Victorian Kitchen Garden - Conclusion

Well...we made it. This is the conclusion of The Victorian Kitchen Garden. This will be a long post but it is a good wrap-up!



This re-creation uses a bit less than 1 acre of the almost 3 that originally existed with the manor house.

Properly managed, this 1 acre (43560 sq ft) of garden, with its approximately 16000 sq ft (.376 acre) of growing space could have fed between 40 and 64 people. I come to that conclusion because of 2 sources. John Jeavons states that 400 sq ft is necessary for vegetable and fruit plants for each person on the planet. Using his figures, 40 people would have been possible. Eliot Coleman looks at the winter numbers. According to him, each person needs 64 sq ft under coverage to supply throughout the winter. Greenhouse growing needs a little less than that because it is heated. According to his figures, the acre could feed about 64 people (48 people from the greenhouse (3768 sq ft total w/ approx. 1584 sq ft of growing tables) with 33 sq ft per person and another 16 people with 64 sq ft per person in the frames.) Root vegetables from storage would have rounded out the offerings.

Here’s the breakdown:

Main outdoor beds – 8800 sq ft @ 30 in. bed w/ 12 in walk
Perimeter (3 sides) – 2300 sq ft @ 30 in bed w/ 12in walk
Back Bed - 1700 sq ft @ 28 in. bed w/ 12 in walk
Separator & Decorative beds - 1000 sq ft
Frames - 1000 sq ft
Glasshouses - 1584 sq ft

Total - 16384 sq ft outdoors

John Jeavons goes on to say that an additional 1200sq ft per person is necessary for what he calls ‘calorie crops.’ Corn and potato fall into this category. If the head gardener and his staff actually grew both of these…and grew all of the supply needed, the number of people who could be supported drops from 40 to 10.

The whole garden, then (i.e. the 3-acres), probably supported as few as 30 and as many as 100 people. When Mr. Thoday (Intro, January) and Mr. Dodson (September) mention all of the people who needed to be fed along with the family and its guests (approx 10 gardeners, and up to an additional 22 house workers, stable workers, gate guards, and the families that went along with these employees) it must have been an amazing amount of pressure on the head gardener. If he didn’t perform, people might have gone hungry.

The gardener at Chattsworth House (referenced in the Intro) would have had it even harder. Referencing some of the old photographs shows that the staff of the house rounded out to more than 40. These staff, along with their families, could have totaled up to 200 (2 parents, 3 kids) mouths to feed. These, along with the main family and its guests, would have rounded out to a potential 260 people – the most that Chattsworth’s 6 acre garden, could have supported.
Imagine the pressure on the approximately 2 million farmers in the US today (.0065% of the population) who feed the entire country!! (We can help by planting our own kitchen gardens.)

This recreation seems to represent the height of the kitchen garden, its technology, and its management. A snapshot from about 1900 would have shown a very similar picture to this recreation. Mr. Dodson has managed to incorporate intercropping design taken from Parisian market gardens of the mid 1700s, cold frames from the Netherlands, espaliered fruit trees in the French and Italian vineyard style – basically the best of the best that would have been known at the time.

Because of today’s plastics (not really known in the mid to late 1800s), the entire open planting areas in the middle of the garden could be covered with row covers/hoop houses in the winter. Elliot Coleman’s double coverage method along with crop rotation could probably double the production of a garden this size (i.e. 40 people fed up to 80).

This mention of plastics brings up an important point – the end of an era. With the passing of Queen Victoria came a true infusion of industrialization into food production in England (and the US, for that matter). Manual labor could be replaced by machines. Horses were now made of iron and powered by gas or diesel.

Automatic irrigation (and maybe stronger, higher-yielding hybrid species) would really have been the only thing that could have been improved upon in a garden like this…without the inclusion of fossil fuels (like plastics and petroleum fertilizers) and genetically modified plants, that is.

I, for one, am happy that this film series was made as it shows the peak of gardening knowledge which we cannot lose!

Peter Thoday notes in the introduction that the garden at the other manor house (Chattsworth) is, “today, run more like an efficient market garden.” What he means by this is that plants are spaced closer together and are clustered by variety to make for faster planting and harvesting as well as easier crop rotation. Space is not utilized for flowers. Walkways are narrow and utilitarian as opposed to those at the re-creation site which are set up for peoples’ walking enjoyment. This is an example of how, even in times past, the wealthy could afford inefficiency in exchange for beauty. Perhaps a combination of the two could be the way of the future?

