I'm going to whip up some pesto!

I harvested a lot of basil today!  My plants were getting rather tall and I wanted to have them fill out a bit.  This year, I have been doing a better job and trimming them down so they don't get so tall.  I like them a little more "bushlike" in stature.
Here is a wonderful blog post to explain how to properly trim and harvest your basil:
http://mybyrdhouse.blogspot.com/2008/07/basil-pruning-tutorial-really.html

So, I started with my lovely pile of basil... and I thought I could walk you through the steps f how I make my pesto.  The above blog also has a recipe, but I don't do well with recipes.  I'm just a lazy cook.

Step #1:  Pick the basil
Here is just an example of what I got off of a "twin" basil plant.  That just means that I did a bad job thinning them as seedlings, and just planted two plants in the same hole when transplanting into my raised container.  This is a big pile of basil.  Just to give you an idea of how big, check out the vitamin water bottle in the top right corner.  I still have the plants growing strong outside.

Step #2: Wash the basil

If you grow basil, spinach, or lettuce~ you NEED a salad spinner.  I don't even know how much I paid for mine, but it is worth a lot.  I hate hitting dirt when eating lettuce or spinach, and it works well for washing basil, too!  

Step #3: Get out your ingredients

I am freezing my pesto this time around, so I'm only adding oil to the basil.  A good food processor makes a heap of difference when you're making pesto.  I borrow my mom's.  It's an oldie, but a goodie.

Step #4: Process away!

I use a spatula to scrape the basil leaves down every so often.  It smells so good!

Step #5: Ta-da

Step #6: Freeze
You can either eat it fresh or freeze for later.  I am going to add pine nuts and Parmesan cheese when I thaw and use my pesto, but I've heard that the cheese doesn't freeze nicely.  I don't know about that for sure, but I don't have any this time around, so I'm not even going to try it.

And we have APPLES and GRAPES!

After several years of nothingness, my Honey Crisp apple tree has decided to provide us with some apples!  Last year, there wasn't a single blossom on that tree, but it was a horrible year for apples in Wisconsin anyway.  This year?  Blossoms on both of my apple trees.  I can't remember what the other tree is... maybe a Jonathan or something like that?  Apparently, both trees were able to pollinate, and I have baby apples on BOTH trees!

I also have baby grapes on both of my grape vines!  They are very tiny right now.  I'll have to do some research to learn about taking care of my little grapes.  I'm kind of worried about pests getting to them.  I'm trying to keep chemicals off my fruits, but I also want to try my produce.

Fresh Earth

Tim worked so hard this weekend getting my garden all ready to plant.  I was supposed to get things ready on Friday night, but I didn't get around to it.  I was far too lazy on Friday.  Tim worked until after midnight on Friday night, so he was pretty tired on Saturday morning.  I poked and prodded him until he rolled out of bed and drove to town to pick up the tiller.  I had called to reserve it earlier in the week.  When I called, the lady talked me into getting the front tine tiller instead of the rear tine that I had asked to reserve.  I should have stayed strong.... it took Tim about seven hours to finish.  Last time, we got the rear tine tiller, and it wasn't nearly as much work for Tim.

I tried to take lots of before and after pictures... here are the before pictures:

Tim worked all morning on the garden.  He started a tiny bit after nine, and got done at about four thirty.  Of course, he took a couple of short breaks.... but he didn't even stop for lunch.

And, finally, he was finished.  My gardens look amazing!  There are still many weeds that need to be plucked out before I plant, but for the most part... it's pretty clear!

I planted Mackenzie's favorite vegetable to enjoy over the summer~ straight necked yellow squash.  I put newspapers all around it to try and suppress the weeds.  To the left, you can see a sunflower that has fallen over.  It's looking pretty wilted.

I planted the above cucumber to vine up one of the supports for my grapes.  It started wilting immediately.  I watered it and hoped it would perk back up.  Two days later, it has perked up a bit, and I think it might survive!

Hard Times Ahead

This weekend is going to be filled with hard work.  Lots of hard work.
First, there will be tilling and hoeing.  There will be a pitchfork wielding maniac.  There will be lots of sighs and maybe even some blood.  Maybe even some building and swearing.

These babies need to get in the ground!  Some of the plants have three blooms.... can't wait to pop them into the ground and have them take off.

Some good news when I was walking the garden the other day.  The rhubarb is HUGE and ready to use/sell/barter.  I have lots of dill that has seeded again this year.  My grapes are looking great, and my blackberries DIDN'T actually die.  Yahoo!

And, finally, I have a funny story about the importance of reading directions.  I planted Fish pepper plants for my friend Ros.  They started out like all the other pepper plants.  Pretty soon, the Fish plants that had been transplanted first started to look funny.  I worried that this was because the plants grew so big so fast.  I looked for bugs... no luck.  I search for fungi or some other type of disease.  The leaves were turning funny colors!!!

