Building Soil

mmm there's supposed to be steps in there someplace!

First off, Happy Turkey Day. Today I am remembering Thanksgivings past when I lived 1,000 miles away from any family. But we always had a good holiday. Some of those years everything on the table came from our own place except the flour for the pie crust and any sugar used. The meat, milk, eggs, vegetables, pickles and relishes were all homegrown. There were always some bachelors that didn't have any where to go and we would feed them, along with a young couple who were also far from their family. We traded and bartered with these folks all the time and many of them lent a hand when we built our house. Good times indeed.

Today was a very nice day outside so I did some more clean up work out back. There really is a set of steps in that mess someplace! It's buried in silt and leaves that washed down during the July 4th storm.

Shredded tree prunings with fertilizer sprinkled over.

A big part of what I actually worked on today was to continue shredding up weed trees. I also worked on soil building in a new garden bed right next to the sidewalk. I plan to do an informal espaliered apple tree on the fence with perhaps strawberries or flowers and herbs as an under planting. So I loosened the dirt up and piled tree chips over the area. Then I put on some blood meal for nitrogen to help decompose the wood faster, some potash because the soil has none, and some seaweed meal for trace minerals.  I watered all that in.

Silt and oak leaf compost spread over the top

Then I began mucking out that set of steps. They are buried in fine silt mixed with decomposed desert oak leaves. I tossed it on the growing bed, right over the wood chips.

and mulched with fall leaves.

Then I topped off the bed with a bag of free leaves from a friend. I'll probably pick up a new apple tree around January when they come into the garden centers. By then most of the raw organics I've added should be pretty well decomposed. The next time I'm working over the worm box I'll grab a few and drop them in the bed to help things along.

Since the garden is a bit higher these days than the sidewalk I set some old boards right along it to keep the soil and leaves from washing off onto the sidewalk. I also managed to set the posts and string most of the fence (only about 8 feet). There is one small gap next to the green house that I have to cover and I have to make and hang a gate. I haven't decided what I'm going to make a gate out of. I have several options; a couple of different sorts of wood or a wood frame with wire fence or perhaps a piece of junk art.

Season Review October 31, 2009

Season Review

October 31, 2009 at 2:49 pm

Well since summer seems to be gone, I thought it would be a good idea to think about this past year and make some notes for next year.
It seems that last spring I could have planted more lettuce, radishes, beets & carrots later in the season. This would have helped with the gap in late May. While the kids enjoyed the baby corn, it seems they really wanted regular fresh corn.
I definately need to plant more melons. Plant less small tomatoes and a lot more large ones.  Give the large tomatoes more space, they probably need a good 24 inches each. I only had about 2 doz large tomatoes, could probably use upwards of 75-100. It takes a lot to make sauce, ketchup and other tomato based things.
Twenty to thirty row feet of snap and snow peas are probably enough, since I don’t like the way they are when you freeze them. But we could use 50 or more row feet of shelling peas for freezing little green peas and probably 25 feet or so of the Blueshokker soup peas.
Since the Lima beans didn’t set pods until late September, they could probably go in a lot later than they did.
I need more bird protection, especially in the summer and fall. Not only did I lose a lot of seedlings to the birds, but also a lot of sunflower and popping sorghum seeds.
I need more rat/squirrel/rabbit  control, they got some melons, tomatoes, squash and other things.
I want more peppers of all types. The amount of squash was fine, as we don’t eat much, especially of the summer types.
We would probably eat more spinach type greens, but mustard and turnip greens were a bust at the table.
We could probably eat more dry beans. The amount of green beans might have been too much, they weren’t a big thrill for the kids so I anticipate the 21 pints I canned to be more than enough. Though I will plant less yard long beans and more Kentucky Wonders.
We could use a lot more strawberry plants. Nobody likes Huckleberries, so I will just invest in more blueberry bushes.
We needed a lot more cucumbers. So this year watch out for the aphids and try to get rid of them ASAP.
I really need to work on the succession plantings. Not keeping up lead to a lot of gaps this year.

