Straight Lines and On Time

Tags

garden, spring

For a short period of time, my garden grew exponentially. It started with one raised bed, then two, then four…and at some point I had to slow down at six raised beds, nine half barrels, three in-ground beds, and three reclaimed tree planter boxes. Okay, those reclaimed planter boxes I took over this year, so maybe its still growing.

I had a point to this. Something about taking on more work that one can handle? I don’t remember.

Here is the thing, I do work full time and have a non-napping toddler, so I do find my time to be limited. The toddler is less helpful than you would imagine with specific instructions, like “plant these seeds 1.5″ in inches deep and 6″ inches apart in the south-east facing bed.” As a tactic to handle it all, I do “year-round” gardening, meaning I plan the crap out of the garden in the winter, including a week-by-week chore list to break up work into manageable 30-minute daily tasks. God I love a good plan.

I have always been a proponent of the square foot gardening (SQF) method by Mel Bartholomew. It is advertised as easy, in my experience it can be intense, but I can maximize my space in a very productive way. Over the years, I have experimented with various alterations of the standard process. Sometimes successful, more often much failure. For this year, I am sticking with the tried and true SQF rules about a spacing and grid-use. One of the main components of the SQF method is you must divide your garden into squares, and I do that, sort of. I usually eyeball it with moderate success, but this year I upped the ante by marking the square foot sections with exterior house paint.

The pièce de résistance though, was the acquisition of a fancy planting tool…a PLANTING SQUARE. Made specifically for this purpose. It is extremely time consuming to get accurate planting spacing consistently, when planting in so many spaces. Seeding fatigue, if you will.

No measuring needed!

This little doohickey I got from Amazon…er…I mean Santa Claus if anyone in my family asks, worked out really great. Seeding went significantly faster and I’m confident my spacing accuracy went up as well. The best part is that so far this year I am planing ON TIME which is a miracle unto itself.

So far I’ve used it with just seeds, but the markings will become useful for transplants too. For example, this week I will plant out the onion seedlings, which I will space anywhere from 4-16 plants per square foot. I could use to the tool to mark where the plants should go.

This year I am also trying to mark what I plant. How ingenious is that?

What new tools or tricks are you trying out this year?

A New Plan

Tags

garden, raised bed, spring, vegetables

Well well well old friend, its been a while. Since we last spoke, I grew a small human. In fact, he is still growing and growing…and growing. I, meanwhile, have shrunk considerably since last summer, which is good news considering its Girl Scout cookie season. It’s hard to fathom that it is already March, and today is the first day I have even begun thinking about the garden. Don’t misunderstand, I think constantly about what an utter MESS the garden was left in because I was too slow and tired to waddle around and do any yard work last July, and I don’t even remember what happened between August and December (apart from childbirth), but I have not thought about the fun stuff, like plant varieties, organization, list making, and getting dirty. True to form, I have decide to grow a full vegetable garden once again even though I literally have no time not even seconds to spare in any given day. What can I say? I wouldn’t be me without ridiculous unobtainable goals. CFO reminds me of this constantly.

Even though I am cheap, and prefer the DIY rugged toddler craft look, this year even I acknowledge that I will have to make some exceptions to my garden plan. No matter how I manipulate my time, seed starting is just not going to be in the cards. Instead, we will give our money to my favorite locally owned and operated garden store (Plant Land!) and buy some beautifully grown heirloom vegetable starts. Because I cannot be reasoned with, I am looking into making seed tapes for some of the veggies that may prove a bit more challenging to sow with an infant in tow (I’m looking at you tiny carrot seeds!). Making seed tapes will probably be a complete failure, because of said infant who insists on crawling towards danger every change he gets. But if I can pull it off, it will make planting a breeze. More to come on that.

I have to say, I am really looking forward to including my little AG (apprentice gardener) in the work this year. I don’t know what skills he will have (eating dirt?) but I do want him to grow up knowing what an eggplant is, and that a tomato comes from a vine in the ground, not a box in the store. True story, my sister-in-law told me just the other day that she cut up a fresh pineapple for the first time in her 40+ year life, and asked if I had ever done that. I didn’t have the heart to tell her she was a few weeks shy of the peak season, because I mean GET ON THAT GIRL, and while you’re at it go get yourself a watermelon.

