Garden needing weeding

Say that to those close to you and most likely they’ll think you are nuts.   You’ll probably hear a few comments like:

• I don’t have time to weed
• It is too much work
• I can buy good vegetables cheaper than all my effort
• I had to weed when all my friends were playing
• It was hot and buggy
• I decided then I would never have a garden

These are all valid reasons not to have a vegetable garden.  Many of those feelings were developed when we saw the world from the viewpoint of a youngster not wanting to do chores in the summer. We are adults now with adult perspectives.

Why we think gardening is work

We tend to see it as work because of how we measure accomplishments now.  Instead of mowing lawns or patiently saving our allowance for that special toy, we see no benefit to waiting.  We only feel satisfied if we can cross a task off of our “To Do” list permanently.  We have grown used to instant and final results.  Having to weed?  They will just grow back and I’ll have to weed again.  Wanting to know the exact day your tomatoes will be ripe to fit your schedule may be tricky.  Gardening doesn’t happen that way.  We need to be okay with having a general idea of when the tomatoes will be ripe. The unpredictability is what makes us uncomfortable.

Potatoes peeking through the soil seeking the sun

I love to be in my garden

Gardening forces me to accept a different pace. It gives me an excuse to slow down.  I can’t make a tomato grow any faster than it is supposed to and I can’t make a weed not want to grow.  Vegetable gardening is about goals and outcomes but not in the way we normally think.   It is a system that we have to slowly and patiently through hands on experience learn how to work within. It takes small amounts of focused effort spread over a growing season.   We aren’t used to accommodating nature’s time frame.  Walking through my garden every few days makes me look forward to:

• Finding out if my potatoes are finally peeking through the soil seeking the sun
• Feeling like the 10 year old playing  in the dirt (until you try to stand up)
• Refreshing the sense of wonder-what is this new sprout or bug?
• Relaxing knowing that the garden is “working” for you 24 hours a day-seven days a week
• Enjoying  being part of the ever changing process and progress

I love to weed because it allows me to feel the renewal that flows from the soil.  I imagine it takes me back to a simpler time when we all shared a similar connection to our gardens.

How about you?  Why do you like to spend time in your garden? Please feel free to share.

I bought 25 straight run Dark Cornish.  I chose Dark Cornish based on my research and my inexperience.  Dark Cornish are advertised as: a heritage breed, dual purpose, hardy, brown egg layers, great foragers, medium sized, good mothers, still have instincts and small pea combs.  I wanted to make sure someone knew what they were doing-even if it was the chickens!  I arranged to have my farmer friends take the roosters when they started to crow.  “If it crows-it goes” is the saying at my house.

My chicks arrived as promised and into the brooder they went.  They grew as they should-much to my relief.  It was time for them to move into their brand-new chicken tractor built by me-designed by Andy Lee of Chicken Tractor: The Permaculture Guide …fame.

To prevent overheating from the sun, I insulated the hinged roof of the tractor with 2” blue foam board.  Who knew that chickens LOVE to eat insulation?  I countered by gluing cardboard over the insulation.  The chickens ate through that too.  I removed the cardboard and insulation and moved the tractor to the shade under the trees.

DIY Chicken Tractor

As wintertime approached, I worried about my chickens being cold.  Our winters are -10F to +30F for 5 months.  I built a “winter” home for my chickens.  A two level wooden framed coop with paper backed fiberglass insulation sandwiched between sheets of OSB board.  There was no insulation eating that winter.

I also housed their home inside the south-facing bottom floor of my bank barn.  The chickens were insulated from the wind and snow on three sides.  I attached their tractor to the winter home via a covered run so they could go outside in the sun and still be protected from predators.

Twice a day I made my way down to the barn to open and close their coop door and to feed and water my chickens.  We got over four feet of snow that winter so I had to plow a path to the barn.  I did not supply supplemental lighting and my chickens stopped laying eggs for 41days.  They remained happy and healthy.

My second winter, I decided to locate the chicken tractor closer to the house.  I moved it under a Norway maple tree.  I insulated the outside of the tractor with stacked straw bales and added a heat lamp inside the coop.  Having learned my lesson, I did not insulate the roof of the coop.  The chickens continued to lay eggs all winter at a reduced rate.  Again, they remained happy and healthy.

