WHY YOU SHOULD EAT FROM YOUR GARDEN

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Fresh food is so good for you, imagine going out in your garden and picking, pulling or digging enough food to prepare an entire meal. I can remember growing up when ‘everything’ from our meal we raised; meat, green relish, chili sauce, potatoes, gravy, bread, butter, raspberry jam, peas, milk, tomatoes, cucumbers and canned plums with cream (yum). Doesn’t that sound good !!!

It was a great feeling to be able to say that. My Parents were so proud to remind us of that quite often. I sometimes look at what I am eating and wish I could say that too. Most of my ‘garden meals’ consist of vegetables in a salad, but of course much of what I eat does not come from my garden. Below is a list of what my Mother canned in 1956 for our family.

About 450 quarts of food, I marvel at this list every time I see it. How hard she and Dad worked to put food on our table.

DELICATA SQUASH, MY FAVORITE FOR THE WEEK

DELICATA WINTER SQUASH

I discovered this squash last year. I planted the bush varitey, it was a great producer. This is one squash I will grow every year. I still have one in my basement, I will cook it and let you know how it turned out.

It can be cooked in the microwave, whole or halved. (If you cook it whole, put several vent holes in it first. If you cut it in half, cook it upside down or put butter in the cavity). I like it because the ‘meat’ of the squash can be cleaned out easily. You can also eat the skin too, you can cube it and put it in recipes. Below is the link for recipes and pictures of the squash, using google images search.
http://images.google.com/images?q=delicata+squash&ie=ISO-8859-1&hl=en&btnG=Search+Images

SOURCES

Perhaps you are planting a garden for the first time, or you want to try a new plant, tree or vegetable. Here is some information so you can learn more about a specific thing.

1. You can ask a person who grows that particiular plant. You may have seen it in a friend’s garden, so ask them all you can about the plant. If it is an unusual plant they can tell you a lot about it, such as where they purchased it or how to take care of it.

2. Get to know your local green house workers. So they know you when you enter their store. Ask for them by name, they will become a great source of information. After you get to know them, you can call or stop by with your questions. I recommend you have at least three questions ready to ask them. Then I support their store, sometimes I buy things other places, but most of the time I buy things from them.

3. Third source is family and friends, you can always learn something new from others, brainstorming with them to find a solution. I wish I would have listened and learned more from my Parents. They knew so much about gardening, but I didn't think it was as important as I do now. I wish I would have spent more time watching and learning the many secrets they knew. I can remember every time I came to visit, my Dad would take me out to see his garden. Now I find myself doing the same thing. Most things I have to learn the hard way, they already knew the easy way. The gardening ideas from others are endless.

4. Gardening books are great sources of information, I read them quite often. Even the old books have valuable information. I recommend ‘365 Days of Gardening’ by Christine Allison, it is so well written and has so many neat ideas and tips.

5. The last source is the internet. You can use google search, to ask a question or just type in the name of the plant. When the results come up, you can then type in the same name in the new search box but this time also click the image button. Then images come up with the links, it is a much faster way to search for what you are looking for.

SERENDIPITY CORN, MY FAVORITE OF THE WEEK

SERENDIPITY CORN (Bi-Color)

This corn is a hybrid corn with yellow and white kernals. This corn does have smaller ears, but it is the sweetest corn I have ever tasted. People I have shared it with, enjoy this corn, it freezes well too.

It isn’t the largest producer, so you may have to plant a few extra hills, but it is so worth it. Mine usually has one large ear and one small ear per stock. The small ears rippen almost as fast as the large ones, so watch them closely.

This corn stays sweet (doesn’t get old) longer than any other corn I have tried. It will keep at least one week in the refrigerator.

WHAT TO BUY AND WHEN TO PLANT

This should take about a week to explain, but I will try to do it in a few paragraphs. First, some of you may be overwhelmed with starting a garden. Even those of you who have gardened for years may be a little stressed. So let me tell all of you to relax !!!! Your garden is to enjoy. So just slow down and enjoy it, enjoy every minute you spend in it.

Buy seeds or plants?
I buy seeds for things like peas, radishes, beans, corn, carrots and lettuce, they grow quite easily planted directly into the soil. I buy plants from the greenhouse for things like pumpkins, squash, watermelon, cantaloupe, cabbage, tomatoes and peppers. I sometimes buy seeds from this last group and plant them, too. If you need a faster start, you may buy the plants to try to get a successful crop. The seeds are much cheaper, but you do take more of a risk with seeds. However, the plants that come up from the seeds you plant directly into the soil will usually be more healthy looking and will already hardened in when they come up.

