More steps, in the right direction!

So I tried to start writing this post from my phone in the car and my cell and the blog composer were like "nope... too bad, you get to wait hahaha!"  Well here I am now! After yesterday 6 hour drive (<--this picture is of the frozen lake in the pass on the drive back to Spokane) and making rounds to see our friends and a long Walmart window shopping trip, which wasn't sort of a fail on the window part because we did buy things.... more on that later... I am here but whoa I am a so tired, even after an white coffee that I bought myself to celebrate and try to stay awake... Celebrate? YES! Celebrate! We got the apartment with the big back yard!!!!! Sadly we can't move in till sometime after the first. I don't care.. I am ecstatic happy. It's not as small as I thought it would be! Bonus... and the owner says after he goes thru this process we can dig through the stuff the last tenants left for kitchen stuff etc. as long as we get rid of what is left... and It looks like I will have a freecyle account by then!!! I so love how everything is working out.. We talked about garden stuff and he got super excited and asked if he could have a portion of the crops =] Of course! We talked about rain barrels to and he might even help me with those... He asked about ho big the garden would be and I said I didn't really know yet and he said "Well there's certainly plenty of back yard!" and there is! Check this out...

 

 The apartment! We have some trees!

 The front yard... Looks really messy to me. Poor tree's roots look a little trapped and unhappy... I am so going to use those pots!!!

Side yard... Does anyone recognize the bush? It looks a little out of control.

 And thee backyard!!! Where the main gardening happens! That's my dog Domino by the way...

This is the shelf thing-y the land Lord said I could have... <3 I was thinking a home for plants! I love it! =D

Any suggestions would help me so much because I really don't know where to start yet... There are so many possibilities!

And.... I GOT SEEDS!!!! Thankyou Irene Knouff! OMG I super love love love them so so so MUCH!
She gave me:

Broccoli, Cabbage, Cauliflower, Cilantro, Fennel, Kale, Leeks, Lemon grass, Lettuce, Onion, Parsley, Parsnips, Tomatoes, Water melon.

 Now I have to do some research on ways to plant and where to plant... Which reminds me that I have to look into what we have for an extension office and call them! Also need to research my zone which is 5 apparently.

I have this feeling I'm going to have to grow a lot of veggies because I want to do canning freezing and dehydrating like to share stuff and our old room mate eats mainly veggies and I just know she is going to want some. I am not even a hundred percent sure I will get any produce but I sure do hope so!

Today I also got my very first garden catalogs which I have been happily reading and going thru all day in the car as we've been trying to get new car parts and such.

 I have actually been learning a bunch from these catalogs! Lots of inspiration!
So I was a little alarmed when I was out in the garden section at Walmart nothing is labeled organic or says if it's not GMO.... Are any of those plants or seeds even safe??? I hate this struggle with trying to find safe foods!

Lookie!! =D My first gardening gloves! <3 

This was Winter's early housewarming gift to me! =D 

I hope you liked my update.. I am super duper excited!!!!

Growing from scraps and Compost! ..plus etc.

NEW LEARNING MISSION!

Inspiration: LadyFern!
    She asked me if I had heard of Garbage gardening! I had actually heard mention and had previously gotten some descriptions from people in our gardening group.... and I want to know more.... also when I typed in the search for garbage gardening I got way more info on compost, then on what I was looking for.. I am actually really interested in this and have been gleaning some info on this subject since I have joined the garden group so I'm thinking I want to document as much of that info for later use as possible!
     Actually Lasagna gardening is part of how I found my first Gardening group and found the encouragement and knowledge and support I've needed as a band spanking newbie gardener... Out of the blue an old friend of mine that I hadn't heard from in over a year contacted me, she'd heard I was living in Spokane which isn't far from where she is! So a few days later Winter and I went to visit her and her husband and as they showed us a tour of their new home they got very excited about the yard and said that they were going to be lasagna gardening! My ears perked up and I ask "Oh what's that?!" This launched us into talking about gardening and seeds, we talked about it almost the whole visit and she offered to add me to a gardening group and I had no idea the level of AWESOME I was getting into!!! I have gotten a bit obsessed and joyfully so! SO exciting and FUN!
    Also getting back to the research, this blog entry isn't going to stop with recycling either... I had mentioned earlier in this blog that I don't really know where to start as far as equipment and supplies.... and thinking about compost made me think of tools and such so I am going to be looking into these things too!!!

