New Garden Bed

On Monday, I disclosed the looong laundry list of things we plan to plant this year.  Of course I have known for months just how lofty our 2013 goal would be, so about the same time the seeds catalogs arrived in the mail, I started planning new places to put those seeds as well.

Some things, like our potatoes, were easy to place because they get their own planters (if you can call a circle of covered wire a container), and some were fit into our raised garden bed from last year.  But even with those two huge areas I knew we'd need more space.  So I waited until Marco was out of town for work and I struck out to find us some more vegetable room.

I was/am mostly worried about our vegetables that grow "up."  Beans, peas, cucumbers, corn, these all need to grow up on a trellis (or each other in the case of corn/beans), and that could potentially cause a problem for our garden because it is on the southern most part of our property.  If tall plants such as corn or beans were planted at the "top" of the garden, they could shadow other plants and the other plants wouldn't get as much sun as they needed.  So I looked and looked for a wasted space with plenty of bright sunshine.

Bingo.

Actually, this is a during picture.  *Note to self, get better at taking true before pictures.*

Imagine this, the back of the house, full of junk and weeds and piles of clay.  Frankly, it didn't have too much going for it, except that it was a wasted space and it gets full sun all day- perfect for growing veggies that can be potted and trellised.

The area is actually about 4 feet deep at it's widest, and this section is roughly 18 feet long.  I had to create a "break" at that point to allow an opening for the crawl space door, but don't worry, I already have plenty of ideas for the other side too.

The process was fairly easy, I gathered up a few cardboard boxes that I cut into pieces and layed them along the area I wanted to make my new potted garden.  I quickly realized that the ground in this area was really unlevel and the cardboard was too thick.  So I removed parts of it, and laid out several (maybe 4 or 5) layers of newspaper instead. Then I started to arrange my pots to fill the space.

This was a great chance to figure out exactly what would go into each pot.  I tried to keep things that climb separated so that nothing would get too tangled.  Plus I wanted to make sure that nothing in the front would grow too high so I would be able to reach things in the back.  Add on top of that I wanted the planters to look nice and even, not too many "extra large" on one side and filling in the spaces with smaller planters too.  It took a little over three hours but eventually I got everything nice and settled in.

I have plants to go back and add mulch around all of the planters.  This will help break down the weeds under the newspaper and cardboard and be much more attractive than the newspaper as well...

Other perks of adding this new garden bed to the back yard?

It will cut down on the amount of lawn we have to mow- saving time and money.

It motivated me to clean up a part of the yard that was full of junk (wooden pallets, scrap wood, unused yard tools) and three foot weeds.

It will make sure that all of our potted plants get watered.  Potted plants need to be watered daily in our Mississippi heat and before, when they were scattered all over the yard, a few of them would get missed.  Now we know where all of the pots are and we can make sure they are watered each day while also saving time.

Gathering the potted plants in one place also clears up space in the yard/flower beds for a cleaner, more streamlined look and more flowers.

And finally, I get the satisfaction of knowing I helped find a place for all of my new seeds.

Don't forget, I set our family a goal of growing 750 pounds of fresh fruits and vegetables this year, so finding room is a top priority.  I know this will help us get there, but if anyone else has any other ideas, I'd love to hear about them too.

Do you have a garden goal?  What's the heaviest produce you produce??

How Much is This Gonna Cost Us?

People want to know.  How much are we planting, what is it, and how much is that gonna set us back?  So I'm here to spill it.  You may want to put the kettle on and settle in though, because this is going to be one heck of a list of lists.

First a key to use and help peruse:
SS means that we ordered this item from SeedSavers.com
B means that we ordered this item from Burpee.com
ZG means that I ordered these seeds from ZZiggysGal on Etsy.
BB means that we plan to purchase this item from my Dad's friend Mrs. Barbara who I have known 98% of my life.  She is a wonderful woman who first showed me what wonder plants/creeks/outdoors can bring into one's life.
Other places where we purchased/found things are listed.

