Garden therapy - A backyard garden update (December)

I have some sad news... after the freeze we had on Friday night, my tomato plants totally bit the dust, kicked the can, shriveled up and died with mushy green tomatoes still on the vine. Well, poo. You can see the carnage next to the trellis in the photo. In fact, you can even see some of the greenish-brown tomatoes near the ground to the right. At least I managed to pick a dozen green tomatoes to ripen in the kitchen, before the freeze. Still, I'm morning their loss as I was SO looking forward to tomato-pesto sandwiches...

In better news, the rest of the garden seems to have survived. Sure, the red potato plants look bad - you can see what was once the plants at the front of the bed in the second photo - yeah, I know. It looks bad, but I have it on good authority that the potatoes below should be just find until we're ready to harvest them next year.

Ok, so what's going on in the rest of the garden?

Harvesting

We're currently harvesting broccoli, lettuce, snow peas, sage, radishes, and green onions.

Planting

We've added more radishes, 3 variety of lettuce, kohlrabi, and cabbage in the sections where we pulled up summer/fall crops (green peppers, green beans, and basil) in late November.

Somewhere in between

About half of the garden lies somewhere in between planting and harvesting - the kohlrabi, carrots, bulb onions, leaf lettuce, and 8 more broccoli plants are still maturing.

Plans for the Future

Actually, the only plans I have for the near future is to get more snow peas planted next to the trellis where I pulled out the dead tomato plants. And, of course, to replant any seeds that don't come up from the last planting effort.

Garden therapy continues to work its charm on me. I love witnessing the beautiful process from seed to harvest, having learned a lot in the last 14 months (was it really just 14 months ago that I planted my first bed?). The best part is that the learning process never ends as I work with the earth to provide fresh, healthy produce to share with friends and family. And who doesn't like good food?

Prepping for Frost - 2009

Well, it's finally that time of year - the time when at long last, Central Texas has to actually deal with the possibility of frost. Believe it or not, until today, I still had green beans, green peppers, and basil growing in the yard. All three were ripped out today to make way for another round of winter planting. You can see the green bean and green pepper plants made a nice addition to my compost pile.

Of course, I harvested every last nibble from all the plants. The basil became vegan pesto and is tucked away in the freezer. The green beans were picked and refrigerated, ready to be steamed perhaps later this weekend. The green peppers, well. There were 144 of them. Yeah. Not all of them were large - in fact, most were on the medium to small side, but since they were just going to end up in the compost bin, we harvested them all. Most ended up in one of three gallon-size freezer bags (washed, cored, and halved) to be stored until I need them for soups or stir fries later in the winter. And another half-gallon were prepped and are sitting in the fridge for me to use next week. Pshew. I've finally seen the last this of year's peppers.

We still have 6 tomato plants in the yard, but seeing that all the tomatoes are still green and we haven't harvested a single fruit from it, we're going to cover them on the colder nights to make them last as long as we can. Come on 'maters. Ripen, will ya?

Needless to say, with an extra 53 square feet of growing space cleared (and rain coming in with the cool front tomorrow), I went ahead and replanted the areas we harvested and hoed with another round of lettuces (3 varieties), cabbage, and radishes.

So, the garden is planted and the harvest has been stored. Bring on old man winter. We're ready!

Enjoying the Harvest

I'm feeling a little under the weather this morning, so other than a quick bike ride to the library downtown, I'm sticking close to home for some much needed rest.

I did manage to harvest an amazing amount of produce from the backyard over the last few days (most of it this morning). I brought in 7 cups of basil (which was quickly turned into pesto and is now tucked into the freezer) over the weekend. And this morning? Check this out...

This first photo (though it's hard to gage depth) is a total of 47 green peppers. Yikes! Even I can't eat 47 green peppers before more are ready to be harvested (I probably have another 50-75 that aren't quite large enough to harvest), plus, I already had about a dozen in the fridge that I harvested over the weekend. Needless to say, I had to do something.

About 30 of them were sliced in half, cored, and tucked into ziplock bags to freeze until I need them for soups or stir-fries long after the plants have been composted. The rest are tucked in the fridge for meals this week and for anyone who happens to stop by for some (I've already called my Dad and let him know there are plenty peppers for the taking).

Then there are the green beans. I don't know if you can tell how many are in the photo. It's about a pound (maybe a little more), and I'm harvesting that many every 2 days. That's not true. I'm harvesting slightly more than what's in the photo. Some of them don't quite make it to the house. What can I say? I LOVE fresh green beans!

Last, but certainly not least, I harvested several handfuls of sage. Now that the weather is cooling down, I'm drinking multiple cups of hot sage tea every day and this will keep me in hot tea for the better part of two weeks (maybe...).

Mmmm. There's nothing like hot tea and a good book, especially when you're not feeling so well. Guess what I'll be doing today...

Have a great week everyone!

Garden therapy - A backyard garden update (November)

It's been another exciting month in the backyard garden. Let's get right to it!

HARVESTING

I pulled out the last of the sweet potatoes, which have now been cured and have found a temporary home in the coat closet (the coolest place in the house). I swear, there must be 100 pounds of them.

I'm also still harvesting a couple dozen green peppers every week, green onions, leaf lettuce, sage, basil, and now green beans too - about a handful a day!

PLANTING

I did quite a bit of planting this month too, primarily in Beds 4 and 7 (both foot-deep beds).

Bed 4 now has carrots, radishes, and 1015 onions. Bed 7 has been planted entirely in red and sweet yellow (1015) onions. I planted some of the onions in empty pots in the orchard, too.

