Smart Grandson
I have a very, very smart grandson. His name is Dylan Hunter. I always knew he was smart, but yesterday he really drove it home.
You see I got home from work to my son-in-law cooking carne asada tacos for us for dinner. After dinner, Dylan wanted the grand tour of my garden. He loves to grow things himself. Last Christmas when I asked him how he learned so much about gardening, he said he did research on the internet. See? Smart! Anyway, we walked around the garden and he asked some very intelligent questions. Then I showed him my seed starting set up in the garage.
Pretty soon it was getting dark and time for him to go home and do his math homework. He said he's learning his mutltiplications. He also likes reading. He told me of various books he's been reading. One was Island of the Blue Dolphins.
So what impressed me so much? It was when he started telling me about expressions, idioms, similies, metaphores, hyperbole, etc. He could define them all! And give examples. I told him his grandpa is very good at hyperbole. Hmmm. I think I like the word hyperbole - it just rolls around in your mouth and sounds fun;)
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Plant More Than You Need
I was reading a lady's blog in which she detialed exactly how many plants of each vegetable that she was going to plant like 1 squash plant, 10 feet of beets, etc. and this was supposed to be enough to feed a family of four. My point? What happens if squash bugs eat your one and only squash plant.
I have learned over the years to plant more than you need; especially if you are starting your own seed for tomatoes, peppers and other plants that you might normally buy from a nursery. Why do I say this? Here are some examples of what could go wrong and severely limit your yields:
1. You plant your seed under a plant light and you let the seed starter mix dry out - your sprouted seed could dry up and die.
2. Your seed sprouts and starts to grow. You decide to sprinkle it to water it and suddenly your seedlings wilt. They've been attacked by a fungal disease called "damping off". Always fill your tray below your seedlings with water and let the water wick up from the bottom of the pots.
3. Your seedlings are strong and you've got at least 2 true leaves on each plant. So you transplant to larger pots and prepare to place outside. If you are not very, very careful it is easy to damage the young plant by pinching the stem or breaking it. Try handling the plant by holding the leaf. If it breaks off, new ones will grow to replace the leaves. If you break the main stem, you're pretty much out of luck.
4.Your ready to take your seedlings outside and you place them in direct sun. The next day their all wilted and brown. You need to slowly condition your transplants to the sun, so start them in a shady area, then move them to morning sun and eventually all day sun.
5. You've conditioned you plants and you plant them in the garden. Along comes a frosty night or a freak sleet storm and there go your new plants. Cover your plants with milk cartons or juice bottles which have the bottoms cut off. Anything that will allow the light in and keep some heat in at night. Be sure to leave the the cap off to allow some circulation. These covers work like a mini greenhouse and help maintain high humidity. Once all danger of frost is gone, take the covers off.
6. Your plants are growing strong and the pests attack. If you are trying to maintain an organic garden, don't reach for the pesticides. There are many alternatives and I'm not listing them all. One thing that is crucial to preventing an attack in the first place is to have healthy, strong plants. Pests will attack the weakest plants. So work lots of compost and fertilizer into your soil before you plant and continue side dressing through the growing season. You can also test your soil to see what is missing and add the needed elements.
7. Your plants are healthy and you've kept control of the pests. You've got beautiful crops and the gopher decides to munch your root crops or just dig holes in the middle of your vegetable rows so when you water half your garden sinks into the holes.
8. Your dog decides he wants to hunt that gopher and trenches up all your crops as he follows the gopher's tunnels.
I have had all of these problems at one time or another so my solution is to grow more than you need if you have the room for it. You can always give away your surplus once you've canned and frozen all you want.
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Volunteers
I'm not referring to people who work for free. I'm talking about nature's bounty; those free plants that come up in your garden. You may have let some plants go to seed and with tilling your soil and preparing to plant your spring garden, they show up unexpectedly. You can let them grow where they come up or you can transplant them to where you want them. Some plants I've had come up as volunteers are tomatoes, basil, sorrel and borage. My newest volunteers are the 18 squash (or maybe cucumber) seedlings that came up where my compost pile was over winter. What will I do with all those plants? Read the section above.
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Beet Bounty
Remember those beets I harvested? I cleaned the leaves and removed the stems ending up with my large canner full of fresh uncooked leaves. Then I blanched them for freezing. Blanching means you drop your vegetable into boiling water for a specific length of time. You start timing as soon as the vegetables go in the water. And work in small, managable batches. Beets require 2 minutes. Then you plunge them into ice water for the same amount of time they were in the boiling water. Out of the whole sinkful of greens I ended up with 6 bags of beet greens for the freezer. Each bag will serve 2-3 people.
Now I didn't toss all those beet stalks. No I decided to pickle them. I searched the internet for a recipe and couldn't locate one. So I followed a recipe for pickled poke salad stocks. I cooked the stems in slightly salted water for 15 minutes. Then I put them in canning jars. I poured a pickling syrup of 2 cups vinegar to 2 cups water and 2 tablespoons of sugar over the stalks to within a half inch of the rim. I wiped down the rims and put the lids on the jars. Then processed them in a boiling water bath canner for 5 minutes. I started timing as soon as the jars went in the canner.
Next I'll be canning the beet roots. The roots can be kept for 2 to 3 weeks in a refrigerator but don't wash them, just leave them dirty until you're ready to cook them. If I decide to pickle the beets, I will use the water bath canner; but if I decide to can them in water, I will need to use my pressure canner as low acid foods will spoil if processed in a boiling water bath canner.
So those are my shorts for today.
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