Strawberry-lemon slushie

As in much of the country we've been experiencing higher than average temperatures this week. The other day, after overdoing it in the heat, I came indoors with a beet red face and tongue hanging out, panting, I want a slushie! So I began throwing frozen strawberries (from our garden), ice cubes, squeezing lemon juice, and drizzling agave nectar into the blender. Whirrrr... in moments I was feeling revived, and even went back outside to enjoy it in the shade. This drink is fruity and not overly sweet, and definitely perky.

Last night I made it again, jotting down (loose) notes of ingredient quantities, using simply the wide mouth jar for measuring. Makes about 2 cups or 2 servings.

Strawberry-lemon slushie

* 4 oz. water (for a spoon-thick slushie) or 6 oz. water (for a drinkable slushie)

* 1-2 Tbls. agave nectar, or sweetener of choice (swirl it into water to dissolve then pour into blender. Honestly I didn't measure it, the amount is a guesstimate.)

* juice of 1 large or 2 small lemons

* full mason jar of frozen strawberries

* 4 ice cubes

Add all ingredients to blender and whirl. Taste and adjust sweetener if necessary. Garnish with fresh mint and sip or slurp away!

vertical growing

to maximize my growing space (when i grow up, i want to be like amy!), i'm doing my darndest to grow as many plants as possible vertically this year.  here are a few of my new vertical growing methods.

the first is a pea trellis that i constructed out of salvaged branches and some twine.  i tied the three branches together at the top and then ran a line of twine around the bottom between each branch. i then took about 4-6 pieces of twine on each "side" of the trellis and tied it from the top point to the line at the bottom.  pretty easy.  those peas are climbing up like gangbusters, can't wait for them to start producing!

the second is a simple hanging basket with two chard plants and one calendula plant. i have a couple other hanging baskets this year, but i need to get some more brackets to hang them from.  hanging baskets are a great way to save space, but remember to water them regularly as they tend to dry out pretty quickly.

the last of my vertical growing adventures (so far!) is the one i'm most proud of.  i came across this photo earlier in the spring, which was the inspiration for it, and later realized that there is also a similar photo in you grow girl.  i salvaged these large tomato and tuna cans from my neighborhood cafe's recycling bin (with their permission, of course), poked some holes in the bottom with a nail, and two holes on the side near the top.  i spray painted the outside and inside to pretty them up, and prevent rust.  i looped some coated steel wire though the two holes near the top and hung them on screws on the side of our garage.  i have basil, lobelia, chamomile, and orange mint planted in these four cans.  i have one more can waiting to be painted, and i'm hoping to collect a couple more as well. 

i have a few other vertical growing ideas up my sleeve for later in the summer once things really start growing.  it's just one more way to save space and fit as much as you possibly can in that garden of yours!

a quick tip

just a quick tip for today.

don't forget to save your eggshells for use in the garden. crushed eggshells provide a great source of calcium for your plants. tomatoes, in particular, love the extra calcium. the crushed eggshells also provide a deterrent to garden pests such as slugs. a win-win, right?

before using them, you need to bake the eggshells in the oven for about 10 minutes. let cool and then crush them around the base of your plants.

do you use eggshells in your garden? if not, give it a try.

mazimizing my growing space

i constantly find myself marveling at how much useable growing space there is wherever i go. as i walk around my neighborhood i drool over my neighbor’s front lawn, i envision bushels of food harvested from a nearby abandoned lot, and look up at a local restaurant's flat roof and think green! having limited growing space has definitely helped bring out the creative side in me, helping me to think outside of the box to squeeze in as much as i can, however i can. before i give up or tell myself there is just not enough room i stop, look around and begin to marvel at my own space as to how much more we can do. below are a few ways we have managed to squeeze in just a little more.

building living roofs on structures gives a whole new dimension to one’s growing space. last year we built one on top of our rabbit hutch to grow salad greens and herbs. we have designed our new chicken coop with a living roof as well.(pictures soon to come) a big dream is to also build a living roof over our back porch where a bee hive will live.


i recently created a living table where i placed a piece of a milled stump over a planter and stuck succulents and herbs in the open cracks. more growing space but also allows a place for a glass of lemonade.

another way to maximize our growing space has been to grow on the strip between the sidewalk and the street. this area is technically public property, but it is our responsibility as the property owners to care for it. rather than grow just grass, we grow a variety of plants including strawberries, kale, cherry tomatoes, blueberries, gooseberries,currants, herbs, horseradish, swiss chard, rhubarb, ferns, and perennial flowers.


our backyard space has transformed over the years as well. when we first moved in, it was just grass with a cyclone fence around it. we removed the fence and slowly began to add plantings that grew around sandboxes, and play spaces for our girls. now that they are getting a bit older and use the sidewalks, streets, and alleys behind our house for more of their play with friends, we began to really fill things in.

instead of replacing the fence we built a rock wall and planted shrubs and tall growing perennials. The plantings give us privacy, are beautiful and even feed us.

i love window boxes and was thrilled when my grandfather built the ones that hang below our dining room windows. in the early spring i plant them with lettuces. i then grow annuals and herbs for the rest of the season.

you would think with such a little space that there would be an end to it all. but there always seem to be a little more room for something new. hmmmmm, now how to fit in that greenhouse?

