"Growing Your Own Food is Like Printing Your Own Money"

This idea of food not lawns and urban agriculture to feed those who cannot afford quality food looks like it might actually take off. Heartening.

Local Garden Stores, Madison WI

Ok, so my last post was a big plug for Jung's greenhouse. Today is a big plug for Menards.

I haven't been in Menards (like a huge hardware store) in at least a year and never really for gardening stuff. This store has the best prices, hands down. I checked everywhere, and they are somewhat local. So, even though all the crap is made in China, at least it's a semi-local store…and I really don't know where I could find food-safe buckets made in the US, do you?

So, I bought about 25 white food safe buckets. It's good to have white so they don't attract the sun as much. Soil heating is one of the biggest problems faced by container gardeners apparently. That and having to water every day. I also bought 10 stainless steel buckets. They are very pretty and I was going to paint with chalkboard paint on them. I decided to take them back as they were double the price of the white plastic buckets and half the size. I don't like involving plastics in growing food, but until I find a better way (maybe make my own clay seed trays) I don't know what else to do. Whenever I peek in my greenhouses, the smell of plastic off-casting is really overwhelming. This has to have an affect on the carbon dioxide the plants are taking in.

I also bought 3 30" long planters for the deck to grow herbs, spinach and lettuce. These were a great deal at $14 each for a sturdy steel frame and cocobed liners.

I planted a more tomatoes, marigolds, parsley, bak choi, more spinach, and a new set of seeds for the perrenial spinach. I also put in some red cabbage seeds where the first tray looks like the seedlings died. We had a cold snap last week and a lot of seedlings in the outdoor greenhouse didn't make it. Live and learn; don't plant too many seeds at a time. You never know when the ideal time to start them will be. Make up your soil blocks and do maybe 5 seeds (one row) a day for a week to experiment with when the best time to plant for that year may be.

Gardening Supplies.

My setup and costs:

Web Trays (allows air under soil blocks for natural root pruning), Jung's Greenhouse, 79c

Solid Trays (to put under web trays in very cold weather in outdoor greenhouse), Menards, $1.20 ($3 at Jungs) - When the weather warms up, I will separate the trays and use them to plant successive brassicas and other starts.

Large Dome Tray covers, Menards $4 ($8 at Jungs) These are necessary to grow tomatoes, eggplants and peppers to the proper height before they can be placed outside.

Short Dome Tray covers, Menards $1.20

4 Tier Greenhouse (1 indoor, 1 outdoor) $20 on sale at Menards ($60 at Jungs)

Grow Lamp 24" bulbs T8, 2 pack, Menards, $12

Grow Lamps, necessary for indoor seed starting, Cheapest price/best quality amazon, $27 free shipping
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003U51E8E/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
I really don't like shopping at amazon as it puts small businesses out of business, but I couldn't find a comparable local product that wouldn't cost more than at least $100 for a full growing system that didn't fit my needs. At least I feel a little better about it since they stopped supporting ALEC :/

It's A Great Day For Container Gardening!!!

Today, I installed 3 planters, set out 10 more food safe white 5 gallon buckets and planted cold weather loving lettuce (crisp mint) and spinach in the hanging balcony planters.  

I thought I was going to have to drill to install the planters, but I do not!!! Let me just say, Menards came through, once again. $13 for DEEP 30" no-drill planters? Heaven.

For the balcony railing containers, I used a layering technique because they are pretty deep. 

From bottom to top

1) Laid down biodegradable egg cartons, maybe they'll even add some extra nutrients, who knows

2) put in a bunch of leaves from the porch

3) Put in potting soil from last year amended with egg shells from said egg cartons.

4) Topped it off with seed starting mix

5) planted some seeds

6) watered

7) Put plastic wrap over the seeds to help them sprout tucking the sides into the dirt and container

I've never used so much plastic wrap in my life as I have in the last month!!!  

And of course the baby peppers and tomatoes were jealous that I got to go outside, so I let them come out too for a few hours. I was shocked that my outdoor greenhouse thermometer read 90 degrees, so I opened their door too and let the brassicas breath some fresh spring air!

The Roothouse is Open!

Visited Jung's, our local nursery/greenhouse yesterday to get some clear plastic covers for my trays and a few more trays.

2 exciting discoveries:

1) they now have "web trays" which
    a) significantly cheaper than regular black plastic trays (they cost 75c) and
    b) they allow for airflow under my seed blocks so the roots will be naturally trimmed when they try to reach the bottom of the tray!

2) the root cellar is now open! I celebrated with high fives with my favorite Jung's lady who has been commiserating with me since January on the eventual opening of the root house. She showed me around plant by plant. We talked about a new zone 4 peach!!! We looked at cherries and asparagus (there may be some trouble getting the purple variety in this year) and I discovered leek starts! I had bought leek seeds and my early starts had a bit of a disaster. So, note to self: Don't buy leek seeds again. They are available at your local nursery/greenhouse (Jung's in my case) as starts! Onions also available in this form!!!

The greenhouse made its way out to the porch on Thursday. The first round of hopeful seedlings perished with my overly zealous placement. But, despite the bitterly cold spring, the second round is doing well. They are getting GREAT sun and are covered with either a clear plastic top or just some seran/cyran (sp?) wrap for those who have not yet sprouted. I'm a little curious of the indoor temp, but not enough to buy a thermometer :/

I discovered this morning that one side of my porch has a perfect setup for growing spinach in yogurt containers, so I started some more spinach.

I'm thinking I'll get 20 5 gallon buckets for some tomatoes/kale/etc. on the back porch as well…

Also plotting my worm bin (vermiculture). I'd love to have it on the back porch, but it will definitely get too hot in mid-summer. I could always move it, though that seems like a pain. But, if I harvest right before I move it, I think it won't be too much of a hassle/not too heavy and the convenience of having it right off the kitchen would be GREAT! for both depositing and withdrawals.

