Seed Harvesting - Brussels Sprouts

I let a couple of my Brussels Sprouts grow to seed this Spring, and this past week the seed pods were ready to go into storage.  Harvesting seeds from the particular plant is pretty easy.

To let the plants go to seed, you simply need to let them grow.  When it gets warm in the late spring, the plants will bolt (increase in height quickly) and start to send out yellow flowers.  Eventually, the flower stems will develop into pods similar to those shown at the left.

More after the jump.

Garlic Harvesting

 Garlic is normally harvested when the leaves start to turn brown, but my pumpkin vines pulled down my garlic stalks, so I decided to harvest early.

Harvesting is easy.  Just dig beneath the bulb, loosen the soil, and gently coax the entire plant from the earth.  Remove the larger clumps of soil from the root ball and bulb.


When you get everything out of the ground, hang the bulbs upside down and allow them to cure for a few weeks until everything is pretty well dried out.  The curing station should be out of the sun in a well ventilated area.  I used a wire shelf to hang the bulbs I harvested.

Once everything is dried out, you can trim the roots and leaves, or braid the leaves into a string of garlic.  It should store pretty well provided you keep it dry and relatively cool.

Product Review

Product Review:  Tingley Knee Boots

I owe most of my great garden finds to my wife.  She finds high quality products at great prices.  The Tingley boots she found at Tractor Supply Store are a good example.  Author's note - I have not been paid or otherwise compensated by Tingley Boot, Tractor Supply or anyone else for this review.  I just like em!


Tingley offers several types of knee high rubber boots similar to the ones pictured above.  These are the "better quality" brand.  Of the two I saw at Tractor Supply, I think the only difference between this and the original is the foam insert that provides a little more cushion.  The other are pretty much the same, but a little more flimsy.  At $20 for the ones pictured vs $16 for the entry level, I decided to treat myself. 


What I like:
- Soft, thick soles that are well suited for trekking through the muck.  
- Easy to get on, and easy to get off.  They have nubs on the heel that allow you to take them on and off without touching them with your hands.  Perfect for putting on when you want to run out to the garden on your lunch break. :-)
- Knee high, so you don't need to worry about snakes, or getting your pants filthy.


What I don't like:
- Like any all-rubber boot, they will give you sweaty feet on a hot day. 
- The soles are soft enough that a nail can go right through.  That said, you would have to step pretty hard since they are so thick. 

Hugelkultur Update - Lessons Learned and Proof of Concept

A red potato from the
hugelkultur. 

We haven't had much rain here in Georgia for the past couple weeks, and everything seemed to be dying in my hugelkultur.  I decided to investigate, and after doing a little digging discovered that the center of what I built last year was pretty much hollow.  The dirt and straw I had piled on top didn't make it to the bottom, so any rain water that was down there couldn't make it's way up, and wasn't being stored.

I decided some fixes were in order.  Crazy I know, after all the hard work it has been to stack and haul the wood earth and straw I used to make this thing.  That said, there were several mistakes lessons learned that needed to be corrected:

1) Hugelkultur will not make the dirt fertile (at least not right away).

Backyard Friends

I was taking out the trash the other day and saw these two love-birds perched atop my wife's Zinnias.

A male (top) and female (bottom) American Goldfinch. 

Lasagna Bed Update - Feast and Famine

Massive!

Front of the bed struggles, while the
rear of the bed flourishes. 

What is going on in my garden these days?  Well, it is pretty much feast or famine.  Certain things are growing like crazy (corn, squash), while others languish (peppers, certain tomatoes, onions).  I don't quite understand why this is happening, but I have a few suspects (more after the jump):

Grape Arbor

I decided this spring to plant some grape vines in my back yard.  It may be too hot here in Georgia for good grapes, but hopefully with time I will get something that is nice to look at if not tasty to eat. 


If you want to have a grape vine, then you need to have something that will support it.  Enter the grape arbor project.  After doing some basic research online, I constructed a grape arbor using mostly materials found around the house. 


To construct my arbor, you need:

- at least two sturdy support poles (wood, metal, plastic should all work);
- galvanized wire (enough to span the distance between the support poles); and
- nails, or some other fasteners for the wire.

Instructions after the jump.