Wintering the Garden

Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower. ~Albert Camus

The two sycamore trees in my neighbor yard are dropping leaves like crazy. I had a chance Sunday to run the Billy Goat. I love that thing it does a really nice job of chopping up the leaves which leaves them perfect for the compost pile. I will easily be able to fill my new raised bed Next Spring. I think I am going to plant a cover crop in the areas of the garden are not raised beds. My Mom agreed to take my three small Hibiscus plants. She has great windows in the living room and I hope the plants stay in good enough shape to flower next year.

I am gonna try and bring my hot pepper plants in again. I didn't have success last year but the first year it was so great to have hot peppers in the first week in June I can resist.



The plants look really good this year so I have hope. They also produced a ton of late season peppers that are gonna be awesome in chili for the Monday night football game.


I also planted 8 x 4" Pansies in the front yard. Picture to follow.

I broke my cheapo camera so I haven't blogged in a while. I am gonna try and keep up with it more now. I have a bunch of wintering and projects I have to do so I will try and keep up.

Busy Busy Busy

A baby is a blank cheque made payable to the human race. ~Barbara Christine Seifert

Yes it is true that the weather was hot here in Southern New Jersey for the past couple weeks. The bark and leaves were falling off the neighbors trees enough to warrant running the Billy Goat (leaf sweeper and mulcher)twice. It is also true that the hot weather has not stopped the tiny patch of bush beans from growing like mad.

I can't tell you that I didn't make another raised bed, put my banana tree in the ground and transplanted the mini hot peppers to put them on the patio.

But who cares!!!! My daughter Ellie Jane was born Friday at 429pm. She is beautiful, healthy and I love her.

Summer's Lease

"Summer's lease hath all to short a date."
- William Shakespeare

This is definitely a quote that is resonating in me right now. It has been at least a month since my last post and it feels like that time has whipped by. I could come up with 100 different excuses why I haven't posted. Not the least of which, would be that my wife beautiful wife Nancy is going to have our 3 kid any day now. These would ,nonetheless, be excuses. So, Ive instead decided to move forward. Forget the past and my neglect for this blog and get right down to brass tacks.

I've pinched and pinched my basil. For the last two weeks I've given up. Thus the basil has gone to flower. According to what I've read this changes the taste of the basil. Frankly, I have not eaten that much of the basil. Some made it into Marinara Sauce my wife made (Ala Giada De Laurentiis) It was really good. I have tried to dry some, we'll see. However, at least at this point in the summer I was tired of pinching. Truth be told I like the flowers.
The patio tomatoes we planted have done well. We had a number of nice ripe tomatoes. They were gigantic but you can't beat the flavor or fresh garden tomatoes. It has been dry that last couple weeks so we've had to keep their feet wet.

Same with the peppers.

It looks like three of the six variegated hibiscus cuttings that I transplanted are gonna make it. The plant that I took the cuttings from was really cool and I'm hoping that I will be able to pot these through the winter. I also number of hot peppers that I started from seed this year. There is little chance they are gonna make fruit this year so they are going in the basement with the banana plant. I was really hoping to get some flower on the banana this year but oh well. The leaves are still really cool.
Finally this wouldn't be my blog if I didn't lament some problem I'm having in the garden. Right now its tomato blossom end rot. The dry weather seems to have plagued my raised bed with what looks to me like rot. I hope I still get a few good tomatoes. Last nights rain should have helped.

No Potato

I noticed potato barrel didn't seem to have that much green growing out of the top. Curiosity got the best of me so I dug into the barrel a bit and didn't find anything. I didn't want to wait the rest of the way through the season if there weren't some potatoes in there so I dump that bucket and found nothing except potatoes I put in there. They were liquefied to the point they were like goo. It was quite fascinating actually. So the Solanum tuberosum barrel was a no-go. I wonder if I should let the plants flower before I covered them again. I think I'm going to continue to wonder because I'm done with potato barrels. I am going to get seed potatoes next year and do a more traditional planting.

