Gardenaut

(Wo)man versus the Grape Leaf Skeletonizer

2009-07-07T15:48:12-06:00

I woke up at 6 a.m. on a recent morning ready to conquer. Equipped with garden gloves, a spray bottle of organic Bt, a fly swatter, and a vengeful heart, I was determined not to lose my grapevine this year. Just yesterday I had identified the dark blue moths dancing amid my garden to be Grape Leaf Skeletonizers and had formulated my plan of attack.

I started my mission with the fly swatter. With a Clint Eastwood stance (and squint) and an old Western whistle escaping my serious demeanor, the showdown began. Any smarmy little bugger I saw battin' around out there faced a certain doom. Grape leaf skeletonizers are fairly slow creatures and swatting them right out of the air become my new favorite game. I also noticed many of the moths seemed to be dying; laying on the leaves and barely flinching when I came near. Perhaps they die immediately after laying eggs? If so, it serves them right.

Then came grapevine care. Thankfully my vine is still young and therefore easily managed. I overturned the leaves one at a time. Yes, every one of them. One thing I noticed is that the newest growth never had any eggs. But dozens upon dozens of the mature leaves were covered in clusters of eggs. This is where the gloves come in - I methodically smushed every cluster I found. Grape leaf skeletonizer larvae can irritate the skin but their eggs generally do not. I wore the gloves to pick off any caterpillars I might have found but it came in handy with the smushing too.

Then every single leaf got a thorough coating of Bt. I diluted approximately one teaspoon of Bt concentrate into a 32 oz spray bottle and went to town on the front and back of each any every leaf. Bt, short for Bacillus thuringiensis, is a naturally occuring soil bacteria that attacks the stomachs of those leaf-eating menaces. Within a day or so of ingestion, caterpillars stop eating and die. Aah, sweet justice. The awesome thing about this product is that Bt doesn't affect other insects or beneficials. I like to think of it as a natural predator of caterpillars. The downside of Bt is that it only works on larvae, not the grown moths or their eggs. And I've never had it work once the larvae (caterpillars) were bigger than a grain of rice.

Reapplication of Bt should be done every 14 days or after it rains. My only concern is whether our high summer temps will inhibit effectiveness of the bacteria. I also have no idea if these moths attack other plants, although I've seen them on nearly every plant I have. I believe the moths feed on nectar rather than leaves, so perhaps my entire yard doesn't need a thorough coating of Bt, although the idea is rather tempting. I did spray my tomato plants to help in our efforts against the tomato hornworm. That, coupled with our friendly parasitic wasps, should do the trick nicely, although I'll keep an eye out (and a fly swatter ready) for any signs I can help.

Tara lives and learns with her family in Las Vegas, NV. You can read more of her at TheOrganicSister. - Tara

The weed-eater

2009-06-23T20:23:56-06:00

For many people, a weed is a weed and it’s unwanted and needs to die. Now that I have my own yard and gardens (and a much more expansive understanding of the ecosystem), I have a much more complicated relationship with weeds. Like many other avid gardeners, I feel a weed is just a plant out of place. I don’t even like the word “weed” - I think it’s kind of speciesist.

But without going too deep into the eco-philosophy, I am faced with “out-of-place plants” every growing season. For example, the ubiquitous dandelion. We pick our dandelions with a Weed Hound (if you don’t have one, and you have dandelions you want to get rid of, I highly recommend one). Our daughters have said it was unfair in the past when we’ve passed yards filled with dandelions. They love making crowns and necklaces from the bright, golden blooms - and better yet, making wishes before blowing on the seed heads. Still, dandelions aren't very comfortable to walk on with bare feet or roll around in, so we opt for grass instead of a yard full of dandelions. It really has to be one or the other.

In our gardens, there’s also a battle with tree propagation - the pods and helicopters drop by the pound and any open soil becomes a breeding ground. These are ripped from the ground as soon as they sprout. I know there’s a big environmental push to plant more trees and I completely understand how important trees are and I love trees. I just really have no space to spare for any more trees in my small, urban patch of Earth.

But one of the most difficult “weeds” I have to deal with is clover, which grows rampant in our yard, choking out our favorite perennials. I used to yank it all. Then, one glorious summer day, my oldest daughter, who was four then, came up to me chewing, with a fistful of clover in her hand. Her face was literally glowing with enjoyment. “Mmmmmm,” she moaned, “sweet, juicy clover.”

My daughter has been a clover-hunter ever since. There’s a certain variety with a purple-hued leaf that’s her favorite.

Our weeds have become her salad bar. Over time, I’ve grown to appreciate the look of clover. Maybe my daughter’s bliss combined with the legend of the four-leaf clover and the childhood dream of finding one has converged to create a new affinity for the plant. It is quite lovely. Really, is this a weed?

The simple, rounded foliage creates a nice balance to the rocks. They're really not drastically different from the creeping thyme I've been planting as a ground cover. A similar aesthetic.

Anyway, my daughter's almost nine now and she’s still a clover aficionado. She has also taught her younger sister to forage for clover and the sweet taste of success. And, while I used to think it a bit odd, I’ve increasingly seen clover on entrees at gourmet restaurants. In fact, my husband just took me out for dinner the other night for my birthday and I found it on top of my marvelous goat cheese ravioli with pine nuts and fava beans. Mmmmmm. It was sweet, juicy clover, with a delicate freshness that counterbalanced the other flavors magically.

