My tomato plants have me stumped!

            It has become an obsession! Seriously, I look for pictures and descriptions and walk out and look at them a few times a day. I do not see anything anywhere like what is going on with most of my tomatoes. They look like they are wilted but are firm to touch. The leaves and stems are almost fern like and they are all curled and growing down instead of out and up. I did find little black bugs that look like ants or fruit flies on them so I  sprayed a pesticide. The pesticide did not seem to do anything, so last night I blended up  3 garlic cloves in 2 cups of water then added about a TBL of oil, a few drops of natural lemon oil and eucalyptus oil. I put a 1/4 cup of the mix with about a 1/2 tsp dish soap in a 64 ounce sprayer. The plants actually looked a touch better today. I did not see as many living bugs on them. I did put a small cup of oil by one of the plants and the black nat things seem to be attracted to it and drown.  

My Utah Garden 2011

This is my second post today for my garden. I felt like the good and bad could not be on the same post.
So besides the nightmare. I am crossing my fingers we don't lose anything. I have done everything beside sing to it to help it along.

I planted 25 tomato plants, 13 peppers plants, 1 egg plant, 8 cucumbers, 1 watermelon, 1 cantaloupe, small row of Swiss chard, 3 small rows of corn, 3 small rows of beats, 4 pole beans, 2 zucchini, 1 yellow squash, 4x4 box of peas, 2x4 box of carrots and a 4x4 box of white onions.  I also have 2 4x4 boxes of  established raspberries, 1 4x4 box that has asparagus growing in it (this will be year 3).  I also have two 4x4 boxes of strawberries. That is all in my back yard. I have a huge rhubarb plant, a huge bed of strawberries and 7 fruit trees in my front yard.  I also have random herbs planted all over the place. 

Matt finished my new raised bed. The tall supports down the center are for my grapes and blackberries.

My peas are looking good! My kids favorite.

 

All my pepper plants look really good. I planted 3 yolo wonder green bells ( 2 out of the three have peppers on them already), I also planted two banana peppers , 6 jalapeno (I want to can them this year) and 2 red bell peppers.

This is one of my banana peppers. I have never had peppers this early.

This is the average size of my tomato plants. I have a few that are much bigger, but not as healthy.

  

My front bed is so full of strawberries. They look better this year than they ever have. I thinned them out so much last year I was worried I would not get much. It made them thicker and bigger.  I hear Strawberries are really hard to grow in Utah, but I tried to kill these before I decided to baby them.

Picture before I removed my covers.

I bought most all my plants about 7 weeks ago. I have kept them in my wagon in my garage and pulled them in and out everyday if the weather permitted. I got all excited and planted them almost 2 weeks ago. I was so glad I missed the big hail storm but then it got all rainy and cold. That first night I could not sleep and worried all my work and money was outside freezing. So the next night I came up with 33...Yes 33 buckets, flower pots and garbage cans. I even used my kids Easter buckets.  I have gone out and covered everything without a cage or support most every night since. I go back out in the morning and uncover them.  I covered my caged supports with a big furniture cover. I read that the tender plants will survive in the cooler temperatures but anything below 50 they put all their energy into just staying alive. In other words they won't grow much.  I am hoping I will have a record produce garden this year. A big come back from not growing one last year.
     

My Garden nightmare.

I think my yard would be a pathologists dream of bacteria, viruses and who knows what else. One of the managers at IFA said that all this wet cool weather has all kinds of stuff growing that normally is not a problem here in Utah.

                                              My Blackberries

I dug them up two days ago to look at the roots.  I had some white ones so their is a tiny hope. The water table is so high where they are planted. The roots where just in a slosh pool of water, so I raised them up . I  picked up a  Ferti-lome fire blight spray that that I have started to treat them with.

This tomato was very purple. It looks a little droopy but it is not as purple as it was.   I know that the cold  temperatures can cause plants to turn purple through the veins because they can't absorb the phosphorus.  I bought some  bone meal and sprinkled it around the base of all my tomatoes.

I could not get a good picture of the purple on my tomatoes so I took one of my marigold.   These leaves are not crispy. It just looks like the leaves are suppose to be this color.  I have found a few things that this could be. One is fire blight.  One is the lack of phosphorus.   A new disease that popped up in 2006 called TPLD.  

This Tomatillo split and looks like shoulders. It is growing out instead of up. Weird! 

This tomatillo is still tiny and not growing ...yet it is covered in as many blossoms as possible. I am trying to decide  if  I should pinch the blossoms off so the plant can grow bigger first.

