Wow, I have had a very full and productive afternoon! 

Last night I saw an ad on Craig’s List by someone who had free composted horse manure available.  (Composted, for those who don’t know gardening terms, means that it’s broken down to be rich soil, no smell.)  I emailed him last night for details, and called him early in the afternoon to confirm when I’d be coming.  I was going to take just my ds10, and then said my dd8 could come, and then ds6 asked if he could also come, so I said, ‘sure’.  And then my almost 3 yos also wanted to come, and I almost successfully put my foot down, but then thought about how much he’d appreciate getting out of the house.  So I took him, too.:)

Compost is so valuable to the soil that I’ve often seen it referred to as black gold, and people pay a good price for it.  So being able to get as much as I wanted for free was a big boon!  I asked the guy who had the compost what would be the best way to bring it home, and he suggested bringing shovels and five gallon buckets.  I only have one shovel (not including the kiddie one), so ds10 suggested calling friends of ours to see if they had any shovels.  Since they didn’t answer when we phoned them, we swung by on our way there, and they had just gotten home.  They lent us several shovels, and we took their 9 and 10 year old boys with us to shovel compost – our exciting field trip for the day!

So off we went, and it was really a beautiful day and a nice outing.  The kids all worked hard – even my littlest one took a little pail and a garden trowel so he could fill his bucket.  He felt very accomplished.  They filled up the equivalent of 20 five gallon buckets with compost to take back home for our garden to be.  I think there’s something really invigorating and simultaneously relaxing about working hard outside on a beautiful day.

There were horses, cows, a billy goat, and a flock of chickens there, and the kids enjoyed being able to look around and see all the animals.  Initially my ds2 was so apprehensive about the chickens that he was actually shivering when he was walking towards the barn area, and so my ds10 walked with him to reassure him.  It didn’t take long before he was telling me how nice the chickens were – “the chickens are my best friends” was what he told me when we came home. 

On the way home, I stopped at the supermarket to get a bunch of cardboard boxes so that we’d be able to unload the compost right away.  Cardboard is the first recommended layer for lasagna gardening, which when placed on the ground kills the grass or weeds underneath and provides a dark and moist place for earthworms to make their homes.  Compost is the next layer.  The idea behind lasagna gardening is to layer different kinds of organic materials and let it break down over time to be a good growing soil, thereby minimizing the hands on effort involved in preparing the soil for a garden. 

I made two twenty foot rows with the cardboard, and the kids poured out all of the compost on top of the cardboard.  Then we raked a bunch of leaves on top of that, from the leaves we had piled along the sides of the fence during the fall for this purpose.  I was amazed at how much compost we needed – I thought we must surely have gotten enough to practically cover my entire yard!  Not anywhere close. 

It’s really fast to put together a lasagna bed once you have the materials, and it’s so nice to have gotten this done.  I’ve been thinking about doing it for quite a while, and have been procrastinating because I wanted to have a fence all around the yard before I started, since it makes the yard look kind of untidy where you heap the organic matter.  I still don’t have a fence, but when I saw the offer of free compost, I decided to get started anyway.  I told my dh all last summer how much I wanted a fence, but this year I think he realizes that I really mean it.  Maybe when I said that we’ll pay retail for the fence if I can’t find it used that helped him realize that it’s a priority for me! 

It’s supposed to rain tonight, and I’m delighted to have this done before then, as the rain will help break everything down.  I’m also glad to have it taken care of before I get busy next week with Pesach preparations.  Officially in this gardening zone, it will be another two months before we can put out warm weather plants in the garden, so now I don’t have to do much but let these newly prepared garden beds ‘cook’ between now and then.  

I realized recently that my garden last year wasn’t the failure that I thought it was – it was more a matter of having an unrealistic idea of how much we could produce in the small amount of yard we dedicated to our garden, and I realized that if we wanted anything more significant, we’d need to use more of the yard.  I’d like to use my side yard for a garden this year, too, and I’m thinking that I might need to make another trip or two back for more compost!  But it’s a big chunk of time – including the driving in each direction, loading/unloading/spreading the compost, it took about five hours.  Which is basically an entire afternoon.  So I’ll have to see where preparing more lasagna beds falls on my list of priorities in the coming week or two, and if this is all that I get around to doing, it will still more than double the gardening area we’ll have available compared to last year. 

