Shovel-ready blog

Well, there's been a flurry of activity over in my backyard, thanks in large part to an open weekend and lovely weather. I finally got to go out to enrich one swath of the back garden that's been neglected for a while - three bags of compost and three bags of manure, graciously spread for me by my awesome husband. Thanks, babe!

Add to that the planting of 150 sweet yellow onion sets, weeding approximately 225 square feet, deep-feeding the overwintered vegetables (which are doing great! more in another post soon), and planting radishes, daikons, shallots, leeks, Brussels sprouts, hamburg rooted parsley, and parnsips, and I'd call it a very productive afternoon in the garden.

BUT...I'm already seeing harlequin bugs, which frustrates me.

http://www.pbase.com/tmurray74/image/84867830

Seems a bit early...Also spotted two of the dreaded white "butterflies" that indicate cabbage worms to come. Perhaps our relatively mild winter was too mild!

http://web2.gov.mb.ca/agriculture/mwvr/viewreport.php?action=entire&issue=13&date=2005-08-19

In any case, I'll have to watch out for them this year. Last year they pretty much devastated my cole crops. The snails were also a problem and I've been saving and crushing my egg shells all winter to make a homegrown version of diatomaceous earth. Don't know if it will work, but it's worth a shot!

I am very pleased with how everything has overwintered so I'm excited to write more about that and include pictures...soon!

Sweet little sleeping seedies!

Well, all the little pepper-fellas but the red savinas from 2003 (which I predicted wouldn't sprout and so far haven't) are up and awake and stretching their little leaf hands up to the lights.

They're back! Peppers planted 1/23/09

I have a few that are still trying to outgrow their seed shell. You can see that in the picture above. If the shell is just hanging on to the edge of a leaf, it's not that big of a deal, but there are two that are mostly still contained in the seed shell, on top of a relatively long stalk. This is a problem because the seed leaves are pivotal to get the whole plant off the ground (so to speak). The first two leaves make enough plant juice for the rest to grow forth. If they break off, the plant is dead, nothing-doing. And it's sad to watch it go from a green, headless stalk to a withered up brown thing...In the past when I've tried to worry these off I've usually ended up messing up the plant, either breaking off the leaves all together or seriously clipping them. So I'm trying to resist doing that this year (like not picking at a sunburn!). I'm trying to keep the seed shell damp so that it'll be easier to outgrow and split.

You can also see my super-awesome, massively high-tech approach to lights. They're located on top of my refrigerator. On one side I put tacks in the wall and propped the lights on top of them. The other side balances on phone books. This way I can keep the lights as close to the plants as possible and move them up as needed. I've seen ingenious ways of doing this that involve carpentry and chains. This is my low-fi version! And hey, it works for one flat, so why not?

Today I planted my tomatoes. I want them to be a bit bigger than last year's by the time I plant them out (1st or 2nd week of April in these parts). After my super-fun seed swap with the Frau, I ended up with a variety of tomatoes for this year. I double planted each cell pack and will hopefully end up with the following:

Green Zebra (seed saved from last year; hugely, hugely productive!)
Pink Paul Robeson (I saved seed from a plant that went more pink than the rest and so tasty!)
Paul Robeson (ditto - last year's purchase from Baker Creek)
Black Zebra (New to me - THANK YOU, FRAU!)
Great White (New to me - THANK YOU, FRAU!)
Thessaloniki (free gift seed pack from BC)
Cuor di Bue (picked these up in Greece!)
Pink Israel (free gift seed pack from BC)
Big Month roma (this year's purchase from BC)
Opalka (last year's purchase from Pinetree)
Golden Queen (last year's purchase from Pintree)
Banana Legs (on clearance at Pinetree last year)
Cherokee Purple (I grew these five years ago and LOVED THEM - THANK YOU, FRAU!)

I also planted ground cherries due to the enthusiastic recommendations of my co-local gardener and oklavore. I'm excited to see what happens with them! I've never tried anything like them (fruit, berries, tomatillos, nada!). Hopefully I will get to make jam, too!

Happy planting!

Why choosing where you buy your seeds matters

Hello, hello!

It's garden-dreaming, seed-buying, row-sketching, and early planting time! If you haven't already bought your seeds, let me encourage you to read this article. It's very important to support the good guys when it comes to where your seed dollars go. Our food supply has been forced into exponential reduction in richness, quality, and diversity by a few, huge, deep-pocketed members of the agribusiness industry. At one point there were thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of varieties of vegetables and flowers. Now, most people are offered a few types which are largely specialized and barren hybrids, incapable of reproducing on their own. Instead of being able to save the seeds from these plants growers have to buy new seeds and plants each year. It makes great fiscal sense for the devious minds and moneyholders involved. It gives the average farmer the shaft, not to mention the dangerous ramifications involved when some of these seeds are genetically modified to produce their own pesticide or resist certain herbicides (which we're subsidizing, by the way). If you buy your seeds at your local garden center, chances are you're supporting that ecological genocide.