It’s interesting to note that this type of a set up was known as a garden. Today, in the United States, garden and farm mean very different things and, although we might not know exactly what to call this, farm would probably be closer in our vocabulary than garden. For the Victorians, though, garden had a much different meaning than farm. More on that next week…



So...I drew out the best interpretation that I could of the garden featured in the series. Here it is. Know that 1 square of the grid represents 2 feet.



I hope that this series was an inspiration for all - it sure was for me. I would like nothing more than to be able to see this walled garden in person (and then to build a wall of my own :)

Have a happy holiday season and let's begin planning next year's garden in the new year!!

Victorian Kitchen Garden - December

Yeah!!! The solstice is passed and now the days will begin to get longer - nothing makes a gardener happier :)

Victorian Kitchen Garden - November

Well...we've arrived. Today is officially the shortest day of the year - the winter solstice! From here, the days get longer - yeah!!!

Now lets take a look at 'November' in the Victorian Kitchen Garden.

Victorian Kitchen Garden - October

Something very unique is going to happen tonight - a lunar eclipse...over a full moon...on the winter solstice!!!

The winter solstice is already an important day - it is the shortest day of the year and was quite the holiday in ancient times. It went by many names but the idea was always the same - after this point, days would get longer and there was hope that spring (and more food) would come again. Typically, great festivals went along with the solstices but this one would have been even bigger. Why...

A full moon shining bright in the sky would have been something very special indeed. While occuring like clockwork every 28 days, a full moon aligning with a solstice is quite rare. Had this day happened in ancient times, though, the festivals would have been truly magnificent...

A lunar eclipse, being both rare and mysterious, would have been quite the event had it happened on a solstice. Surly the gods would have been up to something... So rare is it, infact, that it has only happened once since year 1...in 1638! We will only have to wait until 2094 for the next one, though :)

Get out and take a look in the wee hours. The show is expected to begin at about 11:30pm PST and 2:30am EST. I am crossing my fingers that all will be visible because here in the midwest we are expecting snow :(
Unless I live to 113, I might miss my only chance in life to see this wonder.

Victorian Kitchen Garden - September

Victorian Kitchen Garden - August

Victorian Ktchen Garden - July

Victorian Kitchen Garden - June

Victorian Kitchen Garden - May

Winter is definately upon us!! Over the weekend, the midwest was hit first with a huge snowstorm (like 14+ inches in some places) and then with frigid temps (read: 8 degrees). Here are some pics...

After the snow

One frozen coldframe

Inside it's springtime

The thing is...the salad greens actually 'freeze' quite often. When the temps drop below 32 inside the frame, the greens do get frosty but they have a trick - they make antifreeze!! The cold-hearty plants in these frames produce sugars when the temps start falling that protect them from the cold. Then, when the sun come out, the frame heats up and the greens thaw out undamaged. It's a pretty neat process and the sugars make them pretty tasty too!!

On to the Victorian Kitchen Garden:

Victorian Kitchen Garden - April

Getting Warmer...

Victorian Kitchen Garden - March

Planning...

Victorian Kitchen Garden - February

Mr. Thoday quoted Mr. Beeton's Book of Garden Mamagement that January is the second month of winter and the first of our year. I can certainly attenst that December is the first month of winter!! We've had nighttime temps in the teens to single digits and daytime temps hvering at or below freezing. Brrrrrr...!!! We even had about 2 inches of snow last Saturday!

While it may be white and cold outside, for those with coldframes or a greenhouse, cold-hearty plants should be surviving. Inside, let's keep watching the Victorian Kitchen Garden for some more inspiration...

Victorian Kitchen Garden January Part II

Victorian Kitchen Garden January

Well...last week we saw the introduction tot he Victorian Kitchen Garden, a series on a re-creation of a snapshop of what was possibly one of the heights of food gardening. Now that we've seen the intro, let's move into 'a-year-in-the-life.'

