Another To Do in My Garden

A day or two after I planted this year's vegetable garden, one or two garden chores remained.  The first one involved my squash plants.

To ward off vine borers, which bore into the squash vine and lay their eggs, which hatch into insidious squash-nutrient-sucking little devils and kill the plant, I use short tomato cages covered with cheesecloth.  Since I have both acorn and butternut (six plants altogether as opposed to only three last year), and since the three shortened tomato cages were mysteriously misplaced, I had Jacob cut three regular cages down, and used both tops and bottoms as the frame.

Hey, while I'm typing about squash here, I learned something after the fact that will be useful to you!  Acorn squash is a summer squash, and butternut squash is a winter squash--meaning, acorns will be harvested late summer, while butternuts will be harvested probably some time in October (here in Chicagoland).  They should also not be planted next to each other, since the busy bees will cross-pollinate them.  So I may end up with some kind of hybrid squash when it comes to eating these.  I'll let you know.

Jacob cut the cages off as in the above image, so that I could use the top part as another cage.  That way, we cut only three and got six cages out of it.  After they were cut, we pushed them down into the soil around the squash plants, and cut and draped cheesecloth over each cage/plant.

We staked the cheesecloth with landscape pins--the same pins that are used to hold the landscape fabric down in our mulched walkways.  Get 'em at any hardware store.  They're awesome.

No vine borers welcome.

It is important to note that as soon as you see blossoms on your plants, to remove the cheesecloth!  Otherwise, the bees won't be able to get in to pollinate the blossoms, and you will end up with no squash.  The plants will be tripled/quadrupled in size, and be hardier and sturdier against pests at that time.  I love giving them this good start in their growing lives.

Oh, so here are my strawberry plants!  There are blossoms everywhere, and I took this picture just for fun.  Because I was there.  With my camera.

On to the second chore--weeding.  Even though we had properly crafted mulched walkways in our garden last year, weeds can grow in the mulch--it's organic matter, after all, and it does get wet.  The good thing, though, is that the weeds' roots have nowhere to go, so they're shallow and easy to pull, especially after a rain to loosen things up.

Before:

After:

Nice and easy!  Weeding all the walkways took about five minutes.  Once a week or so, I have to weed a little, but it usually consists of pulling a weed or two here and there, as I'm working in the garden and spot them.  It's so much easier than before!

Pile of weeds waiting for the yard waste bag.

Here's my standard After overview picture:

So, that's just two little jobs that needed doing after Planting Day.  The fun has officially begun!  A summer garden always has stuff happening, even from day to day!!


Back to life,
Christine

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Planting Day Eve

May 19.

It's as much fun as Christmas Eve, New Years Eve--any eve, really.  There's something special about the day before something special.  The day before Planting Day is no different!

It was (relatively) warm, so I decided it couldn't wait any longer.  Plus, it was already May 19 and Lord willing it wouldn't frost again--although some nearby towns had snow flurries just four days earlier!  This is Chicagoland, mind you, not Alaska, so that's pretty incredible for May.

Above is my garden planner, which I drew to scale (you'll see a better picture tomorrow).  I've labeled each raised bed, and what goes in each of the beds.  Hubby scanned the blank form and made a PDF of it, so all I do is print one off each year and I'm ready to plan.  Really, I should plan this out not on Planting Day Eve, but at least a week or two earlier.  Or, if I plan to plant cool weather crops (peas, lettuce, spinach, etc.), I need to plan this out in March.  So don't procrastinate like I did.  :)  Of course, since we're not in the best place financially, I had to wait to see if we could even afford to have a garden this year.

I took a week's worth of grocery money and spent every penny on our garden--and it was the perfect amount!  It was easier to purchase compost in bags than in bulk, so that's what I did.  My sweet Joseph helped rake it into each square of each bed.

One of my guys--can't remember which--thoughtfully raked in what we had saved of the fireplace ash.  This went into the beds where I would be planting my tomatoes, since the ash is high in potassium and helps prevent blossom-end rot (opposite the stem, you'll see a grayish spot that spreads--I still harvest those, cut out the bad spots, and it's good to eat/can).   I can say that so far this year (it's now July), it's working.

I had various spots of garlic sprouting up randomly, so Jacob dug those up and transplanted them for me into the garlic bed.  I ran out of last year's garlic crop already, so I wanted to save as much as I could.

