Propagating a Clematis Vine

I just love flowering clematis vines!  

There are so many different colors and types and all are beautiful growing up a trellis, over an arbor, up a lamppost, along a fence, or just anywhere really. 

The best way to grow clematis is from clematis cuttings.

Propagation is pretty easy and you can have anywhere from a 50% to up to a 90% success rate.

The Clematis is in the Buttercup family and hundreds of species and cultivars of clematis exist around the world. 

Building a Greenhouse (Part One)

A greenhouse has always been on my list of things I want to help with gardening.  

When we lived in the burgs (city) our house had a 3 seasons room (sometimes called a Florida Room in this area), which was the closest to owning a greenhouse I have been.  

Because of all those windows it was easier to get my seeds going in early spring.  Having an actual greenhouse will give me a head start on planting and will also extend my growing periods. 

How a greenhouse works is simple. Sun streams through the windows and warms the surfaces inside. The glass or glazed panels trap the heat, keeping the temperature inside the greenhouse warmer than outside. 

Because the sun is key, it is best to build the greenhouse on the south – southeast side of the house and away from the shadow of other structures or large trees.

Mint Jelly

Spring was late arriving here in Ohio but how wonderful it is to finally feel the warmth of the sun.

I am busy preparing my garden for planting and noticed the herbs and mints are coming up.

A few years ago I had mint jelly on Lamb Chops for the first time and loved it.  But trying to find mint jelly in most grocery stores is nearly impossible.

I finally gave up the search and have since been making mint jelly at home, which is easy and just as delicious!

Mint Jelly is mildly sweet and just a little tart, with a wonderful fresh mint flavor.

And guess what?   Mint jelly is not really green. It’s actually a golden color in its natural state. Adding a couple drops of natural food coloring will give it the traditional green color, or just leave it golden.

Roasted Asparagus with Feta Cheese

Asparagus is believed to have been cultivated for thousands of years.

It is native to Europe and Asia and is theorize that it grew wild near the sea in sand dunes.  I find it interesting that Asparagus is a member of the Lily family, which also includes onions, leeks and garlic.

Asparagus is a nutrient-dense food, high in Folic Acid and is a good source of potassium, fiber, vitamin B6, vitamins A and C, and thiamin.

Asparagus also has No Fat, No Cholesterol and is low in Sodium. Yea!

I wasn’t always a fan of asparagus but have in recent years grown quite fond it.  And last week, while visiting Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello I learned that asparagus was cultivated it in his gardens.

I have a small patch of asparagus in my garden but I also buy bundles of it when in season at the grocery store.

Growing Your Own Garlic

Growing, Harvesting and Storing Garlic

It’s the end of March and I have the worst case of cabin fever I have ever experienced. We've had an unusually hard long winter here in Ohio, and all across the Midwest, with temperatures remaining well below freezing and even well below zero for long extended periods of time, ugh.  Usually our snow melts after a few days, but not this year. 

Gardening and seed catalogs are arriving in my mailbox nearly every week.  But most days, it’s almost too cold to walk down the lane to the mail box!

I am already planning the lay out of the vegetable garden and what I need to plant, one of which is garlic. We love garlic and I use it in many recipes and dishes.

Building A Scarecrow

Scarecrow at a festival in New Jersey

A scarecrow is a decoy or mannequin usually in the shape of a human. It is dressed in old clothes and placed in gardens or open fields to discourage birds such as crows or sparrows from feeding on recently sown seed and growing crops.

As its name suggests, it’s supposed to scare away crows from the field or garden.
Mostly they're for decoration, I think.

The first scarecrows in recorded history were made by the Egyptians along the Nile River to protect wheat fields from flocks of quail.  
Egyptian farmers put wooden frames in their fields and covered them with nets.  The farmers hid in the fields and scared the quail into the nets. 

Pickle Relish

With an overabundance of cucumbers this year I'm making relish.
This is a hot dog style pickle relish but can be used on anything, it’s that good.  As for hot dogs, we usually don't eat them, unless we find the all-meat, nitrate free ones, which are delicious I have to say.  Did I mention this relish won a 1st Place Blue Ribbon at our County Fair?

About the ingredients:

The results are best if you use fresh from your garden produce or from a local farm market.  Store purchased is bland compared to home grown and fresh, which will affect the flavor of the relish.

And because of that, summer is the best time to make enough pickle relish to last through the winter. I use mostly red bell peppers in this recipe as I find green bell peppers have an overpowering flavor. 

You may want to use half red and half green.  

Use a mixture of red and sweet onions, not only for flavor but also for color.

