March Ends - ACK, where did it go?

The LAZY BLOGGER strikes again. The days are just not long enough. The month of March as flown by.

Have planted some strawberries, a gift from a co-worker and some yellow onion sets. Cleaned the some of the beds and spread compost on them. The rhubarb that was planted late last spring is coming up, looks healthy. The raspberry plant that survived is budding up and will be joined by four more if they ever get here. Ordered them and some more onion sets (red and yellow), some horseradish root and 50 strawberry plants from Gurney's 6 weeks ago. Hopefully the order get here in time to plant the onions, the farms around here planted their onions the last week of February. In a couple of weeks I'm going up to Spokane to pickup an order of berry bushes ordered from the conservation service there. There will be 5 each of American Cranberry, Northern Blue Elderberry, Golden Current and Shrubpea. So need to get their holes dug and admended before then. Bought some seed potatos, which need to be chitted and their bed prepared.

Lately I have been browsing the Forums at Permies.com, interesting stuff. The talk of Hugelculture beds has gotten me converting one of the garden beds into a hugel like bed. The picture below is of the construction of said bed. I started by removing the soil from the top of the bed(which is place to the right in picture), then dug down 9 inchs(which is on the tarp to the left). Then the pit is filled with wood chips mounded up to 12 inchs deep in center which are then topped with compost and manure; then finished with the soil remove in first step. I'm thinking of planting pea's and beans in that bed this year.



Had another load of wood chips delivered a couple of weeks ago, the workers doing the job were driving by, saw me, stopped and ask if I wanted another load. So the big pile in the front yard got bigger.

The dew pond experiment isn't working to well. The few times the dew has formed it doesn't seem that much gathers in the pond, and if there is any it evaporates before I get a chance to note it. Will let it be for another month or so, until the Skitters come out anyway, as we have Nile Virus around here.

Note that there are two new links of interest in the sidebar, Permies.com and Paul Wheaton's Site. Paul posts short videos to utube.com about permaculture topics and has a pod cast where he talks about topics that are discussed on permies.

Garden On.

The Last Friday of February

This last week I noticed that some of the Willows around town are greening up, which got me wondering when did that happen last year. So, archives here I come. Humm, posted that the willows were budding on the 27th of Feb, so, a week earlier than last year. BUT, it wasn't 11f over night then either, BRRRRR. The weathermen have been saying it was supposed to snow, which it did, 1/4 inch here, much more all around (12 inch in Walla Walla and Spokane).

The dew pond is great at catching rain but hasn't caught much dew yet, it's been too darn cold. Caught 4.5 gallons of rain two days after I built the pond but nothing since. Thinking that it needs to be above freezing at night for it to work correctly.

Rain water in the dew pond.

In an earlier post (end of January)I talked about using terra cotta pots as watering sources. Having no luck finding an inexpensive source of pots I glued two 8 inch planting pots together using Gorilla Glue (which is great stuff). The hole in lower pot is plugged with a stone glued in place. On any made after this, I think, a piece of paper with some GG should suffice to plug the hole. For those who haven't used GG, as it drys, it foams filling gaps.


Handmade Ola for Pitcher Irrigation

Listened to a podcast on Sustainable World Radio Podcasts with Doug Weatherbee about healthy soil. I recommend it. It's 1 1/2 hours in 2 parts. There is also another podcast with the author of the best selling book Gaia's Garden, Toby Hemenway.

Garden On.

Dewings ?

I have been reading about dew ponds the last few days. Dew ponds are ponds that have no external water source, receiving they supply of water from condensation of atmospheric moisture. They work on the principle that dew collects on surfaces that are cooler than the dew point. This evening after work I built a small test pond out of a pile of wood chips and a salvaged tarp. The wood chips were spread out in to a dish shape 6 feet or so in diameter. The tarp was then spread over the dish and weighted down with several large stones. The idea is to insulate the tarp from the heat of the earth allowing the tarp to cool off by radiation. Then in the wee hours of the morning the dew can collect. Will let it be for a few days to see what it collects, then add a layer of small (1.5 inch) stones for more mass. Traditionally dew ponds are made using straw as insulation and clay/chalk as the pond surface.