Yeah, I kinda overdid it with the onions. I think I have about 150 of them in the ground...

But this means that finally, all 250 square feet of garden is planted. Thirteen months after my first bed was built, I've made a veggie garden empire! Mwahahahaha! No seriously, other than fruit, nuts, and rice, I'm pretty much eating out of my backyard. Awesome!

SOMEWHERE IN BETWEEN

Of course, there is tons of garden space that is in that not-ready-to-harvest-but-not-just-planted stage. The tomato plants are finally setting and I'm seeing tomatoes pop up here and there - we'll see how many we get before the first frost...

The broccoli, cabbage, kohlrabi, and red potatoes are coming along beautifully. The snow peas are growing, but slowly. Many didn't come up, so I've replanted several times. As far as bugs, I've had to fight off cabbage loopers for the last month, but everything seems to have survived.

We're still trying to get a handle on how much of each veggie we need to plant, but we're learning as we go. Last spring it was obvious we planted WAY too many greens and not near enough green beans. This fall, we're doing perfect on the greens and have a wonderful steady supply of green beans, although I may plant a full bed of them come spring.

Maybe more broccoli next year too, and a few less green pepper plants. But hey, it's all a learning experience and I'm having a blast. And who knows? Maybe by my December report, I'll have you drooling over my bushels of tomatoes. Prepare to drool!

Photo 1 - green beans and cabbage

Photo 2 - red potatoes, carrots, kohlrabi

Photo 3 - tomato plants (can you see the baby tomato in the pic?)

Sprouts - It just doesn't get any easier than this

Last weekend, a visit from a friend brought me something called a "sprout screen." Now I knew growing sprouts was super easy, but I'd somehow never tried it. Sprout screen in hand, however, it took all of 15 seconds to grab a mason jar, a mostly empty package of seeds (I tried broccoli first since I had them on hand), and start playing.

Day 1 - Put your seeds in a mason jar and secure the screen and band. Add water and rinse the seeds a couple times, then allow the seeds to soak in a couple inches of water overnight.

Days 2-5+ - Rinse the seeds twice (morning and evening), letting the water drain out. Leave on the kitchen windowsill at an upside-down angle to let any excess moisture run out.

Enjoy watching the little seedlings grow (enjoy them more for dinner...)

Ok. It really is as easy as it sounds. I got the sprout screen on Saturday and by Wednesday, I was eating broccoli sprouts. I don't know what I was expecting - just that they'd taste like sprouts, but they tasted like broccoli. Cool!

Of course, it didn't take long for me to figure out what to do with them. I picked a beautiful head of leaf lettuce out of the garden, added some sliced cucumber, carrot, and yellow squash (farmers' market), and a little green onion and green pepper (backyard garden), then topped it with a blend of olive oil (farmer's market) and my homemade basil flavored hummus (basil from a friend's garden. Um, yeah! Sprouts are awesome!

Needless to say, I immediately picked up something new to try - lentils. We'll see how it goes. I just love new adventures...

Have you grown your own sprouts before? What kind of seeds/beans/grains did you use? Which are your favorites?

Composting - Real Simple article

A friend passed along a great article from Real Simple magazine (reprinted on the CNN website) on composting: Here's the dirt on how to compost. Check it out!

DIY - Sweet Potatoes

It's October and finally, after 4 full months, the cycle is complete. I actually grew sweet potatoes, from making my own slips to curing and storing them for the winter. Being a newbie, it took a lot of coaching from a seasoned garden professional, but I did it and you can too!

Step 1: Making slips

I started with organic sweet potatoes from the grocery. Next year, I'll have saved a few of this year's potatoes, but you have to start somewhere. Organic is definitely the way to go if you have to buy your potatoes. Not just because it's better for your health, but from what I understand, conventional sweet potatoes are sprayed with something to make them NOT sprout and you definitely want them to sprout. That's the whole point...

Ok. Now, you take the potatoes and put them in a jar or cup. If it won't wedge into the cup and hold itself up about halfway, you'll need to stick the potatoes with toothpicks to keep it standing up. Put the jars in a windowsill where they'll get plenty of light. It'll take a few weeks, but eventually, you'll see eyes develop, and then those eyes will grow and grow and grow! When the eyes are about 4-6 inches long, just twist them off at the base and you have 1 slip. You'll get multiple slips per potato. I used three potatoes and got 14 slips out of them before washing them and eating the potatoes for dinner :)

Note: Keep an eye on the jars. You may need to add water from time to time to keep the bottom of the potato submerged.

Step 2: Rooting the slips

Once you have your slips (and keep in mind you don't have to do all the slips at the same time), place them either in another jar of water or in very wet play sand. I tried both methods and they worked equally well, but I enjoyed the jar method better because I could actually watch the roots grow. Keep the sand wet, or if you're just using water, make sure the level of water in the jar stays adequate to cover the growing roots. The jars of water can stay on the window sill. I put the slips rooted in sand out in the yard in the sun. You'll need about 2 weeks of root growth before your ready to plant.

Step 3: Planting the slips

Planting is the easiest step of all. To prep the beds, I used the same soil I use for the other veggies, except I added a bag of play sand to each sweet potato bed because sweet potatoes like sandy soil. It turns out, this also makes them easier to harvest because the soil doesn't get compacted. Sounds good to me!

I planted 6-8 slips per 4x1o foot bed (and a full 1 foot deep). Each slip produces lots of potatoes, as you will soon see. Plant them as deep as you can leaving only a little of the slip sticking out the top of the dirt.

Step 4: Caring for the plants

Over the course of the next four months, the slips will turn into vining behemoths. I had to clip them every few weeks to keep them from taking over the yard. Turns out, you can eat them, if you like...

