The veggies are in the ground!

This post took a bit longer than usual because I have been out and about in my garden and yard instead of at my keyboard.  I am feeling so fulfilled this week, and also mighty tired!  My Spring Garden is looking pretty fabulous if you ask me.  It is not quite finished, and I still have some winter crops in the ground (fava beans and Swiss Chard), but my beds have been refurbished with new soil, compost, and llama "beans", and I have expanded my growing space quite nicely with comparatively little effort.

Llama "beans"

Llama "beans", you say!?!  Yes, llama "beans."  Also called llama poop, but we llama aficionados prefer to call them "beans" because that is what they look like... blackish brown and about the size of a large bean.... and these "beans" make really excellent fertilizer!  Unlike cow manure or chicken manure, llama "beans" do not smell nor do they need to be aged, and they will not burn your seedlings or plants.  They can be used almost immediately on your flower and vegetable gardens as you would dry fertilizer (it is best to wait 24 hours after "manufacture."). Or put some in a container, add some water, and you have "Llama Bean Tea" for watering your plants!  Pretty awesome.  If you have llamas in your pasture, they just keep making more, so you always have a nice supply. But if you don't have llamas (or alpacas), see if you can locate one nearby and ask for some to try on your veggies, fruit, lawn and flowers.  You will be pleasantly surprised, I think!

One thing that I find myself dealing with once again, but this time in my gardening, is my inability to make decisions readily. What to plant?!  Where to plant it?!  When to plant it?!  What should I plant it next to and how many should I plant?!  ARGHH!  Sometimes I think I am getting better at making decisions, but then I find myself outside among my garden beds just staring at them and wondering what, which and when!

But decisions have been made at last, and what have I planted in my Spring Veggie Garden, you ask?!  Well, ...... there's:

   SLICING TOMATOES and  CHERRY TOMATOES

I have decided that next year I need to plant the tomatoes in larger peat pots than the ones I used this year. They really need to be able to get to be larger plants before I set them out, and I need to start them in my little greenhouses much sooner, also.  I have lost a few to cutworms already, before I remembered to dust them with some Sevin dust and surround them with tin cans.  Cutworms really like tiny tomato seedlings!

   PIMENTO PEPPERS (from seeds I saved from last year's crop) and FRYING PEPPERS (small red and yellow and orange peppers good for sauteing)

   YELLOW STRAIGHT NECK SQUASH, ZUCCHINI, * ACORN SQUASH, * PATTY PAN SQUASH, * SPAGHETTI SQUASH+, and * DELICATA SQUASH+.

Patty Pan or Button Squash

Spaghetti Squash

I have been finding some really interesting recipes for spaghetti squash.  I have always been a bit intimidated by this vegetable.  I found it too expensive in the grocery store for experimentation (what if I didn't like it?), and I figured that it probably took a lot of preparation that I was not sure I wanted to invest time in.  So I have ignored it until now, when a good friend gave me some seeds this Spring and told me how wonderful it is.  I am really looking forward to trying it!  Have any of you tried it?

Delicata Squash

* MUSKMELON (aka cantaloupe)

* MYSTERY MELON+ (Yes, that is what it is named! A sort of cross between a cantaloupe and honey-dew melon with a bit of watermelon thrown in for good measure?!)

* MALABAR SPINACH+ (a vining plant that has leaves that are like spinach and can grow in the heat, unlike spinach)

Malabar Spinach

   RADISHES (White Icicle)

* "CORN SALAD" (a mixture of lettuces that my friend shared with me)

* SALSIFY+ (a root vegetable with a taste like mushrooms and oysters?!  I am so totally intrigued!)

