Growing Celery

Did you know you could re-grow celery from cuttings?

I didn’t know that until recently when I saw this blog post then heard from a few others who had done the same thing.  So I thought I would try it and see.

It works!  Make sure you start with organic celery, as celery is notoriously high on the “dirty dozen” list.

I started my cuttings in about 1/2 inch of water before I got around to transferring them to some boggy potting soil.  One of them grew well right away, but the other seemed to stall a bit.  It was nice and green in the center but not growing upward, and it looked like it was being choked off, so I gently pulled apart the outer stalks, loosening up the middle to allow for more growing room, and that’s what worked.

I’ll get these transferred to the raised beds outdoors once it warms up a little more around here.

Click here for full instructions on growing “free” celery this year.

Volunteers in the Garden

We’ve been busy with a new baby here, so this year’s garden is much smaller and more poorly tended (and therefore less abundant) than in previous years.  The drought hasn’t helped either.

All that to say . . . what a BLESSING it is to have an entire row of volunteer* sunflowers and their vibrant, summery cheerfulness!

Do you have volunteers in your garden?  (This does not include children who are drafted volunteer to work in the garden.) 

* From Gidget’s Garden . . . A volunteer in garden lingo is a plant that you did not actually plant, but that just pops out of the ground. This can happen in several ways.  Read more about volunteers here.

Tomatoes: From the Garden to the Saucepot

Growing up, I remember helping my mother can tomatoes.  Lots of them.  I don’t do tomatoes in such a big way myself.  In fact, I don’t even own a food mill (that handy tool which removes the skins and seeds for you.)

I do like to make homemade sauce in the summer, but I don’t process bushels and bushels of tomatoes.  I may do a peck or two at a time, and here’s my very messy method.  The results are worth it, though.

Wash and core tomatoes.

Lightly cut an "X" in the bottom of each tomato. You don't absolutely have to do this step, but you'll see why it helps in just a second.

Blanch tomatoes (immerse in boiling water) until the skin begins to split apart along the "X"; these took about a minute.

Peel the tomatoes. The skins will slide right off. This is where it begins to get fun, so make sure you've got your apron on.

You don't want all those seeds, and without a food mill, fingers do the trick. I slice off the very top of each tomato so the seed sections are revealed. Then, overtop the compost/chicken slop bucket, I insert my finger into each section and squish out the seeds and a lot of the juice. All I want left is the meaty flesh of the tomato. It's messy, but it really doesn't take too long.

Coarsely chop, then use a handy bench scraper to scoop up the tomatoes and plop them into your saucepot.

Turn on the heat and start cooking. As you can see, I don't fret about getting every single seed.

I cook the sauce on my stove's back (simmer) burner, and a full pot takes at least a couple of hours. Stir occasionally, and do not cover; you want the excess water to evaporate. I should mention that I did not use plum tomatoes. I used what I had from the garden, which was big boy, beefsteak or some kind of really juicy, not-your-first-choice-for-sauce tomatoes that still make a great-tasting sauce even though it takes longer. At the end, I also used my immersion blender since we don't care for too many chunks.

Close to two pecks of tomatoes yielded nearly three quarts of pasta sauce. I did not have time that day to jazz up the sauce with onions, garlic and other seasonings, so I'll do that when I make dinner and post about my seasoned sauce next time.

Take these goodies to the chicken coop and watch the hens go crazy.

Sunflower Mix

This is why I love planting a sunflower mix every year—the blossoms are beautiful outdoors and in!

I think sunflowers must be my very favorite of all flowers, although I don’t believe I could narrow it down to one particular variety.

Could you?

Homegrown Sunshine

I will praise thee, O LORD, with my whole heart; I will shew forth all thy marvelous works.  Psalm 9:1

 

Going Green

So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth.  I Corinthians 3:7

I know this verse is not referring to literal gardening, but it is pertinent nonetheless, is it not?  How can I look upon this gorgeous greenery and not be reminded of that (in every possible context)?

I love the green that’s all around right now, and it’s just amazing to watch a garden grow.

From left: beans, tomatoes, sunflowers

Overall, I am thrilled with how well our garden has done/is doing this year.  That hay mulch we put down has worked wonderfully, significantly reducing our weeding time.  In fact, there are NO weeds in the areas where it was applied thickly enough.  In thinner areas and along the “seams” a few weeds are cropping up, but those are easily dealt with.  Plus, as the hay decays it will enrich the soil.  Win-win.