What are you doing to get ready for spring!!! Be the first to comment on my blog!!! Win a free t-shirt!

Book Review: The Good Food Revolution

I have been a fan of Will Allen for a long time, but never known much about him. His new book, "The Good Food Revolution" is a combination historical account of the evolution or devolution of the black farmer wrapped up in the story of his own ancestors, an autobiography, an inspirational speech and a how-to book.

This blog post will mostly focus on research presented in the book on the decline of the small farmer (and the black farmer), but the other portions were incredibly informative and in many places brought me to tears. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in the history and necessity for urban agriculture especially in poor urban communities.

The following excerpts are meant to inform on the past. Allen also goes deeply and richly into his solution to these problems. For a full account of the how-to, I highly recommend this book.

On page 6, Allen discusses the two opposing viewpoints of the black leaders of his parents' generation,             "Some black leaders encouraged my parents' generation ot leave the land as a way of self-improvement. At the turn of the twentieth century, the great black intellectual W.E.B. DuBois had urged African Americans to find success through a liberal education.
  'The Negro race,' Du Bois wrote, 'is going to be saved by its exceptional men.' With this position, DuBois found himself in a long-standing argument with the educator and writer Booker T. Washington, who argued that black people would be better served by the development of practical abilities. He thought that African Americans should make an effort to improve their own position from within-by developing skills for self-sufficiency and by helping one another. 'Agriculture is, or has been, the basic industry of nearly every race or nation that has succeeded,' Washington wrote. 'Dignify and glorify common labor,' he said elsewhere. 'It is at the bottom that we must begin, not the top.'
   DuBois' ideas won. His vision helped give us a world where it was possible to have Martin Luther King Jr, Jackie Robinson, Henry Louis Gates Jr, Colin Powell, Ben Carson, John Lewis, and Barack Obama. African Americans proved their worth in corporate board rooms, in Ivy League universities, on sports fields, in operating rooms, in the halls of Congress and the White House. This 'talented tenth,' as DuBois called the top-performing African Americans, provided blacks with role models and reasons for pride. 
  Yet, there never was a place among Dubois' Talented Tenth for farmers. And for all the progress in civil rights in the past several decades, there is one area in which we have stepped backward. Great disparities have grown in the physical health of our people. This change has come directly in the wake of the departure of black farmers from their land.
  One in two African Americans born in the year 2000 is expected to develop type II diabetes."

Allen believes that "equal access to healthy, affordable food should be a civil right - every bit as important as access to clean air, clean water, or the right to vote."

He talks on page 51 about being inspired by the McGayverness of George Washington Carver, the famous black agriculturalist. He describes how when Carver arrived at his teahing job at Tuskegee Institute and found few resources for his classroom, he "went to the trash pile and started [his] laboratory with bottles, old fruit jars, and other [useful things.]

Where did all the small farms go?

On page 98, Allen goes into detail on the reason for the decline of black farming in the United States.
He writes, "black farmers have faced discrimination for generations, even to the present day. They have also been hurt rather than helped by the US department of agriculture and its policies. A crucial turning point in the relationship of black farmers and the federal government came when the Union general William Tecumseh Sherman marched through the South towards the end of the Civil War. Slaves abandoned their plantations and joined his army. To handle the challenge of so many refugees, Sherman issued a special directive to resettle the black families on the coast of Georgia, saying that 'each family shall have a plot of not more than forty acres of tillable ground' and that 'the military authorities will afford them protection until such time as they can protect themselves.' Shermans' army also provided mules to some of the first settlers protected under this directive. 
  Freed slaves soon embraced the hope that the federal government would help them establish their independence with the guarantee of 'forty acres and a mule.' Yet when president Abraham Lincoln was assassinated a few months later, his successor, Andrew Johnson, abandoned any commitments of the U.S. Army to protect black people who were resettled under Sherman's directive. He returned all land that had formerly belonged to slave owners, and the Freedmen's Bueau Act of 1866 - passed over Johnson's veto - did not provide forty acres and a mule. The act focused instead on trying to make sure that labor contracts between black people and their former slave owners were fair. The law provided few resources to enforce even this much more limited goal.
  Without protection or assistance, former slaves faced severe obstacles if they hoped to obtain land. Few had any inherited assets or much if any cash. The reason that so many Afican Americans still speak nostalgically of 'forty acres and a mule' is that the policy if properly carried out might have provided a chance for thousands of former slaves to establish themselves independent of white landowners. It could have given former slaves and their descendants a path to self-sufficiency. Most black people in agriculture had to turn instead to sharecropping - a business relationship that seemed like wage slavery. Many Southern whites, however, perceived the policy of 'forty acres and a mule' and even the modest work of the Freedmen's Bureau as a handout to lazy blacks who didn't have the discipline to work har enough to buy their own property. These sentiments were often expressed by people whose economy had been built by slaves. 
  For black farmers in the twentieth century who outlasted the upheaval of the Great Migration, there were more subtle forces that drove them off their land. In 1982, the bipartisan US Commission of Civil Rights issued a report called, "The Decline of Black Farming in America" that attempted to understand why black farmers were leaving the profession at a rate two and a half times greater than that of whites. The committee found that one important reason was that black farmers were small farmers. The average commercial farm owned by a black man in the South was 128 acres. The average farm of a white landowner was 428 acres. Almost all of the technological innovations that the United States government had subsidized over the previous decades, the authors acknowledged, were geared toward increasing the productivity of large farms - and not to making small farms sustainable.
  "The cost of basic equipment minimally necessary to run a commercial farm is much greater in proportion to the number of acres of land held by the average black farmer than it is for white farmers,' the authors wrote. 'Black small farm operators who cannot afford new large scale technology to increase their output fall behind.'
  The authors also found that the governments income-support programs had the indirect effect of pushing small farmers off the land. These subsidies were first established by President Franklin D. Roosevelt during the Great Depression to help farmers who were suffereing. Prices for things like wheat, corn, tobacco, rice and milk had declined sharply in the 1930s. Roosevelt's New Deal program encouraged farmers to allow some fields to lie fallow or to kill excess livestock; the decreased supply increased prices for these commodities. The government, in turn, compensated farmers for the money they would have made had they continued to farm at full capacity.
  This idea was well intentioned. The unforeseen trouble with the income-support program as decades went by was it benefited those who needed it the least: the largest farms. the policy later shifted emphasis so that farmers were less often encouraged to let fields lie fallow, but were simply compensated directly with payments if corn or wheat prices fell below a certain minimum. This meant that the more food you could produce, the larger your income-support payment when prices fell too low. By the late 1970s payments for participating small farmers were as low as $365. Farms with more than 2,500 acres…received as much as $36,000 a year.
  These policies allowed large farms to 'borrow and invest capital in more land and improved technology, resulting in increased production on their part and an increasing disadvantage for small farmers.
  When black farmers tried to compete with larger farms, they have also needed progressively larger lines of credit. Farmers are paid only after a crop is harvested, which can be many months after they need money for seeds, equipment and fertilizer. When farms were smaller and communities were more close-knit, black farmers could sometimes turn to local farm supply stores for credit, borrowing from people who knew them personally. As this agricultural economy became more concentrated in the hands of fewer and fewer companies in the twentieth century, most of these local stores were absorbed by national chains reluctant to to extend loans."