A gentle reminder: Kids will put almost anything in their mouths. Start teaching them young, very young, that they should ask you before sampling any plant, "weed" or otherwise.

So, is clover a weed? Not to our family.

But I’m not sure about this:

Seriously, anyone know what this is?

Find more from Janelle at Healthy Child Healthy World, WebMD, MomsRising and on Twitter. - Janelle

Z sells at the farmer’s market

2009-06-18T20:15:13-06:00

Back in the days before we had a kid and a bunch of blogs and had time on our hands, we spent a couple of years with a home garden big enough to sell produce at our local farmer's market. We specialized in hot peppers - habaneros, jalapenos, hot banana, cayenne, chiltepin, the list goes on - and cherry tomatoes, specifically Sweet 100s, which are like the candy of home fruit and vegetable gardening, and Yellow Peard, which have a lot of sweetness but also a delicious citrus edge. We also sold okra, but there wasn't much of a market for naturally-grown okra at that time.

At full tilt we were showing up with 30-40 pounds of cherry tomatoes in a 10-gallon storage container and selling them by the pint for $3 a pop. The farmer's market was struggling and we never sold more than 20 pounds or so, but between that and the other produce we would sometimes walk away with $100 or $150 for four hours of our time that were very rewarding. When you factor in all of the gardening time and expenses, of course, it never made financial sense.

Then came a child, and the immediate reduction and slow ramping back up of our gardening ambitions. At four, Z is actually a big help and a lot of fun to have in the garden, and takes pleasure in every part of gardening, except weeding (did you know some goatweed has thorns?). A few weeks ago, we visited the farmer's market to buy vegetables after a bit of an absence, and were surprised to see how much it had grown. The market was thriving, with twenty or thirty sellers and everything from fruit and vegetables to locally-roasted coffee, soaps, and handicrafts. The parking lot the market is held in was crowded with shoppers, too. As we recalled the pleasure we got from selling at the market during its slower days, and the fact that we had suddenly moved back into having more cherry tomatoes than we could eat or even had time to process and save, we realized that coming back to the farmer's market once or twice would be a lot of fun to do with Z.

So last weekend we got up early, made some green smoothies for breakfast, and packed ten pints of cherry tomatoes and four or five pints of green beans, grabbing her play table and chair on the way out the door. And for a $10 day selling fee, we helped Z set up shop.

She had a lot of fun and did a great job. It took almost two hours to sell all the stuff but between the conversation, the people-watching and the occasional forays to explore the rest of the market, she declined all offers to leave early, even as the sun broke out over the edge of the building we were next to and things started getting hot. We helped her count money and she made change. She drew pictures with markers to give each paying customer. She forced samples on people who had stopped idly to chat, and once they tasted, they bought. When you're selling garden-fresh cherry tomatoes, sampling is key, because they are 100x better than store-bought!

Z was determined to stay until we sold everything, which we almost did, except for a pint of green beans and half a pint of cherry toms left over from sampling, for a profit of $35 less our $10 fee.

As we were getting ready to leave Z discovered that the woman a couple stalls down from us was selling handmade dolls. They were very nice, but I initially rejected Z's pleas to let her spend her portion of our earnings on the doll. It was filled with organic millet, really nicely made, and priced at $10. My thought was that this would work against our goal of teaching her the value of the money she had earned. Plus, I am a cheapskate.

In the end, though, I realized that what she had really learned that day was the value of her work - that she could exchange her labor and something she had produced for something that was valuable to her. That concept in itself is a big deal for a kid to realize. She gets the concept of money, but allowing her to spend her portion of the money (we agreed to split it with her 50/50 - and we got a good bargain, as she was the key to all our sales) was far more instructive in cementing in her mind just what she had accomplished.

Plus, the woman refused to take the stated $10 price of the doll, and gave her $4.25 back (all the change she had). In turn we gave her the leftover half pint of cherry tomatoes and a pint of green beans. My spendthrift heart soared.

And Z was proud to have worked to earn the money for a new, beloved baby.

By the way, that guy at the table next to Z's in the top picture? A honey man. And we're getting bees! - Jeremiah

Preserving the harvest: Drying cherry tomatoes

2009-06-15T12:12:11-06:00

We've been getting a lot of tomatoes in the last couple of weeks, but the real explosion has been in the cherry varieties - a couple dozen plants have offered up maybe 30-40 pounds of tomatoes so far.

It takes several pints of cherry tomatoes to make a quart of dried ones, but they taste delicious.

We use a Nesco Gardenmaster food dehydrator, currently on sale for almost 30% off (about $100 instead of $150) on Amazon. We've used it on and off for years and haven't had any trouble with it. The dehydrator features rigid tray sections topped with flexible polypropylene discs (mesh or solid, depending on what you're drying) that are easy to wash and BPA-free.

The drying process took around 24 hours at 135 degrees, but that was only background noise and occasional tasty checks of the tomatoes' progress. The real time-consuming tasks were washing and splitting the tomatoes and flipping them all on their trays halfway through; despite several clever ideas, there proved to be no quicker way to do this than to gently pick them up one by one and flip them over.