As the Garden Grows

"Though an old man, I am but a young gardener."-- Thomas Jefferson

I don't know if I have used this quote in any of my other blogs. However, this is a quote which really resonates in me. Every year it seems that I for every success there is a failure. I imagine that as the years go by there will always be a certain ebb and flow to the success I experience plating things and helping them grow. while I am not an old man per se, I do feel that I know a fraction of what I need to know to be a successful horticulturalist.

Nonetheless, I cannot complain two much about the state of things this year. My sugar snap peas climbed my trellis and the girls and I were able two pick a dozen and a half over the weekend. My radishes bolted and none of the radishes developed. I really wanted spinach in the garden this summer. Every bit of spinach didn't make it out of the flats. I think I need to thin more. I couldn't help it I had to start more flats. Also, in the above picture you'll see some mounded rows. That is some sweet corn I planted. I am trying to grow the "Three Sisters" Corn, beans, and squash. Corn give the beans something to climb on, and the squash should thrive in the shade of the former two. I planted in two areas to help ensure the corn cross pollinates.

I think I vine borer got a hold of my cucumbers last year. I think I now what to look for this year. This years crop seems fine, so far. Finally I am really anxious to see which tomatoes are gonna come up. I had quite a selection of heirloom seeds. I am really hoping for an orange or a black tomato.

Herbs and Tomatoes on the Patio

Things are coming along at the FGD. We haven't had a good rain in a week or so. Memorial Day Weekend came and went. Given the nature of this blog and the nature of Victory Gardens in general Memorial Day is on of the quintessential Victory Garden holidays.

I was thinking about our soldiers a great deal this weekend. This blog is called Food Gardens for Defense which is a synonym for Victory Gardens. According to wikipedia these Victory Gardens are "to reduce the pressure on the public food supply brought on by the war effort" during WWII. I want to document a years planting and harvesting and somehow relate it to the things that are going on around me in the world. I have not done anything to relate this blog to America's War in Iraq. This weekend really made me think about the our troops. Ten troops died in Iraq on Memorial Day alone. http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=3221050&CMP=OTC-RSSFeeds0312

It is interesting to me that during the Second World War this notion of a Victory Garden, and rationing seemed so integral to the War Effort. Wikipedia states that 40% of the vegetable produce consumed in the nation came from home gardeners. The idea is that the War Department could buy produce from commercial growers more cheaply. I wonder what would happen if people in this country adopted that attitude today, and grew their own Tomatoes, Oregano, Parsley and Chives on their patios.

Would it even make a difference? Would the war efforts be adversely affected. I've heard people talk about "boycotting" gas for a day. I have heard that these boycotts don't make a difference. If you used the Victory Garden logic wouldn't it benefit the War effort if people bought less gas. The DoD could buy the gas for less.

Iris all around

Since Iris is the Greek goddess for the Messenger of Love, her sacredflower is considered the symbol of communication and messages. Greek men would often plant an iris on the graves of their beloved women as a tribute to the goddess Iris, whose duty it was to take the souls of women to the Elysian fields. - Hana No Monogatari: The Stories of Flowers

(excerpt from http://www.gardendigest.com/flowers.htm)

I finally got around to watching this week's Victory Garden. It was all about Iris. For me the Iris is the symbol that summer is right around the corner. Iris means that your tomatoes should be in the ground. I think they are my favorite flower. The main entrance to the University where I work was closed today so I parked all the way across campus. It was an absolutely wonderful May Day. As I made my was across Campus I noticed patches of beautiful yellow flowers along the pond. Closer inspection made it clear I was looking at Iris pseudacorus L. – Yellow Iris. I am so getting some of these for a perennial border in the garden next year. I've been thinking about a small water feature and the yellow would be perfect.

Well on its Way

"Gardening is an exercise in optimism." Anonymous


The weather here in south Jersey has taken a turn for the hot. For me this mean the mosquitos are out at night, the grass is growing out of control , and the cold frame is too hot a place for the lettuce so the lid comes up.



