checklists

i planted a lot of things this weekend.
a lot of things.

i'll tell you all by section... because the section planning itself is hopefully going to aid in the way it all grows later on this spring.

first section:

gutters on the fence.  we had a friend who had HUGE success with her strawberries when she planted them in gutters. so the middle gutter is going to be for strawberries. i have TONS of strawberry seedlings so we may add a fourth gutter on the bottom for more.  strawberry plants take about two years to come to full fruit bearing capacity. hopefully this year, they will just fill out the gutters nicely and then next year we will have full yield.  

on the top gutter i planted spinach, bunching onions, 2 inch carrots and mini radishes. 

bottom gutter has red lettuce, gold lettuce, butterhead lettuce and... oh my. i forgot what the last thing is.  something leafy.

the cool thing about these gutters is that it will be really easy to hang shade cloth for them in the event that they get too hot.  also they are space saving... everything planted in the gutters has a very small root system and does not need depth, they like to be slightly crowded and they love the the same levels of light.  oh! pak choy was the last green in the gutters.

second section:

along one side of the house is the bean/pea section. one of my good friends did a seed swap with me so i got like 3 more types of beans/ peas then i already had.  i hope that they go crazy.  all in all i have like ten species of beans and peas.  last year our legumes did not thrive, but their soil was not good... not tilled correctly or farmed the right way.  this year i tried to rectify that and amended the soil with lots of nitrogen for them. this pic doesn't do the section justice. it goes more than halfway down the length of the house.  as the plants climb, i have plans to add more trellis that extends upwards.

third section:

first half of the giant raised bed we have is dedicated to corn and onions. two types of corn and four types of onions. onions like to be cramped, they do not like a lot of space, and i hear that they are good at weeding themselves out. we will see... i will probably help them space themselves.

to the right of the raised bed is where the kohlrabi and the rat tailed radish went.  like the mustards, they are ok with a little bit of shade. so they are right by the walnut tree.  lots of sun for now, but natural shade as soon as the walnut tree fills out during the summer as it gets scorching hot here.

fourth section:

cylinders of hay? why you ask?

potatos i say!!!

each round has a different type of potato: purple majesties, two different reds and then some russets.  

i really, really, really hope that they work. if i pay attention to the moisture levels in the hay, all should go well.

augh!!!!!!!!!

on saturday as i was planting all of this stuff, i had my planner out right along side me, just checking things off as i went.  each check mark was a new and heightened sense of accomplishment.  then the anxiety set in when i was done planting and had some time on my hands.  what if none of them sprout? what if they don't like the settings that i picked for them? ugh. then i gave my worries to the earth because what else can i do? then i went to a bbq and made smores.  so there.   

in closing: the tomato babies are about a foot tall and in the process of being hardened off. this means that they spend a little time outside every day to get used to the weather. they need to do this for about a week and a half to two weeks. then. they go to their new home next to the corn. the peppers don't go out until april. the eggplants will go out also around that time, plus the ground cherries. 

soon i will give you some updates on all of the seed babies that are already sprouted and i will also show you the planning calendar that i made, so that the method to my madness is clear.

storytelling

i have stories to tell.  not good stories.

first off:  one of the cats ate all of my tomatillo seedlings except for one, all of my gypsy tomato seedlings as well as ALL of the blue hungarian seedlings.  so.  matt helped me build a window box for the seedlings that the cats can't get into.  i was still super depressed about it. cried a lot actually. my lime tree also died.  my mistake.  i bought a new one and planted it properly this time... i hope.

so now i started new tomatillos.  new gypsy tomato seedlings.  gonna have to buy starters for some kind of jalapeño peppers because although i'm restarting some of the seeds, it may be too late for them to get fruit going in time.