The dried tomatoes are not perfectly "preserved" in that they keep best and longest in the freezer, not on the pantry shelf. You can also preserve these dried tomatoes in olive oil, although it's recommended that you eat any stored that way within a few weeks, sort of a tomato equivalent to refrigerator pickles. I plan to do this with a small subset of these dried cherry tomatoes because I'm sure they will be delicious tossed in a pasta salad or topping a garden salad with spinach and goat cheese.

Last night we processed about 10 pounds of gorgeous whole, "full-sized" tomatoes - deep yellow ones (I'm blanking on the variety name) and lots and lots of Romas. Getting the skins off was easier than I anticipated; a pot of boiling water, a couple-minute dunk, and then dropping them in an ice-water bath to cool, and my four-year-old daughter Z and I peeled the skins off easily. I chopped off the stem end and in some cases pulled out a tougher central pillar while we both peeled them; then all it took for the sauce was simmering and seasoning. It wasn't enough to can, and we're a little wary of our skills at canning low-acid foods anyway. And of course there's the whole BPA thing. We'll freeze the gallon or so of tomato sauce to save it until winter.

Are you harvesting a bumper crop of anything, or planning on one? If so, what are you doing with it? We'll share a few other ways we're making use of our tomatoes in upcoming posts! - Jeremiah

First harvests

2009-06-11T19:53:36-06:00

Our raised bed is booming at both ends, and we're working on getting the middle filled in.

At one end, we've got a spicy salad mix that includes mustard greens, frisee, and a few other things that we're not exactly sure what they are (if you recognize any of it, definitely let me know!).

As you can see, just a few hot and sunny days in Seattle, combined with the fact that we weren't quite sure when/how to harvest these greens, means they got a little bit TOO big, and the frisee totally bolted. However, this weekend we finally got around to plucking the biggest of the greens. Our first harvest of the year! Sadly, the bolted frisee was pretty much a loss, though I did enjoy its pretty yellow flowers. On the other hand, those big fat mustard green leaves cooked up beautifully in a simple fritatta that included bok choy purchased from one of our nearby farmers markets, a little onion and garlic, and some grape tomatoes. Topped with salsa verde and sour cream, it made a scrumptious dinner, much of which even our 8-month-old could eat.

Also down at that end of the bed, the peas are already fattening up, and some of them were ready to harvest this morning. We haven't eaten what we picked yet, but I did taste one while still out in the garden, and it was sweet and juicy. The flavor of summer. Here, have a look:

I think, as a newbie gardener, peas are my favorite. So easy to make them grow and they aren't fussy if you plant them a smidgen too early in the season. Plus, it gives you an excuse to build some kind of lattice/climbing contraption. We made do with some pieces of wood and string we had around the house, and I think it actually looks pretty good! Also, they have really taught me that the notion that plants are immobile is a fallacy. These little guys can move, reaching their tendrils across wide spaces and winding themselves around anything that they can find. Finally, what's not to love about their sweet and dainty flowers?

Down at the other end of our veggie bed, the squash plants pretty much doubled in size during last week's heat wave. We have two varieties: black beauty zucchini and butternut squash. I'm thinking it's a good thing we heeded the spacing directions on the seed packet, since these bad boys are growing as if they are on steroids.

So that's what's going on in the veggie bed. All this lush greenery got us excited to plant a few more things this weekend. We now have leeks, onions, chard, beets, cucumbers, pole beans, and a couple of kinds of peppers in the ground. We just went for it and planted from seeds, so I'm pretty nervous that they won't actually grow, but we figured it was worth a try.

I'll end with a final shot. This is my husband's project more than it is my own. He is trying the whole upside-down-tomato thing and has started two plants growing down out of the bottom of some buckets. They're doing great so far, about 2 weeks after transplanting into their new gravity-defying position.

- Virginia

To the farmer’s market, and beyond: A review of Chariot’s Cougar 2 kid bike trailer

2009-06-10T15:38:59-06:00

My family recently got the chance to review a Chariot trailer for our bikes - the kind of trailer that you can stick your kid in and ride down to the farmer's market, park, or just take a fun jaunt around town. Having never used a bike trailer before, my husband and I were really interested in the details; how does it rig up to the bike? Is it compact enough to fit in the car? How comfortable is it for our young son?

We reviewed a two-kid model, despite only having one child. My reasoning for this is that we wanted a lot of cargo space - for veggies from the market, groceries from the store, or just for blankets in the colder months. Moreover, we have lots of friends with similar aged children. So it seemed like a good way to have a double stroller when we are watching our friend's kid for the afternoon.

Below, details of our findings for this very high-quality and easy-to-use bike trailer, which is not without its flaws.

Setup and use

The bike hitch is easy to use and sturdy. Even someone who isn't interested in bike mechanics (like me) would find it simple. The rain fly, bug fly, sun cover, and safety flag also all attach and unattach (or store neatly with velcro tabs) cleanly and conveniently.

The Chariot provides a comfortable ride for our child. He falls asleep in it all the time (his typical seal of approval for anything) and at other times can be hear squealing with excitement at passing dogs, other bikes, etc. The tires seem sturdy and ride really smoothly, and the adjustable suspension is handy but also simple.

The large rear pocket is big enough for all sort of things. You can wedge a full frame pack for your child in there, plus stick a diaper bag deep in the pocket. Very useful! And despite overfilling this pocket, the trailer still felt well balanced. Unfortunately, the mechanism that holds the storage bag in place (two quick release levers) slowly tightens on one side, and loosens on the other, with use. After only a few times, the tightened side lever is extremely hard to release. This seems to be because of the direction of the screw threading on the connectors. It is very annoying. I wonder if they could use another connector (cotter pins?) in a future model that would alleviate this problem.

