Accidental genetic modifications...

Remember that biology class in high school where you learned about Mendel and his discovery of genetics via his cross-breeding of peas? Well, I did my own experiment this year, completely by accident!

Last year I received a few pumpkins off freecycle, and I saved some seed. All the pumpkins were of similar size and shape. When I planted the seeds this year, this is what I got:

Plant A) Mid-sized orange pumpkins (like the one on the left). Except that after I started scraping out the roasted flesh, I discovered that I did not, in fact, have a pumpkin. I had a spaghetti squash. 

Plant B) Small, round, very orange squash. I haven't checked out the inside yet. Hoping it's pumpkin-like!

Plant C) Large orange squash.

Plant D) Large oblong zucchini-type squash with hard skin. And yes, it's starting to turn orange!

So after I noticed them starting to grow differently, I was reading my Organic Gardening magazine and discovered something very important about saved seed. The general idea is that you can't save seed from home-grown squash, unless you only grow one type of squash. Reason? Cross-pollination. The flowers from two summers ago must have been pollinated by various other squashes in the garden, thereby causing the seeds to have a different genetic code than regular pumpkins. So the original pumpkins turned out normal, but their seeds were...not. Anyway, I'm interested to see what the insides of the rest of these will be like!

On a side note, I used the spaghetti squash to make our Thanksgiving "pumpkin" pie and it turned out quite tasty! 

front yard update!

It's starting to look a bit like a real garden! You can vaguely see the Harcourt apple tree near the back, the asparagus along the left-hand side, and the lavender in front. The little blobs of plant matter are the buckwheat cover crop. And in the front corner we planted the tree you see poking into the right side of the picture - a Westcot apricot! Born and bred for Zone 3, all it needs is lots of sun and a decently sheltered place to live. Apparently anywhere in the city is pretty much considered "sheltered." It also requires a nanking cherry bush within close proximity in order to be a fully productive apricot, so that'll be happening in spring (unless you know of someone wanting to get rid of one...?) To be honest, I haven't done much research on the best time of year to plant tress, but my apricot came with a 5 year warrantee so I figured at 50% off, I couldn't really go wrong. :) 

So that's it! I think that's all I'm putting in for trees/bushes. I'll be adding a few perennial flowers to attract pollinators, some herbs, and some nitrogen-fixing plants (I was thinking of growing sweet peas next to the trunks of my trees...) to help my little lovelies get established. And probably a living mulch to keep in moisture and provide organic matter when I chop it down. Better do some more reading this winter as to the best of each to plant, because I'm running out of room!

Cover cropping

I've been learning a bit about cover crops in a rather eclectic fashion for the past couple years. I was at our CSA farm day a couple summers ago and he was talking about how letting a field lay completely fallow (totally bare) is actually a very poor practice, since you lose half your topsoil in the first big gust of wind. Rather, he said, plant a cover crop. He mentioned that about 1/4 of their giant garden was seeded with clover each year and left alone. Then the next year it would be rejuvenated and they'd dig it up and have at-'er! He must have been into some permaculture as well as organic gardening, since that's exactly what I read in my permaculture book this summer! Cover crops can do so many things for your soil - break up hard clay (like giant diakon radishes), add nutrients (such as nitrogen from clover), and add organic matter (what happens when you grow a crop of buckwheat).

So, I thought I'd try it out. I had a raised bed that nothing grew in this year, and I think it's because the "full of organic matter" soil that I bought from Canadian Tire was actually mostly peat moss with a little soil in there for color. Peat moss is basically carbon, so doesn't provide much in the way of nutrition for your plants! (as a brief aside, peat bogs are one of the best carbon sinks on the planet, which is why environmentalist gardeners keep telling us to stop using/harvesting the stuff! When we harvest it, they basically drain the bogs and then take a giant machine into it, and as it gets cut up and removed, it releases carbon into the atmosphere, thereby contributing to global warming). So as you might imagine, I was rather ticked about the misleading labeling since I now have a whole 4x8 bed of water-retaining but nutrient-defunct peat moss. Grr.

ANYWAY, I decided to see what kind of cover crop seeds I could order from West Coast Seeds, so I picked up some white dutch clover and buckwheat. And, obviously, I planted it. I was going to take a picture of it, but it's still pretty small and frankly it just looks like weeds! I'm wondering if I even planted it too late (end of August). But whatever, it's just one of many experiments. I'll wait until next spring and then turn it into my garden and hope that there's some more life coming out of all my plots as a result!

