Past Gardening Methods - Show and Tell!

The 4th and final post in the "6 Rules of Gardening" series.

     When you're a gardener, you're an experimenter, a scientist of sorts.  You research, gather information, and attempt to prove the validity of said information by putting the concepts into practice.  There is definitely a learning process involved, and in trying new things sometimes we fall backward rather than moving forward along the progression.  Ok, lets be honest, sometimes we catapult backward 150 miles an hour, and wonder what the heck we did wrong.  But at my house, I call that "Adventure!"

     My first real garden was probably around the Summer of 2000.  The hubby and I borrowed a gigantic moose tiller from a neighbor to loosen up our mouse sized garden plot.  Lets just say that was quite a job!  Then we formed wide raised rows, covered them with black plastic, cut holes in it and planted started plants from the nursery.   It was a beautiful garden with a bountiful harvest.   I don't remember all the things we grew, but I do remember cutting off tons of stems of green tomatoes right before a big frost, and bringing them inside in boxes to ripen.  This method seemed to work ok, but I was amazed how many weeds still grew beneath the plastic, and made their way over to the holes where the plants were growing.  Not to mention it was a heck of a lot of work.

I actually found some pictures of it!  Hooray!   Click to Enlarge!

 

 The next few years at our next home, we grew corn, tomatoes, peppers, squash, and gourds.  Seemingly without struggle, if I remember.  With the exception of weeds.  (I hate weeds by the way... I don't consider weeding therapeutic as some do.   If I'm gardening, I want results, not weeds. :-) )  Heres a fun story:

I remember we had a tiny little gourd plant that wasn't doing well.  It lost 3 of its only 4 leaves within the first week we planted it.  I thought for sure it was a goner.  Then one day my sister-in-law came by and I showed her my garden.  She asked about the sad little plant and I told her it would probably die.  She knelt down, caressed the plant, named it Joe, and told it to be fruitful and multiply, or something like that.  Then she kissed the leaf, got up and walked away.  I stood there thinking what a crazy loon!    The next day the last leaf fell off.  "Pah!" I thought, "talking to plants... whatever!"  Well 2 days after that the plant had new growth.  A week later it had 4 or 5 new leaves.  And every day after that it seemed to double in size.  Within a few short weeks it had vined and traveled to the back fence a few feet away.  That one plant grew enough vines to cover the entire back fence (We're talking 20 feet or so) and produced more than 150 gourds that summer.  It was the nuttiest thing I had ever seen.  Still I wasn't about to put the plant whisperer on any pedestals quite yet.

Another move, another chance to setup my garden.  This time I chose Square foot gardening.  My hubby helped me to build vinyl boxes, and we even ran water lines directly to the boxes.  I used "Mel's Mix" (A recommended soil mix in the Square foot gardening book) to fill the boxes, and I planted.  The ground in this new home was like solid bedrock.   When were planting our fruit trees, I bought both the boys their very own Pick Axe.  And every time they dug a hole, they came up with an 18 inch boulder.  It was a miracle we got anything in the ground at all, and an even greater miracle that it grew.   I liked the garden boxes, but I noticed that there was too much drainage.  The mix did not provide enough water holding properties and my garden was always dry.  We did still have a beautiful garden, and produced alot of food.  We even greenhoused it at the end of the season and kept tomatoes growing into December until the weight of the snow collapsed the plastic and the PVC supports.

I do like the SFG concept of growing lots of food in small spaces, AND I learned alot about vertical growing.  I grew a couple of 15 lb. Banana squash' vertically on the trellises I learned to make on the SFG website.  But I don't think the soil mix is ideal in the area I live in.  The weather here is much too dry.    I have pictures of this somewhere, but I couldn't locate them quickly, so I'll try to update this later.

I think what I'm getting at is that no one method is the "be all" and "end all" of gardening, and I think we can learn a lot by trying different methods.  And its FUN to learn new things, so by all means, try stuff!

When we moved into our current house, it was June, and I was desperate to get a garden in and growing as quickly as possible.  So I scanned the yard and tried to see what would be the easiest location to tackle quickly.   I decided to use the 6 inches of dirt between our block retaining wall and the fence.  Plus it was waist height and easy to care for.

