What did you do today?

I am SO ready for Spring!   I mentioned in the last post that I had ordered a lot of new seeds.  Well, today I got out my seed box to see what I still had.  I suppose most people would have reversed these steps, but I like to try new things.  I admit I went a bit overboard by ordering 30 packs of tomato seeds for a square foot garden, but I ordered several paste types since I can a lot.  I love the flavor of my Dixie's Sweet, but they are large & ripen slowly and I ordered varying day to maturity times. 

This is what I had left over.  (I am going to offer a lot of them for exchange on the SFG forum after I check the dates on them & recommended storage times.  I know the onions will have spotty germination because they don't store well.

BEAN
Dragon tongue
Roma II

BEETS
Cylindra

CABBAGE
Early golden acre
Perfection Savoy
premium late flat Dutch
Red

BROCCOLI, CAULIFLOWER
Early snowball
Long island brussels sprouts

CARROTS
Jaune Obtuse Du Doubs yellow
St. Valery
Touchon
White Belgian

CELERY
Tendercrisp

CORN
Ambrosia 3       
Chubby checkers
Early & often 3+
Obsession 2
Sugar pearl
       
CUCUMBER
Armenian
boston pickler
Poinsett

HERBS
Cilantro, slo bolt
Cilantro       
Dill, elephant
Dill, long island
Parsley, italian
sage, perennial
       
LETTUCE
Bibb summer
Paris Island Cos
Red sails mix
Rocky top mix

MELON
Banana
Burrell's jumbo
Kolb's gem
Lady Godiva
Orangeglo
Sleeping beauty
Sugar Baby
TN melon

OKRA
Louisiana long pod

ONIONS
Leek, American Flag
Leek, giant musselburgh
Riverside sweet
Tropeana Lunga long red

PEPPERS, SWEET
Banana sweet
California Wonder
Emerald Giant
Italian pepperoncini
sweet bell   
Yellow monster

PEPPERS, HOT
Anaheim
Ancho
Cayenne
Early Jalapeno
Hungarian Hot
Jalapeno
Serrano
Tam Jalapeno

SQUASH
delicata
Gil's green acorn           
honey boat delicata
Yellow crookneck
Zucchini

TOMATOES
anna Russian
Dads sunset orange
Dixie
Early Cascade
german pink
Isis candy
Red grape
Striped Roman

TURNIP, PARSNIP, RUTABAGA
Purple top turnip
Wilhelmsburgh Rutabaga


I get to start my pepper seeds in a couple of weeks, then tomatoes & some other things 2 weeks after that. 

I'll tell you about my baby chick order tomorrow.

This week at a glance

SUMMARY FOR THE WEEK OF 2/20-2/26/2011
Marked grids in beds.

Made cold frame.

2/24 and 2/26:  Tomato seeds planted:  Dixie's Sweet (family heirloom), German Pink, Pink Oxheart, Dad's Sunset, Striped Roma, Early Cascade, Isis Candy, Red Grape
   
Peppers are finally up: Yellow Monster, Tam jalapeno, Emerald Giant, Ancho, Rainbow mix,
Golden Marconi, Holy Mole, California Wonder.

Lettuce seeded in beds week before last up & growing, a few of each started in trays 2/26: Cimmaron Red Romaine, Gourmet Mix, Rocky Top mix, Red Wing mix.

Onions: seeded in beds starting to come up, more started in trays 2/26: Hybrid Granex yellow, Red Burgundy, Violet De Galmi.  White Ebenezer sets planted for scallions.

Eggplant: Ping Tung from Taiwan.

Carrots 2/26: Jaune Obtuse Du Doubs yellow, Muscade, Valery, White Belgian.

Spinach, Bloomsdale: 2/24

Cabbage seeds: Perfection Savoy, Red, Late flat Dutch up & growing. 

Today's harvest, plus apple butter!

Yesterday we harvested our first corn of the season, Peaches & Cream, and it was so delicious.  I couldn't take time for any pictures, but today I thought I'd share a few pics.  Here are 2 German Pink tomatoes and some cucumbers that I picked when getting the corn.