   Today I am asking around in the 3 gardening groups I am a part of and hunting through old posts that I remember bits of! This mission may also take more then one day to accomplish like the potatoes and Bulb-y things blog entries which got unexpectedly long and full of links and even some trivia... I am rather proud actually of these entries, I really like having the organization with the info in one spot so I can access it on a dime quick and easy. =]



Compost/Fertilizers: 

So asking about on a garden group found a lot of useful info from Deana Ward.
        http://www.artfulgardensbydee.com/
  - "as far as composting goes - easy rule - only put items in that are not man made or cooked - that's the easiest way I can explain it - eggshells, banana peels, apple cores, onion and potato skins - anything uncooked in it's natural state, next add in green grass clippings, leaves from around the yard - get yourself a spot in the yard away from where you sit (cause it might smell a bit from time to time as it cooks down) you can use a homemade container which will compost faster cause you can turn it all in one fell swoop or like me, I use my a pitchfork to turn it over and remember" - 
        http://www.composting101.com/


I also have heard that composted animal poo like from bunnies and guinea pigs is one of a gardeners best bets for fertilizer... I had also heard of Steer compost tea... I will look and see if I can find some links. Oh one of the things I looked up that was mentioned in comments about worm bins and compost was using fish and I looked up fish fertilizers and found a how-to-make-it on it! Who knew I'd ever be so excited about worms, horse poo water and Fish gut sludge!   
How-to-make-fish-fertilizer
About manure tea
Compost Tea
I think I am leaning towards the fish tea or the comfrey like LadyFern does... or maybe both.. Might have to see if I can get some comfrey... Fish will probably be pretty easy to get my hand on some organic non-GMO...

Oh while I was looking around older posts I found this handy bit of soil info...
Onlyone Hillbilly Gardener - an alternative to planting in less than ideal soil

 Onlyone Hillbilly Gardener

‎ - "The soil is a living, breathing organism unto itself, from which all plant-life comes. If you feed the soil, you in turn feed the plants. This said, fertilizers correctly used, do have their place." 

  "Used correctly, there is a place for both organic nutrients and quicker forms of nutrients."
     "But ALL things in moderation. Even too much compost can be a bad thing. Not bad from the standpoint of harming the plants, but bad from the standpoint that too much compost applied at one time, will see many of the nutrients lost to leaching, oxidation, etc. ALL nutrients should be fed in progressive, small doses over a period of time, in a consistent manner as the plants can use them. Anything more is a waste and in the case of fertilizers, can lead to pollution issues and the potential for plant injury."

 LadyFern

- "Compost is a mix of three components, Nitrogen, Phosphorous and Potassium and well as trace minerals and you can most certainly change the ratios of these in your compost and in turn in your soil, by adding amendments such as bone meal, rock phosphorous, crushed coral to up the Phosphorous. Nitrogen can be boosted through the use of Comfrey, Alfalfa Meal and Steer Manure. Potassium can be boosted by adding small amounts of wood ash to your compost pile. As Hillbilly said, everything in moderation. You must feed the soil! If you care for your compost pile, and feed your plants using compost tea, your plants will thank you for it. These are some things that you can do to improve the health of your compost pile organically. Organics is never about the quick fix of a plant but the feeding and caring for the soil instead of the plant, each successive plant benefits."

 "I compost year round. A bucket for inside kitchen scraps with a nice tight fitting lid is a good idea. and you can compost most anything. Most residential compost piles contain leaves, grass clippings, kitchen scraps and so on, most do not put meat bones or meat scraps in compost because it attracts animals"

"Steer manure tea is wonderful for your plants and safe. I use an old rubbermaid tub with a beat up old cookie sheet as a lid. I leave mine in sun for a couple of days. Then you dip and pour. our plants will literally be greener by the next day."

