Busy Busy Busy

It’s funny how drastically different this spring season is compared to last year’s. We enjoyed such a mild winter and early spring last year, we were able to get a lot done. The only reason we waited until May 2 to plant our tomatoes last year was because we hadn’t yet acquired the land for them. This year has been so cold and wet that a lot of things have been delayed.

We finished planting our tomatoes in Sunset Hills on April 28. However, this may still have been too early; we’ve also since planted some at Iowa Ave. and they seem to be faring better.

Along with tomatoes in the back section of our Iowa Ave. garden we also transplanted some pepper plants last week. Because of the invasive grass, we planted the peppers in holes we cut through burlap coffee bags and lined all the paths between plants with burlap and straw.

Here’s the whole back section, complete with burlap and straw. Between the peppers and tomatoes we planted parsley, nasturtium, thyme, and other herbs.

We also started a new tomato container garden in the section by the west fence where we were growing nothing but tall grass and weeds. To keep the grass out, we laid out a tarp and plastic sheeting before placing the pots and topping with wood chips. This method worked well for us in a different section last year.

Besides dealing with the terrible grass, we’ve also found evidence of pest damage to some of our newly-sprouted bean plants (above is an Italian pole bean seedling). It happens every year, the beans and peppers are the first to be eaten. We’ve used Dawn dish soap in the past but  this year I got some Dr. Bronner’s castile soap- more natural. Mixed with water, I’ve been spraying the tops and bottoms of the leaves and stems of all of our bean plants, and the damage has been limited.

Some of the popcorn we planted sprouted, but not all of it. We want to make sure it grows close together enough for sufficient pollination, so we reseeded some of the areas where germination was low.

We have two new raised beds at Iowa Ave.  (as seen in our garden outline) this year.  I planted horseradish, mustard, and kale in one, and Eric planted ginger (pictured above) in the other. We grew ginger last year in our side yard after sprouting it in shallow pots first. This year we direct seeded- the smaller pieces are our ginger from last year, the bigger pieces are organic ginger from Local Harvest.

The other thing keeping us busy this spring is setting up a new garden space at Eric’s sister’s new house. She found a house in the city with a 1/4 acre lot, and she’s letting us farm it (thanks Amy!). We tilled up this section of her yard literally the same day she closed on the house, May 1.

We called on our Sunset Hills gardening buddy, Tom, to till the area. It was just too much space for our little walk-behind tiller.

After several hours, Tom had mowed the overgrown grass and tilled up these two big sections for us. Unfortunately we were losing daylight, so he was only able to pass over each area once with the tiller.

To really remove all the grass, we needed it tilled again. Of course it rained for the next four days straight, so it took a week before Tom was able to come out to finish the job. As he tilled we worked to pull out grass clumps, and we returned yesterday to continue pulling them out.

Here’s a view from the other side of the yard. In this big section we’ll grow sweet potatoes, squash (summer and winter), pumpkins, melons, and whatever else we can fit.

Today I applied some fertilizer and crushed gypsum to the longer, thinner section where we’ll plant tomatoes, then covered with a layer of free compost. Eric is planning to return tomorrow with our little tiller to work the compost in and space out our mounded rows, then plant tomatoes and peppers! We’re also hoping to install a drip irrigation system to help with watering.

The weather has really forced us to be super productive in the short periods of time between rain. The forecast for this coming week looks pretty clear, thankfully. Lots of work ahead of us!

The Onion Experiment: Transplanted & Thriving

As you may recall from our previous Onion Experiment post, we started onion seeds on February 2. One group was started in a tray with individual holes for each onion seedling, the other in a wide, shallow pot. We transplanted both groups into a freshly-composted bed at our Iowa Street Garden on April 3.

We found that both groups were easy to transplant, though the seedlings in the tray seemed to grow larger.

By mid-April, all the onion seedlings were perky and strong. The chickens at Iowa Street (not our chickens!) escaped their run and scratched up the bed a bit, but luckily there was little damage.

It’s mid-May and all the onions are looking healthy. We attribute this to the homemade chicken-manure compost we added before planting. In addition, we’ve fertilized with fish emulsion and seaweed tea to provide adequate nutrients.

If we stay on top of the weeds (including the evil grass) and watering, we should have some healthy bulbs come late summer.

Keyhole Gardens

In our research on gardening methods we’ve come across keyhole gardens, which are extremely functional because they allow easy access to the interior of the garden. We particularly like the style of keyhole garden that is used in Africa, which includes a compost basket in the center.

We built a compost basket out of sticks and stakes we had lying around the yard. We wove the basket with pliable pine branches, keeping it loose enough to allow the compost to work its way out over time. We dug a drainage pit in the keyhole area that will hopefully collect water to build up a small aquifer beneath it,  ideally reducing the amount of watering we’ll need to do this summer.

