Best method for freezing fresh spinach

I grow my own spinach in my vegetable garden, and as usually happens, I had a bumper crop that came on all at once and we couldn't eat it all. So I did some research on the best way to freeze the spinach for later use.

Most information agreed that you should wash and dry the leaves first. Some suggested cooking the spinach first, then placing into freezer bags, while others said not to cook it and just place in freezer bags raw.

I found one source that explained it depends on whether the spinach is fresh picked from your garden etc, or if you bought it from the grocery store. Apparently, if it's just picked, you can place it directly into the freezer bags without cooking it. However, if you buy it from the grocery store and it's been sitting awhile, it's best to cook it first before freezing. The writer went on to say it's not the freezing but the thawing process that makes the leaves soggy and almost unusable, and cooking other than freshly picked spinach first will give you the best results.

Harvesting your herb garden

What's the best time to harvest herbs from your garden? It depends on the herb, so here's a list of the most common herbs and the ideal time to harvest them:

Basil - when the plant begins to bud, and before it's in full flower. It's best to pinch the buds when they begin to form. Pick leaves from the top of the plant, and it's best to use a knife - using your fingers will crush the stem. You can encourage new growth by deadheading. A second harvest can be obtained by cutting the plant back to 6 inches above the ground, and leaving 2 young shoots in place.

Chives - again, best time is before they flower, but even after flowering, I deadhead the flowers, and continue harvesting the chives.

Cilantro - harvest when the plant is about 6 inches tall. It will need to be replanted every 6 weeks in order to have a regular supply through the season. After the plant bolts, just collect the seeds, dry them and use to replant.

Dill - it will begin putting out flowers around 8 weeks, which stops leaf formation. This is when you should harvest the dill as it will have the most flavor. You can then cut the plant back to within an inch of the ground and get a second harvest in late summer.

Fennel - just pull up every other bulb when the size of a tennis ball. Even the stems can be eaten, like celery. Fennel will reseed itself.

Oregano - like Basil, it's best before the plant flowers, but after flowering, I deadhead the flowers and continue harvesting.

Rosemary - can be picked as needed. For a more bushy plant, cut it back 2 or 3 inches. Rosemary doesn't survive the cold winters, but can be brought inside during the winter and grown in a sunny window.

Garden Tip:
Fennel, dill, cilantro and caraway attract ladybugs, which are very beneficial for your garden. They feed on harmful garden aphids as well as the larvae of mealy bugs, leafhoppers, scales, mites and other soft-bodies bugs.

The importance of mulching

Mulch helps hold in valuable soil moisture and also improves the appearance of any garden area. It can be any kind of material that is spread over the ground as a covering. There are many types available, and it's a personal preference as far as texture and color. The only caution I would give is to stay away from the chemically treated mulches for your vegetable gardens, or if your pets will be around the mulched areas.

Personally, I like grass clippings the best for my vegetable garden (untreated grass only). For my more visible and decorative areas, I prefer cedar. Cedar mulch is one of the most popular because of the wide variety of garden benefits:
* it repels insects because of it's strong smell, which insects dislike
* it controls the soil temperature because of it's light color.
* it blocks the sunlight, preventing weeds
* shredded cedar decomposes rapidly, adding nutrients to the soil.


Before applying mulch, pull weeds and water the soil. The mulch layer should be around 2-4 inches thick for best results. The more course mulches will suppress weeds better, while finer mulch holds moisture in better but will decompose faster and need to be replenished sooner.

Why compost and how to make it

Benefits of Compost:
Compost is one of the best soil nutrients you can add to your vegetable, herb or flower garden. It serves as both fertilizer and mulch, breaking up heavy clay soil and making it drain better, and helping hold in valuable moisture in sandy soils.

How to make Compost:
Ideally choose a location for your compost pile that is near your kitchen and garden as you'll be more likely to feed the pile with kitchen scraps that way. A compost pile can be a simple pile of grass clippings, leaves and other yard waste, a container made specifically for composting, or a more complex 3-bin system. A simple pile will take up to a year to break down into compost, as opposed to an enclosed pile taking 2 to 3 months. You'll want to turn the pile occasionally, so it's most convenient to leave one side open for access. Some people use a 3-bin system, so you can turn contents of 1 bin into the 2nd bin, and the 3rd bin holds the compost that is ready to go.

