chickpeas are planted

Report card on the pre-sprouted chickpeas:

Of 6 attempted,
2 made strong, 4" seedlings. Planted those today.
2 made weak, 1" seedlings. Composted.
2 did not come up. Composted.

nice garbanzos

I sprouted some chickpeas (garbanzo "beans") and will try to get some 4" seedlings out of them. If they grow I'll drop them in the garden and see what happens. I will try some no-soaks, too, as that appears to be the preferred method.

More about growing chickpeas.

half day == playtime in the garden

I had a half day off, so I slapped on some old shorts and planted the 2nd wave of seedlings in the garden.

I also started a 3rd wave of things that either need to be started cyclically for continual harvest (lettuce) and things that did not germinate well the first time (beets, radish, corn, carrot).

I don't know if I mentioned I'm also sprouting some seed stock left over from 2010. At this point there appears to be no difference in sprouting rate, growth rate, overall vigor, etc, between last year's seed stock and current.





These seeds are the first I've started in the sifted soil produced by the compost pile. Each container has a layer of vermiculite in the bottom, a thin layer of the soil, seed, then more soil.

long day, and it's only 3pm

I think I'm gonna go take a nap.

Gardening

I planted another round of seedlings:

• bell peppers, scrounged last year from peppers we ate. No idea what these will do.
• tomatoes, three varieties. One leftover heirloom breed from last year, and two hybrids.
• squash, two varieties
• cucumbers, two varieties
• more lettuce
• corn
• I forget the rest but it's on my garden planning sheet

Following the SFG model the tall/vertical/viney stuff is furthest away from the sun with shorter stuff in front of it. Alternated species instead of planting near each other to limit disease and bugs.

Composting

Tore down one of my composting bins for delivery to the (very kind and lovely) MIL. Will throw that in the truck next time we go to see her. Chickens were Big Helpers, which is to say they stood on top of the pile and kicked it everywhere but where you wanted it. They got pretty brave working around the hoe.

Tore down an active pile and sifted the compost before restacking/wetting the remaining big stuff. The filtered/finished compost was fine and clean-smelling, though both are difficult to judge from this pic. About 20# worth.

I learned this sifting trick from composting master Rob. I might make a two-tiered autosifter like he built. Maybe chicken wire for sifting the big stuff and hardware cloth or something for the smaller stuff?

Lucid Puppy 5.2.5

Upgraded the eee netbook to puppy 5.2.5.

Grocery shopping

Trip to Aldi. Completely full basket was less than $90. Put the groceries in the back of the truck (on the cargo platform I cobbled together quickly) and it worked out great.

Cycles of life

No, not cycles of light, you Tron freakazoids.*

A few things happening this week which remind me of the ebb and flow of life:

First, moonzilla. That was awesome.


Second, finally got some seedlings in the ground. More in the greenhouse getting their first true leaves. We had some short, spindly wire fencing that the chickens have been unwilling to jump over so lined the garden area with that. Not convinced it's chickenproof but they don't seem willing to hop over the last few weeks it's been up.


Third, one of our hens ("Orange Chicken") had poop stuck in her butt feathers and down. Dear Wife held her still while I used the waterhose to soften and help remove the accumulation. Bird did great right until the end of the operation when she got a little annoyed at being held so long. Dinosaur growly noises...

The hen's vent was fine, not irritated or anything but she looked funny while she was drying off. She looked great after she dried.


Fourth, I traded my motorcycle for a small pickup truck. That was the bike I rode to Destiny's BD a couple of years ago. Took the truck down to Keller's for a shakedown cruise. Cheeseburgers, o-rings, a longneck and a lemonade. It's good to have a truck again. It's been a while. I feel more truck-related posts coming on.

Do I miss the bike? Sure. Did I need it? No.

Once I got the truck inspected (took a bit of mech work, but not bad) I sold my old commuter car which had been really good to me since I bought it in 2005. Total time from posting craigslist ad to cash-in-pocket: 1hr, 52mins. Thanks, internet!



* and I say that with love.

Gardening 2011

Finally started some seeds this week. Depending on whose last-frost predictor you follow this means I'm about 3-4weeks late on lettuce, peppers, and tomato. Oh well; I've been exceptionally busy with the job searching/interviewing and something had to give.



