christmas day

Pictures of my garden on Christmas Day. Happy Holidays all! I hate to show it, but here's what the voles have done to my tunnel. I was told that castor oil is the solution to voles in winter tunnels. I see several web sites that explain how to use it. Next year I will have a beautiful tunnel!

what is the #1 mistake that new gardeners make?

I was asked a question the other day by a blogger. "What is the #1 mistake that new gardeners make?" My answer:

Mistakes are how you learn!! The #1 mistake is not having tried gardening earlier because of worrying about making a mistake!

That said, I have found that the most important things in getting a large harvest are making sure you have (1) regular irrigation, (2) appropriate soil, and (3) at least 4 hours of midday sun. Also think about growing what you like to eat and including a variety of plants.

The most important thing in enjoying gardening is to just get into the soil and don’t worry about failure. Enjoy the feel of the soil, the sunlight, the opportunity for hard work, the beauty of the plants. See how things work out and then ask others, read, and learn about what you want to do next year.

I assume the blogger will post lots of answers from different gardens. I will see if I can get a link to share.

What do you think is the #1 mistake that new gardeners make?

chicken cam testing

chipmunks (or voles?) party in the tunnel

My plastic tunnel with winter greens has hit the end of its season. :-( Last week, chipmunks discovered it. They tunneled in and out in many places. They feasted on the greens. They ate tops off the most tender lettuce, baby romain, butterheads and oak leaf. It looks like a little weed whacker went through. They stretched up and ate baby broccoli heads. They started to eat escarole frisée heads and kale. Once I discovered the damage, I harvested almost everything I could. The baby broccoli, all the frisée, any romaine and butterhead they missed, also Asian greens that they hadn't found yet. I left the kale and will take a look at that in a couple days.

Disappointing. But I think I've been really lucky with my new garden location this year. I kind of expected more critter damage than I've had. All I've had problems with this year is cabbage worm and the nasty compost comtaminant. That said, I'm afraid that chipmunks are impossible to exclude from a garden. My usual advice to gardeners with chipmunk trouble is to keep a wide cleared border and don't plant things they like. Right now, that's pretty much anything green and tasty.

necklace giveaway results

It was fun doing a give-away. I wish I could give a necklace to everyone who entered a guess. The contest was to guess how many dried red chilies were in my chili bowl. The answer: 248. I think a lot of people guessed low maybe because smaller chilis tended to be at the bottom of the bowl. Anyway, the winners are: The winners are Barb (273), Tomato Thymes (156) and Sarah (150). If you are a winner, please email me at kathy@skippysgarden.com and let me know your mailing address. Congrats!

today's harvest - happy thanksgiving!

These are the greens I harvested for our Thanksgiving salad bowl. In spite of our normal weather for this time of year, we have bitter cold (20*F) and several inches of snow on the ground for Thanksgiving this year. My brother, traveling in to our house from western MA, has no power out in his area due to the snow storm. We will give thanks for the warmth of our homes and family and the abundance of our harvests.

my little horseradish plant

I've got a little horseradish plant in the back corner of my garden. It's the first time I've tried growing this. I looked up information on horseradish culture and it sounds like I should let it grow another year before I harvest some of the offshoots.

When grown as an annual, it requires a long growing season. It needs warm temperatures during the summer growing season and cooler temperatures in the late summer and fall to enhance root development. In the annual system, the crop is usually planted in the early spring, and the entire root mass is harvested after the first killing frost in the fall. In the perennial system, upright, thickened, underground shoots arising from a deeply planted “mother” root are harvested every other year, with the original plant left in the field for regeneration. Perennial fields may stay in production for 10 to 20 years. Perennial culture generally requires more labor and growing skill. It is still practiced in some areas, particularly where there is a short growing season. Once introduced to a farm, horseradish can be difficult to eradicate completely as any size root or piece can readily begin a new plant. from Virginia Coop Ext

little winter rye sprouts

I planted my winter rye seed really late (Nov 10) so I'm really happy to see it sprout.

good weather for greens

It was such a nice warm day today (in the 60's). Well, rainy, but I'm sure my garden plants thought it was nice. I opened up my plastic hoop tunnel to give it some air. Lettuce at the front edge is showing signs of damage from the several icy cold nights we've had. Other than that, all is looking good for the Thanksgiving salad bowl.

bok choi recipes

Again I have LOTS of bok choi. I just love the flavor of it and how nice it looks in the garden. Tonight I am thinking about how to prepare it.