Read the instructions, Kate.  The leaves of this pepper (and one of the selling points) are variegated in color.  I guess that the peppers are supposed to be funky colored, also.  Geez.  Maybe I should have read the discription before assuming that my plant was dying!

Growing Big and Strong!

The grow stands are looking great, and everything is starting to outgrow the space I have it in.  Especially my cucumbers!  They are outside because they are so out of control!!!

These cucumbers are outgrowing my big grow stands!

All of the plants are starting to take off.  But, I have to admit, I'm a little disappointed in my heirloom tomatoes.  I'm not really sure if it's the seed, the coconut coir, or just how they are designed to grow.  The cheap red cherry tomatoes that I planted took off like crazy!

My heirloom tomatoes were a little less enthusiastic about growing.  They are all a little scrawny looking.  I tried two different types of growing medium with them, and both sets of plants look about the same.  I'm not sure if there is that much difference in seeds.... Once I changed them to big pots and gave them more attention, they took off a little more.  Or, maybe it's because it got warmer?  I'm not sure...

Plant Sale

Starting a veggie garden this year?  Have a patio that could use beautiful containers full of food?  Trying to pinch pennies by saving on your grocery bill?

Mackenzie and Alex's plants are for you!

Many of our plants are potted in a biodegradable pot.  

This year we started lots of Heirloom seeds from Seed Savers Exchange in Decorah, IA.  If you'd like more information about the heirloom plants, please go to seedsavers.org to find planting information!

All of our plants were grown under grow lights in our dining room, and have been bottom watered to prevent disease.

We have some red cherry tomato, cucumber, cilantro and cabbage plants available for only $1 each!  These are not heirloom varieties.  

Our Heirloom plants are available for $2 per plant.  

We have:

Tomato- Brandywine Sudduth's Strain- {Big slicing tomatoes, up to 2lb}

Tomato- Dester- {Big, pink beefsteak up to 1lb}

Tomato- Lemon Drop- {yellow cherry tomatoes}

Tomato- Moonglow- {Bright orange, few seeds, larger tomato}

Tomato- Velvet Red- {1" cherry tomatoes}

Tomato- Wapsipinicon Peach- {2" round fuzzy yellow fruit}

Pepper- King of the North- {Bell type pepper}

Pepper- Fish- {Two-foot tall plants have beautiful variegated foliage; 3" long fruits are striped and colorful. }

Pepper- Black Hungarian- {Medium Hot, Tall 3' plants produce abundant yields of 4" long fiery fruits similar in shape to jalapenos, but shiny black ripening to red. Highly ornamental and useful in the kitchen. Green foliage is highlighted by dark purple veins and beautiful purple flowers. Good flavor}

Pepper- Bulgarian Carrot- {HOT! Great roasted or in salsas or chutney}

Basil- Genovese- {The classic large-leaved Italian sweet basil prized for its spicy flavor and wonderful aroma. Fragrant plants grow 18-24". This is the variety of choice for pesto.}

Eggplant- Long Purple- {Beware!  These are spiny on the stems and veins!}

Baby, It's COLD Outside

But, my seedlings don't seem to care much.  They are happily growing big and strong under lights in my dining room.  Though the forecast calls for snow, the plants are oblivious to the weather outside.  Too bad I can't get out there to plant my onions, broccoli and cabbage.  I have a hoop house AND a cold frame that I can be using, but I have no energy available for going out and trying to garden in the snow.
My husband's family does "Secret Santa" all year round.  For Easter, my "Santa" gave me some seeds.  I think it was that same day that I had the cucumber seeds already planted in a flat.  I used a layer of MiracleGro SeedStarting Potting Mix on the bottom.  I soaked it down well.  I placed the seeds in the flat, and then covered with a layer of Perlite.  It seriously took only three days for those guys to germinate, and within six days they had their "real" leaves.  Last weekend I took some time to repot them, so they can have more room for decent root development.

Trial by Perlite

We went to Home Depot tonight to get a few things.  I had a coupon for $5 off a purchase of $50 that was burning a hole in my pocket.  My plan for today was to try perlite as a seed starting medium.  I saw this on an episode of Wisconsin Vegetable Gardener's weekly webcast.  I thought it was worth a shot.  The perlite is about the same cost as the seed starting soil, so I bought some of both types.  I tried something else.... I put a layer of the seed starting medium down first.  Then, I put the seeds on top of that.  I got some cucumber seeds from my secret santa, so I used these.  Then, I put a layer of perlite over the top of that.  I soaked it down and covered it with a greenhouse cover.  I only turned the light on for the picture.  