AG has already shown a substantial interest in his plant foods and has tried all your standard baby purees as well as some fun ones like lemony kale, carrots and coconut, and curried peas. Making his food is probably more fun for me, but I figure the most exposure he has, the better eater he will be someday because there is nothing on earth or heaven or hell that will get me to make chicken nuggets every day for the next 16 years…at best once a week.

So, my plan for this year is simple: we will have our standard perennials (asparagus, blueberries (maybe?), strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, pears and sour cherries), four boxes of your standard spring/summer vegetables from May through October, winter squash and radishes come late summer, potatoes, and lots of herbs through the end of the growing season.

Wish me luck!

Gestating and Germinating

Tags

direct sow, garden, raised bed, spring, start indoors, vegetables

I am very excited to start the official planting season this month, along with the fun and exciting challenge of also preparing for a new family member (this time the human variety). CFO and I are busy making preparations for our little sprout to arrive early August, which means all my other preparations have to be done in less time and with significantly less energy. Pregnancy and preparing for a baby are two things of which I have no knowledge, and no matter what anyone tells, you there is no amount of book learning that can get you there. I know because I have read ALL the books. I am still confounded as to what I really need to do. And yes I have had every man, woman and child TELL me what I need to do and every single one of them has contradicted the other. The only thing I know about having a baby is how to accumulate things. Somewhere in this picture is a crib, I swear.

Where my skill set lies is in how to ready a garden and grow some food. At least, I have had relative success in the past. My garden planning is fairly immaculate, if I do say so myself. I have charts, and more charts, and schedules, and timers. Planning is one of my top attributes; I once planned a seven-day trip to Paris all in 15-minute increments. It was a phenomenal experience. The problem is, I can’t plan the unknown, and everything has been an unknown since Thanksgiving. Here is how my schedule is working out so far:

• February 18 – Start celery and leek seeds indoors. ON TIME.
• March 4 – Start kale and cabbage indoors. DELAYED.
• March 25 – Seed outdoors arugula, fava beans, colish greens, peas and spinach. DELAYED. Start tomatoes and peppers indoors. ON TIME!!…DIED…DELAYED.
• April 1 – Seed outdoors lettuces, endive and radicchio and harden kale and cabbage transplants. DELAYED.
• April 8 – Seed outdoors beets, carrots, parsley, chard; transplant cabbage and kale; start eggplant and celery root indoors. DELAYED.

My list is starting to resemble a United Airlines departure board at O’Hare International Airport. The new plan is, April 15 do all of the tasks above. I am about halfway there. I finished seeding the spring raised bed this morning, and will hopefully sneak an hour to do the rest tomorrow, followed by the transplants this weekend and finally get those eggplants going.

On top of my own garden chores, I have the community to think about. In the fall, I started the Master Gardener program here in SE Wisconsin, which requires me to complete 24 hours of educational outreach in the county by September. This amount of time, 24 hours, seems reasonable, but considering that its garden outreach and most of the work is…well, WORK, and done during the growing season, AKA 7 and 8 months preggo season, this has proved to be a bit more challenging. I’m trying to volunteer at every home show, garden show, and potting event I can while my shoes still fit and I can see my own feet.

How is your garden growing?

February, Quite Contrary, How does your Garden Grow?

Tags

fruit, garden, grow lights, pruning, raised bed, spring, vegetables, winter

My Google calendar recently alarmed me to the official start of the gardening season, this past weekend of February 17. After a brief, but restful, garden dormancy over the past 2.5 months, it is time to begin it all again. Apparently, nature had some other plans and time traveled ahead by 3 months to spring time highs of 65°F and sunshine, complete with scampering animals and chirping birdsong. This, friends, is 30°F over the average blistering February temps. But please…global warming is a hoax.

While I have enjoyed the unseasonable weather for dog walks and weekend outdoor excursions, its worrisome if any of my dormant perennials get too excited and wake up from hibernation, just to be killed off by a surely expected March freeze. I shall keep an eye out for any early risers and smother them with straw mulch. The silver lining in all of this, of course, is a much more hospitable environment to begin some late winter tasks, such as pruning and trimming. February is a great time to give a hair cut to the fruit trees, and a great opportunity to clean out any vegetation I left in the beds over the winter.

