Garden Tour - June 2013

First, I must apologize to anyone who was disappointed to see I didn't get a Savory Sunday post up this past week.  There was really nothing unique and exciting to post from our garden meals last week.  We've been bring in a lot of lettuce and just had a lot of ordinary salads with it.

In the mean time, I finally shot a video tour of the garden a couple weeks ago and am just now getting around to posting it for anyone to view.  It's a bit long, but there was a lot to show being the first time I've done a video tour.  Future video updates will focus on only major changes between then and what you see in this first one, so they should be much shorter.

So to spare you any more time it may take to view it, I'll get right to it:

Savory Sunday - 23 June 2013

This post is a day late, but that's because I spent much of last night shelling peas after dinner.  We pulled out just about all of our pea plants on Saturday.  So far we've weighed about 10 lbs of them.  

Since a few of the plants were snow peas, we used some of them in a stir fry last night.  We also added in some leftover broccoli harvested a while back.

Earlier in the week I tagged along with a youth group from our church to hike King's Peak, the highest point in our state.  I'll probably do another post a little later all about that trip.  I often refer to trailcooking.com for tasty and easy to prepare meals for the trail.  I stumbled across this one for fish tacos, but instead of cabbage, I subbed in some collards from the garden.  It made for a great post-summit meal with protein, carbs, greens, and all the vitamins, minerals, anti-oxidants that come with it.  

Savory Sunday - 16 June 2013

Mother's Days and Father's Days are always a treat.  Like many other holidays and other special days, they are days to enjoy time with family and good food.  Today was no exception.  We spent the evening at my wife's grandma's house with her parents and a brother-in-law and his family.  We traditionally do these get togethers "pot luck" style.  Some of our Dino (Lacinato) Kale has been getting quite long, so we figured it could be incorporated into our contribution.  So we hauled in a basket full of Kale this morning...

...and turned it into this...

It's called Super Summer Kale Salad.  We found the recipe through a search for "Kale" on allrecipes.com.  I don't have a nutrition fact sheet on it, but it looked like something loaded with antioxidants and other good nutrients for the body.  It's tangy sweetness was also good for the taste buds.

Other meals featuring food fresh from the garden this week:

Lettuce was cut for use on some hamburgers.  By the way, my wife makes the buns from scratch! Well worth it! Some Broccoli was picked and steamed and spinach was eaten like a salad.  Also pictured are some organic sweet potato fries.  While we are attempting some sweet potatoes ourselves, they won't be ready until end of summer, assuming they thrive OK.

Some of the left over ground beef not made into burgers was saved for tacos later on.  My wife also makes the tortillas from scratch.  All well worth the time and effort!  I enjoy them much better than store-bought packs.  This meal featured more lettuce from the garden.  We are flooded with lettuce now and will be for the next few weeks, I imagine.  Hopefully we can get some neighbors to come back and help themselves to a bit as well so I can get all those squares filled in with some beans and some other summer crops.  As for the rest of the tacos, I wish I could say the tomatoes and salsa used on them were also fresh from the garden, but we won't be able to start harvesting our own tomatoes, tomatillos, and so forth for another few weeks, at least.  Our tomatoes plants are just now setting out their first clusters of blossoms.

Savory Sunday - 9 June 2013

I've decided I'm going to try and do a weekly "Savory Sunday" post each Sunday, where I post what we were able to use from the garden for our Sunday dinner and/or highlight any other meals that were unique or noteworthy from the prior week.

With that said, here is the first of my Savory Sunday series...

Today's harvest featured bok choy and broccoli. I like to recruit one of my kids to come out and help with the harvest whenever they're available because it's a good bonding moment and because I, like many parents, feel it is good for my kids to see how and where good healthy food is produced. Today my three year old took up the basket-holding duties.

Little helper

Bok Choy & Broccoli Harvest

Not ever having cooked with Bok Choy before, I consulted with the Internet for some recipes as I so often do when looking for a way to incorporate something from the garden in a meal. I found two recipes that stood out to me:  Sautéed Broccoli & Bok Choy and Bok Choy, Apple, & Carrot Slaw.  The former was great because it allowed me to use the broccoli as well, and the latter, I wanted to do just because we happened to have everything else needed for that already on hand. 

My wife made some fresh rolls (in addition to a loaf of bread) and cooked up a pot of rice to put the Bok Choy & Broccoli over which rounded out the meal. In the picture below, the slaw is in the upper right and the sautéed veggies are over the rice at the bottom of the plate.

