They're Coming Up!

Some of my seeds are coming up! This morning we had some broccoli, cabbage, and basil peaking through the vermiculite. Yeah! There are a few other pots that look like they are close. I am so glad!

I think I might plant a few leek seeds today. At first I wasn't going to bother, but the more I think about it...I think I will. I really like a good creamy leek and potato soup and there's no way I'm paying what they ask for leek at the store. My leek may not get really large by fall, but they'll still taste good.

Just a quick reminder, if you have planted some seeds inside and covered your flats with plastic or a dome, remember to uncover the pots that germinate as soon as you notice that they are up. This will help keep them from getting all tall and leggy.

Field of Dreams

There are a few members of our family who aren't huge veggie fans, but they do like corn and potatoes. So this year we are planning to plant part of our "field" into those two crops. Eventually the field will be a ball field, yes, hopefully with lights and everything so our our kids and their buddies can hang out whenever. This year, however, it will resemble the corn field part of field of dreams.

Yesterday we stopped by the nursery to pick up some corn seed and seed potatoes. We're going with some old standbys - Incredible corn, which is one of my Dad's favorites, and Red Pontiac and Yukon Gold potatoes. The seeds are going fast this year since many more people have decided to garden due to the economy...so if you still need to buy your seed you might not want to wait too long. They'll store just fine in your house until you are ready to plant. Also, just as a heads up, the nursery man told me that 2008 was a rough year for corn seed growers, so the price runs between $10 and $18 per pound of seed! A bit pricey, but there are a lot of seeds in a pound of corn!

Anyway, we are growing the corn to freeze because it is the one vegetable that everyone in our family enjoys eating. And we'll store the potatoes in my parents root cellar because we don't have one. I think I'll plant my pumpkins and winter squash out there as well so they will have plenty of room to spread and Jake won't have to mow off the renegade vines with the lawnmower each week. I still have a couple of squash and a pumpkin from last fall in the basement - they like it there and I've enjoyed eating them all winter.

If you are thinking about growing food to preserve or store for winter, here are a couple of things to consider:

• How much do you think you will use? This is a little tricky to figure out, and I'm not exactly sure about the answer, but I do know that we aren't going to eat corn and potatoes every single day.
• How will you preserve it? Basement, root cellar, canning, freezer? Do you have enough space to store the amount you think you'll use?

The Onions Have Arrived!

The Candy onion plants I ordered arrived today! Too bad there is still snow on my garden and more forecasted for next week. They are going to have to hang out in the basement for a few days. Hopefully the snow will melt off soon so I can prepare their spot and get them in the ground.

Onions don't mind cold weather, they are actually biennials and will flower the second year if you leave them in the ground like I did. The bulbs that were too tiny to be useful (like only an inch in diameter- I should have thinned!) were left in the garden last fall. You know how I like an experiment! I went out this afternoon to see if I could find them and they had new tops 2-3 inches tall poking up through the snow! It was also only 8 degrees here this morning and I was pleasantly surprised to see that they looked just fine.

Onions are easy to grow. So are their relatives - shallots, garlic, leek, and chives. If you've never grown them before, plant a few and see how it goes. I liked being able to run out to the garden and pull up some green onions or snip a few chives. Plus sweet onions, shallots, and leek are pretty expensive at the store, but the ones in your garden are not!

Here's a link to the USU Extension publication about onions if you'd like some more info: http://extension.usu.edu/files/publications/publication/HG_2004-03.pdf

And a Partridge in a Pear Tree...

We love fruit! We like it fresh. We like it bottled. We like it dried. We like jam and jelly. What we don't like is how much it costs and how much pesticide is used on some of it. So, we've started to plant our own, except for the apple trees that were already here - Thank you Mr. Shelton!

Here's what we have so far:
5 apple trees
4 bunches of strawberries
3 nanking cherries
2 rows of raspberries,
1 serviceberry (an apricot, and one grape vine if it survived the winter)
but not partridge in a pear tree!

So this year I'd like to plant some pears. I am hoping that they will love it here in our little corner of the world because I think pear butter, pear sauce, and dried pears are fantastic.

I've been doing some homework - online, at the local nurseries, and asking around. I'm trying to find a few more people who have actually grown pears. If you have a pear tree, or your mom, or grandma, or a generous neighbor shares you some every fall, let me ask you a few questions:

1. What kind is it?
2. Does it taste good fresh? Dried? Canned?
3. Have you had problems with fire blight? Bugs?
4. Would you you plant the same kind again, or something else?

I'd love to hear from anyone with any (good or bad!) experience with pears! Please share so we can all learn from each other!

If It Smells Good, Plant It!

Today I'm going to start some of my herbs. And the cabbage and broccoli I was going to plant a couple of weeks ago and never got around to. Disregard those two for the rest of this post though - they might be good for you but they smell terrible!