After I did the dew pond I moved 20 wheel borrow loads of chips from the the pile to the other side of the yard. I'm spreading them about 4 inches deep over the front yard in preparation for planting some berry shrubs on order. Getting 5 each of Blue Elderberry, American Cranberry and Golden Current, also 5 Shrubpea. The Shrubpea has edible pods and fixes Nitrogen just like peas and beans. Also ordered some horseradish, strawberries, onion sets (red and yellow) and raspberries. Need to plan where to plant every thing then get the soil prepared, just hope the weather co-operates.

Garden On.

Fungi

Fungi, those many formed things that pop up in so of the strangest places, usually in the lawn where you didn't really want them... but don't panic. They are a normal part of the ecology to the soil, in fact they are a prime member of the soil life web. What we call mushrooms are in fact the fruits of fungi. Fungi form strands that can be inches to many yards long, a single fungi can cover thousands of square feet. They can form near, on or even in plants.

The roles of fungi in the garden are many fold. They are the prime decomposers of lignin and cellulose of woody materials. They release acids that break down minerals making them available in the soil. They remove minerals from the organic matter and mineral particles in the soil and transport it to plant roots. They also store Calcium and phosphorus. They bind soil particles and small aggregates into larger aggregates improving soil structure, draining and habitat.

Some Fungi form symbiotic relations with plants that benefit both plant and the fungi. The fungi supplies the plant with resources that the plant can't access (water and minerals), in return the plant supplies simple sugars, complex carbohydrates and proteins. Basically fungi form extended root systems for the plants that they associate with, provide habitat for bacteria and protect the plant from pathogens, pollutants and herbivores.

[rant] Another reason to NOT use glyphosate based herbicides is the it kills fungi not just plants. It's like using a nuclear bomb to kill a mouse in your house, sure it kills the mouse but also the dog, cat and you.[/rant]

Garden On.

Winter's Back

The cold weather has returned :-(
Don't know if it got to 40f today or not. There was a bit of white on the hill to the south of us this afternoon. sigh. Oh well, it's January for crying out loud, it's supposed to be cold.

Saw an article on the damages done by glyphosate herbicide the other day. Apparently it doesn't break down as fast as it is suppose to, building up in the soil, chemically binding the soil minerals up, which weakens the plant allowing disease organisms to attack and kill the plants. The binding of trace minerals also makes the plant less nutritious. And the main seller of that type of herbicide wants our beloved governments permission to release alfalfa that can survive larger doses of the herbicide. NO, NO, NO, WE don't want your chemical crap....OR your genetically altered plants.

Healthy soil with a lot of biomass, bacteria and fungus doesn't need to be treated with external fertilizers. If the bacteria and fungi in the soil are not killed, they can convert the biomass that is in the soil into the nutrients that the growing plants need. So provide biomass for the soil bacteria to eat and your plants will be happy. Don't be super neat in the garden, let the residue from the garden rot in place, the soil bacteria will love it.

Garden On.

A new year, a new garden

As you have probably noticed I don't Blog much. The written word is not my normal mode of communication. I have one heck of a time putting thoughts on paper because of lack of spelling skills which causes a major disruption of thought flow. So please excuse the lack of posts.

The weather here in south central Washington state is being strange again this year. Our normal weather for the end of January is cold (20 to 40F) with snow. Today it was 50ish and rainy and has been so for the last week. Normally December is rainy with chances of snow, this year, Snowy and cold. It will probably be a repeat of last year, cold early winter, cool late winter and a wet cool spring, with a warm (not HOT) summer.

Having read 'Buffalo Bird Woman's Garden', I'm going to growing squash and try drying some. Thinking of doing a three sisters planting with sunflowers instead of corn, as last years corn didn't do well. Also this area has many growers of sweet corn. Beans, lettuce, beets, cabbage and tomatoes are on the list. The Strawberry patch is going to be moved to a new spot. More raspberry plants need to be obtained. The Moon and Stars melons will be repeated as will the cantaloupes.

