Whats Growing Outside

Wild onions

The rain has finally let up. In the next couple days the temperatures are expected to soar from the 30-40 degree weather we have been having in the last half of the month to upper 60's and even lower 80's on Saturday! What a great way to bring in April!

Warmer and dryer weather? This can only mean that one will find me outside at every possible moment to soak it up and garden away.

Today wasn't 80 degrees, but it did call for a round of photos to update what's been growing around the place. The wild onions (above) I found in the yard. They are easily overlooked, but since I've learned how to identify them I seem to find them in patches of grass where ever I go. You can eat them and use them just as you would chives... as that's pretty much what they are.

Wild garlic

Does the lawn need to be mowed already? Nope- that's wild garlic on the sprawl. Another volunteer that keeps coming back year after year. These guys make pretty decent garlic bread if you have the patience to dig them up and wash all of their tiny bulbs. I forget about them once summer is in full swing, but I wonder how large the bulbs do get- if I were to try digging them up in the fall, would they be an even more worthy treat?

Garlic

On to more domestic edibles... my garlic! This garlic which I planted last November is off to a great start. I planted three rows (for 2009 I had two) and this was the only one I did not mulch with leaves... I wonder if they are growing faster because the soil has warmed up faster... and now I wonder why I mulched the other too (it was because my garden books told me to).

Rhubarb

The rhubarb. Its so pretty, I love all the color and texture of its emerging leaves... which you don't eat. Only the stems are used in cooking (pies and jams in our case) as the leaves are toxic. I don't know how long this patch has been growing on the property, but it was a welcome addition to the palate as I had never tasted rhubarb until last year.

Leeks

Last but not least, the leek seedlings. Oh how I fretted about their germination in February, but they turned out great after all. The year old seeds were planted almost exactly two months ago today. They are getting big enough that I decided to start hardening them off... today... which they were allowed one half hour of pure sunlight. Tomorrow will be more.

The U-Haul Composting Disaster

Half of the load.

Oh boy... where to start.

What gardener could pass up the chance at a huge cash load of compost? This gardening girl could not. After a previous post on composting one can understand that only so much compost can be acquired through the waste produced by their own home and yard. Anything is better than none, but more is better!

That's why when the opportunity to get more had sprouted up how could I not take advantage of it?

So one day I ran into some friends I had not seen in awhile. We got to talking... which usually hits on gardening eventually... whereupon we were reminded of an idea we had come up with earlier in the year where we should all get together one day in spring and rent a U-Haul truck to collect compost for our gardens. When you don't own a truck you have to be more creative at times on how to get things done.

We determined that in two days all of our schedules were positively aligned to allow us to follow through with our compost day plans.

First off, it had been raining. When we got going on that damp Tuesday morning it was chilly and gloomy... but not raining. So far so good. Probably should have checked the weather though.

Our friends car was at the shop, so we had to pick them up before we headed to the U-Haul. This will prove its complications as you will see. First off, I would like to say how proud I am that I was able to fit, four people, ten five gallon buckets, three shovels and a garden fork in my Honda Fit (a small car that lives up to its name).

After renting the U-Haul, instead of driving the truck and the car over we somehow decided it would be better to U-Haul-pool... two people in the cab and two in the ... back? Talking about precious cargo.

We signed in at the public works facility and backed right up to a fresh pile of compost that was just brought over by another friend who I didn't even realize worked at the facility who was operating the heavy machinery there. The first shovels full of compost entered the U-Haul around 10:30am, by 11:30am or a little later we ... were sagging. And by we I mean the U-Haul. It was a bit surprising how fast we filled that thing up! We were in such a routine of shoveling and filling up buckets and emptying them in the truck that no one really thought about... maximum load capacities or anything like that.

Oh my.

So we began to worry... are we over our maximum weight capacity already? Have we gone too far. We stopped loading up the compost and... realized that it wouldn't be safe to allow anyone to ride in the back anymore... because risks of suffocation and death. Therefore, because my car was not there we had to all U-Haul-pool in the cab of the truck... four adults in a three person capacity vehicle. My boyfriend was driving, so one friend sat on the lap of the other and I sat in the middle where I couldn't get my seat belt to work... and our friends' seat belt just wouldn't stretch that far... so you have now three persons driving without a seat belt in a U-Haul truck full of dirt and possibly over their maximum weight capacity.