This is how I organize the seeds. Some kind of aluminum & glass specimen containers I got cheap in bulk off eBay. They appeal to the science geek in me and work well. I have been storing them at room temp but will likely start storing them at 40F (ie, in the fridge).


I'm going to change my Google Calendar for gardening to include reminders so I'll be less likely to drop the ball. Even with the late start I predict an improvement over last year's garden due to:

1. return to hybrids. Heritage varieties really didn't work well in my poorly-conditioned garden. Might try them again next year.
2. chicken poop composted in the Fall and directly deposited in the Winter. This should help my nitrogen situation.

I did have some leftover hybrids seeds from last year. I started some with the new stuff this year. I'll consider it a bonus if the come up (because old) or do anything useful (as described above).

Chickens are "big helpers" when working in the garden, which is to say they want to get under your feet and investigate everything.

There were times when I was turning the garden today (see below) when they would get lifted up a bit by the shovel. Standing a little too close, birds?


The garden is small so I turned it by hand with a shovel. The chickens will break up the larger clods.

They were attacking the dirt right up to the moment I turned on the camera and they ran away. I think the sound of the lens motor spooked them.


Also moved the chicken tractor so they had to run in there and get reaquainted with it.

vertical tomatoes

I don't remember whether or not I shared this, but after a couple of years of sad garden results I finally tested the soil.  pH was neutral (very near 7), phosporous ok, potassium ok.  But nitrogen was so low as to be almost unmeasurable by the kit.  D'oh!

I have been laying on compost this summer, and will winter the chickens over the garden later this year.  Both of these should increase Nitrogen for next spring.

So I don't expect much from the garden this year.  But I did want to share my experiment with vertically growing tomatoes. Here's a bit of scribble I emailed to my father about the experiment:

I think it's a promising idea;  I got it from the Square Foot Gardening guy.  It's basically a way of increasing density in small plots.

When/if we get any fruit I'll support those vines with additional sisal.

Theoretical benefits:

• Since they are vertically planted,  other/lower plants can be planted on the sun-side.

• The majority of the plant is held up out of reach of ground-level bugs and standing birds.  I trimmed the leaves about 1' up to minimize rot/mildew from watering.

• no rot induced by fruit laying on ground 

• toms appear to enjoy growing vertically;  not bushy/hunchbacked like when I grew them in cages. They aren't hard-tied to the verticals at all;  just guided alongside the vertical with loose sisal loops.
  

fireflies, spring 2010

first firefly of the season out on our back porch tonite, all by his lonesome...

Earlier in the evening I strung up the sisal for the vertical produce to train on.

messing with the garden

This weekend I

• weeded
• harvested an onion to put in some green beans
• planted two more tomato plants that had been slow to sprout
• planted two bell pepper seedlings (scrounged)
• started more lettuce seedlings

I also am sprouting some beans since the ones I planted didn't show. :-( Will plant them after they sprout. Late start, but also sprouting squash and zukes.

deconstructing the piles

Spent the morning tearing down the compost piles I started in late January and restacking them. The advantages of wire bins are clear over my older techniques; there were no terminally wet areas, so they stacks smelled like clean dirt.

By the time I got to the third one, I realized it was faster to "pick" off the outsides with a hoe and let it fall into a bucket placed against the pile. That way I could remix/layer that drier material in as desired later while working less and not have to rescoop it. For the first two piles I broke it all down flat and shoveled/scooped it back into the wire bins. Breaking down into buckets took about 1/2 the time and effort.

The leaf-only piles were making slow progress, but the leaf+scraps pile (the four-footer) had significant areas that looked nicely broken down. Since my piles are new, I saved the stuff that looked almost finished in another bucket and layered it near the top of my restacked piles. Hopefully that will disperse the microcritters to the other piles.

Exposed worms and doodlebugs were rationed among the piles. I wonder when those wonderful little Black Soldier Flies (with pics, see 2nd reply) will return? Apparently people pay to get them into their compost but I got some for free last year. They are not a nuisance, do not bite, don't like houses, and have the most ravenous wormy babies. Yay!

Productive morning

1. cooked breakfast
2. cleaned kitchen
3. raked random leaves from off front porch and street; put into compost
4. replaced brake pads on motorcycle
5. went to library; dropped off old media and picked up two holds.
6. planted onions
7. repaired greenhouse door handle
8. scooped dog bombs

Felt like I made some progress. Needed that after a tough week in the trenches.

