How Does My Garden Grow?

This week my garden grows in bags. :)

In case you missed it, this cool gardening tactic has been making the rounds on Facebook lately. Bag gardening isn't new - just do a Google search and you'll yield thousands of results. However, the blog post that has been referenced on FB presents the idea in what I think is a better way. It brings the height of the garden up to waist level (for me, anyway) and out of the reach of the voracious bunnies that live in my neighborhood.

So here, in pictures, is my adventure in bag gardening. Easy to do - took me one shopping trip and about a half hour to plant. I'll post updates as the bags grow (or don't!). And please, send us pics if you do this too. I'd love to see your results.

- Alex

Shopping list:

2 wooden sawhorses (Home Depot) - $19 ea - reusable for many jobs

1 piece of cow fencing - cut to 3' widths (Farm & Fleet) - $20 for eight finished cuts

4 one cubic foot bags of garden soil (Home Depot) - $5 ea

Seeds for shallow rooted plants (herbs, greens, etc)

You'll also need a utility knife or some other sharp knife or scissors.

This is what cow-fencing looks like.

Two sawhorses, one cut of cow-fencing, holds four bags of soil.

Poke holes in the bottom of the bags for drainage.

Cut open the top of the bag, leaving about a 2"-4" border.

Like this. Leave the "flaps".

Loosen the soil.

Remove and retain the top layer of soil (you'll reuse this).

Shallow-rooted seeds.

Sow the seeds per the package instructions.

Use the removed soil to cover the seeds.
Roll the flap up and tuck them in the sides. This provides stability.
I used the seed packets to mark my plantings.

My finished bag garden!

Fingers crossed, I should have a fabulous garden of greens for my summer eating!

Dirty Hands

Saturday, May 25 2013 was a cold, cold day in Madison. But I'd set my mind to buying plants and putting them in the garden. I simply couldn't wait any longer.

So... there I am, at 7:45 a.m., trudging around the farmer's market, freezing and loading up on tender little bundles of future food. A small fortune later and I had cucumbers, tomatoes, arugula, basil, thyme, parsley, rosemary, eggplant, ground cherries, spinach, lettuce, and swiss chard. Oh... and a huge bunch of jonquil bulbs that the woman sold me for a dollar. Of course, once I got home, I felt compelled to get everything into the dirt.

Eggplant and ground cherries in pots. Note how good my willows look!

Arugula, finally not wilting.

Tomatoes, looking good.

The cold was pretty brutal and my new plants didn't take to it very well. They stayed sort of wilty and sad looking for a couple of days. But this morning, with the onset of warmer weather, everyone has perked up. I've already lost one cucumber (it just never took) and two basil plants. I think the basil got chewed or stepped on by the baby rabbit that lives in my neighbor's yard.

My new favorite basil - Pistou. It's a tiny-leaved, globe that's great in pots.

This is the second year that I'm trying to grow greens in a pot. Last year's attempt was mixed. The chard did fairly well (except for getting some pest called a "leaf borer") but my lettuce never really took off. I think I crowded the plants so, this year, I'm going to seriously thin them out after they've established a bit. Fingers crossed.

The other addition to my garden on Saturday was a "As Seen On TV" Pocket Hose. Yes... I couldn't resist. I've been eying on the late-night infomercials for a while and then, the other day, I walked in to Walgreens and there it was - in all its glory.

AWESOME!

You may have previously read of my love of all things "As Seen On TV". I make no secret of my obsession. And, once again, the product has lived up to the hype. I'll never own a regular garden hose again. :)  Plus, I get the added bonus of being able to say inappropriate things to visiting friends like, "Would you like to see my hose grow?" (Yes... I'm really a 12-year-old boy trapped in this grown-up woman's body).

Best products, ever.

Here it is at 50' long. Seriously - it reaches my entire back yard.

 The gardening has started in earnest. I guess summer really is planning to arrive this year.

- Alex

Friday Finds: A Hint of Spring

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The weather outside is frightful with promises of wind-chill temptures between -10 F and -20 F this weekend. There's snow on the ground and low, gray cloud cover. The trees are bare and the ground is hard.

Time to think about planting a garden!! :)

I know, I know. I sound like a crazy person. But, believe it or not, this is the time to start seeds indoors - ensuring a hearty set of plants to put in the garden when the earth finally thaws. The rule of thumb is to start your seeds ten weeks prior to when they're to go in the ground. Now, granted, it's still a tiny bit early to actually PLANT my seeds but it's not too early to order them.

