Just in Time

Saving Seeds 2014

Extra Goodies

Ready to Plant

My eagerly awaited package showed up to brighten my day despite the coughing, runny nose, and achiness I have today. I am stoked.

Compost

First Compost Pile

Have I mentioned before my whole reason for buying chickens? Manure. Yes, that was my motivation for buying my first chickens.

Last year, we had over 32 at one time. We lost many due to heavy rains and foxes, but the focus of this post is composting. We all start somewhere. This is where I started.

I mentioned I spent $50 on my first 2'x8' garden for simply dirt! I told myself never again. Here is a list of things I have learned from experience in composting.

• Decide on a thick layer for the floor of your compost pile. This prevents weeds and grass from growing . 
• Have an opening. This was one of my mistakes. I had this nice round bin, but forgot to consider having it capable of opening when I needed the compost.
• Plan for the compost to sit there for a good 6 months to a year.
• Plan the location to be near two points of interest, where you are going to use it and where you are going to put compost into it. This particular compost bin is at a midway point between our first chicken coop (so I didn't have to carry the manure too far) and our first garden (so I didn't have to cart the manure to far).
• Plan it being airy and rained on. Decomposition needs air and water.

This particular compost pile is made of two garden stakes and chicken wire intertwined on the garden stake hooks. Took maybe 1 minute to erect.

"Birds of a Feather Flock Together"

Common phrase, favorite concept - that is what comes to mind when I heard, "Birds of feather flock together." Companion planting is  my ultimate dream in gardening. I played around with the concept last season and came out with some interesting results.

The idea behind companion planting is the fact that plants feed off of each other.  Some plants receive more of the benefit than others. Some cannot even grow next to each other.

2012 Baby Bell Pepper

Have you ever seen a wild, untouched field? How all sorts of flowers and grass are in that field? In nature companion planting is seen. I wish to imitate nature's design to reap the benefits.

From last year's experience, I learned companion planting may benefit one plant, but leaves the companion unable to produce.

This year's layout for  companion planting are as follows:

Spring Garden                               Companion Plant
Broccoli                                       Oregano, Lettuce, Spinach
Carrots                                         Broccoli, Lettuce
Lettuce                                         Broccoli, Carrots, Spinach
Peas                                             Spinach
Spinach                                        Cilantro, Broccoli,
Mustard                                      

Planting from seed

Over and over again farmers in NC tell me they create their vegetable gardens from store-bought plants instead of seeds. If anyone truly knew my method of gardening, they would know I am die-hard: lunar, organic, heirloom, non-gmo, permaculture kind of method.

There are many wonderful sites for heirloom seeds. The website I order from, in my experience, has a high success rate of its seeds sprouting. My favorite option to order is their 99 cent samplers because I don't plant enough seeds to need more than what they provide in the sampler packs.

Spring Seeds

So here we are in the last week of February. I am behind as usual, 'cause I have so many ideas and no experience to execute them!
Here are the seeds I am planting now.  Those below the ground:

• Carrots
• Onions
• Turnips
• Potatoes

are planted directly into the soil here in NC. Those above ground:

• Broccoli
• Spinach
• Celery
• Lettuce
• Peas

are planted indoors here in NC.

Fertilizer around the house

We've heard the terms ph, acidity, ect. We've heard the scientific names: Nitrogen, Potassium, Calcium, Magnesium, Phosphorus, Sulfer, ect. I want to know what has the most of these nutrients from what I have around the house.

I have discovered that:

Banana Peels make great compost

Nitrogen basically is any fertilizer.
Potassium can be found in large amounts in banana peels.
Magnesium Sulfate makes up Epsom Salt.
Ashes contain concentrated sulfer.

.....and that's about as far as I've gotten. I figured if I can compost these into a mixture remotely balanced in ph, I will end up with some awesome compost.

Planting List

One of the aspects of gardening that can be attempted indoors is the plotting and charting of your garden. Below is a plan for my garden this year. Thanks to my mother, for the suggestion.

