Building Community

It's no secret that one of my biggest goals for the last year (and it turns out this year too!) has been to really build my neighborhood into something great.  We built an amazing patio and grill area.

Marco and Neighbor Tim built a beautiful bike shed and arbor.

There are new flower beds, the community library and we even hosted a really, really nice tree care workshop.

But I just couldn't stop there.  I really, really want people to be able to plant, and grow, and personalize their homes here in the big CG, but it has been really difficult since our soil is, well, less soil and more clay and sand.  And that's not just my opinion either- we did a soil test and sent it to MSU.  For $6 they came back with all kinds of specific suggestions to help grow all sorts of different plants, grasses, vegetables and trees.  For more information about getting your own soil tested click here for more info.

After the soil results came back, I put them with other information I have been collecting too- guides on native Mississippi plants, information on attracting (or deterring) wildlife and pollinators, how to landscape when starting with nothing, all kinds of things.  Then I labeled everything with a very friendly "Property of Community Green:  Please read and return" and filled an entire expandable folder. The folder went straight into our library for everyone to share.

Want to create something similar for your home or community?  I collected my information from our local Master Gardeners club, the Mississippi State Extension Service, the Garden Club, the Community Garden and the Arbor Day Foundation, but I'm sure there are plenty of other sources.  

I guess the point of this is to inspire others to get involved with their own neighbors.  Not everyone in CG comes to every meeting or event or community cookout, but it is very important to me and Marco (and several other neighbors) to offer these types of experiences.  You don't have to host a dinner party every week to meet the guy next door.  Sometimes you just have to be willing to get your hands dirty.  

Anyone else working on group plantings and curb appeal?  Anyone else planting rogue watermelons?  How cute would it be if we had our own pumpkin patch this year.  Don't think I haven't started working on that already!

Leave No Plant Behind

I like to think that I have a green thumb, and I like for all of you to think that as well.  I walk around, replanting baby plants, and growing seeds and showing off pictures of green leafy things, but sometimes, even I let a few things slide, and suddenly I find myself having to back peddle.  Case in point.

I acquired a few plants when the library had their foyer redone.  The Master Gardener's of Oxford came in and repotted things, fixed things, watered things, and suddenly things were looking great!  Plus, me and several other library assistants got a few things out of the deal as well.  I brought home one of these:

Actually, that is a weird branch that I cut off a mother plant.  The mother was huge and very branchy, so last summer I just sawed off a branch, stuck it in a milk jug of water and let it grow roots.  Low and behold, a few weeks later I had a plant- so I planted it.

Then winter came and most of our plants were moved inside.  Sadly, the mother plant was not moved inside fast enough... and when it did, it came in looking like this:

Please note that the first and second picture were taken on the same day.  This is not a "and several months later" kinda deal.  Sad isn't it?  It gets worse.

Because then I did this to it:

I know!  I just cut it all off! You see, the plant has frost damage.  Frost is a four letter word in this house, unless we're talking about kale or cabbage which both like the frost.  It had tried very, very hard to kill this plant, but I am trying very, very, very hard to not let that happen.

In fact, when I chopped off the major parts of the damage, I noticed the insides of the stems looked like this:

That black on on the left is the frost damage, the middle is too, but the one all the way on the right is the new, still damp and smelling fresh inside of the newly cut parts.  Looking good right??

But I still had this to work around as well:

The plant is majorly root bound.  See that crazy piece leaning to the right?  That's a whole new plant that should have been removed years ago.  And the Y shape on the left?  That's two separate plants that have fused together.  So I'm planning to take my hand saw back at it and get these guys good and separated.  I have been soaking the roots for a few days to help loosen up the dirt and try to unweave some of the damage by hand, but there are no promises with this one.

Anyone else ever bring a plant back to life after frost?  Have you ever sawed a plant into pieces and then had all of them regrow??  Most importantly, if this works... who wants a free house plant?!

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.

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!

I'm A Grandmother

Can you smell Spring or what??

I have to be honest, this winter has been really tough on me, what with the cold and whatnot.  But Spring is right around the corner and with it comes my favorite things: warm weather, gardening and baby animals.  Well, two of those things are already happening right now in my house.

Y'all.  My worms are having babies.

Remember this incredibly blown out picture from this post a few months ago?  Well the next phase of wormy parenthood is beginning and I am so incredibly excited.

This morning, as I was preparing a few pounds of soil for this year container plants (more on that this week and next)  I checked in on the worms to make sure no one had escaped.  This can happen if you are worming at home, but don't take it personally, some are not as smart as the others.  Anyhoo, I was using a spoon to scrape out some worm poop to add to my containers (the entire point of having the worms is for the black gold they produce) when low and behold, there was a teeny tiny baby worm in my scoop.

Then several things happened very quickly.

1.  I squeaked with delight and the dogs came running to see what was so exciting.
2.  Cheezburger licked the dirt.
3.  I looked down at the hole where she just licked and saw two more worm egg sacs.
4.  I realized that for the first time ever, I am a grandmother.

I also realized that it is about time that I harvested my dirt and made a new home for my worms.  They will need more newspaper bedding this time, and less dirt.  Also I have a much better grasp at how much they can eat and how fast.  Oh these worms are working!  Now to see how well the plants do with my new fertilizer.

Oh yes, spring is finally springing around here.

Winter Yard Work

I spent the first weekend of December in the traditional fashion- outside in a t shirt doing yard work.

In fact, we had one of the most productive yard work weekends of the year except for that time we dug up a 100 square foot raised garden bed, poured in a ton of soil, tilled it and planted our 75 baby plants... so we are felling really good about this one.

Our to do list looked like such:

1. Clean garden beds (which means remove all of the old plants that were still hanging around, clean out the netting that was holding them up, hoe the rows and level)
2. Stir compost (especially important after adding a ton of new material, like all of the stuff we got out of the garden)
3. Clean out potted plants (mostly on the front porch and in the front flower beds)
4. Clean up trash near the deck/air conditioner/pallet storage
5. Clean up the second dresser we found on the street (more about the dressers on OxfordHandmade)
6. Fix the second dresser we found on the street
7. Paint the second dresser we found on the street
8. Fix the stairs that lead to the deck (there was a weird mini step at the top and the bottom, we needed to fix that ASAP)
9. Mulch the flower beds in the front
10. Split and divide all of the mint/spearmint/peppermint that had outgrown their containers
11. Transplant thyme plants from their beginner planters to new big plant planters
12. Paint the newspaper stand that has been hanging around out backyard for months
13. Relocate newspaper stand to be better used by the community 
14. Work on bottle boarder in the front of the house (hopefully this project will be D-O-N-E soon!)
15. Take a nap

Well I can assure you all has been done except paint the dresser- which needs to be done soon because it's supposed to rain this afternoon.  So I'll be back all this week showing off sharing pictures  and taking about dirt.

And p.s. we also did this on Saturday:

Congratulations Marco and Audi on a wonderful race at the Santa Run in Tupelo!!

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?