Tally HO! And in the Kitchen August 1, 2009

Tally HO! And in the Kitchen

August 1, 2009 at 2:20 pm

WOWSERS! The tally for July is in and a big surprise!
Eggs, 102, which is down a bit from previous months. That isn’t really a surprise, since it has been so hot, the hens have been in a bit of a moult, which always lowers production.
alfalfa & comfrey, which I grow for the rabbits and chickens: 4.8 pounds
Produce: 101.75 That is the big surprise. The bulk of the poundage has been potatoes, tomatoes and onions, but includes strawberries, several kinds of beans, swiss chard, tomatillos, peppers, cucumbers, Tromboccino squash, eggplant, basil, apples, watermelon, mesquite beans [which will be ground into a flour when really crispy dry,  high in protien with a sweet lemon taste] and baby corn.
And there is more to come. It has been too hot for the lima beans to set pods, but as soon as it cools off a bit I think we’ll have lots, the cukes and yard long beans are just now hitting their stride. The baby corn is just coming in, to the girls delight [they've been waiting all summer for baby corn and are eating it raw!] The Kabocha squash will probably tote up a lot of poundage, there’s the yellow Moon & Stars and the Jubilee watermelons, the cantaloupes, a couple of kinds of pole beans, peppers and eggplants, to say nothing of the fact that there are still potatoes in their pots.  While it’s been too hot for the large paste tomatoes to set new fruit, once the daytime temps stay under 90, they should set a lot.
So it is quite possible for Aug and Sept to show even more poundage than July.
Each time I go to the grocery store my list gets shorter and shorter, partly due to the produce coming in from the garden. Part of it is because I am making more and more things from scratch at home. For instance milk was very cheap when I went shopping yesterday so I picked up an extra gallon and it is ‘ripening’ right now to make cottage cheese. I have found a really delicious brand of yogurt and while I am also going to begin making my own, especially when milk is cheap, it was on sale too so I got extra. The extra carton is now draining to make ‘yogurt cheese’. This is a soft and creamy spreadable ‘cheese’ to which I will add fresh herbs and eat on crackers.
Peelings, cores and bruised bits of apples sit in a gallon jar becoming vinegar. The cucumber crop is in various jars becoming fermented dill pickles. Scott eats tons of mayo so that is another one I’ll start making at home. He also loves garlic and I have a garlic mayo recipe to try out on him.
I’ve really been disappointed with BBQ sauce and salad dressings since I started really reading labels. Also with ketchup. They all have tons of corn syrup and high fructose corn syrup in them along with chemicals I can’t pronounce.  This makes most of them way too sweet and of course any non organic corn product is likely to be genetically modified, something I don’t want to eat. So I have been experimenting with making my own sauces. One really good one has been garlic & ginger. When I get it tweaked just right I’ll post it here.

Pesky Critters June 17, 2009

Pesky Critters

June 17, 2009 at 1:11 pm

Grrrr!First a mouse was eating the bean and sunflower seeds right out of the soil blocks in the house. Then the birds were pulling up young seedlings outside. Then a rat ate some of the pepper plants to the ground, just as they were blooming. Now a blasted rabbit has been eating up the cantaloupes and blue jays are stealing the tomatoes! Very Very aggravating!
I did get some bird netting over the strawberry bed and finally got a couple more strawberries [the jays steal them before they even turn pink!] Today I’ll be getting some more netting to put over the tomatoes. I’m not sure how to solve the rabbit problem as the melons are growing on the compost and there’s so much junk sitting around up there it would be hard to put up a fence…..

Busy Busy May 30, 2009

Busy Busy

May 30, 2009 at 4:17 pm

Well it’s really busy around here, just not enough hours in a day to keep up with everything!
The Maxi Golt peas were done for, so out they came, to be replaced by Burgandy okra and several inches of sawdust mulch
Some of the Sugar Snap peas come out and are placed by Double Yield cucumbers [thanks! www.freedomseeds.com] and Kentucky Wonder pole beans
Chires Baby Corn seedlings. These are the little baby corns in Chinese cooking, or left to mature they make popcorn.
The strawberry bed is interplanted with purple bush beans.
The Elephant Garlic is blooming. We got almost 5 pounds!
A spell of cool rainy weather gave the Blueshokker peas a new lease on life.
A Grimes Golden apple grows with Mammoth sunflowers, asparagus, Swiss chard, cosmos and nasturtiums.
Super Italian Paste tomatoes in large cages. Despite a wind storm knocking them over and breaking some branches, they are doing ok.
A Lemon Gem marigold. It really does smell and taste of citrus.
On the patio looking down the SW side of the house. The big green bushes in front are some of the potted potatoes.
This sad looking Red Currant tomato nealy drowned. It’s planted in an old ice chest and I didn’t realize the drain plug got closed up. But it’s making a come back and even delivered up our first taste of homegrown tomatoes.
Yard long bean seedlings in a planter by the house. They’ll grow up to shade the laundry room windows.
The trombocino squash is taking off.
On the patio tomatoes grow in old ice chests and peppers in the orange pots.
!st big red tomato, an Imur Prior Beta, it weighed 1 1/2 ounces and tasted delicious.
The Kabocha squash was rudely pruned by a pack rat
The buckwheat is blooming. mmmm buckwheat pancakes, coming up!
The chickens enjoy scratching in their new spot.
A wild sunflower with very tiny seeds volunteers in the raspberry bed.
The Baba raspberries are showing some color.
The new garden area: paths laid, beds made, planted with popping sorghum, quinoa and Bloody Butcher corn.
Potatoes in the ground out front aren’t as big and lush as the potted ones on the patio, but doing ok under 6 inches of sawdust mulch.
Bloody Butcher corn seedlings. The sticks along the edge of the bed are guides to keep small children on the path.
King of the Garden Lima beans are taking off up their trellis.
Pencil pod yellow wax beans await transplanting.
Poppies and wildflowers bloom along the driveway.
A strong smelling sage blooms
WOW! look at those melons taking off.
Yippee! A baby watermelon
The Baby Blue Hubbards are blooming. That compost pile is still hot, 138 degrees!
More wild flowers, poppies, a corn flower and a baby apple along the drive way
A bee buzzes a bright red poppy full of pollen.