I lost one green pepper plant because I was away last weekend. Everything in the Garden needed weeding and water. As I look at the onions I fear that the ones I buried too deep will bolt before they let the onion grow in the ground.

Rainy Days

God made rainy days so gardeners could get the housework done. ~Author Unknown


New Jersey is coming out of a long long stretch of gross weather. Inches and inches of rain fell on the entire north east. Before that we had along stretch of really cold weather. My family and I took a advantage of being stuck in doors to get started on the indoor planting. We moved the wintered plants and thwe worm bin to the sun room. All of the seeds I started and the greenhouse came upstairs too. My wife and I spent too much money at Lowes (on the lowes card) and got just about eveything we need ( at least for a couple weeks). the dining room is shaping up.

My beautiful, 24 week pregnant wife made this totally awesome light house for the seedlings and cuttings that Im trying to root. She Rocks!

The kids each got a spray bottle to make sure the plants stay happy. Our Frost Free date is right around the corner!

The Plants Point of View

My green thumb came only as a result of the mistakes I made while learning to see things from the plant's point of view. - H. Fred Ale

I aspire to develop a green thumb following this sage advise. Many times I feel as though I do more wrong than I do right. I do try however, to observe life more and more from the plants point of view. I have been gardening for about 4 years now and I finally bought a soil pH/nutrient test.

I'm curious to see where my garden soil stacks up. I will test the garden, front yard, dog run, worm castings from the bin and the potting soil i made this weekend. (Peat, Vermiculite and Plant tone Organic 5-3-3 measured to taste and mixed.

My daughters bought Aster, Poppies and Petunias and I couldn't help my self I bought cucumber , plum tomato and cherry tomato seeds. The tomatoes got their start this weekend and the flowers will go in homemade milk container pots when the weather breaks. Which by the looks of things wont be until later this week. Seems like South Jersey got off a little better than Chester County PA in terms of snow.

Busy Weekend

The weather still stinks out. Almost the entire country is still caught in lower than normal temperatures. It was cold (40 degrees) on Easter. That didn't stop me from going to Lowe's and spending too much money. 3 cubic Yards of Peat, 1 bag of Vermiculite, 1 10lbs bag of Plant-Tone 5-3-3, one jar of Rootone, some peat pots and seeds. Spinach, hot peppers, basil, oregano, parsley. I fertilized everything in the garden , radishes, the wintersown seeds, and all of the lettuce. This is my first foray into using any kind of fertilizer, I really hope it doesn't burn the plants. I really hope this plant-tone stuff is not a harsh fertilizer. I read a number of publications that say don't let the fertilizer touch the plants. I didn't do that. Also, I took cuttings from each of my azaleas, my neighbors rose, my blueberry bush and our holly tree's out front. Each of the cutting got dipped in Rootone and planted. It will be between 2 and 4 months until they get moved so you wont here about them for a couple months.

I also thinned my lettuce in the green house. The lettuce is really scraggly and I'm not sure if I planted it too shallow. I will have to figure that out because I'm gonna start more.

All I know Is that I want the weather to get nicer. I'm running out of room in the greenhouse and I need to get stuff into the sun room. If anyone reads this and has any stories about Espoma's Plant Tone, I would love to hear them. If the fertilizer hurts my precious tomatoes, I might cry. The wintersown seeds are doing great the pots that didnt germinate got pepper seeds to we will see.

Potatoes and Onions

The weather held on for us this weekend so I was able to get in the garden and dig around. I put cages around my three tiny Strawberries. I also got the kids to help me with my potato barrel. First you need a barrel, drill some holes in the bottom and put about 6 inches of dirt in.

Then Emma cut three red potatoes that had started to sprout into three pieces ensuring there is some growth on each piece. Those go in the barrel.

Annie covered them with Peat and we watered them.