He goes on to talk about discrimination against black farmers in USDA loans. It's frustrating to think about how different the U.S. and the world could be today had the "forty acres and a mule" policy not been altered.

Why are there so many corn and soybean fields???

On page 113, Allen talks about the appointment of Earl Butz as secretary of agriculture in 1971 by President Nixon. "Mr. Butz had ties to several agricultural business firms, and he opposed the policies of Roosevelt's New Deal that fought to contain overproduction. Butz fought for foreign markets for America's excess corn and soybeans. He encouraged farmers to plant, "fencerow to fencerow" and to "get big or get out." He spoke of America's 'agripower': it's ability to develop huge stockpiles of commodity crops, which it could unleash upon the world markets when it wanted. 
  These new policies put considerable pressure on small to mid-sized farmers. After paying for fertilizer, seed, insecticides, fungicides, fuel, crop insurance, and labor, small farmers faced significant pressures in a farm economy where margins could only be a few cents per bushel. They no longer were competing against just local famers but were increasingly part of a global economy. From 1970 to 1980, the total number of farmers in the United Sates declined by nearly half. The average size of a single farm  grew, however, to nearly 430 acres. When Butz resigned his position in 1976 after making a racist joke, he wrote to President Ford to say that "American farmers will always be grateful to you for your solid support of our efforts to raise their incomes and to permit them to manage their farms without excessive government regulation.'
  The problem with Butz's argument against the meddling of big government is that his policies required the largest government interventions in agriculture in U.S. history. His fencerow to fencerow policy led to an eventual collapse of corn prices from overproduction in the 1980s, requiring large taxpayer-funded support for farmers - a dependence that has continued to thsi day. in 2000, nearly half of hte income for corn farmers in the United States was padif or by subsidies. In 1972, by contrast, the average annual federal subsidy to a corn producer was less than $100. By 2010, nearly 3/4 of government commodity payments were given to the same top 10% of recipients. The beneficiaries of this new cheap system of cheap corn and grain were companies like Archer Daniels Midland, who stood between farmers and food companies. They took raw commodities like corn and wheat and turned them into products that could be used for processed foods and beverages: high fructose corn syrup, frying oils, flours and gums."

The effect of this food system on the urban eater:

That people in cities should mostly eat food grown within a few miles of their homes was not always a strange idea. Kings and Queens Counties, which neighbor Manhattan, ranked as the number one and number two largest producers of vegetables in the United States as late as 1880. Someone standing in the heart of Brooklyn during that American Civil War would have seen, according to one account, ' avista of the finest farmland in America, almost treeless for six miles and beyond, in full view of the Atlantic Ocean.' These farms fed the city that was rising on the Hudson River. By 1949, however, the Brooklyn Eagle ran a story on the area's 'last farmer' who grew squash and broccoli on three acres soon to be overtaken by an apartment complex. 
  Across the United States, the local agricultural system was dismembered piece by piece in the twentieth century. As urban areas expanded, property prices rose in areas on the edge of cities. Farmers sold their land and often relocated to places where land prices were cheaper. City planners never made an attempt to incorporate agriculture into the fabric of urban life. Technological innovations that arrived over the course of several decades - the canal system, the railroads, refrigeration equipment, tractor-trailers, airplanes, canning and freezing processes, meant that farmers and consumers were no longer yoked together geographically by necessity.
  The average food item of food consumed in the United States today travels 1500 miles from producer to consumer, and it is buoyed on a sea of oil and gasoline. We spend about $140 billion each year just for the energy required to deliver food on our tables. The long journey from farm to consumer also has nutritional effects on the foods we consume. Fresh green beans, for example, have been shown to lose nearly 80% of their Vitamin C within a week of being picked. 
  A family living in an inner-city community today faces a radically different food environment than their ancestors did. Less than 1/4 of 1% of the food they eat comes directly from farmers. This family often lives two miles or more from a supermarket, which abandoned inner cities in the 1960s and 1970s as part of a tide of urban disinvestment. If the family is poor-and the father and mother are working on or more jobs - they contend with the daily struggle of nourishing themselves using as little money and time as possible.
  In many inner-city communities, the only companies that meet these specific demands of low-income families are corner stores and fast-food restaurants, with their dollar menus, 99c bags of chips, two for one offers, and 20 piece boxes of chicken nuggets. One recent study has shown that a 2000 calorie diet can cost as little as $3.50 a day if it consists entirely of junk food, while healthy foods that are not as energy dense can cost more than 10x as much.
  'If you have $3 to feed yourself,' a researcher at the University of Washington recently told The New York Times, 'your choices gravitate toward the foods that give you the most calories per dollar. Not only are empty calories cheaper, but the healthier foods are becoming more and more expensive. Vegetables and fruits are rapidly becoming luxury goods."