"Comfrey, I grow in my yard and the poor plant never sets bloom. It's the first thing to pop up and grow large in my garden and as soon as its got several sets of leaves on it I'm over there ripping them off to stuff in a bucket. Comfrey tea STINKS heed my word on this. For comfrey tea you need an out of the way location in full sun. Cram as many comfrey leaves as you can in a bucket, fill to the top with water and add a lid, and a rock, and maybe even another rock just to be sure. Every couple of days you get a big stick and stir your vile brew. in 3-4 days your brew will begin to change a sickly brownish green goopey consistence. If you open the bucket quickly and catch a whiff and it makes you gag, it's ready. You add a couple of cups of this nasty to a 5 gal bucket of water and water everybody. I keep mine like a stew pot all summer. Sounds disgusting but it really seems to do the trick. Remember though Tory, there's no wrong way to garden ♥"

Worm Bin:

(AKA Vermicompost bins)

LadyFern

 - "you may want to research making a worm bin instead, you feed the wormies your kitchen scraps in a very small container and they eat the mess and make you good soil in return, I'll look for some good links for you"

Deana Ward
 - " you will read numerous methods on the net - some fancy which teach you to feed the worms kitchen scraps (again organic scraps only) and make use of a double plastic bin with newspaper and cardboard etc - When I want to draw worms to certain areas I will ensure there is a good layer of old, decaying leaves (with 6 acres that's never a problem LOL) and then I lay cardboard on top - wet it down - and quite literally forget about it - the advantage is you can use whatever size cardboard for the size you have room for - for instance hubby just bought a new grill - that huge cardboard box - will be cut int two and laid on a leaf bed (I do this in shade BTW) - that's it that's my easy method - but there are tons of methods - I just like to keep it simple :)"

Tray Worm Bin

This^ is pretty and rather cool but yikes! Too pricey for me, now to find some other sort of container I can use! Love the idea of a big old ice cream tub...

Oh! Here this is really interesting about worms!

http://whatcom.wsu.edu/ag/compost/easywormbin.htm

Stop Waste - Bins



Lasagna Gardening: 

LadyFern

- "Lasagna Gardening is basically layers of 'stuff' a layer maybe 6 sheets thick covering the entire area in newspaper, then a layer of cardboard and a layer of grass clippings, one of veggie scraps and one of dried leaves, another of newspaper and so on... and all of this breaks down to give you a nice thick, healthy layer of good black soil to plant your babies in. and all you really have to do is water it in when you are finished and wait for weather to do the rest. If you are in a high wind area make sure its good and saturated so layers don't blow away."

Oh wow, I'm two pages in and this is such a great read!!! <3

Organic Gardening- Discovery of Lasagna Gardening

Apparently the older way of doing this is mulch gardening?

Mulch Gardening

Growing From Scraps:

Kitchen Scraps Garden 

There is very little info on this online!

My friend Beverly's garbage garden
Beverly's Garbage Garden!

Pineapple 

Awesome Pinapple YouTube Video
I had seen a video for this ages ago and always thought it really cool!
This guy that did the video has a lot of interesting stuff! I had no idea the pineapple already has roots on it and you don't need the top of the fruit...

Equipment/Tools/Supplies:

Suggestion number 1 on garden equipment is....
"A big sturdy garden rake and hoe would be top of my list. and a shovel." -Amelia


Suggestion number 2 - Pitch fork, for compost! Cape Cod weeder.. or a dutch hoe. (I looked them up and I bet they help a lot! Thank you Lolly!
Cape Cod Weeder
cape cod weeder
Dutch Hoe


Pitchforks are apparently very popular!!! Makes sense! 


Gardening gloves!!!!! Thick and rubber! 
flex gloves
Late foam gloves

The hori hori Japanese gardening knife looks so so so cool but so far the decent looking ones are 20$ and I'll have to see what I can afford.... make a priority list... For I very much am on a budget!
Hori Hori Japanese Garden Knife




Onlyone Hillbilly Gardener - Keep it simple with specialized tools

 Ok I have got to share this what a great idea!!
fiskars rain barrel



Ok this is all that I have time to post on this stuff!!!!! I may update this at some point! I hope this is helpful!!!!! I learned a LOT!!!! <3

Garlic, Onions, and Leeks... Oh my! =]

Todays research is on bulb-y things! Mainly onions and garlic but also chives(yes I know chives are onions too) and leeks...

Garlic
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garlic
Apparently planting time for Garlic is October but from what I understand these can grow all year when other things can't and they can grow for years... So maybe if I started some when I start my garden I can leave them to grow for the next year.... I may have to experiment with this.. =]

This is my friend Sandra Merrill's garlic from last year! I think it is so pretty!

 I believe these one are Sandra's shoots of this year...

 Thank You for letting me post these!


Onions
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onion
Onions I am told are good to plant in early spring like now and you wait till the tops wither to dig them up and cut off any flowers so the bulb gets big unless you want some for seeds...