I'll have to take some pictures soon of the front yard, because, aside from the weedy-looking stuff, I also have a new apricot tree, apple tree, and three big asparagus 'plants'! Gotta love end-of-season sales.

And now my next-door neighbor decided to expand her front yard garden as well. It's still not to the extent of mine, but she's planting a bunch more perennials! I'm excited that she's planting lots of lilacs and other blooming bushes, because it means the pollinators will come visit and probably enjoy my fruits as well. It's quite a little food factory we have going. :)

keeping it!

As my garden slowly gets larger and larger, I get more and more interested in finding ways to preserve the harvest. My husband bought me a pressure canner for Christmas a couple years ago and I'm pretty sure it was in the kitchen for a straight month this summer.

I never thought I'd be interested in canning, but my friend and my mother-in-law introduced me to the ease of it, and I've been hooked ever since! I hate using up freezer space for produce because I always forget about it. Case in point, I froze about 15 jars of beets a few years ago, and when we moved, I ended up thawing and tossing them all because we never used them! And frankly, what do you do with frozen beets? Yuck. On the other hand, of the 50+ jars I made of pickled beets two years ago, there's only about 10 left, and the only reason those still exist is because we forget about them in the fridge! Whenever we put them on the table, they get snorted right down.

 

So this year, I made 5 different kinds of jam (not from my fruit, I didn't get that much after my kids ATE it all...not that I'm bitter), canned pureed tomatoes (WAY easier than canning them in chunks and almost as versatile), made pickles, applesauce, apple juice, and chicken stock. I had to put out an appeal for jars a few times! And I just ordered 15 lbs each of organic peaches and pears. Hey, when organic peaches and pears are on for $1/lb, you snap them up! I found a great recipe for canned peaches here, and am so excited to try them that I'm almost peeing myself. Almost. 

I'm not a homesteader by any stretch of the imagination, but I think it's pretty fun to have my hobby be all about food. What is more satisfying than filling an essential human need directly from your own garden/pantry? Ahhhh. 

Next week, maybe we can discuss the ridiculous amount of Swiss Chard I now need to preserve. I think I might need to renege on my anti-freezer qualms. Italian wedding soup, anyone?

Neighborinos

Apparently my garden is already having an effect in my neighborhood! Both my next-door neighbors ask me on a fairly regular basis about what the next step is, and they both seem fairly interested. Another neighbor came over the other day while I was weeding in front because he apparently just had to satisfy his curiosity! We had a great talk and he left seeming very content that his curiosity had been sated.

And this evening the neighbor kids were putting around in our driveway and when we peeked out, they were taking pictures in front of the flowers! They like to hang out on the curvy path too - I saw them the other day hanging out with my neighbor's cat on our yard, and one of them popped a strawberry in his mouth (I had previously told them to help themselves :). I was so pleased because that's exactly the dynamic I'd love to provide the neighborhood! A place where kids can come and try new foods and sit around in the midst of things that grow. 

The Great "Because"

I've been meaning to write a post about WHY I'm doing the crazy suburban gardening, so here it is! 

There is so much garbage happening in our world today, and a lot of it affects food security. Places in Africa are in drought because developed countries are spewing toxins into the air, causing the climate to change and droughts to happen in places where they don't usually happen. Mothers in Thailand work absurd hours stitching our clothes in terrible conditions, all so they can bring home a few bucks to buy food for their families. Little girls are sold by their families to strangers so that they can keep their farm or put a little more food on the table, and these little girls are subsequently trafficked around the world to satisfy the lusts of wealthier people. Like I said, there is evil happening in the world today, and admit it or not, our North American lifestyle is responsible for a great deal of it. 

I read a book about poverty a couple years ago that really put a new spin on things, and I'd like to read some of it to you.

"What does oppression of workers have to do with me? Of course, I'd never oppress workers or not give them fair wages - I don't even employ anyone to oppress! But these verses can guide the purchasing choices I make. The following passage affects me deeply:

The Lord enters into judgment against the elders and leaders of his people: 

“…the plunder from the poor is in your houses. What do you mean by crushing my people and grinding the faces of the poor?” declares the Lord, the Lord Almighty. 