Below are people, readings and organizations mentioned in the book that are worth looking into

Jonathan Woods p.124
Jerry Kauffman p. 145
Robert Pierce p. 163
Lewis Mumford, The City in History
Arnold Kauffman, The Radical Liberal
Journal of the American Planning Association, "The Food system: A Stranger to the Planning Field"
The Madison Food System Project
Farm-City Link

Book Review: The New Organic Grower

So, here's what I gleaned and want to remember from Eliot Coleman's, The New Organic Grower

Chapter 7, Crop Rotation.

Potatoes follow sweet corn because research has shown corn to be one of the preceding crops that most benefit yield of potatoes
Corn to follow Cabbage
Cabbage to follow Peas because the pea crop is finished and the ground cleared by August 1, allowing a vigorous winter green manure crop to be established.
Peas follow Tomatoes because they need an early seedbed and tomatoes can be undersown to a non-winter-hardy green manure crop that provides soil protection with no decomposition adn regrowth problems in the spring.
Tomatoes follow beans because this places them 4 years away from their cousin, potato
Beans follow root crops because they are not known to be subject to the detrimental effect that certain root crops such as carrots and beets may exert in the following year.
Root crops follow squash and potatoes because they are both good "cleaning crops" (easy to keep weed-free. also, squash has been shown as a beneficial preceding crop for roots.
Squash is grown after potatoes in order to have the two "cleaning crops back to prior to the root crops thus reducing weed problems in the root crops.

p. 66 (great illustrations)

bed 1: bean, cabbage, kale, radish (compost) - undersow clover pre, and winter vetch post harvest (for tomatoes)
bed 2: carrot beet, chard, onion, celery
bed 3: greens
bed 4: potato - undersow vetch after potatoes are harvested
bed 5: cornundersow soybeans to get rid of potato scab!bed 6: peas - sow clover after peas are cleared
bed 7: broccoli, cauliflower
bed 8: winter squash, summer squash, cucumber - clover
bed 9: tomato, pepper - undersow oats?

Rotation goes up, 10 becomes 9, 9 becomes 8, etc.

p. 78-81 (great illustrations)

Chapter 10 - soil amendments. Won't be spending money on it this year, but keep it in mind for the future.

P. 110, "Nitrogen is not a purchased input [in a sustainable farming approach] because it is supplied by symbiotic and non-symbiotic processes."

This quote was most shocking to me after watching the documentary "dirt," in which the visual of what excess nitrogen in the soil is doing to the water sources in the U.S. and far South of the U.S. was so depressing. To know that it doesn't need to be that way is really. really. sad.

Ch. 14. Soil Blocks. I'm convinced. I'm doing it. - see previous post for recipe and instructions.

Multi Plant Blocks:
beet - 4 seeds, 6 inches apart, rows 16 inches apart (2 rows per bed)
broccoli, 4 seeds, 24 inches apart, rows 30 inches apart (1 row per bed)
cabbage - 3, 24, 30 (1 row per bed)
corn - 4, 30, 30 (1 row per bed)
cucumber - 3, 30, 30 (1 row per bed)
leek - 4, 8, 16 (2 rows per bed)
Melon - (3, 24, 60)
Onion, Bulb - 5, 12, 12
Onion, Scallion - 12, 6, 12
Peas - 3, 6, 30
Spinach - 4, 6, 12
Turnip - 4, 6, 12
                             p. 149 (copy page 152 for soil block and potting on recommendations

Ch. 17. Pests (should be titled, inspiration for the biologically sustainable farmer).
My favorite chapter.

Ch. 18. Book Recommendation, "The Organic Gardener's Handbook. Natural Insect and Disease Control by Barbara Ellis and Fern Marshall Bradley


Ch. 19, "The optimal 'organic' farming system, toward which my farming techniques are progressing, is one that participates as fully as possible in the application of biological systems of the natural world."

The goal is not "organic." The goal is "biological." (biologically in balance) I appreciate that he makes this distinction. Many friends who don't want to buy organic say that the organic farms are the big names too, and they're just as bad. Well, maybe they are. The point isn't what company is being supported. The point is that the earth is being treated in a biologically sustainable way. Some organic farms may not do this. My goal would be to buy from those who do and to follow the practices which do in my own growing. The goal is not "organic." The goal is "biological."

Another favorite part, when discussing getting information from libraries,
          "Sometimes the staff do things for me because, since I'm older than the students, they assume I must be faculty. I have sometimes worn a coat and tie to reinforce that possibility. Other times, just looking helpless or smiling sweetly can overcome barriers. If I recieve a bureaucratic "no" to my request, I will often come back after the shift changes to see if I have better luck with the next person."

…oh Eliot :)

Notes on Specific Crops:
Onion, 5 seeds per 2" block 5 to 6 weeks before transplant
Lettuce - give a 12x12 space when planting it outdoors
Melon and Cucumbers like sandy soil because it gets hotter
Zucchini - favorite types "Zucchini Elite, Seneca Prolific, Ronde de Nice"
Peppers and Onions don't like high nitrogen (green manure)
Larger seedlings in blocks should be planted with a mesh bottom so air can reach every side and roots won't start growing out of the block, reading for air (corn, cucumber, melon, etc.)
financial return on sweet corn is low
Mulch potatoes with straw immediately after they emerge to reduce beetle problem
start pumpkin/squash 1 week early in greenhouse seed block
seed radishes in rows 4" apart and only 1" apart in the row. sow in succession every few days,
start rutabaga from direct seed 18" rows 1 every 4"where overwintered clover was prior
Spinach likes clay not sandy soil 4-5 seeds per block, transplant 3 wk old seedlings every 6 inches, rows 12 inches apart. Sow fall crop and overwinter it. Favorite types, "Tyee" and "Steadfast"
To sow in succesion: Kale, Carrot, Spinach, Brassicas, Lettuce, Radishes

Next to Read:
Urban Farm by Sarah C Rich (great pictures)
The good Food Revolution, Will Allen
How to Grow More Vegetables by Jeavons
The Winter Harvest Handbook, Coleman

Words to look up:
Nostrums
Bucolic
Panacea

Swiss Chard Quiche

Bought a quiche pan today. Really excited about mixing up quick meals in it. Chop some veggies, throw them in eggs. Throw them in the oven.