Click to Enlarge!

I got over 300 tomatoes that year off of just a couple plants!

All the tomatoes, butternut squash, peppers, and cucumbers are from the garden.  It was so pretty I decided to decorate with it!

I have to be honest, my garden as evolved and changed every year, but I love it!  The last few years I have been using the mulching strategies I learned in the Back to Eden film,  and I feel like it has changed the whole game, and made things more doable.  I'm getting older, and could be in better shape, so the less physical maneuvering involved, the better!  Please, Please, Please!!!  Take time to watch the film.  If you love to garden, it will be time well spent!   Good luck, and please post your questions and feedback below!  I'd love to answer garden questions you may have and help you have a successful year!

Also search "Garden" at the top of the page to find all of my other posts on Gardening and see photos of my more recent gardens, raspberry boxes, and more!

Tres Leches Cake, Happy Mothers Day!

My husband is from Mexico, and there is nothing he loves more than a good Tres Leches cake.  If you haven't brushed up on your spanish lately, Tres is the number 3 and Leche is milk.  So it is essentially a 3 milk cake.   The cake is a basic sponge cake, but its the 3 milk syrup that makes this cake divine!

My father in law was so excited to eat this at the family party yesterday, he could hardly stand the wait, and was chanting "I want cake, I want cake!" while we were getting everything ready.  :-)  After the first bite he was shocked and surprised by what is little whitey DIL could pull off!  :-)

This recipe came from my cousin Rachel, who also married a man of latin decent.   She is photographer, prepper, chicken owner, and a cake baker extraordinaire! Theres nothing this girl can't do.   If you are in Idaho, check out her site:  PortraitsbyRachel.com


(I have to admit though, I cheated and took shortcuts all the way through it, and my cake Still came out!  See her tips at the bottom for a perfect cake.)

Preheat your oven to 350. Grease and flour your pan(s) (this will fit in two 9 inch pans or  an 11x13, or even a bundt pan works nicely--  I doubled the recipe and put it in a 1/4 sheet cake pan, 11 x 16).

Sponge Cake for Tres Leches

1c. Sugar 

5 lg. Eggs, separated 

1/3 c. milk 

1 tsp. Vanilla extract 

1 c. flour

Beat 3/4c. sugar and egg yolks until light & fluffy (I used my Bosch with the wire beaters)

Pour Mixture into a separate Mixing bowl and rinse your Bosch.

FOLD milk, vanilla and flour into yolk mixture. (Be gentle- it doesn’t need to be mixed perfectly, just sort of integrated) 

Beat egg whites in the Bosch (or other stand mixer) until soft peaks form. 

Add leftover sugar and beat until glossy and firm. 

FOLD egg whites into mixture.

*Bake 30-45 minutes until firm (Depending on your pan sizes,  baking time might be different. You could check it at 20 minutes to be sure. Test with a cake tester or think sharp knife and see if it comes out clean, and the cake begins to pull away from the sides.)

Milk Syrup

12 oz. Evaporated milk 

1c. sweetened condensed milk 

1c. heavy or whipped cream 

1 tsp. Vanilla extract 

(Mix all ingredients together well.  I used a blender for ease of mixing and pouring.)

Cool completely and pierced liberally with fork. You can dump the cake out and cool it on a baking rack if you want, and then put it back in the pan for the milk syrup part.

When cooled and pierced, pour syrup over cake.  Pour in small amounts, waiting for liquid to absorb.  The first photo below is after pouring most of the syrup over the cake.  The second photo is after the syrup has soaked in.  You can keep any extra in the fridge. 

Ice the cake with whipped cream or cool whip. (I used cool whip) Top with sliced strawberries, Kiwis, Pineapple, or any fruit you like.

