Tag Archives: vegetable gardening

Starting some of my seeds!

Time to start some of my seeds! So here is how I do it:


Yesterday I got out the light fixture I made last year and brought it in the house. This year I’m going to try some natural light bulbs (instead of the flourescents I had last year). I also washed all the pots and containers in a 10% bleach solution to disinfect them in case there was anything to deter the baby seedlings growth. Then I number the pots with some masking tape and waterproof marker so that they correlate with my seed list of plants I want to grow (so I know what I planted in each pot). I put tape on the pots with the number instead of stakes with the name  in the pots as sometimes the stakes fall out. Nothing like a mystery plant where the tag falls off!


Today I got the soil in the pots, watered the soil and then planted some of my seeds to their proper depth and put a little sand over them (the sand seems to stay moister and the seedlings can push through it easier). Then I mist the sand. That way the seeds don’t get disturbed or washed away. Afterwards they go on a plant heat mat to keep warm till they germinate. I will put the lights on a timer after they germinate. Some plants need light to germinate and some don’t. I’m still learning about this. I believe I read somewhere that tomatoes don’t need light to initally germinate but do right afterwards and of course thereafter.

I planted some tomato seeds, some pepper seeds and some eggplants. All these plants seem to take the longest to get growing to decent size before transplanting, so I like to start them early. I still have more tomato seeds to start but are waiting for the seeds to come in.


Last year I used Jiffy Soil starter  and wasn’t happy when I first watered the seeds as the water rolled off the soil-so this year I got this new soil (Sun Gro Metro Mix 300) and the water immediately soaks in-much nicer! I am also going to put some insulation around the light fixture to keep the plants warmer at night as my tomatoes struggled last year when the house was cooler at night. I hope this will help. Tomatoes and peppers hate to be cold as I learned last year.

Also last year I was able to “sneak” my tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants in early- April 23 (our last freeze date is May 15th) in wall of waters and they did really well (look at my slide show to see them) so that is another reason I start them this early but we will see what this year brings. We’ve had a very cold and wet winter so far (it was snowing again today)..sigh. But it was nice to be in and doing something gardening wise!

2010 GARDEN PLANS

Finally here are my garden plans for this year! I used a program from GrowVeg.com that is really fun to use and has all kind of useful info on it. It is free for 30 days and then if you like it, you can subscribe for a fee. I recommend it. I also saved this under my “pages” section so you can refer to it throughout the season instead of trying to find this entry later.

MAIN GARDEN-OVERALL GARDEN VIEW-DOWN BY BARN

MAIN GARDEN-CLOSE UP OF LEFT HALF (you can read it better)

MAIN GARDEN-CLOSE UP OF RIGHT HALF (you can read it better)

BRI’S GIANT PUMPKIN PATCH-DOWN BY BARN

SPRING GARDEN-UP BY HOUSE

Hercules

Here is a picture of my largest pumpkin I grew last year. The picture on the sidebar is Hercules at 166 lbs and in this pic, Hercules actually got to 352 lbs which is the second largest pumpkin ever grown here in New Mexico. I thought you’d like to see it. This year I hope to grow a 500-600 lber with the knowledge I’ve gained and will share here on my blog as the growing season unfolds.

summer and winter pics

Here are some photos of the garden in the summer and now in the winter. Hard to believe..

garden in summer 09

winter-Ugh!

titans in the winter garden 2010

Ah! Looking at those previous pictures of some of my garden last year lifts my spirits as the reality is that we are in the dead of winter. It does a soul good to see such big and beautiful plants-reminds me of what is to come this year! Here is the same picture of what’s left of the titan sunflowers (top pic) in the garden and the bottom pic is of the whole garden as of today!

Chinese red noodle beans

Here’s a picture of my Chinese red noodle beans that took first place at the New Mexico State Fair last year in 2009. They got to about 18″ long. They were a really beautiful purple color and were tasty too! I plan on growing some kind of longbean this year because they are so fun to watch but not sure of which variety.

striped german tomatoes

Striped German TomatoHere is a picture from August 17th of last year of one of my giant tomatoes-an unriped Striped German tomato that was approximately 18″ circumference and weighed 2.5 lbs at this stage. It got to 3 lbs-but way before the State Fair here in New Mexico so we had to eat it! I did take first place for largest tomato at the NM State Fair but it was only 2.5 lbs at its ripest.

titan sunflowers

I just realize it looks like from the photos so far that I only grow giant pumpkins so I want to show you some titan sunflowers which got 10 feet tall last year. Really beautiful. Can’t wait to grow them again this year. The birds love them too. I call them the guardian angels of the garden.

titan sunflower

guardian angels of the garden

2010 Giant Pumpkin and Giant Veggies List

Here is a list of Giant Pumpkins and Giant veggies I am thinking of growing.

