First Sweet Potato

2 1/4 pounds!

Potatoes and Peas are in

The garden section planting began yesterday.  This is the area we recently cleared and the pigs grazed on last year.  They did a good job cleaning up invasive plants.  Tilling was very smooth and the bedding and manure from the animals left a rich soil behind. Potatoes, Peas and early crops are going in this spot.

Last week we finished burning the brush from the two large pine trees that were overhanging this spot and the Russian olives that had overtaken the area.  The coals and ash were spread out before tilling, which should be a beneficial additive to for the potatoes.

The Potatoes were the first priority to get in the ground.  They've been greening up for about three weeks to break dormancy and stimulate the growth of sprouts before they go in the ground.  The varieties we're planting this year are:

• Kennebec
• Yukon Gold
• Irish Cobbler
• Adirondack Red
• Adirondack Blue
• Red Pontiac

Two 50' rows of Wando Peas  went in to the right of the potatoes.  It's very tempting to companion plant in between the potato rows, but last year the dense planting strategy ended up being very difficult to maintain and we're going to keep things spread out and mulched this year.

38 Pounds of Seed Potatoesaa

We're starting this next stretch under row cover with six foot metal hoops for frost and pest protection.  The furrower attachment on the tiller was used to clear the trench for the hoops and spread out the dirt for laying on the fabric to secure it.  A variety of early vegetables will go in this spot.

Seed Starting

The seed flats are starting to really spread out.  Last count we're up to 21 trays that we've reasonably timed for placing outside, not including the six varieties of Potatoes we're greening up before planting next week.  This is the most prepared we've ever been for the garden and I'm hoping we can produce a larger yield to share with friends and family with less routine maintenance.  We're also using Quick Hoops for the first time, which will really give us a boost with an early start from frost protection and later on significant pest control.  Last year we lost 75% of the squash and melon plants due to squash beetles, which the row covers should help with.

The peppers we started in late December didn't germinate well, so I have a fresh batch I'm trying before I break down and buy plants from the store.  The quick hoop bender and row cover arrived this week as well, so the planting is about to begin.  Last year was a bit of an anomaly with the last frost on May 15, but I'm planning on May 1 as the safe frost free date.

Seed flats with southwest exposure

Years ago I read about soil blocking in Eliot Coleman's "The New Organic Grower" and I purchased a micro and a medium blocker this year.  I'm really enjoying this process over using plastic pots.  It's much more flexible and there's far less plastic waste.

Soil Blockers

The micro blocker is really neat because it sets 20 3/4" blocks in a group, fitting 300 blocks in a single tray.  That's a lot of seeds on small real estate and I'm testing several varieties inside that I would ordinarily sow outside, which should help out a ton with weed control.  Last year I tilled in the entire parsnip crop because the weeds took over so badly.  Giving the crop a head start makes a huge difference.

300 spots for Lettuce, Tomatoes, Broccoli and Cauliflower

I was a little hesitant with the micro blocks because you simply drop the seed on top of the tiny little piece of dirt and I wasn't sure how germination would go.  So far I'm very encouraged and the only issue I've run into is the cat walking through the seed flats and making a general mess.  The turnips are sprouting after only three or four days and I'm delighted that I can get them in the ground properly spaced and mulched all in one shot.

Pigatiller

A couple weeks ago I set some of the Ossabaw Island Pigs loose on the garden. Pigs are natural rooters and we've been using them to help prep the garden for spring for the last two years. They turn over the first couple inches looking for roots, grubs and other foods - natural rototillers; or Pigatillers.  The leftover plant material from the previous year and the early spring weeds get turned over while I'm inside keeping warm.  They also leave wonderful fertilizer in their wake, which is much easier than spreading it yourself.

In this picture you can see the early weeds sprouting to the right and the fresh look under the pigs.  Since all but the top couple inches are turned over in this process, it is very good approach for maintaining the subsoil structure that is so helpful in long term soil health.  Tilling down six inches is pretty damaging to the worms and other beneficial creatures in the earth.

The final benefit is the pigs dig to the last inch in the garden.  Running a heavy duty tiller along a fence line is nerve racking and I've had more than a couple rough moments when the tines get caught in the wire on a tight turn.  The pigs are much more thorough and I don't need to worry about fence repair or untangling the tiller tines.