Want to Grow                                            Will Grow                                          When to Grow
Tomatoes                                                  Peas                                                     Spring/Fall
Cucumbers                                               Lettuce                                                 Spring/Fall
Corn                                                         Spinach                                                Spring/Fall
Squash                                                     Carrots                                                  Spring/Fall
Carrots                                                      Bell Pepper                                          Summer
Zuchini                                                     Tomatoes                                              Summer
Lettuce, Romaine                                     Basil                                   
Spinach                                                     Dill
Brussel Sprouts
Potatoes
Garlic
Onion
Bell Pepper
Carrots
Peas
Green Beans
Oregano
Basil

One Week

As I was preparing this week's posts (I only write when I have time and  ideas), I was looking up planting by lunar phase (a post to come up) and realized that I only have until March 1st to take advantage of these cold weather, below ground, crop. So this week, I am planting directly in my garden:

• carrot seeds, 
• onion seeds, and 
• potatoes. 

For those wanting to plant along with me, just a heads up for this weeks planting. Plant anything that is cold weather and grows beneath the soil.

*NOTE this week's planting is for those planting according to the moon's gravitational pull. You still have 3 more weeks to get in your cold weather crops.

Busy

With the beautiful weather, things have been busy around here.

 After all the running around Thursday, only the side shrubs were taken care of. I learned a lesson in
the process. Originally, I started with the following steps:

1. Lay down paper bags over last year's pine needles to prevent weeds.
2. Lay down pine needles at least an inch deep.....(all I had available from our property).
3. Hoe a line the width of the hoe in front of the mulch.
4. Sprinkle baking soda over the exposed dirt and water.

I've heard mixed reviews about baking soda preventing weeds and other sites saying it sweetens tomatoes.....so I'm not sure how well it will work.

Step 4 Complete Baking Soda

Step 3 Complete: Pine Shavings

Easter Lilly

May 30, 2011

My ongoing project is to return my former Easter Lilly to it's former glory. The first year I discovered the Easter Lilly, in all its beauty, it was hidden beneath a gardenia bush. I have not studied up on caring for Easter Lillies, and am beginning to wonder if that is where I have gone wrong.

I thought the poor plant was suffering under the huge presence of the gardenia. I carefully transplanted it to a shady spot nearby and eagerly anticipated its blooms. Unfortunately, it never bloomed and the plant was measly in size. I should not have been surprised seeing I transplanted the poor plant that March.

I concocted a daring plant to transplant it further into the shade. To my surprise, there were many bulbs!!!! Somehow I had managed to propagate the plant successfully, if nothing else.

  Here is what a transplanted Easter Lilly looks like with its bulb and green shoot. I have experienced a high success rate transplanting bulbs and bushes. As in every transplant that was supposed to be very risky have never died on me. Now getting my transplants to bloom .....that's another story, but they have never died on me, lol.

Here are a few tips when transplanting bulbs and bushes.

• Work Fast, delicate plants do not care to be exposed to dry air.
• Transplant when the plant is dormant, 40 degree weather typically
• Maintain some of the original dirt around the plant's roots             
• When planted, remove all air pockets by stepping around the plant
• When planted soak the soil well, to encourage the roots to grow    
• Trim back bushes to encourage the plant to focus on its root system

"Beauty for Ashes"

"To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that he might be glorified ." ~ Isaiah 61:3

If you have heard the phrase, perhaps you realize where I am headed with this post. Ashes.....how I love ashes. If you study the soil's ph (level of acidity versus alkalinity), you will realize ashes are an integral part of cultivating beauty in a garden.

Here is our process. We pick up fallen limbs. We chop up fallen trees. We gather pruned limbs of branches that have died on a tree. I remove any nails, metal ect. from the burn pile. The dead, dry trees are burned. After the ashes are cooled, it is time to wheel the wheel barrel over and fill it with the ashes. If they are too light, I mist the ashes so they don't blow in the wind. I add this layer to the middle of the layering process. For the past two years, this method has brought greener leaves to my plants.

