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Gestating and Germinating

11 Tuesday Apr 2017

Posted by in Garden Baby, Garden Concepts, Garden Inspiration, Garden Plan

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I am very excited to start the official planting season this month, along with the fun and exciting challenge of also preparing for a new family member (this time the human variety). CFO and I are busy making preparations for our little sprout to arrive early August, which means all my other preparations have to be done in less time and with significantly less energy. Pregnancy and preparing for a baby are two things of which I have no knowledge, and no matter what anyone tells, you there is no amount of book learning that can get you there. I know because I have read ALL the books. I am still confounded as to what I really need to do. And yes I have had every man, woman and child TELL me what I need to do and every single one of them has contradicted the other. The only thing I know about having a baby is how to accumulate things. Somewhere in this picture is a crib, I swear.

Where my skill set lies is in how to ready a garden and grow some food. At least, I have had relative success in the past. My garden planning is fairly immaculate, if I do say so myself. I have charts, and more charts, and schedules, and timers. Planning is one of my top attributes; I once planned a seven-day trip to Paris all in 15-minute increments. It was a phenomenal experience. The problem is, I can’t plan the unknown, and everything has been an unknown since Thanksgiving. Here is how my schedule is working out so far:

  • February 18 – Start celery and leek seeds indoors. ON TIME.
  • March 4 – Start kale and cabbage indoors. DELAYED.
  • March 25 – Seed outdoors arugula, fava beans, colish greens, peas and spinach. DELAYED. Start tomatoes and peppers indoors. ON TIME!!…DIED…DELAYED.
  • April 1 – Seed outdoors lettuces, endive and radicchio and harden kale and cabbage transplants. DELAYED.
  • April 8 – Seed outdoors beets, carrots, parsley, chard; transplant cabbage and kale; start eggplant and celery root indoors. DELAYED.

My list is starting to resemble a United Airlines departure board at O’Hare International Airport. The new plan is, April 15 do all of the tasks above. I am about halfway there. I finished seeding the spring raised bed this morning, and will hopefully sneak an hour to do the rest tomorrow, followed by the transplants this weekend and finally get those eggplants going.

On top of my own garden chores, I have the community to think about. In the fall, I started the Master Gardener program here in SE Wisconsin, which requires me to complete 24 hours of educational outreach in the county by September. This amount of time, 24 hours, seems reasonable, but considering that its garden outreach and most of the work is…well, WORK, and done during the growing season, AKA 7 and 8 months preggo season, this has proved to be a bit more challenging. I’m trying to volunteer at every home show, garden show, and potting event I can while my shoes still fit and I can see my own feet.

How is your garden growing?

A Year of Backyard Food: A Study

01 Sunday Jan 2017

Posted by in Cost Cutting, Garden Concepts, Garden Inspiration, Garden Plan

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INTRODUCTION

Its that day once more, that day the ends the annual cycle of time, also known as my sister’s birthday. Happy birthday sis! It’s a pretty popular event; people all around the world celebrate by drinking profusely, declaring how the next year will be the one, and making out at midnight. I prefer to celebrate by eating dinner around 6pm and falling asleep promptly at 9pm once again disappointing CFO. He’s a party animal.

I’m not one for making these so-called resolutions, because I feel that it is a system of preplanned failure. If you ever bought a gym membership in January, you are not my people. But I respect your choices. I prefer to think upon the last year and note what worked, and what didn’t, and make some informed decisions of how I might make better decisions going forward. For example, last year I evaluated how much I have zero interest in cleaning my house, and how I have lots of interest in paying people to do it instead. That’s a “resolution” I am happy to keep going in 2017.

When it comes to the garden, I think about what worked, and didn’t work a lot in January. Mainly because its time to order seeds and get planning. One of my goals from last year was to keep track of what I grew and what I harvested. I was sure that growing food in the backyard is a financially stable way to eat better, but I have no evidence to support the statement. I wanted to do a season-long very unscientific study to prove my point, mainly to CFO, but also to the 22 people that might read this post. I am happy to say that not only did I complete my project, but also I am here, on December 31 to report the results.

HYPOTHESIS

Growing vegetables in one’s own backyard provides a cost savings over purchasing the same food in a grocery store. I know this might seem obvious, but food in this country is shockingly cheap. I felt as if my work was cut out for me.

METHODOLOGY

In order to report the findings as accurately as possible, I had to consider the costs to grow said food, as well as the market value of the food I harvested. I factored in all of the things I use to grow food: cedar for beds, compost, seeds, transplants, fertilizer, mulch, water, and also the grow light system I purchased to start my own. The only thing I did not include was labor. I mean, let’s face it. If I weren’t willing to donate my time this whole adventure would be pointless. I also think that the time I spent in the garden probably equals the amount of time I would otherwise navigate the produce aisle at my local store, which is about as easy to shop as a new IKEA during the grand opening.

For the harvest itself, I had to find a way to quantify the value of what I had, and the only way I could think was to compare it to the USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service produce commodity averages. This is an average of the countries produce costs at retail, and is published weekly. It worked pretty well for the common items, but for those odd duck veggies I grow (parsley root anyone?), I had to get more creative. I found an online co-op that published produced prices daily, and used that for a reference. Also, because I practice the general “organic” growing system, meaning I do not use anything on my crops that requires a gas mask, I opted to compare the produce to the organic rates. I know, I know…kind of unfair because I don’t normally buy organic produce, but I grow it and this is my study.

