Raised Beds | The Organic Sister

March’s Garden Update

March 30, 2009 By TheOrganicSister 15 Comments

The weather has fluctuated so much over the past few weeks, none of our plants seem to know what to think. We’ve had highs of 85 and lows of 43. The wind has been hellacious several times this month, including yesterday and today, leaving much of our yard a mess and several damaged plants (mostly snapdragon’s and broccoli).

The spinach I planted last month is very healthy and getting bushier every day. We harvested some for sandwiches the other night. The broccoli is rather pathetic and struggles with the fluctuating temperatures. The bottom inch of some of the stems dried out after transplanting, leaving them fairly brittle and susceptible to the high winds (up to 50 mph yesterday!). They are still growing and are about 7-8 inches tall (the tallest ones are the ones with brittle stems…??) but I’m certain I won’t get anything other than their greens before they finally bolt. I’m looking forward to trying these again in the fall and overwintering them. I’ll direct sow them in hopes they won’t become brittle near the soil line again. I don’t know what caused that or why it only caused it in some of them.

Our sunflowers are coming up. It took nearly two weeks for most of them to sprout. Even though the temps were warm enough, the current position of the sun keeps our yard shaded for much of the day, so the soil temps didn’t get as warm as quickly. We also have one bush bean coming up and several of something that could be a weed or could be alyssum. I really need to add photos of each of my plants in various stages to my (newly created) garden book.

This also sprouted recently. I have no idea what it is but since it doesn’t look like a weed, we’re letting it grow for now. Any guesses?

In the front yard and hopefully working on coming up is: nasturtiums, marigold, Scarlet Emperor runner beans, Yard Long pole beans, Tendergreen bush beans, German Chamomile, Japenese Hullless Popcorn, Straight Eight and Snow’s Fancy Pickling cucumbers, California black-eyed peas, sunflowers (Mammoth, Big Head, Funky, Ornamental Mix), and Rouge Vif D’Etampes and Howden pumpkins. We have a bunch more to plant but I’m waiting until I see things come up and fill in before confusing myself further. Note to self: Use plant markers.

Our fruit trees are mostly covered in small leaves at this point. We’ve wrapped their trunks in cardboard for the time being while I debate the merits and risks of painting them white to protect from sunscald. These are the buds on the Fuji apple tree.

Of my indoor summer seedlings, the following germinated: 3 of 4 Pineapple tomatoes, 4 of 4 Jellybean tomatoes, 7 of 8 Amish Paste, 5 of 8 Brandywines,3 of 8 Mortgage Lifters, 3 of 8 Romas, 4 of 4 Jalapenos, 3 of 4 bell peppers, 1 of 4 Eggplant. ZERO of my strawberries germinated making me dislike this indoor seed starting mess even more.

Our irrigation hoses kept popping off their adaptors and wasting unmentionable amounts of water, so we used zip ties to hold them on. We’re still trying to adjust the watering times to the front yard. We either end up too dry too quickly or with water runoff on the sidewalk. The back yard (trees and raised beds) seem to be doing well, although the surface is drying too quickly to hope to start seeds outdoors in them. But I’m still determined to figure out a way to not start any more seeds indoors.

I’m soaking up garden updates where I can despite the fact that most other bloggers aren’t quite near planting yet (have one for me to read?). I can’t wait until I have some really exciting photos to share – like a front yard that shows more than dirt, or a Boston Ivy creeping up my column. Or lots and lots of food.

Will this wind ever stop?

Filed Under: Organic Living Tagged With: Backyard Orchard, food not lawns, garden update, locavore, Raised Beds, seeds

Fungus and Bees

March 19, 2009 By TheOrganicSister 2 Comments

I found plenty of these little mushrooms this morning. They popped up overnight, mostly around emitters in my irrigation lines. Only on the far right and a few on the middle row of my E-shaped raised bed (ironically the sides that get the most sun and dry the quickest). I’m still trying to find out what they are and what I should do about them…anyone know?

And this little guy was seen at my grandma’s house. I took it for my mom who is collecting photos of beneficials to frame. Those are my grandma’s Grape Hyacinths. Being at GG’s made me realize how many more flowers and “pretties” I need in my yard – for pollination and just cuz! I really like this photo:

It has been pretty warm here – in the 70′s last week and into the low 80′s this week. Last Friday we planted some seeds in the ground – a couple varieties of sunflowers (one of them a funky kind received from another blogger), alyssum and chamomile. This weekend we’ll direct sow the following: corn, bush beans, cucumbers, black-eyed peas, onions, oregano, thyme, white clover, pumpkins, and squash (zucchini and crookneck). We’re going to hold off on our melons for a bit longer until nighttime temps are a little warmer (no later than April though) and I’ll plant our pole beans when our corn has had time to get a head start.

The aphids have mostly been devoured from our bush in the front yard, thus most of our ladybugs have traveled on. I’m squishing aphids on my broccoli almost every day but usually very few – none on my spinach. My broccoli is about 6-7 inches but with temps so high I may not get anything but greens from them. Some of my spinach is close to the size I’ll begin to harvest but not all. I’m looking forward to restarting these in the fall and overwintering them.

