Out with the old.....

Something I've been getting better at this year is the understanding that many things aren't going to be around forever.  When I first started out with my first garden, I fought tooth and nail to try and keep plants going - even though they would eventually die off.  Now I enjoy sitting and watching things go through their natural cycle, watching one set of plants come into their own as another is cycling out.  In this case it's the Basil - phasing out as the sage comes in.
The dill, cilantro and parsley have long been removed, and in their place I've just planted some Oregano - something I've had not much luck with in the past - but then again I said the same of Parsley last year, and I have a mason jar full of dried parsley in the kitchen this year.

Basil is a plant I try and encourage people new to growing things to try - it was one of my first successful plants, and to this day I've had constant good luck growing it (not to mention it's very useful in the kitchen).  2 squares planted with 4 plants each seems to be the 'magic number' for me.  More than that and you get get smaller plants, one by itself doesn't grow much bigger than the 4.
It sprouts fast, grows quick, and with that amount of plants you'll be in fresh basil very quickly.
It thickens as you harvest it, so the more you cut, the more you get - and soon you'll find yourself with an abundance.  Going back over the blog here you'll see how easy it is to dry and preserve, or refrigerate / freeze with a little oil and a food processor. As it winds down I'm entering the final stage - harvesting seeds.  Wait until the flower stems die back then run them through your hand, then crush the seed pods by pinching them and rubbing.  The seeds fall into your hand and much of the waste blows away in the breeze.  One stalk easily gives up more seeds than you planted, and a single plant could give up more than you bought in a seed packet.

My little squash plant is ending it's run as well.  As the only surviving squash it's done very well - giving up several 'single serve' butternut squashes.  There area  couple still there that are growing and one that I'll probably eat next week.
Next year I hope to have a dedicated squash patch by the edge of the driveway, but for now I'll let it run it's course.  I don't think I'll be planting any Winter squash - I don't really have the space prepared for them this year.

Brussels Sprouts that were planted in Summer are coming up nicely - nothing on them yet, but we'll wait and see. You can see the difference in the color of the plants.  These are meant to be growing at this time of year.

I've only tried to grow these once before - and that wasn't very successful (albeit in a container), so I'm curious to see how they turn out - they have plenty of room at just one per square.

The rest of the garden is being planted out with things I grew successfully last year - lots of Beets, Spinach (shown), Swiss Chard, and Lettuce.
As each square comes up with it's quota, it's mulched with verimcompost (worm poo).  It will act as a slow release fertilizer, lock in moisture, and hopefully help keep the squirrels away. There is a race at the moment with the Beets, between getting the plants big enough to mulch, and them digging up the seeds.
 Peas are starting to poke up from the patch I planted - a single long row where last year there were beans and peas up against the wall.

I've forgone planting beans this Autumn, as the results were mediocre compared to the blast I had in the spring - I'll probably use the patch by the wall to alternate between the two over Autumn/Winter and Spring/Summer.  Possibly using it for carrots to fill the gap between when the beans die off and the optimum planting time as things cool down in Autumn.

Germination containers are currently being left alone, with the exception of one being kept running for lettuce - as the nights get colder the ground will hold temps better than an exposed container - it's the tradeoff for the early start they can help you get in spring.

The garden itself is getting sparse at the moment - as many of the things planted out are going to be slow growing, and much of the current fresh produce has been picked as needed. Peppers and Eggplant are slowing down production, and each plant is being pruned back as it stops.  Over winter some will survive, giving me an early jump on next year.

The last couple of weeks have shown me the difference between a sustaining garden and one that supplements - with most of my meals coming from the backyard due to my recent health issues, I see that I will certainly be expanding in time to catch the spring plant - more than likely another 4 x 4. This year I expanded by a single 4 x 4 bed, and managed to keep up with things rather well.
Although I shifted my diet radically to vegetable intensive as a temporary necessity (I'm not going to say Vegetarian, as it would be a misrepresentation - for instance I still eat fish), I've been very impressed with the results, and will be probably continuing it even though I may not need to.  I've always been at the least a 'meat and 3 veg' man - but I think that too much meat is a bad thing, and it's hard to steer away from that in todays society.
I'll probably be introducing red meat again soon, but probably only one day a week (Sunday), and sticking to my Catholic roots and make 'Fish on Friday' a regular thing.  All fast food was eliminated, as was the caffeine laden soda, and I immediately dropped about 5lbs.  I noticed no difference in energy while working out at the farm past the first day (where I was still a little sick), and with some adjustments to my eating times I've felt much better than I have for about 6 months.

Basically having 5 meals a day - in the same way I did back in my homeland.  Morning and Afternoon Tea fill the space between the 3 main meals, and a quarter cup of peanuts or trail mix with a glass of milk is all that's eaten there - more like a snack really.

I'll keep at it and see how things progress - I doubt I could ever do the full Vegetarian thing, but I am all for giving it more room on the plate.

Cheers.

Changing - Adapting - Learnnig

"The only difference between a rut and a grave, is the depth"

An old lesson, recently remembered. Things are fluid and things change.  You have to adapt and keep trying things, keep learning and keep going forward.. Doing the same things is comfortable, but ultimately not so productive.

I started my garden with a good plan, some research, and some good lessons on how not to do things - and I've done pretty well, but there's always some room to improve and keep pushing forward.  In the past year I've had a lot of things that worked, some that didn't, and some that were so-so.. I started this blog with some words about Big-Ag, and the economy of scale, while trying to produce the maximum amount of food in a small space - and if you've been reading carefully you'll see a couple of places where I walk that same line into hypocrisy a couple of times. I won't deny it, I'll own it :)

Pushing a lot of plants into small space sounds good on paper, it can - and does work, but you do have to experiment a lot.  I get from friends and family here and there 'how do I make this work - I did it just like you did....'  but the truth is, you can't do it 'just like I do' - you can't do it 'just like this book tells me' or 'this forum says I have to....'  -  it just doesn't work that way.
My climate, my soil, my seeds, sunshine, rain, fertilizer, isn't going to be the same as yours - and thus your results will vary - and if you keep pushing the party line, you'll push it all the way to failure.
If it doesn't work, change it...

I'm going through this at the moment with my own plantings - SFG (Square Foot Gardening) says that you can grow X amount based on planting spacing in a square foot - for a lot of things you can, but for some you cant, or some work - but the info is misleading.
For example:  you can grow 16 carrots in a square foot - fact - you can.  HOWEVER, this is because they will grow at different rates naturally (as they would if you planted them in a row) - as some are pulled to eat, they make room for others - by the end, if you had 16 good seedlings at the start, you can have 16 carrots.... just not all at the same time... and it's the 'HOWEVER' that you won't see written in a book or touted on a forum.
Now planting 9 also won't give you 9 great carrots at the end.. in fact you'll get the same results, only with less... The way forward is to say 'ok I understand how that is - I'll plant 3-4 squares'.

 Swiss Chard - you could technically grow 4 plants based on the planting spacing guide - however dollars-to-donuts you'll have one medium plant, 2 small, and one runt... and in that case you'd have been better off with just one (as I'm doing myself) that you can harvest off of, and again, 3 - 4 squares.

Peas - 2 lines of 8 separated by a trellis.  Fine, but I've never gotten the back 8 get enough sun to really make a difference in my output - I'd have been better off with just 8.

Basil - you'd be told to grow one per square - but as I proved this year (in photos no less), that you can grow 4, and the square holding that single plant won't grow large enough to give you 4x the basil -  side note: I also learned that I grew about 4x too many plants when it came to basil.....

Spinach - depends on variety I think - I've done 12 plants to a container, yet 9 plants to a square produced plants so weak and crowded that not a single plant produced much at all.

