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

Hello garden people!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have been super MIA for two years now. I hit a huge rough patch in life but I’m BACK!!!!

I just purchased a fabulous old house with tons of gardens and garden possibilities. I can’t wait to revive what’s there and add my personal touches. 🙂

The house was built in 1923, and is located in the center of just over an acre of land!!!!! 🙂 There is an old horse barn in the back that looks like it had 3 stalls at one time as well as a huge 3 car garage.

The gardens are plentiful but choked with weeds and severely neglected.

I can’t wait to take you all with me as I explore and bring this place back to life!

Thanks for visiting,

Sara

Dinner and speaking by (Multi.) New York Times best selling author, Michael Pollan.

MORE INFO

Thursday, May 2, 2013 – 7:00 pm – Beth El Synagogue
5224 West 26th Street – Saint Louis Park, MN 55416
http://www.besyn.org/pollan

A portion of the proceeds of this event will go to benefit Appetite for Change, a North Minneapolis nonprofit which seeks to build individual, family, and community capacity to use growing cooking and eating food as vehicles for social change.

(I will not be at this event due to other commitments on Thursday evenings.)

Thanks for stopping buy!

Sara

A friend of mine recently sent over a great idea she had come across for gardening in a small space. The idea is to use a vertical/over the door shoe holder as a planter.

You can place several small veggies or herbs in a very small space with this type of planter. The image she sent me was of a plastic one. I would caution against using plastic to plant food in that is going to bake in the sun all summer! 🙂 I will be looking for a canvas one, or some other material that is not going to leak plastics into my yummy herbs and veggies.

I will post pictures as I gather my supplies, start my seeds, and get this project going within the next 2-3 weeks.

Thanks for stopping by!

Sara

I’m a little nervous about planting in plastic that is going to be baking in the sun

If you find yourself living in an apartment there are several options available to you for gardening!

• You can find a sunny spot and have a container garden.
• There are several options out there now for a hanging garden.
• There are community gardens popping up all over the place. If you are a member of your local food co-op you may have a community garden that you can be a part of as part of your membership! Churches are also starting community gardens. See if yours has one, and if it doesn’t you could offer to help start one.

This year I am planning a balcony garden. I need to be mindful of the person living below me, but I intend to have some plants that love hot weather on my balcony this summer! Plants that are good for container gardening in a sunny spot are those who can take the heat. Think about the foods from southern Italy and you’ll have a good idea of what will work well. I will have 1-2 tomato plants, and a large planter of Italian herbs like Cilantro, Rosemary, and Oregano. I may throw in some onions or garlic with the tomatoes. I’m also going to try one of those strawberry plants that hang up-side down. 🙂

I am a member of the Valley Natural Foods Co-op, and they have a community garden that you can have a plot in as a member. I plan to have some eggplants, more tomato plants, and either green beans or edemame  on supports there.

If you’d like to talk more about container gardening please post over in the forum and get a discussion started!

Thanks for stopping by – Sara

Before transplanting plant sprouts to your garden you will need to harden them if they were in your house or a very sheltered area to start with.

You can do this a number of ways.

• Set them outside for a few hours increasing every day until they can stay outdoors all day and over night.
• Set up a fan in your house.
• Touch your plants and cause some stress for them.

Hardening plants by placing them outside a few hours per day.

When you first start placing your plants outside to harden them make sure that it is a calm day, with temperatures between 50-60 degrees. Any less or more than this will cause the plant more stress and time outside will need to start at a shorter interval and increase more gradually.

Make sure that the first days are spent in an area without direct sunlight. Again, if you have to set your new sprouts in direct sunlight start with a shorter time and increase more gradually.

If you encounter temperatures that suddenly plummet , and are too cold to continue your schedule place a small fan on your plants for the amount of time they would have been outside.