The main issue with using the pigs in the garden is keeping them in too long.  Once they've turned over the soil, their running around compacts the earth and you need to go back in to till it up for planting, which offsets some of the benefits.  This year, we're planning to keep them on a short leash and move them out while the soil is still fluffy.

Getting the Garden in Gear

The first peppers are sprouting!  This is my (new) early warning system to get moving on the rest of the garden plans.  Peppers are one of the most frustrating plants to start from seed.  The garden shops make it seem easy when you pick up a six pack of young plants (like they just jump out of the potting soil), but there are few things as dull as waiting the six to eight weeks to watch a pepper plant sprout.  I usually wait a little too long in the season to get the seed flats started and then get overexcited and plant a whole bunch of vegetables at once, and of course everything takes off except the peppers.  By the time they are ready to harden outside the sun scorches them to nothing.

Early Jalapeños

This year I got the jump and started them on New Year's weekend.  I figured it would be mid to late March by the time they were nice and leafy.  The row covers (and maybe hoop-house) should provide the freeze protection for the plants at that stage.  Now I just need to get the orders in for the covers and the rest of the seeds, start the rest of the early plants, rotate the pigs to till the garden, etc......

72 Pepper Plants?

Now what would I need with 72 pepper plants and 12 varieties?  What not is the better question.  They make you smile, drool, wince, cry, burn, sweat, and scream.  The hot ones are also good for bug control aside from awesome Salsa (check out my natural bug spray recipe).  They're going to be beautiful with the 72 tomato plants that I'll be starting in the next couple weeks.

Take note of my new labeling system.  It's from plastic pipe hanger.  I had a 100' roll lying around that cost a couple bucks - a whole lot cheaper than the arrow planter labels that cost a couple buck / dozen and always seem to disappear.  So far the sharpie ink is holding up well and I haven't noticed any fading.  Now I need an inexpensive outside labeling system that can hold up to sun bleaching.  Ideas appreciated.

Natural Bug Spray

Here's the recipe for the spray I used in the garden and orchard this year.  I combined a few recipes off the internet and composed my own concoction on a torn up scrap of paper, so it's time to document it properly for next year before I lose it.  It seemed to work reasonably well as the bugs didn't pose much of a problem until I stopped using it.  As it was my first year raising bees I was concerned about spraying at all, but when I stopped, the bugs really picked up.

6 Cloves Garlic

1 Onion

1-3 Hot Peppers, depending on size & heat

1 Tbs Liquid Soap

1 Tbs Vinegar

1 Tbs Baking Soda

Water

Mix the Garlic, Pepper & Onion in a food processor with enough water to make a thin slurry.  Transfer the mix to a bowl or 1 quart canning jar and let sit overnight.  The next day, pour through cheesecloth or a fine strainer into 2 gallon sprayer, fill the container to the 2 gallon mark and add the remaining ingredients.  When filling the container, run the water over the vegetable mix to capture more of the flavor.  Give it a good shake and it's ready to use.  

The best time to spray is early morning after the dew has evaporated a bit.  I also spray some in the evenings as that can be a pretty busy time for bugs.  The nice thing about this spray is it makes your garden smell like an Italian kitchen.

Vegetable Garden Journal - First Entry

I promised myself when I started the garden this year that I would keep a journal to keep track of what works and doesn't work for us.  Of course that didn't happen as I'd hoped now that it's mid October I'm just sitting down to my first entry.  Hopefully I can remember enough to apply a lot of what we learned this year to next year.  I hate repeating mistakes.  In this entry I'll focus on the infrastructure of the garden.

Bed Preparation

Last Fall I rotated the pigs and goats into the garden area and a number of chickens moved in with them of their own accord.  They did an amazing job of cleaning out the previous garden and the pigs tilled the entire area.  I did leave them in too long and the space ended up getting very packed, which made it hard to get a tiller very deep.  I also suspect that the worms had their work cut out for them in the spring.  After three passes with the tiller there were spots that were clumpy, but most of the garden ended up nice and fluffy.  Next year I think I'll rotate the pigs around smaller sections of the garden more frequently so they aren't in one spot too long to pack down the dirt.