Diversity = complexity = richness = safety. You can find a treasure trove of gorgeous, safe, open-pollinated (ie "savable") seed stock from such modern seed heroes as Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds, The Seed Savers Exchange, Seeds of Change, Native Seeds, Pinetree, and the Sand Hill Preservation Center. Do you know of other good companies you'd recommend?

Please read the article and be thoughtful when you make your purchases. There are waaaaaaaaayyyyyyy better tomatoes than Better Boy and Early Girl. Go grow some heirlooms or open-pollinated varities and give Monsanto et al. the big, fat financial finger!

Pepper planting time!

(Clockwise from top left: red chile, Roberto's, ancho, aji limon, tabasco, green tomatoes, a lone late fall okra, anaheim, habanero)

2008 Pepper Report & 2009 Pepper Planting Mania!

Yes, it's early! But I wanted to get a jump start on my peppers this year, since the ones I grew from seed didn't really come into their production height until September/October. I'd planted those seeds toward the end of Feb last year and planted them out toward the end of April. It gets hot, hot, hot in Oklahoma and our first freeze wasn't until November 6. Most of the peppers hung on until November 20, though, with the help of frost blankets. Then everything except the over-wintering crops went down hard.

(Left corner: tabasco peppers; right corner: Hungarian wax. Also one Roberto's Cuban and one jalapeno)

This year, I planted 18 seed plugs with 2 seeds apiece, on Jan 24 (for the list, see the bottom of the post). I'm hoping that giving them an extra month will mean more peppers earlier in the season. The biggest of my home-seeded plants were producing well but the smaller guys had really just put on a bunch of peppers right before the first frost. The plants I bought were all big, bushy, and beautiful, producing extravagantly by August. So with that in mind, I bumped up my seeding date by about five weeks.

Last year I grew 11 varieties of seeds and 3 peppers from plants. Below are some notes...

(Clockwise from left corner: Hungarian wax (looks like a yellow finger), tabasco, cayenne, red bell, habanero, Anaheim)

Seeds
* Hot pepper mix (included jalapeno, cayenne, Hungarian wax, red cherry, & Anaheim): This was a Burpee's packet I bought from Lowe's. I double-planted 9 seed plugs and ended up with 1 jalapeno (did okay but got taken out early by some sort of disease that looked like anthracnose on its leaves), 1 cayenne (same story as the jalapeno), 3 or 4 Hungarian wax (these did well, showed disease tolerance, and produced about a dozen+ peppers per plant. I pickled these and they lasted about three-four months), and 3 or 4 Anaheim (one grew well from the beginning and was highly productive. The others were stragglers and had put on a bunch of peppers in Nov when it got cold. Good disease resistance). I didn't get any red cherries!

Pickled Hungarian wax peppers

* Roberto's Cuban Seasoning: Got this from Baker Creek but they haven't relisted it this year. It was described as a habanero-flavored, low-heat pepper, which it was. It was AWESOME!

(Roberto's Cuban Seasoning/Aji Dulce)

Baker Creek is carrying a new pepper called Red Mushroom that seems to bear a physical similarity to this pepper, except Roberto's wasn't hot or was only very, very mildly hot. I read an article in Gourmet (I think) over the summer that described a similar pepper called aji dulce, which is probably what Roberto's really is. Anyway, phylogeny aside, I planted 6 of these and three made it into the garden. One grew exceptionally well and early (saved seeds from this one), and the other two were in the straggling bunch that had just set well (although on smaller plants) when the first frost hit. Dommage!

* Lemon Drop (aji limon): From Pinetree. I bought these seeds because I tried one from the pepper lady at Pearl's Farm Mkt in Tulsa. The one she gave me actually did have a lemony accent. Mine had a lemon smell, but not much of a lemon flavor. And they were HOT! I planted four of these and two got planted out. One died. The other did really well, producing early and prolifically. I liked it and used it quite a bit (excellent minced with mashed chickpeas and garlic) but may try again for more lemon. The growing conditions and the fact that I only got to sample one plant may have affected the flavor. I saved seeds and still have 1/2 the packet, as well.