Salsify

* PARSNIPS+

Parsnips

* ASPARAGUS BEANS+ (really, really long beans with a unique flavor)

Asparagus Beans

   CUCUMBERS (slicing)

* LEMON CUCUMBERS+ (tennis ball size cukes that you can eat like a fruit ...  seeds given to me by a friend who says they are "yummy")

Lemon Cucumbers

* WATERMELON (Moon and Stars)

Moon and Stars Watermelon

I got the seeds for this special watermelon in the "goody bag" given to us at the final Wildflower Retreat....sigh! I can't wait to have a chance to remember that retreat with a slice of ice cold watermelon this summer!  I will save some seeds to plant each year from now on.  The memories of that final retreat will live on and on!  Only one seed sprouted, tho .... so I am keeping my green thumbs crossed that it will survive and produce.

* ONIONS (ones that I have grown from store-bought onion bottoms)

   GARLIC (planted last fall from cloves of store-bought garlic)

   EGGPLANT (Ichiban, my favorite for stir frying or roasting)

   SWISS CHARD ("Lucullus," which is one that can withstand heat better than the winter one that I planted and enjoyed, but chard is really a cool weather crop.

   OKRA (Clemson Spineless, from seeds I saved from my 2013 crop)

   HERBS:  Rosemary, Oregano, Cilantro and the all important Basil. I couldn't live without basil, for the fragrance and the taste!  This year I planted 4 types:  Basil, Purple Basil, Thai Basil, and Greek Basil.  The Thai Basil smells peppery!  I will take photos of all four kinds for a later post.  Promise!

AND

the * Fava beans+, *Swiss chard, and *Brussel sprouts (left over from my Winter Garden)

The * indicates those I have never grown before, and + beside them means I have never even eaten them, but I want to try them!

Fava Beans

The fava beans finally started making some bean pods this week.  I hope to be enjoying them soon, but it is like waiting for chickens to grow teeth!  I think the strange weather has really upset their normal growth pattern. Meanwhile, I still see my little green lizard friend enjoying his/her guard duty against bugs high up in the bean stalks!

My Brussel Sprouts plant in the garden

I love Brussel sprouts and I bought this plant last Spring as a seedling at the feed store.  I am not sure when it will be ready to harvest, but it has made leaves and stalks and I can see what looks to be tiny sprouts along the stem of one stalk.  No wonder the darn things are so expensive in the grocery .... seems they take forever to be ready to eat!

Teensy tiny Brussel Sprouts on the stem!

So, a pretty ambitious garden, wouldn't you say?!  Well, I am hoping to save substantially on my grocery bills, and maybe even my medical bills with this year's crop.  I will be eating healthier this way, and working in a garden is a great way to be active, fuel your soul, and cut down on stress in your life.  But I have never had this large of a garden, or this many types of vegetables.  I am excited about new tastes and textures, and I am already finding some interesting recipes online that will put my produce to good use.  Got any recipes for me?  Please share! I plan to start a recipe page on my blog to feature them and those I find myself.

Speaking of being ambitious with a vegetable garden, my Daddy is probably the King of Garden Ambition.  When he retired from corporate work in Corpus Christi and Houston, where he had spent the last ten or so years living in apartments, he couldn't wait to move rural and have a "Big Garden."  So my parents moved to a small town in East Texas on about 2 acres, and Daddy planted a HUGE garden the very first year... including 70 tomato plants!  For two people!  There were also cucumbers, peppers, yellow squash and zucchini, and to this day I can still hear my mother say to him: "Edwin, if you bring one more zucchini or cucumber into this house I am going to beat you with it!" Strangely, the weather was unusual that first summer in the country. Seems Daddy's huge garden was the only one whose tomato plants produced in that area so he had no trouble giving away a large percentage of his proudly produced produce!

Now, back to the present.  Some of my winter crops didn't suit my fancy, after all.  At least not as far as how the ones I grew turned out when I cooked them.  I was quite disappointed with my turnips and beets as they did not taste like I wanted them to taste.  The greens were delicious for both, but not the tubers themselves.

