Making our own

As you all know, last year was our first year with carrots. While we had an okay yield, part of that was due to them being too close together since Pooka kinda just through the seeds at the pot. Our radishes had a similar issue.

Radishes                                        Colored Carrots

I knew there had to be other ways and I had read about people using seed tape. But when I went looking for Pooka's colored carrots, they didn't come on seed tape (and the orange ones were so much more expensive). So that was out and I was seeing me and Pooka trying to use a measuring tape to plant the carrots.

A bit ago, I was reading another blog and they did a post on making Seed Mats. The lady there had been doing this for years and I knew I could adapt her napkin method into seed tape. This method would work for radishes too, but I don't see us growing those this year.

The supplies

Remember when I said I had family here a week ago, well thats when I made the seed tape. I sat at the kitchen table and measured and glued away while chatting. However, all that family togetherness seems to made me forget to get in process pictures. Oops. What you will need is super cheap toliet paper ($1 a roll here), elmer's school glue (which having kids you tend to have), a tape measure and carrot seeds (the 2 packages cost me $2.50 since I bought them when they were 40% off).

I made them in about 4 squares of toliet paper lengths since I wasn't entirely sure how big a planter I am using yet. This gives me some flexiblity. My carrot seeds need about 3" between each other, so I was able to do a row at the top and the bottom of the paper.

I put my first dot of glue down and put about 2-3 seeds on it. Then using my tape measure (since I am not great with spacial relations), I went 3" and put another dot of glue, then another, then another. And the same with the bottom row. Place 2-3 seeds on each dot and move to the next one. You may end up having to thin once they start sprouting, but this way you have a better shot at at least 1 sprouting per spot.

a good morning's work

In about an hour of just chatting with family and what not, I was able to make 4 lengths of colored carrot and 4 of orange carrot. I will probably need more, but this at least gives me a starting point to work from.

I had the plastic on the table from the night before (it saves clean up when we have guests), but I would recommend putting something down to protect your work surface. A couple of times the toliet paper tried to glue itself to the table, but with a gentle tug it usually popped free and I didn't rip anything. I then folded them up and put them in ziplock bags to hold them until planting time.

Awaiting warmer weather

A Failure...

The Science Experiment Garden had our first big huge failure this year. Remember when we planted the radishes this fall. Well they failed. Quite dramatically actually.

Sad sad radishes

At the end of October, (about the same time we released the butterflies) I noticed the radishes looked rather sad. Really sad. Really really sad and pretty well eaten by something. A closer look showed us more little visitors, and not the friendly kind.

Sneaky little guy

This is a cabbage worm, which will eventually turn into a cabbage moth.  I do find it slightly funny since the broccoli (another one of their favorite foods) hasn't had a problem with them at all. Even now the broccoli is still alive and growing great and still producing. But the radishes apparently were rather tasty. So tasty in fact the plants were eaten bare. 

Fallen worms... But they were still alive

Being that it was late October when this happened, we decided to just pull the radishes. We found over 30 of the little buggers in the 2 pots. You can see 2 of them that fell off as we carried them through the house to the front yard to dispose of. Talk about nasty little buggers.

Radish Harvest. 

We harvested the radishes. This is all that was really worth keeping. I know part of it is that Pooka planted some of them too close together.  Okay all of them too close. This tells us next spring we are going to work on doing a seed tape or something (something new to learn and try next year). One failed experiment leads still teaches us something. Like watching a bit closer as a 4 yo puts seed in a bucket of dirt when it comes to root veggies. 

Frosts and Freezes

Over the weekend we had our first real major frost, followed by a couple of nights where it was below freezing. I know I keep promising to talk about that patch of dirt out front, but the frost gets first pick since it is a wake up call.

Friday night it only frosted, so we went out and put sheets and tarps on some of the plants. It worked quite well actually, which was good since Saturday was the BIG FINAL HARVEST. 

I was fortunate enough that this big harvest came when we were having our family over for the weekend. THANK YOU to the 6 of you who risked the garden. I know I couldn't have pulled this off with out you. For those of you who weren't here, it took 8 people plus a Pooka 45 minutes to do the last harvest. This is what was brought in. As it was, we lost one of Pooka's Uncles into the tomato plants. At one point, all we could see was his knees and below. 

We harvested everything that might be hurt by cold, so all the peppers (which you don't see much of here since they are under other things, A TON of cucumbers (that whole bowl in the back plus half one of the tomato ones) and lots and lots of tomatoes. Yes, at one point we ran out of bowls and started using pots. At least one person said we might of been better off with a Trash bag, it would hold more.