Avivah

I just finished placing an order for 25 strawberry plants and 2 thornless blackberry canes, for less than $25.  I’ve been thinking for months about getting some of these (along with blueberry bushes), but didn’t come to any decision.  When I heard about this great online deal, I decided to finally stop thinking about it and take action. 

Spring Hill Nursery is having a special right now where you can get $20 of free plants.  Two blackberry canes would be just $20, which means you can get them free except for shipping (an additional 7.95).  I couldn’t decide between the strawberries or blackberries, so decided to get both. 🙂  Both of these are plants that come up year after year, and don’t need to be replanted, so it’s a one time expense.  If I remember what I read about blackberries, they tend to spread, so hopefully the two canes will turn into more without any further financial investment on my part.

Here’s the link, if anyone is interested: http://springhillnursery.com/article.asp?mid=659596-2-0-ARTICLE-0&ai=583&sid=414217&eid=081506&lm=&eicioi&bhcd2=1236204630.  The $20 will come off of your order automatically – last night I started to order, and thought I needed some kind of coupon code that I didn’t have so I planned to call the order in this morning.  I was too tired to notice that it had already been taken off the final price!

Avivah

This past summer was the first time I had a garden, and I have to confess that it wasn’t extremely successful.  It was a good learning experience, though, and I enjoyed the feeling of being outdoors and doing something timeless and real.  Gardening is something that takes knowledge and skill, and I had very little of that when I started out.  And because I didn’t give any thought to having a garden until May, I was at a disadvantage for starting out late.

If crops don’t have to be planted until May or June, what possible disadvantage could there be?  Soil quality.  We built raised beds and purchased standard garden soil and hummus, but that wasn’t enough to create a rich growing soil for our plants.  Sure, we got zucchini, tomatoes, green beans, peppers, onions, spices, etc – but the yield was very unimpressive. 

Since this is the time of year when you can easily and cheaply get free materials to enrich your garden, now’s the time to think about it!  What I’m referring to are the huge number of leaves that are being bagged in every neighborhood and waiting to be collected.  Leaves are a fantastic compost ingredient – compost needs a mix of moist/green and dry/brown items, and leaves provide the dry/brown part of the mix.  Your regular kitchen scraps (vegetable scraps, not meat or bones) provide the green. 

Since we now have a compost tumbler, the kids filled it with lots of leaves from our yard (after building a huge pile in and spending days doing tumbling tricks head over heels into the pile – ‘Mommy, we’re drowning in leaves!’), and we’ll continue to add kitchen scraps to it.  (Prior to this our compost consisted of mostly green, which meant that it had a smell and flies around it in the summer – though since it was outside in the yard, it wasn’t a problem for us.  But if we had more brown matter in it, this wouldn’t have happened.)  But if you don’t have a tumbler, or even a compost pile, you can still benefit from the leaves.

All you have to do is dump them on top of the area where you plan to garden next year.  If you can chop them up (by running a mower over them) then it will break down much faster than entire leaves, but plain leaves are good, too.  Someone told me last week that he was amazed at how rich his soil was this past year, and all he did was dump leaves on top of his garden spot and let them sit. 

I’m hoping to expand our garden for the next season (and will do a lot more reading and learning in the winter/early spring so I’ll be more prepared this time!), so I had the kids spread cardboard in those areas (to kill weeds/grass), and then cover it with leaves.  As the season goes on, the leaves will break down, and I can till them into the ground before planting if I want.  Though being a person who doesn’t want to do work that seems extraneous, I’ll probably just leave them on top.  🙂

This is actually very similar to the idea of ‘lasagna gardening’. I heard about it this year as a cheap way to build your garden soil, but after learning more about it, realized that while it didn’t take much time, money, or effort – but did take advance thought and planning.  The premise of lasagna gardening is that you build layers on top of the area where you plan to garden of things that will break down and enrich the soil.  I think she suggested starting with newspaper, followed by grass clippings, leaves, compost – whatever you have will break down over time.  The book is Lasagna Gardening; check your library for it if you’re interested.

