Farming/Gardening

Cover Crops

This past weekend, we finally got around to planting cover crops in the front yard garden (and this coming weekend, after fencing off sections from marauding poultry, we’ll sow the backyard).

These are Austrian peas.  I’m trying them for the first time, along with several other cover crops we’ve used before.

It’s a bit of a mess, isn’t it?  Well, before sowing cover crops, we pulled up all existing annual food plants (the exception is a few Vulcan Chard plants that are producing well, and the tomatoes in the far right.  They will be removed this weekend when we plant garlic there).

Following permaculture principles, we strive to utilize everything in our system, so we “chop and drop” spent plants and throw them back on the beds to return their nutrients to the soil and build up the humus.  It hasn’t rained here in ages, so we watered afterward.

Then it was time to plant a mix of cereal rye, crimson clover, hairy vetch, red clover and field peas, and water them in well.  We purchased them in bulk at the feed store, and spent less than $3 for enough to cover all the front beds (except the future garlic bed).

Ordinarily, cover crops (like the rye above) are allowed to grow all fall and winter, and then are tilled into the soil in spring (before they set seed and essentially become weeds).  Well, the soil is a living, complex ecosystem, which we try not to disturb, so we do not till.   We build up the soil, always adding to the top, but not disturbing the mycelium and other organisms in the lower layers.  How do we finish off the cover crop and prepare for planting in the spring?

The answer: We let the poultry do it for us.  While the crops are germinating, we use temporary fencing to secure them from the ducks and chickens, but once they are mature, we remove sections of the fencing, and allow the poultry to feast.

In this way, we

1) reduce our personal energy output (we do not have to spend the time tilling in the vetch, rye and such)

2) reduce our winter poultry feed bill

3) minimize disturbance of the soil ecology

4)massively reduce the slug population as the ducks forage through the cover crops for their favorite treat.

5) enhance the aeration and fertility of the soil as the roots and inedible parts of the cover crops breakdown, and the birds contribute their rich manure.

In small areas of the garden we do not plant cover crops (mostly in the large backyard, not the little front yard shown here), but instead grow some winter produce for our family (chard, kale, cauliflower, etc) as well as many rows of garlic and shallots.  Those areas will receive an addition of well-composted chicken/ duck manure + straw from the coops before the spring planting.

More on garlic cultivation and our slow permie progression from annual to perennial crop cultivation in next week’s posts.

What are your fall and winter plans for your garden?

Rebirth

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On this brilliantly sunny February Saturday, we ordered chicks and ducklings from the feed store, and discovered garlic, crocus, vibrant-pink rhubarb emerging from the soil, and soaked up the first hints of spring-to-come.

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In a week in which we had a lot of sickness and stress, and grief, I am doubly blessed that we are learning to make our home a haven, a place where we can witness birth, and rebirth, and celebrate life.

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And the world cannot be discovered by a journey of miles, no matter how long, but only by a spiritual journey, a journey of one inch, very arduous and humbling and joyful, by which we arrive at the ground at our own feet, and learn to be at home. – Wendell Berry

Kicking off the Garden Year

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We’re back!  I can’t believe I haven’t blogged in over two months!  Morning sickness is finally (mostly) gone, and life is getting back to normal a little bit.

The garden year is just kicking off – in the past two weeks, our friend Scott added wood-and-wire gates so the chickens and children can safely roam the backyard.   We planted several more dwarf fruit trees, as well as more currants, blueberries, silverberries, huckleberries and thimbleberries from One Green World (and boy, it’s doubly hard work when your pregnant!).   The planting plan for the year is all set, we even managed to seed the eggplants this week. (Although, we’d better get the grow lights set up before they germinate!).

Earlier this week, the free load of wood chips I ordered from the power company finally came (the order had been placed in early October, but better late than never!).  Your electric utility is a great source of FREE wood chips for mulching garden beds and paths.   All of the trees they trim out of the power lines are chipped up and thrown away.  If you call and place an order, they will gladly dump them in your yard instead.

You can see how large the load is compared to my two year-old – it’s a very large truck and it dumps a lot of chips.  It may seem like you could never use that much mulch, but we have gone through 4 loads so far on our 1/4 acre, and from now on, will probably use about 1 load a year to keep paths and beds replenished with mulch.  We could never have afforded to purchase that much mulch, so this is a great economical choice for us.

If you’re interested in mulching your yard to conserve water, suppress weed growth, reduce muddy patches, and add biomass to your garden, now (before the growing season gets going) is the time to place an order!

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A few tips/tidbits of info when ordering chips from the utility company:

1)If you’ve never had a load delivered from the power company, please be aware that this is NOT the neat, uniformly shaped pieces of wood you might get when buying bagged wood chips from the garden center.  It is chipped-up tree trimmings, and it will include large pieces, twigs, possibly leaves, pine needles, and chips of several different species.

2)If your yard is like ours, you can make it work no matter what they bring you.  If, however, you need mulch specifically for plant beds, it’s good to check that a load isn’t 100%  pine before they drop it on your driveway.  Pine is far too acidic to mulch beds, unless they happen to be blueberry or currant beds.  It does, however, work great in pathways.  Our first load was almost all maple – and we used it all on planting beds, and waited for a less-perfect load to mulch the paths.

