Blog Update

 Personal Update

While I have a ton of things that I am wanting to write about, I haven't been able to blog for a number of reasons. The main reason for that is because I am preparing for a major life event that will happen during the next few days. While this will be a very good thing to happen, I don't feel free to put it all "out there" for the whole world to know about...quite yet. If you are a person of faith, I would covet your prayers for my family during the next few days that God's hand of mercy and care would be on all of us. I will update about this as soon as I am able to.

Outdoor Garden Update

 

My outdoor garden did extremely well this summer. We had all fresh veggies we wanted to eat with plenty left over for canning and dehydrating. We are still picking some produce from the garden, but it is starting to wind down. Pictured above is one of the many cucumbers that I picked this morning. The reason why I am blogging about this is I didn't plant cucumbers this year. The place where this was growing at in my garden was a brand new raised bed this spring, and the dirt inside it was sterile dirt purchased from the store. The only thing that we can figure is a bird must of "planted" it for us. I have no idea if this cucumber is a hybrid or an heirloom. None-the- less we have been very much enjoying this surprise this summer.

Indoor Winter Garden

My indoor winter garden is also doing extremely well. All the seeds that I have planted have now sprouted. I still don't have my lettuce and spinach planted, but I will get to that later on. One of the interesting things that I "discovered" this past year is that seeds don't seem to germinate near as well in paper cups with the wax coating (like the bathroom cups that I used this past spring) as opposed to using a plastic container (as pictured above) for starting seeds in. This past spring, I only had 2 out of every 3 seeds germinate, and with the plastic, I had 100% of the seeds germinate. I am not sure the "why" of that, but it was interesting to note.

Thanks  for reading and visiting my blog. :-)

Simple Gesture of Respect

Today in the United States, we are remembering the events of 9/11. As with any day of national observant, I fly the American flag outside our home. This morning as I was outside preparing to put up the flag, a pickup truck stopped right next to where I was and the driver got out of his truck. He stood there for a few moments at attention and then saluted as I posted the flag. Once the flag had been posted he quietly and quickly got back into his truck and drove away...never saying anything. I was deeply touched by the actions of this stranger...who took the time of what was probably out of his busy schedule to show a simple gesture of a respect in memory of not only those that died on 9/11 but all who have given their lives for this nation. Please take a few moments of silence today for those who died 12 years ago today.

Thanks for reading and visiting my blog. :-)

Planting an Indoor Winter Garden

The summer months are starting to come to an end and thus, for in my area, the gardening will soon be over. Since I love fresh produce on my table, a couple of weeks ago I started my indoor winter garden. Picture above are some of the plants that I have growing for this winter. There are 4 "Tinny Tim" tomato plants, 2 "Bloody butcher" heirloom tomato plants, 4 green pepper plants, 2 cucumber plants, celery, basil, sage, thyme, and parsley. I still have leaf lettuce, onions, beets, and spinach that I want to plant, but I will wait for another three weeks before I plant those.I am also toying with the idea of planting some dwarf green beans, but I haven't made up my mind on that yet.

While it is impossible to grow indoors all the fresh produce that I would like to have, still, come January or February of 2014, the produce that I get from those plants will taste mighty fine when they have been freshly picked and on my table. Not only that, but if a blizzard should hit during this upcoming winter, or something else happens that prevents me from getting to the store, the fresh veggies will be an extra special treat and come in very handy.

I will eventually need more space for the plants than what my simple table in front of the windows will allow. When the plants reach that point, I will go vertical with my garden and transplant the tomatoes into a "do-it-yourself" "Topsey Turvey" (follow link for instructions on how to do that). Then I will hang my DIY planters on a curtain rod on the top of the window. I will also trellis the cucumbers using dowel rods. In addition to those things, I will be using  some grow lights that have been mounted on the undersides of shelves on an old bookcase that I have which will house some of the low shade plants such as the lettuce and spinach.

Indoor gardens take a lot more care and work than outdoors ones do, but I feel they are more than worth it. While indoor gardens do not produce like traditional gardens (at least they don't for me) it is something and something in things like this, are always better than nothing.I would encourage you to give an indoor winter garden a try and see how it works for you. If nothing else, tending to the plants does help to remove the "blahs" of the short days and long winter nights.