The Lord says, “The women of Zion are haughty, walking along with outstretched necks, flirting with their eyes, strutting along with swaying hips, with ornaments jingling on their ankles. Therefore the Lord will bring sores on the heads of the women of Zion;
the Lord will make their scalps bald.” In that day the Lord will snatch away their finery: the bangles and headbands and crescent necklaces, the earrings and bracelets and veils, the headdresses and anklets and sashes, the perfume bottles and charms, the signet rings and nose rings, the fine robes and the capes and cloaks, the purses and mirrors, and the linen garments and tiaras and shawls. Instead of fragrance there will be a stench;
    instead of a sash, a rope; 
instead of well-dressed hair, baldness;
 

instead of fine clothing, sackcloth; instead of beauty, branding.

Isaiah 3:14-24 

God condemns those who "grind the face of the poor." In the next sentence, he condemns the women of Zion for their luxurious lifestyles, assumedly made possible by the oppression of the poor. It's very possible that the women of Zion knew little or nothing about the conditions of the workers who enabled their finery. They weren't in the fields. They were simply enjoying their wealth, probably without giving much thought to the workers - even if they knew just a little bit. But these women were condemned outright. Is there a similarity between the haughty women of Zion and me - enjoying the luxuries my money buys?...This isn't a simple right or wrong issue - these industries are sometimes the only thing keeping some farmers from death. But I do have to question whether God implicates me in the oppression of workers when I purposely buy cheaper products from companies I know are exploiting the poor rather than buying those goods from companies that ensure fair payment of workers. The passage in Isaiah convinces me that God has a high standard for the choices I make, and I need to buy with my eyes open wide." (taken from Hope Lives, by Amber Van Schooneveld, p 58-59)

I know that growing a garden hardly seems to address the greater issues going on in the world, but for me, it's a small way of going back to a lifestyle that isn't so hard on others. I try to buy clothes secondhand, and if I buy them new, I wear them until they're full of holes (sometimes even then :). I buy organic produce, not because I'm a food snob, but because I recognize that organic farming is much easier on the planet than conventional, which is my small way of cutting down on greenhouse gasses. (Although I admit that I've grown to love organic produce as well because it's healthier for my family.) Our family has only one car, although to be honest, it's not a huge sacrifice because my husband can walk to work. We don't flush the toilets every time we pee (except of course when we have company!) so that we can do our part to conserve precious clean water. 

And I garden without chemicals so that, in a small way, I can say to the "establishment" that I don't agree with the way the world is going, and I'd like to reverse that trend in any way I can. And I want to garden the front yard so that my neighbors can discover that it's ok to grow your own food. You don't have to drive your car to the store to buy food shipped from Peru, you can grow some of it and preserve it yourself! It's called the 100-step diet, hehe :)

I know there's a lot more I can be doing, and I'm sure that'll come. Another thing that we do as a family is to support children through Compassion. I've seen a lot of child-sponsorship organizations, and I believe that Compassion provides the most life-change-for-your-buck than any other organization. They not only provide food, water, education like other organizations, but they provide a child with adults who walk with them through life (one of the strongest factors in increasing the resiliency of an at-risk child). And most importantly, they teach them that God loves them, made them special, and has a plan for their future. That knowledge alone is what starts breaking those chains of poverty. Would you check out this link today? Please pray for these kids that they will have access to the food that they need to sustain them, and that they will have knowledge of the One who can satisfy their souls forever!

holy compost Batman!

So we went to Cleanit Greenit a few weeks back to get a load of compost. We were fully expecting to have to fill up the truck manually, and were VERY pleasantly surprised when the guy with the front loader offered to do it for us. One big dump and we were done! 

The dent we made in the pile. 

I should have taken a picture of the site where they actually make the compost - it's where all the organics from Sherwood Park go, and the pile was huge! This guy just drives around the piles all day, digging up chunks and flipping it over. Then eventually they haul it over to their screening site, where they screen out all the garbage that ends up in there (you people not sorting your organics correctly ;) and pile it up. The original stuff smelled HORRIFICALLY, and my dad was super worried about what I was subjecting my neighbors to. But thankfully, the finished compost barely smells. Yay!

