My Bit of Earth

Luffa Gourd Experiment = Success

Earlier this year I planted some luffa gourds as an experiment.  Luffa gourds generally require a longer growing season than we have, so planting them in the ground as seeds in late March (rather than starting them early under a heat lamp in February) could have been a bit dicey.  I was afraid we'd get a killing frost before the gourds could fully ripen.

These were planted on or about March 30th.  I've picked a few already--mostly to try and judge how "done" they were inside--with good results, but I let the bulk of the crop hang out on the vines until this past weekend.   I'm going to let these sit for awhile before I start peeling them, but even the early ones had nice flesh inside.  

In addition to using them ourselves, the plan is to involve these spongies in some super secret Christmas presents.  Also, we're going to have all kinds of seeds for next year.  I'm going to call this experiment a success!

Fall Garden Bits

Our house has a gnat problem.  They come in huge swarms in the Fall, and bask in the sun on our doors and windows.  I wouldn't begrudge them their moment in the sun, however anytime you open a door they take it as an invitation to c'mon in and make themselves at home on my pretty, white curtains.  And being forced to choose between holding your breath and swallowing gnats as you walk in and out gets tedious very quickly.

Although we're searching for other solutions--creating less hospitable breeding conditions by cleaning up overgrowth in the yard and making sure the gutters stay squeaky clean--for last weekend, the answer was a whole lotta bug spray and a vacuum cleaner.  Hence, I had to find another place to hang out Saturday morning while the house de-fumed.  

And it was such a hardship, let me tell you what!  While Sweet Husband battled the evil gnat swarms tooth-and-nail and did s'more painting (more about that later), I spent a gorgeous Fall morning playing in the garden.

Four of my biggest and best garlic bulbs were divided into cloves and planted in a loamy chicken-prepared bed.  Soon, I'll cover the bed with straw mulch to insulate the little guys over the winter, and that will be all the care the garlic will need until I dig it up in early July.  (Seriously, garlic=easiest plant ever.)

And our very first real crop of homemade compost was spread on the garden beds to get them ready for next Spring.  

The ladies were super excited about that last part, as the compost was about actually only two-thirds compost, and one- third earthworms and rolly-pollies.  Several days later, they're still going crazy out there, which is awesome from my perspective--they're working in that compost better than I could with days of fiddling.  And now that--as of Friday--all six ladies are egg layin' women, the extra protein and goodies can't be bad for them either.

Autumn Pastures

Well, "pasture" might be a bit of an overstatement, but we did officially move the ladies to the back half of the yard this weekend.  

[Our bountiful ladies, Ingrid and Tori.] 

Reason one:  I want the ladies to spend the Winter months prepping the garden for next Spring.

Yup, that's right--I'm using my poultry as a slave garden crew.  Basically, the idea is that they do just what they do best--scratch and poop--all over the garden, thereby loosening and fertilizing the soil. 

And don't think for a minute that they're not loving it.  Fresh, loamy garden beds to scratch in.  Bugs out the wazoo.  The remnants of summer tomatoes and last Spring's cabbage.  The only areas that are forbidden to them are a few Fall plants (kale, chard, radishes) and the luffa gourds, which have all been placed in cages for their own protection.  

[The Freeloaders.]

Reason two:  We've figured out that Ingrid and Tori need all day access to their nest boxes.

I couldn't be prouder of both of them, actually.  With almost no prompting at all, they've decided that their nest box is the place to lay eggs.  (Well, Tori did make one in an empty flower pot one day, but only once!)  In fact, they're so fixated with laying in the box that they get really distressed if they can't get to it when the need arises.  Ingrid is pretty regular about laying once a day, in the morning before they get let outside, but Tori is more of an every-third-afternoon kind of girl.  Hence the need for anytime admission to the coop.

Alanis and the ducks are still freeloading.  Just by looking at her I can tell that Alanis isn't as mature as the other two chickens, so I'm not worrying about her yet.  However, Nice Farmer-Lawyer Guy (who has Kaki the Duck's nine sisters) has been regularly getting duck eggs for a few weeks now, so I'm starting to get a bit put out with my little quackers. 