Some tips from my cousin Rachel:
"Yeah, it’s a sponge cake. It waits for no one. Have EVERYTHING ready. The key to getting this to rise well is to be quick, but gentle- especially with the eggs- they are your leavening.  Have your pan and oven ready.  Room temp ingredients work nicely. You can run the eggs under hot water in a bowl in your sink for 3 minutes or so- that should get them warmed up but not cooked! You can also beat the whites over a bowl of warm (not hot) water. Milk can go in the microwave for 20-30 seconds to slightly warm to room temp. I would also sift that cup of flour in. Take pictures! "

I just had to include some of these fun shots from the last time we made this cake.  Dad's Birthday!  My little helper was thrilled about her accomplishment, and the look on dad's face says it all!

    

Heres a closeup of the cake:

What came first, the Chicken or the egg?

Its springtime, and around here that means babies.  We are anxiously awaiting the arrival of several babies this month on the farm.  I have a couple goats who should be delivering anytime, and a Sebastopol Goose who is sitting on a clutch of at least 7 or 8 eggs that should be hatching this week.

    I even have a broody hen, which I haven't let set on her eggs yet, but I think I am ready to give her some.  Why pull out the incubator when I have a willing mother hen ready to do all the work?  

   Many of you have asked me at one time or another what kind of chicks I recommend.  And while that  depends largely on several factors, the one factor that most people care about is egg production.  All the ones listed below lay nice brown eggs unless otherwise noted.  If you just want a chicken that lays an egg daily, and you don't care about anything else, you can choose between quite a large list:   

One of our Black Stars with her brood.

Black Star (sexlink)

Red Star (sexlink) 

Easter Eggers (Americaunas) (green eggs)

Buff Orpingtons 

White Leghorns (white eggs)

Black Australorps

Rhode Island Red

Barred Rock

Delawares

     But did you know that some of these birds are have a much higher feed to egg ratio, and will even lay an egg a day for 365 days?  Does that matter to you?  If it does, your very best choices are going to be the Black and Red Stars.   They also have a good temperament, and are good foragers in a free ranging setup.  I have even had one go broody and hatch out 10 eggs all at once.

  If you are determined to have white eggs, the White Leghorn is a good choice.  This is the bird that lays most of the eggs you find in stores.  But your eggs will still be better if you are raising a free range bird.   I personally like to have "easter eggs" all the time.  I like to have several different colors of eggs in my basket.  So i have white, brown, pink and green layers.

My Coronation Sussex with her newly hatched babies

     Orpingtons are a heavier breed, and tend to eat much more.  They do still lay very well, and double as a good table bird if you wanted to butcher a few.  Also one of my favorites in this same category are the Light Sussex.   They are an excellent Table bird, and lay a medium size pink egg, daily.  They are good mothers too, and tend to go broody in early spring.

More rare birds that still lay well:

Light Sussex (pink eggs)

Coronation Sussex (pink eggs)

Speckled Sussex

Brown Leghorns

Blue Andalusians (white eggs)

These birds tend to be more in the “pretty feathers” category, but will still lay eggs for you pretty well.  5-6 eggs a week or more.  I really like the Sussex, they are a great all around bird.  Andalusians are good layers of white eggs, they are very small, lightweight birds, with a good feed to egg ratio, and are also foragers.  I could never keep mine in the pen.

I like to keep a mix of pretty birds, good layers, and unique egg color in the coop.  My current flock consists of a few Americaunas, a light sussex, some Black stars, a white leghorn, and a couple of mixed birds.  Any old farmer will tell you that mixed birds lay better eggs.   Black Stars are actually a mix of Rhode Island reds Roo and Barred Rock Hens.  Red Stars are also a mix of Rhode Island Reds Roo and Delaware Hen.   I also have some fancy feather birds, a Coronation Sussex and a breeding trio of Golden Cuckoo Marans.  Now Marans don't lay worth a darn.  2-3 eggs a week in their best season, but they lay dark chocolate colored eggs, have feathered legs, and are very pretty birds.  So to me, that makes them worth keeping around.

If you have any specific chicken questions, feel free to email me, or leave them in the comments below so all can benefit from the discussion.

A Raspberry Patch

Below you will see the evolution of my Raspberry Patch.  The first 4 pictures are from Spring of 2012.  The rest are from this Spring (2013).  Remember, you can always click on the photos to Zoom in.






