Swiss Chard, Kale, And A Seedling Update

Today I planted 4 seeds of both Swiss Chard and Kale.  Well I guess I planted 8 of each, 2 in each section, but I will cut back the weaker or second one to sprout.  I will only keep 4 of each.  This is important so each little section in the tray is not over crowded, and so the remaining seedling can get all the nutrients to grow.  Planting an extra seed just help bump up the germination rate, pretty much guaranteeing that a seed will sprout in each section.  And some of my seed packets have 250 seeds in them, it's not like I am ever going to plant that many. 

Swiss Chard
This is our second year planting Swiss Chard.  This is one of the first veggies to go in the garden, along with kale.  We are planing Rainbow Swiss Chard again, from the same seed packet we purchased last year from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds.  I love the rainbow variety.  You get stalks in varying shades of off white, yellow, orange, and pink.  As long as you cut your swiss chard on a regular basis, it will keep growing back.  I always cut the outer larger leaves, leaving the new ones to grow in the middle.  We planted this last spring, and it lasted until late fall.  We will cut up swiss chard and use it in salad, saute it like you would spinach.  I made a swiss chard gratin last year that was great.  This is what the swiss chard seeds look like:

Kale
This is our third year planting kale.  We planted it at the condo when we lived there too.  This year we are planting Blue Curled Scotch Kale from Baker Creek.  Last year we had a Red Kale, and I really wanted to plant a more traditional kale this year.  This stuff is so hardy, it's takes plenty of abuse, and still produces well.  Kale is also one of the first plants to go in the garden, and one of the last to come out.  If you don't cut it on a regular basis, it will bolt and flower or go to seed.  Sometimes during the summer we just can't eat any more, so I will a big cut and cut them way down.  Just like the swiss chard, you can easily blanch the leaves, and freeze.  We have been using up both from last summer, and still have more in the freezer.  There are so many uses for kale.  It's great in smoothies, you can chop up some in mashed potatoes, put it in omelets, make kale chips, use it in salad, soup, saute it, really it's very versatile.  The kale seeds are much smaller than the swiss chard seeds, they look very similar to the cabbage seeds, itty bitty little round black balls.  If you drop one, it may never be seen again.

The rhubarb seedlings are doing very well, they love the grow light they have been under this past week.  They are starting to get their second leaves in. 

The cabbage was an early sprouter, these things germinated in just a few days, and they are growing very fast.

The cauliflower seedlings were just a day or so behind them, but they are coming in a little slower. 

The pepper seeds have not sprouted yet.  Hopefully raising the temperature in the dirt this weekend, while they sit on the warm running dryer, will help them along.  Doesn't surprise me  though, peppers take a while to germinate, and they are slow growers.  I am guessing the kale and swiss chard will sprout about the same time as the peppers.

I am waiting for the snow to go away, last year our beets, swiss chard, and kale all went in the ground mid March, I don't think they will be going in as early this year. 

Peppers, cauliflower, peppers, cabbage, peppers, leeks, and peppers.

Dreary day today, and the snow is falling down, perfect for planting.  I wish.  I would prefer a little sunshine, but you take what you get.  Being that we are at about 11 ish weeks until around our last frost, I had some seeds that needed to get started.  I am going slightly ahead of schedule, just a week or two, but mother nature was ahead of schedule last year, and I would bet she is again this year.  So I am planning accordingly.

Peppers
Last year we planted some mini peppers, and they were a little too mini, as in the size of a large marble.  And Mike was the only pepper eater in the family.  This year, Jonathan has a new found love for red, orange, and yellow peppers,  as in he eats them almost every day in his lunch.  And I am tolerating them much more than I use to, and even enjoying the every now and then.  So we are planting peppers.  To eat, and to freeze.  They freeze great if you dice them up, and they are great to add on to homemade pizza, in omeletts, hash browns, homemade sloppy joes, and much more.  We will eat what we can, and the rest we will dice and freeze.  W are planting King Of The North, which is a hardy sweet red pepper good for short growing seasons, California Wonder, a sweet yellow pepper, and 2 Jalapeno plants which I saved seeds from a farmers market pepper, and trying again the Burpee organic Carnival Pepper mix.  I was hesitant with the Burpee seeds, even though they were organic, worried that they were owned by Monsanto. They are in fact not owned by Monsanto, however they do get some seeds from a Monsanto subsidiary..  They also pledged not to sell any GMO seeds.  They are not my first choice in seed companies but I did want to try out these peppers. In all, I planted 2 Jalapeno plants, 2 Carnival Pepper, 4 King Of The North, and 4 California Wonder.

