If you are not familiar with the terms extensive and intensive, they can be a bit misleading. Extensive doesn't mean large, it means requiring little or no additional inputs (fertilizer, compost, labor, etc.) and intensive doesn't mean working hard, it means using a lot of those same inputs. A great primer on the differences can be found here.For my initial garden set up, it was intensive. I purchased the raised beds, the materials to make soil (compost, vermiculite and peat moss) and seeds. But once it is set up, I was able to become much more extensive. I save seeds, any part of the plants that do not end up on a dinner plate go into the compost to feed the next generation, seedlings that need to be thinned have those same two options - food or compost, or as my son says "the circle of life".I still have water as a major input when the skies aren't doing the watering for me and I still have to buy some seed, but otherwise it is a pretty closed cycle with most of what my garden needs coming from my garden and yard. I have looked into the rain barrel collection options but I am not convinced that water that has run off a petroleum based shingle roof is a good idea for growing my food.In the meantime, more and more people like me, who have a generational disconnect from the conventional farming ways of our grandparents and great-grandparents are taking up farming and urban farming. With this new generation of growers we are seeing an entirely new set of best practices and innovative ideas. Maybe someday soon I will be able to have a completely closed system.
It's Not Goodbye
Six times a year for the past 4 years, pure happiness has been delivered to my mailbox in the form of Urban Farm Magazine. I didn't notice the little green banner at the top of the cover on my May/June 2015 issue so I was unprepared when I read Editor, Roger Sipe's farewell from the final print edition EVER!Thankfully, Roger did not leave his fans in suspense long and in the first paragraph assured us that Urban Farm Online will continue digitally (Urban Farm Online, Facebook, Twitter, Pintrest,) with new content as he transitions to Hobby Farms and Chicken magazines.Thank you Roger and crew for continuing to share, inspire and mentor us!
Full Spring Ahead
This morning the blueberry bushes were loaded with plumping berries,
as well as a new crop of blooms.
The beds are looking more green than brown with each passing day.
This afternoon the rain is the gardener so I am catching up on indoor projects. I started my first Elm Oyster Kit experimenting with a cloche instead of the humidity tent that comes with the kit. I really liked the Shiitake Blocks and plan to do them again soon but I wanted to learn more about the Elm Oysters because they are a forage mushroom in NC.
Growing My Garden
One month and seven days after the evil groundhog did his worst, the Raleigh area has had two days in a row that could reasonably be called spring-like. The latin edict of carpe diem sent me to my backyard today to set up my new garden beds in preparation for the spring planting and transplanting that will be upon me in a few short weeks.Back in 2011 when I was learning about square foot gardening, I did a lot of research on what to make my raised beds out of. I wanted to find something both durable but also easy to break down and transport since I knew I would only be in Kansas for a few years. I found the Lifetime Products 4 x 4 raised beds and have never looked back. They are easy to put together, rot resistant, BPA free, lightweight and transportable (10 of them traveled with me from Kansas after a year and a half in use) and are very nice to look at. I priced out the Lifetime beds compared to making wood ones and found the lifetime to be a better bargain for my needs.Today I wanted to show how easy they are to put together so here I am with my weed barrier in place and putting together one of my new beds in my On Screen Debut.Another benefit of the Lifetime beds is that they have little markers for the square footers among us. I use those guides to drop in small, galvanized screws and tie kitchen string between them to mark out my squares. It creates an attractive, floating (but still flexible) grid to plant within.I now have all of my beds set up and in place and just need to mix the soil for 4 of them. I have 8 that need to have their floating grids of kitchen string but should have my garden up and ready to go in the next two weeks, which is a good thing considering the size of my zucchini starts!
