This Imperfect Plot

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March 12th, 2013

The little one says the bok-boks are in the garney. And she’s right. They are. She says she’s going to dig for worms in the garney, too. And she does.

My daughters will never remember a time when there wasn’t a garden in their lives.

I mean, think about it. What are your earliest memories? How old were you?

Summer of ‘76. I was three and a half and it was Forth of July when my family hitched up the pop-up camper to the old brown station wagon and dragged it down to Virginia where we set up camp for a week and spent the bicentennial in Colonial Williamsburg.

I was just a little kid, practically a toddler. A little older than my youngest is now and a little younger than my oldest.

These girls will simply grow up with a garden in their hearts and dirt under their fingernails.

They’ll know how and when to start their seeds, when to harden off and put the seedlings in the ground, what to do with kitchen scraps, when to harvest, how to can tomatoes, how to make sauerkraut and pickles. They’ll be steeped in the idea that we can grow their own food. All it takes is patience and love—and hard work.

What’s my contribution to this world?

I’m doing my part for world peace.

I’m raising my daughters in the garden.

Tags: gardening with kids, seeds, starting seeds, world peace

May 31st, 2012

It’s good to have goals, right? Goals provide direction and a way to measure your progress. So here it is, the end of May, and I thought it would be a good time to check in on the goals that I set for myself this past January.

1. I will start all of my own seeds.

Check. This worked out way better than I thought it would. As with most successful endeavors, I had a lot of help. Thanks to Alex Norelli for the grow lights and heat mats. Thanks to Doug Hall for the flats and pots. Thanks to Mark Highland at Organic Mechanics for the seed-starting mix, and thanks especially to High Mowing Organic Seeds for graciously supplying most of the seeds.

2. I will only grow seeds from High Mowing Organic Seeds.

Yep, pretty much. I contacted HM a while back and told them my plan. They donated an excellent order of seeds. But then I kept seeing the High Mowing seed display at Kimberton Whole Foods and certain things would catch my eye, things that I didn’t know I wanted when I placed my original order.

3. I will not overplant tomatoes.

Somehow, I’ve managed not to overplant the tomatoes by planting more tomatoes than I’ve ever planted. Figure that one out. Fifteen plants! But this year they have plenty of space and I’m supporting them with the cat’s cradle technique instead of those stupid wire cages.

4. I will grow more flowers in my garden.

So far, so good.  Marigold, zinnia, cosmos, bachelor buttons, nasturtium, nicotiana, calendula, poppies, and lots of sunflowers. Hey pollinators, come on in!

5. I will plant a sunflower house for my kids.

Sort of. It’s not quite a house, but the edges around the play area (sliding board, bean teepee, balance beam) are thickly planted with sunflowers. It may end up feeling like a room by the end of the summer.

6. I will grow strawberries.

Check. Six ‘Mara des Bois’ day neutral strawberry plants given to me by OG deputy editor Doug Hall. Thanks again, Doug!

7. My garden will be productive earlier in the season.

We’ve been eating kale from the garden since February.

8. I’m going to buy (or make) a rain gauge.

Fail. I have not gotten a rain gauge yet. And all the “make your own rain gauge” websites and videos are flawed beyond words. They essentially tell you to tape a ruler to a jar and—presto—you have a rain gauge. I wasn’t the greatest student of mathematics or science, and I never took a meteorology class, but my instincts tell me that there is more to making a rain gauge than this. If you have any insight, please let me know.

9. I’m going to keep a detailed garden journal.

Almost. I started a garden journal. My first entry was on March 4 when I planted my onion seeds. Unfortunately, my most recent entry was on April 25 when I repotted my peppers, eggplant, tomatillo, and parsley, and planted nasturtium.

I suppose I could go back and fill in the blanks, but so much has happened since then. I will thank myself in the future if I can get back into journaling.

10. Keep my hopes high and my expectations low.

Always.

My garden, so far (this morning May 31, 2012).

=-=-

Stay tuned for my next set of gardening goals…

Tags: garden goals, goal, planting, planting strawberries, seed, starting seeds

January 12th, 2012

My garden at sunrise, early January, as seen from my bathroom window.