Now that's a heavy load!
On a side note, can anyone tell me why my iPhone photos are downloading like this onto my Mac?

So if you're wanting to do the sheet-mulching technique (also known as lasagna gardening), just FYI, my approach isn't really found in the to-do manual. I started off right, but you're actually supposed to continue with several layers of greens/browns, and I stopped after two. But I figure that it's also about working with what you can get a hold of, and frankly, using the compost will make my garden productive WAY faster. I already have several perennial food plants in there - more photos to come. :)

Finally the garden is looking a little more like a garden and less like a barn!

Garlic breath...

This photo kind of makes me drool. Gaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrliiiiiiiiiic!

I love growing garlic! Thus far, I haven't grow anything easier. Pop the clove in the ground in late September, mulch so it doesn't get too cold, and in spring, watch it grow!

The heads I got this year were a little smaller than last year's, so I'm going to dig some compost into the bed, which ought to loosen the soil and bit and give the plants more nutrients.

Thus far I've stuck with a hardneck type, but I'm going to try a softneck variety from East Coast Seeds this fall. I'm a little fuzzy on the differences, but I know that hardneck varieties grow a scape in mid-summer, which is a seedhead on a stalk that you need to pinch off if you want your garlic to continue growing. The scapes taste really great sauteed with beans! Supposedly the softneck types are better for gardens further south because they're less hardy, but my backyard is very sheltered and I'm looking forward to putting my little microclimate to the test. This type is supposed to store longer than the hardneck style. They're the kind you can braid together, which you've probably seen in photos of garlic.

One other thing I thought I might try this year is storing them differently. You peel the cloves and soak them in vinegar for 24 hours. Then pop them in a container of olive oil and store them in the fridge! 

Garden Tour

I attended the edible garden tour in Edmonton last Sunday, and boy is it amazing to see what people have done with their yards! It was put together by Wild Green Consulting, and we went to about 10 different places, including the University Garden and several totally amazing yards. One of them was a yard backing onto the river valley, and they had made a series of swales and berms all the way down (it looks like terracing) and planted fruit trees into the berms, along with plants to keep the berms from washing away. It was great to see what all is happening in Edmonton - many of the yards were completely grass-free. They ranged from the super-weedy to the incredibly well-kept, and from suburban-sized to, well, the terraced acre.

At the University Farm, there's a giant garden run by volunteers. They sell the produce on Tuesdays and Saturdays, and donate the proceeds to a non-profit in Rwanda that helps women who've dealt with abuse and war.

But my favorite spot was the children's garden at Belgravia Elementary School. It was a naturescape including trees, little hills, even a shallow pond. The kids apparently come down to the pond to do pond studies, they race around the area during recess, clamber on the rocks, and even roll down the little hills in winter. Who says you need grass to play on? I'm rapidly learning that if planned properly, a garden (or naturescape) can provide much more "scope for the imagination"! I'm hoping to include some elements for kids in my front-yard garden. Not sure what yet, but it'll come.

Bye-bye lawn (part 2)

Say hello to some more photos taken at dusk! (hence the fuzziness). But the fuzziness might be beneficial, since it helps blur the line between the old and new sections. I'm very thankful to my in-laws for providing two lovely bales of STRAW instead of hay for the new section. Yay for less weeds! On Saturday we're going out and loading up a truckload of compost to put on top, so hopefully the neighbors will stop giggling behind their curtains at the weirdo with the barn on her lawn. 

The view from the deck.

The view from the road.

Someone asked me a while ago about whether it smelled. Frankly, the first section I did was pretty rank for a couple days. But that's because the grass I used had been sitting around for at least a week, cooped up in plastic bags during a heat wave. Yeah. You get it. 

But thus far, what I have done tonight doesn't smell at all. Fresh grass and straw instead of hay seems to have done wonders. Good thing, because I might have gotten some neighborly complaints had my front yard smelled like the underside of a compost heap for much longer.  And they were buffeted from the worst of the smell because it was up close to the house. So if you plan to do this, don't let your grass rot inside its bags. That's just a recipe for nasty.

Fruity Photos

If you're interested in what an Evan's Cherry looks like, here they are:

They're similar in flavor to a nanking cherry, but they are the same size and shape as a bing cherry (you know, the super sweet ones you get in the grocery store around this time of year. Yum).