[Radishes in protective custody.] 

An Atypical Harvest Lunch

The pumpkin is no more.  The squash bugs--who multiplied beyond reckoning in just one week of "I'm hot and lazy and pregnant" neglect--were setting up permanent colonies on it's surface.  Just looking at them gave me the willies.  

Say, did you know that one blast from a weed burner will barbecue squash bugs instantaneously?  I imagine it's something like an atomic bomb--a death so fast there's not even half a second to think of pain.  Which is much more merciful than they were to my pumpkin.

But, although the pumpkin was rendered inedible, I found a less conventional harvest food tucked away in a back corner of the garden this weekend--several handfuls of edamame.

A few minutes in the steamer, a sprinkle of salt...a perfectly lovely September lunch!

 

This is What a Luffa Gourd Looks Like

 

And suddenly our plants have become prolific.  I counted 15 luffa gourds the other day, and I'm sure there are more--their color camouflages them in the leaves, which makes them hard to see.  According to the internets they will soon start to turn brown or yellow, and then we can pick and peel them to get to the spongy goodness inside.

Now This Is Better

Now we're cooking with bacon tomatoes!  Still not a flood--considering that we have about a million plants out there--but my bargain toms that got planted late are starting to come on now, so it shouldn't  be long.   

Also, while I hesitate to say this too loudly, I think we may have defeated the squash bugs this year.  I went out hunting this evening and couldn't find a single egg or bug.  Which is fabulous because, not only do we have a nice pumpkin ripening in the sun, we have a few baby watermelons too.  (Watermelons were the only plant Sweet Husband requested from the garden this year, so I do hope they turn out.) 

And taking advantage of the (blessedly) cooler temperatures--you know, like 85 instead of 105--I planted some Fall veggies tonight.  Some kale and chard and beets and carrots and radishes.  While I'm excited for the kale to come, more immediately speaking it felt good to weed and clean up a few patches in the garden.  Things are looking a bit wild out there these days, so it's nice to have a little neatness for contrast.

Kitchen Afternoons

Pick an afternoon in our kitchen these days and you'll probably see a lot of this.

Basil being rinsed and made into pesto.

Tomatoes being roasted and frozen for sauce and soups.

And just about every other form of vegetation being pickled--thus far, cucumbers, peppers, and okra.

I'm still not getting quite as many of our own tomatoes as I'd like, but they're slowly coming around.  And, to the credit of our every-few-days squash bug torture sessions (I hop up and down on them until they're dead, Sweet Husband cuts them in half with garden shears), there is one little pumpkin getting started in our pumpkin patch.  Hopefully brothers and sisters will follow.

The Fair

Going to the fair--as we did last week--always gives me about ten thousand ideas.  

Like, would the chickens like it if a giant bunny came to live with them?  Could we find a really small, quiet goat to live in our backyard?  Should I enter some knitting next year?

And will our loofah gourds really get this big?  Our plants are looking gorgeous, which is no small feat given the temperatures these past few weeks, but we don't have any gourds starting yet.  I have my heart set on having homegrown loofahs to give away for Christmas, so I hope they pick up the pace soon.

The Garlic Harvest

From four bulbs of garlic planted way back in October, we got something close to fifty new bulbs this year.

I think that's sort of a miracle.  Particularly, when you consider that other than putting them in the ground in October and taking them out in early July, I didn't have to lift a finger to keep them alive.  

I kid you not, I didn't even water them.

After digging them up, I let them cure hanging in my shed for most of July.  Then I sat outside for twenty minutes the other day with a glass of iced plum tea and cleaned them up a bit--nipping off the roots and gently brushing off any dirt that was still clinging.  Now they're waiting in the basement, ready to be used as needed.  From my experience, they'll keep just fine into the Spring.

Have I mentioned (a time or two or twenty) how much I love growing things that are this easy?

A Simple Pickling Rig

I ended up getting cucumber seeds this year from Mrs. Pendleton's personal stash.  I'm starting to suspect they were magic seeds, as they're producing like crazy.  And while a sliced cuc with cheese is a wonderful, cool snack, at some point a girl's just gotta start making pickles. 

