Seedlings

Basil, is, of course, one of my favorite herbs. It is easy to grow, transplants well and takes much abuse. Here you see a transplanted seedling in a recycled plastic drinking cup. I use an old toe nail clipper to snip drainage holes in the bottoms. I have reused some of these cups for two years now, and most look like they are going strong, although some now have cracks on the sides... And what goes better with basil than tomatoes? I almost always start tomato plants way too early, so they get transplanted a few times before going outside. This is the first "planting up". After becoming nearly root bound in the 6 oz cups, they get moved up to salvaged Taco Bell cups. Here's the current crop of tomato babies out in the sun...

Basil & Tomato Resources

• Basic Basil Seed Starting from Wiki How
  
• The tomato forum at Dave's Garden
  
• Tomatoes and Hairy Vetch from the USDA.
  
• Tomato growing tips from Organic Gardening
  

Weeds, Garlic and Mulching

The garlic is about a month ahead of last year. Probably due in part to a fairly mild winter and a long and wet early spring. I also fed them once in early March (probably time to feed again). I wonder, too, if mulching the garlic this year contributed to it's robustness. It is certainly contributing to the fact that weeds are very few in the garlic beds this year and the weeds that do get a toe hold are highly visible and also easy to remove.

As you can see by the photo, this season I mulched with shredded paper - mostly shredded bills and newspapers. When well watered two or three days in a row, it bonds together and holds up well to 50 MPH winds even when dry. If you fluff it up, however, even mild breezes will blow it away, causing some degree of nuisance and litter. Most of the garlic was able to push its way through the paper mache like layer, but several of them needed help. I did not realize this until after a few were pretty stunted. Once I understood what was happening, however, I moved the mulch away from where the garlic was emerging and then repositioned the mulch near the garlic after it was up.

This seems to work on my small scale of about 100 bulbs, but I am not sure how practical this will be if I want to grow, say, 300 or 400 bulbs. 100 bulbs might give me enough garlic for our own garlic consumption, but 300 or 400 bulbs would allow me to either share, sell or barter some of my wonderfully stinky crop.

I am also experimenting with using shredded paper as a mulch in the "watering ring" around my fruit trees. The paper absorbs water very well and also protects against erosion. With a 2 inch layer of mulch, I am able to use the hose pretty forcefully to fill up the watering mote without digging holes in the mote. And, as mentioned above, is an excellent weed suppressant. So far, everything that has shredded paper as mulch are doing well, but I wonder, with all that carbon, will they need extra nitrogen? So far I have two trees, strawberries, peas and garlic mulched with shredded paper. By the way, as a side note, shredded newspaper makes better mulch than shredded bills and junk mail. Also, it decomposes better. When the weather stays consistantly above freezing at night, I will be interested to see if worms take up residence under the paper.

Some day I will have a real compost pile and I will be able to mulch with compost. Then I can compost the shredded paper along with other garden wastes and not have to rely on store bought fertilizers (even if they are organic) that were created far away from my little plot of ground.

We should get some dramatic warming around the middle of May that will hopefully trigger bulb formation. Mmmm, I can taste the spicy hot flavors of my favorite Siberian already... in addition to the "eating" garlic, I have also planted a few cloves here and there among the garden. I'm going to let those "flower" (even though they aren't real flowers) just to see what they look like for myself. Maybe I'll even plant a few of the bubils produced from the "flower" and see what happens to them. It will take them several years to go from rice grain sized bubils to full sized garlic bulbs, but it could be fun to watch the process.

Spring is Here!

It's the First Day of Spring.

I am blessed to have

upon my finger tips

the warm and fuzzy smell

of over-wintered

Oregano.

Herbs have had a place in the home since before gardening, when people would gather the plants from the wilds. And while our pharmacopoeia has expanded to include all sorts of exotic drugs, there is still something primal and comforting about having an herb garden of one's own.

Surviving and bringing the aromas of last summer are both oregano and lemon balm. The garlic has broken ground and basil seedlings sit under lights waiting for warmer weather. A few sweet marjoram seedlings straggle in small pots.

One of my favorite herbs is basil. There seems to be a basil for every occasion. Lemon basil, lime basil, pretty purple basils with pink flowers, spicy basils, and, of course, the good old standby, Genovese basil. They say to plant them 6 inches to 12 inches a part. I plant them closer, knowing that I might be encouraging disease when the humidity is high.

I try to plant most of my herbs in 2 parts sand to 1 part potting soil. They like good drainage and don't appear to be hindered by a lack of fertility. The only herb I really plant in good soil is garlic.