Enter my favorite new site, Baker Street Heirloom Seeds (thank you SSF for the introduction!)  I started defaulting to heirloom plants a number of years ago, finding the fruit of my garden to be more delicious and more interesting. True, the heirloom varities can often be less hardy but I'll trade a little more work for a better tasting tomato (or cucumber, or pepper, or....)

Baker Street Heirloom is a family business with a great story. They produce a gorgeous, funny, and FREE catalog that you can order from the site. And, besides offering an amazing variety of heirloom seeds, they also boycott all gene-altering companies and their seeds are all non-hybrid, non-GMO, non-treated and non-patented.  I really love these guys.

So... get your seeds started now - or, at least, start thinking about what your garden is going to look like. It'll help you get through the remaining weeks of cold, gray winter.

Doesn't this look lovely??

Think Spring!

- Alex

How My Garden Grows

Friends of Mighty Distractible know that I love to dig in the dirt. I've posted about my garden and/or my desire to be gardening many, many times - and this year was no different. I was lusting over seed catalogs and dreaming of putting plants in the ground before the ground was even defrosted.

The early spring and subsequent great weather has made this year a gardener's dream. My plants got in early (although still later than my more industrious neighbors) and many things are already starting to flower or fruit.

Happy Buddha = Happy Garden

When one lives in a relatively urban setting, one looks for any nook or cranny to plant in. I'm forever impressed by people who live in real cities, like NY or Chicago, and find empty lots or rooftops to cultivate. I'm lucky in that I have a pretty decent sized lot which allows me a yard for my dogs and spots to plant fruit, veg, and flowers.

My standard plantings include tomatoes, cucumbers, herbs, basil (which gets its own plot), and arugula. One corner of my little plot only gets afternoon sun and I've tried for years to find the right plants to grow there. A few years ago I stumbled on the cucumber/arugula combo which seems to work fairly well. Once the cukes get high enough on the fence, they get more sun and they thrive very well. The arugula is always a bit puny but there's enough for a few meals anyway.

Any strip of ground is fair game

This basil will end up 2.5 feet tall and overflow this space

This "weed" along the edge of the basil is edible purslane

It looks a mess but this is my herb garden.

I was lucky enough to inherit two gorgeous plants when I bought the house - a prehistoric rhubarb and a likewise blackberry. Both of these plants are HUGE and prolific, keeping me in fruit for months.

I'm also lucky in that my thyme, oregano, and chives (of course) keep coming back each year so I haven't had to replant them in a while. My parsley was also perennial until this year when it inexplicably died. So, a new flat-leaf parsley went in this spring. I also decided to plant a raspberry to go along with the blackberries.

Then, for some reason, I went a little nutty. Maybe it's because, for the first time, I cultivated some items from seed. I grew things I'd never grown before - without thinking about where they might actually get planted. These actions led to this:

Greens, greens, and more greens

Eggplant, chard, & zucchini

Beans and peas

There are plants EVERYWHERE. Every container that I had laying about in the garage or the shed now has plants in them. And, when I ran out of containers, I went and bought more.

So, now I've got eggplant, zucchini, swiss chard, rainbow chard, two types of lettuce, spinach, two more varieties of basil (besides my normal plot), bay leaf, two more containers of arugula (because I want more than just a couple of meals out of it), green beans, yellow beans, and sweet peas. WHEW!

My first-ever green beans!

On top of this, I have my flower beds. Most are on autopilot now, having planted lots of perennials, but I did end up with a volunteer lupine that needed attention and I put in a few new flowers to fill in some gaps.

Clematis in the foreground and my lily & iris bed in the back

I had to do something to distract from the back of the garage!

Overall, I'm pretty happy with the garden this year. I'm excited to see how much yield I get from my vegetables and how well all these things are going to grow in pots.

I'd love to hear about our readers' gardening exploits. Do any of you have favorite plants you put in every year or a "best practice" you'd like to share? Let us know!

- Farmer Alex

Is it Spring yet?

Feb 18, 2012 - in Madison, WI. Crazy.

As many of you know, Cassandra and I live in Madison, Wisconsin. This is a place known for relatively brutal winters (especially for a gal who lived in Atlanta for 16 years.) However, this winter we've been blessed with the fruits of global warming and are enjoying the mildest winter since I moved here in 1996.


Let me illustrate the mildness this way... On Saturday, February 18, when there would normally been multiple feet of snow on the ground, I was outside in bare feet chasing my dog who had slipped out the front door when I wasn't looking.


