Monthly Archives: June 2015

climate zones: what can I grow in my yard?

Posted on June 21, 2015 | 2 comments

Knowing what you can grow in your neck of the woods is one of the most

Organic gardening depends on dirt.

Healthy soil tells you what it can and cannot support and grow.

important bits of information you want to have when it comes to backyard gardening.

There are two basic topics that have significant influence on just what will live and grow happily in your yard.

In the end, it all comes down to getting a grip on your dirt and knowing your zones.

Dirt
We’ve all got dirt – a growing medium, a place to stick our plants.  But it’s what kind of dirt you have that will influence what you can grow.

There are all kinds of definitions out there for dirt or soil but, bottom line for gardeners, soil is NOT the stuff you buy in bags at your local big box store.  It is the stuff we walk on, the stuff plants, bushes and trees sit in.    Soil is the stuff we start our seeds in, transplant our baby plants into and set our ready-to-grow plants into in our gardens.

And the dirt in your backyard will tell you, loud and clear, whether it is happy and healthy and whether it can support what you are putting into it or not.  For me, the magic of my garden is in the dirt.

Zones
If you’ve been considering doing some backyard gardening, I’m sure you’ve heard of “zones.”  When I first started, I found the concept of zones a bit overwhelming.  And the fact that global warming has made my zone wander a bit on the USDA map just added to my confusion.

It took me a bit to figure out this “zone” thing and the fact that zones affect what you can and cannot grow.   I have to say that I think Dr. Thomas Osborne really nailed what anyone needs to know about zones so I am sharing his post.

FYI – Dr. Osborne is a Harvard trained Radiologist and Neuro-radiologist, not a botanist or a so-called pointy-headed intellectual.  And he just loves to share his insight about medicine and gardening.

So, without further ado, Dr. Osborne on getting your zone on!

climate zones: what can I grow in my yard?TastyLandscape.

via climate zones: what can I grow in my yard?TastyLandscape.

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Posted in Gardening Tips, Organic Gardening, Tools for the Organic Gardener

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Organic Garden in June in PA

Posted on June 15, 2015 | 5 comments

Today I just want to share some of the glorious pictures from my garden which has finally decided to grab on and grow!

First the Montmorency cherries! I picked 12.5 quarts and my friend Julie got a little over 12 quarts too.

Sour cherries ripe and ready to be picked.

Sour cherries covering the branches of my trees.

Right now, just about the same amount of cherries still on the branches of my two trees.

Sour cherries on my fruit trees.

The sour cherry trees are full of cherries this year, probably 40 to 45 quarts.

I have 2 gallons of cherry brandy “cooking” in the closet.  Love making brandy because you don’t have to pit the cherries – just dump them into the pot and boil them up with vodka and brandy.

I also have half a gallon of dried cherries in my refrigerator.  I used my Excalibur  one of the best food dehydrators on the market — to dry 7 trays of them — pitted of course – and will use them in scones (great with organic chocolate chunks) and in my Quinoa Butternut and Dried Cherry Salad with Goat Cheese!

And I still have enough cherries to make 2 batches of Sour Cherry jam – absolutely fabulous on biscuits or cornbread.

My lettuce is about done but I still have some of my favorite – red butterhead.

Red Butterhead lettuce ready for harvest.

Red Butterhead lettuce makes a soft, beautiful head that’s perfect for salads.

This head is just right for the picking.  The head it forms is loose but can be harvested whole so you can core it, plate it and serve it just like it looks in this picture.

Or you can cut it in half and serve it like a wedge or just cut it up and serve it in a mixed green salad.  My favorite and worth growing because it is no work at all.

If you have planted lettuce and it bolts, as mine is

Lettuce bolting.

Lettuce bolts quickly when temperatures rise.

doing, you might want to leave a few heads in the ground to set seeds.  Some people don’t like the way bolted lettuce looks but I think it’s pretty.

I let 2 or 3 plants of every variety bolt then collect the seeds and use them for fall plantings and next year’s garden.

Each plants gives you hundreds of seeds and they are so easy to save that I almost never have to buy lettuce seeds

I could go on and on about all of my plants like the yellow squash plants you see here.

Healthy yellow squash plant.

This yellow squash doesn’t have a stem; it has a trunk!

Yellow squash growing.

The first yellow squash on this impressive plant.