Let me be clear: I’m not a New Year’s resolution kind of guy. Which is why this post isn’t really a list of New Year’s resolutions, but more of a list of My Top 10 Gardening Goals for 2012. Ready? Here we go:

1. I will start all of my own seeds.
Last year, I had great luck with the seeds I started indoors and most that I sowed directly. But I also supplemented my plantings with seedlings from the Rodale Institute’s Spring Plant Sale. And what really overcrowded my garden last year were the extra seedlings I brought home from work, things that Doug Hall started in the greenhouse for the test garden, things like tomatoes and peppers, and celeriac. Don’t get me wrong: I appreciate free stuff like you couldn’t imagine. But this year, I’m taking a less-is-more approach—a Thoreau-like tact of simplistic self-sufficiency: If I didn’t start it from seed, then it’s not going in my garden. One possible caveat: Strawberries (see #6).

2. I will only grow seeds from High Mowing Organic Seeds.
I love their seeds. I love their company.

3. I will not over-plant tomatoes.
Every year, I seem to have too many tomato plants. Not this year. No, I will have the exact right number. Whatever that is.

4. I will grow more flowers in my garden.
Last year, I grew zinnias, calendula, nasturtium, and moonflower. This year, I will grow these and more. And I will interplant them among my other crops.

5. I will plant a sunflower house for my kids.
Last year’s fun project was a bean teepee. I might do one of those again, but we’ll definitely grow a sunflower house.

6. I will grow strawberries.
I love strawberries. Why haven’t I grown them before?

7. My garden will be productive earlier in the season.
How? By starting my own seeds indoors, I’ll be able to start my greens and whatnot in February and get them in the ground in March. I might even start some peas indoors to get a jump on fresh peas. Ah, fresh peas. I can’t wait for spring. It’s been a long winter and it’s only early January. Yep, I’m starting to champ at the gardening bit, as it were.

8. I’m going to buy (or make) a rain gauge.
I know how much rain we got last August and September: way too much. But this year, I’d like to be a bit more in touch with my precipitation.

9. I’m going to keep a detailed garden journal.
I have a good memory. For some things. I can remember people’s birthdays like Rain Man can count toothpicks. For instance, today is my Grandmother’s 90^th Birthday. Tomorrow is my cousin Emily’s 25^th birthday. Sunday is my friend Kevin’s 39th. The Monday after next is my nephew Calvin’s birthday. He’s turning 13. Ok. You get the point.

But there are some things that just seem to slip away. When did I plant my potatoes last year? What kind of beans did I plant two years ago? How much rain did we get last June? When did those Mexican Bean Beetles first appear on my bean Teepee? OK, you get the point there too. Yep—garden journal. Count me in.

10. Keep my hopes high & my expectations low.
Not sure if this counts as a goal. But it’s my M.O. and I’m sticking too it.

Tags: garden goals, garden journal, planting strawberries, starting seeds, sunflower house

April 18th, 2011

The garden at our house is moving along nicely on two fronts: indoor and outside.

You know about the peas, but we also planted spinach and radicchio by seed. The spinach looks good, but the radicchio is taking its time. I planted them together in one of the 2 x 8 raised beds in sort of a diagonal stripes.

turnip greens

We went up to the cold crop sale at the Rodale Institute last week and got some broccoli and arugula seedlings and a bag of onion sets. I put the onions in a few different beds, a row here, a row there, sort of out of the way along the back edges and outside corners of some of the bigger raised beds. I put the broccoli in the bed where I overwintered turnips and collards. (Wondering now if that’s a brassica overload; perhaps some crop rotation was in order. Live and learn.) We’ve been eating lots of turnip greens lately. Last October I planted about 40 bulbs of garlic in the other 2×8 bed. This all sounds like a lot of work, but my raised beds were ready to plant because I kept them heavily mulched all winter. The soil looks great, full of worms, ready for a productive season.

Inside, everything I planted a few weeks ago is up—except the marigolds. I’m wondering if my seeds were bad, or if they’re the kind of seed that needs darkness to germinate. I’ve left the fluorescent light on 24/7 since I planted the seeds. The rest of the seedlings seem to like it.