Gardening, LF-4

At last frost - 4 weeks, I've just planted pole beans in the "vertical" section of my microgarden.

Still no signs of life from my planted lettuce, tomato and pepper seedlings.

seedlings for my street

I'm working on an idea here. Dunno how/if it will work.

I'm setting up a couple flats of peat seed starters in the greenhouse that will be ready for xplanting around last frost. The idea is to set up a card table in the driveway and give away seedlings to people that live on my street.

Right now I've got Brandywine tomatoes and lettuce in the 'house.

I can't use anywhere near the number of seeds that come in a package (due to SFG techniques) so this is a way to put them to use for minimal cost. Might meet more of my neighbors, too.

seedlings 2010, LF-6

Jumbled thoughts follow.

I planted the first batch of seeds planted in the greenhouse today. My new approach is underway. The starter containers (egg cartons, toilet paper tubes lined with a sheet of newspaper) are ugly but free. We'll see how they work. I also have some of those pressed peat starter containers.

These seeds were started SFG-style, which is to say "only one seed" per spot. Makes me a little squeamish, but he warned us ahead of time.

Here's the list of stuff started at LF-6 (ie, last average frost date minus six weeks):

1. Hybrid "Delicious" Tomato
2. Hybrid "Super Sweet 100" cherry tomato
3. Heirloom "Brandywine" tomato - my first heirloom attempt
   
4. Hybrid "Jelly Bean" grape tomato
5. Lettuce
6. scrounged green bell pepper
7. scrounged yellow bell pepper
8. scrounged red bell pepper

Looks limited now but those are the plants that get started this early. More variety to come. Planting a few varieties to see what works. Who knows what will happen with the scrounged bell pepper seeds. Might not sprout, probably won't yield fruit. Hey, it's free. I've sprouted lemons, limes, and grapefruit that way before.

The newspaper mulch was down throughout all the freezes, covered with leaf mulch; the overhead bar for securing vertical twine for training is in place. Will take pics of anything that sprouts.

Vegetable garden, v2010

Here are some things I'm trying this year, based on my reading about square foot gardening (SFG hereafter) and, to a much lesser extent, permaculture:

• better timing of starting seedlings, transplanting, and planting seeds. I made a calendar with our zone's first and last frost dates, and a running tally of how far away we are from each date. This, combined with a spreadsheet that lists planting times and seed-to-seedling projections, suggests a timeline that should improve my yield.
  
• more frugal use of seeds through reduction. SFG teaches not to oversow and thin later, but instead intentionally seed the number of plants you want.
• more frugal use of seeds through preservation. Keep the seeds not sown above in a vacuum and in the fridge.
  
• more frugal use of seeds through propagation. I've grown small lemon and grapefruit trees from seeds saved after eating the fruit and it was a lot of fun. I saved some apple, pear, bell pepper and jalepeno seeds to try out this year. They are probably hybrid and will not yield as expected, but no harm no foul.
• More vertical growing for tomatoes, cucumbers, squash, etc. They will be in the northernmost position in order to avoid blocking sunlight.
• lining the bed with a newspaper mulch to block weed sprouts, retain moisture, and increase carbon over time. I used a 3-4 sheet thickness, and covered with some partially decomposed leaf matter.
  
• Increased use of heritage/heriloom cultivars to increase biodiversity and increase the chance of seed scavenging.
  
• separation of similar plants to discourage pest feasting
• better planning for light preferences of the plants. Now that I've been here for 2yrs I have a better feel for how the light moves around the arable land.
  

Dreams for the future:

• some hens and chicken tractor.
• increase garden area (reduce grassed area)
  

sprouts: lentil, mung, fenugreek

I do most of the cooking at home because I like it. There was a four-year stretch when I was working nights and the Dear Wife was pressed into service. She did great but I don't get the feeling it was fun for her.

My meal planning isn't bad but for the past year or so I have been aware that we don't eat enough fresh greens. My rough plan to correct this has been:

1. try my hand at gardening (more about this in a future post)
2. shop more often at local stores to pick up green shtuff. This sucks a bit because I hate my local Kroger and the road is torn up between me and Sara Bakery.