3)If you want mulch free of leaves, order chips in the winter, when deciduous trees will be bare.  Chips full of leaves are more difficult to shovel and spread, and don’t look as neat.

4)If your load has long sticks as this load did for us, put them off into a pile and use them for pea brush and other plant supports.  Or, place them underneath the cardboard when sheet mulching a new section of yard.  Over time, they will break down and add biomass to the soil.

5) When ordering chips, make sure it isn’t Black Walnut, which contains juglone, a chemical that inhibits plant growth.  You don’t want this on your veggie beds!

Next up: seed starting!

Blessings on your as you start your garden year,

Angela

Buttercups and Golden Hubbards

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This afternoon, while the children built a fort on the driveway out of spent sunflower and cosmos stalks, I spent a good two hours in the front yard, harvesting Golden Hubbard and Buttercup winter squash from the bed closest to the street, and removing and chopping the dead and dying vines for the compost.

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Overall, not a bad harvest from a small bed!  And the front of the house looks much cleaner and nicer now that the dead vines have been pulled up.

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Buttercups are considered by many to be the perfect winter squash, and we’re looking forward to enjoying some this winter.  I think they’re absolutely gorgeous.

The Golden Hubbards will keep for months and contains a tasty, rather dry, orange flesh that is perfect for Moroccan tagines or beef & barley stews.

The Sweet Meats, more Buttercups, and many, many Delicata squash will be ready for harvest in the coming weeks, as the garden yields forth its final offerings for the year.

Early September Garden

 

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Temperatures have been dipping down into the low 50s and high 40s at night, and there’s been a crispness to the air that says Autumn is on her way here. 

Many plants are waning, having set seed and beginning to shut down for the year.  So, this afternoon, in the bright sunshine, we cleaned up many, many wheelbarrows full of biomass for the compost. 

Cosmos and sunflower stalks have to be chopped into small pieces to break-down well, but the chickens feasted on heads full of sunflower seeds. 

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Most of the sunflower seeds were set out to dry on the picnic table, so that the chickens can have them for snacks throughout the winter, and we’ll have seeds to plant next year.

As we pulled up spent flowering plants all over the yard, we carefully collected their seeds as well, so we can replant them in the spring, and share them with friends:

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Calendula seeds, still in the seedhead.

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A bucketful of nasturtium seeds, in various stages of drying out. 

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Coriander seeds.

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Sadie’s Horse Beans (a rare heirloom similar to a Scarlet Runner Bean, but with immense beans – I purchased them through Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds many years ago, and have been saving the seeds each year.)

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The patches of amaranth are almost ready to harvest as well – there isn’t enough for chicken treats this year, but we’ll save the seeds and plant a large patch next year just for the hens. 

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We’ll continue to harvest green beans, summer squash, tomatoes and tomatillos as long as the weather holds, and look forward to bringing in the winter squash, kale, chard, leeks, and some remaining herbs. 

Are things winding down in your garden?  Or still going strong?

Ripe, with a recipe

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The tomatoes are starting to ripen!  Can’t wait to take them in to BCS on Friday!!  Families have been asking for the last month when we’d have fresh, ripe tomatoes.

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90 percent of the tomatoes are still green, including many gigantic beefsteaks, like this Brandywine (look at that sucker in my hand! HUGE!).  If you’ve got a moment, say a quick prayer that they’ll all ripen before the cooler weather sets in, or I’ll be sending out lots of green tomato recipes with the week’s harvest (green tomato chutney, green tomato pickles, fried green tomatoes…).

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The first of the tomatillos are ripe as well – these are the DeMilpa, which have  a purple blush, and regular old green tomatillos mixed together.  We have ten tomatillos plants, so there will be many MANY pounds of tomatillos to harvest in the next two or three weeks.

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How to use tomatillos?  Well, there are several uses, but after removing the husk and washing these sticky little cousins of the tomato, I like to make them into the best salsa verde ever:

Larksong’s Super Simple Salsa Verde (this is sort-of a recipe – just wing it!)

Two to four double- handfuls of ripe tomatillos, husks removed and washed (how many did you pick in the garden today? Use what’s on hand…the amount is flexible!)

(optional – if you like it spicy!  I leave it out for the kids) 1 small jalapeno, whole

3 or 4 cloves of garlic (add more or less, to your taste), crushed

lime juice, to taste

sprinkling of sugar

flake sea salt.

Directions:

1)Line a broiler tray with foil, and oil very lightly.  Place tomatillos (and optional jalapeno) on the tray and broil, checking every 1-2 minutes, until blackened.  Remove tray, and with tongs, flip tomatillos (and jalapeno) over.  Place back under the broiler until all are blackened on the other side.  Remove from oven and let cool.  (Remove stem and seeds from jalapeno and slice, if using.)

2)Toss whole tomatillos and any accumulated juice into a blender with the garlic (and optional jalapeno slices – sometimes it’s best to put in half at first, so you don’t get it too hot).  Blend, then add sugar, lime juice, and salt to taste, blend again to incorporate. (My kids like a bit more sugar, and depending on the source of your tomatillos, they may be pretty acidic and not need much extra lime juice – so just taste as you go!)