In addition to the processed pickle recipe that I used last year, I'm experimenting with fermented pickles as well.  It takes less prep time and the results are supposed to be more crunchy.  

After trying an internet fermented pepper recipe that failed (it was an exercise in how many colors of mold can be grown in one jar), I decided to go buy a book in hopes that the recipes would be better tested.  On glowing recommendation from Marisa, I went with Put 'em Up!, which has been everything I hoped it would be.

In short, these pickles are soaking in a brine full of salt and other yummy spices.  The brine is just salty enough to kill any nasties, while still allowing lactic acid (which is naturally present on the pickles) to grow.  The lactic acid preserves the pickles and gives them their flavor.  The pint glass sitting on top, keeps the pickles fully submerged in the brine while they're "cooking".  And those little bubbles at the top of my jar?  That means the pickles are fermenting just as they should.

I also made another batch of pickled wax peppers from a recipe in the book, but I went with canned this time.  One moldy batch of peppers was enough for me for one week!

My Tomatoes Have Maturity Issues

I'm a bit worried about the tomato crop this year.  Here it is--July 20th--and this little roma is the first respectable tomato our garden has produced.

The plants look fine--a few wilty leaves here and there, but nothing that screams "disease".  And they're falling over with tomatoes.  But they're all green, green, green.

The only thing that's keeping me from scouring Rodale's and the internet for a diagnosis is the fact that everyone around me seems to be experiencing the same thing.  Friends who garden are just getting their first little cherry tomatoes, and judging from the state of the farmer's market the pro's aren't doing much better.

On the upside, I discovered the first squash bug eggs on the pumpkins this afternoon.  I jumped up and down on them until all that was left was goo, which was very satisfying.

Also, Sweet Husband found four pounds of cucumbers hiding in the cuke vines yesterday afternoon when he was mowing.  These were quickly transformed into seven pints of pickles--very good for nibbling on while contemplating how to help my tomatoes grow up.

Basil, Peppers, Onions, Sage, Carrots, Sunflowers...What's Missing Here?

I'll tell you what's missing--tomatoes.

We have, something like, 40 tomato plants in our backyard right now.  Many of them have tomatoes on them, but they're not ripening as fast as I'd like.  One started to turn red last week, so I watched it closely for the perfect time to pick it.  But the chicks were watching it closely too.  In an unguarded moment, someone (I believe the culprit to be Tori, although I cannot convict her beyond a reasonable doubt) picked one little peck out of the back of it, leading the whole tomato to begin to rot.  

But goodness do we have peppers!  One little wax pepper plant is going so crazy that I've started trying to make pepperoncinis on the kitchen counter tops.  And our little basil plants have been prolific as well--several jars of pesto have made it into the freezer for next winter's consumption.

Additionally, it seems I have created my own breed of Sunflower.  Our last summer at the old house (two years ago) we had three kinds of Sunflower growing all at once.  I saved seeds from all of them, and planted some this year.  From the size of the head, I don't think this one has any "Russian Mammoth" in it, but I believe the stripy colors are the result of some interbreeding between my little volunteers and my "Cinnamon" variety.

 Last, but not least, we got some carrots this year.  Please don't laugh--for I know that they are puny and mishappen--but this may be our best carrot harvest ever.  And, small as they are, they made delightful carrot pickles.  (I used Marisa's small batch pickling brine rather than processing them.)

Comings and Growings

These past few weekends have been partially devoted to building Garden Fence 2.0.  My little stick fence was fun, but not functional in one important respect--keeping the ducks from destroying the garden.  So far this one seems to be keeping the little buggers out of the cucumbers.

Which is a good thing, because I scored the garden bargain of the year at the end of last week--all that could be fit into a box for a dollar.  Three dollars replenished the duck-nibbled watermelon and cucs, and bought about thirty tomato plants to boot.  I'm interested to see how they go, being a bit late, but even if we only get a handful of tomatoes I'll count it a success.

