Beginning Of June Garden Update

 I've been feeling frustrated. Our weather in southwest Washington state has been so weird this spring. Some of what I seeded out is growing excellent. Other things, not so much. I think that, from now on, I'll start lettuce seeds under the grow lights to give them a head start. Well, I will after we can keep our pesky chipmunk out of stuff.
Anyhow, let's go on a garden tour, shall we?

We'll be hauling in our final (we hope) yard of soil and finishing things off. I'm planning on growing Scarlet Runner Beans in one pot and Chinese Red Noodle Beans in the other pot. They can share the trellis. I think it will make a nice arch heading into the garden. I'm going to put my peppers into little square pots (3 gallon) and I'll line those up on the deck. I'm going to cover them with netting to keep that chipmunk out. We named the little rodent. We call him Squirt. He loves to vex the dogs and cats. I'm still trying to figure out where a good place to put up 2 fence panels so that I can plant my tomatoes on them. We bought T-posts to anchor them in. The panels are 6-foot panels, so they will work perfect. I'll use the plastic clips that I bought last year.

I have to give credit where credit is due. If it wasn't for Bob, I wouldn't have this garden at all. Today, he spread 5-1/2 cubit feet of mushroom compost over our newest raised bed. It's roughly 2.5' x 25'. He ran shrog netting down the middle. We plant on planting out using the square foot method. That will allow for 50 types of pole beans...if I have that many varieties. I plan on growing a lot of dried beans to preserve for long term food storage.
We'll have this bed planted out within the next day or two.

This is the view looking out where we plan on building our second greenhouse. There are concrete blocks with rebar sticking up, so it's perfect for a hoop house.

I think these are my most favorite violas to date. I love this color. I'll wind up planting these out into the trellis garden so that they can continue to grow.

This is my spearmint plant. This bulk soil that we are buying is not the most optimal, but I have to work with what's available. Thankfully, the bulk soil place has mushroom compost for $1 per bag.

These Night Sky petunias are my favorite. There are 3 varieties. I have the purple this year.

These were potatoes that I planted last year. I paid a ridiculous price for them because finding seed potatoes was like finding a needle in a haystack. I think I spent $10 for 1 pound of them. Anyhow, I got irate with Bob because he didn't want to harvest them. I feel guilty for that now because my potatoes multiplied.

Here is my potato bed. I planted around 15 pounds of seed potatoes in there and I'm growing them, for the most part, in straw.

 

 

All my peas in a row. The tendril peas are the largest and they are at either end. This is a shrog netting trellis. There are 10 different types of peas here. All of them are heirloom/OP varieties.

Next year, we'll have a permanent place for these Jerusalem artichokes. This will be their 3rd year in the pot. It's too late to plant them out now, so we'll have to do that this fall instead. I have chives right next to them. There's a few rose bushes in the back that need to go into the ground, too.

I made a judgement call and pulled all the kale out of this raised bed. It wasn't growing. It wasn't doing much of anything. I decided to use the space for something more productive. I bought a few types of Dollar Store seeds before they went up to the Buck & A Quarter store. There were 3 types of beans and they were all bush beans. I planted this bed out. I'm going to use those for green beans and I'm not saving seeds, so I don't care if they aren't separated. They all germinated and they are all growing.

 I still may axe all this lettuce. I drastically thinned the bed, but it still seems to be struggling. I'll let it go a while longer before I send it to the compost bin.

My idea for growing potatoes is working well. We'll be getting another bale of straw to finish filling it up.

This is my biggest raised bed. I planted out cabbage and broccoli from starter plants that I bought. They are growing great!

My broccoli is starting to flower. I'm excited about this. I only ever grew broccoli, successfully, one other time.

The other end of the bed got planted out with lettuce plants that I purchased, a dwarf pea variety called Tom Thumb, beets, radishes here and there and I think I planted some rare types of carrot seeds that originated from India.

I bought 25 slips of Walla Walla sweet onions for the bargain basement price of $2.99. If I would have known that they grew this well, I'd have bought more. The only bad thing about Walla Walla onions is that they don't store all that well. They are better eaten fresh.

Here's my biggest raised bed looking back toward the chicken coop, cat corral and the pig pen.

We got our first ripe strawberries. I'm pretty jazzed about that. I didn't grow them before because it would take up too much room, in my containers and raised beds, to grow enough strawberries to be able to make anything with. When we moved up here, they were already established and growing. There's enough here to make whatever we want, strawberry-wise. Jam, syrup and a fresh strawberry pie or three. I'll have plenty.

I have soooo many strawberry plants.

I will be perfectly honest here in saying that we didn't get to eat these. I forget that I had set them on the log and that chipmunk, Squirt, got them. He's opportunistic. I'll have to keep that in mind.