3) Serve!  Enjoy!  Make lots, because it goes fast!

The Garden at Sunset

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A few quick shots from the garden this evening at sunset.  It’s changing so much every day – the paths are disappearing, the dahlias have begun to bloom, and there will be the first of the pole beans to harvest by the end of the week.

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The beautiful blue-green foliage in the lower left of this front-yard shot are squash vines from some delicata seeds that Firecracker saved from a soup we made back in January and then planted (wherever she had the whim!) in April.  They have set several squash on fairly compact vines.  Delicatas are some of my favorite eating squash, but we had never grown them before – I had no idea their leaves were so handsome, as well.

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This is a Golden Hubbard, which is larger than a football at present, but will grow much larger and weigh about 15 lbs at harvest time, with deep orange skin and flesh that is perfect for soups, stews, and baking.  (But look how much it’s grown since I photographed them less than two weeks ago!)

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Oh, the tomatoes!!  Just a few of the smaller slicers have begun to ripen, but most of the plants are loaded with green fruit.  We’re holding our breath an in anticipation of fresh tomatoes!

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This is a shot in the backyard, where the summer squash have finally caught up and filled the beds – the patti-pans in particular are really cranking out lots of fruit.

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The little rhubarb crown I acquired in March when I traded a fellow permaculture-hobbyist in exchange for some pear butter has grown enormous!  I was told I shouldn’t expect any harvest-able ribs for two to three years, but I had more than enough for a batch of sour cherry-rhubarb jam.  When it’s in full production, we’ll have lots of deep-red rhubarb to deliver to BCS.

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The Royal Burgundy bush beans are still blooming and producing really well.  I love their purple blossoms!

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This is one of my favorite corners in the garden right now – up near the front steps, with  some of the poppies still blooming and a big patch of thyme and rosemary right behind, there – Buttercup squash spilling out of the coldframe (which once held baby artichokes and summer squash).  They’ve begun to wrap their way up the artichokes (on the left) and have set several beautiful green fruit, which will ripen into what many cooks and gardeners consider the finest-tasting squash in existence.

And I think that’s it for tonight!  Happy gardening!

Late July Garden Update!

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It’s late July in the BCS Teaching Garden @ Salt of the Earth Urban Farm!  The pumpkin vines have taken over!  The runner beans are finally climbing their poles, and we have summer squash setting on every plant!

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The garden is really changing – we pulled all of the garlic and shallots from our family beds and will expand the Teaching Garden this fall (we’re planting fava beans there).  All of the peas are gone, and this week, we’re sowing fall crops like rutabagas, beets, and cauliflower, in their place.  The peas in the front yard will be replaced with leeks and a fall planting of broccoli.

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Look look look!!  There are about two dozen little Golden Hubbard winter squash that have set in the front yard!   The vines are attempting to migrate out into the street, and I have to turn the vines back toward the house every morning.  (Yes, I have paint all over my hands – I was painting trim (ugh) upstairs right before taking photos.)

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The center of the backyard is really taking off – our family bed of potatoes is almost finished, and we’ll be replacing it this fall with a few fruit trees.  The BCS potatoes  (planted a little later) are growing nicely, and volunteers have been mulching them every week with more straw.  The cold-stunted summer squash there are finally catching up –

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Patti-pans, crooknecks, and zucchini are all setting fruit!

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And, after much babying and coddling, and swaddling in plastic during our bitterly cold May, the tomatoes have decided to show their gratitude.  The plants are loaded with little green fruit, and a few cherries are already turning red!!

What exciting changes are taking place in your garden this summer?

Garlic

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We’re harvesting 8 types of hard and softneck garlic this week (and shallots, and pulling up spent pea vines).   Despite some of the garlic struggling with rust due to the rainy weather, nearly all of the bulbs are big and well formed and beautiful.

Garlic is so easy to grow, and heirloom garlic come in such an amazing range of subtle and sharp flavors – nothing like grocery store garlic (80% of which is grown in China, btw).  And shallots – which easily run $6/lb for organic shallots in the store – are even easier to grow (I buy the bulbs for planting at the Asian market for about $2/lb (much more economical than the $10+/lb for planting shallots at local nurseries in the fall – it’s not organic, but then I save some of the harvest for replanting, which, of course, were grown organically.)

We’ll save the best of the bulbs to replant this fall and expand our harvest for next year,  and also have some to share with BCS Teaching Garden volunteers, so that they can start a garlic patch of their own (the garlic planting class is coming in October – keep an eye out for more info this September.)

And a reminder – we’re having a workshop this Saturday from 9:30-11:30, followed by a potluck lunch – check the info out here if  you’re interested.

Wednesday Harvest

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A few things from this morning’s harvest.  Carrots, beets, 3 types of kale, lots and lots of chard, and buckets full of sugar snap and snow peas.

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So grateful for the constant stream of Teaching Garden volunteers today.  Folks were working hard from 9:30 am straight through to 4:30pm.    We’re feeling very, very blessed.   A big thank you to all of the helping hands!

