I picked some cilantro today, so wanted to find out how to preserve it. I found a lot of sites on drying herbs. Here’s one.

Then I found a web page on curing daffodils to replant in the fall. It may be too late this year, but I should do that, because the ones in the front yard have never been separated since I can remember them when I was little.

Then I wondered what to do with my amaranth. I think I read that the leaves are edible. But mainly, they’re raised for their seeds. I have too many growing in my Square Foot Garden, and should transplant some, maybe to the dead end. They’re supposed to be pretty.

I do have some quinoa which I could have tried to grow this year, but couldn’t find. Maybe next year.

Here’s a page I found on harvesting quinoa and amaranth, which are both very nutritious.

I may use this post to add more later. It’s one thing to grow stuff, and another to know what to do with it once it’s ready to harvest. One good site I found (even though it isn’t organic) is this one.

I like my “red room”, my garage, the afternoon sun shining through the leaves of the jungle that was a patio, and my cat. So I decided to post this picture that I took a couple of days ago. As with all the pictures on this site, if you click on it, you can see a larger version:

(You know what they say about bloggers who post pictures of their cats….)

OK, here’s a picture of my Square Foot Garden from yesterday:

I meant to make this a “page” and not a “post”, so I could link to it. Oh well. Humor me, and take a look at my latest garden pictures. I truly have no life. (Even worse, when it rains, and I don’t have to water anything. I just watch it grow.)

Here are some pictures I took today. First I wanted to try to capture the curly loops on the tops of my garlic plants, because I thought they were cool. (If you click on the pictures, a larger version will pop up, which will show more than these do.)

Then I wanted to try to capture my baby cayenne peppers, because I never had luck with peppers yet. And I think this will be a good year….

Then I tried to capture my largest baby broccoli….

I also have some baby bush beans, but I’ve raised them before, so they aren’t a novelty.

Here’s a picture of my 13 potted tomato plants in front of the Earth Box, the Square Foot Garden, and the potato patch….

This morning, I noticed that the tomato plants in the front two pots had been victims of a vegan varmint who had dug them out. I repotted them. They’re doing fine. Of all the plants to disturb, there were no seeds in those pots. (I have soy, carrots, basil and parsley in the long flower boxes. I might have understood foraging there instead.)

So, I had counted 27 tomato plants the last time. I have 4 Better Boys and 2 grape tomato plants that I bought in the flat of veggies. 3 more planted themselves from last year. So I won’t know if they’re Better Boys or Romas, until they “hatch”. The rest were planted from seed. They’ll catch up. And if they’re late bloomers, it will probably be a good thing if they don’t all have to be picked at the same time. The 4 in the low flower box are Beefsteak, and the rest are Better Boys. (The tomatoes in the pot are the “overflow” that I didn’t have room for in the garden. But they’re in a sunnier spot, so should do well.) Next year, I probably won’t plant so many. But I was hoping to give some seedlings away. I guess I’ll just give the tomatoes away, unless I learn how to can them, or freeze them. It would be worthwhile to learn how to can, and to make my own spaghetti sauce to last all year, since organic sauce costs from $3.50 and up for a jar, depending on what’s on sale.

My veganic garden, as of 6/8/08

…I can post what interests me

One thing I was Googling for today, was trying to find out how long a dandelion lives. What I found was a bunch of “pro-weed” sites that extolled the virtues of weeds, either from an edible, medicinal, or biodiversity perspective. Someday I’ll post them, because we are so arbitrary about which species we consider worth protecting and caring for, and which species we consider worth eradicating. (Although I did plant clover in the pathway of my garden, I’m not necessarily ready to raise dandelions as a crop. But maybe I’ll consider eating them as an alternative to lettuce. They are pretty nutritious. The time may come when I decide to plant them in the shadiest corner of my veggie garden where even the lettuce doesn’t do too well.) I don’t particularly mind dandelions in my yard, until they go to seed. But I’m thinking it is those seedy weeds that might feed the birds — like thistles whose seeds are among the more expensive wildbird seeds. So there should be a place set aside for those things that most people feel the need to destroy out of some culturally ingrained wish for a weed-free lawn. Or maybe I should set aside the seeds for next winter…. But for now, I just want to post a few pictures I took today, and don’t necessarily want to crowd up my “veganic farm” page with them. So “page down” if you’d rather get to earlier posts.