Dinner is Served

The Broccoli and Bok Choy over rice was delicious.  I thought the slaw was also very flavorful and enjoyed it myself but my wife and kids thought it to be too tart & sour, probably a result of it having quite a splattering of lemon juice tossed with it.

Some other meals we enjoyed this week with something from the garden was a grilled chicken salad and a chicken-arugula-radish pizza.  The salad featured Mesclun mix lettuce and spinach from the garden.  Also added to it besides the chicken was some cucumber, tomato, grated cheese & dried cranberries.  For the pizza, we pulled some radishes and a couple of arugula plants from the garden to complete the recipe.

Grilled Chicken Salad

Chicken, Radish & Arugula Pizza

For those of you who have gardens or other ways of growing some of your own food, I hope these posts can deliver some more great ways you can enjoy your bounty and for those of you who don't or lack the resources to do so, my hope is that these posts will inspire you to work toward obtaining the resources to be able to grow some of your own food, even if it is only some culinary herbs in a windowsill.  Your taste-buds will thank you!

From Garden to Plate - May 27th

Yesterday was a great day for celebrating Memorial Day with great weather that made it possible to take the family to the local waterpark.  It was also a great day for a little traditional barbecue.  Radishes, spinach, and Mesclun lettuce mix were harvested to make up salad.  Not pictured above was also the addition of some Craisins (dried cranberries) and some light granola featuring dried strawberries and hemp seed (purchased from a bulk bin at a local health food market).  Drizzled with a bit of vinaigrette dressing and wow,  it was fabulous!  My wife hasn't been too keen on radishes before, but I got her to enjoy them in the salad.  Equally as delicious was the chicken I grilled.  I was able to cut off a few sprigs of cilantro and used it in making a cilantro-lime marinade.  The recipe can be found here.

The garden seems to be far enough along to start supplying our family with enough variety to make something a little different almost every day.  Hopefully we start to see a dent in the grocery expenses from here on out for at least the next several months.  Here's to a long growing season!

Garden Update - May 2013

It's been a while since I last posted, but much has been growing well in the garden, while a few other plants have been struggling to outlast some some viscous looking attacks from birds, earwigs, and pill bugs.  I don't have pictures or updates for EVERYTHING, but here's a thorough look at where most things stand as of this week...

First off I have a couple of 4 x 4 boxes filling up with Mesclun mix salad greens with a Baby romaine in the middle of each.  Once they've been fully harvested over the next few weeks, they'll become the home of a Black Zucchini and a Yellow Straight Neck Squash plant respectively.

Mesclun Box #1

Mesclun Box #2

Nearby are the strawberry beds and in between each of the strawberry beds are 2 x 3 ft spaces growing some varieties of spinach (Round Leaf, Matador, Bloomsdale),  Radishes (Cherry Bell), Swiss Chard (Bright Lights, Rainbow), and more lettuces (Baby Romaine, Cimarron).  Also in between each new strawberry bed in the walk way are some mature June Bearing strawberries.  I'm not sure of the variety because they were already in the ground when we purchased the home.  Last year, before I made plans to put in new beds, I cut them down after they were done producing and then watered in a bit of 10-10-10 fertilizer.  While I had to dig out much of them to place the new raised beds in their spot, I was able to leave a few as seen below.  There's another walk way on the other side of the bed to the left.  These also send out tons of runners through the summer and have actually spawned quite a few plants here and there behind the beds as well.  How they are thriving in such hard compacted clay soil is beyond me.  They have become full of blossoms with many already producing some nice size fruit.  As soon as any start to show some color, I'll throw some small cuts of bird netting over them.  Within the new strawberry beds themselves I have planted out one bed with Albion (ever bearing), the middle bed with a Shuksan (June Bearing) and the third bed with Hecker (ever bearing).

Clockwise from top middle: Spinach & Lettuce, Hecker Strawberries,  Unknown Strawberries, Shuksan Strawberries

Close up of spinach & lettuce between strawberry beds

Some of the spinach and pretty much all of the Swiss Chard have been falling victim to birds (as evidenced by the triangular beak-shaped bites from the leaves).  I've been told birds love to much on Beet sprouts and since Swiss Chard is part of the Beet family, I'm guessing it has been birds taking clean cuts at all of the Swiss Chard sprouts and seedlings.  I'm sure some earwigs and pill bugs jump on to help a bit through the evenings.  While the spinach grows on, I'm already preparing to replant the Swiss Chard, with more mature seedlings rather than straight from seed if it becomes necessary.  If it comes to that, I'll also throw on some bird net and diatomaceous earth if necessary to help protect the plants.