Victorian Kitchen Garden Intro #3

So...here is the last clip of the intro episode of the series. Pay particular attention to the explanation of why the walls of a walled garden are so important. While in most parts of the U.S. 12-foot fencing/walls are not permitted, even the more standard 6-foot (or 8 if you're lucky) fence/wall could be extremely helpful.



Be sure to check out intro part one and two as well!!

Next week, we'll begin looking at this garden month by month. Let the inspiration build!

Victorian Kitchen Garden Intro #2

Winter!!! It's Planning and Inspiration Time!

I can't believe that it's been almost a month since I last posted but the seasonal change and the holiday have left little time for writing...or gardening.

Today, though, marks the beginning of a winter journey that I hope will be inspiring as well as practical. From now until perhaps March, I plan to fill the blog with examples of successes, snapshots of the past, cutting edge movements, and planning options for the future.

To begin with, the Dervaes Family in California. They have successfully done what, conservativly stated, seems impossible. In their 4350 sq ft (that's 66ft by 66ft)garden, they have beaten their 2004 harvest record of 6200 lbs of fruits and veggies. As of November 30th, 2010, the Dervaes family has managed to produce 6396 lbs!!! Unbelievable! AND...THEY HAVE ONE MONTH TO GO THIS YEAR!!!

I can only hope to someday be that good!!

For now, I offer you the first installmment of what will be a two-week series on what was perhaps one of the golden ages of gardening - Victorian England. Take a look at the intro to this amazing experiment:

2 things...

First of all, here is an update from The Urban Homestead.

The Dervaes family lives in Pasedena, California and has, over the past few decades, transformed their 1/5 acre lot into an urban farm.



As unlikly as that seems, this family has managed, at their peak, to pull 6000 pounds of fruits and veggies from their 4350 sq ft garden. That's huge!!!



It seems as though there have been some doubts about their harvests. I, for one, have not a one! These 4 are completely committed to their lifestyle and to making their experiment work.

Each month, they post their bounty on their blog so that others may see how they are progressing. Here's the breakdown for this month:



October Harvest Totals
388 lbs Produce
6 Duck Eggs (molting season)
24 Chicken Eggs (molting season)

2010 YEAR TO DATE TALLY
5,904 lbs Produce
131 lbs Honey
293 Duck Eggs
706 Chicken Eggs

So...they're already at 5900 pounds and they still have 2 months to go - UNBELIEVABLE!!!

I only wish that my green thumb were that good. I suppose that I have to keep in mind that this family has been at it A LOT longer than I have.

Second, an update on my AeroGarden. Here is a pic - this is after just 4 days!!



At this rate, we'll be eating salads by Thanksgiving!

Note: You may have noticed that the number of posts has slowed down quite a bit - not a lot going on here in Wisconsin now that it's fall. Remeber that over the winter, I'll be posting regularily about planning for next year's garden. I've been doing a lot of research into new methods and historical 'great gardens' and I can't wait to share it all. With the snow on the way, all we can do is dream of spring!!

Basement Hydroponics

Last year I was given one of these

as a Christmas gift.

It's an

Which is basically a hydroponic growing system.

If you've never heard of hydroponics, it's basically growing without dirt. The plant is held in place in a variety of ways and it's roots are suspended constantly in water. It's fed by nutrients which are added to the water.

While it is possible to make these systems yourself, this one is nice because it has a little electronic controller

which makes sure that everything is OK. It controls the amount of light that the plants receive (about 16 hrs per day), makes sure that there are enought nutrients in the water, and makes sure that the water level doesn't get too low. All of that for just $100 dollars!!

Seriously, though, I can't say if I had not received it as a gift, I would have invested in one of these or not. Last year, I grew herbs (they were included with the kit) and although the plants absolutely exploded (and I probably could have made more that the cost of the machine by selling the basil alone), I thought that lettuce would be more valuable for us throughout the winter so I ordered that seed pack this year.

Once the seed pods are inserted into the machine and the water and nutrients are added, the machine creates something of a mini-greenhouse effect

so that the seeds germinate faster.

The seed pods say that the seeds will germinate in 1-7 days

and WOW!!! they did they ever!

After just 24 hours...

...the seedlings have indeed sprouted! Can't get that growing in dirt.

Still hanging on...

I still have a couple of summer plants that are hanging on...despit being only 1 week away from November. The mid-thirties last night may have put an end to them...but I am still hoping!

