Gone...but not forgotten!

I can't believe that it has been 2 months since my last post! A lot has happened in my non-gardening life and it has taken up much of my time. I am going to try to restart my regular posting. I plan to review what has been happening in the garden over the past 2 months as well as talk about thoughts for fall and winter harvests. To start, though, I thought I'd toss up a post about or friends in California. They never cease to amaze and here are their latest accomplishments:


June 2011610 lbs produce (vegetables, fruits and herbs)
Eggs

112 (duck)
48 (chicken)

2011 Year to Date2,076 lbs produce (vegetables, fruits and herbs)

Eggs

722 (duck)
314 (chicken)

How’s your garden growing?

By the process of directly working in harmony with nature, we do the one thing most essential to change the world–we change ourselves. ~ Jules Dervaes ~

Have you harvested anything yet?

My role models, the Dervaes family, just posted their April and year-to-date harvest tallies. While I know that they have the great fortune of living in a year-round gardening climate, I can still be jealous! Here are the numbers:

APRIL HARVEST276 lb produce

Eggs 141 (Duck) 73 (Chicken)

2011 YEAR TO DATE939 lb produce

Eggs 486 (Duck) 190 (Chicken)


Living here in the tundra, I haven't been so lucky. I, so far, have only gotten a few heads of lettuce :(

Square Foot Gardening

Some time ago, one of my wife's friends mentioned to her that she wanted to try 'quadrant gardening' this year. Not having spoken to her, I am guessing that she meant some version of Square Foot Gardening (though she could have meant that she was planning to purchase these.)

Either way, this will be a post on Square Foot Gardening...a method developed by Mel Bartholomew. Think of this as an exploration of a gardening method as well as a book review.

Mel Bartholomew's method is not a new concept. The idea of using close spacing and of growing vertically was used by the Myans, the 18th century French, and the 19th century English. What Mel Bartholomew has done, though, is make it easy!

Here's the basic idea.

After building a square frame (i.e. no bottom) that is 4ft long on each side, lay out dividers in each direction spaced 1 foot apart. You should end up with a checkerboard-style grid. Now, after adding dirt of course, place one plant in each square (some plants, like lettuce and carrots can have more than one per square). The result should look something like this:


Notice the trellis in the back. Here's another look at a trellised SFG:


The trellis allows climbing veggies like peas and beans to really stretch themselves and grow to their full potential.

The beauty of this ststem, too, is that it can be scaled up as a person wants to grow more, like this

So...how do you know how many plants to put in each square or how to arrange them? You could but Mel's book or you could consult planning software like this. The planning software will show you that you could, in 3x6 foot space, create a high yield garden
an All American Garden
or about a dozen others.

The planning software that I have linked to goes on to show a grid of the layout for the garden as well as outline how many of each plant to place into each square. I structure my garden similar to some of these plans and to Mel's methods and I get HUGE results from a small space!

Mel Bartholomew has done something else besides make small space gardening techniques easy - he has built himself a business! What started as a single book has become a full blown website with a brand new edition to the book as well as a store selling everything that you need to get started and be successful at gardening.

While I applaud Mel for taking a lot of the guesswork out of the process, I don't know if gardening is quite as easy as he makes it seem. I think that his method of dividing the space into visible squares makes the garden seem more organized and managable in the mind rather than actually making it foolproof.

I do plan to test one of his claims this year. His book states that '16 square feet are needed to provide one person a daily salad throughout the growing season.' He then claims that 'an additional 16 square feet will provide all of the dinner table vegetables for that one person.' A final '16 square feet will provide all of the veggies needed for preserving.' This adds up to 48 square feet or just three of the 4ft by 4ft boxes that are Mel's standard!

While I don't plan to preserve too much of this year's harvest, I do want to see if my 110 square foot garden can provide all of the salads and veggies that my family needs this growing season. Based on 32sq ft per adult and half that per child, I should only need 96 sq ft for my fresh veggies. We shall see!

Seed Pack info

A couple of posts ago, promised a primer on the information found on the back of seed packets. Here goes:

Veggie seed packs are typically all the same - they offer a pic of the plant on the front...