Ingredients:
Swiss chard
Mushrooms
1 Onion
Garlic
5 Eggs
Pepper
Cinnamon
Dill
Grate cheese on top

Saute Garlic, Saute Onion, throw in the mushrooms, then the chard. Beat the eggs, add the spices, mix together, pour in quiche pan, grate cheese on top. Bake at 375 in a 10" diameter quiche pan for 20 minutes.

Step 1: 

Step 2:

Step 3: 

Step 4: Yum!

Starting Seeds Step 2

At day 3, only having the grow light on day 2, some of my seedlings were already getting leggy, a common happening for starting seeds indoors. I always admire how un-leggy my little seedlings are when they are grown outdoors.

So, I decided to make my 2" seed blocks for transplanting (added the compost this time) and transplant only the 5 least leggy specimens.

I left one row of 5 in case those who have not yet sprouted (perennial spinach, leek, and swiss chard), decide to do so. I kept these on the top shelf with my one grow light so they will not get leggy if they do sprout.

I left the peppers on the next shelf down, hoping they won't sprout before the aforementioned. But as soon as they do, I'll have to bump the other tray out of the top shelf so the peppers don't get leggy - 'cause the pepper really need that light and to be started indoors while the others are really only experiments to start them this early.

In other notes, the jury is out on Coleman's idea of leaving the seeds on top of the soil to germinate. This is what they looked like when they germinated…on tope of the soil. Not sure how I feel about that. I'll observe them more as they stay on the top shelf and see how the roots go in.

Sprouts Already!!!

Came home today to put the grow light in the greenhouse and discovered I already have some sprouts.

After just 24 hours, we have:

Stonehead Hybrid Cabbage (leftover from last fall, Jung's)
Mammoth Redrock Cabbage (very small sprout)
Chinese Cabbage (also leftover)
Georgia Southern Collard
Red Romaine Lettuce
Buttercrunch Lettuce
One little Red Russian Kale is ready to poke her head out

Wish I had a micro lens for this, but here's what I've got:

In other news, yesterday I saved some butternut squash seeds…guess what's for dinner?

I love Martha Stewart's site for preparing in season vegetables. She really has a lot of great recipes. I can't wait for the new Coleman/Damrosh "Four Season Farm Gardener's Cookbook" to come out!!!

Check out her "seasonal produce recipe guide" I'll guide you to eggplant :)

I also saved these oyster shells as Eliot (we're on a first name basis now) says they're good for adding Calcium to the soil. I guess I'll need to attend the oyster bar happy hour more often ;)

Seeding Calendar 2013 Simplified

So your seed packets say, plant 6-8 weeks before transplanting or plant 4 weeks before last frost, and a lot of other things. Honestly, this really confused me. I realized last night that the logical thing to do is to plant cold weather crops however many weeks the packet says before their cold weather planting date (In Madison, this can vary in March and April), and warm weather crops the number of weeks it says before their warm weather planting date (In Madison, around Mother's Day or May 10.

FEBRUARY 16
So, I've started seeds in soil blocks for the following crops on February 16, 6-8 weeks before the soil may be able to be worked (mid April???) I'm keeping in mind that I have a LOT of work to do on my beds before they are plantable:

Start Seeds:

Tray 1:

Crisp Mint Lettuce (best in cold)

Cabbage

Kale

Collards

Tray 2:

Peppers

I will need to give a lot of these away to friends after they germinate to make room in the greenhouse.

Hopefully I can inspire others to have their own greenhouse with their already started seedlings. Maybe I could even trade for marigold, zucchini, summer squash, winter squash, melon, and/or pumpkin seeds.

Then again, maybe none of them will germinate because I forgot the compost in the seed starting formula :)

MARCH 17

Sow seeds that need 8 weeks of development before the last frost. Hopefully by the time these germinate, I will be hardening off (putting outside to get used to the cold and wind for gradually longer increments of time) Tray 1 above of cold weather crops.

Tray 3:

Eggplant

Broccoli - succession planting, start some, not all
Marigold

MARCH 31

Sow seeds indoors that need 6 weeks of development before the last frost:

Tray 4:

Tomatoes!!!

Add to Tray 3:
Ground Cherry

Broccoli

Leeks 

Collards

Kale

Cabbage
Swiss Chard

APRIL 14

At this point, Tray 1 and 3 will be transplanted outside and ready to be filled up with some new mini-soil blocks/seeds!
Sow indoors (crops that want 3-4 weeks before last frost seed starting):

Thai Basil

Nasturtium
Zucchini (3-4 per soil block)

This is also when I will begin to direct sow the cold weather crops:

Lettuces (that aren't specific to cold weather)

Snap Peas

Pac Choy

Carrots
Radish
Beets (Plant in rows with radishes)

I will also direct seed the rest of the chard, lettuce, cabbage, kale, spinach, collards and leeks to compare how they do with direct sowing to how they did with transplanting from soil blocks (pics to follow hopefully)

APRIL 28

Start half of my cucumber and watermelon seedlings indoors

MAY 12

This is when I will feel safe enough to transplant those seedlings which must be transplanted "after the last frost date"(those that I started the seeds of on March 17 and March 31st respectively). 

Direct Seed:

Sunflowers

Beans
Cucumber
Corn

To see where/how I will be planting all of these seedlings, check out my garden bed planning chart.

