Vegetable Gardening

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

Here is a very inspiring article in the NYTimes about urban food production and food sustainability:
StreetFarmer

And Deeaimond-
Here is an amazing website about an urban family who have transformed their 1/5 acre city lot into a self sufficient food garden of eden:
PathToFreedom
They have also started a large website here freedomgardenswhere you can find groups of all kinds of 'farmers'- even apartment dwellers who raise sprouts in tiny boxes or use only pots or window boxes to grow various food. Don't be discouraged no matter how little space you have!
I find these websites very helpful and full of all kinds of ingenious ideas for growing things in clever ways no matter what our home space is like.

[mudmucker]

Woohoo! Dance. Dance. My cherry tomatoes are turning and will be ripe by late this week. These are the ones I started from seed under the grow lights. I'm woo-hooing because and despite lack of humidity and sun which has just come back, this is early for where I am. Usually I am 2-2.5 weeks behind the rest of the state because of elevation. I started them about 3 weeks earlier than I usually do so when I put them out they already had blossoms.

And the sun is out for the second full day in a row, allowing me to catch up while on vacation and turn 2 of 3 bins of compost. Yay for the sun.

And I'm revelling in my snap peas. I could have the whole garden as snap peas I love them so much

[mudmucker]

Another woohoo!

I just found out my town will have a Farmer's Market on the common every Saturday. I am so excited. Now I don't have to bike 40 miles to the nearest Farmer's Market. I only have to bike 10. And the route goes by a new ice cream stand that just opened up. My little 1400 person town is startin' to be a happenin' place.

[mudmucker]

Hmm, 3 in a row. Not consolidating well.

Gee everyone is showing pictures. Here's a link to some garden photos I already have set up elsewhere. It is stuff from last year but the garden set-up is basically the same for this year. I have expanded some areas for peas and potatoes this year. The narrative is actually for the purposes of communicating with my father to let him know what I've been up to.

Way in the back I have 3, 4'x4'x3' compost bin piles. I have it away from the house so any varmints stay away from the house.

You'll see in one of the photos where I show peas. In the background are some very large boulders. I, by myself because I had no help around, removed each one of those boulders when I was double digging for the raised beds. It took me 1.5 to 2 hours each to remove the largest ones. I had to use a series of boards as leverage as I would incrementally raise the rock out till finally I got it to the surface where I had to get down and use my legs to push the rock away. That was 6 years ago and I wonder if I could still do that now. I decided I had so many boulders that I physically couldn't move - I rolled them over to create a flower garden around the tree.

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

Mudmucker- nice photos, nice garden!
I love that little field of young peas plants. With the semi woodland situation, it seems that grass is not growing very aggressively around your planted plots- is that correct?
How is that little cold frame working out?- have you had it a year now? How'd it do through the cold weather and winter, and did it extend your food growing season?

This morning I saw the very first vegetable seeds start to sprout in my new big garden! So exciting!!! As i had expected, it was radish, bok choy, and turnips that were the first to poke their little heads up through the soil after only three days since sowing the seed.

[tulip]

Bleeker, you're going to have one Fabulous Fall Garden!

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

I don't know, Tulip, I hope so!
But in reality, I don't really know what will happen, since many of the things I have sown are things I've never grown before. And I never even knew what a "Fall garden" was until this summer! I had a wise gardening friend tell me about what Fall gardens are. Before that, I always thought people planted vegetables in the Spring and that was that. Imagine!

I am thinking of this planting as a sort of experimental practice to find out a little about what grows well for me here. Since I was going to put the garden in anyway this summer, might as well throw some seeds in there to see what they do! I had fun working out a chart on how to time them in succession sowings while still giving each veggie enough time to mature before the first frost near the end of Sept.

I'm anxiously awaiting the Great Fence Installation scheduled for 10 days from now. Unfortunately they couldn't make it any earlier, and I can't finish the perimeter paths until the fence is done.
Now if only that wiley ground hog would oblige me by stepping into my Havaheart trap! I just keep catching that same little red squirrel, over and over! (I think the squirrel has figured out that it;'s worth it to get trapped, have a big feast on the bait, and then be set free again.)

[mudmucker]

I love that little field of young peas plants. With the semi woodland situation, it seems that grass is not growing very aggressively around your planted plots- is that correct?
How is that little cold frame working out?- have you had it a year now? How'd it do through the cold weather and winter, and did it extend your food growing season?

