What's in a Name?

I purchased two packets of heirloom lettuce seeds this winter: Romaine Lettuce Blend and Red Salad Bowl. The Romaine Lettuce Blend contained seeds for Forellenschluss, Paris Island Cos, Amish Deer Tongue, Marvel of Four Seasons, and Rouge d'Hiver. The Red Salad Bowl is a classic red leaf lettuce, delicate, abundant and easy to grow. Actually, all of the lettuce seeds except for Rouge D'Hiver came up fairly quickly and grew like weeds. I just sow all of my lettuce seeds together in the same bed; no rows, no sections. They all just get scattered, light covering of soil and watered. The bunching onions I sowed as well did not come up except for two or three seeds. I will start the onions in flats next year.

Marvel of Four Seasons

Marvel of Four Seasons

This curly French heirloom head lettuce is just now going to seed after growing in the garden for 2 months.  When they begin to reach this stage, I cut the plant back to approximately 2 inches and it grows again, tender and sweet.  Lovely texture and lovely taste.

Marvel of Four Seasons can range from this soft green with red edges to nearly completely dark red depending on the weather.

Forellenschluss

 

Forellenschluss

 This Romaine lettuce is so pretty, growing tall and slender.  Delicate flavor and texture (because I harvest all of my lettuce while young).

Amish Deer Tongue

Amish Deer Tongue

Another lovely heirloom Romaine, this one is my favorite.  I just love the name.  It has a little more body so is perfect for sandwiches or burgers. This would be a good variety to transport to a Farmer's Market, being not so delicate.

Paris Island Cos

Paris Island Cos

This is the traditional heirloom Romaine lettuce.  I like the flavor of Amish Deer Tongue better but this is wider and might be preferred for salads.  As with my other lettuces, I harvest this fairly young, just cutting the leaves off and leaving 2" of the plant so I can get second and third harvests.

Red Salad Bowl

Red Salad Bowl

This is a gorgeous loose leaf lettuce, curly, delicate and delicious.  As delicate as this variety is, it seemed to stand out as an easy germinator and survivor. It might just be its bold color and spreading growth. 

I think I'll grow the same lettuces again next year, maybe adding Little Gem Lettuce, a tiny, personal-sized head lettuce.  All of these lettuces have been slow to bolt, allow cutting and regrowing, and grew with only a few hours of sun each day.  The limited sunlight probably contributed to the slow bolting characteristics of these lettuces, so either a shaded garden (grow a trellis of peas or cucumbers above) or in a shady spot might be great if you live in the south.

And then there were fences!

Waited until 4 pm to get the boys outside with me to put up a fence around the backyard garden and redo the fence around the front yard garden.  My timing was perfect.  It started raining. 

New trellis

Since it was warm we just dived in to the project by first rebuilding the trellises for my cucumbers and peas.  For each we pounded a 6' wooden stake inside the garden beds and nailed the stake to the 4x4" supports.  Pulled out the metal stakes and wrapped the existing chicken wire along with the plants growing on them around the wooden stakes and the new trellises are taller and more stable than the old ones.  They look better, too.

Backyard garden with a house-shaped fence

Next we laid out the cattle panels around the garden and realized that four panels would not be big enough.  Daniel then suggested a house shape (can't really call it pentagonal since the angles are not all equal).  I didn't quite get it at first but as we laid out the remaining panels it made perfect sense.

Front garden properly fenced

Finally, we moved and put in stakes for the front yard fence.  Tomorrow I will tie the panels together except one corner which will be my gate. 

I wish I could see that doe when she comes by for a late-night snack tonight.  Just hoping she doesn't decide to jump the fence. 

We all ended up soaked to the skin but the job is done and I feel a LOT better.  Thanks boys!

Ignorance is Bliss . . .

Sunday morning.  House is quiet.  After my first cup of coffee I decide to spend a little time chronicling my new deck garden and other garden areas.

New deck garden started July 14th

A few days ago I was running errands in Colchester and decided to check at Mackey's to see if they had any seeds for broccoli or chinese cabbage, or carried any fall veggies.  The answer was no but when I mentioned that I would only buy seeds from non-Monsanto-related companies and non-patented seeds the lovely woman who was helping me told me they had several heirloom tomato varieties and I was welcome to them for free.  She helped me choose two plants, Oxheart and a white tomato (the name of the variety itself was missing so it will be a surprise).

Yesterday I filled my new inexpensive pots with my magic organic goat-house compost and planted the two tomatos and a bell pepper plant I had purchased.  The fourth pot is currently empty.  Oh, I planted some jalapeno pepper seeds in the larger black pot for my kids who love them.  I am guessing there is not enough of the growing season left to actually get any peppers from those plants but I can always bring these pots into the house on cold nights.

