Corn, Beans, and Squash, the Three Sisters, was a project we knew we wanted to take on from the moment we thought, “garden!” I don’t think we could have sustained a group of people larger than the two of us and cat but with little mistakes can come great successes and we hope that next year’s trio will take care of more than just our little tribe.
Corn (25 plants) - the corn went in first right after the final frost date. We made ten mounds of soil and manure about 2' wide and 8" tall. In this lovely brown went 5 seeds per mound in a star pattern. After a couple of weeks of steady rain and sun, the corn said “hi.” It was so tiny but took off really quickly. Once the hatchlings were a foot high it was time for the beans. Gradually, as the stalks got taller, their roots tangled and hanging down like thick, heavy teeth, began to become exposed. I had to pile on more manure and soil around each mound. The mounds began to expand! I realized then that I had made the mounds too small to begin with and actually too close together. The plants to the south were growing much faster than the plants in the back which were becoming dwarfed. We had a lot of rain in late June with high winds that really beat the hell out of the proud stalks.
Altogether, we harvested about a bushel of corn. It was a sweet heirloom, Country Gentleman, and it was delicious. It was the only vegetable that was bug-friendly. An ugly, green worm managed to find a place to hang out in each plant, munch munching away on our crop. Next year we’ll know to put olive oil on the silks to keep out the pesky varmit.
Beans (3 plants) - yeah, but we planted 40! These heirloom beans were not sprouted ahead of time. They were stuck in the soil right around each stalk of 12" high corn. But for some reason the climbing bean did not sprout, sing, or climb. We managed to only have 3 plants that barely produced. I don’t even remember tasting one. I don’t know what lesson we may have learned from the bean fiasco but like our peas, they were a bummer in the summer.
Squash (?) - The yellow squash, another heirloom, went in 2 weeks after the beans, about the end of June. We put about 4 seeds in each mound surrounding the corn and “beans.” They started poking their heads out in mid July. The heat was starting to come on strong but with ample water and fish emulsion they seemed to tolerate anything that came their way. We had to leave for a family gathering in Colorado at the end of July and during our time away no one was around to water the plants. The heat was intense and stalled the growth of the little squash. We managed to bring some of it back and the little yellow squash was beginning to show up by the end of September but it was too late. The weather turned and the one or two squash we had, out of the 30+ we planted, never grew longer than 3". Next year, more water, a steady diet of attention and love, and better soil and compost will bring a better crop.
Showing posts with label review. Show all posts
Showing posts with label review. Show all posts
Thursday, December 25, 2008
Review ('08) Catnip, Oregano and Mints
More review of the results of our ’08 garden. The catnip was grown from seed, as was one of the oregano plants. The others were starts from various sources.
Catnip (1 small bed)
Catnip is a mint. I didn’t know this until I started growing it. I planted a couple of seeds in a pot, and transplanted these into a bed which I planned to share with another herb. Luckily, I never got around to figuring out what to split the space with, because the catnip would have killed it off. It took over the entire bed, and was, by far, the most productive of all the herbs I planted. Unfortunately, our cat did not care so much for the homegrown organic stuff, but our neighbor’s cat certainly did.
Oregano (1 small bed, 2 plants)
I started the oregano from seed, but only a pitiful sproutling or two emerged. These stayed small for most of the summer. I didn't even know they were still there when I came home with the starts from the store, Lowe’s I think. After a while, though, I noticed I had two oregano plants in the bed. One was large and took over the space (Lowe's) and one that was small but growing (from seed). I could not detect a difference in flavor, but the super oregano was probably a hybrid. We saved no seeds from the other.
Spearmint (2 plants) Chocolate Mint (1 plant) Pineapple Mint (1 plant)
My friend Steve brought two plants he'd dug up from his spearmint bed. It seemed that no matter how much he neglected it (build a deck over it, never water it) that bed of spearmint perservered. In fact, I often heard him talk of it as if it were a nuisance. I planted the two plants he gave me beside the house in the preexisting beds, only with different results. Instead of having mint everywhere, the plants struggled. When I cut the top 4 inches off the stalks, the rest of the stalk would turn brown and die. The plants struggled and never did well.
