I bought 1 pound of pickling cukes at my local farmer’s market for $2, and tested the recipe with 1 pint sized jar. The recipe below will work for about 2 pounds of pickling cukes.

Ingredients

1 1/2 c. water
1 1/2 c. apple cider vinegar
2 Tbsp. pickling salt
1 tsp. minced garlic
1/2 tsp. onion powder
6 large sprigs of fresh baby dill
1/2 tsp. mustard seed
1 tsp. black peppercorns

First combine the water, vinegar, salt, and spices (not the dill) in a saucepan and set it to high. As that heats up, wash and cut up the cucumbers. I just cut the ends off and sliced them in half. Then fill the jars with the cukes and dill.

Once your brine has heated through, and the salt has all dissolved, take it off the heat and let it cool. It works best if you strain out the mustard seeds and peppercorns then divide them equally among the jars. Once the brine has cooled a bit, fill your jars to completely cover the cucumbers, leaving at least 1/4 inch of space at the top.

Put the lids lightly on your jars or cover with cheesecloth, and then let them sit out of sunlight on the counter for 2-4 days. I could only wait 2 days before I had to try them, and they were good, but not quite pickle-y enough. I ended up leaving them out for just over 3 days before putting them in the fridge. You’ll want to let them chill for at least a few hours to get the best pickle experience!

Do you have any great homemade pickle recipes? Please share them in the comments!

The post Claussen Refrigerator Pickle Recipe appeared first on The Garden Corner.

Succession planting is when a gardener plants crops in varying cycles throughout the growing season in order to maximize their harvest. It really only works with specific crops, and is dependent on how long your growing season is. Since I’m in frosty Minnesota, I’m succession planting beans, peas, lettuce, spinach, kale, arugula, beets, and radishes. Since these are all pretty quick to go from seed to harvest, I should be able to get quite a bit of extra food from my garden!

I’ve put together this short guide to help other gardeners make the most of their growing time.

Getting Started with Succession Planting

Find out when you first average frost date is in the fall. You’ll need this to correctly time your plantings. Next, calculate what vegetables you still have time left to plant. For those in my general area, the University of MN Extension office has a great resource on succession planting, which includes a list of vegetables with their times to harvest. I would highly recommend using this if you’re in Minnesota.

Once you know your average first frost date, you can start counting backwards from that date to see when you should plant your late season crops depending on how long they take to mature. I recommend giving yourself an extra week of buffer time though, just in case!

Choose Your Plants

If you’re just starting out with succession planting, I recommend trying it first with very fast growers like radishes, lettuce, spinach, or beans. Keep in mind that the cooler it is when they are planted, the longer they will take to reach maturity.

Here’s a quick list to give you an idea of average growth times:

• Kale – 45 to 70 days
• Radishes – 25 to 40 days
• Lettuce – 50 to 80 days
• Spinach – 35 to 45 days
• Bush Beans – 45 to 65 days
• Basil – 30 to 60 days

I’ve also included a list of helpful links for those in other locations around the US at the bottom of this post.

Getting Dirty

Once you know what you’re planting, you will need to make room for your new crops. I did this today, by pulling up my first batch of peas to make room for my quickly growing cantaloupe plants. I will probably plant more peas in a few weeks, once I’ve made room by harvesting several heads of cabbage.

Once you have your space cleared, make sure that the area is cleaned up and free of weeds. Once the weather starts to cool down, you can use floating row cover or cloches to cover your plants and prolong their growing time. Certain plants will be fine in below freezing temps, such as kale and cabbage, which are hardy down to about 20 degrees. Others will be killed by frost, so you may have to cover them overnight in late fall.

References For Other Areas

• Alabama
• Arizona (Arizona Cooperative Extension, 3 regions by elevation)
• California, statewide planting chart by region
• California, statewide by region (UC-Davis Extension)
• Colorado (and also here)
• Florida
• Georgia
• Illinois
• Indiana
• Iowa (and chart on timing only is here for Iowa)
• Kansas
• Kentucky
• Louisiana (and recommended varieties)
• Maryland or for central Maryland as a colorful “gant” chart here.
• Michigan
• New Jersey
  
• New York (Ithaca/Tompkins County, last planting dates)
• North Carolina
• Oklahoma
• South Carolina
• Pacific Northwest fall/winter guide
• Maine
• Texas (Austin)
• Utah
• Virginia (link to a fall-planting pdf, arranged by region, a companion to the spring one)

Thanks for reading folks! Happy gardening, and see you next time.