What We Plant to Plant:
In our 2 backyard and partial front yard veggie gardens:

1. Cucumbers
-Japanese Climbing.  Seeds purchased new this year.  A new variety for us, but apparently great for pickles. SS
-A&C Pickling.  Left over seeds from last year.  They were huge and made great bread and butter pickles.  SS
- True Lemon.  Left over seeds from last year too.  We planted these in pots last year and I don't think they got enough consistent water.  We're relocating them in the garden so hopefully they will do better this time.SS

2.  Soybeans
- Envy.  These are new seeds we ordered this year.  I have never grown soybeans but they freeze easily and are loaded with protein so we're going to give them a try.  This variety does well in pots and small spaces so they may be potted if we can't find room. SS

3.  Beans
- Provider.  Both beans are new seeds this year.  I am looking to use more vertical gardening plants along a new bed that I am building. These are a bush, snap variety.SS
- Valentine.  A black bush bean that has rave reviews for drying.  Nothing ventured, nothing gained. SS

4.  Tomatoes
- Yellow Tomatoes   An obscure heirloom variety that I have lost the paperwork to... these are seeds left over from last year that we started a few weeks ago in our tiny greenhouse. ZG
- Cherry Tomatoes.  Again, lost paperwork left overs from last year.  They are doing great so far. ZG
- Other Heirlooms.  We will be picking up several plants from my Dad's friend Mrs. Barbara.  Her plants did so well here last year that we are saving our greenhouse room for other things and just spending the money on plants. BB

5.  Peppers
-Aji.  A left over from last year.  Really hot and dried really well.  We used plenty in our salsa and sauces, they have been slow to germinate in our greenhouse, but are starting to come around. SS
-Red Bell.  Left overs again.  Also slow to germinate, but moving along now. ZG
-Variety from Mrs. Barbara.  She always has interesting plants that are full of surprises.  One of her best are her peppers.

6.  Eggplant
- Long Purple.  An heirloom that takes forever to germinate.  We tried these last year, but only had a few tiny eggplants to show for the effort.  We started them earlier this year in hopes that will speed up production.  ZG

7. Squash/Zuchinni
- Yellow Longnecks.  We have some seeds left over from last year but I do not have much hope for the plants this year.  Squash bugs ate everything in sight over night last year.  We may just skip the squash and buy them from the farmers market.  I can think of other ways to use the space.  ZG
-Black Beauty.  Again with the squash bugs.  We will see. ZG

8.  Okra
- Hill Country Red.  I bought these last year, forgot about them and when I found them again it was like Christmas.  I cannot wait to see these babies grow.  SS  **We will be planting these in our flower beds and faking like they're flowers until they grow veggies on them.**

9.  Lettace/Arugula/Spinach/Kale
-Mixed Beds.  I have a few small mixed lettuce beds from Seed Savers and ZZiggysGal.  They are cut and come again, heirloom varieties.
-Buttercrunch.  Last year's lettuce that we didn't finish but did well.  ZG
-Spinach- Did well, but the rabbits got it.  I'm moving them in the bed, and hopefully the new fence will help as well.  SS
-Blue Kale.  Left over, easy to grow, super easy to freeze and use later.  SS

10.  Watermelon.
- Blacktail Mountain.  A great variety that produces small but tasty fruit.  We picked this because the fruit actually fit into our fridge whole.  They all ripened in one week though and we gave most of them away.  Left overs from last year.  SS

11.  Broccoli
-Waltham 29.  Heirloom left over from last year.  We ran out of room and only tried to seed 3 seeds, then forgot about them.  Better planning this year.  ZG
-Calabrese.  Unopened from last year.  SS

12.  Blue Berries.  New this year, I planted them in the front like shrubs.  They are fairly old (3+ years) but need time to settle before they really produce.  I hope for a few this year, but expect more next year.  From The Barn Trading Company here in Oxford.

