Ready to Start Gardening?!

First off, it's February, I know. But if you know my house, you will understand that just last week one day was filled with 7 hours of chores, one day with 4 hours of once-a-month grocery shopping, and three days were filled with 25+ hours of baking. That was one long week, and the rest of the month will pale in comparison by only a quarter of the same work, however, it always gets busy. You know what I'm talking about--you bust your booty to pre-make all the burgers you could ever want, but the time you saved is filled with something like all the doctors and dentists appointments you thought you were caught up on. So in my house, I start my garden early! I'm making my new topsoil already, (although next year that will start earlier) and I'm digging out all the adorable walkways that just end up providing a diving board for the grass to jump off of and attempt to smother all of my crops!

Next is the list of every single seed I have, from saved seeds to flowers! I may not choose to use all of them, but I sure enjoy being able to select what my garden will look like this year. I also like to use WinterSown for a small variety pack of edibles and tomatoes, to be fair, they do mix flowers in with the packet I call "edibles" which is nice as sacrificial plants for your garden. You can even let them pick the plants that will most likely grow in your area, 6 varieties for a total of 3 stamps!!!

Now, I don't know what gardening method you intend to use, but I have the tool for whether you want to square-foot garden, or conventionally garden! It's the Territorial Seeds Vegetable Garden Planner! You can plan everything you want in your garden, place every plant, and get little tips on comparison crops, sunlight requirements, the works! Then you don't have to write it all out on paper, which I've done...soooo not efficient, and the best part of it is that if you want to just plan for this year, they offer a 30 day free trial! I purchased a two-year block for $40, and it is well worth it! (I found a coupon code that's good until the end of this month, I'm not sure if it applies to their Garden Planner, but it's worth a shot! NTWJA1 )I tell them all of my plants, they produce a crop-planting schedule, and remind me by email when I need to start the plants indoors or directly sow outside!

On top of all of that, they send you wonderful Youtube videos of gardening tips, from natural pesticides to crop rotation, all in a lovely British accent that makes gardening seem like a cup-o-tea! All of the Youtube videos are free, and can be found in succession if you click on the video below.

This is my last year's garden. (Click to go to the published page!) To be noted, none of my cucurbits or squash thrived for long, as they all got a mildew I couldn't compete with...catch it early and you can save your crops, catch it late and it's an uphill battle. The pumpkins were eaten by slugs, another reason why I'm removing the grass catwalks, as I can bait slugs easily and take away their hiding places. Thankfully most of my garden produced early so it wasn't a total loss. I learned a lot, such as not planting towards the end of the acceptable planting window; just isn't smart for my cold pocket of a neighborhood.

Here's my new plan, based on what I've learned! Click here for the published page!

Going back to your list of seeds, write down how many of each you have. I am going to have a large garden, so knowing the quantity of each variety that I have helps me plan the layout. Start your plan by blocking out your garden space. If you're doing container gardening, just add all of the area of the pots and containers you plan to use in a manner that you can remember which pot goes where!

Now the fun part begins! I have found it's easiest to go through and pick out which plants need the least sun, or the most sun and place them in the respective spots in the garden. My garden has a slight slope to it, so I also know that towards the west side, the water will pool, so don't stick lettuce or carrots there, they will crack and rot! After your special needs areas and plants are taken care of, the Garden Planner can help with placing some companion plants, that help you move on through your list. The main thing to remember is that even with the most precise planning, things can deviate from the plan and your garden may not be best suited for certain crops you thought would be a perfect match! Go through some more of the Territorial Seeds videos for tips and tricks to choosing how to plant your garden the most optimally. 

Last pieces of advice, SPLIT UP large plots of plants in the same family, they create hot zones for pests! I also would say that if you are planting in succession to produce crops all season, 4 weeks between plantings was optimal for me! It's all trial and error, and you will learn how your garden works best!

Wondering About That Garbage Challenge? Let's Make Dirt!!!