Here is an example of a hardening schedule:

• Day 1 – Water plants, and wait about 1-2 hours for them to soak it up. Well watered plants handle stress better. Place plants outside for 1 hour.
• Day 2 – Repeat the watering and place outside for 2 hours.
• Day 3 – ” ” place outside for 4 hours.
• Day 4 – ” ” place outside for 5-6 hours depending on how they handled the increase yesterday.
• Day 5 – ” ” place outside for 6 hours.
• Day 6 – ” ” place outside for 6-8 hours.
• Day 7 – ” ” place outside for 8 hours.
• Day 8 – ” ” place outside for 8 hours.
• Day 9-14 – Place outside in partial direct sunlight during some of their time, increasing to all the daytime hours. Start watching the night time lows and if they are in the 50’s plan to leave the plants outside some daytime and some nighttime hours. Now we start thinking of this more as giving the plants an indoor break, but they are living outside most of the time now. If you have inclement weather make sure to bring them in.
• Day 14 – Plants can be transplanted at this time or even sooner if they are doing well and liking it outside. I have had plants harden and be happy within one week, and I have had plants which need longer to harden.
• If you notice that your plants are not super happy after they have been transplanted do not worry. You can give them a break under a canopy of a bed sheet if they need a break or if you have an exceptionally windy day.

Setting Up A Fan

• Set up a small preferably oscillating fan near your plants. Turn it on the lowest setting and allow it to blow the plants 1 hour.
• Increase by 1-2 hours per day depending on how they look. Up until they can handle it almost around the clock. You can also turn it up to medium for 1 hour once they can handle the lowest setting to further harden them.
• Refer to the tips and steps at the end of the previous section pertaining to finally transplanting them outdoors. They should be given an opportunity to be outside at least for most of the day and night and have a few breaks indoors before fully transplanting because they also need to be able to handle direct sunlight and temperature changes.

Touching the plants

• Several times through out the day fun your cleaned hands gently over your plants and get them used to some stress. If you do this from the time they are sprouts they will harden faster using the above methods when the time comes.

The younger you can get them out in the wind and sun the hardier they will be.

Also, if your tomatoes start looking very unhealthy remember that you can bury a tomato plant because tomatoes can grow roots from anywhere on the stem. So if they drop some bottom leaves, or are getting tall and unruly just bury that part when you transplant to give them a shorter start making them root deeper and less vulnerable to wind when they are first transplanted.

Happy Gardening!

I just wanted to mention a few things about starting your seeds outdoors in the garden this early.

As I have mentioned before, if you have hoop houses you can start your seeds outside this early. Especially with this nice weather we are having!

There is something to keep in mind though – Most seeds need temperatures in the 60’s to 80’s to germinate. If you have plastic over your hoop houses and it is reasonably air-tight you can expect to reach that if the outside temperature is in the 50’s and the sun is shining on your houses. In fact, it might get much hotter than that in there!

If your outside temps are not quite that high yet, I would suggest germinating indoors and then transplanting as soon as the plants get their second leaves. (You could transplant them as soon as they are up, but if you wait a little bit you might have a better survival rate.)

Once the seedlings have germinated and are green above ground you need to really watch that temperature and make sure it doesn’t get too hot and fry your newly germinated seeds!

So – Keep your hoop house warm/hot until the seeds germinate and then just keep it above freezing. Most plants do well in the 45-55 degree range.

I suggest getting a thermometer and watching that temp. You can record and compare the inside temp with the outside temp, and if it is sunny or not and you will have a good idea what temp it is without having to actually check. I keep the front and back of my houses down with bricks so I can remove them and roll the plastic back to vent on hot days. I have the sides stapled down so they are somewhat air-tight.

I recently bought a remote thermometer which I have not set up yet, but I am excited to use it. It has a temperature/weather station you keep inside, it also monitors the low and high and records it for 7 days! It also has a probe which I intend to place outside, then I will get an outside and an inside reading and I can see what’s going on in there without ever having to go outside!

Thanks for stopping by!

Ever wonder what to do about insect pests besides spray them to death?

Ladybugs and Praying Mantises eat several times their own weight in garden pests in one day!

Imagine having a really great pest control in your garden and never having to spray a single pesticide!

