Salad Ball

1st I must give some credit to Organic Gardening for giving me this idea, though I put mine together a little bit differently. I haven't filled it out completely, but you get the idea.One problem with planters that have things coming out of the sides is that watering can be very tricky. It tends to seep inside and not get evenly distributed. I can't remember where I saw an idea similar to mine, but mine is unique.What you see here are 2 toilet paper rolls and a small piece of landscaping cloth. I use the rolls to make a temporary brace for this tube.
The tube is stood up in the center of the planter. I guess the ideal length is to a little bit past the center, though mine is a bit longer.

I put the top basket up there to make sure it's not too short or too long. Notice I have it a little short of the top. as I filled this in I moved it up a little.Once it is in place you need to fill it up. I used hydroton, I think pebble would be fine. The idea it to use some inorganic stuff that will let water flow through easily.
Then you plant the stuff in. It's easiest to plant it up, layering dirt on top. The coco liner I used for the bottom is aquasav which made this harder than plain coco, which you can just push stuff through, this required me to CUT into it, though in theory this will need less watering.

Turkey Leek Fennel Wild Rice Soup

So the other week at my local farmer's market they had an extra turkey. I know it's early but I LOVE turkey so I got it, about 11 pounds maybe. I did the standard stuffing, but with some home grown leeks.

Here we have a gratuitous picture of leeks mixed with some other stuff from before the frost. I love leeks. I fell in love with them when I started my kitchen garde research and found Creative Vegetable Gardening: Accenting Your Vegetables With Flowers by Joy Larkcom. One place referenced by Larkcom and others is Villandry. Villandry is a chateau built during the Renaissance that was restored last century including a fabulous potager. Leeks and cabbages are pretty prominent in the squares.

I won't go in depth about it just now, but my aspirations are kinda like it. Visit their website, the design is just amazing if you haven't heard of it. So the leeks there were part of a square design I had that I let go a bit.

Anyhow, when I make turkey, I try to when the 1st meal is over to clean all the meaat off the bones. Then I put the bones in a huge pot of water with all the good stuff you need to make soupstock. Usually for poultry that includes celery and celery seed but in this case I threw in some fennel stalks with a bunch of fennel seeds left on. There's also as you may see some carrots and some parsley(not really visible. Anyway, I hope that that's a good self-portrait. This is simmered overnight which makes the house smell great.

The soup is delicious. If anyone shows an interest I might post my recipe.

Pittsburgh Farmer's Market

In the lower sidebar, I list the farmer's market as a gardening source. A lot of farmers not only bring fresh local produce but they sell locally grown garden and house plants. The lady that brings us fresh eggs from her farm also sells pelletized chicken manure. The fresh locally grown garlic may be planted in your own garden in the fall.

In theory I try to start my vegetable plants myself but this doesn't always work out. Plus sometimes they have things I didn't think about before or maybe I just love buying plants.

What you see here is some red swiss chard. This is beautiful in a garden and very good to eat too. I honestly cannot remember whether I got this as a seedling at the farmer's market.

Seedlings from other sources often come from very far away, especially when I get them from home depot. I have bought seedlings that were shipped from California and Oregon by mail. This is an improvement over getting the actual vegetables shipped from 1,000s of miles but I am doing better if I get them locally.