Growing Potatoes

Sometime back in September (before I decided to downgrade my seed supply), I bought seed potatoes from Irish Eyes. I purchased a pound each--the minimum I could get--of Russet Burbank and Sangre Mini-tubers. In October I began trying to sprout the seeds hoping to have them growing in dirt in November. When I say "try," I mean I did every trick and tip I could find to get those little buggers to sprout. Nothing happened! Sure, maybe I bought potatoes at the wrong time of year for my zone or maybe I bought the wrong kind of potatoes to over-winter here... I'm a gardening newbie! What can I say?

Anywho, I forgot about those potatoes until the end of January when I was cleaning out a cabinet where I happened to store the other seed potatoes, and guess what? Every. single. one. of those potatoes was sprouting! Wha? I thought storing in a dark, cool place prevented sprouting?!?!(enter another newbie excuse here)

 

On 2/1 I planted two of each variety in my kitty litter buckets. Since it's our "rainy season," in addition to drainage holes in the bottom of the bucket, I added holes going up two of the four sides. I'm hoping once it gets hot out the holes won't cause the soil to dry too quickly...

My Russet Burbank poked through the soil on 2/21 (pic taken on 2/27). The Sangre mini-tubers, are about to break through the soil surface.

Meanwhile, I checked on the seeds I'd left in a paper bag by a south facing window since December, and they looked like this. Interesting how the same potatoes have sprouted differently under different conditions...

I sliced this set of seed in half and let callus over for a couple days before planting today in another set of buckets. I don't recall the soil mix from the first set of potatoes, but today's were put in a 4:2:1:0.5 mix of Compost w/manure, peat moss, vermiculite, perlite.

Once the potato vines reach 4 inches, I'll cover them up, and continue doing so until they outgrow my buckets.


While searching through my plethora of bookmarks for something totally unrelated, I found these three pages of information on growing potatoes in containers and garbage cans.

Growing Potatoes in Containers

Growing Potatoes in Pots

How To Grow Potatoes in a Garbage Can


Oh! I was able to pass the remaining seed potatoes on to others in my community. Here's hoping for great success to all!

Wordless Wednesday--Babies

Indoors

Sown 2/10

Whirlybird Nasturtium

 Viva Italia Tomato

Pearson Tomato

Cameo Basil

Creamcicle Gazania

 

Outdoors

Hyacinth

(if only pictures could smell)

"Paternal Twins"

Carrot sown 11/5/09; Sweetie Baby Romaine sown 1/22/10

  

Plums

Meyer Lemon

PS If you've followed for a while, I thought I should let you know that my two Meyer Lemons shown at the bottom of this post were killed in the line of duty (either by children, or by my careless moving indoors during a few frosty nights in December).

Off Topic: Viral Eye Candy For The Ladies

Just a quick blog side-step and eye candy for the ladies out there...

I'm sure you've seen the new Old Spice video that premiered during the Super Bowl, and shows regularly on TV, right? You know, the one with the hunk of a man, Isaiah Mustafa (enter drooling here)... I love loVE LOVE this commercial! I have deep down belly laughs whenever I see it, no matter how many times I see it. I just crack UP! Thinking about this commercial makes me giggle!

The Man Your Man Could Smell Like

I found this post/article about the commercial today, and just spent 20 minutes watching the video there on how the commercial was made. I don't expect you to watch the long video, but I felt compelled to share it--and I needed to document it for myself LOL.

Now back to gardening.

My Local Farm's CSA

In January I came across the website for Local Harvest. Local Harvest is a place where people can go to find farmer's markets, farms/farm co-ops and CSA's in their community. Through this site I found a farm in my city offering CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) shares--and they're only 4 miles from our house. The idea of eating produce that is locally grown, and certified organic ta' boot sure seems appealing...

For $30/week, for 22 weeks, here is what the one and only CSA in my city will provide each week:

June: 2 lbs White Nectarines, 1 ½ lbs Apriums (80% Apricot 20%Plum), 1 lb Donut Peaches 1 head Butter Lettuce, 1 bunch Romanesco Cauliflower, 1 Rosemary Baguette, 2 lb Zucchini, 1 lb Fresh Green Beans, 1 bunch Basil.