Clockwise, from top left, I tilled up some grass, raked out the grass and roots, planted Raspberry Starts, and then mulched with Goat Manure/Hay mix, and then Straw in the middle.   I did put Cardboard under the mulch.  This was BEFORE I watched the Back to Eden Film.   I don't necessarily think what I did was  a bad thing, except the tilling was unnecessary.  I could've just planted directly IN the grass and then put Newspaper around all of the plants, and composted and mulched on top.

Here is My Raspberry patch THIS year.  I should've gotten a photo when everything was green.  I did get several handfuls of beautiful Raspberries in the fall.  The tips of the plants bore, as you can see in the photos.

We put those Raspberries in in a hurry, so I didn't really do everything how it should be.  So this year we went out and worked on the patch some more.

My tough kids hauling the railroad ties.

Railroad ties in place with newspaper under to help kill the grass.

Stakes in place to run ropes for supporting raspberries.  I also mildly pruned the berries.

I read that you should prune anything that fruited the year before.  So I did.  Then I read that Raspberries that fruit the first year, will usually fruit on the end.  But if you leave those canes, they will produce the rest of the way the second year.  So unfortunately I won't find out if that's true.  Also  I hope with all the mulch I added, that the Raspberries aren't buried so deep that they can't find their way out.  Updates will follow as I see progress.

A Garden Box Tale

    This is sort of a Show and Tell post so you can see some of the particular areas I'm working on in my yard.  I will try to scatter a few more of this type of post in between so you can see the applications of what I am writing about.

    Last week, I was digging in a garden box that i had also mulched last year,  to see what its looking like underneath.   This box had been the vein of my existence for almost the whole time we’ve lived here.  When we moved in it was full of Golden Raspberries, but it was so overgrown with grass, that in an attempt to dig out all the grass, we slaughtered most of the Raspberries.   

     I dug that box out every year for three years, and replaced the soil, with potting soil, and every year it was overtaken again.  Last year, after watching the Eden Film,  I decided to give it one last try.  I covered up the grass with 4 layers of newspaper, and added the 4 inches of mulch, and then planted several starts from my greenhouse in it.   The plants did not do so well,  (the box is to the far left of the photo) because the soil composition was not good to start with.  There was a strange powdery mineral type substance that was surfacing in a few places on the top of the box.  This was the only picture I could find of it from last year.  But I know the mulching was working its magic on the ground beneath though, because this year, the grass is gone and I found beautiful, dark composted organic material and several worms crawling around. 

This is what it looked like when I went out to clean and prep it for this year.  There is a tiny bit of grass in the corners, but it came right out.

Look at this rich soil!  See the worm in the middle?

I am excited to plant in here again this year.  Plus a few of the Raspberries popped up last year on one end of the box, so I will let them take over again, little by little, and let the box go back to being a raspberry patch.  Only this time, one without weeds!

I added another couple inches of Mulch and then wrapped a short fence around the base, to discourage my Chickens from digging in there and throwing out all the mulch.  We'll see if it worked.  :-)

Mulch - "The Earth is Meant to Be Covered"

    I know I keep referring back to this fabulous gardening movie, Back to Eden, but when you find something so Golden it is hard not learn from your mistakes and change what you're doing so you can see results.   

    As I mentioned in my "6 Rules of Gardening" Post, (click to read) Mulch is a key factor to a successful garden.  It also reduces the workload of the typical gardener after time.  Much of the information I will be sharing here is taken directly from "Back to Eden" so if you don't want to watch the film, you can learn some of the key principles here.

    "Everywhere in nature where man has not been, the ground is covered.  The ground is meant to be covered, it is a living organism. [It can be compared to skin for animals, feathers for birds, scales for fish, etc.  When you take the cover off, it becomes vulnerable]"

    I had never thought of dirt or soil before as a living organism.  But when you think about it scientifically, it most definitely is.  When we change our thinking to reflect that it is a living thing, it then makes complete sense to "protect it."  As soon as I understood this concept, I pictured in my mind all of the dead, non-fertile soil I have seen various places throughout my lifetime.  Most farms and large gardens that are cleared and tilled at the start of each season are empty, light colored, dull plots of land until the seeds are added and the soil amendments and fertilizers to make them grow.   Crops have to be rotated each growing season to avoid over-depleting the soil of nutrients.  But sadly, much of our soil is already grossly depleted.  This photo is a bit of an exaggeration since this particular land is also suffering from drought, but the compaction and lack of color are consistent with depleted soil.  

