My Garden 26 May 2013

Well I found both good and bad in my garden this weekend.

The good is that all my seed potatoes have sprouted and are growing strong. There are twelve plants growing in this staggered row. I have never grown fingerlings so I don't know what to expect when harvest comes. When I grew russets, this row would give me about 15-20 pounds of potatoes. I usually only recommend growing potatoes, which are generally cheap to buy, if you have plenty of garden space and/or you want to eat a certain, special type of potato. I have the space and I have a knack with potatoes so they are a "go to" vegetable for me. I save my own seed potatoes so after this year I won't have to buy any. I also like to keep in practice growing them since in a worst case scenario they are one of the best vegetables to grow since they store so well. I've said before that I am not a "Prepper" and this site is not specifically for "Dooms-dayers" but as an old Boy Scout, I do like to be prepared.

The bad this weekend? We had a very late-season frost last week. It wasn't a killing frost but it did do some damage. If you look closely at my bean plants many of them are "frost-burned" and the leaves are very damaged. All the seeds sprouted except one and I reseeed that one. Actually it did sprout but something nipped it off at the root. So more than half my beans are damaged. I watered them heavily and will give them a week to see how well they recover. It is still early so I can always reseed them. My plan is to plant a batch of beans about every two to three weeks anyway so I have a constant harvest.

My peas are growing slowly but surely. As they get more growth and more leaves they will grow faster. Again, all but one seed sprouted. Most of them are already attaching tendrils to the cages so they will start to climb. I probably could have planted them earlier but we had such a cold, wet spring I couldn't get the soil tilled and prepared.

The onions are also doing quite well. I weeded both the peas and the onions, which took all of ten minutes. I try to weed early and often so that the weeds don't get deep roots. I still need to mulch thse plants and hope to do that next weekend.

I have enjoyed several bunches of radishes already. These have grown very well. I could start picking lettuce and spinach anytime. I ate a couple spinach leaves while weeding and they are crisp and tasty. I probably will not plant anything else in the cold frame until the fall. I will let what I have growing in there mature and harvest as it does. I will need to prepare a anding seedbed to plant these plants outside the box since the weather is (hopefully) warming up enough at night.

I turned my compost and both working piles are too dry to decompose as fast as I would like. We had a pretty good rain this past week but I think I will have to drag the hose down to my compost bins to wet them down and get them cooking again. You must maintain a good balance of moisture and aeration as well as the right balance of carbon and nitrogen levels in your materials.

Happy Gardening!

Apples - "An apple a day keeps the doctor away."

Everyone knows that old saying but just how healthy are apples?

An ingredient found in apple peels has been found by a team of researchers to help prevent muscle weakening in mice.

Muscle weakening often occurs in humans as a result of illness and aging. But so far, it has not been well understood nor has a medicine existed for it. Ursolic acid, also known as pent acyclic triterpene acid, is present in plants that include apples, basil, bilberries, cranberries, elder flower, peppermint, rosemary, lavender, oregano, thyme, hawthorn, and prunes.

Apple peels contain large quantities of ursolic acid and related compounds. Ursolic acid commonly is used in cosmetics and is capable of inhibiting various types of cancer cells.

Animals given ursolic acid became leaner and had lower blood levels of glucose, cholesterol, and triglycerides. The findings therefore suggest that ursolic acid may be responsible for some of the overall benefits of healthy eating.

Americans eat lots of apples, and the food industry produces a lot of applesauce. However, many people are unaware that most of the health benefits are found in the skin, or apple peel. Apple peels are chock-full of special phytonutrients, like phloridzin and phloretin xylogucoside, that give apples their unique and potent antioxidant and anti inflammatory qualities.

Apple polyphenols also can help prevent spikes in blood sugar through a variety of mechanisms.

Flavonoids such as quercetin found in apples can inhibit enzymes, like alpha-amylase and alpha-glucosidase. Since these enzymes are involved in the breakdown of complex carbohydrates into simple sugars, the blood sugar in our bodies has fewer simple sugars to deal with when these enzymes are inhibited.