DATA ANALYSIS

The grand total of my garden expenses was…. $1284. Yikes. Last year had some expensive costs to be fair: CFO finished building the remaining garden beds and I invested in a growing system for the basement. Ideally, those two purchases will not be on-going costs. Using cedar, the beds should last 10 years, and since I received 3 shipments of broken growing lights, the supplier sent me about 12 bulbs at no cost in order to maintain his positive EBay rating. I should be good for a while. Based on annual expenses like seeds, compost, mulch, etc. I realistically spend about $250 a year, which seems much more reasonable. Maybe this wasn’t the best year for my study. Meh.

In 2016, I grew a total of 87 varieties of 54 different fruits and vegetables. I began the harvest the week of April 17 with asparagus, and ended the harvest the week of Thanksgiving with sage, kale, and Brussels sprouts. That’s 8 months of food! That’s a win in my book. I had some winners and some losers. I was giving away tomatoes, squash, basil and berries, but the melons and eggplants eluded me due to my unpreparedness with the late cabbage and unwieldy tomatillos. My peppers were a flop again for the third year. But I won’t be giving up on them just yet. Overall, I think this year was my most successful garden year. I figured out the watering system and my rotation and spacing scheme worked out very well. I didn’t have any problems with transplants because I grew them self. In order to properly assess the produce harvest, I used a kitchen scale, and weighed 470 lbs of vegetables for a grand total cost of….

Drum roll please…

$1250!!!!!

And yes. I know that is $34 in the red.

RESULTS

So okay, I technically didn’t make money on the garden, but if you consider I “spent” $34 for 470 lbs of vegetables, many of which are still stored in my freezer or canned and in the pantry in various forms, I think I did pretty darn good. And what a fun project. At its height, the garden was astounding, and received comments and questions from the neighbors (possibly some grumbling and complaints that I tuned out) and also kept me outside for a good chunk of the summer. I got to make farm dinners for family and friends that visited, we grilled vegetables I didn’t know could be grilled, and reduced our grocery expenses to the point where I could justify buying lobster for dinner. I even liked keeping track of all the produce; my charts and files have provided me solid information to make better planning for next year. I think I will keep this going if I can.

CONCLUSION

I conclude that 2016 was a good year in garden for me. I have already started plotting the changes and new vegetables and varieties to try, and making my informed decisions to better myself.

Next year will be…the Year of the Salad (because I have 10,000 lettuce seeds to start).

I hope you have a wonderful New Year and have grand adventures in gardening!

Fall Gardening, Take Two

16 Saturday Jul 2016

Posted by in Garden Concepts, Garden Plan

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I’m gearing up for the fall garden. Gearing up means 1) figuring out what to plant, and 2) taking special precautions against the wildlife, to avoid a situation like last year. For item two, CFO and I installed a temporary barrier around the garden until we find a permanent fence style that is the trifecta: effective, inexpensive, and not hideous. In the meantime, I am hoping that the one-two punch of invisible mesh and roaming coyotes will keep the deer at bay long enough to get some Brussels sprouts. IMG_20160619_115628

To address item one, you want to consider that fall garden planning can really start when all the other spring and summer garden planning happens. For me, the planning doesn’t really have a start or stop date, its just an amorphous thought bubble constantly hovering over me. For normal people, maybe in February. At the very least you want to identify your expected first frost date for your zone, so you can determine when to start with the planting.

Generally speaking, the fall garden will look a lot like the spring garden but in reverse. Peas, lettuces, radishes, beets, etc. can all be sown in late summer and will produce as the weather starts to cool. In some cases, it is almost easier than dealing with the spring because you are less likely to have random 90 deg days like you do in the May (I am talking to YOU Milwaukee Spring 2016!).

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Chiogga Beets.

We like think of “fall vegetables” as rootstock like carrots, parsnips, turnips, rutabaga, etc. and for good reason. Soil is a great storage method, and the tasty root will hold up through some very cold temps. In fact, I have read via the highly regarded and scientifically supported internet that you can fabricate your own make-shift root cellar with a bucket full of sand. (Disclaimer: if you try this and end up with a weird food-borne infection from sand-bug contaminated turnips, please send all legal inquiries to aforesaid internet).

One bonus of the fall garden is that, in my climate (zone 5B), many of the spring veggies I had to transplant in May, can be directly sown in August, and will be ready to harvest come fall. One exception to this, of course, is the wildly underappreciated Belgian brassica, the Brussels sprout. My coworker once traveled to Brussels and upon her return raved about the fantastic sprouts that looked like little cabbages, and were unlike anything she had ever seen. They sounded amazing. But, I digress. I recommend starting this one indoors in spring, and transplanting out late July. They usually take anywhere from 100-120 days from transplant and taste best after having experienced some character-building freezes in November. If you haven’t got your tiny cabbages started, you may be out of luck in the north this year and you will just have to meander around the village looking the steal the Brussels sprouts of better prepared neighbors.

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Brussels Sprouts.

By mid-August, I will have seeds sown for broccoli, cauliflower, mizuna, carrots, parlsey root, parsnip, turnip, and rutabaga, and in September the short season lettuces and leafy greens and radishes that can handle a cooler germination period will be sown.