July: 1lb White Peaches, 1 ½ lbs Pluots (80% Plum 20% Apricot), 1 Tomato Basil Focaccia Bread, 1 basket Cherry Tomatoes, 2 lbs mixed Heirloom Tomatoes, 2 Heart of Romaine Lettuce, 1 bunch Broccoli , 1 bunch Carrots, 1 ½ lbs mixed Summer Squash, 1 ½ lbs sweet red Onions.

August: 1 Melon (over 15 varieties), 1 basket Cherry Tomatoes, 1 Fresh Fruit Tort, 1 ½ lbs Mixed Tomatoes (over 30 varieties), 2 lbs Sweet Pepper (over 17 varieties), 1 lb Eggplant, 2 lbs Zucchini, 1 head Lettuce, 1 bunch Beats, 1 lb Green Beans, 1 bunch Radishes.

September: 1 Watermelon, 2 lbs Sweet Peppers, 1 Chocolate Raspberry Tart, 2 lbs mixed Heirloom Tomatoes, 1 ½ lbs Yellow Peaches, 2 lbs Summer Squash, 1 bunch Thyme, 1 lb Snow Peas, 1 basket of fresh Strawberries

October: 1 ½ lbs Pomegranates, 1 ½ lbs Apples, 1 head Lettuce, 1 Caramelized Onion Baguette, 1 Butternut Winter Squash, 2 heads Broccoli, 1 bunch Basil, 1 lb Green Beans, 1 basket Cherry Tomatoes, 2 lbs mixed Tomatoes.

The list of foods the CSA offers seems like a lot of food for our family of 3.5, and also a lot of things we don't normally eat. This prompted me to begin keeping track of how much produce we go through, and what it costs. Tracking my buying/produce serving habits almost convinced me to not join the CSA, but I think I have come to realize come to terms with a few things that have changed my mind.

1. We rarely eat produce that's organic. It just seems so expensive, and I think I've been brainwashed by the shiny non-organic produce, so the more natural looking items don't look as appealing.

2. We lack variety in our fruit and vegetable eating habits. Here is what we go through in a normal two week period:
Apples
Bananas
carrots
Broccoli
Sweet peppers
Onion
Mushrooms & sometimes spinach, but mainly for my breakfast omelets
During the spring/fall, strawberries and grapes
During the summer, lettuces

3. I don't serve enough fruits and vegetables to my family. On average, we have 4-5 dinners with veggies. I make sure the boys get fruit with lunch and most afternoon snacks, but not veggies, and not for myself (DH is in charge of his diet while at work).

Since we don't currently eat a lot of what will be offered, I've asked myself many times if signing up for the program is a good idea... I think this will be a good opportunity for us to expand our horizons. If I see the produce the CSA is offering in a store, would I buy it? Probably not. But I'm confident if I am "forced" to bring the produce home, I'll use it, my family and I will adjust our taste buds to the new offerings, and we will be healthier because of it. I mean, it's not like they're telling me I will need to serve my family durians (barf bag anyone?).

Do any of you out there who aren't able to supply your family with enough home-grown fruits and veggies participate in a CSA or farm co-op? What do you think about the program?

Harvest Monday

, Wow! Participating in Harvest Monday two weeks in a row! This may be a new record for me...

My sister-in-law visited this past weekend, and I was able to share lettuce and radishes from the salad table with her. That made this newbie gardener really happy!

Here are the last of the radishes for this season. If you look closely at the two radishes on the right, you can see where fungus gnat larvae have munched on them a bit (I've been treating the soil with BTi for two weeks, but was only able to find fly paper today to catch the adult gnats).

Also, my first broccoli harvest! A pittance of a harvest--maybe enough for my 8yo to eat with tonight's dinner, but still, it's a start!

 

I'll have a lot more broccoli coming soon... Just look at the side shoots the Waltham 29 variety puts out! I knew I'd get side shoots, but I imagined more of a large head, then a few baby heads, but this variety seems to grow mostly side shoots.

The "large" head on the right two pictures up came from this plant.