Sometimes a container can produce nice, productive and manageable plants.  Sometimes not.  My Toms grew into nice healthy bushes that were fairly productive for their size, the same plants in the garden vined everywhere and showed NOTHING.  My broccoli ended up dying, and my eggplants never produced in containers, yet went ballistic when transplanted.

None of these things are hard-and-fast.  To get the results you want you'll have to get in and do. Change, and adapt, and learn.. don't be afraid to try new things, and don't be afraid to risk failure - because risk also hides success.

I'll be changing things up here as I progress - not just spacing of plants either.  When it comes to preserving food I'll be making some changes as well. I'll be using a method not really covered much  called 'Don't pick the damn stuff'.  The worms have ate well on food I've picked on a Sunday - partly so I'd have that picture of a bowl full of stuff that shows 'wow I know what I'm doing!'.  Well once picked the goodness in that food starts breaking down, even in the fridge or freezer - and if it sits and isn't used, then what's the point.
Last post I had a pic of a small amount of veg that I picked today (well technically yesterday) - but that small basket was more than enough for my meal.  My new strategy will be to pick only what I'm going to eat THEN, or if it absolutely is a case of 'use it or lose it'.

In the military we used to say that the plan was the first casualty of war - and it's true in all things, never get to attached to your plan or your comfort level of workaday life.  If it's not working as you want it - change it - modify it - make it your own.

Happy Gardening.

Autumn - Season of Change

With the trials of summer over with, it's time to turn to Autumn - well Autumn turned up on my doorstep, with me ill prepared for it, but now we're rolling with it.
Autumn/Fall is noted as a season of change, as the leaves brown and fall to the ground and the landscape changes (along with temps and sunshine) on it's way to Winter... for me and my little plot there are more changes than the scenic.

Which is good because my camera is playing up and I don't have many photos for this update.

The white plastic stands I had out for germination pots collapsed the other day (well the center one did) due to weathering.  I got 4 years use out of them, and there were cheapo WalMart brand shelves - so I'll probably end up replacing them rather than building something.  The pots are being cleaned out and the soil amended and recycled into the garden.  There's really not a lot to germinate this time of the year apart from Lettuce - and I haven't managed to track down the variety I had last year.  I never knew there could be so many varieties... and not so far not so many that I actually like enough to keep.

Other changes, for me, my health.  It's still undecided if it was a bug going around, or something more serious (as the same thing happened to one of the Farmers I work for on occasion) but I was woken early in the AM by gripping chest pains, shortness of breath, and extreme nausea. It took about 10 minutes to pass, leaving in it's place acute acid reflux - not just heartburn, but a near crippling pain that stayed for hours.  People asked 'how do you know it wasn't a heartattack?' - well I don't.. but as it happened again several hours later, and returned the next night 3 times - if it was, I'm a tough S.O.B. that survived 5 in 24 hours :P - this and news of someone else having the exact same problem at the same time makes me think it wasn't.
However, although after several days I was back on my feet again (unlike my good friend, who was couchridden for over a week) - it took some extreme lifestyle changes.  Even now, a week or so later, I can't eat anything cooked in oil or grease, no red meat, no soda except for ginger ale, and no meat with even medium levels of fat.. so no beef at all, no pork, maybe no skinned chicken, and of course no spicy foods.  So, although I'm doing well - I'm practically a vegetarian until further notice.

This makes the garden rather more important than it was - as if vegetables are to be my primary source of food until further notice, I need to get the most I can out of them - so naturally fresh is better than bought... but on to happier thoughts:

As I started the garden last Autumn, I'm afforded a luxury of not having to start from scratch - I already had several things that did well, and so I am 'doubling down' on things that work, and things I like.  Beets were something I planted last year, only a couple of squares worth, and they yielded 15 or so good sized beets (from a possible 18) - so this year I've planted out as many squares as I could - I'm battling squirrels digging up the seeds and other things, but I'm hoping for a good canning of beets at the end of Winter, and using the leaves to supplement my salads.  This is a good thing as I just found that apart from being a favorite of mine, they are also very high in proteins, which means I can knock a couple of eggs off the menu (there's only so much fish and eggs you can eat before you go out of your mind).

Spinach is put down in several places - I didn't have that great a run of it last year, so I'm cutting back on the number of plants per square - this time gong back to 5.  Likewise Swiss Chard was 4 to a square last year - and I'm going to with just one this year... I only managed to get one or two per square that were worth harvesting off, so cut back.

Peas are in. I was going to skip Autumn/Winter snap peas this year - but I have a spot they do very well in, and peas = protein.

Brussels Sprouts were in early and are growing well - and Kale is still putting out leaves for immediate consumption.  I'll be pruning back the Pepper plants as the temps drop and they stop producing.  Those that don't survive will be pulled and the squares composted and covered... I probably will let the soil there rest till spring.

Collards have been planed in a few back squares near the corner of the house.  Over the year I haven't found much that does well there for some reason (too much water, only half-day of sun - wash outs in the wet), so if they grow, they grow, if they don't, they don't - not a great loss.

Lettuce, once again is being planted - this time a Grand Rapids variety - lets see if I can hit on the magical plants I had last Autumn....

Tonights dinner - I could have picked more things (I'll go into that in another post), but as I'm not going to inflict my dietary changes on the rest of the family - nor demand yet another meal be cooked just for me, I'm pretty much left to my own devices. Wife already has to make double meals due to the twins. 3 would be unreasonable.

Roasted eggplant and squash, along with honey carrots and diced peppers was the meal of the night - all in all it was a nice change from a plain salad.  The baby squash was suprisingly good - I expected it to be a bit bitter as it never really grew huge - it wasn't as sweet as I'd have liked, but it was rather tender and nice.. They say eggplant is a good substitute for meat - I beg to differ.  Those that say that have never had a steak... but marinated in some apple cider vinegar, crumbed and roasted it was pretty decent.  I better learn to like them, as the 2 plants that survived in the big garden keep pumping them out.

Nom nom nom.

Dog Days of Summer

Yep, Summer has come and gone, and nary a post was made.
The garden was not forgotten, nor left utterly untended, but many other things drew me away from devoting the time I wanted to it. The farm, the kids, and many other projects - large and small - that required immediate attention.
As it was, those decisions were easy to make and  not regretted - as we had freakish weather here in Southern Georgia this year - many of the people I know and do work for out in the farmlands all but abandoned 'hobby gardens' this year because of it.

I see dead things....

 For several weeks we had heavy rains in the mornings, which cleared by midday, in time for the brunt of the Summer heat - although rain and sunshine are very welcome normally, you want them in the other order - a cool bright morning sun, followed by a cooling afternoon rain.  The end result was a humidity oven that evaporated all that morning moisture and raised temps - playing hell with mature plants, and if a seed was lucky enough not to be washed out (along with most the good stuff in the soil), it was soon fried, or drowned the next morning.

For the better part of half a month I planted and re-planted, tried to shade, and re-water before consulting my network of Farmers Wives... 'Is this just me?.....' and the answer was 'No... sometimes you just have to give up and wait it out' - and so that was what I did.  Even at that stage nearly every thing in a container was dead or dying - including my prize gift-rose and the thyme I'd had growing for over a year and a half. Thankfully the rose pulled through - it has sentimental value and is the only non-edible plant I own.