The polyphenols in apples have been shown to lessen absorption of glucose from the digestive tract, stimulate the beta cells of the pancreas to secrete insulin, and increase uptake of glucose from the blood via simulation of insulin receptors. All of these mechanisms can make it easier to  regulate blood sugar.

It is hard to grow trully organic apples in the US because there are so many pests. Just be sure to thoroughly clean your apples before eating them. I like to put a small amount of peanut butter on slices for a healthy mid-day snack.

My Garden 19 May 2013

Just a week since my last post and my garden has grown nicely. There were two sub-freezing nights this past week, one night  in the 20's. I was worried about my young plants but everything I have growing now is cold tolerant. The spinach and lettuce are protecte by the cold frame. Ther wasn't any rain this week so I soaked the garden with the sprinkler.

The green beans have aleady sprouted, probably just 2-3 days ago. They do not yet have true leaves but they should by next weekend. They are vulnerable at this stage and hopefully they will make it through the week. The nights are not supposed to get so cold but birds and rabbits are the new threat. The wire grates should help out.

The peas look good, it looks like one failed to sprout but we'll see next week. I can always pop another seed in the round there. The onions are up and growing fast. I said last post that there were 25 planted but there are actually 50 planted sets.

My potatoes were planted deep so they took quite a while to emerge. Now that the leaves will receive sunlight they will grow much faster. I counted nine plants breaking the surface. Hopefully the whole staggered row will sprout.

Inside my cold frame the first radishes I planted are ready to harvest and the second planting has sprouted. I still only have one lettuce plant but I have four spinach plants growing. I will have to reseed next weekend.  Unfortunately, I am only home on the weekends and can't regulate the temperature in the box or water the plants when they need it. But in spite of that some things are growing very well.

I picked half a dozen radishes to take home. I already ate two of them though and they were tasty and mild. This variety is the "French Breakfast" radish and they are mild. I'll grow some sharper ones later in the season. Tasted great with my lunch!

I turned both my compost piles and they were warm enough to steam. They were a little dry so today's light rain should do the piles good. By the time both bins "cook" down, they will leave a little less than half a bin of good compost each. More than enough for my needs.

What are you waiting for? Start growing some food.

My Garden 12 May 2013

In just a week, or two, there has been some good progress in my garden. It is still far too cold at night to transplant warm season plants like peppersand tomatoes. But I have onions, potatoes, peas, radishes, spinach, and lettuce growing. I also just planted green beans but they won't sprout for 7 - 10 days since the ground is still cool.

I thought I would use tomato cages for my peas this year. I planted peas around the bottom of the cage and they will climb the cage. This will give them a sturdy trellis to climb and plenty of air circulation and access to sunlight. My intent then is to plant peppers and/or tomatoes in the cage after the peas are harvested. That will take advantage of the nitrogen the peas (as legumes) fixed at the roots and deposited in the soil. WheneverI harvest legumes I always cut the plant off at the ground and leave all the roots in the soil to maximize the nitrogen available.

As you can see the onions came up very well. There should be about 25 plants started here. A couple were pulled out by birds but I pushed them back in the soil and they seem to have re-started. I had wanted to mulch the rows but didn't get around to it this weekend. My mom died last week and we buried her on Wednesday. So I have been tied up with family activities.

Protecting the seeds from birds

Green Bean Planting Bed

I have used this technique for planting seeds for many years and it has always been successful. I prepare the seed bed and then scratch out the rows with a stick or trowel. I set the seeds in the dug row and space them slighty more apart then the seed package instructs because the rows will be half the distance apart than the package calls for. Then, instead of pushing the soil back over the seeds, I fill the row trench with compost. This does several things for me. First, it clearly marks the rows. Second, it gives the plants a soft, loose soil to sprout through. Third, it is dark so it warms up faster by absorbing more sunlight, which is converted to heat. Fourth, it will absorb water faster and hold more moisture for longer beause of the high organic content (100% organic material). Lastly, it will feed the young plants with a slow release natural fertilizer.