A couple months ago I presented a garbage challenge, and we approached the issue with just the right amount of recycling, composting/foodcycling, yard waste, and paper burning (yes, that's where all that foil-lined paper went...and a lopsided wicker reindeer!) with utmost fervor to achieve a whopping reduction of a 32gallon can once a WEEK down to a 32gallon can ONCE A MONTH!!!

I never thought it was possible, what with two "litter-bug" cats, two babies, and a multitude of Christmas packages! But we did, and it's marvelous! We use our own can that we purchased from Home Depot for $10, and voila, let the savings roll in!

Thank you to those who posted suggestions and encouragement, you were entered into the book drawing, since many of you are unable to reduce your trash impact, I thought I'd encourage right back with a healthy Vegan Cookbook! Now the lucky winner will receive a little kitchen helper, because veggies keep waste output low!

AND THE WONDERFUL, ENCOURAGING WINNER IS...

JOANN HILLHOUSE!!

And no, I promise I didn't rig it, grandma!

But my green-thumb grandma taught me a wonderful trick that helps keep your garden growing strong, and utilizes that lovely compost you are making. I know you've all seen those "grounds for your garden" bags of coffee grounds at Starbucks, or you at least know you can put coffee grounds out in your soil, but how, exactly? 

So we now save our coffee grounds in our cute ceramic compost container, it sits on the counter next to the coffee pot so that we ACTUALLY DO IT! And, I had a little help from Brandan's grandparents, who gave me a whopping 10 # bag of grounds from Starbucks for Christmas!!! Now, you definitely have time to save your grounds from here till Spring to incorporate them, but I'd like to take the opportunity to show you how it's going to look in the end!

First off, you can put coffee grounds directly on hearty rose-family plants: roses, raspberries, cherry trees, and the sort. Otherwise, be cautious, the nitrogen, which is a lovely energy source for worms, will burn your other plants!

And for your listening pleasure, while we're talking dirty, "Worms Eat Dirt" by the Aquabats!! Fun for kids (of all ages)!!!

So I start with a 5 gallon bucket. They are available at any home improvement store-- Home Depot, Ace, Lowes...although Home Depot is cheapest at 2.78 a bucket, Ace's is completely white, so aesthetically more pleasing to the eye! Although theirs is $4 more, so it depends on your budget, and how important it is to you! They're both equal in size, made from the same plastic, and equally water-tight when you purchase the corresponding lid...another buck or so...but for our purposes we don't need a lid on this one!

You will see that my demonstration bucket is white, but I assure you that it is because it was a gift! Although, again prettier, I did purchase my arsenal of buckets for chicken feed in construction orange!

To start the process I took a few shovels of dirt directly from the garden I am going to plant crops in this year, until it fills the bucket 1/3 of the way. Set your bucket outside, I stick mine right next to the back door for easy access. Then add your coffee grounds to it! For us, that means 10-12 filters from our drip machine and maybe some espresso grounds thrown in, but it fills our cute kitchen compost container in a week's time.

Add your week's worth to the bucket, then add more dirt so that it covers the grounds at least an inch! Now MIX! Repeat this process until you have a bucket that's 3/4 full or you're out of time. You can't add compost to soil directly before the planting season, as I said before, it is harmful to plants in concentrate!

Technically, the best time to add compost, in a one-season, cooler-climate, growing area, is in the fall when it has time to decompose over the winter. But don't worry, you're not out in the cold just yet! If you save your grounds over the next 4 weeks, or jumpstart with a bag of grounds from your local coffee shop, you can incorporate your bucket to your garden the FIRST WEEK OF FEBRUARY! Or alternatively, in each separate bed one month before you intend to plant crops. Now, since ours did not fully decompose before it will be time to plant, you MUST mix the composted grounds in the soil, but hey, you were going to till it all up anyway!

Ideally we want an inch of compost on our bed EVERY YEAR, but if you're like me, you missed the memo, and this is our little shortcut! I would recommend adding 3 inches at the end of your growing season this year to make up for our cheater gardening. This will combat erosion too! I will hold myself accountable to it, as dirt is easy to make, not worth the price you pay in-store, and is a problem to mass produce for our poor farming practices. Really we should all be using precision seeders, a conservative farming method that does not involve tilling and exposing loose soil to the elements, thereby eroding the soil. However, I am not an expert in this method, I just know why it's better, but I also know that we can create soil faster than we can erode it! You can foodcycle and let Waste Management compost for you, or compost at home like we are doing on a small scale with our coffee dirt! 

