Field Trip to my garden

The other day I had a friend ask if she & the kids could come by to look at the garden and ask questions.  She homeschools her kids so it was considered a field trip!  They came over and asked alot of questions as they were getting ready to do their own garden. The kids were so cute and I loved their questions.  I really enjoyed my first field trip!!  Afterwards I stopped by their garden to see how it was going and contributed some plants.  Lots of fun!

They had some really great questions....here are some:

Why are your plants so big?  Great question.  Starts with the soil & sun.  Plants need 6+hrs of sun a day and also needs good organic soil.  Its also good every year to add some compost manure (how much you need is usually by square footage on the bag).  One year I added extra compost manure and ended up with over 12 pumpkins from one plant!  Plants love compost manure.  It also helps if you have had some rain in addition to sun to keep the plant from drying out.  If they look dry just check the soil a few inches.  If its dry then try to water them.  I also try to purchase good plants that are the biggest at the nursery.  It gives them a head start from seeds.  That way you get plants and veggies sooner.

What are some good plants to start a garden with?  These are my favorites that seem to be easy and are ready to eat faster.  Lettuce, carrots, onions (regular onions & green onions), parsley (and other herbs), spinach, beans, peppers, broccoli, kale, swiss chard, tomatoes.  I would plant things you enjoy eating in case you get a big crop then everyone will be eating it and you won't have to throw it out.  But you can always give to friends and neighbors!!  There are some plants that keep on giving most of the summer too even if you cut/eat them like parsley/herbs, spinach, lettuce, tomatoes, peppers and more.

At our house we have been enjoying smoothies with kale and spinach lately -- good veggies from the garden.  My kids don't even know its in there!  sshh... don't tell them.   My kids actually tasted the lettuce and enjoy our lettuce much more than the stores.  I do too and will add the delicate lettuces to anything!

 

Dill, cilantro, lettuces

 

Kale

 

swiss chard

 

Yummy Kale Chips!

I can't get my kids to eat this yet but I will be working on them.  

Cut the stems off the kale and just use the leaves.  Tear them like a size of a chip.  Place them on a pan and drizzle with EVOO (extra virgin olive oil), and sprinkle with sea salt.  Place in the oven at 350degrees and cook for 10 minutes.  Voila!  Yummy kale chips!

I am convinced the garden kale and lettuces taste so much better than store bought!

If you have questions let me know!  Love questions...

Hope the rains have made your garden thrive like mine!!  Its been so cool lately too so no real pests yet either. 
Happy Gardening!
Tara

Rain Rain Rain....

This Rain is great for the garden.  Lately its been a curious rain.  It will pour for 15 min and then the sun will come out...this will happen over and over.  Not a regular rain for Illinois.  But this rain and sun combo is good for the garden.  And my garden has really been taking off.  Hope yours is too.

Today's post is about Cucumbers. 

My friend Anne had an animal eat her cucumber plant the other day so it was toast.  Pests do really enjoy cucumber plants because they are succulent when little.  As the plants get older they get little spikes on the stalks so not so yummy to animals but they become food to other bugs and pests. Mine are just starting to get big enough.  Cucumbers are from the same family of plants that squash, pumpkins, watermelon, zucchini all come from.  They normally need more sun and like it hot but not too much.  Squash bugs run rampant in these plants.  A trick my mom showed me with these bugs is that you can see them easily and pick them easily.  Grab a bucket of water with dish soap in it.  I usually do an ice cream pail size.  With gloves on, I pick the bugs off the plants and put them into the bucket of soapy water.  This instantly kills them.  Try to keep up with this and go out every other day or so.  If you stay ahead of them they won't kill off the plants.  My mom lives on a farm and has the super big garden and usually the squash bugs win because she has too many plants to keep up with.  If the bugs show up in one cucumber plant odds are they are in the others of the same family too (ie squash, pumpkins, zucchini, watermelon).  So watch them all.  Later in the season they will just go away because it gets cooler.
Adult squash bug

Eggs are on the underside of the leaves (I squish these as its harder to pick these off)

babies just hatched (easier to be squished too)



Don't they look gross?
I know it seems like alot to do this but it takes just 10-15 min or so to check a plant so that you can save it from these pests.  You can also use insecticides but if you are like me and you are trying to do no chemicals in the garden to make it as organic as possible...you will want to not use those chemicals. 
Every year I have this issue.  I haven't seen any blogs that know the trick to getting rid of them ongoing.  If you figure it out let me know.
Happy Gardening!

Finished planting!!

Garden update:
I finished planting the warmer weather items last week such as zucchini, cukes, pumpkins, yellow squash and our family's beloved white scallop squash.  I am so happy its now all in.  I also added tomato and pepper cages for added plant support. If you don't cage the plants they can topple over and the fruit will be on the ground where pests and other things can get to it easily and it can rot easier and quicker.   With plants that are caged you can pick the fruit or veggie at its optimal freshness.  So cage anything that gets tall and needs support.

Gardening Next Steps:
Now its time to keep up on weeding. Be careful when weeding.  Tomatoes, squashes, and others need you to be careful weeding.  If you dig too deep for weeds it can damage the roots.  I usually use my hands with gloves on and sometimes a weeding fork.  But tread lightly.  Its also easier to weed when the ground is slightly wet/moist.  If its just rained but ok to walk in the garden without getting too muddy is the perfect time to pull weeds.  The roots of the weeds give up easily in moist soil.  In  hard dry soil its next to impossible and you will have to use more back and arm power.  And be careful not to harm your back bending over.  Like my chiropractor tells me...."ice your back after any weeding"!