For a young small child (about 12-18 months), the helmet slot is not enough to keep the trailer's (very necessary) safety straps from pushing the kid's helmet forward onto their face. My son was really upset by his helmet falling onto his face, and it was unsafe because his helmet was sliding out of position. Then we figured out that if you take a nice thick blanket and pad the entire backrest of the seat (basically, extending the distance from the back of the child's head to the problem area about 2 inches) then the kid is still strapped in there securely, and they can wear their helmet in the right position and comfortably. In an interesting coincidence, I asked a friend if she had this same problem with her 1 child model Chariot and 18 month old daughter, and she said, "Yes, but lately we've been padding her forward a little with a blanket and it completely fixed it." So this is a common problem for other young toddlers, I'm guessing.

Storage and transport

Folding the trailer down for storage is quick and simple. Once folded, the trailer fits pretty well in small spaces. I'd expect that any non-compact car could accommodate it. For us, it fits in our larger car's storage area, but is a really awkward squeeze into our smaller car.

However, when you try to fold the Chariot down flat to store it, the folding releases get caught on the fabric of the body. It only takes a second to fix this, but it makes the folding process more challenging and if you were rushed, you might accidentally rip your fabric.

Jogging and strolling kits

You can remove and swap out the bike hitch for components that turn the trailer into a standard stroller or jogging stroller; the former features two castered wheels in front, the latter a single center tire. Each is sold separately for $60-$75.

We tested the jogging stroller kit; we loved how you can add the wheel and handlebar without the use of tools once you get to a strolling site. While this is a little challenging because the parts fit very precisely, it gets quicker with a few tries and is very well-engineered. A big bonus is that there are pre-fitted storage slots on the frame, making the whole system perfect for a bike-stroll-bike outing.

We did not test the unit for actual jogging, and it lacks some of the features one might expect in a fully-featured jogging stroller; for example, it has a foot-activated parking brake, but no hand brake. For $75, however, the conversion is far less expensive than most serious jogging strollers, which run anywhere from $150 on up. We love the convenience of being able to swap this out to combine biking and strolling (or jogging, if one was so inclined).

Summary

After testing out the Chariot Cougar 2 kid bike trailer, I'm glad I chose the two-child model. The single-child models are narrow and efficient pods to move kids, but they allow virtually no room for gear or other random items.The two-kid model is a posh paradise of space and comfort for a single child, with lots of leg room, space for a diaper bag, some lettuce, multiple toys, and a blanket. Lastly, believe it or not, in several years when my son is old enough to ride his own bike, my husband plans to use this trailer for deer hunting on his bike. While that might seem absurd to some, it is relatively common in this part of western Montana. A tarp could easily convert this trailer into a deer hauler, and it absolutely feels sturdy enough to use for this unconventional cargo.

We're also very interested in testing the company's skiing conversion kit (!), which will allow us to pull the trailer behind us while cross-country skiing.

After a month of taking it for test walks (in the stroller mode) and test rides (when rigged as a bike trailer) I can honestly say that our expectations, even for what we knew was a high-performance model of bike trailer, were exceeded. The Chariot Cougar 2 trailer is an excellent piece of family sporting gear, and one that we'd suggest to just about anyone who uses a bike.

The Chariot Cougar sells for $400 and $450 for the single and double models. You can find a dealer of Chariot bike trailers on the Chariot website, or purchase them from online sporting shops. - Leigh

A great burst of leaves

2009-06-03T12:00:44-06:00

And so with the sunshine and the great bursts of leaves growing on the trees, just as things grow in fast movies, I had that familiar conviction that life was beginning over again with the summer.

- The Great Gatsby

When F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote these words he did not have gardening in mind, but I return to this sentence each and every spring. Officially, summer is not yet here, but indeed great bursts of leaves are everywhere.

Hello! My name is Amy and I live with my Green Husband and two children, Pip and Sprout, in Plant Hardiness Zone 7, or more specifically Virginia. We live on a quarter acre of land on a busy street corner in a relatively congested "suburb" just outside of Washington, D.C. Since moving to our home almost eight years ago, we have had a garden each summer. Green Husband is a talented landscaper and skilled carpenter; I have, until recently, been chief laundry-doer and child-occupier, while he battled, er, harmonized, with Mother Nature. We both hold full-time jobs "outside" of the garden.

This summer will be a bit different for us: Our children are now older and can either join us in our gardening or find a myriad of outdoor activities that keep them happy and occupied. (To those of you who have very young children and a feeling a bit neglectful of your own garden plot, go easy on yourself – if a container of herbs is all you can manage this year, so be it. It gets easier.) This summer will also be quite different for me because due to a slight career change the months of June, July, and August will be mine to enjoy until I return to work in the fall. This will leave me plenty of time to spend with my children and…gulp…to garden. Oh, the pressure.

I hope you will check in with me throughout the summer as I share how my gardening dreams become gardening reality, for better or for worse. Green Husband has provided me with a fabulous garden foundation, but as he continues his full-time job this summer, it will fall to me this year to keep up with the garden so we can hopefully avoid some of our previous pitfalls, from drought to falling-asleep-on-the-couch-who-the-heck-has-the-energy-to-weed-that-blasted-garden. As the days grow longer and lighter, I can’t help but have that familiar conviction that life is beginning over again with the garden.

