Seeing Green
Even though the snow still blankets the garden outside, I’m starting to see a little green in the house. Over the past week, I’ve been starting onions, celery, lettuce and herbs. I’m already seeing the fruits of my labor, I’m noticing more and more green every time I check on the seeds.
One think you will notice is that the fresher the seed the quicker it germinates. That’s one reason to use up your seed and pay attention to the self life of the seeds you have. Here’a a handy chart if you need one.
Along with the onion seeds in flats, I started lettuce in some large planters. It’s germinating nicely and should be producing a few salads for our plats in a few weeks.
The cats are also enjoying some greens, every week I plant them a new container of wheat grass. Soon enough, the chickens and ducks will be enjoying the same thing. I’m in the process of starting large flats of wheat for them.
Do you have any green sprouts in your house yet?
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Why I Keep Reading
Why do I continually read gardening books even though I’m fairly knowledgeable on the subject? Because every now and then I come across a gem like this:
“Another unique use of cover crops is in the strawberry bed. Recent research has shown that after fruiting, June-bearing strawberry plants are very tolerant of shade. A cover crop–of oats, for example–sown right in the strawberry bed after the berries have been gathered can shade out weeds through the growing season, then eventually flop down dead to provide the mulch in which strawberry plants thrive.”
Lee Reich – from Weedless Gardening
The section on cover crops in this book is fantastic. Since it’s a no-till garden book, he focuses on the cover crops that are easy to kill without tilling in. In fact the cover crop chart in this book is fenomenal, worth ready the book for. The remainder of the book wasn’t anything too exciting.
I’ve always had good luck with rye and vetch, I simply cut them in the late spring and let the foliage compost on the ground. I’ve never had issues with it growing back or causing problems. This year I’m looking forward to trying a few new cover crops, no doubt you’ll be reading all about them here.
What’s your favorite cover crop? Or have you never used them before?
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Cultivate Simple 20: Sugar Me Maple
Topic: Maple Sugaring
Maple sugaring is fun – everyone should do it at least once. Listen to find out how we sugar on a small scale and learn from a few of our mistakes. Also check out all posts from the past on the blog.
Brian’s Geeky Corner
Use Evernote to organize your information
Other Links
Blood Oranges from Trethowan Farm
Here’s an article on using mushrooms to mitigate lead issues
Books of the Week
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:32:09 — 64.0MB)
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Quote of the Day: Josh Kilmer-Purcell
I’d been selfish. I hadn’t yet realized that the true goal of organic farming wasn’t harvesting crops in spite of bugs, pests and predators. It was about harvesting crops alongside of them. It was about planting more than the amount we need. And it was about making sure there was enough extra to go around for everything that made it’s home on the farm. For every sparrow I’d killed in the netting on my cherry tree, there would be millions of fewer seeds spread over the fields from their droppings and millions of uneaten bugs, which would in turn attack our vegetable garden. We’d be paying for our unblemished cherries in some way or another for the rest of the season. Sure, we hadn’t sprayed chemicals all over the cherries. But we’d been just as deadly.
Josh Kilmer-Purcell (The Bucolic Plague: How Two Manhattanites Became Gentlemen Farmers)
When I read this book, this quote really resonated with me because of my stance on dealing with insects in the garden. You can read more about my methods and ideals for “pest” control in the post titled: Empty Shelves. I’d like to encourage you this gardening season to be proactive rather reactive when it comes to controlling pests.
Put up a bird feeder, add a garden pond or small water feature, plant lots of plants that attract pollinators, add a few extra plants to share with nature. Realize that every action you take in the garden will have far reaching consequences, generally the opposite of what you were hoping for.
Birds will be one of your greatest allies in the garden, anything you can do to attract and keep them will be of great benefit to your garden. Hummingbirds eat thousands of mosquitos, chickens eat loads of insects as do ducks. If you can have chickens and ducks, consider adding them. If not, put up a birdfeeder and a birdbath, plant things for our feathered friends and watch in amazement at how important of a garden partner they can be. I wrote and entire series on attracting birds to the garden for the Your Day Blog: For Our Feathered Friends.
In what ways do you think you are proactive instead of reactive when it comes to garden pests/problems?
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The Early Bird…
On Tuesday of this week, my eyes popped open at 4 am. After laying in bed for 15 minutes or so, I knew sleep was a lost cause for that morning.
Cup of coffee in hand, I started sorting through my seeds to get things going. I put off starting my January seeds because of our trip to Colombia, which means I’m a bit behind.
What did I start? Two different kinds of celery (Tendercrisp and Tall Utah) and 4 flats of various onions, including: Copra, Ailsa Craig, Brown Australian, Stuttgarter and a few more.
Waking up early isn’t a rare occasion, I’m a bit of an insomniac at times. Thankfully, I’m used to it so I’m able to accomplish a lot even with little sleep. Soon enough, we’ll be getting up at 5 am every day to make sure we get all of our work finished.
Do you ever wake up really early? What do you usually do?