For the fastest breakdown of the material, add 1 part green materials to 2 parts brown materials, then mix together, and add some finished compost. Adding finished compost will get the pile working, as it is full of microorganisms. Compost starters can be purchased if you don't have finished compost on hand. The pile should be kept moist like a wrung out sponge, not too wet and not too dry for optimal breakdown. If heavy rains make the pile too wet, just add more brown material. Turn the pile about once a week for good air flow. Finished compost will be a dark brown color and smell earthy.

Examples of green materials (rich in nitrogen): coffee grounds, dead-headed flowers, grass, hair, kitchen scraps, manure, plant tops, sea weed, weeds.

Examples of brown materials (carbon-rich materials): cardboard, dried leaves, hay, paper, straw, wood chips, wood ashes.

NEVER ADD these materials: chemically treated grass or weeds, coal ashes or charcoal, diseased plants, meats, oils, pet waste.
Meats and cooking oils will attract pests. Weeds with stubborn root systems that have gone to seed shouldn't be used as they may not all be killed off by composting. Black walnut tree leaves should also not be added as they contain a plant poison that survives composting; eucalyptus leaves, poison oak, poison ivy and sumac for the same reason.

Helpful Tips:
* Add some brown material over kitchen scraps to keep down flies
* Grind up your kitchen scraps and add some water to speed composting
* Banana peels break down quickly and are excellent for composting
* Egg shells are best crushed before adding as they break down slowly otherwise
* Keep kitchen scraps in a plastic bag in the refrigerator until you have enough to take to the pile; keeps it from getting smelly
* Mow or grind up larger leaves to speed decomposition
* Pine needles also need to be chopped or shredded as they break down very slowly
* Large quantities of grass clippings can be dried in the sun for a few hours before adding them to the pile to cut down on the sour smell.

Composting may seem complicated at first, but once you get the hang of what can and can't be used on the pile, it is quite simple and very helpful for your gardening.

Care for your gardening tools

As a gardener, you've probably heard about the importance of sterilizing your garden pruners to prevent any plant cross-contamination of disease.

Rather than the usual method of bleach and water which can be messy, here's a quick and easy tip. Simply keep a container of disinfectant wipes (such as Clorox) in your garden shed, and wipe your pruners between uses.

Chemical-free weed killers

In trying to reduce chemical exposure for ourselves and our pets, we no longer treat our yard, flower beds and vegetable garden with chemical fertilizer or weed killers. I usually just pull the weeds by hand in my flower beds and vegetable garden, and our lawn is dense enough that weeds don't really have a chance to take root.

The one exception has been a strip of ground between our driveway and our neighbor's driveway that we call "no man's land." It tends to have large weeds with pickers that are difficult to keep under control without Round Up weed killer. Pulling them by hand is both painful and futile, so I went online to see if I could find a homemade recipe of some sort. I found the following suggestions: boiling water alone, boiling water with a small amount of rubbing alcohol, or boiling water and salt poured directly on the weed, and straight vinegar applied with a spray bottle.

I decided to conduct my own test on sections of the strip of ground, using each of these methods. The weather at the time was ideal for weed killing, as the temperatures were in the 90's with full sun. It has been two weeks since I applied these different solutions, and the only method that worked was the straight vinegar, and it worked moderately well. The other solutions didn't seem to bother these weeds one bit.

So if anyone has a good recipe for killing stubborn weeds, I'd really like to hear about it.

Popular organic fertilizer/mulch toxic to pets

The following is a very important alert from the ASPCA website pertaining to a popular mulch used in gardens for it's organic properties - good for your garden, but hazardous for your dog or cat:

"PET POISON ALERT: COCOA BEAN MULCH CAN BE TOXIC TO DOGS
If your dog likes to spend his summer grazing in your garden, his treat-seeking nose may lead him to one danger in particular: the sweet-smelling, but potentially harmful cocoa bean mulch. Made of cocoa bean shells and considered desirable for its eventual degradation into organic fertilizer, this gardener’s choice can be toxic to canines if eaten in large quantities—and some dogs have been known to eat amazing amounts!

In 2007, the ASPCA Animal Poison Control Center (APCC) handled 26 cases of cocoa bean mulch ingestion—a third originating in California. “Dogs are attracted to the fertilizer’s sweet smell,” says Dr. Steven Hansen, ASPCA Veterinary Toxicologist and APCC Director, “but like chocolate, cocoa bean mulch can be too much for our canine companions.”

