2012 garden plans

in typical fashion, it's only the beginning of march, and i'm already feeling a little behind here. without a real winter, i'm having trouble realizing that it finally is almost springtime. i'm hoping to sit down and start working on my real garden plan and seed inventory (and ordering!) in the next week or so, but in the meantime, i have started thinking about a few bigger goals for this season...

:: set up our rain barrels. it's ridiculous, i know, but we purchased some beautiful repurposed wine barrels two years ago and still haven't set them up! they even came with a spigot and filters (a rain barrel kit) and we just haven't gotten to it. this year's the year, after such a dry fall and winter, i'm hoping for a wet summer and i want to best use all that rain water.

:: expand my front yard garden. i'm hoping to plant more perennial herbs and maybe some greens. it's a partially shady spot on a little hill, but i'll be happy to not have to mow that spot and make the front of our home even more beautiful (and functional).

:: i want to plant more medicinal herbs, plants to use for dyes, and flowers. this is a continual goal of mine. last year i planted some herbs and flowers to use for dyes, but never had the time to actually use them. i'm hoping to learn how to make more body care products (especially soap) soon and hopefully i can grow more medicinals to use in these projects. last summer i came to love having freshly cut flowers in my kitchen and i'm planning on planting more of these as well.

:: put in a patio in our backyard. this isn't exactly garden related, but i want to make our backyard more of a living space. i want to spend more time outside just hanging out in our garden and putting in a patio in the shady section of our yard will help with this. i'd love to plant some creeping thyme in between the pavers too, kind of like this or this.

:: my last big goal for this season is to plant less variety. i know that might seem weird, but last year i planted so many different things, i felt like i couldn't focus on anything. last year i planted tomatoes, peppers, dry beans, fresh beans, cucumbers, summer squash, kale, chard, radishes, peas, garlic, onions, strawberries, raspberries, and potatoes. not to mention all the herbs and flowers. i'm the first to admit that some of these were more successful than others and year i think i'll focus on the more successful plants, plus a few new ones i'd like to try. i'm happy to rely on the farmers market and our csa (i think we're signing up for the first time ever this year!) for the rest.

i'm so happy to be posting here again and look forward to sharing my gardens and yours over the next season. what are your goals as you start planning your garden this season?

welcoming a new season

hello and a happy belated new year!
i have missed documenting the happenings in my garden each week
and am eager for a new season.
it's good to be back.

with the mild winter we had, things are definitely beginning to wake up around these parts.
the snowdrops are in full bloom.
the (100) daffodil bulbs hannah and i planted in the fall are beginning to peek up.
and the hens are laying daily now.

we have started to pre-sprout our pea seeds. i used to do this on the farm with quite a bit of success.
you can find a tutorial here.
we hope to get the first succession in sometime next week.
i am going to try 'tom thumb' which is a heirloom dwarf shelling pea variety perfect for containers.
also wanting to try 'Golden India'.
i am craving fresh pea shoots!

because of our shady conditions we are planning on growing more edibles in our community garden plot this year.
we pretty much abandoned it last season but are determined to be more on top of things.
the girls want to focus on melons, beans, tomatoes and cucumbers.
i also want to try growing loofah gourds and peanuts.

what are you planning for the garden this year?

my 2012 garden plans

Hi everyone,
I don't know about you, but I'm dreaming about this year's garden. Thought I would share some of my garden plans with you.

1. The first thing my husband and I did this month was to take an inventory of the seeds we already have. It's easy to get all starry-eyed looking at the seed catalogs and want to scoop up every variety in sight so we needed a game plan. Plus, some seeds last longer than others and we needed to take stock and see just exactly what was in our shoebox in our fridge.

If you're curious to know if your old seeds are worth planting, Fedco has a great chart in their catalog. Also, Margaret Roach has a nice post about seed viability over at her blog, A Way to Garden.

We created a simple spreadsheet that listed the varieties we had and whether we had a little or lot. We put a star by seeds that may not sprout due to age.

2. This year I bought most of my new seeds from a local source. I'm lucky to live in a town with a local seed company! Maybe you have a local seed company in your town, too. Check with your local co-op or garden club. I like supporting a local business and knowing that this grower did well with these varieties in my climate. In addition, this seed company grows varieties that are really hard to find in seed catalogs. I like that.

3. One of our big goals for this year is to improve soil fertility. We planted cover crops in the fall and added aged horse manure when we put the beds to sleep for the winter. In the spring, we'll need to add lime to our beds as our soil is acidic but we are also going to add tons of organic matter.

4. We keep a very simple garden journal and revisited it at the beginning of this year. We brainstormed ideas for the vegetables that really don't do well in the field garden and made notes on our spreadsheet about initial plans for where to plant each variety. For example, beans never do well in our field garden so they are going in the backyard garden this year.

5. We plant many many different vegetables and herbs and often try to squeeze more plants into a space than is wise. I'm going to grow some varieties in pots this year and see how they do.

6. On my wishlist are a cold frame and rain barrels. Don't miss Natalie's post from last year about cold frames.

7. I'm starting an herbalism program this spring so I'm hoping to add more herbs to our beds this year.

8. One new variety I'm excited to try is 'Musquee de Provence', a French heirloom winter squash. At our winter farmer's market, I had the most delicious soup made from this squash, pear, and garlic. So good and the variety is a good keeper. Over the course of the season, I'll write more about other new varieties we're trying in 2012.

