Gardening

                                                               Bella Cloche

                                                            October 3, 2013

Ever since I read about the use of glass cloches in the agricultural techniques of  16^th century Paris, I have been in love with the romance of using glass cloches in my own vegetable garden. They are a perfect example of form following function with their endearing bell shaped design; each leafy green is like a fair exhibit all its own being practically protected from the frost to prolong the growing season.  It is the perfect solution for the small time gardener. A lot of nutritious greens can be grown in just a few square feet of space. I have been growing a small winter patch for many years, always using some ugly tarp, or left over plastic scraps to do the job.  However resourceful I pride myself on being; these options are not so attractive. In fact, this was brought to my attention one day by an honest child who said, “Mrs. Johnson, Why do you have garbage in your garden?”

So, It has been my little Martha Stewart dream to own glass cloches to improve the beauty and quality of life in my garden. Only one obstacle has been barring my way, the fact that each of these lovely bells of glass costs around $50.  Well, when was the last time I let money stop me from doing what I wanted? Oh yeah, never.

So, as my aforementioned resourcefulness implies, I found a new way to recycle. I have been squirreling away glass jars of all types as material supply for my growing home fermentation addiction and I finally ran out of room for my jars. One of my favorite such vessels are the big jugs that organic apple cider comes in at the store. You know the ones, with the little finger handle at the top that holds a gallon of fermented goodness. Only thing is, I had way too many of them and I could not bring myself to throw them in the recycling bin because they are so special. Then I realized that these were my Beautiful cloches just waiting to be re-imagined!  

Using U-tube for the unlimited educational resource that it is, I learned how to cut the bottoms off my jugs with a mere string and finger nail polish! (I will not burden you with lengthy explanations of my craft steps here as you are perfectly able to look up the videos yourself.) Being homeschoolers, of course, we took this opportunity to get out of English class and do some “art”. Oh how lovely my glass cloches have turned out. They even have a lid so the bottles can vent hot air during the day and be closed again at night. Yes, this fall, there will be no ugly tarp greenhouse here! Only beautiful, up cycled juice bottle cloches for me.

 

November 2012 Peaches translated into winter joy.

August 2012

Our fruit trees are still quite young so we have only enjoyed a few harvests from them so far, but I am quickly learning that having fruit trees is a fantastic way to increase your harvest! This peach tree is probably eight years old or so. The first time it made peaches we got a crate. I have already picked a crate off this one which only inclues the peaches with hail damage. I'm sure we will get at least one full crate of flawless peaches. I am eager for them to completley ripen as the branches are bowed so far it is hard to get past them into my garden at this point. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Mid June 2012 Time to thin the roots! Baby carrots make for good snacking. We put the baby beats in a stir fry and in salads. "But ask the animals, and they will teach you; the birds of the air, and they will tell you; ask the plants of the earth, and they will teach you; and the fish of the sea will declare to you. Who among all these does not know that the Lord has done this? In his hand is the life of every living thing and the breath of every human being." Job 12:7-10 What's growing in May? I still have not been brave enough to plant my tomatoes as it has been hailing and some more storms are expected, but the bed is dug and ready to plant any time. Everything is bigger, especially the plants that are under my little hoop houses.

Here are my squashes. They have grown a lot since April!

These are the fava beans. I think they are going to be very pretty. Time to do some research on the best way to eat these. I have never grown them before.

We believe these are katydid eggs on one of our trees. Such friendly, sweet insects.