What are you growing this fall?

IKEA-Inspired Drip Irrigation

09 Saturday May 2015

Posted by in Garden Concepts, Garden Plan, How-To

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Watering the garden is one of those activities that we all know is important, but it is not glamorous or fun and so it becomes a chore, then an afterthought, and then it stops all together. It’s like when you get new carpet. You keep up with that twice weekly vacuuming because it is shiny and new, and then over time that vacuuming excitement just dwindles away and you think, “you can’t see any dirt…” Like vacuuming, we all know that minimal effort has long term pay off, but neglect leads to dirt and grossness. Watering is the same thing, except that dirt and grossness are always there, and the long-term payoff is delicious fancy vegetables. Or flowers. Whatever you like.

Last year I struggled with watering and I faced many cracked tomatoes, which is a sure sign of inconsistent watering. The inconsistency was primarily from me watering routinely when I was home, and CFO not watering when I was away. I was also using a sprinkler, and the good old pray-for-rain method. Prayer, it turns out, works about as well for a watering system as it does for birth control. I will let you ponder what that success rate may be.

So, what am I doing about this watering conundrum? Last week at my doorstep arrived my customizable drip irrigation kit for my raised beds. Drip irrigation is something that can improve plants by watering at the root level, and in my case, save me a lot of frustration.

The kit arrived with all these tiny little plastic tubes and pieces. It was extremely straight-forward to put together, unless you have the hands of a 12-year-old beauty pageant contestant, aka me. I tend to be proud that my hands are never rough and always manicured, even though I am often digging in the dirt. Lots of lotion and nail scrub-brush use. Using these hands to fit 456,878 tiny pieces very tightly together only resulted in broken skin 17 times, not including when I jumped on a stake with my rubber gardening boots and the spike went through the sole into my foot. Have you ever experienced blood filling up your shoe? I wish I hadn’t. On the up side, no broken nails to report.

With some assistance from two pairs of pliers in lieu of my hands, I did manage to finally get it all put together by the afternoon, checked all the little emitters and watched the water dribble out in a steady consistent flow. I love it when I can do things myself. Unfortunately, I may be without the use of my fingers and left foot for up to 4 days. I wish products would advertise honestly. Instead of “easy installation, sets up in minutes!” try “pain-in-the-ass thousand tiny piece kit that will cause hand bleeding and Tourette-level swearing, sets up in 7-14 hours!”

A nice bonus is that the kit came with a free packet of heirloom cilantro seeds and a coupon for a free seed catalog. Not that I am complaining (too much), but it should come with a pack of Band-Aids and a flask of vodka.

Overall, the system works exactly as it advertised, which is really great. Once I got the bits and pieces hooked up, all I have to do is turn the spigot on for 4-6 hours every few days and voila! Water! The next step is to set up an electronic timer to handle those travel weeks.

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Jessica enjoys the first result of better watering: a bowl full of radish micro greens.

Jessica enjoys the first result of better watering: a bowl full of radish micro greens.

Spring, to the Lackadaisical Home Gardener

26 Sunday Apr 2015

Posted by in Garden Concepts, Garden Plan

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Can you believe it is just about May? I should say, do I believe it is just about May? I wouldn’t think so based on the cold front blast this past week that reminded me what it looks like when it both rains and snows at the same time (if you don’t remember, it usually looks like hail). This chilly weather was a bit detrimental to my garden, but those little seeds always pull through.

This week things are finally coming up spring, as the temps slowly rise back into the 50’s. And, as such I am enjoying my daily morning walkabouts with glee. I have this little routine I like to do in the morning:

  1. Wake up grudgingly to the alarm at 5:30 am
  2. Go back to sleep for at least 8 minutes
  3. Hear the coffee grinder whirling away (CFO’s most important responsibility)
  4. Roll out of bed
  5. Pick self off floor
  6. Four minutes later find my self in the kitchen with cup of coffee
  7. Sit on couch drinking said coffee
  8. CFO goes upstairs to ready himself for bacon-bringing-home job
  9. Head to mud room, fill up 3 gallons of water in buckets
  10. Circle the yard in light dance steps watering things that grow and smiling like an idiot

For the last step, I generally start at my poor man’s greenhouse, walk to the back raised beds, loop around the fruit trees, come back to the herb garden, around the deck to the hydrangeas, bleeding hearts and turtle heads, up front to the asparagus, bulbs and hostas, then finally to the berry canes. The whole process takes me about 30 minutes and gives me a chance to see how things are progressing, and identify problems early on.

Today was a most exciting walkabout because real evidence of green growing things can be seen and now I know the fickle vixen we call spring is here for real this time. I am the first to admit that I am the laziest gardener there is. Not because I am lazy, per se, but because I am already busy and AWOL 50% of the time because of my bill-paying job, so I try to balance garden chores to get maximum reward, with minimal effort. So some of you might have full on industrial supplies of spring lettuce at this point in the season, but since I nearly exclusively plant from seed and do nothing special to my soil or environment other than compost and bird netting, growth tends to be about as seasonal as it gets. Take a look at my future dinner guests.

Leafy Greens

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Bloomsburg spinach sprouts and fast growing Apollo arugula. Leafy greens will be the first homegrown meal this May. I also have four types of heading lettuce, mixed leaf lettuce, and endive planted out.