We like the keyhole concept so much that we wanted to build another one at our Iowa Street garden (formerly Dave’s Place)!

We had a lot of open space to work with, which unfortunately included a very intrusive grass. We laid down cardboard to smother and hopefully kill it. We then outlined the shape of the keyhole garden with “urbanite,” which we got for free from someone tearing up their sidewalk.

Next we added some of the soil that had been in that area, as well as some leaf compost, straw, and our own finished compost (thanks to the hens). We’ll continue to build up the soil before we plant– we just got some granite dust and sand to add.

Instead of weaving a basket, we used a roll of wire, similar to chicken wire. As you can see, the wall is 2 rows high. We’ll probably continue to build it, as the taller the retaining wall and the higher the mound of soil, the less bending we’ll need to do.

Between our two new keyhole gardens, we’ll have lots of new space to plant this year. We’ll be trying new plants, like ginger, jerusalem artichokes, and some new flowers and herbs.

Frugal Friday: Vegetable Broth

We eat a lot of vegetables. We try to use every last bit of a vegetable before sending it to one of four final destinations: the compost pile, the worm bin, the dogs, or the chickens. To really get the most out of our veggies, we use scraps and peels to make our own homemade vegetable broth.

All you have to do is fill a pot of vegetable scraps with enough water to cover everything, then simmer for a couple hours. We like to keep the water level about 2 inches above the top of the scraps, and add water if needed while simmering. We’ve tried simmering with and without a lid and both yield a decent stock- you will need to add water while simmering if you leave it uncovered.

The great thing is you can use virtually any vegetable scraps, even those you wouldn’t want to put in the compost bin (like onion skins). You’ll definitely want to make sure you use scraps that have been washed and scrubbed clean. We also highly recommend you use scraps from organic produce, as non-organic fruits and veggies can carry high amounts of pesticides and other chemicals in their skins.

We’ve used carrot tops and peels, the tops and bottoms of celery stalks, kale stems, onion skins, garlic peels, broccoli stalks, squash rinds, beet greens, tomatoes, and the like. Some people advise against adding potato peels because they’ll make the broth murky and earthy, but we like it. Dried or fresh herbs like thyme, basil, oregano, and parsley add great flavor, and of course we add salt and pepper toward the end. We’ve even added whole hot peppers or crushed red pepper for extra spice.

After a couple hours of simmering, the water should look darker. Results will vary depending on the amount of water used and the cooking time.  Once we’ve reached our preferred flavor-to-water ratio, we strain out the vegetables with a colander in the sink. Then the broth is poured in containers and frozen.

And here’s a super duper Frugal Friday bonus:

The ladies got to enjoy the warm, cooked veggie scraps on a cold day!

Roly Poly Radish

We found this roly poly family in one of our radishes.

It turns out roly polies are in the crustacean family, so they require moist habitats and are often found helping break down organic matter in compost piles.

One man’s trash is another man’s treasure

I thought I would share this thread that I have been reading on a homesteading forum.  Anybody down for some extreme composting?

http://www.homesteadingtoday.com/showthread.php?t=342651

Frugal Friday: Vermicomposting

Worm bins are an easy and convenient way to compost kitchen scraps and organic waste without taking up too much space. For about $15, you can create your own continuous supply of rich compost.  Here’s our worm bin: The worms live in the top bin. We drilled air holes on the side along the top of the bin- you can drill them into the top lid too, but then you don’t want to leave it outside in the rain (we keep ours under our kitchen sink but wanted the option of keeping it outside). The environment needs to be moist but not too damp, so we also drilled holes in the bottom of the first bin for drainage, with a screen on the inside to keep any of our little worms from escaping.  We then placed the first bin inside another bin, putting bricks at the bottom of the lower bin to elevate the top bin for adequate drainage.

In our experience, though, you don’t need the holes or bottom drainage bin if you practice proper moisture control. We’ve found that periodically adding newspaper or extra soil helps prevent the habitat from getting too damp.

We started with 3 containers of red wigglers we bought from a local bait shop, as they are known as hardy and efficient composters. You can also buy them online, sometimes even on Craigslist. Red wigglers also reproduce rapidly, which makes it easy to increase your compost production.

To start we gave them a base of newspaper, dirt and leaf compost, then added diced vegetable scraps every few days. The smaller the food, the more quickly it is broken down.  We replenish the food regularly. Your compost is ready when there are no visible scraps in the worm castings.

You can harvest your compost by pushing everything to one side of the bin and then introducing new food on the opposite side. Most of the worms will seek out and migrate toward the food, leaving their castings behind, though you’ll need to pick out a few stragglers by hand.

We use our worm castings to add nutrients to our garden soil before planting, as top dressings around seedlings that have been planted, and in the form of “compost tea,” sprayed on plants when watering.