"It was Elizabeth Robbins Pennell, American columnist who said “Banish it (the onion) from the kitchen and the pleasure flies with it. Its presence lends color and enchantment to the most modest dish; its absence reduces the rarest delicacy to hopeless insipidity, and dinner to despair.” This is the sentiment many gardeners have regarding onions. So easy to grow, yet really good onions are so very elusive for so many. Find out more about growing onions here:

https://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=286016284808467 " -Onlyone Hillbilly Gardener

Thank you Onlyone for the gobs and gobs of good info!!!

 "Onions (Allium cepa) belong to the lily family, the same family as garlic, leeks, chives, scallions and shallots."  - vegetarian nutrition info

I got this link from Pam Wood Kimsey.. Thank you!
She did warn me to overlook the chemical fertilizer stuff and I will in fact be ignoring it!!! I want to try to stay away from as many chemicals as I can!
This link has some interesting info on picking onions to grow for where you live.
http://www.dixondalefarms.com/

This is OnlyOne Hillbilly Gardener's Note on storing onions...
Harvesting and Storing Onions
 
This inscrutables about growing onions from the roots leftover is really cool...!
Grow Onions from Discarded Bottoms!

I found some red onions I want am curious about on etsy..
heirloom long red florence onion seeds
rare organic heirlooom red onion of florence
organic tropea red onion seeds
I also found a giant onion...
organic giant onion seeds
I wonder if this is genetically modified... =\

Onion Recipe's -
German Onion Cake
French Onion Soup

My holiday cheese log is full of green onions...
It's sort of a as you like it sort of thing...
Two bags of different or mixed shredded cheese
1-2 big bunches of green onions
1-2 packages of cream cheese grated
1-2 small cans minced olives or 1 can olives chopped
Couple of tablespoons mayo
Mix and put into loaf pan lined with plastic wrap
Chill at least for an hour and then serve  


Leeks
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leeks

 "To plant your leaks, dig in a good dose of 10-10-10 fertilizer and compost where you want to grow them. Leaks, like onions are heavy feeders. Dig a trench 6-8 deep and plant your leaks in the bottom of the trench. As they grow, continue to pull soil up around the stalk to blanch it until you have a slightly raised ridge. Keep them consistently moist, as they like constant moisture. At 4-6 weeks, give them a side-dressing of more fertilizer. High nitrogen is fine for the first application, but cut back on the nitrogen after that and provide more phosphorous and potash for bulb growth. Bulb fertilizer works very well for all of the alliums." -Onlyone Hillbilly Gardener

I love leeks in potato and ham soup and caramelized with white fish like my mom makes it... This is how my mom cleans them... Pictures from the instuctables site.
Clean Leeks

here are some pages from a book that My friend Jennifer Lawrence sent me while we were talking about it! Thank you! Very helpful!

Recipe:
Well, my ham, potato, leek soup is kinda one of those I kinda don't measure anything but it turns out good every time... I kinda go with what I feel in the mood for with how much of stuff... I always used my moms big stock pt but didn't always fill it up when making this like I did with my chowders. I start with 3-5 leeks depending on size and clean and chop them the way mom taught me... I also mince up 1-2 big carrot and finely chop 2-4 Stalks celery. I heat up butter in the stock pot and cook these veggies till the leeks look sort of golden and are kinda mushy then I add a good deal of bite sized potato chucks then I add chicken broth to cover the veggies or water and 1-2 chicken bullion cubes, plus this is where I add a bunch of dried dill. I bring it to a boil for a few minutes and then simmer till the potatoes are cooked and then I add small chucks of cooked ham and Rice flour and Heavy whipping cream and occasionally salt and pepper but generally doesn't need it with all the flavors going on.. It's a pretty rich soup and I usually only make it once a year...


Chives
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chives
I fondly remember pots of chives at my Gramma Doe's on the deck... I love the bloom seeds thingies.... SO pretty! I was told you can basically just toss these seeds and they will grow...

Here are some seeds for them I found on Etsy... Oh! I bet Wendy has all this stuff in here shop!!! I am so going to have to go look!!! <3
organic chives seeds

info-  An herb which resembles hollow blades of grass, and the smallest member of the onion family. Chives have a mild onion flavor. Their distinctive smell and taste is derived from a volatile oil, rich in sulphur and common to the onion family, but milder and more subtle in chives. Referred to only in the plural, because they grow in clumps rather than alone.