So, I guess I should have added a description of what each of the pictures is of. The first is a weed or a wildflower growing in the NW corner of my house. The second is of my new blackberry & blueberry plants growing in front of my “church window trellis”, which shows the allium and the reddish & bluish purple columbine in my “park”. The third is the “newer” section of patio that my dad & brothers made about 45 years ago, where whatever can, grows in the cracks of the rocks. It is currently overgrown mostly with “wild” orange columbine. The fourth is my “potato” garden, which is sharing space with corn, nasturtiums, and now, broccoli, cauliflower, red and green cabbage plants. The 5th is my Square Foot Garden in the foreground of the veggie garden area. The 6th is the older shadier part, where I have garlic, 5 varieties of peppers, two varieties of tomatoes, strawberries, peas, cucumbers, eggplants, bush beans, beets, broccoli, clover, 4 varieties of lettuce, and oats planted, along with something that came up from last year that is probably radishes. (We’ll see what actually thrives in that small area.) In the Square Foot Garden, I planted either seeds or seedlings of: 1) yellow crooked neck squash; 2) cucumbers; 3) nasturtiums; 4) peas; 5) 1 head lettuce with other lettuce seeds around it; 6) amaranth; 7) 1 yellow bell pepper seedling, with 1 tiny green bell pepper plant from seed; 8 ) 1 cabbage; 9) cilantro; 10) green onions; 11) beets; 12) bush beans; 13) cayenne peppers; 14) jalapeno peppers; 15) carrots; 16) 1 broccoli seedling, with 1 tiny broccoli plant from seed. This is a “science experiment” in feeding the world. If I can do it, anyone can. And if some of the stuff doesn’t come up, I’ll move the seedlings in the other part of the garden. Next year, I either have to start the seeds earlier, but maybe in a cooler place so they don’t get gangly, or I’ll phase out the seed idea, and just buy a mixed flat of seedlings from a garden shop. We’ll see how much I trust them not to be genetically modified yet. (This year, the flat I bought included at least 4 plants each, of: grape & Better Boy tomatoes, green bell, jalapeno & cayenne peppers, broccoli, cauliflower, red & green cabbage, head lettuce and eggplant. I traded some extra cabbages with my sister-in-law for a couple of yellow bell peppers and some banana peppers.)

This is from 5/29. Compare this with the pictures I took on 6/8, especially how much the potatoes grew in 10 days.

For my own sake, I’m linking to this page, so I don’t have to dig around the April archive every time I want to add something to it. It’s my gardening “science experiment”. It is also an experiment to see how difficult it really would be to grow a variety of food in a small area, given the fact that I’m pretty inexperienced. I have a lot of reasons for wanting to try that, but won’t waste the space here to list them (again). If it turns out to be successful, I will.

Click here for a list of weeds that can be used as fertilizers for your garden.

The list shows which weeds or plants add nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, magnesium, boron, copper, manganese, sulfur, iron and/or silicon to the garden soil.

(Some of them have been recommended elsewhere as cover crops, too — green manure that is turned into the soil either during the growing season, or in the spring before planting again.)

I have a garbage can full of “brewing” dandelion “sun tea”, which I’ll use as a fertilizer on my garden, once it starts smelling “agricultural”, and I’m sure that the seeds aren’t likely to sprout if they end up in the dirt. Eventually, I’ll throw the solid left-overs in my compost pile.

(Calcium can be found in things like gypsum or limestone. I learned that if I put some around my tomato plants it is supposed to keep the tomatoes from getting the black spots on them that look like rotten spots at the bottom. It worked last year, so I guess it’s true.)