2010 will be our third summer as a homeowners and consumers of our homegrown produce.
It’s mid February and my mouth is watering at the thought of the first spring lettuces and peas. Of course that has translated to ordering catalogs, buying more seeds than I can use and finding ideas and plans for new structures on which to grow all manners of produce in my limited growing space.
As I looked at the sea of white that is my yard today, I couldn’t help but picture flowers and butterflies and vegetables… lots of vegetables.
I’ve got to admit, it has been a life changing experience to know what it feels like to grow your own food – especially when it means food tastes better than it ever has before and getting to be super creative in the kitchen.
Not that I don’t appreciate the access modern society provides to food in winter… the “vine ripened” tomatoes they’re passing off as fresh at the grocery store just aren’t cutting it for me right now. I don’t know if it’s because of the sheer satisfaction that comes from harvesting your own or if it really is that much better to eat home grown… but it’s addicting and I’m in withdrawal.
We had a new fence installed in December (I had no idea this was possible but it’s there and has withstood some pretty heavy winds). I’m literally giddy at the thought of setting it to work as a backdrop for beautiful purple pole beans and peas.
So… the important question is…
Who did I order from?
http://www.rareseeds.com
Why?
They are all open-pollinating Heirloom seeds
The superb selection
They specified regions and growing seasons which I needed considering ours is a little short
Their prices
The catalog itself
Unexpected Bonus… the seed packets are amazingly gorgeous!
I’m very happy with my decision, but I’m sure there are other great companies. I’m new to the world of buying seeds not on a rack at the drug store. In fact, please tell me what your favorites are and why.
I also want to put it out there that I believe in growing from heirloom seeds.
I personally feel that I should be able to keep seeds instead of ordering new every season. I don’t like the idea of a company essentially dictating something as fundamental as food. I very much like the idea of something bred for specific growing conditions and nutrients and not so it can be picked early to be transported across the world or to tolerate weed killers I don’t use.
I feel more strongly that everyone should try to grow something edible.. no matter where the seeds came from (or plants for that matter).. or how they go about growing it. There are pros and cons to every choice we make in life.
I did find a hookup at the Habitat for Humanity ReStore which got a huge batch of organic seeds that aren’t necessarily heirloom varieties… but 3/$1 organic seeds couldn’t be passed up. I went a little overboard and will be passing along extras after I decide what’s going where.
The take-away of all of this is – my seeds arrived yesterday and I am psyched for spring!
Coming Soon:
CSA’s
books I’m reading
pictures I never uploaded from last season
Lessons learned: the perils of Community Urban Gardening
Seed Starting
Stuff I’m going to build
Stuff I’ll be growing
I have looked over quite a few books on gardening in the last year or so in an effort to sort it all out. Nothing beats Google to search for things like “what’s that bug”, but for a good overview of what to plant and how to plant it, I have personally found Ohio Vegetable Gardening to be the most useful to me.
The only complaint I have is that some subtle color information was lost in the printing, so maps to help you determine your zone are off because the shading on the map is different than the colors in the guide. I was able to use the charts, however, to determine planting times and all was good with the world.
The entire thing was invaluable for finding varieties that would grow well in my area of the country as well as how much space I need and determining planting and harvest times. There’s not a lot about technique, however, the author makes mention of things like cold frames so at least there’s a starting point to go research in more depth.
I also found a book in the clearance section of the book store called Month by Month Gardening in Ohio. I was looking for something to help me figure out what I was supposed to be doing when. I found I was doing some things too early or too late and suffering the consequences. For instance, I planted lettuce too late last year and it fried. I planted eggplant too early this year, and it died due to the soil being too cold.
I like that it gives a good general idea of what you should be doing, but it doesn’t get too bogged down in exact details. For instance, it says that in Ohio the last couple of weeks of July is a great time to plant for Fall harvest but to look at harvest times and the expected first frost in your area and count backwards to determine the best time for you.
I’m all about generalities because it means I can transfer the knowledge to things not mentioned in the book. For instance: wait on the lettuce and spinach for a couple of weeks since they can tolerate a harder frost but can’t handle the heat or they’ll not taste as good.
I’ll be putting together a more detailed calendar for things I like to eat and have room to plant some time this winter when I’m planning for next year.
I’m interested in checking out the concept of Square Foot Gardening which is a way to more intensely garden a small space for much larger yields. I don’t know if I’m willing to have such a high maintenance garden though… that’s definitely going to be one I borrow from the library.
I also love the idea of growing things on other things, but it seems like all of the building plans I find are prohibitively expensive or use parts that I can’t find in nearby stores. And in the interest of not poisoning myself, I think it’s a pretty bad idea to recycle old treated wood because they contain arsenic that leaches into the soil. I’m going to need to get pretty creative in my use of materials. I’m hoping to turn the basement into a workshop of sorts this winter and find a way to build what I need without breaking the bank. For now, I bought sturdier tomato cages from the local hardware store for about $5 a piece. They’re triangular in shape and seem to be doing the job unlike the cheap ones I used last year. I’ve also found that bamboo poles and some twine can be made into the most wondrous things… like bean trellises and supports for bell pepper plants. They won’t cut it for the bigger stuff like cucumbers though.
There’s a guy who doesn’t speak understandable English who has the best garden out of all of us… and he used a broken broom as a stake for one of his eggplants. Maybe I’m just being too picky.
Last recommendation – what to do with all of the tasty food coming out of the garden, farmers market or CSA. From Asparagus to Zuchinni
Why do I love this book… let me count the ways.
First, it tells you how to store your vegetables until you can use them.
Second, it includes recipes. The more unlikely you are to know what to do with it, the more recipes they seem to include.
