Aside from being tired of staring at ‘Monet’s Pallette’, and apologizing yet again for a lapse in posts, I also wanted to take the opportunity to tell you about a fairly new project of mine. Don’t worry – it’s much more of a static resource site than this one was intended to be, so people won’t end up disappointed when new blog posts aren’t added.

Let me start by saying that it is VERY MUCH a work-in-progress, so please don’t judge ‘the book by its cover’.
As the name of this post implies, it is called ‘Compost Bin Plans‘, and also as the name implies it is all about DIY composting equipment (and then some). One of the things I’ve noticed since writing about composting online is that there are a LOT of people really interested in creating their own composting bins/beds and related ’stuff’ (harvesters, tumblers etc etc). What’s great is that there are also lots of good resources instructing you HOW to make a lot of great systems.

My aim is to basically provide a central resource for tracking down this information. Another major (now longer term) goal is to actually make available various DIY composter plans as well – I was all set to team up with a talented builder/designer this fall, but things ended up having to be put on the back-burner due to commitments on his end. As I have likely written here (and have certain written elsewhere), I myself am “all thumbs”, with very little in the way of building/designing skill – you might even go so far as to say that I ‘couldn’t build my way out of a paper bag’!

Ok, so I’m being a little hard on myself! After all, I DID manage to build my own decent backyard worm bed (see ‘Building a Compost Bin – Part I‘ for a picture of it) – and in fact, I think it is that accomplishment (I truly shocked myself) that has also helped to make me want to create this site. I want to encourage/inspire all those folks who think they “can’t building anything” and make them realize that they CAN!

Due to my passion for vermicomposting, I am of course going to be including plenty of ‘how tos’ for making vermicomposting systems and equipment (worm harvesters etc) as well. I also will be dedicating a full section to ‘Compost Tumbler Plans‘, and ‘Composting Toilet Plans‘ since both of these are very expensive pieces of equipment when purchased from a manufacturer (not that I’m saying that buying one is “bad” – just want people to realize that you can indeed make all of these things). You’ll notice that these other pages have not been developed yet – but I’m definitely hoping to do so very soon. Again, the entire site is going to be growing and changing a LOT over the next few months.

Compost tumblers in particular seem to have become hugely popular in recent years, and with that popularity seems to have come an army of ‘Do-It-Yourselfers’ who don’t feel like shelling out hundreds of dollars for one of these systems. Just on YouTube alone there are lots of cool ideas and ‘how tos’ for making one of these systems at home.

By the way – if you have cool/helpful plans that you want to share, or you know of some quality DIY composter (etc) plans, please don’t hesitate to let me know so I can add them to the site. Also, if there is some particular system or piece of equipment that you would really like to build yourself but can’t find instructions to do so, please email me as well, and I’ll see if I can track something down.

Just so you know, aside from developing the Compost Bin Plans site further over the next few months, I also have plans to get things moving along here as well. My search for interesting DIY plans has certainly reminded me of just how many cool websites and resources there are out there focused on the topic of composting – so I’ll likely be spending more time writing about some of these here.

Technorati Tags: compost, bin, plans, blueprints, composter, diy, compost barrel, compost maker, compost tumbler, compost spinner, compost turner, compost crock, composting bins, compost bed, worm bin, worm bed, worm composting system, worm harvester, building a compost bin, build a compost bin

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Well, I guess I wrote too soon – the best was still to come! As mentioned, the seed mix I used for the garden is called ‘Monet’s Pallete’ since it contains a nice selection of different varieties (and colors). While some nice flowers had emerged by the time I wrote the blog post, during the past week the sunflower patch really seems to have come to life! The plants themselves have continued to grow as well, so apart from the great aesthetic appeal, they are even becoming more of a fence than expected.

Anyway, here are some photos of the various flowers that have been emerging. My favorite variety has to be the second one down. I took that shot just before the sun went down, so the flower almost seems to be glowing – pretty wild!