Tell us your 2012 garden plans in the comments.

raising broilers

we love having so much life right in our backyard. recently we added a flock of eight chickens to our small plot in a suburban neighborhood. we enjoy studying their unique personalities as they scratch at the dirt & eat fresh kale from our hands.



sometimes i wonder, though, why we do it all. in between the busyness of work & the hustle of life, we also add the daily chores of tending to the garden & feeding our animals. once the chores are finished (for the moment at least), i find refuge in the process of preparing a slow meal from the bounty of our home.


when we chose our flock, we made the decision to add broilers, or meat birds, along with our layers. it can be difficult to raise an animal so intimately & then take it's life so soon after. for our family, the choice to consume meat has been a conscious one. we only purchase ethically-raised meats from nearby farmers & their families. additionally, we believe the responsibility of eating meat includes slaughtering animals, if possible, on our own.

in food & faith, wendell berry is quoted in writing,

"we can [not] live harmlessly or strictly at our own expense; we depend upon other creatures and survive by their deaths. to live, we must daily break the body and shed the blood of creation. the point is, when we do this knowingly, lovingly, skillfully, reverently, it is a sacrament..."


we hope that raising, tending to & taking the life of our chickens will serve as a sacrament. as we feast with friends & family, there is confidence in knowing what's on our table & the sanctity of life this animal lived.

my go-to salad for autumn: a recipe

Each season I like to work on a seasonal salad, one that can be made over and over again with the ingredients in my pantry and in my crisper. I try to keep things simple but I always tend to include fresh fruit, dried fruit, and nuts. The dressing I've made for this salad is garlicky and delicious and stands up nicely against the greens.

The best thing about salads is that you can tweak them to suit your own tastes and your stash of produce. However, if you're like me, when you find one combination that you love, you'll make it over and over again. This is the salad that I've been making all autumn.

Shari's Autumn Salad

a mix of greens (I used baby kale, baby chard, frisee, radicchio, spinach and some hardier lettuces)
an apple (Use your favorite variety)
golden raisins
pecans
two garlic gloves
Dijon mustard
white balsamic vinegar
1/4 lemon
3 T olive oil

Fill a medium salad bowl with your greens. If any of the leaves are large, tear them into smaller pieces. Cut the apple into matchsticks (Peel or leave unpeeled, your choice). Add to greens. Add in a few handfuls of golden raisins. Chop a large handful of pecans and add those as well.

Dressing (Adapted slightly from Hugh Acheson's A New Turn in the South)
Add 3 TB olive oil to a bowl. Squeeze in a 1/4 of a lemon. Add a splash of white balsamic vinegar. Stir in a heaping teaspoon of whole grain Dijon mustard. Add two pressed garlic cloves (If you don't love garlic, reduce this amount or omit). Whisk together.

Add dressing to the greens and toss.

Do you have a favorite salad combination for autumn?

weekend garden notes

my garden has been a bit neglected lately.  i was starting to think that i wouldn't even have the energy to get my garlic in (and i was trying to convince myself that i was okay with that).  this weekend we continued to have unseasonably warm weather and i forced myself to head over to my community garden to harvest my potatoes.  it was a bit disappointing (especially after i realized that i harvested fewer potatoes that i had planted in the first place!), but they will still be delicious.  i planted all blue, german butterball, and rose finn apple.  this year i tried a potato tower method, which was clearly not very successful.  i think a few of my problems were that my towers were too big around (about 3 feet in diameter) and i didn't keep them watered well enough.  if i try this again next year, i will definitely make them smaller.  what's your favorite way to plant potatoes?

i also managed to get my garlic in, which i know i will be really happy about come summer.  since i wasn't sure i was going to plant any, i hadn't purchased any new seed garlic.  i just used the garlic i grew this summer- german extra hardy and georgian fire.  i planted cloves from the largest bulbs and covered them with a pile of leaves, since i didn't have any hay or straw. 

our kale is also still going strong, and now that whatever little bugs were munching on it all summer are gone, maybe we can actually enjoy some of it.  after ignoring my garden for the last two months or so, it felt so fulfilling to get in one last garden day before winter sets in.

leaves

our gardens have been covered in a beautiful multi-colored blanket.
the leaves seem to have come down all at once this week.
which is perfect timing for a weekend of leaf mulching i had planned.
unlike the rest of my neighbors you will not find me raking the leaves into the street
for the borough to take away.
you will find me however raking the leaves into piles from my own garden.
as well as stealing leaves from my neighbor's lawns and gathering them into huge piles to mow over and shred.
i then will spread the shredded leaves throughout our gardens as a mulch.
eventually the leaves break down and make a beautiful rich soil attracting worms and all sorts of micro-organisms.
i also throw a bunch of leaves in the chicken run.
the hens love to scratch away at them.
and the mixture of the broken down leaves and their manure makes an excellent compost.
but of course we save a big ole pile for some romping, throwing, and jumping in.
what fun would autumn be without leaves.