This situation had us all slightly unnerved. What if the police pulled us over? Our paranoia led us to take as many back roads as possible to our first stop, my garden. This decision was made mostly because the trip to my home had the least steep hill and this made us feel that it would be the safest route to take for our overloaded U-Haul which was definitely not enjoying all our golden compost.

When we pulled into the driveway... we were in celebratory mode, because... we made it! You would have thought we just survived some great battle. We all jumped out of the U-Haul to go inside the house to recover... but my boyfriend was still driving...

Lets back up a second here to our garden fence design, which has an extra wide gate that allows for a truck to drive in if needed to unload manure, compost, a roto-tiller (if we ever get to use one) and other supplies as needed.

...My boyfriend was driving the U-Haul to the garden as was earlier mentioned by myself to the others that this would make it so convenient when it came to unloading (we were already tired as it was). If we were not all so exuberant from our victorious journey, our brains might have been more reflective on the fact that it had been raining for several days in a row. If we had thought it over better... we would have realized what a horrible horrible idea it was to unload the U-Haul at the garden.

When I went back outside, I found the U-Haul stuck in the backyard lawn. I have to hand it to him, my boyfriend made it quite far before it got hampered down by its own weight and the wet ground. It may have well made it if he didn't slow down to turn to avoid a group of bushes.

We did what? We got a U-Haul truck full of compost stuck in the backyard? Yes. And it went from bad to worse as we tried to get it unstuck.

Before.

And not so far after. It got worse believe me.

We tried several ideas for backing it up, but only succeeded in digging the tires deeper into the earth. The ground was just too soft and the truck too heavy. To lighten the load a little we emptied out my gardens' share of the compost. At this point everyone wanted to just get it out as fast as possible to speed up getting the U-Haul out of the lawn. On the other hand, I argued to use the wheelbarrow to fill up instead of just dumping all the compost in the lawn. While everyone dumped the compost onto the lawn I was transporting wheelbarrow full after wheelbarrow full to the rows of the garden. I felt some slight irritation from the other members of the use, but whats the difference if its dumped on the lawn or in a wheelbarrow? I felt this was more efficient in saving energy and time by not moving the stuff more than needed.

To make matters even worse the lawn is sloped, so every awesome attempt we made to back the big boy up only caused it to slide sideways down the hill slightly. Which was always... into the the pile of compost that was just dumped onto the lawn... hysterically. OK, it may not have been funny at the time, but it makes me laugh out loud now thinking about it (actually I think I laughed then too, just not everyone one else who were even more tired and irritated by the whole situation). By driving/sliding into the pile of compost we had to dig the truck out of the very compost we had transported with it. Using the wheelbarrow wasn't such a bad idea after all. On top of that, the truck was ever slipping closer and closer to our perennial rhubarb patch, which is just starting to pop up.

By around 1:30pm we were giving up. Our whole hearted attempts to get the U-Haul out of the lawn only advanced us further into the soft soil. I had in fact renewed my AAA membership and called them up to see if I could use my one of my service calls. Unfortunately AAA said they would not service a vehicle such as our 14' U-Haul. Hmm. By around 2:00pm we bade goodbye to our friends as a taxi (because my car was at the U-Haul store still!!) drove them away (one had to go to work). We all had given up to call a tow truck, but my boyfriend was determined to save money and get the U-Haul unstuck. Which after about an hour or more he too gave up.

Which is why Mr. Towman had to visit our house.

Hello Mr. Towman

Gardening antics for 2010 have officially begun. So what almost destroyed my rhubarb below? Why did Mr. Towman have to visit our house? Are these two things connected? You'll find out later this week with the full story!

The rhubarb is fine. Other things... maybe not so much.

A Turn for Compost

With the wonderful not freezing weather that we have been having so far this March, I decided to start tackling my spring to-do list. One item was to turn our compost. Above in a picture taken on March 10th, you can see the compost pile before. There are so many ways to do composting that there are whole books on the subject. Ours is fairly simple: welded wire fencing was formed into a circle with its ends bent onto itself to hold its shape and staked to the ground for added support.