...and info about the plant on the back


Here's another example of the front of a pack...

...and the back
(Notice that the first seed pack states 'hybrid' and that the second does not. Take a look at our discussion of hybrids for more info!)

So...what are these seed packs telling us?

First of all, notice that the backs of the packs start with a short description of the plant. This is nice info but the really good stuff comes next.

The next item (which is toward the end of the description) is the word 'indeterminate.' This is critical because it tells you how long the plant will produce its veggie. An indeterminant variety will produce fruit all season long. This differs from a 'determinant' variety which will only produce for a short time - perhaps only a few weeks.

It's not that one is better than another - you just have to know what you have so that you can work with it. If you want to grow determinant varieties, you'll have to plan and stagger your plantings so that you end up with a season full of veggies...and not just a few weeks with veggies comming out of your ears!

One other thing to think about (and this is more for advanced gardeners) is that determinant varieties tend to 'bush' whereas indeterminant varieties tend to 'vine.' This means that if you want to have your...let's say tomatoes...climb up a very tall cage or a chainlink fence, go with the indeterminant type. The reason that I say that this is for advanced gardeners is because if you understand how plants climb, you can squeese more into a small space. To do that, though, you have to plan very precisely!

Ok - now that we know how long the plant will give us veggies, we have to know the first point when we will be able to pick.

Here's where the 'Harvest in __ days' comes in. The first plant that I have here is a 70 day (or 10 weeks) while the second is an 80 day (or 11.5 weeks), so you'll have to wait a little longer.

The second packet offers a little more insight into this. It states '80 days from transplant.' This is critical and leads me to the next piece of info on the packet.

Both packets state 'start indoors' and '6-8 weeks before transplant.'

Remember the 70 or 80 days till harvest? This means after planting outside!!! You've actually got to plan in the x-tra 42-56 days for the seedling to grow indoors.

How do you know how to plan for those x-tra days and when to plant your seedlings outside? Review the tools that we talked about in January here, here, and here.

According to all of this info, I can figure out that I need to start my tomatoes between March 15th and April 1st and that I won't have my first 'Super 100s' until about the 24th opf July and I won't have my first Wisconsin 55s until about August 1st!

The last bit of info that the packet tells me is how far apart I should space my plants. This is for the type of gardening that most of us are aware of (i.e. stick a plant in the ground here and there and water).

The more advanced gardening that I spoke of earlier shrinks the space between plants drastically but coaxes them to grow vertically.

More ont hat tomorrow...

May Day, Walpurgisnacht, and Beltane

YEAH!!!!

I'm back to blogging regularily now that I've completed my master's degree!!

That personal celebration lines up with a much more widely-known celebration known as May Day or Walpurgisnacht or Beltane, depending on what part of the world you might be in.

By any name, the celebration which occurs on the evening of April 30th as it transitions into May 1st marks a particularily significant change gardeners. This day is the transition from the non-growing season to the growing season in northern climates.

I've talked before about coldframes, row covers, and greenhouses and without some type of protection like these, gardening is quite difficult to nearly impossible in northern climates before about May 1st.

Southern climate dwellers know that May first as a starting date is quite late. I did a post 3 months ago which had a picture from California first showing signs of spring.

Well...three months later, here are my first signs of spring:

The first buds on a tree

Lettuce first leaving the protection of the coldframe

Peas loving the still-cool temps



Tomatoes, peppers, and zucchinni ready for planting out in a few weeks!

Heirloom vs Organic...vs Hybrid

Ok readers...this is going to be a 'must read.'

I've had several conversations and questions in the past few weeks about the differences between heirloom and organic plants. I'm going to offer a quick summary here that should clarify things.

Let me, though, say this: Organic and Heirloom ARE NOTthe same thing.

To start with, let's talk about genetics!

If you happen to find yourself with 2 Labrador Retrievers and you allow them to...er...make babies, you will get...

You guessed it - Labrador Retrievers!

If you have 2 poodles and you do the same thing, you will get...poodles!

If, though, you have one Lab and one Poodle, and you breed them, you would get a...

LABRADOODLE!

How does this work with plants?