Kolrabi bulb harvested in April

I was also not impressed with the taste or development of the kohlrabi, a vegetable popular in Europe and a food reportedly full of great benefits to our health.  I think that most likely I need to do some research on the cultivation of these three vegetables.  Maybe my soil was too heavy or not the right pH, or maybe I planted them too close to each other, or didn't keep the soil moist enough during the developmental stage of the roots.  Right now, I am not leaning toward planting them again anytime soon.  I have decided that when I want beets, I will grab me a can off the grocery store shelf, or check out the price of the ones in the produce aisle.  I just love Harvard Beets and Pickled Beets!

Now ... remember the Lady Banks roses that grow on an arbor over my driveway side door? I had shared a photo of them taken back in late March and they looked like this:

And then two weeks ago, it turned into this almost overnight!  We have already had to trim it back a bit so we could get into the house without ducking our heads!  It is what inspired one of my early haiku poems.

Rose boughs ‘bove my door

What makes you so boisterous?

Have you had your say?

Rose boughs 'bove my door

Explode with dainty yellow.

Clearly you do speak!

We sure do enjoy writing haiku and digging in the dirt on HeartSong Farm!

So ready to get my hands dirty!

On the second weekend in March, I planted most of my vegetable seeds in their little peat pots, gave them water, wished them well, and put them to bed in their little GroundWork's walk-up greenhouses out on my back porch.  A week later, most had sprouted and within 10 days all were soaking up the sunshine that was coming through the nice heavy-duty plastic that protected them from the cold on the other side.  (Remember those low temps?!)  And, I never had to water them except for the initial planting time because the plastic cover formed condensation throughout the 4 weeks the baby plants were undercover, and when I would stick my arm in there to turn them around, it was toasty warm in there!

I got the greenhouse units on sale for $25 at Tractor Supply (reg. price was $29) and Lowe's has some very similar to these, priced the same.  I was very pleasantly surprised at how well they were constructed  and how easy it was to put them together.  They have worked out very well for me.  When my real greenhouse is built, I will be able to use the shelves and pans in it, but for now I needed something portable to get my seeds started.  No more starting them on my kitchen counters, table tops, and atop my washer/dryer.  I am moving on up toward the Big Time, me!

Last weekend I was just dying to put those sweet little sprouts in their permanent places in my vegetable garden beds, but I was scared!  What if we had another frost? It could happen...it snowed on Easter this time last year here in my neck of the woods.... like Winter's last cosmic joke of the season. I just don't trust the weather these days and I already have trust issues on fronts other than the weather kind.  This year, April 15, 2014, was not only tax day, we had a frost.  What's next???  A blood moon?! Oh, wait, we got that, too!  Yikes!

But it is now Easter weekend, and I plan to get my hands dirty!  On Thursday morning before leaving for work, I unzipped the plastic door covering on the greenhouses, rolled them up neatly and held them in place with the nice Velcro at the top. This was to allow them to "harden" for a few days and nights before they go out into the scary real world with its rain, heat, sunshine, weeds, and BUGS!

Then on Friday I moved them into the full sunshine for part of the day, and again on Saturday.  They really liked it!

While I let the little plants harden, I started putting together another product that I am anxious to try out called Patio Pickers Raised Garden Kit.  It is a portable raised bed that is designed to help you do some "urban gardening" on your balcony or porch.  Now, I am not really doing any "urban gardening," but these nifty units looked like an inexpensive way for me to have raised  beds without all the fuss of building them this year.  I already have too much on my plate, as usual.  I saw them by chance at Lowe's while pricing plain, large plastic pots to plant my eggplant and squash in this year.  This product, at $29, was cheaper than two of those pots and could do more for me, so I bought 3.  They are actually kind of a cross between raised bed, hydroponic, and square foot gardening concepts, all of which I am a real fan.  How could I lose?!