Peas

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Peas don’t mind a little cold weather, in fact, it may have encouraged them. If I blink, these little guys will be seven feet tall and falling overthemselves. Next week I will be trellising. Here we have Golden Sweet peas and Amish Snap peas in the back.

Herbs

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The chives are looking lush and tender already. These are always the first to emerge. You can’t kill a chive plant. Chives are the hydras of the plant world. Cut off one head, and two more will grow. But, they make fantastic flowers that bees and other pollinators enjoy, so I plant en mass where I need a little pollinator loving.

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Not surprisingly, there is nothing here in the herb garden but vermin. I have not actually planted herbs yet because the deck will need a coat of sealant, and it’s not exactly a fertilizer, if you get my drift. Once the deck is sealed, I can build up the soil and put in the herbs. I hope to have some success this year, though with the new squatters that have moved in and enjoy their late night parties, one cannot predict. I did manage to catch one of them up to no good.

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Truthfully, when I first caught him in one of my new vole traps, I had a complete freak out because I realized that I had planned to set traps, but I had not planned for what I would do if they worked. I panicky called a friend, drove this little guy to the lush manicured neighborhoods of a nearby town, and we released him to the wilds of Milwaukee suburbia. I promised he would be reunited with his family soon, because, well, I’m ordering two more traps to beef up security.

Orchard

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The cherry trees and pears have swollen buds, signaling the start of lush vegetation. The cherry blossoms are in full display in our nation’s capital, but here they won’t arrive until May on my little tart (cherry).

Asparagus

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Now this is some real magic. I still have another year left to baby this little patch of goodness, but I love seeing asparagus shoot upwards in the spring. Most people have no idea how asparagus grows or where or why or what, but as a plant it actually looks nothing like you would expect. Once the stems shoot up past 8 inches or so, the little asparagus tips we are accustomed to will actually produce branches with feathery, fern-like leaves. I have two varieties here, Purple Passion and Jersey Knight, both hybrid all-male varieties that should not produce berries (yes, asparagus makes little red berries). If maintained, this should provide 20 years of homegrown asparagus in the spring. Are you writhing in excitement yet?

So there it is, there is the progress on the homestead. The compost was delivered a week ago and both garden beds are moving right along. I get a compost/topsoil mix delivered by a local compost facility. Its not organic, it’s not blessed by Buddhist monks, and doesn’t have buried cow heads and moon dancing or anything fancy. It’s good old fashioned compost made by vegetable and plant material collected from around the county. But it grows good food and I don’t have to add anything except, well, more compost. Check out the garden plan for what I’ve got in the ground right now.

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Playing in dirt. This is spring to me.

This is spring to Jessica.

This is spring to Jessica.

Dogs, Voles, and Other Vermin

31 Tuesday Mar 2015

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The snow finally melted (again) this past week, the sun came out, the rains began, and I am getting the itch, really bad. It’s now the end of March and I have not gotten dirt under my nails since October. Friends, that is what we call a dry spell. As you can imagine, the first opportunity I had to schlep on my garden boots and explore, I did. And guess what I found? Vermin, big and small.

Over the past year I have had a less-than-lukewarm relationship with my neighbor, let’s call him (or her!) Jason, like in Friday the 13th (and lets hope that is not said neighbor’s real name). Jason got on my bad side initially because he refused to keep his dogs (2, plural, large) in his yard. His dogs, true-to-form, prefer our wild, weedy lawn for their business over Jason’s golf course manicured green. I get it, from the dogs’ perspective, but as a dog-less landowner I desperately want this to stop. It causes a level of rage I usually save up for outlet shopping sprees. And yes, I have asked Jason to kindly keep his dogs on his property. He said he has been trying to retrain them. I guess “retrain” means let-them-out-unleashed-when-I-think-you-are-not-home. Because, all evidence is against his training technique. When the snow melted there was, ahem, “evidence” of the dogs being on my front lawn, in the back lawn, in my garden, under the fruit trees, in the berry canes, and pretty much everywhere except on HIS property. Being as how I am such a pleasant neighbor (false) and I am not going to complain to the city (CFO won’t let me), I decided to take action into my own hands.

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Don’t worry it’s not poisonous. And, more importantly, it’s garden safe and orangic. Critter Ridder is a mixture of red pepper, capsaicin and black pepper, a combination that tends to turn away dogs, raccoons, coyotes, and other damaging critters. I hope it works, because my Plan B is to kidnap the dogs, retrain them MY way, and collect the reward money when I “find” them.

The one critter that Critter Ridder may not be effective on is the almighty vole. Yes, gardening compatriots, there is such a thing as a vole, and it is shrouded in mystery and invisibility, but it does this to your grass:

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Truthfully, I thought this was evidence of snakes under our deck, which is far more terrifying. A little helpful advice from family and Google, I have learned that these are mouse-sized terrors to anything with a seed, bulb or grain. Fortunately, their selected spot is home to the butterfly garden, unfortunately, it is only paces away from the herb garden. Action is warranted.