You can find more of Amy's writing on her blog, The Gift of Green. - Amy B

Harvesting broccoli leaves

2009-06-02T14:24:05-06:00

Everyone we know succeeds with broccoli in Las Vegas. Except us. With over a dozen plants, we had one small head of broccoli filled with aphids. Not exactly appetizing. But all was not lost: Over the weekend, we pulled the plants and harvested the leaves.

We took any leaves without excess leaf damage. A little damage doesn't bother me (I even think it might mean it's a yummy leaf!) but too much creeps me out. I washed them well, cut off the stems which are not tasty and shredded the rest for blanching.

I steamed them for 3 minutes until they were limp but still bright green, cooled them in ice water to stop the cooking process, squeezed as much water out as possible and bagged up several servings for the freezer. Broccoli leaves are a bitter green, best eaten steamed or in stir-fry. We like to add ours to pasta with tomatoes and spices or with ravioli. They are not for everyone, but when you grew this many without a single head of broccoli to enjoy, you take what you can get.

We plan to start our broccoli again this fall and overwinter it, in hopes of more broccoli and less insects. Do you think the caterpillars will still love me?

You can read more of Tara's blogging on gardening, food, and family life on her blog, The Organic Sister. - Tara

Late spring in the garden

2009-06-01T21:06:28-06:00

June isn't actually summer here in Montana - it is late spring. With that in mind, I try not to get too frustrated when things are lagging well into June. Instead, I try to celebrate successes. Here are some recent accomplishments:

I harvested, washed, and cut up the rhubarb.

I bagged up enough cut rhubarb to last for all of 2009-2010 in freezer storage.

I bought 15 baby chickens- some I will keep in my flock, some are for a friend, and some I will sell to other chicken keepers in town.

I made a delicious pizza using the "thinnings" from my rapidly maturing spinach row.

I enjoyed our lilacs.

I found the first strawberry flower of the year. - Leigh

Wish in one hand, plant a seed with the other

2009-05-29T14:03:11-06:00

I wish I had a stunning, perfectly imperfect garden. A lush, colorful sanctuary that provided aesthetic beauty as well as delicious edibles. Water, texture, food, a few weeds, it's all good in my mental image. Alas, I'm a long way off from my wish. But, I've been planting many seeds that are building toward this dream.

Seven years ago we bought our first house. The yard was meager (a small urban patch of desperation) and was overrun with weeds and dog poop. My first attempt to grow anything was met with a roll of the eyes from my husband. We had a nearly condemned house to rehabilitate, so the yard was the least of our concerns. Still, I planted two ground phlox and a patch of echinacea and chives, generously donated from my mom's garden. I also planted a tiny lilac bush, in a nostalgic attempt to relive the intoxicating scent I grew up smelling every spring - thanks to mammoth shrubs outside my childhood bedroom window.

Seven years later, my husband has been infected with my gardener's yen. He's my go-to guy for de-sodding, manual tilling, and digging big holes - chores I'm happy to hand off. He's also the master indoor gardener, both with houseplants and our seedlings (the yin-yang is perfect, his green thumb works indoors and mine works outdoors). And, he's the vine king. His wish is for a deck enshrouded in exotic foliage and flowers. Several years ago he built trellises and a pergola around our deck (in a vain attempt to block out our neighbors that are in spitting distance from our evening landing pad) and every year since he coaxes vines up the architecture - daily, delicately guiding new growth higher. Tying each arm outward and upward. Still, he scoffs at my experiments. I keep telling him that experimenting, by growing new species, expanding beds, and moving things around, is all a part of the process. It's a learning experience and the process is, well, fun.

So, here's a very, very abridged photo diary of what we're starting with this year. (I had many pictures on my old 35mm that I just didn't get developed onto a disc, so you are left with these images from my digital camera.) These are the beginnings of a wish that will be a long time in the making.

These are our seedlings, delicately developing in our basement. The round seed pots toward the left are old toilet paper tubes - a new experiment this year in reusing and saving money.

This is one section of what will be our veggie bed. We’ve planted our cool weather friends - beets, onions, carrots…The orange yarn marking our seed lines is a bit unconventional, but I’m always looking for supplies we have on hand instead of buying something new. The bright green spots are not emerging seedlings, but our neighbor’s tree attempting to reproduce. Those seed pods signal the worst of our weeding. Little trees trying to grow absolutely everywhere in our yard. (It's so much worse than when I took this picture. Now, it's a virtual carpet. It's ridiculous how much this tree dumps onto our gardens.)

Among other things, we also have a cherry tree we received as a gift when my second daughter was born (6 years ago). The cherries are extremely sour, but with enough sugar and ginger they make the most delectable dessert – Cherry Ginger Crunch. Our tree only gives us enough for one dessert each year (although the squirrels and birds have denied us that pleasure a couple of times). I moan when we walk past neighbor’s trees that only exist for ornamental purposes. Their beautiful booty lying squished and rotting on the sidewalks. They don’t know what they’re missing.

