Peach blossoms

Because of the super early spring, out peach tree is blooming!  It's so beautiful.

Last year we got 15 peaches from this little tree.  This year hopefully more, but it won't be a ton, the tree is still too little.  I read that they are very brittle and thus you have to thin the peaches quite a bit.  But eventually I want to be self-sufficient in fruit just like we're self-sufficient in veggies. 

We have 3 blueberry bushes, 1 currant bush, a cherry tree, this peach tree, a raspberry stand and a blackberry stand.  We also have a bed of strawberries which I protect with bird netting so the chipmunks don't eat them all.  This year we want to add a plum tree, another cherry and at least one apple (it can cross-pollinate with our neighbor's apple tree). 

Oooh radishes

I plan to pickle them...in the meantime, grow baby grow  :-)

20 Minute Terrarium centerpiece

This is so simple:

I have been wanting to create a terrarium for a while now, and finally just decided to do it.  I put rocks at the bottom, then collected moss and succulents from the garden.  I put the rocks on the bottom, placed the moss over them, then inserted the succulents into the cracks in the moss.  Then I put a couple more rocks on the moss and went looking around the house for things to create the scene.  Seriously, this is what took the most time.  I had a small statue of Durga riding a tiger (Hindu goddess - I have a ton of goddess statues around the house) and a crystal (ok, I have a bunch of those around too).  I just placed those strategically in the apothecary jar and viola a new dining room centerpiece.

More photos of the terrarium:

It was also extremely inexpensive - I had everything (including the apothecary jar), so I spent no money.  If you don't have an apothecary jar handy, however, don't go someplace trendy.  I found a set of three last year at Hancock Fabrics for about $30 - $10 a piece.  (And I just searched Amazon and you can get a very suitable one for $13.)  The rest of the creation process is simply finding things you already have in your garden and house.  I went with moss and succulents because they don't need a lot of soil or water to flourish.

Here's another inspiration from hallready.blogspot.com:

Multi color tomatoes

So I planted Mary Robinson's German and Ananas Noire despite the fact that they weren't very productive last year.  I'm hoping that their low productivity was because it was such a cold year and that this year will be different.  I really hope they produce well because this is what they look like (taken last year):

Ananas Noire

Mary Robinson's German

How beautiful is that?!  And they taste great too.

A great start to spring

My basil (planted in the basement 2 and half weeks ago) is all up.  The cilantro is starting to come up, and so are a few of the parsley.  No celery yet though.

This weekend was busy, I have had the feeling that it's going to stay warm and so I started seeds way before I would typically start them.  So not only did I direct seed (see my post from Sunday) I also started seeds in the basement.  (By the way, I was looking in the garden today and some of the radishes I planted already are splitting and starting to grow.)

This is for Paul - it's time to start your seeds, I'm pretty sure.  At least I'm starting them, so go for it.  Don't direct seed anything but cold weather plants, so wait with your squash and cucumbers, but feel free to start seeds indoors for both cold weather and hot weather plants.

I started lettuce (11 types) in 72 starter cells.  I also started my tomatoes (18 types) and peppers (8 types).  And I started purple and green tomatillos and two types of eggplant.  Lettuce always does great for me - all of these types grow well.  I've put notes by each of the tomatoes and peppers when I have something to say about them - the problem is that last year was so cold that I can't judge how well some of the varieties I tried for the first time will do this year.  Obviously I'll keep a record here so you can know which do well and which do not.  To make matters worse, the people at work who took my plants had different experiences with them than I had - microclimates do affect productivity, so take what I write with a grain of salt and experiment for yourself.

Here's my list of seed I started this weekend:
Lettuce:
Sweet valentine
Red deer tongue
Merlot
Emerald oak
Asian red
Forellenschluss
Dark lollo rossa
Red sails
Amish deer tongue
Beleah rose
Little gem

My favorite lettuce Forellenschluss:

Tomatoes:
Lemon boy (nice color)
Garden peach (didnt' plant last year, but the 2 years before that they were productive)
Japanese black trifele (this did great last year in very cool summer and short season)
Striped roman (also did pretty good last year)
Violet jasper (a small tomato, but extremely productive last year, and very early)
Black mauri (same comments as violet jasper, smaller)
Black krim (the best tomato I've grown - always productive, and the best tasting I've had)
Amana orange (large tomato, and productive every year I've grown it)
Illini star (I didn't get a single tomato from this plant last year)
Sub-arctic plenty (these matured extremely late last year, and I only got a few)
Koralik (I didn't get any tomatoes last year from this plant)
Royal chico
Dr Wyche's yellow (I've planted this tomato 2 years in a row and have never gotten a tomato)
Bison (nothing last year)
Ananas noire (not productive last year, but the 3 tomatoes I got were beautiful)
Peacevine cherry (I didn't have luck last year, but a colleague said it was super productive for her)
Anna russian pink (nothing last year)
Mary Robinson's german bicolor (like the ananas noire, only a couple of tomatoes, but super pretty)

My favorite tomato, Black Krim:

Peppers:
Quadrato d'asti rosso
Orange bell
Roberto's cuban seasoning
Albino bullnose (last year these were the first to produce, but know that the peppers are tiny)
Patio red marconi
Jimmy Nardello italian (good producer last year)
Corno di toro rosso (good producer last year)
Anaheim (terrible last year, didn't even grow, but am trying again because I want a mild hot pepper)

All of these I planted in the basement under lights.  The eggplant I put in damp paper towels, folded them over and put them in a plastic bag on top of the refrigerator.  They haven't started growing yet, but when they do I'll put them in dirt.  It supposedly takes a long time for them to sprout, and I haven't grown eggplants before, so it's all a mystery.  The tomatillos are also under lights in the basement.

(Note that I took these images from the web - I looked for the pictures that looked most like the crop I get.  Some of the pictures don't look even remotely like what I harvest, but these are representative.)

Good luck!

Too hot for soup

So this weekend I decided to use my frozen carrots and celery as soup starter.  Frozen veggies are good for soup.  Add in beans and squash and basil, arugula, and fines herbs pesto....

And soup is always a good thing in the cool spring weather...but it's been hot, not cool.  It's been 35 degrees F warmer than normal here in Illinois. I made soup, we ate soup, and now I feel like I have to freeze it.  It's too hot to eat soup!

Today I saw the first butterfly of spring.  Probably this species, it was black with yellow spots:

Also, the first chipmunk.  And on my way home from work I heard the frogs singing.  This is wonderful, but ridiculous.  It's March!

Spring before it's time

Today I spent the day in the garden, way before I should be in the garden.  Typically the highs are 48 F around now, today it was 64 F and the week is supposed to be similar.  We even have blooms!  (Crocus in neighbor Lisa's grass.)

My other neighbor, Celia, who has gardened for years was planting her lettuce out, and the ground was workable (not too dry, not wet) and so I decided to plant also.  Not lettuce (I start that from seed in the basement) but peas, favas, arugula, spinach, carrots and radishes.  It was beautiful outside and I got to hear and watch the cranes as they migrated back north to have their babies.

 How beautiful they are, and how wonderful to be able to plant so early this year.  And spend the day outside in Birkenstocks in March!