Sunday, April 29

Note to Caroline: Id Tags, Chard and more...

Here is a bag of the Chard seed balls that I bought at the Portland Garden Show to try this year. It was sort of expensive. If I remember right it was around $7 a bag. Seed balls are an important staple in guerrilla gardening. Usually done in a urban city it is when a plot of unused or undesired land is taken over and "seed bombed". The seeds are enclosed in soil so I believe all you need to do is throw them on the ground.Taking over unused or undesired land is quite common here.People have taken over empty lots in their neighborhood and most of the time the space is converted into urban farms.
The over wintered chard is getting ready to go to seed so I started to harvesting the leaves. I read that you can actually freeze chard by cutting it into 2 inch pieces;blanching for 3 minutes and getting rid of excess water then placing in freezer bags.It will keep for 1 year. I wonder if this works? I always assumed you could not freeze it like lettuce. I hope it works because I have tons of chard.

The over wintered parsley looks like it is about to die now so that is something else I plan to pick and perhaps dry.
My Chloe was really interested in the parsley.I did not let her eat it as I have to check if cats an eat parsley.Do you know if they can?

Pictured below are my new id tags for the garden. I put them on my Christmas wish list and received 2 packages of 50. They work 100 times better than the wooden sticks I had last year. Everyone at the garden loves them.

Sage

Pretty Borage

The seeds that I put in a few weeks ago have sprouted. No sign of the potatoes yet. What I have left are all the summer crops like beans. It is too early to plant anything like that now.
How is planting going there? Did you decide what to grow at your community garden?

What to do when it is just too Darn hot to Garden?

It has been a very hot summer everywhere. From what I have been told it is normal to get 100 plus days from the months here from  May to Oct...