When I walked out of the house on Saturday and the sun hit my face, I had an automatic response that went something like this:

1. Look at the yard.
2. Realize it needs to be cleaned up.
3. Mentally start planning the garden.


On Saturday February 18, I was thinking about doing spring yardwork. It's a mad, mad world.

I couldn't shake the need to plant something in the ground so I decided to make a couple of terrariums instead. This is a craft project I've wanted to try for a while but had never gotten around to it. So... I got to go to the garden center and buy some supplies, including plants, and get my hands dirty. Here's the step-by-step and my meager results:

Things you need include some rocks, charcoal, and potting soil.

Some nice glass containers:

Some very small, slow-growing, low-light plants:

One coffee filter per container, a pen, and a pair of scissors:

Step 1 - Add rocks to the bottom of your container.

Step 2 -  Measure and cut the coffee filter to fit on top of the rocks (the coffee filter keeps the soil from dropping down into the rocks)

Step 3 - Add a layer of charcoal (this helps keep the terrarium clean and sweet smelling)

Step 4 - Add potting soil deep enough to put your small plants in.

Step 5 - Separate your plants out into small, individual plants and plant them in your terrarium in an appealing way (this is where the process broke down for me.)

As you can see from my finished product, one container was too small for the plants I bought - but I do kind of like having them come up and out of the container - and the other isn't particularly pretty. Maybe after it's grown in a bit.

At least I got my planting jones out of my system for a bit.

 Happy "spring" everybody!

- Alex

Garden 2.0

For three seasons of the year (all the ones that aren't buried in snow), I like to talk about gardening. You may have noticed. I've posted about it a few times.

Lest you think I'm all talk and no action, let me assure you that, each year, I (eventually) get a garden in. And I really enjoy the fruits of my labor - until it gets too cold to cultivate anything in my tiny, northern backyard.

Each year I put in old favorites like basil and arugula and, each year, I try a few new things. This year, my favorite new item is malabar spinach. It's a slightly viscous leaf - thicker than the spinach we're used to - but the plant vines up the fence and is really prolific. I love vertical farming because it takes up so much less space! Any space-saving gardening scheme is right up my alley (see: "square foot" gardening).
Which brings me to the point of today's post - gardening for maximum efficiency and output.

Cassandra always teases me about loving everything in miniature. It's true - as a rule, if something is extra-small, I generally like it better. But I think the core reason I like small things is because they're efficient. My dogs weight 10lbs and 7lbs. I can bathe both dogs in the sink in under 10 minutes. They eat less and take up a lot less space. This is super-efficient.

With gardening, you can certainly choose smaller versions of plants, such as my dwarf cherry tree or globe basil, in order to be efficient. But, there are much better ways of maximizing yield with minimal space - both in theory and in practice.

In theory:

Today, I found an article about a Dutch design firm that conceived of a rooftop sustainable gardening model that they're calling "Polydome".  Basically, this is a self-sustaining ecosystem that can be built on rooftops in major metropolitan areas. Theoretically, at its peak, the Polydome can produce 15 pounds of food per square foot - and that includes fruit, vegetables, eggs, and fish. A single Polydome is designed to last 30 years and has small-farm commercial viability with high-yield items such as herbs and mushrooms.

The Polydom (I want to live here)

In practice:

Something akin to the Polydome is being practiced in downtown Milwaukee right now. I've written about Growing Power before but the place always deserves another mention.

The Growing Power Urban Farm is self-sustainable, uses everything it produces (fish poo becomes fertilizer, for example), and produces a big yield in a small space. From their website: 

In a space no larger than a small supermarket live some 20,000 plants and vegetables, thousands of fish, and a livestock inventory of chickens, goats, ducks, rabbits, and bees. 

I toured this facility and, let me tell you, the worm composter alone is worth the trip. Or maybe the fish tanks with the recycled water that's used to feed the plants that are planted above it. It's just a marvel all the way around.

Will Allen - founder of Growing Power - on the farm

When it's all said and done, I'm just glad that someone is thinking about (and doing) this kind of gardening today. I'd like to believe that the small farm will rise again and that we'll all start respecting and improving upon the agricultural cycle in a way we haven't for decades. And, frankly, I'd really rather eat locally produced, considerate food than, say, a tomato that was grown in a hot house, picked before ripe, and shipped half-way across the continent so I can have a slice on my sandwich. That well-traveled tomato just ain't worth it.

- Alex