We picked a few ears of corn today — Hickory King fresh from the stalk:
Corn Harvest
Tag: Gardening
Fall Seed Starting
I got the seeds started for our fall harvested vegetables. We bought these little seed starting trays on Amazon — a tray, a 12-cell insert, and a humidity dome with an adjustable vent. The kit came with plant markers … but it seemed silly to write something permanent on the marker. So I turned them into reusable markers by adding some of the blue tape you use for painting a room (because that’s what we’ve got & pen works OK on it). First I put three of the markers in a line on the tape.
A couple of quick slices with an Exacto knife, and I can change the label as needed.
I started the normal fall veggies — broccoli, broccolini, chard, and lots of cabbages. But I also started a sweet tomato that’s meant to produce in 60 days and a watermelon that’s supposed to produce in just 75 days. That’ll be the end of September so maybe we’ll get some watermelon this year!
Raised Bed Herb Planters
When we decided to use some old cinder blocks to build raised beds, the idea was to fill all of the blocks with dirt and use the spaces as bonus planting spaces for small plants like flowers and herbs. Functional and aesthetically pleasing. I never got far in that project — filled some blocks with dirt and lots of weeds. But no ring of herbs around the bed.
This year, I’m doing it! It’s a time consuming process to clear out the existing plant growth. I’m adding about two inches of rocks (we’ve got a lot of rock-covered beds that we want to de-rock), and filling up with soil. Anya started a bunch of herb plants, so she has been transplanting her seedlings into the blocks and adding some wood mulch (I expect these small blocks will warm up and dry out rather quickly otherwise).
Home Automation and Gardening
Something like 20 years ago, I tried to grow a plumeria flower in my apartment. I had a broad-spectrum light, plenty of heat, and plenty of humidity. But getting the light turned on and off at the right times wasn’t easy (especially if I was at work all day!).
This seems like a really good use for home automation — our home automation system tracks the sunrise and sunset times for our zip code. It’s possible to essentially cron “stuff” off of these times — e.g. get the birds ten minutes before sunset. I could easily track sunrise and sunset in Honolulu then have my light turn on at sunrise (or first light) and off at sunset (or last light). Voila — “sunlight” that runs for the proper duration every day.
2022 Seeds
We’ve saved seeds from the garden (and seeds from both ground cherries and hot peppers that we picked up at the farmers market) that will make up much of our garden this year. I purchased a bunch of flower seeds to expand the bee garden, and a few new vegetables. And I really hope to get asparagus established this year!
| Seeds for Honeybees | ||
Autumn Beauty Sunflower Seeds – XL Packet |
Ballerina California Poppy Seed Mix – XL Packet |
Ball’s Orange Calendula Seeds – XL Packet |
Butterfly Weed Seeds – 1/4 Oz |
California Giants Zinnia Seed Mix – 1/4 Lb |
Globe Annual Candytuft Seeds – XL Packet |
Fairy Bouquet Snapdragon Seed Mix – XL Packet |
Dwarf Shasta Daisy Seeds – XL Packet |
Swiss Giants Pansy Seed Mix – 1/4 Oz |
Single China Aster Seed Mix – XL Packet |
Painted Daisy Seeds – XL Packet |
Money Plant Seeds – XL Packet |
Ice Plant Seed Mix – 1 Oz |
McKana Giants Columbine Seed Mix – XL Packet |
Indian Blanket Seeds – XL Packet |
Imperial Rocket Larkspur Seed Mix – 1 Oz |
Imperial Pincushion Flower Seed Mix – XL Packet |
Iceland Poppy Seeds – 1 Oz |
Sparky French Marigold Seed Mix – XL Packet |
Common Milkweed Seeds – 1 Oz |
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| Seeds for Food | ||
Sugar Beet Seeds |
Anise Seeds |
|
Chioggia Beet Seeds |
Easter Egg Radish Seeds |
French Breakfast Radish
|
Sparkler White Tip Radish |
White Icicle Radish Seeds
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|
 Hickory King Corn |
 Pencil Cob Corn |
|
 Triticale |
 Winter Rye |
 Dundale Pea |
 Hull-less Barley |
 Burbank Hull-less Barley |
Oats |
Wheat |
||
German Extra Hardy Garlic |
 Chesnok Garlic |
Music Garlic |
Dutch Red Shallot |
Dutch Red Shallot |
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Dilly Beans
We made dilly beans tonight.
Ingredients:
- Fresh string beans
- 1.25c vinegar
- 1.25c water
- 2T salt
- Whole dill
- Whatever spices — garlic cloves, peppercorns, hot pepper flakes, chipotle pepper, cinnamon, maple syrup, mustard seeds
Method:
- Clean beans — wash, trim stem end, remove string if there is one
- Pack beans into wide-mouth canning jars
- Add in a sprig or two of dill along with other spices
- Put brine ingredients into a measuring cup & microwave until boiling, pour over beans.
- Put on lid, allow to cool, then refrigerate
Strawberries!
The strawberries I planted two years ago are starting to produce! Anya picked fourteen ripe strawberries a few days ago, and she found a handful again today.
Decoy Garden
The decoy garden is doing well — some of the plants have started to seed, and the radishes have little flowers. The real garden has started to sprout too — Anya’s seen rabbits munching on the decoy garden. Hopefully the deer do so too!
2021 Hops
Some of the hops are starting to grow side-arms to produce cones …
(Mostly) Fits In a Volt
Harbor Freight had one of their 20% off coupon sales for Fathers Day. We’ve been wanting to buy the 10×12 greenhouse for a while, and 20% off was the perfect opportunity to do so. There’s a site where someone details all of the tweaks they used to enhance the structure — we’ll be making a lot of these enhancements as we build the thing.
One of these days, we’ll have an electric farm truck running … but, until then, a 10×12 greenhouse in its box #FitsInAVolt … at least sufficiently to transport it a short distance home!
