Planting the Early Spring Garden......potatoes and more

The sun is shining....most of the time. The weather is perfect to put in some early spring veggies. So what are you planting this year?

My father in law has a huge farm area and this year I decided to use his already plowed up area (thanks honey for that tractor ride) and plant things I plan to freeze, can or store this year. My lasagna garden at home will have some plants that I want to get to immediately like my cherry tomatoes, zucchini and sugar snap peas.

This year I decided to try my hand at planting potatoes. I have never done it before and decided to give a few rows a try. Here is a site to consider when planting potatoes. I am a newbie so I wanted to make sure I am doing it right. Wish you could plant potatoes but don't have the space? Well check that site out because I bet you do if you use a little imagination.

I am also planting radishes and carrots. I tip I got was to mix the radish and carrot seeds together as they grow you can tell them apart and they are easy to thin. The radishes are ready first and when you pull the radishes there is plenty of room left for the carrots to mature.

I am planting spinach as well as lettuce. I buy several packages of frozen spinach each year and I figured why not freeze my own?

And finally I will be planting some sugar snap peas as well. As for the rest of the garden I will up date you on that as I go. If you have any questions or comments be sure to leave them and you can see the entire lasagna garden series here. (scroll down to see the first article)

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Planting the Early Spring Garden

I know you are all itching to get out there in that dirt, to get dirty, play around and plant some things. Well you can. Here is a site that outlines some of the things you can plant early. Now be prepared to have to put a little more effort into this Spring garden because if you plant some things that may have to have you cover them if the weather dips too low.

There are some things you can plant and just not worry about, onions, carrots and broccoli. Now in my garden I have a broccoli that is about and inch or so high that is a self starter from last year. I laughed when I saw it the other day. Peas is another good cold starter. The goal here is to plant a few things and spread them out with different start times and perhaps varieties so you get more from your harvest. I won't be planting or doing much gardening until after April 18 when I get back from my Florida trip. Happy gardening everyone.

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Lasagna Gardening 2010 :Spring Time Clean Up and Set Up

Last year I started Lasagna Gardening. It is what it sounds like you simply make layers of different items like, peat moss, mulched leaves and grasses, pine needles, compost, manure, the list goes on of what you can use and you plant right into those layers. I was spectacle because it wasn't soil but it eventually turns itself into soil, it is rich in soil nutrients and worked almost too well in that my plants got bigger then my small area I set up. You can use this method to make small plots, big plots, container plots and it will work great if you are planning on square foot gardening as well. Go here to see last years posts and catch up on what it looks like and what to do to get started. My archives are funny so the beginning is at the end so scroll down to see first posts.

If you are like me, you didn't get all your Fall work done and now need to use the good weather to ready the beds for planting this year. Most things are too early to plant in my zone (Midwest) although the weather is going to be 80 degrees today this is a fluke and planting is not yet a good idea. Click here to see your planting zones.

Soon some cool weather produce will be ready to plant and we will get into that in the next post. So are you ready? Plan on getting outside in the next few weeks and clear your gardens, flower beds up or scout out where you want to place your lasagna beds. You don't need to dig...nope no digging just find where you want the garden to go and begin the layers. Go here to see parts of the book and get an idea on getting started.

So what can I can I do today, this weekend, the coming week? Clean up your established garden beds, throw the old foliage into the compost piles. Add new layers of newspaper, peat moss, manure, mulched leaves. Take advantage of the good weather to get your first mow in and mulch those garden leaves and clippings to put on your garden beds. (remember don't use the grass from the areas your dogs are going to the bathroom). Look at garden magazines, go to the local shops and see what you might be interested in planting this year. Organize your ideas and be realistic about what you can plant, eat, and put away for the coming winter month.

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A Fall's Harvest...What are you doing with it?

Hello all. It is hard to believe that we started not that long ago with the beginnings of our Lasagna Gardens and other garden methods. As Fall approaches rapidly we need to start wrapping up what is left of our gardens, begin to prepare our gardens for the coming winter months and thinking about what we want to do for next year. You can go here to see all that I have done so far with my lasagna garden.
I bought some small pumpkins and will be freezing my own pumpkin puree this weekend. I love pumpkin and found that freezing the pumpkin for future recipes could not be easier. I also want to use the seeds for future cosmic cookies or a tasty treat. Go here to see how to freeze/can pumpkin. I really like the idea of having the pumpkin on hand but also that it is as natural and organic as you can get. It is cheap to purchase the small pumpkins and worth a little effort to have wonderful recipes in the future. If you read up on pumpkin you will also find that it is not overly recommended for canning because of the low acidity however it can be done.