The post Succession Planting Vegetables appeared first on The Garden Corner.

Gathering stones was as simple as going to the beach on Lake Superior and filling up my Trader Joe’s bag. As for the paint, I decided to go with Elmer’s Painters. They are acrylic paint markers, which dry quickly and look great. I got mine on Amazon, but your local craft shop may have them as well. Once my rocks were painted, I sprayed them with a quick coat of Krylon Satin Clear finish.

Since I’m not the most artistically inclined person, I decided to look online for a bit of inspiration. I downloaded a few Google Webfonts, and printed out a sheet with sample vegetables for a guide.

While I used my font guide at first, I eventually started to feel a bit more confident and creative and pushed my artistic bounds a bit. I had a lot of fun with these, and I’m really pleased with how some of them turned out!

Now my garden is full of cute painted rocks.  Has anyone else done this before?  Or do you have another favorite DIY garden marker?  I’d love to hear your ideas!

The post DIY Painted Rock Garden Markers appeared first on The Garden Corner.

The temperatures have been cooler than normal, averaging highs in the mid-forties over the past week or so, and it has been windy as heck! Yuck. I had my tomato plants outside yesterday for a couple hours, and they looked pretty sad after just a few hours.

For now, most of my garden is covered in black plastic so the soil will warm up more quickly. I’ve designed a layout plan for my garden, taking crop rotation and companion planting into account, which you can see below.

Read my Companion Planting post if you’d like more details about plant placement!

So, once it’s actually warm enough to plant, it’s going to be a frantic rush to get everything done.

My Planting Process:

• Remove the layer of plastic, and pull any remaining weeds.
• Then add a layer of compost, and work it into the soil.
• Before planting anything I set all of my pots on the dirt where I’m intending to plant them to see if everything fits the way I’d like.
• At this point, I will likely lay down the soaker hose I purchased this year, then just plant around that.
• And last but not least, plant all the things!!

Hopefully I will be updating you all soon with news of warmer weather and some great photos of my plants in the garden!

Thank you to all of our  service men and women; Happy Memorial Day.  Thanks for reading!

The post Organic Gardening #6 – Layout and Planting appeared first on The Garden Corner.

Hardening Off Seedlings

Even though your seedlings are in a simulated outdoor environment, it’s very important to move them outside gradually. The sun is much more powerful that most normal grow lights, and your little plants will get scorched if they’re immediately moved into full sun for too long. Hopefully you’ve also exposed them to a bit of a breeze while indoors, so the first little outdoor breeze won’t knock them over. I had to cover these little guys because it was so cold that day:

Days 1 through 3

I like to cover my plants for the first few days that I set them out. This gives them a bit more shelter, and makes the temperature adjustments a bit easier for them. On Day 1, start by putting them out only for 1-2 hours. By Day 3, you can bump the time up to 4-6 hours. If it’s particularly cold or windy on any given day, you can either cover your plants, or leave them in for a day.

Days 4 through 8

Now that your plants have been exposed to periods of sun and wind, you can start leaving them out for full days. By Day 8 or so, you should be able to leave your plants out overnight.

Days 9 through 12

Your plants should be hardy enough to be transplanted into your garden. By this time, they may be getting too big for their small pots, and you’ll likely see quite a bit of growth once they’re accustomed to their new garden home. Once planted outside, you may still have to cover them a few times if the weather gets too cold or windy.

Direct Sowing Early Crops

Last week I planted pea, beet, and spinach seeds right in my garden. These are all vegetables that will grow well in cool weather. They generally grow quickly, and will produce fairly early. Here’s a short list of cool weather crops that can be started from seed directly in your garden before your last frost date:

• peas
• beets
• spinach
• lettuce
• kale

Preparing Soil for Planting

Last year I got some good advice from my fellow community gardeners. I noticed that several of them had covered their garden plots with black plastic. After asking why they did this, they explained to me that the plastic has multiple uses. First, it will retain heat and help the soil warm up more quickly. Then, because of the heat and moisture any weeds that overwintered in your soil will sprout. Once sprouted, the weeds will die because they are unable to get sunlight. And guess what? It worked! I had far fewer weeds in my garden last year after doing this! It has now become part of my annual garden bed prep.