   

I also pulled up about a third of our garlic this weekend--27 bulbs so far, hanging in the shed to dry.  From the look of the rest, I think it should be ready in a few weeks, but the bulbs I dug up today were falling over already, so they had to come out.

And last, but not least, a few of the first pickings--some raspberries, a banana pepper, and three wee cloves of garlic that I broke off while digging them up.  A nice excuse to eat them right away!

Food Garden Tour

If you're local, be sure to check out the Lawrence Food Garden Tour this weekend.  We are participating this year (although please don't look at the sad place in the center where the kale used to be), and the ducks and chicks will be out in full force to greet all visitors!  Here's a map. 

I Built My Fence of Sticks

I'm not very good at "garden design".  I generally just move things around until they look "right"--often ripping out plants and moving large rocks several times in the same weekend.  (Ask Sweet Husband about that...actually don't, I still owe him big time!)

A few weekends ago, I decided I needed some kind of barrier between the garden part of the yard and the (ever smaller) part that's still lawn.  I didn't want to spend a lot of money, therefore natural materials seemed to be the way to go.  But rocks alone--which we have a lot of--weren't enough of a barrier.  

Then we had a big storm and a neighbor down the way lost a branch off of her tree.  Then we went to Nice Friends' house in the country and took a few dozen more sticks from their burn pile.

From there it was just an investment of time, garden twine, and about a dozen long garden stakes.  I drove the stakes into the ground and tied my posts to them.  A little more tying and I had cross pieces too.  So far, it's withstood at least a couple of pretty good thunderstorms--I think it's sturdy.

The only mistake I made--and we'll see if it really is a mistake in a few months when everything is blooming--is that I fell prey to the garden center when choosing flowers to plant behind the fence. Instead of planting a big mass of one flower, I planted one each of twenty flowers.  I was going for pretty country mix.  I may get a disjointed mess.  

But if it is, that will give me something to do better next year....

Poppies

Feeling a little blue this week.  No worries, nothing serious...but rather than write tonight, I offer you the beautiful poppies that are unfurling in my backyard.  How can you be blue with bright orange poppies staring up at you?

Additionally, here is a harrowing squirrel tale and the story of some friends who came to visit the ducklings today.  (Goodness, but my duckies are sweet...if I do say so myself!)

May Day Stories

Happily, I spent a good chunk of May Day in the garden digging and planting.  

Ten kinds of tomatoes, cucumbers, okra, edamame, pumpkins, some flowers, herbs...and making their "my-garden-debut" corn and watermelon.  And if we actually get a real, big-girl watermelon, we're throwin' a hell of a party, let me tell you! 

And yes, that is a finished coop you see in the background--finally!  The girls spent their first night out there this weekend with a heat lamp to keep them toasty.  They're actually getting quite grown-up and almost pretty.  

Except for Norah, who I'm starting to worry might be a Normand.  Only time will tell, but she's not plump and chesty like the rest.  She's also brave as hell and growing a very pronounced, bright red comb.  I knew it was a possibility--chicken sexing is far from perfect--but I hadn't really thought through exactly what I would do with...um, him?  

Roosters are illegal in town, and I wouldn't do that to our neighbors at any rate.  I have a few friends that would gladly take an extra and butcher him for the freezer, but...if that's the way it's got to be, part of me...I want to do it myself.  It just doesn't seem right to farm the job out.  Hopefully it won't come to that, maybe she's just a late bloomer.  And maybe I can't kill my first little favorite chick....let's just all cross our fingers for no crowing!

In other back-yard farm drama, Porter almost ate Ella the Duck.  Moe was off jogging with Sweet Husband, the ducks were outside with me, and Porter was howling in the house.  (She doesn't much like being left alone.)  So, I decided to let her out with us to see how she would do.  I was very watchful at first, but then Porter--being fairly deaf these days--didn't notice the ducks at all.  In fact, she decided to take a nap in the sun.  I took her calmness for complacency and went about my gardening work.

Then, quite suddenly, she woke up.  Her mouth was on Ella when I turned around and reflexively whacked Porter with the handle of my shovel.  She was stunned enough to drop wee Ella, who was thankfully only a bit stunned herself.  A lesson learned by all three of us, I think.

