new garden additions

Last summer, shortly after we moved in, we had our bikes stolen from our backyard. The perpetrators jumped the old chain link fence, through the bikes into the back of their truck, which was parked at the apartment complex next door, and took off. I was at the hospital. Camie was here alone. It was 3 am.

Since then, we've been wanting to build a new fence. It happened this weekend. Almost. I need about 10 more fence boards (you can see the section all the way at the back of the yard still needs filled in), and a new skillsaw (I think smoke coming out of the motor is a bad thing.) And some time for my left thumb to heal (exploded the tip with my hammer.)
Yesterday, while waiting for the posts to set, I built this little trellis for the peas. I ripped some 2x4's down the middle, shaped some points on one end, and pounded them in with a sledge hammer. Then I used some twine to make supports for the peas to climb up. I think the sugar snap peas should make it all the way to the top.

And, finally, a shot of the greenhouse - as wide angle as the camera on my iPhone goes. The opening at the back of the greenhouse - where you can see the trunk of the pear tree - was made a couple weeks ago. It was the same day I took my first tomato seedlings from the basement lights to the greenhouse. It was the same day it was 70 degrees with no clouds in the sky. I didn't open the door to the greenhouse. It probably got to over 100 degrees inside, and half of the seedlings died. Now there is permanent ventilation - at least until I build a new door to go there.

Gaia's Garden

Yikes.

I've done a lot of reading and learning and planning in anticipation of this gardening season. I read books by Ogden and Coleman. Multiple times. In detail. And I made my plan based on what they wrote. They are the experts and I am the newbie. And, so far, I've executed the plan pretty well.

Then, at the first Garden the Avenues meeting, one person mentioned another book to check out - Gaia's Garden, A Guide to Home-Scale Permaculture, by Toby Hemenway. So I did check it out, from the library, and it has turned just about everything I've read on its head. Here's what it says from the back cover:

"Gaia's Garden describes a gardening system that combines the best features of wildlife habitat, edible landscapes, and conventional flower and vegetable gardens into a self-renewing landscape that lets nature do most of the work."

One phrase that has come up a couple of times, is "food forest," which really appeals to me. The idea, as I understand it, is that forests grow without the help of humans. Vegetables and fruit can do the same. Our yards can be food forests if we encourage the growth of ecosystems rather than just one product to the exclusion of everything else. As we try to control one product - i.e. the vegetables - and kill everything else - weeds and insects - we are fighting nature. This book explains how we can work with nature and end up having a much more healthy yard with much less work.

I'm still making my way through it, and the paradigm shift is happening. Go and check it out yourself.

garden update as of 4/5/09

Here is a shot of the garden from Feb 22 - leaf mulch still on the beds, irrigation not yet in, and nothing in the ground except the garlic planted last fall:

Here is the most recent photo, though not current (Camie has the camera up in Idaho this weekend, so no new photos - but there's plenty to get caught up on). This was taken about two weeks ago. Garlic has sprouted, some lettuce has been transplanted, the artichokes are outside, and the peas are coming up:One major change that I'm working on this weekend. The chain link fence on the south side of the yard is coming down, and a cedar fence is being installed in its place. The cedar fence is being built right next to the retaining wall of the parking lot next door, so even though it will reduce the amount of southern sun slightly, it will also expand our yard by about 2.5 feet - or almost 200 square feet. And it will give us a little more privacy.

Artichoke update. These have been in the cold frame for about 6 weeks now, going through their first winter season. They are cold hardy down to 25 degrees, so could be transplanted at any time now:

A shot of the garlic bed. With the exception of maybe 3 or 4 cloves, all have sprouted and are doing quite well. This is a nice shot also of the fence that is no longer there. The new cedar fence will be about 2.5 feet to the right of this chain-link.

Peas and spinach. What spinach?! you might ask. Exactly. It should be next to the drip tubing on the right of the photo. It didn't really come up. Not sure why. The peas are doing well, especially the sugar snap peas, which germinated better and are slighty taller than the Oregon giants. The sugar snap peas start where the picture comes into focus - Oregon giants are in the immediate foreground. One other project this weekend is to get a trellis built for these:

seedling updates from 2/7

These pictures were taken on Sunday, so they are a week old, but here they are anyway. This tray was planted on 1/25, mostly with seeds gifted me by our friend Andrew. He gave us some artichoke seeds grown on plants last summer. This tray has been on a warmer. I'm not sure if that has helped or hindered. I planted about 20 artichoke seeds, and about 5 of them have germinated. The largest one in the center of this picture has its first set of real leaves now.


These are lettuces planted about 2/5. They sprouted real fast and are doing quite well. I'll move them to 2" block this weekend and take them out to the greenhouse.

This tray was planted on 1/25 with artichoke seeds purchased at Johnny Seeds, and they are doing quite well. Probably about 75-80% germination, and they had no heat.