I kept the beds pretty well watered, watering them the same as I did the rest of the garden. It was so hot here in Texas that the leaves were very limp in the hottest part of the day - definitely an indication they needed water. Otherwise, the leaves and very perky. In the last few weeks of growth, I watered far less (once every few days) as you want the soil to be dry when you harvest them.

Step 5: Harvesting the potatoes

My sweet potatoes got so big, they started coming up out of the dirt, so I had no trouble identifying where the original plant was placed. The key here is to be careful and try to not damage on nick the potatoes as you extract them. Gently, dig around the potatoes with your hands, removing excess dirt. Some of the potatoes were small, others were huge, measuring the full 1 foot depth of the bed. Bring it on!

Now, this is something I didn't know. There are potatoes, but there are also lots of more undeveloped sweet potato-y roots chunks. These smaller pieces, I went ahead and washed and put in the fridge for stir fries. The ones that actually look like potatoes? Just set them aside. Do not wash them or let them get wet!

Step 6: Curing the potatoes

This step doesn't seem to be an exact science. I mean, you can eat the potatoes immediately, for sure, but if you let them sit out in the hot, humid air, they actually get sweeter and will be preserved for winter. Now, I had A LOT of potatoes per plant and preserving them was really the only way to go.

For at least 10 days, set the potatoes in a place where it's warm and humid. My back porch did the trick. I first laid newspaper down, placed the potatoes on top of the paper, covered them with my compost sifter (so no critter could carry them off) and then covered the sifter with a tarp - just in case it rained one night and I didn't want to rescue potatoes at 3:00 in the morning. Call me lazy. But hey, it also helped to keep the air around the potatoes warm and moist.

Step 7: Storing the potatoes

After you've allowed them to sit on the porch for

a good 10 days to two weeks, gently brush the dirt off with your hands (remember, you don't want to wash them until you use them), and place them in a box (I used a rubbermaid tub) with newspaper both underneath and on top. I placed mine in our coat closet which is pretty much the coolest darkest place in the house. I understand they keep best in 60 degree temps, but our internal house temp is as close as I can get since I don't have a root cellar and you definitely don't want to put them in the fridge. Now, they SHOULD keep all winter.

Cool, huh? That's all I did. Now we'll see how well they keep in that closet, but then, I may eat them all long before winter is over. The fact of the matter, though, is if I can do it, anyone can do it. And not only was it easy, it's darn good eating!

Garden therapy - A backyard garden update (October)

I can't even begin to tell you how much the garden has grown in the past month since we did the last Garden Therapy post. I'm just going to have to show you. Go ahead, take a moment and check out last month's photos. I'll wait....

Ok. Now check THIS out!

Bed 1: The broccoli we planted as seedlings have exploded with growth and you can also see the broccoli we planted from seed. We also added the 4 tomato plants along the back row. They were pretty tiny when we first put them in the ground, and after waiting the obligatory 2 weeks for them to root, they've taken off. I swear they grow an inch every time I check on them. I have pesto hanging out in the freezer just waiting for tomato sandwiches. I hope it won't be long.

As you can see, the 2 sage plants, put in last spring are as healthy as ever. When the veg*n group came last Friday, I was generous with the sage, needing to keep in under control. Sage tea, anyone?

Bed 2: Here's another bed showing dynamic growth. Last month, those pepper plants were looking a little skinny, now, they're full and gorgeous with plenty of peppers sprinkled amongst the leaves.

Also, last month, we had just planted the lettuce, spinach, and snow peas in this bed. You can see they are still small, but definitely coming up for air.

The snow peas have had some trouble growing and I had to replant once, but we're finally seeing some progress.

The spinach is struggling, but it did that last year too. Could be the seeds, so I might try a different variety in the spring.

Bed 3: What was once a sweet potato bed had been completely harvested. In it's place, we put in red potatoes, carrots, and purple kohlrabi. These seeds just went in over the weekend, so it'll be awhile before we see any evidence of growth, but this will be my first crop of all three, so I'm looking forward to observing the whole process.

Bed 4: This bed was planted a month after the first sweet potato bed, so these last 8 sweet potato plants are still in place and will be harvested in the next few weeks. As soon as they're up out of the ground, more carrots will go in as well as bulb onions.

I still can't believe how many sweet potatoes I've harvested just from 6 plants so far, this second bed, and her 8 additional plants are going to get us through the winter with plenty in our bellies!

Bed 5: Here's another bed where we're seeing a lot of change in the last month. The green pepper plants have grown to gargantuan proportions (with 1-2 dozen peppers harvested each week).

The green onions have taken off and, in fact, multiplied so quickly, I've harvested some of the multiples, only to plant them in two more squares in this bed. We're just swimming in these goodies.

You may notice that the basil (which was behind the peppers) has been pulled. I had allowed it to bolt (go to seed) so that it would attract the bees. We have bees aplenty now, but the wind was carrying the basil seed all over the garden, giving me basil seedlings in just about every bed in the garden - thousands of them. I gave up with weeding them out and just pulled the plants, allowing some of the seedlings to grow in the areas I wanted them. I still haven't completely thinned the area out and there are still a couple hundred basil seedlings to pull, but I'll get to it eventually. A little weeding each day...

This is the only bed that still had room for more plants. I haven't decided whether I want more lettuce or green beans. Maybe I'll do both!

Bed 6: Last month, bed 6 had just been planted with green beans and cabbage, with nothing visible above the soil line. Not any longer. The bed is covered in gorgeous plants! The cabbage a still a little hard to see in this photo, but there's there. You can't miss those green beans though. I'm sure I'll see blooms before long.