The secret to growing seedlings is finding good help

And this past weekend, Iris and I planted tomato seeds. OG senior editor Doug gave me some of the seeds that he’s trialing in the test garden. I’m stating 4 varieties: Velvet Red, Black Icicle, Italian Heirloom, and Henderson’s Winsall.

soil+seed+water+light+love=tomatoes

This is random, but I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the correlation between having kids and growing a garden. As new parents or new gardeners you have no idea what to expect. You worry a lot about the “right” way to do things and it can be stressful to say the least. But I’ve noticed, as my wife and I are getting very close to having our second child, that things are a little less stressful. Not that it’s not incredibly exciting; it’s just exciting in a whole new way. More on that later.

My seed potatoes shipped today. I should have them in time to plant them on Good Friday. Going for the mulch method this year. I had them in the ground a lot earlier last year.

Tags: mulch, peas, potat, potato, rasied beds, seeds, spinach, starting seeds, tomato

April 12th, 2011

Maybe I’m a simpleton, but every time I see those tiny green shoots peep up out of the soil, I am amazed. Not just sort of amazed, but like Grand Canyon amazed. Niagara Falls amazed. Just witnessing something so large at work in something so small as a tiny seed mixed with soil, water, and light utterly floors me.

basil seedlings

I worry for a few days after I plant seeds—worry that something has gone terribly wrong, that my soil is too cool, or the light is not bright enough, or my water is not wet enough. I worry and worry and worry until one day, a little speck of green emerges and I can relax a little.

It’s the excitement, the exhilaration, the absolute thrill of germination that keeps me coming back to the garden and the whole process of planting hope and reaping joy.

zucchini seedlings

Please join me in welcoming some basil, zucchini, and zinnias into the world. I’m still currently worrying and worrying and worrying about my parsley and marigolds.

Tags: seedlings, starting seeds, water

April 4th, 2011

OK, I admit that this is the first year I’ve ever tried starting my own seeds. I even made my own little newspaper pots. Iris and I had a good time filling them with the seed starting mix. Anytime you get to play with a bucket of dirt at the kitchen table is a good time, whether you’re a toddler or a dad.

We planted seeds and set them up under a low hanging fluorescent light in the basement.  We planted basil, parsley, zinnia, squash, and marigolds. And now to keep them moist and wait.

I’m worried that maybe I should have filled the pots to the brim with potting mix, but as with most things in my life as a gardener, it’s a learning process.

Iris and I planted our pre-sprouted peas yesterday. She was more interested in filling up her bucket with water and letting some of her worms go for a swim, but we managed to plant 3 different varieties. I planted spinach and radicchio during her nap time.

Tags: gardening with kids, peas, seed, starting seeds

March 31st, 2011

My wife and I are expecting a baby in May. We’ve been telling our 2½ year old daughter that the baby will be here in spring. So when I got her out of bed on March 20 and told her it was the first day of spring, she said, “Where’s my baby?”

With a baby on the way, you can imagine that we’re pretty busy getting things ready. Somehow I’ve managed to find a little time for gardening too. My little helper and I go out to the garden as much as we can. We haven’t planted anything yet, but the bamboo pea trellis is almost complete.

I’m trying to pre-sprout them now. I soaked them in water over night and this morning wrapped them in a damp paper towel, tucked them into a plastic bag, and suspended them over the baseboard heater to keep them warm. Hopefully by Saturday or Sunday we’ll have some sprouts.

We’ve also started working on the bean tee-pee. The idea is for Iris to have a cool fort to play in. What you see here is just the prototype.

Tags: seed, starting seeds

January 21st, 2011

It’s just about the dead middle of winter. I’ve been paging through seed catalogs, dreaming about planting peas, wondering how I’ll do my potatoes this year.

My Garden in January

But here’s the thing: We’re looking to buy a house, my wife and I. We have a daughter who’s 2 and half, and we’re expecting a baby in May. Our house, however nicely situated in the world with its privacy and open space, is about to get too small, and it’s already too expensive to heat.

So my where does this leave my garden? Do I start seeds, do I prepare myself mentally for the spring, knowing full well that we might move and leave it all behind?

Yes. Of course I do. I’ll order my seeds. I’ll start them in the basement. I’ll plant my peas on St. Patty’s Day, I’ll plant my taters on Good Friday (actually, I just looked at the calendar and Good Friday is really late this year, so I’ll get the taters in sooner), and I’ll get things ready the way I always do. It’s part of who I am. I garden.

Tags: peas, potatoes, seed, seeds, starting seeds, winter