March 26, 2015

bait.

Chicken, Garden, Homegrown, Organic, Pacific Northwest, Pests

UGH. F’ing slugs! They are the bane of my existence right now. I bought all of these lovely little starters from the edible plant sale the other week and they are being violently attacked by these slimy suckers. Every morning I walk out onto our patio to find even more clinging to my traps OR even worse, on my poor plants! I’ve heard they can eat their own body weight in a day. Cool, real cool.

So far, I’ve tried:

salting them
crushed up egg shells
crushed up clam shells
grapefruit slices THEN salting them
beer in a shallow dish

If you have the time, nothing is more satisfying than salting them. Not sure if I’m sold on the egg/clam shell route, which is suppose to give them too sharp of a surface to slim around on. Grapefruit works well, but a dish of beer is my new go-to method. Stupid things just drown themselves. I also read that it’s better to not change the dish too much as they actually are attracted to their dead comrades. That’s twisted.

This is making me really reconsider ducks and chickens for our yard……. 🙂

March 11, 2015

bale’d up.

Garden, Homegrown, Organic, Pacific Northwest, Straw Bale Gardening

Row cover, Burien, straw bale gardening - cultivatedrambler.com

We’re getting a little cray cray up in here! Officially planted round no. 1 in the main garden over the weekend with the help of my sis, Liz. Stuff that went in the ground: snap peas, snow peas, sweet peas, two kinds of carrots, romaine lettuce, butter lettuce and arugula. Phew.She also joined me in my trek out to Burien to pick up three straw bales for my attempt at straw bale gardening. I’ve got about two weeks of conditioning with these bad boys then they’ll also be ready to plant. For those of you who think I’m nuts…..straw bale gardening is a way to garden if you have crappy or no soil. My plan was to build a nice stone walled bed in this location, but other things took precedent this year. My plan is to build that bed next year then transplant my raspberries there so they’ll be nice and contained.

In the meantime, I’m doing my own little garden experiment with these. From what I’ve read you 1) need straw NOT hay bales 2) they need to be “conditioned” ie. hit with lots of water and fertilizer to get them to start composting 3) sprinkled with some good soil 4) and then planted directly into. Seems easy enough. Stay tuned to see how this works out for me!

March 1, 2015

yard werk.

Garden, Homegrown, Pacific Northwest, Straw Bale Gardening

Pacific Northwest Gardening, Organic, Springtime prep - cultivatedrambler.com

Top: A work in progress. Bottom (left to right): Every gardener needs a machete!, Stella checking out our new pear tree, I have a seed hording problem.

Well it’s that time again! Though this time seems to be earlier than most years – hello warmest February ever. Sheesh. This sunny weather has been putting me into yard/garden overdrive these days. Every weekend has had at least one full day of yard work. I even got sun burned the other day – WTF Seattle? I thought I would have a few more weeks of hibernation, guess not. So in preparation of growing season 2015, here’s what I’ve been up to lately.

Here’s what’s been done:

Pruned fig tree and grape vines
Pruned and re-strung raspberries
Pruned camellia, hydrangeas, pine tree and rhodies (thanks Aunt Susan!
Cleaned up peony bed and added two more bushes (yay!)
Added strawberries to the herb bed
Planted 3 apple trees along fence line
Planted 1 three-in-one pear tree on east side of house (how genius is that! self-pollinating.)
Planted round 1 of seeds near herb bed
Made a bad ass hippie stick art thing
Added landscape rocks to end of herb bed to make it look more finished
Picked up 10 bags of moo doo for veggies – highly recommend Sayers Fuel on Rainier

Here’s what’s left to do:

Buy blueberries for the blueberry patch – getting these bad boys at the Seattle Tilth Edible Plant Sale on March 14!
Straw bale garden alongside the shed – too lazy to make a real garden bed this year, so this will do
Figure out where to plant my 3 new dahlias
Prune plum tree
Finish veggie garden layout
Plant more seeds!
Make more fun hippie stick art!

Phew! That’s it for now. What have you been up to in your yard these days?

July 30, 2014

Zealous Zucchini.

Garden, Homegrown, Organic Garden, Pacific Northwest, zucchini recipes

The first of the season!

As most gardeners know, zucchini is just one of those “plug and play” veggies in the garden. They don’t need a ton of TLC or babying and they produce like a mo-fo. It’s a total ego booster, so if you’re new to gardening, def plant one or two! Even after trading and giving most of them away, I’m still left with a few each week. I’ve been trying out a few new recipes lately with these green monsters and here are the ones I’ve liked the best!

Zucchini Corn Pancakes
Oh ma gawd! These are good! Great flavor and interesting texture though they don’t re-heat very well so eat them all while they are hot off the stove.

Three Cheese Zucchini Rollups
Easy to make so double the batch while you are at it! They freeze well too.

Zucchini Bread
Duh. Like a total no-brainer. I like mine heavy on the cinnamon and nutmeg. This savory bread looked pretty delish though too…might have to try it out this weekend!

What are your fav zucchini recipes?? Care to share?

June 2, 2014

Oh haaaaay.

Garden, Homegrown, Pacific Northwest, Peonies

My backyard has been treating us to all sorts of delights lately! These beauties were tucked away in a far back corner of the yard and I almost didn’t see them because they were bent over due to their weight. Shame on me for not staking them up properly. I saved what I could and will def post ’em up for next year. Man, gotta love a mature, Seattle yard!