The food was sorted out to cucumbers, peppers and broccoli, and then tomatoes, which were then sorted out to big and little, which were further sorted out to shades of green and red. Another big thank you goes out to the Aunts and Uncle that sat down with Daddy and I and played sort and bag the tomatoes. That took a bit of time, although I don't think anyone timed it.

What did we do with the green ones you ask. Well dear Aunt Pooka said that if we put them in brown grocery bags with apples, they should ripen so they can be canned. We are currently trying this. The apples went in the bags today, bags were acquired on a shopping trip on Saturday night.

Saturday during our big family BBQ, we had fresh veggies from Pooka's garden of cucumbers, cherry tomatoes, peppers and broccoli. We still had some food left over, but most went quite well. 

We did end up having enough cucumbers left over from our BBQ to can 3 quarts of dill pickles, make a good sized bowl of cucumber salad (from the ends and small cucumbers, nothing goes to waste), and 2 pints of crushed tomatoes. 

After the big harvest, we kinda let the weather at the plants. Last night it got well below freezing outside, and the cucumbers look the worst hit. They are fairly sad looking.

Frost and freezing

Maybe next weekend Daddy and I will go out and start tearing it out. The hope is the new bed out front will be ready and I can lay some of the plants there so we can use them to keep the top soil down (when they are held down by scrap wood) over the winter then till them into the beds come spring. But as of right now, it is a HUGE weight off my shoulders knowing that almost all the food is off the plants. We are pretty sure some tomatoes may still be in there (cherry tomatoes) but they are an offering to the gods and goddesses of Farming, Pookas, and Family. May next year the harvest be as bountiful and may we learn from our mistakes (like spray the pepper booster earlier in the spring, and spread the tomatoes out a bit more). 

Warning... Fall approaching

Aside from the neighbors trees having begun to turn and the fact that Pooka needs to wear sweaters daily now, I hadn't seen many signs of fall. It hasn't been that cold in the evening, we had one frost advisory a few weeks ago, but nothing since. I also admit with the cooler temps we haven't been watering much. Mostly leaving that to Mother Nature since our lives got hectic again and we don't want water sitting on the plants in the cooler parts of the night.  That is until yesterday. I walked outside to this. 

floppy plant

It looks as if the strawberry plants are going dormant. At least I am hoping this is going dormant and not "I am dying...dying...dying...dead."  Either way, probably means I should go clean off the plant of the remaining fruit and clean off those leafless stems.

Do Strawberry leaves change colors like trees?

Even the radishes are looking sad. I was fairly certain this was a cold weather crop, so I am thinking it may have something to do with overcrowding as well. I don't know for sure, but it looks very floppy like the strawberries. However, aside from these 2 types of plants, everything else looks very happy. I don't know how long it will last, but I guess I should get ready for the cold weather.

Floppy radishes??

However, then I get mixed signals, like brand new flowers on the tomato plants. Here is to hoping I get the green tomatoes ripened and the new peppers grown before things get too much colder. 

New flowers in OCTOBER? 

Seedlings.

I have had a few people ask me why I am still starting seeds. I told them that from all I have read (interwebz which lie and books) that carrots, radishes and cilantro like cold weather. Well, I realized today that I haven't updated you on any of the happenings there since that very long day and the baby carrots.

Well tonight, Daddy was making Fajitas (with peppers from the garden) and spanish rice (with tomatoes, poblanos and oregano) when he asked how the cilantro was doing if we had any he could use. Not knowing the state of the cilantro, I looked and sure enough, we have baby cilantro.

Store bought Seeds vs home grown

In the preliminary results of our test, it seems the store bought seeds are doing much much better then our home grown seeds. I am curious if it will stay this way, but for now, I am letting them grow and we pulled some of the baby cilantro leaves for the rice.

Radishes                                         Carrots

This however got me realizing that I never updated you all on how our seeds were doing. As you can see from here, the radishes (on the left) are doing quite well while the carrots are already getting good sized (right). I am not really ready to pick anything, but I am already warning Kiddo that he will be taking funny colored carrots to school.

Pooka asks daily when she can start harvesting them. I told her soon enough, she is going to be tired of carrots.


And we cannot forget the young clearance dill . This was a complete swag due to the cheap price of it It has already started to sprout and seems quite happy. Here it to it getting big enough to handle the winter or being small enough to come in the house. I am not sure which to look for, but Pooka was quite happy to see it having grown and being above the dirt.

Baby Dill. 

Now all that is left is to see when can harvest it all.