Thanks for reading and visiting my blog. :-)

Fruit Fly Traps

 Above photo is from a public domain photo stock site.

I have had an abundance of produce this year to preserve, but that is also the exact same reason that I also have had an abundance of fruit flies in my home. Since I don't like bugs of any kind in my home (who does right?) I tried several different methods and traps to get rid of them. The one I found that worked best for me, while it doesn't look the nicest, it does seem to really work.

Place some food from your compost into a small bowl and tightly cover with plastic wrap. Secure the plastic in place with a rubber band. Using a pin or tip of a knife, poke a couple of holes in the top of the plastic. Set dish in the area where the fruit fly problem is at.

Why this works is because the fruit flies will crawl through the hole to get to the food but they cannot get back out so they trapped. Once you have trapped enough, take it outdoors and uncover the dish.

Thanks for reading and visiting my blog. :-)

DIY Envelope for Seed Saving – Follow up

I have received several private messages and emails concerning my blog yesterday about what kind of paper envelope to use to store harvested seed in. So as a follow up to that question, my short answer is I don't think that it really matters what kind of envelope you use. My long answer is that I make my paper ones myself. While there are many ways of making envelopes, this is how I do it:

What you will need: Paper, Scissors, Tape

Take a corner of a sheet of paper and fold it to the other side to form a triangle. (Fold 1)

 Cut off excess paper.

 Fold left corner of triangle into the center. (Fold 2)

Fold right corner of triangle into the center. (Fold 3) Tape down the inside edges from Fold 2 and Fold 3.

Separate (open) the paper of the third corner of the triangle and place seeds in between the paper. Close and fold over the corner to meet folds 1 &2, Tape close.

Flip envelope over and write the name of the content, any special planting instructions, and year of harvest.

Please feel free to contact me if you have any further questions. Thanks for reading and visiting my blog. :-)

Harvesting Heirloom Tomato Seeds

Above photo is from a free public domain image site

Where I live at, it is now nearing the end of the growing season. In addition to preserving the produce from my garden, I am also harvesting and saving heirloom seeds for next year's garden. While heirloom tomato seeds are sort of icky to save, none-the-less, they are easy to harvest and store and the process is pretty straight forward..

If you are saving seeds from tomatoes that you have grown, choose only the the best looking tomatoes from the healthiest plants. Wash the tomato and cut it in half across the middle (think the “equator” of the tomato). Using either a spoon, or your hands, scoop or squeeze out the seeds and liquid from the tomato, reserving the seeds and liquid in either a glass or plastic container.

Cover the container with plastic wrap and with a knife or pin, punch a small hole in the middle of the plastic. The hole is so a little air can get out of the container and help with the fermentation. Place the container in a warm, sunny spot. I use a window sill which works out great. Each day give the container a little swish around. If you remove the plastic wrap and put new plastic on, don't forget to punch a hole in the top of the plastic wrap.

After 3-4 days, nature will take over and the top of the tomatoes will start to look scummy. This is what you want to have happen. The whitish scum is the fermentation which will separate the seed from the slimmy membrane around the seeds. This also helps to destroy any possible tomato diseases that can live in the seeds.

With a spoon, carefully remove the fuzzy scum surface. Fill the container with water. The good seeds will sink to the bottom and the bad seeds will float. Discard the bad seeds. Pour the contents into a fine sieve strainer. Rinse seeds well. Once the seeds have been completely cleaned off, place seeds onto a plate that has been covered with wax paper and spread them out into a single layer. Allow the seeds to dry for a few days, stirring the seeds daily so that the seeds will dry all over. Make sure to spreed the seeds back into a single layer after each stirring. You will know that the seeds are dry when they easily slip across the wax paper when the plate is slightly tilted.

Once dried, you can store the seeds in either a paper envelope or a plastic bag. There are those that caution against using plastic to store seeds, but I haven't had any problems in doing so. Just make sure that if you use a plastic bag, to allow the seeds to completely dry before storing them. Otherwise mold and rotting can take place. Paper envelopes will adsorb any remaining moisture. Label bag and store in cool place out of direct sunlight.

Thanks for reading and visiting my blog. :-)