Fast and Loose SFG

Well I meant to start this post yesterday, but as I was headed into the city that afternoon for a Microsoft conference I started feeling peculiar. Before the first session was over, I had to leave and head home. I ended up spending most of the night with a fever and bouncing back and forth between hot flashes and chills. Thankfully this morning, I felt much better and was able to go into work for a full day again. I guess I just had a bug. So now that that's cleared up, on with the post.
I've mentioned in the past that I used the famous "square foot gardening" (SFG) method. This is certainly where I started. I have, however, found that there are many pieces of it that I just don't use on a regular basis and others that I have modified to suit my own needs and abilities. I've also found through my readings of other blogs out there that there seems to be a number of people getting stuck with some of the things Mr Bartholomew outlines in his method. It's not so much that the stuff he suggests isn't practical, but I guess for a lot of us it's just not economical or necessary, so I decided to share my view of the way I've come to regard SFG's.

In the beginning I was a fairly firm SFGer. I built my 6" deep boxes, and composed a batch of "Mel's Mix" (1/3 each: compost, vermiculite, peat moss) and laid out my grid. There was my first variance. While I did make a grid, I didn't use the thick 3/4 to 1" sticks that Mel suggested because I didn't have the extra income to buy wood for it. Instead I used a roll of white nylon mason line to lay a grid out. I did this by placing nails around the boxes and tapping them over to make "hooks" and them running the string around them until I had a grid. It worked well, took up less space, and I could see the grid very well. As far as the Mels Mix, I still use it. I don't now, nor did I then, sweat the details over how much vermiculite I add compared to my compost and peat, I just split it up evenly and called it good, By and large however I hold that it is a very effective mix over all. One thing I would like to change, and would if I were to do it again, is that I would not make my boxes out of 6" boards. First of all, a standard 2x6 is not truly 6" deep, it's more like 51/2". Plus, I would like to have a little deeper soil, as well as having a little bit of lip at the top so that every time I work the bed I don't lose part of it over the side.

In the SFG book, Mel is a great advocate for making due, and reusing scrap materials to build the boxes. I totally agree with this approach, and would in fact extend it to the entire system as well. Trellising for instance.

In the SFG book, Mel makes mention of using metal electrical conduit for his trellis frames. Now while I agree that these would make very nice frames, and do in fact intend to begin incorporating a few this year, I was able to use some reclaimed 2x4's ripped in two and built a frame out of those for my tomatoes. For the trellising material itself I again went to the white nylon string. For tomatoes I stuck a stake in the ground and ran a string up to the top of the frame, as the tomato grew, I moved the plant around the string. I still do this today, it is the best way I have ever seen to grow perfect tomatoes. For cucumbers I made myself a sort of spider web strung between two tomato frames made out of... you guessed it... white nylon string. (seeing a pattern here, go get some!) This worked awesome and was completely removable and very inexpensive. (I'll be doing this again soon and will post some pictures.) Remember, every time you buy an item for your garden that you could otherwise make yourself, you are adding to your over all cost of production, and allowing yourself to become dependant on the garden center rather that the supermarket.

I have more to say on this, so stay tuned, but for now... time for sleep.

Till tomorrow.

P~

100ft Diet, Garden Update 2008

The first harvest of the new Season is in!

Oh sure I pulled some carrots out that overwintered in the garden, but this is fresh 2008 vintage tastiness. Not only that but it's the first time that I've grown mesclun and I'm very happy with it so far. About half of the bag is pure mesclun mix from under the pea plant trellises, The other half is a mix of baby spinach and arugula. I also was able to harvest some radishes (not pictured) that were very tasty as well. The grand total for the weigh in... drum roll please...
A whopping 14oz. :)
Honestly though, we are planning on keeping a running total this year of the amounts of food that we are able to produce from our yard. IT will kick in quite a bit once the cukes and zucchinis start to mature, but for now, I'm pretty pleased.
In years passed I've had a tough time growing spinach in our climate. We tend to go from cold early spring to hot late spring very abruptly and it tends to send the spinach's, actually all greens, bolting. This year, I am trying Straw mulch to help keep the moisture in, and the soil cooler. So far so good. I actually have seen a significant increase in a couple of plants since I mulched them. I did however, notice a breakout of small mite-ish bugs on some lettuces that I transplanted with straw around them. I don't know if the straw caused it or what, but I hit them with a bit of Diatomaceous Earth and it seems to be keeping the plants healthy. In case your unfamiliar with D.E., it is a natural mined mineral made up of the dried shells of ancient sea creatures. It works as an effective organic pest control for small pests like aphids, spiders, mites, etc. It also contains many trace minerals that are beneficial to the soil so it's a win win situation.

