SWF Home Garden

Worm Tea

2013-06-03T04:13:00.000-07:00

In this post we are going to cover making a simple worm tea. This is a simple compost that can be used a few different ways. Plus you can't over use it.

Here are the items needed:

Small can. Coffee or something that size with a lid.
Unsulphered molasses
Worm castings
Air pump with hose and stone.
Water that has set out for a couple days to let the chlorine evaporate.

To make the worm tea add about 1-2 tablespoons of molasses to the coffee can. Follow that with about 64 oz of the water. (I use aquarium water cause it has already been dechlorinated.) Stir the mixture to dissolve the molasses. Add about 1/4 cup of worm castings to the water. Then throw in the airstone and plug in the pump. If you have it you can also add some fish emulsion, seaweed extract or lemon juice. Just a tablespoon or two will do.

I cut a notch in the lid for the airhose and put the lid on. This keeps all the bubbles inside the can. Let this go for 24 hours or a little longer. Strain though a tea strainer into a spray bottle or other container. Put the worm castings in your compost pile or in somewhere in the garden. Use right away and keep for about 3 days in the fridge.

This can be used a few different ways. In a dirt garden it can be used as a soil drench, in other words pour in the ground. You can use it as a foliar spray to feed the plant directly. Dilute it 1 part tea to 9 parts water and use it to get rid of and prevent spider mites, aphids and other pests.

In the center of the picture on the leaf those little dots are spider mites. They look like little red specs but if you watch them closely they move. You can also see tiny webs. I plan on using the tea to get rid of these.

Refrigerator pickle recipes

2013-05-30T11:58:00.000-07:00

Here are a couple of my refrigerator pickle recipes:

Lazy Jalapeno Pickles

Cucumbers
Jalapenos
Garlic
kosher salt
white vinegar
pickling spice
hot tap water
pint (16 oz) sized mason jars (Ball mason or similar)

1.    Cut cucumbers into chip.
2.    Slice up garlic about 1 large per jar.
3.    Fill with cucumber wedges make it packed.
4.    Put 1/8" slices of jalapeno into jar. I used 2 large per 3 jars.
6.    Add 1 tsp kosher salt to each jar
7.    Add 1 tsp pickling spice to each jar
8.    Fill each jar 1/2 way with white vinegar.
9.    Fill the rest of the jar to the collar with hot tap water.
10. Put lid on and put in fridge for a couple weeks at least.

Garlic Dill fridge pickles

Cucumbers
kosher salt
white vinegar
pickling spice
garlic
fresh dill
hot tap water
pint (16 oz) sized mason jars (Ball mason or simular)

1.    Cut cucumbers to 1/4 slices enough to fill the amount of mason jars you want.
2.    Add one and a half cloves of garlic sliced to each jar
3.    Fill with cucumber slices 1/2 way
4.    Add dill, I used alot
5.    Add cucumbers to collar of jar, if not enough use some carrots or cauliflower.
6.    Add 1 tsp kosher salt to each jar
7.    Add 1 pinch pickling spice to each jar
8.    Fill each jar 1/2 way with white vinegar.
9.    Fill the rest of the jar to the collar with hot tap water.
10. Put lid on and put in fridge for a couple weeks at least.

May 2013 Update

2013-05-26T07:34:00.001-07:00

This winter/spring has been a cold one. Some of the bitter cold nights killed off the cucumbers, tomatoes, strawberries, herbs and salad greens. But before that I had hundreds of cherry tomatoes. Made many salads from the salad greens. Had a couple strawberries and even got enough cucumbers to make 3 mason jars of refrigerator pickles. As of right now only the onions and garlic survived. Since the weird weather has started to change back to normal I will be starting to replant. I have some cherry tomatoes and hot peppers in the seed starter right now.

17 gallon wash tub as a planter bed

2013-01-13T16:40:00.000-08:00

These 17 gallon wash tubs make a nice planter bed. For around $18 at Lowes you can't beat it for price and size. First thing that must be done is some drain holes need to be put in the bottom.

Over these holes I place some weed blocking material. It will let water pass through and keep the dirt in. Actually I do this on all my pots.