                                                                    window box



i have stories to tell.  good stories.

check out this list of seeds that sprouted out in their beds:  poppies/all kinds, cabbage, pepinos, blue statica, dill, sweet peas, starlight.
bulbs with shoots: platycodon, dahlias, PEONIES!
plants planted: rosemary, parsley, oregano, new lime tree, tiny broccoli seedlings
new seeds planted:  mustard greens/two kinds, carrots, new peppers, oriental poppies
flowers bloomed: tulips, irises, nectarine tree, anemones and im counting the early rosebuds too just cause i can... wink wink

the moral of this story is that even when things die, or get killed... or just maimed; other things will still grow and thrive. these little plants are so precious and fragile but they are also resilient and much tougher than i am.

besides watching the circle of life around here, i've also been interfering.  heeheeheehee...  i built potato cages. chicken wire zip tied into drum shapes about 3 ft wide.  got our potato starters, got our hay.  forecasts say that st. paddy's day is the time to set them.  i'm all kinds of excited.

the concept of these cages is safety.  potatoes grow really well in hay.  however, cats like to poop in hay and birds like to steal it, dogs like to run through it and it doesn't hold shape.  so we set the potato pieces under a small layer of straw.  when the potato vines start to peek through, we layer more straw on top and so on and so on.  then when your potato vines are ready for harvesting, you un pin your cages, releasing them from their shape, and harvest your potatoes by simply sifting through your hay for them.  i got a lot of great information from: http://www.hillgardens.com/potatoes.htm

it's a cool website with all the free info you need about growing potatoes.  they use dirt instead of hay but i think that either way will work. the concept also is cool because you wont be digging through huge random piles in order to find your potatoes, instead, you will just be gleaning them from the dirt/hay.  lets see how this goes!

so, my friends... it's the beginning of the week.  i've got my feelers out on other impending projects.  hopefully i will get the gutters up for the strawberries, lettuce, radishes and bunching onions.  pictures to follow if all goes well!!!  have a great week!!!

survival of the fittest?

this week i've been thinking a lot about evolution. this stems from several different things, but mostly, as i'm planting all of these little seed babies i'm just thinking of how to protect them from all the predators that may come along to steal their little thunder...

i got up first thing this morning and went to prep my seeds for sowing:  today was flower day.  many of my herbal flowers and some of my "just for show" flowers were ready to go in.  our problem this week since we've tilled up the soil is that all of the neighborhood cats seem to think that the kitty night spa is in our backyard.  feel free to NOT poop wherever you want to kitties... as i planted my very precious flower seeds, i knew that i had to do something to keep them safe from getting dug through.  enter black netting... laid ever so gently across the ground so that the seeds can sprout through and as they do, the netting will get lifted up and staked until there is less and less free space for the kitties to dig through.  i love cats.  i do not love the cat owners out there who's idea of having a cat is to let it prowl all through the neighborhood day and night, sowing their wild oats all over the place.  here is my herbal/floral bed with all of its seeds set in:

the trees, remember, were all there already when we moved in.  there were tons of rocks in this bed before, stifling these tress. in fact, i have a beautiful nectarine tree that is getting too much moisture and therefore producing mutated fruit. exit all rocks, enter amazing flowers and healing plants: lavender, echinacea, dill, achillea (yarrow), daisy's and a few other assorted things... many of the other herbs can be set in another couple of weeks.  it's still too cold for all of them.

another part of evolution that just purely flattens me is this idea of sister plants.  how some of them act like a "big brother" protecting others from predators of different kinds. naturally.  so today, i planted some of those heroes:  marigolds and nasturtiums. there are many predator bugs that simply hate these beautiful flowers so planting them next to some of your fruit producers helps to keep them safe.  i am also planting some sacrificial radish clusters which are essential.  one thing that keeps me coming back to this idea of evolution is that i never want any of my babies to die, but some of them are ok with it.  so what if i don't have tons of beautiful radish leaves? the radishes will still grow underground while their delicious greens are eaten by the bugs, because somehow the radish plant found itself a job... and with it job security; by allowing itself to be loved by the predators first and it's thankful brother and sister plants second, and then by me last... 'cause i find them absolutely delicious and irresistible. anyway these ecosystems that build each other up are really amazing to me.  i first learned about them from Orson Scott Card in the Ender's Game series, and then more from Michael Pollan when i read The Omnivore's Dilemma, but mostly that was all in a bigger, broader scope than just a little farm. finally though, i read this beautiful book called The Wisdom of the Radish by Lynda Hamilton, who just happens to be a farmer from here in sonoma county.  i would recommend this book to anyone, but especially to anyone starting a little farm... it's absolutely beautiful, funny and wise. it took all of these vast notions that i had been contemplating for years and put them in a close knit context for me that i could actually take and use every day.