Cauliflower
I planted the Giant Of Naples from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds.  4 of these giants.  Let's hope they live up to their name.  After our broccoli fail last year we are trying cauliflower instead.  This we will eat raw, or cook up, or freeze. Everyone but Lilah likes cauliflower, but she will at least take a few bites.

Cabbage
Late Flat Dutch, and this bad boys look huge.  In the seed packed picture a little boy is holding up a giant head of cabbage.  I hope mine look as nice when they are done growing.  I am also planting 4 heads of cabbage. I plan on using most of it to can sauerkraut   And eat some fresh sauteed or as coleslaw.  We bought a few small cabbage plants last year, they did decent despite the fact that they went out late and it was super hot and dry last summer.  Hoping starting these early will give them enough time to mature.

Leeks
I love leeks.  In scrambled eggs, quiches, soups, you name it.  I bought quite a few from the farmers market last year, they last a while in the fridge, and I even diced and froze quite a few.  These seem to be needy.  I will be taking half the dirt out of the squares in the garden before they are transplanted outside.  Then when planted, you have to pile the dirt up around them as they grow to get more of the white are in the leeks, and that is the best part.  This is our first time planting leeks.  Hopefully we'll have enough time to tend to them.  I am planting 12 of them to start.  Technically you can put 9 in a square foot, but I think I am going to do 2 squares with 6 in each.

All of these seeds are in one of my larger seed trays, covered with a clear lid.  They are watered good and the lid will stay on until the seeds germinate. Until they germinate, they like it warm, so they will be hanging out on top of the dryer for a week or so.  After that they will move to the counter in the kitchen under a grow light.

Let's hope I can keep these all alive for the next 10-12 weeks.  Fingers crossed.  And toes.

Rhubarb

Today is special.  Because it is Wednesday.  And I do not have to work.  Even though I love work, I also love home. 

And today I planted the first plant of the year. 
Rhubarb.  Glaskins Perpetual to be exact.  From Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds.  My favorite seed company.

I read somewhere on Pinterest that Rhubarb starts sprouting sometime in February outdoors, and first cutting is ready in March, April.  So I decided I better get a move on.

We were gifted some rhubarb last summer by a coworkers of Mike's, and we planted it, but it seemed to die off right away.  I have hopes that it may come up this year, but just in case I ordered seeds.

Rhubarb seeds are funny looking, and need to be soaked a few hours before planting. I have no idea if one seed grows a big rhubarb plant, or just one stalk.  I am still kind of new to this gardening thing.  So I soaked 12 seeds for a few hours, and planted them this afternoon indoors.  I am hoping I will be able to put them outside early to mid March.

I am also hoping I do a better job at tracking events like today, when I plant the seeds indoors, when I put them outdoors, and when I can start harvesting.

I moved my garden map to excel this year.  And I also have a spreadsheet that tracks such gardening details as I mentioned above. 

I have high hopes for seed saving this year.  I did save some seeds from a Jalapeno pepper that I purchased at the farmers market last year, and plan to plant this year.

For now, here are some very exciting pictures of Rhubarb seed starting.  Hopefully in a few more weeks I will have more seeds starting, and Rhubarb growing happily.

2012 Garden Review, and 2013 Garden Plan

I am a blog slacker.  But I can't quite delete it either.  So we are stuck her in limbo where I post a few times a year.  I would make a promise to post more this year, and I would like to, but life happens. 

I know it's only the beginning of February, but I am already dreaming of spring.  I held on to my seed catalogs and waited to browse until January. And I browsed.  And Made Lists.  And ordered.

Our garden plans were so big last year I really did not know if we would accomplish everything we wanted to, but we did.  And we learned a lot.  Somethings worked well, some worked a little too well, and some not so well. 

For our 5 raised beds, we used the Square Foot Gardening method.  I love how our beds look all sectioned off, and they were easy to plant this way. 

We did however find a few things that this method did not work so well for:

Zucchini, even though we use a teepee trellis, they needed more room. 