Attempt 1 for "Start Your Garden"

I mentioned a few days ago an article discussing why we simply do not have the luxury to delay attempting a home garden. (I did not realize how sporadic my thought process and life in general is until I tried writing it down in blog posts!) For these reasons, I am simply going to blog the first serious attempt over the next few months.

baking soda to prevent weeds

This month: February.....the first two weeks I simply procrastinated. Spring is around the corner and I simply cannot procrastinate! First plans up for this weekend is to the burn the tree that fell over in the summer/fall storms. I am excited. I use the ashes from the trees and limbs in our yard for the garden. (a mulch machine is on my wish list) .....there is one little problem. We use the burn pit for everything. Yup, I have to clear out all the metal and things that don't burn from the pit so that I can have sweet, wood ashes.
The tasks needing completion before spring were detailed in the previous post It's the playbook, right?  there are minor deviations in the list:

1. burn fallen limbs and trees
2. weed dead weeds from gardens
3. hoe edges of garden
4. cover edges of garden with baking soda to prevent grass and weeds (this is an experiment)
5. mulch garden beds
6. clean out compost piles
7. prune bushes and trees
8. mulch trees

Hopefully in the next few posts I can detail each process.

Seize the moment

There are days in the winter where the temperature is warmer than normal. Seize the opportunity. If you work and cannot head outdoors, defeat the winter blues preparing indoors for spring planting. I seized the moment yesterday to lay out my soil. I normally prep my soil in fall so that it has 6 months to decompose. This year, my compost piles have been sitting for over a year so I had the luxury to put it off until the end of winter.

• Come up with a planting schedule
• Make a list of veggies you eat regularly
• Order the list of veggies
• plan your planting location
• assess the soil
• schedule your planting season into your calendar

Step One

"Time to get serious!" I stumbled across an article this morning about stating this is your year to garden. It was a wake-up call to say the least. For that reason, I am going to return to the original intent of this blog. Informing you through pictures, how to grow a garden. From what I understand NC lives in zone 7b. If you live in zone 7b, never started a garden, and are interested. Follow along. I am not promising success. I am encouraging effort and through our efforts we will come away with personal experience and knowledge about our zone climate.
Today is supposed to be beautiful. NC is notorious for their late frost, in my opinion. I have not remember a single Easter Sunday as long as I've been up here, (10 years, give or take) that was not cold and cloudy. From that day forward, it warms up quickly. What happens while we wait to plant outdoors? We prepare the soil and plant indoors!

Step 1: soil prep and plant preparations.
A sweet lady who is in her 70s, has taken me under her wing. I am so thankful and excited that she is sharing her gardening tips for NC. This state's weather puzzles me to no end! Her advice, "Don't plant anything outdoors before the last frost. The first plants usually planted during this time of year are peas, onions, lettuce, and potatoes." So let's take her advice to heart. 

•  Let's look at the seed packets. 
• Determine what seeds in your climate can be planted earliest.
• Find a gardener in the area to glean experienced wisdom.

This year I am going to be trying my hand at potted gardening, outdoor gardening, and indoor gardening.

Gardening Mishaps continued

2010 Winter

2010 Winter

2011 Summer

2011 Spring

Since I haven't been busy gardening this past week, it's about time for some gardening stories. When we moved here, the back deck sported the most beautiful hybrid, climbing roses. I mistakenly thought, climbing roses meant you had to tie them straight up and train them to grow. My assumption nearly killed them. The first two years, I meticulously tied each shoot straight up the trellis. Sometimes I would even try weaving the shoots between the trellis slats.

2012 Winter

2012 summer

 Those poor roses tried so hard to stay alive! When we had moved in, there were so many and they bloomed year around, as seen in the winter picture. They were fragrant, and the leaves were so beautiful and waxy looking. After I tied them up and weaved them, that summer. there were maybe one or two roses.
It wasn't until I researched climbing roses did I learn:  

1. climbing roses don't climb
2. they grow horizontally with shoots coming off vertically.
3.  roses bloom when the the plant hangs down
4. leaves grow when the plant faces up
5. they love banana peels
6. I still need to learn to prune them.

Front Garden

Front Yard Spring

 We have about as much happen to us with pictures as with the garden. This is last year's early spring of the front yard. I had a ton of more pictures when the yard was in full bloom.....but I have lost all of last years pictures somehow.....this is the third time I have lost a TON of pictures, but I'm not going to dwell on that upsetting fact.

Front garden Iris bed

So! Time to introduce the front garden, aka the front porch. Aside from the Irises everything you see was already planted here, when we bought the house. (In case you haven't figured it out yet, I fell in love with the yard and that is why I wanted to buy the house, lol.)