And, we have a pond garden. I love the look and sound of water, so we’ve made a somewhat vulgar pond and fountain set-up. Some years I put water lilies and other plants in. I haven’t decided yet if I will this year. Just two days ago we received an urgent phone call from our neighbor who spotted ducks happily swimming in our tiny oasis. Unfortunately, by the time we got home, they were gone. How I wish I would have seen them. The mental image warms my heart.

Anyway, I could go on with stories for quite some time, but I should save something for my forthcoming blogs. The real purpose here was just to introduce you to me and to my gardens and to my philosophy of gardening – you wish in one hand and plant a seed with the other. Gardening is about dreaming, but it’s also really about gardening.

Whether you have a few terra cotta pots or you have a few acres, all you have to do is plant something and see what happens. Maybe nothing germinates. So you sew some more seeds. Maybe you accidentally propagate a weed (my husband and I did this one year thinking it was a flower). So you yank it back out. Gardening is a never-ending experiment with seeds, soil, water, light, and love.

There is no end point. You don’t just have a garden (noun), you garden (verb). You’ll no doubt have a dream garden in your mind, but when it really gets into your blood – the process itself becomes the dream and you eagerly await the next day that you can plant and dig and transplant and harvest and get dirty and get disgruntled and just really get connected with life.

Find more from Janelle at Healthy Child Healthy World, MomsRising, and Twitter (@greenandhealthy). - Janelle

We apparently don’t do anything small

2009-05-27T13:13:29-06:00

Around this time last year, we had just moved into this house with a two-year-old and a six-day-old baby and had very little time or energy to get ourselves a garden in the ground. We haphazardly planted three tomato plants in the flower bed at the front of the house and we were shocked to see them grow to monstrous proportions. (Seriously, the biggest one was taller than my five-foot-tall frame by a good six inches.)

This year, we finally have settled in and made friends with the neighbors, who seem not to have minded the odd sight of the tomato monsters eating the front of our house too much. Due to a grove of very large and very lovely oak trees behind our house, we get very little direct sun and decided that the prime real estate for a garden was not, in fact, in our yard at all. So my husband moseyed on over to the neighbor's house and asked if she'd be willing to lend us some of her land for a decent sized garden plot. I'm not sure she knew what she was getting into when she said yes. But she did say yes, so a few months later, we had a rather large portion tilled up and set to planting!

Initially, we attempted to start some seeds indoors and planted tomatoes, peppers, spinach, broccoli, and a variety of herbs. Out of our initial seeds, the tomatoes and the peppers are the only ones who survived. Next year we're going to attempt a more elaborate seed starting system and rig up some grow lights. Disappointing, but it was a worthy effort.

This year, we purchased a veritable truckload of vegetables, herbs, fruits and melons for a buck a plant at a local garden center.

My husband and three-year-old daughter, Bean, dubbed themselves the head planters and got their tools together to get the plants into the ground. My husband's tool of choice: a small hand shovel. My daughter's: a paintbrush. To each, their own.

Our initial batch of plants include a variety of tomatoes, bell peppers, jalapenos, habaneros, wax peppers, watermelon, cantaloupe, peas, acorn squash, spaghetti squash, crookneck squash, strawberries, okra, (which we may have killed already), and cucumbers. We're hoping to get some green beans in the ground soon as well as some more unusual varieties of tomatoes and squash.

We're not sure what to expect this year. It's not the best soil in the world, and we're by no means master gardeners. (As for the soil, we do have two Earth Machine compost bins that we're hoping will yield some fantastic compost for use next year, but for now, it's just the dirt under the grass that we're dealing with.) But whatever the outcome, we're having a delightful time trying our hand at growing our own food.

Jen also blogs at the fabulous Rolling Through Looneyville. Welcome to Gardenaut, Jen!
- Jen S

Bicycle “handlebar garden”

2009-05-23T12:00:24-06:00

Absurd? Absurdly awesome. Make your own!

[Via BoingBoing] - Jeremiah

Embarking on a garden adventure

2009-05-22T13:22:50-06:00

As any parent can tell you, in many ways, having a baby allows you to look at the world all over again from the perspective of a child. Everything is fresh and new, and full of wonder. And so it is with the eyes of children that this year my husband and I are embarking on an urban backyard garden experiment. We don’t know much about what we’re doing, but we have a lot of loving support from more knowledgeable friends and family members, Seattle is a great gardening community with lots of resources, and we get to experience the fun of seeing the garden fresh through the eyes of our child (she’s 7 months old).

We purchased a townhome just over a year ago in a fairly urban part of Seattle, and one of the selling points was definitely the fact that it had a matchbox of a backyard we could call our very own. The first project was to get rid of most of the lawn, which was pretty much all that was back there when we bought it. (Down with monocultures!) My husband, along with my brother-in-law - who will feature prominently in my posts for Gardenaut as he provides us with a lot of practical gardening and construction knowledge - ripped up a bunch of the lawn, got some paving stones, and set to work building a patio in a portion of the space.

At the end of last summer, when I was getting pretty unwieldy from being largely pregnant, we decided that the edges of the yard needed some more shrubbery. I’d recently developed an interest in native plants of the area, so we went to a little nursery with mostly native plants grown on Vashon Island and purchased several little plants: two native rhododendrons, two evergreen huckleberries, several sword ferns, two wax myrtles, and two azaleas.

