My Vegan Garden

[myvegangarden]

So excited to have a bumper crop of broccoli this year! I’ve never successfully grown broccoli before and to have such a huge amount coming in is just thrilling. My fall crop is doing amazing. I think fall gardening is starting to replace spring/summer gardening as my favorite. It’s so great not having to battle weeds.

[myvegangarden]

Although I didn't get much of a squash crop this year, atleast I got this beautiful long island cheese to grow. Out of 3 vines this was the only thing that sprung from it.

[myvegangarden]

This fall's brassica seedlings

[myvegangarden]

I started acorn squash really late in the year this year and these acorn squash have a slight resistance to squash bugs, which I have a real problem with usually. I think planting late in the year is the best defense against them. I planted 3 of these plants and they are doing incredible. I only wish I'd planted more but it was just an experiment.

[myvegangarden]

Dream Potting Shed

I've been researching what goes into building a house. Not having it built, but actually building it yourself. And I'm convinced I can build a 1200 square foot dream house.

Right now I'm researching foundations. How the concrete footings are dug and poured. I feel like that part is doable but I'm not sure I want to do that part. I may hire someone to do the entire foundation. I'm unsure. So I'm planning my dream potting shed that I am going to build myself, from the footings up. It will be the size of a small house and two story-ish. So it will give me a taste of what it will involve to do a 1200 square foot house before I get involved in such a massive project.

One thing that scares me is working on the roof. A two story house would be more than 20 feet in the air I'm guessing. I can't stand heights at all. I will have to get over my fear of heights.

I'll keep you updated on the potting shed, which may be a year or more before building starts. But I am working on the plans which I will share soon.

[myvegangarden]

Hey people who follow me on this blog. I don't follow back on this blog cause it's not my main tumblr. So if you want me to follow you back you can follow my main tumblr: https://www.tumblr.com/blog/myvegancookbook and I will follow you back.

[myvegangarden]

While everything seems to be dying off in the greenhouse, this small pot of Little Gem lettuce is holding up very well. It was an experiment. I think next year I'm going to grow a large tray of this.

[myvegangarden]

[myvegangarden]

First ripe watermelon from our garden this summer. I picked 2 that were still green 2 weeks ago. It's so hard to tell when they are ripe errrrgh! This was so delicious and sweet. I could live on mostly watermelon tehe Besides some really boring tasting tomatoes, a few pieces of good corn ad peppers, it was basically total crop failure for me this summer. But a new season is upon us and fall and winter crops are ready to start. I must look forward!

[myvegangarden]

Summer 2014 garden. I'm having some success this year, it wasn't a total crop failure. I have some very healthy looking watermelon and cantaloupe vines with baby melons, which I'm so excited about. Watermelon is my favorite thing and last year my watermelon flopped. I didn't get one watermelon from the garden. I'm crossing my fingers that I get a bumper crop (knocks on wood). I have great looking fennel this year, which I've tried for 3 years in a row to grow fennel and wasn't able to. I started it indoors and transplanted it, other times I just put it directly in the ground, which didn't work for me for some reason. I hate the corn in the center of my circle garden, a bad idea. The focal point of my garden, the greenhouse is lost. It looks weedy doesn't it. :0 I know I need to do more weeding.

[myvegangarden]

A Warning About Coconut Coir

None of the 100+ Tomato, Pepper and Eggplant seeds I planted for the summer garden actually grew. I had to resort buying my plants from Wal-Mart :(. Very disgusted! I have had some successes which I'll discuss in  the next entry.

First I planted my seeds like I always do and they germinated like they always do, in about a week or so. Then two weeks went by and they hadn't grew any true leaves. Three weeks in and still no true leaves and the leaves on the tomatoes started to turn purple and yellow. 4 weeks and still they were frozen in time. I didn't know what could be happening. Had the temps went too low in the greenhouse? I only had them out during the day and at night I would bring them back inside and I always kept a watch on the digital thermometer to make sure it never got below 60 and above 90.

I decided I would start over and try again and then the same thing happened, by this time the temps were higher, so no problems with cold stressing the plants out. What could it be? Was it the growing medium? I used vermiculite/coconut coir like I always had in the past with no problems. Then I remembered reading about salt content in coconut coir. Aha! This had to be it. I purchased some basic soil-less seed starting mix and made a side by side comparison and bingo! The difference was obvious. Apparently not all coconut coir is safe to use right out the package.

The next time I use coconut coir I will be soaking and rinsing it to see if that helps reduce the salt levels. Doing a test germination would also be a good idea.

[myvegangarden]

This summer, I've have 2 adorable box turtles that have taken up residence in my back yard.  I feel honored that they feel my backyard is safe and cozy enough for their liking. Here is one of them eating an apple I gave it. They love apples. Mr. Turtle (is this turtle a male of female, who knows but I call he/she Mr. Turtle), goes bonkers for apples. I try to treat him with one every other day. Although that could get expensive :D. I often find him in the patch of yarrow, as he is in the picture. He likes that spot for some reason. Maybe he's attracted to the smell of the yarrow? I love watching him eat the apple, struggling to get leverage and push his head up far enough to take, what seem like the smallest bites I've ever seen an animal take. As I watch him struggle I think, If only he could break from his shell and develop opposable thumbs and handle the apple with ease. Is nature less sensual for him? Is the trade off of being trapped in a shell for your own protection a good trade off for not be able to experience the apple fully, to not experience the sensual touch of naked flesh. Then I think about what Shirley McClain said in her recent book "What If...." about Stephen Hawking, how he wouldn't be the person he is, lost in only his thoughts, dreaming of the Universe, if he weren't trapped in a wheelchair. Maybe the turtle is perfectly happy being turtle-y and I'm being judgmental about something I know nothing about. How could I, I'm not a turtle.