This fall/winter I have read several books on Perma-culture and gardening (see the book list page), which have given me many ideas that I wish to implement. Water harvesting, fruit/nut tree guides, insect habitat, perennial vegetables. Bactria and fungus, worms and beetles, sheet composting, cold piles and hot piles, ponds and greenhouses, trace minerals and deep rooted nutrient accumulators ,bio mass accumulators and ground covers. The depletion of the soil by current farming practices and how to restore the same. ugh, time to get off the soap box. (but not to far)

The piles of wood chips that were delivered last fall are being moved to the garden paths. The chip that were placed there last spring are decomposing nicely, adding humus to the edges of the beds and holding water for the beds. Several compost piles have been built from the chips and other materials, which will have to rot over the summer.



Have been searching for a source of terra-cotta ollas to use as pither irrigation, But $30-35 per 1.5 gallon jug is a bit excessive IMO. Does anyone throw terra-cotta or know someone that does? Have asked Annie's Granny to check on the availability down in southern AZ. May have to cobble a couple of regular TC flower pot together as others on the net have done.

Garden On.

ugh

Oh, dear. To long gone.

It has finally frosted. With a vengeance. Last week it was still 36-7 over night, last night it was -7F, Brrrrr. The load of bagged leaves I picked up Sunday evening is still in the truck which is O.K. as it adds weight to get through the SNOW, about 6 inches.

Garden On (in yours Dreams if not in the yard)

Brrrr

The weather prognosticators predict the overnight low to be 30F tonight. It's been trying to freeze for the last week with lows in the mid 30s but hasn't quite got that low. Though have had an icy windshield on the truck in the morning.
The parents came down from Spokane Sunday afternoon to get the rest of the Citron I grew. So Saturday evening the wife and I went out the pick them. I don't think I need to grow Citron for a few years. We picked 45 of them. Add the 15 from a couple of weeks ago, that's a total of 60. Didn't weigh them but estimate they weighed 300 lbs total (all 60, average 5lbs).


Also dug the Sweet Potato bed, got 19 lbs of taters. Now I need to process them for freezing/canning seeing as they didn't get cured.

Cleaned the pole beans up today. Have been neglecting them for a couple weeks so have a few more than needed for seed me thinks.

Busy Busy Busy

The last few weeks have been busy in the yard/garden. I have had 3 truck loads (about 25 yards) of wood chips delivered since the last post. I have been spreading them about after work when time and weather allows. The plan is to cover the side and front yards with chips to hold the weeds in check and to start getting some organic matter built up in the soil. Some chips are reserved for the garden paths as weed control/mulch and for composting.

Piles of wood chips

I have finally picked enough tomatoes at the same time to can some tomato sauce. The wife had purchased some Mrs. Wrights Pizza Sauce seasoning mix, so I used that. Got 4 pints of that made on Thursday.

Then on Friday, Mom and I started doing Citron Preserves. Citron is a watermelon like fruit that the rind is used to make the preserves. I remember eating toast with preserved citron on it when I was a lad of 10 or 12 at grandma's farm. It's basically 3/4 inch cubes of rind boiled in syrup with spices (mainly cloves and/or cinnamon) until the rind turns clear.
On Saturday a batch of apple butter was started in the crockpot. Then some bananas and apple slices put in the food drier. Then another batch of Citron was done for total of 13 pints of Citron and 4 apple butter.

A sampling of the preserved goodies

Sunday Mom raided the garden to share with my sisters in Spokane, scoring 43 lbs of Moon and Stars watermelon (20,13 and 10 lbs), plus 25 lbs of Jalapeno peppers, Banana Peppers, Tomatoes, Cantaloupe,cucumbers, green peppers and carrots. Plus 8 more Citron to make preserves to share with the sister's families.

Trunk full of Goodies

Oops, forgot the dried onions done a week ago, 4 largish onions, coarsely chopped and dried.

Garden On.

Hello World !!

I have the Internet. After 2 weeks of waiting I'm reconnected to the world, Yay.
Though sometimes I think the Internet is a HUGH black hole that sucks up all my spare time and some to that is not spare. But I did miss all your gardening adventures. Got a lot of reading done in the last 2 weeks, several novels, Gaia's Garden, The One Straw Revolution and the first third of Edible Forest Gardens Vol.1.

