Indiana Organic Gardeners Assn. Meeting Today

Hello All!

Today was the first meeting of the year of the Indiana Organic Gardeners Association.  It was a nice meeting, as usual.  It was held at the Greenwood Public Library, which is south of Indy.  These meetings start with a pitch-in meal, which I have not participated in, yet.  I feel like the Cubs on this pitch-in; wait till next meeting.

Anyway, we always start with introductions.  This time we also said where we were getting our seeds from.  Me, I got mine from Nature's Crossroads.  You will see the link on this blog, but the site is not up at the moment.  RAMBLING, AGAIN!  Ok, we learned about organic pesticides from a woman named Laura Karr from KG Acres Farm Featherwerks.  She also spoke about chickens, which isn't my bag.  Baby.

One of the members of IOGA was giving away all of her gardening books.  She is moving away.  It was kind of sad, but I appreciated the books.  They will be used.  I got a nice book about flower for Miss 38th Street.  I hope she likes it!  I also got a wonderful gardening catalog which I intend to use here soon.  I need some seed growing supplies.

Now the best thing to happen at the meeting, which I'm totally psych'd about is a guy I met there who sells worm castings.  Worm pooh, basically.  Michael's his name and he was telling the group about how he used worm castings to start seeds.  He said they germinated quicker and were, on average, healthier plants. I got his info and I'm going to get some worm castings for my seeds!  It is from a site called Sophiaorganic.org.  Can't wait to try this out!  I was telling all this to Miss 38th Street this afternoon.  Then I was listening to myself say that I was psych'd about worm castings?  I can't believe I just said that.  Garden Geek!

I'm drinking wine, by the way.

Thank you for reading.

Good night, and good luck ;)

Happy New Years!

Hello, Again!

My first entry of the new year!  I hope everyone had a great 2011 and will have an even better year this time around.  Welcome back to my garden blog.  I made a few changes to the blog for 2012.  I might make a few more.  I hope everyone will enjoy this year's version.  I also hope I get some more advice, too!  I need all the help I can get.

If you're like me, the garden is already on your mind.  In fact, I got some new garden books for Christmas. Mainly from Miss 38th Street's lovely mother (Kathy, you're a peach!)  I have a lot to read.  Check this out:

 I got "Carrots Love Tomatoes," by Louise Riotte.  I studied some companion gardening from several internet articles last year, but I still wanted this book.  I just like having books handy, you know?

I got "The Organic Gardener's Handbook of Natural Pest and Disease Control," which is a Rodale book.  And it has such a catchy title, huh?   Rodale rocks, so I wanted this book.

Last, but not least, I was given the "Seed to Seed," by Suzanne Ashworth.  This will be a valuable book in the long run, I hope.  I have read a couple segments from it on a website last year.  I liked it.  We gotsta keep it realz.




















I have a lot to read, as you can see.

Now, I've already started on my first garden project.  Last year was the second time I started seeds indoors.  I had mixed results.  I thought the whole experience was great.  Miss 38th Street and I got excited when we came home from work or woke up in the morning to find new sprouts.  Last year, I attempted to start around 50 seedlings or so.  The seed growing set up was a set that I adjusted as I went. It was pretty ugly, but it worked, kinda.

This year, I have taken the next step in my seed growing endeavours.  I have moved the operation to the basement.  My Dad gave me a heavy duty 6ft table last week.  I'm using it as the seed tray table.  But that's not the best part.  Check it:

I installed five sets of grow lights on pulleys!  I have three 4 foot duel lamp fixtures, and two 24 inch duel lamp fixtures.  

I am using tie-line to hang the lights.  I installed 2x4s, plywood, hooks and pulleys.  

I've got five lights that I can adjust as needed.  It's not perfect, but it's a start.  

I still need to run the power to all the fixtures, which I hope to have finished this week.  I am also looking to add some storage to hold all pertinent items to this operation and an oscillating fan.  Possibly a space heater.  I'll have to see the how warm it is down there.  This is really exciting!  It was great when I showed Miss 38th Street.  She was a little stunned at the operation, but was confident in what I was doing.  After looking at this, if anyone has any suggestions.  Please let me know!  