Or the pole beans that are climbing up the  fence.

And the Bumble Beans just setting their beautiful deep lavender flowers.

So, instead, I will leave you with pictures that speak a 1000 words….about this year’s beautiful garden.

Thornless blackberries

Thornless blackberries

Blackberries setting on the bush.

Blackberries setting on the bush.

Sour cherries

Sour cherries

Doyle Thornless blackberries are healthy and strong and setting an enormous number of blossoms which will lead to an enormous amount of  fruit for brandy and jam.

Blueberries ripening

Blueberries ripening

Eggplant

Eggplant taking hold

Bumble bean flowers on the vine.

Bumble bean flowers

 

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Posted in Gardening Tips, Organic Gardening, Seeds & Seed Starting, Tools for the Organic Gardener

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Pruning Guru Makes It Easy

Posted on June 12, 2015 | Leave a comment

Move over Lee Reich. Reich is one of my go to resources for gardening, growing and weeding. He also used to be my “go to” guy for pruning tips and tricks. Although I still love Reich’s book, I have a new, best friend when it comes to pruning.

Her name is Ann Ralph; her book is Grow A Little Fruit Tree.

For the first time since I started reading about and trying to understand what to prune, when and how, I completely understand pruning and I know the answers to the what, the when and the how!

It is so simple that I am amazed!  And Ann Ralph’s approach ensures that your dwarf trees will not be 25 feet high and still growing with fruit totally out of reach.

Here’s the first bit of advice I was surprised by.  When you buy a new fruit tree, cut off its little head!

Ralph calls this, “…the toughest cut you will ever make.” Although the reasons she shares in her book are logical and the outcome desirable, the author notes that many people just can’t bring themselves to do it and guess what, their dwarf stock quickly exceeds all predictions for height and you are stuck with a fruit tree you can’t manage or harvest.

Now for the second bit of advice.  I live in the United States.  Ralph’s “rule?” Prune in June.  Just before Summer Solstice.  Yes, even if you trees have fruit on them, prune.  This prune is for height, not necessarily for shape.

Like a whole lot of people, I was told to prune when the tree was dormant – January or February, before it set fruit.  And so I did.  That’s why all of my trees grew 10 to 15 feet every spring!  Winter pruning should be for shape; pruning a tree back in winter unleashes all its stored energy into growth in the spring and you become the proud owner of a monster tree!

I’m not going to give away all of Ralph’s amazing, practical and straightforward advice.  If you have fruit trees, buy the book.  I got the paperback and the Kindle book and have devoured every word, twice.

An amazing, easy to read and easy to implement book on pruning is gold to any gardener and this book is all of these things and more.

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Posted in Gardening Books, Gardening Tips, Organic Gardening, Tools for the Organic Gardener

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How to Grow Figs, with Lee Reich from A Way To Garden

Posted on June 1, 2015 | 3 comments

Two of my favorite gardening resources got together to discuss how to grow figs and the outcome is an information-packed  article coupled with a podcast!

Lee Reich, whose books include Grow Fruit Naturally: A Hands-On Guide to Luscious, Homegrown Fruit, The Pruning Book: Completely Revised and Updated and Weedless Gardening, shares his secrets for growing figs with Margaret Roach — a gardening expert in her own right.

FYI – in case you’re thinking it’s too cold where you live to grow figs, read on.  Both of these gardeners live in Zone 5 and still grow figs.  And the topic of growing figs is one of my favorite.

I have two fig trees in my Southeastern PA zone 6 – one is the Celeste the other was a cutting from a tree brought to America in 1910(?) by a friend’s great grandfather.

Both did beautifully for years, providing so many figs that I gave them away, diced and froze them and made fig jam!

But in the last 2 years, the very cold winters have really hurt them. I am back to just getting stems with leaves growing up from the roots in the ground that survived.   I hope to get figs again next year or the year after because this is a superb fruit.

One of my favorite ways to eat them is right off the tree! But if I manage to get a few in the house, I chill them, cut them in half, place a small round of goat cheese on each half and drizzle balsamic vinegar mixed with honey on each half. Heaven!

I hope you enjoy Margaret Roach’s interview with Lee Reich and give figs a try!

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Posted in Celebrities Going Green, Gardening Tips, Organic Gardening, Recipes From The Garden, Tools for the Organic Gardener

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