The July Garden Update and Lessons Already Learned

Wow, this heat wave we've been having will seriously make you not want to do anything besides lay around and catch up on past seasons of Sons of Anarchy and The Office.

It's been 100+ degrees here for what feels like weeks.  A cool front's supposed to move in tonight and drop the temps into the low 90s tomorrow, then into the 80s the rest of the week.   Please, please, please let that happen!

Anyway, it's about time for another garden update.   And look what the garden is yielding!

All this heat has necessitated watering every evening, but the garden's doing well nonetheless.

Well, I should say parts of the garden are doing well.

First, the good news.

There are lots of green beans coming in, as evidenced by the photo above.  I beer-battered and fried the first harvest and good lawd was that a delicious way to enjoy fresh green beans.  We scarfed all those fried green beans, so alas, no photo.  But I used this Food Network recipe and Newcastle Brown Ale to make a simple and delicious batter.  What green beans we don't eat will be frozen and put up. 

Also doing well are the cucumbers.  I planted four pickling cucumber seedlings in May and when we returned from our trip to Florida in mid-June, they had grown like bananas!

I'm harvesting an average of 4-5 cucumbers a day and have been making copious amounts of refrigerator dill pickles.  (There's dill in the garden too, so it's quite convenient to clip some of that while I'm out picking cukes!)  There are pickle spears, and chips, and the first batch will be ready to eat later this month. 

The heirloom cucumbers planted from seed are a little behind the seedling cukes, but growing well nonetheless and we've harvested quite a few of them as well.

Also growing nicely are the crookneck squash and zucchini, and there are several little watermelons that are thriving.  The tomatoes are fair--nothing's turned red yet, but there are quite a few green ones on the vine.

Not doing so well?

The two beds nearest to the woods.  They started off so promisingly, but have completely crapped out since mid-June.  Everything is stunted or dead at this point.  I need to just pull it all out and start planting for the fall here because they are a lost cause.

The corn is tasseled, but also a bit stunted.  Nevermind that most of it didn't come up, likely due to the chickens.

On the whole, these garden beds don't get as much sunlight as they ideally should because our yard is surrounded by mature woods.  I've been eyeing the side yard, observing how much sun it receives, and I'm thinking I will need to build some beds in that area for next season as it receives light earlier in the day, and continues to do so well into the late afternoon.

That means more work for me, but I'm thinking of minimizing the labor by trying the lasagna method to establish the beds. We shall see...

This little epiphany also leads to the next lesson if I want to increase how much food I grow: I absolutely must start seeds indoors next year.  I was very much behind the eight-ball on that this year, and most of the plants are maturing later because of my tardiness in planning the garden.

The final lesson I've learned is that if I want my chickens to free range--which I do because they're happier when not penned, plus I enjoy catching glimpses of them, and their eggs are more nutrient-laden when they're allowed to forage and spend time in the sunshine--that means I'm going to have to bite the bullet and put up a fence around the garden beds.

Chickens actually NOT in the beds for once...these three young hens were after a bug and running all over the place before I captured this photo

Besides thieving seeds, the twerps ladies also enjoy taking dirt baths in the garden beds. Even though I routinely chase them out, they inevitably return for the cooling relief of the dirt.  They've damaged a number of plants and also helped themselves to the leaves of many a seedling. So, next year, a fence will be in order.

Despite that negative-sounding end note, I will say, I'm truly pleased with how certain parts of the garden are doing.  It's quite a little miracle to know that most of this garden started with seeds sown directly in the soil--and now many of those seeds are lush, large plants giving my family food, albeit in small amounts.

"Like a big mountain, a small garden stimulates, restores, and delights us, 

just as it poses challenges, promotes mastery, provides exercise and relieves monotony."
- Winifred Gallagher

How does your garden grow this summer?

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A Garden Update

The square foot garden I planted in April through very early May is alive and kicking!

Granted, not everything has come up in every square: I planted an entire bed of corn (50 squares) and as you'll see below, maybe a third of that corn came up.  I'm thinking the free-range hens had something to do with that...

However, I'm quite pleased with the way things are coming along!  Here are a few photos I took the first of the month of the garden in progress.

One of the first beds planted and it's full of peas, green beans, squash, zucchini, watermelon and canteloupe plants.

Another of the early beds: tomatoes, that started as seedlings, are in the far-left row.  I originally had one plant per square foot, then realized the plants would be too crowded.  So, I transplanted half of them to another bed and left one empty square between each tomato plant.  They've grown significantly in 6 weeks time!  Also in this bed are some tomato plants grown from seed, as well as more squash and cucumbers.