Compost needs to be turned over every once in awhile to keep it working right. I don't know all the details, but I do know part of it has to do with air. Compost needs moisture, air, carbon and nitrogen (its more like 1 part nitrogen to 20 parts carbon). Bacteria does most of the work after that.

The nice thing about the welded wire fencing compost bin design is that when your ready to turn the compost you simply unbend the wire, peel it off the compost pile and relocate it directly next to it on the ground. I read that if your compost pile is on bare ground its a good idea to loosen up the soil that will be directly under it. This is supposed to encourage the visitation of earthworms who will help in the breakdown of all that organic matter.

This is the after picture.

I took my garden fork and started working from the top down being conscious of mixing in plenty of carbon in the form of dried up leaves from last fall (which we conveniently piled nearby). I stopped forking when I reached a dark layer of rich looking earth.

There is a way to test if compost is ready for the garden (as I understand if its not completely decomposed it can be harmful to your vegetables). One of my books suggests taking some of the compost and putting it in a mason jar for a few days. After that time, if its smells bad- its not ready; if it smells like dirt- your good to go. I haven't performed this test yet, but this stuff looks pretty ready to me. It has been over a year now since we started this particular pile so some of it has to be ready for sure.

If you garden and don't compost- its highly recommended. One thing your garden soil can never get enough of is organic matter. Composting is one of the best ways to produce your own rich source of organic matter. Keep a container on your counter top and toss in all your kitchen scraps, pretty much anything can go as long as 'it was once alive', as my boyfriend states. Empty as needed. Even if you don't garden composting reduces your garbage production and makes it less stinky too. Above as an example we have a variety of vegetable scraps, tea bags, a wax paper cupcake wrapper, and prunings off of the houseplants, but other things that are great are egg shells, nut shells, coffee grinds, hair or fur. From the yard you can add your grass clippings, weeds, leaves just to name a few.

Its not usually recommended to put anything meat-like in compost... but the logic mostly seems to be because it can attract unwelcome critters to the area. However it can't be harmful as I will attempt to argue.
Recently I read Harvest: A Year in the Life of an Organic Farm by Nicola Smith where livestock which died of whatever natural causes would be conveyored out to a massive compost pile outside the barn. This compost was then eventually used in the soil for their crops. This stuck out in my mind... because a farm was able to successfully compost whole animals! My boyfriend has even read of gardeners who will actually use road kill as an add in for their backyard compost. Given all this, I think a few scraps of meat off your dinner plate will be just fine.

One compost no-no I always read about is pet waste. A cat or dogs' excretion can harbor harmful bacteria that is not good for humans to be exposed to... so you certainly do not want your future food growing in it.

In short composting is super easy, its great for your garden and keeps some really great stuff out of the landfill.

Springing Back into the Garden

Its back to the garden with 60 plus degree weather this week. Here is the garden as of yesterday. Every bit of snow in the yard has melted and somehow we didn't get pounded with rainstorms last week like some of the northeast so the soil isn't muddy and quite workable.

Finally I'm back to the toil of double digging the beds. As you can see, I've still got a ways to go. In the last two days I've gotten about four beds dug. This is hard work. Its all done by hand using a shovel and a garden fork. And every shovel or fork full of earth reveals at least a handful of stones to be removed.

Its hard to say how many stones are removed. My routine has evolved to having a few 5 gallon buckets on hand lined up beside the area that is being dug. The stones go in the bucket and when the buckets reach about half way full (which is a reasonable weight for me to lift), I empty them into the wheelbarrow. After so many buckets of stones I then walk the wheelbarrow over to my stone dumping site... far far away from the garden. Because it seems like we have so many stones in the soil, we formed a sizable pile from 2009. So I'm starting a new pile... I think it will be interesting to see if the piles from year to year change much. Will there be less and less? Smaller and smaller? I hope!!!

A Serving of Spring

When a few weeks ago (just before we were pummeled by the heaviest snow storm of the year... so far) when I proclaimed that spring was at hand... it was received with some skepticism. How did I know... you just know.

Its almost like an instinct- to detect when winter is over and be able to read the signs.

After so many cold cold cold days there is the day you smell it... its hard to describe, and I do not have a particularly good sense of smell mind you, but its like the smell of earth... or perhaps decomposition resuming as microbes become active again in the soil as it heats ever so slightly.