Ingestion of large amounts of cocoa bean mulch, which contains residual amounts of theobromine—a methylxanthine found in chocolate and known to be toxic to dogs—may cause a variety of clinical signs. These typically start with vomiting, diarrhea and elevated heart rate, and if large amounts are consumed, they may progress to hyperactivity, muscle tremors and possibly other more serious neurological signs.

Treatment includes administering medical-grade activated charcoal, bringing tremors under control, cardiac monitoring and preventing further exposure.

“One key point to remember is that some dogs, particularly those with indiscriminate eating habits, can be attracted to any organic matter,” says Dana Farbman, APCC Senior Manager, Professional Communications. “Therefore, if you have a dog with such eating habits, it’s important that you don’t leave him unsupervised or allow him into areas where such materials are being used.”

To avoid contact, pet parents should consider a nontoxic alternative, such as shredded pine, cedar or hemlock bark. These will keep your pooch—and your garden—healthy.

For more detailed information, please take a look at our Animal Poison Control Center online."

Garden tips for bulbs

Your Spring flowering bulb plants have probably bloomed by now and you're ready to make way for annual flowers. Here are some tips to keep your bulbs their healthiest, and assure gorgeous flowers for next Spring.

* After the flowers are spent, trim off the dead flowers.

* Leave the foliage in tact until it turns yellow or brown, allowing the plant to get needed nourishment for next year's flowers

* To keep slugs away, mix garlic into the dirt around the bulbs. The garlic's oil causes an overproduction of mucus in the slug, and they dehydrate and die.

* Another method to control slugs is to put crushed egg shells in the soil. The shells will cut the slug, and kill them.

* Summer flowering bulbs such as Dahlias, Iris, and Lilies are planted in the Spring rather than Fall. Follow the same planting and care as the other bulbs.

Tips for healthy pepper plants

I love growing my own peppers, both sweet and hot varieties. And did you know that yellow and red bell peppers have a higher Vitamin C content than green peppers? If you're adding pepper plants to your vegetable garden, here are a few tips that can help you maintain healthy plants and get the best yield.

Put your pepper plants in when night time temperatures are no longer below 50 to 55 degrees, as they don't do well in cold wet soil, and cannot tolerate frost. Raised planting beds work well for peppers, as the soil warms sooner and keeps the soil well drained. Pepper plants love the heat, and black plastic mulch is helpful at keeping the plants and soil warm. My personal favorite is aluminum foil covering the soil around each plant. It not only keeps the soil warm, but bounces the sun's rays back up onto the plant, increasing the yield.

Start with good fertile soil, and keep the plants moist throughout the growing season. Hot and dry winds and dry soil can prevent the plants from setting fruit. Pepper plants also appreciate a side dressed fertilizer after the first peppers are set.

If your garden plants are set upon by pests, the following sight provides help for dealing with it naturally:
Natural & Organic Pest Control Solutions for the Garden

Save your manicure while gardening

Here's a great tip for keeping dirt from getting under your nails while gardening.

Simply stick half of a cotton ball in each finger of your gardening gloves. This will give your fingernails and cuticles more protection. The cotton balls will last for several uses before you need to replace them.

Onions for your vegetable garden

Have you ever tried to grow onions in your vegetable garden. You can have a bumper crop of onions by following a few easy steps.

Onions can be started from seed inside, or you can purchase onion sets and plant when the weather warms. CLICK HERE for a zone by zone planting guide. For best results, they need full sun, should be kept moist, and benefit from a raised planting bed. For more information on raised planting beds, see the bottom of this post.

Onions are edible at any stage of their growth, and are ripe and ready for storage when 1/4 to 1/2 of the tops have fallen over and the bulbs have a papery skin. Let the onions cure in a warm, well ventilated area out of the weather for a week or so, then store them in a cool and dry place. Ideal temperature for storing is 32 degrees, but don't allow them to freeze.

For more detailed information on onions, CLICK HERE.