Similar results with the chocolate mint, planted down the bed about 4 feet away. I bought this plant at the local farmer's market. It smelled great, but never took off, and, like the spearmint, did not like being cut.
The pineapple mint died right away. I planted it in a sunny spot, but did not prep the soil, and kind of forgot about it. I am going to try to grow kiwi there next time.
Catnip (1 small bed)
Catnip is a mint. I didn’t know this until I started growing it. I planted a couple of seeds in a pot, and transplanted these into a bed which I planned to share with another herb. Luckily, I never got around to figuring out what to split the space with, because the catnip would have killed it off. It took over the entire bed, and was, by far, the most productive of all the herbs I planted. Unfortunately, our cat did not care so much for the homegrown organic stuff, but our neighbor’s cat certainly did.
Oregano (1 small bed, 2 plants)
I started the oregano from seed, but only a pitiful sproutling or two emerged. These stayed small for most of the summer. I didn't even know they were still there when I came home with the starts from the store, Lowe’s I think. After a while, though, I noticed I had two oregano plants in the bed. One was large and took over the space (Lowe's) and one that was small but growing (from seed). I could not detect a difference in flavor, but the super oregano was probably a hybrid. We saved no seeds from the other.
Spearmint (2 plants) Chocolate Mint (1 plant) Pineapple Mint (1 plant)
My friend Steve brought two plants he'd dug up from his spearmint bed. It seemed that no matter how much he neglected it (build a deck over it, never water it) that bed of spearmint perservered. In fact, I often heard him talk of it as if it were a nuisance. I planted the two plants he gave me beside the house in the preexisting beds, only with different results. Instead of having mint everywhere, the plants struggled. When I cut the top 4 inches off the stalks, the rest of the stalk would turn brown and die. The plants struggled and never did well.
Similar results with the chocolate mint, planted down the bed about 4 feet away. I bought this plant at the local farmer's market. It smelled great, but never took off, and, like the spearmint, did not like being cut.
The pineapple mint died right away. I planted it in a sunny spot, but did not prep the soil, and kind of forgot about it. I am going to try to grow kiwi there next time.
Friday, December 12, 2008
Review ('08) Tomatoes, Peppers, Basil
Overall, we were pleased with the results of our first garden. Some crops did better than others. We tried to stick with the heirloom seeds we bought at Baker's Creek, but a couple of our plants came from the hardware store.
Tomatoes (about 16 plants)
We planted two varieties of tomatoes, both heirlooms. Brandywine is one of those all-time favorites, and we liked it alright, but our favorite was the Paul Robeson. Although not as large as the Brandywine, the Paul Robeson (a deep purple, nearly black tomato) is really tasty. We planted these two too close to save seeds, as they cross polinated, but we plan to keep them apart next year.
A friend gave us some old tomato cages. These are the kind of cages you see everywhere, wire circles , larger on top than on bottom. They stand about 2.5 feet tall, with 8 inches or so of wire pushed into the ground. At first, they were great, and made our tomatoes look tame. But as the tomatoes gained height, they overflowed the cages and spilled out over the top. For the other tomatoes, we made bamboo supports that stood about 6 ft. tall and looked a little like coverless teepees over the tomatoes. These worked pretty well, and stood up to the winds. We just read about another method, one where you weave non-stretching twine between posts, so we will try that next year.
Of the initial 24 plants, only 16 survived to fruit. A couple developed a strange rot that hollowed out the center of each branch, and we pulled these immediately. A few small transplants were eaten by something, rabbits probably.
Basil (about 8 plants)
Two types, Thai basil and cinnamon basil, were grown both among the tomatoes and in the freestanding herb garden. The plants in the herb garden grew much larger, I suspect because they had better sun. We didn't care for the cinnamon basil's flavor, it tasted "grassy" but drying it seems to have helped. Both varieties took off once the weather turned warm.