My usual recipe is to sauté minced garlic and ginger, maybe adding a dried chili pepper, in a high heat oil like peanut or sunflower. Then I add the coarsley chopped stems of bok choi and stir fry a few minutes. Next I add coarsley chopped bok choi leaves and stir 'til they wilt. Then I add some corn starch stirred with water, maybe a splash of white whine or vermouth, and a good splash of soy sauce. I stir over heat until the sauce is the right thickness. I like to serve it with fried rice and a roasted meat.

A variation is to use the same preparation, but leave the bok choi whole if they are tiny, or just halve or quarter them. I've also added mushrooms. When my son is home, I add broccoli and he eats that and leaves my husband and me the bok choi.

I'm looking for something new tonight. I'll google and see what Epicurius, Allrecipes and the other usual sites suggest. I'd love to hear ways other gardeners prepare bok choi.

a give away!! - guess how many red chilis and win seed packet necklace

I'm excited to give something to my readers. I've gotten a lot from everyone: ideas, advice, friendship and just the pleasure of chatting about gardens. I hope I give gardeners information and encouragement, especially new gardeners. Maybe even inspiration. I think it's important that we're close to the earth and find simple ways to do things. And it's so rewarding to grow food.

Anyway, I was given a beautiful "seed packet" necklace by Shari Dixon. She's an artist who incorporates flowers and herbs into her hand crafted jewelry. My pendent is a camomile seed packet and I love it!


Shari gave me three seed packet necklaces to give away. SO, we need a contest! To stay on the topic of gifts, yesterday I posted a picture of a bowl of dried red chilis that I plan to give as gifts.

How many chilis are in the bowl??

The three seed packet necklaces will go to the three people who guess closest to the actual number. Just reply to this post with your guess and I'll post the winners in one week - Sat, Nov 29. Sorry, USA only and one guess per person.

ps - I have a garden gift give-away for my readers coming up soon. Check back here tomorrow!

here's a hint - the gifts are from the new ad site on my sidebar and I will have 3 free gifts to give away.....

tis the seaon for making gifts

Last year I knitted hats for everyone on my Christmas list. And I had some garlic to share. This year, no knitted goods and no extra garlic, but I have lots of popcorn, dried red and green chilis, herb salt, canned pears and cucumber relish. I love having so many things to share!

I was hoping to make ristras or wreaths from the chilis and looked into that this morning. I found a fantastic how-to video: Sichler Farms chili ristra video. But I leaned that the ristra needs to be made from fresh chilis, not dried. (So that's why the ones I've made in the past have looked funny and have fallen apart.) I will put chili ristras on my wish list of things to make next year!

I found some really nice ideas for packaging herbs. One site I found shows how to make little printed muslin bags for dried chilis and another uses printed muslin bags for tea.

I think these bags will be perfect for my popcorn, herb salts and chilis. Maybe even for my canned pears and relish. Sounds like I will have a craft project for the chilly weekend coming up. I am looking forward to this!

today's harvest

Hard to believe we've had a second night at 22*F. Its so cold there's a sheet of ice on the pond already. I was afraid everything in the garden would be frozen solid. I was pleasantly surprised. The bok choi I was waiting to harvest (for no good reason - it was very risky) looks beautiful. (I get so excited about pretty garden harvests!) I pulled a handful of tiny dark red beets. They even have a few nice leaves still. And I went ahead an picked a giant handful of parsley. Parsley was one of my overabundant plantings this year, but will be good to have for next week's Thanksgiving cooking. I haven't picked anything from my plastic tunnel yet, but I think now there's nothing left outside of it.

greens in plastic tunnel after a night at 22*F

I went to my garden to check on the plants after an icy cold night. Everything looks surprisingly good. Even greens outside of the plastic tunnel. I picked the last head of the lettuce growing outside. Its a big head of green butterhead was covered in lightweight row cover. There is some uncovered bok choi that I will remember to pick and eat for dinner tomorrow. Our next salads will come from the tunnel.