Wordless Wednesday--almost

I always see blogs participating in "Wordless Wednesday" with wonderful pictures, and thought I to would take part today. Since I have a hard time keeping my mouth shut, I'm including a few words.

Finally starting to fill in...

Crocus Crazy

Cause of Croaking Crocus

 

Creepy Crawlies
 

 

Creepy Crawly Controller

Ciao!

I Get To Participate In Harvest Monday!

Each Monday Daphne, over at Daphne's Dandelions hosts "Harvest Monday." I don't typically get to participate since I either don't harvest, or don't remember to do it around a Monday... Today I actually have something to share!

I've been snipping enough lettuce 1-2x's a week for 2.5 side salads, and the table is still going strong... With the table facing south, and the temps starting to go up, I think the table will need to be put to rest soon until the fall.

 

There are a few radishes left in the table, and I'll harvest them later this week.

Yesterday I snipped my first bit of cilantro which went into a batch of Slow-Cooked Steak Fajitas. Nom!

Do You Know About Your Store-Bought Eggs?

I  came across a series of videos today by Tia Pinney (a Teacher Naturalist and Adult Program Coordinator at Mass Audubon’s Drumlin Farm Wildlife Sanctuary in Lincoln, Mass.) on eHow.com, and the one below really caught my attention so I'm sharing it with you. I learned something new about the eggs I buy, and maybe you will too...

How to Read Chicken Egg Carton Labels -- powered by eHow.com

These are my eggs from Costco, purchased on 2/8/10. They were packed on 1/28/10, so as long as they were packed the same day they were layed they're pretty fresh...

I went to the USDA site, and after ten minutes of searching, I was unable to find a page on where I can find out where my eggs come from. Fortunately, mine don't travel far since I usually by Cal Eggs located near LA.

Now I need to memorize the number of each day of the year for purchasing the freshest eggs. HA!

Which Came Frist? The Chicken Or The Worm?

Since I started gardening and becoming more aware of the food waste we produce, I've been thinking about how I can get the most out of it all. I have a compost pile out back, but since it's a cold pile that currently houses ants, I haven't put food in it yet. This got me thinking about worm composting called "vermicomposting." You can read more about it here and here. As I read through the book, "Worms Eat My Garbage," by Mary Appelhof, I began to ask myself, "Would the volume of our food waste going into a worm bin produce enough of a result to make it worth while?" Sure, worm castings are awesome for the garden soil, but it doesn't seem like the quickest of processes to me.

Our city participates in a great recycling system, and I can continue to put our food scraps into our yard bin for pick up, but what do I get from this but the knowledge and satisfaction that I'm doing some good for our local environment? Sorry for being selfish, but I want the most out of the money I put into my food.

This brings me to the chickens. I don't know how the idea originally popped into my head that I could be a chicken owner. I thought about it once last year. When I mentioned it in passing to DH, he laughed and rolled his eyes at yet another of my silly ideas. I had to agree with him. It seemed too impractical for me and this rented yard. But somewhere along the reading of blogs, I read about someone feeding their kitchen scraps to their chickens. *Gasp* Could this be how I could use my scraps? I put food in, and eggs out, and the chicken poo is great for my garden!

In my never-ending quest to find more garden bloggers in my area, and to feed my chicken curiosity, I used Blotanical's search function to see what "chicken" would give me. The first result yielded the blog of Love Apple Farm, situated in the south bay area (about 90 minutes from me), and their post offering backyard chicken-keeping classes this May and September. Not only will they teach me how to care for chickens in my backyard, but I'll get to go home with 3 lovely chicks and a brooder kit! I did a little homework to confirm whether or not I can have chickens in my yard, then brought the idea up to DH. Boy, was I shocked when he was on board! His only warning is that they go the moment he steps in their poo. HAHA! That's it?

In the past 5 days, I have been obsessed with chickens. I'm loosing sleep over the idea of chickens. I've found sites here and here, and blogs here and here devoted to keeping backyard chickens. Not to mention the garden blogs I already read who's owners have chickens. I visited the library, and blew through the only book the had available, "The Backyard Poulty Book" (it wasn't difficult since most of the info from 1979 is outdated and irrelevant). Next I proceeded to add Amazon's Kindle app to my iphone so I could instantly read "Storey's Guide to Raising Chickens," which is really good so far.