     Farmers spend thousands of dollars on soil amendments, fertilizer, and even pesticides, and year after year are facing the same problems again with each new growing season.

     Paul in the “Back to Eden” film, takes us on a journey, that leads our thoughts back to the Creator.  He talks about how God gardens the earth, and what we can learn to both improve our yields, and simplify our process when we mimic what nature is already doing.

     The next time you have the opportunity to walk through a forest, or field or any areas that are mostly untouched by man, kneel down and dig into the dirt, and explore what you find.   For example, in a forest you find leaves, pine needles, pine cones, twigs, seeds, etc. in various stages of decay laying atop the rich black composted floor.  This is because in nature all of these things drop to the ground and are left untouched to be broken down by the microorganisms in the organic materials as well as the soil.   Animals come through and crunch up the leaves and twigs, the wind blows and mixes things around, and the rain comes and wets everything.  All of this creates a natural covering for the ground.  Its what helps to keep weeds down, and give nutrients to young growing trees and plants.   In a field you will find the dead fallen grasses and rocks and other things covering the ground.  

     “The ground is meant to be covered.”  What can we learn from that statement when we apply it to our own corner of ground that we have the privilege of caring for?  The answer is Mulch.  Lots of Mulch.

According to Paul (Eden Film) the best mulch is wood chips.  But he also says that he has tried other things successfully as well.  Wood Shavings, Compost, and even Rocks, just so long as the ground is covered.   

     The reason wood chips work so well is because they act as a sponge, absorbing as much moisture as possible when it rains and holding it until the ground beneath needs it.  They also, amazingly don’t blow away in the wind, they stay put.  They never compact, are always soft, and always allow for air to be present.  You could even drive a truck on it and it wouldn’t compact.

     Mulching is not a new concept.  People have been using this idea for years and years.  What makes it so amazing to me, is understanding how it works, and then putting it into practice correctly and seeing the results.  

    I have an excess of Goat manure available at all times, as I’ve mentioned before.  So when I was at a loss for composted material, often I would dump loads of the fresh manure mixed with hay in many areas of my yard just to help keep the weeds down.   A few years ago we tore out the grass in one end of our yard to create a large garden area.   I covered the whole thing with the manure/hay mix to help mulch the area.  I was amazed the next spring at how few weeds I had to pull before planting my first garden in that area.   Plus having the nutrients from all that compost sitting on top of the ground proved to be another benefit.

    Paul explains that as it rains and these materials absorb the moisture, and then release it.  It actually releases a type of “compost tea” down into the soil below, carrying with it the nutrients contained in the organic matter sitting on top of the soil.   This is exactly what happens with wood chips.  They absorb all the rain like a sponge, and when the ground below and the roots of the plants call for water, they are getting the modified, improved water that is being release WITH nutrients from the wood chips, and decomposed organic materials above.  

    So last year we decided to put the mulching into practice properly in a couple of our garden areas.  We prepared the garden the way Paul showed to prepare a NEW garden area, just to be sure we kept the majority of the weeds down.   We lined our entire garden bed with 3-4 layers of newspaper, and then sprinkled a layer of topsoil over it.  Literally sprinkled.  Not much at all.  You could still see quite a bit of newspaper.  Secondly we did a thin layer of compost over that, and then finished with about 4 inches of wood chips.  The garden looked fantastic!   Then we proceeded to plant directly on top of the newspaper, by pushing the mulch out of the way with our hands, making a hole, and putting in the started plants I had grown in the greenhouse.  After planting, we put the mulch back carefully around the plant, and because of the season, we used the green Wall of Water Protectors to ad additional warmth and frost protection to our plants.

