How to get your Christmas cactus to bloom for the holidays

This blog is a little late to use for Christmas this year, but I thought I'd share how I get my Christmas cacti to bloom for the holidays each year. Christmas cactus are actually a succulent plant called Zygocactus. They are native to Brazilian rainforests.

Beautiful blooms for the holidays!

There are a few requirements to get your Zygo to bloom for the holidays.  The first thing is to stop watering your Zygo at Halloween.  These little plants are quite drought tolerant, so this won't hurt the plant at all.  You'll notice that the leaves will start to shrink up and shrivel a bit, but this is just fine.

Some say to place your plant in a dark closet for the month of November to encourage blooming.  I never have done that.  These plants need 12 hours of darkness each day to set bloom, but where I live in the Pacific Northwest, the natural daylight hours during the winter season work out just perfect to get a December bloom!

One flower in full bloom and another bud getting ready to pop!

I keep mine in a cool room, away from direct heat source, so don't place yours over your heating vent.  The best thing to encourage your plant to flower is cool temperatures from October through December.  During bud setting your plant prefers a temperature between 45-65 degrees. 

Do not relocate or water your plant when it is setting buds, as this can cause bud drop.  Wait until the buds are fully formed and beginning to bloom, then you can move your beautiful cactus out for display.  Choose a cool spot out of direct sunlight and drafts, but bright, indirect light will help your plant to continue blooming.  Water sparingly and only if the branches begin to droop.  Do not fertilize during this time either.

 

More flowers!

Greenhouse: Extending my growing season!

The leaves are falling to the ground and there is a new chilly crispness to the air.  Even still I'm thinking of my garden. 

A sure sign that cold weather is coming soon

I've been nursing along a couple of volunteer yellow pear tomato plants that sprouted up in my boat garden this year.  About 2 weeks ago I harvested the first of the juicy little salad tomatoes from the plants and they were delicious.  Because of our short season, these plants haven't yet hit their peak of tomato production.  I placed several jugs of water around them.  The idea is that the water will absorb the heat of the day and help insulate these plants in the colder hours of darkness. 

Here's the tomato plants with the reused jugs of water

Hoping to extend my growing season a little longer, I asked Ben to help me by enclosing the boat garden with a greenhouse.  This is a quick, cheap and easy project that we finished in a few hours.

First we took a trip into town for materials.  Whenever possible I try to use recycled materials in my garden, but this project required a few purchases.  I think we spent about $25 on the following materials:

                 *1/2 inch PVC pipe, several 8 foot lengths

                 *1/2 inch rebar stakes

                 *Heavy clear plastic

Checking the flexibility of the pipe

Now Ben is, by trade, a carpenter, so this project was a piece of cake for him.  I helped when I could, but for the most part, I tried to stay out of the way.

The first thing he did was to pound in the rebar stakes on either side of the garden.  Then he placed the pvc pipe onto the rebar on one side and then bent the pipe over and placed it over the rebar stake on the opposite side. 

Forming the support hoops for the greenhouse

Repeating this process, he formed 3 hoops over the garden bed.

Rebar stakes help secure the hoops in the ground

Next he added a support "beam" down the center.  Using a small drill bit, he drilled through the pipes where they over lapped and wired the support to the center of the hoops.

This hoop house is starting to take shape!

Now that this was fully supported, it was time to add the thick plastic sheeting.  We got ours in the paint department of the hardware store. 

Attaching the plastic to the frame with wire

Here's where things got tricky.  I explained to Ben that whatever method he used to hold the plastic down would have to be removable so that I could pull the plastic back in order to tend to the plants inside.  He figured out a way to wire the plastic sheeting on to the supports so that I could still open the sides.

He finished up at the last light of the day and just before the rain began.

The capsule is complete!

Some men bite their tongues when working with their

wives.  Ben's solution, Duct Tape!!!

While all of that was going on, I did some more fall clean up out in the veggie beds.  I cleared out the remaining tomato plants from my raised beds and turned the soil.  I think we have enough plastic left to enclose these for the winter too.  If that works out I'll keep planting salad greens in these 2 beds. 

2 more beds ready for winter

I've had some strawberry pots going for about 2 years now.  I've noticed that they really don't do as well in the pots as they do in the ground, so I took this time to transplant them over my previously planted garlic.  This is just a temporary spot for them to winter over.  In the spring, I will be moving all of my strawberries into their own permanent bed.

A short term solution for my berries

I love my little organic garden!  There's always something to be done out here, but I enjoy the work and it's a great hobby for Ben and I to share.

 Now with my little greenhouse, I should be able to get an extra month to 6 weeks of growing time at both ends of the season!  That could add up to 3 extra months of food production!!!  I'll be sure to keep you all posted to what kind of trials and successes we have with our new enclosed growing area.