I want to hear all about your gardens this year! What worked and what didn't. What are you proud of and what are you never going to do again? Want to vent, brag or dream of next year do it here.

Next year I plan on planting a little smarter. I will give my plants a little more space. I will bulk up on the things that grew well and I want to freeze. I will plant only what I know I can use. (yes this means very little lettuce...LOL)

In the coming week I will blog some ideas from the gardening series on how to prepare for winter. Now is a great time to get a Lasagna Garden area ready for next year. If you are thinking about making a garden area for next year then prepare it this Fall. Its cheaper too...garden supplies are on the discount.

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Making Stewed Tomatoes or Spaghetti Sauce

How do you make your stewed tomatoes? Denise and I were having a conversation the other day about making tomato juice, sauce and more. We discussed that sometimes parts of the tomato goes to waste. I am sure there are better methods where you can use the juice, and the other parts but for us beginners and for ease of use the way I am about to show you has been the easiest for me when making stewed tomatoes. My Lasagna Garden is about done but I found a wealth of tomatoes from a close source and so the tomato canning/freezing continues.

The first thing you want to do is remove the skins because they become hard and yucky in when cooked. To do this boil a big pot of water and drop some of the tomatoes into it for 45 sec to 1 min. to blanch. If you have time making a big X on the bottom of the tomato can help to peel but I found that you really don't have to do so. I use tongs and grab the tomato out of the boiling water and place it in a bowl full of cold water. Most places will tell you it should have ice in it but I have found that using cold water from my tap has been fine. Place the tomato in there and then place more in the boiling water. Grab the ones out from the cold water and place in another bowl. And then just keep repeating until all your tomatoes are blanched. It takes only a few minutes. Below is a picture of what the tomatoes will look like when you blanch them. Notice the skins are coming off.
Now is the really messy part. I sat at the kitchen table and had a cutting board, a sharp knife, a clean bowl and a bowl for the discarded parts. Yes I find I use a lot of bowls. Being very careful because it is slippery peel off the skins and take the knife and core or cut off stem. Then cut in half (small) or quarters (bigger, rounder). Take your fingers (or a core scoop, fingers worked better) and just scrap out the seeds and take the harder whitish flesh with it. That doesn't break down in cooking.
This Roma type tomato is an easy tomato to de-seed. Below you see what a bigger, rounder tomato will look as you de-seed it.Once you have your tomatoes all done then comes the fun part. You get to really get dirty. You can use a potato masher of any other type of masher if you like and I do use those as I cook but for this first part you just stick you clean hands in the tomatoes and squish away.
Try taking a picture while squishing tomatoes....:). Once you are done squishing then put them into a pot and cook down. I put them on the lowest setting and slowly let them simmer apart. Stir every once and awhile and continue to break the tomatoes down with a masher if you don't want any chunks of tomato left. My family doesn't like the chunks so I break it down as much as I can. After you get the consistency you want you are ready to can or freeze. I made mine into spaghetti sauce and here you can see the product about an hour into the cooking. I will let this simmer for several hours and then cool slightly before I freeze it this evening.
A quick note. If you find you don't have enough tomatoes to make sauce then you can use what you have and add a few cans of tomato sauce. I did that with my first few batches because I didn't have enough tomatoes ripe to make a batch to freeze.

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Canning Tomatoes and Peaces

I am exhausted. I decided to go ahead and can some tomato juice. This was messy but overall pretty easy to do. I just cored them and used my vadalia chopper to chop them up. You put them into a big pot and cook them down. Then you strain them, put the juice in the jars and give them a water bath. Sound simple and it was but it is time consuming and messy. Several times I thought to myself Tomato Juice from Aldi's is cheap and easy but at least I have organic, good juice to make some chili this winter.