The kids helping prep the the garden area with compost and mulch.

     We had a beautiful garden, and most of it did quite well.  We had a few areas where an overgrown tree prevented enough sunlight from getting through, stunting the growth of some of those plants.  but everything else did really well.  

     So far I see almost no weeds, and because we had a very cold winter with lots of snow on the ground, the wood chips are holding the moisture in the ground, and composting the under layers.  I am excited as we come into year two to be able to continue to enjoy the effort we exerted last year. 

This is in July when the garden was in full force.  We had no weeds all Summer, and as you can see everything grew and produced beautifully!  I love having what I call a "mixed use" garden, so that there are attractive flowers as well as productive plants.

Composting, Let's Keep it Simple!

         There's actually a lot of science and good information behind composting, but I want to start out simple.  I wan't you to read this and think to yourself, "I can do this!"  And really, it IS simple, and can continue to be until you find yourself having a greater need an purpose for your compost.  I remember the huge round composting cages my great grandfather had on his property in California.  I think he must’ve truly been the master gardener in the family.  The garden was massive, and there were fruit trees everywhere, and don’t forget my Grandma’s fresh Strawberry Rhubarb pie, straight from the garden.  I only wish I had been old enough to really learn from them.  Gardens were a necessary way of life in their day.  You gardened because you wanted to eat.  

     When I first tried composting, I bought one of those Stationary black bins with a lid and just started throwing all of my kitchen scraps in it.  While in theory I wasn't doing anything wrong, Compost needs air, and water to properly break down and heat up.  And it was pretty hard to “stir” anything in such a narrow space.   So on my second attempt, I decided to do “open composting” where my pile was out in the open and somewhat contained.   I purchased some 4 ft. T-posts from Home Depot along with some 2 ft. wire fencing.  I basically made an “E” shape with two sections so I could keep track of older and newer compost and be able to get a pitch fork in there and mix it around good.

I am by no means, an artist, but I thought it would be helpful for you do have a sketch of what I’m talking about.   I can’t even take a picture of mine, because its piled so high, you  wouldn’t be able to see the stakes anymore.  So basically there are 6 T-Posts, and I’ve wrapped and attached the wire grid all the way around.  You want to keep it nice and tight so it can help support your pile as it grows and as you mix it.  I have found that the easiest way to mix well is to use a pitch fork.  You basically throw everything out of your pile, and make a new pile on the ground beside it, effectively mixing as you go.  Then pitch it all back in.  I only have to do this maybe every month or so.  But for me, this was still a lot of work so I wanted a better solution.

A few years ago I found a Rotating Compost Bin that would hold 80 gallons!  (Thats over 10 Cubic feet!)

And finally it was something I could handle!  It is made by “Lifetime Products” so it is very good quality.  I purchased 3 and had my teenage boys assemble them, so we could put them to use immediately.   I still use my old compost “frame” as a holding tank for fresh manure, leaves and lawn clippings to start decomposing before adding them to my composter.  The reason this works so well is because it makes it so easy to give compost the 3 things it needs most.  Heat, Air, and water.   I simply open the latched lid on my composter and wet it down with a hose once a week, as well as dump in my kitchen scraps whenever I have them.  And then turn the barrel a few times and I’m done.   The black barrel absorbs the heat from the sun, so even if we only turn it once a week, we get compost in about 2 months.  I think if we were out there turning it daily it might result in compost much quicker.

I know you guys are probably starting to think I am just selling you something here, but truthfully, I USE everything I recommend to you.  I  am a big fan of technology in all departments of life.  I love gadgets and things that make life easier.  And without alot of these “tools” and “gadgets” I wouldn’t have the time or energy to accomplish much of what i do.  I also realize as a prepper, that it will be a sad day around here if the power goes out and I have to do things the old fashioned way.  :-)

Back to compost.  Theres a few other things to be aware of if wanting to create good compost rapidly. 