Rotation Reboot
Denial ain't just a river in Egypt - true in my Midwestern youth and true today.Last week I accidentally* ordered 4 additional garden beds instead of the 2 strictly required for my 2015 garden plan. Today, with extra garden beds waiting in the garage and a snow day in the Triangle at hand, I sat down to consider what to do about the 32 square feet of extra planting space I accidentally* acquired. As I considered whether to add new plants, expand the number of my current varieties or a combination of both, I kept thinking of this article I had run across a couple of weeks ago about crop rotation.Until now, I have done a pretty good job of refuting the quiet voice in the back of my mind talking about crop rotation with arguments like "I add compost regularly to my raised beds, so I am replacing the lost nutrients" and "my scale is to small to worry about crop rotation, and that is for monocultures anyway", but as I sat here today looking at what I had already planned and what I was planning to expand, it became harder and harder to not be a responsible steward of the soil I have made and hope to nourish my family with.At the same time I am garden planning, I am enjoying the Edible Education classes on youtube about the future of agriculture, arable land and food in America and the world.So back to the article for tips on rotations and my garden plan I went. My garden was not entirely hodgepodge, there was some method to my madness! I have a north facing backyard despite my strong preferences and best efforts when house hunting last summer, but if you can't be with the one you love, love the one you're with! So all the tall plants were planned for the back of the garden so they weren't casting shade on anyone behind them and the ones that need more sunlight hours were placed to the right of the garden which has more daylight hours before being shaded by my south facing house. Beyond those two considerations though, it probably was a bit of a hodgepodge.I started with color coding my planned plants according to the 4 main categories (leaves, fruits, roots and legumes) to see where I was - which was all over the place, then reorganized their placement into a more cohesive plan. I started at the left with the leaves and worked my way right to legumes with the idea that everything will shift to the right for 2016 and so on. I don't currently have an equal number of boxes devoted to the roots and legumes as I do for the leaves and fruits to make this work perfectly, but I am hoping that ending my denial and admitting I have a rotation problem is the first step in solving it.And since I was at it with color coding plant "types" on my Excel spreadsheet, I thought I might as well include the container plantings I had planned, the non-rotational plants (asparagus, some herbs and strawberries) I will have off-set from the Garden Proper and the Morel boxes I have in the tree line at the back of my property. And since I was going to include those, I may as well include a code for my preferred preservation techniques for each type...
The red arrows are where trellis supports will be, and the 3 beds in blue will be off to the side and will not rotate from year to year. I think it is entirely likely that more beds will be added for 2016 and an effort will be made to utilize them for roots and legumes so I end up with a roughly even number for each overall type so the rotations work more uniformly.I plan to grow a handful of flower varieties with as many natives as possible to serve the local pollinators, but since I will not be eating them, I am comfortable putting them directly in the yard and not taking up precious garden space with them. Additionally I have my 5 blueberry plants, 4 fig trees (2 in the ground and 2 in containers), my Meyer Lemon and an indoor Bay Laurel.All in all, 2015 is shaping up to be a great year to grow and I am considering alternate irrigation sources now that I have cut Denial out of my garden plan.*tell me your definition of accident and I will tell you mine
New Beginnings
The groundhog has come out of his hole to do his evil once again this year and after few minutes spent researching his predictions (hint - he pretty much always sees his shadow and his accuracy is debatable) I got down to the real business of early February - seeds!My 2015 garden as it exists on paper and in seed packets, has already expanded over previous years' in terms of both square footage and vegetables to be grown. It may expand a bit more before the daffodils raise their heads and announce the official start of Gardener's Spring.I have been busily recycling the newspapers left in my driveway and on the office breakroom table for months into folded newspaper seed pots in preparation for this first full week of February.
I would also like to that all those generous people that donated used wine corks for my plant markers ;)
Mending Wall
The Mending Wall by Robert Frost is one of my favorite poems and I have found myself thinking of it often this past week as the contractors first set posts in concrete and then built the 6' privacy fence around my back yard. This poem which has spoken to me since my first reading of it is about of the mischievous spirit of the narrator that wants to tear down the proforma barriers between neighbors, in sharp contrast to my recent deliberations on the height and linear dimensions of the one I wished to erect.In the poem, the narrator has an apple orchard while his neighbor has pine trees, making a fence between them truly more a matter of principle than necessity. My little back yard garden on the other hand, is frequented by uninvited neighborhood deer, dogs, kids and rabbits. I erected my fence to not on the counterpoint of the poem's principle of "Good fences make good neighbors", but to avoid broken stems on spring transplants and trampled fall vegetables a week before their maturity date.Before the fence, my back yard would have been most easily divided visually and structurally into two nearly equal sections. The section closest to the house consisting of what most of us would call "yard", meaning an open, grassy space. The back half is sometimes jokingly and grandiosely referred to as "the woods", but would more accurately be described as a line of trees and scrub brush taking up the rear 1/2 of the yard. With the coming of the fence came the reclaiming of the portions that had been scrub and giving the majestic 3 story pines (some sweet gumball trees which I have an uneasy truce with) and the one magnolia a bit of elbow room to enjoy their life as backdrops to my urban garden.The clearing began today with the smallest of the sweet gumball trees and scrub being removed, pruning of suckers and small branches below 6' on the remaining gumballs and pines that will remain and the raking and removal of some of the ankle deep pine straw mulch covering the area to create clearings where herbs and pollinator friendly flowers will be planted in spring to compliment and benefit the vegetable garden.