Other plants seemed to adjust well - the Brussels Sprouts had a good enough jump to eat up that sunshine and drink the morning rain - as did my Kale.  The Broccoli I had moved from containers (you can see the dead ones left over in the square pots above) thrived... I'll jump ahead of myself a little here as this really is an Autumn issue (and this is a Summer recap) - I never got the hang of harvesting this - I either found the florents too early or late, or was waiting for a secondary one to pop (as harvesting a tiny little bit seemed stupid) - as a result it jumped to flower.  I still have one of them in the garden growing atm - the plants overran the square and grew into the walkthrough area, the one in this pic is currently about 7ft long.  So I'm very up-in-the-air about growing them for food next year... I will, however, plant at least one - as the one outside at the moment has attracted bees from far and wide - possibly more bees than if I totaled the amounts I've seen since I moved in (not a swarm - just I have seen very few bees).  So as a means of attracting pollinators, broccolli is 'the shiznitz'.

The way this is reading you'd think Summer was a total loss, and it really wasn't - only mature plants were available to me, but they did give a good yield.  Eggplants and Peppers were the food of the day.  This pic was pretty much average for the take.  Peppers would have been much more, but for the sun.  Peppers love the sun to grow and fruit - but that same fruit is destroyed quickly by it - for every 2 peppers shown here, one was composted.

In the circle-patch where I planned to grow a blueberry, a solitary surviving Butternut Squash took off and spread out.  I was surprised due to the acidic nature of the soil I've cultivated there - but it seems to love it.  In fact I just ate on of the squashes for dinner tonight, and several more are on the vine.

Herbs continue to grow fairly well, I've harvested and dried out dill seeds and coriander. Sage if doing very well, and there is an abundance of Basil (still). Parsley gave up the ghost, but enough of it was harvested and dried that I doubt I'll be out of it (or Basil) at any time during the winter.  There will be one more big herb harvest and preserve session before the end of Autumn to make sure I get the most out of this.





Vermicomposting slowed during the Summer as well, I resorted to putting frozen water bottles and a box fan in front of the worm farms to keep temps down as much as I could - but even that just kept them in the range of not being in danger of dying.  Even so, there was an improvement in the worm-casting take during this time, and with time to prepare - hopefully the problems that plagued me this year will be prevented next Summer.

Cheers!

Sunday Harvest - Aug 11th

Herb Garden Maintenance

What a mess....

I haven't really spent time in the herb garden lately. I haven't had to. It's pretty much a set-and-forget deal and I pop out when I'm about to cook to grab something. I say to myself 'hmmm I should prune that...' then life goes on.
I was letting one of the basil plants go to seed, and was waiting on the cilantro (coriander) to brown off, and decided that today was the day to do some clean up. So out came the garden shears, and spent a good 4 hours putting things to rights.

 Much of this was 'use it or lose it' several of the basil plants were starting to flower, and things like parsley were making way for new leaves - another week and a lot of what was there would probably start dying off.

Cilantro here in the US you see a lot in Mexican foods. I had planted some in hope I'd get some more tomatoes and make some salsa - maybe next season I'll dial in tomatoes a little better. But all is not lost, no stranger in the UK is the coriander seed, in Indian cuisine it's dhania.
The dried seed (technically it's fruit - for the pedantic) can be used as a replacement for caraway in making things like rye bread, though personally I grind them up and use them. The nutty, orangey taste is quite nice.
The root of the plant is used in thai cooking, and if that wasn't enough - some crazy bastards even PLANT THEM (I know.. huh!).  Get the stems, bundle them up and put them in a brown paper bag. If you shake it a couple of times a week, you'll probably have separated them by the time the drying is done.

 Dill is best used when pickling, and I plan on pickling beets this year (much more than last year), and also cucumbers next year. This was more of a test run than a serious planting.  When pickling you'd put a bunch like this, only at the flower stage and some spigs of the leaves.
True story, up until this year I thought 'Dill Pickles' were a variety of 'pickle'... not that they were actually cucumbers pickled with dill.
Yes - I'm a dumb ass at times.
As for cooking with dill - never heat fresh dill, but the seed, toast it before using.  Again, substitute for caraway on a one to one basis, use it in bread, salad, cheese, all kinds of stuff.

I guess technically at this point both of these are spices..

Now THAT's some parsley (but you aint seen NOTHING yet!).  I love fresh parsley - but when cooking fresh you want that dark green fresh young leaves, but if you don't use it - or in my case you have way too much, then they grow up. The flavor is still there, but they lose a little in the texture. That's ok though as when you dry and crush it, that fresh texture isn't that important.
I cut all the plants WAY back then got down to sorting and trimming.  When drying herbs you gotta resign yourself to the fact that at some point you're gonna be trimming - the only question is WHEN. Thyme, for instance, is a pain in the arse to do afterwards. Parsley you can do either - or, or in this cast....both.

Bagging up this much would take a while, and at the end of the day I'd have bags all over the place. Generally if using paper bags it's best to trim the leaves first - and that's a LOT of leaves. The alternative is to bundle up the longer stems together into big sprigs, sorting the ratty and yellowing leaves out as you go - in the end you'll have several big bunches (I had 5). Tie them up with a rubber band and hang them upside down in your drying area on a coat hanger. The remaining stems I trimmed and put into a bag to  dry. When all is finished I'll shred the leaves with scissors, holding the whole sprig and working over a bowl. If I'm lucky I'll have all my fingers at the end and no blood in the parsley!  This will probably keep me in parsley flakes till the end of winter (considering I still have the plants).

Holy Crap! That's some basil!

My hand isn't even on it, and you can't even see the colander!  The basil needed pruning BADLY. It's one of those things that you trim it, it grows bushier. It also stops it from going to flower. I have one plant I'm getting seed from, and that's enough.  I planted 4 parsley plants in one square, and it's produced more than enough. Basil I planted 9. A one square to 4 in a square comparison, plus another 4.  By the way, it's not worth it to plant just one per square - the plant was marginally bigger, but didn't give 4 times the basil.  Next time I'll probably only plant 1 square of 4 plants.

 By the time I finished trimming I had 4 bags for drying and still had another overflowing bowl full to get through.  Considering I have a cleaned out Ragu jar full of dried basil already - and that jar was filled by 2 bags worth of loosely packed dried leaves - I already tripled the amount I have - even if I were to crush them up (and I will when these are dry) to resemble 'shop bought' dried herbs, I'd still have that jar full to overflowing.  Next time you're at a supermarket compare the size of a Ragu spaghetti sauce jar to the size of a dried herb/spice jar.. Yeah - more than enough.  So what to do with what's left? I wouldn't waste it, and as far as fresh goes - I still have PLENTY growing - this was only a prune back.

You've seen minced garlic?  Same deal. Get your food processor and some oil (I use sunflower, you can also use virgin olive.. if I had some on hand I would have) - I also add a cap of cider vinegar. Then blitz it. In this case I packed it full - hit it for 2 minutes, filled it up again and repeated two times.  Evetually you'll end up with a thick basil paste.
From here what I'd normally do is put it in an ice cube tray and freeze it. If you want fresh basil in something, you pop out a cube and toss it in your pot or pan.

I couldn't find my ice cube trays, nor could we find them at the local supermarket - so instead a small tupperware style container is filled and put in the fridge.
It will keep for some time if sealed and refrigerated.  In this case you use it just like you would minced garlic - a couple of teaspoons and you have some intense basil-y flavor.






In other garden news, 3 or so days after planting and radishes have already popped up.  All 16 in record time.  With those, and the lettuce just below it chugging away - I'll have that summer salad yet!  All I need are some toms and maybe some beet leaves!  Also turnip greens have sprouted.