here are the marigold seeds just waiting for me to cover them ever so slightly.  they like light on them, so you can't cover them very much which will be the same for most of your flower/herb seeds. remember to read the directions.  they matter a lot! some of your flower or herb seeds won't want to be covered at all, just kind of stamped into the ground (achillea/yarrow) and it's just plain rude not to respect their wishes!

an update on the bigger seedlings:

yup! those are all tomato seedlings that got separated and thinned out this week from their original containers.  this pic was taken right after i moved them so they are a little wilty, but now several days later, they are perked up and much more hardy.  we've only lost four of them from the moving process. those ones lost their stem density after their transplant so they didn't make it and of course, i purposely weeded out about ten or so of the smaller, runts or super new ones that i couldn't sustain.  evolution again.  the strongest ones got picked to move onto the next challenge.  they are especially happy in the southern facing window that we have in the house... which just happens to be my bedroom.  this way, they see sun rays all day long. so after your seedlings get started, put them in a south faced window. surprisingly, so far, the cats haven't picked on them at all, although they did pick on some of the babies in the living room window. they got in trouble and haven't done it since, but there were a few tomatillo casualties in the process.  now mother has them protected with the blind so that no more mischief can be made...

it's official!  we have a choco baby bell pepper sprout, which means that all of the pepper types we've planted have sprouted!!  YAYAYAYAY!  on monday, i will separate those guys, as well as the eggplants and the broccoli is actually almost ready to just get planted in the ground so that may happen realllllllllly soon.  monday is also mapped out as gutter day, so you will get some pics then.  three gutters are getting purchased and hung on the fence.  then we will plant lettuces, strawberries, baby carrots, chives, little radishes and some other things that will grow in shallow dirt.  it's surprising how much can actually grow in a gutter!  we have a friend who planted all of their strawberries in gutters last year with the best success, so we are going for it!  more in a couple of days, after all of that has gotten under way and there is more adventure to report... 

making mud pies

i'm not gonna just post tons of pics showing you all of the dirt that i tilled this weekend.  well.  the dirt that matt tilled anyway... i wasn't allowed to use the rototiller by myself.  i think that he thought i would get hurt.  anyways, everything got tilled so quickly!  the side yard, the two existing raised beds, the area that is being built into a raised bed and the bean/pea zone:  all of it got tilled in about 45 minutes.  when i was talking about tearing it up, i had a friend tell me to do it by hand and mash cardboard into it but why do all of that when you have an amazing rototiller available?  its all so much easier, so even though the more responsibly, ecological thing to do would be to do it all by hand... i'm really hoping that mother nature will forgive me for taking the easy way out this one time...?????

it all got done.  that was the point.  we tried to spread some hay out and till it in but it was too wet, so matt just ended it up raking it up and setting it behind the compost fence so that as it decomposes, i can use it then.

both of our brassicas seed varieties sprouted already with these cute little clover leaf-ish sprouts.  also.

wait for it...

wait for it...

wait for it...

two more of our pepper varieties also popped up!  we now have "picante calabrese (hot)"and "bolivian rainbow (hot)" sprouts.  it's been a great couple of days here.  we have two more types of pepper seeds waiting to pop up... hopefully.

i took some time off of work, just the rest of the week, so i'm going to put in the rock pathways and get some greens started.  this weekend, many of the flower seeds are going to get started. hopefully it stays warm... cause i have stuff to do!

