Blackrose's 2011 SFG

You are going to have so much fun planting!! Will be a good day for you
Ha-v-v

[quote="Blackrose"]

BackyardBirdGardner wrote:The weather is supposed to be nice on Saturday. I'll be out planting up a storm!

Me too!!!! Can't wait. My radishes are up and my romaine lettuce is poking through with the leaf lettuce right behind it. Now that the sun is out (for a while) the peas and carrots should be along any day.

I have pre-soaked my beans and pumpkin seeds and will plant them tonight. Tomoatoes, peppers and green onions will all be in this weekend as well.

After all of this rain, I am so very glad that I decided to put my SFG on the cinderblock pad. Garden remained wet but not waterlooged.

Ok... when I was talking about planting up a storm, I didn't mean for an actual storm to come through. I got all of my seedlings planted except the tomatoes this weekend. About 30 minutes ago a Severe Thunderstorm warning was issued for our area with torrential downpours, possible hail and high winds with gusts up to 100 km/h. I immediately brought my tomato babies back in the house, but I did not have time to put any kind of protection on the rest that are already planted in the SFG. I hope they'll be ok.

The rain has been coming down in sheets for the last 15 minutes and I'm starting to hear thunder. Hopefully it won't be as bad as they are forecasting.

Blackrose wrote:The rain has been coming down in sheets for the last 15 minutes and I'm starting to hear thunder. Hopefully it won't be as bad as they are forecasting.

Hope it wasn't too bad of a storm for you. We had just a very brief shower early this evening then it was over. Just enough to give all my new little seedlings a good drink.

The fencing I put around the garden seems to be doing its job. It will be worth the extra few minutes I have to take to get into the garden for thinning, planting and weeding (when necessary).

How did you survive the storm yesterday? Hoping it passed you by for the most part.

We got by with a 10 minute shower preceded by some high winds. It all cleared away in time for some fantastic fireworks!

I just realized that in another thread I mentioned that I was going to explain why it was so important to me to plant radishes in my garden this year. I have never been a fan of radishes and never would have considered planting them. Last year my Step-Father, the man that raised me since I was 10 years old, was fighting esophageal cancer. When I mentioned that I was planting a vegetable garden, he mentioned that he loved radishes. So I planted a square for him. Unfortunately, those radishes never grew and were destroyed by leaf miners. I thought I would just plant a fall crop, but on August 11th, my beloved Step-Father lost his battle with cancer and never did get his radishes.

This year I vowed to plant more in his honour. And so, here they are:



I'm not sure if he ever had a radish sandwich, but I thought of him while eating this one. My first radish sandwich, dedicated to the man who raised me:



It was yummy! I think he would have enjoyed it.

That sure looks yummy. The rads are beautiful. That's a nice thought.

I can't wait for my first ones to poke their shoulders up thru the soil so I can have some.

Thanks for the pictures. I've only read about radish sandwiches, and I could only imagine what they look like. I might have to try one...maybe!

That is really sweet Blackrose. I too have lost a father figure to cancer (2 actually) and I sure hear the sentiment loud and clear..very cool of you.

I love it when you can carry someone with you and honor their memory. I recently inheirited my dad's mom's Kitchen Aid mixer, and I have my mother's mother's cake recipe, I got to bake with them both the other day. I named my Kitchen Aid Geraldene, after my grandmother, who passed almost 2 years ago. My maternal grandmother is my last living grandparent, I have an old spindle sewing machine that was her's, I call it Florence, and my uncle is bringing me some of her old canning jars, so when I put up things from the garden, I will be canning with my grandmother. It's a way of keeping those we love alive with us, and passing our memories on to our children. These things make life so much sweeter. Blackrose, I am so glad you have found a way to honor your step father's memory, and to take him with you out into the garden. Maybe you should keep your eye out for a garden knome and name him for your step father, then he could watch over your radishes.

Thank you everybody.

boffer, I recommend you try the radish sandwich. I was pleasantly surprised.