Late June Garden Update

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It’s late June at Salt of the Earth Urban Farm (home of the BCS Teaching Garden)!  Finally, some warm weather (mid-upper 70’s) has settled in (the tomatoes,  summer squash and bush beans look much happier) and everything is flourishing. 

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The harvest is increasing – every week, we are taking a few dozen cartons of organic snow and sugar snap peas, as well as boxes and boxes of lettuce, chard, kale, bitter greens, and a few choice boxes of herbs and strawberries to Birch Community Services.  We are still looking forward to the coming months and being able to take in more and more food to share amongst the families at BCS (loads of organic bush beans, tomatoes, potatoes, and summer squash will be coming soon!).

Here are a few shots from around the yard – mostly in the front yard –

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A few shots of the front yard, here.  Can you believe just a few short months ago, it looked like this? —>

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(And a day before this, it was just weeds and lawn!  Taken late-February 2010.)

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Front to back in this shot – variegated land cress, beets (with a few Butternut starts peeking thru on the right and a crate of potatoes to the left), Italian kale, cardoons, salad greens, Oregon Sugar Pod II peas, California poppies and De Milpa tomatillos.

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Tomatoes in the front are underplanted with beets and cosmos.  In the backyard, with nasturtiums and lettuce (the shade from the tomatoes will keep the lettuce from bolting in the July/Aug heat.).

IMG_7729Mature artichokes and cardoons take up a lot of space, but while they’re still growing, I’ve underplanted them with daisies, nasturtium and chives (winter squash, dahlias, sunflowers, fennel, and wildflowers are visible in the background.)

Not shown – I planted an herb bed in the front yard – three types of lavender (two culinary, one for sachets), three types of rosemary (I love rosemary!), tangerine sage, tricolor sage, lemon verbena,and curry plant from starts (when pinching pennies, get the 4-inch pots – they were $3 each, versus $9-10 for the next size up, and $30 for large rosemaries and lavenders in gallon pots.  They’ll grow big, too!  Be patient!)  I also transplanted in two types of thyme, oregano, Greek basil, Thai basil, and Genovese basil that I started from seed a while back (for a savings of about $15 over buying potted starts).

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Much of the back isn’t so pretty yet, but here’s a shot of the linear beds near the house  -front to back – garlic; parsnips, kale, chard, carrots; peas and poppies underplanted with kale.  I didn’t take any shots of the bush bean, asparagus, potato and squash beds, which make up about 60% of the backyard.

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Out back, we’re still doing the fairly miserable work of ripping up bamboo (rhizomes and all) for a future raspberry patch (to the left in this picture) and quince and pear stand (where the current volunteer hazelnut currently resides.)  The far NW corner of the yard (not pictured), which will eventually be our Zone 3 fruit orchard,  is currently overrun with weeds.  I did manage to get three apple trees and a Desert King fig planted back there, and my husband expanded the chicken run (while protecting the young trees), so the hens could make short work of the weeds and give me room to underplant the trees with red clover and more lavender.  We are still hunting for a persimmon, a dwarf apricot, and black currants to put back in that area.

More shots from out back in the coming month – the rows of bush beans and summer squash are quite small, and the limas and runner beans are barely reaching up their poles).

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If you’re interested – we’re having a free hands-on workshop on  Saturday, July 17th here at the garden from 9:30-11:30 and follow up with a potluck luncheon from 11:30-12:30.  We will be doing a garden tour, discussing high-summer garden needs and prepping for a fall garden.  We will be starting seeds for fall crops (cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, etc), possibly harvesting potatoes, and doing regular garden maintenance.   Bring your garden gloves, shovel, and a dish to share.  Children are welcome.

Contact the garden coordinator for Birch Community Services, Tiffany, at  tiffany.mach@yahoo.com to sign up.

Late May Garden Update Part II

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And here’s the rest of the garden update:

There wasn’t time to get any side-yard shots before the rain started up again, but we now have 64 healthy strawberry plants growing there (many have set fruit already!) and the Christmas limas are germinating there as well.

Out in the backyard – the peas (see above) are as tall as Firecracker!  Oregon Sugar Pod IIs, Alaska, Galena, and Alderman Tall Telephone peas are all going strong.  And yesterday Firecracker noticed that they’d begun to flower!  Soon we’ll have sugar snap peas, snow peas and shell peas by the bucketful!

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The first planting bush beans are up all over the backyard, and I expect the second planting to germinate later this week (for a longer continuous harvest).  These are Royal Burgundy.  This patch looks good, but unfortunately, most of the bush, runner, and lima beans are all taking a heavy hitting from…

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SLUGS!  Despite daily picking (and feeding them to the chickens), the garden is inundated with thousands of slugs.  Most mornings the girls and I pick anywhere between fifty and one-hundred fifty.  Beer traps have only managed to capture a few as well,  so today I finally resorted to buying some organic, “pet friendly” slug bait in order to save the bush beans.  Here’s hoping it works, because there is no way   chickens freely hunt for slugs in the beds without the baby plants being eaten as well.