If you have one particular tomato plant that you keep breeding, say...a Brandywine, you will continuously have Brandywines. If you carefully protect the genetics and don't allow them to mix for somewhere between 50 and 100 years (the jury is still out on this one), you will have an HEIRLOOM variety.

If you mix two different kinds of tomatoes, though, you get a HYBRID.

Why is hybridization done? Usually it's to isolate a desired trait, like early production (Early Girl Tomato), plant reliability (Better Boy Tomato), flavor (Beefsteak tomato), or harvest time consistency (Roma tomato...used in Heinz Catsup).

Is there a problem, then, with hybrids?

If you want to buy plants every year, stick them in the ground, and know that you'll have a fairly successful harvest...no...there is nothing wrong with hybrids!

If, though, you'd like to cut one or two of those Early Girl tomatoes open at the end of the year, pull the seeds out, and dry&save them to plant next year...yes...there would be HUGE proble with hybrids!!!

Why?

Most hybrid veggies that we can get are known as F1 or Filial Generation One. This means that the seed or plant is the result of just one Lab/Poodle mix.

The thing with genetics, though, is that they are SLOW to change. Once the hybrid plant grows and produces seeds, the seeds don't really want to be hybrid any more.

So... if you plant the seeds that you saved from your Early Girl, some of the plants that grow will look like one parent, some will look likethe other parent, some will be quite deformed, and just a small few MIGHT look like Early Girls.

There are also F2 and F3 hybrids. F2s result from breeding two F1 Early Girls. F3s result from breeding 2 F2 Early Girls. This is where the genetics get tricky. If 2 parents are chosen for flavor, an F1 is created. If 2 different parents are chosen for reliability, a second F1 is created. If these two F1s are bread to make an F2, the F2 would have 4 genetic lines. If this process is repeated a second time, another F2 would be created. When both of those F2s are bred, the resulting F3 might be an overall superior plant but would have 8 genetic lines within it and, as the consumers, we could never replicate this if we tried to save the seeds for the following year. This means that our plants that we grew from saved seeds could look REALLY wierd and might not produce all that well.

Some thing important to remember this that ALL plants on Earth are hybrids. Unless you grow a plant in a sealed box, mixing if genetic material WILL happen through pollination. When I said, though, that genetic change happens slow, what I meant was that the genetics of hybrids will eventually stabilize so that seed that is saved will grow well the next year. The only way to stabilize the hybrid, though, is time...lots of time!

The Early Girl has been on the market since about 1975, or for 36 years (generations). Each year, the plant is re-hybridized in order to force its genetics to remain identical.

The Brandywine tomato has been on the market since about 1885, or 126 years (generations). During that time, it has been allowed to adapt to changing conditions and has been allowed to evolve naturally as it aquires additional genetic traits through natural cross-pollination.

Notice that I haven't talked about organic at all.

This is because organic refers to HOW something is grown (as opposed to heirloom and hybrid which refer to WHAT is grown). Either heirloom or hybrid plants can be grown organically...that is - without chemical fertilizers and pesticides.

The question that you need to ask yourself when buying seed/plants is what you are ok with growing.

Hybrids have more uniform flavor and shape and are typically easier to grow. You don't know, though, what plants have been mixed in order to get the hybrid and you won't be able to make a 1-time seed investment - you'll have to buy new seed/plants each year.

Heirlooms can vary in their flavor and shape (I personally like the fact that they are 'more interesting') and are more difficult to grow (read: they need to be loved). For that, though, you can know that the varieties have a long history and you'll be able to save seed and use it again the next year.

Either way, try to make the move to growing organically - the reason that we garden in the first place is to put fewer chemicals into our bodies!

Garlic Survived!!

Last August I planted garlic. Over the weekend, I uncovered it after the long winter...and it survived!!
It looks a little weak but some sun and warmth ought to brighten it right up.

Excited!!!

Late last week I came home to thisand I was super excited!

I ripped open the box and found these 4 sleeves

What was in them?

TopHat Blueberriesare a dwarf variety (everybody knows how much I like tiny things!) that can be grown in pots on a deck or porch.

When I found out about them (they are relatively new), I had to have some.

