Garden

Garden Prep 2015

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It’s probably about time that I updated you on that indoorwinter garden that I started a while ago. Well it kind of fell flat. My herbs
did fine, as did my Swiss chard. The beans grew and produced fine until they
were attacked by ants and house flies. I think the fake warm up that we had
back in March prompted them out too early and they tried to survive inside. Oh
well maybe next year.

As for the real big kid garden things are finally starting to roll around here. The
snow has melted and the threat of frost is starting to dwindle, which means it’s
time to put this garden into gear.

I decided that many of my indoor plants needed updates. Many
had been in the same pots for years, and desperately needed nutrients in their
soil, others needed more space. I recently bought quite a few new pots and
containers for my garden this year since we are house hunting I’m planning a
mostly mobile garden. You can check out my original plan here, though it’s
already undergone a few changes.

I spent an afternoon this past weekend giving my plants refreshed
homes and preparing some pots for the eventual transplant of seedlings. I’m
decided to make my own potting soil with this recipe sans fertilizer. I also used foam (packing peanut material) for the bottoms of
some containers to allow for drainage and to keep the pots light.

In the raised garden beds I pulled out the top layer of dirt
and laid down some compost. Then replaced the dirt and added a little more
garden soil. Peas are about the only thing that I can really start now so I put
those in along the trellis we built under the deck last year.

I think for the first time in quite a number of years I’m
actually ready for this growing season to start. Another couple weeks and I can
start hardening off and transplanting.

Have you started working in your garden yet, or have plans
to? I’d love to hear about how you prepare your garden beds for the upcoming
season!

Garden Plans 2015

By Jessica

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March is the time of year every year that I get giddy for garden planning. Around here the snow is just starting to melt and the birds are barely coming home, but that is enough to get me going. I will start planting the moment that the ground is thawed enough to let me.I am always excited about learning more about gardening specifically vegetable gardens. I have a dream to one day never need to go to the
grocery store for produce. I realize that I have a long way to go however.

Recently I got The Postage Stamp Vegetable Garden

book to try to learn some more. It was packed with quite a bit of information. Starting with the basics of garden
planning to compost, companion gardening, and plant specific details there is a
lot there for the beginning gardener to learn from. For me I felt like a lot of
the material was a bit too beginner. While the book will make a good reference
for companion planting, and garden design, there wasn’t a lot of abundantly new
information for me. For someone who likes gardening it made a lovely weekend

read, and was successful in getting me amped up for another growing season.

I had huge plans this year for the garden, but the decision to start house hunting has me thinking that expanding may not be the best idea. Instead I plan to keep my two small boxes and expand into containers. This way I can take the majority of stuff with us when/if we move this year. I made up a quick sketch for this year’s plan that you
can see below. It’s actually more like the sixth or seventh sketch, but this one will be the last one I hope.

We are starting out by keeping many of the cold weather crops in the same section so that come fall I can cover them easily if it frosts and maybe get a few more weeks of growing time. Last year half of our cabbage was slow growing and therefore lost by the frost.

This year I plan to grow more tomatoes, in order to can them, and grow them in barrels with basil as a companion. I also plan to grow potatoes in a barrel, a concept I actually found on Pinterest, but will be an experiment all on its own. The peas will be grown along the porch rail again. Other than those few things everything will remain the same.

Now tell me do you guys like to garden? Do you have any plans for the season yet?Disclaimer: I was given a free copy of this book in exchange for this review through the Blogging for Books Program.

Indoor Winter Garden

By Jessica

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There are a few things I notice about the way I cook in the
summer versus the winter; the main thing is the number of salads, and fresh
veggies. Obvious I know, but I also noticed that a lot of these types of
veggies are fairly easy to grow indoors. So I have decided to try out a small
indoor winter garden.

Don’t you love Chuck’s gnome? I do.

Now I already have quite a few plants hanging around our
tiny apartment, so to start with I had to make space. The first to go were the
succulents and cactuses. I don’t get any real joy from these, and I’m not very
good at taking care of them. I know; cactuses. Whatever, we all have our
weaknesses.

I also combined a few things, did a few crafts and cleaned out some junk to make more space.

