Sugar Snap Peas

I discovered Sugar Snap Peas a few weeks ago. Sugar snap peas have an edible pod similar to snow peas, but the pod is round instead of flat and, like the name implies, are slightly sweet. I. Love. Them. They have been added to my definite gardening list - along with tomatoes, lettuce and spinach so far. They are a cool season veggie and frost tolerant -- plantable as soon as the ground is workable. (Hm. . .weather's been warm this winter. Think the ground is workable now?)

The real reason for this post though, is that while googling the scrumptious little pods, I found out that they were created right in my childhood home town of Twin Falls, ID in the early 1980's by a Dr. Lamborn and a Dr. Parker at the Gallatin Valley Seed Company.

Way to get yourself on the map, Twin Falls!!

Idaho Frost Dates

I like getting older. I love my birthday simply because it's the start of a new, better year. (How can it get better when each year is so great? Oh! It does!) I would never, ever go back to being a kid if I had the chance. I think part of it is that I am just flat out enjoying things more. Gardening is one of them.

I remember getting my own little patches of garden as a kid. I'd be excited to plant the seeds, flowers, and veggies. Then I'd get bored, forget to water them, hate weeding them, and the pour things would go untended. I don't remember what happened to the flowers -- I think Dad and Kaylynne took care of them? If so - thanks for being patient with my fickle attention span. As for the veggies all I remember is an abundance of parsley. I also worked for a summer at a garden nursery watering the potted plants. I hated that job; the hours every day I would have to stand watering (why oh why didn't I learn about the plants?).

But now here I am 11 years later, and I can't get enough gardening. (Does wanting a worm composting bin for Christmas qualify as obsessed? THANK YOU HUSBAND FOR PUTTING UP WITH MY WORMS!!!)

I know I said last year that I wasn't going to grow marigolds from seed. I changed my mind. I'm trying again. This year I have a plan of action though: I got a smaller start tray, and some actual garden pots to put the starts into. I need to start the seeds six to eight weeks before frost.

Frost dates for Boise are: Spring - 5/26 (this is the Safe date; actual average is 5/8) and Fall - 9/22.

That means I need to start my seeds between March 31st and April 14th. (If I want to play with the frost, it could be as early as March 20th).

A nesting Weekend

This blog started as a garden blog. After quite a few detours, I've finally settled back on a garden/yard/home theme. Since the middle of winter only really lends itself to garden planning for the upcoming spring, decorating it is. I got motivated over the weekend and finished three projects: a paper wreath, a rice ice/heat pack, and converted curtains.

Kyle salvaged this cool window from the old Nampa Christian school building. I added my book-page wreath and voila!

I didn't get a great picture of my curtains, but I'm actually kind of proud of them. I converted them from table cloths. The table cloths were really long, so I cut off quite a bit to get them the length I wanted. However, there was enough length in the scrap to turn it sideways and make another set for a smaller window! All in all, it was a productive weekend.

2009 Garden Re-cap

I started this blog as a garden journal. So, here's the re-cap of the Garden 2009:


The soil in my garden is bad. Bad, bad, bad. I definitely need to do some soil modification.
I planted tomatoes, lettuce, broccoli, cucumbers, cantaloupe, and some herbs.

• the cucumbers didn't grow, had a few fruit (none edible), but ultimately developed white patches on the leaves, withered up, and died

Verdict: try again next year, but maybe plant lemon cucumbers for pickling

• the cantaloupe grew and grew, even had flowers, but never developed fruit.

Verdict: try again next year

• the broccoli was somewhat fruitful, but I didn't know how big to let the heads get before harvesting them so many of them ended up flowering and inedible

Verdict: not worth growing, just buy at store when on sale

• the tomatoes did ok. The plants didn't produce big fruit, but there was quite a bit of it. One of my plants got yanked out of the ground early on.

Verdict: Definitely planing again!! This time I will go to Peaceful Belly Farms here in town. I definitely want to get some green zebra and other fun colorful heirloom plants (Kyle liked the purple brandywine over the orange one)

• the lettuce did great and produced a lot for a long time. I will definitely plant that plus spinach next year.