Bird bites on spinach & Swiss Chard in background

Close up of Swiss Chard damage

Something ate a big chunk from this leaf

Behind the strawberry beds is a stretch where I've planted in 3 different grape roots. Two are now showing signs of life (Seedless Suffolk Red & Seedless Green Lakemont) while the other I'm still holding out hope for (Seedless Concord).  The Concord grape start had much less roots developed on it than the other two so I'm thinking it is putting more energy into growing out more roots to establish itself underground first and will start to bud out on top when it is ready.

Suffolk Seedless

Lakemont Seedless

Concord Seedless

Further north along the same stretch I also planted a couple ever-bearing red raspberries, a couple of black raspberries and thornless blackberries.  All four raspberry bushes appear to be on their way while the blackberries haven't put forth much growth above the ground surface yet.  I've gone out at night a few times and found a few of the plants swarmed by baby earwigs that I've had to spray off with some soap spray.

Raspberry growth

Next to the raspberries is the 10' x 4' bed I have some peas (Sugar Snap & Little Marvel), Broccoli (De Cicco), and Brussels Sprouts.  No blossoms on any of the peas yet, but I'm expecting some any day now.  They need to start producing quick because I'm going to be replanting the bed with some corn, squash, pumpkin, and amaranth in 2 - 3 weeks.  Otherwise, we'll just settle for eating lots of pea shoot salads and smoothies with the leaves. The broccoli plants are all showing heads now which is encouraging.  As for the Brussels Sprouts.  They clearly won't be producing before its time for them to come out so I'll give them another try this winter.  A benefit to growing them in the fall is that some early frosts should help sweeten up the sprouts should we get any then.  Also in the bed is some Spinach (Bloomsdale, Matador) and some struggling beets (Detroit Dark Red).

Peas & Broccoli

South of the peas and broccoli is a 4' x 8' bed currently growing some other peas that got off to a later start and certainly won't be producing in time before it's time use the space on some summer veggies.  I currently have some Amish Paste tomatoes slated to take their spot.  Same story is true for peas I have in the rest of the beds (Sugar Ann, Lincoln, Snow, etc.).  I also have some green beans (Red Bergundy), more Broccoli from later starts, Spinach, a stray Pok Choi that was mis-labeled and grouped with the Spinach, Kale (Lacinato & Blue Curled), Onions (Candy & Red), and Cilantro.  The Lacinato Kale and onions in this bed are some of the only store bought starts I have in the garden.  The only other store-bought starts throughout all of the garden beds are a row of Sweet Yellow Onions, a row of Walla Walla Onions, the Albion strawberries (the other two varieties were started with bare roots) and some flowers in my wife's big bed.  Besides all that, the raspberry and grape roots, everything else in the garden has been started either in our home, or directly in the garden.

Onions, Broccoli, Cilantro, Spinach, w/ stray Pok Choi, & Kale

Moving on over from the bed above is a 4' x 4' bed growing some late-starting peas and three varieties of lettuce (Salad Bowl, Red Sails, Butter head).

Lettuce Bed

Next to the lettuce bed is a 4' x 12' bed currently growing a number of things:  Peas (Snow, Lincoln), Lettuce (Red Cimarron, Black Seeded Simpson, Summertime), Onions (Green Bunching), Arugula, Beets (Detroit Dark Red), Spinach (Round Leaf), and Carrots (Scarlet Nantes, Kaleidoscope Mix, and Purple Haze).  All are doing quite well except for the peas (as mentioned further above) and the beets.  Nearly all of the beets in this bed have been swiped off by what I can only assume to be more birds.  I also lost a square of Scarlet Nantes Carrots to a cat who replaced it with something a bit more foul.  I've since built out PVC box frames around this bed and the 4' x 8' bed right next to it to hold up a barrier of bird net surrounding them.  I haven't noticed any new cat tracks or scat in the garden since.  The Arugula was started indoors and was all but lost at one point because I failed to get them hardened off more thoroughly when I planted them out nearly two months ago but most are now making strong come backs.  At the foot of the bed and just outside of it, I also have a nice looking volunteer Cilantro plant from seed dropped from a plant from last year.

