Pomegranate Tree

When I was little I loved fall because it meant Halloween was coming. Now that I'm an adult (and a homeowner) I adore fall because it means the Pomegranate tree in the backyard is going to produce. This particular tree is actually our neighbors tree but it is positioned so the majority hangs over our fence, oh darn!

When the tree first blooms in the summer it has tiny red flowers all over. The flowers grow a red tube like shape and the flower wilts and falls off. This tube is what is eventually becomes the end of the pomegranate at picking time. The easiest way to open them is by scoring the outside flesh with a knife and breaking it open. I've been told it's easier if you freeze them first but I haven't tried it.

Poms are known to be high in vitamin C about 19% of a persons daily intake. They are also a good source of vitamin B5. And if you eat them with seeds in they are high in fiber. In India Poms have been used as a remedy against diarrhea (by eating the rind) as well as a tonic for the heart and throat. Although this sounds strange some studies have found that the consumption of Poms help with diabetes, rhinovirus, and the common cold (from Wikipedia).

Besides the health benefits there are so many delicious recipes to use with pomegranates. Grenadine syrup is derived from the pomegranate and the seeds are used regularly as a spice in Indian cuisine. Last year I basted pork chops the pom juice from our tree for Christmas dinner. Here are some recipes for great food made with pomegranates that I love: Pear and Pom salad, Apple and Pom crisp, Pom Margarita, Roast Pork with Pom and Ginger glaze, and Avocado, Grapefruit and Pom salad by none less than Ms. Martha Stuart.

Usually the squirrels get a large amount of our crop before we can get to them. This year I've been determined to pick them as soon as they are ripe. Do you have a favorite pomegranate recipe? do you have a favorite fruit that is out of the ordinary? I would love to hear about them.

Velcrow Plant Ties

What will they think of next? I was in the gardening section and found Velcro plant ties. At first I though - nah, but then I wondered would they be reusable? I had been using little twist ties that I found around the house but sometimes they were just sort of a pain. So I purchased the Velcro ties. It looks like this...

It is actually quite convenient and it sticks to its self well. Its softer than the usual Velcro and it has been doing well outside. Here is a picture of it on one of the tomato plants. Its nice because as the plant grows I can take it off and reposition it and it isn't a funky mess like the twist ties.

Planter update

It has definitely been a while since my last blog post. Our camera was broken so I had to purchase a new one. Definitely not a purchase I wanted to make right now since we just started saving for a DSLR camera. To top it off after we purchased the new camera we figured out there was smutz stuck in the lens of the old camera so it was unable to open fully. Lesson learned, keep your camera away from tiny fingers (our children). So now we have a backup in case the old one fails again.
Planter one has had a bug infestation that I have been diligent at working on. Since we have desperately been trying to only use organic products to fight the bugs eating the plants in our planters it has proven to be a long road to recovery. Planter 2 on the other hand has been doing gangbusters! Here is a picture...

The tall bushes are the tomato plants. They have just about taken over the planter! A helpful hint I learned from one of my mothers friends, is to pinch off the ends of the buds. This will help the tomato plant use its energy to produce tomatoes, instead of using all of its energy to produce long lanky lengths. The same friend also said that sometimes pumpkins will take a year to develop fruit. We definitely haven't seen any this year and our vines keep getting eaten by green caterpillars that we keep removing. As you can see in the right hand bottom of the photo. So it seems that the food is still in growing mode. Gardening is not for the faint of hear, for sure!

Strawberry Plants in Pots

I just love Saturdays, with the whole weekend ahead to enjoy. It really puts me in good spirits. I love spending the morning in the garden, or attempting to spend the morning in the garden. This usually never works out the way I think it is going to, and I get sidetracked with the boys. But I still just adore walking amongst my little green 'children' planted outside.
A few months back at the begging of summer I had purchased strawberry seeds and if you remember they took forever to bud. So in mid-August I went to my local garden store and proceeded to purchase (break down and purchase) a couple of strawberry plants. Since I, as a new gardener, know nothing about strawberry plants, I just decided to purchase one of each type they carried (they carried three types). I figured worst case secenero, I kill them ... right?

Fast forward to October and they are all still alive! The seeds are finally growing but the little leaves are only the size of a pen cap. One of the varieties I at the store very well the Quinalt. All the plants I purchased at the store are by Bonnie Plants. But the Quinalt put out offshoots, and one of the offshoots took. Apparently the secret is if you lay the offshoot in dirt it will grow roots, and grow roots it did. It is still small but it is growing as well. So now I have 7 strawberry plants that are still alive!