Though I am enjoying the respite from the cold, the major garden work is done in the basement under grow lights. The weekend kicks of the business of seed starting, with some celery and leeks, and a through review of the weeks and months ahead.

Always up for new adventures, I added some new fun items this year based on my culinary preferences. New this year for produce I am adding leeks, an assortment of fresh herbs, and strawberries to the garden. I am expanding the varieties of everything else from asparagus to tomatoes. I have also made the executive decision to move certain plants strictly to a fall-harvest cycle. Broccoli, cauliflower, celeriac, rutabaga and turnips have proved too challenging with the unreliability of spring weather. All in all there will be 136 varieties of fruits and vegetables on our one-acre homestead. If I can pull this off, it will be quite a boon for this four-mammal household.

March/April plotted plan for the early spring garden. 

As is in my nature, I have plotted and planned the timing of starting, transplanting and sowing based around my travel schedule. With a little assistance in watering from CFO, we should be enjoying fresh salads by late April. Having a little OCD in gardening does make a difference in success rates. By first identifying realistic times when I can tend to my little spouting babies, I don’t overwhelm myself and make tasks unreasonable. Yes, garden upkeep is no different than maintaining anything else like clothing and upholstery, but organization makes anything possible. I also really like binders.

This year I am taking a different rotation approach. Yes, you should rotate beds by type of vegetable. Yes, you should not overcrowd your plants. But, given limited space, I have limited rotation and spacing capabilities. Instead of proper form, this year I am rotating by garden “season.” I will have one bed for spring produce, which will be ready to replant for the fall garden. Three beds will be summer produce (which often lasts well into fall). One bed for blueberries, one for strawberries, and an assortment of other planters for items that need a bit more separation and attention. I also to work in as much companion planting as I can within each bed. In such a small space, companion planting has been beneficial in my short experience. While I see plenty of the bad bugs, they have yet to demolish entire sections. Attracting the good bugs and very aggressive birds helps as well. While I do not like the birds hovering about my cherry tree, I audibly cheer when I see them circling the garden. For new plantings I will use row covers, but after that its open season on caterpillars.

Well, I better get to work before old man winter returns this upcoming weekend. I hope your garden planning is off to a great start!

Mr. Jack prepares for the return of winter.

A Year of Backyard Food: A Study

Tags

cost savings, direct sow, fall, fruit, garden, heirloom, homemade, raised bed, spring, start indoors, sustainability, vegetables, winter

INTRODUCTION

Its that day once more, that day the ends the annual cycle of time, also known as my sister’s birthday. Happy birthday sis! It’s a pretty popular event; people all around the world celebrate by drinking profusely, declaring how the next year will be the one, and making out at midnight. I prefer to celebrate by eating dinner around 6pm and falling asleep promptly at 9pm once again disappointing CFO. He’s a party animal.

I’m not one for making these so-called resolutions, because I feel that it is a system of preplanned failure. If you ever bought a gym membership in January, you are not my people. But I respect your choices. I prefer to think upon the last year and note what worked, and what didn’t, and make some informed decisions of how I might make better decisions going forward. For example, last year I evaluated how much I have zero interest in cleaning my house, and how I have lots of interest in paying people to do it instead. That’s a “resolution” I am happy to keep going in 2017.

When it comes to the garden, I think about what worked, and didn’t work a lot in January. Mainly because its time to order seeds and get planning. One of my goals from last year was to keep track of what I grew and what I harvested. I was sure that growing food in the backyard is a financially stable way to eat better, but I have no evidence to support the statement. I wanted to do a season-long very unscientific study to prove my point, mainly to CFO, but also to the 22 people that might read this post. I am happy to say that not only did I complete my project, but also I am here, on December 31 to report the results.

HYPOTHESIS

Growing vegetables in one’s own backyard provides a cost savings over purchasing the same food in a grocery store. I know this might seem obvious, but food in this country is shockingly cheap. I felt as if my work was cut out for me.

METHODOLOGY

In order to report the findings as accurately as possible, I had to consider the costs to grow said food, as well as the market value of the food I harvested. I factored in all of the things I use to grow food: cedar for beds, compost, seeds, transplants, fertilizer, mulch, water, and also the grow light system I purchased to start my own. The only thing I did not include was labor. I mean, let’s face it. If I weren’t willing to donate my time this whole adventure would be pointless. I also think that the time I spent in the garden probably equals the amount of time I would otherwise navigate the produce aisle at my local store, which is about as easy to shop as a new IKEA during the grand opening.