And speaking of gardening (ha ha), the last 3 weeks the garden has been producing like gangbusters. The Clear Pink Early tomato plant has been making 3-4 ripe tomatoes a day, the cherry (don't remember the variety) has made a few a day with a random yellow pear thrown in. The Eve Purple Ball tomatoes are just starting to bear. Boy, are they good, thick fleshed with few seeds.
The peppers are producing so heavily that the plants fall over.
Next year I will NOT be planting 8 cucumber plants which is 4 to many. Though I think I will plant more than 4 Moon and Star watermelon (nicely sweet,large melons). Have harvested 3 so far, a 20 lb, a 19.5 lb and a 13 lb., with 7 more to come.
The cantaloupe are doing well, 6 picked so far. They are on the smallish side, which is O.K. with me.
Garden On.

Ugh

I have been back to the stone age. My internet has been down for two weeks. The repair guys is due out tomorrow, so maybe I can get back online.

Will post some more later.

Garden On

Harvest Monday 9 Aug 10

And coming in in last place in the Harvest Monday race is DaBeardedOne!!

Without pictures (or not many, anyway).

Have harvested CORN (3 ears, which Mom took home), many, many cucumbers, Green beans, an onion, Tomatoes, peppers (green, yellow, and Jalapeño)and chard (Mom, again).


some of this weeks harvest

This was a busy day. Started by baking the loaf of 5 minute bread that the wife mixed up yesterday. While that was baking some of the cucumbers were canned as dill pickles. The 7 pints joined the 6 half pints of low sugar peach jam I made Saturday.



Had just finished the pickles when my parents showed up. They were on their way home after visiting with Moms brothers and sisters in La Grande, OR. Mom took 3 ears of corn, a few cucumbers, some tomatoes and chard.

More canning is on the agenda for tomorrow. Going to make some of Annie's Salsa to use up the tomatoes and peppers. I made some fresh salsa last week, which turned out pretty good until I added too much garlic.

Garden On.

Ovay - it's been 3 weeks !!

My my, where does the time go?

The garden is growing like gangbusters in the heat, it's been in the high 90's the last 2.5 weeks (finally). There have been a couple of windy days the the last 3 weeks, one of which reduced one of my eggplants to this state.



Snapped off by 55 mph wind :-(

The rest the garden survived the winds well, the corn was listing a bit but the next day was back standing tall. It's now 6-7 feet tall with tassels so should have sweet corn in a few weeks.



The melons and cucumbers are loving the heat and sunshine.





This is a Moon and Stars Watermelon, the largest one growing on 4 plants.




There be tomatoes here!! Picked the first tomatoes on the 21st, three cherry. Boy, was they yummy. The peppers are also producing well, have picked two of the Quadrato Asti Giallo so far.



The rhubarb is growing nicely, when planted in early June it was just a few 2-3 inch long leaves.


The harvests of the last weighted in at 2081 grams (4.68 lbs) and includes 5 peppers, 5 cherry tomatoes, a handful of beans, 3 cucumbers, some chard, a 1 pound broccoli and 3 small sticks of rhubarb.







In the last post, I showed a loaf of 'No Knead Bread'. Last week I tried a variant with cut oats which turned out well ( No picture , sorry). If you would like to try it follow the Link and scroll down to the cut oat recipe.

Garden On.

This and That

Happy 4th of July.

I baked a loaf of 'No Knead Bread' yesterday. Was easy to do and tasty. Will make some more.


Went to the farmers market Wednesday morning, getting 2 pounds of raspberries and a couple of zucchini, as I am not growing either in the garden (but will next year). The wife made the berries into one of the Raspberry pies that Anne's Granny made last week. Yum. One of the Squash was made into a loaf of Zucchini Bread, also Yum.



In the picture above, the jar is full of Dried Cabbage. Was going to make Sauerkraut but decided that it to warm in the house to do it now. Will try krauting this winter. That jar holds 5 lbs of cabbage. Speaking of cabbage, have had to harvest two cabbages, because they exploded ( split really). Both in the 4 lb range.



Weeds, I hates 'em. To remove the hated weeds I have purchased a shuffle hoe. A Rogue 6 inch Shuffle Hoe from Earthworks. Boy does it work well!!! Cuts things off at or just below the ground. All three edges are SHARP.

Thursday Harvest

I was off by 2.75 oz.


I can hear you. "Off on what?" say you.

In yesterdays post was a picture of a cabbage with a caption stating that it weighed 4 pounds. I was incorrect, it weighed 3lb 13.25 oz.