Purple Haze Carrots

Volunteer Cilantro

Out in my wife's big bed is a 4' x 4' block growing some Yukon Gold and Purple Viking potatoes.  They were started beneath the ground level about 2 months ago and have already leafed out above the bed after having been topped off.  Against the house the buckets of Yukon Gold and Red Pontiacs are also showing some good growth.

Potatoes

More Potatoes

I moved out all of the tomato seedlings to be outside full time a couple of weeks ago.  I had them up on our back deck over the weekend to give them some protection from some rains storms we had.  They are all looking quite well.  The ones in the red cups that were the first to be transplanted from their cell packs are clearly miles ahead of the others as far as growth goes, but they've also had about 2 more weeks of more root growth.

Tomatoes

Tomatoes up front, Tomatillos in far back

Indoors I've been growing some Sweet Potato slips and they look well.  I also started some Alpine Strawberry plants from seeds about two months ago.  They've required a lot of patience to see much growth, but they are now starting to fill out and take off a bit.  In addition, I also have lots more basil (Sweet, Lemon, Purple Ruffle) started.

Sweet Potato Slips

Alpine Strawberries

Basil

Also noteworthy for the month of May is that we had our first "official" or measurable harvest this last week.  We picked a bowl full of Bloomsdale Spinach that was used in some panini sandwiches.  We've since harvested some other spinach, and a bit of cilantro and basil to use in some other dishes.  On Mother's Day, I stumbled upon a Garter Snake.  I love having those around because I know they prey on many bad bugs as well as mice as they get older.

First Harvest - Spinach

Serpent in the Garden

We also recently got a couple of Goji Berry roots shipped to us that we hope to raise to maturity (and find space for them) as well as a number of new seeds, mostly melons, that we'll be trying out this summer.  I actually just got the melon, squash, cucumber, okra, nasturtium, and amaranth seeds started this morning, so there will be plenty to look forward to as the season moves along.

For those faithfully following the blog and keeping up with the garden, I will have to number my beds and post an actual layout of everything we have growing in each bed and then update it with each season.  Then it should be much easier to keep up with.

First Harvest: Dandelions

Yep, that's right. I just harvested a bucket full of a common weed. While we are waiting on some lettuces, spinach, kale, and chard to become mature enough to start picking leaves from, I got impatient and wanted to join with everyone else already harvesting from their spring gardens and begin harvesting something.

Dandelions are running rampant in our yard, and instead of putting them to good use in the compost bin, I decided they could be put to even better use in the kitchen. Dandelions greens are surprisingly rich in all kinds of nutrients and other health benefits. They offer calcium, iron, protein, vitamin A, & vitamin C just to name a few. Some of the benefits: help prevent and fight different cancers and help maintain a healthy liver and eyes. And that's only the tip of an iceberg in their health value.

This bucket full should provide a nice base to some daily smoothies for the next few days. We try to have a smoothie everyday that consists of a green (i.e. spinach, kale, chard, collard, ... and now dandelion), a fruit or two (i.e. banana, apple, orange, blueberries, strawberries, etc) and a small handful of grain/seed/nut (i.e. flax seeds, raw sunflower seeds, almonds, etc).

We'll probably be fortunate enough to harvest a bucket full of dandelion greens every week or two through at least early summer.

Source: http://www.incrediblesmoothies.com/green-smoothies/10-reasons-you-should-use-dandelion-greens-in-your-green-smoothie/

Time to Grow On

It's been an up and down start to the gardening season to say the least.  On the plus side, I've finally finished the layout, the construction of the new beds and the reconstruction and relocation of the old beds.  All that's left to really do is install some automated irrigation to all of the beds, a project that should be commenced, and hopefully completed, next month.  On the down side, the weather hasn't been as kind.  One thing you come to learn about weather in Northern Utah along the front of the Wasatch Mountains is that the only thing consistent about it is that it is inconsistent.  In the early spring, you can have a week of sunshine with highs in the 60's and lows in the 40's only to have it all turn on a dime and be followed by a week of cold rain and snow with high's in the 40's and lows in the 20's & 30's.