This is my third winter with chickens.  I read Open-Air Poultry Houses for All Climates by Prince Woods during the summer.  I decided to try the methods recommended in the book.  I did not insulate my chicken tractor much at all.  I attached wind blocks to the upper sides of the tractor.  I made them out of leftover metal roofing.  I stuffed three empty feedbags full of straw and placed them around the roosting area.  I gave them fresh water every day; let them free range to get sunshine and exercise and added straw to make sure their tractor floor stayed dry.  I did not supply additional heat or light and the chickens produced an abundance of eggs all winter long.

To Insulate or Not to Insulate:

I have learned that you will have to use your best judgment based on your own area and experience.  These are some criteria that I would use to decide:

Insulate:

• ·         If you have less than 10 chickens
• ·         If your chickens are a small breed
• ·         If they are bred specifically for egg laying
• ·         If comb size is large and more susceptible to frostbite
• ·         If your winters are lengthy and -40F to 0F
• ·         If you experience frequent windy weather
• ·         If you experience frequent wet winter weather      
  

 Not Insulate:

• ·         If you have 10 or more chickens
• ·         You have medium or large breed chickens
• ·         They are a dual purpose breed
• ·         If comb size is small and less susceptible to frostbite
• ·         If you have shorter warmer winters and -10F to +30F or better
•            You can ensure your chickens can stay dry and out of the wind

Happy Chickens

What can I do to help lessen my impact on our Earth’s resources?

This question is always in in the back of my mind-almost nagging. Often, what I do does not feel like I am making an impact on our situation.  It is satisfying when I take our recycled cans, bottles and paper and place them into a large dumpster and I know it is very important. Thankfully, many of us reduce, re-use, re-purpose and recycle.

This just doesn’t feel very satisfying even though I know I am doing the right thing.  I don’t really know what the final outcome of my action is.  It isn’t enough for me.

My Recycle Bin: Paper, Plastic and Glass

I gladly contribute what I can to good organizations that ask for donations. But I want to do more than that.

They perform the helping for me.  I receive letters and reports telling me how my dollars have helped.  But I want to do something.  I want to see, feel and know I am helping on a daily basis.

www.heifer.org                                        http://www.gardenwriters.org

 I decided my contribution is to grow some of my own food.

By growing just one tomato plant or some lettuce, my small voice will join the choir singing the refrain-we need to change our ways.

Growing my own food allows me to know I am helping because:

• I can reduce and reclaim profit that would support established food production
• I  can follow my natural instinct to honor and respect my food and how it is grown
• My growing methods are harmonized and balanced
• I  can participate in the miracle that occurs from planting seeds to eating at my table
• My food is healthier and so am I

To sum it up: Growing my own food just feels right.

Just Picked Green Beans Ready to Eat!

How can you help?

• Join a community garden                                   http://www.communitygarden.org/
• Start you own garden
• Grow one tomato plant in a pot on your deck, porch or balcony
• Volunteer at a food co-op, farmers market or with local food producers www.rumblewayfarm.com/           www.calvertfarm.com/      http://www.localharvest.org/
• Learn more about how your purchased food is produced
• Connect with other small gardeners
• Share this link
• Tweet this post
• Share how you help      

Make Melanzanosalata. Melanzanosalata is Greek eggplant salad.   It is a traditional Greek recipe and is served as an appetizer.  It is a dip and is best when spread over warm crusty bread.

There are as many recipes as there are Greek people.  All are very good. Here are the basic ingredients: eggplant, olive oil, garlic, lemon juice and salt and pepper.  I make it by baking the eggplant.  Some grill it.  I blend all the ingredients while others chop the eggplant and mix.

Most enthusiasts have a favorite recipe.  The one I use is simple and lets the baked eggplant flavor come through.  One eggplant (close to a pound) poked with a fork 6-8 times, baked at 350°F for about an hour (it should be soft throughout), cool, quarter, and then remove seeds and skin. The pulp is placed in a blender or food processor with one clove of garlic, two tablespoons of good olive oil, a tablespoon of lemon juice and salt and pepper to taste.  That’s it!

You can add a dab of mayonnaise; a dollop of yogurt (Greek, of course), diced tomatoes, parsley or anything else you feel will taste good in your salad. Experiment.  I like it on bread with a bit of fresh homegrown tomato but it is good on pita or slathered on a sandwich.

Go ahead and try it-you won’t be disappointed!