We also had the pigs till up a patch of lawn to extend the garden size and then fenced in the entire area (Thanks Jim).  It's really amazing to see them go to work.  This about doubled the garden size and the fencing did a good job keeping the chickens out during the year.   One issue with the new area is that the grass came back with a vengeance and made for some difficult weeding throughout the year.   Hopefully this will be easier to manage next year. 

New Garden Thanks to the Pigs

Garden Zones & Companion Planting

I'm a big fan of companion planting - in theory.  This is the practice of grouping plants together to create complementary growth characteristics from a physical or biological perspective.  For example, growing corn, squash and beans together is a powerful combination because the corn provides a stalk for the beans to grow on, the beans free up minerals in the soil for the corn and squash to use and the squash blocks out the sunlight and resulting weeds.  I personally haven't had much success with this however and the close spacing of the plants ends up meaning a more difficult weeding job, which means more work and less help from the family.  I've also noticed that the squash did much better in full sunlight rather than shaded by the corn stalks.

The setup I'd like to try next year is to group the garden into zones based on management techniques.  Rather than mix the peas and turnips together or plant the pumpkins between the rows of corn, I'll setup distinct areas for each type of crop.  The basic areas would be Corn Field(s), Potatoes,  Root Vegetables, Cabbage & Greens, Tomatoes & Peppers, etc.  This approach should also allow for better management of secondary crops in certain areas, such as a second planting over the turnip area.  I can also space out the rows a bit more to make weeding easier and get a tiller through when the area is done.

Mulch

Last year I got a couple truckloads full of mulch from the county and covered a good portion of the garden.  This did wonders for controlling the weeds.  In the back of my mind I had concerns about what was in the mulch, particularly after pulling out Christmas ornaments, tinsel, shredded clothing, plastic and other unknown trash (not to mention the likelihood of chemicals).  This year I skipped the mulch because I couldn't get past the garbage aspect of free mulch and didn't want to spend the money on several truckloads of commercial mulch, but ended up with a weeding nightmare. 

For next year, I've decided to make as much mulch as I possibly can from our property.  We harvest our own firewood and have been clearing out the brush in the woods, so there's plenty of material, but it is a time intensive project.  If I can figure out a more efficient system for this I'll be sure to post about it.

Seedlings

I started a lot of seedlings in the garage workshop this year.  As a matter of fact, the majority of the garden was planted from seed rather than starter plants from the nursery, which is a real money saver.  Many of them did well, but it turns out the cold concrete floor stunted the germination on a number of plants.  Next year I'll move back up to the sunny hallway over the breezeway, which has recently been freed up from being the homeschooling hub.

The other tweak is to adjust the timing of the starter plants.  The peppers take forever to get started, so I think I'll start them on the Holiday break.  Then would come the cold hardy plants like Kohlrabi and spinach. Late March would be the time to start the warm weather plants.  The squashes and melons were nice to get going in flats, but I didn't notice much of a difference when it came to productivity.  The plants that were sown outside caught up and did just as well as the ones started inside.

It was also a funny year timing wise as we had our last frost on May 15 and by June 15 a we had a heat wave into the 100s and a drought was settling in.  This was a double whammy with our seedling flats.  I like to have the plants out to harden by April and a surprise May freeze was enough to kill off a lot of the starter plants.  I lost more when the 100 degree days dried out the flats.  This weather swing also had a negative impact on the cabbages and lettuces which ended up bitter and unproductive.

Irrigation

We had the worst drought this year since we started doing the garden.  We're also on a well, which means that at the time the plants need the water the most, we need to be the most conservative with our drinking water.  Because I travel a lot I need a relatively hands off way to water the plants.  I setup a water timer and hooked it up to impact sprinklers, which was great for the early growth in the summer.  The impact sprinklers had a difficult time delivering water as time progressed because the plants grew into the way.  I also noticed that they had a tendency to shoot most of the water over a center ring, creating a bulls eye effect where the middle and edge got wet but the zone in the middle didn't get much.  I much prefer the coverage of an oscillating sprinkler, but our garden is too big to get adequate coverage without more zones on the timer.  Setting up the garden zones differently should help with targeting areas that require more intense irrigation and then I can water drought tolerant crops sporadically.  Maybe next year will be the one to try out a drip irrigation system.