I also stewed some tomatoes. These I did the same as above except I blanched to peal the tomatoes then de-seeded the tomatoes, then put them into a big pot and simmer crushing them as they heat up. Then can as normal. You can use this to make sauces, chili, soups and more.

Then....I ran to the store for more jars and started in on the peaches. I blanched as I did the tomatoes to get the skins off, them pitted them and put them through the vadalia chopper. I got the perfect consistency for making jam. Here is the recipe I followed.

The jam is finishing up in its water bath and I am tired! I still have peaches left over and I wanted to make and can peach pie filling but need to find some thing called clear gel to use instead of cornstarch. If I cant find it tomorrow (walmart didn't have it) then it will just have to be canned/frozen peaches.

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Time to freeze some more fruit

How are all of you doing on freezing or canning your summer produce? I have done fairly well with all that I have gotten this year. So far I have frozen zucchini both shredded and finely grated for sauces. I have frozen spaghetti sauce and fresh blueberries.

My friend Denise has been doing a great job of getting her produce put up this year. She has frozen and canned: blueberries, cherries, strawberries (I believe) and she has canned tomatoes, peaches, made some jellies and is working on some pickles. Good job Denise.

I plan to go get some farm fresh peaches and freeze some this week. Not too many but enough that I can make some fruit crisps this winter. Go here if you want to see how to can/freeze peaches.

This freezing and canning works great for fresh foods. You know what you are eating. You know where it came from and is economical in the long run. I have never canned before. I used to watch my mom do it every year. We had a huge basement growing up and had shelving that was like a grocery store. My mom canned tomatoes and we never used store bought. My dad (he did all the grocery shopping) stocked the shelves with food that he got on sale. He was a coupon man and whenever we needed something we just went downstairs. I have no space to put any canning I would do. I do have a big deep freezer in the garage. I would love to can but just don't know where I would put it.

Leave your stories of gardening, canning and freezing good or bad so we can all hear your great stories.

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Shell Salad

I have mentioned this salad before but since I was making again today I decided to take some pictures and post it. It is very simple, cheap and I have never had anyone not like it. Its a standard in my family. I will appoximated recipe.

I have fresh tomatoes coming from the garden and I picked a few strangler cucumbers as well as zucchini and green beans this morning. I thought I would use as much as I could today so I though of Shell salad. You can use any pasta but the shells work really well and we just prefer it. Also I am a real mayo girl however this pasta salad uses miracle whip salad dressing and you really need to use that because it gives it that zing that the salad needs.

1 box pasta shells
2 medium to large cucumbers
3-4 ripe tomatoes
Miracle whip Salad dressing

Boil and cook pasta draining well. In the mean time chop up tomatoes and peeled cucumbers into bite sized pieces. Combine all ingredients (pasta, veggies) and begin to add the Miracle whip by big spoonfuls. I can't tell you exactly how much because it just depends on the amount of tomatoes, cucs, juiciness, just add and stir until it is coated and not looking dry. Salt and pepper a little bit.

This salad is best sitting over night or several good hours in the fridge. Stir well before use, if it looks a little dry add a few spoonfuls of miracle whip. This is a salad that I find needs a lot of salt to taste so I suggest just letting people add salt if they like more. You can make as much or as little as you like. If you like lots of tomatoes and cucs then add more. If you want to make a smaller batch just use less pasta. Very versatile.

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Tomatoes...What are you going to do with yours?

All of us gardeners have tomatoes that are just ripening or you are getting more than you can handle right now. What are your tomato plans?

I made some great meat sauce with my first tomato harvest. I plan on freezing the rest of my tomatoes in various ways. Here is some sites that can help you decide how to use your tomatoes. You can make tomato sauce, paste, spaghetti sauce or just freeze the tomatoes to use as needed.

If you are new to freezing or canning or just need to brush up on your knowledge then these sites are helpful as well. It showed me how to quickly blanch the tomatoes to get the skins off, how to cut and de-seed the tomatoes. There is step by step instructions on how to make all the different tomato options.

Spaghetti sauce go here.
How to freeze tomatoes go here.
How to make tomato paste go here.
How to make tomato sauce go here.

Remember that you can freeze or can the tomatoes. I plan on freezing them. I might try and can a few just to see but no sure because freezing is so easy.