I have a total soft spot for plants that smell good, whether it be flowers, foliage, or even better - both! I love to rub the leaves of my herb plants while I'm out in the garden. It releases their oils and makes my hands smell delicious. I plant lemon balm simply for that purpose, just for smelling.

We've got a while until frost free weather. And yes, I know my plants will be quite large by the time I can safely set them out. It's alright though, because I'll start snipping off bits to use in my cooking as soon as my plants can spare a few leaves. Not only will this prevent me from buying the expensive "live" herbs at the store, but it will keep my plants nice and bushy.

So here's what I'm planting today. Or tomorrow.

Delfino Cilantro - Slow to bolt, easy to chop because it looks like dill, and you can use seeds as coriander. (But I've never used coriander in my life - if you have, tell me what it is for because eventually my plants will set seed!)

Gigante d'Italia Flatleaf Parsley - This is a nice, sweet, flatleaf parsley. I like it much better than the curly stuff. This dries beautifully for winter use, although I think I'll try a pot in my window as well. These seeds germinate much better if they are soaked overnight - it's worth it!

Pinetree Basil Mix - I couldn't decide which basil to order, so I got a mix. Hopefully I'll end up with a good variety of green, purple, lemony, and spicy plants. You never know until the seeds come up! Tasty fresh, used in pesto, or dried.

Indigo - This is an experiment. I want to try to dye some yarn, so when it flowers I'll pick the leaves and give it a whirl. The plant is rather pretty anyway (in the pictures - I've never seen a real one!)

Afina Cutting Celery - Another experiment. The literature say that this plant can be used in about any celery application, except for celery sticks because it's more leafy than stalky. I'm curious to see if it really tastes like celery. I've grown a few things that were supposed to taste like other things and have been sadly dissappointed! (New Zealand Spinach, for example, does NOT taste like spinach. It tastes just like freshly mowed grass. Mmm...if you are a bunny!)

Lemon Mint - The last experiment of the day, but a safe bet. I haven't met a mint I didn't like the scent of. Plus lemon and mint - it sounds fantastic to me! This plant is an annual, so becoming invasive should be less of an issue as long as I don't let it drop its seed.

Dukat Strain Dill - This is a dill variety for people who like dill weed more than dill seed. I'm not making pickles this year (I don't like the ones I made last summer), but I do like chopped dill weed on veggies or in a dip. Hopefully Dukat will give me lots of ferny foliage instead of just making a big old seed head.

And the two stinkers:

Small Miracle Broccoli - I wasn't impressed with this variety last year, but I ended up starting it in the garden a little too late. That was my fault, so I'll use what seed I have left to give Small Miracle a second chance.

Gonzalez Mini Cabbage - I did like these though. The cabbage worms prefered the cabbage leaves to the broccoli (and I like broccoli better than cabbage). In the fall, after the caterpillars were gone, I harvested the small heads that hadn't been munched and enjoyed them very much. I don't ever use an entire head of cabbage, so these tennis or softball sized heads were just right.

Pictures From Cowboy's 5th Birthday

The First Flowers of Spring!!!

Look what we found in our garden yesterday! Picasso came racing into the house "Tell dad to get his camera, there are crocus blooming! The first flowers of Spring! Wahoo!" Sure enough, there were three or four yellow crocus blooming right by our front steps.

Crocus are lovely little flowers, but I think much of their charm lies in the fact that they bloom so early, just days after the snow melts. Nothing says spring like a brightly colored blossom poking up through the gray-brown remnants of winter!

Pruning Season

It's pruning season in my garden - time to cut back the perennials and prune the fruit trees. Time to clean up all of the fallen leaves that got snowed in. Although it's messy work, I love getting back into the garden. I'd rather do yardwork than housework any day, especially in the spring. It feels so good to work outside in the sunshine and wake up with muscles that are just stiff enough to remind you of what you accomplished yesterday. Plus, the cleaning I do outside stays done much longer!

I usually start with my perennial beds because I have bulbs coming up. I've learned from past experience that it isn't any fun to clean leaves and such out of beds when the bulbs are already up. They grow right through the leaves and you have to pick them off one by one. T-e-d-i-o-u-s. It's much faster to do it as soon as the snow is off and the bulbs are just peeking out of the ground.

Some of the perennials are already putting on their new leaves, so it's the perfect time to remove the old foliage. Taking a few minutes to trim off whatever you can't rake out will give you a nice clean bed that will take care of itself until you need to weed.

Then I'll move on to the fruit trees. That's today's project. Jake and I will prune while our small fry will gather up sticks. They'll pile them in neat stacks so we can haul them away easily...ha ha ha! Who am I kidding? Usually they drag a bunch of them off because sticks are so fun to play with. We'll find them stuck in the mud all around the yard. Oh well, I used to do the same thing.