Before
After
There is much left to do and I will truly enjoy every minute of putting my little slice of land to its highest and best use to provide nourishment for the mind, body and soul.
December Greens
Collards and spinach may not qualify as Christmas Miracles in most circles, but having fresh, green produce right outside of your back door that is pest-free due to the season is not entirely unlike a miracle in winter.
Merry, Merry!
Winter Pesto
I grow a lot of basil indoors during the winter months. I have learned that around 14 smallish pots is the ideal number to have enough fresh basil on hand for my near daily culinary use as well as the occasional fabulous hostess gift. Once in a while though, events conspire and a couple of days go by with no foraging and the basil gets a bit overgrown.
So one of the side effects of growing so much basil is the need to make a small batch of pesto about once a month. A lot of pesto recipes are based on a large quantity, summer harvest. Here is the scaled down version I make with my winter basil:Winter Pesto:2 cups packed fresh basil leaves (I prefer Genovese Sweet Basil)1/4 cup olive oil2 garlic cloves, pressed1/4 cup toasted pine nutssprinkle of salt1/2 cups shredded Parmesan, Pecorino or blendBlend all except the cheese in food processor until smooth, adding in the olive oil a little at a time. Add the cheese and pulse again until preferred consistency.Pesto is great because even in small batches you can stretch out its bright, summery taste. You can freeze 1/2 TBS dollops in an ice cube tray for a quick, pre-measured burst of flavor for any soup, add to softened butter for wonderful bread spreads, blended with hummus for dip, a spread to spice up a grilled cheese, tossed with pasta - the list is endless.
Garden Craft
I ran across this wooden paper pot maker online and wanted to try it. I made a couple of so-so pots with it this morning then searched for a video tutorial to see if there were any tricks to doing it. During my search I ran across this origami paper pot video so I had to try that too.I think I prefer the origami version for strength of construction, aesthetics and depending on the seedling being started, size, but both fun ideas for biodegradable seedling pots that recycle newspaper.
Mind the Gap
I finally completed my Planting Guide for the 2015 garden. I wanted a concise, visual reference for what I need to do throughout the year and to see if I could find any gaps between early and late cold weather crops for some summer succession plantings. I accomplished the first but failed in the later.Since I will not be able to grow red peppers between planting of my cold weather crops I will either have to cut back on quantities of something else or add another raised bed to grow everything I want in 2015.
Spinning Gold
Fall fell on the Triangle region while I was in New Orleans and the pace of leaf drop from the trees in my back yard is picking up speed. The water and light permeable row covers I have over my collards and spinach is doing a great job of protecting the beds from litter.
But what to do with all of those leaves? I have more leaves than I could possibly mix in my compost bins since I had a late start to my gardens this year and I just don't have the greens to off-set the carbon.A few years ago I had seen an episode of Ask This Old House with Roger Cook talking about making leaf bin out of fencing to let the leaves compost on their own into leaf mold. This seemed a better use of the nutrients falling on my garden than curbside pickup so a quick trip to Lowe's later, I set up my own leaf bin.
It blends perfectly into the landscape and is currently holding .2 acres worth of leaves. Because I have a healthy amount of pine needles mixed in with the leaves, I took it one step further and used my weedwacker as as immersion blender to help get the process started by breaking down some of the leaves and needles as well as creating a little more room on top for round two which is sure to happen next weekend.I only purchased 4 rebars to do one bin but I have enough chicken wire left to do at least two more if I need to. All in all, a fun project with an attractive result that will give me gardening gold for my plants next year.