Read more: food.com library entry for chives

Chive Plant Care Guide
Chive Storage

Recipes:
Food Network Chives Section
Green Goddess Dip
Summer Cucumber Salad

  
Fun and Odd Facts and Myths -found this at
http://whatscookingamerica.net/onion.htm

-To keep your automobile windshield from frosting at night, slice an onion and rub the windshield with the onion. The juice will keep it frost-free.

  -To select your husband-to-be from among suitors, it is said that if the name of each suitor is written on an onion and then placed in a cool dark storeroom, the first onion that sprouts will be the man she should marry!

     - Some onions are supposed to be so sweet that you can eat them like apples. 

           Such as: 

Vidalia from Georgia

Walla Walla from Washington

Maui from Hawaii

Imperial from California

Carzalia from New Mexico

The Texas Spring or Supersweet from Texas

OSO Sweets from Chile, South America

-To cure baldness, rub head with the onion or garlic. The onion juice was supposed to cause hair to grow "thick as thistles." Note: You may have to sleep alone, but at least you'll have hair!

Surprising Treatment
  Looks like this last one may really be true...  ^
Apparently it stimulates blood flow and growth, nourishes hair follicles being blocked by chemicals and bad diet and deters germs, fungi and virus's...



...and that's everything I have found on the bulb-y things!

The plants that have spoken to me...

OK! It's wish list time!

Most of all I want to grow my own food and medicines! 

Below are some posts I wrote from my gardening group on march 7th.

"Decided to stay up and finish the massive laundry pile and keep Winter from over sleeping... so we can leave in the morning like planned. I got most everything but clothes and bedding packed, just waiting on the last few loads... So I figured while everyone was sleeping or busy I'd put up some wish-list stuff... now that I have decided to collect seeds before we have a set place to live =] Well for some reason I can't access my wish list info I thought I had saved. So I will try to make a new one and see if I can't get Winter to help me recover my missing information and add to this later, my documents are all appearing to me blank and Winter is currently sleeping... It'll give me something to do.. So lets see what this sleepy brain can dream up... First things coming to my mind are veggies because I am so freaked about Monsanto and want to grow my own and safe produce. Eventually I want fruit, like especially trees... But there is so far no telling when or if they will be an option... Got to wait and see where we will live. The veggies listed are my favorites... Any of these would make me infinitively happy. I have my crafts to trade. So I don't have any seeds at all to trade but, I make charms and am experimenting with wire sculpting figurines... I'll be putting up more and more pictures of the stuff I make as I make them =] If you see something you like or have favorite colors please speak up! Look for mobile uploads and my crafty-ness album.

Veggies
Acorn and similar squashes. Beets. Basil. Parsley. Cilantro. Garlic. Cucumber. Onions. Chives. Potatoes. Carrots. Broccoli, Asparagus. Brussels spouts. Radish. Turnips. Rhubarb. Dill. Sage. Thyme. Kale. Lettuces/spinach or any salad greens. Chives/green onions. Cabbage. Tomatoes. Fennel. Lemon-grass. Thyme.
Kinda a long list... I'm wanting to experiment if possible with things I'm not familiar with too... and I've seen there are all kinds of interesting things out there that aren't really in the grocery stores... No idea how much space I'd even need to grow all the things I'm interested in... but it's a wish list after all and I'm a little excitable and have the green thumb fever!

Some other things I am super curious about are loufa gourds, Tobacco (can you get seed for this???) and Hibicus not to mention other edible flowers like lavender, jasmine and chamomile... What else out of flowers are edible? I know roses are... and violets? Pansies?"    

I thought of some other things I would like to have too... There are these green beans that are purple but when you cook them are bright green .. I think they were called queen Anne, or royal beans... Angie said she has tobacco and I have some friends that told me it would grow in Spokane tho I am not sure yet how well...  I am curious if I could grow ginger and horse radish too... And I notice I didn't really mention fruits so much... I at least want strawberries and maybe blueberries?

"I really really want to grow my own veggies and herbs so bad but I did grow up with lots of flowers everywhere so I really want them too... There are flowers that really speak to me the ones I want most are the ones with memories attached to them from my old home and things my grandmothers grew.... I think I was spoiled by my grandmothers and having a huge yard...