You can hear it, in birds... not shy intermittent chirping in the quiet of a winter morning, but a multitude of vigorous chatter. Could they be having their equivalent discussion on the seasonal change?

You can feel it! When you just lived an entire month or more of steady 20-30 degree weather you can feel the difference when the temperature finally peeks up above freezing. This week for example... steady daily highs in the 40's (and even low 50's as the forecast declares! YES!) OK, if you live in warmer climates this may all seem so trivial. However there is truly a wave of... excitement? joy? elation? when the temperature increases even just this seemingly small amount.

Now, more than ever, you can see the change. You can behold things you have not seen in several months.

Yesterday was a beautiful sunny day in the high 40's. To celebrate I pulled on my boots and grabbed the camera and went outside (without a jacket) in the backyard for a good hour or more to appreciate it all... wandering around without any purpose but to soak it all in... the sights, the smells, the warmth of the sun, the ability to experience textures without a gloved hand. Here are some of the signs of spring I found in my meanderings.

Buds of green growth! Pretty sure this is a honeysuckle. Remembering last year, this was one of the first things to develop leaves as far as trees and shrubs go.

INSECTS! That are alive! OUTSIDE! One phenomena of the coming of spring is suddenly realizing you have more houseflies or other insects within the house (than is normal)... where did all these guys come from? Ah yes, they are waking up. This wasp was found outside, crawling around not flying... one step at a time here. Please note the somewhat green grass... meaning you can at least SEE the ground again.

This leads me to next thing of note. MELTING. Not much over a week ago we had a good 18-20 inches of snow cover. A few people I spoke to had up to six feet of snow in the form of drifts in some areas (including their roofs- not good). With temperatures above freezing and into the 40-50's everything is rapidly melting. Yes, while much of the ground is still well blanketed, areas of bare ground are making an appearance.

Here I save the best for last. Today I was trying to watch the birds visiting my bird feeder outside the kitchen window where I saw a blue jay, a cardinal, some chickadees, some mourning doves and ... whats that... is that... a... a robin? Three robins! (again note the exposed ground-not snow in the photo above)

Robins. Personally, I wasn't expecting to see a robin for at least a couple weeks or more. Its different everywhere, but around here, a robin is a sure sign of spring.

Prototype Planter- The 2010 Model

Here it is. My newest seed starting shelf prototype. This planter is for growing vegetables that can be started indoors. I've been working on this a little everyday for the past three days and feel it turned out well.

'Recycled' wood (that would have been discarded otherwise) was used for the main supports, which are bridged together with a single board. There are two units pictured above that are actually stacked... stack-ability was part of my design plan. It allows for flexibility in where the shelf units can be placed around the house and will make it easier for dis-assembly later in the year for storage until use next year.

There are two 48" florescent lights per unit. I only have one pair lit above as it was only until now that it occurred to me that the nearby outlet can only accommodate two lights (for the moment at least). There are only leek seedlings growing above, the other trays are in place to demonstrate that two typical seed trays placed length-wise equal the total length of the florescent lights. So there is a capacity for two seed trays per unit. Also two florescent light fixtures placed side by side equal the width of a seed tray. What it all boils down to here is one light per seed tray.


Last year I designed a different shelf system which used two lights for four seed trays ... and the seedlings... did OK, but they were lanky. What I realized then was that there was a gap in coverage (some seedlings were getting more light than others at any given time) and the light was insufficient (which makes seedlings spindly- which they were). This new design ups the amount of lights being used, but allows for better coverage... and hopefully this years seedlings will be more healthy as a result.


For now this set of shelves are pledged to the sunny window... this is the planned location for plants who love warmth the most. Later my idea is to have a second planter for the basement for plants that favor cooler temperatures. The temperatures of a home can be quite confusing to a seed!


Please note: this was a pretty simple and inexpensive project. The shoplights cost about $10.00 each with the bulbs at about $3.50 each. The boards could run you about $5.00 and a few dollars and change for fasteners. Recycled/reusing materials helps too. Hence, each unit cost under $20.00 in materials to make. The design is very basic too. No need to get too complicated, this isn't a permanent fixture to the decor of the house or anything... well except for the next couple months.


What is your seedling growing set up like?