Great IDEAS FOR NEW, LIMITED SPACE, GARDENERS

 I was recently visiting with a young lady who really wants to learn gardening but has limited space.  There are many ways to garden in a limited space, ie in buckets pots and such.  I found this article from  beprepared.com and thought was great so am sharing.

https://beprepared.com/blogs/articles/garden-in-a-crate

Don’t be scared to get started.  I encourage you to start slow until you get a feel for gardening especially if you have limited time to care for a garden.  Don’t get discouraged on your first go at it, if it doesn’t go like the pictures look.  There are more links to gardening info on this blog.  If you find some new info please let me know.

GREAT SITES FOR GREAT QUALITY FOODS

Patsy and I consider good quality foods a must to maintain healthy bodies and minds.  These days of cancer, diabetes, hypertension and much more seem to go with life here in the good ole USA.  We kinda refuse to except that.  So if there is an interest here are a few of our choices to buy those good quality foods eg olive oil, salmon and coconut products.

OLIVE OIL. 

We met the Sciabica’s(Greek family) while working in Modesto, California.  We loved their olive oil and learned they are very careful to limit chemical use,  and although not qualified as organic their oils are quality.  They have won most every international awards for their oils.  Their flavored oils are wonderful.  Try the Jalapeño or Mediterranean oils or just their plain oils are a few steps above most over the counter oils.  Their oils are Kosher certified.

https://www.sunshineinabottle.com/

SALMON and TUNA.                                                                  The Northwest offers the best choice in quality seafood (our opinion). Vital Choice has really great salmon and tuna as well many other wild caught varieties.  We just order their canned traditional Alaska Salmon and canned Tuna.  It is just delicious.  Their website is full great recipes and health info.

Most are Kosher certified.

https://www.vitalchoice.com/

COCONUT OIL, COCONUT, NUTS AND SPICES.  

This a great site for coconut products.  This company was recommended to us by our good friend and mentor, Dale Peterson MD, also a health and wellness physician.  We use a lot of coconut oil so buy it by the gallon.  We add it to our dogs foods too.

https://wildernessfamilynaturals.com/

Pepper problems

I had a question today concerning peppers that were hanging on the plant with part of the tip missing with no evidence of bugs or other problem. I understand blossom end rot in tomatoes but not in peppers.  The following links may be of help:

https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/edible/vegetables/pepper/pepper-blossom-end-rot.htm

http://thehotpepper.com/topic/55698-blossom-end-rot/

Hope this helps.

GARDEN IS GROWING WITH ALL THIS RAIN

Here it is July and the garden is really growing.  We have had 5-6 inches of rain in the last few days so now the garden is happy.  Blueberries are just about done and blackberries are slowing down.  Now it is green beans, cucumbers, tomatoes and garlic.  I am in process of digging Garlic as well as beets.  I am also redoing strawberry beds as some of the plants are pretty old.

 We picked a nice bucket of green beans this morning.  It should be enough for a canner full.  The pic below is our picking for today.  Berries, tomatoes and cucumbers and beans.  Mostly is what we had for lunch.  The beans are rattlesnake climbing beans and believe me they do climb.  Some of my trellises are 8 ft high and they quickly climb over the top and hang down 3-4 ft.  As you can see a days picking is generous.

I have included more pics below and will put labels on them.  One will show a Bean trellis and another grapes, blueberries and raspberries.
This spring the National Forest drained our local lake and cleaned out the bottom.  They hauled out 2800 dump truck loads and we got a couple of loads (approx 44 ton),  I have mixed a lot of this soil into the garden beds and it has been a good addition.

Muscadine Grapes (lt)  Blueberries  (ctr)  Raspberries (rt)

8 foot x 10 ft of green beens

      

WONDERFUL MAY SURPRISE

Yesterday morning we were looking out at the bird feeders and these two Orioles were checking out the feeders and hummingbird feeders.  Pat immediately cut an orange and laid it on the birdbath and the picture tells the rest.  We are hoping they stay around for a while.

NOVEMBER 2016 DRY AND WARM

Here it is almost Thanksgiving and roses are still blooming, tomatoes still on the vine and grass is even green although it's pretty dry.  I added this blog post to update you on a few recent projects and ideas so here goes:

I decided I needed a homemade gate and wanted it to be made from whatever I could find around the place.  The wrought iron was one of two panels I bought at an estate sale several years ago and the wood is used white cedar fencing left here by the previous owner.  It is a bit heavy but does the job.  The solar lite looks neat at night.

I posted the DIY greenhouse last year and just finished some updates.  The first was a river rock floor (3 inches) laid over two layers of weed block fabric.  I also added a hanging wire shelf for seed trays.  Half blue barrels and 5 gal buckets work pretty well for planting in a small area.
I just finished running underground electric service to the greenhouse so a heater could be used during cold nights.
Don't forget to install an outdoor ground fault receptacle for shock protection. I hope to have salad greens (lettuce, spinach, radishes and several herbs) throughout the winter. 
I did remove the plastic fabric for the summer to make it last longer.  The greenhouse fabric has a 4-6 year life if left on all the time but I thought I might extend that some by removing it for the summer

WONDERFUL SMALL SPACE GARDEN IDEA

I just received a great idea, from Mother Earth Living (email message), on building a small vertical garden site.  This should be easy for almost anyone to build and take care of.  This uses four shipping pallets which generally can be found for free and you could paint them for extra pizazz.
The website is as follows:
http://www.motherearthliving.com/gardening/vegetable-gardening/vertical-pallet-garden-plan-ze0z1407zpit.aspx