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When I came across the giant bugs pictured above, I was really excited. Not only did I think I’d found beneficial assassin bugs in my garden – but they were MATING! Well, my excitement waned considerably after doing some Google searches (relating to the cucumber beetles pictured below), and I happened upon the image of something referred to as a ’squash bug’.

Did I mention I’m still a little wet behind the ears with this organic gardening stuff?

When I came across this hemipteran pair doing the deed, I also happened to notice a set of large insect eggs nearby. A quick search for “squash bug eggs” today basically eliminated any doubt in my mind re: the identity of these pests (assassin bug eggs look nothing like this). Oh well! Live and learn.

I am actually still very happy to have found the squash bugs and their eggs, since I’m trying to compile a decent photo collection of beneficial and pest insects. It has been the only squash bug sighting so far this year, so I’m not all that worried about them.

Cucumber beetles on the other hand, seem to be quite abundant in the garden this year. I’ve found them on all my cucurbits – although only my actual cucumber plants seem to be suffering at all (and relatively little, at that). As you can see in the images below, my zucchinis and pumpkins seem to be doing just fine.

There is actually some academic evidence to indicate that vermicompost can help plants to fend off insect pests – so that might help to explain why I’m not really seeing any serious issues (the zucchinis and pumpkins are both bordered by my main vermicomposting trench). There is little doubt that the overall boost in plant growth provided by worm poop would also help to keep the plants healthy in general.

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One of the things that has always bothered me about my property – ever since moving here four years ago – has been the lack of privacy. I live on a corner lot, and while there technically is a fence in the backyard, most of it is 4 feet high.

I’ve toyed with the idea of upgrading the current fence to something more substantial, but have continued to resist the temptation, largely due to the costs and potential hassles involved.

Rather than simply tolerating the extreme exposure again this summer, I decided to try something a little different – I set out to grow my own privacy fence!

My back fence-line (or lack thereof) in particular has bothered me the most since this is actually the only stretch of the 4 foot fence that directly borders one of my neighbor’s yards. This particular neighbor spends a fair amount of time in their yard, and sets up a swimming pool for the summer months, so I didn’t imagine that they’d mind having a little more privacy as well. Aside from that, they seem to have a somewhat different opinion on how a backyard should look (manicured, fertilized lawn), so I don’t imagine they would mind NOT having to look at my unruly (”all natural”) mess of vegetation for part of the year either.

The main task when planning a natural fence is of course deciding what type of plant(s) to grow. Some of the main considerations include: 1) maximum height, 2) growth speed, and 3) aesthetic appeal. While it was obviously very important to select a plant that would attain a height greater than that of the current fence, I also felt that it was fairly important for the plants to be reasonably attractive (no point creating yet another eyesore for my neighbor to look at!).

The first plant that came to mind was Jerusalem artichoke (Helianthus tuberosus). I can clearly remember how enormous these plants grew in my dad’s garden back when I was a kid. I also seemed to recall something about the roots being edible. Add to that the fact that Jerusalem Artichoke is also a perennial, and it’s no wonder I thought I had hit upon the ‘ultimate’ natural fence plant. What ended up changing my mind however, was the fact that this plant is apparently very invasive and tough to manage once it becomes established (something I learned from someone with more experience growing them). The last thing I wanted to do was create a future headache for myself (and potentially even my neighbor).

I thought about various types of shrubs (preferably ones with some sort of edible fruit/nut) as an option. I liked the idea of creating something permanent, but alas my impatience got the better of me and I decided I didn’t want to wait multiple growing seasons for my ‘fence’ to mature.

As such, I settled on sunflowers (Helianthus annuus) – more specifically, ‘pollen-free’ sunflowers – as my plant of choice for the natural fence-line. Rather than simply choosing a particular type – as tempted as I was to grow the monstrous ‘Kong’ variety – I opted for a seed mix known as ‘Monet’s Pallete’. I hoped this would provide me with enough height to make it worthwhile, and enough aesthetic appeal to catch peoples’ attention.