Up this weekend: set up the second light station, and seed a whole lot more plants - mostly onions, leeks, and more lettuces. I'll also be transferring some plants out to the greenhouse.

fall garden update: 2/1/09

I set about cleaning up the fall garden this afternoon. It was a beautiful day and it was nice to be working outside again. It was so nice, in fact, that I decided to pull up some of the carrots that have been sitting since I planted them last fall. I planted them too close together, so many of them were quite small and a bit stringy. But the bigger ones were absolutely delicious - and there's nothing like harvesting fresh vegetables in February.

seedling updates: 2/1/2009

We have germination. A few of the artichoke seeds and a few of the leeks. Nice! The leeks will head out to the greenhouse maybe next weekend. Today's sunny weather made it about 70 degrees inside the greenhouse - and it was about 45 outside. Here's a shot of some artichokes:


And a tiny leek seedling:

I'm starting to figure out that space is at a premium under the lights. Two solutions. First is to use the small soil blocker - puts out 3/4" cubes. Once these have germinated, I will move them to 2" blocks that have a 3/4" insert, so the 3/4" cubes just fit right inside. I put the 3/4" blocks into 9" pie tins. Second solution: buy another light and some more trays.

I'm covering the pie tins with the 3/4" blocks because they will dry out much faster than the 2" blocks. Here's the complete setup right now.

germinating setup

I decided to set up a seed-growing station in the basement. Many seed require higher temperatures than I will achieve in the greenhouse in order to germinate. Peppers, tomatoes, and eggplants are notorious for liking soil temperatures of 75-80 degrees for germination. So Joel and I went to Lowe's and purchased this shop light. I hung it from the ceiling in the basement and the seed trays sit on the basement shelf.


The soil blocks were accomplished using a tool purchased for this purpose. It packs seeding soil (mixture from Eliot Coleman) into 2" blocks, four at a time. I have another block maker that makes tiny 3/4" square blocks, but haven't used it yet. This first round is artichokes, rosemary, and leeks. When these germinate, some will be moved to the greenhouse, some will stay under lights, and I'll germinate more using the 3/4" blocks, allowing more blocks to be done at once.You'll notice in the picture above that in the far seed tray, there is a gray mat under the tray. This is a warming pad, purchased initially for Anna's bed outside. Sadly, she passed away a couple of weeks ago after being hit by a car in front of our house. So now I use the heating mat for warming seeds. Anna is buried on the far side of the greenhouse next to the pear tree.

The warmer and the lights are attached to a timer, set to be on for twelve hours and off for twelve hours. This makes it possible to simulate day and night cycles for both temperature and lighting.

the garden is growing

The snow had mostly melted off by Saturday, and I was able to check in on the garlic. I planted this back in October or early November, and haven't seen it in a while. Here is one of the cloves that worked its way up to the surface, and has now sent down little tendrils into the soil.

But other things are growing, too. Unwanted things. Weeds.

greenhouse

After a two week setback due to a nasty cold, I've pretty much finished the greenhouse. 2x4 pine framing covered in greenhouse plastic, which has the texture of visquene but has been specially treated to withstand damage from UV rays, so it lasts longer and is a lot more expensive.
I ran battens down the rafters and studs to hold the plastic in place to increase strength - it's snowing right now so it will have its first test tonight.
The clerestory (the vertical portion at the peak of the roof) will eventually have windows, but I have just tacked the plastic over it for now. The windows will allow me to adjust the temperature and ventilation.
I haven't quite figured out how to organize the inside, yet. A place for tools, a workbench, and shelving for the seedlings will all be needed. It's waterproofed now, and I have one thermometer inside and one out to monitor the difference in temperature. I may also run electrical and water (when I re-do the sprinkler system) for added convenience.

announcement: SLC seed swap

The picture above is taken from the website, from the 2008 seed swap. This is exactly what I've been hoping to find in the SLC area, and looks like it will be a great opportunity to meet more garden enthusiasts from the area. I will be there for sure - even though I won't have any seeds to contribute.

January 31, 2009
5-7 pm
Sorensen Unity Center
1383 S. 900 W.
SLC, UT 84104

Here's the link the website:
SLC People's Market

garden plan: bed #2

Three main crops in this bed: soy beans, fava beans, and celery.

Celery is the first one I'll start, sowing the seeds indoors on March 1, to give them about 8 weeks before going in the ground on May first. Fava beans will be planted with the peas on March 15 as soon as the ground can be worked, then soy beans will be planted with the pole beans on April 26 or so.

Soy beans are one type of bean that Camie and I both love. Edamame. Mmmmmm. So I'm going for it with a half bed of them. Fava beans are an experiment. Never grown them before, never eaten them before. But they have a pretty good reputation. Celery. For soups and vegetable stock.

