"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.
Monday, October 28, 2013
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.
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....
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.
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!
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 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.
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!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)