Most of my property is wooded and extremely rocky so the soil is thin and not very fertile. I have to really amend the soil every year so I have large compost piles I keep going. The grass doesn't grow well there but I was also double digging in the area for the cold frame and tromping around alot.

The cold frame is not too bad and does extend the season by a couple of months. I find it's the light levels that become too poor for any real growing as well. So it may not allow for much growing but is able to maintain what you have as temps get lower. I basically keep herbs in there plus some late season cold weather crops. The poly can often keep the temp 15 d warmer. It has kept the inside warm enough for temps in the high 20's, but once the real cold weather hits, like consecutive days in the low 20's things start to fade so it all depends on the year. Last year I was picking fresh herbs for Christmas dinner. Originally, I used to have old single pane windows set on haybales which I believe kept things really warm on the colder part of the year (picked herbs and carrots until January one year) but it was harder to control in the beginning Spring and I ended up frying some of the plants. Also I had the haybale one going successfully through February until back to back 18 inch snowstorms hit and I couldn't get out there in time and the glass cracked.

I don't know, Tulip, I hope so!
But in reality, I don't really know what will happen, since many of the things I have sown are things I've never grown before. And I never even knew what a "Fall garden" was until this summer! I had a wise gardening friend tell me about what Fall gardens are. Before that, I always thought people planted vegetables in the Spring and that was that. Imagine!

But if this is new to you the fun is in the experimenting and discovery.

I've tried to plant a fall garden but I find at our latitudes, by the time early September rolls around the light levels are so poor my garden just didn't get any further. It was the poor light more than temperature because we've had some pretty mild autumn. Two years ago I picked my last tomato on Halloween. So I'm interested in what is successful in your fall garden, which will likely be the quick maturing varieties. Also it looks like your garden is in full sun so that may help. I'm wondering since some of your stuff will be coming up in late July and August that some of it will bolt during the dogs day we're likely to get. I have placed my garden in the most strategic position (other than being smack in the middle) where it can get the most sun at this time of year - on the east side where it gets southern and western sun. I wanted to leave room to allow for a future sunroom where the patio is and to allow a vehicle throught. Unfortunately because I have so many trees I am not able to get a full 8 hours of sun. I don't want to cut any trees.

[smilingcat]

Hi Lisa and mudmucker,

There is a book you may want to read. It's called "The Winter Harvest Handbook" by Eliot Coleman. His farming technique is Deep-organic in unheated greenhouse.

His farmhouse is located in Harborside, Maine. And if he can grow vegetables year round, you probably could too.

I just got the book from Amazon so its in the queue for reading.

The pictures, wow Lisa your garden is fabulous and wonderful location. so much space.

And mudmucker. WOW is all I can think of. What a beautiful place you have and you are so much more organized than we are. The raised bed, the light table, everything.

Another book I will be reading is more about zen of farming. "one straw revolution" Should be interesting.

We keep finding gigaenormous vegetables in our garden. Its time to start brown bagging them and leaving them in unsuspecting cars. nawww we wouldn't do that.

[OakLeaf]

I love Eliot Coleman!

My fence keeps getting taller and uglier and the deer keep coming in.

Gotta pick those zucchini while they're 6". Yeah, I know they're best fresh picked and you don't want to pick those 6" ones to sit in your fridge for three days. Pick them now if you don't want ball bats.

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

Yes I have been looking at that winter harvest book on Amazon- looks cool. But there will be NO greenhouse here in the immediate future. This garden is costing us a fortune to have dug, topsoiled, and fenced. DH is now making plans for some needed other house repairs such as foundation wall repair and new driveway....so greenhouse ideas (even mini ones) cannot even be considered for a couple of years.
I'm just thrilled to get this wonderful fenced garden laid out as it is! It's a real dream garden for me.
What we might do is actually make a few cold frames for fun- DH has even been talking about ideas for cold frames- so I know he may be interested in helping do that.

Mudmucker, I can see that you do get limited sun there- that would definitely limit your growing season. I can totally understand your not wanting to cut trees down though.

I realize from looking at the photos of my new garden that the camera is somewhat distorting size. The cars to the right look like they are right next to the garden and they are dwarfed by the garden....but in reality the cars are much further away, down a slope that you don't see in the photo. Same with the shed in the background- it's further away than it looks. Thus the garden looks strangely huge next to the cars and the shed. Our lot is about 1/3 of an acre total- bigger than some, smaller than others.
It's a nice roomy garden- but hardly monstrous. Already I've run out of planting space in my planning daydreams!