                 Now on to my trees! This is making me sick!

We started off infested with aphids. This leaf is after being sprayed twice! 

Then came all the rusty colored leaves on my  apple tree. This tree looks horrible. It has fire blight and a bacterial issue.  I am thinking we will have to cut this one down. 

My pear tree looks like some one took a magnifying glass and burnt all the tips of my leaves. This tree also has fire blight and some other kind of bacteria.

I took cuts of both trees to IFA and that is where I got my information. I have also researched on line and found the same thing I was told by the IFA manager. He recommended a ferti-lome fire blight spray and also a ferti-lome broad spectrum fungicide.
I was also told to cut 6 inches below and infected branch but that would be my entire tree. I have applied the spray 2 times at this point. My tomatoes look better. I think the rest may as well. It is hard to tell ...as they still look good as dead.    

Stuffed Rolls!

                     This is one of my family's favorite meals.

Stuffed Rolls!

Start by making your favorite roll recipe! 

I use my roll mix!

While the dough rises I make the stuffing.  I usually make a couple different  stuffing's at a time. 

This is just pepperoni cut up. A small amount of my own canned pizza sauce, and a small amount of  mozzarella cheese.
You don't want to add to much sauce or cheese because it tends to leak out if you do.

This one is a qrt of my canned chicken, half a cube of cream cheese, about half a cup of sour cream, dryed basil (I would use fresh if I had it) diced up garlic (I like a lot) about a cup of mozzarella cheese, pepper and a pinch of salt. 

This is a new one. It is about a half qrt of canned chicken, a pint of my canned pineapple (drained) and about a half cup of our favorite bbq sauce and some diced garlic. I did cook this one to get some of the juices out from the pineapple. After it cooled down I added about 3/4 cup of mozzarella cheese.

Now I know this may seem like a lot of work or prep, but all the ingredients are already prepared. It is a matter of opening jars and pouring. The dough is all ready except for the wet ingredients. I do not own a mixer, so I make mine by hand.

I take a glob of dough and roll it out, then cut it with my pizza cutter. You can do these any size you want. I have done them small enough that they are just bite size and big enough that one could be an entire meal.

I put a little cheese on the bottom, add a spoon full of stuffing, then a little more cheese.  Then you are going to pick up one end and roll and tuck. Roll forward and tuck in the sides as you go. You want to get the best seal possible so all your yummy stuff stays inside. 

Here is a pan ready to go in the oven. I have them arranged on the pan in different sizes and shapes so I know which ones are which, and so I have a variety for my kids to choose from. 

I bake them on 350 for 20 minutes. I did butter the tops this time around. I usually don't and it did not make a difference to me. Like I said you can take as much time as you want to make them pretty, or just throw it all together. I am not so much into making my food pretty and perfect before it disappears into mouths. I am into the fastest prep, and my husband and kids love these.

So I told you just to add a small amount of pizza sauce to the pepperoni stuffing! I dump a Qrt jar of sauce into a pan, put what I need in the pepperoni stuffing and heat the rest up, then you have a dipping sauce for those who like it extra saucy.  

Add a salad and or fruit for the perfect meal!

Candy hair clips!

Result...tons of cute hair clips!

             I promised the twins something fun when they got home from school today  . A friend of mine gave me the idea except she had seen them as pins.  We went to Family Dollar and got a bag of gum balls, and a bag of assorted hard candies. Then we went to Sally's and picked up a box of metal hair clips. (I will just mention for anyone who has girls with hair, Sally's has the best clear small rubber bands and they are the cheapest too)

1. cut small strips of ribbon to put in between the clip so you don't glue the clip shut.
2. glue on your gum or what ever hard candy you choose. (I painted some flowers on the plain hard candies with just cheap craft paint)
3. take outside and spray with clear glaze. This gives it the glass like finish (and hopefully will keep the      kids from eating there clips for a snack.
4. I did find that if you turn the clip upside-down the flat candies look better.
5. I also hot glued a few of the candies to some bobby pins.

All in all the kids had fun, and you can say Ooh that's so cute, or you can say "Hun you have a piece of candy stuck in your hair!"

Moms memories for mothers day!

             These are some of my kids funny moments...