In a week or so, I will also buy several bags of organic compost to add to my raised bed and help replenish the soil levels. Once this is done, it will nearly be time to plant everything! The only thing I really have left to do is design my final garden layout plan, and that is what I’ll be talking about next time!

What about you? What kinds of things do you do in the spring to get your gardens ready for planting? Let us hear it!

Thanks for reading!

The post Organic Gardening #5-Early Spring Garden Tasks appeared first on The Garden Corner.

So while I continue ignoring our terrible weather, I bring to you Part 4 of my Organic Gardening Series: How to Thin Seedlings. Below you can see a photo of my little tomato seedlings, which are doing quite well. I have cabbage and onion seedlings that should technically be outside already, but I’m waiting another week or so for that.

Why You Should Thin Seedlings

When you live in a cold climate where the growing season is short, it’s very likely that you’ll be starting seeds indoors up to 10 weeks before planting them outside. That’s a long time, and your little plants will need a lot of room to grow before being transplanted. If seedlings are not thinned down to 1 plant per potting cell, there won’t be enough room for all of the roots to grow and none of the plants will thrive.

I Know It Hurts

As much as it pains me to snip the little guys down, I’ve come to realize that it’s something that needs to be done. It’s so hard when seeing the first little sprouts come up give you such joy, and then you have to go through and take a bunch of them out. I’ve gotten better about thinning my seedlings over the years, and my plants have been stronger for it. My recommendation for those of you that have a hard time with this is to take your little seedlings and put them right into the compost bin. This way their sacrifice isn’t going to waste!

When to Thin Them
I generally start 3-4 seeds per pot, and thin down to the strongest one as soon as the leaves start touching each other. At this point, they’re usually between 2 and 3 inches tall.

How to Thin Them

The easiest and least invasive way to thin your seedlings is to use a pair of scissors and snip them off at the base. If you’re careful and your seedlings are still small, you may be able to gently pull them out of the soil without disturbing the roots of the other seedlings.

Before:

After:

Voila! Once thinned out, you’ll be surprised at how quickly the remaining seedlings seem to grow! Next time, I’ll be talking about transitioning your seedlings to the outdoors, and getting your garden planting started. Hopefully after our record-breaking snow amounts in April, May will quickly turn around and warm things up for us. Here’s hoping!

Thanks for reading, folks!

The post Organic Gardening: #4 – How to Thin Seedlings appeared first on The Garden Corner.

Step 1: Gather Your Supplies

You will need the following:

Seed trays with plastic containers and clear lids
A spray bottle full of water
Seed starting soil (quality is important)
Paper and pencil
Grow lights

Step 2: The Dirt

Fill your containers with your soil, and spray it really well so the top layer is nice and damp. A good seed starting soil will be loose and fine, not dense. After they’ve sprouted, your seedlings will require a lot of nutrients to grow as quickly as they do. This is why I use Fox Farm soil; it’s fine enough for seeds to easily germinate in, but it also has the nutrients they need to grow big and strong! I also don’t have to worry about manually fertilizing the seedlings this way, which is much easier in my opinion! If you want more information about choosing a seed starting medium, check out my previous post: The Importance of Dirt.

Since I only sprayed the top of my soil, I add some water to the bottom of the tray so the soil can wick moisture up to the seeds as well.

Step 3: Planting the Seeds

I’m a lazy seed planter, I’ll admit. I don’t read the seed packets for every variety to see what their planting depth should be. I just sprinkle some seeds on the dirt, very lightly tamp it down, and then sprinkle a little more dirt over the top of the seeds. A good rule of thumb is to have your seeds at a depth that is approximately 3 times that of the seed’s diameter.

For really small seeds like Petunias or Snapdragons, I just sprinkle them on top of the soil, tamp it down lightly and call it good.

Step 4: The Lighting

Without at least 12-16 hours of bright light every day, your seedlings will get tall, stringy, and likely fall over after a few weeks. We want strong, sturdy little seedlings that will be healthy enough to withstand their eventual transition outdoors! For this reason, I recommend getting some good grow lights, and connecting them to a timer. If you’re on a budget, these are great bulbs. It’s best to keep the lights between 2-4 inches away from the tops of your seedlings.

