Table Talk

In December, we rearranged our living room to accommodate our Christmas tree. The little craft table that the girls have used and abused, was moved to the other side of Sadie's kennel.  After Christmas, we realized that the girls had really outgrown the little craft table and decided to let them use Doug's old kitchen table for crafts.

My dad donated his old laptop for the girls to use for their computer time and the little table made a perfect computer desk:

This arrangement was working out quite well, but we began to fear for Doug's table. It is a very nice solid oak table (from Amish) and was a graduation gift from his parents. While we liked that it was being used, we didn't want it to be abused and suffer the same fate as the previous craft table:

I did some thinking and researching and came up with a solution to protect the table and our budget.  I cleaned off the glue and marker coloring that had already accumulated on the table top (love Magic Erasers!)

and bought a 4x8 piece of wall paneling from Menards.  The wall paneling has a smooth top, which is great for coloring, and is thick enough to protect the table top from scratches and stains. It also comes in a variety of colors and patterns. The one we chose has a "leather" look.

We inverted the table onto the wall paneling, traced the outline, and cut it out. One thing we didn't anticipate was that the cut paneling did not sit flat on our table top. :(  But a couple days with some weights and quick-grip clamps had it lying flat.

The girls can now craft away to their heart's content!

My First Garden Harvest

Here is the result of my first garden harvest:

It's not what you think it is! :)

My basil has been growing quite well, and after reading up on harvesting it, I decided to give it a nice trim.

  I left two sets of leaves under the stalks I clipped.

 For this first batch, I decided to break out my underutilized food dehydrator and try to dry some basil.  The instructions say to use the lowest setting, about 95 degrees, for 2-3 hours.

There was barely any noticeable progress made during that time, so I let it run overnight. The next morning the leaves were still not dry! So I cranked up the heat to full power and they were dry within a couple hours.  Not sure if my machine is not working correctly or if the instructions were way off?

In the end, I was left with crispy basil leaves that I put into a plastic bag to crumble up:

 I added them on top of my bottled oregano and look forward to using it in my future dishes!

Mulcha, Mulcha, Mulcha

On Monday, E and I did a little gardening. I love it! The weeds are starting to pop-up all over, so I am taking my friend Lisa's advice to put down some cardboard and mulch around my mature plants.

I had hoped to buy a straw bale to use on top of the cardboard, but the one and only source I had was all sold out.  So, I decided to be frugal and use what I had on hand! Since we have not treated our backyard with chemicals, I raked up some of the grass clippings to use for some mulch.  However, this did not amount to very much mulch... Next, I turned to the abundance of dried pine needles that cover the ground under two enormous pines on the south side of our property.  I've read mixed reviews about using pine needles as mulch for vegetables. The biggest drawback being that some people believe it makes the soil too acidic. But many others think that is not a major issue.

So, seeing as this is a year of experimentation (and frugality), E and I filled up our little sled with the pine-straw and spread it out over the cardboard. It looks pretty! (Doesn't E look like she's up to something?)

In other news, my tomato plant has clearly bit the dust (it's that limp, straggly white thing in the photo):

There's a Master Gardener sale at the county fairgrounds on Saturday and I plan to go check it out. I bet their tomatoes look better than this!

Not a single lettuce plant survived, so E and I planted some more romaine and crisphead seeds. The bibb seeds we planted on the 9th have sprouted up.  We also planted a little row of scallions to see what happens. I need to plant my zucchini soon, as the nine squares I've set apart for it are being encroached upon!

On a happy note, my shallots have all sprouted and are quickly growing wonderful, green, spiky shoots:

The sweet onions got the grass mulch:

And if you look closely, I believe there are two little cilantro sproutlings that survived the great transplant tragedy of 2011 and are going to make it after all:

Here's the latest garden snapshot:

Planting the Garden

Hooray! I had a really fun time planting the garden this afternoon.  We are supposed to have thunder showers tonight and tomorrow, so I decided to strike while the sun was hot and get it done today.  Saturday I went to our local garden shop and bought the veggies and herbs that I needed to fulfill my garden plan.

I planted everything in my garden plan except for the zucchini, which I will get around to sometime in the next week.