One zucchinni...

2 zucchinni!!

A few Wisconsin 55 tomatoes...despite a lot of dead plant.

Of the 4 Siberian tomatoes that I trialed, this one was the best. I thought that potting it up would let me keep it protected from the cold nights. Looks pretty good!

Late Fall Prep for Earlier Spring Planting

I don't know about you, but here in the midwest, after we've waited for months for the snow to melt and the ground to thaw, us growers want nothing more than to go out and get our hands dirty! Every year we try to push the calendar a little bit farther. The nip might still be in the air; our fingers might be stiff with cold as we dig through the earth with the same emotion as if we were seeing a long-lost friend but our excitement simply can't be contained.

Then, like a bad dream, we are jolted awake but the reality of soil prep. As the dissapointment sinks in that we can't plant just yet, we set to work on digging and adding compost.

But is doesn't have to be this way!

Right now, with autumn in full swing, you and I have a huge opportunity - we can prep our gardens now!! If you've got trees in your yard...even better - FREE COMPOST!!

As trees drop their leaves in fall, there is a wonderful opportunity waiting for us. With some of these

and one of these

amazing things can happen!!

Here's the scoop. The tool made by Toro is typically used as a leaf blower. With the added attachments, though, it functions as a leaf vaccuum!! The best part is that as it sucks the leaves up, it also shreds them. This not only condenses a leaf pile tremendously, it also speeds the breakdown of the leaves (i.e. faster dirt!!).

I don't have a big yard (though I do have a huge oak tree) so the handheld tool works fine. If you have a bigger space, you may need something larger.

Ok...on with the bed prep. First, the top layer of soil needs to be dug up to make room for the leaves

Here's another look at the difference between a dug bed and a full one

Where did all of that dirt go, you might ask. Onto another part of the garden, of course (but only temporarily).

Ok - now it's time to vaccuum leaves. After sucking/shredding the leaves, thay are dumped onto the garden...

...in a layer, in my case, about 8 inches deep!!

After dumping the leaves and spreading them out, they need to be covered with a layer of dirt to speed up the dirt-making (use the dirt which was dug out earlier)

Here it is completely covered

and again (vs. the dug area)

The only thing to remember about leaf vaccuums - they don't like sticks, twigs, or bark. For those, you'll need a bigger tool. Until then, though, I will be left with a pile like this


So...just a few more leaves to collect this year and then I'll have the whole garden prepped. In a few weeks, right before the freeze, I'll add a little menure and, after the winter freeze and spring thaw, this garden will be ready for an early spring planting!!

Note: over the winter I'll be doing many posts on prep, planning, and garden wisdom. I'll be referencing this post as I explore the concepts of intensive and extensive gardening/farming.

A week in Pictures

It's been a while since I did an update of my own kitchen garden.

To begin with, I learned the value of a little protection for seedlings. I have been planting lettuce about once a week for a solid winter harvest from cold frames. Here are some of the first:


The problem here is that I didn't protect these from the wind while they were first sprouting. They got blown all over the place and became weak. I'll probably just dig them under because they won't become much more than what you see here.

These are a little stronger because I used just a little protection:

These should grow into some nice lettuce for the winter harvest. I wish, though, that it would already be as mature as this:

I planted this on August 29th for a fall harvest. The lettuce in the first two pictures I started seeding a week later on September 6th (following Elliot Coleman's planting charts.)

Here's what I've learned: not only does one week make a huge difference, so does the amount of sunlight. Elliot Coleman talks about thte sunlight that he receives in Maine vs the sunlight in France, the country from which he learned much about planting systems. He stresses the importance of the amount of sunlight that plants receive but I have now seen it first hand. My coldframes get flooded with sunlight in the spring but are quite shaded in the fall. This has apparently made a HUGE difference (the best looking lettuce in the third picture is planted in a different location that gets 6-8 hours of sunlight each day.)

On a more positive note, here is some nice arugula:

Garlic:

And, although tired, a still producing tomato (Wisconsin 55):

Finally, I've got two questions for ya'll...

1. Anybody got a greenhouse? Here are some strong Siberian Tomato seedlings that I threw into the garden on August 25th.


They are 6 weeks old and would probably still work in a greenhouse given their cold tolerance (down to 38 degrees!!). I planted the seeds on August 25th simply so that I could establish a baseline for seeding in coming years. I think that in the future, August 1st could work well. That way, I might be able to get tomatoes 'til November!!