Now for the varieties:
Soybeans: Shirofumi (489FO) and Sayamusume (492SO)
Fava beans: Windsor (299WI)
Celery: Diamante Celeriac (3644DC) and Golden Self-Blanching (3631GS)

check it out: MyFarm

Don't have enough time to grow veggies in your yard? These guys can help - if you happen to live in San Francisco - but the idea is great anywhere.

"MyFarm is a decentralized urban farm. We grow vegetables in backyard gardens throughout the city. By increasing local food production we are creating a secure and sustainable food system. Using organic practices we strive to grow the best tasting most nutritious vegetables. We ask what vegetables you like and grow them just for you."

MyFarm - check out the video, it's about five minutes.

Also worth checking it, the website of the people that produced the MyFarm video: Edible City.

garden plan: bed #1

This will be the first of my garden planning posts done by each individual bed. The beds are 15 feet long and 30 inches wide, and there are a total of 17.

This first bed will have a trellis, the main crops being pole beans and peas. Camie doesn't like beans, so I'll plant about 2/3 of the bed in peas. The peas will be planted in one row down the middle of the bed, and will be sown directly on March 15, which is the date I'm guessing the soil will be workable. The beans will also be planted in a single row, on April 26, which is the last frost date.

I will also be planting some secondary crops in this bed. At the same time I plant the peas, I will sow radish seeds on either side of where the beans will grow, and spinach seeds on either side of where the peas will grow. These are both very quick-growing plants that will make use of the space on either side of the main crops.

Peas are more of a spring-time crop, and could be done producing by mid-late summer. I'm not exactly sure what to expect, but I have some options in mind if they run out of steam with some room left in the growing season. I could do late-season plantings of fava beans, green onions, or lettuce greens.

Peas and beans, which are in the legume family, replete soil nitrogen. Next year, this bed will be planted with nitrogen-loving plants: lettuces, greens, brassicas (cabbage, broccoli, kale, brussels sprouts.) This is part of the crop rotation.

Bored, yet? I know, it's a long post - but there's so much info. Lastly (I promise) are the varieties I'll be planting. The numbers refer to the FedCo catalog.

Pole Beans: Kentucky Wonder (285KW) and Gold of Bacau (284BO)
Peas: Sugarsnap (839SO) and Oregon Giant (818GT)
Spinach: Olympia (2512LY)
Radish: Easter Egg (2224EE) and White Icicle (2262WI)

where do I go from here?

A lot of the planning work has been completed, which feels great. So what's next?

1. Refine the plan - At this point, I think I have as good an idea what to do with each individual plant as I'm going to have before I actually get into it when the spring rolls around. But what about within each individual bed, where there are often different varieties of plants and dates to think about. So my next step is to go through the beds individually and plan out what will happen in that bed throughout next season. This is a way of double-checking that I am using the space well.

2. Greenhouse - I found a greenhouse design earlier, and I have a spot for it in the garden plan. Now I need to build it. Artichokes and leeks need to be started in the greenhouse in mid-January, which is one month away. Yikes! Time to get busy.

3. Organize the seed exchange with the Garden the Avenues group.

4. Get into the seed catalogs and decide on the different varieties I want to grow. I've talked before about Johnny's Seeds, which I will order some seeds and supplies from. But I've now found another source: FedCo Seeds, which looks quite promising. The catalog is quite entertaining and the prices are amazing. So I'll be looking into it pretty soon and putting my orders together.

5. Irrigation. This isn't too urgent right now, but it's time to start planning it out and researching. I'm not going to have time to water everything by hand, so I'll need a good system, probably drip irrigation. I'm sure I'll be writing more about this later.

garden plan: rough draft is complete

I'm sure that there will be refinements, but the calendar is complete as of today. Tomato was last on the list - I'm not growing turnips, and zucchini was filed under "summer squash."

Here are a couple of screenshots (click on images for larger size) for how I've organized my thinking. The first is my veggie list, with the tomato section show, which contains the different vegetables with some of the pertinent information. This information has been gleaned from Step by Step, with some additional help from seed catalogs for timing and spacing.



The second is my garden calendar, showing April through July, with dates for sowing indoors, transplanting, and direct sowing (putting the seeds directly in the garden beds.)



With this framework, I now have a pretty good idea of what I need to do for next year's garden. Of course, I'll continue to learn and adjust my ideas and strategies, but the basics are in place. It feels pretty good.

garden plan: in progress

I keep changing the way that I want to plan out the garden, so it's taking quite a while. But I'm working on it, slowly. I haven't done much outside since I put the leaf mulch on (which, by the way, has mostly blown off the raised beds by now. I should have waited for rain or snow - but we just haven't had enough of it. So I'm going to wait until the leaves are wet, then rake them back up onto the beds.) Here's the plan as it stands right now (click for larger, and legible, image.)