2010 GIANT PUMPKINS & VEGGIE LIST

2010 GIANT PUMPKINS

895 Grande (1016 Daletas x 1385 Jutras)

1166 Mohr (1385 Jutras x 1055 Jutras)

949 Harp (1689 Jutras 06)

1184 Barker (1631.5 McKie x 1689 Jutras)

GIANT MARROW

206.5 Wursten 09

75.4 Wursten 09

GIANT TOMATOES

7.18 N. Harp 09n (5.58 Timm x open)

5.416 N, Harp 09(5.58 Harp x open)

Big Zac (fr Totally Tomato)

Church

GIANT SUNFLOWERS

Titans

2010 veggie list

Here is my list of veggies I will grow this year for food.

2010 VEGGIE LIST

BEANS-Rattlesnake and Tavera

PEPPER-Shishito

SUMMER SQUASH-ZUCCHINI-Costata Romanesco and Lungo Bianco

SUMMER SQUASH-SCALLOPED-Yellow Custard and Bennings Green Tint

WINTER SQUASH-Marina di Chioggia and Galeux d’Eyesines

EGGPLANT-Little Fairys

CUCUMBERS-Parisian, Boothsby Blonde, Poona Kera, and Parade

CORN-not sure of variety yet

LETTUCES-FR COOK’S GARDEN-Provencal Mix, Mesclun Mix, Buttercrunch, Yugoslavian Red, Santoro Lettuce, and Little Gem

SPINACH-FR COOK’S GARDEN-Indian Summer and Double Choice

CARROTS-FR COOK’S GARDEN-Kaleidoscope (mix of red, purple, orange and yellow)

BROCOLLI-Brocolli Romanesco

ARUGULA-Apollo

BOK CHOY-Extra Dwarf Pak Choy

CHARD-5 Color Silverbeet

PEAS-DWARF SUGAR, OREGON SPRING II

2010 tomato list

Here is my list of tomatoes I want to grow this year. I grow tomatoes for either excellent flavor, or gourmet or for size (competition). I try to pick some new ones I haven’t tried.

2010 TOMATOES

HEIRLOOMS

San Marzano-red plum/80 days/AFN

Striped German-bicolor-SFGH

Black Cherry-black/75 days-AFN

Paul Robeson-black/75-85 days-AFN

Cherokee Purple/80 days-AFN

Cherokee Chocolate/80 days-AFN

Prudens Purple-purple/70 days-BH,TOMFEST

Black Krim-black-69 daysAFN

Pantano Romanesco-red/70-80 days-BH,TOMFEST

Great White/80-85 days-BH,TOMGROWERS

Costoluto Genovese-red/78 daysTOMGROWERS

Goldsman Italian American-red-BH

Aunt Ruby’s German Green-85 days-BH

Gold Medal-bicolor-75-80 days-BH

HYBRIDS

Lemon Boy-AFN

Park’s Beefy Boy-red-70 days-AFB

Big Beef-red/73 days-TOT TOMATO

Bella Rosa-red/75 days-TOT TOMATO

COMPETITION (biggest)

Big Zac-red/80 days-TOT TOMATO/AFN

Church-red/85 days-TOMFEST

Timms-red/80 days-dif growers

Getting beds ready

I started getting the beds ready in the fall by adding some amendments but couldn’t get to all of them because of the weather changing to snow. So yesterday as the weather was beautiful-50 degrees and the ground wasn’t frozen,  In my future giant pumpkin patch particulary where I will put the plants, I mixed up some compost, mushroom compost (small amount), horse manure (somewhat composted), Winterizer Yum Yum Mix, and pelleted gypsum which helps break up the soil and adds calcium which pumpkins so love and need. I still need to put some composted horse manure all over the patch but that will be another day.

Hello fellow gardeners!

Welcome to a new year and to my first blog on growing vegetables and particularly giant vegetables! I wish to share with you what I have learned during my attempts and trials of growing many veggies through 25 years and to share this year’s season as it unfolds.

First I am an organic grower. So I will be sharing my knowledge from that point of view. I don’t believe in spraying for bugs with poisons or fertilizing with chemicals that kill the soil. I don’t believe in GMO seeds and try to grow heirloom varieties as much as possible but do also grow some hybrids.

So enuf! Let’s get down to talking about growing stuff! What can you or I do in winter? Prepare for the next season! Get catalogs, order seeds, prepare the soil just to name a few things. So far I went on line and got my catalogs. Ah, they feed my soul while it is cold and snowing outside. I love going over them by the fireplace, dreaming of what I might try to grow this year…