If you've got perennials or fruit trees, now's a good time to start cutting things back. Pick a sunny day and head out into the yard. Spring is finally here!

The Sabbath - A Day of W(rest)

Or should I say wrestling? At this season in my life, Sunday is anything but restful. First, my husband and I wrestle our kids into their church clothes - Miss Wendy doesn't mind, she likes to dress up. But our boys. They mind very much. By the time they are all fed and clothed, neither Jake or I are filled with the Spirit. Well, we are, but not that Spirit.

Then we go to church and and try to sit and be reverent. We are there before 9:00 a.m. because we need to sit on a bench. We don't stand a chance if we end up in the gym - basketball hoops and metal folding chairs that bang are too tempting.

"How come we never get to sit in the gym? I want to sit on the chairs!"

It's a long time to be still, especially when you see your best buddies a few pews away.

"Why don't you ever let us sit by our friends? You are the meanest mom and dad ever!"

The talks usually aren't geared towards the younger members, so it's hard to pay attention and the boys get restless.

"Try to stop wiggling around. You're going to fall off of the bench."

It is easy, however, to drive your hot wheels cars fast and noisy and make them crash into each other. If it was a good crash, they might even fly over the bench.

"Shhhhhhhh! Stop doing that. Crawl under and pick up your cars."

And it's easy to poke your brother in the belly because he is sitting close enough that his shoelace might touch your leg.

"Please leave your brother alone."

You'll have to go to the bathroom too - really bad - because you haven't been for an entire 20 minutes.

" Dad! It's an emergency!"

And because you haven't eaten for 40 minutes now...

"I'm starving...you guys don't love me or you'd give me some food!"

Next we split up - Dad and Wendy go their way, the boys and I head for Primary. Sometimes this is easier. Sometimes not. We (Jake and I) try to do our callings, usually accompanied by one or more of our little friends who decided not to sit with their classes. And sometimes we end up sitting with them in class because, let's face it, our kids have great senses of humor. They just haven't quite mastered when it is appropriate to be funny and when it is not. Some days we end up outside running laps around the church because they just can't sit another minute.

Three hours + later, we pile into the van and go home. For a while. I'll be back later for an hour or so of choir.

So why do we do it? Because we know that the church is true. We are trying to be good examples to our kids. We hope that somewhere during the day, they've learned something or have felt the Spirit. And because someday, Jake and I will be sitting there alone, missing our kids and remembering the good old days when we were all wrestling through church on the same bench. And we'll probably be feeling restless because we aren't used to sitting still for three hours either.

A Taste of Things to Come

I don't know about the rest of you, but our family is suffering from a serious case of spring fever. Waking up to several inches of new snow on Tuesday was disheartening, to say the least. And the cold temperatures just don't seem to be letting up...it was a toasty 2 degrees this morning! Brrrrrrr!

So after posting about what can go wrong with your seed starting, and enduring more frigid weather, I decided to share something upbeat. Here's a taste of things to come...butterflies! These beauties were at the botanical garden last month when I went down to spend some time with Lisa and the sunshine. And soon (yes, time's up Mr. Ground Hog!) spring will be bringing them to our gardens as well.




As you are planning out your gardens, remember to include a few things that will attract your favorite insects and animals. A garden with flowers and veggies is beautiful, but one with butterflies, hummingbirds, and ladybugs is magical.

My Top 5 Seed Starting Problems

When you live somewhere with a short growing season or you want to grow a plant you can't pick up at the local nursery, starting plants indoors can be a worthwhile adventure. However, I'll be honest with you - I think it's MUCH easier to grow plants outside!

Here are the top five problems I've run into when starting seeds indoors, as well as some suggestions for what might help. This is by no means a complete list of problems or solutions, so don't be afraid to try something else - it might work!

Problem #1: Tall, skinny, floppy seedlings.

This is called etiolation - it's caused when the plants stretch for the light. You will notice that they can lean over very quickly - an hour or two is all that it takes. Once they have stretched out, you can't shrink them back, so address the problem as soon as you notice it!

Solutions:

• Rotating your plants so a different side faces the window each day.
  
• Try placing them in a brighter window (if you have one).
  
• Set a fan so that it blows gently on the seedlings. This will encourage shorter, stockier growth. Just remember to water them more often if you are using a fan...it really dries out the soil!
• Install growing lights or build a nice greenhouse in your backyard if you have bunch of money that needs spending.

Problem #2: White, fuzzy mold growing on the pots or soil.

Some molds are parasitic and will attack your plants, others are saprophytes and just decompose dead organic matter (like bark, and peat moss in potting mix). You really don't want mold to grow on your pots, just in case it is the plant attacking type!