Am I crazy for wanting to owns chickens when the only things I ever owned were a gerbil and goldfish? All I know is I have a month or two to figure it all out, to come up with an explination to the landlord (she's pretty nice and carefree), and decide if this is a good thing for me to do, or if I should stick with the worm plan...

What's Currently Growing, and What's Gonna Grow

Today I thought I'd share my garden schematics for this spring and summer. I'm still working on a schedule for things, but since this part of the task makes me groan every. single. time. I think about it, I haven't done it yet. I can say, however, that I will be starting my pepper and tomato seeds indoors this week.

Here is what's currently out there. Someday I'll get up the nerve to shoot a video so y'all can see what the yard looks like all together...

please click so you can see what's there.

Notes:

• Each section of raised bed is 2'x4'. The salad table is about 3'x2'. Excluding containers, this gives me 32 square feet at the peak of summer (salad table won't be in use). Tiny, yea? Now you see why I applied for a plot in the community garden?
  
  
• The left raised bed (LRB) and right raised bed (RRB) run from west to east. Because of our neighbor's trees, they'll only get full sun from around 11am to 4pm during the summer (there is a gap between the trees). Right now it's about 12:30pm to 2:30pm. No scientific measuring done here, just mental notes done when I think to look at the sun's position.
  
  
• The salad table, window box, and containers are all along the house facing south.

Here is what I'm planning for the spring/summer growing seasons:

please click so you can see what's there.

I forgot to add the cucumbers to the above picture. They'll be growing in containers as well.

If I can, I'll have more containers. Also, if I decide not to grow the sweet potatoes in the RRB, I may grow more herbs (or else throw seeds of "whatever the mood strikes").

Alrighty then... I'm off to stare at my calendar (again), and see if a planting and fertilizing schedule will magically appear this time.

Little Seed so Small and Round...

Pushed way down into the ground.
With water and some sunshine glow
God will help you grow, grow grow!

That time of year is almost upon us, and I think I'm the last one to plan for it. Spring! Sowing seed! Weeee!

