Asparagus Season

Apparently, it's asparagus season!

Asparagus is great because it can grow basically unattended.  The problem with that, though, is that I forget to check on it. 

And, it can go from perfectly-ready-for-a-dinner-sidedish to a soon-to-be-full-fledged-fern-frond in a matter of days.  This stalk looked like the one in the first picture just 2 days ago.  Then, I thought I'd wait another day or so to let it get a bit taller.  And, I forgot about it.  Now, that it's branched out, it's too far gone for dinner.  Oh, well.  There are more coming up all around it.  Hopefully, I'll remember to check in on them more often. 

How Does a Gardener Grow?

Here's a fun quote for you:

When gardeners garden, it is not just plants that grow, but the gardeners themselves.
--Ken Druse

So true, right?  There are lots of ways that being out in nature and digging in the dirt grows me.  But, in a very practical sense, gardening teaches me to be a better gardener.

As the garden progressed last year, I made a few notes that I hoped would help me out in the future.  Here are some examples:

1.  My broccoli plants got huge but never developed heads.  They took up way too much space and yielded us nothing.  Nix them in the future.
2.  Radishes -- I grew them.  They were bitter, as radishes apparently are. No one ate them.  End of story.  Why did I even plant these?
3.  Continue planting flowers amidst veggies to encourage beneficial insects.  However, don't grow flowers from seed; get small plants instead.  By the time the flowers were in bloom, I'd missed the window of time when I really needed to be attracting the beneficials.
4.  While we're speaking of flowers, nix the Candytuft.  It didn't grow at all.
5.  Grow more of the following (we ate them up too fast):  beets, potatoes, onions, tomatoes, carrots
6.  And, based on #5, I'd better add another root bed.
7.  Add Pattypan squash -- a squash I discovered at the farmer's market --so cute and super yummy!
8.  Speaking of squash -- 3 zucchini plants was too much for our family.  Even the chickens eventually tired of it.  Cut back to 2 plants.
9. Forget about growing corn -- too little return for the space requirement in a square foot garden.  Can be purchased cheaply in season at the farmer's market for canning/freezing purposes.
10.  Don't put two trellisses back-to-back only a foot apart.  What was I thinking?  As anyone with half a brain would be able to anticipate, I couldn't pick anything that grew between the two. 

Maybe you, too, can glean a thing or two from my 2012 gardening notes.

What about you?  How did you grow as a gardener last year? 

New Multi-Purpose Shelving Unit

Now that the ladies out back are once again producing milk, I'm looking forward to ramping up my soap production.  As each bar needs to "cure" (sit around in a well-ventilated area) for about 4 weeks before use, I need a pretty good amount of space to store the curing bars.  My wonderful husband purchased me this new wire rack.  It was 50-ish dollars on Home Depot's website, qualified for free shipping, and was easily assembled.  It's hard to make out in the photo, but it's a brushed bronze, so I think it looks a little nicer than the shiny metal of most wire racks. 

Since I don't currently have a lot of bars curing (the babies are still getting most of the milk) and since we'll soon be having company who will need the guest bed, I decided to move my seedlings from the bed to the rack.  The grow lights are afixed to the shelf above and since the shelves are adjustable, I can easily move them to allow for plant growth.

Here's a look at my tomatoes today.

More tomatoes

On the bottom rack, I've got my sweet potato starts . . .

 . . . and starchy potato starts.  Yes, I know I'm a little behind on getting my potatoes in the ground  (they're supposed to be in by Valentine's Day, right?) but since there are currently 3 inches of snow on the ground outside, I'm gonna beat myself up about it.  :)

Happy Snow Day!

Garden Boxes!!

Last year's square foot garden was comprised of 5 boxes.  This year, we added 3 for a total of 8.  What better way to celebrate the first day of spring than checking that chore off the list? 

We started by laying out the newspaper we'd saved all winter all over the new ground to be covered.  We did this "Guard-thick."  This just means that we took our local, small-town newspaper, opened it up to the middle, and laid it out so that the ground was covered with paper 3-4 sheets thick.  

Once the ground was covered, we soaked it so that it would stay put (the wind was really blowing).

We positioned the new boxes atop the paper.