The pilfered corn bed.   I really ought to plant more corn (I had put in two kernels per square) but I think it's probably too late.  Will know next year to put chicken wire up around this bed!

Happy green beans and peas in this bed

And look, actual pea pods!

This is one of the more recently planted beds.  As you can tell, I didn't mark off square foot blocks.  This is about 4' by 4' and in it is four bell pepper seedlings and four pickling cucumber plants. 

Though this doesn't pertain to the vegetable garden, we're also finally starting work on landscaping around the house, too!

Here are the beds marked and ready to be tilled and amended with a topsoil compost mix.  The beds will eventually be filled with a cottage garden of shrubbery, flowering bushes, and and flowering perennials and annuals.

The side of the house

Continuing around the wrap-around porch.  The beds have curvy perimeters and are meant to have a relaxed form.

And the mondo bed--it extends a good 12 feet from the house at the furthest point--which will help to disguise the heating and a/c unit at the side.  The two windows on the front of the house look into the master bedroom and the plan is to have a variety of flowering bushes here.

What's growing in your yard or garden right now?

-Erin

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More Sq. Ft. Gardening: What I Planted and Resources for Your Own Garden

Before I finish the square foot gardening post I started last week, I want to take a quick minute to remember Lucille, seen here on the blog last summer.

She died today from injuries sustained in a possum attack last night.  Poor, sweet girl.  She's the only hen we've lost to a predator in the nearly two years we've kept chickens.  My husband--ever the avenger--made swiss cheese out of dispatched the possum so our other ladies won't be in any further danger.

Such is life in the country.

R.I.P., Lu. :(

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

So, back to square foot gardening.  Last week, I cleaned out two raised beds in our garden, added vermiculite to the preexisting compost/topsoil mix, and created grids with baling twine.

I then planted 10 heirloom tomato seedlings (4 Pink Brandywine and 6 Cherokee Purple) that my mom gave me.

In the rest of the squares of the two beds, my little helper and I planted these seeds:

• Yellow Crookneck Summer Squash
• Jalapeno Peppers
• Black Beauty Zucchini
• Cocozelle Zucchini
• Sugar Snap Peas
• Spacemaster Cucumbers
• Blue Lake Bush Beans
• Sugar Baby Watermelons
• Detroit Dark Red Beets
• Hearts of Gold Canteloupe
• Chadwick Cherry Tomatoes
• Chives

Planting peas

One more seed to plant in that square!

For information on how many seeds to plant per square, check out Plant Spacing for a Square Foot Garden. All New Square Foot Gardening does not have an exhaustive list of plant types, so this Web site was a great additional resource.

And I also found this spreadsheet on companion planting quite helpful as I laid out the grids and determined where to place seeds.

So that I don't forget anything, as I'm very prone to do, I'm keeping a notebook with diagrams of each bed, noting what and how many seeds were planted in each square, and when they were planted. 

Speaking of the seeds, all were from Southern Exposure Seed Exchange of Mineral, VA and Sow True Seed of Asheville, NC.  Most are organic and heirloom varieties native to the Southeast U.S.  Just trying to keep it local/regional!

If you're looking for vermiculite, it can be hard to come by as it's not generally carried in big box stores. I found this handy-dandy spreadsheet on My Square Foot Gardening that lists retailers by state.  For folks in North Carolina, Fifth Season Gardening (locations in Carrboro, Charlotte, Greensboro, and Raleigh) carries vermiculite, as do a few other specialty gardening businesses in eastern and western NC.

I'll be cleaning out the mustard greens this week, and converting those beds to sq. ft. beds.  I need to pick up some corn and okra seeds, and probably a few more varieties of herbs, to add some diversity to the garden. And with all the rain we've had lately, hopefully we'll be seeing some sprouts in the coming weeks!

-Erin

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Square Foot Gardening: The Work-With-What-You-Have Edition

Spring arrived early here, much like in the rest of the country, and I've had gardening on my mind ever since!

We still have lettuce, spinach, mustard greens (ick--can't stand 'em!), onions, and garlic in the raised beds in our backyard leftover from fall plantings.  And until earlier this week, we also had two beds full of kale, which had bolted earlier in the month.

My husband usually takes the lead on our garden, but this year he said he just wasn't feeling it, so since I most certainly want a summer garden, it was up to me to get that ball rolling!