Needless to say, some of my spring vegetables aren't nearly as far as along as I had hoped.  Part of that is due to the weather and me not being on the move quick enough to cover some things up.  Other factors are that a number of seeds I had tried experimentally starting in straight coconut coir failed to come up.  Others are struggling to grow beyond their first sets of true leaves, probably due to the straight coir they're in and lack of regular fertilization.  This can all probably be attributed to all of the time and effort spent to detail and complete the structural components of the garden so that it can all be ready for automated irrigation before summer hits.

Anyhow, now that the structural work is virtually completed, I can start to spend more time nurturing seedlings and so on.  I actually spent some time this last week preparing and germinating some new seeds for starting indoors and planting direct out into the garden. I still have at least a good 6 to 8 weeks to get some good growth out of many of these crops in addition to what I've already been able to plant in the garden or have re-seeded into better seed mixes.  While many of the crops may never reach full maturity before I need to pull them out to make room for some summer crops (i.e. tomatoes), I think most will have the time they'll need to reach full maturity before I end up having to pull them out to get the rest of the summer crops in.  I hope to be able to have all my tomatoes ready to go and in the ground by end of May through the first week of June with eggplant, peppers, corn, melons, cucumbers, and squash to follow in the next couple weeks thereafter.  I'll be planting out several different varieties of beans we want to try through out mid-May through mid-June as much as space permits as well.

In the mean time, here's a look at some of the progress that's been made and what there is to look forward to in the next several weeks...

A couple of weeks ago, I successfully germinated a wide selection of tomato seeds in moist paper towels sealed inside of snack-sized plastic bags.  It only took them 2-3 days to germinate.  The tomato plants I now have in progress are: Super Sweet 100, Amish Paste, Abe Lincoln, Beefsteak, Big Red, Brandywine, Rainbow Cherry, Cherokee Purple, & Tomatillo (all in one flat pictured below).  In another flat I also have 8 Romas and 8 "Rainbow Heirloom" varieties, all from a mixed variety packet from Burpee that I couldn't say no to that consists of Bonny Best, Brandywine Pink, Golden Sunburst, Black Krim, Evergreen and Djena Lee's Golden Girl.  I have no idea what each will turn out to be, since I can't tell the seeds apart, so they should each be a fun surprise.  I wish I knew I was getting one of each, but the probability isn't there and I won't have the space to grow them all.  Hopefully there's at least enough diversity to make the bed they go in extra colorful.

Tomatoes in Progress

After a couple rounds of speeding up seed germination using the "Baggie" method with these tomatoes and some other seeds, I opted to see how coffee filters really compared.  While the paper towels did their job well, if the seeds weren't caught right when their radicle (first root) started to emerge, they would often end up growing into the paper towel.  Because they are so delicate at this point, you have to rip or cut out the piece of paper towel with them and still risk damaging the root which would likely kill it.  With the number of seeds I was trying to start, this process became more painstaking and tedious than I expected.  I had read that those who use coffee filters found the material to be more dense and much harder for the tiny roots to penetrate.  I picked a pack up this last week at the store and enlisted the help of my wife to make labels while I prepped the filters and wrapped the seeds in them.  I then arranged them all onto some plastic dome covers (all my flats were full) and placed them directly on top of my grow lights to give them a touch of extra warmth.

Germinating Seeds using the "Baggie Method"

As of yesterday, we successfully germinated all of the following:

All of the pics were taken yesterday, April 14th.  Note the date they were placed in the filters with the number of expected days to germination according to their seed packet.  You can click to enlarge. 

Beets (Detroit Dark Red)

Beets (Chioggia)

Swiss Chard (Rainbow)

Pak Choi

Spinach (Matador)

Spinach (Round leaf)

Spinach (Bloomsdale)

Kale (Blue Curled)

Being cold hardier and spring season crops, these seeds were all planted straight way out into the garden yesterday afternoon.  Now I'm only hoping they can still take root and survive the next few days of light snow and colder temps we'll be getting. We already woke up to a bit of snow this morning.

Indeed, the coffee filter proved to be a much better at keeping sprouting seeds from penetrating it.  While not a coffee drinker, I'm now the newest fan of coffee filters.

We also started an assortment of flowers including Marigolds, Violas,  different varieties of Cosmos & Zinnias, etc. The Marigolds and Zinnia varieties had all also sprouted as of yesterday so they were potted up last night and placed under lights. 