FarmerValerie wrote:Maybe you should keep your eye out for a garden knome and name him for your step father, then he could watch over your radishes.

That is an awesome idea! He loved Garden Gnomes. He had them all over the place, it even turned into a family joke when some started mysteriously appearing around their house. He had no idea where they came from.

Blackrose

I have never seen the block method you used for your seedings. How did you create them?

harmerd wrote:Blackrose

I have never seen the block method you used for your seedings. How did you create them?

You can buy Soil Block Makers from Johnny's Selected Seeds. I bought the Medium Blocker, the Mini Blocker and the Insert Set. They worked quite well.

http://www.johnnyseeds.com/c-455-soil-block-makers.aspx

Wow - Blackrose - Fast reply.
Thanks for the link

Blackrose
Just looking at the link. Have your tried 'Johnny's 512 Mix '
It sounds like Mel's Mix

harmerd wrote:Blackrose
Just looking at the link. Have your tried 'Johnny's 512 Mix '
It sounds like Mel's Mix

No, I haven't. I'm not sure they would ship soil to Canada so I didn't even try. I just used regular seedling mix from the store to make my blocks. It worked just fine. Mel's Mix would fall apart too easily for the soil blocks in my opinion.

Time for my infrequent garden update. I'm just not on the ball lately. Life is so busy lately and I miss having the time to hang out here on the forum.

So, here's how my SFG is doing in June.... Please excuse all of the exclamation marks... I'm really excited as you will see....

June 2 Broccoli... I have broccoli!!!!!! It's actually broccoli in there... I never got anything that even resembled anything close to this last year.


And strawberries!!!


And tomatoes!!!!!!!!!! Please excuse the blurry picture. My blackberry doesn't take very good closeup shots. I'll remember to take my camera out next time. This is my "Nips" tomato. All of my tomato plants have between 1 and 4 tomatoes growing on them and many more blooms just waiting to turn into little baby maters!!


Here is that same broccoli from the pic above. This pic was taken yesterday. Today this lovely broccoli is in the kiddos bellies. They enjoyed it immensely at snack time today.


Everything else is growing really well. All of my radishes are gone. I gave some away to family and munched on some myself. The spinach bolted a couple of weeks ago. So I had to pull that. The lettuce is just about done. I may pull the rest of it in the next couple of days and just have a big final salad out of it.

The weather has been so up and down here lately, I don't think the plants know what to do with themselves. We have a week of rain and then a week of hot, humid weather. We had a few days of cool weather too, bordering on having to cover the eggplant to keep it toasty. Very strange. Hopefully it will all even out over the next few weeks. They are predicting a long, hot summer here this year. (who are they anyway?) So my heat loving plants should be happy. I'll have to keep an extra close eye on watering.

The good thing is I can keep an eye on my SFG while floating around in my pool drinking a beer. Now, that's the life!

WHAT! A pool?!!!! In the frozen tundra!

boffer wrote:WHAT! A pool?!!!! In the frozen tundra!

Hahahaha!!! Very funny! It got up to almost 30C here today.

Its lookin' good. Those first crops from the garden always seem to taste the best.
Sorry about your spinach. Mine did the same thing with the 90's temps we had over a week ago. Ugh!

Oh Joy! Doesn't fresh broccoli get a girl to thinking that a whole box should be filled with nothing but broccoli?

quiltbea wrote:Its lookin' good. Those first crops from the garden always seem to taste the best. Sorry about your spinach. Mine did the same thing with the 90's temps we had over a week ago. Ugh!

Thanks quiltbea. It amazed me how quick that spinach bolted. Crazy!

Lavender Debs wrote:Oh Joy! Doesn't fresh broccoli get a girl to thinking that a whole box should be filled with nothing but broccoli?

It's funny you should say that Debs. I said almost the exact same thing to my DH last night. We love broccoli in this house. Especially the kiddos. I may just dedicate an entire 4x4 to it in the fall and next spring. I can freeze it and use it all winter.