Here are the little guys out of the protective sleeves

Now...here's the thing with blueberries - they need something special for their soil.

Back in August last year, we talked about growing dirt. One of the things that we didn't get too in-depth about was soil ph. Ph refers to the amount of acid (or lack thereof) in the soil. Most veggies and flowers like a rather neutral soil (i.e an average amount of acid) of 7.0 on the ph scale. Blueberries, on the other hand, like LOTS of acid. They like ph levels of 4.5-5 (yes...the lower the number, the higher the acidity). If this high acidity is not maintained, the plant will not look very healthy and may even die.

So...how do we know what the acidity level is and how do we correct it (i.e. lover the ph)? Test and amend!

First, always start with high quality soil.

Look at how full of organic material that is!

This is actually a mix of organic compost and a heavier soil. I wanted the heaviness to the soil because this is a bush and will move around a lot in the wind. The roots need something heavy to grip into.

So, with this soil ready to go, I needed to test it. At most garden centers, you can pick up a soil test kit for just a couple bucks.

I really only needed the ph test but the nitrogen and phosphorous and soforth were included as well. Follow the directions on the kit and you'll get the ph of your soil in just a few seconds. Mine, as predicted, was a neutral 7.0.

Knowing that blueberries like a ph level 2-2.5 points below this, I needed to lower the ph level by raising the acidity.

I didn't have a peat bog handy to plant my blueberries in (peat is quite acidic) so I used an age-old trick - sulfur!
This stuff is an elemental sulfurwhich means that it is very pure. Other options are ammonium sulfate and aluminum sulfate. They work faster (3-4 months as opposed to almost a year for elemental sulfur) but are harsher on the plants. I'd rather take the long term option and use a temporary fix for the remainder of this year (like Miracle Grow for Acid-Loving Plants).

After following the math on the bag, I knew that I needed about 1.5 lbs to lower the amount of soil that I had by 2 ph points.

There was no doubt that I was working with sulfur - the smell of rotten eggs was everywhere!

Once mixed, though, I was ready top plant. When you pull plants out of the pots that you buy them in, make sure to massage the roots apart just a little if they are root bound like these It helps the plant to grow better.

So... here they are all potted up!

Now, I just have to cross my fingers that they'll grow well!

Rising Food Costs...and what to do about it

I don't think that I've ever done a propaganda post before. I don't think that this is the place for things like this, this, this, this, or many more. This is a gardening blog, after all. Why, then, am I about to talk about some of the propaganda that is floating around?

Because I think that this time, it's real.

A personal interest of mine is the history of societal evolution (I know...I'm weird). By that, I mean that I find the expansion and collapse of societies throughout history fascinating. Specifically, I am interested in the patterns that show why these expansions and collapses happen as well as the patterns of what happens to people living in those societies as the society moves through its lifecycle.

One of the first known societies of humans was Sumeria. Founded in about 5300 bc (or about 7300 years ago) in the modern day Middle East, it grew to encompass vast lands, amassed large amounts of knowledge, and offered its citizens a pretty good life. Then, it collapsed.

Following the Sumerians were (in approximate order) the Babylonians, the Egyptians, the Hittites and Akkadians, the Phonecians, the Greeks, the Romans, the Chineese Han and Tang Dynasties, the Myans, the Spaniards, the Dutch, the French, and the English.

This list, remember, includes the largest civilizations on the planet at the particular time in history and spans approximately 7000 years. Numerous smaller societies existed during this time all over the world and, interesting, also followed the same patterns of expansion and collapse and all had the same milestones.

What are those patterns, you might ask? Think of the expansion as a 10-step program...

First, the society is founded because people want something different than what they are used to. Morale is good.

Second, the society is threatened by those who surround it. Those can be the people whom were broken away from, the people on whose territory the group settled, or both. Morale is low.

Third, the emerging society battles against the threat. If the society wins, the first step has been taken toward being 'the big dog on the block.' Morale is high.

Fourth, the society, in its newfound glory, sees much learning, innovation, economic growth, and standard of living increase. (The negative side of this is a decreased concern for the area's resource inputs (natural resources as well as human capital) which are necessary for growth.) Morale is high.