One Day 2 of the project, we made good use of our new garden cart (and child labor) and moved all of our materials (totaling around 2 tons) over to the garden boxes where we would mix it all together.

The girls showed off their muscles as they lifted these 40-lb. bags. 

Here are all of our supplies, organized and ready for mixing.  The girls are atop the peat moss bales.  The vermiculite is in the middle, and the compost is on the right.

We filled in between the boxes with old hay (it was a little too wet to feed the animals) and mulch leftover from our 2 truckbed-fulls we bought last year.

Then on Project Day 3, we mixed together our ingredients on a tarp, drug it over to each box, and dumped it in.  (That sentence makes it sound very simple.  In fact, it was very messy and took a lot of muscle and time.  This may be too much information, but I'm still blowing dirt particles out of my nose.)

Once the trellises were all up in the correct spots, I put up the signs I made for each of the kids' areas of the garden.

Here you can see the string I used to section off the square feet.  It may grow slack over the course of the summer, but I thought it was worth a try since this option is much cheaper than the window blinds I used last year.

Finally, here's a look at a new type of trellis I am testing out this season.  In just this bed (which is naturally shaded by the house in the morning), I put in these slanted trellises.  The idea is that I can grow vining things on the trellis and lettuce underneath.  Hopefully, the additional shade will allow me to grow lettuce later into the summer than a fully sunny spot would allow.  We'll see. 

How are your garden preparations coming?

Backyard Garden Box Construction

 Sunday afternoon was just beautiful here!  We took advantage of it and worked in the backyard, constructing our 3 new garden boxes.

Look who loves power tools!  (Not that we should be surprised.)

"These screws are as long as my finger!"

Surfboarding!

Not going to be outdone by little sis ;)

The kids got ahold of the camera, so we got lots of fun, silly shots -- like this one.

And, this one.  Our backyard doesn't have any good climbing trees, but that's not about to stop Girl 2.  Here, you can see the elaborate system of jumpropes that she's tied to this Bradford Pear.  They allow her to hoist herself up to the higher branches.  Innovative, huh?

Finished product.  Three garden boxes.  They are each 4x8 feet long.  Two of them are 6 inches deep, and one (for growing root veggies) is 12 inches deep.  Here, they are propped up on rocks so that they're ready for painting.  With the forecasted rain and/or snow, that may have to wait a few days, though.  We'll see.

We've Got Growth!

Well, we survived yesterday's ice storm and luckily had no major damage.  A few downed limbs and a brief power outage are all we really experienced here.  The kids were very disappointed to be out of school and not have any snow to play in. 

But, while it's been pretty cold outside, it's warm and sunny in the guest room.

Eggplant and peppers are going strong.  Tomatoes have been planted and are just beginning to sprout.

A look at the set-up

The lid is on the closest box, holding in the moisture until the seeds have all sprouted.  The other box contains the more mature seedlings -- no lid for them.

It's hard to believe it looking out the window, but spring is around the corner.  I don't know about you, but I'm ready!

Garden Prep Work

This past weekend, John and I enjoyed a weekend away from it all.  Once a year around our anniversary, my father-in-law double gifts us by allowing us his cabin on the river for the weekend while he keeps our kiddos.  Because we plan to be bottle-feeding some goat kids on our actual anniversary next month, we decided to go ahead and have our getaway early. 

We had a great time and were able to get a couple things done that we really needed to do.  First, we were able to clock 14 miles running hills and dirt roads, helping us prep for our upcoming hilly race in May.  Also, we were able to make a quick trip to the farm co-op in Mountain View.  I'd called ahead to be sure they'd have everything we needed.

In all, we bought 10 bales of Peat Moss and 10 giant bags of Vermiculite.  AND, we fit it all in the back of our van!

Last year, we filled our raised garden beds with a mix of compost, peat moss, and rice hulls.  However, we were underwhelmed by the performance of the rice hulls, so we decided to try vermiculite this year in it's place. 

Vermiculite is actually what's recommended for use in the square foot gardening method that we use, but we had a hard time finding it last year.

Also, peat moss is much more cost-effective when purchased in these big, compressed bales.