I am planning to go in depth into a gardening topic this week spurred on by a regular reader and fellow blogger. She's having a bit of a time with the learning curve associated with the Square Foot Garden method. I initially started my garden using this method as well but, as with so many of the things I do, I took the things that I found to be useful, and left the rest; even of those that I kept I modified to suit my needs and available supplies/budget. So I thought I'd go into a couple of the cheap workarounds and generally outline my philosophy regarding this system. What I'd like to hear from you is this. If you have used the SFG method, or are currently, what are your opinions of it? What issues have you had and how have you solved them, or are they even solved? I know I'm not the only "freelance" square footer out there, come on, chime in.
P~

Marathons and sprints

Ever notice that sometimes in life you're jogging along at a good steady marathon pace, focusing on the long term goals and just kind of plodding along? While other times it seems like your in a sprint to a finish line that is coming up quicker than you expected. That pretty much sums up the last week or so around our house. Problem with that was that while I was trying to do well on the sprint I was trying to run a marathon at the same time.

What the heck am I talking about? It's like that commercial, "Life comes at you fast". In one week, I had to dig and set posts for our fence, then install the fencing a couple of days later. In the time when the fence posts were setting, I was trying to do some basic prep work in the garden beds to prepare for the big planting push, clean up the yard for an outdoor party over the weekend to celebrate with family and friends our children's baptism. Which was a whole other process, taking a bit of time in the afternoon meeting with church missionaries a couple of days during the week. All this time I was getting up and into work early and staying late to meet a deadline that came today. (I made it by the way, despite a 2-day issue that popped up.) Anyway, I felt like I was sprinting to get all the immediate stuff completed, while still running the marathon that is vegetable gardening.

Whaa Whaa Whaaa... all pissing and moaning aside, it was a good weekend. With A~'s birthday on the same day as the baptism, and our Anniversary on the same day as their confirmation; May's a big month in our house. I'm happy to say I think I can get back to a bit of a schedule again, and perhaps get my blog to be a little more regular once more.

Thanks for the patience.

P~

We are not alone

The Dervaes Family, of Path to Freedom, was on Nightline last night. I am sorry to say I missed it, but will certainly be watching it online tonight. As I took a minute to read over the story on Nightline’s website I read some of the comments left by viewers of the program. Overwhelmingly I found that there are a lot of people that either a) didn’t even realize such a thing was possible in so small a space, or b) are already beginning to take steps towards this end (I fall into both categories by the way). In both instances the response to their inspiring story was very positive.

 I think a common feeling to many who feel either inspired to take this lifestyle on, or who are just beginning in the process is that they are setting themselves apart as the outcasts, or that they will be looked at strangely by their neighbors as the “hippie” or “tree hugger” or worse yet the “end of the world is coming” nut job (a personal favorite) . Honestly, there is some truth to that. I can’t say that I don’t get the odd look, or the laughing questions about “how the farm’s coming along?” But I’ve found that my best defense is the same type that many others have used to fight any other type of stereotyping or prejudice; education. When someone asks me how the farm is coming, I tell them how it’s coming; often asking them when theirs will be getting started? “What? You’re NOT growing your own food?” The follow up to this is that I make myself as available as I can be to talk freely about the things that I am doing in my yard. I share from my experiences and try to encourage others in this as much as possible. I don’t do this necessarily because I am so benevolent, but rather because I have learned so much from others along my “Path to Freedom” and I want to share my lessons, because I know when my neighbors understand the joys that I have gotten from this way of living they will in turn better understand me, because when I walk around the block and see “my” pea trellis design in neighbors yards that I didn’t talk to about it myself, it fills me with pride and I know I am not crazy and, more and more, I am not alone. More and more people are looking to gain Freedom of their own. Food costs are rising due to global shortages and transportation costs (not to say that there isn’t a good dose of fear/panic involved as well mind you), we are becoming more and more aware of the dangers of pesticides and genetic engineering in our food supplies and concern for our future sustainablility and our impact on our environment is rapidly becoming the norm. All of these things are garnering more and more attention and in turn are leading many people to at least begin to make changes that will bring us all a little closer in our thinking.