Permaculture Dictonary.com describes permaculture as follows: “A system of cultivation intended to maintain permanent agriculture or horticulture by renewable resources and a self sustainable ecosystem.” The main idea is this; planning our landscape in a way that nurtures the symbiotic relationships that take place in nature. These relationships are complex and fascinating to study. When deciding what plants to put into my yard I like to research and consider some of these relationships to try to make the mini ecosystem in my yard work as a healthy unit. For instance, I use companion planting methods in my vegetable garden to help my plants to thrive apart from fertilizers and pesticides. I also prefer to use predatory insects to control the population of undesirables in my garden. Some of the obvious ones are lady bugs and praying mantis which you can purchase at most garden stores, and are really fun to release, especially if you have kids. This year I am learning about apple trees since I have two baby Wealthy apple trees as the newest addition to my happy family. I really hate wormy apples. I also don’t want to spray my trees with pesticides. But codling moths are relentless and have already been infesting my neighbor’s trees for years. I knew I had to think of something or we’d just end up with applesauce at the end of the summer. So I did a little research. It turns out that the codling moth has some natural enemies. One of which is a tiny, non stinging wasp called the Trichograma micro wasp. These tiny wasps lay their eggs inside the eggs of the codling moth, devouring her young before they have a chance to hatch. It is these larva who would eventually chew into my apples and ruin them. By adding the Trichogramas to my eco system, I can help control my moth population, therefore giving my apples a better chance. I ordered some of these wasps online. They cost me almost $30 before shipping, so I want them to love my yard and keep their life cycle going year after year. I found out that while the larva prey on moth eggs, the adults need nectar nearby. To maintain a healthy population of wasps, I planted dill and cosmos in my herb garden just feet from my apple trees. Now I am ready to welcome these new bugs into my yard! I can’t wait to see what happens. This is only one example of the endless ways you can use permaculture in your yard. Other examples include planting forage for your livestock to reduce usage of hay and other feeds, incorporating a green roof, re-routing rain water, composting, re-using garden waste as mulch, companion planting, etc. The possibilities are endless. You may find it worthwhile to do a little exploring for yourself. A note of caution: If you have a rare species of butterfly or moth that breeds in your garden, you may want to use discretion when introducing Trichograma wasps to your yard as they will also attack the eggs of most other moths and butterflies. I found a lot of helpful information on this subject at greenharvest.com. You can order Trichograma wasps from many insect web sites. I would recommend finding one in your home state as overnight air shipping is very expensive. I ordered mine from a nearby company and only had to pay for ground shipping. What's Growing in April?

Well, the hoop houses are up once again. I finally ditched the old greenhouse which had grown weather beaten and shredded. These are inexpensively built using sprinkler pipe and clear plastic paint drop cloths. With these simple, movable structures it is possible to gain a little on your growing season.

Inside we have watermelons, pumpkins, gourds, and zucchini sprouting.It is still about four weeks before these should be set out in the garden but I'm finding that even with nighttime temperatures in the 30's, they seem to be coping just fine.

I am quite twiterpated about the heirloom rhubarb going to seed as I plan to sell these in my Etsy shop.

Baby greens to go on my bean salad for lunch

Tomatoes looking out the window, waiting for warmer nights.



Ageing Your Dirt

Once I was invited to speak at a friend’s seed party about digging a garden. I tried to pass on what I had learned in John Jeavons’ book “How to Grow More Vegetables”. It is a lovely systematic way of creating a deep and fertile raised bed that gets better with time. As I looked out at my audience I noticed the grimaces on the ladies faces as they imagined the process of digging into their hard, dry Colorado clay a whole foot down and then loosening another foot beneath that. I think most of them decided to buy a tidy little box garden and fill it with expensive nursery dirt. I was saddened that I had not been able to get my point across about the slow, but rewarding process of improving one’s soil. I dug my garden beds the John Jeavons way and yes, it was a lot of work. When I first dug my garden I had some grass under which was rock hard, nasty red clay. For the first few years I religiously re dug my beds a foot deep with loosened soil laying another foot deep below that. I mixed in fresh compost and rounded their little tops before planting each spring; rotating my crops to maintain soil nutrients. It was all… very good exercise.

Today, as I was drinking my tea under the peach tree, breathing in wet spring air mixed with the scent of blooming lilacs, I got the urge to pull back the mulch from what is going to be my fava bean patch. It looked like a messy little hill covered with straw. As I lifted the straw, I found dark, sweet dirt underneath. As I pressed my fingers into the bed, they just sank right in! I had placed a small compost pile there last year so there was no need to mix in compost. A few pieces of straggly grass poked up around the edges. Those were soon dealt with, every dig of my trowel producing two or three healthy looking earth worms. This year I reaped my harvest. No digging required. I simply pushed my dry fava beans down into the soil and took another sip of tea. Smile. Wiggle toes. Breathe. Those are going to be some pretty tasty fava beans!

In case you didn’t get the hint, I strongly recommend the growing methods described by John Jeavons in his book “How To Grow More Vegetables (Than You Ever Thought Possible On Less Land Than You Can Imagine)”. He also has a very informative website at www.growbiointensive.org. His practices go beyond organic to sustainable gardening. I also have added one more idea onto what I have learned from him and heavily mulch all of my beds every winter. It cuts down on weeds and holds in the precious little moisture we get most winters in Colorado.

There is nothing like learning to care for your soil in the way a wine maker would care for a fine wine. Tending and loving it. Putting back into it from what it gave you, until one day you magically have the finest black, living loam that you have ever pushed your fingers through. It smells good enough to eat. This kind of dirt cannot be purchased at any garden store or spilled from any bag. It will feed you as well as you feed it and it is simply priceless.