A 4 ft x 8 ft raised bed should keep me well stocked with most herbs for the whole season with plenty to save for freezing. Well, except for garlic. A 4 ft x 8 ft raised bed holds about 45 - 50 cloves of garlic - not really enough garlic for me. This year, I have two beds of garlic with a total of about 100 cloves.

I wonder if I let the oregano creep in and around all the other herbs if it will bother them? The oregano I have is labeled "Greek Oregano" and seems to be a creeping, not really climbing variety. Last year two tiny seedling spread to cover about 2 square feet of ground over the course of the summer. This season, it has already expanded a good 6 inches further. At that rate, the whole bed should be well covered by Autumn.

Time to start thinking about buying another little $2 rosemary plant. I have been, as yet, unsuccessful in keeping one alive indoors through the winter. The little $2 plant I bought last year, however, grew into a sizable little bush over the course of the summer, even with frequent trimming.

Bird Brains

Humming Bird Nectar

1 part sugar to 4 parts water

boil mixture and let cool

refrigerate extra

Suet

Nuthatches, Woodpeckers, Creepers, Chicadees, Titmice, Kinglets

Cracked Corn

Blue Jays, Crows, Pigeons, Doves, Turkey, Pheasant

Ok, I intended to put more stuff here tonight, but it's getting late and I think I'm going to bed instead... but I am thinking of bird feeders and what types of feed I could grow myself, even if just in small quantities.

Garlic

Garlic! That most divine and smelly of alliums! No need to worry about how long garlic will store through the winter in our house - so far, I've not grown enough to make it from the early June harvest to the new year! But perhaps this year will be different. 102 cloves went into the ground last Autumn. Maybe this year we will have enough garlic to make it well past Christmas and into the New Year... or maybe, with more garlic, we will just eat more garlic before Christmas and the New Year!

Yes, you can grow the stuff from the grocery store, but, in my humble opinion, the hard neck stuff is much better. My favorite for two years running is "Siberian" - puts up with single digit winters, triple digit summers and relatively flaky watering patterns. Last year was my first year growing garlic and I only kept one bulb of my Siberian for planting out, choosing, instead, to eat most of it. This year, with more in the ground and a goodly fence to keep out marauding dogs (mine), I am hoping that I will feel like I have enough for consumption that I will actually save more for seed stock. If I can plant more and more and save more and more, then I won't have to spend more and more for garlic. In fact, it will start costing less and less to grow it. Then, the really good stuff, I will carefully pack and bring with us when we move. By then, I should hopefully have a second favorite (hopefully with different colored skins or cloves so I can easily tell them apart). I want to have "generations" of my garlic so that I can pass on seed bulbs to my children to grow - a stinky, yet tasty legacy!

Garlic should be planted about 6 inches or so apart, and in zone 6, about 2 inches deep. A good mulch will help keep the garlic from heaving during thaw-freeze cycles. It will also supress weeds and help moderate water loss and keep the soil cool when the heat strikes. With hardneck garlic, all the cloves are large, so none go in the cooking pot. Another thing to do with little cloves is to plant them barely an inch apart and grow them like green onions. Yummy in stir fry. One hardneck bulb breaks down into 5 or 6 cloves. Not a bad return on investment.

And, of course, some obligatory garlic resources:

• Garlic Seed Foundation - "an informal organization of growers and eaters allium sativum dedicated to its consumption and production."
  
  


• Organic Garlic Growing Info from the National Sustainable Agriculture Information Service
  


• No Till Garlic - again from the National Sustainable Agriculture Information Service
  
  
  
• Garlic Growing from the Garlic Store. This is where I by my "seed garlic"
  


• From About.com - a good little overview of garlic and garlic growing.
  


• Some nice pictures:
  http://www.kispiox.com/photogallery/garden_flowers/pages/garlic_june.html, http://www.flickr.com/photos/cookingdiva/66006926/ , http://www.flickr.com/photos/joecortes/344444321/ , http://www.flickr.com/photos/wendymerle/163952376/

Apple Trees

It's still only February, and with more freezes on the way, we certainly hope the apple trees are not blooming now. Still, the thought of their sweet, pale pink blossoms on a 60*F day like today could make one believe that Winter had gone away for good. But fear not, Old Man Winter has plenty more in store for us.

Apple trees seem like they would be the perfect tree for a small, sustainable, organic farm. A standard tree, her trunk protected by stout fencing, could provide welcomed shade in a pasture for sheep or goats. As she matured, she would provide not only shade, but fruit for both livestock and human and wildlife alike. Branch trimmings could contribute to the wood pile, and choice wood chips could smoke some delicious hams. Autumn leaves could be left to enrich the floor under her canopy and also be used to make compost. Animal wastes and compost would return to the tree to complete the cycle.