Another change we plan to make this year is in how we create the grid.  This picture, taken last year, shows the faux wood blinds we used to create the squares.  I was able to get them on sale and thought they really looked nice.  This year, however, I need more since we're adding three more beds and haven't been able to catch them on sale.  Now, that I've had some experience with the gardening method and know that the only purpose of the grid is to provide order and division, I'm planning to use twine held in place by nails this year instead.  Obviously, this is a much less expensive option that should be just as functional.

Now, we need to get those three new boxes constructed so that I can plant some more kale already!

Melons Won't Grow

Okay, this excerpt from a book I read recently is just too funny.  Happy Saturday.  Enjoy!


"Garden update:  My melons won't grow.

"The last time I said this was seventh grade, with an eerily similar angst. 

"If I understand this problem like I think I do, Watermelon Vine is sick with envy, wondering why Tomato is ripe with plump, round fruits while she is still flat as a Kansas highway, developing gawky, awkward shoots everywhere, but no freaking melons.  I bet she does a self-examination every morning hoping, hoping for development, a promising bud at least, only to discover a lengthening of her skinny vine in another clumsy direction, impossible to maneuver with any grace.

"I keep telling my melon vine that her day will come; we develop differently, that's all.  It's basic biology, nothing to fret about.  Some vines sprout early, requiring wires and string to hold up their bulging fruits sooner than others.  Not to worry, Watermelon Vine, soon you'll need your own wire and string, and your melons are going to be waaaay bigger than Tomato's.  Trust me.

"I know she looks smug, what with her perfectly rounded bounty that everyone admires while you're just a skinny vine without so much as a bud, but believe me, Tomato will be yesterday's news once your sweet fruits develop.  I've seen the gene pool you came from; the future looks bright for you, WV.  Your kind grows them big.  (If you want, we can get you a wire and string like your more developed garden friends so Basil will quit mocking you; like he's so awesome -- he's just a bunch of leaves.)

"Parenting my garden requires way more emotional energy than I expected.  It was easier when they were just little seeds and all they needed was water.  Sure, I worried about them in their infancy, but at least it was simple.  Now there's all this drama and competition:  Who's sprouted, who hasn't, who is independent, who is more -- how shall I say it nicely?  -- needy?  Wow.  It's a good thing we don't know all that is involved in raising a garden when we first conceive it, or none of us would bear any fruit."

This hilariousness is excerpted from Jen Hatmaker's book 7: An Experimental Mutiny Against Excess

The KP Project -- Has There Ever Been a Cooler Idea?

Shane Claiborne (you already know I love me some Shane!) wrote,

"I had come to see that the great tragedy in the church is not that rich Christians do not care about the poor but that rich Christians do not know the poor. . . . I long for the Calcutta slums to meet the Chicago suburbs, for lepers to meet landowners and for each to see God's image in the other. . . . I truly believe that when the poor meet the rich, riches will have no meaning.  And when the rich meet the poor, we will see poverty come to an end."

Powerful concept, huh?

The Karpophoreō Project based in Austin, Texas, is making it happen!  I recently finished the book 7:  An Experimental Mutiny Against Excess, by Jen Hatmaker (thanks, Justin!).  It's a good one.  Anyway, Jen makes mention of the KP Project, and I fell in love with the idea.  According to Jen (you'd feel like you were on a first-name basis with her too, if you'd read the book), here's the concept:

"Willing partners offer KP their land for a backyard garden and/or backyard farm (the farm involves chickens, and I'm sorry, but I can only handle so much, ya'll), and the KP folks BUILD AND PLANT THE WHOLE GARDEN.  Their team includes regular volunteers as well as formerly homeless men and women. 

"Then, they come out weekly and prune, treat, and harvest.  Half the produce stays with the homeowner, and the other half is sold at farmer's market or in CSA boxes.  The formerly homeless who work the gardens keep 70 percent of the profit.  Bam.  Sustainable income from locally grown organic produce with nearly zero overhead. Genius.

"What a creative use of privately owned land in lieu of costly public property!  What vision to connect privilieged landowners with the chronically homeless, building relationships and making something beautiful together."