"Picking" tomatoes (smaller tomatoes for snacking and eating), I have these "small" tomato plants 4 squares, which I thought would be more than enough room, two plants could easly fill an entire bed.  These seriously were the biggest, highest producting, tomato plants I have ever seen.  For real.  I don't know if is the garden soil mix we got that was half compost, or all of the compost and egg shell powder that I added, but we had a phenominal crop.  No bugs, no disease, just lots of healthy tomatoes.  And I lost my basil to them.  As in the tomatoes took over the basil squares and  the basil did not get enoough light, and was lost under the tomato branches.  And I am allergic to tomato plants.  I break out in a horrible raised red rash that will not go away.  I thought gloves would help, and they do, until I itch another part of my body with them on, or try to take them off.  Anyways though, we had LOTS of little tomatoes.  We planted Black Cherry, Yellow Pear, and Red and Yellow Currant Tomatoes.  I want to try a new variety this year.  Mike does not, as he loved the ones we had.  So we are compramising, we are planting the Black Cherry tomatoes again, and then a few new varieties.  And we are moving all tomato plants out of the raised beds, and in to a separate "tomato garden".

I loved that once the beets were done, I could harvest them, and still have time to plant another full crop of green beans.

We will be making permenant grids for our gardens this year, the twine broke part way through the season on almost all of our beds. 

Pumpkins.  We had 14.  That is a lot.  So this year we are going to try a few different heirloom varities, and a few different squashes and guords.  My high hopes for the luffa guord went down the drain when the plants struggled to survive forgotten in the back of the garden.  This year, I will try again.  Along with bird house guords.  And more melons, as ours did not do so well last year.  And we had squash bugs.  Not sure what they are called, but we had tons.  They seemed to kill the pumpkin plants, but the pumpkins all made it out alive. 

We had "picking" tomatoes from May through October.  Lots. 

This year we are hoping to apply the lessons we learned, and try again, and hope for even better results.  Here are a few pictures from last year, as everything is covered in snow right now. 

The seeds are in now, and it is almost time to begin.  

Summer 2012 Bucket List

We have worked on this over the past week, as a family, and the kids are very excited to help us tackle our bucket list this summer.  It is a list of things that we want to accomplish before school starts back up.  We have done a few before, but they are all things we want to do this summer. I will have two babies in school in the fall, can't believe it.  Jonathan will start first grade, and Lilah preschool.  For now, we will finish up the school year, and get ready to tackle our list.

1.  Spend a rainy day at the cabin
2.  Walk daddy home from work
3.  Go to the park with Tessa and Lili
4.  Play at a splash pad
5.   Play in the rain
6.  Make a sand castle
7.  Fly a kite
8.  See a waterfall
9.  Go for a bike ride
10.  Play family tennis
11. Help a neighbor
12. Have a campfire at home
13.  See fireworks
14.  Go camping
15.  Catch a firefly
16.  Go to the zoo
17.  Visit a museum
18.  Scavenger Hunt
19.  Watch a parade from our front lawn
20.  Go to a fair
21.  Visit family in Chicago
22.  Attend our local Concert In The Park and Movie In The Park
23.  Visit a new town
24.  Geocaching up north!!
25.  Plau Putt Putt

Planning Ahead

There are so many things to be excited for this year. Right now I am craving a little green. Something other than the brown trees, leaves, and grass that cover everything. Right now, there is not much green outside.

So instead, I am planting seedlings indoors, just the slow growing herbs for now, and writing in my garden journal.


A garden is something that I have dreamed of for years. Two years ago we attempted while we lived at the condo, and turned a large area of our flower garden space in to an herb garden, and planted a few small plants around there, and in pots.

Last year we knew we would be moving, but did not know when. I didn't want to leave a planted garden, but did not want to miss out either. I started a lot of seedlings, hoping we would be moved and I could plant them at our new house. However, with a moving date no where near, and plants outgrowing their starter pots, I transported them to my parents garden, where we grew over 18 tomato plants, watermelon, and pumpkins. At the condo, we mostly planted herbs, and a few carrots, beets, and onions, all in pots, so we could take them when we moved.

Here we are, all moved, and plenty of garden areas set up around the yard. We will be building a few raised beds in addition to what is already on the property.

Here are a few areas that we will be planting in, warning, it is very drab and boring with nothing growing right now. For those of you that visited last summer or fall, you may remember the overgrown jungle that was all of these flowerbeds.

This area is right by our garage, Last year we had a few pots here with herbs, carrots, beets, and onions in them. I am hoping this year to just have a few potted herbs and/or flowers here. The square pot is thyme, we brought it over from the condo, I am hoping it will come back this spring, as it was actually planted two years ago, and came up again last year.