    We had dark purple Clematis and light purple Wisteria and bluish purple Columbine and all colors of Violets and white and blue Forget-me-nots and giant Bleeding Hearts and a Bearded Iris and Calla lilies and big Blue Bells and daffodils and a few big tulips, fuchsia colored Peonies, and Daffodils and a little blue purple one in a bulb that looked like a spike of grapes... (Oh I am told those are called Grape Hyacinthe).  My mother reminded me we had something called sweet William but I can't seem to remember them. (Another one I don't know the name of is sort of round towards the top and it looks like a whole bunch of little tiny flowers, it grew in purple and white and a little bit of pink.)"  

  There where trees too... We had two different kinds of Cherry tree, green Pear tree, Italian plum trees which are my favorite, a Japanese pear tree, a green apple tree and a Japanese maple I think it had red pointed leaves and there was huge Rhodie's  in dark pinks and soft purples and one light pale peach-y pink that smelled like honey...  and lots of pine trees. "

 It actually amazes me now how many plants and flowers we had! These are just the ones I can remember the names of and describe!   

Then there are things I came across on my travels like more Forget-me-nots and the yellow and orange columbine and giant pinkish purple foxglove of Alaska...Pinkish dogwood, Snap dragons. 

  This is only the stuff I remember off the top of my head.... But there was so much more and if I can get my hands on any of these it would make me so happy!

 Ok so I wrote a long paragraph on roses and it seems to have vanished so I'll write a whole blog entry on them later. These are things I am interested in but I want to try a little of everything! <3

Day Dreams and Distractions

I am finding that I have been doing a lot of day dreaming and hoping... Hanging in here.. and ready to settle down somewhere... I have have my wire work crafts and my new blog on more day dreaming... It's sort of me making a blue-print-ish plan for a hand fasting wedding... Not officially engaged yet but we have a date in mind anyways and the first blog entry explains that a bit and I wrote about how I met and fell in love with Winter.. The idea of the blog is that I don't want to be rushed and I want everything as planned out as possible.... I was actually really distracted by this yesterday and documenting links and info... http://torybride.blogspot.com/
But I still can't help but day dream also about that big back yard at Winter's old apartment four-plex... and wondering what all things I could do with it.. So much possibility! Tho, at the same time, I am not even sure I know where to start with it! I know it would be a lot of work and I am so willing to put in the time and energy! ...and money too as much as I can tho that part is harder beecause I figure I will need tools, not sure exactly which ones I'll need yet, or what else I'll need...
Winter talked to his buddy Dan who lives in the apartment next door to the one we are looking at and he says it snowed there and it looks like even if that Lady takes the apartment we want it looks like the unit next door might open up too... Winter's buddy Dan wants to move out but can't yet because his dog Rocky is slowly dying of cancer and he can't leave till that happens. So there might still be a chance for me to get my hands on that yard... The apartment would need brand new carpet which is good and bad... Good cause it's fresh but also bad because new carpets shed like crazy and get their fluff and particles everywhere including in my mouth and nose... and take a LOT of vacuuming... I have no vacuum. It's fine, I'll figure out a way to deal with it lol. Oh and having mentioned the snow, we were planning on going home to Spokane tomorrow but it seems the mountain pass is closed and really bad with snow... IT"S SUPPOSED TO BE SPRING! Sheesh mother nature...

The question is.. "Where now...?"

So update time. I have been dreaming about this cottage in Ocean Shores on the northwest coast and hoping that Winter my love would get this great job over here where we are visiting our friends who work for this luxury yacht company at West Port Ship Yards. Sadly they turned him down for lack of on the job experience. I am a little crushed, I really wanted to live here and I had, had such a good feeling about it.. It just isn't working out that way so where do we go and live next?
SO... We started looking around and unfortunately more bad news, it's far too expensive for us to live here on this side of the mountains. Much harder to get jobs over here too. So we started calling around in Spokane and looking up apartments there. Winter got in touch with his old land lord Ron and he just had a place open up. He has a friend who may want it and has dibs if she does want it but he did say if we moved in I could do what ever I wanted with the yard! Said he didn't care if I tilled the whole thing up. He said he tried to start a community garden there but no one was interested and he'd love to see plants there. It's got quite a large back yard. It's a dinky little apartment but not so bad. We know Ron is fair and a good land lord and our border collie Domino is very familiar with the place because Winter lived directly upstairs for 2 years. Winter swears he can get a job far easier in Spokane and I believe him... Plus the cost of living there is far more fair.
Please universe, I WANT A GOOD HOME, A NICE PLACE TO GARDEN!!!! <3

Learning About Potatoes!