Ummm.  Seriously.  Has there ever been a cooler idea?  I mean, how many people have you met who "would love to garden but have no idea where to begin"?  Maybe you're even one of those people.  This amazing concept teaches organic gardening as it helps lift its employees out of poverty.  Empowerment for all!

I may just be really out of the loop, but I've never heard of anything like this.  If I had a little more gardening experience, though, I'd probably be trying to figure out a way to copy-cat this right here in my community!

It's Springtime in the Guest Room

Let me first say, that if any of you are considering a visit to our little homestead, you are very welcome, as always.  And, the coming weeks and months ought to be pretty exciting around here with the promise of goat kids soon.  But, be warned, you may just find yourself bunking in the kids' rooms.  The guest room is currently occupied.

Friday, (the same day Copper died -- see, the circle of life!) the seeds for our new spring garden arrived!  This may very well be the highlight of my winter!  The process of mapping out the garden (deciding how many of each plant we need and where they will be located in our garden grid system) and planning planting dates based on predicted last frost dates presents an organizational challenge that provides me hours of delight!

Here's my mid-process mess.  It basically took over the living room!

The process revealed the need for 3 additional garden beds, so construction will begin on those soon. 

Also, among other things, we plan to add Eggplant to the garden this year.  At 8 to 12 weeks before the last frost date, these seeds start sooner than any other we will grow.  Counting backward, I soon realized that I should have started the Eggplant seeds . . . last week or earlier!

I then dedicated no small amount of the weekend to cleaning up the guest room and turning it into the grow room.

Here are the basics needed for starting seeds indoors.

1.  The brown tub is filled with our homegrown compost mix (brown gold!).

2. The basket holds our newspaper pots (man, can Girl 2 churn these out fast!).  For directions on how to make your own using only a soup can and old newspaper, check out this link. 

3.  Sphagnum moss, added to the top of the soil in each pot, helps keep moisture in check.

4.  A water-filled spray bottle helps water the young seedlings without knocking them over.

BROWN GOLD!

Rather than the popsicle stick markers I used last year, I opted to just write in red Sharpie directly on the pots.

To create a grow space, I cover the queen-sized bed with a tarp.  I use an under-the-bed box to hold the pots.  (Though not pictured here, I will actually leave the lid on most of the time to help retain moisture until the seeds have sprouted.)  Then, I hang my fluorescent shop light from the hooks I keep in the ceiling for this purpose.  Because our lights are suspended by chains, I can easily raise them as plants grow to maintain the recommended 2 inches or so from the plants.

Interesting, huh?  Well, Blossom seems to think so.  :)

More Backyard Snow

Well, a few of the chickens are braving the snowy ground.  John moved the gang onto a patch of mostly thawed ground today, so they can move around much more easily.

This group of "chickens," though, are still afraid to come out of the house.

The goats have apparently figured out that they'd have to come out of their house to get to their feeder.  So, I was able to get a few snowy goat pics.

Love these gals!

Razz had to come get some lovin'.

I know I'm a crazy goat lady, but I really do think they're pretty animals!

Our compost bins (and a half-sunken Milkshake)

A tiny kitty and her tiny,  kitty-sized tracks

It's crazy to think that these strawberries were still producing about 2 weeks ago.

Will the crazy parsley bounce back from this?

Spring Mix Lettuce??

One of the ways I know I'm not a very seasoned gardener is how much I mourn the loss of a crop.  My guess is that a more experienced gardener just accepts that the weather changes and some crops will no longer thrive. 

I'd never imagined that I'd be able to harvest lettuce, kale, and spinach straight through the fall and into December.  For the extra greens, I am exceedingly thankful. And, yet, when I walked out to the garden after 3 mornings of frost and 2 days of cold wind and lifted the plastic sheeting to see my ruined lettuce, I thought I might cry.

Here you can see how the leaves have withered and turned brown.

I removed the sheeting and laid it out to dry before storing.  Planning to use it in early spring,  I left the hoop frame up for now.

Cocoa Puff didn't seem to mind that the greens were a little wilted.  I guess I'll just feed her a little bit of what's remaining each day until it's all gone.