There were - emphasis on were - two huge gardenia bushes on each side of our front porch. Huge is an understatement. Massive! Any other big adjective you can throw in there. And, oh was their fragrance, heavenly! Their flowers gorgeous! Their leaves so shiny and dark - and I came along. :) Suddenly the buds dropped before they could bloom, the leaves turned black with some type of mold and the under part of the leaves was turning yellow! I was panicking. What had I done? Did my very presence turn all that was beautiful in my yard to dust?!

Front Yard Gardenia that survived

I began to read everything I could. I discovered the pesky little bug called white flies related to aphids. This pesky little insects populate in the absence of ladybugs and praying mantises, aka beneficial bugs. The bush protects itself with layers of what is called black mold, but this layer also blocks out the sun and if not treated will turn the leaves yellow from lack of sun. So I got out my garlic, soap, and aspirin spray. I put on gloves and rubbed leaf by leaf the mold off and sprayed the under leaves. For two long years!!!! I also hatched a daring plan. The biggest no, no in the gardenia world is transplanting. I decided to endeavor to transplant them right back into their holes. With my husband's truck we pulled them both out and I proceeded to provide them a high acidic environment of pine needs, epsom salt, and fresh garden soil. The instructions state to transplant very quickly if you must, and to not expose the bulb root too long, but to leave clumps of dirt to it. After transplanting, you are to pack down the dirt firmly so no air pockets appear. So we did. The instructions I had the hardest following was the fact you must, must cut the bush 3/4ths back so that it focuses on its root system.....well, I had an issue with this fact. Only leave 1/4th of the bush standing?! No way. After I did it to the one bush, it looked so dismal; I couldn't bear to cut back the other bush. What happened? It died. As you can see in the above picture, a bench replaces the lost Gardenia bush now.  So I have successfully transplanted one of the gardenias and it no longer has any black mold. It has tons of flowers, ect.  My next adventure is to propagate from the bush.

Aside from the Gardenia bushes, there are six Azalea bushes, a Hosta plant, Easter Lilies, Tiger Lilies, and Wandering Jew plants that came with the front garden. Some friends of ours came over one day with tons of Irises and I tried to fill in the empty places with those. The big stones are from our yard. The tiny stones are the most expensive price we have paid for any of the gardens yet! I will have to write that story next time because I am tired.

Front Garden Azalea bed

Biggest Dream, Largest Failure

Potted miniature Orange Tree

Potted dwarf Lemon Tree

I am being facetious when posting my potted trees. They provide plenty of lemons and oranges. The oranges are not ready to eat since it is a young tree. So we just let them fall off and the kids throw them around. We accidentally grew two more Orange trees from two of the fruits that fell. The lemons do not survive our children's repetitive beatings and pluckings....well except one or two brave lemons. It takes the (fruit?) a year to be ready! Anyway, this post is actually about my Plum tree, Peach trees, Pear tree, and Apple tree!

The first year we moved in, we harvested an entire basket of the juiciest plums ever! The second year.....none! There was not one solitaire plum on the tree. Initially. we accused the deer. The third year, we discovered some kind of worm eating the buds before they had time to turn color and squirrels ate the rest. That is when my detest of squirrels became very real.....I'll save that story for another time. In early Spring, I went all out. I pruned that poor plum tree (mostly likely, completely wrong), mulched, and fed it. This past summer, I eagerly awaited my efforts. Nothing. There were these beautiful leaves and not - a - single - plum. *shake my head*

Soooo, the poor peach trees have a worse story. There were two trees. The second year one of the trees had the juiciest peach ever and it was huge!!!! Well....my husband was mowing and ran right into the tree, bwahahaha. These trees are still babies. Knocked over the one tree, to a point that we just decided to uproot it. The other one, with the peach, turned out was suffering from silver root rot? - not sure if I said the correct term.....so no more peaches. We uprooted it.

The rest of the trees we just planted last year in apology for destroying the original trees planted here. My husband ran into one again, lol! The pear tree, I think, We have an argument over where we planted the apple and where we planted the pear. :) Fortunately, he only stripped the branches and so we're awaiting it's full recovery this spring.