Accidental bliss - Gifts from the compost
* Red chile: This is the pretty red triangular pepper sold at the grocery store as a Red hot chile. Kinda generic name. I put them in chili and salsa and loads of stuff, so there are always tons of seeds in the compost. I don't know how many of these came up - probably three dozen or so! I let about half a dozen grow to maturity and they didn't disappoint. While not exceptionally prolific (they didn't get off to a start until June, maybe), they were reliable and lasted a long, long time, right up until the second hard freeze. Nice heat and disease resistance.

(red jalapeno, tabasco, red chile, Roberto's Cuban, Hungarian wax, the larger pepper at middle-right is an ancho)

* Ancho: Also from the compost and also grew slowly. The peppers were normal sized, not the monsters you see at the store. Good heat and good heat/cold tolerance; one of the last peppers to bite it! Like the red chiles they were somewhat spindly but they were only getting probably six hours of direct sunlight...




Plants
* Tabasco: Plant bought at Lowe's. This plant exploded on me. I ended up with hundreds, if not a thousand, tiny orangy-red peppers that were hot, hot, hot! I made tobasco sauce, froze them, dried them, and of course we ate them fresh. This plant was almost too productive and lasted until the bitter end.

* Habanero: Ditto. We had more habs than we could handle. Ate fresh, made sauce, pickled, dried, frozen. Very prolific and very, very hot! Also bought at Lowe's.

* Red Bell: Not very productive. I think we got four or five bells off this plant and they were mostly undersized. I think it got whatever foliage disease the jalapeno got. Also bought at Lowe's.

(tabasco, cayenne, jalapeno, Hunagarian wax, Roberto's Cuban, habanero)

I guess that completes the 2008 portion. For 2009 I'm focusing more on smaller sweet peppers since the larger ones seemed to have trouble in my micro-climate (which doesn't feature tons of all-day sunshine). I'll planted the following:

* 4 seeds from the Hot Mix - Burpees (Lowe's)
* Ashe County Pimento - Baker Creek
* Jimmy Nardello Italian (for frying or drying) - Baker Creek
* Italian pepperocini (mildly hot for pickling) - Baker Creek
* Leutschauer Paprika (medium hot for drying/grinding) - Baker Creek
* Pasilla Bajio (medium hot mole pepper) - Baker Creek
* Red Cheese pepper - Baker Creek
* Aji limon - Pinetree
* Aji dulce/Roberto's Cuban Seasoning - Baker Creek
* Red Savina Scotch Bonnet - these are from some peppers I grew and froze in 2003, so I kind of doubt they'll germinate...we'll see.

And there you have it! The pepper round-up and opening, in one go! The irony about writing this today, however, is that I'm only sitting at home due to being iced in for the second day in a row! So of course my thoughts turned toward warm soil and tasty, spicy peppers. Can't wait!

How does your (winter) garden grow?

After perusing the Frau's latest garden musings, I felt compelled to get my garden cap on. The seed books are coming out - and Baker Creek's is a piece of art this year! - and the garden jones is coming back slowly...

This is my first year to plant a fall/winter garden and I think I learned a few things...

1) Start earlier. Trust the planting dates. Even if it's 106 degrees outside. I started most of my stuff in mid-late September and it didn't have enough time to mature.

From what I gather the plants are supposed to be full size by the time it's cold, cold, cold. Call me dense, I'm just now putting this together. That way, the garden acts like a form of cold storage, keeping your (now dormant) carrots, parsnips, cabbages, turnips, etc. freshly bedded in a pile of leaves. Aha moment for me!

What I have, conversely, is about 20 mid-sized broccoli plants (the overwintering variety) who are hanging on quite well, a few smallish cabbages, some tiny parsnips, a bunch of lovely (and correctly cultured) prepubescent garlic, some fava beans that are putting up a helluva fight, some spinach and small kale plants, and some teeny, tiny leeks that will probably be the world's most all-weathered vegetables by the time this winter is over. Between two frost blankets, a tarp, and a few upside down planters acting as cloches, we're making it through. It got down to 10 degrees while we were away for the holidays, but everything seems to have pulled through (although the fava beans look like they need to be in the vegetal ICU).

So I'm hoping that all of my covering is not for want and that I'll be able to see these plantlings into the spring, at which point - I'm crossing my fingers here! - they'll pick up where they left off and produce me something or other...Or perhaps I'm in denial of biology, physics, and the earth's natural cycles and all I'll have to show for it is a bunch of deep green leaves. Either way, it's been a learning experience. (And I could probably survive on the deep green leaves if I needed to!) I will definitely have garlic, though. Hallelujah!

