Canning peppers

First off let me eliminate the idea that only older people can because that isn't true and actually canning is becoming more and more popular with my generation (early to late 20 year old). This is because as the price of canned foods go up it is becoming more and more economical to can your own vegetables, now this doesn't mean that we need to start out trying to can the more complex vegetables ( making pickles for example) because like anything it takes practice. The only person to successful can cucumbers was my grandmother but she would have been the first to admit that it took her several years of trial and error before she was able to make one good batch of pickles.

In today's example, I am taking banana pepper, I actually grew in pots because I ran out of room in my garden (tomatoes took over the garden) and will be canning them. You will need to make you have Vinegar, water (tap water), Canning Salt, Alum powder, and jars with lids. You can get all of these products at any local grocery store honestly for probably under 25 dollars. For those of you who are afraid this took will take all night; tonight's canning honestly look me less than 30 minutes from start to finish.

In order to can any kind of pepper, I always use one part vinegar to one part water and bring it to a boil. As I am bringing the vinegar water solution to a boil, I will wash off the peppers (making sure to remove all dirt and possible chemical), cut the stems off of the peppers, place the peppers in the jar making sure not over load the jar with peppers, pour one eighth of a teaspoon of alum powder and pour one fourth of a teaspoon of canning salt into each jar. Once the vinegar water solution is boiling furiously; you will need to pour that solution into the jars and immediately put the lid on and screw it tightly to the jar. Finally you will want to flip the jar onto its lid and let it sit over night.
If the jar does not seal properly, I would put the jar into a boiling pot of water for 15 minutes making sure to have the whole jar covered in water. After 15 minutes I would place jar on its lid and let if rest over night again on the kitchen towels.
To keep it from burning your kitchen table or counter top I would lay down two or three thick kitchen towels on top of each of other then put the jars on top of the kitchen towels. I didn't water bathe the peppers because the vinegar acts as a natural sterilizer and because I am putting the vinegar water solution into the jars still boiling, this will actually cause the jars to naturally seal.

Side note
     I am not sure why this is but I will admit that home grown and canned foods taste 1000 times better than anything you can buy at the store.
My useful tip of the week
     If you decide to grow corn in your garden I would recommend having at least 4 rows of corn together. This is because the corn cross pollinates each other using the wind and if you don't have more than two rows of corn you will honestly probably not get any corn. Trust me on this, I have tried growing only one row of corn and two rows of corn and I honestly didn't get any corn at all.

Watering your garden

When it comes to watering your garden it can become very tricky on when do you water your garden and how much do you water my garden.

When it comes to when should you water my garden you will find two different answers: watering in the morning or water in the evenings. Some people will say when you water your garden at night you promote mold growth while others will say if you water in the mornings you have a greater chance of burning your plants. When I started trying to figure out the best time to water my garden and potted plants, I tried both and honestly I don't see any major difference as long as you don't water in the heat of the day; and between you and me if you are going to water in the middle of the day I would say just soaking the ground around the plant is the best opinion. This will help keep you from burning you plant. The biggest problem I have with watering my plants is in the middle of summer, when it is over 100 degrees, is your vegetables (tomatoes especially) will get splits in them.

This doesn't mean your tomato is bad and you should throw it away, it just means that the tomato had more water than the skin couldn't hold in it. The tomato will heal from this tear/split.

When I am watering my plants I want to try and get as much water on the plants roots as I can without flooding the plant. The reason for this is, you want your plants to develop a deep wide root base that way you aren't having to water your plants as often. This will help promote a healthier and stronger plant. A good way of testing to see if you are watering your plants enough is to pick a place beside your plant (not close to the roots hopefully) and see if the ground has moisture at least an inch deep. This is because any water you have near the surface is first to evaporate during the heat of the afternoon, plus will once again help allow your plant's roots to dig deeper for water.
On a side note,
     I wouldn't water you plant more than a couple times a week that way you keep from having giving you plant root rot and allowing the plant to adopt the environment you are in.

Useful tip of the week
If you are wanting to grow strawberries in a garden, try and buy the plants that have runners shooting off from them. That way you are buying two or more plants instead of just one plant for the price of one plant.

Gardening using Pottery Part 2

Like I promised in the earlier post I will show you the difference between plants in pots and plants in a garden box.
Below is an example of a Habanero plant I have been growing in a post and next is a picture of a Habanero grown in a garden box/flower bed.

I am not sure how easy it is to tell from the pictures but the Habanero plant growing in the garden box/flower bed is easily 4 inches taller and a lot healthier of plant. There is no yellowing or leaf decay on the plant while the potted plant is considerably smaller and not as healthy of a plant. Both of these plants were planted on the same day and in the same soil; they were treated the same when it came to fertilizer and watering.
Now like I said this doesn't mean you can't grow certain plants from pots. I have been very successful in growing banana peppers and tomatoes in pots.

These tomatoes plants are considerably smaller in height and overall bushy-ish  however they are strong and healthy plants.
Growing plants in pots are very useful when it comes to gardening in small spaces however I don't feel like you can get the same "bang for the buck" in produce from a plant as you can from growing the same plant in a garden box. I am not sure why this is but this is what I have learned in my gardening experience.

Question of the week
What kind of garden plants have you grown in pots and what kind of luck have you had growing in pots?

Gardening using Pottery

I am sure we have all tried growing a flower in a pot, which makes us think we can grow anything using a pot, soil, and a seed. Well through my experience it doesn't work that way for every plant. I have been trying to grow Habanero plants using pots for two years and so far I have had no success doing this. The problem I have had is that the plant will grow tall and bushy with tons of leaves and flowers; then the next thing I know all the leaves are turning yellow and all of the flowers are all just falling off.
This doesn't mean I can't ever get a vegetable or fruit plant to grow in a pot. I have had great success growing banana peppers, lemon trees, and growing tomatoes. It seems like these heartier plants do better for me.

I am going to keep trying to master growing plants from pots however I would recommend building a garden box for your vegetable and fruit plants. I will describe in later posts, how to build a garden box. I will try and remember to take pictures of the my plants in their pots and then compare it to the same kind of plants I have planted in my garden box; and let everyone be the judge

My useful tip of the week
When it comes to using pots for gardening; I would recommend getting the next size up in pottery from what you are thinking. If you notice you are having to water a plant every day otherwise it looks dead (not because of heat); you will need to transfer the plant to a larger pot because that plant is getting root bound (roots haves no where to expand too)

First Gardening blog

I would like to first off like to introduce myself. My name is Farmer Stamps and unlike my name I am not a professional gardener but just starting out. I live in a subdivision with my wife and daughter and work 40+ hours a week. I got introduced to gardening from my grandfather and my dad who have a combined experience of at least 80 years when it comes to gardening. In this blog I am going to post about things I have learned, experiments I try, failures I have, hopefully successes too, and little bits of random (hopefully) useful information.
Let me start out by saying anyone can garden and grow vegetables but let me warn you it will take some time and effort on your behalf. I have a 12' by 26' foot garden and I normally spend around an hour or two every couple of nights out there; I am normally weeding, watering, or picking vegetables. I use to never believe people who said that garden fresh fruit and vegetables were better but honestly they are right. I might just be the fact that you are rewarding yourself with all your hard work and effort or it might be that you don't pick your fruit and vegetables early either.

My useful tip of the week
Don't buy the vegetable plant that is fully grown and will cost you 20 to 30 dollars because you will never make your money back on it, instead buy the little 6 pack of vegetables for around 6 to 10 dollars. That is how you make money gardening. Personally I am trying to grow them from seeds and then plant what comes up.