We won't mention what happened to our nut trees....ha, ha, ha! Ok - would you believe our Almond tree blew away in the wind?! True story. :) As for the Walnut tree, can someone tell me how to harvest them when they have fallen? So far we just let the squirrels bury them.

"How Does Your Garden Grow?"

Climbing Rose Garden

Remember the poem in school? That goes something like, "How does your garden grow? With cockleshells" something, something, something.


With that said the following layouts depict our yard.

Magnolia Tree

Sunflowers one year

Irises in the front garden

Square foot gardening......here are the layouts:
The vegetable garden has six beds with room for two more in the middle.
The flower garden surrounds the front porch. After nearly killing all the gardenias that were there, I think I have learned how to raise them!
The potted garden are no problem because they are the plants I grew up with.....it does take a lot of coaxing during the winter for them to survive, but they and I survive through these bleak NC winters to greet the sun's warmth each spring!
The herb garden is a garden I dream about and nervously plant....I was met with huge success last year and supposedly herbs are easy to care for, but I have never planted herbs before so I am always nervous. My biggest puzzle is what to do in design. I have specific area for this garden, but it is very unlevel due to the roots beneath.
The orchard and shrubs......where do I begin? This is a whole different story. Let's just say they are my biggest dream and largest failure at this moment, ha!
The wildlife garden and the BIRB garden along with the livestock feed garden are still a dream.

Foot by Foot - Forget Inches

I was asked a few days ago if I was doing a square foot garden. It is amazing how quickly you take everyday tasks for granted. It struck me as a great post. I won't go into why I fell in love with our house today, but I must mention that the design of our yard was created by previous owners. With two acres of land, there is an incentive to fill as much of it to avoid the expense of mowing that much land. Thankfully, there is a pond and woods to take up some of the acreage. One spot was a long strip of land covered by black paper. They had planted their garden there. No wonder! It is the perfect spot for sun, shade, drainage, and breeze. There was no way I could plant that big of a garden; so my husband kindly dug post holes for me and, with some fallen limbs around the place. created an enclosed garden. That first year we covered a 2'x8' section of the garden for $50. I was so disappointed! Here I thought I could have over 8 beds with a little path down the middle and instead a mere 2'x8' had cost us $50 for soil! Never again, I thought. That's when the chickens entered the story, but I'm getting off topic.

Lasagna Gardening, a book I came across was a fancy way of saying sheet composting. I took with the idea and ran. There was no way I was interested in weeding with a 6 month old and 5 months pregnant! We covered that 2'x8' bed with 6" mulch and I did not weed that bed once.

Young Tomato and Bell Pepper

I did water it once and we had so many tomatoes (they rotted because I did not know I should have kept them off the ground) and Bell Peppers; it was ridiculous. As you can see in the picture, a nice line of weeds grew up along the fence where I could not cover it with newspaper and mulch.

Back to the original plan for this post. I actively plan square foot gardening in my vegetable garden only. I don't know why....well, because it saves me from bending over too far, weeding, and countless hours watering. There is a higher yield with what little I plant and less maintenance (as I already mentioned). As for the my other gardens, they are not square foot layouts. Instead, the other gardens are haphazard messes of color. I have a suspicion my husband would appreciate them more if they were organized square foot layouts.

Ok, let's try one more paragraph to address this topic before going on another rabbit trail! My square foot plan is as follows:

• Six 4'x6' beds of compost sheeting material.
• one narrow cardboard walkway between the beds (right now it is a large walkway because I have yet to put in the last two garden beds).
• Chicken wire fencing nailed to tree limb posts, encircling the garden.

I just want to mention this fencing is buried under the ground a few inches. It is not a tall fence, maybe four feet tall? I have never had a problem with wildlife eating my garden. The rabbits do bite off whatever hangs outside the fence.

Seeds of Change

I've heard many phrases, "Friends for Change", "Just Do it", "What's Your Excuse?", .....(Seeds of Change is actually an online store, whoops!) It wasn't until I started researching how to harvest seeds that I opened a "whole new world" of information. This is still a learning curve and I am learning quite a few lessons.

Last Year's Harvest of Seeds

This is an area of study that I must research every year.

