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 :)