Garden

How Does Your Garden Grow?

April 26, 2009

Cool pictures of the same stalk of asparagus taken on days one through four. (And yes, that stalk is also included in the bundle we’ll be eating tonight, pictured below!) Now that we finally got some rain, I think I could go out hourly and take similar pictures of the asparagus bed. In fact in the heart of the growing season, I often pick the asparagus two times in a single day! Tonight I am picking what is ready (about 10 spears) and making risotto with it.

Most seeds are planted: radish, kale, lettuce, cilantro, arugula, spinach, swiss chard, peas, sugar snaps, onion sets, seed potatoes, parsnips, beets. I need to buy carrot and corn seed and I won’t plant bean seeds for another couple weeks.

Raspberries are weeded and growing. Another garden item of note were the 5 little clumplettes of garlic that have been on one side of a planter box for about 3 years. (I can’t even remember their genesis.) Yet they come up every year, which is more than I can say for the garlic I plant in the fall… And, since I needed the room this year, I dug them up and found perfect little individual garlic plants. I didn’t have room to plant them all seperately, so I replanted one bunch in a better place, and saved the rest for eating with our risotto tonight. Hopefully the plantings will make up for the LAME hard necks that didn’t come up so well this year. (Softnecks didn’t disappoint.)

And, I am heading out soon to pick my first Rhubarb. The question is what to do with it: rhubarb cake, pie or crisp? (That question was quickly answered by Morgan, my daughter: crisp!) I am probably jumping the gun a bit, as the stalks are still pretty short, but it seems just fine.

Such a fun time of year. I never stop being amazed by all the green colors of spring. And with this rain, hopefully the morels will soon follow. Last year was horrible for morels in Minnesota, so I’m looking for a bumper crop.

Yikes! These Raspberries Need to be Weeded!

Ahhhh. Nirvana. But how long will it last?!

Green Garlic Dug, Separated and Replanted

Sick of Hearing About Compost Yet?

April 18, 2009

I know, we’re all sick to death of hearing about compost. Even I, a dedicated composter, am beyond tired of the subject. But let me share a secret with you. It couldn’t be easier. At least the way I do it. Yes, of course when I STARTED composting, I did it like I do everything: with a gusto. I researched ad nauseum. Bought the “starter,” “activator,” “WHATEVER you call it.” I had a thermometer and a special composting bin! Oh baby, I was gonna make some mean compost.

And I did, but what a Pain In The ASS!

Now, as in so much of my life, I have streamlined. My current system, shown above, is a two-bin system, big enough to hold real garden and household refuse. Let me repeat that: BIG ENOUGH to hold REAL garden & household refuse. I see ads for those stupid little boxes or balls that you roll around and laugh. What a joke. Please, do yourself a favor and save your money. (Unless, of course, you are a 74 year old widow and only generate about 2 bags of garbage a month and live in an apartment-then that size should be fine). For anyone who actually has a yard and cooks, those little 3 x 3 jobs are way too small.

compost_closeup After figuring that out, I upgraded to a ComposTumbler that promised finished compost in a dramatically short amount of time. So EXCITING! And it was HUGE! Plenty big for real life. (And also expensive! But who cared! Think of the money I would save on fertilizer! Or so I told my husband…) The ComposTumbler actually did work. The only problem was, it required work on my part. In order to get that compost quick, I was required to crank the damn thing every single damn day. That worked for about 2 months. Then, as always, I got lazy. (For crying out loud, it’s compost! Do I really need the stress of laying in bed at 11pm and suddenly sitting bolt upright and exclaiming, “I forgot to crank the compost!” I’ll save that level of excitement for forgetting to lock up the chickens.)

So the two bin system it became. Over time I have perfected my approach, which I helpfully lay out for you here.