This area is between the back of our house, and the garage. It is all brick back there, with a few small garden areas, the doors to our basement, and a compost bin that we are using during the winter (beats walking to the back of the yard to get to the other one). Half the area covered in straw is already garlic, probably about 24 bulbs that the kids and I planted in the fall. They started sending up shoots, which was not supposed to happen until spring. They are very confused with this unusually warm and near snow less winter that we have had this year.


I the picture below, there is a rose bush, and there was a trellis there that we removed as it was damaged. Hoping the rose bush will be a little fuller this year, I plan on planting something there with it, not quite sure what yet though. Probably an herb as there is not a lot of space next to the rose bush.


I have no idea what kind of tree this is, but we love it. The top gets covered in leaves and makes a big canopy. There are a few hosta plants below and cone flower/echinachia (sp?), hoping I can find something that we are planting that loves shade, and if so, that is the place for it, because the bottom gets a lot of shade. Eventually along the left side of the fence we want to put berries, still deciding on raspberry, strawberry, blueberry or a mix. That will probably be a next year project.

This is the back of our garage, I love this beautiful arbor thing, but I don't know how to use it quire yet. Thinking we may put a garden shed in the middle of the back of it. The seats are spaced pretty far apart to sit there, and there is not a table so we wouldn't eat out there. The kids like to play back there though, the beginning of the arbor makes a great goal for soccer. Miked talked about taking the fence part down, but I may plant a climber there like the green beans. This garden was so overgrown when we moved in, bit by bit we have been weeding it and trying to clean it up. I did some weeding in January (no kidding), and found a raised bed in the back on each side. The people who lived in the home prior to us did not like to garden, so everything in there, has been there for years. It is filled with lavender, lemon balm, a LOT of mint (peppermint and spearmint), about peonies that are different color, a Hawaiian looking flower (hibiscus?), some lilies, a rose bush, and much more. We plan to clean up the mint a bit, we like it for mojitos, but seriously there so sooo much, and I know we could make better use of the space. I am probably going to put mostly herbs in here, because it is pretty much an herb garden on both sides.



This is at the back of the yard, we put a hammock up on the tree, and the garden area is mostly ground cover, actually I think it is all ground cover. You can't tell very well because of all the weeds, but it is lined with stone. I want to clean it all up and I am thinking about putting the spreaders there. The watermelon, cantaloupe, zucchini, luffah guard, and cucumbers, and let them use the area all around the tree.



The garden area that goes along the back is partial sun, it gets a few hours or direct sun, but mostly indirect sun. After it is cleaned up, I am thinking of planting our corn, and maybe tomatoes? We will be putting a potato bin somewhere too, and I am thinking it will be back there somewhere. We get rabbits that come through the back of the fence and in to our yard, we need to come up with a plan to keep them out of the garden area. Whether we do a wire fence along the bottom of the wood fence, or find a natural repellant to use, I do not want them eating our garden!



The tree in this picture came down during a tornado a few years ago that went through town. We have put up birdhouses, it was that or grips for the kids to climb up it like a rock wall. We went with the birdhouses. Behind the dilapidated bench thing is our other compost bin. I plan to use it late summer and fall, and use the one closer to the house in the winter and spring. That area is all weeds right now, all weeds and ivy. After it gets cleaned up, I have no idea what we will plant there. Something, I just don't know what yet. We have more of the brick that is between the house and garage, I want to make a path with it going to the compost bin.



Also in the back yard, we will be building our raised beds. And planting an apple tree.

This little area is by our house, near the neighbors yard. If i remember correctly, I think there were black eyed susan's there? If not some similar sized flower, along with some hens and chicks. I plan to keep the hens and chicks, and hopefully get them to spread, as I like them, and I think I am going to take out the flowers and maybe put some of the ground cherries there, or move one of the peony plants there. Who knows. I will probably get denied by Mike and do something totally different.



Not sure what to do with this area. It is by the deck, a you can see, and there is a large Japanese Maple there. I want to clear out the ivy, just not sure what needs to go in it's place. I may put more calendula there, I put some by the stairs of the deck but want to plant a little more.