The next step is obvious, fill with potting mix. Then plant. You don't want it sitting directly on the ground so some bricks are placed underneath. This will keep the critters from getting up into your grow bed.

01-06-2013 Update

2013-01-05T22:16:00.002-08:00

Things are growing good in the containers. The plants were fertilized with Miracle Grow a couple days ago.

Here is the microgreens in front and the mesclun mix in the rear. The three little planters has one of the microgreens growing in it.

I planted some garlic in a pot as well. Three of them along with three onions.

In the past never once has the garlic grown. All three came up. Will have to relocate the onions out of the pot so the garlic has room.

Seed starting my way

2013-01-03T19:51:00.000-08:00

This will demonstrate my process for starting seeds with a Burpee Self Watering Seed Starter and Grodan rockwool cubes.

These are some of the items needed. 1.5" Grodan A-Ok Starter Plugs, pH up and down and a pH meter. You can use a pH chemical test kit from the pet store instead of the electric one here.

The Burpee Self Watering Seed Starting system is the what we are using for a greenhouse. It comes with a seed tray and peat moss pellets. Those will not be used.

First thing we have to do is adjust he pH of the rockwool. Test your tap water to see what the pH is first. Use your pH up/down to adjust it. A word of caution use only a couple drops at a time to adjust the water. Test each time until the pH is at 5.5. Then soak the cubes for 30-60 minutes.

Next the cloth mat is soaked in water then placed on the stand in the tray. I use the same water used to soak the cubes in the tray.

Then the rest is easy. Set the cubes on the tray and put a seed in the hole. Place the dome on top of the tray and place it under light.

In 3-4 days you should have seedlings. At this point the seedlings were hitting the clear dome. Only 8 out of 12 have come up so far but I expect the others will show up in a couple days. For some reason some seeds take longer than others. I will let these sit on the tray until the secondary leaves start and roots are coming out of the rockwool. Then it is time for the ground.

12-29-2012 Update

2012-12-29T13:26:00.000-08:00

Did some more planting and now have 30 flower pots going. My home faces the south and my backyard is fully shaded. So this is what the front entrance of my home looks like.

In the top pot is a cherry tomato plant and 6 onions from a set. The bottom pot is a patio hybrid bought from a Home Depot. This one came in a biodegradable pot. You are supposed to be able to plant the pot and everything but I have better luck taking them out of the pot. The two terracotta pots have sweet onions also bought from Home Depot. There is also a few pots to fill.

This is the other side of the entryway. The 17 gallon tub has a bunch of sweet onions in it.

This is a close up of the main cluster of pots. On the top in the big blue pot is a green bell pepper. In the small lime green is an onion from the set. Next to it in the olive green pot is garlic and onions from the set. On the bottom row right hand side is picklebush cucumbers. Small blue is an onion, lime green has a cherry tomato. In the blue is another onion and behind it is dill. The lime green has orange mint. The small one below it has another onion then a sweet basil and parsley.

What I have done here will probably be considered sacrilege among the Weber grill enthusiast. I used two old Weber Smokey Joe grills as planters. In the top grill/planter is hot oregano, cilantro, and chives. Strawberries are in the other one.

Cold weather and potting seedlings

2012-12-24T18:19:00.000-08:00

One nice thing about a container garden is if it gets too cold you can move it indoors. The only bad part is moving it. I don't have much growing yet but moved in some of my pots inside when it got down to 39º.

The big pot in the back is a cherry tomato and several sweet onions planted from a set. Next to it in the light green is another cherry tomato. Up front in the dark green is picklebush cucumbers. Blue and silver is sweet onion.

Potting seedlings

I was not expecting every seed planted was going to survive. Now I have a couple leftover cherry tomato seedlings and a Roma tomato need to be moved to pots.

Planting the seedlings in the Grodan rockwool blocks is super easy. When roots start coming out the sides of the rockwool it is time to go into the dirt, hydroponic or aquaponic system. Put a thin layer of rocks in the bottom. Then fill up the pot with dirt then place the cube on the dirt.

Make sure the tomatoes are in deep so when you backfill with dirt only a little bit of the stem is visible. I place a thin layer of mulch on top as well.