Overall, I have been a wee bit disappointed with the results thus far – but really happy I decided to try it out nevertheless. I suspect that the combination of planting the sunflower seedlings a little late, along with the cool, somewhat dreary weather we’ve been having this year, has resulted in the plants being a little shorter (and generally less impressive) than expected by now – here at the beginning of August. A number of the plants have grown above the 4 foot mark, but I certainly don’t have a nice 6 foot ‘hedge’ of beautiful sunflowers, the way I had envisioned.

Regardless, the combination of my tall sandbox corn patch and this stand of sunflowers makes for much more soothing atmosphere when I am puttering around at the back of the yard. I’m keeping in mind that ‘you gotta start SOMEWHERE‘, and feel really optimistic that next year’s ‘fence’ will be a lot more impressive!

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Last year I wrote about a new raised bed garden I created from a sandbox that wasn’t getting much use in our yard. Of course, I wasn’t about to settle for making a run-of the-mill raised bed – mine needed to be a little different! At the time, I was starting to experiment with vermicomposting trenches (which you can learn all about on my Red Worm Composting site – check out the “Hot Topics” page), so I thought it might be fun to try running one of these trenches through the middle of the garden.

The crop plants I settled on for the original sandbox garden were giant pumpkins and potatoes. I figured the pumpkins would really benefit from the the water- and nutrient-rich food waste that was being added to the trench (and subsequently processed by a herd of Red Wiggler Worms), and that the potatoes might do well in the loose, sandy soil of the bed.

Despite the fact that the pumpkins didn’t get planted until mid-July, they still ended up doing quite well, We didn’t get a truly ‘giant’ pumpkin, but I was nevertheless very impressed with the sizable specimen that was ready in time for Halloween.

The potatoes, on the other hand, were a bit of a disappointment. Looking back, I can’t help but chuckle though, since I now realize how little I knew about growing spuds. As such, I don’t feel so bad about the poor show in that department (and have come back with potato guns a’ blazin this year to see if I can grow a better crop).

Speaking of which, while I certainly didn’t intend to grow any potatoes in the sandbox garden this year (I have other beds set aside for them), as it turns out, some leftover tubers have been making their presence know by growing into very healthy looking plants. I decided to just ‘go with the flow’ and see how well they end up doing among the other plants growing there.

My main intended crop this year is actually sweet corn. I thought the corn would appreciate the sandy, fertile soil – I should mention that the garden basically served as an overwintering bed for a sizable population of composting worms, so there was plenty of vermicompost left behind when I cleaned up the garden (transferring many of the worms to my main vermi-trenches) this spring. I also predicted that, if all went well, the corn garden would make for a pretty impressive show as part of my surburban mini-farm.

Sweet corn, pole beans, and renegade potato plants growing in this year’s ’self-fertilizing’ garden

My dad (a retired professor of Anthropology) told me how native people used to grow climbing beans close to corn so as to provide the demanding corn plants with more nitrogen, while also providing the beans with natural supports (the corn stalks). I thought this sounded like a really cool idea, and ended up planting two rows of yellow pole beans between my four rows of corn.

The vermicomposting trench in the sandbox garden is pretty low-key this year. I don’t have access to the same (massive) supply of food waste as I did last year, and have switched to using mainly aged horse manure and grass clippings.

I’ve been pretty impressed with how well the plants have been growing thus far. It has been a really cool summer so the corn is definitely behind schedule, but we live in a very serious corn-growing region so I’m frequently reminded of the fact that my corn plants are actually quite similar in size to those growing in local fields – yet are not receiving any chemical fertilizers. They ARE receiving a little something extra however, but I’ll save that topic for another post.

I can’t wait to see how the pole beans do! I must admit that the plants were all in pretty rough shape by the time they finally made it into the ground, but they seem to have bounced back very nicely and are growing up the cornstalks as predicted.