And of course some other stuff pulled out as the sun was setting.  Peppers.. 3 last week, 4 earlier THIS week, and 5 today.  There are plenty on the plants too - not small either. Next week I'm assured at least 4.
So 6 plants - 5 are producing more than I need. I think we call peppers 'solved' -this many peppers won't go to waste. Tomorrow I'll take all but 3 of the freshest and dice them, bag them, and freeze them. Any time I quickly need diced peppers (and when cooking who doesn't?) I'll have them on hand and ready to go!. Lettuce is the black seeded simpson variety - I'm pulling the leaves from the germination pots to thin the number. Some decided to pop up amongst the bib lettuce.
Beans - a small take. I have lots of buds but not a lot of beans atm, I'll see if they hit big before Autumn.  A little broccoli and a couple of small toms round out the take... looks like I'm having a salad lunch tomorrow!

The Future.....

I was really trying to work a DEVO reference into the title, but it just wasn't going to work (and I like to put little easter eggs into the titles, be they horrible puns or strange references).

The Future.  I've been thinking a lot over the Summer as the garden has been doing it's thing, Things that work, things that haven't, and about my goals. Am I achieving them? Am I at least moving in the right direction? And what steps should I be taking now to get there?
This post might be a little long, but that's ok - so's the future.

Space....

 One thing is certain, I need more space.  Spring and Summer had every available square, pot, and container planted out - even if those seeds didn't pan out, everything was full.  Still with each success I found myself wishing for more.  For the space being used I'm getting good results, but I'd like to get to a place where I'm replacing, not supplementing, store bought veg.

Another consideration is density of planting and the quality of plants - especially with containers.  This year I've run several comparisons for several plants, especially ones that are space intensive and thus not well suited to the square foot methods of planting.  Squash in large pots CAN be done, but even using what I consider to be the largest feasible pots (and still have them movable) there is still no comparison to 'in the ground'.
Although they have a place and a useful purpose, they require more upkeep, regular watering, and ultimately on a side by side comparison - in ground wins out every time - my single square foot broccoli is thrice the side of it's 3 brethren in 10 inch square pots.  90% of what I have in containers needs to be in the ground, and I need more of it.

Containers...

This is not to say containers don't have their uses.  I've grown an entire food garden in them when I didn't have yard space, and the germination to seedling growth in a planter can't be ignored. It was one of the things I took away from the first garden and implemented into 'the plan' - but there is another benefit, although it's one you usually try and factor against - size.
In the last point you see me talking about the limited size of plants as a major reason to expand, and how I picked large pots for squash to encourage growth, but it's a double edged sword.  It's a disadvantage on one hand, but a tool to be exploited on another.  Just as you can pick a pot to encourage growth, a lot of plants you can deliberately use an undersized one to limit it - this is no great discovery, the Japanese have done this with bonsai trees for centuries.

The small pot with the tiny tomato plant is actually older than than the larger by a significant amount.  The tiny one sprung up in January and was transplanted to that pot. The larger was grown from seed in March/April.
I've kept it at that size as I don't really have a good place for it, or a larger pot available.
I can keep it at that size for quite some time, and if I had a space I could transplant it, and it would grow to size.

Apart from germinating and keeping seedlings, there is also the 'overflow' concept.  When you plant, you don't ever do 'one hole - one seed' planting, you sprinkle 3-4 to each space.  This gives you a much better chance of success for each plant. Once sprouted and established (to their second (mature) leaves) you'd thin back the excess by plucking or pinching.   I try to carefully pull them - if I don't feel that tell-tale 'pop' of the root breaking, I replant the excess into a container.  At worst and they die, I've lost nothing - if they don't I have surplus seedlings that can be put back into the garden later. This is what I've done with kale this year - I only planted 4 squares of kale in spring. To date I've harvested off 9 mature plants (and have one more to put back in later this week).
 So containers will be kept and maintained, but hopefully going back to their original purpose.

Projects....

I had several garden projects slated for summer, but unforeseeable events and expenses make for changed plans. The garden is the low-end of the totem pole, and when push comes to shove, it's the first area I start cancelling out expenses from.  Also the 'terrible two's' have moved onto the terrible threes - with the kids getting more social, more time from my schedule is put towards them, making the days where I can spend 4-5 hours outside working on things lessened. Not to mention that those times that do come up need to be rationed between other household needs and repairs - buying an old house is a worse time vampire than Linden Lab's Second Life.

The wicking bed was the first to be cut - and I was looking forward starting it, but considering the costs involved for things I can't scavenge (pond liners, slotted drainage pipe, certain pvc fittings) would drive this up to a hundred dollars pretty fast - it's being put on hold.  I have other unfinished yard projects that I'd want to see to first (as I hate unfinished things, and one project has been put on hold and half finished for a year now) - this pushes the timeline back to possibly Spring, and I need more space now.  So - cut from the list.

I'll still be keeping an eye out for free stuff I can put to use on this, such as wood I can reclaim from pallets.

 New rainwater collection is another one, but for different reasons.  I wanted to replace my 55 gallon rubbermaid tub with an IBC Container (shown) - these are 275 gallons and are about 4ft square.  It would absolutely solve all garden water supply pretty much forever.  They come up on Craigslist from time to time or even at yard sales for around 70 bucks.  However having the 75 bucks in my pocket when one comes up has been problematic, and these things can vanish within an hour or so of being put up for sale.

So, I'm going to go with my current tub and until such time as I have the funds put aside and on hand at a moments notice, I'm not going to sweat it.

Worm tea peculator is still on the table - I have everything I need at the ready for this and really only have to wait for the current bucket o kitty litter to be depleted (and a couple of hours free).

Compost Trommel is going to be very involved, and not something I was even thinking about getting done over the summer.  I wouldn't even need this till April, when the composter in the yard has been running for a year. This being said I've already sourced a lot of parts from various farms, I won't, however, be bringing this assortment of junk home until a later date.

Plans

Space is needed, and needed before Autumn starts - this gives me about a month and a half to put some plans in place.

A new 4 x 4 bed - that will give me another 16 squares of planting, and that can go quite a long ways (no doubt in Spring I'll be lamenting a lack of space again).

Needed: 

lumber 2x6x10's - two of them.  That will do the frame, probably around $14.

landscaping fabric (good quality) - the stuff I did the composter and other bed with is now around $20 a roll, but that's ok as I need it for other things.

Dirt.  4 bags of garden mix $12, 2 bags cow compost $6, 2 bags mushroom compost $6, 2 bags topsoil $4. So around $28 - lets round it to $30.

 I have deck screws and lattice, so its gonna be around $64 to put in.

Dedicated area for squash and other large plants.  This really doesn't need to be done before spring - which is good because it's gonna take a bit of work.

See, not all the yard is nice and neat! This PITA to mow slice between the driveway and my fence needs cleaning up - I've already sprayed all that weedage with some knockdown, so it should start dying off in a couple of day (if not I'll procure something stronger from the farm) - then I need to dig up any remaining roots from more stubborn weeds, scape the topsoil down by about 6 inches - lay weed cloth down with a lip up along the fence to stop run-out of soil. Some kind of edging will need to be installed on the driveway side to make it a raised be of sorts.  The topsoil mixed with a liberal amount of pinebark chips will be shoveled back on, then the top mulched with pine-straw to prevent weed regrowing until the bed is used in spring.  Costs on this - probably $50-$60 dollars and a LOT of sweat.  However that stretch is some 20 - 25ft long (eyeballed). So that will make a very suitable patch to grow squash, melons, or other larger plants.

Finally, one little thing I need to do before next month. Prep potato bins. Walmart has put those crates back on special to coincide with the school year starting.  I already have 2, and expect to pick up 3 more if they're still around. That and weed cloth (which I need for everything else) and I should be good to go with 3 - 6 bins of potatoes ready to start growing before Autumn.