The garlic bed.

Below, you can see the purple onions that unexpectedly popped up from last year's crop.  I thought I had harvested them all, but apparently a few never sprouted, and here they were!  I will transplant those tomorrow, on Planting Day.

Finally, here are the two cardboard trays of veggies and herbs for my garden!

Can't wait for tomorrow!


Back to life,
Christine

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My Late July Garden 2013

I made it halfway through summer!  I was still gardening, even through this extra-busy summer.  And we never even went on vacation.  Life is just that way sometimes.

I really, really enjoyed my veggie garden this year.  I had never grown squash, or even zucchini, before, and I was amazed at how fast the plants grew, and that I even had any squash on the vines!  Here are a couple of huge butternut squash growing:

I planted only two jalapeño plants, but they produced prolifically and I've made poppers several times now.  I don't use a recipe; I just mix some shredded cheddar and cream cheese, and mound a bit in each jalapeño (cut lengthwise and seeded--they were hot this year!).  I bake them at 400 degrees for 10-12 minutes, and they're good to go.  Yum!

In the below raised box, which is 4x12 (that's feet, y'know), I planted my three little squash plants right in the middle.  They took over the bed, and have made their way around the mulched pathways surrounding it.  Isn't it glorious?  :D

I should've harvested my garlic earlier (early to mid-July), but life got in the way.  The stalks, below, are dried and brown, and once they get that way, grab a trowel and carefully dig up all the bulbs.  I lay piles and piles of bulbs out in the sun for a few days to cure, and then I bring them inside.

Once they're really cured (feel free to wait a week or so!), separate the cloves, peel all the garlic, and freeze them in Mason jars in the freezer.  When you're ready to use one (or more), pull it out, wait a minute or two for it to soften, then mince it into whatever dish you're preparing.  Yes, they will get "mushy" out of the freezer, but in my experience they've been very flavorful and perfect for mincing in soups, sauces, and stews.  Oh--and when my guys have a sore throat, they mince and spread them on toast or a piece of bread and eat it right down.  Whew!--it's strong, but effective.

This year, I froze only about 1.5 quarts' worth of garlic.  I had a lot more last year.  Hopefully it'll last all year again!  If you want to know how to easily peel all that garlic, visit this blog post where I show you how.

See the below?  That's a garlic "flower," and they are the seeds you'll use for next year's garlic crop.  I cure these right alongside the cloves, then I separate them and keep them in a bowl until early autumn.  Once I have a space set aside in my garden, I plant them.  Lots of them.  They take really well, and as soon as spring comes the next year, little garlic plants are popping their heads up, and they've got a great start to the season.  I've even dug them up and transplanted them at that point (in the spring), and they've still done well.

Finally, enjoy this overview of my super-late-last-day-of-July garden:

Back to life,
Christine

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In Search of Tomatoes

It seems that everything is quick nowadays.  *sigh*

Life has overwhelmed our little family.  Jacob has returned to school, Danny is making the daily commute downtown to school, Thomas is attending daily football practice and weekly games.  Joseph stays busy at home with me--well, when I'm here, anyway.

Needless to say, I blinked and summer was gone.  Here is a little tour of my July tomatoes.

Unlike green peppers, jalapeños, and other green veggies, tomatoes are easy to spot among tangles of leaves, plant stakes, and other obstacles.

Looking for red.

A lovely harvest of red!

After harvesting my tomatoes, I took some crushed eggshells and mixed them into the soil around each plant.  The calcium in the shells helps deter blossom-end rot, and even though it was already mid-summer, I figured it couldn't hurt.  I simply tossed the shells into a bucket and let them dry over several days.  Once dry, the shells are very easy to crush--though I did use my garden gloves since the edges can be sharp!

I also double-checked to make sure the plants were staked well, and added extra garden tape around weaker areas.  This garden tape (below) was given to me, but can be found at any garden center.  It's soft on the underside, and utilizes Velcro to stick together.  I cut the length I need, wrap it around, and secure the end onto itself.  Easy!

If you're really frugal, you could save each piece of garden tape and use it again the next year.  Hmm, I might have to try that.  I don't think the Velcro wears out that quickly.  I think I just gave myself another autumn garden project...!

Happy autumn gardening!


Back to life,
Christine

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