The dimensions on them are about 20" x 24" x 9", and the instructions list how many plants of what types (both flower and vegetable and fruit) that you can plant in each.  I wanted to plant squash in mine and it indicated that I could plant 5 to 6 in one container.  The directions are very well done and installation is very simple. You will need to purchase 1.5 cubic feet of a good potting mix (not potting soil) that contains spagnum moss, which I found to equal 4 bags; a bag of dolomite or "garden lime" (but you need only a small amount, so buy the smallest bag you can find); and common dry granular fertilizer like you would put on your lawn, such as 13-13-13 (not time or slow release or any kind you mix with water).  There is an aeration screen, a water fill tube, and a mulch cover that are included.  They also came with 4 casters for the bottom so that, on a deck or patio or balcony, you can move them from place to place, but I didn't put them on as I was not going to be moving mine once I placed them.

Follow the directions carefully and, in no time, you will have a raised bed garden system that takes up a small amount of space, and does not waste water.  You add water as needed through the water fill tube, and with the mulch cover, what water you do use goes straight to the plants without evaporating! Also, I suspect that you will have less of a chance of powdery mildew and such, and, of course, no weeds to pull, which is my favorite part, I think!  Yay!  And you can plant just about any kind of vegetable you want in them, including peas and beans and okra!  Or how about some strawberries?!  (see update for this product here),

Now, I also wanted to share with you the way I am growing onions from regular store bought ones.  I figure that eventually I might have enough to never have to buy an onion at Kroger ever again!  Of course, I will also need a huge onion bed, because I LOVE cooking with onions.

First, you take a regular onion.  This one is a 

yellow onion that happens to have already started

sprouting out the top, but that is totally unnecessary.

Then you slice off about 1/2" of the bottom where the dried out roots

are, and you let it sit at least 24 hours to dry out on the cut side.  

I have waited up to a week to plant, but I think that it is best to plant

within 3 days.  You can plant in a pot on a windowsill if you like.

Make a depression in the soil, and plant them, inside or out, filling the

depression first with plenty of water and then press the slices into the 

wet soil.  You do not cover them with soil.  It is important to keep the

slices well watered.  Soon, you will see green tops sprouting!

When they look like these, the roots have re-hydrated and formed 

new ones and they are ready to take out of the soil and divide into

individual onion plants.

It is best to use a sharp knife and slice carefully between the green

tops, making sure there are some nice roots on each piece.  You are

then ready to plant these cuttings in your garden to grow into real

onions!  And you will have gotten at least two onions out of one!

You can do this with your shallots or green onions, also.

Here is a green onion I grew as an experiment over the last year.

It does take them a while to get big.  This one was in the garden 

since last summer, but it started out as a tiny green onion from 

Kroger for putting in my Fourth of July potato salad.  I sliced the

bottom off and planted it directly in my vegetable bed.  You could 

easily grow these on a pot in sunny window sill and have green 

onion tops all year long, and eventually a fresh onion!

I have read that you can grow celery in a similar fashion, and a friend has been able to do the same with some bok choy.  I am going to try the celery soon, maybe this week, and see what happens and will let you know how it works.  I love celery for its crunch and health benefits, but, let's face it, folks...why is it so expensive in the grocery when it is nothing but water and strings?!

This weekend I discovered that at the end of the fava bean row, right next to the little marker that says "SPINACH," there was a beet growing in the dirt under the leaves of what I had been cooking and eating as spinach during the winter!  Truth be told, the leaves didn't look like the spinach leaves in the grocery store, but I just thought it was a different variety.  The good news is that now I have even more beets to enjoy for a while!

My fava beans are blooming up a storm and have been since mid-March.  The seed packet indicated I would be harvesting them in March, but that was not the case, at least not for me, and not this crazy year! The pea flowers are so pretty....white with black spots!  Very stylish, if you ask me!  Both honey and bumble bees have been enjoying the flowers constantly.  But, after a month of blooming, there are still no signs of pods forming and I am wondering if it has to do with the weird temps.  I think it does, so now that the temps are rising as they should this time of year, I hope to be shelling some fava beans soon!

Now, some photos from the last of my winter garden.  

The Swiss Chard is so pretty with its greens and reds.  Very tasty
cooked similar to spinach.