Anyways - that's the plan to take me to next Spring..

Cheers!

As The Worm Turns - Composting update

Worm Poo Day (usually the 1st) has come and gone twice now, and I haven't posted much on the subject for a bit.  July was a bit of a letdown, there really wasn't any point in harvesting, let alone posting about it.  Trays were compacted with unfinished papergoods, and the castings that were there weren't worth the sort.  So trays were swapped and we got on with life.

The summer heat wasn't kind to the process, as without central AC in the house (the duct work is there, but when the previous owner took off with one of the units, and the old clunker left behind shat itself last year - its an expensive project on the 'to do' list) the workshop area gets quite hot.
A box fan was put in front of the towers, and that helped quite a bit.

August was much better, with about 10lbs of castings from what was a rather difficult sort.  Some cardboard along the way was plastic coated, so lots of little stips of plastic to be sorted. The worms themselves had retreated to the cooler lower levels of the bin, so lots of worm sorting too.  This aside, the quality of castings was quite good, and although it's not up to the old levels, it's a lot better than nothing!

Some adjustments have been made as well. The idea of 'mo trays = mo fertilizer' doesn't really hold up, as you get more compacting with more weight - I've taken the 5 stack back down to 4. This means that I'll only be putting material through one tower this month.  I'm also going to  rework the harvest schedule to only harvesting from one tower every month.  Now at first thoughts you may think that my output of fertilizer will half - but my thoughts are that this effectively doubles the time the worms can work on each tray.  Since at the end of the month I still have a big sort of uneaten cardboard and paper in the tub, my problem isn't underfeeding.  Given more time, I'll only be getting a single tray, but that tray should have more castings of a better quality.
This extra time being left alone should also give more time for them to increase their population.  Even with the heat, that hasn't been an issue, but a higher population in each tub will increase productivity.

I'm once again thinking of expanding the worm farm and adding a tower.  This will be an investment of some 100-120 dollars (given tower, worm, and possible upgrades all round) , so I'll be putting in a lot of thought before I bite the bullet.  My last addition I took a tray from the old system and used it to 'kick start' the ecosystem, which sounds like a solid plan - although it still took me 4 months before it was in full swing - this is exactly the amount of time it took for new worms in a new tub, AND decreased the working population on the main bin.  Albeit I did overzealously put that new tub into production, and made enough other mistakes that I can't objectively evaluate that plan. I'm currently flip flopping on whether to start one up 'from scratch' or to a tub swap and just take things slowly.
A third option would be to take a small population of worms and put them in a separate home-made container and build that populaton towards starting a new tub and monitor it's progress and population....

Decisions, decisions... but not any I need to make until Autumn/Winter.

We have nearly reached a point of no leftover papergoods in the house.  The outside compost heap has been eating those for the past few months (both new and old shredded goods, and all large packing boxes) and with the fast growing summer grass, has been fed constant grass clippings as well.   It is STILL only half full - maybe an inch over half after last weeks mowing.  I'll continue to use this as the primary outlet of paper goods for a few more months until I get to an absolute zero balance of paper waste in the house (this will include the abundance of boxes still here from the move in a year ago, storage boxes, and the ongoing day to day of regular household trash).  I'm really looking forward to seeing some of that compost in Spring - if all goes well it may be the last time I buy potting mix/garden soil.

A Midsummers Day Update

It's been a month since I had a good update - mainly because not much happened on a day to day that seemed worth blogging about.  Over a span of a month, you can see the differences.

 It's been a month of wait, but not one of hunger.  Sandwiches with fresh tomatoes, kale, the first beans, and lots of peppers have been through the kitchen ,or in the crisper for later, and all the herbs you could want to season and flavor.  It hasn't been overflowing, but there's been steady good food as the slower plants of spring have started delivering.

 Bib lettuce was planted and quickly germinated, although looking at it now it seems there were plenty of other seeds left behind that might have mixed in.  I didn't thin these per se, but rather took a clump of them and transplanted them into the garden.

This is the same group - taken a couple of days ago. The remaining lettuce is going to need trimming in it's own right - it's outpacing the lettuce in the garden proper.
So, the question asked is 'why not just keep it in containers?'
Size and lifespan. Especially when dealing with lettuce like saladbowl (I haven't tried iceberg yet). In the garden they will grow much larger and be less prone to bolting - which will give you bitter lettuce.

 This new variety of bean I've tried is doing very well.  It puts out an amazing amount of flower buds, and I've already pulled a first take of beans off it.
It's the Ferry-Morse Tendergreen Improved Bush bean.  There are only 2 squares planted, and the yield off them may rival the 6 squares I had earlier. HOWEVER - although still nice, they aren't quite as sweet as my earlier variety when pulled off the bush.. seems there are tradeoffs to be made everywhere.  These bean are also planted in other areas of the garden (where corn was before) so I expect to be able to stock up and freeze some beans before summer is over.

 Little wonky perspective there, but a lot of goodly sized peppers are coming out - in fact I had to pick 4 just to make room on the plant. I'll probably get 4-5 more in a weeks time.
at this rate I think I'll be dicing a few and freezing them for use later. It's not uncommon for a tray of 3 peppers of a size slightly less than mine to go for 4 to 5 bucks.  By that pricing my pepper plants, that cost me a buck fifty for seeds, and the already existing soil (amended with worm castings) - has already earned between 25 - 30 bucks. If all you grew were 'big ticket items' - a 4 x 4 garden by itself could save the average punter quite a bit.

Top-your-broc.  The sun the day this was taken had wilted them a little, actually I think they've grown more in the last 2 days since these pics were taken.  Anyways, the broccoli I picked before had me worried. A good many months of growing, and a very small amount to show - but it's sprung back quickly - putting out many smaller heads, about 1/2 the size of the original, but many many more of them. So the lesson: dont be afraid to top off your broccoli, and don't fret if the initial head on it isn't that great.
I have 3 in the garden and 3 in containers to compare - and hands down the garden wins.  These plants are 3 times the size of the containers, and they're all exactly the same age.  Be aware it likes to 'lay down' and it seems that like a tomato, it will put out more roots (at least it appears to) - so make sure it has room to grow and not shade out smaller plants.

Again, 2 day old pic and it's already outdated by about a foot on that vine.
This I find interesting.  My other squash plants were in large pots as an experiment - I had one butternut squash seedling left over and no pot to put it in.  So I put it in the blueberry circle - something I put together to house a plant I got from the farm (that I knew had on a small chance of surviving).  The soil is mainly wood chips, with some potting soil, some composted cow manure, and of course some castings.  The plant didn't make it, and the seedling I put in there sort of just sat there doing nothing, while the others grew, flowered, and got hit with a damp rot.  The last 2 weeks though this one had taken off like rocket. It has 2 very small butternut squash on it already and shows no signs of slowing down. I'm going to monitor it's progress - but the drainage on those wood chips is excellent - although I thought it might be too acidic for the squash.... I was wrong. If it does well I'll be factoring this into my summer garden expansion. But more on that in another post.

Cheers!

Summer Planting for August

So July, the month of wait has gone, and we're on into August.  Not that I've been idle, the month was incredibly busy, just not garden busy.

My own yardwork had to take a back seat as I dealt with everything from my usual landscaping jobs, kids, and having both cars out of action.  But once again things are put back to as they should be. Beds pretty much weeded, soil amended, plants watered, and I'm ready to plant. As you can see everything is looking fairly green, and although it's been a month of watching and waiting - it's not been devoid of food.

Nearly everything I wanted to plant is in the ground, the exception atm is peas, as I was planning to do those after I pruned some plants (see last post) - so maybe a couple more days before I'm allowed to get grubby on that.