Here’s a list of what they love to feast on:

Ladybugs

• aphids
• whitefly
• spidermites
• mealybugs

Praying Mantis

• aphids
• beetles
• grasshoppers
• caterpillars
• moths
• mosquitos
• other insects

This company: http://www.gardeners.com/1500-Adult-Ladybugs/BackyardHabitat_Cat,05-239RS,default,cp.html will send you 1,500 adult ladybugs or 200-300 Praying Mantis eggs.

I plan to order some for May/June when we get lots of aphids and for the past two years I’ve had the dreaded Japanese Beetle. (I did put down milky spore last year twice, but that can take a few years to build up and take effect.)

Another wonderful way to protect vegetation from harmful pests is with coverings. Here is a great, affordable, garden fabric that can be used in the summer to cover crops and prevent them from damage. This works very well with beetles, but may or may not work so great with aphids. Here’s a link to purchase: http://www.gardeners.com/Summerweight-Garden-Fabric/GardenPests_Insects,11749,default,cp.html

My plans to start some tomato seeds in February did not turn out. 🙂 I now have them all started! Here is a list of everything that went into pots and seedling planters tonight:

• 4 Different Kinds of Tomatoes
• Green Peppers
• Jalapeno Peppers
• Peas (normally right in the ground, but starting just to see.)
• Zucchini
• Eggplant
• Sunflowers
• Sweet Corn

I am excited to be getting the season started! I love this time of year. I feel like everything is laid out for me and I am no longer burnt out from weeding and cleaning out the beds!

I am going to plant outside this week as well. Outdoor night time temperatures are now staying above freezing! I know that in Minnesota that could change very quickly but those hoop-houses really stay warm with the plastic on, so I am going to give it a shot.

In the hoop-houses I will be planting:

• Radishes
• Spinach
• Arugula
• Cabbage
• Onions (these are in I am just going to cover them so they can start up!)
• Carrots (same as onions, although I am going to plant another bed of carrots as well.)

If the weather really does stay warm we will have enough salad greens to make a nice salad by May1st!  (Now I need to look back at my posts and see when my first harvest was last year.)

I have another exciting announcement – I will be starting to go “expert” gardener interviews and posting them on the site! I always spot totally awesome gardens and greenhouses around town as I am driving. I hope to have many home gardener videos and stories up on the site very soon!!

Thanks for stopping by!

Ladies and Gentlemen, START YOUR SEEDS!

Imagine planting seeds in the ground in March and having a harvest of cold weather veggies by Easter! If you have hoop houses it is worth a shot!

I live in Minnesota, so I am just now getting things ready to start my seedlings for planting in May and June. However, our weather forecast is saying that by the end of the week we will be in the 50’s with over night temps above freezing! This is a lot like the weather we had all through November last fall. Every year the sun in March is as strong as it is in October, we usually just have a lot of snow pack which keeps things cold until that all melts in April. Normally the *end* of April. Not so this year! (We are in a major drought so let’s see what this summer is like after hardly any snow this winter!)

So, all you folks who know that I had salad greens and cold weather veggies alive and well into November can guess what I am going to be planting now. I have gotten my hoop houses ready for planting. And I am going to use my new remote thermometer to measure the temps (it actually records them!) over night and during the day.

I first used the hoop house/raised beds last spring and had salad greens and radishes very early in the season! In fact, the first day they were all ready and I did my transplants I nearly burnt everything to a crisp! It got to be over 100 degrees in the houses and the outside temp was 45 or something! Overnight temps were not quite above freezing but that did not matter.

So, if you have hoops, or if you were thinking of building some, now is the time!

This week I will be planting:

• Radishes
• Spinach
• Cabbage
• Other Misc Salad Greens

I am also going to check out my onion bed and see how it’s doing. Cover it and see if I can get them to start growing sooner this season. I am also creating/building another onion bed farther in the sun light and see if that makes them plump up faster. I have large yellow onions and I haven’t been able to get them larger than a racket ball yet. 🙂

So! Start your seeds

Please come on back and share your stories and comments below or in our forum. (A lot of my friends email me directly after reading an article here, but it would help me a lot if you posted a comment directly on the site somewhere and I will answer it here and send you an email as well!)

Thank you!