So take heed, and breath a sigh of relief, you probably won’t be the wierdo on the corner for long. If you’re a veteran homesteader, offer some advice and be open about the things your working on. If your new to this, ask questions. It doesn’t even have to be someone in your circle of friends, you’d be surprised how many people in this digital era are out there just waiting to share their wealth of knowledge. Heck I might even have an answer or two.

 

Grow on!

P~

2008 Asparagus

It's that time of year again. Asparagus season. It took forever getting here too! This spring has been one of the weirdest that we can remember, although strangely, no one seems to be noticing it, at least in our neighborhood. I can tell that it is an "in tune" with the earth thing because I finally found someone who gets it too; the farmer at our closest you-pick-it farm. He told us last weekend that the asparagus has been slow to come in this year because of the roller coaster hot/cold weather we've had. Either way, last weekend we made two trips, (Fri and Sat) to the farm to pick a bunch of sweet, tender asparagus.

Here is only a part of the total haul. All told we had over ten pounds of raw asparagus. We brought it home and let it soak for probably a little longer than we had too, but it was in cold water and it kept itself well.
Look at that color! It was, no kidding, the most vibrant green I can imagine. After rinsing and trimming, we shocked the young greens in boiling water. We added 1 lb of shoots to a large pot of water and timed it for 1 min. After the minute passed I pulled them out and they went straight into an ice bath to stop the cooking. We took them from there and layed them out on some paper towels and blotted them off.
Here is a picture of Amber vacuum packing one of the 1/2 lb bags of asparagus that we made. I need to diverge into another product review here.

We bought this small light duty vacuum packer a while back. It is battery operated, and uses a special zip lock bag that has a vented hole built in. We decided to purchase ourselves a Food saver Vacuum Sealer this year. We know that we are going to be putting up more food, and thought we could justify a little expense for that reason. Well let me tell you, we got that thing home, followed the instructions and gave it a whirl. it vacuumed that bag tight, everything looked great, and then... no seal. ??? What's up? We tried that thing 9 ways from Sunday and couldn't get it to seal worth a damn. So guess what we ended up using? That's right, the 15 odd dollar battery operated model with the special zip locks and it worked great! Go figure?

Here is the total haul from one weekend of putting up asparagus. finished weight is approximately 9 pounds. Guess what we spent on it? 10.00 for the asparagus (1.00/lb) and a few bucks for the bags. Can you beat that? I don't think so. If you have U-pick-it's near you I encourage you to get to them and see if they have asparagus ready, it's one of the real prizes of the spring. It's also one of the crops that, although we love it, we will not grow. It takes too long to mature and takes up too much space for our small lot. I rather go down to the farm stand and pick it myself. Besides, it's a great Saturday morning out with the kids and A~.
Hope you all have a great day tomorrow, I'll be finishing my fence. Pictures anyone?
Till then.
P~

Garden Update (100 ft Diet)

Holy Crap, it's been a week since I posted last?? I'm so sorry for the intermission. I am almost done with the major stuff that I've had going on, but not quite. In the Next two days I will be installing the fence (I know now why people pay to set fence posts.) and wrapping that project up, Then on Saturday we're having some family and friends together for my three boys baptism. Faith is something we've always been open and honest about, but have never pushed on them and recently they made a joint decision that they all wanted to be baptised together. As if that weren't enough, all this will come together on A~'s birthday, and they will be confirmed as members of the church on our anniversary... go figure? What a blessing it will be.