Raised Beds
A raised bed is useful for any vegetable that grows underground, such as potatoes, carrots, and radishes. A raised bed can be accomplished very easily by raking soil from either side of the row to form a raised area, leaving a trench on either side. It's best to add organic matter such as compost to the soil (ratio of 1/2 soil to 1/2 compost). The bed should be approximately 6 to 8 inches high, and a foot or so wide, depending on what you are planting. For example, for my onion plants, I made my raised bed 1 foot wide, and planted 3 rows of onions across the bed. The loosened soil of a raised bed makes it easier for the plants to grow, and will warm sooner, allowing an earlier planting time.

Cheap and easy plant labels

If you have as many plants in your flower, herb and vegetable gardens as I have, it's probably hard to remember what they all are and you've thought about labeling them. Professional labels can be quite pricey, so here's a cheap and easy label idea.

Plastic disposable knives and a permanent marker are an excellent way to mark your plants. Just write the plant information on the handle. Because they're plastic, they won't break down in the weather, and the serrated side of the knife is ideal for sticking your new labels in the ground.

Improving your garden soil

As you start planning your flower and vegetable gardens, it's a good idea to also think about improving your soil to get the most out of your gardening efforts. But what is the best thing to use to improve your soil, compost or peat moss?

Compost will improve your soil texture as well as add nutrients. Peat moss will improve your soil texture also, but it won't help with nutrients, and it is acidic which many garden soils don't need. Also, peat moss doesn't work well as a mulch, as it will take water from the soil, and form a crust that water cannot penetrate.

The best thing to do is add peat moss to your compost pile, to get the benefit from the compost's nutrients, and the peat moss's water-holding benefits.

February gardening checklist

Here's a very useful checklist I found at Demesne gardening site which offers helpful tips on what you can do in February to prepare for this year's garden. I hope you find it helpful.

"February is cold and dreary in many parts of the country, but it's important to do as much preparatory work as you can this month, because once March comes you'll have dozens of garden chores that seemingly need to be done all at once.

Make sure all your tools have been cleaned, sharpened, and are ready to go. There is nothing quite as vexing as having a perfectly good weekend opportunity to mow the lawn only to discover that the blades are dull or it otherwise needs service. It's your last best chance to get your implements in prime working order this month. Waiting could result in longer wait times as other procrastinators discover the same thing.

It's a good time to inventory your supplies including seeds too. Seeds, if kept dry and cool, will often be just as good as they were last year. Use them up, but don't rely on them.

Now is the time to build the trellis for your indeterminate tomatoes, squash, and gourds, so purchase materials this month.

Have you made your plan of what you want to grow this year?

If you plan to start from seed, have you ordered your seeds?

Set up flats for starting seeds. Full spectrum lighting and a heat mat can facilitate growing a variety of annuals, perennials, and vegetables for this year's garden.

Do you want to add arbors or other support structures? Order now to have them delivered before your plants go in the ground.

If you have a garage or workshop, repair and repaint garden furniture this month.

Once you plan your plantings, pots, and beds, you can design an irrigation system that can save you time and money in more efficient watering for a maximum yield.

Prune shrubs and trees—especially fruit trees—this month if they don't bleed (like elms and maples) or bloom early (lilacs, rhodies, and azalea).

Destroy insect eggs before they hatch. Inspect, pick off, and destroy without resorting to pesticides if you can.

Prune grapes. Trim oldest wood and leave only primary stems. Each stem should have four to six canes from last years growth.

Build frames for new raised beds.

Books
The Ann Lovejoy Handbook of Northwest Gardening: Natural Care and Sustainable Design "

January gardening to do list

Here's a great gardeners to do list for the month of January that I found at Granny Gruner's Garden:

Zone 1
Order seed and nursery catalogues
Check dahlia and canna roots for plumpness, freedom from mold
Check house plants for mites, mealybugs, and scale
Cut back on feeding house plants
Protect bases of fruit tree trunks against rodent damage with wire mesh
Plant living Christmas trees if ground is workable
Clean and oil garden tools
Plan flower and vegetable beds

Zone 2
Cut back on feeding houseplants (do not feed dormant houseplants)
Water cymbidiums weekly until they bloom

Zone 3
Order seeds
Cut back on feeding houseplants (do not feed dormant houseplants)
Water cymbidiums weekly until they bloom


Zone 4
Order seeds
Sow seeds indoors for hardy spring-blooming plants
Cut back on feeding houseplants (do not feed dormant houseplants)

Zone 5
Order seeds
Sow seeds for hardy spring-blooming plants
Cut back on feeding houseplants (do not feed dormant houseplants)
Sow frost-tolerant perennials indoors