13.  Strawberries.  New.  I am retro fitting a rain barrel to hold them.  I cannot wait!  B

14.  Corn.
-On Deck Hybrid.  These are the reason for my new garden bed in the back.  This is supposed to be corn you can grow in a 2 foot planter.  We will see because I am ready.  B

15.  Birdhouse Gourds.  Not a vegetable, but this vine did really well in our shady front bed.  It looked nice growing up the porch and we got a few gourds from it.  SS

16.  Luffa.  New as well.  Just couldn't pass up the opportunity to grow a luffa.  B

17.  Potatoes.
-Red.  Red seed potatoes.  I have already shared how I built their cages, but I may have to move them... From The Barn Trading Company
-Yellow From The Barn Trading Company

And I think that is it for seeds and plants.  We did order a few herbs (basil, thyme, dill) but we still have plenty of those seeds left from last year too.  It's just that they tend to be more delicate and can rot so easily, I thought better safe than sorry.  Oh, and there are herbs that came back from last year too!  Chives, mint, spearmint, rosemary, and thyme.  Plus I planted a few garlic cloves that had started to sprout and a couple of onions that went green in the pantry.  But I don't count those because they are "grocery store" variety and I do not expect them to actually reproduce.

So how much did we spend??  Luckily, we were able to pull most of our wants from last years supplies, and that makes sense because last year we spent over $120 just on seeds. That doesn't count soil, compost, building materials or the watering systems.  This year our new seeds cost us just $25.00 (ish) with plants (strawberries, blueberries, potatoes) setting us back $55.00.  Plus I bought fencing to build our potato cages which was about $20.00 from Home Depot.  And our new seedling containers- which were 4 @ roughly $3.00.  So $12.00 on them.  Another $12.00 on coconut conifer seed starter (ordered from Amazon) and we are just about there.  We are building the new beds out of scrap lumber salvaged from friends and kudzu vines.  There are still plenty of  big planters left over from last year as well.  I am planning on building a few trellises from scrap trimmings and kudzu vines, but I would love to find a nice willow patch as well.

The rain barrels were given to us by a company that no longer needed them, but we are going to convert them into rain barrels for around $20.00 a piece ($40 total), but an extra one will hold our strawberries.  We have been wonderfully lucky to find a great place with free topsoil and mulch to help fill our garden beds and our 18 months of composting are finally paying off as well.  Add to that the worm compost (I guess you can add in that $25.00 to our garden fund) and we're looking at a nice grand total.

In fact, let's add it up shall we?

Last year we spent over $600 in materials, dirt and watering system stuff and another $120 in seeds.  That was a grand total of about $720 for roughly 300 lbs of vegetables.

This year, with all of those numbers up there added up, we're looking at about $169 total.  Whew that is much better but hopefully next year it will be even smaller.  We're adding another element to our compost/pest control and our soil should be top notch.  Plus the worms will have paid for themselves and the rain barrels will be complete.  The same goes with the blue berry bushes and the potatoes.  Plus we will finally start working out which veggies give us the most bang for our buck.  We have a lofty goal of producing 750 lbs of produce out of our garden this year, but we are also trying to make sure we are growing things we will actually eat and use.

There is a lot of growing with gardens, emotionally, physically  spiritually- all of which we find to be ultimately priceless.

Pea Prep

Yesterday I spent the whole day with the windows open saying to myself "What a wonderful day it is today!" and then today I have spent back in my sweaters with socks and house shoes cursing the wind and rain and cold.  There has been a lot of hot tea today, and much more dreaming about spring planting.

We are really moving along with all of our seedlings that we have already started.  This weekend I will be seeding a few summer cabbages, broccoli and cauliflower.  But tomorrow I am going to put out a few of our pea seeds.  Peas are really easy to grow.  They are super fast, plant early and die back rather quickly.  Because of this though, it is best to plant peas every few weeks so you always have a batch preparing for harvest.  We only planted one round last year and I was really sorry because the ones we were able to harvest were great.  This year though, we've moved them to the front yard to act like a trellis in the back of the new beds I have been imagining.