In and Out
I needed to travel to New Orleans last week on business and snapped a couple of pics of my indoor and outdoor gardens before I headed to the airport. I told myself that I took the pics in case I had time to update this blog while I traveled, but the truth is that I really enjoy seeing my little gardens every day whether I am home or not.Indoor garden
Outdoor garden
And now that I am home and it is almost the weekend...expect an update!
Touch of Lace
There is a period of heightened vigilance after bringing in container trees to overwinter in a sunny window. They have been out in nature since spring and nature will come in with them.This year I found a couple of small spiders on my trees who were left to carry on and a cabbage worm chomping on my fig's leaves who was not. To my surprise, almost a month after bringing them in I noticed delicate, white structures on the underside of a Meyer Lemon leaf. They were too perfect, too orderly, too fragile to not call them beautiful.
Some quick research gave them a name - they are the eggs of the Lacewing, a beneficial insect that has a fondness for eating aphids. I have known the name for many years but could not have said if they were pests or beneficial (somewhat arbitrary terms anyway) or what they looked like.You meet the most interesting bugs when you garden...
Trouble With The Trees
My backyard garden is nestled between my backdoor and a 20 foot deep strip of pines and sweet gumball trees at the back of my property. There is a magnolia in there and a soft cedar that I have yet to identify, but overwhelmingly it is 2-3 story pines and sweet gumballs and they shed a LOT this time of year. Leaves, pine needles and eventually pine cones.I have spent enough time picking leaves and pine needles out of my garden beds to consider what a pine cone falling 3 stories onto a spinach plant might do to the plant and have taken evasive action.I had installed hoop covers a couple of weeks ago and tried bird netting to start with. Pine needles seem to have an uncanny way of falling straight down and bypassing the netting, but it was doing pretty well with the gumball leaves. Stepping up my game I am now trying garden mosquito netting that is water and light permeable. I had considered plastic sheeting which would serve the dual purpose of keeping out the trees' castoffs and turning my hoops into a low tunnel greenhouse, but it would also keep out rain and thereby increase watering requirements, so I settled on the mosquito netting and letting the plants tough out the coming cold temps.This morning brought a steady rain of both precipitation and tree bits and I am happy to say that the water got in and the tree bits stayed out!
Fall Garden Update
Despite my best efforts I ended up with a north facing back yard. I laid out my garden beds shortly after moving in and for weeks watched as the sun rose and set lower and lower into the southern sky each day and finally decided "what the heck". I planted my collards and spinach in the end most boxes which seemed to be getting the most sun hours each day. hoping they would do well but not really expecting them to. They have impressed me with their germination rate and growth.The first possible light freeze for this area is forecast for this week and I hope they have established themselves enough to withstand the cold. I am expanding my indoor garden this weekend either way!
Garden Planning
I spent the morning planning and drafting out my 2015 garden in Excel, compromising on the amount of 'This' on my spreadsheet so I can grow a little more of 'That' in my limited space. I can grown an awful lot of food in my 9 4x4 intensive raised beds, but because of the simplicity of the math, I am also keenly aware of just how many square feet of space I have available to me and the limitations of such.I have learned over the past couple of years that if I already have my garden laid out in advance of looking at seed catalogs, it will help curtail the impulse to try out some of the wonderful, colorful temptations on offer. In order to add anything new to my carefully planned square footage, something else must be eliminated to make room for it.Before you think I am the most self-disciplined and focused gardener you have ever heard of, know that I also have a habit of saying 'well, I could make a little 2x2 box separate from the garden proper and try it over there...'. I have done this with morel mushrooms, some perennial herbs, strawberries and asparagus.In the meantime, the 'best laid plans' for 2015:
Fall Garden
Being a newcomer to the south, I like the idea of incorporating a whole new list of historically normal and place-centric foods into my garden and menus. I read this great article in Urban Farm magazine a few months ago that seeded the idea of growing collards. This was perfect timing since I was purchasing a house in late July making my 2014 garden and harvest options limited due to a shortened outdoor growing season for this first year.Collards are one of the southern foods that did not make their way into my rural, Midwestern childhood the way that fried okra, catfish and frog legs did. My only experiences to date have been at restaurants in and around the Raleigh area with mixed results. One of the reasons the article and the idea of growing my own collards appealed to me was the opening part about them being often overcooked, which I would say is true of every dish of collards I have had so far. I also believe that the time from harvesting until it is on the plate makes a difference no matter what kind of food we are talking about, so the idea of fresh collards hopefully cooked to perfection is one I am looking forward to.With my limited time frame, I have planted 16 dwarf collards (another 16 just last week and I am waiting to see if they germinate) and 144 spinach plants (2 varieties) in my outdoor garden. I am still looking at options for additional cold weather plants but feeling pretty good about what I have growing considering my time and weather constraints for this year.
