Yes, folks, you read that right, today’s topic is planting vegetable seed in July. It is not too late here in the Midwest to get started gardening. If you already have a garden going, maybe there are some things that are just puckering out that could be replaced or maybe you have room to add some new crops. If you didn’t get around to planting this spring, well, you still have a chance to do just that. So, what are you waiting for? Get out there and get your garden in gear!
Seeds that can be direct sown outdoors this month include beans, both snap and dry, just be sure to pick short season varieties. Carrots, chard, chinese cabbage, collards, cucumber, edamama, kale, kohlrabi, mustard, okra, parsnip, radish, rudabaga, sorrel, squash – both summer and winter varieties and turnip seeds can all be direct sown in July. As with the beans, look for short season varieties. This information can be found on the back of seed packets.
If you didn’t get enough herbs planted earlier in the season, now is the time to direct sow basil, cilantro and parsley.
Keep the weeds down to encourage better growth in your garden. Use newspaper – shredded or whole, straw – even if it has got wet, cardboard or any other type of material that will help block weeds. Plastic should be avoided if possible as it will sour the soil. You can also mulch your garden with finished compost to add extra nutrients to the soil and help block weed growth.
Filed under Gardening News, Homestead Happenings, Vegetable Gardening by on Jul 23rd, 2009. Comment. 
If you’re like most gardeners you can’t wait for the first flowers to bloom in the spring. Throughout the summer months you eagerly slip into your garden every chance you get to see what is blooming or maybe just to savor the scent of the garden. You know fall will arrive way too soon, then winter, so you want to get as much out of your garden as possible now.
There are many ways to preserve the harvest this summer so you can continue to enjoy the scents and colors of your garden all winter long. Drying flowers is a technique that has been happening for many years and is a great way to preserve flowers. In addition to hanging the flowers to dry, try making your own flower press with instructions you can find in my new book “101 English Garden Tips.”
Other great ideas include making potpourri with flowers and botanicals right from your own garden. Choose fragrant rose petals, pine cones, acorns, straw flowers, citrus peels and herbs. Dry these and combine with a bit of essential oils or make a moist potpourri by layering the individual scented material with layers of salt and sealing in a jar. After several months the scents will blend and you will simply have to remove the jar lid to release the aroma.
If potpourri is not your cup of tea, try using pressed flowers to make bookmarks or lamp shades. Then again, if you are drying edible flowers and herbs, why not try combining them to make a unique cup of tea or herbal vinegar? The ideas are endless!
Looking for other cool craft ideas? Check out “101 English Garden Tips” for great ideas on creating poinsettia trees and succulent wreaths.
Filed under Flower Gardening, Gardening News, Homestead Happenings by on Jun 19th, 2009. Comment.
Yesterday we finally got around to planting two of the vegetable gardens. Peas, turnips and lettuce are already up in some areas of the garden but we needed to get other crops sown. Although the garden was tilled earlier in the season, weeds wanted to take over, so a second tilling was necessary.
The first thing we planted was corn – many varieties this year. We planted How Sweet It Is Hybrid – 87 days, Country Gentleman – 90 days, Kandy Korn Hybrid – 89 days, Obsession – 80 days, Supersweet Jubilee Hybrid – 85 days, Silver Queen Hybrid – 88 days and Bon Appetit – 71 days. I also planted a pack of ornamental corn for decorations.
The next big planting consisted of green beans. We chose Tricolor Bush Beans from Renee’s Garden. These have gold, purple and green beans in the package and the days to harvest are approximately 55. We also planted Royal Burgundy bush beans – 60 days and Nugget bush beans – 52 days. My favorite beans are the Royal Burgundy. Pests seem to leave the purple colored beans alone and the pretty purple color makes picking beans fun!