Waiting for the frost and more green tomatoes

Beautiful Mount Baker and the sisters view  from the Lummi Island ferry dock 

Looking out at the fresh snow on Mount Baker is a good reminder that the first killing frost is not long off. Of course the trick is knowing when it will hit my garden and of that I'm not certain.

My neighbors a few miles down the road have all had a hard frost.  Not me! My garden seems to have a nice warm micro-climate this year.When I woke up yesterday morning and checked the temperature it was just dipping into the 30's at 39 degrees, still a lot of wiggle room for a hard freeze. But that little nippiness made me nervous.


Last week I posted about ripening some of my green tomatoes indoors.  At that time I harvested 1 box of fully developed green tomatoes and ripened those in my kitchen.  I still have 3 or 4 from that batch that are partially ripe and the rest have found their way into salsas, salads and tomato sandwiches.


This morning I felt was the right time to finish the harvest.  I had so many beautiful green tomatoes on my 5 remaining roma plants that I couldn't justify risking the frost taking a bite out of them.  With pruners in hand, I snatched up all the ones that looked fully developed and left only a few of the small weak ones on the plants.

Can you believe the loads of tomatoes still going in October? 

These Roma won't be as sweet as sun-ripened.

They will be better than store bought!

These tiny yellow pear tomatoes should be ready for topping

my autumn lettuce salad by next week

I've placed them all in shallow boxes with newspaper covers and added a ripened apple to assist the process.  I came away with 3 boxes of them!  What a fantastic harvest!

p.s - My dahlias are still blooming! 

Seed saving - not just for the frugal gardener

I'm a seed saver.  I began this habit back in my early gardening days when money was much tighter.  I realized early on that I could get a lot more bang for the buck in my flower garden by saving seeds from one year to plant the following year. 

I started out with simple annuals that were easily harvested and produced large quanities of seeds.  Some of those early flower seeds that I saved were from marigolds, calendulas, nasturtiums and sweet peas.  It through the trial and error of those early years that I learned how to save seeds properly and easily.

Aside from the benefit of cost, there are a number of other reasons to save seeds from your garden.  When you harvest seeds from your own garden, you are going to, over time, develop healthier plants that are specialized to your unique micro-climate.  In addition, todays garden center plants are often hybrids, which means that they cannot grow true from seeds.  If we come to rely only on hybrids, this could lead to the loss of many of the worlds food crops.  Not a good idea.  Groups like Seed Trust  Seed Savers Exchange and International Seed Saving Institute are working to save open pollinated, heirloom seeds and in turn working to save the diversity of our world food crops.

At home, saving seeds is easy.  Here's how I do it and you can too!

First you'll want to be sure the seed you are planning to save is from an open pollinated plant.  Hybrid plants will often produce seeds, but when planted these seeds will not produce a true clone of the parent plant and result in weak and unusable plants.  ****Note:  When purchasing seeds for your garden, you can check the seed packet information to see if your choice is an open pollinated variety.

Second, choose the best plant in the garden and allow it to go to seed.  I know my first instinct is to harvest the best looking plant, but I have to resist this urge for the benefit of next years garden.  If you harvest seed from the strongest plant, you will get strong seedlings.  Conversely if you choose that weak small plant, you will wind up with weak and small seedlings next year.

This year I decided to save seeds from my absolutely best and heartiest Romaine Lettuce plant.  I allowed this one plant to grow undisturbed and let it go to seed.  Lettuce produces seeds similar to a dandelion (they have furry fuzz floaties on them), so as the seed began to mature I kept a close eye on it.  Just as the majority of the flowers had the white fuzzies showing, I clipped the stem and brought the seed stalk indoors to complete the drying process. After 1 - 2 weeks of drying indoors it was ready for harvest.

Romaine Lettuce seeds ready for harvest

To harvest these seeds I simply pinched the floaty part of the flower and pulled it out from the seed pod, then I seperated the seed from the cottony part of the flower.  That's it!  How easy!

Romaine Lettuce seeds from 1 plant.  There's enough to share!

Next simply place the seeds in an envelope or zippered sandwich bag and store in a cool dry spot until next spring. *****Note:  don't seal up seeds until they are completely dry mildew will form and ruin your efforts.

Be sure to label your seeds well because many types of seeds do look similar. 

I also harvested some seeds from a Spaghetti squash given to me by another island gardener.  These I seperated from the stringy pulp and placed on a paper towel to dry for a week. 

A paper towel helps to absorb excess moisture when drying

 wet seeds and this helps to prevent molding

Be sure to note any important information on your bag such as

origination of the seeds

And growing information

I think once you try saving some of your own garden seeds, you will be hooked like me.  Your wallet, your garden and the earth will all benefit!

