Germinating Seeds

I was looking for the temperatures at which onion and pepper seeds germinate and found this awesome graph that has it all laid out. The top of the grid is the soil temperature, and in the grid is the percentage of germination at that temperature with the number of days until the seedling emerges. http://tomclothier.hort.net/page11.html

Killing Ants

Tony's Uncle Stan is an insect god. He has written the bible on tarantula care and been studying and teaching about insects for decades. The last time he was in for a visit, my MIL (Uncle Stan's sister) and I were telling him about all the problems we have with fire ants here in North Texas. He had a very simple solution for us that is environmentally friendly. Hot, soapy water. Simply fill a bucket with a couple gallons of hot tap water, add a small amount of dish soap, mix thoroughly, and pour over the mound. Insects have a waxy coating on their bodies to protect them from dehydration. The soapy water dissolves this waxy layer and kills them. In my experience, one bucket is enough to kill a small mound. Some of the monster size mounds we have here though require multiple applications. I just check back each day and continue to add a bucket until all traces of the ants are gone. After a year of trying this method, the best part is I have yet to find the ants returning to each treated area!

Preparing the Garden Bed

I got my onion seeds in the mail today along with a free packet of bell pepper seeds. I'm nervous starting onions from actual seeds vs using seed onions that have already been started. When I swung by the feed store to get our two-week supply of dog food and some corn meal gluten for the sand burrs, the guy working told me that they just got onions in, so I picked up a bunch of 60 Texas Sweet for $1.60. I'm going to prepare the bed to plant the Texas Sweet this month, then start the Red Creole onions indoors to plant at the end of March.

The Red Creole seeds can germinate in cool weather; however, the bell pepper seeds need warmer temps. I am trying to do this frugally, so I want to try to germinate them without buying a warming pad. Our oven is gas with a pilot lite, so it is always warm, which makes me think maybe I can store them in there and leave myself a note on the oven handle that they are there...

As for starting the bed, I've been trying to figure out the easiest way to do it without hurting myself. I pull muscles easily and have had problems with my hips since I was a kid, so tonight in googling tips for preparing the bed, it looks like stripping the sod with a spade is going to be the easiest. After mowing or weed-eating down the grass and weeds, the area needs to be watered (which it is raining, so the day after it stops should make it easy), then use the spade to precut the area into smaller squares, slide the spade under and flip the sod up. I'm sure it's easier said than done, but this seems like it will be MUCH easier than hand tilling.

After removing the sod, the area will be filled with some compost and manure, then I can plant the Texas Sweet.

Prepping for onions

With all the talk of GMO foods and the constant inflation of our money supply, I have a serious desire to start growing our own produce. I've dabbled with gardening in the past, mostly ornamentals, but I have tried my hand at vegetables, fruits and herbs in the past with minor success. I usually plant everything in my flower beds around the house or in pots, and I have no problem getting seeds to germinate, but once the plant has developed and becomes more hardy, I tend to lose things in June when the temperatures start to rise above 90.

At Christmas I sat down and talked to my mother-in-law about starting a real vegetable garden especially now that she is retiring hers. She recommended starting small with something like 3' x 3', and that I'm welcome to take her cinder blocks to use as a border.

Then last week when I stopped by the local feed store to get dog food, a couple of local old timers were hanging out to chat and keep out of the cold, so I asked for their advice. As a newbie gardener, what would be an easy crop to grow? Overwhelmingly, they responded "onions".

In Texas, onions are planted in January and are considered a short day crop since the amount of sunlight required for bulb development is less than required for long day varieties, and the length of daylight in the south has less variation than lengths in the north.

Over the next couple of weeks I will be prepping the garden area. I started a compost pile a couple of years ago and have just let it set while I continue to add materials on top, so I will be checking the lower layers for soil to add to the vegetable bed. I will also head down to my mother-in-law's to take some of the cinder blocks off her hands and also get some horse manure for a fertilizer. Once I have the materials, I will need to pick a spot for the garden, and I am thinking the northwest corner of the yard will be best since it has the most direct sunlight available. We do have a problem with stickers (sand burrs), so this is something else I need to tackle and will be a good blog entry.

Since I didn't plan for this sooner, I'm hoping the ground will be nutrient rich enough without my having fertilized it in the fall. I should have weeded the area and applied a high phosphorus (10-20-10) fertilizer. Instead, I'm planning to have hubby do a controlled burn of the grass in the area (since the sand burrs and other weeds are so out of control) to kill the weeds, then I'll till the area by hand and mix the soil with some of the compost soil. The soil on our property is a mixture of sand and clay, so it should do well on it's own to support the onions, but given I've never planted anything like this before I think the compost soil will only help things further.

As for the onions I will be planting, here is what I ordered: http://rareseeds.com/cart/products/Red_Creole_Onion-298-40.html

Sweet Potato Cassarole

I found it! Growing up I never liked my mom's sweet potato cassarole. She dumped a can of pineapple chunks in with a can of yams then topped it with mini marshmallows and baked until the marshmallows were burned. Back around 1999 or 2000, the credit union I worked at had a holiday spread for the employees. One of my co-workers brought her family's sweet potato cassarole and I fell in love. The lady gave me the recipe and I have made it every year since receiving rave reviews and many requests for the recipe. So here it is:

Boil and mash potatoes then add:
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup milk
1/3 cup butter

Topping:
1 cup pecans
1 cup light brown sugar
1/2 cup flour
1/2 stick butter
(I also add 1/2 coconut)

Bake at 350 for 30 minutes.

There is no quantity listed for the sweet potatoes, and I have used a couple pounds of raw potatoes I have peeled, diced and cooked myself, or used a large can of  yams and drained and rinsed before cooking. Then I bake in a square baking dish. Eyeball the potatoes and use what you would need in the square dish.

Sage

My sage never germinated and sprouted. I read the seeds are sometimes only good for a couple of years and who knows how long they have been in my fridge. This winter has been so cold it has been difficult keeping any one room warm enough to support germination, so I will wait until spring or look into getting a seed warming mat (aka a heating pad).

One thing I am trying to do this winter is pull up all the dead weeds from the flower beds and put down a weed blocking paper and mulch. I'm still trying to decide what I will plant in them- either I'll give up on flowers and plant Buford Holly or I may try some flowers and herbs again.

Cousin Amanda's Alfredo

Alfredo is one of my all time favorite sauces. This stuff is TO DIE FOR!!! I'm so tickled to have family to share recipes with now. Next week I'll be trying her MIL's Tacos el Pastor. Yum!

Ingredients:
2 Tbs unsalted butter
1 Tbs minced garlic (or 2-3 cloves minced)
1 pint heavy whipping cream
1/2 c milk
1 cup grated Parmesan cheese
salt
black pepper
cornstarch
1 box angel hair pasta (or other pasta)

Optional:
chicken
spinach
(she also suggested parsley)

On low heat melt butter and add garlic, cook for about a minute to infuse the butter w/the garlic flavor, then add cream, milk and parm cheese with some black pepper and salt. Turn heat up to med-low until starting to bubble, add slurry (slurry=1 Tbs cornstarch for every 2 cups liquid, which a pint is 2 cups, so I mixed in cornstarch that was combined with a few Tbs water to make a paste), whisk until incorporated, continue to cook on med-low while cooking noodles, then add chicken and spinach and heat on med until heated through and starting to bubble again.

Thanks, Amanda!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!