Greenhouse Photos

Garden! In a Greenhouse

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Look what's in our backyard...

A greenhouse*! And it's not going anywhere either. We anchored that thing down good. Hopefully somewhat soon I may be able to share the construction, in stills or maybe a quick video, but for now, here's a photo of the finished greenhouse.

I was able to put the rotating composter* in the greenhouse but I may have to rearrange it as I want to have buckets and totes for plants in the back where it is now. 

We dug two trenches that we then put two boards into and back-filled. These were secured by anchors into the ground. The frame of the greenhouse was very easy to put together. We did it as a family on Sunday afternoon. The only day so far that was nice enough to do outside work. {Although as I typed that, the sun has come out, the rain has stopped and the clouds are far off.}

You can see the board a little closer here {I hope}.

There are shelves inside for the smaller plants and starts. Now I just have to get going on the seedlings! We bought some zucchini, spaghetti squash and kale seeds yesterday, along with some garden soil. I have paper egg carton bottoms for starting them. 

I'm still so excited when I look out the classroom window and see our greenhouse out there! 

Garden Goods and Outdoor Stuff

Radishes...long overdue for harvesting.

I planted my first seeds in the garden on June 8, 2013. For some reason that I have no memory of, I thought to wait for 60 days for the radishes to be ready for picking. Perhaps I was recalling one of the other vegetables that I planted. The radishes were ready at 22 days. OOps. Well, it's only been 30+ days...

This is my first 'fruits' of the garden so far. They are super yummy! Spicy and good. Not as much actually came up as I'd hoped but it is a start. I had to replant all my other seeds, since the garden is not faring well this year. Also a critter of some sort (perhaps a deer, going by the tracks in the garden bed) ate all the tomato and beet tops. Fortunately, they all recovered and are growing again but it's a set back. 

After I harvested these radishes, I planted more seeds. It is supposed to be dry and warm the next four days, at least. I'll have to try to remember to at least give them a sprinkling of water.

Otherwise, we've been working on making our backyard 'better'. There was a bare patch of ground -except for weeds and some annoying rocks- that we've since leveled somewhat and placed flat larger rocks down. This week dh bought some river pebbles to fill in the spaces that were left. We didn't have enough larger rocks to fill the entire area like we'd wanted. 

Back patio. It's larger than it looks. Don't mind the recyclables over there that look like trash.

And in that area we are going to put our wooden picnic table that my dh and f-i-l made 8 years ago. It's been carted around quite a bit! It's not a light table either. 

There's still some work to do on the table. It's been sanded and was washed ready for staining...and then it rained. And rained some more. We have to resand it and wash it off. It should be dry the next few days though, so it will get a nice coat of durable stain. Better than the previous we hope. It had a 'life' of at least 5 years or so it said. It's been just under 2 years and it needs redone. 

It will fit somewhat snugly on our back patio but it will be nice. I'll be sure and take photos when it's finished and in its place.

I Don't Have a Green Thumb

I'm just about to give up! My garden is not cooperating with me. The soil is great, the seeds are fine, the weather is good...at least I think so about all of those. Back in June I posted at my mom's blog (and thought I made a mention here also but can't find it) about my garden. I had high hopes even though my planning was sketchy.

Here's a photo from my garden today, July 4, 2013, and then the one from June 8, 2013.

Where I'd planted cantaloupe, beets, and broccoli, there is pretty much nothing now. Nothing came up. Also, tomatoes are wherever they please! I replanted beets, broccoli and put spinach where the cantaloupe was. Will just have to see how it goes.

I'm really unsure why it's not going well.

What Is In My Yard

I guest posted at LinderCroft a few days ago with my plans for a garden. Or rather my unplanning.

Well! For not planning it out well, it is finally coming together. Here is what I found in my garden today, six days later.

Spinach!

Tomato? I can't recall where I was standing when I took this photo.

Purslane! I didn't plant it and it's not actually in the garden but it's a keeper.

Not sure what those little things are and I'm more inclined to think they're not something I want in the garden. Will watch and see.

Beets!

Radishes!

And elsewhere in my yard:

This is how we've decided to keep the deer and rabbits out of the garden. It's worked quite well. No deer or other little varmints have been even close to the garden since it's been there. We have trail cams in our yard so we know ;)

Moss! I love moss. This is on our back steps. Apparently, there's also mushrooms? Mushrooms are all over our yard this year.

And not from today but within the last week here are some other 'things' in the yard, front and back.

Goldfinch peeking in the window.

Gross, huge mushroom in the backyard. This is from today.

Lambs ear = love

And one more that I didn't take a photo of but put in my nature journal.

