Monday, August 20, 2012

Peppers in the Greehouse

So my greenhouse has turned out ot be a huge success.  The tomatoes and peppers are going crazy.  Take a look.

Here is a little hint.....I tried using safer soap and the pepper plants did not like that at all.  If you look at the first photo you will see the brown spots on the leaves of the plant.  That is what happened when I applied safer soap to try and get rid of the aphids.  After that I got the ladybugs which worked like a charm.  Now when I see aphids on one of my plants I just go find a few ladybugs and put them on the plant.  Once I do that the little aphids are gone in a few days.

 See the anehiem peppers on the plant?  My family LOVES tortilla soup and which is what I typically  use anehiem peppers for.  I am looking forawrd to making it using our own peppers!

These are on a plant that is labeled red peppers.  Either they turn red once they reach maturity or it was not lableled correctly.
Here is a photo if the ladybugs I added to the greenhouse to keep the aphids at bay.  They have been doing superb job! 


Tuesday, August 14, 2012

Harvesting the bounty.

The harvesting has begun!  I love having the ability to go out into the garden and pick fresh produce for family meals.  Since my garden is relatively small it just suplements our meals.  My hope is to continue to expand the garden until we are replacing the purchase of food items from the store. 

Anyway, we have enjoyed some broccoli, cauliflower, cilantro and dill.  My girls love to pick the cilantro and dill to eat while we are out in the yard.  They have even started in on the tiny carrots.  It is wonderful to see them enjoy healthy foods this way.  I fondly remember doing the same thing when I was a kid.

Friday, August 3, 2012

Building my raised beds.

by Cindee Mills on 03/11/12
Today was the day....my husband and I were able to finish one of the raised beds and the other one is about halfway done.  I took pictures as we went along so that you could see the progress.  Just click on the raised bed photo to the right and the link will take you to all of the photos.  I am looking forward to your comments and suggestions on ways to build a better or different raised beds.
Let me walk you through what we did.

Go here for photos and explanations.....
  • First we purchased the lumber.  Now you say, "well of course you did" however there are a lot of options out there.  We decided to get cedar.  Now cedar is expensive but the beds will last a lot longer so worth the investment in my book.  
  • I had originally wanted to get 12"x2"X12' boards however Valley Lumber only had 1" boards in stock.  We decided to go with 2"x6"x12' boards and stack them 2 high.  This was the better option in the long run because the beds will be stronger in the middle that way. We came home with 10 boards and one 2"x2"x12" board to build the joints.
  • We took 2 of the 6" boards and cut them into 3 foot sections for the ends and the other boards we left in 12 foot sections.  We decided to overlap the joints at the ends of the boards so that the weight of the dirt was more evenly distributed.
  • For the final touches we beveled the edges with a router and oiled the wood to make it look pretty.

  • We extended the joints in the middle by 4" so that we could stake them in the ground and prevent the board from bowing out when filled with dirt.
So there you have it, the blue print that we used to make raised beds for our backyard garden!

Begonias

by Cindee Mills on 03/21/12

I was out in the garage the other day and noticed that my begonias have already started sprouting.  I gave them a bit of water and brought them indoors to start growing.  When I can I will put them outside.  There are many varieties of begonia and most like it to be warm.  This will be the 3rd year that I have had these and they do very well outside producing beautiful red blooms. 
Here are a few tips for you begonia lovers (taken from eHow.com)......
  • Give all begonias the bright sunlight of an eastern or southern window. For begonias grown for their foliage, such as rex begonias, the light should not be direct, but rather filtered with a transparent curtain or shaded by a tree outside the window. Flowering begonias, however, need several hours of direct sunlight.
  • Provide a stable temperature for begonias. Begonias are sensitive to rapid fluctuations in temperature and therefore must be kept away from drafts. As long as the temperature is constant and aboveWater begonias between once a week and once every two weeks. You must take care not to over water a begonia because too much water can cause the plants to rot. Monitor the dampness of the potting mix and when you can stick your finger into the potting mix and not feel any moisture, it's time to water.
  • Keep begonias in small pots. Begonias have small root systems and do not need repotting frequently. However, every spring pull the root ball out of the pot and check to see if the roots have completely wrapped around the bottom of the pot. If they have, upgrade the begonia plant to the next size pot.
  • Move flowering begonias outside during the spring, summer and fall months if you can create the right conditions for them. Flowering begonias enjoy a shady porch as long as the temperature does not fall below 60 degrees Fahrenheit. Begonias growing outside do need more frequent watering, so take care to check the soil often.

