There are two schools of thoughts when it comes to tilling, one is till before you sow, I think it is practiced by most home gardeners; the other is no-till at all.... the no-till method sounds good in theory, but I haven't seen it practiced much in home gardening. What's your thoughts? I should add that tilling here is a loosely defined term, it also include digging the garden up (or not) before planting.
To me, tilling signifies the gardening season is in full gear. Usually I'd have my veggie starts in the nurseries anxiously awaiting to go in the ground. The sight of freshly tilled garden sets my brain into high gear, planing, layout, irrigation etc. etc... I can't help but picturing what the garden will look like in just a short few month, and the dishes that will come out of all the veggies I will be harvesting! Granted I will have to deal with the weeds as the season progresses, there's no getting around of that... This is just the way things have been done in my garden year after year. I have a system worked out, and I am comfortable with it...
The no-till proponents suggest by not disturbing the soil, you are not activating the weed seeds in the ground, therefore, they do not germinate. A garden with no weeds? Who wouldn't want that?! And, by not tilling, you preserve the soil structure and keep the moisture and protect the soil from erosion, and you save water and fuel (by not running your rototiller) . I've read about the no-till methods from different sources, took a seminar on the subject, but I have not seen many in reality. The no-till method intrigues me, but right now I have more questions than answers, what about the nutrients? the disease control? etc. etc... It would help if I someone else can share their experience and PICTURES particularly...With all the great benefits of no-till, I would like to try it some day. I think I need a plan, but right now, I have no plan...
Either way you choose to do it, have a system and perfect it. And please share your experience on FB, we'd all want to know... (I hope I am speaking for the majority of us)
A Lesson Learned
A few years ago, I learned that clover could be used as a cover crop to enrich the soil in your garden. It was October, my garden was bare, so I decided to give it a try. I ordered some clove seeds and spread them in my garden. Well nothing happened that year and I promptly forgot about it. The next season I started noticing little clovers plants popping up everywhere. And as years go by, they were getting bigger and bigger. Now I've got a problem, the clovers are growing into thick mats, and are choking out my vegetables.
Years later, I am still fighting the battle of eradicating clovers from my garden. Now I have some friends on my side. I discovered my chickens love the tender leaves of the clovers, so feed the dug up clovers to them.
I still see advises on the internet telling people to plant clover as a cover crop for vegetable gardens. What I wonder is have these people actually grown it in their own garden?
The moral of the story is not all information you learn could or should be putting into practice. If you find some information you are not sure of, check with your friends first, or better yet, post it on FB and see if you can get some answers.
Friends won't let friends harming themselves with dangerous information!
Seed Starting in Stages
Even for seasoned gardeners seed starting can be tricky at times. If you don't have a professional setup with lighted benches and misters that keep your seeds in the ideal conditions, and the time to baby sit your seedlings, growing seedlings in stages can simplify your life as a gardener. It offers an easy and efficient way to grow your own seedlings.
Method:
1. Incubator Stage:
Sow seeds generously in a 4" pot or a 12 oz paper cup with holes punched on the bottom. Keep the container in a sunny spot like a south facing window. Keep it moist until germination occurs. If you have any warming device such as a seed starting mat feel free to use it.
2. Small Seedling Stage: When the seedlings grow a little taller and when the 3rd set of leaves are just begin to emerge, transplant them to larger containers. I use 2" pots. At this point, eliminate all the weak seedlings, keep only the healthy and strong ones. Dump the entire container with all the seedlings on a flat surface. Pick out each seedling carefully as not to damage their roots, pot them up in 2" pots. Avoid trying to transplant them too early. If the seedlings are too young, they may not survive the transplanting. Allow the seedlings to grow and fill up the 2" containers. In some cases, this will be adequate for the seedlings to move out to the garden (temperature permitting), for others they will need to be moved to larger pots.