 So! On of the first things that I became very curious about while poking around in my favorite gardening group is POTATOES! I want to grow them! So I asked about them and looked around... Below is what I have found so far.

A Friends Blogging on Planting Potatoes
-The Sassy Butterfly 

Here are some links from another friend... Jennifer Lawrence
Gardening Jones
Gardening Jones

This is most of what LadyFern posted telling me about potatoes...

"Now, on to what i know of planting taters from 'eyes' that's easy! they'll even do it on their own right in the produce bag if you happen to leave them in a cool darkish corner of your kitchen floor. what i find easiest though is to grab a few potatoes and stand them on end, side by side in a recycled egg carton. when you stand them up this way, the eyes pop up and grow straight up, making your job of cutting them a bit easier. leave them in a semi lit area of a warm kitchen for a few days and watch the little eyes become green sprouts. when you can see that mister tater really is alive and there are several little sprouts, you take your kitchen knife and cut the tater into chunks with at least one eye on each piece. gently lay your chunks out on a piece of cardboard for a couple of days. the places you cut will turn ugly and form a type of scab. once this firms up, you dig your soil, add compost, manure, dried leaves and dig it in nice and deep. make yourself a nice mounded hill and plant a couple of your chunks, sprout side up in each hill, water and wait.

taters are heavy feeders, they need abundant sunshine, lots of water and appreciate a great deal of fertilizer throughout their growing season. you can begin harvesting when the plants begin to look 'piddly' and yes, that is a gardening term. LOL

your plants will stop blooming, lose leaves and change color, dying back all the way to the ground in time. there are beautiful, delicious taters under those mounds by this time and you can even leave some to get a touch of frost if you like, harvesting them from the garden bed as you need them. in some cases they will even return the following year if you have good drainage and they don't rot away in the soil.

taters still feel 'magical' to me. they are one of my most favored plants to grow. because they are such heavy feeders, its a good idea not to plant them in the same place year after year, switch things around and rotate your crops to keep your soil healthy year after year. my favorite organic fertilizer is a mixture of comfrey leaves, steer manure and fish emulsion. smells positively rotten but most of the beauties of my garden benefit from it. happy gardening!" -LadyFern

" you grow them in full sun, they need warm earth around them to produce and i've always covered sprouts and all. Onlyone Hillbilly Gardener, would you like to chime in here? I would suppose you could leave a bit of the tip of sprout sticking out of the ground? the idea though is to continue hilling up soil around them as they grow, as they grow new roots along the joints of the stem and if you cover these, you get more taters..... thats what I do but as they get taller, 6 inches or so you lump the soil right back over them and they continue to pop up through the soil" -LadyFern

This was one of the responses

"  As the potatoes grow, you NEVER cover the entire plant. Basically, every time the plant gets 6-8 inches tall, you cover all but the top 4-6 sets of leaves. What is buried in the ground will develop roots and the top of the plant continues to produce food for the plant. It will continually try to grow taller as it has an inherent need to have a certain amount of top growth in order to produce the u=underground tubers.

My big problem with using trash cans is the fact that they shade the early plant too much and they stretch and elongate far too much trying to reach the sun. The plant remains weak until it can gain enough height to get the sun it needs. I need to do another trash bag potato project that we used to use in the 70's to show you an alternative that works much better and is much cheaper and easier to use." -OnlyOne Hillbilly Gardener

You won't be able to read the below links on FaceBook unless you friend OnlyOne Hillbilly Gardener on FaceBook which I recommend anyone interested in gardening do pronto because he has some of the best info I have seen! So wise! <3 

Growing Potatoes   Storing Potatoes  

 Onlyone Hillbilly Gardener 

Here is an excerpt from our gardening group on planting by the moon.

Many have asked me if planting by the moon signs really work. Let me tell you of the last experiment with planting by the moon signs I was involved with. It involved 100 pounds of "White Cobbler" seed potatoes. We cut the potatoes up into their respective eyes and let them dry for a couple of days. We then divided the potatoes out into 2 different lots of equal weight. The first lot, we planted that day because we had time. The second lot we planted a couple of days later when the moon was favorable. Both lots were planted side-by-side in the same area of ground.

Throughout the year, we grew and cultivated them the same way. The potatoes planted by the moon started blooming a full week earlier than the ones planted earlier, despite having been planted later than the first lot. That fall, after waiting until all of the potatoes were ready, we harvested all of the potatoes at the same time. The potatoes planted when we had time yielded 763 pounds of potatoes and a lot of smaller potatoes. The potatoes planted by the correct moon sign yrilded 1,015 pounds of potatoes and few small potatoes.