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In the same purchase order as the Critter Ridder, I got myself two Havahart live-traps. Why, you ask, don’t I just poison/drown/snap-trap them and be done with it? The same reason why I am not allowed to pellet-gun the chipmunk as he reclines on our deck: I showed CFO too many internet pictures of voles being adorable. I plan to catch and release these guys. No decision on whether release will be in Lake Michigan or a nice park. Check back in a few weeks.

In other news, the slow melting of the snow has caused a delay in my compost delivery, which means a delay in planting the raised beds. I estimate I am only a week behind, but that week is one less week of fresh produce. To compensate, I put some cole crop seeds (broccoli, cauliflower and kale) into coconut coir cups with a bit of soil/compost mix and set those into a $20 metal and plastic tower, a poor man’s cold frame/greenhouse, if you will. Hopefully in a few weeks I can pop these into their future homes when the compost finally arrives to fill the beds. Time is the cruelest vermin in the garden.

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I am already planning for the inevitable onslaught of cabbage worms.

Spring is here when Jessica looks like she lost a bar fight.

Spring is here when Jessica looks like she lost a bar fight.

Et tu, March?

07 Saturday Mar 2015

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It was around this time of year when Caesar was betrayed by his best friend and protégé, Brutus. I don’t pretend to understand the inner workings of ancient Roman senate proceedings, but I do know all too well that stab-in-the-back feeling every March. You know what I am talking about.

The weather warms, the first glisten of sunshine before 7:00 AM, and that first robin sighting! It is all so exciting and you think, its time! It’s going to be SPRING! And then March shows up, and I mean really shows up and ruins everything by being, well, March. That one last winter storm mid-March is an annual betrayal that somehow always surprises me. They say “in like a lion, out like a lamb” that’s March, but I think we all know its more like, “in like a cute big-eyed red fox, but as it gets closer it rips apart and eats your designer toy poodle, and out like a satisfied no-longer-hungry just-as-wily fox.”

Okay, so maybe my metaphor is a bit extreme, but the month of March has always frustrated me. It’s cold, and snowy and it is supposed to usher in spring time but it takes so goddamned long to get through, and all I want to do is put some seeds into the ground. But because March is a lying, betraying frenemy, I know that those seeds must be strong and resistant to March’s bitter games and hold their own. The garden beds are (shockingly) completely snow-covered so I have a few weeks left to simmer and be antsy, but in the meantime let’s talk cold weather leafy greens! Here is my plan for late March plantings, once I see evidence that my garden beds still exist.

Spinach

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I am currently in love with Bloomsdale spinach, an heirloom variety from 1826 that is utterly delicious. Bloomsdale was once THE spinach that was grown in the US, but it does not hold up well during shipping, and was replaced with the current hybrid you see on the markets. It’s too bad really, because its flavor is tender and sweet and tastes fantastic fresh or cooked. It likes cool weather but is very slow to bolt (go to seed) so lasts longer though the season. It can be harvested from baby to full-grown age, and like most greens, can be continually harvested until it is spent, and for me that is when it heats up around late June. I have some seed left over from last year that I will probably use up this year. I can grow 9 plants per square foot, and I will start with 2 square feet of spinach this spring.

Arugula

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This Apollo arugula is one of the easiest vegetables to grow. Technically, I think arugula gets classified as an herb, and it has an intense spicy flavor, which is fabulous with a little citrus and olive oil. I love it as a salad green or slightly wilted, and it packs quite a nutritional punch. This is a green that grows very fast and because it grows in cold weather, has very limited predators (other than the human kind). Arugula doesn’t take up much space, and can be easily grown in a pot. I can get 16 plants to one square foot, and will plant 2 feet this spring. That’s a lot of arugula! And it will go to good, delicious use.

Peas

Another fast growing staple of springtime is the garden pea. Well, there are many kinds of peas actually. There are the snow pea types (edible flat pods), snap varieties (edible pods with big fat peas, usually sweeter), and English peas or garden peas, which are grown for the starchy large peas and not the fibrous tough pods.

With my two garden beds, I have limited space for peas because they do require trellising so I am sticking to three varieties this year, to be split between spring and fall plantings. The great thing about peas is that they will produce as fast as you can keep them picked and I can put 8 plants in one square foot of garden space, which I will split between my spring picks:

IMG_1507Amish Snap – This is a very tasty snap pea, reportedly from the Amish community. The pods are large and edible. I prefer to eat the pods when they are young. Once the peas get large and the pods swell, the pods get tough. That’s when they are better as shelled peas. These get tall, about 6-7 feet high, so a decent sized trellis is needed.

IMG_1499Golden Sweet Peas – A new variety for my garden, these peas are lemony yellow in color and flat-podded. The description simply states: “collected from a Market in India. Rare and tasty.” I can get behind that! I will grow 4 plants with the Amish Snap peas and hope there is limited cross-pollination.

Endive

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This is a new one for me this year and I am very excited about it. This variety is Très Fine Maraîchère and is a fast growing French frisee. Endive is related to chicory and radicchio, and not technically a lettuce as we know it, but it is used like lettuce and adds a nice bitterness (if you like that sorta thing) to the mix.