The haul from the backyard farmyard. Actually, there were two pails of cherries.

Cherry jam/jelly. I'm too lazy to strain so it's kind of a random-looking concoction. 

The heavy stuff floated to the bottom. But it tastes good! The apples turned into applesauce which the kids are gobbling up at a fierce rate! 

Sweet Fruity Goodness

I went to pick some cherries and apples tonight, and fell in love with the yard of this elderly couple in an older part of town. So in love that I told her to call me if she ever wanted to sell her house! This woman had it all - compost, firewood, shade trees, fruit trees, vegetables, ponds (yes, plural), and even some lawn. It was phenomenal. Too bad my yard is about 1/6 the size.

But you may have gotten stuck on the word 'cherries'. Yes, you can grow cherries in central Alberta! In fact, you might be surprised at what fruits you can grow here. There's the obvious apples, strawberries, raspberries, currants, gooseberries, and saskatoons, but there's also new varieties of fruits that are being bred to be hardy here on the Canadian prairies. Things like Evans cherries, which is what I picked tonight. They're considered sour cherries but are easily eaten out of hand if ripe. This year I planted a Juliet cherry in my front yard, which I believe is sweeter than an Evan's cherry, and it's also a bush (rather than a tree) which is good for smaller yards. There are several other cherries that are available now as well. Check out Prairie Tech more info.

A couple weeks ago I was at a home that was growing grapes. Yes, there are grapes you can grow here as well! And kiwis, and blackberries, and pears. If you want to get really crazy, Prairie Tech even sells Gojiberry seedlings as well as Sea Buckthorn (but those are male/female so you need at least two). 

Last but certainly not least are the haskaps, which are quickly gaining popularity as an easy-to-grow alternative to blueberries. I have 6 bushes, with one if them already producing a decent crop. If you get them, be sure to do your research, as there are different 'grades' of haskaps. Borealis and Tundra will be high-producers, as well as Berry Blue, but most of the varieties you see in the greenhouse are of the lesser stock. My mother-in-law gave me a tip - if the plants is getting sun-scald (blackened leaves in late summer), it's not a good one.

So there's a surprising amount of choices out there, you just have to be willing to source out what's hardy where you live. I'm still trying to decide what will be my two main fruit bushes/trees I add to the front yard in spring, but I keep needing to remind myself of one thing: plant what you love! Don't love apples? Don't grow apples! ;) 

the paradoxical fungus

Is it just me, or does the phrase "powdery mildew" seem like a contradiction? If something is mildew-y, should it not be soggy and stinky?

At any rate, it's killing my squash plants this year, and a few of my cucumbers as well. Oddly enough, it's only on the squash plants in my raised beds, not on the gardens by the fence. It seems to grow well in hot weather, but really loves the moisture we've been having this year. I think it rains almost every day! I have a running joke with my husband that as soon as I water the garden or hang clothes on the line, it rains.

I've been doing some reading about it and about organic methods of containing it, and it seems like there's not much you can do unless you get something that will also kill beneficial organisms (sulphur and copper being included in that). So, I'm going to try spraying on a baking soda and water remedy (1 tsp baking soda in 1 quart of water) that I read about in the Rodale Organic Gardening book. I hope it works, because besides looking gross, powdery mildew can cause problems with the fruits. My guess is that it impedes photosynthesis so the plants can't put as much energy into fruit production. And I want my pumpkins!

I'm trying desperately to figure out why my parents' garden grows amazing squashes and cucumbers year after year, and mine almost always do terrible. Case in point, I planted pumpkins in their garden at the same time as I planted the same type in mine, and mine have powdery mildew (which theirs don't) and very few flowers. The ones in their garden, however, have pumpkins almost as big as my head already! Oh the fun of horticulture.

Comments

I discovered that the comments weren't working, but I think I fixed that up! Post away, I love to hear other people's experiences and questions!

The beginning of the end...

...of the lawn, that is! So tonight I got started on my sheet-mulching project. Here are a few photos. (Sorry about the fuzziness of some of them, good old camera phone :)

STEP 1: Mow lawn! Leave the clippings on the lawn to encourage organisms who like to decompose.

STEP 2: Add lawn clippings from backyard, add bone meal, and water. Water will have a hard time getting through all the layers, so best to soak the ground now.