If you’re in an area where lawns are still being mowed, grass clippings are an incredible fertilizer.  A couple of months ago I was walking down my block when the lawn service was taking care of a neighbor’s yard.  I saw he was almost finished bagging all of the clippings, so I asked if I could take both large black bags home for my garden.  He was happy to give them to me – in fact, he was going to carry them all the way home for me.  🙂  I dumped those on top of the garden and a bunch more on top of my compost pile (not to be confused with the tumbler – the pile came before the tumbler), but that was all I got for the season because I do actually have a pretty full life and not much time to actively scout for bags of grass clippings :).  If you do this, only use clippings from grass that wasn’t chemically treated.  I saw afterwards in a Mother Earth article that grass clippings are considered one of the very best soil fertilizers, but because they break down so quickly, they can’t be packaged and sold in retail stores, so most of us would never know how good they are!

Avivah

Oooh, I’m so tired tonight.  What a busy day, and tomorrow will be busy, and the next day, and then next few days after that…..

One of the things I accomplished today that’s worthy of commenting on (to me, anyway!) is purchasing a used tumble composter for my garden.  I haven’t written much about our garden, even though I’ve loved it and it’s been a great experience.  I very much want to expand it significantly for next year so that it will provide a serious amount of vegetables for our family, and realize that part of why our crops weren’t as successful as I would have liked this year is that the soil wasn’t strong enough. 

I decided that I’m going to need to be able to make our own compost in the amounts that we need (I’m certainly not going to pay retail for that!), and that a compost tumbler would be a very useful addition.  The way it works is that it keeps the clippings or plant matter in a contained area where the heat can build up, and there’s a handle on the side that allows it to be turned for aeration.  After as little as a couple of weeks, you can have a large load of compost ready for use.  It’s pretty simple, but very effective.  Since I currently have an informal compost pile (that currently has sprouted a bunch of watermelon seeds), I know how inefficient and time consuming it can be to wait for it to break down otherwise.  They only problem is, they’re hugely expensive to buy new (well, I consider over $500 expensive), and I’ve only one time before seen one advertised used and it got snapped up right away.

Last night I was browsing Craig’s List and saw this composter, and immediately I wanted to buy it.  But it was too late to call, and a part of me really didn’t want to try to squeeze something else into a day that was already jam packed – especially since I could see the seller was located 45 minutes away, and I knew it would be a significant amount of time to get there.  But the other part of me knew I better take the opportunity when I had it because I would end up regretting not taking action later on.

So we went late this afternoon, directly from our homeschooling monthly gathering.   We took out the front passener bench before we left in order to make space for it, but when I saw it, I was concerned that it wasn’t going to quite make it.  And the seller was even more concerned than me, but it was obviously meant to be for us to get it, because it fit, with some creative finagling.  After $100 changed hands, we were off to home.

When I got home, my 7 and 9 year olds were so eager to take it out that while I was on the phone (which of course was ringing before I even got into the house), they took everything out themselves and set it all up.  I have no idea how they did it, because it’s really bulky and not too light.  They were clearly highly motivated, though.  I overheard them tell their siblings that they rolled the tumbler part most of the way, and only lifted it to get over the fence and then to put it in place.  They feel very accomplished, and they should.  In any case, now we have a very useful new addition to our yard, that is going to get a lot of use! 

Avivah

My neighborhood association hosted a plant exchange for the first time today, and I had an enjoyable and productive time!

When I got there, I had to sign in, and was then directed to the first table.  That was covered with window box planters and big round flowerpots, in several colors.  Each family got to choose one planter; if you chose the window box style, then you got five free annuals provided by the association, and you could get four if you got the round planter. 

Then you went to the next table, where there was a gardener who could assist you in choosing plants for your yard.  There were a variety of annuals, some that did better in sun and some for the shade.  All of the plants were ornamental.  Then you could bring your selection to one of the gardeners stationed at a table, and they would plant your annuals in your chosen container.  After that, you were directed to an area where perennials were at, and allowed to choose one free perennial. 

I had been hoping for plants that would be a good addition to my vegetable garden, but there weren’t any and I was slightly disappointed about that.  I had almost finished selecting my annuals when I saw several plants to the side, looking somewhat random, so I headed over to check them out.  They were tomato plants and leeks, and it looked as if they had been brought by other home owners in the neighborhood to share, but I couldn’t be sure.  If the association provided them, they counted in the allotment of five, and no one seemed sure who provided them.  So I happily took four tomato plants and one leek (that was my allotment), picked up a perennial (I can’t even remember which one I chose – either some kind of lily or black eyed susan), and got ready to leave. 