Jason takes a more relaxed approach to planting the garden, usually broadcasting seeds into the beds, waiting to see what comes up, then thinning and tending to the plants.

Well, I needed a bit more structure--or more like someone telling me what do--so I read Mel Bartholomew's All New Square Foot Gardening.  I quickly realized how simple, straightforward, and logical the system is, and decided that's how I'd plant and grow our summer garden.

Now, the basic tenets of SFG are:
-forgetting all you've been taught about planting gardens in rows--that systems works for producing food on a very large scale; home gardens needn't take up nearly as much space
-building raised beds in dimensions of 4 feet (ex: 4'x4' {the ideal} or 4'x8', etc.)
-filling the beds with a mix of compost, top soil, and vermiculite to minimize weeds and ensure quality soil
-making grids to go on top of the beds to delineate each square foot
-planting seeds and/or seedlings densely in each square foot block
-maximizing the amount of food grown in a small area of square footage

Mel gives guidelines on how many plants to grow in a given square foot, based on the mature plant size.  For instance, a single tomato plant encompasses 1 sq. ft., while 9 beets can be planted in the same amount of space.

He also states that by using the SFG system, one adult can harvest enough food from three 4'x4' beds (48 sq. ft.) to eat a salad and have dinner vegetables every day of the growing season, plus have enough extra produce to preserve and put up as well.  Pretty impressive, huh? 
 
Our large beds--of which there are 8--are 5'x10' and constructed of 2x12s, so they were workable enough for the SFG system. 

Since building them in 2010, we originally filled them with a compost/topsoil mix, and then amended the beds with more of the same mix last year, plus leaves, grass clippings, and some horse manure compost from a neighbor.

For this project, I decided to start small(ish) as Mel recommends and convert the two beds of bolted kale to square foot garden beds.  As the spinach and lettuces and greens wilt with the heat, I'll clean out those beds and convert some of them to the SFG system.  I may leave a few beds alone and use them for more sprawling plants like watermelon and pumpkins since we have the space, though you can technically grow them semi-vertically with the SFG system!

Anway, here's one of the beds of kale.

I ripped all that out:

Took a 4 cu. ft. bag of vermiculite:

  And emptied the contents into the bed and worked it into the soil:

The vermiculite prevents the soil from compacting and allows for better drainage

Now, the official way to do the SFG grid is to use wood lathe and make a permanent grid to lay on top of the raised bed.  After looking into several options at the local home improvement stores, we'd either have to spend a bundle on wood lathe long enough to span the 10' beds, or buy a table saw and rip 2x4s into thin strips of lathe, which isn't exactly the safest thing to do.

(This is where if you make your beds the recommended 4'x4' dimension, you can get lathe in 4' lengths for a cheap price.  Plus, a 4'x4' bed is easy for most people to reach in from all sides--another reason why Mel recommends those magic dimensions.)

Anyway, in the name of thrift (and instant gratification), I went against Mel's advice of building the wood grids. I already had 5,000 feet of baling twine and plenty of screws on hand.  And even if I have to replace the twine next year, I figure I'd rather use what I already have first than spend any money.   Plus, I could make a grid of twine without any assistance and get it done quickly.

So I marked off each foot around the perimeters of the beds and placed the screws: 

Then I took lengths of twine and tied them off, first along the 10 ft. lengths:

And then across:

The OCD/anal retentive part of me is totally loving all those neat little grids!

And tah-dah, Square Foot Gardening beds!  

My son and I planted the beds today, but it's dinner time now so I'll be back in the next few days to give a quick rundown of what we've planted so far.

Do you use the SFG method?  Have you been working in your garden yet?  What have you planted?

-Erin

Planning for 2012

As a big list-maker, I've been working this week on three lists of projects and goals I'd like to accomplish in 2012.   The lists are centered around: crafting, the house, and homesteading. 

Resolutions, what?  I think I'll just stick to projects this year! 

Crafting Projects
After painting a bunch of furniture last year, I'd like to switch gears this year and focus on sewing projects, both with the machine and by hand.   I'm sure I'll still paint here and there, but I'd love to venture beyond making pillow covers and curtains, and try sewing clothes for a change of pace.

Perhaps a pair of pajama bottoms for the winter?  This dress would be adorable to make for the summer!  And based on the tutorial, a novice sewer (like moi) can make it...

{via}

And something I can't wait to get started on is embroidery.  After discovering Cornflower Creations on Etsy this fall, I've become a wee bit obsessed with vintage-style embroidery.  Jacklyn, of Cornflower Creations, has so many adorable embroidered tea towels that I would love to buy all of them, but I just about died when I saw her redwork chicken towel.  And so it had to go in the Etsy shopping cart and come home to live in my kitchen.