Annie also helped me put onion sets in my friends dad gave me. Onions and shallots. I read online this morning that you shouldn't cover the onion bulbs. This goes on the long long list of things I will do wrong this season. I really hope the shallots take. I like shallots alot. The girls also transplanted mescalum from the basement greenhouse and romaine from the cold frame. The mescaulm was tender so Emma put them under mini milk jug green houses. the lettuce is gonna need nitrogen. I may steal some worm castings from the worm big to make sure the lettuce stays strong.

Finally Radishes went in on Saturday morning. I see sprouts in some of my wintersown containers and have my fingers crossed.

St. Patrick's Snow Storm

"Never yet was a springtime, when the buds forgot to bloom."...Margaret Elizabeth Sangster

We will have to keep this quote in mind on this St. Joseph's day. This, because in my backyard at least, there is still about 2 inches of snow. I finished the pea trellis and planted the peas last Wednesday so now i have my fingers crossed I didn't kill the peas. It looks OK but is a little short (about 4.5 or 5 feet). I may have to figure out how extend it.

In addition , I drilled the holes in the bottom of my future potato barrel, and planted the tomatoes I had gotten from wintersown.org (black krim, Amana orange, monte carlo, yellow perfection and yellow pear). They are safe and secure in the basement.

According to the Old Farmers Almanac "If St. Joseph’s Day is. clear, so follows a fertile year." Thinks look good today so I should have nothing to worry about this season.

Starting Sugar Snap Peas

"How luscious lies the pea within the pod."
Emily Dickinson

1 packet of peas.
5 paper towels
1 plastic storage bag


Wet the paper towels spread the seeds, wrap em all up and put them in the bag. dont seal the bag they need to breath. put them in the green house for a coulpe days. plant those suckers.

Not My Job

"I'm not really a career person. I'm a gardener, basically."-- George Harrison

Weather.com tells me that the temperature is going to 55. That makes having to drive into Philly, climbing to the ninth floor of 411 N. Broad St and working on servers a real chore. I mean I have sprouts!

Compost needs to be turned, the pea trellis needs to be erected, and based on the videos I watched on the PBS's Victory Garden website, I wanna double dig. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/victorygarden/video/video_04.html

I have a willow tree directly in front of my Garden Beds. The rumor is that the roots of that tree are at least as big as the tree itself, and shallow. I am trying some raised beds closest to the tree. However, behind that I wanna double dig the soil to make sure I have a good base for the tomatoes that will go there. Also I had tomatoes is that same spot last year so enriching the soil should prevent heirloom diseases.

After I double dig, I wanna take this pile of wood and create beds, and build a pea trellis. After pictures to follow.

Filching a Potato Barrel

For a while know I've wanted to try making a potato barrel. I got the idea from one of my favorite websites "Gardening as an Anarchist Plot" http://www.rain.org/~philfear/garden.html

I have been running past a 30 gallon container that someone left under a billboard on the way into Pitman for weeks now. It finally occurred to me the other day that this would make perfect vehicle for the barrel. So I snagged it yesterday.

I already have the blue lake bush bean seeds I will plant in the top of the barrel once its full. I'm thinking I'm gonna try some baking potatoes.

Starting Seeds in the Basement

I started dill and all of my lettuce varieties in the basement today. They are in a 50/50 mix of compost and peat.

Foul Weather Gardener

The forecast is 18 degrees Fahrenheit tonight and only going up to 28 tomorrow. Despite the fact that we have moved daylight savings time up two weeks this year I'm having a hard time justifying putting Mescalum , Romaine, leaf lettuce radishes and dill in the green house in the basement. When you have to put the flats inside over night just so they are warm enough to put the seeds in, that should be warning enough. Warning for some.

I went to organincgardening.com this morning and exported the Seed Starting Plan from their website to Excel. Then I found New Jersey's proposed Frost Free Date from the Rutgers Extension Service on the Web. ( http://gloucester.rce.rutgers.edu/ ) Which for us is May 15th according to the Rutgers site. I began to plot out the garden calendar for the spring. I noticed some of the things according to their calculations should not go in for weeks. I was outside yesterday making flats and it was 30 degrees outside.

