Frost: It hit 30 last night! :(

 

We did have a frost last night, it hit 30 degrees even though they said 37. Thank gooodness I had depolyed the row covers I had. Sadly, I didn't have enough row cover for all my plants. Hopefully the uncovered ones won't die although I already know those hot pepper plants will have stunted growth.

First Herb Harvest

I harvested my first batch of herbs yesterday and tried out my Ronco Original 5 tier Dehydrator. I loaded the trays with mint, sage, catnip, woodruff, and chives.


The dried over night and the chives even kind of burnt. It was a learning experience since the manuel didn't come with the dehydrator I purchased used off EBay. I think I shouldn't have mixed the type of herb I was drying because they all kind of smell a like to me now.

I'll try again with another batch of catnip this afternoon and see how that goes.

Half done!

Today I got about half the main plot planted with everything from peanuts to bush beans and back again.

 

Got the Salad Bed In

 

Name This Herb

This is one of the herbs that popped back up in my garden on its own this year. I was stumped trying to figure out which herb it is and spent a few hours looking for a similar one on the Internet this week.

 

I was even considering asking for help in a number of gardening forums I belong to, but as lluck would have it I saw this while I was at the nursey yesterday ~ it's Sweet Woodruff.

Use sweet woodruff plants as a ground cover for shady areas in the landscape, as this plant will spread out to form a mat and choke out weeds. However, sweet woodruff's use doesn't end when the growing season ends. In former times, sweet woodruff herbs were commonly harvested and used for medicinal and culinary purposes. E.g., the fresh leaves were used medicinally to heal wounds. Nowadays, we more often enjoy this herb for its aromatic quality. It lends a fragrance to linens, sachets and potpourris.

The intensity of the fragrance of sweet woodruff's foliage increases when dried, and its aromatic quality lasts for years. It is, consequently, a favorite in potpourris and wreaths. The fragrance of sweet woodruff herbs has been variously described as resembling new-mown hay or vanilla.

For optimal fragrance, harvest the leaves of sweet woodruff right after the plants bloom. The harvested branches can be tied in bunches and hung in a warm, dark place to dry.

Marigolds, tomatoes, & herbs planted today

 

Herb Bed

Here is the raised herb bed before cleanup. A number of herbs are already nice and bushy. They reseeded themselves.

 

Here it is after clean up and me adding a few more herbs like Curry & Bush Basil

Garden Do Over

We have the new garden double tilled in and ready for planting. We had purchased a tiller a number of years back from Sears and managed to hang on to it. Today we also hung our very first up side down tomato plant.


That's my son Joe (14) in the picture getting it situated. Hopefully, this will keey the groundhogs and other four legged garden pests from destroying it.

I live in Zone 6a/5b

I live in zone 6a/5b up here on the Northern coast of Ohio just east of Cleveland. This means Zone 5's average dates for the last frost are 30 March to 30 April Average dates the first frost - 30 September to 30 October.

Zone 6 Average dates the last frost - 30 Mach to 30 April Average dates the first frost - 30 September to 30 October.

So, I'm already behind. Good thing we are going with plant statrs this year on most things. :)

Gardeners need a way to compare their garden climates with the climate where a plant is known to grow well. That's why climate zone maps were created. Zone maps are tools that show where various permanent landscape plants can adapt. If you want a shrub, perennial, or tree to survive and grow year after year, the plant must tolerate year-round conditions in your area, such as the lowest and highest temperatures and the amount and distribution of rainfall.

April 2009: Pre-cleanup raised garden beds

Over the past decade I have used the squarefoot gardening method and liked it. However, I didn't want to build my raised beds out of treated wood and contaminate my veggies so these raised beds need to be rebuilt about every 4 to 5 years and this year we just can not afford it because of the economy.

We are going to be eliminating the three center raised beds and tilling a regular garden into that area of the yard.