Growing Celery For The First Time

One would think that growing any vegetable is a piece of cake. Well, for some that may be true but I’m sure that others have experimented in growing something they were unfamiliar with such as I did with growing celery this year.

I have to admit that I had my doubts but after take my first cuts this evening I’m pretty proud of my celery crop. I have a row of 2 foot tall Utah Tall Celery (heirloom) and I have approx. 2-3 more weeks left before I will be able to fully harvest my celery. I’m excited.

Here’s a picture of my first cuttings and I’ll follow up with a picture of my full harvest in 3 weeks.

First cutting of the season!

Happy Gardening!!!

 

Garden Update 8/10/14

It is late summer and enjoying the fruits of my labor. As you recall back in April/May I posted an article on planting 14 potato plants in my double-raised bed this year and tried to share pictures on their progress. In mid July I harvested all of my potatoes and am very pleased to announce that I had 25 lbs. combined of German Butterball and Red Gold potatoes, all heirloom varieties.

In the mean time, I had shared pictures of the progress of my zucchini and pickling cucumbers. Both of these have done very well also. I’ve picked twenty zucchini and my cucumbers what can I say; they are just going non-stop which I’ve been able to can 11 pints and 4 quarts of dill pickles.

Now, my tomatoes are 3 feet tall with tomatoes turning red everyday and still producing blossoms. My Green Bell Peppers and Anaheim Peppers (hot) are on either side of my tomatoes and they each stand 2 feet tall producing wonderful peppers. There’s one thing I’ve learned this year in planting my potatoes, tomatoes, peppers in raised bed and that’s the soils content used. I developed a SUPER soil consisting of Sphagnum peat moss, vermiculite, perlite, topsoil, 100% manure, organic compost and earthworm castings. This soil combination has produced such beautiful foliage and no disease at all. I’ve fed my seedlings when they were young calcium (fish and kelp an organic fertilizer/food) and my results are phenomenal with very large fruit.

I have a traditional garden as well with a soil consisting of mostly clay I can really tell the difference how some plants grow but at the end of each growing season I dump all of my container soils into the clay soil and till it up to really mix all the soils for a richer soil the next season. This fall I’ve read that planting a cover crop will help hold moisture and break up the clay soil even more so once everything is finished growing I’ll till the soil and plant my cover crop of Winter Rye over the winter months. Next season I am looking at doing no-till gardening in my traditional garden with using the winter rye cover crop as my mulch. Until then I’ll be busy with canning pickles, tomatoes and just enjoying my labor of love.

Recipe Fresh From the Garden 2014

It’s late summer and everyone who’s enjoying their gardens and hopefully the fruits of their labor should really enjoy this really simple and can’t mess up recipe using fresh cucumbers and dill from the garden.

Cucumber Chip Dip

Fresh Cucumbers (I use small pickling cucumbers) – Approximately two cups. You can’t mess it up. Peel off the big bumps and keep some of the green peel. Remove big seeds. Retain as many small seeds as possible. Chop fine.

1 8 oz. Cream Cheese Room Temperature
1/2 cup Mayo
1/2 cup Sour Cream
3 tsp Fresh Lemon Juice
1 tsp salt
Pepper to taste

Mix ingredients in a Kitchen Aid mixer or food processor until really smooth then add cucumbers. Refrigerate. Serve with Chips with Ridges or crackers.

** I add 1 tsp Dill for an extra fresh flavor.

 

Garden Update for 07/02/14

Here’s updated pictures of my garden one month later.  As you can tell my main garden has really taken off and we have had 11.5″ of rain in the last 10 days, 9 of those inches came June 26-29. I’ll take the moisture and my garden says thank you as you will see in the following pictures.

My main garden one month later. Beets fell victim to deer but everything else has grown well.

Tomatoes are much taller than this picture but my potatoes are just crazy big and I can’t wait to harvest when the time comes.

We’ve enjoyed the fresh lettuce, arugula, radishes, onion greens. peas and just recently I’ve picked my first carrots. Where others may live in a warmer climate up here in the Northern climates things have been pushed back a month later in the growing season because of the frigid cold winter we all experienced. It’s been a good season for lettuce growing because of cooler temps though. I’m on my third planting of Arugula and I’m planting Butter Crunch lettuce now and they’re both doing so well.

I’ll be having some zucchini, cucumbers and more carrots this 4th of July weekend. Cucumbers are about one week away but I have two hills that are loaded with blooms and my tomatoes are starting to come on as well and loaded with blossoms.

Happy Gardening to Everyone!!!

Happy 4th of July!!!

 

Garden Update for 06/09/14

Here’s updated pictures of my garden from one week ago. As you can tell my main garden has really taken off after 1.5 inches of rain.
What can I say about my potatoes in my raised bed. WOW! And they’re all blooming even my 5-gallon bucket potatoes are blooming.