Day lily

Garden Goodies

My garden has been doing well for the most part. So far I have harvested:

• broccoli twice –more is in the works,
• 2 bell peppers,
• 6 zucchini of good size,
• 6 beets –2 were a bit large, the rest small,
• 7 green beans,
• 6 cherry tomatoes –and there are more needing picked today,
• and 1 head of lettuce.

The garden isn’t very large and it doesn’t drain well because it is right on top of some asphalt. Yummy, huh? Each ‘bed’ is at least 8 inches deep.

Honestly, it’s not done anywhere near as well as I’ve hoped. Some reasons are 1) the drainage issue, 2) it’s been extremely hot and dry here, 3) wildlife enjoy eating it as much as or perhaps more than we do, and 4) I probably have a black thumb. My carrots didn’t even get to be 3 inches long and they twisted around themselves. I pulled them not long ago.

Does a garden get watered every day? Seriously. I haven’t watered it daily and wonder if that is a reason it’s not doing as well as I’d hoped. It has rained a bit the last two days, thankfully. Oh, but I am so glad for what it has produced! There has been at least twice when we had ‘nothing’ to eat, according to a couple of individuals in the house, and were saved by fresh vegetables from the garden. It was wonderful.

Here are two {rather gross looking} photos of my dinner last night. It was a mix of beets, broccoli stems, and zucchini. It tasted wonderful! It was broccoli stems rather than the florets because I left those to Lee to munch on with ranch dressing. There is just nothing like fresh vegetables.

 

I still plan to plant more beets where the carrots and lettuce were. Also, the area where I’d originally planted the beets is open for more. I’d like to plant some more lettuce but this time it would be leaf lettuce, not head. I just didn’t like that whole experience.

Transplanting Root Bound Vegetables

For some it’s the time to transplant many vegetables into our gardens for a late summer/fall harvest. Sometimes though we get behind and don’t get those seedlings planted a soon as would be optimal and they become root bound.

What does root bound mean? It is when the plant outgrows its pot and the roots have no place to go but to wind round and round the inside of the pot. This restricts the nutrients the plant gets from the soil and water can’t be used properly. Sometimes the roots take over the soil and there are more roots than soil in the pot.

What can be done with root bound plants? There are a few solutions, although they damage the plant. Thankfully, they generally recover quickly. If nothing is done and the plant is transplanted it will continue to send its roots in a circle, and doesn’t grow optimally, so we have to help it out a bit.

Depending on the size and type of pot the plant is in, you either just gently squeeze the bottom of the planter letting the plant kind of pop out or if it is a bigger planter, turn the planter over with the stem of the plant in the crook of two fingers and gently tap the bottom of the pot. This will, hopefully, leave the plant upside down in your hand. If not you will have to get a bit more aggressive. But eventually it should come out.

While the plant is upside down in the palm of your hand, squeeze around the root ball and use your fingers kind of like a comb and try to loosen the roots. Once that is done, plant it in its designated spot, fanning out the loose roots as much as possible.

If the root ball is very dense, you may have to take a knife and slice the roots lengthwise around the root ball in a few places to loosen the ball; then comb as above. Sometimes, it becomes necessary to actually cut off a small portion of the bottom of the root ball; much like you would cut the crust off a piece of bread. Then loosen the root ball and plant as above.

Root bound plant - photo credit Vegetarian Times

Root ball loosened - photo credit Vegetarian Times

Slicing lengthwise to loosen roots ~ photo credit Canadian Gardening

 That's it! Happy gardening!

Linda Foley

About the Guest Author:

Linda Foley lives with her husband in Northern California. She blogs about gardening, small livestock, homesteading, and life. You can contact her via her blog @ LinderCroft

My Garden is Still Alive!

Garden 7.2.12– 1 month ‘old’! VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Here is what it looked like when I first planted it-

…and then a few days to a week later-

You’ll probably see that the deer ate my bean plant leaves (lower right corner- leaves, then no leaves lol).
Here’s the zucchini when I first planted them-

…and now-

I’m so happy it’s doing well. The deer and bugs are still a problem but I think you can see that it’s surviving even so!

Here's my whole garden.

Tomatoes: Indeterminate and Determinate

It’s often asked what the difference is between indeterminate and determinate tomato plants. I know I was confused for a while myself. Because I garden in a small space, I felt I needed to find a bush type tomato which led to a search to find the difference between the classification of indeterminate and determinate. 

One way to tell the difference is by how they fruit. The determinate tomato plant will produce all their fruit at one time, whereas the indeterminate plant will produce fruit until it dies back at the first frost. 

Another way you can tell the difference between the two varieties is in the way they grow. 