 

Here you can see just how much the honey bees love those sassy white flowers with black spots!

Ladybugs are also a constant visitor to the fava bean plants.

And I found this sweet green fellow hiding among the leaves

Well, it has turned out to be a very good weekend for gardening, after all, here on HeartSong Farm!

Springtime in East Texas

Spring is pretty much here in East Texas, at last, even though there have been some bumps along the road in the transition from Winter. My red buds made a very poor showing, leafing out almost at the same time as they flowered, while the forsythia seemed to just keep on blooming much longer than I have ever known them to do before. Last night the weatherman said that there could still be one more frost before Easter this year...on April 15th, which is not only Tax Day, but also the traditional day most old-timers around here say it is safe to plant!  Well, looks like with Global Warming/Climate Change, we just might need to rethink that and move it to April 20th from this year forward!  What do you think?!

Despite of all of that, I have found Spring has shown up this year around my little world, and I thought I would share it with you today.  Are you ready?!

My good friend, Judy, and I decided to have lunch this past Wednesday in the Mast Arboretum on the campus of Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches, Texas.  We wanted to check out the azaleas that were in bloom in the Ruby M. Mize Azalea Garden.  The azaleas around East Texas have been a bit slow in blooming this year due to the unusual weather, but we were certainly not disappointed in what we found on our lunch break. Check it out below.  These photos have NOT been retouched or enhanced in any way, but show just how amazing the colors of Spring are here in Deep East Texas, and specifically in this wonderful garden!

The Ruby M. Mize Azalea Garden is a wonderful place to take a walk, snap photos, relax and wonder at the beauty of Nature on one of the many benches along the way.  And a walk through the expanding Mast Arboretum is wonderful, as well.  So, if you are ever near Nacogdoches, stop and take a stroll!

Have you ever noticed the different shades of green in the Spring?!  Seems to me that we make such a Big Fuss over the brilliant colors of Fall, but what about all the gorgeous shades of green in the Spring?!  Look at these photos again, and check out the greens in your yard and along the byways you travel this coming week. Try not to let the colorful flowers keep you from enjoying the greens, and remember, come Autumn these same greens will be those awesome "Fall Colors"!  

Of course, it just wouldn't be Springtime in Texas without our beautiful bluebonnets!  These photos were taken last week in front of just one home along my way to and from town.  

The bluebonnets seem to have lasted much longer this year than I remember, and I just realized I haven't seen the Indian paintbrush yet!  They have been a favorite of mine since the second grade because they combine two of my special loves:  Native Americans and paintbrushes!  Kind of silly, maybe, but that is how it is with me!

Back here at HeartSong Farm, things are Spring-ing up also.

I found this cute little fellow admiring his reflection
in one of the buckets I collect rain water in off the back porch!

My Lady Banks roses are starting to green up, almost ready to bloom!

Well, that is it for now from HeartSong Farm.  Happy Spring!

Road trips

Happy Spring! I am ready for a road trip..... are you?

   

Here's what I have planned:

I turn 65 years old this summer, and the adventure of signing up for Medicare is already looming in the road ahead.  For those of you who might not already know, you have to do it within the seven months between three months before and three months after your 65^th birthday, or you will face permanent penalties.   And that seems to be the only aspect of the process that is pretty clear.  Oh, and that it's going to cost me $104 a month, at least for 2014.  What made me think it was free?!  Well, I guess nothing is truly free these days, is it?!

Currently, I do not have health insurance at all.  This is because my employer of the past 8 years does not offer it to me, but also because it would have cost me as an individual about $600/month because of what insurance companies like to call "pre-existing conditions"...... one of which is my age and gender, another seasonal allergies, and, oh yes, minor aches in my joints!  I definitely could not afford that premium on my salary.  If I were not becoming eligible for Medicare, the Affordable Care Act would have allowed me to purchase health insurance at a really affordable rate.  In fact, with the subsidy that would have been available to me at my income level, it would have been almost exactly what I will be paying for Medicare.  