2. The second question and last pic - anybody need parsley? Look at this monster:

OMG (or Holy Harvest Inspiration!!)

Ok Ok - I know that it's been a week and a half since I posted. Apologies but life got in the way!

Anyway, while reading one of my favorite blogs, I saw this posting a few days ago.

Here's the scoop - this family lives on 1/5 of an acre (a rather typical city lot size...its 66ft x 132ft) in Pasedena, California. Getting rid of their house, garage, driveway, patio, etc, they have about 1/10 of an acre left.

Thats 4356 sq ft.

66ft x 66ft.

Tiny.

They garden it all.

If you get rid of the walkways and such, there are actually 3900 sq ft left to grow plants. 3900 sq ft. 50 x 78 ft. It's so tiny!!! Here's how the garden looks:


Here's the thing, though...they call their little piece of the world an urban homestead and they maximise it's potential so much that they have peaked at 6000 pounds of fruits and vegetables harvested in a year!!!

For the last few years, they have hovered at around 5000 pounds... ...but the post that just went up tallied their harvest this year at 5500 pounds...and they still have 3 months to go!!

I am sooooooo envious :-)

YEAH - GARLIC

It Worked!!! My garlic trial is successful...so far. You might remember that a few weeks ago I planted garlic that I bought at the grocery store. I wasn't sure how it would do because sometimes grocery chains spray root preventor/growth retardant on garlic so that it looks better in the shelves. This time, though, I lucked out!!! So...here it is:



And a close-up...



I planted 11 cloves a few weeks ago and 5 came up really strong with a 6th just trying to poke through. Not bad for not using seed garlic. After the winter freeze and the spring re-growth, we'll see how the plants do. Stay tuned...

Fall Clean-up

So... I thought that it was time to rip out some plants!! The weather has been very 'fall' for the last few weeks - nighttime lows in the upper 40's...daytime highs in the 60's. The tomatoes are all but done. The cukes too. You might remember that a while back I updated the My Garden section in the sidebar. In it was this picture of the lush kitchen garden in summer.

Well...now it's fall and the garden is a bit more bare...


And from another angle:


So where did all of those dead plants end up? You guessed it - the composter!



How is your garden looking this fall?

Garden Update

So...its been a while since I put up some pics of the kitchen garden. Fall is a transition period - the work of summer has shown its bounty and the still of winter is not quite here. Still, there are things happening in the garden. Multiple sowings of salad greens have given us the late August/September supply:


The October supply (yes, it has a few weeks left to mature):



And the November supply (in 8 weeks, this will be looking good):



This past weekend I also seeded the December salad greens. This coming weekend, the January supply will be seeded and the following weekend the February supply. In order to overwinter this stuff, not only will the greens be protected in coldframes, the varieties are also extremely cold tolerant. Lettuces such as Arctic King, North Pole, Winter Density, and Red Oakleaf have been planted. Asian greens such as Mizuna and Tatsoi will add to the mix. Arugula, Mache, and Claytonia will add some interest. Finally Spinach, one of the most cold hearty (second only to Mache) greens will round out the bunch.

I've got some radishes coming in nicely as well:



These are the French Breakfast variety.

I mentioned that Fall is a transition time. Remember the Super 100 tomatoes that I posted about several times? Well, here is that plant after it gave all that it had:



Poor thing - it was a trooper!

A special 'hello' and 'thanks' to my wife's friends whom I met this past weekend. Your kind words about the blog and your 'stalking' were most appreciated! :-) I even got a little inspiration - more on that in the Spring.

Site updates

As work on the kitchen garden slows with the onset of fall, I have been working behind the scenes on the blog. As I mentioned in the last post, I have been putting together info for several series of posts for the winter. Also, I have been working to finish the blog itself.

Look over on the right-hand side at the pages.

I have just finished the page titled My Garden. Take a peek. Why not add a comment on this post about your garden so that we can all learn the best of the best in kitchen gardening.

I still have to finish the pages The Historic Kitchen Garden and Farm to Table - the Journey. Look for them soon...

Weather update

Two weeks ago I posted a snippet about the weather as it transitioned from summer to fall. I think that the transition is complete!!