1.) Size matters - If you start throwing in big orange peels and banana peels and Pineapple greens, you are going to be able to recognize them for the next 6 months in your bin, likely.  It is much better to break things down to a smaller size.  This allows more surface contact with other decomposing materials, water, and heat, allowing these items to decompose more quickly.  There are a few easy ways to  break these things down.  If you juice with a masticating juicer, when you’re done, simply run your citrus peels through the juicer, it breaks them into bits, effortlessly, and you can just add it with the pulp from your juicer, into your composter.  Also throwing items like egg shells and banana peels into your food processor for a quick whiz can help as well.  I’ve even just snipped them up with a pair of kitchen scissors as I’m holding them over the bin.  

      If your not interested in the additional effort.  Use those items differently.  For example, Banana peels are said to have a highly positive effect on Rose bushes and other Acid Craving plants.   Rake away some of the mulch around those things and bury a few banana peels underneath.  

   2.) You need to make sure you have a good ration of Brown waste compared to Green waste.  What does this mean?  Different waste contains different nutrients, and decomposes at different rates.  Remember the science I was talking about?  Things that decompose faster, produce heat and help to decompose items that may rot more slowly.  I will create a list at the bottom of the post to help guide you. 

   3.)Use an existing compost mix to get a head start.  You could almost compare compost to yogurt here.  It is loaded with microorganisms (ie: good bacteria)  that work together to break down the raw materials (ie: milk)  So if you start with compost that has already gone through the process and contains the nutrients and composition you are hoping for, this can speed up the process.  Be sure to save some of your newly made rich compost to start your next batch.

Brown (Carbon)	Green (Nitrogen)	DONT USE AT ALL
Dry Leaves Pine Needles Newspaper (shredded) Sawdust Wood chips/ shavings Twigs Hay/Straw Peanut Shells Cold Ashes from wood Dryer lint Cereal boxes (shredded)	Fruit & Veggie Scraps Grass Clippings Coffee Grounds Manure from horse, cow, Goat, Chicken, Bat, etc. Egg Shells Tea Bags/leaves Plant trimmings Moldy Bread Banana peels pulp from juicer	Milk Fat Meat Domestic Pet Waste Bones Oils Diseased Plants (Can spread disease) Inorganic materials

     Basically you need about a 50/50 ratio of Green and Brown.  So to make it easy, I like to keep a bag of last years leaves next to the composter and every time I dump a bin of kitchen scraps, I add about the same volume of dry leaves to the composter and spin it.  

      If you are filling up your composter little by little, you want to make sure that when its relatively full, you stop adding new waste to it for 6-8 weeks until you have developed your compost.  Because otherwise you will always have bitts of un-composted materials in there.  This is why I have 3 bins.  I only actively ad to one or two at a time.  That way I have a sort of rotation of Compost in progress, Compost ready to use, and a  bin for adding to.   And truthfully, in the winter, I don’t add scraps to my bins.  I give them to the geese and chickens because there is nothing for them to forage on when there is so much snow, so I dump my juice pulp and other scraps, including the crumbs from the bottom of cereal boxes (Healthy cereals) old bread, etc. to help supplement their diets in the winter.  

     Also, I am rather lucky to have a natural Brown/green mix occuring daily in my backyard.  What? No fair, you say?  It is the combination of goat poo mixed in with the discarded hay from the feeder.   We pull out at least a wagon load each week and ad to the “holding compost pile” before putting into the composter.   I have to say this combination along with twigs, leaves, and kitchen scraps have made an amazing compost for my garden each year. 

    Goat berries are not as hot as Chicken manure so they can even be put straight into the garden non-composted.  The mix works as a mulch to begin with, and then with watering and decomposition the nutrients are released into the soil. Please feel free to ask your questions, and share your thoughts below!

A Whole New OLD Way to Look at Gardening

     I recently came across an amazing film that changed everything I thought I knew about gardening, and plants.  It is well done, professionally filmed, and it has the potential to change your life.  There are several key concepts introduced here that when applied even to the simplest backyard gardens, have immediate and long lasting results.
    This is a full length film so plan sufficient time to watch it, or you can watch it in sections as it is easily set up to do it that way.

Click on photo, then scroll down to find video

     Even in my own backyard garden, I have been able to start applying some of these principles, and in the first year that I have used them, I can see some HUGE improvements and positive changes in my yard, my dirt, my plants and my crop. This years gardening should be even easier because of what I have put in place last year.