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This is one little patch of the Red Russian kale, which we’ve planted all over the yard.  Thankfully, the slugs haven’t bothered it.  It’s our favorite kale – not only is it beautiful and doesn’t easily bolt, it’s full of vitamin K, vitamin C and iron, and has a mild flavor – we put it in everything from fruit smoothies to lentil curry.  A definite superfood bursting with nutrition.

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This is one of the 25 asparagus crowns in full frond – only two more years and we’ll have a nice crop of asparagus of the BCS volunteers!

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Our compost still isn’t cooking well once again (too wet and soggy, too many kitchen scraps (“greens”) and too little “brown” matter (leaves, dry plant matter, shredded paper).  So, in the drizzle yesterday morning, I got down to the stinky job of turning it and splitting the compost into two separate side-by-side bins, which will get lots of shredded newspaper turned into them this week.   Let’s hope that does the trick.

The hens and chicks were THRILLED to have the compost turned and were scratching about while I was working – finding germinating pumpkin seeds and worms and all sorts of  “delicious treats”.

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This is one of the as-of-yet-unnamed Speckled Sussex chicks (or, as Firecracker calls them “teenagers”) scratching in the compost (those three are so fast, it’s tough to get a photo of them!).  You should have seen the chickens happily clucking and scratching and snacking and clucking some more!

And thankfully, all of the adults are done molting, so those happy hens have started churning out –

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– 3 eggs per day!  Woo-hoo!

And that’s it for the garden at present – thanks for being patient with a long update -  Hopefully, the warm weather will come back soon and the tomatoes, summer squash, tomatillos, cilantro and basil will really get a chance to thrive.

Okay, I promise something other than a gardening post coming up soon (although, I don’t know what that will be, since we haven’t had time for much baking or knitting or reading or cleaning house since every spare moment has been spent gardening or researching gardening and chicken keeping!)

If you’ve got a garden going, or even a few tomatoes in pots on your balcony, the girls and I would love to hear about how things are going for you!

Late May Garden Update Part I

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The garden has really taken off  after a week of hot, sunny weather, followed by lots of rain. (although, the cold nights and wind the past few days haven’t done us any favors).  Volunteers have been able to start taking in a few baskets of organic produce to BCS, mostly radishes, mustard greens, lettuce, chives, tarragon and baby beets, bok choy, and kale.  The teeny harvests thus far just begin to hint at the bounty of the coming months.

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Between slug-picking and weeding and rain showers, we got a few pictures this morning – (above) The boys in the front yard behind Alderman Tall Telephone peas, mesclun mix lettuce, with more lettuce mix and Oregon Sugar Pod II peas in the background.

– the tomatoes are really taking a beating with the cold (40s and 50s) and hail and driving wind this week.  We wrapped about half in plastic (and then ran out of plastic!) but can’t see that it is helping them out much – the hail damage is the worst.   Surprisingly, the tomatillos don’t seem to mind the dreary weather as much and are growing nicely

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Despite a little slug damage, the cardoons we planted back in February are coming along nicely – the largest are nearly two feet across already.  (They were planted closely, because about 20% of the seed stock are infertile – they are smaller and weak and I keep thinning them out.  The hassle of starting them from seed is well worth it – I only used half a pack (@ $2.45/pack), and have 8 strong seedlings, versus paying $7.49 each for large starts from the garden center.)

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The Vulcan Red Chard is doing quite well – just a few more weeks until it will be able to be harvested in any quantity.

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The mustard greens and bok choy bolted in last week’s heat, but the bolted stalks were fed to some very happy chickens  and in the gaps I have planted summer squash (a total of 6 in the front yard, and 19 in the back – a mix of crooknecks, zucchinis, and patti-pans).  I may eventually need to thin them down, but a few are compact varieties, so we’re hoping they won’t get too crowded.

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This is a Golden Hubbard seedling, coming up in the bed closest to the street.  Winter squash are such a treasure – beautiful rambling vines all season, tasty blossoms to stuff with ricotta and deep-fry, and finally, vitamin-packed, long-shelf-life squash in an amazing variety of shapes and sizes to eat throughout the winter.  (Since there is limited space, I have only put in my favorite eating squash – Buttercups, Butternuts, Hubbards, Delicata, except along one side-yard, near the house, where the gorgeous – if largely inedible – Rouge Vif D’Etampes has been planted for harvest decorations.)

For everything you could want to know about nearly every variety of winter and summer squash, I highly recommend Amy Goldman’s book, The Compleat Squash.

To keep the neighbors happy, I have planted misc. wildflowers, sunflowers, daisies, and about 50 dahlias in the front beds.  Add to that those dozen winter squash (to trail out of the beds and along the path), bronze fennel and artichokes, and for good measure, a whole jumbo packet of nasturtium!  If that doesn’t make for a pretty (but still mostly edible!) street-side bed, I don’t know what will!

(Eventually, the front bed will be mostly perennial flowers, currants, a dwarf plum, and a low fence with a grape arbor and a gate across the path, but it needed something to make it attractive this year, especially with so many folks in the neighborhood stopping by to ask what in the heck happened to our front yard!)