JUNE 30

Direct Seed:
Rutabaga
Lettuce
Brassicas (brocolli, cauliflower)
Radish
Beets
Cabbage

Companion Planting

Companion Planting: is planting crops together that help each other grow and have a symbiotic relationship.

For example, Marigolds tend to keep pests away from tomatoes. For some crops it has to do with pests, some shade, some, nutrients.

To see how I've dong companion planting in my beds, check out my garden bed planning chart.

Companion planting (especially with undersowing of green manures) is a subject I have a LOT to learn about. BUT! here's what I have so far:

nasturtiums love broccoli, squash and cucumber

tomatoes love marigolds and basil

carrots loves chives

tomatoes keep pests away from cabbage

dill likes cabbage to support it

marigolds control pests that may attack tomatoes and melons

…still a lot of research to do on this one, I really appreciate your comments of knowledge!!!

I think I'll read a book that was recommended to me a long time ago called, carrots love tomatoes.

Amazing Wisconsin Gardeners

Will Allen and Growing Power. Milwaukee, WI

Badger Rock Middle School!!! Madison, WI
                   My dream job; being part of the ELL program at Badger Rock Middle School

I would really like to see Badger Rock put in some community-run example gardens from Hmong and Mexican community members, even parents as examples of how gardening is done in different parts of the world and what is grown. I'm sure this could lead to a lot of wonderful curriculum projects as well.

 
To find community gardens that already exist in Madison that you can become a part of, check out the Community Action Coalition

Print Resources

A list of my favorite gardening books:

Coleman, Eliot. The New Organic Grower.
   I especially recommend chapter 17 entitled "Pests!" Very inspiring! (it's not really just about pests)

Coleman, Eliot. The Winter Harvest Handbook

Allen, Will. The Good Food Revolution: Growing Healthy Food, People and Communities.

Nearing, Helen and Scott. The Good Life: Helen and Scott Nearing's 60 years of self-sufficient living.

Nearing, Helen. Loving and Leaving the Good Life.

Jeavons, John & Griffin, Mogador & Leler, Robin. How to grow more vegetables.

Ashworth, Susan. Seed to Seed; Seed Saving and Growing Techniques for Vegetable Gardeners
   Published by the Seed Savers Exchange

Planning the Bed

So, I'm planning to have 10 beds, each about 8 feet by a little less than 4 feet, maybe 40 inches?

The first few beds are in the shade. Beds 3 through 5 have some semi-sun and beds 6 - 10 are also in the shade. Good thing I love my leafy greens as they don't require full sun!!!

I am keeping my perennials (that don't mind some shade) furthest from the house (hence in the first labeled beds) because they require the least amount of care.

1) perennial ground cherry, chamomile, parsley (biennial)    /      mint and other perennial berries

2) perennial strawberries, perennial asparagus                      /        perennial spinach and rhubarb

3) early harvest onion                                                           /         early harvest snap peas
    later harvest squash (pumpkin, cucumber, with nasturtium  /   later harvest beans and eggplant
   (nasturtium and cucumber want lots of water and sandy soil, maybe I should put them next to the lettuce)

4) early harvest snap peas                                                   /    heirloom tomato, marigold, basil
     later harvest peppers

5) garlic (planted last fall)
   Wisconsin 55 tomato, marigold, basil                             /     paste tomato, marigold, basil

6) cabbage and dill                                                            /   leeks

7) Carrot and chive                                                           /    early lettuce and spinach
                                                                                               later slow bolt lettuce and spinach

8) Spinach                                                                         / Kale

9) Collards                                                                        / Chard (wants full sun, needs to be moved)

10) Extras

I am growing a lot of tomatoes for canning, also pickling cucumbers, red cabbage to be canned as well as freezing kale, chard, collards and spinach, drying peppers, keep onions and winter squash in the basement, turn strawberries, ground cherries and rhubarb to jam. When I get there, I'll have to do another post reviewing the info out there on putting things by. I haven't canned tomato paste before, but I've canned my own salsa before and know it's very easy, so I feel confident in growing a lot of tomatoes. Also, isn't that the impetus for this garden in the first place!?!?!

Glossary

Glossary: 

undersowing (sowing seeds under a crop so they will be ready to grow (pun intended) when you harvest the previous crop in the bed.

picture from Eliot Coleman's "The New Organic Grower"

Green Manure: is any plant which is grown for the nutricious quality it adds to the soil. These are not harvested for eating, but only for turning over into the soil for nitrogen and other qualities that feed the soil. The best green manure for your depends on the specific needs of your garden and what will grow well in your garden. Most of these plants grow very fast and some of them do a great job of keeping the soil aerated and together with their roots.

Some example of green manure crops are: hairy vetch, bell beans, sweet white lupin (loosens the soil), bersem clover, sweet clover (bi-ennial) and red clover.

Succession Planting: Refers to planting crops in a succession that will be beneficial to their growth. For example, I mention in my seed starting post that the soil created after an onion planting is particularly beneficial to starting seeds. If you check out the below picture from the "New Organic Gardener" you can see some other beneficial succession plantings. Please retain a copy of the book for fully accurate information.

Permaculture:

Monoculture:

Community Garden:

Worm Castings:

Hummus:

Eliot Coleman and Soil Blocks

If you haven't checked out the videos of Eliot Coleman and his wife, Barbara on Youtube, you may want to consider it. They offer a LOT of great advice on everything from seed spacing to compost. I have been at this for five years and done a lot of research and still learned a lot from every video of theirs I watched. This video explains soil block makers and shows how to make them for free!

If you want to buy soil block makers, they are available at Johnny's Selected Seeds

Coupon for free shipping for 2013 from Johnny's

I am also learning a LOT from Eliot's Book, "The New Organic Grower." The book is more up to date than the videos according to the differing mixes in both for soil blocks.

There are many advantages to the soil seed blocks.