I was pretty ruthless when it came to clearing space - anything that wasn't working out was pulled - the second planting of carrots were consolidated into one square (as they weren't really working well). Root crops in general don't like being moved and I expect them to probably die off. If that happens they'll be replaced with beets and spinach.  I don't want to repeat the mistakes of spring.

2 squares of spinach were planted out with a spacing of 5 plants. I did 9 last year with not much luck - and this time they'll be getting lots of sun in the big bed on the right.  This is a first planting, and I'll be staggering in more as space is available.

Beets were also planted, 2 varieties and planted 9 per square. I did 9 last year (instead of a suggested 16) and did fairly well in late Autumn. I'm tempted to plant a 'test 16' and compare the outcome.  Beets will be planted again in Autumn to grow over winter.

Salad bowl lettuce was planted into the long pots for germination, this system is tested and solid for me - plant in containers and transfer to the garden later.  2 pots of 12 - 24 plants.

A single square of radishes were put down too, in a square adjacent to where they were in spring.  If they do as will this time around I'll have a good salad mix.

Swiss chard was planted in 3 squares, and I'll see how it does. one plant this time instead of 4.  Last Autumn I tended to have one large plant and 3 stunted - so this is a comparison to see if 4 smaller plants are more effective, we have both size, quantity of leaf, and tenderness/taste to consider.

Lastly Turnip Greens.  I love me some greens, and seeing how I failed to pick up Collard seeds, these are good for now. In spring I planted 3 squares and they overran the area very quickly - like my beans are at the moment (in those very squares).  I have a few tucked away squares by the chimney where corn almost grew. They are problem areas that get a LOT of water and are prone to washout. They get more shade than most as well. I'm putting the greens out of the way up there. They can overrun if they want, the shade should help with leaf wilting, and the density should help with soil washout.  We'll see.  Greens are a super fast grower, so if I can utilize 'bad squares' AND have a rapid turn around plant - that would be perfect.

I'll be keeping an eye out for more seeds in my travels this week.  I like a variety of things, and I need to fine tune the balance of fast/slow growing veg.

Lets see what we get in 10 days!

Get A Grip!

The blog title 'Big Manly Garden' is mainly me having a bit of fun with how others view me, and a friendly jab at the 'man card' culture we seem to live in.  Although I don't want to blow my own horn, these things don't exist in a vacuum, and one thing I do have is rather freakish hand/grip strength.  When you're splicing drip lines or yanking fennel, manhandling tension springs and someone that's done that all their life says 'DAMN!'.. you have to at some point say 'yeah, that's not exaggeration' and own it.

There is a downside though - and a lesson to be learned, this isn't an ego stroke of my manliness.

Couple that with a pair of stiff garden shears and some tomato plants that need a bit of pruning, and in a split second that can go from something good - to something quite bad.

Although the wife was a little overzealous with the initial bandage, I nearly took 1/4 of the tip of my finger off.. It's rather sobering to think that with the edge I try and keep on most my tools, and had I slipped a little lower - it's quite feasible I'd be at the ER right now with the top of my finger from the last knuckle up in a tupperware container full of ice.

Lucky for me, I just made the top of it more kosher.  I went inside and doused it under the tap, flipped the skin over and the wife went Florance Nightingale on it (later though for some reason she didn't want to watch when I doused it in iodine *shrug*).

Anyways - typing is a little slow, and thankfully I did all my planting today, so I won't need my left 'pokey' finger.  But needless to say the updated I'd planned on doing over the next day or so may take a little more time than I anticipated.

So - stay careful out there, and I'll be getting folks up to speed as soon as I can :)

Blueberry Harvest is Done!

Yay! The end of the blueberry season hit, and I can get back to my garden.  It's long, hot, and hard work out on the field, and many nights I got home after dark - the days I didn't I spent with the kids, who miss their Papa this time of the year.

One thing I do like about this garden is that I'm able to leave it alone and get on with things that need doing, and it chugs along without micromanagement.
It doesn't do spectacularly, but it doesn't die over a week if I'm not here.  The second planting of beans has grown in my absence, and the summer rains have brought it to bud pretty fast. I'm looking forward to beans being back on the menu in a week or so.
The other summer plants I put in on the 1st are starting to peek up, although the heavy rains of summer may have washed a couple of things out.  Between the young kale and a few other things, the month of 'wait' wasn't spent in garden famine. Next year I'll fine tune my planting a little more to hopefully afford more overlap into this time of the year.

 Now is the time when your long-grow spring plants (tomatoes, peppers, etc) come in and you compliment them with the fast grow plants of the summer (lettuce,spinache).  With a little more experience (and room) I hope to be hitting this time of year with summer salads at my fingertips.

My 3 little toms have been putting out a few fruits, and I've already tasted one. It's such a shame I probably won't get this variety again. The insides had thick walls and were juicy - ideal for slicing and putting on a summer sandwich.   Still, a few of these go quite a ways when used like that - so I should be having juicy ham and tomato sandwiches for lunch for a few weeks - when I finish the oft-halted spring clean of the kitchen I'll compliment that with home baked bread (and later lettuce).

Not the best of photos - but the largest of the broccoli put out some florets.  Not many, but enough to steam and have with my lunch tomorrow. This one budded early and looked like it might start flowering early - so waste not, want not.
  I'm looking forward to a taste of this.
Other plants are doing ok, with one other starting to put out.  This area of the garden was troublesome in the Autumn, but the broccoli here loved the rain and the partial shade.
Next year I'll plant this out entirely with broccoli and cabbage.

Speaking of cabbage - despite some sun burn and a couple of critters having a nom - these are starting to form up into the familiar 'ball' - along side them the others I planted 'staggered' are coming along, but time will tell if they take off.
Some carrots are in front of these, but they're not liking this area of the garden so much - still this is about experimenting and finding out the best places for various plants.  I'll continue to try new things and optimize the layout.

In the germination pots I put down some Bib Lettuce, alongside it is some Black Seeded Simpson that I had planted earlier.  These will be transplanted into the garden proper - hopefully I'll have this on the plate before the end of the month, when my Salad Bowl variety goes in.

I also planted out some Bib into one of the squares - just to compare. But the germination was slower, and some birds decided to pluck at the seedlings - for some reason they leave the germination pots alone.

Peppers are looking great. Not an abundance, but certainly the same amount I'd buy at the store if I had to.  They are big and juicy - and I could put cling wrap around them and put them on a shelf with the best the grocery store had to offer.
Now that I'm back in the swing and getting back on schedule, the application of some worm tea to these will make them start popping.

The herb garden is going very well - I'll have to trim back the basil and do some drying - I have more than  I could need.  The dill is growing nicely as well, and enough parsley that I will empty out the containers I have on the back porch in August and use them to plant something else.
The two Cilantro that made it are up and going to seed - this isn't a bad thing. Cilantro/Coreander (as I grew up calling it) is rather versatile. The leaf is used a lot in Mexican foods, but the seed is what you'll find used in the U.K. and in Australia more often.  The hard seeds are stored in a glass jar, and you grind them in a pestle before use.  This twin-usage is something I like - if I had more tomatoes earlier I'd have made fresh salsa, but instead I have an all purpose spice that I can keep forever.
On the herb front I have 4 bags of basil leaves I will need to check in the drying room - about $25 worth of dried herbs there, more than likely $100 worth if it were used fresh.  Trimming these back again I expect a similar quantity to dry.  A good thing as it's wife's go-to herb in the kitchen.