There is no way I'm gonna hold off until those suggested times. I just can't. I need justification to bump everything up at least two weeks. My southern exposed sun room and this quote where all the justification I needed. "The fair-weather gardener, who will do nothing except when the wind and weather and everything else are favorable, is never master of his craft."-- Henry Ellacombe

I know that my wife would like me to heed this quote in areas where I could make some side work money but alas here is my tentative calendar.

YOUR SEED-STARTING PLAN    
The Spring Frost-Free Date in My Garden is May 1st    
CROP   START INSIDE WEEKS SAFE TO SET OUT TIME  SETTING OUT DATE
              
Basil   March 17th  6    1 week after     May 8th
Beets*              4_6  2 weeks before   Apr 14th
BroccoliMarch 17th  4_6  2 weeks before   Apr 14th
Cabbage March 17th  4_6  4 weeks before   Apr 1st
CaulifloMarch 17th  4_6  2 weeks before   Apr 14th
CollardsMarch 17th  4_6  4 weeks before   Apr 1st
Corn*               2_4  0 to 2 weeks aft May 8th
CucumberApril 1st   3_4  1 to 2 weeks aft May 8th
EggplantMarch 11th  8_10 2 to 3 weeks aft May15th
Kale    March 17th  4_6  4 weeks before   Apr 1st
Kohlrabi            4_6  4 weeks before   Apr 1st
Lettuce March 7th   4_5  3 to 4 weeks bef Apr 1st
Melons  April 1st   3_4  2 weeks after    May 15th
Mustard*            4_6  4 weeks before   Apr 1st
Okra*               4_6  2 to 4 weeks aft May 15th
Onions  March 10th  6_8  4 weeks before   Apr 1st
Parsley March 10th  9_10 2 to 3 weeks bef Apr 14th
Peas*               3_4  6 to 8 weeks bef Mar 15th
Peppers March 7th   6_14 2 weeks after    May 15th
PumpkinsMarch 17th  3_4  2 weeks after    May 15th
Spinach March 10th  4_6  3 to 6 weeks bef Apr 15th
Squash  March 17th  3_4  2 weeks after    May 8th
Swiss chMarch 10th  4_6  2 weeks before   Apr 14th
TomatoesMarch 17th  6_8  1 to 2 weeks aft May 8th
"* These crops are usually direct-seeded outdoors, but they can be started inside."

Full Worm Moon

My lovely wife pointed out that March 3rd is the Full Worm Moon. This is described by the Old Farmers Almanac as

• Full Worm - March Moon As the temperature begins to warm and the ground begins to thaw, earthworm casts appear, heralding the return of the robins. The more northern tribes knew this Moon as the Full Crow Moon, when the cawing of crows signaled the end of winter; or the Full Crust Moon, because the snow cover becomes crusted from thawing by day and freezing at night. The Full Sap Moon, marking the time of tapping maple trees, is another variation. To the settlers, it was also known as the Lenten Moon, and was considered to be the last full Moon of winter.

Hear that people! "the end of winter" Yipppeeeee.

It is fitting then that my daughters and I put the worms in the worm bin last night.

I ran about 3/4 of the Sunday Philadelphia Inquirer through the paper shredded and put it in a bucket of water and let it soak. Then the wet shredded newspaper, 2 cups of sand, the rinds from 1/4 of a water melon, some coffee grounds, and an egg shell went in the bin. The red worms (Eisenia foetida) went in next.

Finally a wet brown paper bag and the lid of the worm bin.

I checked the bin this morning and almost all of the worms had disappeared into the wet newspaper. I'm anxious to see how long it takes them to break down whats in the bin.