(That’s my grass clippings as my mulch to keep in the moisture)

Main Garden

Peas climbing my stakes at the top of picture

Beans and Cabbage upper left corner

Zucchini Squash (2) middle left

Beets center

Celery just below Beets

(2) rows Onions bottom

(2) Cucumbers and one pumpkin upper right

Potatoes

Tomatoes, Peppers & cilantro

5-gallon bucket potatoes
Onions
radishes, carrots, green onions & cilantro

Lettuce on railing
Arugula in pot on the left
French Lavender on the right

 

Natural Home Pesticide

Ingredients:

1 Tablespoon Vegetable oil
2 Tablespoons baking soda
1 Tablespoon dish soap (or Murphy’s Oil Soap)
2 quarts water
1 Spray bottle

Mix all ingredients in a pitcher and pour into spray bottle.

Garden UPDATE!!!!

Yes, it’s been awhile since my last posting. I apologize to my followers but I have been busy working the raised beds and doing some planting around the house.

I have white radishes about 2 weeks away from picking, my tomatoes I planted from seed are up about 2 inches and growing their 2nd leaves, my green and Anaheim peppers are finally poking through the ground. YIPPEE!!!!!

My containers on my deck are doing great as the picture I’m sharing shows how well my 5-gallon bucket potatoes are doing and my sweet yellow Spanish onions are doing as well. I also have green onions and French breakfast radishes, cilantro and carrots growing in one container.

This was taken one week ago. First time I’ve ever grown potatoes in a 5-gallon bucket and they’re looking really nice.

These are my two raised beds I added this year. Just finished watering.

This view is looking down from my deck. My potatoes are on the left and my white radishes on the right.

A week later look how my 5-gallon bucket potatoes are doing. My other two containers are doing really well also.

I hope everyone enjoys my updates! I will continue to post pictures as my garden grows.

Happy Gardening Everyone!

 

Potatoes in 5-Gallon Buckets UPDATE!

April 27, 2014 I posted my first pictures of my 5-gallon bucket potatoes. Today, May 13, 2014, potatoes can grow in 5-gallon buckets with ease.

Happy Potato Growing Everyone!!!

Russet and German Butterball potatoes

Gardening Time Is Finally Here!!!!

Sorry folks for not posting for a while. I’ve been busy tending to my gardens getting them planted and watered I finally have some photos to share.

Tomatoes, White Radishes and Peppers

My Crop potatoes this year

I planted my tomatoes from seed this year again like I did last year and they’ve just broke through the soil two days ago so they’re just about an inch tall but my white radishes and potatoes (12 of 14) are coming up through my grass mulch.

Sweet Peas

My new crop this year; celery

My traditional garden is coming up now as well; squash, cucumbers, celery, peas, yellow sweet onions and my beans have yet to pop through but once this rainy weather moves through and we start to get some of that warm sunshine everything will go nuts.

Russet and German Butterball potatoes

Carrots, Green onions, Cilantro and French Breakfast Radishes

New crop added this year; Top Hat Dwarf Blueberry plants (Planted one week ago and leafing out-harvest time is in the Fall)

My containers on the deck are doing well also.

Happy Gardening to All!!!!

Potatoes In 5-Gallon Buckets

It’s that time of year that we gardeners are busy preparing our gardens for a bountiful harvest. I’ve been one of those said gardeners preparing my raised beds and traditional garden.

I, like most, are skeptical about growing potatoes in 5-gallon buckets but I’m posting a couple of photos today to share how my two buckets are doing.

In the first photo everyone will see a tiny speck of green leaves at the bottom of the photo and a small set at the top of the photo; this bucket is planted with German Butterball potatoes that I ordered and was shipped a week ago, so the growth is not as pronounced as what I’m sharing in the second photo.

My new German Butterball Potatoes

In the second photo are my potatoes from last season Russet Potatoes which started sprouting in my basement and as everyone can see the growth is about several weeks along.

Last Season Russet Potatoes

When growing potatoes in a 5-gallon bucket I used two that I had purchased at Home Depot. I drilled several holes in the bottom, filled a layer of small river rocks in the bottom, cut and layered a piece of black landscaping paper (one can use several layers of newspapers also). Then I layered 2 inches of a good garden soil mixed with a little bit of worm castings (for fertilizer) and placed three small seed potatoes (sprouts up) and covered with a couple of inches of soil. You want to keep covering the sprouts until you get to the top of the bucket and then just let your potato plant grow and produce your potatoes.

I hope everyone will try growing potatoes in a 5-gallon bucket, it’s affordable and so easy to do.