Cattle panels now fence in front garden

Heading out the front door I was anxious to photograph my baby pumpkins.  But first I must thank my 19yo son Daniel for deciding to fence in my front garden with cattle panels I had from when I raised organic dairy goats.  He worked very hard to put this fence up with only one metal stake.  He used salvaged springs from an old crib to attach the panels to one another.  Genius if you ask me.  See dog on the far right sniffing around perimeter of the fence.  Maya has turned out to be quite destructive, so we have been working on fencing in all of the garden beds that she seems to favor.

Baby pumpkin

My first baby pumpkin.  I missed the blossom stage which was yesterday.  I think I am most excited about my sugar pumpkin patch. 

Now I take some pics of raspberries, my milkweed and horseweed patch (that is an entirely different blog post for the near future), blueberries. I even discovered a blueberry bush that I had completely missed that is covered in ripening blueberries that I must cover in netting today.

Damage by deer

And so with the thrill of anticipation I head toward my biggest cucumber and can't wait to take a few shots to share its amazing growth with all. I head around the trellis to set up the shot and my heart drops. It is gone. My precious cucumber is gone. Some creature came in the night and ate it, half of my cucumber vines and a good one-third off the tops of nearly all of my tomato plants.

I have lived here 12 years and never once have deer touched my garden.  So what does any photographer do? I take a lot of pictures.  I try to make myself feel better.  I comfort myself with the knowledge that I will be able to share my pain and be comforted by friends.  What else can I do? Oh, and I start plotting . . . no, not revenge.  I start thinking about using my last cattle panels to fence in this backyard garden.

Now this new fence project is at the top of my to-do list.  It must get done today.

Finished with capturing the devastation, I even forget to head around to the garage area to check on my container garden there.  I just want another cup of coffee, to cool down (because it is downright hot outside at 8:30 am).  Okay, I am emotionally conflicted and not happy.

I get into the house, connect my camera to my pc and start downloading (I don't have a card reader on my desktop pc).  Grabbing a fresh cup of coffee, I sit down while the downloading continues.  I like watching the photos pop up as each is downloaded, like a slideshow.

All done.  I look in the folder with today's downloads and there are five pictures I did not take.  Hmmm.  One of the boys took five pictures of something.

Yep, that is a doe sniffing around my backyard.  Yep, one of the boys took this picture and then forgot to tell me that there was a deer in my backyard.  I am just a little peeved about this lack of concern but understand.  We have never had deer in our yard before.  We have never had to worry about deer eating any of our landscape or vegetable plants.  We enter a new era.  Now like most other gardeners in Connecticut we face the daunting task of trying to grow veggies and having them survive the local wildlife long enough to be eaten by the gardener and her family.  Just another challenge! I can do this!!!

I will leave you on a happy note.  This is another baby cucumber that I will be watching and waiting, anticipating the delight when I finally get to enjoy my own homegrown Suyo cucumbers.

Mid-Summer Garden

Little MJ taken by Daniel Haynes

This is MJ, named after the screaming leading lady in Spiderman.  Not my favorite name or character, but the kids prevailed.  She is a tiny little thing, smaller even than her mother.  Once every two months she climbs up in my lap while I am watching a movie and gets all cuddly and sweet.  She has a fairly blah personality but she also doesn't have a mean bone in her body.  So our little MJ is the highlight of kitty photography this time. Her look-alike brother was adopted by one of my daughter's friends and ended up the size of a Pro Football linebacker.

Jungle-like tomato bed with cucumber trellis in
the back. Photo taken by Daniel Haynes

I have no way to express how insanely jungle-like and overgrown my tomato bed is at this point.  A week ago the plants were just venturing over the sides of the bed.  Today they are 18-24" on each side and growing.  I think they grew an inch while I was watering today.

And there are little probably hundreds of little cherry tomatoes, and I am pretty sure at least 3 bunches of San Marzanos, in that crazy mess of tomato plants.  Peaking their heads up in the back are my cucumbers that are finally taking off and growing baby cukes.

I actually took the photo to the right 5 days ago.  That little cuke is now 3 inches long.  Suyo's can grow 14-15 inches long.  I can't wait to taste these long, skinny cucumbers.  I LOVE cucumbers.  I love marinated cucumber salad, cold cucumbers in green salads, cucumbers in Greek salad with feta, cucumbers dipped in creamy dressing.  I have even sauteed thinly sliced cucumbers in butter and served as a side dish.  

But my favorite way to enjoy cucumbers is in a modified version of Ina Garten's Greek salad:

Cucumbers, halved lengthwise and sliced

Bell peppers, red, yellow, orange, cut into 1" chunks

Cherry or grape tomatoes, halved

Red onion, sliced or chopped

Any other vegetable that marinades well such as broccoli

Feta cheese, cut into 1/2" squares

Balsalmic vinaigrette, toss and allow to sit 30 minutes before serving. 