Peppers (about 4 plants)
The Chinese peppers were shaded in the garden, and I suspect the lack of sun hindered their growth. We got two peppers from that plant. The habeñeros (which were purchased from Ace Hardware... not an heirloom) did remarkably well in the herb garden, and held its own among the vegetables. They were, by most accounts, far too hot to eat. Wunderle planted his tabasco plant in our garden (bought as a start from the farmer's market, I think) which did so well that we decided it would make a beautiful ornamental and should be planted someplace outside of the garden.
Tomatoes (about 16 plants)
We planted two varieties of tomatoes, both heirlooms. Brandywine is one of those all-time favorites, and we liked it alright, but our favorite was the Paul Robeson. Although not as large as the Brandywine, the Paul Robeson (a deep purple, nearly black tomato) is really tasty. We planted these two too close to save seeds, as they cross polinated, but we plan to keep them apart next year.
A friend gave us some old tomato cages. These are the kind of cages you see everywhere, wire circles , larger on top than on bottom. They stand about 2.5 feet tall, with 8 inches or so of wire pushed into the ground. At first, they were great, and made our tomatoes look tame. But as the tomatoes gained height, they overflowed the cages and spilled out over the top. For the other tomatoes, we made bamboo supports that stood about 6 ft. tall and looked a little like coverless teepees over the tomatoes. These worked pretty well, and stood up to the winds. We just read about another method, one where you weave non-stretching twine between posts, so we will try that next year.
Of the initial 24 plants, only 16 survived to fruit. A couple developed a strange rot that hollowed out the center of each branch, and we pulled these immediately. A few small transplants were eaten by something, rabbits probably.
Basil (about 8 plants)
Two types, Thai basil and cinnamon basil, were grown both among the tomatoes and in the freestanding herb garden. The plants in the herb garden grew much larger, I suspect because they had better sun. We didn't care for the cinnamon basil's flavor, it tasted "grassy" but drying it seems to have helped. Both varieties took off once the weather turned warm.
Peppers (about 4 plants)
The Chinese peppers were shaded in the garden, and I suspect the lack of sun hindered their growth. We got two peppers from that plant. The habeñeros (which were purchased from Ace Hardware... not an heirloom) did remarkably well in the herb garden, and held its own among the vegetables. They were, by most accounts, far too hot to eat. Wunderle planted his tabasco plant in our garden (bought as a start from the farmer's market, I think) which did so well that we decided it would make a beautiful ornamental and should be planted someplace outside of the garden.
Review ('08) First Garden, Overview
One of the reasons we bought this house was because of the lot. It was large for city standards (nearly an acre) and got good sun, perfect for growing a garden. Our plan was to grow some of our own food, partially in reaction to the news about genetically modified plants, so we were extremely conscientious about the sources of our plants. We knew we wanted heirloom seeds, the kind that could be collected and used next growing season.
So we made our plans for our garden. Five long rows and two small beds made up our garden.
We chose to use the “no-till” method, primarily because we did not have a tiller, nor did we want the expense of renting one (expense, by the way, is a major motivator behind the garden, that is, the reduction of expense. Therefore, whenever possible, we tried to use methods that were inexpensive or free, using what we had on hand rather than buying new things, and looking for used tools when we could). After reading more about it, however, we likely would have chosen this method of gardening anyway, for all its benefits.
In the Fall of ’07, we started heaping grass clippings on the spot where we intended to have our garden. On top of this, we tossed out our kitchen scraps. It was our first attempt at composting. Steve (my friend who told me about the no-till method) saw this and said we weren't actually composting so much as trashing up the space. It did look terrible, I have to admit.
But, in the Spring, we were rewarded with mostly decomposed grass and kitchen scraps. We piled these into mounds, leaving the ground bare where the grass/garbage had been. Then we covered these bare strips with cardboard, and covered the mounds with newspaper. If we'd overlapped these a little better, we might have avoided the crabgrass that worked its way up from between the two surfaces.