Indeterminate varieties grow longer sprawling vines and will require more support over the course of the season. This variety can become a large (6’-10') heavy plant and be left to sprawl all over the ground. However, this method of growing takes up a large amount of space. If staked, they will need strong stakes to help hold the weight of the plant as it grows. It can be helpful to keep them at a certain height by snipping the top, leaving any number of trusses with four being optimal. In this method, the side shoots should be picked out to help control the size of the plant. 

Determinate varieties are generally more compact and are a more manageable size. To harvest a heavy crop of tomatoes at certain intervals in the season, a gardener could grow both early and main season varieties of the determinate type. The early season tomato generally matures within 45 to 60 days. The main season plants mature in the mid to late season, requiring 70 to 80 days to maturity. 

In the end, I chose to use an open pollinated determinate variety because of limited space. Next time I will use the indeterminate variety. The main reason for choosing the indeterminate variety is that most indeterminate types are heirloom. The second reason is because the size of the plant can be controlled by staking and keeping the plant to four trusses. And lastly, one plant will produce all season.

  Mid-season, Rutgers determinate tomato about 10 weeks old.
A sample of the tomato size is in the top right corner.
They get to 8 ounces, are globular, smooth, bright red fruits
with thick walls, small seed cells, and are free from cracks
Bountiful Gardens

Linda Foley

About the Guest Author:

Linda Foley lives with her husband in Northern California. She blogs about gardening, small livestock, homesteading, and life. You can contact her via her blog @ LinderCroft

Homeschool Mother’s Journal- Week of 6/4/12

In my life this week…
…my mother was admitted to the hospital and it really shook me up. Her more than me, of course! Her husband suffered a seizure while they were at the hospital. They live in Northern California and I’m in Northeast Ohio. My mom is now on blood pressure medication and her husband is on anti-seizure medication. They are home now and doing better.
My garden was looking a little sickly this week. The leaves were burned on some plants {the zucchini especially}. Deer ate the leaves off of my three bean plants Fortunately, the each had two little leaves just opening and they are doing better now. The strawberries {which were promptly eaten by birds shortly after planting} now have blossoms again.
I put netting around the entire garden in hopes of keeping critters out. Dh also sprayed repellent around it.
In our homeschool this week…
…Fox still is working on Algebra. Both are working on Spanish. Lee started the Lightning Literature. That’s it.
Places we’re going and people we’re seeing…
…Lee had babysitting on Wednesday night so I drove her to that and hung out at the library. I worked on school scheduling. Fox had Young Marines; his dad took him to that {in his Cobra!}. Thursday we went to Hobby Lobby. Friday we went to a metropark {South Euclid Reservation} and hung out on the trails for an hour or two. Then we went to the library and I got a bunch of local fliers for activities to do this summer. We are going to back to the park {maybe a different one this time, not sure} and the library to pick up our game boards for the summer reading program {that includes teens and adults!!}.
My favorite thing this week was…
…all the Cardinals I keep seeing. Rarely do I get a photo though.

What’s working/not working for us…
…all seems to be going just fine.
Things I’m working on…
…same ol’.
I’m reading…
…I stopped reading the other books and am just focusing on pre-reading for school. If I don’t stop reading the other books then I won’t get it done and I don’t want to be caught unprepared. Also, 3 of the 4 books that I was reading for the Around the World challenge had inappropriate portions and not worth my reading.
I’m cooking…
…tonight it was hamburgers and bratwurst, on the grill done by dh. Yesterday it was turkey breast that was marinated in honey mustard sauce. I don’t recall what else we made this week. I didn’t do all the cooking and tomorrow is Lee’s night. I did make some sugarless cookies. They were …interesting. Fox made chocolate chip cookies without the chocolate chips. Those were yummy!
I’m grateful for…
…my mommy. Even though she is so far away, I’ve very grateful that I have a good relationship with her and can call her for whatever. A good car and a wonderful husband that can work on it I just hit the 100,000 miles!
I’m praying for…
…my mom. My sisters, Melissa and Lynn. My niece, Nissha. My mother-in-law and sister-in-law, Becky and Hannah, for travels to come visit us from Oregon.
A photo collage to share…

Things I’ve planted.

I’m linking up (a wee bit late!) with the following:

   

Garden–After Planting

I got all my plants, planted I do worry though that the garden will wash away when it rains tonight…

Again these are with my phone camera.

My spacing is not quite right and it isn’t the way I’d originally planned it but…I think it’ll work.

In the first long photo you can see, front bed, tomato, bell pepper and broccoli. Back bed, lettuce and carrots. In the other two photos, the far bed has zucchini and strawberries. The front bed has beet seeds {lol can’t see those}, bell peppers and beans {supposed to be bush}.

I hope.