Lettuce Entertain You

As you may know from my previous blogging, I have an Aerogarden. A gift from my ever-so-thoughtful husband. Some time in January, I started it out with herb seed pods and now I have a flourishing herb garden (I transferred the herbs into pots when they got too big for the AG). Since then, I've started with the salad greens pod set and I have to say I'm loving the AG for salad greens. I've never had luck with lettuces outdoors - the pests were just too much for me to handle - so growing them in an AG is a perfect solution. I get fresh salads about every week with no pests!

I thought I'd share a little of my Aerogarden experience with you. If you've ever pondered getting one, I highly recommend it. Yesterday I noticed it was time to harvest again. So I snipped off all the fully grown leaves and ended up with a huge bounty for my lunch. I made my own italian vinigrette using equal parts red wine vinegar and olive oil with a couple of teaspoons of lemon juice to act as a binder. I added to that some dried italian seasoning and shook it up. Dressing was ready! Then I snipped some parsley, red and italian basil from my herb garden, chopped them up and tossed the fresh herbs into the salad. Since I don't have any tomatoes yet, I ate the salad with just the dressing and herbs. I have to tell you there is nothing like fresh salad greens. The chickory added a nice spicy flavor and the arugula was delicious. The romaine and baby lettuce had just the right crunch. A perfect lunch! (channelling the ghost of Dr. Seuss? yup!)

Inventory, Planning & "Companion Planting"

The seedlings are doing well - most are nearly ready to plant.  Now I need to take an accurate inventory of what I'm growing and lay out a garden plan.  I'll start with the inventory.  This will change once I eliminate some of the seedlings.  I'll be giving them to friends and neighbors as I simply can't plant all of them in my garden. Container gardens have limited space, so a well thought out plan is vital.

Inventory
9 Green Peppers
9 Red Peppers
9 Salsa (medium heat) Peppers
9 Jalapeno Peppers
9 Eggplant
10 Roma Tomatoes
8 Beefsteak (Big Boy) Tomatoes
9 Cherry Tomatoes
12 Tenderpod Green Beans
6 Heavyweight Green Beans
8 Pumpkins
1 Cantaloupe
4 Romanesco Broccoli
5 Watermelon
9 Strawberry - various types


Now that I have my fruit and vegetable inventory, I need to figure out which companion plants will work well.  What is "companion planting" and why should I use it?  There was a time when the Indians from North America planted corn, pole beans and squash together, the beans were nitrogen-fixers, the corn acted as a support for the bean plants and the squash was like a natural mulch (the spiny vine also prevented raccoons from entering the corn field). This method of planting one or more corps in close vicinity for the purpose of extracting mutual advantage is termed as companion planting.

To start, I'm going to refer to this handy dandy list of companion plants to lay out my garden plan.  The list says that I should plant tomatoes with peppers and my beans with my eggplant.  That is going to be a little tricky as I'd planned originally to do the opposite, but I want the best possible benefit for my plants, so I'll have to add some additional containers for the extra tomatoes I plan to grow.  We eat a lot of tomatoes and I wanted to try my hand at making and canning my own sauce from the Roma tomatoes.  The pumpkins and watermelon are going to be planted in the ground in a sunny spot on my property.   There, dear handy husband JJ will be setting up a nice support system for them to climb on and they'll have plenty of room to spread out.  We could use the ground cover, too.  The Romanesco Broccoli plants were not started from seed.  Those are coming from a supplier in a couple of weeks and will be planted in separate pots companioned with  some geraniums and rosemary (should be very pretty!).  Because I wanted a special kind of cantaloupe, I also purchased that as a plant from a supplier.  Also arriving in a couple of weeks.  I was thinking of planting that with the melons and pumpkins and then doing a row of corn behind for them to climb on.  Still fussing with that idea, though as I'm taking on a lot as a first time gardener.  I'll let you know what I decide and, of course, if it works :).  The strawberries will all go into two gorgeous large strawberry pots made by Burley Clay.  They're the best pots you can get and well worth the expense, if you ask me.  I have 9 holes and the top to fill in each pot, so I'll probably have to buy another 12 or more strawberry plants from my local greenhouse once they get them in.  Should be any day now!


Was that everything?  I'm pretty sure that was everything.  Now comes the hard part and I'm going to have to think on this for a few days.  How many plants of each type to plant in my containers?  Here are the two large raised plant trays that I have set up.   If any of you can offer any advice, I'd welcome it as this is the hardest part for me.  :)  Thanks for reading and commenting!

The Hummingbird Migration of 2010 (or How To Get Those Rascals To Visit)

It is that time of year again.  Time for our tiny backyard kamikaze pilots to return from their long winter vacation in South America.  I'm referring, of course, to the hummingbirds.  

I've found a handy site for tracking the hummers' progress - Journey North. No matter where in the US you live, you can find out if the hummers are heading your way.  

Next, we should get prepared for the thirsty travelers.  If you don't already have a hummingbird feeder, I highly recommend the 8 ounce Aspects HummZinger Hummingbird Feeder.  I've tried about a half dozen different types of feeders and this is the best by far.  It is so much easier to clean than any other feeder I've had.  You simply pull it apart and either hand wash or pop it in the top rack of the dishwasher.  It comes with a little port brush to clean the ports. That'll take you less than a minute.  It has a built in ant moat (big plus!) and is all red - so it is less likely to attract bees and wasps.  (Many hummingbird feeders have red and yellow - yellow has shown to attract insects, while hummers just don't care one way or the other.)   If you get a lot of hummers and they're not too territorial, you can get the HummZinger 16 ounce feeder - but I find the smaller feeder requires more frequent refills - guaranteeing you'll have fresh food out.   Hummers will reject a feeder with spoiled food.  Finally, the big bonus of this feeder is that it doesn't leak.  Every other kind of feeder I've owned has leaked something awful.  This feeder has never spilled so much as a drop. 

Speaking of food - don't waste your money on buying gimmicky hummingbird "nectar".  They don't need the red dye and you can make your own sugar water at home.  I have a perfect recipe that will make your hummers stop and stay for the season.   I make a 32oz (1 quart) batch of this at a time and store the leftovers in the fridge.   

Boil 2 cups of water - then remove from heat.
Add 1 cup of sugar - stir well until fully dissolved.
Add 1 cup of ice to cool if you're going to serve immediately.  If not, just add 1 cup of cold water.

That's it!  Most people recommend a 5 to 1 ratio water to sugar - but I've found that my hummers like the extra sweet nectar that I put out.   After a long flight migrating from South America they can use that extra energy and they'll see your home as a little oasis.  Hopefully they will stay all summer long.  If you want any advice or have any questions, please feel free to ask.  Next time - feeding hummers, butterflies and bees with your summer flowers!