Lastly: Ongoing Care

Once planted, water, light, and air are the three things your seedlings will need to thrive.

Water

If you watered your seed trays from the bottom as well as spraying the top, you probably won’t have to water much for the first week or two, since the seedlings won’t have any developed root systems yet. If the top of the soil looks dry, just give them a good misting.

Once sprouted, your seedlings will need a fairly steady supply of water. It’s just as important to make sure that they aren’t too wet, either. If you’re unsure of how much water to give your seedlings, I would recommend watering less. If you water too much, you risk mold, which means you could lose all of your seedlings. If you don’t give them enough water, you’ll likely notice their leaves getting a little wilted, and they should respond well to a good drink of water.

Light

As we discussed above, your seedlings will want at least 12-16 hours of light each day. They will also want a period of darkness to rest. This is why having your lights on a timer works so well. If you don’t have an automatic timer, just make sure to turn the lights off at night.

Air

Air circulation is important for two reasons. First, it is a preventive measure against mold and mildews. Second, it will help strengthen your seedlings so they will better be able to withstand outdoor winds when being transitioned outside. I like to put a fan near my seedlings once they’ve sprouted; it should be on the lowest power. If it still seems as though it’s creating too much of a breeze for your seedlings, then I just move it a little further away.

Finally, it’s important to note that a little attentiveness can go a long way when starting plants from seed. I check my seedlings every day, sometimes every two if I’m busy. It’s definitely more important to watch them closely when they’re just sprouting. Once they’ve grown a bit, then you don’t have to worry about them as much.

Well, that’s it folks. Thanks for reading! I hope all of you are enjoying nice spring weather! In the meantime, I’m wishing I could stay snuggled up at home right now.

PS – Stay tuned for Part 4, when I’ll talk about pruning and hardening off your seedlings!

The post Organic Gardening: Part 3 – Starting Seeds appeared first on The Garden Corner.

While on vacation we toured around a bit, and I got to check an item off my bucket list!  On our third day, we traveled up the coast to Akumal beach. Once there, we rented snorkel equipment and began exploring the ocean.  Sure enough, just a few minutes out we saw a few sea turtles eating sea grass. This one was only a foot or two away from me; he was swimming to the surface for air.

If you ask my close friends, any of them could probably tell you that my favorite animal is the turtle. I was so excited to see these guys up close, and just floated above them for quite a while. It was really incredible, and I’m so thankful that I got to have the experience.

Obviously there was a huge variety of flora everywhere we went. Many of the plants that were growing wild in Mexico can only be grown indoors, and with a great amount of care, in Minnesota. It was refreshing to see so many flowers in bloom, and got me excited to start my garden at home.

These last two photos were taken in Cancun, the night before we flew back to Minnesota. IF you’d like to see some of my other photos from the trip, just head on over to my Flickr page.

Overall, we had a great trip! It was a much needed break from our cold and snowy Minnesota weather. Now that I’m back, I’m ready to dig in the dirt! I’ll be posting my Seed Starting guide in a couple days, so check back soon! Thanks for reading!

The post Vacation Photos: Tulum, Mexico! appeared first on The Garden Corner.

I’ve included a link to my garden plan, as well as a nifty seed starting timeline for folks in my hardiness zone!

Today I’ll go over my earliest phases of garden planning, which I do before I even start my seeds. The level of planning that you do can vary, but after a few years of winging it, I’ve decided to try planning things out a bit more.

I’ve got my seeds, and I’ll be ready to start some of them this week. As you can see, I have a good mix of flowers, fruits and veggies. Now that I’m going to be getting a CSA share, I’m planting fewer fruits and veggies, but more flowers.

It’s always difficult to get an exact estimate of how many seeds to start. Last year I went a little crazy with seed starting, and my seedlings did really well; there were a LOT of extra plants. I crammed more transplants into my garden than I had planned for, and even then, I still had leftovers. But after the flood, many of my community garden friends needed to replace some of their tomatoes and other vegetables, so I was able to give all of my extras away.

Garden Planning 101: Things to consider:

• How much food do you have space for? Not just in your garden, but in your home as well.
• How many people are you trying to feed?
• What will you eat or use the most (try to be realistic).