Fifth, the learning and innovation cause rifts to form within the group as some view themselves as better than others. Morale is low.

Sixth, an internal battle occurs between the different groups. If the differences are settled, the society basically guarantees itself 'the big dog on the block' status. Morale soars.

Seventh, the society, in its newfound comraderie, sees much learning, innovation, economic growth, and standard of living increase. (The negative side of this is a decreased concern for the area's resource inputs (natural resources as well as human capital) which are necessary for growth.) Morale skyrockets.

Eighth, other groups begin to look to the successful society for leadership, protection, economic gain, etc. (Decreased concern for the area's resource inputs (natural resources as well as human capital) remain.) Morale is to the moon!

Ninth, the society begins to help those who ask for it under the guise that economic and peace-keeping advantages are to be had. (Decreased concern for the area's resource inputs (natural resources as well as human capital)grow) Morale is astronomical!

Tenth, the society stretches itself thin in order to maintain that it began in step nine. (Concern for the area's resource inputs (natural resources as well as human capital)grow) is essentially non-existent) Morale begins to decrease slightly.

It is really at step three that that the problems begin. Basically, winning goes to the heads of all of the members in the society and they begin to think, without realizing it, that they are essentially invincible.

The problem is that no one can see that the problems are festering until step ten. At that point, it's too late.

What happens?

First, the cycle begins again for the nations that 'the big dog on the block' has partnered with/is protecting. Basically, others want a piece of 'the good life.' Morale drops more.

Second, this unrest causes hardship for the citizens of 'the big dog on the block' as government tries (understandably) to maintain the status quo. This is marked by rising costs and decreased supply within the economy, a notable separation of the 'haves' and have-nots,' and the feeling that technological and educational advances are reversing. Morale is fades quickly.

Third, 'the big dog on the block' society breaks down. This breakdown causes extreme hardship for the citizens. Life reverts back to a much earlier and lower standard unless other societies offer assistance. If assistance is offered, life still reverts and the standard is lowered but life does not 'crash and burn.' Morale is basically non-existant.

Now...if you track these steps for any of the previously mentioned societies, you would be able to see them quite clearly.

If you track them for the United States, you'd be scared.

1st Plymouth Rock Settlers
2nd Revolutionary War
3rd Revolutionary War
4th Period between Revolutionary and Civil wars
5th Period between Revolutionary and Civil wars
6th Civil War
7th Industrial Revolution, Women's Rights, Civil Rights, etc
8th WWI, WWII, Korean War, Vietnam War, Panama Conflict
9th WWI, WWII, Korean War, Vietnam War, Panama Conflict
10th 1st Gulf War, Bosnia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Lybia, etc

1st China's Expansion, India's Expansion, Tunisia, Lybia, etc

2nd Current US economy - Housing costs up, Fuel costs up, Food Costs up, value of college education in question, widespread political protesting, shrinking middle class/expanding lower class, etc

3rd ??? When Rome fell, the Dark Ages lasted 1000 years! When Spain fell, its
crash-and-burn lasted 200. Brittain was nice enough to be bailed out by the
U.S...but only because we wanted to park a few ships off its coast during WWII.

Countries don't usually receive aid after they collapse. Why?? The new 'big dog on the block' has its own issues to deal with!

See why I'm a little worried!

So...what does this all have to do with a gardening blog?

Growing a little of our own food can help all of us to weather this storm!!

In a time when we hear things like this:

The food supply in the average city in the United States, if it’s not daily renewed, would run out in about 3 days — Lester Brown “The Planet’s Scarcest Resource is Time,” March 22, 2011.

and this:

Cheap food may be a thing of the past in U.S.
Americans spend only about 10% of their annual incomes on food, compared with as much as 70% in other countries, but with prices climbing, some economists wonder whether the nation's abundance of affordable food is history.

The U.S. Labor Department reported that wholesale food prices jumped 3.9% in February over January, the highest monthly increase in 37 years.

Some ingredients [are] up 40%, 50%, 60% over last year," said Ephraim Leibtag, a U.S. Department of Agriculture economist. "When you see wheat prices close to 80% up, that's going to ripple out to the public."