MMMMMMMMMMMM! Compost, it smells like spring


March 7, 2012
COMPOSTER REVIEW
Last year my husband was helping a friend work on his new house. There was a compost bin in the back yard that had been left by the previous owner. They didn't want it so he brought it home for me. I have been making compost piles ever since I have been gardening, and I wondered how the bin would stack up to a regular pile. That was last summer. I have been filling that thing all fall and into the winter. Hubby moved it for me this spring and out of the bottom came a whole lot of great compost that is very much done. I filled a plastic garbage can with my finished compost. That is a lot more compost than I have ever found at the bottom of one of my piles before. It is a big, black, rubber bin. I think it keeps the compost warmer than it gets in a pile. It also forces the compost into a big, upright pile so that it doesn't shlump. Perhaps that keeps the center hot. Whatever it is, I am happy with the results.






Feb 29, 2012

Without meaning for it to begin, our garden is now under way. It just seems natural to wander outside and start digging when the weather is fair. I have dug up an area for hardy greens and put a hoop house over it. It was around 50 degrees today and it was quite warm when I stuck my hand under the tarp. I am hoping to see some baby spinach and kale soon! I also decided to plant sweet peas in the bean patch before it's warm enough for beans, so I built a trellace for them to climb on today. The soil is perfect. Still moist from the snow but not too muddy. I am keeping mulch on it to hold the moisture in. We'll see if we can get some peas to sprout under the straw.

April 13, 2012 Sweat Pea Update.

Look! They are growing! I can taste them already.

In July I planted carrots. They are now grown enough to start thinning them and eating some. Besides I want to get at them before winter just in case the cold kills them. This year I bought seeds for “Muscade Carrots”. We grew some in the spring also and my littlest son loved them. We found that the taste is nothing like the grocery store carrots at all! Grocery store carrots seem sweet and boring now. Even the other garden varieties we’ve grown have not been as tasty. Well, Texas started asking for more, so the patch I planted in July is mostly for him.

These carrots are crisp and juicy, with a sort of spicy, basily flavor to them. They are absolutely the best carrots we have ever eaten, and well worth growing. I got mine from Baker Creek Heirloom Seed Catalogue. You can find them on line at Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds. There is a link in the right hand margin of this page.


Last Summer we found one of these amazing caterpillars and took it to the nature center to learn about it. Today I found another one who posed for a photo opp. Minutes later a moth from the same species landed on the fence and I captured them both in a few minutes!
This is a Tobaco or Tomato Horn Worm

This one is about half grown. They can get as large as your finger. I was told they would destroy tomato plants, but so far I keep finding them in strange spots like the side walk or the hammock. This guy is now a jar specimin.

Here is a Sphinx Moth. She is probably the one who laid the egg that hatched the previous little green guy. Sometimes we see them in the evening sipping nectar from the flowers. Because of the way they fly, they look like tiny humming birds at dusk.

If you see either of these culprits, check your tomato plants for caterpillars and eggs and pick them off!

Some of the insects I am happy to see in my garden are bumble bees and butterflies. Bees have been declining in number in the past several years, so it is important to plant flowers they can visit to help them survive. And if you attract them with flowers, they'll be nice and pollinate your vegetable plants too. Letting Sunflowers grow in my garden patches seems to be a good way to atract them. Here is a picture of a Painted Lady Butterfly as well.

They are beautiful pollinators.









Every year I learn new things about gardening. This year I am learning a lot about sugar snap peas. Everyone in our family loves those sweet,tender delicacies. Problem is, they are expensive, and up until this summer I have never been able to grow them successfully. I start them early in the spring, like the package instructs, but it's too cold for the plants to get very big. Then summer hits, and they wither and dry out in the heat. I am lucky if I get a handfull of peas.

This year, I planted a whole patch of them, not just a row along a fence, like usual. When I planted the seeds, I also put in tomato cages so they'd have something to climb on. I think I planted in April, and they came up and looked pretty for a long time. They didn't start to flower until later in May. When it was time to weed for the first time, I saw some sunflowers coming up. They come up all over my yard every year and I pull them up where they are not wanted. I left them where they were.

Now it is really hot out. We are getting ninety degree days regularly, and my peas are green and happy. They have reached the tops of the tomato cages, and are starting to climb on the sunflowers. The sunflowers are providing shade. I can go out and pick a cup full of sweet peas almost on a daily basis. I have also planted more seeds since then so new ones will spring up as old vines tire out.