Lettuce

Lettuce is the quintessential spring veggie and so of course I must grow unmanageable quantities! Well, that is what I thought last year. I also learned that lettuce, if you don’t want baby mixes every day, takes some time. Baby lettuces are great but I really love a nice head of romaine and butter, so this spring I am limiting my lettuce plantings to save room for summer vegetable space. Fall time is when I will really hit the lettuce bandwagon and go crazy. Here is the plan for this spring:

IMG_1504Winter Density – I can get 4 of these into a square foot. Winter Density is kind of half-way between romaine and bibb. The leaves are crisp and refreshing, and the rich green outer leaves can be picked early on. This is a slow growing variety, and the heads get to a size just larger than a softball, which is the perfect amount for a two-person salad.

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Mantilia – This was a big winner last year, and was specifically requested by CFO for the garden this year. Mantilia is a butterhead lettuce, pale creamy green, extremely tender and really special for a salad. The heads have large loose leaves that can be picked as needed and are great for stuffing or lettuce wraps, and the heads will keep producing more leaves for the picking. I will put 4 plants in a square foot this spring.

IMG_1502Paris Island Cos – This is a new romaine lettuce I got from a clearance bin last fall. The packet describes this as “large erect oval well-formed heads with dark green outer leaves and lighter green interior. It is a valuable green salad variety, crisp mildly bitter with endive-like flavor.” Sounds good to me. I will put 4 of these into a square foot space this spring.

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Leaf lettuce – Once of my favorite seeds suppliers, Seed Savers Exchange, sells a mixed-seed packet of lettuces for cutting. This mix contains Australian Yellowleaf, Forellenschluss, Pablo, Red Velvet and “at least four more varieties.” So, basically I have no clue what lettuces these all are, but I spread the seeds around one square foot and start trimming when they get about 4” high and then I have fancy “organic spring mix” just like in the plastic tubs at the grocery store. Delicioso!

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Prizehead Early – Another clearance item, this lettuce is a red/bronze color with frilly leaves. I plan to grow this as a leaf lettuce in another square foot space. I think it will add some fun to my salads this spring. Hopefully it’s a tasty one.

So there you have it, my planting list that is on hold pending decent weather. After the inevitable March betrayal, and once the snow melts, we can get the garden started with some frost-tolerant greens, which will be the first harvests of the spring and make for some great eats. I cannot wait to share some home grown kitchen fun with you all.

Just please remember to water the greens this time.

Just please remember to water the greens this time.

Seed Germination: A Love Story

08 Sunday Feb 2015

Posted by in Garden Concepts, How-To

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February has just poked its tired little blanket-wrapped head around the corner, got spooked, and dumped 8 inches of Lake Michigan blizzard onto southeastern Wisconsin. This is not just accidental, this is kismet. February is, after all, a very romantic month, and cold snowy weather is just more reason to stay inside and snuggle by the fire. Not only is it Valentine’s Day, but February also marks the anniversary of CFO and my first date, and my birthday. Needless to say, a pretty great month for me, and a costly month for CFO. With all the love in the air, February is a great month to start planning for a spring (garden) family. If you are like me, you have been thumbing through seed catalogs since December, making lists, changing your mind, ordering new and different catalogs, wondering if there are other seeds out there you haven’t even considered…or maybe you have a significantly healthier relationship with your seed catalogs. Either way, February is a great time to take stock of last year’s seeds, and think about what worked, what didn’t, what you can use again, and what will need to be reordered.

Plants are not complex beings: they grow, hoard nutrients to flourish, until they sense the end is near and they put all their focus and effort into making seeds to ensure they leave something for their progeny. See that, plants are nothing more than aged parents with a solid end-of-life plan. In nature, these seeds have a rough life ahead of them: wind, cold, animals eating them, drought, etc. By the time they settle down and decide to start a family of their own, they are well-traveled little microcosms of nutrition. In nurture (not nature), we collect these seeds by hand, keep them dry and safe until we are ready for the subsequent bounty. Seeds have the best chances when they are sown the year after they are formed. After that, their viability will go down, some more than others.

I planted over 20 varieties of vegetables last year from seed, and most of those seeds are packed into a plastic box inside the night stand of my guest room (don’t ask). Being financially conscious and knowing that I probably only used at most 20% of those seeds, I don’t want to buy them all over again. The thing is, who I am I to say they won’t grow up to be famous? Or, I love them too much, to let them go. What is a love-struck seed obsessed girl to do? Well, she can totally test those slightly older seeds for virility. Unfortunately, there is no blue pill to help them go a little longer once they are past their prime.

To germinate most seeds, all you need is a little water. This reminds me of the little encapsulated bath sponges my sister and I would get as kids. During bath time, we would throw these little colored pills into the water, and poof! a magical sponge creature would emerge, like a dinosaur or a giraffe. The sponge was 10 times the size of the pill casing. Seeds are no different. You can poof! the seeds in a similar way.

Select what seeds you want to check. I picked Scarlet Nantes carrots and these Hollow Crown parsnips I got last summer from a $0.25 clearance bin.

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Carrots have very sporadic germination, and germination of parsnips rapidly decreases after the first year. For each seed you are testing take two paper towels together, label the variety near the top in pencil or indelible marker.

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Depending on how many seeds you have remaining, you want to pick a good number to check. This is a percentage game, so the more you use, the better the results. I have enough left, so I decided to use a test of 30 seeds each.

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Wet the paper towels and squeeze out as much water as you can so they are damp, but not soaking. Spread the seeds out so they are not near each other, making sure to keep the carrot seeds on the carrot paper towel, and parsnips on the parsnip paper towel. Roll up the paper towels with the seeds inside, and place into a plastic zipper bag. Press out any extra air, and seal.