Container garden

2012-12-16T15:01:00.000-08:00

With all the problems between code enforcement and the raised garden I have decided to go back to container gardening. I already have a good collection of pots so I went through them. The cheap thin plastic ones have dry rotted in the Florida sun. Those will be discarded. Some of the 'self watering' pots are still good and will be used. The fiberglass pots have all lost there color and the terracotta have mildew on them. So after washing them all they all received a coat of paint.

Different shades of green were used with some blue just for fun. Rustoleum paints were used. One pot with heavy was even painted with 'hammered' paint. Still have a strawberry pot to clean and paint but for the most part everything is done.

Going forward terracotta pots will be bought. Those will last for ever unless dropped. The plastic ones will always look cheap and don't last in the Florida sun. Fiberglass while it looks nice and sometimes fancy lasts longer than plastic but will fall victim to the sun as well.

Change of garden

2012-11-26T20:26:00.001-08:00

So since the City of Cape Coral shut me down I have taken my operation inside. Having tried hydroponics I feel it is time to start with aquaponics. So I will be gardening inside over at J6P-Aquaponics. My internet alter-ego is Joe 6 Pack and the site will be my old hydroponics site now repurposed to aquaponics. Aquaponics is similar to hydroponics as the plants are not grown in dirt. But unlike hydroponics we do not use chemicals for the plants nutrients. We use the fish waste as the nutrients. By filtering the fishes waste through the plants grow bed we clean the water for the fish. Other than adding water and feeding the fish we have no need for chemicals. Check it out.

Thanks

Code enforcement shut me down

2012-11-08T07:05:00.002-08:00

So I have not updated in several months but I have been gardening. That was until last month. It seems the City of Cape Coral - Code Enforcement division thinks the raised bed garden is an outdoor structure. They gave me 3 days notice to take it down or face being fined. That is not even enough time to plead my case to the city council. So torn apart it was. I have lived in the City of Cape Coral since 1982 and the city government has always treated the citizens terribly. Cape Coral is a beautiful city but I would not recommend anyone move here. So sorry but this blog is on hold til I find a way to garden that satisfies our ridiculous city codes.

Work got in the way.

2012-02-15T13:53:00.000-08:00

My apologies to those that follow this blog. I have not gotten to do anything with the garden since November. An unbelievably busy tourist season here in Florida has taken most of my time the past few months. A lot of growing time has been lost. The nice thing about Florida is you can grow year round. But since I have vacation time this week I can once again work on this. Hopefully in the next couple days I can fill this thing with topsoil and plants. In the meantime you can check on some of my indoor gardening. Some of the plants I will be putting in the planter will have come from this.

Red onion seedlings

2011-11-26T08:34:00.000-08:00

In about 4 days seedlings have come up. 25 of the 36 seeds I planted have sprouted. The ones that have not sprouted I am not worried about. They may come up in a few days or not at all. If they do not more will be planted.

Red onion seed starting

2011-11-22T15:09:00.000-08:00

So I picked up a 72 slot seed starting kit from Lowes, which is actually two 36 slot setups. It has a plastic tray which houses 36 growing slots. There is a plastic dome which goes on top to hold in moisture. Each one of the 36 slots has a peat pellet that expands when warm water is applied to it. The seeds being used are Ferry-Morse "Red Burgundy" onions. Plant the seeds about 1/2 inch deep and cover with the soil. Seeds should sprout in within 10-12 days. I am in zone 9-10 so I should plant these December - March.

This is planted dirt with the plastic cover on. They have been started inside and are sitting under a CFL grow light for 16 hours a day. When the seedlings start showing up I will remove the cover. That is after they reach about an inch in height.

Hopefully soon I can post an update to this with pictures of little seedlings. For something like onions where you want a large quantity of them seeds are a good choice. When it comes to an item that you want only 1-6 plants, get a started plant from your nursery. Seeds only good for the year they are made. After 2 years you only get about a 40-50% success rate. Use eBay with caution for seeds. Personally I have experienced mixed results, however sometimes it is the only place to get that "one" seed.