The Great Indoors
The leaves are turning, the mornings are a bit crisper and all of the big box stores have hauled out their Christmas items....that can mean only one thing - its time for NHG to head indoors!As I sifted through listings looking for my Raleigh area home, the garden potential of the backyard and the indoor gardening space were priorities. I use intensive, raised bed gardening outdoors so I can grow a lot in a little space outdoors and the same is true indoors. I have set up in my indoor garden in a dormer nook in my bonus room that measures 48" deep by 74" wide. I have two 4' x 18" chrome finished utility shelves equipped with shop light fixtures to grow my herbs and tender greens.
My indoor garden is great in summer months to grow lettuce and spinach that cannot tolerate the summer heat but it really comes into its own during the winter when it serves as my main source of fresh herbs and greens. What I have growing so far are:
- 13 Genovese Basils
- 3 Cilantros
- 1 Oregano
- 1 Mint (on consignment for my neighbor who wants it for a Kentucky Derby party next year)
- 4 Rosemarys
- 2 Garlic Chives
- 2 Leaf Lettuce varieties
- Basil and Cilantro microgreens
I will light up additional shelves as the season wears on to add more lettuces and more microgreens (I love arugula and mustard for salad and sandwiches) but this is the official start of the off-season garden.
'Shrooms Abound
I have a couple of mushroom projects going on.Shiitake - I am on my second round of growing Shiitakes that I ordered from 100th Monkey Mushroom Farm. I had been wanting to try growing them for a couple of reasons. They grow well indoors, I am using Shiitake all the time in my homemade ramen noodle soup and what a conversation piece!I ended up ordering from this company because I loved the tutorial videos with Jim on their YouTube channel. The Shiitake video gives tips on getting 3 full growing rounds out of the block which costs $33 (before shipping) for an estimated total harvest of 2-3 lbs.My first round with the Shiitake blocks (I ordered and grew two of them) resulted in 10.2 oz fairly split between the two.
The second round is a bit more asymmetrical with Block B doing well and Block A (which slightly outperformed Block B in the first round) doing nothing so far.
Time will tell and I am looking forward to the third round when I will layer the block medium along with straw into a plastic planter with holes drilled in the sides for the final opportunity to grow and harvest.Before I started this project I made note of what I was purchasing Shiitakes for ($1.10 oz) to compare my $33 investment to the retail costs. I have a ways to go to make this project actually be a money saver, but it has been fun and I know the mushrooms I am enjoying are fresh, well grown and harvested within 5 days of use making the monetary aspect more of a fun side project.Next on my list to try are the Elm Oyster Mushrooms from this same company. As soon as I figure out which recipes to use them in, I will be ordering a box kit.Morels - my other mushroom project is one that mushroom enthusiasts have long thought impossible - cultivating morels! These elusive and highly prized forage mushrooms have proven impossible to cultivate for decades, but a couple of companies believe they have cracked the code and are now selling morel spawn along with cultivating instructions.This is more of a long term project since the instructions specify that real production is not expected until the second spring after bed preparations. I purchased my kits from Gourmet Mushrooms and I started two 4 square foot beds about 20 feet apart to try this for myself. I grew up hunting morels in spring and have found them at the Farmer's Market selling for upwards of $20 lb. in the past few years. They are a wonderful, seasonal treat and the idea of harvesting them from my back yard for years to come was well worth the $33 per kit. Due to the time involved and the weekly compost feeding required, this project is not for everyone but if you are dedicated to the idea of having a ready supply of morels in an easy to harvest location, it might be worth your while.