Bed 7: Still full of compost, this is the only bed not planted. We'll use the compost to supplement the other beds and wait to plant this on in the spring. Honestly, even if it were in production now, I'm not sure what I'd plant there. We so much of everything as it is...

"Orchard:" As you may remember, we lost three of the four apple trees in our extreme summer. Since I won't have new apple trees until the spring, I used two of the pots for the last two tomato plants. I'm curious to see whether they do better in the deep pots or the shallow raised bed. Time will tell!

You can see the apple tree in between the two tomato plants (on the right). It's healthy and happy, just lonely for its apple tree buddies. Hang on, little one!

We also have our gogi berry plants (to the left). They are growing very long and can't support their own weight, so they hang over the side of the pots . I need to call the nursery and find out if I should cut them back or stake them. Surely they can't bear the weight of fruit...

So that's it! That's our garden as of October 2009. A beauty, isn't it? We're harvesting sweet potatoes, sage, green onions, and peppers like crazy and so much more is on the way. The brutal summer, even hotter and drier than usual, has turned into a cool and rainy fall. Perfect for growth and my little seed babies are just loving it. Of course, I'm loving eating it!

Catch ya next time!

Veg*n Community - A visit at SGF

A great big SGF Welcome! to everyone visiting from "Vision-Voice-Veg*n for the Brazos Valley" whose monthly meeting was held at the home of yours truly!

I gave the grand tour of my backyard garden, spoke on how I got started, organic methods I've tried, and the magic of making your own compost. Everyone seemed really interested and eagerly asked questions as we walked the yard. We were even able to catch a glimpse at some of the sweet potatoes that have gotten so big, they're peeking above the surface of the dirt (peek-a-boo)!

But the garden tour and talk were only half of the evening's delight. Everyone brought a dish (and lucky me, they ended up ALL being vegan, except some sliced cheese) to share with the group. There were chips with vegan dip, a variety of fresh and dried fruits, my homemade whole wheat rolls, a vegetable curry dish, and lots more. I had a little of almost everything and loved it (and I'm going to keep loving it as many of the leftovers ended up in my fridge). Woohoo!

We had a great time (Kelsey too - you might notice in the photo she's on the porch to the right licking my plate while I'm not paying attention...)

Thanks to everyone who came. I really enjoyed having you! We talked about a lot of things. Here are some links to the resources we talked about and, of course, you're welcome to email me with questions or subscribe to this blog where I do a monthly Garden Therapy post (click here to look at past gardening posts).

Now, on to the resource links:

Brazos County Vegetable Planting Chart

Square Foot Gardening Website (this book is available at the BCS library or at your favorite book store)

Several of you also indicated interest in the Brazos Locavores (field trip to farms, orchards, and dairies near BCS). Check out our website for the latest.

Have a great weekend everyone. Happy Gardening!

Supplementing my compost with Starbucks?

I've heard coffee grounds were great for the compost bin as well as directly on the garden, but not being a coffee drinker myself, I figured we'd just have to rely on other discarded goodies to get that rich beautiful soil.

Now maybe I'm the only one who didn't know this, but yesterday, Chile (of Chile Chews) included a segment on getting free coffee grounds from Starbucks. Really? Immediately, I was on the phone to the Starbucks just a few blocks from my house. I wasn't expecting much since it's just a counter and a couple tables inside the Kroger grocery store. But they said, YES! In fact, they did have a coffee ground bin for gardeners and that I was welcome to stop by. Five minutes later, I was at the Starbucks counter, eager and just a little bit sweaty (geez, what happened to the cooler September temperatures???).

Anyway, they had 3 grocery sacks full just waiting for the next gardener to come along. I was going to leave some for the next person, but the attendant encouraged me to take all 3. They'd just make more, after all.

Next time, I'll be sure to take my bike, because three grocery sacks full of coffee grounds is a little heavy, even for the short 5 minute walk home. But I made it!

After a little research, I decided to put the bulk of the three bags in the compost bin, which adds nitrogen to the compost as well as assists in keeping the bin hot, thus speeding up the composting process. Sweet! I did save just a little of the grounds out to sprinkle at the base of one of the tomato plants just to see if it makes any difference. Stay tuned...

Ok. Seriously. How cool is this? I really think it's neat that you can pick up coffee grounds from from any Starbucks in North America. Not only are they reducing waste by giving those grounds an opportunity to fertilize the Earth (and out of the landfill), but gardeners can get this resource for free. Very cool! Thanks for sharing, Chile!

So how about all you out there... Have you used coffee grounds in your compost bin or directly in the garden? Have you noticed a difference in results? If you apply it directly to the garden, on what plants does it work best? How often do you apply?

For more information on the Starbucks "Grounds for your Garden" as well as nutrient content of the grounds and general tips, visit the Starbucks website here.

Happy Gardening!

Garden therapy - A backyard garden update (September)

With a drop in temperatures of about 10 degrees (high now in the 90's instead of over 100 every single blasted day... ), we were finally able to do some serious work in the garden. Up until this weekend, we only had 5 of the 7 beds plants and they were less than half full as it was. Let's just say that 10 straight weeks of 100 degree temperatures aren't all that conducive to keeping anything alive.

But with some rain last week bringing in cooler air, it was time to get busy in the garden. So Sunday morning, Dave and I got up early to plant our fall garden. Here's how it looks...