Chicken antics have to be observed to be appreciated.  You will understand why we humans use the word chicken to describe a person that is well, acting like a chicken.  Chickens have  very short attention spans and are very serious about everything.  Nothing goes unnoticed by the one-eyed chicken stare. But they spook easily.

This is a typical chicken chain of events:  ALARM!”Something moved! Chase it!  Chase it!” FREEZE! Eye each other suspiciously.  “Why are we here?  I don’t know. How did we get here? I don’t know. Do you know? I was following you. But I was following YOU!!”  AWKWARD PAUSE.  “Oh look!  There’s a bug!!”   So it goes.

My chickens are helping me complete the food circle I am creating on my ‘mini farm’.  I provide them with safe housing, free run of the yard, plenty of food, clean water, access to the compost bin that they turn for me and fresh fruit and vegetables from the garden.  The chickens supply me and my family with gorgeous fresh eggs, fertilizer, mindless gentle entertainment, companionship and a living breathing connection  to my food.

You don’t have to have chickens to enjoy them.  Ask any backyard flock owner about their chickens and they will proudly tell you all about them.  You probably already know some chicken folks.  Most of us mention our chickens a time or two during casual conversations.  Many will invite you over to meet their chickens so you  can learn about them.  Be careful though, most  small flock owners secretly ‘know’ that the world would be a better place if everyone kept a few chickens.  They might even encourage you to join in the fun.

Your garden will keep growing and producing even though the weeds are winning.  I can’t even see my sweet potatoes.  They are supposed to shade out the weeds not- the other way around.  My sweet potatoes have surrendered to the weeds but I know they are content to grow and will outlast them.

I meant to harvest and freeze my final picking of snap peas.  I didn’t get to it.  Unpicked, they continue to grow and become very plump.  I will now let them dry on the vine and store the best ones for planting next year.

I did harvest all my fall planted garlic and onions.  They are curing on racks in the top of the barn.  I’m sure they are cured by now.  I could start using them but I would have to go up in the top of the barn in the 95-100′ heat.  For now, I will use up what I have in the kitchen.

My tomatoes are still green, my sweet corn hasn’t produced edible ears and my peppers and eggplants are too small to eat.  Except for the summer squash and cucumbers that must be picked daily, now is the perfect time to relax and start thinking about planting the fall garden.  After all, waiting a week or two to plant carrots and beets won’t bother your garden one bit.

Bok Choy Harvest

I am harvesting my Bok Choy. The weather has turned too warm during the day (high 70’s low 80’s) to keep the Bok Choy sweet and tender. Bok Choy is a vegetable that is better tasting when grown in the fall and matures as the days are getting shorter.

The peas are ready to be trained to the trellis. They are about 4 inches high. I have replanted the few peas that didn’t grow. They will catch up to the others. I pinched off the onion seed heads from my October planted onions so they will concentrate their energy on bulb growth and not making seeds. If you collect enough of the seed heads, you can sauté them in a little butter or olive oil for a tasty treat. The potatoes survived their two days of a slight frost burn and are growing nicely with the warm weather. We have had a few rains so I haven’t had to water. My rain barrels are full again.

The broccoli, chard and cabbage are growing well. I have to spray the broccoli and cabbage with Kaolin clay to keep the slugs off. The plants will look white but the nontoxic clay will irritate the soft undersides of the slugs and keep them away. Kaolin clay is an abrasive ingredient used in toothpaste. You can remove the clay by washing the broccoli before you eat it.

Chard

The straw mulch that I put down is great slug habitat. I would rather keep the weeds out and irrigate less than remove it just to keep the slugs away. I did try the beer in the saucer trick once. It didn’t work out so well. The slugs were eating the Lima bean blossoms and leaves so I poured beer into four saucers one evening and placed them around the bean plants. The theory is the slugs will be attracted to the beer, drink it and fall in the saucer and drown. When I came out the next morning, there were no slugs in the saucers as hoped. The empty saucers were strewn about, cornstalks were broken, ears were shucked and half eaten, cobs were scattered and little footprints were everywhere. The corn patch was trashed! Apparently, the raccoons had a big beer and corn bash. It may have been a coincidence but I haven’t tried the beer trick since then and I haven’t had any more raccoons in my garden.

Happy Gardening and check back with me for more fun in Margit’s Garden!

A view from the garden