There are seedsaver groups around the world.  Check with your local gardening clubs if you want to participate in a seed exchange with other local gardeners.

MMMMMMMMMore pickles

This moning my canner was still out on the stove from yesterday's canning project.  I thought I might as well get another small pickle project done before washing it up and storing it away.  Todays project is pickled carrots.  I like the italian style ones and Ben enjoys the mexican style ones, so I did both. The following recipe is enough brine to make about 6 pints of pickled carrots.

To start with, sterilize your jars.  Then you'll want to make a pickling brine.  This time I used this recipe:    
    5 Cups vinegar
    1 Cup water
    2 Cups sugar
    2 Tablespoons sea salt
    4 Tablespoons mustard seed (whole)

You will also need:
     Carrots (about 1/2 lb per pint jar)
     Garlic (1 clove per pint)
     Onion (1/4 Cup per pint of Mexican style)
     Jalepeno pepper (1/2 pepper per pint of Mexican style)
     Green bell pepper (about 4 cut sticks per pint)

Bring the brine to a boil.  In the mean time, wash-peel and cut your carrots.  For Italian style I made carrot sticks and for Mexican style I cut rounds. 

Peppers, onions and garlic add flavor and color to your pickled carrots

Start with Italian style pickled carrots. **It  is important to start with these because when you cook the Mexican style ones the brine will get too spicy due to the jalepeno peppers.**

Place a pinch of mustard seed in the bottom of the sterilized jars along with a pinch of whole leaf oregeno.  Add a whole garlic clove (I like to slightly crush them with the side of my knife first.)  Then add your raw green pepper sticks.

Place  your cut carrots into the hot brine.  Cook this on medium heat for about 8 minutes or until the carrot sticks are al dente.

You can fit about 1/2 lb of carrot sticks in a pint jar

Next add these hot carrot sticks to your jar using tongs.  Cover these with brine leaving about 1/2  inch of headroom in the jars.  Now put the lids and rings on jars and set aside on a towel on your counter.

For Mexican style pickled carrots:

Cut your cleaned carrots into rounds.  Cut jalepeno peppers in rounds and dice onions in large pieces.  Add these to the remaining brine and cook on medium heat for about 10 minutes or until al dente.

Cooking the mexican pickled carrot mixture

Add 1 slightly crushed garlic clove to bottom of each hot jar.  When the carrots mixture is cooked add that to the jar.  Be sure to include jalepeno pepper slices in each of the jars.  Cover with hot brine leaving about 1/2 inch of  headroom.  Add lids and rings.

Place both  Italian and Mexican style carrots into your water bath canning rack and waterbath for 10 minutes.

Remove from canner onto a towel on your counter and allow to cool.  Once completely cooled  remove the rings and label your jars.  Store in a dark cupboard for at least 1 month to allow for all the flavors to mature.  Ours should be ready to go for Thanksgiving!

Yummy Mexican and Italian pickled carrots!

What am I gonna do with all these little green tomatoes?

Pickling is a great way to preserve your

green end of season tiny tomatoes

We've had torrential rains for the last few days.  October in the Pacific Northwest is the wet cold season and now that the rains have started, there's no telling when they'll end. 

I still have 3 large yellow pear tomato plants in the garden that are producing. All this heavy rain is causing them to split as they ripen.  So today I went down and filled my pockets with tiny green tomatoes for pickling.  Then I grabbed the pruners and harvested a handful of anise flowers and oregeno from my organic herb bed along with about 8 garlic cloves that didn't get planted earlier this week.

Yellow pear tomatoes are about 1/2 the size of cherry tomatoes

When fully ripened they are a bright yellow, but these green ones

will be better pickled

Organic Anise flower from the boat garden

Garden fresh organic oregeno from the herb beds

These garlics didn't make the cut for planting but they will

compliment the small tomatoes for pickles

Back in the kitchen, I washed all of my items and pulled out the canning equiptment again.  First thing was to sterilize 4 quart jars and start the water to boil in the canner. 

In a seperate pot I brought these ingredients to a boil for the brine:

     *1 1/2 Quarts of white venegar

     *1 Cup sugar

     *1/3 Cup sea salt

As the brine was heating  I placed a pinch of mustard seed, corriander, and a few black pepper corns along with a few sprigs from the fresh herbs in the bottom of each jar.

No need to measure, just add a pinch to each jar

 Next I drained the tomatoes and packed them raw into the jars and added 2 cloves of peeled garlic in each jar.

So pretty!  The tomatoes and garlic cloves are the same size

Once the brine was boiled, I removed it from the heat and poured the hot liquid over the  tomatoes and herbs.  I left 1/2" of head room in the top of each jar and then added the lids and rings.  These went into a hot water bath canner at a boil for 10 minutes. Next I pulled the jars out and set on a towel on the counter where they will cool.