Bed 1: Until Sunday morning, sage was the only thing growing in this bed. The lambs-quarter was doing wonderfully, but being a weed, it's roots were strangling everything else in the bed. So I transplanted it elsewhere so that I could have my raised bed back for other plants. The roots literally extended to all 16 square feet of available space. I had to be careful to keep from killing the sage. Pshew!

I have four tomato plants ready to go in next to the hog panel, but we're holding off planting for a week or so hoping that the spider mites (formerly of Bed 2) won't spread to the new plants. Cross your fingers... The rest of the bed is planted in broccoli (6 transplants for a bit of a head start and 4 from seed).

Bed 2: The tomato plants we had in this bed kicked the bucket. The spider mites got them. So we tore them out, bagged them, and will send them to the city compost facility where they'll fry in the heat. Sorry little mites... As I mentioned in Bed 1, we'll replant new tomato plants elsewhere in the garden (Bed 1 and extra pots in "the orchard.")

The hog panels were moved forward into the bed a few inches so that I could plant snow peas seeds on either side of it and use it as a trellis. The second row (8 squares) is planted in lettuce. The third and fourth rows are a combination of spinach seed and existing green pepper plants from last Spring (one of the few things that survived the heat!).

Beds 3 &4: Something else that braved the heat all summer were the sweet potatoes. Harvest has begun (one potato at a time) and both full beds will be dug up in late September/early October when the potatoes will be cured for storage over the winter. Once we have the space free, we'll plant carrots, bulb onions, kohlrabi, and red potatoes in these two beds. For a look at these beds, full to the brim with sweet potato vines, check out the photo of Bed 6. They are in the background...

Bed 5: This is the only bed not currently full. I'm saving some of the extra space for a crop of green beans that I'll plant at the end of the month (to stagger the fall harvest). Otherwise, I have lots of established basil and green pepper plants from the Spring and added 5 squares of green onions to the one existing square of onions. The basil has long since bolted, but being a wonderful bee attractant, I'm hoping it'll assist in the pollination of the peppers and tomatoes. The peppers, which up until about 1-1/2 months ago had produced NOTHING, are now covered in peppers. Was it the bolted basil or the pot ash I added to the base of each plant? I have no idea, I'm just thrilled to have peppers!

Bed 6: Days ago, this bed was completely empty. Today, we'll it looks empty, but far from it. It's full of cabbage and green beans seeds.

Bed 7: Well, Bed 7 is full of compost and I fear is too "hot" to plant for now. We're using this bed as storage for compost to be added to other beds until it's safe to plant seeds (maybe in the spring).

The Orchard (kind of...): Ok. We originally had an orchard. We do still have one of the four apple trees (the company will send us three more in the spring to replace them). The heat was just too much, but we've now moved them to the side of the house where they get sun, but not full Texas sun.

The gogi berry bushes, which I thought had bit the dust, rose from the dead after a heavy rain last week. Honestly, I was about to pull them to add to the compost bin when I noticed dozens of little green leaves. They're alive!

Unfortunately, that's all that's left of the orchard for now, so we've decided to make use of the extra pots - 2 tomato plants will go into the larger pots and the transplanted behemoth of a lambs-quarter plant from Bed 1 was transplanted to one of the smaller pots. I swear, you can't kill that thing! It looked droopy for all of a day and now it's thriving.

By next month, there should be plenty to see as all those seeds will become beautiful plants in the coming weeks. We got a bit of a late start with the incessant heat, but before long, we'll be just covered in food. Sounds yummy, no?

Bryan Compost Facility - A gardening adventure

Seeing that at this point, I can hardly move my body off the couch to do anything else, I thought I would blog about today's adventure...

My dad called a few days ago to let us know we could borrow his truck this weekend if we needed it to haul dirt (I had one raised bed that had not yet been filled). So Dave drove me over to my Dad's shop this morning to visit for a few minutes and pick up one of the work trucks. I was a little nervous about driving something so large (I don't drive often and when I do it's a Prius), but I soon felt perfectly comfortable for the easy ride out to our city's compost facility.

I've never been to the Bryan Compost Facility before, but I hear about it all the time. You can get wonderful compost for only $28 a ton or wood chips for absolutely free (I like free). And how can you go wrong with a slogan like "From Greenwaste to Greener Gardens." I want a greener garden...

With some mulch needed for the flower beds in the front of the house, we decided to take advantage of having a truck at our disposal and planned on getting both compost (for the back) and wood chips (for the front). Thus, two trips to the facility were planned.

Needing a little coaching on how everything worked, I checked in with one of employees at the office. Turns out, I was right where I needed to be. They weighed the truck on the way in and directed me around to the absolutely humongous piles of wood chips and compost just beyond the office.

In a matter of seconds, they had me all loaded up and ready to weigh back in. Well, that was easy! A few more moments, $20, and .7 tons of compost later, I was ready for the real work - unloading.

Despite rain over the last 4 days, the compost was still pretty light and once parked in my driveway, it was easy to shovel it from the truck to the wheelbarrow. I couldn't even begin to tell you how many loads I transferred from the truck to the raised beds in the back, but I filled an 8x10x1 foot raised bed as well as topped off 5 of the other 6 beds with fresh compost. Had I not been alone, perhaps I'd have a photo to share with you of what I looked like after hauling all that compost. Let me tell you. It wasn't pretty. But those beds sure are!

I slipped inside at 12:30 for a quick bowl of rice and veggies (and LOTS of water) before heading out for round two at the compost facility.

The same gentleman waited on me this second time and waved me on through to get my free wood chips. Did I mention I like free? I figured we didn't need a whole truck load of wood chips, but I had the truck and well, they were free, so they filled me up! By 1:30, I was back at home and ready for more unloading.