Helpful hint: When planting seeds outside it is sometimes useful to soak the seeds. I usually soak seeds like cantaloupe, watermelon, pumpkin, squash, (I soak them for at least three days). I dig a hole about 4" square and 2" deep, then put about 1/4 cup of fertilizer in the hole and fill the hole with water. When the water sinks, I put the soaked seeds in the hole (5 seeds in the hole) and cover with about ½ inch of soft soil. Pretty simple huh? This way the seeds are soft and ready to germinate when you plant them, they are in damp soil and will come up about one week earlier.

Please read the back of your seed package, before and after you buy the seeds. It has a lot of information, if the seeds can be planted inside or outside, when to plant, and lots of other valuable information.

When to plant, (these are my suggestions for eastern Idaho).
Guidelines for planting seeds inside for transplanting outside (after the last frost).
Plant peppers from seeds the first of March, or even mid February, (10 to 12 weeks before the last frost) depending on the seed, as most are slow growing.
Plant tomatoes from seeds the first of April (6 to 8 weeks before the last frost). plant seed of squash, cantaloupe, watermelon and pumpkins around April 20th (4 to 6 weeks before the last frost).
I am GUESSING the last frost in this area is May 31. But according to my Mother, we 'always have a first of June frost!!! So expect one more frost around June 5th, if you have planted, just cover the plants for a few nights.

If you are planting indoors you can buy planting trays with soil disks and clear tops. You should have a light source, plants need 8 to 10 hours of light each day. If you are using artificial light, keep the light close to the plants or they will become tall and skinny. Keep the plants in a semi warm place (a constant temperature of 40 to 50 degrees is ideal). Notice I said semi-warm, why get them use to 70 degrees when they will be transplanted into a much cooler environment?
Wow, lots of information, I hope you can understand much of what I said. Any questions so far?

SUN SUGAR TOMATO, MY FAVORITE OF THE WEEK

SUN SUGAR TOMATO

The Sun Sugar Tomato is one of my favorite tomatoes. It is a hybrid tomato, is small and orange in color. It is a very productive tomato and does not split like many other smaller cherry type tomatoes. If I had to choose only one tomato plant, this would be it.

I usually plant eight of these, but one or two plants will be enough for a family of four. My friends rave about this tomato, it is so sweet and good.

ORDER SEEDS NOW !!!

Last week I talked about taking an inventory of your seeds. This week it is time to order seeds. It could take as much as four weeks to get the seeds you order, so don’t delay. If you want to plant seeds inside for transplanting outside later, you may need to plant some of them very soon. Peppers need to be planted right away because it takes several weeks for them to germinate, they are very slow growing. It is too early in Eastern Idaho to plant things like tomatoes and squash, but you should buy the seeds you need now. Many more people are starting to garden this year and the seeds will go fast.

I suggest you go to a local nursery, or seed store to see if their new seeds are in yet. I get very excited when I see the new seed displays and look at almost everything in the display. I like to try new things every year. This year I am trying red sweet corn and planting red onions from seed. I will plant the onions as early as possible even mid-April to see if they will grow large enough for green (purple) onions through the Summer and Fall.

The seeds that aren’t available at your local nursery, (or stores with garden centers) can be ordered from the Internet or seed catalogs. These sources will have different seeds and unique seeds and plants than you can’t get from your local nursery.

A great source on the Internet is www.gardenlist.com. This is a garden catalog list of several hundred catalogs. It is a wonderful way to search out garden catalogs you may not be familiar with. I recommend the catalogs www.totallytomato.com and www.jungseed.com. The Totally Tomato catalog has almost 300 varieties of tomatoes. They have pink, purple, orange, yellow and black tomatoes in all sizes. They also have the Hybrids and Heirlooms separated so it is easy to search for the type of tomato needed.

So this week, do more dreaming and buy what you are dreaming about.

FRENCH BREAKFAST RADISH, MY FAVORITE OF THE WEEK

FRENCH BREAKFAST RADISH

My Parents always planted this radish and it is my favorite too. It is so fast growing, watch it closely - it will be one of the first things to eat out of the garden this year.

The radish has a normal green top, below the green leafy top is a small red top of the radish. Below the red top will be the large radish. So when you first look at the radish, you think it is still small, but it is pretty big if you look closer. Eat this radish when it is young, it tends to go to seed quickly.

This is one vegetable I planted late last year, (first of August), and had a wonderful harvest in late September.

Plant this radish very early in the year, I plan to try a small row the beginning of April. I will plant several different radishes every few weeks through the month of May.