Here's Bob in front of just one part of my strawberry bed.

We got some cuttings for figs. We're not sure if they all took after we dipped them into rooting hormone, but, for sure, one did. I already have one planted, so this is cool.

Bob broke off a sweet potato slip, so he dipped it into rooting hormone. This is his project. I'm not sure where he plans on planting it, but if he wants to grow a sweet potato, who am I to say no?

I think these are a couple of the more sad peppers who want to get out of the greenhouse.

Cucurbits are something that I've never started from seed before. I don't think I could ever buy starter plants for them again after this year. I didn't even have to put them under a light. I just put them into the greenhouse.

I think this is an Iran squash plant. This variety of squash is supposed to be able to be stored for very long term. Someone, who reviewed the seed on Baker Creek's website, said that they had one in their laundry room for 3 years and it was still good to eat. We'll see. It's growing excellent!

This is a Pineapple squash. This can be eaten young and it's like a summer squash. You can let it go and it will get a hard rind like a winter squash. I'm all about multi-purpose!

All the cucurbits are doing so well! I am very pleased with this experiment!

I'm also going to grow okra in the greenhouse this year. I have an orange variety, from Baker Creek, called Jing Orange. I planted 9 seeds and I think I have 8 plants. I also got  my hands on some of Baker Creek's Okinawa Pink okra. Again, I planted 9 seeds and I'll be having myself some jazzy okra this year! If it grows well in the greenhouse, I'll be sure to measure out a narrow bed for them down the side of the new greenhouse. I really like okra. Bob, not so much.
Now ask me if I care.
I don't.
I'll eat ALL the okra!

This is the Jing Orange okra variety. It's really pretty. I've never attempted to grow okra before.

These tomatoes really want to be set free. Outside. They want to grow. They need more room than a simple Solo cup. They need to get into the grow bags and on the trellis.

I have several varieties. From Yamali Blue to Cascade Lava to Pink Fang to Opalka. I even have an obscure variety that Tomato Jim Wyant tells me will produce good sauce tomatoes. It's called Red Dumplin Winner Pink. Jim knows tomatoes. I'll take his word for it. I have 2 plants of the RDWP and they are my biggest, most robust plants. I'm pretty impressed with the seeds I got from Jim.

I'm keeping one of these and then the rest shall go onto their new home elsewhere. Two are a strain called Rainbow Belts. The one I'm keeping is a strain called Gusher. The one I'm keeping was a mother plant. I'm letting her go to flower. Her life cycle is coming to an end.

Here are some other tomato starts that I have. One I bought. It's my only cherry tomato variety this year. It's an heirloom variety called Isis Candy Cherry. The other 4 are starts that I got from a friend. There's 2 Black Krim, a Purple Russian and a Bonny Best. They are all heirlooms, too. I have 3 eggplant there, too. I bought the starter plants because Squirt (the chipmunk) decided that he wanted to dine on my baby eggplants. They never stood a chance.

When these starter plants came to us, they were really small. We've been feeding them micro-nutrients that we feed to the cannabis plant. I think they like it.

This squash is a variety that I searched high and low for before I found a lady, in Heirloom Tomato Addicts Anonymous, who had the seeds available. I'm a sucker for Native American varieties of heirloom vegetables.

Another view of how well my cucurbits are doing.

This pepper variety is Najarano. It's a sweet pepper variety.

These are my paprika peppers. They are thriving!

Another random pepper plant.

I seeded in a whole bunch of different types of basil. I'm going to have a lot of basil. I'm hoping my sister will take some of this basil off my hands.

The flood table is full. Those 2 Rainbow Belts will be headed toward their new home soon.

I have no idea what sort of plant this is. Not a clue. It's not one that I would have ever bought for myself. If anyone knows what this is, tell me in the comments.

These are honey berries. I was given 3 mature bushes. They are going CRAZY! Again, does anyone know what you can do with honey berries? Let me know in the comments.

I'm not sure what these remind me of. I don't know how they taste, either.

This is a black raspberry...or so I was told. I was told that the person bought it because it was supposed to be a golden raspberry, but it wasn't. It was black. I'll take any color of raspberry. I don't really care what color it is.

My Egyptian Walking Onions are starting to set their bulbils. I've got figure out which small wooden bed I want to dedicate to them.

I love these onions. They are one of those things that you plant once and never worry about planting again. Every couple of years, you'll want to refresh the bulbs by pulling them all out and replanting some baby ones. The older bulbs, my sister tells me, make fantastic boiler onions.

They can take abuse, as well. As a matter of fact, the less you fuss with these onions, the better they like it.

We bought some flowers a while back and they never got planted into what we intended for them. No matter. We put them down in the terrace garden...or Bob did. I saw a baby snake in there. I won't touch foot in there until next winter.