3.86 lbs on scale

On other matters, just finished reading THIS, which I found interesting.

Finally, It's Summer

The sun is starting it's trip south again and it finally is getting warm in the lower Columbia basin. It was partly cloudy yesterday with 10mph winds with a high of 70. Today - it's dead calm and clear, with a temp of 80F and still still 3 hours until peak temperature. High 80's to low 90's forecast for the rest of the week. YAY, I can almost see the corn and 'maters growing. Speaking of 'maters, I have some :-).

Tiny 'maters make me a happy fellow

Harvested some snow peas (about a dozen pods), some more lettuce and a smallish cabbage (it was spliting)(950grams) this last week. Keep forgetting to take pictures, sorry.
Still have 6 cabbage growing, with this bad boy being the biggest.

Guessimation of weight - 4 lbs

The 75% of knee high corn,

A little bitty pepper

The wifes flowers are growing and blooming nicely.









Edited to add the new link on the LINK widget. Please check out the (re)building soil link, it's could be a great help if you have a newish house or a yard that has been destroyed by septic field failure (raises hand).

Garden On

Composters

Erin of 'Garden Now - Think later!' asked us to post our composters, so without further ado I present ... Composters of DaBeardedOne.

I have three ways to make compost. First, the put it all in a big pile and wait method. Really cheap, ugly ugly ugly, but never gets full. This pile is mostly greens, waiting for fall and the leaves to drop.



Next is the pallet bins. Easy to turn. Cheap to build. Easy to manage. Not pretty but better than the pile.



Then there is the 16 feet of field fence in a circle. Neat, not too ugly and easy to turn. Could be used as a planter, imagine it covered with squash vines.



When I checked last week they were all in the 140F temperature range.

Garden On

Turnip !!!

I checked the turnip on Thursday, it was 2 inches or so in diameter. Checked it again Saturday, it's 4 inches, argh. There it is, all washed up, ready to go in the house.

That is a 15oz can next to it for size comparison. It's the only turnip to reach maturity, the others were either bug food or didn't grow. I will try some more in a few months, maybe the bugs will let me harvest a few.

Harvest Monday and Tuesday

Harvest Tuesday, this week and last, another 1896 grams of Lettuces for a total of 4000+ and 295 grams of second planting Radishes (second planting as the first bolted as soon as they got bigger than a pea). The picture below are the radishes I pulled last week, this weeks are about twice the size.

I asked the wife to goto the farmers market on Saturday before last and get some Rhubarb if they had any. She got a pound and half. I haven't had any Rhubarb in so long, the Rhubard Pineapple cobbler she made from my Moms recipe was SO good, Yummmm.
Monday before last my parents came down for a visit, bringing 5 sets of Rhubard for me, which are now growing. Dad helped with a couple of things in the garden, weed whacking the fence line, cleaned out the back of the truck after we got a yard of manure and some digging of a new beds.


Thats two new beds and one extended bed, another 280 ft^2 of space, with another 300 planned. I'm soooo slow in getting things planted, with the cool weather and rain of the last few weeks. Those are the peppers and eggplant in the foreground of the new bed picture. They have been spending their nights in the cold frame.
Garden On.

Harvest Monday

First, the first Harvest Monday, 400 Grams of assorted lettuce. Add that to the other harvests this week, 686 grams total (24.5 ounces for you non-metric people). Sorry, no picture again, it was blurry :-( Imagine two one gallon zip bags full.

I have been working on getting the hills for the squash/cucumbers/watermelon/cantaloupe done so I can get them planted. They are getting so large. Also pulled one of the beds of cover crop and planted some sweet corn. Noticed this morning that some has spouted, Hurray. Still need to pull the cover crop off the second bed so the tomatoes can be planted.
The future tomato bed

When I was clearing the corn bed I found this. Anyone have an idea what it is?

In the back ground of the first picture is the attempt to make a trellis my the beans. I say attempt because the beans would be to far away from the strings to do any good. I'm going to take it apart and use the uprights as stakes to run strings between.

I'm thinking I will not use "composted" manure straight out of the bag again. It appears to be unfinished, the bean bed seems to have a nitrogen deficiency. The tackweed wouldn't even grow well, turns a sickly yellow color. Put some fish fertilize on the peas and beans and they started to green up and grow.