I tried something new with the broccoli this year, too. When I thinned it out, I replanted the 6-inch thinnings and all but one took. So no waste! Hopefully it will make it through the winter and give me some early spring broccoli shoots! The weather's been sunny and warm the past few days, so who knows...

I used the last of my fresh peppers yesterday when I made a big pot of black bean soup (very simple - just 1 lb beans, soaked and cooked with 2 diced onions, 4 garlic cloves, some chicken/vegetable stock, hot peppers to taste, served with hard-cooked eggs, green onions, and lemon juice. YUM!) The pepper plant didn't give up the ghost until early December, I think, when the garden went down hard (all the frost blankets in the world probably wouldn't have saved them!). I still have a few tired looking tomatoes that have ripened slowly since that time. And 10 or so butternut squash out in the garage. Not bad.

Still have yet to decide what to purchase/try this year. I still have a bunch of seed left over from last season plus all the seed I saved. Still though, I want to try some different hot peppers. I don't want as much okra. I'm going to try cowpeas over our fence (let them duke it out with the morning glories) since they last all the way through the major hot summers...Ah, garden dreams! I can't wait!

Hilarious - Now with the Sonic guy

In The Know: Should The Government Stop Dumping Money Into A Giant Hole?

Stolen from jedimomma.

Consuming thanks

One day post-Thanksgiving and I'm thinking about what a weird (and sometimes lovely) world we live in. One day post-Thanksgiving and I'm not shopping.

Black Friday, indeed - a clerk at a Wal-Mart in Long Island was trampled to death and a shopper had a miscarriage...in order that the families of these mad shoppers could have the latest techy toys and High School Musical pajamas? What is this sick thing within us humans that pushes us to externalize our wealth and make it a symbol or replacement for love? This drive to consume, is it evolutionary? Has it gotten mis-translated and warped by modern times as many other evolutionary safeguards have? (Update: thank god the pregnant woman and her baby are both okay, the reports of a miscarriage were false.)

In another post on ecopsychology I pondered the implications of a brain that evolved in concert with nature now feeling the brunt of a technological divorce from that shaping force. For instance, we have an incredibly effective internal alarm system called the fight-or-flight response which triggers a whole host of bodily responses in case we need to get the hell out of dodge. Breathing increases, heart rate increases, the blood rushes to the core to support increased heart-rate and organ activity to facilitate fleeing or standing to fight. Highly adaptive over millions of years, no doubt. And still adaptive in times of true need. Yet highly inconvenient if triggered by a rude motorist who cuts you off in traffic, or if set into effect before an exam in the form of test anxiety, or if made more susceptible to triggering as is the case in panic disorder and generalized anxiety disorder.

Is our drive to consume similar?

It was at one time highly adaptive, certainly. We needed protections against the future - food, warmth, fuel in the form of firewood. Consuming could be seen as a hedging of bets and a protection against terror, simply put. Bringing things under one's dominion, leading to a prosperous life full of the illusion of control, probably helped people sleep easier at night and did help get them through lean times. Even gaining weight - at which we are spectacularly adept now - was an evolutionary advantage against hunger. People from the colder Northern climes gained easier and those of us who are their descendants still do!

There is a similar drive to amass within the peak oil movement, although it's metaphor is the squirrel storing winter nuts, rather than useless gadgets and new plastic crap from China. But nonetheless - we have within us a need to gather things for our protection. It affords us a greater illusion of control in an uncontrollable life. It helps us to feel okay in a world on the verge of considerable change. And there are many unscrupulous folks out there who would take advantage of this potential weakness - indeed there are a lot of people making money off the threat of peak oil, hocking expensive wares through manipulative fear.

I'm certainly not saying we shouldn't be thoughtful about potential shortages and therefore take time to save useful items, or even to consider purchasing a few new things (preferably used!). It would be imprudent to suggest that we shouldn't prepare. It would be impossible - an nonsensical - to suggest that we stop consuming.

But I think it's hugely important to be honest with ourselves. Is our consumption coming out of fear? Has an evolutionary advantage been kicked into hyperdrive by the availability of 32 kinds of ketchup and 18 types of maxipads and an infinite variety of clothing and toys? Are we being wise when we purchase out of misplaced anxiety? How much are we controlled by our instincts to hedge our bets? Is uncontrolled, mindless consumption of clearance junk from Target or Black Friday "deals" from Macy's a sickness? When does it become one? At what point have we lost our balance?

At what point can we feel okay without lists and lists of things we can turn to to protect us? At what point do we realize that our true wealth, security, and comfort is internal and interpersonal?

At what point do we have enough?