3. Large Seedling Stage: Move the seedlings from the 2" pots to 4" pots will give them more growing space. Usually this is all you need to do before transplanting them to the garden. You can regulate the growth by exposing the seedlings to the right temperature condition. If they are growing too fast, leave them outside. Just be sure to bring them in when the temperature gets too low. This will also harden them off so they will be ready to be transplanted into the garden. Now just wait for the nice weather to arrive so you can plant them... Meanwhile, dream up some delicious recipes and wait for the veggies to get ready.
Method:
1. Incubator Stage:
Sow seeds generously in a 4" pot or a 12 oz paper cup with holes punched on the bottom. Keep the container in a sunny spot like a south facing window. Keep it moist until germination occurs. If you have any warming device such as a seed starting mat feel free to use it. 
2. Small Seedling Stage: When the seedlings grow a little taller and when the 3rd set of leaves are just begin to emerge, transplant them to larger containers. I use 2" pots. At this point, eliminate all the weak seedlings, keep only the healthy and strong ones. Dump the entire container with all the seedlings on a flat surface. Pick out each seedling carefully as not to damage their roots, pot them up in 2" pots. Avoid trying to transplant them too early. If the seedlings are too young, they may not survive the transplanting. Allow the seedlings to grow and fill up the 2" containers. In some cases, this will be adequate for the seedlings to move out to the garden (temperature permitting), for others they will need to be moved to larger pots.
3. Large Seedling Stage: Move the seedlings from the 2" pots to 4" pots will give them more growing space. Usually this is all you need to do before transplanting them to the garden. You can regulate the growth by exposing the seedlings to the right temperature condition. If they are growing too fast, leave them outside. Just be sure to bring them in when the temperature gets too low. This will also harden them off so they will be ready to be transplanted into the garden. Now just wait for the nice weather to arrive so you can plant them... Meanwhile, dream up some delicious recipes and wait for the veggies to get ready.
Two Easy, Good Bread, Practice Until You Own It!
Bread making is easy, just follow a few rules any one can make a delicious loaf of bread from scratch. It may take you a while to become a master bread maker, but I think you should at least learn a couple to give you the satisfaction of eating fresh baked bread. That's right, practice until you own it! I will share with you two types of bread I make most often, they are also the easiest to make. Find yourself a heavy crock for bread making. I use an oval insert of a slow cooker. Nice thing is, it comes with a lid.
1. Sue's Pillow Bread: For dough: Dissolve 1 T. dry yeast, 1 T. sugar in 3/4 C. warm water, add 1-2 T. oil, one egg, and 1 t. salt and enough flour to make a soft dough. Let the dough rises until doubled in size. Place the dough in a well floured surface. Roll out the dough to about 1-2" thick, brush the top with egg wash and sprinkle with salt, pepper or sesame seeds or any other topping you like. Cut into ~3" squares with a pizza cutter, arrange the pieces on cooking sheet lined with parchment paper. Let it raise until puffy (be patient!). Bake in a per-heated 375 F oven for 15-18minutes. (you may need to check it at 15 minutes first time you bake it in your oven, it goes from perfect to burnt pretty quickly). Enjoy! This is a great bread for sandwich making.
2. Overnight Bread: This one is even easier. Mix together: 1 t. dry yeast, 1 t. kosher salt, 3 C. flour, 1-1/2 C. water. Stir just combined. Cover, leave it in the bowl for 12 hours. 12 hours later, place a cast iron skillet in the oven, heat the oven to 500F. Dump the dough on a floured surface (the dough is quite soft at this stage), fold it up so it will fit in the cast iron skillet. Bake for 30 minutes with the lid on, then another 10-15 with the lid off. Viola! Enjoy!In case you need a visual reference, here's a link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=13Ah9ES2yTU)
Get ready, set, sow!
It is that time of the year again, gardeners everywhere are itching to start their vegetable garden. Before you start your seeds, let's look at some of the basics of seed starting.
