Since we've been eating broccoli florets since Christmas, I don't know if we'll get any more off of these plants. It's simple to replace the plants if the experiment doesn't work. I interplanted the broccoli plants with beet seeds and more turnips, and with almost all of the onions. I have just a few more onion sets to put in with the strawberry patches. My Spring garden is almost completely planted. Just a few more seeds, and we'll be set.

It's Planting Time Again!

You can start planting some of your favorite Spring vegetables on February 1 in our region. While I had the best intentions, and was at Renfrow's on 2/1 with my garden plan in hand, the plants and seeds I bought didn't actually get into the dirt until yesterday, the 7th.


Here's my plan for bed #5 this Spring. This bed gets the most shade once the trees in my yard leaf out, so I've designated it my main Spring bed. Yesterday, I planted lettuce plants, swiss chard plants and spinach plants with Early Scarlet Globe radish seeds and Sweet Georgia onion sets planted in-between. I also planted Dwarf Blue Curled, Vate's Strain kale seeds with Detroit Dark Red, Morse's Strain beet seeds in-between. Each box on my plan represents 1 square foot. I've planted companion plants together (i.e. radishes and lettuce), and I've chosen only plants that grow well together, such as onions and beets for this bed.


I'm not planting as many items in this bed this year since I found I had more lettuce last year than we could eat. Each head of lettuce will generate more leaves whenever you harvest some for a salad, reducing the number of heads you need to plant. That lesson learned saved me a considerable amount of money at Renfrow's this year! If you're thinking of planting a garden, then take a trip to Renfrow's. They have posters showing (by season) whether you should buy plants or seeds for each vegetable, they can give you the NC State Cooperative Extension chart listing planting dates for each vegetable, and if you don't want to think too hard about it all, they can pick out the plants you'll need to plant right now. Tell them I (the lady with all the kids and the red-headed husband) sent you!

More Like This < Sunset's favorite heirloom tomatoes and recipes - Sunset.com

More Like This < Sunset's favorite heirloom tomatoes and recipes - Sunset.com

How to harvest and store tomato seeds - Sunset.com

How to harvest and store tomato seeds - Sunset.com

Father's Day Harvest

I harvested our next-to-last serving of beets out of our garden, and I have to say, they were delicious. My cousin swears her favorite way to eat beets is "Harvard Beets," so I gave this recipe a try last night. Meghan says they're "candied beets," Michael will eat one or two bites, Matthew says, "bleh" with the obligatory stuck-out tongue, and Craig and I both agree, they are "top of the class," hence the name, "Harvard Beets."

Here's the recipe....

16 oz. can of beets (or use fresh beets, peel them, boil them and reserve the liquid)
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
3/4 cup sugar
1 tablespoon cornstarch
butter
salt to taste

Add vinegar, sugar, cornstarch, butter and salt to beet liquid, and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce heat to medium, stir in beets, and heat through.

Cousins & Zucchini....

So, I'm enjoying my 2nd annual Cousins' Reunion at my cousin's place in the mountains yesterday. My cousin and his girlfriend arrive bearing a huge amount of yellow squash and zucchini and even a cucumber from his Mom's garden, and I'm immediately jealous. My cousin (and my sister of the heart) gets that gleam in her eye and starts planning what she's going to can with it all, and I realize that I'm having dinner with a Southern States store owner and a County Extension Agent. Woohoo! I'm finally able to ask someone who might know WHY my zucchini plant hasn't produced anything yet and the blossoms keep falling off.....here are the answers I heard.

"What'd you plant it in? Potting mix?"
"Well, how 'bout phosphorous?"
"Actually, my specialty is animals, so I'd have to look this one up."
"The old people would tell you that you planted it during the wrong phase of the moon."
"Honestly, I think you should just ask Momma."

So, I took the Extension Agent's recommendation and looked it up....the answer is that the blossoms that have fallen off are male blossoms, and the blossoms still on the plant are most likely female blossoms.

Here's a wonderful resource: http://www.gardeningknowhow.com/vegetable/why-zucchini-blossoms-fall-off-the-plant.htm