I can eat bowl after bowl of this salad.  And my kids love it!  If only my peppers had made it.  I might just swing by the nursery and look for some plants.  I really want to grow my own peppers.

Succession Planting

Inspired by a couple of articles I read, I decided to plant the remaining tomato plants on hand.  These are the last few that I had started indoors in late February of this year.  I kept them outside in those little pellets where they turned purple and didn't grow.  I realized after planting three of them in tomato cans and seeing them double and now triple in size in 2 weeks that I will just consider the rest of my plants as mid-summer tomato plantings.  I am hoping this means I will be harvesting tomatoes later in the season after my current plants are all too tired to give me any more fruit.

Goat yard garden -- first year.  Mid-summer planting: catnip, oregano and tomatoes

Today I planted the catnip plants that I bought at a farmer's market 3 weeks ago along with the rest of my oregano seedlings in the center bed.  My remaining tomato plants went in the bottom bed where my one kale plant is finally growing. 

My 12yo son and I made bowls around all of the plants in this garden since it is on a slope and the soil was fairly hard and compacted.  Water was just running off.  Now those plants should be getting all of the water they need which is important since we haven't had any significant rainfall in a few weeks.

We were thrilled to find baby pumpkins on the vines in the farthest bed.  So thrilled.  The kids and I love, love, love fresh pumpkin in our pumpkin pies.  And with canned pumpkin getting a bad rap for possible BPA's, growing our own was a no-brainer.  

On the left are the zucchini plants.  Every morning when I walk out the door I can see the pumpkin and squash blossoms all the way from the front door.  They are so cheerful, as though they are laughing and dancing in the sun so happy to just BE.

To do: buy broccoli and bok choi seeds to plant in the lettuce bed that the dog destroyed.

Our bleeping dog decided to destroy the lettuce and garlic bed.

Bad! Bad dog!!!

Garden Update

The tomato plants have created a jungle.  I never got around to staking them which I will most likely regret.  Most of the tomato plants in this bed are cherry tomato varieties.  I won't know which are which until they ripen.  I am hoping for at least one plum tomato variety.
The lettuce bed was partially destroyed by our dog.  I found her laying in the middle of my lettuce plants after digging a little spot for herself.  I guess she thought that would be the coolest place to chill out, literally. The garlic is doing well.  I will definitely plant more garlic this fall for early spring garlic next year.

My snowpeas (which I thought were sugar snap peas) are a little large here but make a great shot.  I haven't been getting out to the garden every day since it got so hot so these little guys are not so little by the time I pick them.  My 12yo son loves eating the peas out of the pods and then eating the pods.  He doesn't care if they aren't as tender.  He just loves these veggies.

Oh, and I continue to pick blueberries from the many varieties and cultivars growing at the perimeter of my yard.  I have frozen three bags so far. I sent my 12yo son out the other day to pick. He seemed to enjoy the activity but enjoys popping frozen blueberries in his mouth the most (he just grabs a handful and enjoys).

Canned tomatos

I had a few tomato seedlings left over after planting my garden that were just poor, little, pitiful things.  I saved these cans from cooking over the winter (I make huge batches of black bean chili) and thought they would look really interesting with tomato plants growing in them.  I planted these 4 days ago and they have more than doubled in size and are finally green instead of that stressed purple.

Moskovich tomato -- about 3.5 inches across

My first slicing tomato is growing so quickly I hope it doesn't split.  I planted this tomato in the pot on my driveway along with oregano, Cosse Violette pole beans, parsley, chives and a pepper plant which didn't make it.

I harvest several beans a day and although I don't really like string beans, these purple beans are so pretty I just like looking at them.  I might eat some, too.

This is my favorite gardening project, this container garden.  It inspires me to once again buy some large pots and plant a deck garden.  I might do that even though it is so late in the season.  I just might.


My next big project is a solar dehydrator.  I have a dream . . .

Digital Photography et al

I purchased my first digital camera in 1998, an open box, display clearance Kodak.  Originally, I wanted a digital camera for web design, photographing backgrounds, custom graphics, and, of course, chronicling my landscaping and gardening projects.  I even took some pictures of my children.  It is a given that I took a lot of  pictures of my children.

I'll be darned if I can find any pictures pre-1999, though.  They probably ended up on some floppy disk that got thrown away.  This is a good lesson to all of us to make sure to find a way to preserve digital photos as the storage media changes.

Moving on: my poor Kodak digital camera finally got dropped by one of the children.  The miracle is that it lasted as long as it did.  When I went in to Staples and other stores looking for a replacement camera silly me asked for something comparable in quality to my beloved Kodak.  The sales people suppressed laughs as they explained that digital camera technology was so far advanced from my old Kodak that even the cheapest camera I could find would far surpass its abilities.  Well, I felt silly and thrilled.  Really, that meant I could once again find an open box, clearance digital camera and be moving in the right direction.