Alright.  That's all I've got for now.  I'm glad you read the blog!  I can't wait till I get some seeds started!

38th Street out.

The End and the Beginning

Yesterday,

I pulled up most of the garden yesterday.  It had to be done.  I had a lot of green tomatoes, which I gave to my neighbor.  His woman likes fried green tomatoes.  All that's left is a few things here and there.  I did see a couple onions starting for some reason.  I thought they were all dead!

I have a pile of dead plants in the corner of the property.  I haven't decided what to do with them.  Some of them are slightly diseased.  Most are healthy, though.  I could chop them up and throw them in the compost bin. 

Last week, I got an email from Nature's Crossroads saying that they were have a sale on all their seeds, which are all USDA organic.  50% off!  (Most of these seeds are adapted to Indiana's weather.)  So I got some.  I really haven't totally planned the garden yet, but now I have plenty to play with now.  Hey, if I don't use them, maybe my Sister and my Dad can.

So here is what I got!

Chanteney Red Carrot
Purple Plum Radishes
Snowball Cauliflower
Walthum Butternut Squash
Sugar Baby Watermelons
California Wonder Bell Peppers
Jalapenos
Red Scotch Bonnets
Aji Limon Peppers
Black Seeded Simpson Lettuce
Purple Orach Greens
Freckles Lettuce
Red Winter Kale
Red Brandywine Tomatoes
Green Zebra Tomatoes
Tomatillos
Tendergreen Green Beans, bush
Kentucky Wonder Green Beans, pole
Garlic

And I got Miss 38th Street some flowers, too:
Pacific Beauty Calendulas
Bee Balm (Monarda)
Bachelors Buttons
Aunt Honey's Black-eyed Susans
Columbines (native wildflowers)

So the garden has some options.  I'm already dreaming of the garden.  But I have a lot to do before I'm ready for that.  I have some winter projects you'll have to see.  It's going to cool!  Well, I think they're cool.

And I know what you've been saying, "Why doesn't Rafael have a gardening hat?"  I know, right.  Well, problem solved!

I think I need to get darker to wear this hat.  I'm a little too lite and not enough Mexi.

Garden Update!!!

Ok,

I haven't written in a while.  A WHILE!!!  Ok, so...

We harvested the carrots.  We had a few good ones.  Most were puny, but good.  They definitely tasted different.  Kind of soapy.  Good though. 

We've had a lot of Pakistan, Anaheim, and Scotch Bonnet peppers, still.  I've made some really hot dishes.  Holy crap!  Man. 

So I've been cleaning up the garden box a bit.  I've pulled out the watermelons, radicchio, green beans, cherry tomatoes and some other tomatoes. 

I also planted MORE BABY SPINACH and MORE BABY ROMAINE!!!  I prepped a patch of soil with Garden-tone and some organic garden soil.  This is another first for me.  I've never planted a fall crop.  I can't wait to see if works!  Undercover Garden Brother.

38th Street!

Near the End

Hello, again.

My garden is winding down the production, sad to say.  Some plants did great (cucumbers, green beans, spinach, Thai Sun Chilies).  Some plants are just now producing (Scotch Bonnet, Pakistani, and long red slim peppers).  Some plants produced, but not very much (watermelons, tomatoes, bell peppers).  And some failed miserably (peas, roma tomato, bell peppers). 

I think this picture is hilarious.

The cucumbers are still producing, but I think they are done.  Now, I've said that three times before and they kept pumping out cucumbers!  I've eaten a lot of cucumbers this year.  It's been great!

The peppers are coming around and giving me something to work with finally.  The Thai Sun Chilies and the Long Red Slim Chilies I'm dehydrating, deseeding, and mincing into flakes.  I've combined them into a dried pepper flake mix that is damn hot.  I have more dehydrating right now.  Hot!  The Pakistan Chunky Chilies are doing fine.  They are hotter than I thought they would be, which is good.  Speaking of hot, the Scotch Bonnet finally gave me four peppers.  The look awesome!  I used one tonight in a Jamaican Curried Chicken dish I made.  Holy crap, that pepper made me go into a coughing fit!  I could smell the burn when I minced it.  Then, when I washed the cutting board, the capsaicin fumes came rushing at me and took my breath away!  Wow!  Hands are still burning a bit (I couldn't find the rubber gloves.  Don't ask).  The dish was great, and Miss 38th Street and I were sweating.