For the harvest itself, I had to find a way to quantify the value of what I had, and the only way I could think was to compare it to the USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service produce commodity averages. This is an average of the countries produce costs at retail, and is published weekly. It worked pretty well for the common items, but for those odd duck veggies I grow (parsley root anyone?), I had to get more creative. I found an online co-op that published produced prices daily, and used that for a reference. Also, because I practice the general “organic” growing system, meaning I do not use anything on my crops that requires a gas mask, I opted to compare the produce to the organic rates. I know, I know…kind of unfair because I don’t normally buy organic produce, but I grow it and this is my study.

DATA ANALYSIS

The grand total of my garden expenses was…. $1284. Yikes. Last year had some expensive costs to be fair: CFO finished building the remaining garden beds and I invested in a growing system for the basement. Ideally, those two purchases will not be on-going costs. Using cedar, the beds should last 10 years, and since I received 3 shipments of broken growing lights, the supplier sent me about 12 bulbs at no cost in order to maintain his positive EBay rating. I should be good for a while. Based on annual expenses like seeds, compost, mulch, etc. I realistically spend about $250 a year, which seems much more reasonable. Maybe this wasn’t the best year for my study. Meh.

In 2016, I grew a total of 87 varieties of 54 different fruits and vegetables. I began the harvest the week of April 17 with asparagus, and ended the harvest the week of Thanksgiving with sage, kale, and Brussels sprouts. That’s 8 months of food! That’s a win in my book. I had some winners and some losers. I was giving away tomatoes, squash, basil and berries, but the melons and eggplants eluded me due to my unpreparedness with the late cabbage and unwieldy tomatillos. My peppers were a flop again for the third year. But I won’t be giving up on them just yet. Overall, I think this year was my most successful garden year. I figured out the watering system and my rotation and spacing scheme worked out very well. I didn’t have any problems with transplants because I grew them self. In order to properly assess the produce harvest, I used a kitchen scale, and weighed 470 lbs of vegetables for a grand total cost of….

Drum roll please…

$1250!!!!!

And yes. I know that is $34 in the red.

RESULTS

So okay, I technically didn’t make money on the garden, but if you consider I “spent” $34 for 470 lbs of vegetables, many of which are still stored in my freezer or canned and in the pantry in various forms, I think I did pretty darn good. And what a fun project. At its height, the garden was astounding, and received comments and questions from the neighbors (possibly some grumbling and complaints that I tuned out) and also kept me outside for a good chunk of the summer. I got to make farm dinners for family and friends that visited, we grilled vegetables I didn’t know could be grilled, and reduced our grocery expenses to the point where I could justify buying lobster for dinner. I even liked keeping track of all the produce; my charts and files have provided me solid information to make better planning for next year. I think I will keep this going if I can.

CONCLUSION

I conclude that 2016 was a good year in garden for me. I have already started plotting the changes and new vegetables and varieties to try, and making my informed decisions to better myself.

Next year will be…the Year of the Salad (because I have 10,000 lettuce seeds to start).

I hope you have a wonderful New Year and have grand adventures in gardening!

The Mystery of the Green Cucumber

Tags

cost savings, heirloom, homemade, recipes, vegetables

Poona Kheera cucumbers start out white, turn yellow, and finally brown when mature. They are edible at every stage.

For the last few years I have been growing a variety of cucumber called Poona Kheera, which is an Indian variety that looks more like an elongated potato than a cucumber. They don’t look so delicious, but they have a really crisp, refreshing flavor that is great for slicing and eating. I have been using the same seed packet since 2014, so you can imagine my surprise when this summer, some of my cucumbers popped up green.

I have no idea how this happened. I tried to do a little research on the well-regarded internet, thinking cross-pollination may be at fault, but from what I gather cucumbers will only present mutt-like fruit during the second generation of breeding, not the first. Weird. I guess it is possible a stray seed fell into my seed packet during the packing stage. Or, this plant is a natural cross that happened on the farm and made it all the way to Wisconsin just to be discovered by me! These are heirloom, open pollinated varieties after all. Truthfully, I will never know, but none the less I am taking credit as the Discoverer-on-Record. I present to you….