But before I put them in our vegetable planters, I thought I'd share a quick tip I picked up last year.

First, these are the peas I am planting.  There are more of the same coming next week(ish), so I thought I would go ahead and get these started.

These are "Green Arrow" peas.  They are an heirloom variety and I bought them along with several other heirloom seeds from ZZiggysGal Etsy shop last year.  I bought the variety pack so I could try out a few different things other than what I had purchased from Seed Savers.  This year I bought a larger batch from Seed Savers only.  Anyway, notice how shriveled and dry they are?  Technically, if you water them enough, they will sprout anyway, but I do not like to chance things when my 750 lb goal could be in jeopardy.  So I did this:

I took a ziplock bag (one that I had used, washed, and reused), filled it with about a half an inch of water, and tossed a few seeds inside.

And by the next morning they were plump as, well, peas.  I put a few in our indoor seed boxes (where other seeds hadn't sprouted) and tomorrow I will put a few outside to begin our garden perimeter.

Just a quick step to jump start seeds and an easy way to weed out any dead ones before you put them in the ground.  And instant gratification for those of you, who like me, can't wait to see stuff growing already.

Earliest Gardening Possible

I have to admit, I've been a little bit addicted to my seed catalogs lately.  They were delivered months ago, but I just can't quit them.  Each page is dog earred and a good number of seeds are circled, starred, and marked.  One of the best things about owning a home, for me at least, is the chance to really build our garden.  We've only had it for one year, but I really think that this year is going to be the best one yet.

Unfortunately, it is still a little early to put most of the seeds out into the ground.  We have been tending the soil in the main bed though, and cleaning up our garden area.  But there are a few plants that we have been able to start work on.

I planted potatoes for instance.  These are just circles of covered chicken wire.  The newspaper you see is to help hold the dirt inside the circle.  Then I filled them a little ways, maybe 18 inches with soil and planted my seed potato pieces.  The left is white potatoes, and the right is red.  I've ordered some blue so soon I will add that circle too.

We also started a few seeds inside.  This is probably my favorite way to start seeds because I can obsessively scan the soil every few hours for little baby seedlings.  Yesterday I was able to spot four baby butter lettuces and two kales. I immediately texted Marco to tell him the good news and he was just as excited as I was.

The onions that started to sprout in the pantry went into their own planter.  And I replanted the chives that reseeded themselves.  And I spread a few leaf lettuce seeds while I was at it too.

And tonight, finally, I will sit down and make my order for the majority of our seeds and plants.  We are trying a few new things this year, like beans and corn that you can grow in planters, blueberries and strawberries, a new kind of cucumber and even soybeans.  Add that to last years tomatoes, peppers, egg plants, zuchinni, gourds, watermelon, okra, and all the herbs we can fit- it's going to be a good year.


We have hopes and dreams (well, I do) of growing at least 750 pounds of produce this year. We were able to top over 300 last year so I thing it's possible.  We're also expanding our food plants into the front yard to help us reach our goal and to help develop some of the more ignored areas of our yard.  Peppers, kale, blue berries and beans are going in the flower beds as edible landscaping.  Add them to the two dozen irises, tulips and daffodils that are already coming up and we've got ourselves a pretty nice piece of property.  We have a half dozen new rosemary bushes and the mint planters are already showing tiny leaves.  I wish we had room for a few more fruit trees, but I think we may have a deal worked out with a neighbor.