And with that, I’ll save the backyard and the chicken update for tomorrow!

Early May Garden Update

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Happenings in the garden this week so far:  Mustard greens, lettuce and kale are all getting big!  (Red Russian Kale in the foreground, with Mizuna mustard behind.)

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A volunteer and I got 20 tomatoes planted this afternoon – half in front, half in the back.  (I have room for another dozen or so, but am out of cages and will have to jury-rig some bamboo supports – the cages were donated, and I’m trying do as much free and homemade as possible.)

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I got 7 De Milpa tomatillos (they have beautiful purple fruit) in the ground, and am trying to find room for three more in some sunny corner.  While I planted them, I kept thinking about roasting tomatillos and making purple salsa verde with chips, or chicken enchiladas with tomatillo sauce  – can’t wait!

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Most of the front yard beds can be seen here (I still don’t have good pictures of all of the backyard, since it’s a mess) – beets and chard and peas are really coming along.  We are harvesting lettuce every day (despite the continuing slug issues).   Pole beans and pumpkins are just beginning to peek up through the soil, and the wildflowers are germinating as well.

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Baby parsnips in the backyard are putting out true leaves.  Only 90 more days or so, and they’ll be ready to eat!

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The summer squash in the backyard cold frame is coming along beautifully – looks like we’ll have lot of starts to give away to any volunteers that want them!

IMG_7463On the right is a new veggie I’ve never tried before (thank you, Patty!) – variegated garden cress.  Can’t wait to get it established and try some in a salad!

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The first of three potato beds out back are really going gang-busters.  I have to mulch them almost every day (cutting tall grass from the yard and quickly using up our last bale of straw).  The second bed planted will soon catch up – the leaves are 6 inches high.  And the third bed potatoes are just barely peeking leaves up through the straw.   Looks like we’ll need to run to the feedstore for another couple of bales soon!

Not pictured – 3 types of mint planted in pots buried around the garden

-bronze fennel starts and lots of chives transplanted around the garden; cilantro and lemon balm starts planted out as well

– bulb fennel, Waltham butternut and Golden Hubbard squash germinating

-  Scarlet Runner and Kentucky Wonder pole and  4 types of bush beans planted in the back, along with Christmas limas on the side yard.

-3 dozen Fordhook Giant leeks were transplanted out  in the front and side yard and another 30-odd Walla Walla Sweet onions in the side and back (wish I had room for more!)

– And many, many flower starts inter-planted amongst the tomatoes.

And -just as importantly- many, many people have stopped by and talked to me this week about our gardening project – I’ve met a half dozen new neighbors, and am connecting more with many others – the garden is building community, not only amongst volunteers, but also in our neighborhood, and that’s really encouraging to me.

As my next-door neighbor said, “It’s starting to actually look like a garden!”

“Flying Fish” Blue

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This afternoon’s project was painting the chicken coop a vibrant blue (although it dried darker).

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The girls had a great time, and were sure to get lots of paint in their hair.  🙂

Up next?  A second coat (after picking up a second gallon), painting the trim and posts, and adding a nice bright yellow sunshine in the upper right corner, and this fall, a trellis and table grapes up one side.

Garden update

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Slowly, slowly, things are taking shape in the garden.  Last Saturday, 9 volunteers came to help pot up summer squash, plant potatoes, carrots, parsnips, and continue dig up bamboo for the future raspberry bed.   And earlier, I was able to get 25 donated asparagus crowns planted.

Baby leeks, onions, basil, cilantro, parsley and thyme are all happily growing in their pots, and I put in rosemary, lavender and tarragon plants in the front yard.   I still have to figure out where to put some mint (in pots!) and add several more herbs, but it’s a good start.

More and more the yard is looking less like a disaster zone and more like a garden.   The front yard (stage one) is complete, and over the coming year, we will move on to stage two, adding grape arbors, perennial fruit bushes/vines/trees and herbs and perennial flowers.

Two large swaths of the backyard have become (for the time being) annual veggie beds, with the section sloping downhill designed with swales the catch and conserve water.  Much of the back still requires major work, however,  including finishing the chicken coop (running grapes up the side), building a shed (with trellised plants – hops and roses, most likely), finishing the small “lawn”, building a bread oven, removing the remaining bamboo to plant berry canes, and planting more fruit trees (persimmon, fig, apricot, plum), blueberry and currant bushes and maybe even some cranberries.

One side yard is 90% complete, but the other is barely begun (where the shady natives garden will grow thimbleberries, huckleberries, Oregon grape, etc).  But there has been so much progress, and we are going to be able to produce an amazing amount of food for BCS this year, I am sure.

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I’ve given away twenty or so, but the remaining 50-plus tomato-lets and little tomatillos are outgrowing their pots, anxious for the frost-free weather, so they can go in the ground, and out of my living room at night.

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The tulips are fading, but the peas are slowly reaching up and grabbing their supports (and the Tall Telephone peas in the backyard are twice as tall as these Oregon Sugar Pod II‘s).

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A third load of mulch, and 20-odd tomato cages were delivered (we still need 15 or so more).

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Baby poppies are taking hold between the lettuces and mustard greens.