On my way out, I commented to someone I knew manning one of the booths that it was a wonderful idea, and asked whose brainchild it was.  She called over the person who arranged it all, and I told her that it was a fantastic event and thanked her.  She glanced down and saw that my planter was empty, and told me I needed to get some annuals before I left.  I told her I had taken the tomatoes and leeks, I was putting them into my garden, and didn’t take anything else since I didn’t want to go over the limit.  She told me that she wanted me to get five plants annuals in addition to the veggie plants.

I picked up five dark purple coleus plants – I love how coleus looks.  I already purchased three varieties of coleus when I went to the plant sale a couple of weeks ago, and they look beautiful in the front yard.  I got the new ones potted before I left.

I bumped into a neighbor who brought some day lilies to share, and took some of that.  I don’t know how much I like it, but I’ll plant it and see how it looks in the yard.  I love beautiful plants, but my gardening energy now is going into having a productive vegetable garden, not in making the yard look fancy.  We already transferred the large hostas that were in the back yard to the front, making room for squash plants in the back and nicely enhancing the front landscaping. 

On my way out, someone else was coming in with small seedlings to share – they were tomatoes, and I took one of hers, too.  We started some tomatoes from seed that just sprouted this morning and we found the first hard green marble tomato on our most mature tomato plant this morning, so we’ll have tomato plants in different stages of growth in the garden.  You can’t have too many tomatoes, at least not in a house like this where our kids eat them like fruits!

All in all, it was very productive, and next year (they’re planning for this to be an annual event) I plan to take some of my own plants to share with others. 

Avivah

We started planting our garden two weeks ago, and a week ago the first sprouts were seen.  The kids ran in to tell me this morning about how many other things are popping up now – it’s so exciting!

Square foot gardening is so space efficient that I still have lots of space to plant more, and I’m not yet sure what to put in.  But here’s what we put in so far: 6 tomato plants, 4 pepper plants, two zucchini, two crookneck (yellow) squash, two cumber, 2 pole beans from plants, 3 sugar snap peas, carrots, onions, and herbs.  The herbs include three kinds of mint, dill, parsley, oregano, basil, sage, fennel, and thyme.

I found out about a two day plant sale on Mother’s Day weekend, that had amazing prices for all of the above.  It was hosted by an organization that helps mentally challenged adults, and among other things, has a greenhouse where they teach them to garden.  It seems that twice a year they have a huge sale and sell the plants that were grown by them, and the proceeds go back to help those same adults further progress.  The woman in charge told me that people wait all year for it because the prices are so good.  Each plant was a dollar (!), so I bought more from starts than I would have otherwise.  I also got the carrots and onions, which I wasn’t planning to grow.  There were several carrots and onion growing in each pot so I decided to see what would happen if we separated them and replanted them individually.  Hopefully they’ll do okay; I can’t tell yet.

Then we planted seeds: 2 ‘squares’ of bush beans (9 in each), 2 squares of lima beans, radishes, swiss chard, lettuce, and beets.  Pole beans produce throughout the growing season, but bush beans just produce for about two weeks, and then that’s it.  This is the first set of bush beans, and we’ll plant some more in a couple of weeks.  We’re also planning to do a second planting of summer squash so when the first ones die off, we’ll extend the squash harvest. 

We started from seed some cherry tomatoes, eggplant, lemon cucumbers, and peppers and will transplant them if the seeds grow well.  We also planted some marigolds throughout the garden, to keep bugs at bay.  I’m not sure which bugs marigolds work best to keep away, but they look nice!  

Then we planted some squash seeds from a squash we ate.  After planting them, I learned that the non organic vegetables in the store are grown in such a way that their seeds often don’t grow normally.  So I’m assuming that’s not going to work, and will replant something else in that spot.  I’m really amazed by how space efficient square foot gardening is, and hope that we’ll get a decent amount of veggies.

Avivah

My 13 year old and I went to buy topsoil and compost to fill our new raised garden beds.  I was initially planning to buy equal amounts of compost, peat moss, and vermiculite, as per the instructions for square foot gardening.  But that gets very expensive, very fast. 

