Garden

Till Everything

May 7, 2011 by rickety Leave a Comment

When I am out in the garden I till everything. Today as I was tilling I noticed that the width of my tilling had suddenly extended by another foot and a half, mowing down some flowers that weren’t scheduled for destruction. Until the flowers began to shred, I hadn’t noticed that a tomato cage was mangled in the rotors, sticking out of the side. It took me quite some time to extract what was left of the cage. I need more practice till I can get it right.

At the time there were not any tomatoes in the cage, and now there never will be. Oh well, till next time.

A Can of Seeds

May 30, 2010 by rickety 2 Comments

I purchased a can of non-hybrid garden seeds. They are a good item to store for a time when seeds may be hard to obtain or become very expensive.

Why Non-Hybrids?

If you are trying to be self-sufficient, using hybrid seeds is not a good idea. The seed of hybrid vegetables does not grow true — you may not get taste, productivity, or even appearance. Only open pollinated, or “heirloom”, or “traditional” varieties will produce seed which, when saved and planted next year, will give you the same results as the parent plant.

Save your own seeds. This cuts gardening costs by 25% to 50%. Non-hybrids taste better. Many hybrids are now selling for high prices. When you save your own seeds, you only buy once.

A Can of Seeds

There are enough seeds to plant more than 3/4 acres. The varieties have been recommended by Utah State University for short season climates; with excellent adaptability for most regions. Complete instructions for planting are included. There are 16 varieties:

Sweet Corn, Golden Bantam, 5 oz
Spinach, Bloomsdale Longstanding, 10 gr
Pepper, Yolo Wonder, 5 gr
Peas, Lincoln, 5 oz
Cabbage, Golden Acre, 10 gr
Winter Squash, Waltham Butternut, 10 gr
Swiss Chard, Lucullus, 10 gr
Cucumber, Straight Eight, 10 gr
Radish Champion , 10 gr
Onion, Utah Yellow Sweet Spanish, 10 gr
Lettuce, Romaine Paris Island Cos, 5 gr
Pole Bean, Kentucky Wonder Brown, 5 oz
Beet, Detroit Dark Red, 10 gr
Carrot, Scarlet Nantes, 10 gr
Squash Zucchini, Black Beauty, 10 gr
Tomato, Rutgers PS, 5 gr

The unopened seeds should store for four years or more depending on storage temperature. The seeds have been carefully dried to their optimum moisture content to increase their storage life. The cooler the storage temperature, the longer the storage life of your seeds.

This can of seeds is ideal for emergency and preparedness storage. The best place to store your seed would be in a cool, dry, dark location such as a basement. For best results store unopened can in a refrigerator or freezer. You can replant the seeds of these non-hybrid varieties for future harvests.

Now all I have to do is to figure out how to grow them. :)
Rickety signature.

Jill Harvests Zucchini Bread

July 22, 2008 by rickety 2 Comments

Jill has been growing a garden this year and she has done well with peas, zucchini, tomatoes, and peppers. I wanted to tear out our rickety swing set and plant corn but that was vetoed. What will I run my car on now? Gasoline?! The garden has done well with Jill’s new micro tubing watering system. If you will recall, the system was featured on Serf Day where I helped to install it.

Incidentally, Jill doesn’t generally garden in her skirt but it was Sunday and we still had one more appointment to keep. Here is what the bread looks like. Tasted really good too. Straight from the garden into my big fat mouth.