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And most exciting to the children – the first signs that there will be fruit this summer (Quinalt strawberries in flower, as are the other varieties and our early blueberries, and our red currant has set fruit already.)

What plans/hopes/dreams do you have for your garden this year?  If you’re in Portland, we’re always willing to help out with garden work,  just let us know (many hands make light work)!

A little comparison

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On the upper left, a “cage-free organic” egg from the grocery store.  On the lower right, an egg from Plucky, one of our hens.  (I’d hate to add in a factory farmed egg – it couldn’t hold a candle.)

Now, which one do you think is the way a chicken egg is supposed to look?  Which one is shown to be more nutritious?

We love our three hens and can’t wait to add three more, so all of our eggs can be real food – just as beautiful and healthy as the one above.

Garden Snapshot

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A few quick pictures Firecracker and I took in the garden yesterday afternoon:

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The chickens having a grand time in the compost bin.

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All sorts of things are germinating – peas, peas and more peas, chard, kale, mustard greens, beets, lettuce, poppies, sweet peas, calendula, artichokes, chives, parsley and basil.

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The garlic and shallots we planted last October are really taking off!

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And, of course, our 75-odd tomatillo and tomato-lets are getting big – here (clockwise from far L) are “Black Krim, “Yellow Pear”, “Costoluto”, “Brandywine” and some little “Sweet 100” cherry toms that got a late start.

Today we’ll be planting “Hollow Crown” parnips and “Nantes” and “Cosmic Purple” carrots, and more basil, as well as starting cilantro in the cold frame.  Despite the chilly rain the past few days, it’s really feeling like spring as the garden comes to life.

Fresh Eggs

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We got chickens!!

After months of scouring Craigslist, pricing materials at the ReBuilding Center and researching plans (not to mention years of wishing, dreaming)… we finally found a used coop that met our super tight budget. (A coat of pretty paint, and the sturdy coop will look quite nice in the back corner of our yard.)   And a completely unexpected bonus- the large (6 nest boxes) coop came with enough fencing and fence posts for a very large run.

An even bigger bonus – the coop came with 3 organically-fed, heritage breed, 9 month-old hens – 2 Australorps (two big glossy-green/black girls that lay brown-eggs) and an Auracana (a rusty, stripey hen with big tufts of feathers on the sides of her head that lays blue-green eggs).

We can’t wait to expand out little flock, and I can’t wait to write some more about the beginning of our chicken-keeping adventure.   But, that’s all for now- yardwork calls.   After having friends and neighbors help us move the weighty coop into place yesterday, we need to get out and put the fencing up today, so Sarah, Plucky and Nudge can roam their patch of the yard safely (and also keep the tender baby veggies safe from them!).

More soon…

Seedlings

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Yesterday afternoon, with my son on my back, the girls and I potted up the first of our tomato seedlings – all 51 of them.  (The one above is a “Black Krim”, a favorite of ours for salads.)  Another 26 little tomato-lets (started a week later) will be potted up this weekend, time allowing.
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(Above: Our eclectic collection of potted-up tomatoes – in sour cream and tapioca containers, large paper cups, milk jugs, juice bottles, hand-me-down pots.)
It felt wonderful to spend the afternoon in the warm sunshine, kneeling with my children on the front steps, tenderly moving each little seedling from a starting tray into its own pot.   It felt wonderful to be growing food with my children, and I am grateful for the many, many days  of gardening with them that are spread out in front of us.
One of the most important resources that a garden makes available for use, is the gardener’s own body. A garden gives the body the dignity of working in its own support. It is a way of rejoining the human race. – Wendell Berry

Got our wellies on!

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Seems like we’ve been living in our wellies this week as we spent most of our time planting in the garden.  This week we’ve started:

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Peas, round two, this time in the front yard – Little Marvel, Tall Telephone, and Oregon Sugar Pod II.

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Potatoes, in three beds in the backyard, near the larger coldframe – German Butterball, All Blue, and a rare heirloom, Red Thumb, an oblong potato with thin red skin and rosey pink flesh.

Leafy and misc. Veggies – Fordhook , Magenta Lights, and Bright Lights Swiss Chard; Russian Red, Dwarf White, and Nero Tuscana Kale, chives, an heirloom lettuce blend, mustard greens, and a brave early attempt at carrots.

Sprinkled around the edges of the beds we seeded calendula and mixed-color California poppies.  At the ends of the pea rows, we put in Wedding Blush tall sweet peas.

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When I got too tired to do any more yardwork, and the kids were tired of scooter and bike riding around the driveway, we sat on the front steps (smelling the fragrant hyacinths that have just begun to open), and potted up some seeds:

Tomato and tomatillo – third round of tomato planting, so all of these are repeats – Green Zebra, red and yellow Brandywine, Persimmon,  Black Krim, Yellow Pear, Sweet  Million, Tigerella, Cherokee Purple, Crnkovic  Yugoslav (from Seed Savers), Marvel Striped tomatoes, and Purple de Milpa tomatillos.

Other veggies – we started Musselborough Leeks and a second round of globe artichokes (Tum Tum the Destroyer did in my first pot of 7).