Pickling tiny tomatoes is quick and easy

Once they're cool I'll remove the rings, label the jars and place in the cupboard for at least 1 month.  After brining for a month these will be delicious little pickles and would make a nice garnish for bloody mary's or compliment any relish tray.

Recycling Tshirts into rugs

My wonderful fiance Ben is a clothes horse.  His closet puts my own to shame.  It is packed full of Tshirts many of which I've never seen him actually wear.  So after a lot of prodding and a little help, we finally went through his collection.  We saved some special ones for a Tshirt quilt and any that were stained or too thread bare to be donated to the thrift store became new recycle material for me.

I've had this project in mind for a while now.  A friend of mine here on the Island makes absolutely gorgeous rugs from old bed sheets.  When I was visiting one day, I noticed that she was using the same crochet hook that I use for my mesh bags to hook the rugs and my imagination started working on what other items could be recycled into rugs and I settled on Tshirts but the same concept could be used with lots of materials.


These little 2-3 foot area rugs are great for bathroom mats or as a desk rug in front of the computer chair.  It would be easy to adapt this for larger area rugs as well.  I think the best thing about this project is how quickly they come together, making it a great project for a quick but thoughtful handmade gift. 


Ok, so here's how you can make your own recycled Tshirt rug.  You will need:

• 6 to 9 old tshirts.  Use plain tshirts or those with little printing
• Sharp scissors
• 1 size Q crochet hook
• 3 to 4 hours to spare

Lay your Tshirt out on a flat work surface.  Fold it in half sleeve to sleeve.

Cut a straight line across the Tshirt from armpit to the fold.

Cut another straight line across the hem of Tshirt.

Save the sleeve area for a future project and dispose of the hem line.  Now you're left with a folded tube.  Fold it again from edge to edge, but not quite in half.  You can see in this photo I've left about an inch at the top edge. 

Using sharp scissors, begin cutting 1/2-3/4" strips in your Tshirt tube, but don't cut it completely through.  Stop before cutting through last inch like this:

Continue cutting until you've cut the whole tube of the Tshirt.

Open the tube up.  You will see it's still connected at 2 of the folds.  Starting on 1 side you will cut one end and begin to unravel it into 1 long strip.  At the folds, on one side cut straight across, and then at the next fold you'll cut it at an angle to make 1 continuous strip.

When finished cutting, you should have 1 long strip of fabric like this:

Starting on one end of your strip, begin stretching the fabric.  It will form itself into a tube as you do and your finished yarn will look something like this:

You're Tshirt yarn is now ready to use in any crochet pattern.  Roll it up into a ball and start on your next Tshirt:

To make rug:

Choose yarn ball for your center color.  Using your Q crochet hook, chain 4.  Connect to first loop in chain with a slip stitch.  This will form a ring of stitches.

Single crochet 8 stitches through the center of your ring.  Slip stitch the 8th stitch to your first stitch.  Now you have your first round.

Chain 1 then Single crochet through the first stitch from the last row.  Single crochet 2 stitches through the second stitch of your last row.  Continue around this row with every other stitch getting 1 single crochet and evey second stitch getting 2 single crochets.  When you've worked all the way around, slip stitch the last stitch into the first stitch.  You've completed your second round.

Chain 1 then single crochet 1 in the first stitch of the second round, single crochet in the second stitch then single crochet 2 stitches in the 3rd stitch of the last round.  Repeat around the row.  When you get to the last stitch in the row, slip stitch to the first stitch completing your round.

Chain 1 then single crochet in the first 4 stitches with 2 single crochets in the 5th stitch.  Continue this all the way around and slip stitch the last stitch in this row to the first stitch. 

Chain 1 then single crochet in the first 9 stitches.  In the 10th stitch put 2 single crochets.  Continue this pattern all the way around to then slip stitch to connect last stitch to the first stitch.

Chain 1 and continue the pattern from the last round.  Keep going until the rug is the size you want.  Knot the end and work in the tails.

At any time, change colors or add on tshirt yarn by simply tying a square knot to connect the 2 ends.  Leave the tails and either clip or weave into your work at the end.

That's it!  So easy and so pretty too.  Here's the first 3 rugs that I've made

There's still plenty of time to make these as your christmas gifts, so get in your closets and pull out all those old Tshirts that you never wear.  Your handmade rug could be a double gift, by recycling you are giving a gift for your friend and for the planet. 

*****UPDATE: 1/24/10******

So what do you do with those sleeves and Tshirt Tops?  Find out how to make reusable produce bags and stop collecting needless plastic bag waste!  To find out how, check out Kristy's post over to Textiles4You