Thanksvegan #6

The most local and soy-free thanksvegan yet!

Late summer blacktail mountain watermelon

Today's harvest was particularly bountiful!

Today's harvest

The first tomatoes

Today we picked the first of our Armenian yard long cucumbers and
yellow pear tomatoes.

The first squash and okra of the season!

Sent from my iPhone

Pruning Tomatoes

This week we harvested more carrots, onions, and some beans. We also began to prune our tomato plants to keep them from turning into a jungle!

Harvest 6/12/2009

This past weekend we were able to finally harvest some of our carrots and lettuce. The garden is really to starting take off!

snap peas (best when raw)

A few weeks ago we began to enjoy the fruit of our snap pea plants. The purple pods were so delicious that we couldn't even consider cooking them. Instead, we have been enjoying evening snacks by picking snap peas directly from the vine. noms.

the finished product

This past weekend we finally finished our greenhouse. As has become custom in our home, the final assembly was filmed:

frame by frame

This week we were finally able to work on assembling the frame of the new greenhouse. Now that the base and frame are finished we will begin planning on installing the polycarbonate panels this coming weekend. Enjoy the montage!

the greenhouse saga begins

For the past few weeks, Erin and I have been attempting to assemble our new greenhouse. Weather limitations and our own lack of experience have delayed the project. However, now that the foundation is finished, we will begin the construction...

The World's Most Crooked Fence...

Every year, it is a given that there will be some failures in our gardening efforts. The first hiccup of this season came in the form of a late March snow storm. Unfortunately, it claimed several of our cabbage plants. However, we are very happy that our snap peas, parsley, strawberries, and asparagus survived the storm with minimal damage.

Now that the last frost of the year has come and gone, we will begin planting the rest of our crop. Jon has also finished installing our doggie defense system (i.e. the world's most crooked fence).

Spring Storms

With Spring comes storms. With storms comes injured and uprooted plants. With injured plants comes sadness to the Kratz family.

After spending months gently tending to our seedlings, we can be a little obsessive about protecting our crop. But fear not for we have a plan:

grass FAIL

This past weekend we prepared the soil in two of our garden beds for this year's crop. Crab grass has proven a worthy foe in our gardening endeavors and every year we promise ourselves that we won't let it get out of control. Obviously, this easier said than done - especially when attempting to grow a quasi-organic garden. After removing the grass roots from each bed, we added vermiculite, peat moss, manure and compost. Hopefully this will provide a lasting foundation for healthy soil for years to come.


vlog 2 from jonathan kratz on Vimeo.

the first vlog

Earlier this year, we began the extensive project that will be this year's garden. For the second year we have ordered all of our seeds from the Seed Savers Exchange catalog. Growing a garden from seed is something that we have found to be very enjoyable; however, it does require a lot of planning. In late January, Erin planted our first seeds (indoors, of course!). Until the weather permits, we have been growing our plants indoors using several techniques.

To begin, we used the "poor-man's greenhouse" to germinate the seeds by placing the plants in small plastic pots and then enclosing them in a ziplock bag. All of the bagged pots were then kept on a heating pad on the lowest heat setting. As the seedlings sprout, we transfer them to our temporary garden "lab" on the kitchen table.

Next week we plan on beginning the process of preparing our garden soil and transplanting some of our plants.

now that Christmas is over, its gardening thyme (haha)!

For the past few years, we have cultivated a small backyard garden. Although it usually becomes a jungle by mid-July, we have steadily honed our gardening techniques. One of the greatest lessons we have learned is that gardening is a year round process that includes soil preparation, seed selection, planting, transplanting, dog-proofing, staking, trimming, weeding, watering, fertilizing, harvesting, freezing, canning, and finally, eating! In anticipation of the last frost of 2009 (usually April 15th in Tulsa, OK), we are going to chronicle our efforts from seed to table in this blog.

Jon and Erin