So then I called companies that deliver topsoil/compost/etc in bulk, to see if I could just get a truckload.  I could, but the minimum was much more than it seemed to me that I would need (5 cubic yards).  I don’t have a huge garden planned – I just need to fill the garden beds that run along part of the sides of my small yard. 

So I decided to find a less expensive plan – lots of topsoil mixed with a manure/humus blend, with a little bit of peat moss.  We bought about 800 pounds, in 19 – 40 pound bags (yes, this was a workout, loading and unloading them in and out of the van), and I thought it should be just about enough to fill the beds we built.  Was I wrong!

I was really amazed at how much soil it takes to fill a six inch deep garden bed.  What I bought was enough to fill up one bed, 12 x 2 ft, plus half of another one the same size.  That means that I need to buy double or triple the amount I bought to finish filling everything up.

My kids are wondering if the produce that we eventually get for the garden is going to justify all the money we’re spending for supplies.  I told them that this first year it probably won’t, but next year we won’t need to do anything but get seeds, transplants, and some compost to boost the soil quality.  I’m hopeful that after all this effort, it will be a productive crop.  As far as a productive use of time and energy, it’s definitely a satisfying feeling to sink your hands in the earth and garden, and that’s something I want my kids to experience. 

Avivah

Two years ago, we ambitiously began tilling the soil in a community garden.  We had three plots that were totally overgrown, and it was a huge amount of work.  We put in a number of hours in clearing the soil and finally planted some tomato and pepper plants, in addition to some other seeds.  Then life suddenly got very busy, as we bought a house, the business, and still had our tiny baby (1 month at the time) to take care of.  If the garden had been in our yard, we could have fit in time to continue working on it, but it wasn’t.  So the garden got put to the side, and we never reaped any of the fruits of our labor.

Last summer, we were busy with renovations inside the house, and were too busy to start a garden.  This year, I decided it’s time.  But since the last experience left a negative impression in their minds because of all the work and no harvest, I wanted this one to be something they would feel good about.  That meant doing some research, since my knowledge about gardening is limited to stick the seeds in the ground and hope they grow.  🙂

So I did some online reading, and read about something called square foot gardening.  It takes less space, less time, but the yield is higher than with traditional methods.  Sounded good to me!  It’s recommended to build raise garden beds to do this, and because I wanted to do it inexpensively, I got about ten wood pallets from someone on Craig’s List.  I read that pallets are a good source of cheap lumber since it’s untreated wood – all you have to do is take them apart.

Well, that wasn’t so simple.  The boards were attached very securely and were splintering when taken apart, and it took them ten minute so get just one board off.  The kids were getting frustrated, taking the boards apart was becoming an overwhelming idea, and I decided that as nice as the pallet idea sounded, it wasn’t working out.  So off to Home Depot I went to buy some lumber. 

I don’t have a very large yard, and I want to leave the majority of the yard for the kids to play in, so I decided to build the beds against the fence, two feet deep.  It’s very simple to put them together.  You just make a box, basically, of the size that you predetermine.  In order to maximize the gardening space and use as little lumber as possible, my son planned out one very large U shaped box, that would fit around all three sides of the area where we want it.  Last night he finished putting it together.  Today I think I’ll have some of the other kids build some more with the leftover lumber and scrap pallet wood that’s usable for other parts of the yard.

Then I gave the younger kids piles of newspapers and cardboard to put down to kill the weeds/grass.  One of the premises of square foot gardening is that instead of improving your soil, you fill the boxes with the perfect mix for growing.  I had anticipated that was going to be the biggest expense, since the ingredients for that aren’t cheap.  (That was before I walked out of Home Depot many dollars lighter.) 

Later today I’ll see what seeds we have left in the garage from our past gardening experience.  My husband picked up the gardening books I ordered yesterday (Square Foot Gardening, and Lasagna Gardening), so I’ll read them today and tomorrow.  Once I’ve read that, I can plot out on paper what I want to grow, and where.  On Friday, I’m going to a plant sale for charity and will see what they have.  I’d like to finish buying any seeds and soil ingredients (peat moss, vermiculite, and organic compost)  by Friday so I can start planting on Sunday.

It’s a big project but I’m feeling optimistic about it!

Avivah