beautiful blue hungarians

yesterday morning as i was leaving for work, i did a cursory sweep of the seedlings.  i just wanted to check in, make sure they were feeling good before i was gone for ten-ish hours.  i almost shrieked at the top of my lungs, i was so happy, so delighted, so... grateful!  two tiny seedlings were popping up in the pepper tray, the one that i had thought i ruined with mold.  both of the seeds coming up were from the same pocket: the one i had labeled blue hungarian (hot).

i tried to just fly casual... you know... play it cool in the event that i got home from work and they would some how have disintegrated. or maybe i was sleepwalking at seven in the morning and dreamt the entire thing up?  but i got home from work and they were still there, like little beacons reflecting some hope back to me that i hadn't done something ghastly! they definitely seemed tougher and heartier somehow than the other seedlings. they are definitely the bruisers out of my "kids" here, doling out damage and taking names for later.  or... at least that's how i imagine them.

so, a lesson to all of you soon to be farmers out there just learning to take a risk with seeds, these delicate yet hard, magical beings:  don't over think it.  do your research because every seed may have it's own preferences.  in fact, i was just reading today that my bean seeds like to be pre-fertilized; or that all my lettuce/green seeds like to be chilled before planted.  they do NOT like it hot, quite the opposite of the peppers.  keep your peppers as warm as can be, my heating pad is on them at all times until i see more sprouts.  hopefully i will see some action in the next few days since, now, i am expecting all the other peppers to jump on the sprouting bandwagon.  keep your fingers crossed for us!

on another note:  brassica seeds were started yesterday.  both romanesca broccoli as well as a standard broccoli version.  they are in the window and getting some sun.  i can't wait to work out in the yard tomorrow, getting the ground tilled and amended... more tomorrow from out in the sunshine...

one man's trash is this girls rich compost.

today it is so sunny here.  i already have a notion of what our beautiful spring could be like.  this was the perfect day to do some yard work.  i put a tube top on... i hate tan lines... got out my ipod and got to work.

the people who had this house before me, took the trouble to build some raised beds along the perimeter of the yard, along the fence.  in the big one, along the back fence, they planted a few trees and then promptly filled the rest in with rock.  now, my trees are stunted, not to mention the heinous waste of space i see.  my mission the past few weeks has been to clear out the rocks so matt has been helping.  now that the rocks are cleared, the soil is gonna get tilled and then my sister and i are going to try our hands at a really extensive herbal bed. we are looking to plant not only kitchen favorites like oregano, parsley, cilantro and basil; but i am looking to have an extensive floral herb bed as well.  i want rue, st. john's wort, achillia, peonies, lavender, etc... etc... etc...

my history of illness is as follows;  i was diagnosed at 22 with graves disease.  it's a thyroid condition that floods your cells with too much thyroxin.  thyroxin regulates how hard the systems in your body are working.  when you have too much, as i did, everything works too hard.  at one point, i was taking 14 pills a day.  finally i felt enough was enough so i began my journey to be healthy.  i had my thyroid radiated and jump started, i quit eating most junk food... except for some taco bell as a guilty pleasure now and again... i also started exercising again and decided that i wasn't gonna take pills if i didn't have to.  i feel great.  i lost 60lbs and am trying to tone and a lot of my success has been because of the choice i made to cut out all of the chemicals that have invaded our life.

i am humbled by nature.  there are so many natural remedies for almost every ache and pain you will have.  so i have purchased some tea trees and in a year or two, after my herb garden is under way and my tea trees are mature, i can get to making herbal teas and home remedies for those of us who feel like getting back to basics.

today was also about clearing out my compost cage.  this year, i'm committing to two different boxes: one for just egg shells and calcium rich food waste, and the other is gonna be for everything else.  i have had a compost bin going for about 6 or 7 months now but never really took care of it before.  this year, i need to take advantage of my own food waste that is missing it's opportunity to natural fertilize and enrich it's successors in the garden, but to also give back to this earth as i keep asking it to give me more and more.  i opened the worm box today, hoping for some signs of life and was so pleasantly surprised to see healthy compost being farmed in there and some big, fat, happy worms, working away at the box:

if you look closely, you can see some big ol' fat worms in there!!!