In the meantime, I found myself purchasing "Organic Spring Mix" greens at the store yesterday.  So much for eating in season.  :(

It Takes a Lickin'

The parsley, that was pretty slow-growing during the summer, has taken off as temperatures have cooled. 

Here it is, covered with frost first thing in the morning.  The first time I saw it like this, I assumed it was done for the year.

But, in the afternoon sun, it perks back up and still has great flavor!

I am loving that it's now December, and we are still bringing in so many things from the garden!

Compost Love!

Getting my Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds catalog in the mail provided just the motivation I needed to get outside and move around some compost to begin prepping the garden beds for spring.

Here's a look at out current compost bins. 

Far left:  the bin we're currently filling -- you can see our pumpkin, fall leaves, and goat bedding with poo on top of the mound

Middle:  Compost ready for the garden!  I actually took the photo after I'd scooped 5 wheelbarrowfuls out, but you can tell by the color of the soil just how great it is!  I absolutely love the idea of compost:  yesterday's trash and scraps become the today's fuel for growing tomorrow's food!

Far right:  mid-decomp bin.  The contents of this bin should be ready for use by spring.

Remember, we use the Square Foot Gardening method, so we have a grid like this on top of the beds.  For the winter, though, we've removed the grid.  This allows us to more easily stir in soil amendments.

Here's a look at the beautiful compost, ready for the garden beds.  It was so full of earthworms -- an excellent sign that it's good soil.

Here's a look at the garden beds once I'd added all the compost.

Remember, we do not use our local soil.  Our beds are filled with a mix of rice hulls, peat moss, and compost/manure.  We aren't sure that the rice hulls were actually the best route, so instead of adding more come spring, we plan to sub in vermiculite instead.

Going ahead and moving the compost to the garden beds allows it more surface area to speed decomp if there's still some stuff that needs to break down before spring.  Also, it gets the prepped compost out of the middle bin so that we can go ahead and start filling that one back up.

It's Here! It's Here!

Here it is -- the 2013 Baker Creek seed catalog!  I could hardly contain my excitement when I discovered it in my mailbox. 

I could hardly wait to settle in and read all about the amazing seed varieties it offers.  But, I chose to delay gratification by forcing myself to clean the house, get Little Boy down for a nap, turn on some quiet music, brew a warm cup of tea, light my Christmas-scented candle, grab a blanket, settle in on the couch next to the Christmas tree with my highlighter, Post-it notes, pen, and THE catalog.  Seriously, doesn't that sound divine? 

This is no ordinary seed catalog.  This is THE seed catalog.  Run by the extraordinary Gettle family, Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds offers "1,400 varieties of vegetables, flowers, and herbs -- the largest selection of heirloom varieties in the USA."  They've committed themselves to producing non-hybrid, non-GMO, non-treated, and non-patented seeds.  In other words, they're fighting back against the big corporation's attempts to control our seed supply.  This company also works "extensively to supply free seeds to many of the world's poorest countries, as well as here at home in school gardens and other educational projects." 

AND, this 350-page, full-color catalog contains such beautiful photos that it's coffee-table worthy.

AND, the company is located in Mansfield, Missouri.  What's so great about that?  Well, they grow their many varities right there in Missouri.  In choosing seed, it's a good idea to buy seed produced close to home because it's  more likely to grow well in your area.

In a location where backyard homesteading is not the norm, where I have to drive my own recycling to the processing plant, where organic, locally-grown produce is not to be found in our supermarkets, where the ladies at the supermarket look at me weird when they see my re-usable bags,  . . . it's so nice to finally catch a break!  We have the largest selection of heirloom seed varieties in the US, right up the road in Missouri!

This beautiful and FREE catalog can be yours, too.  All you have to do is request one! 

Click here to visit their website and get your own! 

December Cold Frame

Well, it's now December, and I couldn't be more pleased with how our first attempt at a cold frame is going!

Here's a peek inside.  From left to right, we've got spinach, kale, red leaf lettuce, green leaf lettuce, and mini-Romaine lettuce.

I love being able to go out and snip some lettuce before a meal.  I also love that because the plastic holds in moisture, I only have to water it once a week. 

I wonder how much longer we'll continue to have fresh greens?