I need to blog about my spring and summer gardening progess, that's coming up real soon.

[myvegangarden]

Today I planted some early watermelons in pots. I'm starting them a month early in pots so I can get a head start. I love watermelon and if I can get them a month early, well that's better than waiting a whole extra month for watermelon tehe. Also, if the plants don't make it I can always just plant them in the ground.

I also started some Fennel. I have tried planting fennel 2 years in a row and both times it failed. I'm not sure what I was doing wrong, I planted them from seed straight into the ground. So this year I'm starting them in pots and transplanting them into the garden. Hoping that helps.

First pic is the early tomatoes, eggplants and peppers for the greenhouse. They are almost ready to go into large pots.

Second and third pic is of more recently seeds started for everything that will go into the garden this spring. 

[myvegangarden]

Bro Gardener

New term, Bro Gardener. A bro gardener is a young male gardener who only grows very hot varieties of chili peppers.

[soletmedream]

61390017 by j u s t l i k e h o n e y on Flickr.

[myvegangarden]

It's the middle of February already!? How did that happen? I already have plants growing and I'm excited for spring and summer! Big BIG plans! This will be the year I will be victoriously carrying huge baskets of fruits and veggies from my garden daily, I just know it. For the greenhouse I have started tomatoes, peppers and eggplants early. Those will stay in the green house. Also beets, broccoli and kale for my early crop that will go outside.

And now for the list of things I plan to grow for my spring and summer garden.

Vegetables & Fruits Beet, Bull's Blood Broccoli, Green Sprouting Calabrese Carrots, Scarlet Nantes Chives Corn, Sweet Utopia Cucumber, True Lemon Eggplant, Long Purple Eggplant, Fairy Tale Eggplant, Black Beauty Eggplant, Listia de Gandia Fennel, Di Ferenze Lettuce, Fresh Heart Lettuce, Romaine, Little Gem Melon, Charentais Melon, American Anana D; Amerique A Chair Verte Oak Choy, Oriental Greens Extra Dwarf Okra, Heirloom Onion, Crimson Forest Bunching Onion, Bunching Evergreen Hardy White Pepper, Bell, Orange Cal Wonder Pepper, Sweet, Big Bertha Hybrid Pepper, Giant Aconcagua Pepper, Jalapeno, Traveler Strain Pepper, Golden Treasure Pepper, Ancho Gigantea Pepper, Joe's Long Cayenne Pepper, Pasilla Bajio Pepper, Carmen Squash, Seminole Pumpkin Squash, Greek Sweet Red Squash, Butternut Squash, Zucchini, Black Beauty Tomato, Pantano Romanesco Tomato, Moneymaker Tomato, San Marzano Tomato, Beam's Yellow Pear Tomato, Kellogg's Breakfast Tomato, Eva Purple Ball Tomato, Cherry, Sun Gold Tomato, Red Pear Tomato, Purple Bumblebee Tomato, Pink Bumblebee Tomato, Red Grape Watermelon, Georgia Rattlesnake Watermelon, Yellow Belly Strain Watermelon, Sangria Hybrid Herbs Basil, Purple Petra Basil, Lettuce Leaf Chervil, French Hibiscus, Zinger Lemon Balm Oregano, Wild Zaatar Sage, Green Culinary Stevia Sweet Marjoram Flowers & Misc. Four O'Clocks Calendulas Helichrysums Wildflower Mix Marigold, French Dwarf Mix Echinacea Zinnia Lilac Emperor Cactus Flowered Dwarf Zinnias, Fushia Mix Cacti (Baker Creek) Papaya, Sun Rise

[myvegangarden]

It's January and in the south we have had a few days that were in the 50s and I was able to do some clearing and shoveling for new garden spots. Marked in magenta is the one I completed a few days ago. As you can see it was covered in ivy and poison ivy and every vine known to man. This also used to be where a large tree was. The tree was removed a few years ago, and when I had someone remove it, I had them remove the stump. How professionals remove stumps is with this huge grinding wheel. They turn it into wood chips. It was fascinating to watch them do it. I had a mountain of mulch  to put into my compost bin which was nice. What I plan to plant in this 10 X 10 foot spot is watermelons. I'm going to do some vertical gardening, growing them up on trellises. Some of the type of watermelons I plan to grow are huge, so I'm going to support them by placing them in their own little macrame hammocks.

The green arrows are pointing to what used to be my kale. I got an ok amount of kale but nowhere near what I was expecting. Rabbits decided to start feasting on them in late November. I didn't figure out what was happening until one evening, just before the sun set, I was walking to my greenhouse and saw 2 rabbits bolting from the garden. Next time I plan to cover them or fence them off. You garden and you learn.

I've already purchased seeds for this year and I'll talk about my big plans (aren't they always) for my garden in my next entry.