1) Fill it up

2) Forget it

3) Empty in the Spring

compost_ready That is simplified of course, but actually quite accurate. Assuming you are just starting a two bin system, you fill up one side over the course of the season and that winter. Stop adding in the Spring and begin using the empty side until next spring. You do nothing to the first side after it is full. If it is exceptionally dry, I might water it now and then. I might crawl on top of the heap and occasionally jump up and down to flatten it out. I don’t turn it, I don’t add anything else. Honestly. I just let nature take its course.

In the spring, the first bin that had been overflowing it’s boundaries and spilling over the top is reduced to an impossibly small amount. I fill up my garden cart — usually two times — spread it over my garden beds, eventually emptying the first bin completely.

Because my system is not a “hot” one, I do not add weeds that have gone to seed because the bins do not reach an internal temperature high enough to kill the seeds. This is the one thing I am fairly fanatic about. Given the amount of weeds that I battle day in and day out, year in and year out, I think you can cut me some slack on that one. I just keep a big pail with weeds and when it’s full, I either throw them into the garbage, or lob them into the marsh (where they probably take root, bloom and blow seeds into my garden anyway. So really, what’s the point?)

Where was I?

Compost Spread onto Garden Beds

Also, because I never turn the pile or do anything to it, and because I never chop the compost additions into small pieces that rot quicker (because that, too, is a giant pain in the ass), As I fill the garden cart with the finished compost, I hand-pull any sticks, gourd skins and occasional egg shells that have not completely decayed. These items I toss on top of the other bin. When I am done emptying the side I am working on, I will place those partially decayed sticks and twigs and refuse on the bottom of the just emptied bin, allowing much-needed air circulation at the bottom of the pile.

Then, I spread the compost all over my garden. It is the only fertilizer I ever use. Over time I have watched as my heavy clay soil has become practically perfect.

Except for the weeds and bugs, of course.

Spring Garden Clean-Up: The Battle Begins

April 11, 2009

Since this is my first official garden entry, I would like to make one thing clear: I am no feel-good gardener. I am a realist. I admit having evolved to my present mind-set, but I have evolved out of the need to survive, just like any other species.

My gardening endeavors are a battle against the odds: Against nature. Against varmits. Against weeds. Against the dogs. Against my chickens. Against wild turkeys. Against insects. You get the point. But let me illustrate it quickly with one short story.

No day in the garden is complete without Buzz, eagerly waiting for a rock to be throw, that he may fetch it. — No day in the garden is complete without Buzz, eagerly waiting for a rock to be thrown, that he may fetch it.

When I first started my garden, back in the days of my naiveté, one of the first things I planted was asparagus – that vegetable of promise and patience. I did everything right. I read every book. I couldn’t wait. And when that first spear peeked out of the lovingly tended dirt, I was so excited! Then, within three days of the first spear’s emergence, there was a beetle crawling on it. Of course I had no idea what type of beetle it was at the time, but I quickly learned: it was a bona fide Asparagus Beetle! What you have no way of knowing is why that seemed impossible to me at the time. We live on 45 acres of land that had not been inhabited for over 20 years when we built our home here 15 years ago. We live at least 1/2 mile from any other home. We are surrounded by marsh, woods and farm land (no, none of it growing anything even close to asparagus). And yet, somehow, an asparagus beetle had found it’s way to my newborn patch of asparagus. This was foreshadowing, of my future gardening drama, at its finest.

And today, I continue the fight, with eyes wide open. Yesterday marked our first truly beautiful Minnesota day (which I define as one with winds less than 50mph), and I took the first step of the dreaded gardening season: cleaning the asparagus patch. The only difference that marks this year from any other, is that I somehow managed to do it before the emergence of the first spear, allowing me to walk around without crushing the priceless stalks of early spring. No, I am not stupid enough to believe that I am turning over a new leaf. I was just lucky.

And despite my yearning for that first meal of freshly grown asparagus, I know that within 2 weeks of daily meals, I will be giving it away by the rounded armload to anyone who happens to drive down our long and dusty driveway. That, my friend, is one of the harsh realities of gardening. There is no such thing as moderation.

Burn Baby Burn. (No room in compost for dead tops)