Still diggin

2011-11-18T15:31:00.000-08:00

I am still digging out the garden so there is no real pictures to show as far as progress goes. It is going a little slower than I would like it to but I want it done right. The pvc pipe connecting the four old garden beds is being dug up as well as the old drip systems. Each of the old beds had 16 square feet of growing space for a combined size of 64 square feet. This new raised bed is 5' x 24' and 120 square feet. That is a heck of a lot more space.

These are some of the vegetables grown in the old beds.

Four different types of carrots. Solar yellow, white, purple and regular orange. Roma tomatoes and a lone orange tomato. White and red onions, okra and sugar beets.

Composting

2011-11-15T21:41:00.000-08:00

Another new addition to the garden is a compost bin. For about $40 at a local hardware store I picked up a 115 gallon compost bin made by GardenPlus. It is made of 90% recycled materials. The bin snaps together and seems to be of good quality. Some of the reviews of the unit are negative but I found those accusations to be unfounded. Total time to put it together was about 10 minutes and I was taking my time.

My reasons for composting is basically being frugal. I turn yard waste and vegetable waste into fertilizer. All grass and plants taken out of the garden are going into the bin. There is a lot of pine cones, pine needles, leaves and other yard waste I can throw into the bin. Along with the yard waste can go banana peels, spoiled vegetables, paper and coffee grounds can go in.

Things that can go into the bin:

yard waste - grass clippings, leaves, pine cones/needles, tree limbs.
vegetable waste - banana peels, apple cores, onion skins, anything vegetable and fruit related.
paper - shredded documents, junk mail.
coffee grounds, tea, anything else that was once a plant.
Water from cleaning out your aquarium.

It is pretty simple to compost. Add 50% green and 50% brown, water and air. Nature will break this down into compost. You will need to turn the pile and make sure it is moist or it will rot and not compost. Easy enough with a pitchfork or a special tool you can buy at the hardware store.

The plan 2011 thus far

2011-11-14T23:17:00.000-08:00

So with the garden being transformed into a 24' x 5' growing space I have figured out the basic starting plans.

The red circles represent tomatoes. They are spaced 18" apart divided by 36". The tomatoes are 12" from the sides of the garden. One row of three will be Roma and will be used for canning. The other row of three will be either beefsteak or another large red sandwich tomato. The two black circles will be for black krim, lemon boy or Mr. stripey, just for fun. Yellow onions(orange circles) will be about 40-48. I use these a lot for grilling. Green represents garlic, about 36 bulbs. Blue is for carrots. This year they will be just regular orange carrots. No multicolor heirloom varieties. Not a significant difference in taste in my humble opinion. The brown is for red onions, about 26 of them.

This will leave me with space for egg plant, cucumber and then maybe potatoes. Greens such as herbs and lettuce are to be grown as well but will not be in this planter bed. Other options are hot peppers such as jalapenos and herbs.

Quick status update

2011-11-11T23:13:00.000-08:00

Progress is going ok. Right now obviously I have the raised bed frame completed. It has been back breaking work to remove the grass and overgrown old beds vegetation. The garden is 1/3rd of the way cleared and work will probably take another week. Then it will take about 10-12 loads of topsoil to fill the bed. I have declined the free fill dirt the city has to offer. It is free but full of unknowns, properly composted topsoil will outperform the fill.

Another thing is a composting setup. That will be featured another blog entry.

Here we go again.

2011-11-08T20:01:00.000-08:00

So I bought four - 2"x12"x12' and a 2"x12"x10' board. The 2"x12"x10' was cut in half. Some Olympic redwood deck and weatherproofing stain was applied to the wood. It was assembled with galvanized framing hardware. In the end it came out to approximately 5'wide by 24' long. This raised bed is actually surrounding my original four 4'x 4' plots and then some.

As you can see my old garden fell into disrepair and became overgrown. The egg plant is the lone half dead plant in the picture. If you try this yourself make a note that the 2"x12"x12' boards are over 50 pounds a piece. Next thing for tomorrow will be to dig up the grass and weeds. With a bed this size it will take appox. 120 cubic feet of topsoil to fill. That will be 10-12 trips for my beat up pick up truck. In the meantime I will figure out plumbing for the irrigation.