Where snakes are, I'm not.
The end.

So, I'm planning on putting dwarf corn in the pool (like last year), Cucumbers in the small metal bed, the other squash and vines in the cinder block bed and beans in the long bed with the shrog netting in the middle of it. I'll keep Kajari melons, okra, cucamelons and luffa gourds in the greenhouse.

Thanks for taking the tour with me.

How I Buy Ribeyes For The Summer For Under $100

 Memorial Day is just a few days away. I wasn't sure what I wanted to make this year, but I knew that two of our local supermarkets were having hellacious Memorial Day sales according to their fliers.

At Safeway, value packs of bone-in rib steaks were on sale, via digital deal, for $4.97 per pound, with a limit of 1. Whole racks of pork ribs were on sale, via digital deal, for 97 cents per pound, limit of 1 and Signature Select ice cream was 17 cents per half-gallon, again, with a limit of 1.

I jumped onto Safeway and created Bob a profile with his phone number. There was no way that we weren't going to double up on these sales.

I also saw that corn on the cob was 3 for $1, with a limit of 6. I decided that we would only get 6 ears of corn. We can only eat just so much corn and 3 meals worth for $2 is not a bad price, in my opinion.

Then, I looked at Fred Meyer. Safeway (we have 3 Safeway locations in the twin cities area that I live in) has a location just across the street from Fred Meyer, so we decided we would go to that location.

Fred Meyer had their bone-in rib steaks on sale for $5.97 per pound, with a limit of 2, with an online coupon that I added. We opted to not double up on things at Fred Meyer. FM, weekly, has this deal that if you buy five things from their list of certain items, you get a $1 off of each one. Sweet Baby Ray's BBQ sauce was included in that. We stocked up and bought 5 to get the deal. We also had a $13 credit on our Fred Meyer account because they screwed up on our previous pickup order. So, we only got 1 of the Fred Meyer deals, but we did limit out. We can only eat just so much steak and bone-in rib steaks are our favorite cut off the cow.

There was a total of 10 bone-in rib steaks. Between the 10 steaks, we got 15.49 pounds. Stay tuned to the end of the post as to what our total was on just the steaks and what the total amount was that we spent today stocking up for this summer.

I found that the Fred Meyer steaks were better trimmed than the Safeway ones were.

The Fred Meyer packs had 2 steaks in them. The Safeway ones had 3.

I picked up the burger to make into Salisbury steaks tonight for dinner.

We picked out the 2 largest racks of ribs that Safeway had. I think I'll put one in the crock pot for Memorial Day, but I'm not writing it in stone.

Here are our receipts.

The total amount we spent on bone-in rib steaks today was $80.84. We got 10 steaks total and they were a combined weight of 15.49 pounds. Keep in mind that Bob and I split a steak. We cannot eat that much meat. These steaks make 2-3 meals for us as I make fried rice the leftover meat and soup with the leftover bones. Beef and barley soup using those grilled bones is amazing.
We got 2 half-gallons of ice cream and paid 17 cents each for them.
We got 2 racks of pork ribs that weigh over 12 pounds total for a grand total of $12.23.
I got 6 ears of corn for $2.
I also bought just under a pound of asparagus for $1.70.
5 bottles of Sweet Baby Ray's BBQ sauce were $4.95.
And then we got a few items not on sale but needed for the house like half and half.


Our grocery grand total, from both stores, all 3 transactions, was $101.29.

We are set for grilling season! Bring on summer!

**I am not compensated by any of these companies or products listed.

Garden Chat with Earl Bassett

 Rounding out my garden chats, I'll introduce Earl Bassett. I think Earl has the biggest number of tomato varieties in his personal seed collection. We'll get to that number a bit later.

I'm going to take a bit of a break with the chats until after I get everything planted out in my garden. In a few days, we'll be hauling in the rest of my soil and seeding those in, along with nasturtiums, etc. I'm also going to need to plant out cucurbits. Of course, we'll need to rabbit proof all this, as well.

So, back to my Q&A with Earl. Earl owns 45th Seeds. Click here to go to his website.

Q: What do you specialize in, as far as gardening?
A: My go to and having a collection of over 5,000 varieties would be tomatoes but I garden to eat so I grow over a dozen things. I sell Egyptian Walking Onions in May and I have many herbs.

Q: When did you first get interested in growing rare and/or obscure heirloom tomato varieties?
A: About 20 years ago after moving to NE Michigan. I started the largest mail seed swap and started the now closed Tomatodepot. Many "old-timers" have passed on this journey, I would love to do a biography on them for you sometime. (That would be interesting! Let's do that sometime, for sure!)

Q: Do you have a personal favorite tomato?
A: Not really, but I have favorite pastes, favorite dark cherries, etc. On average, how many tomato plants do you grow in a year?