The following list is what I have learned from experience so far:

•  To insure disease resistant plants, bountiful harvest, and vibrant plants - you must save your best plant's seeds. (This is so hard for me. I want to eat those green, juicy peas. I don't want to throw them up on the window sill for sun drying!)
• Some plants (aka garlic, banana, and carrots) take two years to produce new plants!!!!!
• There has to be enough plants for the family, replanting, and wild for everyone to eat from.
• Plants depend upon the whole picture to propagate, produce, and regrow. (In other words those mosquitos, gnats, squirrels, ect. have purpose.)
• In a permaculture setting, you must focus your energy, resources, and time attracting good insects and animals instead of wasting your time and energy on preventing the bad. This will save you a lot of heartache when you can get the beneficial insects and animals to take care of the work for you.
• Finding seeds is not as simple as you would think. Who knew lettuce seeds looked like miniature cotton or dandelion with their white fluff you have to pull off in order to find the seeds!

The Goal

http://twitpic.com/davyhv

Yesterday I mentioned I had a goal when it comes to my garden. I've read and heard, "to realize and set toward accomplishing our goals we need to write them out". Today, I am going to attempt to write out that goal for the first time. 
This is Rick_Bayless's garden photo pinned to pinterest>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

My goal is to design an edible yard. It's hard to design in detail with the prospect of moving in the back of your head, but there is no time like the present. When I wait for the perfect circumstances to begin anything.....those ideal conditions never appear.

I will say, this edible yard is quite grandiose in vision! In my mind, it would be many acres sectioned into fruit orchards, livestock, vegetable and herb gardens, shrubs and flower gardens, and a grain plot to raise feed for the livestock. A yard large enough for free ranging chickens and a cute, white picket fence to keep them from flying over to our area of yard.

The edible garden would by no means stop there! The design of the garden would greatly be dependent upon what the land included, but hopefully that land will include a natural pond or two. The snag would be my husband and my differing ideas of a garden, lol. This is where the creativity comes in. His only request is that no maintenance be required. No small task to accomplish, but my second goal. Nature can take care of itself when the design encourages the flow of nature's life cycle.
An edible garden design, in my mind, would not just include the layout but also the function of the yard. Where the compost piles would be situated, the rainwater barrels, the buildings for the livestock, ect.
Yes, it is one huge dream. A dream I want to retire on. I doubt as an elderly person I would be bored.

"It's the Playbook, right?"

A book on my wishlist

"Fail to plan and you plan to fail." Or so I've heard the phrase around New Years and any other calendar event that influences people to set goals. I have a goal when it comes to gardening.
I do not have a plan to get there. Partly, my excuse is due to other responsibilities. Mostly, my other excuse is due to huge ideas and too little time to incorporate those ideas. With that said, tomorrow hopefully I will accomplish at least half? - ok, a quarter of what I need to get done before spring.
Here is my haphazardly, written plan for prepping this year's garden:

• Get rid of all dead weeds from front garden, back garden, and side gardens
• Create a "weed line" with baking soda (purely experimental, comes from the book up above)
• Finish prepping the vegetable garden
• Begin prepping the herb garden
• Finish mulching the shrubs
• Mulch all the fruit trees and shrubs
• Clear out all the compost bins
• Mulch the climbing roses
• Feed the gardenia bush, azalea variety, and potted plants
• Shape up the iris line

A pretty hefty plan without the details. This is a one person's project so it comes out to a lengthy process. 

Black Gold

Black Gold

My biggest dream is to create my own soil from the land. A huge circle is what I want to create. I am no where near my dream, but this pile represents 3 years of planned decomposition. The first year it started with buying at the store peat moss, using newspaper, pine needles from the in-laws land, and that was about it. The second year was quite bountiful. The first layers was cardboard followed by, chicken manure, grass clippings, decomposed leaves, pine needles, wood ashes, wood chips, the previous year's soil, and epsom salt.....pretty much the same mixture the third year will crushed egg shells added to the pile. My dream list for rich soil would be an even mixture of brown and green decomposition. My dream list would be as follows:

• Animal manure
• Fruits and Vegetables
• Leaves
• Grass clippings
• Epsom Salt
• Wood ashes
• Wood chips
• Pine needles
• Egg shells crushed
• Worm tea
• Worm soil

The biggest failure that keeps recurring is a thick enough ground work for the bins so that grass roots and weeds do not grow up in the pile.