Tag Archives: SFG

Quarantine Garden (aka I’m bAAaaack!)

22 Sunday Mar 2020

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What a time to be alive! Amiright?? Seriously, though, who would have guessed we would be trying to make it through a real life PANDEMIC? Pandemic is also a fan-favorite party game, great for isolation. Full disclosure: CFO, myself and the family ALWAYS LOST when we played up at the lake. I try not to dwell on that too much.

In these social distancing times, I am turning towards the garden. I realize my social media presence has been choppy, so I will do my best to stay on top of things. But please don’t put too much faith in that. After all, Monkey is 2 years old now, which is prime time for him to jump off a ledge into a pile of leaves or something. All eyes on the wild child.

I do have a very ambitious garden planned this year, with a priority on preserving the harvest. We invested in a CSA box through Village Farmstead, located just down the street from us, in an effort to ensure fresh, local produce in the trying times of raising a child, and we will continue that this summer.

We begin the year with seeding three varieties of onions (Flat of Italy red, Yellow of Parma, Minnesota Winter bunching), Blue Solaise leeks and Zebrune shallots. I started these little ones in January under grow lights. As they grew, I maintained their manes at ~4 inches, continuously clipping them back. This caused them to produce thicker stems from what I could tell. They are out in the greenhouse now (as long as we stay above freezing), and I will plant out in early April after we top the beds with compost. Additionally, I’ve been feeding these guys fish fertilizer once a month, which is the smelliest, most vile concoction that permeates the whole house with dead fish for about 3 days. Lovely.

Onion seedlings in trays

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.

A Look Back at the Beginning

01 Thursday Jan 2015

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Today is January 1, 2015. This marks the first day of a new year and my very first blog post. How utterly exciting. I have decided to blog my experience with growing my own food for a few reasons. The first, because I had been keeping a journal on paper old-skool and that makes my hand cramp. Seriously, the art of writing is definitely long lost. The second reason is because I get asked for photos of my garden often and my Facebook page is getting cluttered. The third reason is because I have an inflated sense of importance and think people really, truly care about what I have to say. Finally, I am doing this is because I want to prove to myself the seemingly impossible, that is, work around the clock and also treat yourself well in the form of really really good food and save some moolah to boot.

So…let us begin this journey. As some of you may know, my garden began just a year ago, in early 2014. I raked the internets looking for directions on how to make a garden bed. There are so many sites and so many recommendations. I settled on the advice of this website, which provides directions for a 4′ x 8′ raised garden bed. I decided on raised garden beds in order to maximize efficiency by utilizing a form of Square Food Gardening, or SFG. This method of gardening relies on deep soil and maximized plant-to-space ratios over traditional row gardening. It reduces compaction because you don’t have to walk on the dirt. A 4′ x 8′ bed is ideal for me, because I can easily reach across 2 feet to plant, weed and hoe without so much trouble.

First garden bed, early spring planting done.

First garden bed, early spring planting done.

For the bed, I used untreated cedar. You can make a raised bed out of anything. Cedar is a good option as it is naturally rot resistant. Untreated is important for growing food. Treated lumber uses chemicals that, while better than the arsenic soup of years past, are still not meant to be sucked up into green leaf cells and consumed. Along with using untreated lumber, you will probably not want to seal or stain the wood for the very same reason, which is why a rot-resistant wood is important. Of course you could go crazy and use brick, cement or other durable materials. They are kind of heavy.

For my bed, I excavated a space large enough for the bed to sit. I lined the  soil with black permeable weed cloth and a good layer of chicken wire to keep out those diggers/root thieves. I filled the box with a 50-50 mix of top soil and compost purchased in bulk locally. An entire truck load (1 yard) cost me a whopping $25. The delivery fee was $50. Somethings will never make sense. I also attached PVC pipe to assist in adding hoops for early plants. All in all, one bed cost approximately $150 to make, and should last 5-8 years.

After some surprising success with one 32 cubic foot garden bed, I decided to add another for this upcoming year. That is, two 4′ x 8′ raised garden

Mmmm, tart cherries getting ready to make pie.

Mmmm, tart cherries getting ready to make pie.

beds, 64 cubic feet of soil. In addition, I commandeered an old cement block 4′ x 4′ planting bed for 16 asparagus plants, revived a 20′ raspberry trellis, and put some TLC into existing pear trees (2) and a Montmorency tart cherry tree.

Another decision I made, which I feel very strongly about, was to use near-exclusively heirloom seeds. Just a little explanation on that one. Heirloom seeds are the seeds of yore, that are almost forgotten. They are seeds of delectable fruits, vegetables, flowers, herbs and other plants that have been saved throughout the generations when agribusiness has all but made them extinct. Today, many people might be aware that there are literally hundreds of varieties of tomatoes, thanks to a bit of a revolution, but what about the hundreds of cucumber and sweet pea varieties? That’s right. We are only just beginning. My go-to for these seeds

The possibilities are endless.

The possibilities are endless.

is Seed Savers Exchange. SSE is a non-profit that focuses on saving the seeds of yesteryear for today’s enjoyment. They make a certain selection of these seeds available every year for people like me to purchase and grow. There are many organizations that do this, and now many seed companies that are selling heirloom varieties. When the catalogs arrive in the dead of winter, its like Christmas! The SSE seed packets usually run around $3/packet, which sounds like a bit much, but that is for hundreds, if not thousands of seeds. Compare that to $2.00/plant at a discount greenhouse. If that plant dies, or doesn’t make it to fruit, you need to spend another $2.00 to replace it. Meanwhile, you have seeds on seeds on seeds waiting to sprout.

Now we have established the basics: sunlight, water, soil, raised beds, and heirloom seeds. Take a look at my palette.

Empty beds and empty (dinner) tables.

Empty beds and empty (dinner) tables.

Asparagus ferns in December

Asparagus ferns in December

Raspberry and blackberry canes.

Raspberry and blackberry canes.

Barren fruit trees. Pear, pear, cherry.

Barren fruit trees. Pear, pear, cherry.

Everything appears dead. And brown. And yellow. But I know the truth. I know that those sad, withered canes are just hibernating. I know that those spindly trees will blossom once again. I know that under those feathery yellow asparagus ferns are starchy roots that will be the first sign of life come spring time. I know that those two empty wood boxes will become so overwhelmed by lush greenery that I will be fighting to contain it. What miracles, and what fun! I hope you enjoy this journey with me.

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Jessica will be hibernating until the basil is ready.