My blueberry bushes got fried in the garden again this year. My theory was that the first year they were planted, they just had transplant shock. Husband was right: it was just too sunny of a spot for them. Last weekend I transplanted them into whiskey barrels under a big redwood we have in the yard. Hopefully they do better in year three!
I also just planted garlic and strawberry plants that a friend was thinning out. We'll see how they do through the winter and hopefully pop up in the spring. The spinach I attempted to grow in the fall cool season did not grow well because it was hot hot and then froze. I am contemplating trying to winter it over with straw.

And last but not least, I now have a little garden helper:

I'm pleased to introduce Charlie!! She loves to fetch, roll in the yard, and hang out in the garden when I'm working in it. :)

NOTE: I also want to grow Tromboncini squash!!!

It's Fall!

It is officially fall; time for crisp mornings, hot tea and the corn maze! Fall's always been too over shadowed by the dread of the following season to be enjoyable, but this year I'm excited for it.

I am exercising my creative muscles and have been playing around with some photography. In the spring I explored the wide world of my back yard (see past posts for the photos.) I am now excited to find inspiration for a fall line!

Last night Husband took me on adventure to see if there were any blackberries waiting to be picked. Unfortunately, they were all nipped by the frost. We did get to climb trees for sweet plums and picked a few reachable apples. I was also struck with awe of God's color pallette. The desert colors aren't the vibrant, flashy colors of the tropics, but they are saturated nonetheless. I couldn't help but admire the brushed silver, the mustard yellow, the wheat gold, and the sage green. It was getting dark by the time I could take pictures, so I only got these. But here they are: round one of Fall!

N

After excitedly collecting chestnuts for a few weeks, I decided to research further. Apparently there is a difference between a horse chestnut tree and sweet chestnut tree. The sweet ones are the ones people eat. Horse chestnuts are toxic to humans. We have a horse chestnut tree. Ach! Guess I'll be throwing out the collected nuts. Makes me wonder though why anyone would want to plant a tree that is beyond useless and even annoying, but toxic.



On another note, though, I did make way in preserving food that is safe to eat: Grandmom shared her tomatoes with me to have enough to make it worth attempting another canning session. This one turned out better. I'm still learning the art of correct heat at the correct moment, as well as packing the jar with enough produce. Last Sunday we were up in Robie Creek and MIL was talking about the Orchard. She led us to a spot in the hills that is covered with wild apple trees, blackberry bushes, and hoards of rose hips -- which by the way are nasty, horrible, thorny bushes. While most of the apples won't be ready for awhile (the plan is to make applesauce once they rippen), some tiny little green apples were good to go. The apples were prepared and frozen for apple pie. I even froze them in the pie pan so I can just drop the frozen bunch in a crust and put it in the oven!

The blackberries -- gathered by my adventurous husband -- are either eaten or frozen as well. Dr. Laura, husbands who swim through shark infested waters to bring their wives lemonaide? I've got you beat! Husband who tromps through thorns and thistles on steep slopes to bring his wife fresh berries!

We also came across a couple plum trees. . .

. . .and a bush that produced this:

Anyone knows what this is?

Trees

We live in a house that was built in the 1940's. I can only assume most of the wonderful, shade-providing, gigantic trees in our yard were planted at the same time. We definitely have a couple maples -- one attracting hoards of box elder bugs that were thankfully frozen off after the freak warm up before spring set in -- and a redwood. Up until now, it didn't dawn on me to figure out what the trees are. However, after some of the trees' leaves have turned brown and withered up (we took action to bring them back to health), it was discovered that we have a . . .

. . .CHESTNUT TREE!!

(a chestnut tree bloom taken in May)

. . .and a GINKO TREE!!

So now for the mystery trees:

1)

(mystery tree #1 spring bloom)

2)

(mystery tree #2 spring bloom)

(berries and leaves as of today)

3) I think this one is a crab apple, but I'm not entirely sure. This poor guy has a huge hole down his trunk leaving him exposed to bugs and the eliments. We're hoping he pulls through.