Since this blog is doubling as my garden journal, indulge me in some notes about the things I've planted (or just stop reading here and do something productive with your time!):

Shallots - I bought one bag of yellow shallots back when I bought the seeds for my indoor planting. They came in a bag of 10 sets. When I unpeeled them, I found that most had one "clove" and some had two cloves, at the most. Several of them were rotten.  I planted 9 in the square and 3 on the very edge of the jalapeno pepper square adjacent to it (just so it would not go to waste).  Next year I think I'll plant these when I plant the other onions.

Basil: I started four basil plants from seed April 10th. I planted these in a square and also bought four basil plants (mainly because I forgot I had the seeds!) and planted those in another square.  It will be interesting to see how the two areas compare. They are both Genovese Basil.

Cilantro: The cilantro is from seed. It is not looking good, and sadly is the best of the seedlings I had started. I will be curious to see if anything comes from them!

Rosemary: I purchased this Rosemary Foresteri plant from the garden shop. It looks wonderful! I plan to put in a pot in the fall and try to winter it in the house. Rosemary is my favorite herb - second to basil.

Peppers: I have three squares dedicated to peppers - all from the garden shop. I've got a green "Better Belle," a yellow bell and jalapeño pepper plant. The thing I've heard about peppers is that they love hot weather. Hopefully it is warm enough for them to thrive now!

Onions: I planted three squares of Candy Onions on April 6th and they are doing very well. I've heard lots of good things about these kind of onions for our zone and am hopeful they grow well.

Carrots: I sowed my carrot seeds directly into the garden today. I have some Burpee Garden King Hybrids that I am trying out. I have no idea what I am doing with planting these! I know they are supposed to be 16 per square, but I just sowed them in 4 evenly spaced rows and plan to thin them out once they are sprouted up to about an inch. I have two squares of carrots in my garden this year.

Broccoli: I purchased a 4-cell pack of broccoli plants from the garden shop and planted one plant/square. I had originally planned to do two broccoli and two cauliflower, but since they came in a four pack, decided to go with all broccoli. My family prefers broccoli to cauliflower anyway so I guess it worked out for the best. I am pretty sure it is Packman broccoli.

Lettuce: My lettuce seedlings are all but dead. I will be shocked if I get anything out of them! They are but a few sickly, completely limp little sprouts. Nothing like the full-leaf young plants I had hoped to plant (and have seen at the garden shop!) I believe that I started them too early indoors. If I had a cold frame to move them to, they might have done better. Next year I will start them much later.  I think that I will give them a week in the soil to see if any revive, and then will sow from seed directly to the soil so I get something this year.  I have a square of Burpee Bibb, one of Great Lakes Crisphead and one of Romaine.

Tomato:  Of the three tomato plants I started inside, I have one that looks like it may actually make it! It is a Burpee Big Boy Hybrid.  I have a tomato cage that I'll pop over it once/if it begins to take off.

Garden FAIL

I think I killed some stuff already... My seeds have been hanging in there for the past seven weeks. Just one week away from planting them in my actual garden, I decided to put them outside for the day. It's called "hardening off" and is supposed to get your seedlings used to the great outdoors.

Unfortunately, while a very sunny day, it was also a windy day and I think they got more flat than hard.

One of my tomato plants keeled over. Literally! The second one's leaves shriveled up and looks quite sickly. The third one is (hopefully?) making a comeback after coming back inside and getting a nice drink of water.  I had only planned to plant one tomato "square" anyway, but was feeling very impressed with myself that the tomatoes were looking so great.

The cilantro has also made a comeback and is standing proud once more.

Can't say the same for the rest...

It was a nice day out so I decided to transplant our oregano plant from the old garden to the new.  It has quite the root system! I had to dig about a foot deep into the garden to make a deep enough hole. This plant is a faithful herb that has grown and flourished for about three years.  Actually, it's only half of what it was when we made the raised bed. We split it in half and gave one to our neighbor and temporarily replanted the other half in the original garden area.

Here's a view of the whole garden:

We have some little sprouts popping up all over. Not sure what they are, but am suspecting maybe alfalfa (from the alpaca poop?):

May 10th is the magic date I've been waiting for to plant the rest of my veggies! Am so excited and hoping for a good crop and learning experience.