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You will want to know the average time of germination for these seeds. For both carrot and parsnip, it could be anywhere from 5-25 days. Put the seed test bags somewhere safe. The water in the paper towels should provide enough water to saturate the seed hulls so they can germinate. You may want to check the paper towels every couple of days to make sure they are still damp. If they dry out, you will want to add a little more water.

After five days, I can check the seeds. Slowly unroll the paper towels and see if any magic has happened.

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Huh. I don’t remember using printed paper towels. Because all of that is mold. Check the seeds and pull out any that have sprouted and any that are moldy. The moldy seeds will look either black or fuzzy or both. Write down how many seeds for each have sprouts on them. They may try to stick to the paper towel. Just pull them off. Roll the towels back up, and put them back into the bags. Set aside, and check a few days later.

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Sprouted Scarlet Nantes carrots after 5 days.

Wowza! Look at those carrots. After the first 5 days, I had a 70% germination rate, and after 10 days, it’s over 90%. I don’t think I need to take this further. These carrots will work just fine.

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Sprouted Hollow Crown parsnips after 10 days.

As for those parsnips, I didn’t have anything after 5 days, and only 12 seeds that sprouted after 10 days. I can either let this go until 25 days, or judging by the mold growth, I can assume that going further will be futile.

So my old carrots are still going strong and don’t look like they will be slowing down anytime soon. Parsnips, however, are not aging with quite as much grace. A 40% germination rate, though, is not nearly as terrible as I expected. I will still try to use these parsnip seeds, but I may increase my plantings to 6 seeds per slot instead of my usual 3. The lower the germination rate, the more seeds should be sown to ensure that something will emerge.

How simple was that? No go forth and test every seed from last year.

seedpackets

You have got to be kidding me.

I am! What is the point of all of this, when so many smart people have already done the work? If you tend to hold seeds past the expected lifespan or if you play fast and loose with storage conditions, it may be worth testing for germination so you can suck every ounce of life left in those guys. But you and your seeds will have a better relationship if you follow these simple guidelines for some of my favorite vegetables and herbs:

Plant Average Seed Longevity
Arugula 4
Beans, Pole and Bush 2-3
Beet 3-5
Bok Choi. Chinese Cabbage 3
Broccoli 3-5
Brussel Sprouts 3-5
Cabbage 3-5
Carrot 2-3
Cauliflower 3-5
Celery 2-3
Corn 1-2
Cucumber 3-5
Eggplant 3-5
Endive 5
Fennel 4
Kale 4
Lettuce 3-5
Parsnip 1
Peas 2-3
Pepper 2-3
Radish 4-5
Spinach 1-3
Squash (winter, summer, zucchini) 3-4
Swiss Chard 2-4
Tomato 3-4
Parsley 1-2
Flower, annual 1-3
Flower, pernnial 2-4
Melon 4-5

There you have it, seed germination practice to keep you and your plants happy, healthy, and growing in love for years, and years, to come.

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These carrots taste a little off.

Wanna Get in the Zone

17 Saturday Jan 2015

Posted by in Garden Concepts

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One of the more fundamental aspects of gardening for food is understanding the zone concept, or zone defense, as I like to refer to it. In my (barely) experienced and (non) profession opinion, the fundamental aspects of fruit and vegetable gardening according to moi are as follows:

  1. Learn to enjoy weeding, primarily by saving “i. love. weeding.” over and over while doing it. Much as you do for dish washing and toilet cleaning. Eventually you believe your own lies.
  2. You only need one zucchini plant no matter how much you LOVE zucchini. You won’t believe me and will plant three. For future reference, I told you so.
  3. Chipmunks are soulless. There is no love behind those chubby cheeks.
  4. Like many a relationship, you prefer evenings, but your garden wants you in the morning. You need to compromise if it’s going to work.
  5. Work with your zone, because it’s not working with you.

The USDA Hardiness Zones are climate regions in the US that are classified on a 1-15 scale, 1 being the Arctic Zone, and 15 being the Extreme Tropical Zone. If you can identify your zone, you can tailor your plantings to those that will thrive within your gardening bubble during your growing season. Just like with a basketball team, the zone defense maximizes effect while minimizing effort. This will also help you decide what can be directly sown into your garden, or what would do better as a transplant. Milwaukee, being tucked close to Lake Michigan, is a zone 5B. No matter what I do, I just cannot get my pineapple plant to fruit…or not freeze to death. I’m sure that’s why the US annexed Hawaii as a state. And also so USDA could finally identify that elusive zone 11.

USDA Hardiness Zone Map

USDA Hardiness Zone Map

But, don’t take my word for it. Let’s turn to modern-day poet, Britney Jean Spears, on the importance of zones in her masterpiece featuring Madonna, Me Against the Music. I recommend playing it along while reading.

Me Against the Music

The Queen. Get in the Zone.