I have problems with birds pulling out the sprouted seeds and other night-time critters digging up my seeds and young plants. I salvaged about 60 of these one-foot square wire panels from a dumpster and they work great to protect the seeds. Once th plants are a couple inches tall I can pick them up and store them or use them on other areas.

I like raised beds and eventualy want to convert my whole garden space to a series of raised beds. But for now I till the whole garden space and then use pavers to set off small growing spaces. It does waste some space but it has been a very successful method. I like to use pavers as stepping stones. This keeps my shoes clean and prevents compaction of the soil since I am not walking on the dirt.

 I usually clean up my raspberry patch in early March but had too many other chores to get done. So I finally got to it this week. I cut out the previous year's dead canes to prevent disease and clear space for new growth. Most raspberries fruit on one year old canes and then the cane dies off. If you don't clean the dead canes out the patch gets choked with dead canes and the new canes are crowded out. The dead canes make up about 33% of the plant material in a patch. Once the dead canes are cut out I run them through the chipper/shredder and toss the ground up material on my compost pile. Then I fork in new mulch (mulched yard material picked up with my yard vacuum) to feed and protect the patches' soil.

I did not take any pictures of what is growing in my cold frame this week. I have a good crop of radishes, which I will start picking next weekend, a couple spinach plants, but only one lettuce plant is started. I reseeded onions, radishes, and lettuce.

My Garden - 21 April 2013

It was cool and very windy this weekend but I was able to get some work done on my garden anyway.

I had covered my garden with about four inches of mulched grass and leaves in the fall and that had rotted down to less than two inches. There was much more mulch left than in previous years; usually there is barely a trace of material remaining after the six months have passed.  That could be because it was so cold this winter and it was a long winter. 

So I tilled it all under, which took three passes with my tiller. Mixing the remaining material into the soil should speed up its final decomposition. While this is happening though the nitrogen levels in the soil will drop. The good bacteria in your soil use nitrogen as fuel to decompose organic materials. So I will give it two weeks before I plant anything in the main garden bed. But I did plant some things this weekend. How will they grow in a low nitrogen soil?

First, I have to remind you that I have an active three-bin composting set-up. Right now I have one 64 cubic foot bin full to within inches of the top. I have one full bin that is about half way through its decomposition but is cold right now (no active decomposition) and one 3/4s full bin about half way through its decomposition. I cut my grass with my lawn vacuum attached, which sucked up and mulched grass, twigs, pine needles, and leaves. I added this to a half full bin and mixed it all up to aerate and level out the moisture content. Within 12 hours it was a hot, active compost pile. This Saturday I mixed it again to get oxygen into the mix and it was steaming hot. I will mix it once a week and it will cook down very quickly.

So I have no shortage of aged, rich compost and that will supply all the nutrients new plants will need until the rest of the garden soil breaks down and is stabilized. I also saved all my wood ashes from my fire place and have five gallons of ash to add potash to the soil. Potash is very water soluble and it washes out of the soil with rain.

I like to add walkways in my garden to keep it clean and avoid compacting the soil. It is true, I do lose some growing space but the soil under the pavers holds moisture and nutrients for the plants that grow near them. Secondly, I can pick them up and move them at any time, which I will do with successive plantings. The two blocks I set up here did not have a mulch cover on them all winter. In this area I amended the soil in the fall and then covered the space with clear plastic. So it had all winter to break down. It the rear-most block I planted Yellow Onion sets. There are fifty onions planted four inches apart and one inch deep.

In the front bed I set in four tomato cages and planted pea seeds around the base of each. The peas will grow and climb the cages. Peas are legumes. Legumes take nitrogen from the air and "fix" it to their roots. When the peas are finished and harvested I will cut the plants off at the ground and all that free nitrogen they collected will remain in the soil for the next (successive) plants I put in there.