Next I transitioned a few of my outdoor plants to the
indoors. Those included parsley, Swiss chard, a few chive and tarragon
seedlings. The tarragon didn’t make it, I think because they had already gotten too cold. I’ll try again next year.

I already had quite a few plants started through my re-propagation experiments, so those are still going, and will hopefully be
providing for us for a few more months.

I also started some bean seeds. I wanted to do more vegetables but there just isn’t space. Maybe our next place (hopefully before the spring growing season). Anyway the little bean seedlings are popping up now and I’m excited to see what comes of them! Hopefully we will get enough beans for a few dinners.

It’s baby steps to sustainability around here.

How are your indoor plants doing?

Garden Lessons Learned, & Next Year

By Jessica

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This garden year was a really eye opening year for me. We
tried a lot of vegetables that we have never tried before (cabbage, broccoli, heirloom carrots) and I learned so
much. I think it’s important to recap everything that happened in order to do
better next year and to keep a history of my progress as a gardener.

This year we decided to add a more nutrient rich soil and use raised beds, since our native soil is basically useless sand. This is the same basic raised bed system we used in our first garden *** I think this has
helped so much! We also decided to try the square foot method, which I think
works really well with the small space that we have.

Things I have learned from this year.

1)
Label your plants, seedlings look too much
alike. Also lay out the square feet with string to keep things organized. In the past it was easy to remember where things where, but this year we had so much that I totally lost track, and I think our garden suffered for it.

2)
Thin out your seedlings early, if you wait after
1-2 inches they may very well become a dense forest that you cannot figure out.
Also the sprouts are delicious in salads. Side note: this is especially true of
lettuce mixes, since you can’t tell the difference between them and weeds.

3)
Cabbages need way more than 1 foot of space. Next year I will put them in the corners so that the can overhang the edges of the garden.

4)
Tomatoes seem to love this cool weather and lots
of water. Make sure to water the garden 2 x daily, in the morning and at night
are best. Note: we need to get larger, stronger tomato cages, ours don’t have much left to them.

5)
Also you should really prune tomato plants. They
seem to produce so much more fruit. We came to this conclusion by pruning one
and not the other. Not super scientific but I’m not the only one who promotes
pruning.

6)
Cucumber’s hide the way beans do, so make sure you lift up all of the leaves.

7)
If you cut broccoli it will produce more
broccoli. Awesome.

Things I plan on doing next year.

1)
Pruning tomato plants early, and staying on top
of them.

2)
More cucumbers and an attempt at canning them.

3)
If we are still living here I want to double the
size of the garden, or at least increase it by 50%.

4) Composting.

5)
Grow potatoes.
6) Plant fewer beans, and stake the ones I do plant. I think I can get fewer plants to produce more if I give them more attention.
7) Get more organized, as far as spacing my plants and labeling them.

Life Lessons from Compost

By Jessica

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Guys I have so many things going on over here. Blame the season, the moon or whatever I’m changing my ways, for good it seems.

I have always been a granola-y, experimental type, but I’ve always thought that so many of these things had to wait until I got a house. You know a place I owned that was mine, that I could build on to or change however I wanted. When I had that house man I could make some real changes, I could live so much greener. I’m starting to hit a point where I realize that this house is a bit further off than I have ever previously thought. We are waiting for the stars to align over here, and the gods only knows when that will happen.

I’m realizing that I will always be waiting for something before I start. I realize this is not what I want. I don’t want to be a big talker who never takes action. I don’t want to learn to love my walls (we are paraphrasing here).

“These walls are funny. First you hate ’em, then you get used to ’em. Enough time passes, you get so you depend on them. That’s institutionalized.” – Morgan Freeman, Shawshank Redemption

I want to do these things, and live this life that I envision, and I’m going to start doing that, right now.

I know we are getting deep here, and all I meant to talk to you about today was compost bins, because this is one of the many projects that I am starting, so that I can get where I want to be. I’m also not using shampoo, experimenting with vegetarianism, learning about essential oils, learning to can and jar, and gaining a more in-depth knowledge of tea. I also want to pick sewing and knitting back up, as well as yoga and art, since I don’t want all those childhood lessons my parents sent me for to go to waste.

These are all things that touched my life at some point and have since fallen away, and I want them back to be a stronger presence for me.

So yeah I set up my compost bin this weekend.

Garden

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