Getting The Jump In February

Thanks to my new friends at wintersown.org and the influence of the Gardenweb Forum (which I really have to stop perusing). I was out in the garden this weekend filling newspaper pots with a 50/50 mix of peat and compost. You can see the newspaper pots inside the gallon containers that have been halved. I then sowed the seeds mentioned in an earlier post. I put all of it in the corner of what will be my new raised bed. I am gonna have to break out the sieve for the rest of the Season because my compost needs sifting. I did not for this round and I hope my weekend plantings are not jeopardized. Come to think of it I think I'm going to make a new sieve that will fit over my wheelbarrow. It was a little windy Saturday but the sun felt good.

Once I got going I decided to add two flats that I had in the garage to the afternoons folly. I got the winter sowing done in the nick of time because it started to rain/sleet/snow in the afternoon.

I did not have time to re pot the evergreens we put in the house for Christmas. They have been outside for a while but the ultra small pots have been irking me. (I'm disheartened cause I think I didn't get to the rosemary on the left in time and it 'bout dead).

I also got the go ahead from my beautiful and lovely wife to use the wood from the old ikea bunk beds for my gardening devices. I'm thinking bean/hop trellis and yet another raised bed. Before and After pics of that to follow.

The Wintersown Seeds Have Arrived!

Yesterday evening I received my free seeds from Wintersown.org. the six pack they promised was more like an 11 pack including

• N American Wildflower blend
• Amaranth
• Clarkia elegens
• Echinacia Purpura
• Blue Anise
• Flat Sea Holly
• Asparagus
• Giant Italian Parsley
• Butterfly Bush
• and some heirlooms tomatoes

Thanks Trudi !

I can't Wait to get these in the the containers I made. I followed directions I found online for newspaper pots and milk container planters in the winter sowing section of the Garden Web Forum. I will post pictures after I have started sowing this weekend. The Garden Web Forum is awesome it has information on everything you would ever want to know about gardening.

I wish I could spend all day in my garden. I can't wait till the weather breaks and I can get my hands dirty. I love the anticipation in late winter. The possibilities are endless. I am imagining a huge hop vine trellised across my front porch and wildflowers beneath. Its weird, with other hobbies I've had (I'm thinking home-brewing specifically) any failure was a complete deterrent from trying again. With gardening however, it's different. There is a natural cycle to things in the garden. This may seem obvious but its strange how my entire way of thinking about this cycle deepens each year as well as my appreciation of life, i think.

The Worms are on the March in February

Today I purchased 1 lb of Eisenia fetida or redworms. They should eat about 1/2 a pound of food scraps a day according to my research. I am hoping to have enough castings to supply all of my beds by spring. I bought them from non-other than the Acme Worm Farm
http://www.acmewormfarm.com/

Twenty five bucks shipping included.

They sell worm castings online at http://dirtworks.net/ for $23.99 for a five gallon container (shipping not included)

So if I can get my worms to produce castings to fill half of my worm bin I will have broke even on the first batch and single-handedly saved the environment at the same time.

I'm feeling like the greatest person alive right now.

Primrose in January

First real post. Here are some primrose in January. I am in Zone 6/7 here in south New Jersey. The color on my ultra crappy digital camera made these primrose blue they were more like purple. I like the color in the picture better.




We had a really warm January http://www.erh.noaa.gov/er/phi/reports/5dayavgtemps.html

That type of weather makes me crazy because you know in your heart you can't get out there and start dickering around in the garden so I instead took pictures of the fallow winter plot















and built a worm bin















I like these directions:

http://www.klickitatcounty.org/SolidWaste/ContentROne.asp?fContentIdSelected=991251662&fCategoryIdSelected=965105457

I also am going to try my hand at wintersowing and raised bed gardening.

Some of my goals for this season include but are not limited to:

• Grow a hop vine
• Grow worms in the worm bin
• plant successful raised beds
• successfully grow "Three Sisters" corn, beans and squash planted together

Coming soon, pictures of frames for raised bed gardens and pictures of wintersown containers.

Food Garden For Defense has been created

Ok Lets see how this goes. Welcome to Food Garden For Defense. I hope this will be a good place for me to post the trials of my garden this year 2007. I guess in true blog fashion it will be a place to express some thought on social issues as well.