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!

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.

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!

Bottles: Phase Two

Slowly but surely we are inching towards finally finishing our first bottle boarder flower bed around the house- and you know what that means!  Almost time to start the second one...

But first things first.  When I last shared our bottle boarder update it looked like this:

Bottles a plenty, yes, but top soil, prettiness, weed control??  Not so much.  Well it was about time I did something about that.  So on top of adding another 18 bottles to the end of the line (still about 4 dozen short, just need to get out there and do that already!) I also installed some free weed control.

I had a bunch of newspaper left over from a recon I did for the neighborhood (you can read about that here at OxfordHandmade), so I unfolded it and laid it out over my flower bed.  I tore holes/left space so that my plants could peak through, but I covered the weeds with two solid layers.  I went back every few minutes and sprayed everything with water to help hold it down.  Soon, my flowerbeds looked like this:

Classy right?  Well I didn't intend for it to stay that way.  I've actually read about this process several times online and several people swear by it.  The newspaper is supposed to suppress the weeds, then break down and just become one with the earth.  I'm so tired of weeds choking up my flowers I'd try just about anything, and this idea was free and easy- I figured it was worth a shot.

Well I added my newspapers, sprayed them with water, and then waited around for Marco.  He had spent all morning going back and forth from our house to the "free mulch place."  This place is for real here in Oxford- and most towns and cities have similar set ups.  Basically, when the city cuts down branches or trees, either from storm damage or power line maintenance, they mulch them up and pile it high.  The mulch is free to get, it just takes a little muscle power and you have to bring your own containers.  Well we had plenty of containers, so six trips later, we had plenty of mulch.  One of those trips went straight onto my newspapers until the entire bed looked like this:

Huzza.  We buried just about everything in mulch. Most things had died for winter anyway, but if it was still kicking, we went back and unearthed it a little.  There was plenty of great topsoil already composted in there, and it will settle with rain and time.  Now we just have to wait for spring when we can pour on a few bags of garden soil, toss in some of our own worm compost and watch it grow!  

Who else is excited for spring planting already??

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!!