How to make moss shakes-not for eating :)

I read about moss shakes and making living art with it in the Studio G blog (love this blog by the way, I highly suggest following it).
Here's the link:
Studio G

Seeds Started

I started my seeds last Tues! So hopefully I will actually get some peppers and red tomatoes this year!
This year, I'm trying some new plants; the garden has this year:
tomatoes (regular)
tiny tim tomatoes
Blushing Beauty bell peppers
Banana peppers
jalapeno peppers
onions
scallions
radish
pumpkins
zucchini
cucumbers
garlic
basil
carrots
spinach
lettuce

This is a lot.  Some of it, the lettuce and spinach and scallions, will be in containers (since it worked so well last year) and will help with weeding. 
I'm also going to plant the plants closer than last year to help cut down on weeding. I think that black paper REALLY helped last year, so I'm going to definitely buy that again.  It's worth the money to save my back and time. 

I also started sprouts successfully, so those will be ready in a few days!

Cucumber Support

Here is the trellis I want to buy/make for my garden! I think I can make it, so I'm going to try that first.  Using fallen branches from the woods, twine, and wooden stakes, I think I can create a much cheaper version of the design below.  I'll let you know how it goes  :)  The image is from Gardener's Supply website.  I think this design will be better than the vertical support I had last year because it will put less stress on the plant.  We'll see if it's more productive this year.

In Honor of the Presidents (Past, Present, and Future)

So basically this is a re-post from Studio G's blog.  I do love this blog because they post so many beautiful gardens!  The Thomas Jefferson historic gardens are so beautiful and well organized and cared for, I thought it was re-post worthy.

So then I started wondering about other historic gardens in America and decided to post some of the links I found:

1. George Washington's Mount Vernon: here is a quote from the website for people who enjoy a bit of history too: "George Washington built and arranged the Upper Garden in 1763. In 1775, he expanded and redesigned much of his estate – including the Upper Garden."

2. Michelle Obama's vegetable garden:  This is such a great way to spread knowledge to adults and kids about where their food comes from, and I think she sets a great example for what schools could do in health class.  In elementary school, I vaguely remember having a garden that we got to help build and it was very exciting!  But most of my knowledge comes from helping my mom every summer. 


These were the only two I found, but I only did a quick search.  Do you know of any others?


ps.
I'm having issues with the links breaking, so below is the list of links, respectively:
1. http://www.studiogblog.com/
2. http://www.monticello.org/
3. http://www.mountvernon.org/index.cfm?
4. http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/09/03/20/Spring-Gardening/

Seed Starting Time Approaches

I was debating with myself on when to start my seeds this year since last season I kind of blew it with my peppers and tomatoes because they got started so late.  This year I am prepared though!  I already have the seeds that I bought from last year (seeds last up to 3 years if stored in a dark, cool space) and I just need to get carrot seeds.  Well the problem was solved on when to start through the Gardener's Supply website "How-To" pages:
http://www.gardeners.com/When-to-Start-Your-Seeds/5215,default,pg.html

They are very helpful people over there!

I also did some research at my college's library on companion planting and came up with this layout:

I did made this in Photoshop CS3 to make it look pretty!  :)   So it isn't to scale, but the general layout is correct.  The garlic and marigolds are key pest control players, the radish are pest control and filler plants (because they grow faster than some of the larger plants, you can use them to fill up empty space and pull them out when the bigger plant will take over).  I read in Carrots Love Tomatoes that you should plant 3 radish in with your squash and cuke hills and LEAVE them there; this way they act as a natural repellent.
I surrounded my tomatoes by garlic, basil, carrots and scallions because tomatoes grow well with all these plants.  Beans, cukes and peas also benefit from each other.  And bell peppers also love basil.
So that was the reasoning and thought process behind the layout.
You can make your own layout easily using the Gardener's Supply designer tool: 

http://www.gardeners.com/on/demandware.store/Sites-Gardeners-Site/default/Page-KGPJS#clearbed

I think that's it for now! I'm going to start planting in a few weeks! yay!

:)

Carrots Love Tomatoes

I saw "Carrots Love Tomatoes" online, and decided to borrowed it from my school library.  I finished reading it last night and I highly recommend it! 

http://www.amazon.com/Carrots-Love-Tomatoes-Companion-Successful/dp/1580170277

She lists a wide variety of vegetables, fruit and nut trees, and herbs and their companion plants.  I found it to be a quick read because it is so well laid out.  She includes a few garden plans and a glossary of gardening terms/techniques at the back.  The garden plans are pretty rough and are hard to read, but they help you kind of get an idea of how to start planning your own.  I think this book is a great companion to the square foot gardening book by Mel Bartholomew.

http://www.amazon.com/Square-Foot-Gardening-Garden-Space/dp/1579548563/ref=pd_cp_b_2

The SFG talks about how to organize your plants and all the basics you need to know about gardening, and CLT talks about which plants pair well together.  I think I may buy CLT next time I get a coupon from Barnes and Noble, but for now I took notes in my garden journal.  

As a side note, my ginger growing experiment didn't work.  I got distracted last semester and didn't pay attention to the soil dampness and it got dried out a few too many times.  May be I'll try it again next winter!

Cheers!

Katie   :)

Vertical Gardening!

Barnes and Noble had a fantastic coupon the other day, so I used it to buy "The Vertical Garden, from nature to the city" by Patrick Blanc. It is nearly 200 pages long and almost every page contains his art work.  And they really are functional ART.  "The Green Man" has been all around the world studying different types of plants and incorporating them into his designs.  This book is a well organized, all inclusive, encyclopedia of his vertical gardening thought process and designs.  I just flipped through and read a few pages, but it looks great!

Here is a link to his website:
http://www.verticalgardenpatrickblanc.com/

I would like to do a vertical garden for my herbs. I saw it in a blog and I thought it was a fantastic idea!  Plus it will use up less counter space.   :)