Green Mystery Cucumber

The fun bonus part in all of this is I now have two varieties of cucumbers to experiment with, and since my Indian variety are for fresh eating, my mystery cucumber is for…PICKLES! Which are my absolute favorite way to strip the cucumber of nutrients, pack them full of delicious salt, and top every sandwich-like food.

I tasted these very traditional-looking cucumbers, and their flavor was bland, to be nice about it. They were crispy, yes, but nothing special. This quality makes them a great candidate for a boiling water bath canner. Cucumbers did well this year, so I have a quite a few pounds of these green mysteries. I experimented with two recipes I found a recipe in the Ball Preservation Book that requires, a dill fermented pickle and one that is described as making phenomenal grilled cheese sandwiches. Umm….SOLD.

I don’t have reprinting rights, but you can look it up: Cucumber Sandwich Pickles. These are a sweet pickles, and I made 5 pints from 3 pounds of cukes. Because I have little patience for holding out on tasty things, I popped a jar the same day, and we enjoyed a delicious, if not unique, gouda and pickle grilled cheese dinner.

My fermented dills are a true experiment, in that I have never done this before. It didn’t seem too complicated. It called for something called “pickling spice,” which was $4.23 at the grocery store, but the ingredients were all spices I have in my pantry so I whipped together my own mix.

• 2 Tbsp whole mustard seeds
• 1 Tbsp whole black peppercorns
• 2 tsp whole caraway seeds
• 1 tsp whole dill seed
• 1 tsp red pepper flakes
• 1 tsp ground ginger
• 1 bay leaves, crumbled
• 2 cinnamon sticks, broken
• 6 whole cloves

I combined this with fresh dill and 2 garlic cloves, and packed a jar with pickles and topped with a salt solution: 4 quarts water, 1 cup 5% vinegar, 0.75 cups iodine-free pickling salt. To keep the good stuff below the liquid level, I topped it with a brine-filled freezer bag and its now hanging out in my basement.

To be continued…

How to Manage 25 Pints of Raspberries, In Photos

Tags

fruit, garden, homemade, local foods, rabbit, recipes

I used to think April was my busiest month in gardening. Then I experienced May. Then June. And now, July. Let’s face it, this “hobby” of mine has really taken precedence over a lot of things in my life, like, umm, clean floors and bed sheets. My goal in all of this is to demonstrate by action the benefits of urban vegetable gardening, and fortunately one of those goals is not a magazine-cover-worthy kept house. One of my goals is, however, manageability of the work involved. July, and my little 10 ft x 5 ft patch of summer-bearing raspberries, threatened to bring down my noble charge. This month, I harvested 25 pints of raspberries, or 50 cups, or 12.5 quarts, or just over 3 gallons, which adds up to somewhere in the realm of 10 billion berries. Growing perennial cane berries is a great investment, especially if you want to be so overwhelmed in one short period of time, that within two weeks you can’t even look at anything berry-flavored without screaming obscenities and punching through drywall, and then you swear off that fruit for the next 11 months. Which is great, because that’s when the next crop is ready.

Fortunately, fresh-picked raspberries at the peak of ripeness are beyond amazing, and purchasing off-season raspberries after you taste these beauties will leave you disappointed and let down, so you will never do it again (in my experience). Even my rabbit won’t eat store bought raspberries anymore, but to be fair she is highly spoiled and very snooty for a prey animal. If this is something that interests you, and I do suggest it, I’ve added a new feature on this blog, Produce Primer, which will include features of various fruits and vegetables that I have grown, and the first one up is the luscious red raspberry.

If you are concerned about how to manage all those raspberries, take it from me, there are ways. Check out the photos below for some sweet red rasp-iration.

Raspberry Chip Ice Cream

Raspberry White Wine Popsicle

Raspberry Jam

Raspberry Balsamic Vinaigrette

Raspberry Swirl Cupcakes

Fresh Raspberries and Yogurt Dip

Raspberry French Macarons

Raspberries and Cream

Raspbery Creme Brûlée

Raspberry Pecan Coffee Cake

Enjoy!