STEP 3: Cardboard and sprinkler. This will kill the grass. Or rather, it will cause the microscopic organisms and bugs to convert the grass into useful topsoil!

STEP 4: More grass (aka the nitrogen-rich layer of my in-place composting). It will also encourage those little critters to munch through the cardboard to reach the juicy stuff up top. 

STEP 5: Old hay (aka the carbon-heavy part of the compost). Had I an option, I would prefer to use straw since it's seed-free. I plan to hopefully get enough cardboard to cover up the hay so that no weed seeds infiltrate my new garden. At least not right away. On top of the layer of cardboard will go as much compost as I can rustle up! 

Sheet-mulching is so interesting to me, because it's basically just composting in place. The theory is that the sheet mulch slowly decomposes to make a fantastic base for your plants. It's organic, fairly weed-free (unless you use hay!) and WAY cheaper than topsoil. And instead of adding a landscaping fabric or other material that renders the current topsoil useless, I will now have that much more lovely soil in which to grow my plants! And it will be made that much better because the mulch will attract all sorts of soil-amending critters.

I need to get a lot more materials though. This took up almost an entire bale of hay, 5 bags of grass (plus what we gleaned from the backyard this evening), and a LOT of cardboard. I will need to put the rest of the lawn on hold until I can rustle up some more compostable materials!

Worms

One of the best things I've even done for my garden has been getting into vermicomposting - composting using red wiggler worms (not the common earthworm found in the garden). I have a large rubbermaid container with holes in the lid, and occasionally I chuck in some fruit and vegetable waste after prepping a meal. In summer I send most of my compost outside, but in winter a lot more finds its way to the worms. The worms then turn it into the most amazing compost ever in just a few days! 

An interesting thing I heard this winter was to put tons of banana peels in, which makes your compost very high in potassium. Potassium is the essential nutrient for flowering and fruiting vegetables, such as tomatoes and peppers (it's the K in the N-P-K number on chemical fertilizers). After doing that all winter, I put a handful of vermicompost in each planting hole when I transplanted tomatoes into the garden, and they are going crazy! In fact, I have one Early Girl Tomato that has over 50 tomatoes on it right now!

Here's a site someone just sent me that has the most thorough and helpful explanation for how to set up your own bin: Red Worm Composting. 

More on vermicomposting some other day, time to play with the kidlets!

Made in the shade

Ever wonder if you can grow any veggies in the shade, or at least in part shade? You might be surprised! I read something a while back that helped me remember what goes where: If you grow it for the root or the fruit, full sun. If you want the leaf, part sun is enough.

So for example, tomatoes, peppers, corn, broccoli, squash, and beans need full sun. Oddly enough, peas grow great in part shade, as shown by the plants that are almost as tall as my fence already! But so do spinach, chard, kale, and lettuce. Even winter squash was on the list of part-shade plants. However, I'm not convinced about that one yet. Cucumbers are also supposed to be ok with part shade, although mine are all doing poorly this year - they keep getting drowned!

Here's a few things I've learned in the past couple years that might not fit very well into any paradigm, but have worked for me! Because I use the square-foot gardening method in my raised beds, my plants are VERY closely spaced. Last year I had carrots that ended up being underneath my summer squash leaves, but they still ended up quite large. Perhaps they would have been larger in full sun, but they were big enough for me! Another thing that works well is to plant lettuce seeds near your squashes. They'll take off well in spring with full sun, but then, as the sun gets hotter in summer, the leaves will shade them so they won't bolt. I'm still pulling up the last of the lettuce I seeded in the end of April!

Everything against the fence mostly gets just morning sun. You can't see it all because the giant lovage plant is in the way, but there's rhubarb, chives, garlic, peas, several leafy plants, and a few perennials. And given that they all have fairly crappy soil (it's mostly overturned sod with some manure worked in), things are looking better every year!

The same spot when I first planted it just 2 years ago!

Science!

I have a biology degree. I'm not using it in my job nor do I ever intend to use it, but I got it because I love the natural world and and very curious. And I still love to run experiments. For example, tonight I experimented with pulling runners out of my strawberry bed and planting them in front, hoping they'll eventually provide a dual-use ground cover for my berry bushes in the front yard.