Sunprints

Remember the collard plant from my first tend post that wintered over? Well we're letting it go to seed so we can harvest the seeds. One morning a few weeks ago I was out in the garden with my film camera. The bees (mostly honey bees) were swirling around the collard blooms, the sun was warm and beating down, and it was simply a glorious morning. Can you see the bees?

On another sunny day this past weekend I made a few sunprints from one of the collard stems (pictured above left). For the second sunprint pictured I picked a weed that had an interesting leaf pattern. I believe it is wild carrot, or something of that nature. Making sunprints is another way I like to bring the garden inside. Have you made them before? The process is straightforward and a fun activity for kids to see art and science overlap.

And the sugar snap trellis:

Last week you commented you'd like to see the sugar snap trellis made from last year's okra plants. We literally left the okra stalks in their original row in the ground over the winter. Then this spring planted sugar snaps beneath them. Since the sugar snaps are now four feet tall or so we added stakes for additional support and have simply leaned the plants to the stakes. The sugar snaps attach on their own. You could string the plants to the stakes for a tidier appearance. Ah, I see it's time to pick sugar snaps!

growing beans

i'm pretty sure that beans are now my favorite thing to grow in my garden. last year a fellow community gardener told me about growing dry beans-something that had never occurred to me before. of course, when i opened the seed savers catalog there were pages of heirloom beans just waiting to be planted in my garden! i started off with hutterite soup beans and october beans. they were so easy to grow and took up relatively little space. for each seed packed of about 50 seeds, i harvested about 2 cups of beans. enough for a couple of meals. we eat a lot of beans (mostly black) so i would never try to grow enough to feed us all year, but to incorporate a little variety into our bean diet, and for more special meals, i'm all about the beans.

i saved some seeds from the two varieties i planted last year, and added some new ones: tiger's eye, turkey craw, calypso, and hidatsa shield figure. and of course, i ordered way more than one seed packet each (um, so far i still have a few seed packets that haven't been planted and my garden is full! i'm going to have to replace all the early spring crops with beans, i think). for dry beans, you leave the fruits on the plants until they are completely dried out. completely. you want them to be crispy. once crisped, they are easy to pick and shell, and you just put the beans in the oven on low for about 15-20 minutes to make sure that there are no itty bitty creatures living inside. store in a jar, and save for a delicious meal. we made a delicious soup with our hutterite beans a few months ago, but i'll admit that i haven't had the nerve to cook up our october beans just yet. i guess i've been waiting for a special occasion, but i know we should just eat them! they'll be delicious in a summer bean salad...

last spring i learned about a method of planting called "hexagonal planting" in which seeds are planted in hexagons instead of rows, which allows you to plant seeds closer together and also helps deter weeds. i tried this with a few of my plants last year, but was most successful with the beans- allowing me to plant each packet of 50 seeds in an area about 2'x2'. All you have to do is make a triangle where each side is the distance that the seedlings are intended to from each other once thinned (so, 2" for beans, 4" for carrots, 8" for lettuce, etc.). then plant your seeds at each point on the triangle and shift the triangle around in a circle to make a hexagon. this technique was originated in a john jeavons book, where it goes into much more mathematical detail, and includes how to use this method for companion planting as well.

another tip about growing beans that i'm trying for the first time this year is to coat the seeds in rhizobium powder prior to planting. someone had told me about it last year, but i'd already planted. by this spring, i had completely forgotten, but luckily i came across a reference to it in the backyard homestead a few weeks ago and i snagged a packet. rhizobium is a naturally occurring bacteria that, when applied to bean or pea seeds up to 24 hours prior to planting helps the seeds absorb more nutrients and can make the plants up to 50% more productive! (at least, that's what the package says, does anyone have experience with this?) i'll be interested to see how it turns out.  who knows, i may be swimming in beans come harvest time!

final garden tour

take a final walk with me around our front yard garden...

the swiss chard is ready to be harvested for our favorite meals

the snap peas are crispy & perfect for the pickin'

the radishes are bright & round

around the corner, the container garden is waiting for its big move south

the strawberries are ripening & so sweet to the taste

soon, this goodness will be transplanted to raised backyard gardens,
bigger pots & flower beds.

little red house with its edible landscaping, small garden plots, cold frame, & compost pile- you will be missed. not for too long, though. we have bigger plans in our home down south.