I laid plastic down to warm the soil and speed up the decomposition process. I will plant potatoes there next weekend. I bought seed potatoes for the first time in maybe twenty years. I normally just store 15-20 small potatoes from one year over the winter. I keep them in a cool, dark space in a paper bag and they sprout at each eye. Then I plant them deep and the sprouts convert to roots and top growth. How they know to do both I have no idea but it works. However, since I lived in The Netherlands last year I have no carry-overs and am starting from scratch. Seed potatoes must be conditioned before you can plant them. On Wednesday I will cut up the seed potatoes so that each piece has two eyes. Then I will set them out in my apartment to dry. They will be ready to plant on Saturday. If you just cut them up and plant them, many of them will just rot in the cold, wet soil.

This picture isn't great but you should be able to see radishes on the left and spinach on the right lower parts of the bed. This is inside my new cold frame. Unfortunately, I don't live at my house full-time and the soil is a bit dry. I watered the ground Saturday and Sunday so hopefully the onion and lettuce seeds will sprout soon too.

This is my strawberry bed. I planted 22 plants on Sunday. I am a little disappointed with Gurney's, they shorted me three plants. I paid for 25. I planted them 15 inches apart and used a cup of compost in the bottom of each plant hole. Now I am hoping that we don't get a serious freeze before the plants are set and growing.

These are my three blueberry bushes. I planted them five years ago and they are now about four feet high and three feet in diameter. They will produce about a gallon of berries this year, maybe a bit more. When the berries actually form, in June, I have to cover them with bird netting to keep them from being eaten by the birds and other small animals.

Here is a money-saver for you; free plant propagation. I have two raised beds, in wood boxes, that I used two years ago to root cuttings from some trees on my property. I rooted a dozen willow and a dozen hybred-populars. I hope to plant these around my property this spring. This could also be done with fruit trees, berry bushes, and decorative plants to save you money and grow more food. On Sunday I also "heeled in" a dozen hemlock rooted seedlings.These came from The Arbor Foundation. My mother-in-law made a donation to the foundaton and received 12 seedlings.  I did not have time to plant them in the yard so I did a temporary planting in my box. I can then pull them and plant them when I have more time. 

Grow your own for a secure supply of clean, pesticide-free food. Stay tuned for updates on my garden.

Build a Cold Frame

What is a cold frame? In its simplest form it is just a box with a transparent cover, which allows you to start seeds or plants outside when it is still too cold to plant in the garden. The transparent cover lets in sunlight, which warms up everything inside of the box and the soil. While the sunlight is not as direct or as strong as it is in the main growing season, it is enough to get plants started or even to grow cool season crops like lettuce, spinach, radishes, and onions, to name but a few.

I have wanted a cold frame for many years. My dad had one when I was a kid but I don't remember how successful he was with it. I used plastic sheeting in The Netherlands to create something similar to a cold frame and it was very effective.

Being a bit of a cheapskate, I wanted to build one for as little cost as possible. Below is my project.

Keeping cost in mind, I choose to use 5/4 inch deck boards for my box. 2x6s or 2x8s could also be used and would have a better insulating value but they would cost twice as much. I bought seven 5/4"x6"x8' boards for my project. What I have found over the years is that these boards are saturated and if you build something and let them dry quickly outside they will warp and split something terrible. So I now stack them in my garage with slats between them and the top board weighted down so that they dry slowly and evenly. The weights, in this case pavers, keep them flat as they dry. It took three weeks to dry them and I put a fan on them for the last couple days.

To cut down on waste and to get the biggest number of square feet inside the box, I cut my boards so I had a five foot piece and a three foot piece. That would give me 15 square feet of soil surface once the box was put together. If I had cut the boards in half, two four foot pieces, I would have 16 square feet of soil surface but it is very hard to reach to the back of a four foot box. You should always cut treated lumber in a well vented area so that you aren't breathing in the fumes and saw dust. I used my garage with all the doors open. It gave me a flat work area and plenty of fresh air.

Always use a square to get 90 degree cuts and accurate measurements. It is not fine cabinetry but it will certainly look better and be stronger with accurate cuts. I used my battery powered circular saw, one of the best free scavenged items I have found. It was perfect for this project. But you could do this with a plug in circular saw, a table saw, or even a hand saw. I did finish a few cuts with a hand saw so that I wouldn't have over-run cuts.