Q: Tell me about your mentor. Who are they and why?
A: My parents who always had a garden and Dr. Carolyn Male who always supported me. She was a tomato author.

Q: How many varieties of heirloom tomato seeds do you have for sale currently?
A: 5,000 in select cases...fresh, 50 or so.

Q: What is the name of your Facebook group?
A: Seedy Friends-Tomato Inventories Buying Bartering Selling

**Side note: you can also find Earl in Heirloom Tomato Addicts Anonymous and Sam's Big Tomatoes And Veggie Group. Click here to ask to join. Sam's is an awesome group and tell Shelley hi for me!**

Q: How would people get in touch with you to order?
A: Facebook preferred/Paypal to order.

Q: What is the rarest tomato seed in your collection?
A: Well, many: Livingstons, Canadians from 50's & 60's, Potato Leaved from 100 years back. A couple I saved and got back to farmer's who asked. Dan McMuray stuff, many crosses from friends, discoveries like Earl's Red Beefsteak and one I selected for 12 year-Earl's First Early, Cole is quite rare and a staple for me.

Q: What's the best tomato group on Facebook?
A: No best but several-I really like Sam's Big Tomato and Veggie Group and Seedy Friends-Tomato Inventories Buying Bartering Selling.

(You forgot HTAA...LOL!)

What I didn't mention in this post yet is that Earl is a veteran. This is a subject that I'm pretty vehement about and I will always encourage people to support veteran-owned businesses. Earl has that in common with my husband, Bob. Our country doesn't do enough for those who signed a blank check to our government payable in the amount up to their lives. It takes a strong person to do that and each veteran has nothing but my utmost respect.

I also want to add that Earl grows around 150 varieties of tomatoes each year. Garden goals for me!

Thank you, Earl, for indulging me and my questions. I really appreciate you taking the time to answer them.

Building A Raised Bed For Beans

 I think I've mentioned that I've amassed almost 100 varieties of beans that I wanted to plant out this year. Well, I have to be realistic about things. I'm going to have to split that number in half and then I may need to pitch out a few  from those.

This is a new garden from me. Last year, we bought the exact same soil blend for my raised beds, from the exact same place. Each time, the soil blend is different, if only by a little bit. We ran across a screaming deal for mushroom compost. I bought 30 bags of it for $1 per bag. They aren't tiny bags, either. Anyhow, I planted out several raised beds with early spring stuff. We have had weird weather this year so far. I think I heard on the news that it's been a desperately needed wet spring, the 10th wettest on record. We've been in a drought here in western Washington state. Click here to read more about that.

I knew that, this year, I wasn't even about to think about setting out my tomatoes, peppers, eggplant or cucurbits until after the first week of June unless we start getting some warmer, dryer temperatures around these parts. I started my nightshades on March 1st. I seeded in my cucurbits less than a week ago. I planted out kale, lettuce, radishes and bok choy the first week of March. It's starting to bolt.

Yes, the weather has been weird this year, for sure.

So, with all that, I'll be direct seeding beans in the first week of June and I needed a raised bed for them. I plan on using a T-post and shrog trellis system for them. We were asked if we wanted some old lumber that someone we know wasn't going to be using. We said sure! With the cost of lumber, we're more than happy to take whatever anyone wants to give us! There was enough for Bob to build me out a 3x25-foot raised bed. It will be around 7.5 inches deep and it will be plenty of room to grow out pole beans. Now, I am going to be growing out 4 bean varieties for Russell Crow this year. Those will not be down there in the bed. Those are going to be isolated and I'll use grow bags for those.

Down there where that tall grass is, in front of the alder, that's where the bean bed is to be put in. I had wanted a 50 foot one, but it wouldn't fit into the area.

First, Bob laid landscaping fabric. The fabric, when unfolded is 6 feet. This is perfect because the bed is 3 feet wide, so this fabric can be doubled up. I, eventually,want that whole area down there to be wood chips. I don't want any grass.

We realize that this lumber will rot off in a few years. It's not in the greatest shape now. It's raw lumber. It's not treated. We're okay with it rotting away because once that area is covered in wood chips, it's done it's job.

These boards aren't going to win any beauty contests, for sure, but they will work. I'm all about making free stuff work.

Bob is hard at work. He can mark this off of his honey-do list.

I can't wait to get this planted out and growing! I have to go through my beans and decide which will be planted and which won't.

Egyptian Walking Onions are starting to reproduce.

I appreciate him doing this for me.

Sasha is supervising. She's good at that job.

He's just finishing up.

Tacking down the landscape fabric. The landscape fabric was given to us along with the lumber.

And...
It's built! It's ready to go. I'm guessing that it will take around a yard and a half or so to fill it.