Radishes and Swiss Chard

Lessons to share.  Made a quick cell phone video today

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ofpZa2_wFxU&feature=youtube_gdata

pulled radishes and Swiss chard.  gonna have to research more on SC but radishes I knew something about from the Web.  

plenty of water now added 2x a day, more minutes and a hose that is twice as wide.   replenish soil with good earthy compost and replanted radish.  these are very fast growing veggies due now in about 25 days and seed sprout in like four days.  

happy growing !

My mini farm

A panoramic view of my vegetable farm 

Our home came with the small fence as a dog area.  Kinda nice to keep Sammy away from the plants he just has to smell everything.  

composting the right materials will break down very nicely will amend soil for next year.  

In a short paragraph use water to wet but not completely soak.  Fresh air, dried up grass with no weed killer, leaves brown or green, kitchen scraps that are vegetable only except crushed egg shells.  Skip avocado skin never breaks down either.  

I also added saw dust with no chemicals, and horse manure cause I had the opportunity.   

This summer I got the chance to add several buckets of composted material from similar pile aged a year at least.  From a friend people who share of course I share what ever grows and taste good.  Same from a friend with two horses.   I met her by posting on Facebook on westernslope site need aged manure.  She said sure come on over.  You know it will be a pleasure to share with friends who just have an open heart.  

Just a little over a month ago

Potato towers

On the internet lots of talk about making towers out of discarded wooden pallets

http://shar.es/M55Nl

that means taking apart and using my nail hammer skills that don't exist so I figure something creative that I can handle.  3 long pillow cases at Salvation Army $2.20 for the three towers I have with potato plants

Cut them open on long sides 

sew, I did by hand with yarn, I crochet so I have lots of yarn.  The side to close is the original opening side    

Slide into the four stakes.  I had used duct tape at the base but this is not necessary.  It was just a cheap roll I bought.  

If too loose you can readjust stake or sew a pinch for tightness 

fill with dirt mix I use regular dirt and old horse manure mix I gather from horse owner friend and a new home construction site down the street

Cover until leaves top show.  The plant continues to grow and more dirt is needed to continue covering until plant flowers and dries out late September

When covering Potato main stem forces plant to make root and grow taller repeat procedure 

 More info here...

http://www.thegardenhelper.com/potato2.html

 I get the soil for free so it's worth it.  

Cute little tomato

Cute little tomatoes have started to form all tomato plants are busy flowering now I pinched off all the suckers 

http://www.gardeningknowhow.com/edible/vegetables/tomato/tomato-plant-suckers.htm

but there still lots of green bushy plants.  

 One thing to remember is too much nitrogen as soon too much horse maneuver although it is all dried up it still makes tomatoes plants very pushy and long leaves.  I think that's one thing I'm doing.   When flowering also make sure they have extra extra water.  

It's only five weeks !

Vegetables are really growing and fast I was moving rocks out of the way and planting seeds just give weeks ago.   Nice !   Pepperoncini peppers are so good pickled.  I got e plants and will pickle in a jar when ready ! 

Mesclun salad.

cut off all the topping of growing mesclun.  Enough for a salad before going out this evening.  Two days ago I cut off all the greens from beets stir fry with garlic onion olive oil.  Gonna get my vitamins this week.  I had to cover so the birds would leave me the rest 

tomorrow I'll cut off the chard.  not that they grow fast is just that there are enough plants and IM HUNGRY 

my first harvest !

today I cut some flat leaf parsley I added to my dinner.   it's rewarding to cut something I grew instead of market bought.

I also notices strawberries started to come out.  I bought them a few weeks ago and cut all all the flowers to give strength to the roots which did very well the plants got so much stronger.   Now I'm going to let the flowers bloom for the all summer berries