Close-up of the mulch in between rows, with nary a weed in sight. Hurrah!

Now, let me share a few trouble spots.  Who can help me out here?

In the spring, it looked like we were going to have a bumper crop of blackberries—LOTS of blossoms, LOTS of forming berries.  Now, the “harvest” is a measly couple of tiny berries on dry canes with shriveling, browning leaves.

See what I mean?

My first thought was lack of rain, as we have had to water the garden plenty this summer but have not watered the blackberries since they were well-established.  However, the new-growth canes look vibrant, green, and not at all thirsty.

See? Healthy new growth.

Hmm, mystery.  Looks like we’ll be fighting mosquitoes this year and collecting our berries at the edge of the woods instead—assuming those have grown well.

As for my kohlrabi, most of it looks like the ones you see on the right side of the picture, which aren’t bulbing up at all.  A handful look as they should–nice and rotund.  I planted these all from seed and in our raised beds, which have excellent “soil” (a mixture of peat, vermiculite and compost.)  I have thinned (and the chickens love me!).  I have watered.  What haven’t I done?  (I’ll admit I have not yet googled.)    I have never grown kohlrabi before, so it’s trial and error this year.

Okay, master gardeners, tell me what you think.

Saturday Snapshots

It was a sweaty, sticky day of intense yard work.  We dug out a gazillion shovelfuls of hard, compact, awful clay soil that was choking the life out of our shrubs by the house.

Then we amended the soil with a mixture of compost, vermiculite and peat moss, which we hope will cause our plants to flourish as it did in the side flower bed.

No bystanders today.

Hannah's grub---as in the grub Hannah found, not as in her new pet. Just clarifying.

Nathan and Caleb have long since graduated from the trailer to the steering wheel, and it was such fun watching them haul the little ones on their trips to the woods to dump hard, compact, awful clay soil.

Elisabeth's before and after . . . can't decide which one I think is cuter.

Beautiful Homegrown Lettuce

Homegrown lettuce is one thing we enjoy about spring, summer and fall.  It’s delicious, and beautiful, and you can’t find any fresher.

This year, in addition to last year’s heirloom lettuce which reseeded in the same patch, I planted a mix of Romaine varieties—Craquerelle du Midi, Forellenschluss, Little Gem, Rosalita and Rouge D’Hiver.  I love the pretty colors—beautiful in a salad.

I plant a thick patch and trim much of it as “baby lettuce,” and it keeps growing and growing all season.

My little ones are great spinners too.

 

Gorgeous Gardening Weekend

After an abundance of rainfall this spring (big understatement), we’ve had a handful of dry, sunny days, which have been very much appreciated and enjoyed.  This past weekend our garden spot finally dried out enough to till.  We had also planted four raised beds weeks ago, but the bulk of our garden goes directly in the ground, so it’s been a waiting game with the wet weather.

I’d recently read about Ruth Stout’s gardening system and decided to give it a go this year.  The garden area seemed like it would be just impossible if we didn’t till first, but we’ll see how things look for next year.

We do compost, but we certainly don’t have enough to mulch the entire garden; however, I thought perhaps I could find some spoiled hay to use as mulch.

Where does one find spoiled hay, you may wonder?  Craig’s List, of course.  (You may or may not know that I find everything on CL.  Everything.  And often for free.  But that’s a topic for another post.)  So we got three truckloads of free spoiled hay from a nearby lady who needed it out of the barn to make room for new hay.

So, the garden is completely planted and mulched, and hopefully weeding won’t be as time-consuming as it was last summer.  Some new crops for us this year are black beans and kohlrabi.

At the far end of our garden we have a patch of blackberries which was planted by the previous owner.  Last summer it was mostly new growth, which does not produce fruit.  But last year’s new growth is this year’s producing growth, and we are in for a delicious harvest, if the blossoms are any indication.

We also got some pretty petunias planted, and I let the girls choose the colors.  Can you guess what they selected?  Yes, pinks and purples.

And just tonight I see that my transplanted (from the old house) peony is beginning to unwrap its lovely pale pink petals.  What a blessing to my eyes.

Hannah’s White Pansy Pictures