Anyone else getting garden ready?  If you are looking for inspiration or just a little guidance, these are the places I've been stalking for a few months.  100 Dollars has great growing guides and I've been a subscriber to Mother Earth for years (happy birthday to me!).  Good growing to you!

www.100dollarsamonth.com- a family that lives on 100 dollars a month in groceries.  I love this site!  She is so smart and funny and real.  Plus she has chickens which means she's great.
www.MotherEarthNews.com- a gold mine of information about green living, growing, planting, home steading, whatever you can think of when it comes to planting and preserving.  Great search tools and constant updates.
www.urbanhomestead.org- my first homesteading experience.  I started reading this blog several years ago and that was when I decided I needed to buy a house.  I love the two sisters who run the blog, they are wonderfuly inspirational and so fancy.
www.rootsimple.com- I started by reading this couple's books a few years ago and then started following their blog.  The blog tends to be a little hit or miss for me, I can't relate to as much of it as I did the books, but they have a great search tool and wonderful resources.

Let's get growing y'all!

Planning to go Veg

Now that I'm home more (like, a lot more) and I have more energy (again- a lot more) and more time to think about things that matter to me (broken record much?) Marco and I have finally been able to make a few changes that we've be wanting to, but haven't had the time or energy to make.

One of those changes is committing to eating more vegetarian meals.  We wanted to start doing this for a couple of reasons.

First, it is was cheaper to leave out the meat a few times during the week.  We still love the occasional steak or chicken breast, but by cutting out meat 3 times a week, we are really saving on our grocery budget.

And second it encourages new foods and recipes.  Turns out, I really like cooking, but I have been hesitant because I don't know what the heck I'm doing half the time.  So by taking a few minutes in the evenings or on the weekends, I google around for new or exciting recipes with ingredients we have in the fridge.  I can also search on Pinterest from my phone, so when I see that cauliflower is on sale, I can make a decision whether or not I think I can make something new.

This is how I organize our recipes.

It's just a binder with page protectors to protect the pages from whatever I'm making.  I have tabs in there for main dishes, sides, desserts, drinks, and etc.  The etc section is mostly pickle recipes, dog treats, relishes, and gift type foods.  Each section has lots of empty page protectors in the back so whenever I find a fun recipe in a magazine or online, I just rip/tear/copy it out and slide it in place to keep for later.  I printed all of my "Food Stuffs" board from pinterest also- so if I ever search for "cauliflower" and I have something already pinned, I know that I already have the recipe close as hand too.  I think Future Stacey will appreciate that.

PLUS, deciding to go veg 3 or 4 nights a week has helped us start planning our summer garden.  I know I want to grow beans to dry and freeze.  Marco wants more peppers and eggplants.  There will be corn this year because we found a special hybrid that can be grown in planters.Of course we'll have our regular things like tomatoes,  cucumbers, zucchini,  lettuces and herbs but we're adding soybeans, peas and a few fruit plants.

Now excuse me, I have some dried beans to go soak for tonight's cabbage and bean recipe that Marco's mom emailed me earlier.

Family bonding and cheap eats?  Sign me up!

The Day the Worms Came

So.  I got another pet.

Well, technically, I got about 900 other pets.

900 worms to be exact.

I'm not even kidding.  I bought worms off the internet.  But not just any worms.  Oh no.  These are the goose that laid the golden egg kinda worms, except, replace goose with worms and egg with worm poop...

Perhaps I should explain further.

Worm castings, or "black gold" as some call it, are one of the best fertilizers and soil correction supplements around. They don't have to be trained.  They don't run away.  They make zero noise and produce no dander.  They require a little prep work, but after that you just feed them and keep them damp.  Then after a few months of eating, digesting and reproducing, you have yourself a nice amount of composted worm fertilizer.  What more could you ask for in a pet??

Alright, they don't wear sweaters... but you can't win'em all.

For anyone who may also be interested in the benefits of worms- whether for a garden or a classroom pet- here is how we started ours.

First we had to find a container to house the worms.  You can buy kits from several places online or your local garden center.  I'm cheap so I didn't do that.  I had this one laying around since I started our seeds last year.  It wasn't really the right size for the seeds, too deep and not large enough across the bottom, so I am using it for worms.