Solutions:

• Scrape off any mold that you can remove without damaging your little plants.
• Discard any pots that are completely overrun. Toss the soil too. You don't want to reuse moldy soil. If you have plastic pots that you want to reuse, sanitize them with bleach.
  
• Space the pots farther apart and use a fan so you have better air circulation.
• Keep the affected pots away from the non-moldy ones!
  
• Water from the bottom, instead of the top. Just set your pots in the water and let them absorb it through their drainage holes. Then place them in dry solid or mesh flats.
• Try a chamomile tea drench. I did it last year and it worked. I steeped some tea, let it cool, and watered everything with it (from the top, since that where most of the mold was). I did this a couple of times.
  
• Sprinkle ground cinnamon all around the soil. I did this in combination with the tea drench...it smelled very nice!
• There are some chemical drenches you can buy...but I don't use them. I mean, I'm growing plants I'll eventually eat, and I'm raising them in my kitchen and livingroom!
  

Problem #3: Plants seem wilty, but the soil isn't dry

This would be root rot. It's caused by overwatering and/or poor drainage. The roots actually rot off, then the plant wilts because it can't take up water. This problem usually isn't noticed until it's too late to save the plant, so it's best to prevent it.

Solutions:

• Give the plant a very gentle tug. If it comes out of the soil, throw it away. If it has enough roots to offer some resistance, let the soil dry and be careful not to overwater the plant. It might perk up, or it might limp along. If it's just limping, I'd put it out of its misery and try again.
• Don't water until the soil is dry or the plants start to feel less turgid (full of water). Please don't wait until they are wilted over, that isn't good either. With a little practice, you'll be able to tell which pots need watering just by lifting them - if they are all the same size and are filled with the same mix, the light ones need a drink and the heavy ones don't.

Problem #4: Seedlings just rot off or look pinched off right at the soil.

This is called damping off. It's caused by soil organisms and the right environment (namely warm and probably a little too moist). It can happen to one pot or destroy an entire flat, overnight. This is another one you just have to try to prevent.

Solutions:

• Use sterile seed starting mix.
• Water properly.
• Throw away affected plants. Sanitize pots if reusing.
  

Problem: Plants look yellow or purple or have yellow leaves with green veins.

These are common signs of nutrient deficiencies.

Solutions:

• Apply some fertilizer! I like the water soluble types (like miracle gro). Mix it up weaker than directed and apply over the top of the plants. Some will be absorbed right through the leaves, the rest from the soil. You'll want to keep track of when you fertilize so you'll know when to do it again. Follow the label, just remember to mix it weaker, seedlings are sensitive, and watch your plants for signs. You'll be able to see if they still need more. If they look burned, then they've had too much.
  
• General yellowing and slower growth, lower leaves die = nitrogen deficiency.
• Purple or purple tinged leaves, stems, branches = phosphorus deficiency.
• Yellow leaves with green veins, especially in new growth = iron deficiency.

Happy 5th Birthday Cowboy!

Pictures will be coming!

We celebrated Cowboy's 5th birthday this weekend. Since he's a lucky Leap Year baby, we usually have cake on the 28th. He'd been planning out his big day since Christmas...and was very specific in his requests:

1. A cherry cake with a pirate ship and an island and cannons that really shoot on top.
2. A pirate ship just like his friends'.
3. Balloons and streamers.
4. Pirate flag decorations.
5. Pepperoni pizza.
6. Icecream - vanilla and peppermint.
7. Kid fireworks that blow out confetti.
8. A gun that shoots suction cup darts - the ones that stick better with lots of spit.

The day pretty much went as planned. He had a blast and was silly with excitement and too much sugar. It was great.

I think turning 5 must be the perfect birthday. You are old enough to understand that it is your personal holiday. You can anticipate the cake and presents and balloons. You are glad to be a year older. Everything is so exciting that you can hardly stand it and are just giddy with delight.

I can still remember my 5th birthday - it was the summer we were living with my Grandma and Grandpa Manning. Mom threw me a party - my friend Garren and my cousin Amy were there. We played 'Swat the Mosquito'. I got a metal Strawberry Shortcake lunchbox and a Desert Rose Huffy bicycle - my first - without training wheels. Yes, turning 5 was a great birthday, one of my best, and one of Cowboy's best as well!

Create

Elder Uchtdorf's talk was my favorite message from last fall's general conference. His words moved me and were both reaffirming and inspiring. It was important for me to hear that my desires to create are part of my divine nature, part of my mission, an essential part of who I am. I'm certain that you who follow my blog share this desire to create. The need to create. Otherwise you wouldn't be interested in the nitty gritty details of my own creative processes. So I'm sharing this with you. Enjoy his beautiful message. Then go create something!