The tomatoes are just disappointing.  I have only got, maybe, 10 tomatoes from the 5 tomato plants that aren't cherry tomatoes.  The cherries are doing fine.  I had a lot of tomatoes that had severely cracked skin.  So much so, that I couldn't eat over half of them because they molded over before they were ripe.  Sucks.  I'll do better next year.

I did get two Sugar Baby Watermelons!  I didn't know if I would get any, so I'll take the two.  I had two plants which each gave me one.  They tasted great.  I ate one, and I gave the other to my parents.  They said it was good, but had a lot of seeds. 

I'm still waiting on the carrots.  I pulled one and it was still pretty small.  I'm not sure when to pull them, but I hope in the next couple weeks.  We'll see!

I hope to have some more produce to show you here soon.  I hope everyone's garden is doing great!

Today's Harvest

I haven't written in a bit, so I'll do a little catch-up.  The cucumbers are the MVP of the garden thus far.  We have had to come up with several cucumber dishes.  Most have been pretty good.  The jalapenos we let ripen but they were still solid.  I had to grill them and remove the skin.  The heat varied.  Today, we got our first slim chili and Pakistani chili.  Here is what we got today:

Do you know which chili is which?

 

This all we got today.  Some Super 100 cherry tomatoes, Beef Steak tomato, Black Krim tomato, the only Green Pepper, Slim Chili, Pakistani Chili, Jalapeno, Thai Sun Chiles, and another Cucumber.

 

That's a lot of Thai Sun Chiles.  

 

 I'm attempting to dry out the Thai's in the oven right now.  I hope it works!  If so, then I'll make a Thai Sun Chili powder.  Mmmm!

State of the Garden August 1st

As of August 1st, the garden is good.  Not great, but good.  The three cucumbers are doing the best, especially the one I snuck into the landscape.  I trained it up the southwest corner gutter, right by the stairs.  We are making all kinds of cucumber dishes and giving them away. 

The Thai Sun Chili plants, two in pots and one in the southside landscape.  The two in the pots are doing better.  We are getting chilis now.  Damn, they're Hot!  We've made a Thai dish, and I'm making curry tomorrow!  The Jalapeno Pepper plant I picked up late and plopped just west of the garden box is doing well.  I prepped this soil with store bought compost, Espoma Garden Tone fertilizer and some peat moss.  we have five peppers on it.  The are hard.  We ate one tonight in the strawberry salsa on our halibut fish tacos.  Good flavor.  The two bell pepper plants are doing fair.  There is one in the garden box and one west of the box.  Each has one pepper on it and they are not big.  Lame.  The  two Anaheims,  two Pakistani,  Scotch Bonnet and the Red Slim Chilis are doing well.  All have peppers, but are not ripe.  

We've got a few tomatoes of the Stupice tomato plant.  They were alright.  The two Super100 cherry tomato plants are exploding and are starting to ripen.  The Big Beef, Better Boy, Big Boy, Black Krim have tomatoes, but not a lot.  None have started to ripen. 

The carrots are doing well.  We pulled one a couple week ago, just to see how they were developing.  Looked good! 

The red and white onion have all pretty much have been destroyed. 

The Green Beans were rockin early.  We had about eight serving of them till now.  The beans are being eaten by...

The Bean Leaf Beetle.  Stupid beetles.  The Green Bean leaves look like Swiss Cheese! 

The Radicchio is doing alright.  It's not turning red, though, so we haven't eaten any of it yet. 

The peas all wilted from the bottom up.  Turned yellow, dried up and died. 

The Sugar Baby Watermelons are disappointing.  They were doing so well and then they hit a wall.  All the small melons that were forming all stopped growing, turned yellow and black, so I cut them all off.  All the flowers dried up and went away.  The vines are still growing, but that's it.  There are two larger melons still there, but they have not grown in weeks. 

Alright.  That's enough.  I am just rambling on!  Good night, and good gardening.

Ha! No, seriously, I'm going to bed.