The dogs excepted, everyone is pretty much charmed with the ducklings.  As long as they can follow whatever human is out and about in the yard they're happy to be adorable....a little swim now and then doesn't hurt their feelings either!

 

Rainin' In My Barrel

A few weeks ago, Sweet Husband and I took a rain barrel making class.  Although we certainly could have figured out how to make a rain barrel ourselves, we took the class because it was actually cheaper. 

A standard, not-even-very-pretty rain barrel runs close to $100 at a local hardware store.  More attractive rain barrels are more like $200.  Our rain barrel, along with the instructions on assembly and all the questions we wanted to ask, was $45--a bargain by comparison!

Our class was sponsored by Bridging the Gap (BTG), a Kansas City area organization focused on environmental issues and sustainability.

First, I can't say enough about how cool our instructor was.  A self-professed "rain barrel geek", he completely put everyone at ease and was totally informative, without being preachy or dogmatic.

Second, hello easy!  The pre-cut parts included....

• a food-grade plastic barrel (donated by Pepsi after they're done using them for soda syrup)
• a length of hose and a bib to attach it
• a spigot
• a plastic flower pot (a.k.a. landscaping container)
• a piece of window screen big enough to cover the top of the pot
• an elastic bike tire tube

After being covered with the screening, which is tied down with the bike tire tube, the pot popped into a pre-cut hole on the top of the barrel.  This is to let water in and keep mosquitoes out.

 

Then holes were drilled and the spigot and hose bib were added.  The hose bib (and the hose, which we attached later at home) are for when the barrel gets too full and needs some place to overflow.  By using the hose you can direct the water away from your foundation.
 

Ta-da!  A rain barrel!  

 

Our instructor informed up that for each 1 inch of rain that falls, we could expect .6 gallons of rainwater per square foot of our roof.  I haven't been up to measure our roof, but basically any decent rain shower should easily fill the barrel.  We haven't gotten it hooked up to our downspout yet, but even without the direct flow, our barrel was about 1/3 full from just being out in the rain this weekend.

While the water can't be used for drinking, it can be used to water the garden this summer.  Also, although our instructor warned us that animals probably shouldn't drink the water that comes from our roof (too many chemicals in roofing materials), we're thinking of setting up a smaller rain barrel off the chicken coop (which has a metal roof) to help keep them in liquids this summer too.

Just FYI, BTG offers all the rain barrel parts, as well as the barrels, as well as completed rain barrels--so it's really a good program if you're local.  (Food-grade barrels can be a little hard to track down on your own.)  Here's the run-down with prices:

• Plain white barrels - $20 (limit five per month)
• Rain parts kits (all additional pieces needed to assemble a rain barrel) - $30
• Rain barrel workshop (includes price of rain barrel) - $45
• Complete rain barrel - $65

If you're nervous about putting the barrel together yourself, or even if you just want to take advantage of the discount like we did, they seem to have a class about once a month.  Here's all the info if you're interested.

And if the aesthetics of the barrel bother you, there are lots of options for camouflage--you can wrap bamboo fencing around it or paint it or hide it in the shrubbery.  

I really want to go the paint route, but I can't decide what color.  Sunny yellow?  Green to match the house?  Sunflowers all over?  It'll end up being white all summer just because of my indecision, but at least my water bill will be cheap!

Asparagus Surprise

 

The other morning Sweet Husband came in with a "surprise".  I was honestly expecting...well, I didn't really have time to expect, but this was nicer than lots of things I could have dreamed up.  

I actually was afraid I had killed this asparagus in our garden reorganizing frenzy, but it's popping up quite nicely in the middle of the newly seeded lawn.  Now, what to do with it?  Thoughts?

Spring Surprises

So, one of the definite joys of spending Spring in a new house?  Everything that comes up really is a surprise.  It's like, every time I walk out into the yard there's some new little delightful thing.  Daffodils--yay!  Hyacinths--yay!  Tulips--yay!  Pretty-little-blue-flowers-that-I-don't-know-what-they-are--yay!