Pole bean runner winds its way up a corn plant

I was a little worried about the big potato plants impacting (literally – haha) the growth of the corn, but everyone seems to be getting along famously!

Anyway – I will be sure to provide one or two more updates on the sandbox garden as the summer progresses!

Previous Sandbox Garden Posts (2008):
The Sandbox Self-Fertilizing Garden
Self-Fertilizing Garden Update

Technorati Tags: gardening, organic, compost, compost trench, composting, composting worms, worm composting, vermicomposting, vermicompost, worm castings, sweet corn, pole beans, potatoes, red worms

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I’ve decided to create a new category for the blog – ‘Fun Projects’ – where I’ll be adding all the posts written about various fun growing/composting projects that people might want to try at home. A fair number of these will likely relate to growing various types of interesting plants since this is something I like to do for fun, but I have little doubt that there will be plenty of composting projects as well.

Our first ‘project’ was inspired by the book I recently reviewed – The Vegetable Gardener’s Bible. In all honesty, I had never heard of a ’sweet potato slip’ before, and when I came across the little how-to tab in the book I decided it would be fun to try it out. Basically, a sweet potato slip is a sprout that is grown from a sweet potato tuber – typically, many slips will grow from a single sweet potato, as you can see in my picture above.

In some ways I really wish I had known about this earlier in the season, since it would have been fun to try growing sweet potatoes in the garden this year. But alas, here we are near the end of July and I just don’t think there are going to be enough warm days left to actually grow a crop of these tasty tubers (since they need to be harvested before first frost, and require at least a few months of growing time). Nevertheless, as I’ve discovered, the sweet potato plant is actually quite attractive so I think I will try to make a houseplant out of it and see what happens from there (perhaps I’ll still be able to use it for next year’s garden).

As I’ve discovered firsthand, growing sweet potato slips is very simple. I managed to grow a bunch (again, each little shoot is referred to as a slip) using one end of a very old (and semi-moldy) sweet potato that was hiding out at the bottom of a crisper drawer in my fridge. I suspect that had I used a recently purchased sweet potato, the growth of the shoots would have been much faster.

Getting your sweet potato ready to grow slips is about as simple a project as you can imagine – this is why I think this particular project could be a lot of fun for children. It actually reminds me a lot of the way my dad taught me to grow an avacado plant (using the pit) when I was a kid – perhaps another reason I was tempted to try it out.

Essentially, all you need to do is 1) cut off a chunk of sweet potato (an end section works best), 2) position it over a jar filled with water (using several toothpicks), leaving part of the potato immersed, and 3) place the jar in a warm, brightly lit room.
That’s it! Before you know it, you’ll find little white roots growing from the sweet potato down into the water, followed by little green sprouts springing up from the zone sitting above the water-line.

According to Ed Smith (author of the aforementioned ‘bible’), if you are planning to use the slips in the garden, you will want to wait until they are 4-6 inches long – at which time you gently twist them off and immerse them in water as well. Once the roots on each slip is an inch or two they are ready to be transplanted into a loose, rich soil bed in an area that receives a lot of sun.

So there you have it! If you are looking for a fun little plant-growing project for your kids (or your own inner child), and/or you live in a region that’s warm enough to still plant sweet potatoes (within the next month or so), I highly recommend testing out this simple technique.

Technorati Tags: sweet potato, sweet potato slips, ipomoea, tubers, potatoes, avacado, fun projects, children

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A little while ago I wrote about my decision to learn a lot more about organic gardening/farming practices – after basically ‘winging it’ in the garden for quite a few years. Of course, a big part of the educational process involves reading.

While there is certainly plenty of great gardening information online, it just doesn’t compare to having a good book or two to read and refer to when needed (books are also much more mobile that most computers – haha). The first place I decided to look for gardening books was Amazon – and as it turns out, I decided it was the ONLY place I needed to look, after racking up an $80 bill.