Zone 6
Order seeds
Sow seeds of warm-season annuals
Sow seeds for hardy spring-blooming plants
Cut back on feeding houseplants (do not feed dormant houseplants)
Sow seeds for cool-weather vegetables
Sow frost-tolerant perennials indoors


Zone 7
Sow seeds of warm-season annuals
Set out summer-flowering bulbs
Plant fall-blooming bulbs
Plant balled-and-burlapped, container, and bare-root fruit trees
Apply dormant spray to fruit trees before buds swell
Spray apples, peaches, and pears that have been affected with canker problems
Plant bare-root perennial vegetables
Plant seedlings of cool-weather vegetables
Sow fast-growing warm-season vegetables
Sow seeds for frost-tolerant perennials
Sow seeds for tender perennials
Plant container and bare-root roses
Plant balled-and-burlapped, container, and bare-root trees, shrubs, and vines
Plant summer-blooming shrubs and vines
Plant frost-tolerant trees
Plant conifers and broad-leaf evergreens

Zone 8
Order seeds
Sow seeds of warm-season annuals indoors
Sow seeds for hardy spring-blooming annuals
Plant fruit trees
Apply dormant spray to fruit trees
Cut back on feeding houseplants (do not feed dormant houseplants)
Move living Christmas trees outdoors
Plant or transplant frost-tolerant perennials
Plant bare-root roses
Apply dormant spray to bare-root roses
Plant bare-root trees, shrubs, and vines
Prune winter-blooming shrubs and vines just after bloom
Apply dormant spray to trees, shrubs, and vines
Plant bare-root perennial vegetables
Sow seeds for cool-season vegetables
Protect tender plants from frost


Zone 9
Order seeds
Sow seeds for hardy spring-blooming annuals
Sow seeds of warm-season annuals indoors
Plant summer-flowering bulbs
Repot cacti and succulents, if essential, once they have finished blooming
Plant bare-root fruit trees
Apply dormant spray to fruit trees
Plant citrus
Move living Christmas tree outdoors
Sow frost-tolerant perennial seeds indoors
Plant or transplant frost-tolerant perennial seedlings outdoors
Plant bare-root roses
Apply dormant spray to roses
Plant bare-root trees, shrubs, and vines
Apply dormant spray to trees, shrubs, and vines
Prune winter-flowering shrubs and vines just after bloom
Plant bare-root perennial vegetables
Plant seedlings of cool-season and winter vegetables
Sow seeds for cool-season and winter vegetables
Protect tender plants from frost


Zone 10
Order seeds
Set out cool-season annuals
Sow seeds for hardy spring-blooming annuals
Plant winter-, spring-, and summer-blooming bulbs
Repot cacti and succulents, if essential, once they have finished blooming
Plant bare-root fruit trees
Prune flowering fruit trees while in bloom
Spray for peach leaf curl, peach leaf blight, and canker
Plant citrus
Protect citrus from frost damage
Cut back on feeding houseplants (do not feed dormant houseplants)
Move living Christmas trees outdoors
Plant bare-root roses
Apply dormant spray to roses
Plant bare-root shrubs and vines
Apply dormant sprays to trees, shrubs and vines
Prune evergreen shrubs
Prune winter-flowering shrubs and vines
Plant bare-root trees
Sow cool-season vegetable seeds
Plant or transplant cool-season vegetable seedlings
Sow warm-season vegetable seeds


Zone 11
.Order seeds and plants from catalogues.
Sow seeds of hardy annuals outdoors (larkspur, bachelor's button, poppy)
Set out plants of early-spring blooming perennials (primrose, calendula, viola, pansy)
Plant bare-root trees, shrubs, vegetables
Check house plants for mites, mealybugs
Prune fruit trees if you have not previously done so
Apply dormant spray to fruit trees, roses

article courtesy of http://www.backyardgardener.com/article/zonejan01

A gardener's New Years resolution

I found a cute story in our local newspaper that I thought I'd share with you.

In our part of the country, everything is pretty much gray and dreary this time of year. It always cheers me up to start thinking about getting out in my garden and yard come Spring. And I just received my first seed catalog from Burpee. Nothing cheers up a drab Winter's day like planning and plotting out my garden.

So here's the link: A Gardener makes her New Year's resolution