What veggies are you starting in your garden?  What are you most looking forward to starting?


Little Ragamuffins

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We scrapped all other plans for today,

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and simply played in in the dirt.

As Firecracker said, “There’s nothin’ more natural than gettin’ dirty.”

Somehow, in the midst of playing “dirt fairies”, “cruel dirt queen who makes her workers dig all day”, “climb dirt mountain”, “search for worms and buried treasure”, and “fill and empty buckets of dirt over and over”, we managed to spread just shy of two yards more compost over the front beds, finally completing them.

Tomorrow – chard, beets, kale, mustard greens and potatoes are sown out front.  The coming weeks – finish backyard beds, plant more veggies, mulch paths, plant a few fruit trees, and finish chicken coop/run.

Our front yard before this weekend’s garden work day:

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And this afternoon:

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Many thanks to all of the volunteers who helped on Saturday!!  We are excited to see the garden grow and develop in the coming months!

Tomato seeds

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You know what they say – “Good things comes in small packages.”  I think tomato seeds are just about the best small package around -they contain the promise of wonderful meals to come.

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I know our garden is going to be growing food for more than our nuclear family, and therefore we’ll be starting more tomato plants than the average garden.  However, we want to grow a wide variety, and I could never use up all of the seeds from the dozen or so types of tomatoes we’ll be growing if I purchased a separate packet of each type.  Thank goodness for mix packs that contain 3 or 4 varieties to a pack – each dyed a different color, so you can still tell what seed will produce what tomato.

My favorite salad tomatoes – Black Krim and Green Zebra…I can’t wait for August!

What are you favorite tomato varieties?

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(One of the two tubs with tomato and tomatillo pots – each with 4-6 seeds.  I can’t help but peek at them over and over, hoping to see someone germinating.  Patience, patience!)

Library books this week

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The girls are listening to Daddy read The Mousehunter at bedtime, but our daytime book selection reflects the unusually sunny, warm weather that has us all thinking of anything except the tail-end of winter.

We just finished listening to Animal, Vegetable, Miracle (Which is why we’re starting an asparagus bed -  Little Hen was fascinated by the chapter on asparagus – as read by Barbara Kingsolver’s daughter), interspersed with a complementary collection of Appalachian music.  Indulging a totally separate branch of the girls’ current interests, we had worked our way through a stack of books on Norse mythology and ancient Egypt.  So, it was time to order some new items.  In the afternoons, when we’ve needed a break from gardening, we’ve been scrolling through the library’s website, ordering books, books on CD, and music CDs that appeal to us.

When we went to pick up the books, it was clear that a definite theme must have been running through our collective subconscious while we were ordering:

SPRING!!

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This afternoon, while the rain comes down outside, we’ll be reading the chapters on winter and spring from Our Farm, a book about 5 siblings’ experience of a year on their family’s farm.

What books are seeing you through the end of winter, as we edge toward spring?

Why I haven’t been blogging the past week or so

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We’re working on a converting our front lawn into veggie beds, and the unseasonably warm and dry weather has helped us get a jump start on sheet mulching.  Goodbye lawn, hello permaculture landscape!  While Tum Tum and I spread cardboard, straw, manure and compost, Little Hen and her Daddy were busy building cold frames out of scrap wood and old windows from the ReStore. (Firecracker was either resting inside, or resting curled up in a nest of blankets on the driveway, since she not only had strep throat, but then a head-to-toe reaction to the amoxicillin meant to cure the strep.  Poor kid. )

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(Collage posters Little Hen made calling for Garden Volunteers – I wrote the words, but she went to town with the scissors, a stack of old issues of Mother Earth News and a glue stick.)

Last year we worked at Penelope’s Garden, but this year, we’ll be hosting a community-building garden of our own.   It will be years before our seedling fruit trees and berry bushes obscure many sunny patches of our yard, so we thought we’d make good use of it all and put in veggie beds to grow fresh, organic produce for families of limited means.  This weekend, a team of volunteers will help us finish installing the front yard beds and create many more in the backyard, so that the organic veggies grown here and cared for by volunteers can be delivered to the families at Birch Community Services, a local non-profit serving needy families in Portland.

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We saved a little time for planting poppies and sweet pea seeds, rhubarb and asparagus crowns.  We also started tomato, artichoke, and cardoon seeds in pots in the basement.   The dry evenings allowed me to plant blueberry bushes, dozens and dozens of strawberry plants, and a red currant after dinners last week.

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As Little Hen’s sign (which she hung on the front door) says -“Gardening – You want to sign up?”  If you’re interested in volunteering to grow food for needy families in the Portland area, and teaching those families to grow their own nutritious, organic produce, please e-mail me at

angela(dot)baker(dot)knits(at)gmail(dot)com

I’m working on setting up a little blog dedicated to the garden this year.  More on that soon.   If you have any ideas on a name  for the Birch Community Services’  educational and food producing organic garden hosted at the Baker’s house, I’d LOVE to hear them (short, sweet and whimsical is best).

Happy gardening!  The rains and cold weather are on the way, so I’m sure I’ll be posting more from indoors later this week!