And the crown on the whole thing is the little Douglas maple that our brother-in-law gave us. We’ve named him Dougie. He’s almost like a pet. Especially since he was rather scraggly and sad-looking when we got him (purchased for $5 by said wonderful brother-in-law at a plant sale), so imagine our surprise when he budded and bloomed in full glory this spring, with so many leaves his branches are actually pulled down a bit by the weight.

Then, over the winter (you’ve got to love the mild Seattle winters that permit this kind of project to happen) we fashioned a raised bed in the sunniest portion of the yard. And it is in and around this bed that my gardening tales of Summer 2009 will take place. We’re newbies, and I’d imagine there might be quite a lot of error to our trial and error, but I’m looking forward to journeying through it on this blog. I’m certain I’ll be coming here seeking advice, tips, and help. I’m also certain I’ll be coming here when we have success, so I can tell you just how we managed it, and maybe even provide some food for thought on some topics that might be new to readers.

So far, we’ve planted just a few things in the bed - a spicy salad mix, peas, and some onions. And we’ve got a few starts coming up (fast!) indoors in a seed tray, including black beauty zucchini, butternut squash, leeks, onions, cucumbers, Italian roasting peppers, and jalapeno peppers. I’ll write more about our plans for the raised bed in my next post.

I’m also working on flowers everywhere - in a half-whiskey barrel near our back door, in the soil around the edges of the raised bed, in the soil around the native shrubs mentioned above, and in a few more hanging pots along the fence behind the raised beds. More about these endeavors too in posts to come!

So that’s us. A small family on the edge of Seattle, making the most of the matchbox of earth outside our back door, and embracing this urban gardening adventure with a child’s sense of wonder.

- Virginia

Gardening and orcharding in Las Vegas

2009-05-19T13:59:00-06:00

With this post we welcome Tara from TheOrganicSister, who we're thrilled to announce as one of a handful of new contributors who will be chronicling their season of gardening here on Gardenaut. Look for a new voice to appear on Gardenaut every couple of days for the next week or so, and welcome, Tara!

Hello! I'm so honored to be contributing what I can here. My gardening status is most unequivocally "Novice" since I've been at this for just over a year. But I'm crazy about anything to do with compost or seeds or things that are green and I eat up gardening information left and right.

We are currently living and learning in Las Vegas, NV on a small urban lot, only 1/10 of an acre, and are slowly working our way towards converting every last square foot to an edible garden as we work around the excessive shade of so many large trees and two-story homes. We have one large raised bed (78 square feet), eight fruit trees, and 650 square feet of additional garden space planted and growing thus far.

I worked for several years as a self-employed massage therapist (my first experiences with holistic living) but I made a leap into stay-at-home-mama to allow me more time and inspiration for my nine-year-old unschooling son, Zeb - an accomplished eater of homegrown tomatoes. My husband, Justin, is a carpenter and all kinds of handy who likes to hand-water the plants while he watches them grow. I'm sure they'll be gracing my posts with their presence on occasion while I drag them along through my adventures in urban homesteading.

When I'm not playing in the dirt, I also enjoy photography, learning to play the harmonica, pounding on a djembe, and blogging at TheOrganicSister.com.

I'll do my best to relate to you what I've learned along my short path, as well as what I'm still learning. I might even share a garden veggie recipe or two, whenever I happen to master one. Mostly I'll likely tell you what *not* to do, since I seem to becoming an expert on that subject alone.

I look forward to "meeting" you all and sharing in a common passion! Until next time...

- Tara

Things are taking off

2009-05-15T04:12:27-06:00

One of the many varieties of peppers we've planted this year. We usually buy six-packs of started plants and grow way more than we can eat or even give away; this year we found a little discipline, bought the same variety of plants we like (habanero, jalapeno, cayenne, banana, pequin, I'm sure I'm forgetting some) and only used 1-2 of each plant. We didn't have our act together to give them away, so we let them die. The horror! Now we have far more different varieties fitting into a much smaller space!

Snap peas

Lavender

Blueberries!

In the blueberry barrel.

We have some first-year strawberry plants that are doing very well in a raised bed, but our second-year plants are not up to snuff - lots of small berries that come out resting on the ground and get picked apart by sowbugs before they can even ripen. We'd heard that strawberr plants do best in their second year (and should be replaced after that). Not sure what's happening to ours - but it makes me want to replace them every year! - Jennifer

Impressions of the late afternoon on a cool spring day

2009-05-08T15:11:46-06:00

Every day is different in springtime. Here are a few images that sum up a cool spring afternoon in my part of Montana.

Spinach seedlings are starting to look promising.

It's an excellent year for the tulips that line the back shed.

My neighbor's yard is chemical free and attracts native pollinators. Unfortunately, it is because she seems to cultivate a very high concentration of dandelions. I guess I'll take the good with the bad. - Leigh

Seedlings popping up

2009-04-23T13:24:11-06:00

This time of year is so exciting! Our seedlings are coming up after a series of warm days. Here's a few fun ones.

Row of spinach

A few up-and-coming snow peas

Mixed lettuce sprouts

Garlic is getting gigantic!

What's happening in your garden? - Leigh

Speaking of organic pest control…

2009-04-21T15:15:21-06:00

As plants start to leaf out, you'll notice garden pests appear in your garden too. Spring growth is especially tender, and it's easy for pests like these cutworms to completely destroy a plant before it even gets started. It's tempting to spray for pests, but of course pesticides linger around and kill off all the predators too, locking you into a cycle of increasing pesticide use. I've found it more effective to harvest cutworms by hand, using a flashlight at night. It looks eccentric. But in the end, I have a good meal for my chickens to enjoy.