On a grander scale, I am planning to build an eco-system in the rest of my front yard! I've been reading a few books on permaculture, the most useful being Gaia's Garden. I'm only partway through it, but already I'm excited about building a perennial food garden that sustains itself. That means it retains water, provides its own nutrients through living mulches and nitrogen-fixing plants, provides species that attract beneficial insects, and provides food for our family. It sounds very intricate and I'm very excited to continue to learn about this topic and see how it works in my own yard. If I'm able to do it properly, it should be very low-maintenance, which would be amazing!

The trickiest part is that I hope to spend less than $100 on the whole thing. Can I do it? We'll see! My first step will be to cover the weedy lawn with cardboard and mulch to kill it. Then I'm supposed to plant some sort of nitrogen-fixing cover crop to build up the soil. I have a few clover seeds still, but certainly not enough for my whole lawn. Any ideas?

Broccoli that tastes good? Impossible

I've never REALLY enjoyed broccoli. I eat it because I know it's good for me, but truly enjoying it? That's a tough thing to ask. So why I decided to try growing it this year is beyond me. Perhaps because my mother-in-law grew these 4-5 foot tall plants last year and I was impressed. Maybe just for the challenge of it. Either way, I'm so glad I did! This broccoli is like nothing I ever imagined - I can't even begin to describe it. Let's just say that both my 1 year old and my 3 year old chowed down, as did the neighbor kids, and even me. No dip needed! 

So in case you're interested in trying out broccoli, here's some tips! 

1) Invest in a lightweight row cover. It'll keep those pesky cabbage moths from laying their eggs on your plants. Those are the little green worms that destroy all brassica plants! (cabbages, kale, kohlrabi, broccoli, and cauliflower) I have had no problems with the worms this year. In the top photo, it's the stuff that looks like a blanket. 

Back in June when the garden wasn't going wild.

2) Don't seed all your broccoli at the same time! I seeded mine in March, all at the same time. And I had 8 large heads of broccoli mature, all at the same time. Whoops. Good thing it was excellent broccoli.

The photo's a little grainy, but doesn't it look juicy? Even the stems were tasty!

3) Plan for a fall crop. My broccoli was finished with its main heads in the end of June, and basically done with any off-shoots in mid-July. So instead of just letting it grow and getting itty-bitty sprouts for the rest of the summer, I started some more seeds back in June, and planted them last weekend. Of course, this was before my epiphany about not seeding them all at the same time, so I'll be getting a giant crop of broccoli again in September! Heigh ho, heigh ho, over to the freezer it will go.

Berries

Gotta start somewhere! Let's start with the strawberries. 

Two years ago I planted two pots of strawberries from Costco, and I believe they are both June-bearing. They have a huge amount of fruit in late June, and another, smaller flush of fruit in August. My technique, which seems to be growing a prolific amount of berries, isn't from a book. I think it's a composite of a few things I read. So here it is! I pick the strawberries in June, I let the runners go wherever they want, and in fall, I use a pair of clippers to chop off all the leaves, leaving them where they lay for mulch. Then I spread on a bag of composted sheep manure (sheep manure is the least likely accessible manure to be contaminated with pesticides/herbicides, and best for organic gardening), and let it be. That's it! If anyone is interested in some strawberry plants, I have tons of runners this year, and I'm sure there won't be space for them all. 

The bottom photo is to show how far the strawberry plants have spread in the past 2 years. The little things growing up the back are my blackberry canes. Hoping to actually get some blackberries off them next year! Last year they grew to the top of the fence, but because we had no snow this winter, they died back and I had to start again with first year canes. These are Doyle's Thornless Blackberries, and once established, are supposed to be quite prolific.

Welcome to the garden!

When my neighbor mentioned to me that she had commented to her mother that I "garden on a whole different level", I started thinking that maybe others might be interested in what I've learned. I love to read and have read oodles of gardening books, had endless conversations with my dad and mother-in-law, both of whom have extensive gardens, and done some experiments on my own. 

In my fairly small suburban plot I currently grow 7 types of fruit, 7 types of herb, and over 20 types of vegetable. Plus, I have secret plans in the works for the front yard, which is small, dry, and weedy.  

So, I'll take lots of pictures and share what wisdom I have gained, and hopefully others will post and share wisdom as well!