While thinking about what I'll be growing this spring and summer, I decided the first step would be to reduce the seeds I already had on hand. Last year I went a little overboard with seed purchasing--especially considering my lack of space to grow things. At one point I was buying a pack almost every time I went to a store that sold them. It was bad. Bad enough that I ended up with 3 packets of cilantro, and 4 different kinds of beans. I would see a pack, forget that I already had some at home, and convince myself that these plants would fit wherever felt logical at the moment. Oh, the follies of a novice gardener. My seed box was packed to the hilt with unopened or barely used packets, so I ended up Freecycling seeds I won't be using this season. Oh yes, I have learned my lesson. I will not buy seeds unless I already have somewhere to put them. In other words, no unplanned purchases!
~~~~~~

I should mention that I started the above portion of this post a few days ago LOL. Silly me...
After going out for Thai last night, I stopped by OSH to pick up my seed starting containers. I told myself not to stop by the seed rack, but how could I avoid it when it was right next to where my containers were? I had to look at what they had. Reminding myself that I had changed my ways, I visualized the plans I've been staring at for days, and walked out of there with Renee's Container Bush Slicer Cucumber, and Heirloom Leaf Cutting Lettuce Mix. GRRR! It must have been the endorphins coursing through my blood from all that spicy Thai food I'd just eaten. Yeah, that's it. Why did I buy those? We rarely eat cucumbers, and I had previously decided I wouldn't buy mixed lettuces again since there are usually one or two types in each mix that we end up not enjoying. You understand, right? I couldn't help myself!

This reminds me of something I've been grappling with since the beginning. How can I grow what I want, in the quantities I'd like, with so little space? Well, dear readers, I ended up applying for a plot at our community garden (enter girlie squeals here)! I've thought about this off and on, and each time we go to the park next to the garden, I longingly stare through the fence at all of the things growing in those 32 plots of land. Admiring the individuality of each gardener, and how they've utilized their 255 square feet of space... What in the world would I do with that much space? Well, I won't be getting myself all excited about 225 square feet of loveliness just yet. After my application was submitted, I received an email from the garden coordinator informing me that there are 20 people ahead of me, and only 5 plots opened up this season. It looks like it could be two years before my name even comes up. *sigh* Oh well... At least I'm on the list now...


Ok, back to the topic at hand. Seeds. Now that I have room in my seed box again (snicker), I've chosen plants that are compact, will be happy in our blazing Cali sun, we will definitely use, and use a lot of. Hey, the cucumbers were an impulse buy, ok, and therefore does not count in this conversation. hmph. I think I did pretty well. I only bought one or two packs of seeds that I won't be able to put anywhere LOL, and one repeat--doh!

 

Here's what I will be growing this spring & summer (excludes what's already growing).
Baker Creek Heirloom:
Tomato: Peasron
Pepper Hot: White Habanero
Basil: Fine Verde (not using this season)
Parlsey: Brayour
Lettuce: Lolla Rossa (not pictured, sown 1/29)

Territorial Seed
Tomato: Viva Italia
Oregano

Burpee
Melon: Isabella Charentais
Watermelon: Bush Sugar Baby (decided not to use after reading of low fruit quantity per plant)
Gazania: Creamcicle

Renee's Garden
Basil: Italian Cameo
Cucumber: Bush Slicer
Pepper Sweet: Baby Belle
Nasturtium: Whirlybird

Irish Eyes
Potato: Russet Burbank Minituber (sown 2/1)
Potato: Sangre Minituber (sown 2/1)
I purchased these in November, but they took *forever* to sprout

Sustainable Seed Co.
Royal Burgundy Bean (already had from '09 but never planted)

I also received a free packet each from Territorial Seed and Baker Creek Heirloom. They were both carrot seeds. This annoyed me slightly because I have yet to grow carrots successfully, and because of this, had given away 3 varieties of them only days before my orders arrived. Maybe I'm not supposed to give up on this delicious root?


In my next post, I'll share where these goodies will grow, and my strategies for this season.

Warm weekend wishes!

My Oranges

Remember that beautiful orange tree I showed you the other day? As beautiful as those fruits may look, they are some lip puckerin' sour oranges, my friends. I've come to the conclusion that this can only be a Seville or "bitter" orange tree. What good are sour oranges when you're trying to feed your family?

According to Wiki, I can use it to to make a Belgain beer "The Belgain Witbier (white beer) is a beer made from wheat which is spiced with the peel of the bitter orange." (making a note for future beer making adventures). But even then, this only uses the peel...  Oh! Perhaps I should corner the market in dietary supplements!

"The extract of bitter orange (and bitter orange peel) has been used in dietary supplements as an aidfat loss and as an appetite suppressant, although in traditional Chinese medicine it is always prescribed in concert with other support herbs, not in isolation. Bitter orange contains synephrine, a substance similar to ephedrine, which acts on the α₁ adrenergic receptor to constrict blood vessels and increase blood pressure and heart rate."

Nah...

That only leaves me with one choice. The choice which majority of the world choose... Marmalade! Sold! I'd been wanting to try canning, and what better way to get a grasp on the concept than try putting up a food item I have plenty of!

I found a few recipes online (I'm waiting for the Ball Book to be returned to the library), but chose to go with the one from www.pickyourown.org because they provide great step-by-step pictures, the recipe uses pectin instead of making my own from the seeds and pith of the oranges, and it's the quickest to cook down.

• 8 whole oranges, thinly sliced (4 cups cut) My oranges must be small, because it took 12 to get 4 cups
• 3 whole lemons, thinly sliced (1 ½ cups cut)
• Orange juice or Water - 4 cups of either. Orange juice adds extra flavor.
• Sugar - about 7 cups of dry, granulated (table) sugar
• Pectin - 1 box
  

The marmalade looks pretty, doesn't it? Well unfortunately, my first try turned out horrible! It didn't set so it was super runny, and it tasted extremely bitter! So, I trashed that batch and made again. I'm not sure if I missed a step the first time, if I picked under ripe oranges, or if a week of rain did the oranges some good, but my second batch came out great. I chose to leave the rind out to avoid risking total bitterness again, so it's more like orange preserves...

Now what to do with the 3/4 of oranges that remain...