Third: There is a noticeable lack of ingredients I can’t find any stores or am unwilling to pay for because they are crazy expensive. In fact, when using more than one vegetable, they use vegetables that are generally in season and abundantly available at the same time. This is great because then you aren’t buying expensive out of season vegetables that have been shipped in from Brazil in order to complete the meal. A lack of awareness for when things are in season is a huge issue with many recipes I’ve come across over the years.
Lastly and best of all – they are uncomplicated and accessible to the kitchen impaired such as myself.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: fall, harvest, planning, summer, tips, work
I realized that starting a vegetable garden blog during the lull between spring vegetables and the summer stuff probably wasn’t the best idea. It’s probably the least entertaining time since I spend more time doing other things than I do in the garden. But in my defense, I was busy gardening before and then busy putting in a flagstone patio from pieces I collected from here and there last summer.
I feel like the reason many people don’t plant a vegetable garden is that they think it’s too much work. I know as well as anyone it can be a lot of work getting it going, especially in a new spot. After that, I might water during dry spells and keep a look out for signs of pests, but it seems pretty easy otherwise. I mean, how hard is it to pull the most obvious weeds while harvesting vegetables? My biggest challenge these days is finding recipes to try and figuring out if something is ready to pick.
I also think it has gotten generally easier. Last year, most of the work went into building the raised bed in my back yard and learning lots of hard lessons about spacing and bugs. I didn’t realize I was spoiled by using prime organic vegetable soil.
This year, we worked on tilling and preparing two 10’ by 10’ plots at our community garden. We’re talking rocks, clay and virtually no nutrients. Hopefully, if I amend this fall and keep the same plots next year, I will have a better time of things.
But for now, succession plantings to ensure I don’t end up with an onslaught of a particular vegetable only takes a few minutes since I planned ahead of time for where they were going to go.
The cold weather plants you pull early to mid summer makes room for a second planting for fall. I don’t know, maybe it seems easy after all of the spring prep or maybe it’s easier to do once you start eating all of your favorite foods.
Speaking of fall crops, I just looked up what I can plant now that will be ready for a late harvest. I don’t have a lot of space, so I’m a little limited.
I’m going to do another round of beans, peas, spinach, lettuce, rutabaga, broccoli, carrots. Everything will go in the ground this week except for the lettuce and spinach which needs to wait until mid August.
I’ve also learned a bit about companion planting which is about growing certain plants together because they help each other. A traditional combination is squash or other vine plants, corn and climbing peas or pole beans. Since I didn’t do it this season, I’m thinking I’ll try growing some climbing peas on my existing corn. No loss if it doesn’t work out, right?
A tip I picked up for better germination of beans, squashes and peas is to soak them in water for a couple of hours before planting.
I have to confess I am so ready for “lettuce season” to be over.
Don’t get me wrong, I love lettuce. I really do.
Last year, I made the critical mistake of planting everything at once. I also didn’t know that you can harvest lettuce and spinach as it grows. We ended up with so much lettuce that we were able to give lettuce to nearly every attendee at a cousins’ graduation party.
The “pick as you go” knowledge has resulted in enough lettuce to keep the two of us eating pretty good sized salads nearly every day for the last couple of months. Enough I say. One can only come up with so many appealing and healthy combinations that travel well for lunch.
I can’t say I was sorry to pull the bolted (read: bitter) spinach out yesterday to make room for the green beans I planted right next door.
The lettuce is still going strong though and it probably will for at least another week even with the 80+ degree temperatures we’re expecting.
I am pretty sure in a few weeks I’ll be lamenting the loss of my tender lettuce and will be pining for the last days of summer when I can get another round in before winter.
For now though, bring on the summer vegetables!
Filed under: Summer 2009, Uncategorized, UnSnobbery, Urban Garden | Tags: Cleveland, food politics, lessons learned, urban gardening
There are hundreds of people blogging about the wonder that is growing their own food in areas of the country that haven’t seen a whole lot of formal food production since the legendary “victory garden”.
Don’t hold me to the numbers, but I think I remember hearing something like 40% of US food production during World War II was grown by ordinary citizens. Regardless of whether that’s a real number or not, the fact that every day people were able to grow their own food and have a connection to the miracle of seed to harvest is inspiring.
Rationing has never been my reality – if you count government imposed because we have to feed the boys overseas. As a vegetarian; however, the cost of fresh, quality, locally grown, organic produce is a completely unsustainable part of my budget and I wanted to change that. Therefore, the “rationing” comes in a much more hidden form – lower prices in exchange for wasted energy, chemical runoff into our drinking water, worker abuse and nutritional deficiencies in the end product are just a few on a very long list.
In short, I’m hooked on fruits and vegetables – the more “responsible” the better. And it’s a lot of fun to grow your own, really.
So back to what I call my “victory garden”. Why did I even start this blog when everyone else is too?
Actually, because someone was rude to me at the “local organic garden store” when I went to buy some already started lima bean plants.
You see, furry creatures kept digging mine up and I was concerned that didn’t have time to grow more and still get a full harvest in because they take so long to mature.
I’ll figure something out for next year and chalk it up to lessons learned – but I came away with the sense that there’s got to be some friendly advice out there for people just getting started.
And with that –
Welcome to my Nearly Urban Garden(s) in my inner-ring suburb neighborhood near the fine city of Cleveland Ohio (without sarcasm).
I hope to share what I’ve learned and what I learn as I go – nicely and in a way that makes sense and is actually useful. I hope to get advice from people who know more than me (which is pretty easy).
I’ll give you lesson #1 as learned from my hastily planted garden last year –
Pay attention when the seed packets tell you how much space to give for each plant. Did I learn? Mostly, but I am certainly enjoying my mess of peas.
My Nearly Urban Garden 