This is the window that goes in to our kitchen. I love the trellis here, but it is all ivy along the side of the hose, and we do not like ivy. I want to rip it out, and plant peas along the trellis, and maybe some marigolds in front. Sorry for the horrible picture, it was the last one we took, and Lilah started crying because she wanted to go for a walk, no time to retake.



The front of the house is a large flower bed, but it already has a few shrubs, Japanese Maple, lavender, hydrangea, roses, and a few other plants, and I think I am going to keep it as is, and maybe add more lavender.

There it is. My garden plans for 2012. Not that anyone else probably cares to see all of it, but I am excited, and wanted to share.

One more reason I have not been posting . . .

As most of our family and close friends know, Jonathan was diagnosed when he was 3 with ADHD. We made changes in his diet, switched to mostly whole foods, eliminated artificial dyes, very limited processed foods and foods including preservatives. We saw great changes in the behaviors we though to be ADHD, and then slowly, we started noticing a whole new set of symptoms. Some have always been there, and others we have noticed in the past 6 months to a year. Some are symptoms are very consistent, and others are very inconsistent, but none the less, they are all part of our life.

For the most part, the average person with occasional contact with him, will probably not even notice anything out of the ordinary. And even for me somedays, I see everything he does as typical behavior for children his age, and think that the doctors are wrong. And everything is normal. And it is, just a different kind of normal. Because there are other moments, other days, where I know that this is not typical.

For he looks typical, walks normal, and carries on conversations.

But when you are pushing your cart with a screaming and crying 5 year old out of Target, the looks that you get are not normal. They tell you that you need to be disciplining your child, and your child should not be having a meltdown at that age. But he is. Because he needed vanilla milk from Starbucks. Once a meltdown starts, you rarely have a chance and making it out unscathed. Regardless of the cause. As your voice rises to discipline him, his emotions go in to overload.

Or when he is sitting in the movie theatre with tears streaming down his cheeks and hiding, because it is just too loud and too scary. Covering his ears when a toilet flushes, power tools are used, trucks drive by, people are singing at church, music is too loud, or leaves are being raked . .

Having to be carried over puddles becuse his shoes can't get wet, walking only on the dry spots after it rains. Yet, swimming in the lake, or splashing in the bathtub or shower is a lot of fun.

Changing a shirt or pair of pants immediately if a sleeve get's wet, or drop of water falls on his clothes. He goes in to a panic.

He's a runner. As in he will take off running. When you are at a busy mall, a crowded farmer's market, a grocery store. The lights are too bright, the noises are too much, the smells are everywhere, all at the same time. And he breaks free. So we try to hold hands, and we hold them tight (but it's hard to do when you are holding bags, pushing a cart/stroller, and also walking with a three year old).

He eats great. He loves fresh fruit, raw and steamed vegetables. But eliminates food from his diet, more and more. Because it is too melty, creamy, too hot, too spicy, not the right brand. He has always loved pizza, but now we order pizza withouth cheese, just sauce and pineapple. Because he does not like "cooked meat" or cheese anymore. Foods he use to love eating, now make him gag, or he will just plain out refuse to eat. Instead he fills his plate with carrots, apples, pears, and a banana. He's not just beng picky, or spoiled, but his tactile senses are out of sync. Anything with a "bad" texture, taste, smell, or look will not be eaten.

Only wearing shoes that can get tighter and tighter. And stopping to tighten them when they get too loose.

There is so much more to this, and I could go on and on, but I wanted to give a little insight in to a typical day.

Jonathan was misdiagnosed with ADHD. He actually focuses very well, when in the right environment.

He is excelling in school , and loving every minute of it (after 2 1/2 weeks of meltdowns each day as I walked out of the room). What he has is called Sensory Integration Disorder, a.k.a. Sensory Processing Disorder (SPD). Most of his symptoms are tactile and auditory. We received the diagnosis which is considered a neurological disability by a pediatric neurologist, and will received an additional evaluation by an occupational therapist as we begin sensory therapy. This may remain the sole diagnosis that we receive, but there could be more to come in the future.

But for now, we will do our best to help him cope with this crazy world in the best way possible, with the tools that we have available to us.

So please be patient with us, as we navigate this uncharted teritory. As we learn and grow, and find new ways to cope. Your senses direct so much of your every day life, much more than we realize, and SPD, effects much more than just what you eat, or how your shoes need to fit.

If you are interested in learnig more, I would suggest reading "The Out Of Sync Child". It's a great resource to actually explain what is going on, and how it effect's our child's life.