We always did average more than 12-15 pounds of potatoes per plant when we grew them before and many of the plants topped well over 20 pounds of potatoes per plant. That is the power of planting by the right moon sign. Most gardeners today never see the full potential of potato yields partly because they do not plant by the correct moon sign, they do not hill properly or deep enough and they are stengy with both their water and their fertilizer. Potatoes are extremely heavy feeders and require a lot of water in order to produce to their fullest.

The Fallowing recipes are also from OnlyOne Hillbilly Gardener also =]
They went up on the gardening group around St. Patty's day.

This recipe sounded really yummy.
 Irish Beef Stew          
Yield: 6 to 8 servings

• 2 pounds lean beef stew or chuck, in 2-inch chunks
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper
• flour for dredging
• 2 tablespoons bacon drippings or vegetable oil
• 2 large yellow onions, chopped
• 1 garlic clove, finely minced (optional)
• 6 to 8 medium carrots, scraped and sliced
• 2 to 3 large potatoes, peeled and cut into cubes
• 2 to 3 turnips, peeled and cut into cubes (optional)
• 1 cup Guiness stout
• 1 cup beef broth

Season beef with salt and pepper; toss beef chunks in flour until well coated.
Heat drippings or oil in Dutch oven and brown beef over medium-high heat in two batches. When all are browned, remove beef from pan and add onions and garlic. Cook over medium heat until onions are translucent.

Return beef to pot and add carrots, potatoes, turnips, stout, and broth. Bring to a boil and reduce heat to a simmer. Cover and cook for 2 hours or until beef is tender. 

Another recipe I so want to try!

St. Patty's day will be here soon and you do not need to be Irish to enjoy this "larrapin" dish. I love it - St. Patty's or no.

Corned Beef and Cabbage
Ingredients:
4 lb. corned beef
1 med cabbage, cut into wedges
4 medium carrots, cut in large pieces
3 medium onions, quartered
3 stalks celery, thickly sliced
1 1/2 cups white wine
3 medium Potatoes, cubed
5 cloves
1 bay leaf
Directions:
Rinse the meat thoroughly under cold running water. Place in a crock-pot. Sprinkle with spice packet. Put the vegetables in the crock-pot with the wine, bay leaf, and cloves. Cover and cook on the low setting for eight hours. Serves 10

This is all I have for now on tatters... I may add to this! Hope it helps someone else too! <3

My garden blog! =]

And so, I am starting a gardening blog! For me this will be a log of things that I learn as well as a place to write about gardening experiences and discoveries in everything from research on things like the evil of Monsanto and genetically modified organisms and the economic bullshit to self sufficiency and counterculture and a little bit of everything else too. I seriously want to grow my own veggies and herbs for starters and maybe some fruit and flowers too... When it comes to flowers I want to reclaim a piece of my past... I lost almost everything I own and am starting from scratch. I grew up surounded by plants in the large yards of my grandmothers and all the house plants indoors as well... Angie Case whom I look up to so much once said something along the lines of that I am relearning and rediscovering things I already knew... I didn't realize how much I did already know till I started poking around in Angie and her husband David's gardening group. This gardening group is so inspiring and such a great community full of wonderfully active and creative minds where everyone is kind hearted and generous with their sharing of knowledge, they make this new addiction of mine so fun. It not just about gardening it's about exchange of ideas and information, freedom of speech, you can talk to these people about a lot of things and have some of the most awesome conversations! There is also a great sense of genuine support, and caring kindness that just blows me away and I know that I am not alone, I know I am not the only one that feels at home being a part of this, a part of a little family even if not many of us know each other in person. I feel so lucky to be encouraged to learn and grow... It's exactly what I have needed. I've been in a new City with seriously limited interactions... In fact I am currently on a scouting trip with my love Winter to find us a new home. We have a handful of ideas we're working on... The one I hope for most is for him to get this job at the company his friends that we are staying with work at, there is a lovely little cottage here that I would love for us to rent. I want more then anything to have a place of my own where I can grow things and play at my arts and crafts like my wire work and quilting. I plan to try and trade my wire charms for seeds in our group, I seem to have a lot of people interested. =D So this is me and the goals of the blogging... I hope if you read this you find some useful information! Have a wonderful day or night! <3