One of those books was ‘The Vegetable Gardener’s Bible’ by Edward Smith. It looked to be one of the more popular gardening titles, and certainly had a solid list of positive reviews as well. The fact that the author was a proponent of ‘organic methods’ sealed the deal for me. As it turns out, while I’ve been very impressed with all the books I bought, ‘The Vegetable Gardener’s Bible’ is a clear winner! It has all the features I was hoping for, and then some.

I am a very visual person and always love a good ‘picture book’. Unfortunately, it often seems as though the books with great photos in them are either very expensive, or simply short on valuable information. Smith’s book, in my opinion, is very reasonably priced, is loaded with many great (and helpful) photos, and contains a weath of excellent information.

I can definitely see why they referred to this book as a gardening ‘bible’. While you certainly can set out to read it cover to cover (I am in the process of doing so), it’s also the type of book that’s great for pulling off the shelf and spending a short time with – absorbing one or two chapters (or even pages), before heading out to the garden.

The information in the book is divided into three main sections, and presented within these sections in a very logical, straightforward manner. The first section, aptly named “Seed to Harvest”, covers everything you need to know about planning/building/growing a bountiful garden. Part II, called “The Healthy Garden”, discusses methods for maximizing plant health/vigor and fending off diseases and pests. The last section of the book, “Vegetables and Herbs, A-Z”, offers detailed profiles for most of the well-known veggies/herbs that people grow in their gardens.

I love the fact that Smith has created this separate section for the plant profiles, since it makes it so much easier to quickly get the information needed for a given vegetable or herb. No need to wade through the whole book, picking up bits and pieces of information. Each of these profiles features “sowing”, “growing”, and “harvesting & storing” subsections, along with the incredibly useful “sow and grow” quick reference summary. This tab provides you with all the information you need to get started (eg germination/growing temps, planting depth, pH, moisture requirements, bad/good companions, light requirements etc) – again, ensuring that you don’t need to wade through paragraphs of info to find what you are looking for.

Over the years I have purchased my fair share of books that have simply ended up collecting dust on my bookshelves, or packed away in a box somewhere. I have no doubt that ‘The Vegetable Gardener’s Bible’ will not suffer the same fate. Even if, for some strange reason, I decided to give up gardening altogether, I’m confident that this guide will retain its place in my main bookshelf or perhaps find its way to a coffee table collection, where it can be enjoyed by others for years to come.

If you are looking for a very comprehensive guide for growing your own vegetables and herbs, I highly recommend The Vegetable Gardener’s Bible. It definitely gets two green thumbs-up from me!

Technorati Tags: vegetable gardening, herb gardening, vegetables, herbs, gardening books, raised beds, organic, edward smith, companion planting, crop rotation, natural pest control, compost, composting

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I recently wrote about my serious aphid problem. Well, unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you look at it) that is not the only pest problem I have this year. Slugs have been a recurring pain in the neck each growing season, and this year is certainly no different.

One of the disadvantages of using a mulch like straw to keep moisture in and weeds down, is that you also end up creating more potential slug habitat.

In past years I have simply tolerated the crop grazing, primarily due to the fact that they didn’t really seem to have a major impact on my ‘important’ crop plants, such as the tomatoes and zucchinis. This year however, with all my garden expansions and a renewed desire to nurture the best garden possible, I definitely want to see if I can mitigate the slug problem.

I’ve heard that slugs love beer. Luckily, I don’t mind having the odd wobbly pop myself, so I decided to test out the ‘beer trap’ method of slug removal – making sure that all remaining slugicide did not go to waste.

My strawberry patch seems to be slug central this year, so I thought this was as good a place as any to do my testing. My ‘traps’ consisted of three shallow containers with some beer in them. Pretty straight-forward stuff.

So far so good. When I checked on the traps the morning after setting them up, each of them had at least a couple slugs in them, along with an assortment of other invertebrate party animals – ants, flies, beetles etc. Interestingly, I left the traps for an additional day, but didn’t seem to trap any more slugs. Hmmm…these beer traps could get expensive (and fun at the same time – haha).