    Read more: How to Care for a Begonia | eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/how_2098795_care-begonia.html#ixzz1pnzschTT

Managing your garden while you are away

Originally posted on 7/5/12
I have had the privledge of bring away on vacation for the past 2 weeks.  It is nice to get away and see family and friends however it is a chore to make sure that you graden ontinues to prosper without you.  Luckily I was able to find friends to mow the lawn and water the flowers but there were a few mishaps along the way.

First and foremost, I am reminded how luck we are in Juneau that watering is not something that we worry too much about (especially this year).  When I came home and looked at my rain gauges I saw that we had over 5 inches of rain the first week I was gone!  Meanwhile I was at my cousin's house where they have to water twice a day to keep their plants from drying out.

We did have a wind storm while I was gone and that apparently tore the platic off my covered bed.  The wonderful lady that was hosesitting for me was able to get a temporary cover back on so that the plants did not suffer.  I am very greatful for that...again that watering thing.....because the plants that are in that bed are delicate and would not have survived too much rain.
S
o what would I recommend for your garden while you are away?  The best thing would be to have a neighbor that loves gardening as much as you do and can look after your plants for you.  A housesitter is a nice way to go although I felt like I was a Army Drill Sergeant giving her all the instructions on how to take care of the various elements of my garden.  (I even wrote them down so she would have it for a reference.)  Finding someone who understands plants and give them the TLC you would is ideal.

I think there may be a business in town that will take care of your garden for you.  Does anyone know more about that?

Ladybugs

Originally posted on 7/12/12
Yesterday I was showing off my garden to a neighbor and talking about how dismally poor my zucchini plants are doing.  When she looked at them she told me that it looked like I had aphids and low and behold I do.  YUCK!  We also looked in the greenhouse and you could see them starting there too.  As you can imagine I went straight to the computer and started looking up information about how to rid myself of aphids.  Now I am trying to grow an organic garden so I needed an organic method. 
Entereing the word "aphid" into the search engine brought all kinds of great websites back.  I will let you do your own searching for that.  After all that searching here is what I decided to do.  I used Safer Soap on the plants and then picked off as many of the bugs as I could.  Once I did that I rinced them off.  I learned that  you can simply mix a little detergent in water and add some canola oil or olive oil.  The mixture stops their ability to breath.  The oil helps it to stick and the detergent makes water "wetter" so that it penetrates their lungs. 
The other thing that I found useful was that you should back off on the fertilizer.  Too much nitrogen in the soil makes the plants more appetizing to the little buggers.
The other thing I decided to do was get some aphid eating bugs for the greenhouse.  Fred Meyer normally has some Lady Bugs for sale this time of year so I checked there but they didn't have any.  I ended up ordering some on line which was expensive but something I wanted to try.  When you do something like this you need to really make sure that the bugs you are introducing are not invasive and there are some species of lady bugs that are so double check that.

Posted on 7/23/12
My package of lady.  I ordered the smallest package they had and there were 1,500 bugs in there.  The instructions were to release a few of them daily in the cool of the evening so that is what I did.  I placed some in the greenhouse and some in the outside garden beds over a week period.  They seem to be doing the job.  When I visit the greenhouse I see them on several of the plants which must mean there is stuff for them to eat!  I have been looking for aphids but haven't seen any.  I like using beneficial bugs to rid myself of the harmful ones :)

New Blog Page

Thanks to one of my readers I have a new blog spot that I think will be much more user friendly for you and me!  I will try and repost some of the blog entries that I had posted on the other site so that you can puruse and enjoy them :)

Tree Propagation

I was visiting family a few weeks ago and saw the most beautiful tree.  I was told it is called a Hawthorn tree.  I went over to Landscapre Alaska to see if they had any and was told that the variety that I saw is no longer commercially available.  The ones that are available are not very disease tollerant. 
The ones I saw are in another southeast community are just beautiful.  They are, frankly, in yards that are not very well kept so they must be pretty resilliant.  One is in the yard of an aquaintance so I have decided that I am going to try and propagate a new tree from cuttings.  Here is what I found when I researched how to do this..... http://www.ehow.com/how_7621862_propagate-hawthorn.html

Seems pretty easy to me!  Now all I need to do it get a few cuttings and get them in the planter :)