You can see my new houseplant on the left.  Since I was able to keep my precious orange hibiscus alive all winter long, I decided to add a palm to the mix.  This palm was on sale at Home Depot for only $12.88, and I was lucky enough to already have a pot for inside the house and some potting soil.  It only took me about 30 minutes to do the whole repotting deal.

Pinterest had some ideas on making your own seed tapes.  I have bought seed tape in the past, and I think that the seeds in it are pretty old and aren't viable anymore.  I have lots of carrot and lettuce seeds, but they are so darn hard to plant outside.  Those tiny little buggers fling all over.  I'm also HORRIBLE at thinning plants outside.  I have the best intentions, but I'm too lazy to remember to get out there and thin them.

So, an easier option for me was to sit down now and pre-thin them by making my own seed tapes.  I started out small.  One type of seed: Blend of Color Carrots.  I've read that you can make these with paper towel for the square foot method, but I didn't do that this time around because I'm going to use them in a smaller space than can take a square foot of carrots.

The steps were easy.  I can see, now, why some people use Elmer's Glue.  I think it would be way easier to get a little dot of glue out of the bottle.  I made my own paste by mixing flour with some water.  I had some really thin toilet paper (that I hate using as toilet paper.... it's TOO thin!) that I decided to use for this project.  Every inch or so, I put a dab of my paste.  I sprinkled two or three seeds on each dot of paste.  I made my strips of TP about two feet long, and put the dot of paste towards the bottom of the toilet paper.  Then, I was able to fold the TP in half, kind of like a sandwich.

You can sort of see the TP fold in the picture above.  I then spread them out over an aluminum pan to dry.  Those babies are still drying, about seven hours later.

When they are completely dry, I am going to roll them up to store them until spring!  The more work I do now, the less work I will need to do when the snow is gone and I can plant things outside.

More seeds!

I have some great things going on in my dining room!

Seed starting things, of course.... I don't cook.

This week I was able to get my tomatoes planted.  I started seven different types of tomatoes, six of which were heirloom varieties from Seed Savers Exchange.  I planted all different types of tomatoes; from red to yellow.  All of them are dusted with cinnamon in the above photo, to help ward off disease.

I've just started my seeds, but already I'm thinking about them outgrowing the little cells that they are in.  This weekend, I went to Farm and Fleet and bought pots to replant my seedlings into.  I'm trying to water all my plants from the bottom.  These pots are going to be perfect for that... and I've finally found a use for the aluminum trays that were salvaged from a Christmas party two years ago.  I just need to buy some medium to put in them and they'll be ready for my transplants.

I also planted Genovese Basil, cabbage, Romanesco Broccoli, and coriander.  Since everything was just planted this week, I need to be patient and wait for it to germinate.  I'm not very good at being patient. 

Testing 2 Products

This year, I purchased two different products from Gardener's Supply Company that I'm going to test against each other.

Product #1:  The APS Starter Seedstarter Kit
http://www.gardeners.com/APS-Starter-Kit/32-573,default,pd.html?start=1&cgid=SeedstartingKits_Cat

This kit included a bag of seedstarting medium (you can kind of see it off to the left), two self-watering trays, plant markers, water level indicators, and a seedling fertilizer.

Product #2: Fast Start Success Kit
http://www.gardeners.com/Fast-Start-%23174%3B-Success-Kit/40-274,default,pd.html?start=8&cgid=SeedstartingKits_Cat

This kit is on the right had side of the picture.  It came with a brick of coconut coir, two self watering trays, plant markers, and seedling fertilizer.

My goal is to start the same exact plants in each kit, to see which one I like better.  I'll keep the lighting the same, the temp the same, and the seeds the same.  It'll be like a little experiment!

Peppers!

Today I started some pepper plants!
I want them to get nice and big before taking them outside, so I started them a little earlier than I normally would.  I am doing a trial between two different seed starting kits that Gardener's Supply offers.  So, I decided to start three seeds in each cell.  I planted three cells of each kind of pepper in each of the two different types of kit.  So, that will give me six plants when all is said and done.
So, first I got both the kits out and made a plan.

Next, I carefully read the directions for each kit.  I'm sometimes not very good at reading directions.  I set out each kit.

The most time consuming part was filling the cells with the planting medium.  The top kit came with coconut coir, which I find pretty hard to work with.  It takes time to let it soak in a bucket of water.... and I'm not very patient.  The bottom kit comes with a germinating soil mix.  I thought it was way easier to work with.  But, I used more of it.
I finally got everything planted.  Both kits feature capillary mats that water from the bottom.  The bottom kit also has a water gauge, but I found it hard to get to sit upright.  If it's lying down, it's not going to be very useful.  I popped the tops on, and put them in the grow stand.  The package says that germination time is 14 days.  I got the seeds from Seed Savers Exchange.  Now it's the waiting game.