For more passion on dirt, watch this lecture! It's an informational hour, but I don't mind if you're not as interested as I am!!

Foodcycling, composting, and making coffee dirt are great ways to reduce your garbage output! Want a fancy kitchen container? Commit to reducing your garbage output by ONE WHOLE STEP! We made it through Christmas using all of the techniques I shared before the holidays, and that means only 1 can for a whole month! The only thing that might get in your way is take-out, it will wreak havoc on your good garbaging...or buying new things, like furniture or pictures, anything that comes in Styrofoam packaging, which can be stored up and carted to your nearest Styrofoam recycling plant, or it can be used as buffering in packages you intend to mail, otherwise, if you foresee a boatload of peanuts and blocks, also be ready for a cute little $4 excess trash charge. Buy used if you can!

Time to Plant Your Bulbs! Naturalistic Gardening

My Helper Girl!

There are going to be a few sunny days here in the next couple weeks per the forecast, so take the opportunity to plant your bulbs! Perennials usually prefer to be planted in the late fall so that they have 8 weeks of cold before it's really time to sprout into lovely flowers, and right now Fred Meyer is having a buy-one-get-one FREE deal, so you can have 60 bulbs for the low price of $7! Boo yeah! The economical way to “plant a tree,” so to speak...

Kaylee Digs the Hole

A couple of options for making your economical flower garden even more thrifty is to plant perennials that spread. Lillies are an excellent example of a plant that reseeds and multiplies. I had one orange lily, then the next year I had 3! Other options are Allium, Bleeding Heart and Crocus.

Drops the Seed In

What I do is plant bulbs one year, let them play out their cycle, add a couple bushes in the corners of the bed; I have Hydrangea, Lilac, Nightshade, Dogwood, and Lavender all at different corners of my beds.

And Covers it up Again!

As the bulbs come back the next year, I see how many they've become to gauge how fast they will multiply, because each zone is different, each plant's hardiness and vigor is different, and the soil conditions are different as well. So when I see that my bulbs triple, I plan accordingly! I split them so that they occur in splotches, then add a different, spreading bulb. Eventually, the whole space will be a wildflower show, but you have to play with your options, because a market is not likely to say outright that a bulb will spread, when the fact is they just don't know, and neither will you until you plant it! Even if your intent is for the bulb to spread, sometimes they don't, and at least you have a plant that will come back yearly! For example, supposedly Tulips spread, slowly, but I've yet to see that in action!

River Helps Too!

So get outside and dig! It's good for you, and will be a welcome change of scenery in the spring! A wonderful investment for years to come! Don't pay another dime for wasteful annuals...

...But Momma Does Most of the Digging!

Homemade Fungicide

After all of the rain we had last week, and then the muggy humidity that makes your hair go limp the moment you step foot out the door, it is no wonder all of my garden turned into a powdery-white, snowbank of mildew! Even after the sun comes out to dry out the roots, that sucker’s gonna stay put on your plants, especially your cucurbits!!! So I’ve got your homemade remedy, that’s tested and personally approved!

Baking Soda Fungicide

• 2 Tablespoons Baking Soda
• 2 Teaspoons Dish Soap
• 1 Gallon of Water

I used an old laundry detergent container (I saved them for my own laundry detergent, which I will divulge another time) for easy pouring. Fill up a dollar-store spray bottle, and spritz your plants’ leaves, stems and all until it looks like you’ve effectively “washed” away the mildew...although, hold back your cheers, the mildew will be back within a couple hours. Spray every day until the infection is gone! After that, spray weekly to keep mildew from creeping back into your garden this fall!

And hey! Don’t feel bad for a rotting garden--even the pumpkins at the Puyallup Fair had the white stuff all over them this year! And they’re supposedly expert gardeners!!