First make a good soil mixture, I like to use a large Rubbermaid tote (18 gallon). My formula consists of 50% of potting soil (1 large bag of potting soil, 2 cubic ft size), 25% coconut fiber (available in pressed bricks or bags) and 25% vermiculite. This will give the soil enough lightness and water retention for seeds to grow. Next I add 2 C. of slow release fertilizer (polymer coated 14-14-14 or 16-16-16) to the soil mixture. This will give the seedlings some baby food once they germinate, and allow them to grow in the soil until you are ready to transplant them to bigger pots. All kinds of containers can be re-purposed for seed starting. Make sure you cut holes on the bottom for drainage. Fill the containers with the soil mixture and sow your selection of seeds, cover the seeds with a thin layer of the soil mixture, water then tap it down to make sure the seeds have good contact with the soil. Keep your containers in a warm spot, keep them moist, with a little TLC they should germinate soon. Keep in mind, fresh seeds will germinate sooner than old ones, so buy high quality seeds whenever you can.
Long maturing vegetables such as tomatoes, peppers and eggplants must be started indoors, while short maturing types can be direct sowed. When sowing out doors and transplanting always keep a close watch on the temperature, especially pay attention to soil temperature.
The following is the dates I sow my seeds:
Jan.: Onions, green onions;
Feb-March: Indoors: Tomatoes, peppers, eggplants; Outdoors: peas, spinach, beets, fava beans.
April-May: indoor/outdoor: radishes, lettuce, cole crops (cabbage, broccoli, kohlrabi), zucchinis and watermelons.
June: Beans, soy beans, cucumbers, melons, carrots, just about anything can be sowed or transplanted to the garden by now.
Here's a little something special about cucumbers: I really like cucumbers and would do everything I could to get an early harvest. You can start cucumbers indoors, but I generally do not recommend that. Cucumber roots are extremely tender, they don't fare well when transplanting. It take them a long time to recover from the shock. From my experience, it is better just to sow them direct. If you do wish to get an early harvest, use other methods such as covering the sowing sites or use a cold frame over the cucumber seeds you sow.
And for a fall crop sow seeds at the end of July and early August. Many vegetables do well in the fall. By then a lot of your crop are cleared out of the garden. Planting a fall crop is a great way to extend the fresh veggies all the way into the winter. That will be the subject of another blog.
Do you know Caponata can be frozen?
Back in September I had a surplus of eggplants. Since I love caponata so much, I made a huge batch. Ever heard of the phrase "too much of a good thing can be bad"? Yep, it was a problem, there was no way I could eat all that caponata in a couple of weeks. In a desperate attempt to keep it from spoiling, I bagged them up and froze them. And promptly forgot about them. Now it's January I am starting to yearning the fresh taste of the summer. Looking into my freezer I spotted my frozen capanata. I retrieved a bag, let it thaw in the refrigerator and the next day heated some up in the microwave... WOW! I was hit with the full flavor of the summer! I bought a loaf of baguette, sliced it up and lightly toasted the slices, and topped with capanata. It is truly a great treat in a gloomy winter day :~)
Herbs I woundn't want to live without
Herbs are essential for good eating. The ones that win my favors are: garlic, parsley, oregano, basil, thyme, rosemary, sage, cilantro and green onion. Among these some you need to plant every year, some are perennials that make good garden features in your flower garden or boarders. The good new is they are easy to grow. Let's take a look at each of them and how to grow and use them.
Basil:The king of herbs. It is an annual herb in most of the regions with four seasons. Basil the the bed rock of Mediterranean cooking. It is great with fresh made pasta, in salads and for pesto making. One of my favorite is Basil Butter which is a must have in every summer table.
Garlic: There are so substitutes to a clove of fresh garlic! It has a sweet after taste when eating raw to me. To grow garlic here in the Pacific Northwest, select large cloves and sow them in November before the ground is frozen. They will grow a little shoots and these shoots are hardy to the winter cold and snow. When spring arrives they will grow and produce a large bulb underneath. By July the bulbs will be large enough to eat. Steal a few fresh garlic to eat, bend over the tops of the rest so the nutrients will go to the garlic instead of the stems. Harvest the rest of the garlic by fall. A nice side benefit of growing garlic is the garlic shoots. These are tender and sweet when harvested early stage, and are very good stir-fried with chicken, pork or beef. Fresh garlic can be pickled. When dried properly, garlic will last a long time. I also use a large amount of garlic when making pesto with my basil.To grow good quality garlic, you need to sow them every year. Sometimes if you don't harvest all your bulbs below ground, they will come back year after year. These "volunteers" tend to be smaller in size, although they taste the same, it's a lot of work to peel them.