I used two inch deck screws to attach all the parts. Treated lumber, and being outdoors, will rust plain screws or nails in a short time. I prefer screws to nails because they hold tighter, stay tight longer, and can be taken apart easier if you make a mistake (which I did) or you need to make an adjustment. Deck screws are self tapping but I always pre-drill screw holes. That eliminates splitting. I used a bar clamp to ensure the boards were tight together. The box should be as air-tight as possible to retain the heat.

Each corner was braced with a 2x2 instead of trying to screw the flat boards together. This is much easier and far stronger. The long sides had a third brace in the center, which you will see in the next pictures. My boards were not perfect, they seldom are, and so I chinked between the boards with sisal twine, much like wooden ships were chinked, or lapped, in the old days. When the twine gets wet it will expand and completely seal the small gaps. I used a putty knife to force the twine into the hair line gaps.

 As you can see in the photos I set the box on a foundation of brick. It is not necessary but I like the look and it helps to protect the bottom of the box when I am working the soil with tools.

Here you can see the two center braces to strengthen the long side of the box. The front brace is on the inside and the rear brace is on the outside. The rear brace is on the outside because I installed a long mirror inside the box, as you'll see below.

For this spring I just used a plastic bag that I had in the garage to cover my lid. It came from a large poster my son bought. Perfect fit. The lid is another 5/4x6x8 that I ripped to two inches and then cut to length. The center piece is one inch wide. The top frame is glued and screwed together and is quite sturdy. I attached the lid to the box with four small hinges. You can see the mirror inside. This will reflect light from the back of the box to the front during the early part of the day. This lights up a shadowed area.

And here is the finished Cold Frame. I will install a latch on the lid so the wind doesn't blow it open and I have ordered an automatic opening device so that the box doesn't over heat and cook the plants. Everything combined was less than $50 plus the opening device was another $44. It wouldn't be necessary if I lived there full time; I could raise and lower the lid as needed.

Last weekend, after placing the Cold Frame in my garden, I planted onion, radish, lettuce, and spinach seeds using the square foot gardening method. I should have some plants growing by next week. I'll keep you posted.



Seed Catalogs

It is that time of the year to start ordering seed catalogs. There are national seed companies of course; such as Gurney's and Burpee. I have ordered seeds from both and was completely satisfied with them. But you should also do Internet searches for local seed and plant companies/nurseries. It is always better to buy seeds/plants that are grown in your local area. This more or less ensures that the plants will thrive in your growing zone.

If you eventually want to save your own seeds, for more assured availability and self-sufficiency, then you should look for "open pollinated" seeds. Only open pollinated seeds grow plants from which you can save seeds and the seeds will produce plants true to form. The other main stream seed companies sell mostly hybrid seeds. You cannot save seeds from hybrid plants and then expect to grow plants from them the next year. Because they are hybrids, you never know if they will germinate or what will grow from them if they do sprout. Do an Internet search with the term "Open Pollinated Seed Companies" and you will get quite a few hits.

Johnny's is one company I intend to check out this year. They sell forage seed (amongst a lot of other products) and I have cleared a 20-30 foot edge around one of my fields and want to seed it for wildlife food plots. Because I have been an absentee land owner for 30 years, brush and trees have been encroaching on all my farm fields. This winter I have been pulling out the brush and small trees as well as cutting back over-hanging branches. It has been a lot of work but I owe it to my tenent farmer to free up more cultivatable land. I will maintain a food plot ring around each of my fields as I clear them. This will support more wildlife and make it easier to cultivate the fields.

Seed catalogs generally also contain planting, growing, and harvesting tools and supplies. None of them are needed, but many of them will save you time, make your work easier, and extend the growing season. The catalogs will also give you ideas of new crops to try out and the descriptions will help you select the right seeds for your growing plan. If you do intensive gardening with successive crops, you will need to select early and late ripening versions of the crops you want to grow. Just keep in mind, the catalogs are designed to sell their product so do your research before buying.