The wood chips were a little more difficult to get out of the truck so I had to use a pitchfork for most of the transfer. Of course this was made more difficult by the fact that it had started raining. Within no time, I was again covered from head to toe in dirt and sweat. Ok. It was more like mud at this point, but long since having given up the idea that it was important to look good, I enjoyed the cool rain on my skin, refreshing me from the hot Texas sun.

By 3:00, the front flower bed was finished. Looks good, no? I managed to clean out my dad's truck and get it moved to the street. I tried to clean off the driveway, but the rain we got made it kinda muddy and at this point, after 5 straight hours of physical labor, my arms and legs were threatening to detach. So I gave in and went inside with plans to finish cleaning the driveway later this weekend.

When I came in the front door, I realized that in the process of refilling my water bottle (and eating lunch), I had made a muddy mess of the floors. Well, crap! But first things first - a shower. And for the first time in my life, I actually got into the shower will all my clothes still on. Honestly, I've never had to do that before, but caked in mud, I saw no alternative.

With the last few ounces of energy, I managed to vacuum the floor, clean my shoes, start a load of laundry (including some VERY dirty clothes), and mop up some of the mud I'd traipsed through the house.

That's it. I have nothing left. I'm going to sit here on the couch and not move. Hopefully, someone will come home this evening to feed me 'cause I ain't goin' nowhere (but at least the yard looks awesome!)...

P.S. I forgot to mention - I guess I inhaled too much compost because my snot is black. Yeah. I think that may be taking gardening too far...

Composting - Our Garden Goes Full Circle

With some serious planting scheduled for the first of next month, it was high time to dig into that compost pile to pull out enough dark, beautiful soil to replenish our raised beds.

Yesterday was hot and humid, but I managed to spend the 1-1/2 hours needed to get the job done. Thankfully, the compost pile gets turned at the same time killing two birds with one stone (am I breaking some vegan protocol by saying that?).

Anyway, contrary to my assumptions about composting when I first moved into our house 4 years ago, composting is so easy! As you can probably tell from the photo above, there are two spots in the yard reserved for compost, one beside the other. When I'm ready to turn the compost (or turn AND sift), I just pull up that fencing, move it to the second spot and start tossing all those decomposing goodies into the new fenced area.

Thanks to my hubby and his sifter-building skills, sifting is easy and doesn't take much more

time. Rather than tossing it directly from one pile into the next, I first toss the compost debris into the sifter a couple pitchfork scoops at a time, letting the readied soil fall through and dumping the larger debris into the fenced compost area. Easy cheesy!

Truly, the cool part of all this is that much of what's in this compost are plant and food scraps that were grown right here in our backyard garden. That means all those veggies we grew in our garden are now composted and again replenishing the beds with their nutrients - full circle, the way nature intended.

By the time I was done, I had about 3/4 of a wheelbarrow full of compost. Isn't that gorgeous soil? I was too exhausted yesterday to apply it to the beds right away, so I let the birds have their fill of the bugs crawling around in it. But today, you can bet I'll be giving our raised beds a very special treat.

Be Green in Bryan Offering Free Workshops

The Be Green In Bryan team is offering free Green Living workshops from now through December. The workshops are as follows:

August 24 - Rainwater Harvesting 101

September 15 - Worm Composting 101

October 5 - Greening Your Home 101

November 5 - Home Energy Efficiency 101

December 1 - Green Living 101

All workshops will be held at the Bryan Library (201 East 26th Street) from 7-8PM.

For more information, email Mary Strauss or download a PDF of the signup sheet.

See you there!

Garden therapy - A backyard garden update (August)

This is my very first summer garden. Yeah, can you believe I started that first 4x4 garden last October? Now we're up to 250 square feet!

As you can probably guess, summer gardens in Texas can be tricky. When others' tomatoes are starting to ripen, we're completely out of season. In fact, I tried to do some planting in the weeks before I went on holiday and just about everything died. It's just too darn hot.

Of course, other things are flourishing like weeds - the sweet potatoes, the greens (which are more of a cool weather veggie), and the lambs-quarter are all out of control (the lambs-quarter you can see in the above photo, way at the back. It looks like a big bush). And although I lost three of my 8 indeterminate tomato plants, the other 5 (having been cut back in early July) are now growing again and even blooming (although no fruit will set in this heat). Even the gogi berries are looking beautiful, although we've lost all but one of the apple trees.

Obviously, with it still so hot and no hope of it letting up for at least another month, I won't be planting for the fall until September. But we still have plenty of goodies to show off in the meantime.

Bed 1: Nothing but the sage and the lambs-quarter were doing well, so I ripped everything else out and am waiting for fall planting (probably green beans, cucumber, and spaghetti squash). But the plants there are still doing well. The sage, I've been harvesting and drying in the dehydrator for hot tea this winter. The lambs-quarter, I'm eating up as fast as I can. Anyone want some? I have plenty to share...

Bed 2: I've already pulled out the 3 determinant tomato plants who have run their cycle. I cut all the indeterminants back in July and as you can see, I lost 3 of them but the other 5 are beautiful! The green peppers in the front two rows are starting to grow up nicely and I'm planning on adding some "mexican heather" to this bed. We're desperate for bees (I think that's why the peppers didn't produce and the cucumbers produced poorly this spring) and the heather is supposed to be great for this climate, do well year-round, and are a great bee-attracter. Sold!

Beds 3 and 4: Of course these are our sweet potato beds. Looking healthy, no? At least we know they grow well in the summer. I just hope the potatoes are as healthy down in that soil as the leaves up top. If so, we're in for a wonderful winter of potato goodness - fried sweet potatoes, sweet potato pie...