Our city has a wonderful yard waste recycling center, and our friend Steve brought a big load of mulch, which we spread over the cardboard. He also brought a fresh load of compost. We mixed the compost with some unpleasant-looking dirt that had been dumped in the back of our lot, (probably removed to build the pond). Another friend, Chris, brought us a big pile of decomposed horse manure. I don't think I can express how grateful I am to Chris for that load of horseshit. It made all the difference in our garden.
These three ingredients went on top of the newspaper, making garden-looking mounds on top of our hidden grass/compost/newspaper stuff.
We wove a waddle fence, but after finishing the front half, we decided that there was not enough time for building the fence all the way around, and so, we sprung for some chicken wire.
Starting plants from seed is a good way to reduce cost, but we noticed that we had not properly anticipated the number of pots we would ultimately need. The pots we had consisted of pots from plants that had gone to plant heaven, and a couple of used pots we picked up at the thrift store. This was not nearly enough. I started making pots from paper, but could not make enough for all the plants. Because of this, I have already begun making/saving pots for next year. I should have plenty.
Another difficulty in starting plants indoors was finding enough space next to the sunny window for all of them.
We eventually planted all of our starts, and sowed some directly into the soil. This year, we grew 2 kinds of tomatoes, 3 kinds of peppers, 2 kinds of basil, some potatoes, other spices, cucumbers, melons, lettuce mix, corn, beans, squash, greens, peas, turnips, broccoli. Mixed success.
So we made our plans for our garden. Five long rows and two small beds made up our garden.
We chose to use the “no-till” method, primarily because we did not have a tiller, nor did we want the expense of renting one (expense, by the way, is a major motivator behind the garden, that is, the reduction of expense. Therefore, whenever possible, we tried to use methods that were inexpensive or free, using what we had on hand rather than buying new things, and looking for used tools when we could). After reading more about it, however, we likely would have chosen this method of gardening anyway, for all its benefits.
In the Fall of ’07, we started heaping grass clippings on the spot where we intended to have our garden. On top of this, we tossed out our kitchen scraps. It was our first attempt at composting. Steve (my friend who told me about the no-till method) saw this and said we weren't actually composting so much as trashing up the space. It did look terrible, I have to admit.
But, in the Spring, we were rewarded with mostly decomposed grass and kitchen scraps. We piled these into mounds, leaving the ground bare where the grass/garbage had been. Then we covered these bare strips with cardboard, and covered the mounds with newspaper. If we'd overlapped these a little better, we might have avoided the crabgrass that worked its way up from between the two surfaces.
Our city has a wonderful yard waste recycling center, and our friend Steve brought a big load of mulch, which we spread over the cardboard. He also brought a fresh load of compost. We mixed the compost with some unpleasant-looking dirt that had been dumped in the back of our lot, (probably removed to build the pond). Another friend, Chris, brought us a big pile of decomposed horse manure. I don't think I can express how grateful I am to Chris for that load of horseshit. It made all the difference in our garden.
These three ingredients went on top of the newspaper, making garden-looking mounds on top of our hidden grass/compost/newspaper stuff.
We wove a waddle fence, but after finishing the front half, we decided that there was not enough time for building the fence all the way around, and so, we sprung for some chicken wire.
Starting plants from seed is a good way to reduce cost, but we noticed that we had not properly anticipated the number of pots we would ultimately need. The pots we had consisted of pots from plants that had gone to plant heaven, and a couple of used pots we picked up at the thrift store. This was not nearly enough. I started making pots from paper, but could not make enough for all the plants. Because of this, I have already begun making/saving pots for next year. I should have plenty.
Another difficulty in starting plants indoors was finding enough space next to the sunny window for all of them.
We eventually planted all of our starts, and sowed some directly into the soil. This year, we grew 2 kinds of tomatoes, 3 kinds of peppers, 2 kinds of basil, some potatoes, other spices, cucumbers, melons, lettuce mix, corn, beans, squash, greens, peas, turnips, broccoli. Mixed success.
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