Avri...(she was about 4)I use to do all my shopping at Albertson's.  Avri was my little side kick. I was having a bad day and had been venting to my dad earlier (avri must have been on the defense).  So Avri and I go to Albertsons. I get my groceries and at the check out the lady says "do you have your albertsons card?" I hand her my keys (the card is on my key ring)  Avri says... to the cashier All puffed up hands on the hips "I just don't understand why you think you can keep charging my mom for her own key's over and over every time we come in here!" 


Hattie...(she was 3) She use to love the book "There was an old lady who swallowed a fly" She was sitting on the couch reading it one day.. "There was an ol lady who swallowed a sly, I don't know why she swallowed the sly, she swallowed a spider, a cat,a dog, a goat, a cow... (she looks up so confused hands in the air) mom how she do that?" 


Belle...(she was 7)She came home from school and said she was starving because she threw her hamburger in the garbage at lunch time. Me "why?" Belle..."ummm... because they said they made the Patti out of a cow." ME.."where did you think hamburger came from? "  Belle "the store" 


Abby... (she was 7) We are driving up and over a canyon pass. The elevation was at about 10,000 feet. Abby says she is to scared to look up because we are so high.  We stopped to take a picture and Abby asked me how much higher we had to go.  I say "we are at the top" She looks up at the sky and says "Wow the sky is much higher than I thought it was" 


Kyle...(he was 7) we are remodeling our kitchen and Kyle is sitting at the table eating lunch out of the blue he says "Dad don't you wish you had a Canadian?"  Matt laughs and says "what does that mean?"  Kyle " they work for free so you don't have to, heard it on the TV"


Tallon...(he was 4) Me "tell me 3 reasons why you love me" Tallon " Because Jesus says to love every one " Me that's 1 Tallon " because you said its not nice to tell people I don't like them" me k that's 2  Tallon " because you are my mom" 

Get ready, Get set GARDEN!

Tallons hands were freezing because he got into the water hose.  Then he discovered the compost was nice and warm. 

I told him it was poop! He seemed to enjoy it even more!

I am determined to have an awesome garden this year. Last summer I spent 6 weeks in Texas with my in laws, so this year I am refreshed and ready to go.  I have been told that the green waste plant in Lindon has the best compost you can get. I have seen the garden vegetables it produces....but I am so grossed out by the thought of sticking my hands in it. I hate wearing gloves!!! I decided this year I was going for the best. Just look at that dark color!  The compost is made up of green waste and treated sewage...It smells to high heaven. You can see by the color that it is very rich( no rocks).  It is also very warm.   If you are interested in getting compost, you buy this stuff by the yard. It is $20.00 a yard. It is pretty close to the Lindon dump. If you get off the  first Lindon exit (coming from the north side) and head west you will see signs.  

Other things I have done to improve my garden this year. I have been turning the dirt and picking out all the rocks. YES very tedious... I live in Lehi and I don't know if it is just this area but I live on a rocky sand pit.  Just useless info...but I have picked at least 2 , 5 gallon buckets full of rocks out of my garden beds. I have several boxed in beds that I have put gravel and rocks around to keep the weeds out so I just add to those piles.

This is not the best picture but you get the idea of the box and gravel around it. You can see a few weeds around in the rocks, but since the rock is so deep the weeds just come right out. Yes that is my rain gutter in the back ground. It fell off!

I am also expanding my growing areas. I have a very large family and a large number of canning jars to fill each year, so i find myself over planting and expecting more vegetables. I think I end up with the opposite result.  So I dung up another area. I had all these bricks so I used them as a border to keep the grass out. I dug over 3000 pounds of sod out of this area ...Yes all by myself. NO I am not in as good of shape as that sounds. I put about a 1-2 inch border of rocks in front of the bricks to also aid in the grass protrusion. I used rocks that I picked out of the sand under the sod. So this project so far has only cost me money in compost to till into the sand I uncovered.

This area get full sun. All I need to do now is mix in the compost.



As if that was not enough. I asked my hubby to build me another raised garden on the other side of the yard as well. This area also gets full sun all day long. He wanted to take down our patio so he could build a fully enclosed one. The wind rips through here so hard some times that the one he had was just Boeing outward. So he used the timbers from that for supports for my grapes and black berries. 

The timbers in the center of this are all cemented in the ground. I have two big black berry plants on one end and two grape vines on the other.  The timbers will support the upward growth of those bushes. I also have 16 inches around the front,back and sides so I can plant a from all angles.

My wonderful and supportive husband dug out all the surrounding grass. He found these nice landscape timpers  at Lowes for $3.00 a piece. He is going to build the box 4 timbers high. I am excited.