Then I added the bedding- that's shredded newspaper, some leaves from the yard and some garden soil- not potting soil, real live dirt.  It was hard to find real dirt and I was pretty upset about having to delegate some of our precious dirt to the worms, but I figure the return will be worth it.  **The lack of decent soil is why we got the worms.  We are trying to compost in as many ways as possible to try to correct our sandy, clay, soil.**

Then I put in some crushed, cooked egg shells.  We used the eggs for pasta so they were raw.  I had to cook them by putting them in water in the microwave for a few minutes, but this wasn't really a big of a deal.

I gave the box a gentle shake to mix the components.

And added my worms.

Let me tell you, it was super exciting.

** I had to do crazy things to the expose setting so you could actually see the worms in these pictures.  Please excuse.**

Then I left the box out in a sunny place in the house to encourage the worms to dig in.  They actually moved really fast and soon it just looked like dirt.

So now all I have to do is mist the soil every few days (damp, not wet) and feed them regularly   Red Wigglers (our worm breed) can eat about half their weight in food each day.  That means that the two pounds of worms we started with will need about a pound of food a day.  They can eat bread, fruits, veggies, egg shells, and sometimes coffee or tea bags.

Basically, about half of the food we throw into our regular composter will now be used to feed the worms.  The compost in the back is a fairly slow process because it is so large and we mostly use it for "big items" like leaves, grass, garden scraps and the unusable leftovers when we can.  The worms will take care of the smaller, day to day composting from cooking and cleaning out the fridge.

And in a few weeks we should be able to harvest our first worm castings!  Who's excited??  I'm not sure where we're going to put them... probably into the big composter actually.  But then straight into the garden!

Now who's ready to come watch these guys (and girls) go??  Anyone up for a worm party?

First Day Jitters

Today is the first day of my new job- that is to say, the job that I am creating minute by minute.  I have already spent a good part of the morning "setting up shop" and talking to friendly and helpful people at the Secretary of State.  My paper work is being filed as we speak and very, very soon we will be cooking with grease- as they say.

It still hasn't sunk in that my last day of "work" was yesterday.  Today doesn't feel any different.  Honestly?  It feels like a Saturday.  I ran errands this morning, worked on a few quick projects and cleaned a little house.  But now I'm settling into my to-do list and making plans for next week.  

It also hasn't sunk in that it's actually November 1st.  Halloween was fairly cool, but incredibly comfortable.  I was plenty comfortable walking down the street to the neighbors house with a bottle of wine- I didn't even wear a jacket.  Marco said he didn't think that was the way trick or treating worked, but what does he know?  They don't trick or treat in Italy.

Plus this morning I was responsible for cleaning up the remains of our summer garden.  I picked basil and rosemary and a few egg plants that were still hanging on- and about 4 more pounds of tomatoes.  We still have two plants loaded with green fruits, so we're paying extra close attention to them.  Today these are the last of our "old" plants.  November 1st and we're still making salsa- I could get used to this kind of lifestyle.

Since Sliced Bread

I know that I didn't invent the "broccoli salad" but some nights I sure feel like it. We are trying to eat more of our vitamins and minerals (as apposed to simply taking them in pill form in the morning) so we have swapped lettuce for broccoli in 90% of our salads. I make a great dressing with it too.

Out broccoli dressing is super simple. I pour it into an empty canning jar, or salsa jar, or olive oil bottle and just shake it before we serve it. Below is a list of what I put in it. Notice these are not exact measurements. You really can't screw it up so don't worry too much..

Equal parts olive oil and apple cider vinegar (usually I make about a cup total)
Some sugar (eh... A tablespoon?)
Salt and pepper (2 teaspoons-ish)
Oregano and parsley (a teaspoon each)
Tony checker's seasoning (we like a lot, but it's kinda spicy... So start with a tablespoon, you can always add)

Shake and pour! Yay veggies! And vitamins!