Oh and we have one tortoise out of hibernation! I’ll try to get photos once I get his weight/length and compare it to our chart from last year. He looks bigger!

Filed Under: Organic Living Tagged With: food not lawns, Irrigation, locavore, Raised Beds, seeds

Mulch It Like It’s Hot

March 10, 2009 By TheOrganicSister 4 Comments

We went out to the Master Gardener’s Orchard for the first time today. (For Vegas folks, it’s about as far north as you can go on Decatur.) They have more than just fruit trees out there and it was very cool to see their setup. They used raised beds as well, although it’s mounded instead of framed.

I noticed their irrigation lines are much closer than in our raised beds. I’ve been experimenting with bamboo BBQ skewers to test the moisture in our beds and I think we’ll be adding more line to it soon. The coil lines in the front yard are working great though.

We scoped out their huge variety of fruit trees (how are they growing bing cherries in this climate??) and large array of grape vines. They also keep several hives of bees, something I’ve only just began to pay attention to – it’s not something I can see us doing in this house, but maybe once we move? I was very excited to see they have high-density fruit trees planted! Their trees are actually planted closer than ours so I feel pretty good about our arrangement now.

But the real reason we went was the free mulch they offer. Because of our harsh sun, mulch is a serious must to prevent excessive water usage/evaporation. Anyone in need can pull up outside the gate at any time and load up. Can you believe we’ve actually paid for mulch before we knew of this? With one truckload we mulched all eight of our fruit trees, as well as the paths through the front yard. We will probably go back soon in order to mulch the ash tree in the backyard.

In this picture you can see where we laid down mulch, as well as the cardboard we’re wrapping around the trunks to prevent sunscald. I’m not sure if I’ll stick with the cardboard or if I’ll paint the trunks white like they do at the orchard – would using non-VOC paint still work or would it still be pretty toxic?

It feels so good to see such progress happening in my yard after what seems like so long having the ugliest yard on the block.

Okay, I’m heading toward the kitchen with a bottle of local wine. Wish me luck with this thing called dinner.

(If you’re needing some spring inspiration, you can check out a few other orchard photos here. Just looking out for my Northern friends. )

Filed Under: Organic Living, Organic Tribes Tagged With: Backyard Orchard, community, food not lawns, Irrigation, locavore, Raised Beds, seeds

Carrots! Finally!

March 5, 2009 By TheOrganicSister 11 Comments

Justin and I were outside talking over yard plans and inspecting the sad shape of our grapevine (if you can call it that anymore). I was telling him we need to move the 2×2 SFG boxes out of the tortoise habitat and we were trying to figure out what to do with them when I decided the dang carrots that have been growing in their box for nearly a year needed to just be pulled already. Last I checked them they were about an inch across but only an inch long (NO they are not thumbelinas!) and I was tired of waiting and watering. To heck with them! So I yanked.

Sweet heavenly goodness, they’ve grown! I feel a bit like a dolt for not leaving them be now and seeing how much bigger they would have gotten – although some were ready to touch bottom soon anyway. Did you know carrots are actually biennials? Meaning they can be left in the ground and around two years they will finally go to seed. But most of us tend to yank after a few months to a year. Wonder how much bigger could they have gotten in another year?

Was it crazy of me to take them to my mom’s and grandmother’s house instead of eat them ourselves? I don’t think so. I realized something – I’m not a big carrot person. So I wasn’t exactly eager to have more than the store-bought bunch that are already going bad in my fridge. Zeb sometimes eats them. I use them in soup or stew. Sometimes I’ll grate them for salads. Apparently I need to learn to make carrot cake, because my silly butt bought a bunch more carrot seeds for this year. I think my anti-carrot epiphany came after that purchase. Plus I got multi-colored ones and that’s just fun.

Plus, it felt so good giving them away. It felt…warm and…I don’t know how to explain it. It just made me so happy to give something I’ve put so much of my time energy water into growing in my own backyard to someone I love. I can’t wait to do more of that.

Did you see the yummy soil in that box? I think I was just as excited over it as I was the splash of orange on top. So brown and crumbly – it smelled wonderful! It was mediocre store soil we got last year to fill the boxes but it’s been amended a couple times with compost and was mulched over the winter with dried leaves. There is nothing more fun than pulling back mulch and finding real SOIL underneath. More real than the state I left it in, anyway. I was so happy to get my hands dirty in it. So very happy.

P.S. Can these count for Green Week, too?

Filed Under: Organic Living Tagged With: food not lawns, locavore, Raised Beds, seeds, veggies

I heart dirt

February 21, 2009 By TheOrganicSister 8 Comments

Can you blame me for tossing the spade aside and digging with my fingers? Can you blame me for 689248 photos taken of my precious seedlings, now firmly planted in the raised bed?

Can you blame me for the giddy feeling that came over me when I found tiny little buds on my fruit trees? Can you blame me for 298457 more photos of their happy little faces peeping up at me?