1) They require no additional fertilizer as all they need is already in the block with the compost.
2) The peat in them acts as a super fertilizer
3) Because they are divided from each other by only air, the roots do not grown in circles like they would in a container

Downsides
1) I hear they need to be watered more often, makes sense.
2) slightly larger initial investment (but after that, never break like stupid plastic pots)
3) no leaching from plastics (yes, I think about things like this
4) no waste of the plastic containers.

So, as you saw in my previous post, I made my soil blocks today and started my first seeds of the season. NOTE TO SELF: Next time, before starting soil blocks, read the chapter!!! I thought it was sufficient that I had watched Coleman's video on soil blocks, but there is so much additional information in the chapter in his book on it, I really wish I had read it first. I will summarize here for you with the most important parts.

* Seed Starting Soil Block Mixture:
16 Parts   brown peat                                           4 gallons
1/4 Part   colloidal phosphate                             1 cup
1/4 Part   greensand (leave it out if not available 1 cup
4 parts    compost (well decomposed)                 1 gallon
 - Note: Coleman also recommends using soil that has previously harvested onions and/or leeks as they seem to add something to the soil that is beneficial for starting seeds.

* Do not cover seeds with soil. At all.

* Many seeds can be put into "mulitplant" blocks

These include:
Beets - 4 (still need to acquire some beet seeds)
Broccoli - 4
Cabbage - 3 (whoops, next time)
Cucumber - 3
Leek - 4
Melon - 3
Onion, Bulb - 5
Onion, Scallion - 12
Peas - 3
Spinach - 4
Turnip - 4

* I only bought the mini-blocker and the 1 1/2"/2" blocker, but he recommends different sized blockers for different seeds. Below are the ones I care about.
Celery 3/4" transplanted to a 2"
Broccoli - 1 1/2" (I'll try to plant them in a group of 4 for an experiment as suggested above)
Cabbage - 1 1/2" (already did it in a 3/4", so it'll be an experiment, I'll probably do the next set in a "multiplant" larger block
Chinese Cabbage - 1 1/2"
Cucumber - 1 1/2" (also try multiplant and not multiplant)
Eggplant - 3/4" to 2"
Leek - 1 1/2" (again, already did it in the smaller, try bigger and bigger multiplant)
Kale- 1 1/2"(same deal)
Lettuce - 1 1/2" (same deal)
Melon - 1 1/2"
Parsley - 3/4"
Pepper - 3/4" (at least I got that one right!)
Pumpkin - 3"!!!!
Spinach - 1 1/2" (same deal)
Summer Squash - 3" !!!!!
Winter Squash - 3"
Swiss Chard - 1 1/2" (same deal)
Tomato - 3/4"


The below recipe will be useful later, once I have to return Coleman's book to the library, so I'll record it below:
*Blocking Mix Recipe (for transplanting seeds to after they are started)
3 buckets brown peat
1/2 cup lime. Mix.
2 buckets coarse sand or perlite
3 cups base fertilizer. Mix.
1 bucket soil
2 buckets compost
Mix all ingredients together thoroughly. Do not sterilize the mix.

Coleman's book also has EXCELLENT chapters on crop rotation, undersowing and green manures. I'll delve into this subject more when I have more time…and I'm hoping the new book I ordered, "Grow more vegetables" will have some insight on succession planting and even succession planting within the same season.

Starting First Seeds

Today, February 16, I started my first seeds. I started anything that can go out in the cold in mid April (after 8 weeks inside)…and peppers. Lots and lots of peppers.

I used soil seed blocks. More on that in another post.

I planted 240 pepper seedings from the seeds I've saved from peppers from the grocery store. No, I do not plan on using this many in my garden, but hope to share seedlings with others who were unable to start their peppers early enough.

I also pulled out of the freezer (they germinate better if brought from freezer to soil) my:

Swiss Chard, Bright Lights (Jung's)
Lettuce, Buttercrunch (Jung's)
Cabbage, Mammoth Red Rock (Seed Savers)
Kale, Red Russian (Seed Savers)
Lettuce, Crisp Mint (Seed Savers)
Spinach, Strawberry (Seed Savers)
  A perennial with edible fruits
Carrot, Dragon (Seed Savers)
  This was a mistake. I should not have started these indoors, good things I only did 20.
Collard, Georgia Southern (Seed Savers)
Lettuce, Red Romaine (Seed Savers)
  I planted this and not others because it has a longer (70 day) maturation time
Leek, Prizetaker (Seed Savers)
  I planted this early because of its long (110-135) day maturation time, also I've never heard of people successfully (or at all) growing leeks in this area, so this is an experiment.
Chinese cabbage (Jung's)
Stonehead Hybrid Cabbage (Jung's)

It is really only necessary to start planting peppers and onions this early, but I got excited and wanted to experiment with my new soil blockers and greenhouse in my kitchen.

The seedlings should be kept moist and between 70F and 75F degrees. I decided not to use my grow light to not dry out the seedlings…we'll see how that goes.

I did not use the seed starting mix recommended by Eliot Coleman (my current mentor in organic gardening). Instead, for ease and speed, I bought an organic seed starting "Jiffy-Mix" from Jung's Greenhouse. It made the soil seed blocks ok, but after reading the chapter on soil seed blocks in Coleman's book, it made me wish I had at least added compost. Also, after reading this chapter, it made me wish I hadn't covered all of my seeds with a tiny bit of soil.

The Backyard Garden Dream

So! Let me just reiterate again how lucky I feel to be able to have my own organic garden of considerable size (even if not of considerable sun) in my own backyard!