"Take lots and lots and lots of pictures. Then take some more.  Take hundreds of pictures."

I ended up at Best Buy and purchased my next digital camera for under $100.  It really didn't take very good pictures.  I still took a lot of pictures, a LOT of pictures of my children, chickens, goats, and some plants.

That camera was again subjected to the youthful exuberance of my children and was dropped.  No more focus.  Again I had to attempt to swim in the ocean of digital cameras.  It was a short swim.  I ended up with another Kodak, another open box job for under $100, an EasyShare M340 because I like their color chip or whatever it is called.  They make good low-cost point and shoots.  Of course, my heart yearned for a Canon Rebel DSLR but those babies were expensive!

Does the camera matter that much? It depends on what you want to do with your digital camera.  If you want to chronicle family events, take pictures of your garden or dog to share with your friends and family it really doesn't matter.  If you want to head into more specialized photography such as songbirds or macros of flowers, bees, or other nature shots, a little research is necessary.  If you ever want to sell your photographs you need to invest in a camera that takes clear, sharp pictures.

How have I survived all of these years without purchasing an expensive digital camera? I process my photos on my laptop after I download them from the camera.  What program do I use to make my pictures look so sharp, intense and nearly professional? Paint Shop Pro 8.1.  Yep, an inexpensive alternative to Photoshop.  I love PSP.  I have used PSP since version 4.0.  Love, love, love it.  But sadly Jasc sold PSP to one of its competitors.  They sold out.

Corel bought up PSP and then dumbed it down to just a photo editing program.  I have not used the newer program but it probably does nicely for post processing photos.  I highly recommend it.

I am a die-hard PSP fan, though, and hold onto my PSP 8.1 and use it with devotion.  Below are some before and after processing with PSP:

Before processing with PSP 8.1

After processing with PSP 8.1

My Kodak takes okay photos.  I am again yearning for a better camera.  If I can figure out a way to make some money from a better camera I will invest.

I am looking at Compact System Digital cameras such as the Sony Nex C3 and DSLR's such as the Canon Rebel T3i with macro lenses for each.  Interestingly enough, those two cameras with the macro lenses are not too far apart in cost. 

I would love to hear stories of your digital camera choices and how happy you are with the end results: your photos.

Oh, and my one important piece of advice: Take lots and lots and lots of pictures.  Then take some more pictures.  Take hundreds of pictures.  Out of those hundreds you might get a handful that are amazing.  You just might!

Went on an Explore

Camera in hand (actually, in pocket) I stepped out my front door.  Although I didn't really have any adventures, I did go on a little explore.  It doesn't take terribly long to walk my property (where I can walk) but I am never alone.  For this little explore I had Maya, our Tibetan spaniel, and nearly all of our cats.  I felt like the Pied Piper at one point.

Aralia nudicalis or wild sarsaparilla

Not far from the edge of my yard I was so excited to find a small patch of  Aralia nudicaulis or wild sarsaparilla.  I now had the other root beer flavoring.  Backing up a little bit: I watched a very long YouTube video this morning on edible plants.  The guide was so adept at explaining how to identify each plant that I actually found several on my explore today.  I dug out a small piece of the root to bring back with me (and it is still in my pocket).  Why do I keep hearing Bilbo and Gandalf's voices in my head?

Bracket or shelf fungus growing on a felled tree

Fungus in relation to Virginia creeper

Down the hill from my backyard I found these little fungi on a felled tree.  Next step will be to identify and determine if they are edible.

Mullein

This was my most exciting find today: mullein.  Mullein is a miracle herb.  I use it to make a tea for me and the children anytime we come down with any type of upper respiratory infection.  One cup of that stuff and the sinuses are flowing and on their way to healing.  So far I have purchased tea bags and bulk mullein.  I was thrilled to find this grows here in Connecticut.  Next to research if it is transplantable and where it would be most happy.  Mullein requires some type of tea bag for steeping because of the small hairs on the leaves.

Silene latifolia or White Campion

I didn't really find this today, but thought I would include it in this post.  This is growing with a bunch of other weeds in a small flowerbed against the goat house.  I identified it as Silene latifolia or White Campion after seeing it posted on a Facebook plant identification group.  I highly recommend joining a few of these types of groups.  The pictures and comments posted on identifying the plants is extremely educational.  I feel as though I am getting a crash course in plant identification. Apparently the roots of White Campion can be boiled to make a soap of sorts.  I just think it is pretty. 

By the way, my use of the term went on an explore comes from a sweet story called: Only Opal: The Diary of a Young Girl by Opal Whitely and Jane Boulton.  Another version is called Opal: The Journal of an Understanding Heart by Opal Whiteley.  I highly recommend both books.  So sweet and so sad. Opal is a little girl who is unloved and neglected.  She finds joy in her little explores, an escape from the pain of life.  I can relate so very much.