Lessons learned

2011-11-04T22:55:00.000-07:00

So after a while, work got in the way and discouragement with the small plots of land cause the garden to become neglected. This time we will try things a bit different by analyzing what went wrong.

4' x 4' plots of land for the garden. While it made it nice for crop rotation it also limited my space for growing. Over crowding was necessary to plant every thing I wanted.
Even thought I had 24" between 4'x4' plots to allow space for my lawn mower it was a pain. It was a good idea but bad in practice.
Only used 4" boards to make the beds raised 3" above ground. This allowed the grass and weeds to easily invade the garden.
Tried to grow too many things and too many heirloom vegetables.
Drip irrigation is not the best solution for the garden. I found that the vegetables that were around the spray heads grew better than the ones at the drip heads.

So the plan this time around.

Redo the garden so that is a 4' x 24' bed. This will solve 2 problems. One it will allow more growing space and two I will not have to mow between beds. However the garden may be slightly bigger as I will be cutting a 2 x 12 x 10' board in half. Being frugal I will probably make the garden a bit wider.
I will use 2" x 12" x 12' boards to form the garden bed. It will raise the garden one foot above the ground. Hopefully it will keep the weeds at bay a bit more and also make it easier to tend.
Focus on the vegetables I like to grill and pickle. Onion, carrots, egg plant, tomato, cucumber, peppers and some herbs.
Use the drip irrigation but mostly the spray heads. Due to city code and state regulations I will use the drip irrigation system. If it is not permanent the city/state cannot ticket me.

Even though I had success with my garden there is room for improvement. For one thing it will take a lot of dirt to fill the new raised bed. The city has fill I can load in my truck and use. I will also be enhancing it with manure and bagged garden dirt. Will also be using leaves and pine needles for composting.

Beds 2 progress.

2011-03-12T13:49:00.000-08:00

Here I have bed number two. Yellow beans, brussel sprouts, peas and turnips.

As you can see things are growing nicely. The peas are about done and half the plants have died.

Here is a close up of the yellow beans. There are many beans to be picked.

Same with the peas.

It has been a while.

2011-03-09T16:27:00.000-08:00

So have been too busy with work post an update in a month or two. So here we go with bed #1, onions, potatoes, sugar beets and carrots.

As you can see things have grown. The onions are huge and their stalks are over a inch in diameter. Carrots are coming in nicely and a second batch have been planted in the center front. The sugar beets are hit and miss. Some are doing well others are really small. Also planted a few new seeds to fill in the empty slots. In the front right is a tomato plant. That one I intentionally left in the fridge too long and we will see what we will get. Behind it are two actual seed potatoes just planted a week ago.

Check out how big the onions are getting. The carrots in the middle are getting big as well.

Zuchinni producing flowers

2011-01-28T17:45:00.000-08:00

Not much of an update this time. The zuchinni is starting to produce flowers which in turn will fruit. As you can see it has quadrupled in size since I planted it. Other things of note is the Lemon cucumbers are a no go. The 2009 seeds apparently are no good. So they will be discarded. My seed potatoes are finally starting to chit.

Adjusting the spray heads

2011-01-21T09:28:00.000-08:00

The wax beans are now starting to come in and the 180 degree spray head is no longer suitable. In its place are three 360 degree sprinkler heads. They have been adjusted to only water in the space allocated for the beans.

It is important to weekly check your system as the small spray and drip heads are easily clogged. This was the case with the strip sprayer on the peas. The obstruction could not be cleared so I put in a spare. Also you can see the twine I strung between the bamboo poles for the peas to climb.

Seedlings - wax beans and okra

2011-01-19T16:05:00.000-08:00

Things are really starting to take off. In this first picture is my second bed. On the right hand side you can see that the yellow wax beans have really taken off. The peas are on left side. I have put 3 foot bamboo posts in and will run twine between them. This will allow the peas something to climb. The beans will also get type of support.

Bed three has the two okra seedlings up front. They look really good and hopefully will produce well. In the center is that eggplant. Then 4 different tomatoes on the left and 2 different bell peppers on the right. Tomorrow a hot red cherry pepper will be planted. I will be pickling those when they come in.