Goals of the planning process:
1. Have a calendar of when each of the different varieties are sown (indoors or out), thinned, and transplanted.
2. Plan in such a way as to have a continuous, gradual harvest rather than everything all at once.
3. Make the transition to a smaller winter garden easy.
4. Optimize garden space using succession planting - for example, planting beans in the corn bed so the beans climb up the corn stalks.

That's all I can think of for now, but it's a lot, and it's taking a while to wrap my head around it all. More information will be forthcoming when I get the plan settled in my mind (and on my computer.)

garden progression

April (before we moved in)

August

October 12

October 27

November 28

mulched

First, a clarification, which I only recently figured out. Compost and mulch. Both staples of the organic gardener, but I never really understood the difference between the two.

Compost is broken down organic matter that is added to soil, usually in the spring or a few days-weeks before planting. It is mixed into the soil. (See here, here, here, here, and here to learn about my compost pile adventures.)

Mulch is something that sits on top of soil. It protects against weather and weeds. It may or may not add value to the soil, as it can be made of plastic, cloth, or organic material. Today, Joel and I spread out the leaves that I procured last week.

(In case you haven't noticed, I've been taking pictures from this spot on a regular basis, so that looking back it will be easy to see the progression of the garden from one vantage point. Also, if you click on the images, you will see an enlarged version.)
These leaves will sit on top of the beds all winter, coming off just in time to add some compost a few days before seedlings or seeds go in the ground. Benefits of using leaves for mulch is it adds nutrients and organic matter to the soil. Over the next several months, micro- and macro-organisms will move those nutrients into the soil.
In other news, I bought a new lens today. I was recently featured in a blog post done by a good friend of ours, so I figured that because I'm (nearly) famous, I should get some respectable camera gear. The Nikkor 18-200mm fits our Nikon D40. The photo above and below show off the zoom capabilities of this lens. They are taken from the same spot - above at 18mm, and below at 200mm. That's what I'm talking about.
Lastly, a shot of the swiss chard in the fall garden (I was experimenting with the new lens.) The chard is slowly fading as the frost hits more frequently.

crop rotation

I am currently working out my garden plan for next year, and there are many considerations.  One is crop rotation.  The following is my very rudimentary understanding of crop rotations written without references.

Different vegetables require different nutrients - or different proportions of nutrients.  These can roughly be grouped by families.  So, cabbage, brusels sprouts, and cauliflower,  all being of the same family, have about the same effect on the soil.  Potatoes, tomatoes, and peppers likewise.  

If I plant the same group of vegetables in the same spot year after year, that patch of soil would eventually be depleted of the nutrients needed by that group.  Pest problems would probably also worsen each year, since the pests specific to that group could just stay put and wait for the new round of crops in the spring.  These are two major reasons for crop rotation.

As I am putting my plan together, I am trying to use only vegetables of the same family within each bed.  It's not a totally rigid rule, but will simplify the process of crop rotation in the future - next year, I will be able to keep the grouping of vegetables within the bed the same, just put them in a different bed that I did the previous year.

It does become a little more complicated than this.  For example, lettuce loves nitrogen and beans replete soil nitrogen, so it makes sense for lettuce to follow beans.  Other plants (such as broccoli, I believe) will produce all leaves and no fruit if there is too much nitrogen in the soil.  Therefore, in one bed, it makes sense to plant beans one year to replete the nitrogen stores, lettuce the next year to thrive on that nitrogen, then broccoli the following year once the nitrogen level has been tempered by the lettuce.  However, I don't have to worry about this too much right now, because this is year one in all of my beds.  I'll get into the more subtle nuances of planning and crop rotation next winter.  Until then, you can check out Eliot's books for more information (yes, we're on a first name basis now.)

i'm a scrounge, too

Taking a tip from Paul Gardener, I had my eye out for some leaves this past week. I've read that uncovered soil in the winter is "naked." Winter weather compacts the soil, leaches away minerals, and does a host of other nasty things - unless the soil is covered. This is where the leaves come in. They keep the soil protected, and, as it slowly decomposes, add badly-needed organic matter.

Yesterday morning, on the way to work, I spotted a side street that seemed to have a plethora of large trees next to the road. And at the base of those large trees: leaves, bagged and tied, just waiting to be hauled away. I simply assumed that they don't care who hauls them away, and since I have no large trees of my own, I figured I could volunteer for the job. So this morning, on my drive to work, I pulled over, filled the back of the Tahoe with about twenty bags of leaves, and was on my way. Took less than five minutes, and felt like a little bit of a drive-by.

I'll probably wait to spread them out until some rain or snow is in the forecast. Otherwise, they'll just dry up and get blown all over the place. They will be the blanket for the garden this winter.