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.