the rest of this week, i'm going to start building these guys a bigger home from recycled pallets.  the worm lady, who i purchased my lovelies from, told me that wood is better. more natural, organic, nicer for them.  i'll post a pic as soon as it's complete!

lastly, i would love to welcome the newest darlings to the front yard, tulips!!! 

beautiful bud, popping out, hopefully soon to bloom!

starting from scratch.

today, my sister found mold on the pepper seed starters.  wait for it, wait for it.  ok now!  panic ensues.

do i start the seeds from scratch?  isn't mold natural?  will they recover and still be able to sprout?

let me start at the beginning.  i am 30 years old.  two years ago i started a tiny, tiny garden in four wine barrels on the back porch of my condo.  i did this because two years before that, i discovered purely by accident just how much in love with nature i am.  we began a yard rehab project at my boyfriend, matt's, grandmother's house.  everything was torn out, and all new landscaping had to be put in.  matt's family is full of people who just do it themselves. always.  they are contractors who began with the inside of the house and than, after that was finished, deftly and seamlessly moved out of doors.

i fell in love.  i learned plants, i learned scientific and common names, i learned how to build raised beds, build fountains, install drip line... it goes on and on.  mostly i learned love.  i learned that ecosystem is brilliant, and to me the wonder of a natural, earthly ecosystem is the most beautiful.  the project was eventually finished but i was hooked. i tried and failed a lot at many indoor gardens from my tiny condo without a porch, and soon realized that just like me, my little orchids and ferns and herbs really needed the sun.  so we moved. enter the wine barrels.

i still cant really believe just how much i grew out of four wine barrels.  but here... see for yourself.

my tomatoes were most impressive. but there were white beans, lemon cucs, kale, cauliflower and more.

then we moved again.  this time into a house...with a yard.  the possibilities were suddenly endless!  we moved here less than a year ago and most of what i bought was already started for me as it was a test garden. whats gonna grow where? again.  my tomatos flourished as did the peppers, the lettuce, the corn, the collards and the cucumbers. there were some failures last season, but i think that happened mostly where the soil was not turned over and prepped well.  we didn't have a lot of time before it was too late, to have anything.  it was so rushed and experimental that there were bound to be a few casualties, but all in all, it was a great starter season.  this year...  i can do better...

so now some of the seeds are started.  the soil is getting tilled and fueled up. and...

my pepper seeds got moldy.

some of your seeds will have a greater chance of survival if they are started in doors, especially when it is super frosty and cold, like it has been here in northern california.  so a week an a half ago, tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, strawberries and ground cherries started their germination process in my living room window.  the tomatoes were the first to start:

then... slowly... everything else has popped up over the past week.  cute little strawberries, elegant eggplants, tomatillos and a few straggly ground cherry sprouts.  not the peppers though, they need to be hot and while i had them close to a heater vent, it still was too cold for them.  pepper seeds love to sprout in temperatures between 75 and 85 degrees and my house varies between 65 and 70.  i was assured that after 25 days or so, they would start to sprout, but then the paranoia began to set in.  if worse came to worse, i could simply get some starters somewhere when it was time to plant outside (approx 7 weeks), but i just couldn't leave well enough alone and decided to tamper with them. i ended up reading a few solutions via the web, and opted to put them in a plastic baggie to keep them warmer with some humidity, since many people suggested it with good results.  what they didn't warn me about was excess moisture.  enter the mold. again, i turned to the internet.

today i got them a heating pad after learning that death is not certain for these tiny seeds who have yet to sprout. mold is a very natural thing and as long as the soil gets dried out, it will die on it's own and supposedly the mold will not harm any sprouts that get over the bog.  i'm dying with anticipation.  i can't wait to see if they can recover and sprout despite me, getting in their way, over thinking things as i often tend to do. nature is wider than me.  i know.  i learned my lesson and hopefully not tooooooo late!

today i also, just in case, started a fresh pan of pepper seeds. i delicately placed them on the heating pad as well, with their firm, only slightly damp soil. hope is sprouting inside me despite the lack of actual sprouts in the pan. it's always better to have a plan b. right?