     I love the main idea of the film which is that God is the great Master Gardener, and by observing what we see in nature and learning from it, we can assist him in creating something beautiful in our own yards.  Each concept is laid out and explained in such a way that it makes amazing sense.
     I would also recommend purchasing the DVD if nothing else, just to support this great effort.
   

Building a Greenhouse

     This is our first winter with a greenhouse.  The hubby and kids and I all worked on it together for several months last winter as a family.   It was a great project, and the boys learned alot about building things.   I can't say its super pretty to look at, but it's not bad, and it is quite functional.

The rough framing of all the walls is now complete

We used recycled windows for all of the side walls and did a lean-to style against the south wall of the house.   We did not permanently attach it to the house except for 2 screws so that we didn't need a building permit to do it.   We also had a really dry, somewhat warm winter last year which enabled us to spend time outside building.  This year that would've been impossible with nearly 8 inches of snow on the ground for over a month now.

      I'm not too concerned with things being perfect, so long as they last and are functional.   That being said, there are several things we really did wrong on this project.   We did alot of things backwards, and considering we've never really taken on this big of a building project, that is probably pretty normal.   We purchased most of the windows (Double pane) first from the Habitat for Humanity RE-Store where they sell off old building products that are either donated or taken out of homes they rebuild.
      That part was actually pretty cool because we got a killer deal.  The day we showed up they were having a 50% off sale and we paid around $20 a peice for most of the windows which ended up being a big blessing since the 4 or 5 that we still needed cost us an arm and a leg.   We had to check all the glass company boneyards and most of the windows were new, just sized incorrectly for projects so they were still pretty expensive.
     After we had most of the windows, I did a sort of blueprint of each wall sketching in where each of the windows we had bought would fit and determining what was left that we needed.

Left hubby and my oldest working on the roof.  Right, my little painter hard at work.  She really enjoyed doing the painting, and actually got quite a bit done.

 Here all 3 kids work together to attache the Polycarbonate Panels to a frame for the top portion of the roof closest to the house.

  

Left: The final framing for the roof is complete and we begin attaching panels.  The panels are sold at Home Depot in 2x12' lengths so we had to plan the supports on the roof accordingly.  We also sealed each panel with silicon as we attached it to the studs.

 Above right: The roof is complete and several windows have gone in.   The windows were actually alot easier to install than we thought.   And I was lucky enough to find a couple of sliders for ventilation.

 

Here is the mostly completed view from the right.  This is how it still pretty much looks.   We have done alot of foam sealing inside and around windows to help keep out the cold, as well as replaced the plastic you can see with wood and plexi- glass to finish those areas. As you can see we have a loose foundation of bricks and frame.  I would've done this differently personally but I tried to be quiet as hubby put everything together.  :-)

  

Here is the completed view from the left.   The doors were purchased at the Habitat store as well and are double pane glass.  Well they were at least until a rock from the trimmer we were using flew up and shattered the outer layer on this door.   But we will just watch for a replacement at Re-Store.  In the meantime we've taped a sheet of plastic inside to help insulate.

We still have alot to learn, but i still tomatoes producing since last summer.   We are having alot of trouble with whiteflies but I have been using an organic pesticide to help, and I will report back on that later as well.   We currently are running a space heater with an automatic thermostat so that when the sun heats up the greenhouse in the afternoons, its shuts off automatically.   I was amazed that even in the bitter cold temperatures we've had this year, the greenhouse never once went below freezing point.  The lowest it ever got was about 38º and that was only rarely.   We've actually kept it above 50º for the most part and much of the time we are above 60º F.   So I feel like it is a success at this point, I just have to get the bugs under control, and do better with starting some more potted tomatoes for next year.    I will also be starting seeds soon, and will go through my process for that as well.   I successfully grew all of last years garden starts from seed in the greenhouse shortly after we built it.

Please be sure to leave your comments and feedback below!  Those comments will be read and used to determine the direction of the blog!  Thank you for reading!