Cucumbers into Pickles

Easy Homemade Garlic Dill Pickles

I'm always thrilled to find an easy way to make something my family loves.  Pickles were always difficult to get correct because of the whole brine thing.

But now I'm in pickle heaven, with this easy to follow recipe and method.  I have made several batches of pickles since discovering the Ball Kosher Dill Pickle Mix.  I changed the recipe just a little because we like strong dill and garlic flavored pickles like the Deli style Claussen pickle.  The end result is amazing.

Seed Storage Container

Easy Way To Organize Seed Storage

This is an simple way to organize and store seeds, and makes it easy to inventory the seeds you have on hand.  
I like to separate my seeds by groups or type, that way come spring I know which seeds I need to purchase and which ones I have plenty of. 

What you’ll need:

• 1 Plastic Storage Container (shoe box size)
• Card Stock or Index Cards
• Scissors
• Glue Stick
• Seed Packets

Garden Plant Stakes

Easy DIY Garden Plant Stakes

It has been in the single digits here in Ohio, even down to -0- degrees one morning this week.
And the wind chill makes it even worst.

This time of year and this kind of weather makes me long for warm summer days and my garden.

Each year I try to mark my vegetable seed rows with a plant marker so I know where the row is and what's in it.

Here is an inexpensive plant stake that's easy to make.

Home Grown and Buying Local

What's in our food?

There are so many reports out now about the dangers of GMO's,  High Fructose Corn Syrup,  Preservatives,  Chemicals and many other things in our food. 
Evidence is growing that many foods with additives are addictive like cocaine according to a growing body of Scientific Research.

I think it is a good idea for everyone to make their own choice about what they are consuming, but the choice should at least be an informed decision. 

After a lot of reading and research, my husband and I have been slowly changing our eating habits over the last few years.  We grow more of our own food in our vegetable and herb gardens and hope to continue to expand.

Growing Green Onions In Winter

Green Onions 

One of the things I miss most about my summer garden is picking fresh off the vine tomatoes and pulling a few leaves of lettuce to make a fresh salad for lunch or dinner.

Having a little mini garden in the winter appeals to me.

I read somewhere that if I planted the white bulb end part of a green onion (after chopping and adding the green part to whatever it is I'm cooking, of course) it would grow!

Buying a Farm

Oh my gosh what a year! My husband Bill and I sold our house in June 2011, but could not find a home we wanted to purchase.
We had our hearts set on buying a small farm, but could not find just what we were looking for.
We did not want to feel pressured into purchasing something that wasn't exactly what we were looking for so we decided to put almost everything into storage and move into a duplex.

Two storage units and a storage pod later Bill and I, our son Daniel and his girlfriend, our 2 wiener dogs and a cat, all settled into our little humble abode, all 550 square feet of it.
The tight living quarters was difficult at first but we managed to adapt being in the same room together.
After looking at about 100! houses for sale since March, we finally found our new home, a small "farmette."

Building a Pumpkin Arbor

Pumpkin Arbor (July 2010)

My side garden before trellis was finished

I love pumpkins. They are just a beautiful fruit, can be used in many ways and are edible. The bright orange color of pumpkin is a dead giveaway that pumpkin is loaded with an important antioxidant, beta-carotene.

Native Americans dried strips of pumpkin and wove them into mats. They also roasted long strips of pumpkin on the open fire and ate them.

The origin of pumpkin pie occurred when the colonists sliced off the pumpkin top, removed the seeds, and filled the insides with milk, spices and honey. The pumpkin was then baked in hot ashes.

Pumpkins are cucurbits, the fruit of a herbaceous annual plant of the gourd family that thrives in hot, dry conditions and includes squash, melons, watermelons and cucumbers.

This year I decided to construct an arbor for
pumpkins and gourd vines to climb over.  (Photo above right is before arbor was finished)

I first saw an arbor similar to the one I had in mind while visiting a farm market outside Chillicothe, Ohio last fall.

January, Thinking of Spring

Well it’s January

We had a huge amount of snow dumped on us here in central Ohio, and although I love snow, January and February always make me long for spring.

This time of year, I begin to look longing at gardening magazines.  I sketch my raised vegetable beds on graph paper to make sure I am making the most of my space.

I daydream about the seed packets and start making lists of supplies I will need to germinate the seeds indoors.

I stand for long periods of time looking out my window at my bare cold garden, trying to image it with vines full of tomatoes or onions pushing though the soil and wondering what I did with the longer handled shovel I love best, not the one with the thicker handle that just doesn't seem to fit my hands as well.