Amidst all this chaos, I have been managing to keep relatively on top of the garden, and it has finally begun to really come into it's own. I didn't initially decide to participate in "The Growing Challenge" because, well honestly it's so hard to keep up with all the challenges, but I think I may participate in it after all since I really have a lot of new stuff going on this year, that applies to it. I thought I'd share some pics and updates.
My Cabbages that I planted early this year and had covered as a test did really well through the cold spring that we've had.
New crop this year. I tried Kale for the first time last year when it was too late in the season to grow it. I'll probably grow a late season crop too to see how long I can keep it bearing through the winter.
New crop this year. Grew up with pickled beets, and tried the greens for the first time from a farmer at the F-Market last year, very tasty.
New crop this year. I've never eaten it, but it looks so interesting and I have a co-worker that always had it growing up and loved it, so what the heck.
New(ish) crop this year. Bush beans. I've never grown a bush variety, but thought they would be a good determinant crop for our canning program this year.
New crop this year. Never grown onions, but we've planted approx. 150 starts this year. Some will be tested as storage onions, others will be chopped and frozen for quick recipes.
Rhubarb... what can I say, I love it. I'm trying out more companion planting this year, this is a good one. Broccoli, onions and rhubarb. They are all said to be complimentary, so again, what the heck.
Peas. Not a new crop but definitely a new method. I am using a sort of A-frame technique that I am trying out this year. It seems to be catching on too, three neighbors of mine going down the street have "adopted" my technique. (Hope it works.) I also have mesclun planted under the A-Frames. The idea is that the peas should shade the tender greens as the summer sun get progressively hotter.
This is my early, baby spinach, and radishes. Almost there, I should be eating this stuff this weekend.
Arugula (Rocket). This one took a little doing for me to like. It is definitely a "have with..." not a "have alone..." and gives a earthy, peppery flavor to salads and such, I want to try arugula pesto this year.
And of course the Apple blossom special... What can I say?
Finally, our dwarf cherry tree. This is the smallest tree we have, and last year it only yielded a couple of cherries. The big story here is that I think I have managed to beat a very high aphid infestation organically. Last year every time I walked by this tree, I inspected and removed any aphid heavy leaves and discarded. By the end of the summer it seemed to have beaten it. I hope for this year to be much better.

Well, That's about it folks. I have a bunch of pics of the front yard too. I'll try to get those up tomorrow night. I haven't even begun planting heavily in my main beds either so that ought to go on this week or weekend as well.
As for now, well, I'm beat! I'm going to bed. Hope your all well, and thanks for the patience.
P~
Tomorrow, AsparagusFest '08 begins!!

Stimulus

Hi all, P~ checking in here... Remember me? I was listening to NPR the other day on the way home from work, and heard one of the public service announcements that they're so well known for. Well it got me thinking.
The PSA talked about the upcoming stimulus payments that so many of us will be receiving in one way or another. As we think ahead about all the wonderful things that we can get with this check in order to do our part in "stimulating" the economy, consider this. Before you run out for that new plasma TV, or even that great new kitchen gadget that you've been eying for so long, ask your self..."will this stimulate the economy?" So many of our goods are manufactured outside the country any more that the chances are pretty good that you're buying some fine Chinese, Taiwanese or Mexican goods. This is doing wonders for our global neighbors economy, but for ours, well, not so much. Unless of course you're the retail industry.

I mentioned that we're putting up a fence the other day. It's a vinyl fence. (I know I know, it's plastic, and comes from the petroleum industry, yada yada, yada.) It is one of those things that I kind of have to do, based on standards in our neighborhood. Anyway, I researched the company that we decided to go with, and found that not only are they a local company, (2-3 miles), but the product that they are supplying me with is manufactured right here in the good ole' USA. I'm glad for it. I think the stimulus money should go back into our economy.

I encourage you to really give a little thought to how you decide to spend yours. Here's a couple of suggestions I heard on the radio.

• spend the money with local businesses.
• set some of the money aside and use it throughout the summer at your local farmers market to support local farmers.
• donate a portion of the stimulus to an environmental charity.

I'm sure there are a million other ideas out there, but you get the jist. I don't honestly think that the stimulus checks that are scheduled to go out are going to effect the economy as dramatically as is hoped, but perhaps we can improve those numbers by giving a little thought to how we decide to use it. If you have any specific plans for your "stimulus check" let me know what it is.
Have a great weekend all. I'll check in as I can.

P~