Or, perhaps, a small orchard of semi-dwarf trees, coming into fruit only a few years after becoming established. At spacings of 12 - 15 feet on center, you could grow several apple varieties and enjoy fresh apples over the course of several months.

And what to do with all those apples? Chickens and goats and horses and sheep and swine, and, of course, people, all like to munch on apples. Apple juice and sweet and hard cider can be pressed - and the "waste" pulp can be fed to livestock, too. For more human style consumption, there is, of course, apple pie and apple tarts and apple fritters. And, while certainly, there are special "pie" type apples, I have had pies made with several types of "non-pie" apples and they were all delicious. ... and of course, apple butter and apple sauce and candied apples, baked apples and dried "apple leather" are other ways to eat them.

Generally speaking, you can find most fruit trees, including apple trees, in 3 sizes: standard, semi-dwarf and dwarf. Some varieties also come in "miniature." Standard size trees grow large - these are the giant old, gnarled apple trees you find in homes that are a half a century or older. 20 feet or taller with an equally wide canopy. They may mature and start producing fruit later than their semi-dwarf and dwarf relatives, but they are also in it for the long haul.

Semi-dwarf and dwarf trees are grafted to a "dwarfing root stock" - which keeps the trees themselves smaller, but does not affect the size of the fruit. These trees tend to mature more quickly and be of a size that makes taking care of them easier - especially for short people like me. Semi-dwarfs growing about 15 ft tall and 15 ft wide and dwarfs about 10 ft tall and 10 ft wide. A drawback of semi-dwarf and dwarf trees, however, is that they may need staking for their whole lives, being that the "dwarfing root stock" is not as vigorous or strong as the standard root stock.

You will need at least two trees from different "lineages" to cross pollinate and produce fruit. Reputable fruit tree catalogs and websites will tell you which types are compatable for cross pollination.

As for varieties of apples, there is a type of apple for nearly every climate.

Stark Brothers lists apples that will grow from zone 4 to zone 9, in colors from pale gold and bright green to rose blushed, classic red to a deep red-black. To add to the variety, there are also hardy, spicey and tart crab apples.

I can see pairs of semi-dwarf apple trees dotted around the property

• A pair just outside the chicken runs - shade and food near by, fallen leaves for the hens to play in during autumn.
• A pair at the north entrance to the fenced garden - one on each side of the garden gate - some shade in the summer from which to survey the gardens, with a handy snack near by. Leaves close by to gather into the compost bins
• A pair to frame the front entrance - roots not as invasive as bigger trees, spring flowers and fragrance - maybe crab apples here.
• A small group in the pasture, trunks and main rooting areas fenced off from sharp hoofs, but still providing some shade and munchies.
• Maybe a standard tree or two on the edge of a clearing in the woods - no staking, no tying, no fuss - a few fruits for us, but mostly something for the wildlings and for the future

Some resources:

• Dave's Garden - look in the fruits forum.
  
• Stark Brothers - where I purchased from a few years ago - very helpful staff; informative catalog; reasonable prices. We'll see in a few years how the trees do.
  
• The Virtual Orchard - interesting site; this article deals with bees and pollination.

Why this is not called "Sustainable Living Dreams"

In my dreams, I am living in a small cabin in a large woods. I have a little clearing where I have a fenced garden with raised beds of veggies, a small orchard and a fish pond. I use solar energy for heating, hot water and electricity. I live simply, my only extravagance a laptop and a satellite dish Internet connection. And, perhaps, a radio and probably a cell phone. I would raise and preserve all my own food and spend time communing with the trees.

But this is not my husband's dream. He wants a large "suburban" house and wants to be a "gentleman farmer" if farmer at all. More, I suspect, he just wants to live in a more rural setting. He wants a modern home, big screen TV, a tile shower. A place to bring old cars and trucks back to life.

But, at least, we both love trees. So, if he can have his modern conveniences, he is content to let me "do my silly farming thing." It's a compromise on both sides. Both of us have had to give up major parts of our dreams so that we could accommodate parts of the other's dreams. Still, I think, neither one of us would be content with even the best possible outcome of our own dreams if we couldn't have each-other. So, we compromise. And in doing so, we can "have our cake and eat it too." Just a little smaller piece of cake. But cake is very rich and sweet, so even a small slice is pretty splendid. Especially if it is German Chocolate Cake.

So we go forth, planning and plotting and dreaming of Our Place in the Country.