Space
First, you should calculate the square footage of your garden. I have 175 square feet of garden space. Then I like to get an idea of how much will fit into my garden. If you’re like me, and tend to plant things fairly close together, you could refer to a Square Foot Gardening resource. You can also choose to focus on a few important plants, and give them lots of room to grow.

Next, take a quick survey of your pantry and/or freezer at home. If you have a lot of space, and aren’t afraid to jump into a canning, dehydrating, or freezing project, then by all means- plant as much as you can! If you’re like me, and have a limited amount of space and experience with canning, then you need to put a bit more thought into your plan.

People
Second, think about how many people you will be feeding with your garden. Also, what do they like to eat?  If only one person really likes beets, it’s probably not a good idea to plant a lot of them.

Reality Check
Lastly, be realistic. Think about the vegetables you want to plant, and how much of each you’re likely to use. I like to try out new and interesting vegetables, but if it’s your first time growing something it’s probably best to only plant a few. Remember that harvest time is usually pretty busy, and you will likely have a huge amount of veggies to put up all around the same time (this is especially true in Minnesota where we have such a short growing season). I grew Quinoa last year, and I was really excited about it at first. Then I didn’t have time for threshing and winnowing the grain.  Oops.

My Plan
I used the Mother Earth News Garden Planner to get an idea of how much I can fit into my garden. It’s a great piece of software, and anyone can sign up for a free 30 day trial. Here’s my plan, complete with a list of my vegetables and a handy timeline for when to start, transplant, and harvest each thing! Awesome, right?

Keep in mind, this is NOT my final garden plan. I still have to take companion planting and crop rotation into account. I will probably do this in a few weeks, once it’s closer to the time I will be starting to plant cool weather crops in my garden.

Most cold climate gardeners are gearing up to start their seeds, so I’ve attached a handy Seed Starting Timeline that I created for anyone living in between zones 3b to 4b. The dates were calculated using an average last frost date around May 31st.

We’ll get down to the nitty gritty of seed starting next time! I recommend reading some of my previous posts to get ready! You can order your seeds if you haven’t done so already, and find some quality seed starting soil. Both are very important to having healthy seedlings to put in your garden!

Thanks for reading, and see you next time!

The post Organic Gardening: Part 2 – Garden Planning appeared first on The Garden Corner.

Where to Get Vanilla Beans

Most people don’t realize that vanilla beans are really easy to find (cheaply) online. They are likely very expensive at your local grocery store, so I recommend getting them from Amazon. I purchased mine from them, after a recommendation by one of my girlfriends. So without further ado, below are the links to the exact beans that I got, and they come in many different quantities. (They’ve got great reviews, and even better, they all qualify for free shipping!)

You will need at least 3-4 beans per cup of vanilla extract that you intend to make.
Premium Bourbon-Madagascar Vanilla Beans – 16 beans – $11.49
Premium Bourbon-Madagascar Vanilla Beans – 1/4 lb. – Approx. 27 beans – $15.95
Premium Bourbon-Madagascar Vanilla Beans – 1 lb. – Approx. 108 beans – $44.95

I should warn you that the smell of vanilla beans is to die for; it really is intoxicating. If you’re still not sure you want to make vanilla extract yourself, I say you should do it just to smell the delicious aroma of freshly cut vanilla beans. Aah. I’m glad that I have a few left over so that I can just open the bag and smell them occasionally.

The Recipe: Make Vanilla Extract

This will make 4 cups of extract.
12-16 Vanilla beans
4 cups of vodka- the higher the quality, the better
A little patience

Supplies
Knife
Measuring cup
Clean and dry glass jars

When you’re ready, leave the ends of the beans in tact, and cut a slit through the center of each one. Then turn the bean one quarter rotation, and slice through it again. This will help the flavors to infuse really well. Once you’ve sliced all of your vanilla beans, put them into your clean glass jars and add 1 cup of vodka for every 3-4 beans. Voila! You now have vanilla extract. Once you’ve completed this process, the only thing left to do is be patient.

Your vanilla must sit for 2 months before it’s ready. Gently shake them once every week or two. It will get darker as time goes on. Once it’s ready to be used, you can simply add more vodka to replenish your supply!

If you’d like, you can even print out cute labels for your jars, like this one!

These are especially great for when you give some of your vanilla extract as a gift, or share it with friends. I put them on my jars too, just because I think they’re so darn cute! Now, time to get baking!

Thanks for reading!

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