Neither have been big payoffs, though I predict my garden will produce more next year. We are eating some tomatoes now.

So I was wandering around youtube one day and saw a video about sprouting various beans and legumes (sprout content starts about 60seconds into the vid). Hmmm. I knew I liked the alfalfa sprouts you get in salads and the mung bean sprouts you get in many Asian foods. Question is, how hard and how expensive could this get?

I had some spare screen scraps and cut them to fit the inside of some mason jar lids. Commercial sprouting lids are about $6/each as far as I can tell.

It turns out that sprouting is stupid cheap and stupid easy. Forget all the hippie "your body loves the owl spirit of the superfood raw enzymes" crapola, they are cheap, fresh foods you can grow on the countertop.

Basic how-to
Put a small amount of seeds/beans in the bottom of a mason jar. Start with a tablespoon full or other small amount until you know how big they will get. Some really explode on you. I do the soak overnight. Cover the jar with screened lid (commercial or homemade). You can also use something like cheesecloth or nylons and secure with rubber band or the lid ring.

8 hrs later (like the next morning) rinse with water, leave inverted or partially inverted. I prefer a 45deg angle which keeps sprouts from blocking airflow. Then 2-3x a day rinse and drain and leave inverted again. I do this in the morning, at night, and if I remember once in the afternoon.

A few days into it (3-4?) your sprouts will be luverly and ready to eat. You can put them in the window if you want them to green up more.

I eat them raw with salad dressing, soy, or vinegar, or cooked into other foods, or stirfried for a very short time (like 60 seconds).

Win: lentil, mung, fenugreek.
Fail: wheat sprouts were weirdly sweet; kids might like them. Garbanzo/chickpea; got weird.

Pee on your tomatoes

Really. It's good for them.

rain

.6" of rain overnight.

So far the upside down spinach is the best of the lot, and the upside down peas are 2nd best. Both have no bug damage.

Two of my tomato plants got got eaten by bugs last week (snails? saw a few). Two others nearby are untouched and the ones in the shade look best of all.

I put two iPlanters 2.0 of tomatoes out yesterday. The new revision involves inverting the cut-off bottom of the 2L and affixing it upside-down to the planter (which is upside down so the bottom is actually upside-up). Confused? This cellphone pic is horrific, but shows the overall gist.

Also, here is a grapefruit tree I grew from a yummy grapefruit I ate in late 2007. I let the seed dry for a few months then sprouted/planted it in 2008. I don't have any illusions that it will ever yield fruit. But the leaves are a lovely deep green. I also planted a lemon tree from scrounged seed at the same time but it looks terrible (right beside it; basically a twig with one ugly leaf on it).

Gardening experiments

Did a little bit of work in the "garden" (a 2'x4' patch of land next to the workshop).

I have a bigger patch, 2'x10' that I could use but it is north-facing. I may end up putting shadeloving plants there. But my reading suggests that some leafy veggies like beans and greens can tolerate partial shade.

So I xplanted some snow peas and spinach donated by my gardening wizard running buddy into the shade, along with some tomato and cilantro sprouts I'm starting in the greenhouse. We'll see what happens.

As if that wasn't enough excitement, I put a mustard and snow pea in (their own) iPlanter, which is an inverted planter made from a 2L bottle. The top is crushed in to give something to hold the roots with, and to make a water reservoir. I'll let you know how it turns out.

Gonna kill some plants

The Dear Wife and I are famous for killing plants.

But the lovely old fellow who had this house before us built (among other things) a greenhouse that has overhead lighting, power outlets, and is plumbed for water.

So we feel we owe it to the greenhouse to try to grow some stuff.

DW picked some flowers and some veggies. I picked more veggies and whipped out some seeds I'd scrounged from some good-looking fruit. In the past I've had some grapefruit plants that were beautiful before I killed them. I am trying cherry, lemon, and grapefruit this time.

Anyhow, these seeds have sprouted: Zinnias, cantaloupes, cucumbers, beets. We have no real idea when/what you are supposed to do with them at this point, but at least they sprouted.

Also picked up a pressure cooker and some pint jars to play with; I needed them for sterilizing various homebrew implements and ingrediants, so it will be fun if we do end up with some fresh veggies to can and to eat.