Don't Forget the Sugar Snaps

If you look at my blog via computer, you'll see that the little "What's in Season in Arkansas" area in the right sidebar lists only cabbage and broccoli.  And, while it's true that most of my garden has not withstood the frosts of this past week, there is another plant that's doing great.

Our sugar snap peas seem to be loving the current temperatures.  Because they're typically an early spring veggie, I was skeptical about trying them again as temperatures cooled, but I had some extra seed, so I went for it. 

I'm glad I did, because they're producing really well right now.

And, then there's the parsley.  Every frosty morning it looks pretty sad, but by afternoon it has perked back up and is still going strong.

And, the turnips. . . . Ah, the turnips.  As kids, when we'd fill our plates too full and then not be able to eat it all, my mom would tell us that it seemed our "eyes were bigger than our stomachs."  It doesn't apply perfectly, but there was something like that going on when I chose the turnip seeds out of the seed catalog.  The photographs were just so beautiful, and I wanted a variety of roots to try out in our new root garden box.  So, I got some turnips.  They apparently grow best in fall, so I didn't plant them until after most everything else was finished producing.  Anyway, as I bit into this turnip and nearly spit it out, I realized . . . that I had never before even tasted a turnip!  Since I've never tried a store-bought one, I can't be sure of this, but if it's anything like the radishes we grew this year, the homegrown variety has a much stronger flavor.  In the case of the turnip, that was a big problem for  me.  So, now I've got some turnips popping out of the soil and absolutely no interest in consuming them.  (Any takers?)  Oh, well.  It seems when it comes to seed shopping, maybe I should make my list before I open up the catalog.  ;)

Cold Frame Issues

We came home from a weekend away to find that our cold frame had taken a tumble.  While I'm not sure how long it had been down, the greens inside were still alive.  The poles hadn't snapped, so we were able to just reposition them. 

The duck tape used to hold the two pieces of plastic sheeting together had come loose, though.  It seems to have lost its stickiness.  Maybe it can't tolerate the cold?

We went ahead and re-duck taped because I wasn't sure what else to do.  Any suggestions for another way to keep the two sheets together?

Baby, It's Cold Outside!

Yesterday, the girls wore shorts to school.  Today, they wore coats.  Such is the weather here in Arkansas.  One day it's summer, the next it's winter -- or so it seems.

Anyway, following his bi-annual feed run to Thayer, Missouri (have I mentioned that we're very particular about our animal's feed and have to drive all the way to Thayer to get the kind we want?) earlier this week, John came home announcing that he'd picked me up a surprise. 

Now, I know some women whose thoughts might've immediately drifted to flowers or some other nonsense, but I know better.  John is far too practical for all that.  Besides, he had just returned from the feed store. 

This is what I got -- deerskin Thinsulate-lined gloves!  I was thrilled.  They are so soft AND warm. 

He, of course, got himself a pair, too.  I know that a lot of folks might take cold weather as an indicator that it's time to stay indoors more, but we don't ascribe to that.  We couldn't even if we wanted to.  Too many animals depend on us. So, a gift of winter work gloves is a great one!

John wore his this morning and came in from his chores proclaiming that the key to staying happy outdoors in the cold is keeping your extremities warm -- hands, feet, and head.  I've definitely found this to be true when running in the cold, too. 

If you do a lot of work outside during the winter, I'd advise you to pick up a pair of good, warm gloves.  At $20.95, these are not the cheapest on the shelf, but they're a good investment in your winter happiness!

Garden Surprises

Back in the spring, I was able to put up quite a few jars of green beans.  Then, the drought came.  The vines quit producing, but with all my watering they stayed green.  It felt cruel to yank them out, considering all the effort they were making to survive, so I just kept watering them all summer long.  Now that the temps are a bit cooler . . . surprise! . . . they've decided to produce again!

Yesterday I was able to harvest a pretty big mess of beans.  Since I was surprised by this and had already planned our weekly menu, I decided to can them. (Besides, I'm on a canning kick, remember?)

All cut up and ready to go!

Who knew?  Three unexpected quarts of green beans for us to eat this winter. 

Since three jars is hardly worth getting the canner out for, I decided to try my hand at some jelly, too.  More on that failure in tomorrow's post!