These are the first "good tomatoes" I've had.  The others have been huge & beautiful until you pull them & realize they are rotten on the bottom, totally unusable.  Also, it has been so hot that some of the tomatoes on the upper portion of the plants have gotten sunburned.  I'll just have to wait & see how they make it by the time they get ripe.  Everything is growing really well and I'm a SFG convert for life.

 

SOME THINGS I HAVE LEARNED WITH MY FIRST SQUARE FOOT GARDEN: 
Don't even think about an early cabbage crop. Cabbage loopers made lace of them. They were so bad I don't think even B.t. would have helped.

Don't plant carrots in adjacent squares around squash. They were too shaded and foilage rotted.

Heirloom tomatoes grow REALLY tall. Buy taller fence posts for staking next year. I thought about topping some of them, but I just couldn't cut off all those blooms. So far they are gracefully curving back toward the ground, I don't think they will break when the fruit gets larger.

My cucumber trellises are 6' high. Cukes are 12+ feet long. They have grown up the trellis, across the top, back down & out into the path. They will get trimmed tonight. But I've made a bunch of pickles.

Roma bush beans are more like a half-runner bean, at least in the Mel's mix. I won't plant them as close next year. The center ones didn't get enough sun & didn't produce much.

Don't alternate squares with tomato/pepper/tomato..... I'll leave one blank square between each tomato & plant peppers side by side in another section.

I love not having to weed. Even with composted manure from a dairy, I have had very few weeds & it's wonderful.

I'll put in a drip irrigation system before next season. It has been horribly hot here & I have to water daily & with the plants so big it does take a while to get it all finished.

I planted one entire 4 x 12 bed with October beans (a dried bean, aka Horticultural bean) that you plant & leave all season til they dry up before picking. Now I've thought of so many other things I would like to have put there & it seems such a waste of space. I'll just buy them from the grocery store next year.

Plant cilantro every other week. Even with cutting daily it still bolted.

I'll never go back to row gardening.

The forum at Square Foot Gardening is addictive & I love it.  I have learned so much from the friendly folks there.

I planted 4 x 4 squares of corn - I will stake/tie the area when they are about shoulder high so the wind won't blow them over when it storms.

APPLE BUTTER
DH has been out of homemade apple butter for a while, so I thought I would be extra nice (especially since I'm begging him to build me a chicken tractor).   I never use fresh apples any more because it is so time-consuming - I use unsweetened applesauce from the grocery store and my crockpot.

I don't have an official recipe, but I put two of the 50 oz jars of unsweetened applesauce in my large crock pot, add sugar & spices. I only use cinnamon and allspice and we like it spicy. ( I don't measure mine, I just dump in a lot of sugar, add spices and a little bit of lemon juice, then check occasionally and add more sugar & spices if I think it is needed.)   I put my crockpot on high, leave it uncovered  & stir occasionally.  I occasionally taste & adjust spices & sugar. If it hasn't cooked down enough by bedtime I turn it on low, then the next morning turn it back up on high until it has cooked down quite a bit.  To test for doneness I put a spoonful on a saucer & cool to see if it is thick enough.   This year I added a bit too much sugar & had to add another jar of applesauce & adjust from that, but I ended up with 8 pints & it sure is good.

Now, back to pestering for my chicken tractor.

Speaking of chickens, I only lost 1 of the 20 chicks I posted about earlier this Spring and out of the 19 it looks like I only have 4 roosters.  I already had 2 black sex link hens & 5 red comet laying hens when I got my 20 chicks. 3 weeks ago I noticed one of the black hens going broody, so I went ahead & marked 8 eggs & let her set.  Then 2 weeks ago the other black sex link went broody too.  A friend from church has regular Americauna's with the cute muffs, so I got a dozen fertile eggs from him & put under the other hen.  Today I heard little "peeps" coming from the first nest & they have started hatching out.  I'll keep you posted on how many chicks I have from that batch.  If I have a good hatch from the dozen Americauna's, I guess I better buy stock in a poultry feed manufacturer.