OH NOES!  No, it's not a disaster on the 4x4 raised bed. It was cleared and replanted.  If you click on the image to go full sized you'll see carrots (staggered planting with a weeks break between them) and brussels sprouts pushing up near the back. At the very back are the last of the kale seedings and some broccoli I needed to put out. I'll be comparing this extremely sunny bed to my partial shade. A tomato was put back there as well, but I fear the heavy rains may have washed it out.
The middle row is being left clean for August.
August is the month when it seems most of your summer planting comes in, and I'm going to be needing space for them - many of my faves like beets are August plants.

Not all is roses though. My cherry tomatoes are in limbo, not dying, not growing, and not flowering - I may move them and see what happens. The big disappointment was the squash. Just when they started getting some nice sized squash, the heavy rains and winds put some kind of rot on them (not the usual fuzzy rot that hits the squash itself when the ground is too wet or dry) - it went into the plants themselves and made them brittle, snapping in the wind.
The butternut started to get it on it's vine so I cut it back and gave it a dose of fertilizer and it popped back to life.  I'll see if it manages to make a comeback over this summer.  Live and learn. I'll be putting in a dedicated squash and corn patch near the driveway next year and see how that goes.

The harvest today.  It's not a cornucopia, but all good tasty summer veg. Enough tomatoes and peppers to see me through a week or so, a taste of ultra fresh broccoli, and a couple of cherry toms to put on the side of a plate - to pop in the mouth to cleanse the palette.  Around these parts you're probably looking at $6-8 dollars that I don't have to spend, and that to me is the taste of victory.

Cheers - See you at the end of the week, and happy gardening!

Summer Plant Preperation.

I had a week to get ready for the summer planting, but as many know life and plans rarely match up. This years blueberry harvest has taken a little longer than usual as we're breaking in a new harvester, and another farm was down a man - so I jumped on their harvester for a day between my own work.
This time of year is  very busy for me, but apart from landscaping, seasonal farmhand, and my own online business - my primary occupation IS a Father, so my days between are filled with catching up on housework, maintenance, and of course the kids.So no posts all last week and even less in the photo department.  The upside (for me) is I'm getting a killer tan and a great workout just in time for the beach :)

Several plants were cleared out in preparation for the summer. The original beans were harvested one last time as the plants were pulled. The last 2 big kale were trimmed up for tonight's dinner, along with the last of the carrots.  None of them were really large, but I have 2 squares freshly planted to try a different variety.

Tomorrow the corn will be pulled up.  It grew better than my last attempt, but that's no great accomplishment.  Some talk with local farmers gave me some insight on my plants.  Once the top 'tassles' you can forget about new growth - so mine are stuck with not very big ears to show for it.  Although corn *technically* is well spaced at  1 per foot, it is quite nutrient hungry and the suggestion was to put it aside in a place I can really pump more fertilizer to and not have it leech it from surrounding plants.
Next time I'm at 'Papa and Grannies' for grounds keeping I'll ask them. They've forgotten more on the subjects of farming and gardening than most will ever know.  I can't stress what a wealth of knowledge these folks are and how helpful they are on setting me on the right track for a lot of my plant queries.

A couple of other plants will be pulled as well, they've been non-producers and are obviously not suited for their location. A tiny pepper seedling will be relocated, and a cherry tomato vine will be pulled.  This leaves me with quite a few squares to plant up - and I've sorted my seeds out into their planting months.

JULY

•  Carrots: Red Cored Chantenay  (July/August)
•  Lettuce: Bibb/Limestone (July/Sept)
•  Brussels Sprouts: Catskill (July/August)
•  Tomatoes : Queen of Hearts Hybrid (July/August)
•  Sweet Pepper: California Wonder (July/August)
•  Broccoli : De Cicco (July/August)
•  Cabbage: Ferry's Round Dutch (July/August)
• Oregano: origanum vular (common) (July/August)

I'll have a fair few squares to plant out - but I don't want to fill them all up with slow growing plants, as I have an August round of seeds as well:

AUGUST

•  Peas: Oregon Sugar Pod II (snow peas) (August)
• Spinach : Bloomsdale Long-Standing (August/October)
• Lettuce : Salad Bowl (August/November)
• Radish : Cherry Belle (August/November)
• Beets : Tall Top Early Wonder (August/October)
• Beets: Detroit Dark Red, Medium Top (August/October)
• Swiss Chard : Fordhook Giant (August/November)
• Kale : Dwarf Blue Curled Vates (August/October)
• Turnip Greens: Seven Top (August/November)

SEPTEMBER

•  Late summer potato planting.

So for July I need to plant enough so that the garden is productive, yet have enough space for August/November plantings.  I don't have 17 squares to plant one square of everything, nor would I want to do that. I'd like more of some things, and that will have to come at the expense of less of others.

We can work the number down somewhat without much effort.  Lettuce will be germinated in long containers - one container used to sprout 6 of each variety.  there won't be need to transplant to the garden till they are slightly bigger than seedlings (and we can transplant as space becomes available).
 Peas will be replacing corn - so no need to factor that in, and we'll be planting a lot of peas this year.

Broccoli and Sweet Peppers are already planted and doing well.  I'd like to see how this broccoli does before planting any more. I'm currently comparing container vs garden, and in the garden the plant that's doing the best is where spinach failed in Autumn.  Likewise with peppers, I have many plants - some doing better than others. if anything I might be pulling a couple of seedlings to make room. I have 6 productive plants at the moment flowering and looking to produce.

Although I pulled the last of the early planted kale, I still have 3 younger plants - there's no need to plant more.

Tomatoes, I really like the way this variety has turned out. However I have 3 plants in pots, and 3 seedlings currently in various places in the garden. Again, no need to plant more till I work out how these ones do.

Cabbage, I have 4 planted and a second planting only yielded 2 plants, so I need only fill that square in with 2 seeds. No new square needed.

Oregano goes in the herb garden, there is a square available from a failed sage plant.

So for July I need only find room for carrots, brussels sprouts, and possibly tomatoes (if I'm feeling mercurial).
Lettuce can be added to a square, and we can turn that square over with new plants.

For August we'll put in the spinach, radishes, both varieties of beets, peas, Swiss chard and turnip greens. Lettuce will be added from the second variety as space becomes available, and turnip greens 

If our earlier spring tomatoes are over, we can plant the swiss chard in containers (one per container) and harvest it by leaves.

This seems quite do-able. I'll formulate exact numbers and placement when I get into the garden, taking into account the placement of what worked/failed in Autumn last year.

Tomorrow is also the first of the month: Worm Poo day in the BMG calender, so squares will be amended, dug over, and hopefully the first seeds will be ready to go in by the 4th.

One summer project (hopefully, time and pocketmoney permitting) will be adding another bed to the garden - more space, more plants for Autumn.

Cheers and happy Summer!

Spring - a post mortem

Well the 21st was the Summer Solstice, and with that Spring has sprung.  It was a great season of learning, a few hiccups, some unexpected failures, and unexpected success.  Everything that didn't work out to plan yielded some knowledge. Although plant selection and timing will need to be improved, many good meals were had (several I've shown, but there have been several quick lunches and just garden browsing) - I'd give a generous estimate of between 1/4 and 1/3 veg was fresh grown from the garden. A respectable amount - but a quite a long way to go.

Garden costs for the new bed were easily met thanks to the addition of the herb garden - putting it well into the black with very little effort.

The garden itself as it faces Summer certainly looks a lot different than the initial pictures from Spring.  Some plants, like the beans, are yellowing and putting out what may be the last harvest from those plants.  The 2nd square of carrots are coming in, and those turnip greens have long since departed.
And yet EVERY square has something in it growing. So it's actually MORE productive right now than Spring.
New beans are popping up around the corn, a second planting of carrots are starting to sprout.  Peppers and some late planted tomatoes are in there too.  Possibly too late, but worth trying out.  There is going to be some dead time between the seasons, but hopefully that will be reduced next year.  There are some things to work out when it comes to optimal planting due to sun and rain - but as a whole things have turned out ok.  I'll break it down in sections.