Speaking of fun, I have several bonus packs from Renee’s Garden. She comes up with some of the coolest seeds and planting ideas. If you have never been to her website or bought her seeds, take a moment to check her out at http://www.reneesgarden.com/ Anyway, back to the story. I had a bonus seed packet called Native American Three Sisters Garden which contained seeds for Earth Tones Indian Dent Corn (great for grinding into cornmeal), Scarlet Runner Beans and Sugar Pie Pumpkins. These went into the front of the garden so they could be seen from the street. Next to them I planted the bonus pack Seeds For A Butterfly Garden so when we were tired of working and wanted to sit in the swing we would have something pretty to look at and some gorgeous butterflies to watch. This packet contained Zinnia Persian Carpet, Cosmos Purity and Sunflower Red Sun. Next to this pack I planted my last bonus pack which contained Seeds For A Hummingbird Garden. Inside this packet was seeds of Scarlet Runner Bean Magic Beanstalk, Nasturtium Summer Charm and Zinnia Scarlet Flame.
Now that the pretty plants were in, it was time to get back to planting. I planted a large amount of Fibre Flax Evelin – Linum usitatissimum. Hopefully this year the flax will grow and I will be able to turn it into fiber for spinning and weaving. I also planted colored cotton – Red Foliated, Arkansas Green Lint, Erlene’s Green and Mississippi Brown. Anyone know where I can find other natural colored cotton? I bought this from Southern Exposure Seed Exchange.
Next to be planted was Grain Amaranth. I planted both Golden Giant and a mix from Bountiful Gardens. I also planted Sorghum GSO-7440 M6-1 from Bountiful Gardens. It says this variety is very rare, from KUSA.
The last seeds I planted were for Radish Watermelon.
I was hoping for some rain last night, but since we did not get any, I am off to water and finish up the rest of the vegetable garden.
Filed under Gardening News, Homestead Happenings, Vegetable Gardening by on May 11th, 2009. 1 Comment.
Filed under Exotic Gardening, Gardening News, Homestead Happenings by on Mar 25th, 2009. Comment.
I am going to be doing some craft shows, garden party speaking events and book signings this spring. If you already have a book by me, bring it with you and I will sign it. I am hoping some of my books will arrive in time for these events so I can have some on hand to sell as well. Here are my current engagements.
April 4, 2009 – Spring Into Spring Bazaar – 9am to 3pmMarion Church of the Brethren2302 S. Geneva Avenue Marion
April 19 – Country Crafters Spring Bazaar – 10am to 5pm
Round Robins Bingo Hall MarionMay 16 – Greentown Garden Party Presentation – 10am to 11am
Program – Four Seasons Of Bloom In Indiana
Greentown Public Library421 S. Harrison St.
Greentown, IN 46936
Filed under Gardening News, Homestead Happenings by on Mar 19th, 2009. Comment.
Spring is just around the corner. The crocus and witch hazel are blooming. Spring bulbs are emerging. A few early crops have been planted – carrots, lettuce, spinach. Soon the last frost will be over. The greenhouse is full of plants and seedlings – many in bloom. I am running out of room and still have quite a bit more to plant.
I am really looking forward to this years garden. More vegetables, more flowers, more fruits are what I am hoping for. Canning season is also just around the corner. When that time comes I will be working in a tiny kitchen trying to get everything put up for winter use, but knowing how much money that will save us will make it worthwhile.
I have been thinking for some time of writing a book on homesteading filled with tips, recipes and more. I think I should attempt that as soon as I finish my book on organic gardening. The economy is only getting worse and maybe this information would help others.
I also need to get my fruit buckets filled with the smoothies that will deter bugs. That needs to be done this weekend. I need to find the recipe and buy the bananas. I think I have the other ingredients.
I am off now to work in the yard a bit, then I will spend the rest of the day writing. After all the more I write today, the less I will need to write tomorrow and the faster my new book will be completed.
Filed under Gardening News, Homestead Happenings by on Mar 13th, 2009. Comment.
This year we are getting a bit of a head start on our vegetable garden. Jerry helped put the cold frame over a raised bed that was dry enough to weed. He also put a window frame over the part of the bed that the cold frame did not cover.
Before this could happen there was weeding to be done. Low and behold in the weeds were carrots! Purple Dragon Carrots that had survived the winter and were growing new tops! They will be ate with our supper tonight.
Once the cold frames were installed I planted lettuce, spinach and carrot seeds. Hopefully it will not take too long for the seeds to begin to germinate. I am anxious to begin eating out of our garden again, although we do still have plenty of canned food from last year. It has been a great feeling knowing we have plenty to eat and that we grew most of it ourselves.