It is too bad that, here in Texas, my minimum-wage earning son cannot get that same subsidy because his income is within the poverty level that qualifies him for Medicaid, but Texas does not choose to expand Medicaid and allow its working yet impoverished citizens to have health care like the rest of us.  It is a crying shame, really.

The GOOD NEWS is that I will have insurance by July 1st this year and can catch up on my wellness visits, mammograms, blood work, glaucoma and bone density tests, and a colonoscopy, which have all fallen by the wayside in the past few years due to lack of funds and insurance on my part.  I will also be able to go to a dermatologist and have all of those questionable moles and spots checked out before they turn into something dangerous.  Hip-hip-hooray!  I am so excited that I have already made my appointments for late July and August, including the colonoscopy!

Having health insurance really is a great feeling!  You should count yourselves very lucky if you have never had to go for years without it.

If you do not have health insurance, you worry about "what ifs."  But if you are like me, you also learn to take good care of your health so that, hopefully, (keep your fingers and toes crossed) those "what ifs" don't show up knocking on your uninsured door. The worry can be very stressful, which doesn't help your overall health. For me, I learned to handle that stress using deep breathing, relaxation and meditation with aromatherapy.  I have reminded myself daily that the stress itself was not healthy and that I was the only one who could control the amount of stress I experienced.  This is what I call responsible health action.

In addition to lessening my stress, I researched what foods could help lower my blood pressure and keep my cholesterol where it should be, promote a good blood sugar level and healthy eyesight, and were full of fiber and antioxidants.  I have become a pseudo-vegetarian of sorts, substituting eggs and nuts and beans for my protein intake as meat on a regular basis got beyond my budget a while back.  I have been blessed with a "good constitution," as the old folks used to say, and very rarely, if ever, come down with those "bugs" that circulate each year to the masses.  I count my blessings daily!  

So, here I am at the point on my Road of Life where I need to sign up for Medicare, and I was a bit overwhelmed with the choices that are involved.  I decided that, since I would need to be very practical with my choices, I needed to do my research.  I recommend that you do the same when this time comes into your life, and each year after that.  I bought myself a great book that explains, step by step, how to walk the Medicare minefield... the Medicare Book for Dummies by Patricia Berry.  I am so very glad that I did.  She explains every step and she is on your side through it all.  I plan to get the book for dummies on social security next, but I have another year or two before I need that one.

Now, do you know the difference between Original Medicare and Medicare Advantage?  How about MediGap, HMO, PPO, and PFFS?  Yeah, that is exactly what I am saying here....it's a minefield and you really need to know where to step!  

There are Parts A, B, C & D.  Parts A & B go together, but C can be in place of A & B, and D can be an addition to A & B.  Additionally, you can choose A & B & D if you want to do so....and some Part B plans have Part D in them, but some don't.  That may be true for Part C, also.... not sure.... need to reread that Part. If you want, you can just stick with A & B and not worry about the other two Parts.

Now, Part C is the really complicated Part. Within this Part there are numerous Sub-Parts you choose from if you want Part C.  I don't think I want Part C.  At least not now.  Maybe when I have had more experience with the other Parts.

Once you "understand" the different Parts and are ready to make a decision, there are up to 25 different companies available in your area vying for your business on some Parts, and up to 10 on the other Parts. Just check your mailbox...they know where to find you.  They start wishing you Happy 65th Birthday long before you are ready to celebrate, believe me!  And then they start calling you.  Beware of scams because there is an abundance of those, too, in your mailbox and your inbox as well as on your phone.

Looks like this will be the only road trip for me until I get officially signed up for Medicare this month..... but I will take some time to have fun planting my vegetable garden, shearing my llamas, and continuing my spinning projects.

If you have already walked this Medicare minefield and have any tips for me and my journey this month, please feel free to share in the comment section below.   I can use all the help I can get!

Next time I promise pretty photos!

There's never a dull moment here at HeartSong Farm!