Varieties Growing in 2009 May 22, 2009

Varieties Growing in 2009

May 22, 2009 at 2:48 am

Well, I’m getting around to a few things, one is a list of what’s growing this year, this includes things we’ve already harvested and eaten as well as what’s in the ground now. But it doesn’t include things that I will plant in the future. Altogether I count 132 edible varieties. That number will grow somewhat as the rest of the summer planting goes in and later on when I put in the fall and winter crops.

VARIETIES GROWN IN 2009

This is a list of varieties of vegetables, fruits, herbs and edible flowers grown in 2009. Items marked with * are from home grown seed.

VEGETABLES & ANNUAL FRUITS

BEANS
*Apache Purple Pod
King of the Garden Lima
Royalty
Yardlong or Asparagus Beans
BEETS
*Cylindra
*large mixed [yellow, pink, red, white]
CARROTS
Danvers Half Long
Imperator
Purple Dragon
COLE CROPS
Purple Sprouting Broccoli
Purple cauliflower
White cauliflower
CORN
Chires Baby Corn
Bloody Butcher
EGGPLANT
Black Beauty
Neon Hybrid
*Neon F2
GREENS
Lettuce mix
Bloomsdale Long Standing Spinach
*Swiss chard
Mache
Claytonia
*Red Russian Kale
Giant Red Mustard
Pak Choy
NZ spinach
Malabar spinach
Sorrel
HERBS & EDIBLE FLOWERS
Basil, Lettuce leaf
Basil, Spicy Globe
Basil, Thai
Bergamot
*chervil
*Cilantro / coriander
Chives, regular
Chives, garlic
Chaste tree, aka Monk’s pepper, buddleia, summer lilac
Daylilies
Dill
Hollyhocks
Honeysuckle
Lavender
Lilacs
Marigold, Lemon Gem
Marigold, Tangerine Gem
Marigold, Texas Tarragon
Mint, peppermint
Nasturtium, Alaska
Nasturtium, Empress of India
Oregano, Italian
Pansies
Rosemary
Sage, broadleaf
Sage, chaparral
Sage, Pineapple
Tulips
Violas
Violets
MELONS
*Hales Best Jumbo cantaloupe
Blacktail Mountain watermelon
Jubilee watermelon
OKRA
Burgundy
ONION FAMILY
-Leeks- the Student
-Garlic, regular and Elephant
-Onion-
Ebenezer?
Florence Red Bottle
Welsh bunching
Red Bunching
PEAS
*Sugar Snap
Blueshokker
*Dwarf Grey Sugar
*little Marvel
Maxi Golt
Sweet Magnolia
PEPPERS
Ancho Gigantea
Jimmy Nardello
Anaheim
Santa Fe Grande
Sweet Red Bell
Georgia Flame
Alma Paprika
POTATOES
All Blue [Peruvian ?]
Red LaSoda
Yukon Gold
Russet
RADISHES
Easter Egg
SQUASH
Baby Blue Hubbard
Trombocino
Kabocha
Delicata
SWEET POTATOE
Beauregard
TOMATOES
Super Italian Paste
Polish Linquisa
Snow White
Yellow Pear
Yellow Marble
*Princepe Borghese
Imur Prior Beta
TURNIPS
White Globe Purple top
MISCELLANEOUS
Jicama
Purple de Milpa Tomatillo
Ice plant
Honey locust tree
Poppy
PERENNIAL VEGETABLES
Jersey Hybrid Asparagus
Connover’s Colossal Asparagus
Elephant Ears
FRUIT
Sequoia strawberries
Thorn less blackberry
Blackberry
Blueberry
Granny Smith Apple
Anna Apple
Grimes Golden Apple
Summer apple [mislabeled, unknown variety]
Boysenberry
Heritage Raspberry
Baba Raspberry
Santa Rosa Plum
Wild Mexican Elderberry
GRAIN & SEEDS
Buckwheat
Winter wheat
Rye
Popping sorghum
Mammoth Sunflowers
Oil Sunflowers
Sunflowers, mixed kinds & colors
VOLUNTEER/EDIBLE WEEDS
Red root pigweed
Lambs quarters
Chickweed
INEDIBLE BUT OTHERWISE USEFUL PLANTS
Soapwort: roots make cleansing suds good for gentle cleaning of delicate or vintage fabric
Golden bamboo: useful small garden stakes
Madder: produces a long lasting red dye from the roots, yellow/tans from the tops. My chickens love it.
JUST STUFF
Vinca major, drought tolerant ground cover
Virginia creeper, Drought tolerant vine/ground cover
Bearded iris: flowers
Star jasmine: fragrant flowers
Trumpet creeper: draws humming birds