Here is the meat sauce I made. I prepared the tomatoes as they suggested. I blanched them, peeled the skins, cut in half took out pulp and seeds. Put the tomato in a strainer and squeezed them. In the mean time I browned hamburger in olive oil and garlic paste. I also salted and peppered it. I then added my cheese grated zucchini. No one can even tell it was added to the browned beef. I added the tomatoes, and canned tomato sauce (of course didn't have any of my own at this time) so used what garden tomatoes I had and canned sauce. I added a bit of parsley, thyme, more pepper and some sugar. I slow cooked it on the lowest setting for about 2 hours and it was really good. The actual amount of everything is going to very for every person. So experiment and have some fun. I don't like bay leaves or basil so I never add them if I can avoid it.

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Lasagna Garden: Tomato

My First Tomato from the Lasagna Garden. I have a few more that should be ready within a few days. My husband picked this and brought it into me. I told him today to stay out of my garden. LOL. He was is pretty proud of my little garden, I think. He hates tomatoes but he is going to love the sauces I make with these little beauties.

How are all your gardens going? Hopefully you are getting some good harvests and starting to prepare for the winter. I can't believe it is going to be August. Here in the Midwest it barely feels like summer since it has been so mild. I saw the weather map on the news tonight and the rest of the country is boiling. My heart goes out to you all that are trapped inside with the air eating up your bills. Here windows and doors stay open 24/7 for the wonderful air.

Doggie update: Snickers had surgery today and they found out it was not a tooth but the original reason I took her to the emergency vet Saturday night....she had bugs in her cheek. Yes flies bit her and laid eggs in there. Gross I know. It caused a very bad infection in her body. But it is taken care of now, her teeth got cleaned since she was under the antistatic, she is on more meds and is acting a little more like normal today. We will take another blood test in 10 days to check her liver though because it was not looking so well. The vet ended up discounting our bill. She called me and was very apologetic because she felt she should have looked herself on Monday and not just trusted the emergency vets diagnosis. My bill should have been $417 and was discounted to $257. Total vet bill about a grand. Just what the unemployed need right? Thanks for all your wonderful thoughts and prayers.

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How are you using your Zucchini?

Everyone is tired of zucchini right now. I got several bags for the freezer done today. Then my husband went out and found two more. I shredded the zuc two ways. I regular shredded it and I cheese grated it for a very fine grate to add to sauces. See the photos below. My food processor is not working correctly right now so I had to do it by hand. Fun, Fun. I saw this recipe for chocolate zucchini muffins and think I will give this a whirl soon. Here is another one for Pineapple Zucchini bread. Its a fun twist on the regular muffins and my family will eat it.




Overall I am very happy with my little lasagna garden system this year so far. I can't wait for the tomatoes to ripen so I can start to make spaghetti sauce. I will update some pictures soon.

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Zucchini Muffins the Healthy Way

Here is my dear friends healthy but great tasting zucchini muffin recipe. You can always find something good comimg from her oven. Check her site out. She has also used some of the lasgna gardening methods this year. Her garden looks great!

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Lasagna Garden and Grandpa's dinner

This is the first harvest of green beans and the second for zucchini. I put the beans and cut zucs in a zip lock steam fresh bag with some butter and pepper. Zapped it for a bit and gave it to grandpa with a smoky griller sausage and a zucchini muffin. Grandpa is easy to please and the veggies didn't go to waste because we would not be home to eat tomorrow.

I am enjoying the harvest so far. Something satisfying about picking and cooking within the same 15 Min's.

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Lasagna Garden update

I went out tonight and did a little cleaning up in the garden. It didn't take long and I was happy to get a sprig of broccoli and two cucs. I have a zuc that should be ready in a few days. I would take a picture but my camera seems to be messing up lately.

I yanked out the poor lettuce that never got properly used and a few other plants that were not doing well went with it. I am going to have some good tomatoes that is for sure.

I love the lasagna method. The weeds come out so easily (what there are of them) and the I just love how much everything grows. I am definitely planning on using this method next year and I plan to expand. However I plan on being a little more careful about what I plant because I have to be more realistic in what I will use. Although lettuce is great, cheap and easy, I never picked it and it got wasted. I don't want to waste.