Filed under Gardening News, Homestead Happenings, Vegetable Gardening by on Mar 9th, 2009. 2 Comments.
February is here again and once again the greenhouse is just not large enough for all the seedlings that I have going. Every year we increase the size of the greenhouse and every year, somehow, I manage to plant more seeds.
We have tomaotes, peppers, cabbage, celery and eggplant germinated already with more seeds in paper towels trying to germinate. I have some feverfew and Greek oregano seedlings going as well.
Most years I concentrate on vegetables or a few odd and end flowers. This year, while I am still concentrating on vegetables, I have changed my plan when it comes to flowers. In the past I would plant three to five flower seeds of each variety and hope they germinated and grew well. This year I am planting the entire packet of flower seeds.
I am making plans for a cutting garden which will be grown right alongside the vegetable garden. There are entire flats of delphiniums, black eyed Susans – many varieties, sweet William, bells of Ireland and more. I am really excited about this new aspect of the garden.
Extra plants will be added to the main flower beds and hopefully adding more plants will help eliminate some of the weeds. I have marigold and calendula already growing. In a few more weeks I will plant a variety of zinnia, aster and other annuals.
I have also found that germinating the seeds in paper towels helps save greenhouse space since I only plant what is germinated. It also helps me keep tabs on what is germinating and what I may need to replace. I save seeds from year to year as well as buy seeds on closeout specials. Some of my seeds are well over ten years old. So far, I am getting germination, but some of them are germinating at such a low rate I know I need to use them up and save new seeds.
Filed under Gardening News, Homestead Happenings, In The Greenhouse by on Feb 22nd, 2009. Comment.
I finally decided to purchase a vodka that had been quadruple distilled to use in making my vanilla extract. I took three very fragrant vanilla beans, sliced them in half, put them in a small bottle, filled it with the vodka, sealed it and put it in the basement. In six months I will have my very first homemade vanilla extract to use in baking. I am so excited. If this turns out well, then it will be a matter of time before I will be producing my own with vanilla beans off of my own vanilla planiflora variegata plant. I will of course have to learn how to hand pollinate the flowers and cure the vanilla beans but that should be fairly easy.
We had to take another trip to Indianapolis today so we decided to stop at Allisonville Nursery after we had lunch at Applebees. Since our third wedding anniversary is the nineth of this month we decided to celebrate a bit early. At the nursery I found large bags of vermiculite and peat moss. I bought both. That should keep me in business for most of the winter. I also bought the game Gardenopoly. I had wanted it for a while and figured it would give Jerry and I something to do during the winter evenings when not much else was happening.
Of course what trip to a nursery would be complete without purchasing plants or bulbs? They had a buy one get one free sale on the packaged bulbs so I picked up two packs. The first pack was a gorgeous Hyacinthus known as ‘Isabelle.’ This is a double hyacinth with fragrant flowers. The tips of the outer petals have green on them and I simply fell in love. Hyacinths are one of my favorite spring flowers anyway due to their capitavating scent. The other package of bulbs I chose was from the Biltmore Collection. It was Narcissus ‘Double Poet’s Daffodil,’ another great bulb I had been wanting for some time. Jerry will help me dig holes tomorrow to get these planted and then I will begin the countdown to spring.
I picked up the sampler I had woven several months ago. Fred was kind enough to allow me to go to the Howard County Fairgrounds with him after the fair so he could teach me how to use a floor loom. I had to wait until the loom was out of warp for the project to be removed. I used raw, unprocessed wool to create my sampler. The plan now is to felt it and see what I come up with.
We also cut a velvet material up last night in lengths long enough to make a chair and couch cover for our furniture. I think there may be enough material left over to make matching draperies. The material that came with my loom, once made into rugs, is similar enough in color to the velvet material to make a rug for the living room floor and have everyone think the colors are the same. How cool is that?
Sheri
Filed under Elegant Cooking, Flower Gardening, Gardening News, Herbal Preparations, Homestead Happenings by on Nov 3rd, 2008. Comment.