Bed 5: I tried to put in green beans over the last month, but everything just dies. The sun and heat are charring them, no matter how much we water, so we've given up for now. But still alive and well are the green peppers (they're wonderfully healthy, but I sorely need some pollination), chard, basil, and green onions. (that's bed 5 in the foreground of the very first photo, up top).

Bed 6: Again, I was trying to grown green beans and black beans in this bed, but just like Bed 5, everything gets burnt by the sun. Maybe next month. In the meantime, I still have half the bed full of chard and collards. I just can't seem to eat this stuff fast enough. Anyone want to offer to help? I've tried the neighbors, but they aren't chard fans.

The Orchard: My poor orchard. Three of the four apple trees haven't made it, but I think we've learned a few lessons along the way and when the supplier replaces them next spring, I have no doubt they'll do better. In the meantime, we have a few bare spots where the trees were. The gogi berries, though, are doing wonderfully and I was happy to see, when I returned from vacation, that they had doubled in size. That just HAS to be a good sign, right?

Pshew! I have a lot of work ahead of me come September when I'll try to plant all those empty spaces in the garden, and a lot of eating to get done on the veggies that are flourishing now. Hope you're having luck in your gardens, wherever you may be. It's been a tough summer, but there's still nothing like heading out back to select the ingredients for a meal.

What are you growing this summer? Is the weather cooperating in your neck of the woods?

Garden therapy - A backyard garden update (July)

Another amazing month in garden therapy has passed and our backyard garden is as dynamic as ever. We've been harvesting, supplementing the soil with molasses and new compost, and planting all month long as 6 of the raised beds are in a state of constant rotation. Here's the scoop:

Bed 1 (4 x 4 shallow) - The cucumbers plants are producing, but not much; and we only have one spaghetti squash on the vine. In talking with people at the market, I'm wondering if I don't have a pollination problem, so Dave and I are talking about planting some flowers in the back yard to attract bees. Other than that, this bed is doing well. We harvested many green beans from this bed and have planted new seeds. The sage is harvested routinely and I've been drying it in the dehydrator so I'll have plenty over the winter for tea. And the lambs-quarter, we'll it's gone crazy because I'm just not harvesting often enough. The next month, hopefully will change that as I really need to get its size under control...

Bed 2 (4 x 8 shallow) - With temps in the 100's for the last couple weeks, all 12 tomato plants were looking pretty shabby. I pulled up 3 of the 4 determinant plants once I had picked the last of their fruit. And I've started trimming the 8 indeterminate plants so that they'll grow and produce again in the fall. Of course, I was interrupted earlier this week in my pruning when I sliced into my pinky finger with the scissors I was using to trim the dead leaves. Dave confiscated my scissors for awhile, but he finally gave me another tool to finish the job. There are also small green pepper plants in this bed. The are finally starting to grow (I was wondering there for awhile). Perhaps the tomatoes were just demanding too much water. Who knows? I'm learning as I go here...

Bed 3 (4 x 10 deep) - The sweet potatoes have SERIOUSLY taken over! Six slips were originally planted in this bed. As the vines grew, I buried them every 6 inches or so to create a new rooted plant. Now just over one month into the planting, the bed is covered in vines. Something tells me these sweet potatoes and healthy and happy...

And as it turns out, one of the commenters on a previous post mentioned that we can eat these lovely leaves. I've not tried them yet, but with so many vines now jumping out into the yard, it won't be long!

Bed 4 (4 x 10 deep) - Another full bed of sweet potatoes. These have only been planted for two weeks so it's not quite as expansive. I also need to pack more dirt into the bed (it's only about half full right now, but I'll add more dirt as the plants grow taller). Thankfully, this isn't a problem for growing potatoes.

Bed 5 (4 x 9 shallow) - I've been harvesting green beans, basil, and chard out of this bed constantly. The basil is dried for the winter. Any green bean plants that were producing though, have since ceased production so we have about 30 seedlings in various states of growth. This is also the bed where most of my green peppers plants are. They look gorgeous, but they just aren't producing. Again, I'm thinking this is a pollination problem. Other ideas?

Bed 6 (4 x 10 shallow) - This has by far been the most productive bed because it was full of leafy greens: chard, collards, and lettuce. Of course, with it being over 100 degrees outside EVERY SINGLE DAY, they've pretty much all bolted and the bed is now in a state of transition. About every 10 days, I pull up 8 squares worth of plants for meals and am replacing them with green beans and black beans. In the next month, however, I'm also going to try banana peppers and corn in this bed.

Bed 7 (4 x 10 deep) - Still nothing in this bed (not even dirt), but I'm hoping to fill it in the next month so that I can plant red potatoes there this fall. Yeah, we love potatoes at the SGF house.

The Orchard - We have two new additions to our little orchard: two Goji berry plants. What? Yeah, that was my first reaction when my Dad brought them over. What are goji berries? Well, with any luck, we are going to find out! I planted them just this past weekend next to our apple trees and am looking forward to harvesting lots of fruit in the years to come.

So, other than slicing my finger open, the garden has proved to be wonderfully therapeutic - taking part in our food from seed to plate, building strength and muscle as I turn and sift our compost, and the view from our breakfast table, as I take in the entire garden, is breath-taking.

In the meantime, I'm learning all about how much a plant produces (less greens and more green beans this fall, for sure!), how to make my own sweet potato slips (a full post on this soon), and how to find joy in pulling weeds. Can it get any more zen than that?