This project has been a dream in the works for the last five years now. I became interested in gardening after coming back to Madison, WI after living in Turkey for five years and realizing the vast discrepancy in availability of high quality fresh fruits and vegetables. To give you some idea of the vast quantities available, it was unheard of to buy one or two or even five of anything at a Turkish fresh food market. Alas, you do not buy your produce there by the number, but by the pound. Every crop has their own seller. If you frequent the same market often, you get to know the sellers and the quality of their produce. Often, though, the first twenty minutes of the shopping trip can be spent walking the aisles of the large open air market to find where you will buy each of your specialties. Interspersed are the vendors of other essential items. The guy selling underwear by wearing it on his head, standing on a table and yelling at customers was definitely one of my favorites. Though over time, I definitely stopped noticing him. I guess we can get used to anything.

So anyway, when I moved to Madison, the woman in the apartment across from mine (in the same building) just happened to belong to a local community garden (link takes you to the Community Action Coalition to find a community garden in Madison that you can be a part of). I was eager to reproduce the tomatoes of turkey after tasting the available produce in the U.S. She was very helpful and shared a lot of information on permaculture and composting as well as green manures. Because I had an 8 month old at the time and the garden was 3 miles, I couldn't invest as much time or energy in the garden as I wanted. I stayed with this community garden for 3 years. When I had my son, I could no longer keep up and gave up my plot.

Last year I was divorced. And while, yes, in many ways this is very sad, one benefit is that I was able to move to an apartment with a huge backyard for gardening, with a landlord who doesn't spray pesticides and many weekends to tend to the garden. I am so excited for my kids and myself to be able to harvest from their own backyard garden.

I am also looking forward to sharing information with other urban Madison gardeners through this blog. I haven't found a lot by way of blogs from urban gardeners in the Midwest. I am hoping to be able to help others along in their own gardens in much the same way my neighbor helped me.

Let's hope the tomatoes taste as great as Turkey's!!!

Madison Compost

Follow this link to find a source where you can pick up some great compost in Verona.

1.5 cubic yards (the back of a pick up truck) for $10!!! + the price of the gas of course

Cheap Madison Compost

Also, be sure to check out Eliot Coleman's videos on home composting with hay bales on you tube.

Madison Planting Calendar

Questions remaining - When can I plant my fall planting of spinach, kale, lettuce, broccoli, and chard? When to plant collards, cabbage, leeks and

ground cherry? - 6 weeks before last frost

Planting Calendar

To know when you plant your seeds, use this planting calendar. This calendar tells you to sew your onions indoors. I would strongly recommend you buy onion sets as they are regularly inexpensive and the space and time you take to seed onions just isn't worth it. I'm sure I'll be making changes and comments on this calendar as the season progresses and probably also after I take my urban gardening course at the local cooperative. I have adjusted this planting calendar to coincide with my availability to plant on Sundays.

February 17. I will start some Kale early indoors (I'd much prefer to direct sow this, but I will try some indoors for an experiment. I will also try a few lettuce, spinach, cabbage, kale, swiss chard and collard. broccoli indoors for experiment, though only a few because I much prefer direct planting. I will also sow a few early tomatoes just for fun in case we have a super hot summer early (not impossible with latest weather trends).

Kale - Red Russian from seed savers exchange
Swiss Chard - 5 color silverbeet from seed savers
Cabbage - Mammoth Red rock from seed savers
Collard - Georgia Southern from seed savers

Lettuce - Red Leprechaun

Broccoli - Calabrese

Broccoli - Romanesco

February 17. I will start my pepper seeds I have saved from my grocery peppers in the kitchen as it's the warmest place in the house. I will sow a few basil seeds, but I will sow most of these outdoors.

Pepper - from saved grocery seed

Basil - ?

Thai Basil - ?

February 24. Work on tomato stands, garden fence, planning out garden layout. 

March 3. As soon as soil can be worked, I will direct plant my snow peas (my favorite!), carrots, lettuce, and spinach, kale and swiss chard. start some tomato seeds indoors.

Pea - Amish Snap 

Tomato, Amish paste

Tomato, Wisconsin 55

Tomato, Beam's Yellow Pear

Tomato, Black Krim

Carrot - Dragon

Lettuce - Red Leprachaun (Cool weather lettuce)

Lettuce - SSE Lettuce Mixture (Cool weather)

Lettuce - Red Romaine (Cool weather)

Swiss Chard - Five Color Silver Beet

Spinach - America

Kale - Red Russian

March 10. Transplant lettuce, broccoli and kale seedlings into the garden (such a pain, but I will only have a few). Plant more lettuce, spinach, carrots, kale, chard and snow peas outdoors (successive plantings every ~10 days) Direct plant some broccoli.

March 17. Start some Collards, broccoli, cabbage indoors

March 24. Sow another successive planting of spinach, snow peas, carrots, kale, chard and lettuce outdoors.

March 31. Sow more lettuce, spinach, carrots, kale, chard and snow peas.
plant all "indoors 6 weeks before last frost"
ground cherry
broccoli - calabrese
broccoli - romanesco

April 14. Sow more lettuce, spinach, carrots, kale, chard and snow peas. Sow directly in garden seeds for sunflowers and nasturtiums. Plant onion sets and a few potatoes (potatoes can be a huge pain with the pests that eat the leaves and digging them up requiring so much work, but I'll try a few.)

Sunflowers - ?

Nasturtiums - ?

Onion Sets - Cobra (savers)

April 21. Transplant tomatoes to garden (maybe). 

Corn - Blue Jade

Corn  - Cherokee long ear (popcorn)

Beans - ?

April 28. Sow a few pumpkin and cucumber seeds outdoors and start a few indoors in case the outdoor ones get frosted. 

Pumpkin - ?

Cucumber - Japanese climbing

Cucumber - pickling

May 12. Last frost.Transplant peppers, tomatoes and cucumbers outdoors (maybe). Sow beans outdoors. Sow Corn outdoors.

May 19. Sow warm-weather lettuce crop in garden. Sow more beans.

Warm weather lettuce - ?

June 9. Happy Birthday to me!!! Sow 2nd warm-weather lettuce crop.

June 30. Sow 3rd warm-weather lettuce crop (Summer Crisp type) indoors or in garden. Sow 3rd crop of beans.