All joking aside, I think I’ll be trying out some other methods. If anyone knows of any good techniques for getting rid of slugs (in an eco-friendly manner) please let me know. One possibility that I’ve considered is diatomaceous earth, but I’m a little worried about hurting ‘good guy’ critters like lady bugs etc.

Anyway, I’ll keep you posted!

Technorati Tags: slugs, slug traps, pests, garden pests, diatomaceous earth

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As optimistic and excited as I am about my increased focus on eco-friendly urban farming this year, I’ve come to accept the fact that it’s probably going to take a season or two before thing are rolling along nicely. Seeing my big Honeysuckle (Lonicera sp.) completely infested with aphids as of late has certainly reminded me of this in a big way.

The cool thing about learning as I go (and encountering these issues) however, is that it gives me lots to write about here!

In the last week or two I’ve been trying to decide how I should best deal with this aphid explosion. Various possibilities have come to mind, but I still hadn’t settled on anything (I was actually going to write about it here to see if I could get some ideas from others with more experience).

Then, in a VERY bizarre turn of events, I started finding Lady Bug larvae on my deck. I’ve read that these ferocious looking things can eat something like 50 aphids a day, so needless to say I’ve been really excited to find them and have been transporting all of them over to the Honeysuckle.

It is amazing to watch these larvae at work! Literally, as soon as they are within biting distance of the aphids they start attacking them. I’ve even witnessed one grabbing them off the plant while still on the little piece of cardboard I was using to ferry it over – and believe me, once they’ve got one in their mouth they are more than happy to stay where they are and finish their meal. haha

In all honesty, I haven’t found enough of these larvae to have a serious impact on the aphid population, but it will be interesting to see what happens. Hopefully I’ll be able to attract some more lady bugs into the garden in general.

Technorati Tags: aphids, lady bugs, pests, ipm, natural pest control, insects, organic, honeysuckle, gardening

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Wow – it has certainly been a while since I wrote a new post here! I just wanted to let everyone know I’m still alive and well, and that I’ve simply been spending all my time over at Red Worm Composting. I am planning to get things rolling again here, but I know talk is cheap (especially when I’m the one talking – haha) so let’s just start with a new post and see where that takes us!

Last year I wrote a post about how much of a lousy gardener I am. While I’ve certainly dabbled in ‘growing stuff’ for many years, I’ve never actually taken the time to really learn how to do it properly, the way I have with composting/vermicomposting – until NOW that is!

This year I decided once and for all that I was going to really put in a concerted effort to learn all about organic gardening, and put a lot more time and effort into my suburban farming efforts. It’s really silly when I think about it now, but for a while I’ve simply been dreaming about buying a small farm, where I can finally create my ultimate sustainable paradise. Of course, this meant that I ended up ignoring some prime real estate under my own nose!

I guess I was worried about ‘resale value’ and other nonsensical things, but as my brother-in-law reminds me over and over, it’s kitchens and bathrooms that sell houses NOT backyards. haha

When it comes down to it, I really have a LOT of potential growing space to work with. Last year I was amazed how much produce I was able to grow with very little effort (my vermicomposting trenches certainly helped). This year I will be getting even MORE help from my population of composting worms, in the form of more (and larger) trench/windrow systems, and variations of my ‘garbage gardening method‘.

As you can see in the picture above, I have purchased some books to help me learn more. I seem to have lucked out with the ones I selected – they are all really excellent. I’ll more than likely devote individual posts to each of them once I have spent a bit more time with them.

Of course, the web will play an important role in helping me to learn more as well. I actually just happened upon a nice little site today, put together by one of my worm customers. It is called ‘Raised Bed Organic Gardening‘. I love small, easy to read websites like this – especially when they have a personalized feel about them.

Anyway, I’ll certainly be writing a LOT more about my gardening (and learning) efforts. I just wanted to get a post up today to get the ball rolling!

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