Trust me. You're gonna love it.

Don't miss Leigh's extensive tips on organic pest control. - Joshua

Organic pest control for the garden

2009-04-16T16:17:31-06:00

Insects, fungus, mites, aphids... there are many threats to your plants that you might have to deal with. Here is an overview of common options for organic control methods.

Prevention is key

Crop rotation prevents many, many problems.

Companion planting. Planting marigolds in with your squash, cucumbers and pumpkins can keep away certain pests. And in my experience, a row of dill seems to attract ladybugs.

Diversity is better than monoculture, even within the same type of plant. For instance, plant three varieties of potato instead of just one, so that if you get a blight or fungus, one or two of your varieties will probably be resistant.

Getting rid of big, visible bugs

Hand-picking sounds tedious, but for large insects on a few favorite plants, it works really well. I have a friend that pays his young sons 5 cents for each live squash bug they can harvest off the pumpkin plant. Sounds like a good investment to me, and a fun kind of family competition in the garden! Well-practiced hand picking can devastate the populations of caterpillars on broccoli or cabbage in just a few minutes. It works, and you'll feel awfully clever once you learn where the bugs like to hide on the plant.

Slugs, the bane of many a garden

It sounds bizarre, but if you leave (well cleaned) tunafish can, filled halfway with beer, in the garden overnight you'll often find it filled with dead slugs in the morning. Gross, but effective.
Crushed eggshells or hair (human, dog, or cat) can stop slugs in their tracks. Spread either in a band around plant bases.

Find and kill slugs when hand-picking other pests: A spray bottle with one part ammonia to two parts tap water will do the job. It's organic, but you still might be careful spraying around the leaves of tender plants.

Aphids, mites, and other little suckers

A mixture of dish soap and water, sprayed onto affected plants, will kill aphids. Make sure to water the plants really well an hour or two ahead of time, to minimize the chance that the plant will suck up the soapy water that could potentially damage roots. Pick a soap that is phosphorus-free if possible.

Miscellaneous pests

Spraying neem oil mixes onto your plants can kill a variety of pests. You can learn more here.

Hot pepper waxes are a mix of capsaicin (an extract of cayenne pepper) and a waxy substance (like paraffin). Proponents of hot pepper wax say it is effective against aphids, spider mites, whiteflies, cabbage loopers and beet armyworms. I've never used it, but I certainly would give it a try if my garden was inundated with these types of pests and I couldn't use another (free) method like soapy water or hand picking.

Fungi, blight, and other mysterious problems

One year, when I planted four varieties of tomato, I had two of those varieties succumb to a mysterious fruit-rotting problem, while the other two plants got off scot-free. Like I mentioned above, biodiversity can be the key here. Within reason, it is a good idea to hedge your bets with a couple varieties of a given type of plant - some will likely be resistant to whatever strikes your garden. Besides, it is fun to have different shapes, colors, or sizes of whatever you grow.

Water in the early morning. This cuts down on fungus, blights, slugs, and even sometimes caterpillars. All these things like damp nights - so if you have dry plants at night, you'll see fewer pests. Watering in the early morning also saves water, which is great.

Did I miss a favorite tip or trick you use in your own garden? Share it with readers in the comments! - Leigh

Advanced crop rotation: Plant families

2009-04-14T14:04:10-06:00

In my post last week about crop rotation, I covered the very basics: moving plants from year to year helps preserve soil fertility and prevent pest problems. But as you might know, some plants are closely related to each other, and that complicates matters a little bit.

To help illustrate the related plants, I've adapted this list below from a great list at a University of Illinois Extension website:

Nightshade family: tomato, pepper, eggplant, potato, tomatillo
Onion family: onions, garlic, leek, shallot, chives
Squash family: cucumbers, muskmelon, watermelon, squash, pumpkin, gourd
Mustard family: cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, kohlrabi, turnip, radish, Chinese cabbage, kale, collards, mustard greens, rutabaga
Legume family: garden pea, snow peas, snap peas, sweet peas, snap beans, lima beans, soybean
Grass family: sweet corn, popcorn, ornamental corn
Carrot family: carrots, parsnip, parsley, celery, dill
Goosefoot family: beet, Swiss chard, spinach
Sunflower family: lettuce, Jerusalem artichoke, endive, salsify, sunflowers
Mint family: mint, basil, lemon balm, catnip

Now, how do you use this information? Well, the plants that are in the same family should be treated like a single type, in the sake of rotation. For instance, you might have this row order;

Year 1
Potato (Nightshade)
Cucumber (Squash)
Pumpkin (Squash)
Carrots (Carrot)
String beans (Legume)

For year two, instead of moving all the plants one row down, you'd want to take into account your two squashes - so move everyone two rows instead.

Year 2
Carrots (Carrot)
String beans (Legume)
Potato (Nightshade)
Cucumber (Squash)
Pumpkin (Squash)

Many gardeners don't plant in rows, but instead in blocks or even just zones. That's fine, too. In that case, to help you remember where you've placed things in the previous year, a garden journal is helpful. Otherwise, you might be staring into a lovely field of fresh soil in April saying, "Now was it last year that I had zucchini here, or two years ago? Hmm...." - Leigh