The Quinalt has been blooming and has even produced flowers and teeny-tiny strawberries. Just big enough to keep me going back to adore the little guy. Here is a picture...

I decided to plant them in pots only because they shouldn't be planted were potatoes, tomotoes peppers, or eggplant have been planted becasue they can contract Verticillium Rot. So I decided to keep them out of the planters. We have a big bar area that I keep the pots up on in attempts to keep the bugs away. So far this has worked.

Planter 2 the plants

I am completely late getting this photo up but better late than never. I planted a whole bunch of plants two weeks ago for planter two. The photo to the right is the beginning photo. As you can see the tomatoes already sprouted, big surprise! I also planted some more watermelon, cantaloupe, pumpkin, and some bell peppers since they didn't take the first time. At this point most of them have sprouted and I planted them in planter 2 today. I will take some pictures tomorrow and post them.

Planter 2 the begining

Planter two is finally up! My only issue now is I don't have enough to plant in it. I had a whole box of strawberry seeds & Bell Peppers that didn't come up. So I've planted one pumpkin a tomato and one cantaloupe. I've re-started the strawberries in the hopes that they will eventually arrive. Only time will tell at this point.

Planter 1 planted

It's been awhile since the last post. We have been recovering from our 4th of July weekend getaway. We finally were able to get our seedlings planted in planter one. Its just amazing to watch the little guys grow. Using the square foot garden guide we planted watermelon, Pot Marigold, tomato, Pumpkins, leaf lettuce, butter lettuce, bell pepper, peas, cantaloupe, onions, carrots, and garlic. Below is a layout of planter 1. We used leftover Popsicle sticks to label the plants.

The Topsy Turvey

My husbands boss received a Topsy turvy and decided she didn't want it. When she found out we had a vegetable garden she gave it to us. I had only heard bad reviews about the Topsy turvy so when the tiny plant started growing like mad I was really surprised. It is already producing a bunch of blooms and has grown . I can't wait to see the first tomatoes :).

Sowing Seeds

Last week I finished sowing my seeds for the vegetable garden. It is very late in the season but it seems that the weather this year is mild so I'm giving it a try. I used some leftover Popsicle sticks to label my plants and some leftover plastic shoe boxes that I purchased from target forever ago to plant in. I ended up using the Jiffy soil disks that rehydrate to sow my plants in. I like them because they can be planted directly in the ground. I think this just makes it easier to transplant the plants and the plants also get to keep their soil. I'm really trying to conserve funds so I used some neat helpful hints from Mr. Brown Thumb's blog you can check him out here .The butter lettuce, tomato, peas, onions, cantaloupe, and pumpkins are already starting to sprout! I can't wait to get them out in the yard.

Veggie Garden - The begginings

Because of the price hike in food we have decided to start a veggie garden. Money is tight so a good start is to plant what we eat the most of. After researching the different gardening techniques we realized the soil in the section of our house that we want to use is not the best. The area is also small and an odd shape. So we decided the best option for us was a combo of square foot gardening with a raised bed Lasagna garden. We measured the space and it looks like we can fit 4 - 4'x4' beds in the section and still have room for our compost bin!

What is a square foot garden and a Lasagna garden you ask?

Well square foot gardening is a technique of intensive planting developed by a civil engineer. Mel Bartholomew came up with square foot gardening in the 1970's. The Technique is a system of planting based on a grid of 1'X1' squares with plants placed in carefully determined spacing. In his book Square Foot Gardening Mel explains his system "The square foot system lets you make the most of your garden space to conserve the amount of water, soil conditioners, and labor needed to produce a maximum amount of food in that space. A square foot garden takes only one-fifth the space and work of a conventional single-row garden to produce the same harvest."

Lasagna gardening really takes square foot gardening to a whole different level. Patricia Lanza explains in her book Lasagna Gardening that this garden is a no till no dig organic method. You can check out her website at www. lasagnagardening.com. In a Lasagna garden the first layer is either Cardboard or three layers of newspaper laid directly on top of the area. Then you apply layers to the garden. Grass clippings, veggie scraps, leaves, etc. Then anything you would put in a compost pile you can put into the lasagna garden. The materials will break down to produce the soil to plant in.

So this last weekend we purchased the wood and some soil (We don't yet have enough compost for both sections) for two of the four beds. and started to layer our Lasagna garden. Its coming along nicely. It is way less work than I thought it was going to be. Next up is planting the sections!