I am so happy to hear some of you are having gardens.  Either gardening for the first time, first time gardening in years or you are a garden nut like me, ts a great way to have organic fresh food for your family to eat.  So many chemicals are found in the foods in our stores --even foods that shouldn't have it or you would never think it.  So sad that the tomatoes in the store look so nice and yummy because they spritz them with something to give it a shiny look so people will buy them.  I fall for it too. 

Even if you want more fresh garden produce than what your garden can hold you can always go to local park districts and rent a plot to plant more of a garden or there are farmers markets/ farms directly to get that fresh produce.  One of the better farmer's markets in our area is the Woodstock Farmers market starts May 19th every Tues & Sat 8am-1pm.  Farmers markets are usually starting in May or June (which is coming up soon!!).  Some other good area good ones are Crystal Lake that starts 6/7 and is every Saturday from 8am-1pm.  Barrington has a pretty good one too (and my friend Judy runs it:))  Barrington's starts 6/25 and is Thursdays from 2pm-7pm.   There are also local farmers that have really great produce and you can go to them directly.  Meyers Farms http://www.meyer-farms.com/ is a great local farm here in IL that you can go there and purchase directly or be apart of their CSA program where you purchase a share and get a box of foods every so often.  Help us keep those farmers and farmers markets in business!!  Walkup Heritage farms here in Crystal lake is good too.  I see them at the farmers market.  And there is Stade Farms http://stadesfarmandmarket.com/ up in McHenry that we always go to for strawberries!!  Buy local!
Ok enough of my soap box.  
Let me know if you have questions!

Asparagus tips

Today as requested from my friend Anne is a little about asparagus.  I really enjoy eating asparagus. If you like it from the store I would suggest putting in your garden...even better tasting and tender.  Its so easy to have in your garden.  It comes back each year so no replanting.  It just comes up each April/May and you cut and enjoy.  Keep the area weed free though so the stalks have nothing to compete with in the ground for nutrients and space. 

 

You cut the asparagus stalks when they are about 10inches tall.  If you let them grow tall they may flower on the top or tend to get bitter in flavor.  Don't cut them right at the dirt line but maybe 2inches or so above the ground. 

After cutting put the stalks into a cup filled with 6 inches or so of water.  This will help them not dry out.  They have lasted me weeks in the fridge this way.

In June it will be time to let the plants grow out.  You just stop cutting the stalks and then the plants will grow out bushy and get little orange balls on them...almost looks like a fern.  Those orange balls are little seeds so the plant does tend to spread a bit if you let it.  If you get any bug issues I would cut the busy plant once its all dead and wilted maybe in the late fall/early winter.  But if you don't get a bug or beetle issue just leave the bushy plants until spring and cut them back early in March.  You will need to do that to make room for the new crop coming up soon.

May Basics - May 5th

So a friend suggested I start a blog about gardening.  Here is a photo of my garden. It sounds like fun to do a blog but... silly me....you have to post things.  In order to post you have to have time to post.  So I will try... but bear with me as it is soccer season (I have 3 kids in soccer and a husband that coaches one of them) and I am working on my soccer mom/gardening tan...I have had a garden since college.  Even in college I had a little plot out the back of the rental house I shared with 4 others.  I do love gardening.  My mother has 2 gardens & lives on a farm in Iowa....and her mother before her had a large garden and lived on a farm.  Its in my DNA, I am sure.

Basics. Back in February I was planning.  Planning what to plant in the garden that we now are planting.  I got gardening catalogs (Burpee, Gurney's, etc).  Usually you can go to their website and get them for free.   I like pictures too because its very helpful.  Sometimes its hard to find the same varieties in the catalogs as in the nearby store but each year I feel like they get more varieties.  Our nearby Countryside Garden center in Crystal Lake is amazing.  Check it out if you can.  They have a website and blog too.  Choose items you like to eat alot of or would like to try. 

Some notes on sun & soil.  In planting a garden make sure your spot gets at least 6hrs of sunlight a day.  If not it may be hard to get optimum growth and plants will be small...and may not bear fruit.  Also if you till the garden or plant an above ground plot remember to add some compost manure.  This should be done each year when you turn over the soil.  This is like nourishment to the plants.  You will get bigger and healthier plants and veggies.  So lots of sun and good soil.

Planting.  Always adhere to the plant specs on the back of the seed packet or the tag on the plant.  If you plant closer or not deep enough the plant will also not do well.  Also certain plants are supposed to be planted in the early spring, spring, early summer, summer etc.  Make sure to adhere to this also.  Some earlier plants like asparagus, kale, lettuce, carrots can do well in the colder temps.  But plants like watermelon and squashes do better in the warmer temps.  They will be stunted and won't do well if planted too soon.  I am a stickler about this.  I will get out my husbands measuring tape to be precise.  I also take string and attach it to 2 sticks.  The string should be the length of your row.  I always measure the row and leave the string so I can see the row.  If not my row would not be straight.  I also create some row markers and write what I planted (example a stick that says "peas").  You can get creative with those too.  After each row is planted I make sure to measure 18" or whatever the plants require to create the next row. 





So that is the basics to starting a garden or at least how I go about it.  I will post some basics & tips about asparagus tomorrow as requested from my friend Anne...I think.