Project: Seed Organization

Here is the photo of the way that I stored my extra seeds from last year.
I had some empty packets, so I could remember what varieties I grew last year.  I had full packets.  I had ripped open packets.  I had flowers and veggies and herbs.
It was a mess.

Here is my new organizer, from seedkeepercompany.com.  I tried to make my own.  I bought a plastic container and some alphabet tabs.  Fail.  They weren't the right size or shape.  After I decided that trial and error was NOT going to be cheaper than just buying it, I ordered the seed keeper.
It's awesome!  I have the seeds organized alphabetically.  Now that I see what they use for the divider, I can make another one for my flower seeds and bulbs.  When I start using up the seeds, I can use the extra space to keep receipts and tags from my fruit trees.

My wonderful gift!

My husband is amazing. Yesterday, we had a free Saturday.  No hockey, no school commitments, no place that we had to be.  I used yesterday as my blow-off day.  The finished reading the book was was almost done with, and started another.  I played SIMS on the computer.  I didn't change out of my fuzzy polarfleece pants.

Tim, on the other hand, saved his blow-off day for today (Sunday).  He worked hard yesterday; measuring, cutting, shopping at Menards, and making me another grow stand to start my seeds.  I will now have room to start 25 flats, and the plants will have PLENTY of headroom when they get larger.  Last year, I had room to start 17 flats.
I ordered seeds yesterday, too.  I have a friend that loves to cook, and she loves hot peppers.  I sent her an e-mail to find out what kinds of peppers she would like for me to start.  She is pretty much the only person I know that likes hot peppers (besides my dad) so I basically grow hot peppers just for her.  Why not give her  the choice of which hotties I grow? I was hoping she would have an opinion, and not just tell me "whatever is fine...."
Thankfully, she had an opinion.  Ten years ago, she had gotten plants at the farmer's market.  She loved them, but had never found them again...

• Bulgarian Carrot Peppers
• Black Hungarian Peppers
• Fish Peppers

Wouldn't you know, I found seeds for ALL of them at SeedSavers.org.  I ordered them all, and the shipping was only $1.90!  I could have probably asked my friend, who lives in Decorah, to pick them up for me.  But, for $1.90 shipping, it's hardly worth her trouble.  Apparently, all of those types of peppers are heirloom varieties, which makes me super excited to grow them.  For more on heirloom seeds/plants, please check out the link to Seed Savers Exchange.

Working with the Worms

Although today was my blow-off day (see my post titled My wonderful gift!), I did spend about an hour getting new layers of bedding ready to start moving my worms up and out of the bottom level of my bins.
Here is how worms work: if you put the kitchen waste into a layer of bedding above the layer that they are in, they will move up in search of food when they've depleted the waste in the bottom level.  So, since they have pretty much outgrown the bottom level of my bins, I made new levels of bedding for them, and added just a little bit of waste to the middle level.  I prepared the bedding (made of shredded newspapers and coconut coir) on the top level, too, but I'll only add kitchen waste to that level when I know that my worms are smart enough to figure out how to migrate UP in search of food.  So far, no smell is coming from my worm bins, at all!

That little pod that is yellow? Worm cocoon!

Time to start thinking about planting....

It's almost that time.  The winter is getting long.  That means it's time to start thinking about starting seeds.  Tim helped me bring up my grow stand last weekend (thanks, dear!) and we took one shelf out of it to give the seedlings some head room.  Last year, they got too tall.  I couldn't raise the light any higher, and the seedlings needed more head room.  So, even though I have one less shelf (which means I'll have four fewer flats started) I think that my seedlings will be healthier.

Getting ready for planting means that I also wanted to get my vermicomposting established again.  My worms had all died a couple of years ago because they got too hot.  I still had the two bins that I had started with, so I decided that I'd buy some red wigglers again when I had a little extra cash.  Like, $40 extra.  Didn't know that red wigglers were so pricey, did you?
As luck would have it, I found a booth at the Garden Expo in Madison that was for Growing Power.  I love the entire idea behind www.growingpower.org and I have for some time.  Will Allen is a pretty inspiring man, and his mission is one that I feel strongly about.  I was so excited to see that Growing Power is expanding to Madison, and there was a booth at the Garden Expo.  At the booth, there was a display about vermicomposting, and I asked where they got their worms.  Imagine my surprise when they told me that they had a bucket of worms (5 GALLONS!) for sale for only $25.... I snatched those babies up!

Now my worms are living in my dining room, and eating quite well.  I thought they might go on a little hunger strike since their environment has changed, but I don't see any sign of that.  Some of them have already had their babies, so I have some tiny little worms all ready to grow up big and strong.  Now, they had just better stay in their bins and not escape into my dining room.