Thyme: Thyme comes in many varieties, there is regular thyme, lemon thyme and pineapple thyme. Thyme is a perennial. It is made of many skinny branches and spreads out in a circular pattern. Once in a while, I give the whole plant a "haircut", that is cutting across the whole plant to shorten the branches. This will spring many new shoots from the base of the plant and make the plant fuller. Thyme lends itself well in many dishes, chicken, soups, pot roasts and seafood. Although thyme is almost like a evergreen, it grows much slower in the winter, so dry the excess thyme is a good idea.
Oregano: Oregano is a must in tomato sauce, pizza and Greek salad with fresh cucumbers, tomatoes and onions. It is a low growing perennial with lots of thin branches, much like the thyme. Oregano has larger leaves than thyme. It tends to be on a weedy side and spread quick easily. So try to keep it contained is the key. Give it a "haircut" when the thin branches get too long same way as thyme, the plant will be fuller. Excess leaves can also be dried. Oregano is great in home made tomato sauce.
Parsley: Parsley is a bi-annual, meaning the second year plant produce seed stalk. Parsley is easy to grow, it grow into a luscious plant given the right condition. Parsley is VERY hardy. They survive the frost quite well.You can keep enjoying them until the hard frost hits. Plant parsley in the spring, o start them each year, or buy starts from nurseries. I use fresh parsley extensively, add chopped parsley to scrambled eggs, make herb butter with garlic, chopped parsley and butter. The herb butter can be used to make garlic bread, or put in boiled vegetables such as green beans, broccoli or brush on sliced eggplant before grilling. Another application I grew quite found of is a green sauce I make for my grilled meats or fish. The recipe is on my seed packet for parsley. It's of south American origin, I believe is called Chimichurri Sauce. My version is consist of parsley, cilantro, garlic, lemon juice, olive oil, salt and pepper. It is DELICIOUS and somewhat addictive. Another way to use parsley is to make the middle eastern food called tabouli salad. There are many versions of this. My favorite is a salad made with parsley, mint, bulgur wheat (or coos coos), tomatoes, lemon juice... Ahhhhh, fresh parsley! One reason I look forward to summer. As with the other herbs, excess parsley can be dried and they are great for winter soup, cioppino (a tomato based seafood stew) with some crusty garlic bread, yummmmm!
Rosemary:Rosemary is a beautiful bush with blue hue. It is easy to maintain once established. However they will not stand sever cold. Both of my established plants died in the big snow storm we had a couple of years ago. I now planted a couple varieties. One of them, a tougher, woodier variety is suppose to be more cold hardy than the more tender leaf variety. Rosemary taste great in pork, beef and lamb. One thing I like to make in the summer is rosemary garlic fries, which is french fried potatoes topped with chopped rosemary and garlic infused bread crumbs (add your salt and pepper to taste). Try it! It's surprisingly good.
Sage: Sage is a beautiful woody plant that makes a good corner anchoring plant. And it is a great culinary herb. Sage taste good with poultry, pork and veal. It also taste good in soups. Sage is like an evergreen, it maintains its leaves in the winter so it's a great herb to have around, particularly for the winter.
Cilantro: Cilantro is an annual herb. It needs to be planted every year, better yet, several times a year. It's a nice herb to keep around especially when the tomatoes, peppers come to maturity. Yea, nothing like fresh salsa! Cilantro tends to bolt in when the days gets longer, try to plant them in shady area. It can be quite cold hardy, so I always start a batch or two at the end to summer to ensure I have fresh cilantro well into fall.
Green Onions:
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