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Fruits of my labor...and veggies too

Look at my harvest....it is tonight's snack! My friend, Denise reminded me today to go look at the cauliflower and broccoli and I was surprised to find these. I didn't even see them yesterday. The Cauliflower is the size of my whole palm and the broccoli is the center of my palm. I had three sugar snap peas too but I ate two and Mike ate one. Those were yummy.

There are two blueberries and one raspberry. There are quite a few blueberries that are not ripe yet and I have never seen as many raspberries growing as I have this year.

My bean bushes are slow but growing. My tomatoes are about cherry size so far. The zucs have lots of blossoms but no growth yet. My peppers are not overly doing well. They are drowned out by the other plants. I have tons of lettuce and not using it. It is shameful.

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My Lasgna Garden Update

If you have not been following my Lasagna Gardening series you can click on the series on the left side bar to catch up on the entire series.

Here is a picture of the garden the day I planted it (to recap). Please pay attention to how small the marigolds are and then.....
Here is a picture of the garden today...
Here is a picture of my sugar snap peas and my cherry tomato plants, I started from seeds
This is a picture of my cantaloupe in one of my lasagna containers out front.
Here is a picture of my flowering plants out front because they are so pretty. To the left you see more lettuce in the containers.
This is another lasagna garden on the fence. Pay no attention to the grass growing around and behind it, our mower broke and we are finally getting it back tonight.
Here are my bean bushes finally starting to sprout good now. I planted them a few weeks ago.Here is my raspberry bush that I was so worried about. But thanks to the lasagna gardening my berry bush is growing like crazy.

So what do you think? Crazy growth huh? No chemicals at all just lasagna gardening and once in awhile I remember to water it.

I have seen several of your posts on your garden as well and I think everyone is doing a great job. Please leave a comment and leave your blog spots so everyone can check out your blog and gardens as well.

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The fruits of my labor: The first harvest

Look at my first harvest...leaf lettuce! I am really amazed at how well my little lasagna garden is doing. My area is abound with the new growth. I was so busy this week I didn't get to check the garden and I should have been getting this lettuce all week long. We have a wonderfully full big size ziplock bag full of lettuce to eat on this weekend and my father in law is eating a nice big salad made with my lettuce right now!

Here is a picture of my lasagna garden today. To the left you see my thinned out lettuce. Next to that is the cauliflower and then cabbage. The sort of blank space by the lettuce is the mix of cucumbers and zucchini. Don't ask me how that happened but the sprouts are starting to come up nicely. Next to that is several types of tomatoes and on the right side next to tomatoes is the zucchini. You will notice the string and cages. I will start to "train" the zucchini, cucs and tomatoes to climb instead of spread as it grows. This is why we can pack so much into the area. The soil is wonderful! My friend, Denise said she has some weeds in hers, so far mine is going good. I do need to weed whack around it but I told my husband to stay away from that entire area with the whacker and mower. I don't trust him. SMILE :)


Here is a close up at the zucchini. WOW it doubled size overnight and I am not kidding. The last two days have been a bit cool and damp, the garden loved it. This weekend I will string it to the sides and start the climb upwards. You see to the left my pepper plants and to the left is more tomatoes and cabbage.



Above you see my raspberry bush. It is doing well this year and you can see some white flowers where the berries will come on...I have had this bush for 4 years and it has grown considering it was a stick when I got it but I wonder if I should move it. I will have to research that possibility.

The lasagna garden is working well for me. I have enjoyed it and can't wait until I can get some more started. Growing your own food is economic and healthy. If you would like to follow the lasagna garden series click here.

Your turn, what does your gardens look like and how is it growing? Did you use lasagna gardening, old fashion gardening, container gardening or any other type?

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Come Walk....Around My Lasagna Gardens

To see the entire Lasagna series go here.

It has been a beautiful day. We didn't expect it to get out of the low fifties but it hit about 60 degrees the sun was shining and there was a breeze that kept me feeling wonderful all day long. I really needed to get outside today. I need the vitamin D in the Sun, doctor said so. I needed fresh air, the solace alone time with God and nature. I love to play in the dirt too. Speaking of dirt, do you all get dirty when you garden? I don't mean a bit of dirt under the nails and on your hands, I mean dirt ground in your knees, ankles and feet (toes)? I am always barefoot when I garden (Indiana hillbillies). I get dirt everywhere and boy did that shower feel good when I was done.

