Sara's Garden MarketSustainable Living, Gardening, Flowers, and Food

Hey there,

With Spring right around the corner I am anxious to get out in my garden! I saw a FABULOUS video today on Patti Moreno’s www.gardengirltv.com about growing in four seasons – She lives in the North East so I knew it might apply to us here in MN.

Here’s the video:

I am going to try building a little hoop house as soon as I get over this cold I have so that I can start my seeds outdoors sooner and extend my season. My goal is to have two plantings someday! The second planting deadlines are mostly in July, so I would have to get the first harvest by then. Using this method, if I can get the night time temperatures to stay over freezing would allow me to extend the season to all months except January and February! (If it works!)

This is how I am going to re-purpose all that PVC and plastic that I was not able to use last season as a large greenhouse. I think I am just going to scale everything down to make it more manageable and more wind friendly. This will consist of building raised beds and constructing a removable hoop house over each one.

Here’s a list from Patti about which veggies to do this with:

I would also add onions to that list since mine were coming up outside on their own from last season two weeks ago!

I will post pictures soon.

Thanks for stopping by!

-Sara Murray

http://www.gardengirltv.com/four-season-gardening.html

I have finally started my Onion and Broccoli seeds for the summer season 2011! I am way behind on my Onions but I will also sow some right in the dirt and also transplant the plants from my indoor garden which will hopefully then produce a bulb at the base instead of just having happy tops.

Here’s a pic:

The indoor garden is very happy, although not producing much of a harvest.

Here is a pic of the Onions, Brocolli, Basil and Cilantro. The Onions and Brocolli were started on September 1st, and have had 14-16 hours of daylight bulbs every single day inches from foliage, plenty of water and no issues or problems. (aside from never producing a flower or bulb….)

The Basil and Cilantro were planted almost a month ago and are doing very well. I even harvested some basil to put in my curry last week and it was delightful! I need to get some tomatoes from the store because I have plenty of Cilantro for a nice batch or two of home made salsa/pico.

Based on this years more expert care, and still it’s inability to produce anything worth while before Spring I am going to limit my indoor garden next year to just herbs and seed starting. 🙂

Thanks for stopping by!

Sara Murray

I have to make room to start my seeds indoors, so I have decided to harvest my carrots. These carrots were started on September 1st 2010! I can’t believe it’s been that long. That’s about 200 days. That is a very long time to not have full grown carrots at harvest time.

These carrots got 14-16 hours of daylight bulbs within inches of green foliage every single day, plenty of water, and had no issues or pests. They were developed under the best circumstances and still the largest ones are only about two inches long, and most never made it beyond the starter stage although the foliage was abundant and tall.

Needless to say, there will be no carrots in my indoor garden next winter!

Here’s a pic:

Thanks for stopping by!

-Sara Murray

Some of my plants from last year are coming up already outside!
It has been warmer, but is still quite cold. I have noticed that we have had several nights that have not gotten to freezing though. They have gotten close, but still we are having very warm nights. Here are some pictures of Strawberry plants and Onion bulbs that have come up green and started to lift out of the mud and muck!

So I guess I better get a move on those seeds inside!!!

Thanks for stopping by!

-Sara Murray

I’m so excited to be giving a short talk this morning at the Eagan West MOMS Club http://eaganwestmomsclub.org/ Member Social this morning! I will be touching on topics such as starting a garden, indoor gardening and seeds starting, pests and hot topics such as Honey Bees and GMO seeds.

I hope many of the moms can make it!

Thanks for Stopping by!

-Sara Murray

High Mowing Organic Seeds is another great place to order seed. (although my heart will always be with St.Clare Heirloom Seeds.)In 1999 they created the Safe Seed Pledge to help spread the word and distinguish non-gmo seed sellers from the rest. Here is an article about that:

http://www.highmowingseeds.com/the-safe-seed-pledge.html

(this is the most concise well written description of this issue I have seen. It will take you less than 3 minutes to read it, and it’s very important.)

And here is the pledge itself (Taken off the St.Clare Heirloom Seeds web site):

“Agriculture and seeds provide the basis upon which our lives depend. We must protect this foundation as a safe and genetically stable source for future generations. For the benefit of all farmers, gardeners and consumers who want an alternative,

We pledge that we do not knowingly buy or sell genetically engineered seeds or plants.

The mechanical transfer of genetic material outside of natural reproductive methods and between genera, families or kingdoms, poses great biological risks as well as economic, political, and cultural threats. We feel that genetically engineered varieties have been insufficiently tested prior to public release. More research and testing is necessary to further assess the potential risks of genetically engineered seeds. Further, we wish to support agricultural progress that leads to healthier soils, genetically diverse agricultural ecosystems and ultimately healthy people and communities.”

My daughter Maddie suggested that we can use the indoor garden to propagate the strawberry patch!!!!!!!! What a genius idea!

As you may or may not know strawberry plants only produce fruit the first or second year. They send out shoots (like a vine) and plant new plants them selves each season, and those are what give next year’s fruit. In Minnesota, and in a very small area in our garden we only get a handful or so of delicious (and I mean delicious) strawberries each season.

So today at breakfast she says, “Mom, we can have more strawberries if you dry one strawberry, and take those seeds and make plants over the winter.” WOW! Yes, we can!

So, (of course you need to start off with non-GMO and non-Hybrid seeds in order to get plants that come from seed correctly and don’t mutate themselves!) here is a great link for how to store your own strawberry seeds and sow them: http://www.ehow.com/how_2106637_preserve-strawberry-seeds.html

The trick is to find any strawberry plants or seeds that are non-GMO and non-Hybrid! Mine are coming true to plant, so I think I have a good batch. I have yet to try preserving and sowing the seeds though. I tried to google non-gmo strawberry seeds and plants and the general consensus is that there aren’t any. 🙁

(stop reading now because what’s below this is a major downer!)

Thanks for stopping by!

-Sara Murray

(This is a huge tragedy, and if it continues to happen with more and more food seeds we will see the complete destruction of food as we know it and it may lead to a great starvation on this planet! So, please whenever possible use heirloom seeds and buy non-gmo produce and seeds if you can.

50 years ago my daughter and I wouldn’t have had to think twice about if the seeds of any fruit or vegetable would produce more of that fruit or vegetable. Of course they would! Now… you never know.But that’s another blog post all together!) between this and the bees big business and big agriculture can really get you down…