Sunday, February 28, 2010

Things we want to look into...

Here is a list of links that we found in Go Green, Live Rich by David Bach. We are planning to go greener lol. So have a look at these links and tell us how you go green!

energystar.gov
eere.energy.gov
eere.energy.gov/greenpower
findsolar.com
dsireusa.org
earth911.org
safelawns.org
compostguide.com
buildingreuse.org/directory
habitat.org
hud.gov/offices/hsg;
vegweb.com
goveg.com


L&D
The Vegetable Hatt

Saturday, February 27, 2010

Homesteading

We watched the Path To Freedom video a few days ago and have become completely inspired by them. So we have been going to the bookstores, the library, and the internet to find out more about homesteading, eco-friendly living, victory gardening, and many other ways to live a better life.

We made a solar oven to start with. We made it out of a box and plan to make another one out of wood. We compost, we recycle, we have rain barrels, and we reuse already, but there is so much more that we know we can be doing. We have talked about making cloth napkins and getting rid of the paper towels we use, among other things.

We will keep you informed.
Let us know what you do?

L&D
The Vegetable Hatt

Sunday, February 21, 2010

Plant Profile-Asparagus

Over the next few days we will be posting some plant profiles. Other then normal info on each plant we plan on including helpful hints and at least one recipe. We hope that you will enjoy this information and that it will be helpful.


Asparagus:

This plant is a long lived plant, meaning that this plant can be planted once and you can continue to harvest for many years after-wards.

Moist sandy soil is ideal with a good set of compost amend in. Also remember to plant asparagus where you plan to leave it. So pick a good spot, one where you can see the asparagus still being years from now. Dig trenches 8-10 inches and space crowns 4-5 ft apart. Young asparagus benefits from phosphorus and avoid high-nitrogen fertilizers. If needed, add a 5-10-10 fertilizer in the spring.

Weeding is critical to keep asparagus beds productive. Allow young shoots to develop, but cut them back to the ground in fall after a hard freeze.

Leave asparagus alone the 1st year of planting. In your second year harvest for only a couple of weeks and then in your 3rd year you can harvest for longer.

Pest include: The Fusarium Wilt and the asparagus beetles.

Helpful hints and tips:
The harvest doesn’t stop them. Even cut off from their roots, the asparagus spears keep growing at the tip. If they’re stored lying down, the tips rise away from the pull of gravity, and can bend 60 degrees or more from the stalk before they run out of energy.
Most of this loss of sweetness and toughening happens in the first day after harvest. Farmers can minimize it by chilling new-cut asparagus right away. But a delay of just four hours between harvest and chilling causes the spears to toughen significantly. So does allowing the chilled spears to warm up to 60 degrees or more in a grocery display or at the farmers’ market.

Recipes:
Creamed Asparagus Soup recipe can be found here.

References and for more fun reading:
Book of Joe

Miracle-Gro's Complete Guide to Vegetables, Fruits, and Herbs.

Saturday, February 20, 2010

Todays fun

Today was a great day. The sun was out and the air was warm. It was great, not like the past few days. So we took the opportunity to do some gardening, get some plants re-potted, start some seeds, and clean the beds. We got 8 cherry tomato's plants and 8 jelly tomato plants done. We started 8 African marigold plants and replanted a banana plant into a larger pot. We re-potted 2 small trees from Arbor Day Foundation and re-potted a Geranium Ivy plant that we picked up at Walmarts today. We also planted the 8 Jersey Hybrid Asparagus plants that are 2 year old root-all male plants and started 3 small cactus seeds in some metal pots that we picked up at a yard sale.

We also got the floor for the new greenhouse laid down and we made 2 solar ovens. One made out of a normal box and the other one out of a pizza box. If you would like to see any photos of today's events, click the link on our front page.

L&D

The Vegetable Hatt

Friday, February 19, 2010

Setting up a growing light

I told my DH I wanted a growing light and some kind of a cheap set up. So he made me one, and I have to say I love it. Here are the photos for you to see. .

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Solar Oven

We are thinking about making a solar oven this weekend with our kids and are wondering if anyone else out there has made or uses one?

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Path To Freedom

We found this on another site and just had to share it with everyone....Enjoy!

Sunday, February 14, 2010

Happy Valentine's Day

We want to wish everyone out there a very Happy Valentine's Day. We hope everyone enjoyed their day, as we did ours. Today is a very special day, other than it being Valentine's Day. Today is our birthday, yes, both of us. I got David a Sirius radio system for his car and he got me a locket that I have been wanting and his big surprise for me was a green house. We have a small one on our back porch now, but this one is much bigger.
<----This is like the one we have on the back porch.








<-----The one he got me today looks like this...



We will take some photos once we put it up tomorrow.

L&D
The Vegetable Hatt

Saturday, February 13, 2010

Photos

We have uploaded our gardening photos onto photobucket if anyone would like to see them. Just click here or go to this link.... http://s928.photobucket.com/albums/ad123/lauraanddavidh/Gardening/

L&D
The Vegetable Hatt

Friday, February 12, 2010

Recycling

Today we talked about getting another tall trash can to go into our kitchen for our recycling. We have a compost bin in our back yard, we free-cycle, and recycle. The problem is that our recycle bins are out in the front yard and when the wind blows, well you get the idea. So we decided to get another tall trash can, that way we can put our recycling in there and then on Thursday we can set everything out.