Gardening classes offered in BCS

The Brazos County Master Gardeners are offering a series of classes over the next few months:

1. Fall Vegetable Gardening - July 16
2. Composting - Aug 20
3. Home Fruit Production - Oct 15

All three classes will be held at the Bryan Public Library from 6:30-8:30 and are $10 each or $20 for all three if you sign up before July 10.

There's still time to pre-register so check out the BCMG website for more details. I'll be at all three classes. Hope to see you there!

Dr. Doug Welsh's Top 10 Gardening Mistakes

Local garden celebrity (not to mention author, radio host, professor of Horticulture, and Master Gardener Coordinator) Dr. Doug Welsh spoke at the Bryan Library last night on a topic I just could not afford to miss: Top 10 Gardening Mistakes.

Needless to say, the room was packed and lucky for me, I had planned to arrive super early and just lounge in the library until it was time for the lecture to begin. Welsh is a charismatic speaker and with almost three decades of gardening experience, eager to help the rest of us newbies out. The talk was primarily geared towards lawn landscaping, but a few of us veggie growers asked some great questions too. Thank you, Dr. Welsh!

And now, without further ado, Dr. Doug Welsh's Top 10 Gardening Mistakes...

1. Overwatering - Forget what the programmable watering systems tell you. Watering 20 minutes, 3 times a week is NOT what's best for your lawn. Water when your lawn needs it and when it needs it, water all at one time (giving it approximately 1" of water per week). For veggie gardens, his recommendation is... using a drip irrigation system. If you don't have one, get one! And use it every other day for 3 hours.
2. Over-fertilizing - Our ground here does not need phosphorus. It's nitrogen that makes things happen (although phosphorous' one substantial use is making those beautiful 1015 onions so wonderfully big). If you're going to fertilize, fertilize with nitrogen.
3. Misusing pesticides - More is NOT better. Neem oil is a great organic pesticide for soft-bodied insects. Use spinosad for hard-bodied insects.
4. Improperly identifying a plant problem - ask nurseries, master gardeners, or locals can even get plants tested by the diagnostic team at TAMU. Often times it's not disease that is affecting a plant, but stress/trauma from wind, temperatures, or water fluctuations.
5. Using plants that are unproductive and/or poorly adapted to your area - Keep in mind what you can grow in your area. Some things grow well here, others don't. Don't rely exclusively on what seed manufacturers say. A seed company in Illinois saying that a particular plant is heat resistant may not have taken into consideration Texas heat. Ask around. Of course, the old adage is (since land here really sucks), "if you can grow it here at TAMU, you can grow it ANYWHERE!"
6. Planting the right plant in the wrong place - keep in mind the ultimate size of your plant when placing them in the yard or garden.
7. Failing to prepare the soil before planting - Again, the soil here in Central Texas is awful, containing less than 1% organic matter. Supplement! For veggie gardening, always add organic matter anytime you replant or rotate a crop.
8. Failing to use mulch - Mulched beds use 25% less water and gives you better weed control. You can even mulch your veggie gardens! And the Bryan compost facility offers it for free in bulk. Just ask for chipper material.
9. Planting at the wrong time - Follow area guidelines, but use a little common sense too. The freeze here this past spring surprised everyone (including the pecan trees, which are rumored to never be wrong).
10. Failing to think long-term - Think about what you envision for your garden in the long run, the environmental impacts, upkeep, etc.

Not on the list, but covered in follow-up questions, I also found out that if a fruit tree tries to produce within the first 3 years, you should knock the fruit off to prevent it from growing. This will give a greater yield later on.

I hope this helped you out as much as it helped me. If nothing else, it'll make us think about how to make our gardens better and more efficient. For you locals, you can find more information about local gardening, as well as upcoming garden classes, at the Brazos Master Gardener website.

Have a great weekend!

Bird Wars

The first 4 of my 13 tomato plants were planted in early March. I've waited months to enjoy the epitome of the garden experience - picking a ripe red tomato and sinking my teeth into its juicy flesh. Enter birds.

As soon as the first tomatoes started to ripen - started, mind you, not fully ripened - the bird were ready, lurking on a neighbor's tree just waiting to scoop down for a little tomato-love. I tried to let them ripen on the vine as long as possible, but inevitably, I'd try to leave a tomato on for just a few more hours just to discover during the next inspection that it had been half pecked. Honestly, I don't mind sharing, but the birds were in no mood to share and pecked anything that looked like it might start to ripen. Disappointed that I'd been denied this gardener's pleasure, I started picking the tomatoes yellowish-green and letting them ripen in a paper bag on the counter.

That's when I started to do a little research and let me tell you, the internet is full of 101 ways to scare birds away: scarecrows, pie pans blowing in the wind, wind-chimes, aluminum foil, bird netting, leaving water out for the birds (what they really want from the tomato is moisture), leaving bird food out, hanging red Christmas bulbs before tomatoes ripen (to fool the birds into thinking these red orb things suck)...

I tried all the free options available to me like the aluminum foil, the wind-chimes, and setting out a water dish for the birds. It did slow them down, kinda... but it certainly didn't stop them. Day after day, I was pulling in pecked tomatoes that would have to be eaten without ripening.

That's when Dave wisely suggested we break down and spend a little money for bird netting. It took awhile to figure out where they keep the stuff in the hardware store (in the pest section - hmm. Apropos, no?). It was only $6 roll so we decided to give it a try. We spent all of five minutes on Sunday draping the netting and staking the corners over the 2 x 8 foot bed containing 12 of the 13 tomato plants. The results? Well, those are some mighty fine looking tomatoes still ripening on the vine, aren't they? The war may not be over, but I finally won the battle.