{Cornflower Creations}

There's something about sitting with a needle, thread, and hoop of fabric, stitching away serenely. And you can easily turn embroidery into art by placing it in a hoop and hanging it up!

The other area of sewing I'd like to try in 2012 is quilting.  Now, there's no way I can possibly sew an entire quilt--or even a baby quilt.  But a potholder seems very attainable. :)  And I do need some more, so why not?

Some quilted potholder inspiration...

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Other crafty projects I'd like to try in 2012:
-big bunting for my front and side porches this spring
-fabric-wrapped wreaths for the seasons
-clay tags

And of course, there will be many beautiful, creative projects online that I'll have to try, but this list at least gets me started and helps keep me focused.  Or as focused as I can be...


Around-the-House Projects
Priority numero uno: landscape the exterior of the house!

It's been more than four years since we finished building and moved in.  We have a nice yard, but between all the other house and homesteading projects, we've had no money, no energy, or a combination thereof, to tackle this.

I'd love to plant a variety of English rose bushes, lilac, hydrangea, wisteria, and jasmine.  Anything that flowers and smells beautiful is what I'm going for. And also low-growing plants to go around the perimeter of the wrap-around porch. I should mention here that I have no experience with any of this, so I have a feeling I'll be spending a lot of time on the Internet doing research. :)   Here are few photos I pinned for inspiration:

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And the other big project:  finish the office/craft room!  Or as I currently call it, the crap room.  This is the space where I pile (I can't honestly say 'store' because there is about zero organization happening) my crafting supplies, as well as keep the candles for the Etsy shop.  I'd share a photo but it's difficult to walk into the room at the moment...it's that bad.

Anyway, I have a glorious vision in my head of making this a Cath Kidston/Tanya Whelan-themed, cheerful space.  The room has great potential with lots of natural light, white beadboard walls, and cute furniture by way of this desk and this armoire.  I just need to pull it all together by building a work table (I'm thinking planked farmhouse style) for the sewing machine and figuring out how the heck to organize all the crap.  If I can just get a system in place, this room will be awesome, and I'll have a happy, inspiring place to craft.  Wish me luck!

In between these two big projects, there are also the very unsexy tasks of:
-fixing the clothesline so I can actually hang laundry to dry this spring and summer
-re-doing the compost pile, which has been terribly neglected
-painting the porch floor of our new storage building
-coming up with a DIY recycling station for our laundry room
 
Homesteading Projects
After raising and slaughtering pigs this year--and yes, I realize I never wrote about this even though I'd planned on it (story of this blog...)--my husband and I have decided to forgo another porcine project for 2012 since we have enough pork in the freezer to last us well into 2013!

Instead, we're looking at adding a few more hens to the flock as some of the gals are getting older and not laying as frequently.  And since we'll no doubt grow weary of eating pork at some point, we're hoping to raise meat chickens with friends who are also homesteading on a small scale.

I don't know if we'll have time to do this, but I'd love to establish a honeybee hive in 2012 on our property. One of the fellows who helped us slaughter the pigs in late December is a hobby apiarist and after talking to him, my interest in keeping a couple of hives was piqued.  Because honey is delicious.

This final project is a definite because I've promised Jacob we'll do it, but we're going to plant a pumpkin patch this summer!   This kid loves pumpkins and Halloween.

And out of the blue one night he said he wanted to sell pumpkins this fall.  I thought that was such a cool idea--and the country version of having a lemonade stand?   So we'll look for a variety of heirloom pumpkin seeds and get them in the ground in June and see what happens!

Whew! So, there are my lofty aspirations for 2012. What are yours?

-Erin

Fall Around Here

How is it the first day of November already?!? Aaagggghhh--fall, my favorite season, is going by too fast!

It's been a magnificent autumn, though, and I just wanted to share a few images from around here.

First, a trip to the pumpkin patch at Jane Iseley's Farm in Burlington, NC...

 Which included much jumping on hay bales.

Ready, set, jump!

Whee!

Back at the homestead...

Lu, the escapee chicken, struttin' her stuff in the yard.

And she's joined by my new concrete hen and chicks. :)

More jumping--this time on a gravel pile at my dad's house...

Pinky says hi oink!

Our bluetick hound, Belle.

And inside the house, a few peeks at the fall decorations...

How is your fall going?

Take care and Happy Autumn!

Erin

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