The original garden bed.

 The first bed I put in and dug over.  Originally planted with (in order) turnip greens, a pepper from last year, lettuce, beets, carrots and radishes.
Currently holding beans, eggplant, peppers, kale and carrots.
The turnip greens were a good grow for spring, and something I'd do again - perhaps doing collards later in the year.  Last years pepper is putting up a couple of nice early peppers that are nearly ready to pick. The placement of those was spot on, and I wouldn't change a thing - apart from maybe the amounts.
Radishes were abundant - and I think I picked the right time to cut back to one square. With some adjustments to the planting of other things, I think the goal of fresh picked salads will work out better next year.  Carrots turned out well - some nice sized carrots, and the staggering of the two squares time wise is just about perfect - as the last of the first are due for pulling, the next batch are coming into their own.  The only thing I'd change here would be volume.  You can grow 16 carrots in a square and have them nearly all work out - but 32 is not enough.  64 will be the goal for next year with a 2 week staggering between them.
Beets was just a stupid mistake.  I saw some sprout that had been left in the germination container and decided to go for it. Yes they sprouted, then struggled, then eventually died.   Just boneheaded stupidity on my  part.  So long as the lesson is learned, and not repeated, then all is well.

The lettuce looks quite 'bolty' doesn't it?

Lettuce in both beds was a real letdown. I devoted an entire post to it early in the spring - and it all comes down to timing and variety.  2 things this blog is supposed to help me with.
The Black Seeded Simpson was the variety, and as you can see peeking between the beans and kale, it looks like it's about to bolt to seed at any moment - the leaves were quite prone to being burnt up as well.  By the time I tracked down what I'd grown last Autumn it was too late to plant.  In the future, as far as the garden beds are concerned, I'll be trying other varieties such as the Salad Bowl, and I might try Iceberg - the classic sandwich and salad lettuce.

As you can see though all is not lost. It seems the Black Seeded Simpson rather likes my germination containers - so next Spring I might set a long box aside and try growing 6 - 10 plants in there.
Regardless I will be sticking more to a proven method of growing lettuce when it comes time to plant again - sprouting and growing it in the boxes and transplanting it to the garden squares as space becomes available. This should cut down on wasted space anxiety.

2nd Bed.

The second bed didn't produce so well this spring, but that was due to both mistakes on my end and overall timing.  Originally it was planted with tomatoes, corn, spinach, cabbage, and swiss chard from Autumn.
The chard should have been pulled at the start of spring and replanted. Spinach was planted both too early and too late. A late Autumn planting had been holding on and I was convinced it would come good - rather, half died and the other bolted straight to seed.
By this stage it was too late and replacement plantings sprouted and immediately were burnt up in the increasing temps.
Cabbage did well apart from something nomming on it. I can't find traces of the critters that are doing it (no slug trails, no bugs to find), the second planting was staggered a bit too late and has been disappointing. 2 plants dead and the other 2 showing little to no progress past seedlings.  The corn came up, but I think I will need to rethink my soil strategy and placement for it. Still it is doing better than garden #2 corn - so I'll stick with it and learn. Currently I've planted some beans around it as an experiment in companion planting.  Other squares have been planted out with carrots and a couple of Queen of Hearts tomatoes, which I am now 98% certain are determinate (or bush) tomatoes.
I ended up putting down plants from the overflow, and as you can see the broccoli loves it there. This is doing better than my container broccoli, so next year I think we've found a home for it.
The cherry tomato up the back has vined and is running around the pine straw behind the beds, which is good as it takes up little garden space - however I've yet to see a single tomato appear on it.

The other tomato plants are doing well, and again in hindsight These would have been perfect for planting one-a-square and staggered them by about a week - optimally where the first 4 stalks of corn are currently planted.
If I manage to procure more seeds of this variety, it's the strategy I'll try next year.
If not I will be going back to looking for that ideal variety of tomato - preferably an heirloom that I can generate my own seeds from.

The 'bottom' bed

I still have rain wash issues to work out with the bottom bed, but for the most part it's doing ok. Corn and beans are growing, although I think more fertilizer will be required if I do corn again here. Peppers are all doing well - apart from a square at the end that sees the most rain wash and the most sun. The pepper there has remained a seedling size while others are taking off.
In Autumn/Winter I grew beans and peas here, something I'll be doing again this Autumn as part of a bigger strategy to finally get some healthy corn going.

The 'new bed'

This raised bed I started this spring and it's done quite well for itself. It was planted with peas, beans, lettuce, and kale. I don't have to say much on this as it's been in nearly every post this spring.
Peas did fairly well but died out early - the beans here are coming to their last harvest - and I'll let them go out and replant the squares in July.  In Autumn at the 'bottom bed' beans did ok and died out early while peas produced well.  In the future I'll only plant peas in Autumn and beans all the way through spring.  This should ensure some good nitrogen for whatever crops follow them.  Peas lasted me all Winter last year, and I hope to reproduce this in a different bed this year.

Squash in a pot

Squash I haven't made my mind up on.  The plants seem to be doing ok, but the squash aren't really developing to an edible size. This could be simply due to the maturity of the plant - or it could simply need more space, in which case next year could see me starting up a squash patch.
The butternut squash put out a single squash - but the plant seems to be needing some more love. I'll be seeing if some more fertilizer brings it around, or if it's simply run its course.
Time will tell on this idea.

The Herb Garden

A couple of non-starters and a couple of die-offs. But all in all the herb garden is doing well. Sage is on the way to being ready for picking, parsley is there in abundance and more basil than you can poke a stick at. The two plants of cilantro that survived are enough to be useful too.
Lessons learned here were to plant less basil, and that 4 plants per square seems to me to be an optimal amount.  After this photo was taken I cut the tops off several of the basil plants and trimmed the leaves for drying. If it all makes it through the process it will probably amount to $20 worth of dried herbs if bought at the supermarket.  Fresh - you don't want to know. A lot.  The availability of fresh herbs is what made the new garden additions pay for themselves, and is still the most cost effective thing you can do with a garden space.

An honorable mention has to go out to the potatoes.  I think I learned enough about them to try and make more serious run at them come late Summer.

On the composting front - the new bin is still half full, and will slowly break down (hopefully) in time for next spring - To harvest it I'll probably add a trap door to the bottom and make the design a 'flow through' box.
Vermicomposting was not without it's hiccups either - my own desire to take care of a surplus of paper goods from the move led me to make an error that will probably take a couple more months to sort out entirely. Also the rising temps and a lack of AC in the workshop are causing problems with them as well. Currently a box fan is being put on them, and ice blocks put in on the predicted hotter days.  In a few weeks I hope to move them to a better location in the workshop and take some steps to lowering the general temperature of the area.  Right nowt he entire house needs a new AC system, but that is a long term thing I need to work on - so it won't get solved this summer.

I'll be making plans over the next few days between farmwork and housework to outline my Summer garden plan.  The summer plant for this zone starts in July, so I have a week or so to think and adjust.  This also coincides with my end of month worm bin cleanouts - so I'll have a bunch of fresh worm castings to put in the soil when I plant.  The beans will be ready to be cleared out just in time to make way for new plantings as well - in time I hope to have this overlap of seasons at a point where it's a near constant production of veg with very little down time, and this first season seems to have turned out as a much better start point than I thought it would.

Cheers!