I got the garden planted and it was so wonderful to work with, the layers had started to break down and it was easy to plant by pushing aside the mulch and putting in the plant. The rain had made the mulch layer really wet and easy to work with too. The number of plants I was able to get in there was amazing. Remember with lasagna gardening you train the plants to grow up so there is more room and you don't have to space as much because of the rich, weed free soil. Guess we will find out if this works or not. I will probably box this in next year if I like this type of gardening.

You might be able to see a little bit in the back of the above picture where I was working this afternoon. I had a few things planted there (hostas, raspberry bush and lots of weeds).

So I built myself a lasagna garden. (See it below) This was just as easy to do in one day the only difference I noticed was that planting in the already wet bed made me feel a bit better about the plants. I had the hose on a slow stream the entire time trying to soak the beds. Peat moss soaks up a lot of water. Here is the final product. I planted two new blueberry bushes and left a space where I will transfer another bush next year (didn't want to harm an established bush). I planted bush beans in that spot for this year (The empty spot is beans). I also left the raspberry bush and transplanted the lily, hostas and added a few flowers and plant I got for mother's day.


I need to add the wood mulch to the garden and flower bed areas but figured I would wait a few days to give the plants time to get deeply watered and settled. The next picture (below) is the other side of the fence that I will be working on next. In that picture you will see the actual layers through the fence. The problem with the other side of the fence is that is where the dogs like to run and I am going to have to fence it off. I am thinking of doing a little picket fence area. I am going to plant watermelon (called sugar babies) they are small and will grow up the fence and I will secure nylons under the melons as they grow.


I really should block this entire area off in a square and plant another garden but that will have to wait for next year. This year I am going to take a straight line by the fence and plant watermelons. You can see the layers through the fence.

Well that is it for today. I am tired, tuckered and need to get ready for my first summer class tomorrow. I am going to have lunch after with my friend, Denise. I will get to see the little chicks she has growing. I will take my camera and get some pictures of her garden/chicks for everyone to see.

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Lasagna Gardening: Planting Fruits

Go here to see parts of the book.

Time for another addition to the lasagna gardening series. If you have missed any of the series you can catch up by going to the left side bar and clicking on , "lasagna gardening."

I have two fruit plants a blueberry bush and a raspberry bush. Both are small and have not yielded anything worth writing about. My goal is to add several more bushes this year.

The author says that planting fruits are no big deal for lasagna gardens. Lets talk berries.

Blueberries like more acidic soil. Use more peat moss and add some pine needles, they love that.
Put an extra ring of mulch around the new plant and water often for good root growth.

Blackberries are upright and thorny. Control the vines by using a trellis. Make a T with wood and string to help hold the berries up for better growth.

Raspberries need good drainage, rich soil and plenty of light. (I might need to move mine)
Pinch off growth the first year and for go the first year berries to put all the energy into the roots you will be better off for it the next season.

Strawberries grow best in full sun and rich soil. There are many varieties of strawberries so check the weather growth zone for best planting tips for the strawberries you want to plant.

There are many more types of berries that can be planted so do your research before you plant and use the lasagna method for ease of planting.

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Aches, Pains and Garden

Yesterday was a wonderful day here in Northern Indiana. It wasn't too warm, there was a breeze and plenty of sunshine. Perfect weather for me to start on some yard work and get my garden, flower beds up to par.

Fast forward to this morning...I can't move without aches, pains and moaning. I spent the majority of the day outside. First I push mowed my front yard. It is a good size yard. I needed the grass clippings. Then I put down wet paper, grass clippings and mulch on my flower beds in the front yard. I planted some containers with lettuce, cherry tomatoes and peas. I used the lasagna gardening method for the containers. I also got my prepared lasagna garden planted with lettuce, cauliflower and cucs. This method was so easy to plant, no digging, just push the mulch bedding aside and put the plant in the hole, cover and water.

I have much more to do put that will have to wait for another day (one where I can move). I admit that the lasagna gardening does take some initial work but I see the value of what I have accomplished so far. The weeds will be under control. My watering will be cut in half and the gardens will be already for me come spring next year. This is worth it to me.

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