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Gapeys Grub

Paula Thomas's homestead and food adventures

Tag: Gardening

Must Grow Tomatoes

It’s the beginning of March and that is the time I start my tomato seeds. I love trying new varieties every year, but I always grow a few I’ve grown before because they are so good that I just have to grow them again. I will be growing 20 varieties this year and these are… Read More Must Grow Tomatoes

March 5, 2019May 13, 2020 gapey4 Comments

Best Fruit and Vegetable Varieties to Grow

I have been growing a wide variety of fruits and vegetables in the garden the past couple of years and have a few favorites I wanted to write about that I’ll definitely grow again and think you should try too. Garlic I prefer the hard neck varieties of garlic because I enjoy the garlic scapes… Read More Best Fruit and Vegetable Varieties to Grow

December 30, 2016May 13, 2020 gapey1 Comment

Tomato and Pepper Varieties 2016

An assortment of last year’s varieties (Dester & Latah not pictured) I’m growing more varieties of tomatoes than I did last year as if 15 wasn’t enough. I’ve got 22 varieties started. I’ll just be putting one plant of each in the garden but have started 3 of each and will be selling off the… Read More Tomato and Pepper Varieties 2016

March 4, 2016May 13, 2020 gapey1 Comment

Seed Swaps – Free Seeds

I’ve become addicted to seed swaps over the course of a year. There are so many different ways you can get seeds besides buying packets online or at your local big box stores. I can’t even count the number of seed swaps I’ve participated in the last year. I’m sure it’s over 20. I should… Read More Seed Swaps – Free Seeds

February 9, 2016May 14, 2020 gapeyLeave a comment

2015 Bean Varieties

I’ve never grown beans from seed before but harvested what was already planted by previous owners last summer. I don’t even know what variety they were but they were obviously a pole bean and had nothing to climb on which made it a challenge to harvest. I didn’t save any of the seeds because I… Read More 2015 Bean Varieties

June 2, 2015May 14, 2020 gapeyLeave a comment

This Year’s Lettuce Varieties

In addition to planting a bunch of tomato and kale varieties, I’ve also planted quite a few lettuces (7 of them) and they are just about ready to harvest. There are a few more varieties I will be starting soon to replace these after harvesting. I had originally planned to put the lettuce in the… Read More This Year’s Lettuce Varieties

April 23, 2015May 14, 2020 gapeyLeave a comment

This Year’s Kale Varieties

  This is my first year planting kale however did have one variety (red russian) in the garden when I moved into the house last summer and it seemed to grow well. The previous owners of the house did not thin out the rows so they were pretty tightly packed. I’ll be giving them much… Read More This Year’s Kale Varieties

April 1, 2015 gapeyLeave a comment

This Year’s Tomato Varieties

Going from a teenie garden to a big one has made me go a little overboard on planting stuff. Even after adding two additional beds to the six I already had, it seems I don’t have enough room for all I want to plant. I used to plant typically 2 tomato plants in a container… Read More This Year’s Tomato Varieties

March 20, 2015 gapeyLeave a comment

Backyard Garden

This is my first year planning and planting a garden that is big enough to actually require detailed planning. I gotta say it’s kind of fun. My parents always had a garden in the backyard but the majority of it was filled with tomatoes and peppers and not much greens of any kind.  I also… Read More Backyard Garden

March 4, 2015May 14, 2020 gapeyLeave a comment

Garden Compass App

It’s been a busy few months! I unexpectedly sold my house to my neighbor’s sister and managed, within a couple of months, to find a newer bigger and better home that’s 15 minutes closer to work. It was a little more than I originally planned to spend but still affordable. I had an awesome realtor… Read More Garden Compass App

August 27, 2014May 14, 2020 gapey1 Comment

Instagram

The first dahlia has bloomed! Many here dig up their dahlia tubers in the fall for safe keeping and split and replant in the spring. I’m a lazy gardener and don’t bother with that. Many times they don’t come back the next year because the rain rots them away. I surprisingly had good success this year and they all appear to have returned. This is one of several that came back from dahlias I planted last year from seeds I got from @mykitsaproots.
We’ve been putting this backpack sprayer @petratools sent us last year to good use. We don’t typically use herbicides or pesticides but on rare occasions and always organic. This sprayers primary use is for feeding the garden. I just sprayed some @iv_organics fertilizer tea on the figs and other stuff in the garden. It’s a great way to give your plants an immediate nutrient boost. You can find the new video on my channel. If you use code “gapey” you can get $10 off a Petra Tools sprayer. They have 1 gallon up to 21 gallons. They are an awesome addition to your garden toolset.
It’s elderflower season. I’ve been wanting to try making elderflower mead and this is the year. Our black laced elderberry is loaded with blooms this year so I harvested quite a few and left some in hopes of getting some berries. I bought a “laced up” variety a couple years ago to pollinate the one we have and this is the first year it has bloomed so we’ll see what happens. Do you grow elderberries?
Happy #figfriday! The June fig update is now up! It’s been a challenging year for a lot of fig growers in the PNW. Oour greenhouse has given the figs a nice head start but the ones in ground are far behind.
Happy #PollinatorWeek! What flower are pollinators most attracted to in your garden? The top two in our garden is Bee's Friend (phacelia tanacetifolia) and Borage. I'm not sure which they like more but if it's in bloom, you are sure to find bees on it. Borage seems to be favored more by honeybees and Bee's Friend seems to attract more bumbles. You can't go wrong with either one. Both of these flowers are annuals but self seed very easily. I have had bee's friend flower in spring/summer and reseed in fall and was surprised the fall plants survived all winter in zone 8b and started blooming in early spring. It was a big surprise to me how cold hardy they are.
The reinforcements are starting to arrive. The peppers in the greenhouse have started getting attacked and the preying mantis army is assembling. I have 3 egg sacks and today 5 have come to party.
It’s a beautiful day, for the moment. It’s been so rainy and more is on the way. There’s some minor flooding in the area from this last streak of rain. There’s rain in the forecast every day. Oh well it beats too much heat and drought. #beeyard #apiary #frontyardgarden #growflowers
Happy #fermentationfriday! The homemade wine collection is growing! Still have a few other batches to bottle up. Hoping to make an elderflower mead this year if I can get enough blooms but I kinda want to see if I can get berries this year. 🤔
Looking forward to growing these new to me dry pole beans this year. They were planted a little later than I would have liked and our crummy cold and wet weather isn’t helping. Dry beans take quite a while to grow and dry so I’m not sure they’ll do very well this year. Time will tell. These are nonna agnes, pale grey lavender and Karachaganack. Hoping it warms up soon.
My favorite columbine is always one of the last to bloom.
If you are looking for a native ground cover for a shady spot in your garden, look no further. We picked up a yellow corydalis from a local plant swap a few years ago and it has spread nicely over the years and the pollinators love it. It’s said to be for zones 5-7 but it has been growing great here in 8b for several years.
We went to a local plant swap this weekend and brought these sempervivums home to fill in some empty spots in this pot we found at a local buy nothing. It’s all filled up now.

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