What can you do?

Plant a garden.

Maybe you won't go as far as the Dervaes Family in California, but at least you'll take a step in the right direction and start to help yourself, your family, and the situation at hand.

Speaking of the Dervaes Family, here's their latest progress:

March Harvest Tally252 lbs Produce

Eggs Chicken 91 Duck 160

2011 Tally to Date663 lbs Produce

Eggs Chicken 117 Duck 345

Sorry

I've been hearing that you readers want me to post more often. Sorry Sorry Sorry!!! I'm in the throes of writing a master's thesis and have NO TIME for anything else. Ok...that's not entirely true. I have managed to keep the garden going and I've got a bit of an update for you:

Here is the coldfrema that has been going the longest. There are 15 dwarf peas and 2 dwarf lettuces that are looking pretty good. These were started in January and went out into this frams at the beginning of Febrary

Here's another shot to give you an idea of the size of the lettuce. It should be ready for eating this coming weekend!

Take a look at the thermometer - warm in those frames!!

Here are some more lettuces that are growing nicely and that were seeded at 2-week intervals so that we wouldn't get all of our harvest at the same time!

Here are the last lettuces that I started indoors and that will be transplanted outside. After these, all of my lettuce for the rest of the year will be directly seeded outside.

5 more dwarf peas to go outside. The next round of peas will be started directly outside.

Although I started a little late, here are pots of broccoli that will be transplanted in a couple of weeks

I decided to go with this variety just because

Here's a shot of the back of the seed pack. It's a teaser for the next posting which will talk about what this info on seed packs means...

Sparse Posts but Lots of Garden Activity

Event though it's been a week since the last post, activity in the garden has not slowed in the least. I've been busy starting just a few seeds each week and then, after a couple of weeks indoors, planting them into the coldframes.

One of the casulties of starting very small seeds (like lettuce) is that, due to germination rates, more seeds have to be started than what one actually needs. Often, 2 or three seeds are started in the same pot knowing all the while that only one will actually take.

Sometimes, though, more than one seed makes it!



Typically, the the strongest seedling is saved and the other, weaker plants are pulled out and discarded (known as pricking out).

There is, however, another way...

Enter the widger


This is an age-old and brilliantly simple tool that allows a grower to carefully transfer tiny seedlings from one pot to another. Here's how it works:

Use the tool to open a small hole in a transplant pot


Carefully work the tool around the seedling being sure to leave a little dirt around the roots


While applying light pressure with the tool and a finger, lift the seedling with a little dirt out of the first pot...


...and place it into the hole in the transplant pot



And then there were two!



Be sure to sprinkle a little dirt around the newly transplanted seedling as well as in the hole that it left in the original pot.

Know that movina seedling in this way, if done carefully, will not hurt it. It will feel some shock for a bit, though, so water it carefully and give it a little adjustment time before planting it outside.

This process, while not terribly time consuming for the home gardener, would not be practical for a commercial grower (hence resorting to pulling extra seedlings out). When the home grower is only seeding a few plants at a time, however, this can be a wonderful way to save seeds!

2 weeks past...

I can't believe it's been 2 weeks since I last put something up. I have really been noticing the changes as spring approaches:

A few days ago, a weather reporter mentioned that the average temperature was now 35 degrees!

I can really tell that the days are getting longer. All of the pics in this post were taken at 5:30pm. 6 weeks ago, it was completely dark out at 5:30!

As far as new is concerned, the past two weeks have been filled with both hope and let-down. During a warm spell (almost 50), almost all of the snow melted and I planted one of the coldframes. Then...winter returned :( Here it is outside


but here it is through the coldframe glass



It's hard to see but here are the plants that have been in there for just 2 weeks. They're doing pretty good!



And here are the salad greens that were over-wintered. These were planted last September!



I've been seeding a few plants each week so that I can be sure that the harvest is staggered. Here is three weeks worth



These have been growing for 2 weeks...



They'll go out in a second coldframe next weekend

These have been in for just 1 week and have 2 more weeks to go



It's amazing how little time gardening this way actually uses. Just a few plants at a time really spreads out the work!