Today I cooked Swiss chard from the old little garden. We had broiled salmon for dinner, and I stir fried the chard in a bit of sesame oil and sprinkled with a seasoning mix of sesame seeds & 'sea vegetables' (meaning seaweed i suppose!). It was oriental tasting and very good with the salmon. It's amazing how twenty gigantic chard leaves will cook down in no time to two normal servings of greens. I love the little crunchy chopped bright red and yellow chard stems in amongst the dark green leaves.

Oakleaf- it sounds like maybe an electric fence might be something worth considering for your situation? Perhaps just two wires near the top? I don't know much about it, but seems like an idea to look into?

[OakLeaf]

I have an electric fence at the bottom, for the groundhogs, rabbits and raccoons.

Electrifying the top would be useless. Ever see birds sitting on an electric fence strand? They're not grounded, and neither is a deer 8 feet off the ground.

Anyway, I couldn't electrify the top without making the whole thing sturdier and more permanent... and I'm sure that doing that would keep the deer out without electrification. I could even do it with 10' PVC pipe the same as I have now, except I'd have to spring for larger diameter pipe that would be more rigid. I've just been balking at the price, which is obviously stupid.

[smilingcat]

Hi Lisa,

Have you considered making a cheap hoop house. Take several wooden bender boards and arch them over into a semi circle of sort. And nail bender boards together to form a semi rigid frame.

Make several of these semi-circles and screw/nail the semi-circle/hoop onto stakes in the ground. It doesn't have to be that big. only 4' - 5' wide on the ground.

Next take a clear painters plastic sheet (drop cloth) 10'x20' and stape 2"x2"x10' wooden pole along the edge. 10' width of the plastic gets stapled along the length of the pole.

Drape the plastic over the hoop then staple another 2"x2"x10' pole along the bottom edge of the plastic. The 2"x2" wooden pole on both sides helps to keep the plastic firmly in place without blowing around.

Cut off excess plastic. Use the excess to cover up the both ends of the opening.

In the winter time, I read that you can make a hot bed by burying thick layer of horse manure to compost (18 inch layer). cover it with 6" of sand/soil and let it cook. When the soil temperature drops back down to 90F place your potted plants and flats on the sand. it will keep it warm for weeks. Paraphrasing from "The Backyard Homestead", Carleen Madigan ed. copyright 2009. I also like this book. detailed description is on page 34. And if you place the cheap hoop with plastic drop "cloth" over the hot bed, I expect that you could be growing herbs in dead of winter.

Hoops can be reused for several season I imagine. And the $8.00 plastic, well I think it'll be good for only one winter.

--------------

suggested plants for winter growing according to winter harvest handbook. SPINACH. I also read that spinach will produce sugar to help protect itself against the cold so the spinach grown in colder climate will be much sweeter and more tender. Other suggestions I read are lettuce and carrots. Kale and the like will stop producing new leaves when it gets cold so not so good.

BTW, our spinach was wiped out so we are trying a new batch freshly picked baby spinach is soo soo good. yummo.

[mudmucker]

I'll check out that book by Eliot Coleman. I have some other bibles I use that I bought in the 80's, so I have heard of the "hot frame" with the hot unripe horse manure. Interestingly, there is a barn that boards horses a quarter mile down the road but I've never made an attempt to get any.

But sigh, my lack of full sun in many parts of the property is the biggest drawback. I still end up having a decent garden though. Although, I pretty much get full sun after the leaves drop.

For those of you with deer problems, have you ever heard of the water scarecrow? It has a sensor for up to around 35 feet. Obviously it may not be suitable for some setup situations but it might be a viable option for someone. It's fairly costly though but I've seen them for around $65. I have no idea how effective they really are.

[OakLeaf]

First green beans of the season. They're delicious, but I'm just so bummed I have no one to share them with.

I knew early on in this relationship that DH's family of origin would always come first, and to be fair, this particular crisis is real (though probably avoidable) - I'd probably be with him if it hadn't started while he was already out of town and closer to them than to me.

The only good thing is, having this happen just as the harvest starts coming in is forcing me to eat better. Normally when he's out of town it's frozen dinners for me (Amy's Kitchen, okay, but still). Right now, no way am I going to let these vegetables go to waste.