More planting

As I mentioned before, I have been trying to plant native plants in my front flowerbed. When that is not possible, I have ben trying to plant herbs of several varieties. To that end I planted a horseradish plant. I'm anxious to dig a root this fall, and make my own horseradish sauce, or raw horseradish. I remeber my dad really liking horseradish, and now so do I.

Cathy and I have gone to Glover's nursery in WEst Jordan several times. One of the salespeople ther has suggested we try a "bronze fennel" in our flower bed. It has a beautiful bronze color, and is edible. It does need to be cultivated fairly well, since the seed swill tend to spread if you don't cut it beofre it seeds.

While I was at Glover's yesterday, I also found a Curry plant. This plant smells like the curry of Indian cooking fame, but is not the curry used in cooking. As Cathy keeps telling me, and I have since confirmed, Curry used in cooking is actually a mixture of spices. The plant however, can be used in cooking especially as an addition to meats. It has a strong flavor, but mostly it is an ornatmental that looks similar to lavender, but smells like Indian cooking.

I'm hoping that I can get out this weekend and get my other garden ready to plant. I've got the potato seed just waiting for the rain to quit long enough for me to get the plot ready. I'll keep you posted as we move through this

This weekends plantings

Cathy and I spent a good share of the day on Saturday looking for some Utah Native Plants. For years we have had a flower bed, that has been very high maintenance. It is a big bed in the front of our yard. Traditionally, we have planted marigolds and petunias in this bed. The last couple of years, we have not done well.

The bed also houses a burgundy cherry tree, some columbine, and some daisies. We made the decision to plant almost all of the bed in perennial plants this year. I have been pushing hard for Cathy to consider some of the Utah native plant varieties.

On Saturday, we went to a little nursery in Salt Lake called Grow Wild. It is a small little place that only sells native plants. We ended up getting a Yarrow, a geranium, Postemon, and a couple of other plants whose names escape me.

On our way home we stopped at Millcreek Gardens in South Salt Lake. They have a great selection of plants and trees. They actually have all of the native plants as well as many of the varieties that are not necessarily native. While there we purchased some Irish Moss to plant in a flagstone patio in our back yard. We learned that we can plant this in even small cracks by breaking up the moss plant into little pieces, putting it in a blender with some buttermilk, and making a liquid the consistency of a milk shake. This can then be poured directly in the cracks between the flagstone, and it will seed and grow and fill in quickly. I'm going to try that this week in between storms and get the patio taken care of.

It's only two weeks until I need to get the rest of my garden planted. My strawberries are in bloom, and it looks like I'll have a bumper crop. I am looking forward to having a great garden summer.

Basics of gardening

On Saturday, April 18, I was able to teach a series of four seminars on "Gardening 101" to the River Edge Stake in West Jordan. It was difficult to pare everything down to just a half hour lesson. I hope anybody learned enough to help. The stake really did a good job with their spring fair. They also had classes on Square Foot Gardening, preserving foods, pruning trees and a variety of other things.

I fear that we're going to need to know a great deal more about these things as we move through the current economic situation. If we wait for the government to bail us out we may get awfully hungry.

After the spring fair, Cathy and I went to buy some tomato plants. I really like the heirloom varieties. We bought a Black Krim, a Black Cherry, a White, and a couple others. A couple of the plants were so large that I needed to plant them using a trenching method.

In trenching, you dig a long trench, lay the plant in the trench, and only leave the very top of the plant exposed to the air. The entire length of the plant then roots, and provide a very stable and robust plant. I also used some new soil amendments. I bought some Humate and some Sustain. I think I embarassed Cathy, when I referred to the Sustain as viagra for plants.

Humate is minerals from the Emery county area that are the remains of ancient lava beds. it is in a granular form, and is rich in minerals.

Sustain is a timed release fertilizer made from turkey manure. It has been processed in such a way that it does not burn the plants, and releases the nutrients over a "sustained period of time.

In addition to the tomaotoes, I also planted a very hot pepper plant and an italian eggplant. Both are heirloom varieties. I'm excited to see how they do in the garden.

I got my asparagas planted as well. I won't be able to harvest any this year, but by next year I should have an abbundance of fresh asparagas.

I still need to plant my horseradish plant. I'll get that done on Saturday. I'm excited to dig some up this fall and make my own fresh horseradish sauce. Who knows how it will turn out. I'll keep you posted.

Love the rain

It's a good thing I don't plant early vegetables. With all the rain, I haven't been able to prepare my garden yet. I did get my second garden spot cleared.

I planted red onions and Walla Walla onions on Monday. I still have a horseradish plant to plant, as well as asperagas. I have the plants, and just need to wait for the weather to clear so I can plant them.

I also bought potato seed. This year I'll be planting three varieties, Yukon
gold, Pontiac Red, and Russets.