Other vegetable, herb, and flower seeds placed in filters and bags on the same evening (4/11/13), that had yet to germinate are: Swiss Chard (Bright Lights), Swiss Chard (Pink Flamingo), Arugula, Dill, Sweet Basil, Lemon Basil, Oregano, Painted Daisy, Lavender, and some others.  We fully expect most of these to germinate and be grown to maturity while others are solely an experiment, such as the Oregano which seeds are tiny and may or may not survive the process of moving them into a pot once and if they germinate OK. 

I had researched and read up on different steps different people use in their application of the "baggie method" for speeding up the process of germinating seeds and have tried to apply all that each of the steps that made the most sense to me and sounded reasonable.  Assuming we are able to raise most, if not all, of these germinated seeds to maturity, then I will be sure to make a future post and possibly a video documenting and demonstrating each of the steps we applied.  Some of the different steps I employed and the inspiration for the method can be found at the following places: The Wealthy Earth, Garden Betty, Robs Plants, & GardenWeb.  Simple searches of "paper towel germination" and "coffee filter germination" on YouTube can yield lots of helpful demonstrations as well.

Moving on...I was also able to plant out some Red Pontiac and more Yukon Gold seed potatoes yesterday.  Earlier in the week I had picked up some cheap 5 gallon buckets from Lowe's and drilled 4 drainage holes into the bottoms of each with my largest drill bit.  I then filled each up about one-third with a mix of left over peat moss, compost, and raised bed mix.  I set up 4 buckets for each kind and planted one potato per bucket into the bottom of the soil mix.  Once any green shoots have grown up a couple of inches I will fill the buckets up another 1/3 of the way and then repeat again one last time to top off the bucket. 

Potato Buckets

Red Pontiac Seed Potato

Yukon Gold Seed Potato

A couple of weeks ago, I also planted out some cabbages, broccoli, cauliflower, and brussels sprouts that were started from seed.  I was in need of some more flats for the tomatoes, and since all of the former had a couple of true leaves on them, I had figured it would be OK to get them out into the ground. I let them sit outside through a few mostly cloudy days and a few peeks at the sun.  So far the Broccoli, Brussels Sprouts and the one cauliflower are all looking happy and healthy.  The broccoli plants have really started to take off with a couple pairs of new leaves on them.  The cabbages, while looking fine for the first week, suddenly showed what I thought might be some disease on their outer leaves.  It turns out it may just be a bit of sun scald on them as a result of transplant shock and not being fully hardened off all the way through.  They probably would have been better served with more gradual exposure to a full day of sun, but as mentioned earlier, the weather here has been unreliable for a full process of proper hardening off.  With that said, the younger inner leaves still appear to remain unaffected thus far and are still showing some new growth, so hopefully all will be well with them.

Sun Scald?

More sun scald?

Broccoli, Brussels Sprouts & Pea Bed

So, while many of our garden beds, and newly planted containers still look pretty bare for the moment, that will all hopefully change over the next few weeks.  For now, here is what things are looking like from abroad.  The flower beds surrounding the backyard are full of spring bulbs adding a lot of color.  We think the previous homeowner did a great job with spreading out the colors on them.

Spring Blooms

Lastly, our kitchen window sill has been filled to capacity with some basil plants, sweet potato and yams, and a few sunflowers.  For the last few weeks it has been the home of some sweet basil that I started from seed back in February.  My wife has already harvested from them for a couple of recipes we've enjoyed over the last couple of weeks.  As soon as they recover and grow a few more leaves out, I'll probably pinch the tip off to encourage some bushier growth.  We're also going to try our hand at some sweet potatoes and yams this year.  We just started the process of trying to grow some slips this last week as well.  As of this morning, I can already see some little roots poking out of the bottoms into the water containers they've been placed in.  A week ago, our girls planted some sunflower seeds as part of a family night activity and since they're already too tall for the grow lights downstairs, they've been moved up by the kitchen window.  During the daytime they piggy back on the basil plant holder.

Sweet Basil

Sweet Potatoes (light) & Yams (dark)

Sunflowers

You can see lists of all that I currently now have in the garden, or am in the process of starting from seed indoors (in baggies, in cells, pots, etc.) in the left margin.  I'll try to keep the lists up to date as much as I can.

I also hope to be able to post an update and maybe even an occasional video every couple weeks as the year goes along.  I hope to do other posts that will feature reviews on specific varieties of plants and most likely some recipes we use them with (all dependent on the successful growth and harvest of them).  I also hope to do some posts sharing and passing along tips I develop or discover and am able to prove with success (such as the "baggie method").