The Queen. Get in the Zone.

musicNo one caresmusic

Truth, Brit Brit. That’s how I feel some days.

musicIts whipping my hair, its pullin my waistmusic

This is sooo April in zone 5B. It’s windy and miserable at 6:00 AM but you just got to get out there. Gotta work b*tch!

musicTo hell with staresmusic

If you start out looking like a hot mess, it won’t be so surprising when you end the day that way. Because you will end looking like a hot mess. And people just might stare when you forget and go to Menard’s to buy more compost.

musicThe sweat is dripping all over my facemusic

Not just the face, everywhere there are pores you will perspire. I could wear a parka and sweat through it in the garden once the sun comes up.

musicNo one’s theremusic

Well, except the weirdos who are staring at you (see above).

musicI’m the only one dancing up in this placemusic

Ok so you don’t have to dance while gardening, but trust me it makes it a whole lot more fun. And people tend to just stay away. Gardening is labor intensive; maximize your work out with a few sexy moves while you sweat through your clothes.

musicTonight I’m heremusic

I’m here and ready to locate my zone so tomorrow I can grow stuff! The National Garden Association has a handy zone map that you can specifically locate your exact zone by zip code, check it out here: Zone Map.

musicFeel the beat of the drum, gotta keep up that bassmusic

That’s right, get ready for the battle. Pep yourself up! How do you use the zone information, you ask? You probably won’t see zone information on a seed packet or plant, though occasionally you do.

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What you will see, is sowing directions that will saying something like “sow seeds when soil can be worked” or “sow seeds after danger of last frost has passed” or “sow seeds 2 weeks before last frost.” How do you know when that is, apart from waiting around until it happens? Zone Defense! When you know your zone, you can calculate the expected last frost in the spring, and first frost in the fall. I know I know I know what about CLIMATE CHANGE and OTHER WEATHER CONCERNS!? There is always some variation in the seasons, like everything else. But for example, my zone 5B last frost date is late-April. Even if it’s a little earlier or a little later, I can safely sow spring seeds around May 1 without too much trouble. If there is a late surprise frost, I can always sow more. If you start seeds early indoors, just make sure to start more than you will need in the garden to have a little contingency plan. There is no such thing as over-planning. Now, THAT is 100% professional advice.

musicI’m up against the speaker, trying to take on the musicmusic

Apart from a few exceptions, like pineapple in the desolate north, or tender crisp lettuce in the New Mexico high summer heat, you really have a wide variety of plant options if you’re not set on growing only perennials. Perennials are those plants that self-seed each year and keep coming back no matter how hard you try to kill them. If I only grew perennials where I garden, I would be limited to every variety of mint in existence, an abundance of fruit (other than pineapple), rhubarb, oregano, and sage. I guess there are a few recipes in there and some exotic flavor combinations. In some places, the vegetables I grow would be perennials in a different zone. Rosemary, for example, grows into small bushes in southern California. It likes sandy, dry soils. But in my rich clay soil, it grows enough every year to give me a supply through the winter, and then dies once the bitter cold sucks the life out of everything.

musicIt’s like a competition, me against the beatmusic

Oh Britney Jean you are a poetic mastermind! Working with zones IS EXACTLY like a competition. A competition with nature, that unrelenting she-beast. When you really zone in (pun intended) to the origin of the foods we eat, there is not much in North America that belongs to North America. Take the potato for example, which is grown widely throughout the northern half of the US. The potato originated in South America, was brought to Ireland, and then to the rest of the world. Years and years of cross-breeding have brought us todays modern six potatoes: Yukon gold, red, russet and each of those in a smaller size. The vegetables we can grow have been slowly, steadily adapted to best suit the climates we need them to be grown in. This is the marvel of genetic engineering as we once knew it. Before you get angry and start shouting “NO GMOs!!” at me, I am talking about the pea plant trials of genetic engineering, not sticking fish genes into a tomato. Plant diversity has been obtained since the dawn of time by cross-pollination both by hand and by animal helpers. Smart gardeners of yesteryear picked their top performers, and mated them with their other top performers to get the best of the litter. This is much like the dog breeders at Westminster, but without the cooking and eating of the offspring.

musicI wanna get in the zone, I wanna get in the zonemusic

Yes Britney Yes! Let’s get in the zone and make some green happen. I am not saying you have to be Gregor Mendel to be a successful gardener. That work has been done. I am saying now you can use the results and select plants that are known to succeed in your area. If you look at the back of the seed packet, you will want to pay attention to the number of days to produce. Sometimes you will see a germination rate, this is the number of days before you will see little seed leaves shoot up from the soil. The larger number shown is how many days it will take from that point to get something you can hold in your hand and throw in a frying pan (if it makes it that far). You know your zone, so you know how many days between last spring frost and first fall frost, so theoretically you should be able to deduce if a seed will give you food in your growing season. There are many ways to work around this, for example, starting seeds early indoors for sensitive plants, purchasing transplants, or taking advantage of some plant’s hardiness to extend the growing season. Brussels Sprouts, for example, take forever to grow. Not forever, but forrreeeevvvveerr. Fortunately, they improve in the freezer, so you can keep them out there once the cold hits and they will just get tastier.

musicIf you really wanna battle, saddle up and get our rhythm, Trying to hit it, in a minute I’m a take a you onmusic

So there you have it, from Britney’s mouth to your ears. Practicing a zone defense will greatly improve your growing ability. This is just a primer, but there is so much power you can wield by working with your local climate. If you want to battle the zone, she will win every time, so best play nice and be friends.

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Jessica practicing zone defense on blackberries.