So we also start talking about other then the things we already recycle, what else can be taken. We came up with a list. How you do recycle? Can you think of anything else that can be recycled?

Paper
Plastic
Glass
VHS Tapes
Empty Rx Bottles
Old Jeans
Twist Ties
Tires
Cardboard
Milk and Water Jugs
Cans and bottles

Among other things....

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Growing Sweet Potatoes

This year we have decided that we are going to try and grow Sweet Potatoes. So we got to looking around on the web for information and came across this site. Now along with some other sites, it is said that you can get some organic sweet potatoes and basically make your own slips. So for a little fun this time, we are going to try it. We went and got some organic sweet potatoes yesterday and will be starting the process of making our on slips today. We will keep you updated. Have you ever grown potatoes?

L&D
The Vegetable Hatt

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Little reminder for us

Just a little reminder for us this season....

Train our new blackberry bush to go along a fence by fastening them with plastic ties to a grid or trellis.

Sow the cucumbers in peat pots and plant them out when they have grown 2 or 3 true leaves.

Starting the seeds

We will be starting our seeds soon and found 40 small pots at the dollar store today to start our new seeds in. We have drawn out our garden plots, as we use the square foot gardening system, so we always have lots of plants. We will have 24 cucumber plants, 32 leeks, 4 squash plants, 32 onions, 32 carrots, 8 cayenne pepper plants, 8 hot peppers, 16 Kentucky Wonder Beans, 8 okra, 16 corn plants, 4 bell pepper plants, 16 black bean plants, 8 cherry tomato plants, 8 large tomato plants, 4 zucchini plants, 16 english peas, 16 snowbird peas, and 8 jelly tomato's. That will also still leave us 8 open spots to put something else in, if we desire. We planted 20 strawberry plants in one of our slotted pots the other day. We will also be planting asparagus, potatoes, and sweet potatoes this season. What will you be planting?

L&D
The Vegetable Hatt

Our Plant Layout

Well we finally have our plant layout page set. After many weeks of looking for a sample, we finally decided on making our own. You can look at it under our links or just click here. If you have any questions, feel free to ask. As of right now the only veggies listed on there are the ones that we grow. As we try new things we will add them to the list. Also you might notice that it is broken up into 3 parts instead of the normal 4 seasons. Florida is such a strange state that sometimes you do not know if you are in Fall or Winter, Summer or Spring, so after much debate we broke our gardening time into 3 parts. So far this gardening time has worked for us. December to March, April to July, and August to November. That will give time for seeds to grow, completely produce, and some time to even go to seed. On some plants we have even been able to do succession planting. Let us know how you plan your plants.

L&D
The Vegetable Hatt

Veggie catalogs

Well today I went to the mail box and got a huge gift. I had about 6 different vegetable catalogs in there. I love looking in them and deciding what I am going to order for this years planting. I do have to say that it will not be much since I got seeds last year and still have some for this year, but the seeds that I had harvested from the plants. Do you have a favorite catalog? Or a favorite place that you order from online? What about a favorite local place? Our favorite local place is Summerlin's . Let us know what you like!

L&D
The Vegetable Hatt

Monday, February 8, 2010

New blogs

I just wanted to tell everyone thank you for sending me links to some new blogs. I will be posting their RSS feed on the main page.

Sunday, February 7, 2010

The First Blog

This will be my very first blog. Sure I have written many other blogs on Myspace and Facebook, but this blog is different. This blog will be about our garden. I have been growing veggies for over 20 years now, but for the last 2 years the vegetable patch has been here in Central Florida. Home of sand. LOL We moved from the Georgia/Alabama state line, from a little known place called Columbus. In Columbus you deal with Georgia red clay and with about only 4-5 months of growing time. So moving to Florida was a growing shock. We live on an acre of land with most of it being behind our house. We have a small veggie patch with 4 1/2 raised beds and then we have around a half acre in what we call our very back yard. We hope and are in the planning stages of turning the very back into our own little sanctuary. As for the garden patch it has strawberries, spinach's, lettuces, collards, onions, turnips, broccoli, and cauliflower planted in it right now. We are still getting use to planting in sand, but the raised beds have pretty much fixed that problem. We also use the square foot garden method that helps us to have lots of space.

So you may ask yourself why we decided to make another blog with all the blogs out there in the world wide web. Well about 6 months ago we started looking for more information on planting in Central Fl. We wanted more info from people, not books. Now don't get us wrong, we love books (more then you will ever know lol) and books are full of wonderful information, but sometimes you want to hear it (or read it) from someones own mouth. Someone who lives in your town or at least near you. Well we looked and we search, but the closes we came to was a blog from Orlando about 45 miles away from us. Also that blog was about flowers, not veggies, and I can't grow a flower to save my life, but I have a green thumb when it comes to veggies! Now Orlando is not THAT far away but anyone who has lived in Florida can tell you the weather between this neighborhood and the next one can be two different things. If you happen to know of a vegetable blog, please let us know!

So after about a month of thinking about the pro's and con's of doing this blog, we decided to go for it. What could it hurt? It can help other people out there with info of growing veggies and if nothing else it can give us a written diary of our gardening experience. So we hope that you enjoy our gardening blog and come back often!

L and D
The Vegetable Hatt