Spring Has Sprung!

It's finally here... Spring!

As I sit here, listening to the sounds of the upland chorus frogs as the night settles in and a cool breeze blows, I am reflecting on the beginning of Spring.

We had some strong storms come through last night, the chickens are laying like they should and gardens and projects begin.

A few days ago, our youngest son spent the better part of a day helping to create a three-sister's garden (corn-beans and squash) by prepping the ground and making 25 mounds for us to begin to plant.

This week we built a vertical strawberry planter and are in the process of editing the video of it. The planter is made with pieces from an old crate and milk jugs.

Today, we mulched our three sisters garden of which corn was planted this week.

We'll be laying some mulch and planting some more in the next few days.

Spring is definitely here!

Busy Weekend

It's been a busy weekend here. I had the chance to see my oldest daughter play rugby. Boy is she good at it! I also had the chance to take an "Eating from the Winter Woods" wild edibles class. Finally,  we placed an order with Baker Creek Heirloom Seed Company for some amaranth and parsnips that will be added to our regular garden this year.

God is good!

Grandpa's Justice

Grandpa's Justice is a story written by Tom Kovach. I originally read the article in Backwoods Home Magazine. I wanted to share it as a great example of what having a purpose can do for an individual.

Having the best vegetable garden in the village might put food on the table and make some money at the market, but it also can cause some problems. Or so it was with my grandfather, the mayor of a small village in Hungary, then a part of the Austrian-Hungarian Empire.

My father told me Grandfather grew some of the best potatoes, cabbage, and carrots in the area. But one summer he ran into problems. Someone was stealing his produce. Not just stealing it, but also digging some of the plants up and leaving them to spoil.

Besides his huge vegetable garden, my grandfather had the duties of mayor, taking care of local disputes and such. He also had some cows, horses, and hay fields to care for. My grandmother helped and so did some of the children who were older, but for the most part the work fell on my grandfather and he was none too pleased to see his hard work being ruined by thieves and vandals.

One of the people taking vegetables was an old man who lived in a little shack and no means of support, other than odd jobs. What little money he made, he spent on drink. My father did not begrudge him the few vegetables he took, but he felt bad that the old man was spending the money he made from the vegetable garden on liquor.
He also knew that the old man was not a vandal. He took whatever vegetables he got out of the garden to either eat or sell. Someone else was tearing up the garden.

He got an idea. One day he told my grandmother, "I think I'll hire the old man who's taking my vegetables as a night watchman for our garden. I'm too busy to stay up watching it."

My grandmother shook her head, "But can we afford it?"

"I won't pay him too much. And what we save from his keeping our vegetables from being taken or ruined will more than make up for what I pay him."

My grandmother agreed. "And maybe a job will change him."

My grandfather smiled, "That's what I was thinking. In fact I think this will work out very well."

When he first approached the old man about a job watching the vegetable garden, his eyes got big and he looked frightened. No doubt he was afraid my grandfather knew he was taking some of the vegetables. But he agreed to the job.

The very first night on the job the old man caught the ones who were ripping up the garden. They were two young boys whose father had died in war and were being raised by their widowed mother. They were an unruly lot and not much older than my father. My grandfather felt sorry for them but knew that he must do something. Not only were they wrecking his garden but, since he was mayor, he must also mete out some sort of justice.
"I'll tell you what," he told the two wild brothers, "I will show you how hard it is to grow a nice, big garden, but I will also show you how enjoyable it can be."

The boys had no choice but to work in grandfather's garden. But he also taught them how to garden. How to plant the seeds, how to carefully water everything. He even taught them how to care for fruit trees.

At first the boys were angry and spiteful. But they changed their minds when grandfather also paid them a small amount for their labors. Then he let them take fruit and vegetables home to their widowed mother. Soon the boys were anxious to come to work. They felt proud of what they were learning and my grandfather took his mules over to their mother's small plot of land and helped them plant their own garden.

Meanwhile, the old man my grandfather had hired to watch over the garden was still on the job. Now that he had to "work" at night, he did not care to drink so much during the day. And, as with the two boys, my grandfather gave the old man produce to take home each day for his own use. And a change came over him. He started to feel proud that he had a job and he started to take care of himself. In fact, he took some of the money my grandfather paid him and bought himself a new white shirt. The next Sunday he showed up in church, clean-shaven, with his new shirt proudly buttoned up, and he was sober.

With the boys helping him in the garden, my grandfather made the garden even bigger, thereby having more vegetables to sell and therefore having more money from the sale of the produce. With this he helped the boys buy seed and fruit trees for their own lot. Before long they were doing very well in their own garden and selling produce to help their widowed mother.

With the extra money my grandfather decided to fix up a nice clean room in one of his outbuildings where the old man could live safely and comfortably. He still paid him to work for him, but by now he didn't need a night watchman for the garden. Instead he paid him for odd jobs so that he could always have some of his own money.
He began eating his meals with my grandfather and grandmother and their family. In fact he stayed with them until he passed away. He also gave up drinking for good.

So with just a few extra cents, my grandfather helped the two boys and the old man help themselves, and he changed the lives of a lot of people including my grandfather's and my father's, who told the story to me.

I hope that you enjoyed the story.

Tesing Your Soil (On The Cheap)

When gardening, you soon learn that certain plants do better when the soil is either more acidic or alkaline in nature.