While the average temperature was 80 degrees for the about 11 weeks of summer that we had and the transition period averaged 70 degrees, we are now experiencing averages of 60 degrees. I say this because nighttime temps are consistently dropping as low as 48 degrees and daytime temps struggle to reach the low 70s. While I love this weather (as I've said before) and while it makes me want to hang up the day job and be a farmer(!!!), the summer plants are suffering.

The cherry tomatoes are all but dead. It was the compost pile for the summer squash - it was just pitiful. The other day, I picked all of the remaining peppers because the leaves were just shivering from the cool nights!!

Unfortunately, I didn't put enough effort into the fall and winter crops this year because I was focusing on getting the 'intensive planting' spacing just right. Although it worked well, I should have incorporated more fall and early winter crops. Live and learn!

Since I can't go back and change it now, I am focusing on prepping the winter cold frame beds. Along with planting garlic this past weekend, I started a planting series for the cold frames. Including this past weekend, I will plant one bed each weekend for four weekends. This stagger should have each bed at different stages of maturity by the time growth stops (approx. Nov. 1 in zone 5). That way, I can harvest in the same order! In each bed, I have included a mix of lettuces (Red Oakleaf, Winter Density, North Pole), a mix of asian greens (Tatsoi, Mizuna), spinach, mache, and claytonia.

Knowing that there won't be much to do in my small garden during the winter, I have also been planning many posts which will focus on planning for the coming year as well as providing info about the importance of local food, information about natural vs. man-made ingredients, kitchen garden history, and planting and growing more efficiently in small spaces (like a kitchen garden). Look for those to start soon!

Technical Difficulties

It seems as though there was an error in the code for my hit counter. I fixed it but it reset - will have to remember to add about 500 to whatever it reads!!

Garlic

Hello all! How was your long weekend?

I, amongst other things, planted garlic this Labor Day weekend. I've never done it before but I thought 'Why not?' I did a little poking around on the internet and found that in some cases it is perfectly acceptable to plant garlic that was purchased in the produce aisle of the supermarket (I say 'in some cases' because occasionally supermarkets and their suppliers spray garlic with a root growth inhibitor to make it look better in the store). Since I am just trying out planting garlic, I'll take the risk! I asked my wife how much garlic we usually use in a year (remember...she does the cooking) and she told me that we might use 5 or 6 heads. Since each clove of garlic planted grows 1 head, I figured that one head's worth should be enough. I bought a head at the supermarket and went to work. To find out how I did it, watch an expert here:



I ended up getting 9 good sized cloves from my head of garlic. If they all work, we will have 9 heads to cook with. As he says, if it really is this easy, we could all do it! Now I'll just have to wait 8 months to see how it turns out. Watch here...

Basil Problems - a reader question

My wife told me that one of her friends who was reading the blog the other day had a question about her basil. It seems that as hard as she tries, every year her basil turns yellow and dies. She wonders why and what she can do about it. To find the answer, I think we'll have to think like a plant for a minute!

It is importnant to note that basil comes from countries that surround the Mediterranean. There are three main components to the climate there - warmth, lots of sun, and easy-draining soil. The warmth I think that we have taken care of in Wisconsin summers. That leaves sun and well-drained soil. So...if we were to think like a plant, waht would we need to be happy? To begin with, be sure that basil is always located in an area with LOTS of sun. Then, make sure that the soil doesn't hold water. If basil is planted in the ground and that ground has a lot of clay, water will stay close to the plant for too long. Basically, the plant will be drowning and will look like this!


One easy fix - plant basil in a pot with a good quality potting mix. Let the soild dry a little after each watering (in other words...don't keep it moist). Be sure to keep the pot in the sun. If you do that, you might just get this:


A rule of thumb - if the plant turns yellow and dies - too much water. If it turns brown and dies - too little water.

If you ever have too much basil (under the right conditions, basil grows like a weed!) you could always make pesto and freeze it!

Thanks for the question - keep em coming!

I noticed something this morning before work that really let me know that autumn is on the way - a flock of geese migrating in a perfect 'V.' It kinda made me say 'awww' as I though of the change from the muggy summer to the crisp autumn that we're about to experience. And...get this...only 16 weeks 'til Christmas!!