Here is a cool little trick/technique that you could use to determine your soils acidity.

1. Scoop some soil into a container. 
2. Add a half-cup of vinegar. If the soil bubbles or fizzes, it's alkaline.
3. If there's no reaction, scoop a fresh soil sample into a second container
4. Add a half-cup of water and mix. Then, add a half-cup of baking soda. If the soil bubbles or fizzes the soil is highly acidic.
5. Amend your soil with wood ash or lime, if it's acidic. Amend your soil with sulfur or pine needles, if it's alkaline.

Minor variations in soil don;t matter much, but if you get a big result, then something is not right and your soil will have to be amended.

Planting Onions

Recently, I came across this article about onions, which informs me that growing onions is easier that I think. Well, that's good, because I've never had much success with them in the past, but am looking forward to trying again this year.

So far, I've tried growing sets, which are immature bulbs grown the previous year, but either seem to have lack of grown or the sets just die in the ground.  I am going to be taking the information in this article and give it another go.

I hope that your gardens are successful this year!


http://www.organicgardening.com/learn-and-grow/onions-growing-guide?cm_mmc=facebook-_-OrganicGardening-_-Content-LearnGrow-_-onions

Mini Indoor Greenhouse

 This is an article on how to build a mini  indoor greenhouse inexpensively that will help increase your growing season.

I originally found this idea over at The Survival Podcast . It is such a great idea in order to get a jump start on your planting.





You will need:

• 1 - An under-the-bed storage container from Wal-Mart (or any where)
• 4 - threaded rods
• 12 - nuts (same diameter as the threaded rods)
• 8 - fender washers
• 1 - piece of scrap wood
• 4 - 2" lid bolts (size depends on how thick the scrap wood is)
• 4 - lid nuts (to match the bolts above)
• 4 - plastic acorn nuts (for the bottom of the threaded rods)
• A drill and drill bit that is a little bigger than the diameter of the threaded rods
• 2 - 2' grow lights

Lid Instructions

1. Cut the scrap wood to fit the width of the lid. You will need two pieces, one for each end of the lid.
2. Use two of the 2" lid bolts to attach the scrap wood to each end of the lid, being careful to leave room so the lid can snap when not in use.
3. Install the nuts that match the (scrap wood/lid) bolts so as to leave a 1/2" sticking up. These will be used to attach the lights later.
4. Install the wood to the lid, securing the bolts to the lid with the other lid nuts. Cut of any remaining bolts from the top of the lid.
5. Attach the lights to the lid, by sliding them over the bolt heads, locking them in place.

Body Instructions

1. Carefully drill a hole towards each corner of the body (lower part of the storage container), making sure that the holes will align with the wood cross pieces attached to the lid.
2. Insert the threaded rods through the holes in the bottom of the storage tote, making sure that there is a washer and nut on each side of the body. The washers will make sure that the body of the mini-greenhouse won't crack. Still, when tightening the nuts, do not over tighten.
3. Attach the acorn nuts to the bottom of the threaded rods. This will keep the greenhouse from scratching any table that it is placed on.
4. Install four nuts midway down the threaded rods and follow then with the last four of the fender washers. These will support the lid.
5. Match the threaded rods with the wood on the lid, marking them to drill
6. Drill a hole through each marked spot on the wood. Drill through the wood and lid.
7. Adjust the height as needed by moving the nuts (and washers) up or down the threaded walls.
8. Plug in the lights and you are ready to go!

3 Sisters Garden

When looking at trying to make our garden more productive, we learned about a method of companion planting called a 3 sisters garden that I believe came from the Native Americans.

 

The 3 Sisters Garden is a grouping (I guess that pairing isn’t the right word here) of corn, beans and squash. They all compliment each other in a symbiotic relationship. The corn provides a natural structure for the beans to climb on. The beans “fix” nitrogen on their roots, improving the overall fertility of area. The beans also help stabilize the corn so that they are less vulnerable to blowing over in the wind. Squash vines, which are shallow rooted, help to retain water in the soil as well as shade out any weeds that may come along. 

Corn, beans and squash also complement each other nutritionally. The corn provides carbohydrates, the dried beans are rich in protein and the squash contains.

 

In addition, after harvest, all of this can be mulched to improve the soil for next year. 

When you plan this out, this garden has to be planted in full sun.

Below is the layout for the mounds and the corn placement. We'll then look at how the rest of the garden is laid out.

 

 

To plant corn, you first make 18” diameter mounds (with flattened tops), each one 5 feet apart from the previous one. You then plant the corn in a 6” square with each corn plant in the middle of the line of the square. See figures.

Allow the corn to grow by itself until it is 4” high. Now, weed the area and plant the beans and squash. The beans should be planted on the corners of each square as shown below.

Following planting the beans, plant the squash by creating 18” mounds in the middle of the corn and bean mounds. Plant 3 squash seeds in a 4” x 4” x 4” triangle in the center of the mound. Later you will have to thin the squash to 2 plants.

The varieties that we’ve used have been Silver Queen corn, Kentucky Wonder Pole Beans and Summer Squash.

This was our first attempt at planting this type of garden and in spite of that, it turned out wonderfully!

I hope that this helps you with your 3 sisters garden.